Twelve days later, Talburg ushered in a rare bustle and feast.
The army caravan, led by the three stewards Cooper and Salter Lawrence, was escorted by thirteen caravans (who also served as coachmen) and pulled thirteen carriages back to Talburg. This time the army caravan only carried a small amount of defense equipment and food supplies, because according to Art's arrangement, the main purpose of the army caravan's coming to Talburg was to transport the spoils captured and plundered since the expedition to the wooden fort in the valley.
Hate's army has served the court for free for three months. According to Earl Baldwin's arrangement, another army will come to Tarburg to replace them in three months.
Two things will happen during the next three months of being stationed in Talburg.
The worst case scenario is that Tal Fort will face a siege by the Swabian army. With the defense of Tal Fort, it is absolutely impossible to hold on to a large number of well-prepared enemy troops. If this happens, Art will not hesitate to withdraw his troops to garrison in the city of Glaru County. The second situation is that Tal Fort will not be attacked by the enemy again until the end of the service period. The rest of the service time is regarded as recuperating and training the army in Tal Fort.
But no matter what the situation is, Tal Fort does not need to continue to stockpile a large amount of food supplies and too many working farmers, so Art plans to take advantage of the relatively calm time around now and let the army caravans bring the accumulated supplies and idle working farmers and prisoners of war in Tal Fort back to the valley wooden castle as soon as possible. Even if they have to run away in the future, they will be less burdensome.
In addition to personnel and supplies, there are three pieces of news that came back with the military caravan:
The first news is that the Swabian army east of Talburg should have stopped for the time being, because the fighting on the northern front is getting more and more intense. Both Swabia and the Counties of Burgundy are constantly sending troops to the battlefield. Both sides are fighting for every military fort on the border. Every town was littered with corpses, and as the Principality of Burgundy sent a force of 1,500 elite soldiers to join the northern battlefield, the Swabian army's offensive pace became increasingly difficult, and the Swabian Principality had to once again force troops from all over the country to join the northern battlefield.
This news confirmed the military information that Ron and the others had inquired about. Seven days ago, more than 150 people from the Teblen County city garrison were mobilized to support the northern front. After more than half of the troops in the Teblon County city garrison were deployed, Bürten became more honest. The garrison in the fort would never step outside the city wall.
Three days ago, Art had led a few cavalrymen around Bürten. Not even a dog in the entire Bürten dared to come out and bark at them. However, the Swabian trains that had been transporting military supplies through the roads on the edge of the mountainous area would rather run farther away and avoid Bürten. In addition, every village, castle, manor, and settlement was strictly guarded. It would not be easy for Art to plunder again.
The second news is that the person who stabbed the caravan was found to be the trainee knight Dean. After solving the matter of the seizure of the caravan's goods, Salt went out to investigate the matter. He bribed a servant from a trading guild and learned that the Dean family did have a close relationship with John, and that Dean had also become the baggage officer around Earl Baldwin responsible for collecting and escorting military rations. This was definitely a fat job, and he was more likely to be appreciated if he often hung around the Earl.
Dean's father was the most powerful southern goods merchant in Tyniec County. Before the war in the southern continent, his family exclusively owned the southern goods trade route from Tyniec to Besançon.
When gathering north, Dean saw that Art's accompanying caravan was carrying a lot of southern goods. At that time, he became hostile, so he made things difficult for Art's army along the way. The conflict in the Lucesian military camp was also deliberately arranged by him, originally to frighten Art and take the opportunity to warn him not to get involved. Trade in southern goods, but unexpectedly he was beaten to a pulp by Art's "Black Robe Army". After that, Dean learned that Art had petitioned to go to the border to die on his own, and he gradually felt relieved, because he knew that the border area was about to become a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, and Art was very likely to become one of the corpses.
However, what surprised Dean was that not long ago, someone from the family reported that a large caravan with more than a dozen four-wheeled carriages suddenly appeared in the south, purchasing southern goods in various provinces, counties and towns in the south. The instinct of a businessman's son told him that this was a caravan that wanted to snatch meat from the sleeping lion's mouth. Wild dogs, when they sent someone to inquire, they found out that this caravan was actually the caravan that accompanied the army. Now Dean had to settle old and new grudges...
Hence the encounter that followed the army caravan in Besançon.
After hearing this, Art recalled in detail all the actions he took while leading his army north to Dean. He also knew that he would continue to have conflicts with Dean and the business family behind him in the future. Of course, these are all things for later.
The third news is that he learned the detailed situation in the valley from Cooper. Last time, Lawrence left in a hurry and did not report the situation in the valley in detail. This time, after Cooper returned, Art specifically asked about the situation in the valley in detail. After learning that everything was normal in the valley, that there was a good harvest of food in the valley, and that the wasteland was being reclaimed, the stone hanging in Art's heart was relieved, because the valley held an important position in Art's heart. It contained all the hard work and gains he had made in the past two years in order to establish himself in this era.
There was a grand banquet in Tarburg tonight. In order to welcome the return of the military caravan and reward the officers and soldiers of Tarburg for their hard work over the past few months, Odo specially asked the kitchen to slaughter a pig and a sheep. The pigs and sheep were snatched from Biltenburg and raised in the military fort. They were reluctant to slaughter them because these pigs and sheep were fresh meat that could be raised and preserved for a long time. In addition to the fresh pork and mutton, there were also several large barrels of wine and a batch of fresh fruits and vegetables brought by the caravan from the North.
Combat soldiers and wounded soldiers can get enough meat, wine, fruits and vegetables. Recruits, guards and ordinary laborers can get a small amount of meat, a large bowl of broth and enough rye bread. Even prisoners of war held in the dungeon of the inner castle can get a serving of wheat paste mixed with broth...
On the second floor of Tarburg, there were ten people sitting around a "big long table" put together. The one in the middle was of course Art. Sitting around the "long table" were the old butler Cooper, the deputy captain Odo (injured), the deputy captain Angus, and the sentry captain Ron. , Captain Bas of the first team, Captain Kazak of the second team (injured), Captain Tuba of the fourth team, Captain Lawrence of the fortress defense team, and Salt, the steward of the army caravan, these people are the core people around Art, and they are the strongest support for Art's ambition to dominate.
On the first floor of Tarburg, there was a circle of people sitting around a low table made of temporary wooden boards. They were Colin, leader of the second combat group of the first team, Wei Zi, leader of the second combat group of the second team (injured), Passat, leader of the first combat group of the third team, and Banganda, the new leader of the second combat group (the original leader died in the battle), Credo, the new leader of the second combat group of the Fourth Squad (the original leader was seriously injured), Sentinel Cavalry Jason and Red (wounded), and Andrew, a former peasant soldier captain who had an outstanding record in the defense of Tarburg and volunteered to stay and join the Art Army. These people are the backbone of the Art Army and the core combat force of this army.
Andrew, who attended this kind of banquet for the first time not long after joining the Art Army, seemed a little embarrassed. This peasant soldier captain, who is about the same age as Art, was originally a woodcutter in the mountains in the province of Yona. He had his parents and a younger brother at home. Count Baldwin recruited farmers in the territory to gather in Besancon as peasant soldiers to join the war. Andrew was recruited as expected, and then accidentally sent to Art's army, and then Because of his strong body, Odo was selected into the peasant soldier squad. He followed Art to the battlefield with the intention of dying. However, on the battlefield, this young woodcutter with mediocre appearance relied on the archery skills accumulated from hunting with a bow while chopping wood in the mountains. He shot three enemy soldiers by himself while stationed on the flank waiting platform. Later, the captain of his peasant and soldier team died in battle, and Andrew was temporarily appointed as the peasant and soldier captain by Odo and was responsible for commanding the last stand guard battle.
Ten days ago, most of the peasant soldiers and working farmers received their super-duty money and grain and left Tarburg on their way home. However, Andrew was not willing to return to his hometown to be a hard-working woodcutter, so he chose to stay and join Art's army. He was able to attend this inner fort dinner because he had the highest "position" among the remaining peasant soldiers. Art intended for him to be a combat team leader after the army expanded. He also wanted to set a good example for the new peasant soldiers who joined the army...
Andrew picked up a wooden conical cup in front of him, took another sip of light beer, and then observed the people exchanging cups on the wooden table without saying a word. Andrew was not good at words but was very good at learning. From the beginning when he was assembled in Besançon, he showed a relatively strong learning ability. He was considered to be the fastest to learn personal combat skills and battle formation training among the peasant and soldier squads. And through these few months of contact, he felt more and more that the black-robed army in front of him was different from all the armies he had seen before, because he had never seen an army that could train soldiers like them. In his hometown, the lords all had their own armies, but those army soldiers would never endure such heavy and intensive training, nor would they have such strict military discipline and such high military pay. All these things made Andrew feel novel and made him more determined to become an outstanding soldier in this army.
“Brother Andrew, come and have a drink.” Colin, who had fought side by side with Andrew in the waiting room, took the initiative to come over and clink glasses with Andrew.
"Sir Colin, thank you for taking care of me. If you hadn't given me a hand at that time, I would have been shot to death by the enemy in the waiting platform." After saying that, Andrew drank the wine in the glass happily.
Collin also drank all the wine in the glass, then burped and raised his reddish face and said to Andrew: "Brother Andrew, you are the captain of the peasant soldiers, and I am just the team leader. Since I call you brother, you should not call me superior anymore. In the army, only the captain and above of the squad are considered commanders."
Andrew smiled and touched his head, turned around to the wine barrel and filled Colin's and his own glasses with wine.
Colin held up the wine glass, pulled Andrew and said to the several combat team leaders on this wooden table: "Let me formally introduce to you, this brother is called Andrew, and he will be our soldier brother from now on. Come, let us raise a toast to brother Andrew for joining us!"
………
Outside the inner fort of Tarburg, except for the four soldiers and eight laborers standing guard on the outer wall, the rest of the soldiers and laborers were all enjoying this rare battlefield banquet.
After several months of fierce fighting, they killed many enemy soldiers, but many of the soldiers and brothers who stayed with them day and night fell seriously injured or even left them forever. They felt sad for their dead brothers, and felt lucky to be alive. No matter what, they could still stand here drinking wine and chewing meat. They were the lucky ones chosen by the Holy Lord...