The sun was setting in the west, and it was busy inside and outside Talburg.
Since Art and Baron Jeffrey reached an agreement to withdraw and surrender, Baron Jeffery began to order the withdrawal of the camp to make way.
He had already spent too much time and energy in front of Tal Fort. The military orders from Tebrunn kept urging him to go west or north. Of course, he was confident that he could capture Tal Fort in one fell swoop in the attack a few days later. However, Jeffrey, who was afraid of rats, was worried that the shameless man in Tal Fort would kill his only son. Moreover, taking Tal Fort by force would indeed cost a lot of valuable soldiers. In the end, even if Tal Fort was captured, he would only get a ruin. Since the guy in the fort knows that he will be defeated if he sticks to it and is willing to abandon the city and flee, Baron Jeffery will certainly not refuse his surrender conditions. He will definitely plunder the money and materials taken away by those guys from Glaru County.
At this time, Baron Jeffrey's small number of soldiers and most of the peasants and craftsmen had retreated ten miles with siege equipment and a large amount of supplies to the temporary camp. However, he personally led all the cavalry (knights) and the main force of the soldiers to stay outside the Tower and continue to monitor the defenders in the Tower. He was also worried that the defenders in the Tower would suddenly send troops to attack and kill his army while he was retreating.
Through the news obtained from Mrs. Jeffery who came out of Tal Fort, although there are still soldiers stationed on the outer wall of Tal Fort, everyone in Tal Fort is indeed packing up supplies and loading vehicles to prepare for evacuation. This makes Baron Jeffery feel relieved a lot.
It was getting late, and after basically confirming that there would be no unusual movements in Tarburg, Baron Jeffrey left a few sentries to continue monitoring Tarburg, and then led most of the army slowly and leisurely towards the temporary camp ten miles east.
At noon tomorrow, Baron Jeffrey's army will come to take over a complete Tarburg...
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In the arrow tower on the outer wall of Tarburg, Art, who has been observing the outside of the fort all afternoon, sees that it is getting late and most of the enemy troops are retreating. The opportunity to put the conspiracy plan into action has come. He immediately turned around and walked down the outer wall, coming to seventeen officers and soldiers standing neatly under the back wall.
"Bas, Kazak, get ready for action. Angus and the others have found the enemy's temporary camp. We will take a detour and rush to the enemy camp. We must rush to the enemy camp as quickly as possible before most of the enemy's army."
“Remember, our primary goal is to burn the enemy’s siege engines and kill as many craftsmen as possible in the enemy camp, but the two craftsmen who are in charge of making siege engines must stay with me, followed by burning the food and baggage and killing the enemy soldiers for labor. Remember, without me Everyone is ordered not to fight. After the sneak attack is successful, we will return to Talburg along the same route. Odo and Batu will meet us at Talburg."
Marching eastward in the dark for half a mile along the north side of the ridge, the group participating in the night attack met Angus waiting here.
"How about it, Sergeant?" Art directly asked Angus's most pressing question.
"Sir Art, the enemy camp is located in a small mountain nest beside the road about nine miles to the east. They have not built a camp. Most of the camp is made up of working farmers and craftsmen. There are only a dozen soldiers. Equipment such as trebuchets, battering rams, and wooden ladders for climbing the city are all in the camp. The three of Ron are still outside the enemy camp for covert surveillance." Angus answered Art's question concisely and clearly.
"Sergeant Major, it's too dark and we can't see the road clearly. Have the road signs been set up along the way?"
“After confirming the location of the enemy camp, I ran back and forth for two times and found the nearest path. I set up signs along the way and left a brother to stand guard at a fork near the road.” Angus considered that the night attack army could not light fires for lighting, and was worried about getting lost in the dark, so he not only marked the convenient path leading to the enemy camp, but also sent people to pick up the sentries on the way.
A moment later Angus led a group of men in black running through the dark dense forest...
When most of Baron Jeffrey's army had just marched less than half the distance, a dozen black figures had already appeared in the dense forest on the north side of the enemy's temporary camp nine miles east of Tarburg.
"Master, I finally see you again!" Ron emerged from the weeds of the dense forest and hugged Art tightly.
Matt patted Ron on the shoulder. He couldn't see Ron's face clearly in the darkness, but from Ron's strong arms, he could feel that one of the best warriors was growing up.
"Ron, I have worked hard for you these days. After tonight, you can go back to Tarburg to repair. But now you have to fight with me again." As he said, Bass tied white cloth strips on the left arms of Angus and Ron.
Angus, who went to the top of the hill to observe the enemy camp, came back. He touched Art in front of him and said softly: "Master Art, the enemy has not noticed it yet. There is still some confusion in the enemy camp. The enemy sentries are also sparsely patrolled. The siege equipment is in the open space on the northernmost side of the camp. The craftsmen have gathered in a tent on the right side of the camp."
Matt glanced briefly at Angus and Baskazak Ron who were surrounding him, and ordered: "The sergeant major will lead Bass and ten soldiers to kill the craftsmen in the enemy camp. Ron and Kazak will lead the rest of the people with me to destroy the enemy's siege equipment. After completing the task, we will gather here again. We will retreat along the original road to Tal Fort. If the enemy is stubborn, we will not be reluctant to fight and evacuate quickly."
Everyone agreed in a low voice.
Dozens of clay pots filled with kerosene were gathered on the small group of soldiers led by Art who were responsible for burning the siege equipment. Then everyone gently pulled out the weapons at their waists, climbed up the hill, and touched them by the faint firelight in the enemy camp...
………
In the temporary camp of the Swabian army, everyone's heartstrings that had been tense for many days were relaxed, because this morning the defenders in Talburg finally could not bear the pressure and took the initiative to open the city and surrender.
Hence the order from Baron Jeffrey to evacuate the camp, everyone in the camp quickly put away their tents and took down the fences. They wanted to leave this ghost place immediately.
At this time, Baron Jeffery and most of his troops had not returned to the camp, and everyone in the camp lacked discipline. They either took out the old grain wheat and built a fire to cook thick porridge full of wheat aroma, or took out the peas and took out the wooden cups to make bets. The bets were only a few onions or a piece of bacon. What everyone enjoyed was the relaxed post-war atmosphere of no longer storming the castle.
The happiest people are the craftsmen who make heavy trebuchets, shield-topped battering rams and other siege equipment. Although they were forcibly recruited, Baron Jeffrey never treated them badly. Sufficient food was provided first, and the heaviest and most tiring work was done. There were hard laborers and farmers doing the work for them. Even today, Baron Jeffrey was so happy that he gave a reward of ten pfennigs to each of the dozen craftsmen who participated in the production of siege equipment, because these craftsmen were the first to take down Tal Fort without spending a single soldier this time.
Now, this group of craftsmen who have received rewards are gathered in a tent specially allocated to the craftsmen, drinking light beer and betting on peas. From time to time in the tent full of alcohol, there is the voice of a craftsman bragging about his superior skills as a carpenter (blacksmith).
Just when the craftsmen were in high spirits, little did they know that a group of deadly black shadows had quietly approached the camp...
On the north side of the camp, a heavy counterweight trebuchet, a shield-topped battering ram, six hook-climbing ladders and four giant wooden-top shields were placed in the open space on one side. Four Swabian soldiers sat around the siege equipment in front of a campfire and chatted. A few pieces of rye bread and a hare were baked on the campfire.
In the darkness not far behind the bonfire, the two Swabian soldiers on patrol had turned into two corpses with their throats cut and lying on the ground squirting blood.
Matt and Ron wiped the bloody daggers in their hands on the corpse and put them back into the sheaths on their waists. Then they imitated a bird call behind them, and several black figures suddenly appeared behind them.
"Go!!!" Art shouted softly, pulled out the knight sword from his waist and followed eight or nine black figures towards the bonfire...
“Ah~~~Devil! Devil!!”
Eight or nine phantoms in black suddenly appeared in the dark night, frightening the enemy soldiers beside the campfire to the point where they collapsed to the ground and retreated continuously. Two more courageous enemy soldiers had just gotten up and before they had time to pick up the short spears beside them, they were killed by the attacking phantoms on the spot. The two enemy soldiers who were still retreating were also pinned to the ground by the black phantom and poked several bloody holes.
"Pour fire oil on me!!" Art took the lead and took off a clay pot of kerosene from his waist, opened the seal, and poured the kerosene in the pot on the heavy trebuchet. The soldiers around him also took off the pots and poured kerosene on the siege equipment in the open space. Seeing that more than a dozen cans of kerosene had been poured on these siege machines, Ron took out a few burning firewood from the campfire and handed them to the soldiers around him to ignite the kerosene~
These wooden siege equipment burned rapidly with the help of kerosene, and soon a raging flame rose in the open space of the enemy camp.
other soldiers and peasants and slave laborers in the enemy camp saw the fire in the camp, and rushed to put out the fire. Unexpectedly, they encountered a group of black phantoms rushing towards the sea of fire...
………
In the enemy camp’s craftsmen’s tent, the attackers almost killed all the craftsmen in the tent. Of course, the two craftsmen saved their lives and became prisoners of the night raiders.
The ten soldiers led by Angus and Bass encountered several scattered enemy soldiers outside the craftsmen's camp. The enemy soldiers reacted quickly and immediately drew their weapons to fight the raiders. However, the raiders were larger in number and well-equipped, and within a short time several enemy soldiers were turned into corpses. Then a dozen black-clothed phantoms rushed into the craftsmen's camp, and after finding the two craftsmen who were dressed in obviously different clothes, the others were hacked to death. As soon as the dozen craftsmen and seven or eight craftsman apprentices in the tent figured out what happened, they were attacked by swords. More than a dozen craftsmen died tragically in the tent, and the tent was stained with blood...
After burning the siege equipment and killing the craftsmen in the camp, the men in black saw that the situation was good and did not retreat immediately. Instead, they took advantage of the chaos to set fire to the enemy camp's grain and grass baggage, and massacred the soldiers, peasants, and hard labor farmers running around in the enemy camp. It was not until someone realized that this was a night attack that the rear took the lead and fled into the hills and forests surrounding the camp or ran to the east... ..
After seeing that the number of people still standing in the camp gradually dwindled, more than twenty black-clothed phantoms stopped killing, dragging a few of their own soldiers injured in the melee and the two captured craftsmen back into the night~
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The raging flames ignited in the east dyed the entire sky red. When Baron Jeffrey, who was leading twenty cavalrymen (knights) and dozens of soldiers with torches on the winding carriage road, saw the fiery red sky in the east, an uncontrollable panic suddenly arose in his heart. He left the infantry behind and led the cavalry to kick and beat the horses without mercy.
After walking less than two miles in the dark night, a rider on a war horse rushed forward. In the dark night, the rider and Baron Jeffrey's two horses almost collided.
"Sir, the enemy is attacking! The enemy is attacking!!" The rider rolled off the horse while holding the sword wound on his abdomen.
Jeffrey jumped off his horse, took the torch handed over by the cavalry behind him, and shined it on the fallen rider's face. His heart felt cold, because this rider was the direct knight he sent to manage the temporary camp.
Baron Jeffery rushed back to the camp with the last glimmer of hope, but what he saw was that the tent carriages of the grain and grass supply camp had turned into firewood in the fire, and the siege equipment that had been painstakingly built was all engulfed in a sea of flames...
"Devil! Bastard!! I will kill you all!! Ah~~~~~~"
Baron Jeffrey's screams mixed with anger resounded through the night sky.