The company has been recuperating in Tarburg for more than 20 days. Art's arrow wound has basically healed and he can now do some simple swordsmanship training. However, it still hurts to draw the bow and shoot the arrow.
In the past twenty days, the city defense of Tal Fort was further strengthened under the command of the old butler Cooper, and Cooper filled in the collapsed wood and stone structure of the outer wall of the military fort.
In addition, under Cooper's command, an earthen wooden waiting platform has been built on the hillside to the right of the main gate of Talburg. The waiting platform is surrounded by a twenty-foot-high spire wooden fence on four sides. There is an arrow tower that is thirty feet high and can accommodate eight archers to shoot at the same time. There is only a narrow door that can allow a single person to pass through at the back of the waiting platform. The waiting platform is surrounded by deep pit traps, and there are sharpened wooden spikes for smearing dung.
The waiting platform and the military fortress are less than an arrow's throw apart. If either side is attacked, the other side can fire arrows to help defend. If the enemy besieges Tal Fort, eight soldiers with simple archery training will be stationed in the waiting platform. The function of the waiting platform is to cause harassment and casualties to the enemy flanks attacking Tal Fort, so that they can not concentrate on attacking the city. Therefore, whether the arrows can hit the target is secondary, as long as a large number of arrows can be thrown towards the enemy's formation; the same is true in reverse. If the enemy attacks the waiting platform, they will also face arrows hitting rocks from both directions of the waiting platform and the military fort.
……………
In the open space behind the Tarburg, ten thatched men were erected at the foot of the back wall. Fifty steps away, ten soldiers who were drawing arrows and pulling strings were correcting the posture of drawing and holding arrows under Jason's roar. Behind the ten soldiers, there were two rows of soldiers waiting to train their bows.
让士兵学习基础箭术是亚特进驻塔尔堡后才开始的，之前亚特缺弓少箭，加之精准的箭术并非短时间就可以练成，所以亚特只要求哨骑队和小队长以上军官必须进行箭术训练，而士兵并未做此要求。 But now Art has more than a dozen redundant rifle bows and thousands of arrows in his hands, and as a defender of the city, he does not need to have very accurate archery skills, so Art has also begun to let ordinary soldiers and serving peasant soldiers practice bows and arrows. His requirement is that everyone can pick up the infantry bow and throw the arrows in their hands towards the enemy. Whether they can hit the target depends entirely on luck.
In addition to reinforcing the outer walls and setting up side waiting towers, the caravan accompanying the army also purchased a batch of kerosene sealed in small clay pots from the North. This kind of kerosene is a weapon for siege and defense and is not easy to buy, so the caravan only purchased forty cans. These kerosene cans will be thrown by the trebuchet from the inner fort tower at the critical moment of defending the city. The enemy camp burned the enemy's siege equipment or disrupted the enemy's formation. In addition, Art also sent people to Gelalu City to purchase and ask for more than a dozen bundles of arrows of various types. In addition to those carried with the army, purchased by caravans, and previously seized, there were already more than two thousand arrows in the Tal Fort. They would all become deadly weapons for the enemy when defending the city.
In addition to reinforcing the outer walls and setting up flanking waiting towers for the defense of Tal Fort, the caravan accompanying the army also purchased a batch of kerosene sealed in small clay pots from the North. This kind of kerosene is a weapon for siege and defense and is not easy to purchase, so the caravan only purchased forty cans of kerosene. These cans will pass through the trebuchets on the inner fort tower at the critical moment of defending the city. Throwing arrows into the enemy's formation, burning the enemy's siege equipment or disrupting the enemy's formation, Art also sent people to Gelaru City to purchase and ask for more than a dozen bundles of arrows of various types. In addition to those carried with the army, purchased by caravans, and previously seized, there are already more than two thousand arrows in the Tal Fort. They will all become deadly weapons above the enemy's head when defending the city.
In the twenty days that Art was recovering from his injuries, the army did not rest.
During this period, Odo and Angus led soldiers disguised as bandits to the southwestern border area of Swabia to harass the enemy's baggage lines or "capture" one or two small scattered settlements. Both teams achieved some gains. However, since the enemy baggage outpost was destroyed and the two convoys were plundered, Swabia strengthened its defenses. The garrison strength of various outposts was significantly enhanced, and the number of escorts for the baggage convoys also increased.
When Odo led ten soldiers to intercept a grain transport convoy, he was killed by the ambushed crossbowmen on the carriage. Fortunately, Odo reacted quickly and was able to escape after one man was killed and two were seriously injured. Afterwards, Art punished Odo and suspended his military pay for three months, but retained his military position.
On the other side, Angus led four sentries to attack a small farm manor. However, the farmer was a disabled veteran who had experienced battles. He and two manor guards used stone walls and two hunting bows to fend off Angus and the others for half an afternoon. Later, the surrounding manor settlements sent people to relieve the siege, and Angus had to return with the sentries without success.
However, what surprised Art was that the bandits and bandits who had been dormant in the southwest mountains of Swabia for a long time may have been affected by the harassment of Art's army. After seeing through the current situation of empty defenses on the southwest border of Swabia, they formed groups of bandits and bandits of different sizes. They cut off roads, intercepted, raided, and set up ambushes. They took turns to appear and disappear.
Suddenly bandits were raging all over the southwestern border of Swabia.
Not surprisingly, the news of the Burgundian army's entry into Talburg was known to the Swabians. They sent a sentinel to the east of Talburg in an attempt to approach the sentinel. However, Angus drove away the sentry and soldiers and disappeared. Art guessed that they would concentrate their forces to attack Talburg after quelling the banditry in the southwest.
In Tarburg, Art is preparing for a large-scale raid. For a raid, Art has started planning five days in advance.
Five days ago, a mysterious letter was received from a large manor fifty miles south of Biltenburg. The letter was written by a bandit leader who called himself the King of the Mountain Krul. In the letter, the guy who claimed to be the King of the Mountain asked the large manor to provide his "army" with a salary of 100,000 pfennigs or equivalent food goods within five days. Otherwise, he would assemble the "mountain army" to attack the manor, plunder the manor, and leave no grass on the manor.
At first, the aristocratic manor owner thought this letter was just an extortion trick by bandits, so he didn't pay much attention to it. However, in the next few days, the small villages and settlements around the manor were attacked by several groups of unidentified bandits. The total number of these groups of bandits exceeded sixty people. Now the manor owner was really scared. Frightened, he seized the time to recruit farmers to organize training and strengthen the walls of the manor. At the same time, he kept sending people to Biltenburg, claiming that all the bandits and bandits in the southwest border area would gather to attack his manor. He also promised that if the Biltenberg defenders could help him fight off the bandits, he would spend 20,000 pfennigs as military expenses for the defenders to assist in the suppression.
Baron Jeffrey von Trand, the shepherd of Biltenberg, was troubled by the increasingly rampant banditry on the southwest border, and this group of greedy and cruel wolves actually dared to gather to attack the large manor village castle, so Baron Jeffrey immediately agreed Although he received the manor owner's request to send troops to help suppress the bandits, Baron Jeffery still knew a little about military affairs. While he recruited farmers from various places around Biltenburg to form a bandit suppression army, he also did not forget to send out sentries to investigate the movements of the Tarburg garrison.
………
Obviously, the "Declaration of War" was sent to the manor by Art. In order to make the owner of the manor believe that a group of bandits was really going to capture his manor, Art sent two dozen soldiers into Swabia from the hunter's trail that had not yet been exposed. They changed various clothes and flags to raid and plunder the villages around the large manor, and created the illusion of a gathering of bandits.
On the Talburg side, after creating the illusion of a "bandit invasion" of the large manor south of Biltenberg, all the troops retreated back to the military fort. Since five days ago, the gate of Tal Fort has been closed tightly, and the outer walls are lined with elite defenders. They look like they will never go out to stir up trouble. However, those elite "city defenders" were all peasant soldiers and laborers who had put on the clothes of soldiers. The real elite soldiers were all gathering in the open space of Tal Fort to prepare for departure.
In the inner castle of Tarburg, all the army commanders stood around Art.
"Yesterday, a group of enemy spies came to spy on Talburg. They should have returned to Biltenburg to report the situation that we are unable to defend. At noon, the sergeant major has taken two sentries to kill the hidden enemy posts that may be hiding along the way, and enter the surrounding sentries of Biltenburg. If most of the garrison in Bilten go to the south to suppress bandits, then we will capture Biltenburg as planned."
"I personally commanded four squads of soldiers and the sentry team to attack Biltenburg this time. Ron's sentry team is responsible for patrolling around Biltenburg for early warning and intercepting people who may escape to report, especially in the south."
Att turned his eyes to Odo who was standing in front: "Odo, have you selected the soldiers who will seize the door first?"
Otto stepped forward and replied: "The six soldiers have been selected. They are the most elite veterans of each team. They are all wearing leather armor and Swabian army clothes."
Att asked Cooper again: "Cooper, are the carriages you have prepared ready?"
"Sir, eight empty iron-clad four-wheelers." The carriage has been parked at the gate of the fort and is ready to go at any time. "
"Okay, the defense of Tal Fort is temporarily under Odo's command. All the personnel of the caravan are temporarily under Odo's command. Cooper will assist Odo in garrisoning Tal Fort. Everyone is ready to go."
Everyone left the inner fort and returned to their respective posts to prepare.
Odo did not leave with the others. When Art was the only one left in the inner castle, Odo walked up to Art and said to Art with a slightly aggrieved expression: "Sir, I know it was my mistake last time that caused the army to be ambushed and lost soldiers. But I still want to follow you to attack Biltenberg~" Odo really wanted to follow Art to attack Biltenberg. He believed that only by performing another military exploit could he wash away the shame of intercepting the enemy's baggage train and being counterattacked last time.
Matt stared at Otto's eyes, and replied firmly with a serious expression: "Odo, I told you that the incident in the ambush was not entirely your fault, and I have already punished you for your faults, so you don't always have to take these faults to heart. The reason why I won't take you with me in the attack on Biltenburg this time is because there must be a backbone here in Talburg. The soldiers have been taken away, and there are only some peasants and laborers left here. If there is an unexpected enemy situation, we must have a capable officer to command them. We can think of a raid on Biltenburg, and the Swabian army may also raid Talburg. If there is something wrong with Talburg, we will have no way to retreat deep into the enemy's territory, so we let you stay here because we can't do without you."
Odo still left the inner fort resolutely with a reluctant expression to inspect the "defensive troops" on the outer wall. This is what Art admired about Odo. Although he was extremely reluctant, he would still carry out orders without hesitation.
"Sergeant, what's the problem? Why are you the only one back?" Art quickly got off the outer wall and asked Angus.
Angus handed the reins to a peasant soldier behind the castle gate and replied: "Lord Art, everything went well. As you expected, we found two enemy spies on a hillside twelve miles to the south. We quietly went up and killed them. He learned from another spy that there were no other sentries in the surrounding area, and that he did not withstand the torture. He told the news that most of the Biltenburg garrison had set out to raid the "assembly" of bandits in the south, and that there were less than twenty guards in the city. Later, I also sneaked around Biltenburg and found that the gate of Biltenburg was tightly closed. There were indeed only a few sporadic guards on the fort wall. I estimated that there were only a dozen or so guards. Now I have two sentries on guard on the east side road to prevent anyone from coming to spy again. "
Matt waved his hand excitedly, "Sergeant, our work has not been in vain these days, our plan is starting to work."
After speaking, Art shouted at Ron who was sharpening his sword on the inside of the outer wall: "Ron, give the order for the whole army to move out, we will attack Bilten overnight..."