"Bastard Art, stop hiding in your kennel and come out with your black-robed dog..."
"Coward! Coward! Bastard!~"
A stone's throw north of the temporary camp on the southern border, several of Dean's followers stood on horseback and yelled at the defenders in the temporary camp. Such abuses and insults continued from early morning to evening.
The "Dean Corps" had arrived near the border post at noon yesterday. After burning the shacks and various roadblock buildings around the border post, they set up a military camp on the west side of the commercial road one mile north of the post. These people are indeed people who make a living from the military. The laziness and looseness in their marching disappeared almost instantly with the advent of war. The fights and gambling along the way were gone, and all the people who lived by fighting fell into silence. Apart from the noise of the handymen making fires for cooking and the animals transporting supplies, there was only the sound of sharpening knives and swords and tuning bows and strings in the entire camp.
This is an army that cannot be underestimated, so Art and Angus decided after discussion to hold on and defeat the enemy's spirit.
"Smith!" Art shouted.
Smith, the interim captain of the crossbow team, heard this and climbed up the arrow tower.
"Sir, you called me?"
"Those bastards have been scolding me all day long. It's almost dark now. It's time to send them back to camp to rest." Art pointed to the tent of the crossbow team under the arrow tower.
"Okay, I've wanted to shoot that bastard for a long time." Smith smiled and jumped down from the arrow tower in a few steps. He organized the crossbowmen of the crossbow team to shoot the bastards who had been insulting him outside the village wall for a whole day.
Since the yelling enemy soldiers were standing beyond the maximum shooting range of the rifle, Smith did not use the bow at all. He took out all six crossbows allocated to the crossbow team and let the six The crossbowmen lined up in two rows in the camp. Then Smith took off the rifle bow on his back, tied a red cloth strip to a light arrow with a flat head, stood in front of the crossbow team, cocked the arrow and pointed it in the direction of a few scolding enemy soldiers. He raised his hand and raised the bow to the sky.
Whoosh~~~~~~
A light arrow crossed the wall of the camp and flew towards the enemy soldiers standing on horseback. As expected, the arrow landed in front of a few yelling enemy soldiers, a distance of more than thirty steps, causing the several yelling enemy soldiers to burst into laughter and the curses became even louder.
· Smith turned his head and looked at At, who was observing the landing point of the arrow on the arrow tower.
"Thirty-five steps in front of the enemy, three steps back and forth, straight, no wind." Art said to Smith in the camp.
Smith nodded, turned around and shouted to the soldiers of the crossbow team: "Directly ahead, no wind, one hundred to fifty steps, test firing, ready!"
The six crossbowmen behind him loaded and discharged their arrows, raising the crossbows in their hands to a consistent angle. Smith walked to a few people to observe and adjust the angle of the crossbow.
∣
∣
Six crossbow arrows flew out almost at the same time, crossing the highest altitude and flying towards several enemy soldiers who were more than 150 steps away.
The six crossbow arrows had just left the string, and the crossbowmen had already begun preparations for the next shot.
"Tuk! Tuk! Tuk~" Six crossbow arrows passed over the enemy soldiers, inserted into the hard ground behind them, and exploded a layer of dust.
Several enemy soldiers looked at each other. They were scared this time, but they did not stop cursing because the arrow passed them more than ten steps.
“Ten steps behind the enemy, straight, no wind.” Art, who was observing the landing point, shouted again.
"Directly ahead, one hundred to forty steps, no wind - shoot!"
The crossbowman slightly lowered the angle of the crossbow, and six more crossbow arrows flew out.
After a while, several screams came from the enemy soldiers who were shouting and cursing, and then there was a chaos. Several panicked enemy soldiers dragged the fallen wounded soldiers back to the camp.
"Hit two knights!" Art shouted to the crossbowmen in the camp with a smile.
The camp also burst into cheers.
"Haha, sir, your method of fixed-point coverage and shooting is really amazing!" Angus couldn't help but praise as he looked at the enemy soldiers who were shot off their horses a hundred and forty paces away.
This kind of fixed-point shooting is a shooting technique that Art thought about based on the memory of his previous life. An archer who is proficient in archery uses the landing point of the "target arrow" flying from the bow (crossbow) to correct the target distance and wind direction. After determining the distance and wind direction, coverage shooting is carried out.
The crossbowmen of the crossbow team do not demand the shooting accuracy of a single person at the beginning of training, but emphasize the coordination among all the crossbowmen in the team. During the training, all crossbowmen (especially crossbowmen) are required to master The shooting angles of bows and crossbows at various points between fifty and two hundred steps. Once the target distance is determined, the crossbowmen will determine the approximate bow raising angle, and then the crossbow team leader will fine-tune the raising angle based on wind direction, terrain and other factors.
"Sergeant Major, this archery method is just a preliminary test. It will not be effective until we have enough archers in the future. Moreover, the crossbows in our inventory are of different shapes, and the power of the bow is difficult to grasp, so it is not very practical. We will see if we can achieve the desired effect after we can make our own crossbows." Art knew that his fixed-point coverage shooting technique was not practical at the moment.
"Sir, do you think they will attack tomorrow?" Angus asked.
"I will wait for them to attack, and after they smash their heads under the camp and get bloody, I will go out to fight with them grandly."
"But if we continue to insult like this, our morale will be affected~" Angus is very worried about morale.
"It's better to be scolded than to be stabbed. You are a person who is proficient in military affairs. You should be able to see the fighting power of those mercenaries outside. Now they are coming fiercely. If we attack rashly, how sure can we be of victory?"
Angus shook his head, "There are no less than twenty elite mercenaries in this group. Others are willing to They often fight on the battlefield, and there is no absolute guarantee of victory. "
"So I can't hold on. Although these people are powerful, they fight for money. They will not go all out to attack a strong city. Even if they really attack the city, our soldiers will not suffer any loss if they hold on to the strong fort."
"The food supplies we have stored here are enough for three months, but the food they carry is estimated to only be enough for twenty days. I want to see if they can persist in the siege for three months!" Art said harshly.
"The fact that they ignored Boulder Town means that they have no intention of establishing a baggage transportation line at all. In other words, they want to complete the battle as soon as possible. I will fight them again when the enemy is almost unable to hold on any longer." After speaking, Art ordered Angus, Kazak, and Colin: "Secure the military stronghold and beware of sneak attacks." Then he climbed down from the arrow tower and returned to the camp to rest.
Like this for three consecutive days, the "Dean Legion" continued to curse and insult in front of the camp every day, but this time they did not dare to ride horses anymore, but roared from about two hundred paces under the cover of shields.
In the early morning of the fourth day of the siege, after constant quarrels and compromises with several mercenary leaders, Dean finally made the mercenaries make up their minds and start storming the camp.
However, this group of mercenaries who were only loyal to gold cakes and silver coins did not have the consciousness to fight to the death in the face of strong walls. After receiving the huge siege reward paid by Dean, they only sent out twenty or thirty mercenaries to launch a symbolic attack on the garrison camp. When the two squadrons of soldiers were all sent to defend the wall, the mercenaries who died in the battle immediately retreated. The defenders only paid the price of one death and two minor injuries.
Dean was holding his sword and stamping his feet anxiously in the rear line, threatening to behead the first soldier to retreat, but he never dared to behead the mercenary captain who led the retreat.
Looking at the time passing by, not to mention the huge military salary and food supplies consumed by the mercenaries every day, the crime of leading troops to attack the noble territory without the palace's permission is enough for Dean to bear. If they stay here for one more day, the rivals of the Dean family will have more leverage.
Normally, private fights between lords may be ignored, but now the county is short of soldiers, and the knights who have soldiers are busy making excuses for private wars. Although the Dean family has a "far-fetched" reason for sending troops and the instruction of a certain palace dignitary, the palace cannot tolerate this kind of thing continuing.
On the fifth day of the siege of the border post, quarrels were heard in the camp of the "Dean Army" all morning.
The news that the palace was about to send the Tyniec County City garrison to the border to mediate force had reached Dean's ears, and there was also news that Wincheston Manor and his own farm were being attacked by bandits. Dean really didn't expect that Art would let him continue to curse and provoke every day and could not stand out. The "Dean Army" that was originally intended to attack in one attack had been surrounded for five days but not even a shadow of Art was seen.
If he waits any longer, Dean will have to withdraw obediently as soon as the Tyniec County garrison arrives.
"In two days at the latest, the county garrison will move south. Within two days, I must capture this camp and level that outpost!" Dean stopped the people who were still arguing in the tent.
“We will rush to make another batch of siege equipment this afternoon and start a strong attack tomorrow morning. The guards of my Dean family will lead the charge. The leaders and their soldiers will follow us closely. The first team to break into the enemy camp will be rewarded with five thousand pfennigs. If you kill one enemy, you will be rewarded with fifty pfennigs. ."
With no choice, Dean had no choice but to use a huge reward to stimulate the blood bravery of this group of mercenaries...
………
On the second day, the sun had just risen from the horizon.
"Sir, it seems that they can't hold on any longer. There will probably be a bloody battle today." Angus looked at the enemy soldiers in the northern camp rushing to build siege equipment, and had a premonition that the decisive battle was coming.
"I was thinking that they would have to surround us for another ten days or so, but I didn't expect to lose my composure. Colin, have someone light the smoke and send a signal to Felix and the others."
“Kazak, blow the horn and ask Simon and the others to prepare for the enemy’s attack.”
Hitchhi After a moment, a black smoke rose straight into the sky accompanied by the low sound of the horn.
The entrance to the "Dean Legion" camp.
"Who are these black-robed dogs sending smoke to? Do they still have reinforcements?" A mercenary captain looked at the smoke rising from the temporary camp not far away and asked Dean beside him.
"Impossible, I have sent people to inquire beforehand. There are less than a hundred of them in total. Apart from the border side, there are only the defenders on the boulder pile." Dean replied.
"Sir Dean, we'd better be cautious. Although this place is far away from the boulders, we can't be sure that the black-robed dogs from the boulders will not come to support us."
“Don’t worry, the black-robed dogs at the boulders don’t have the energy to support here. They should huddle in the wooden box now to guard against the bandits besieging them~” Dean looked like he was in control.
"To be on the safe side, it's better to send people along the trade road to the north to be on guard." said the mercenary captain.
「行吧，我会派人去的，你们准备攻击，今晚我要用那个杂种的头盖骨盛酒！」
............
「少爷，少爷，狼烟！南方升起狼烟！！」边境哨站西北方的山区边缘，睡梦中的菲利克斯被飞马赶回的随从惊醒。
Felix sat up from the felt blanket and brushed away the thick gum from his eyes, "The smoke finally rose. If I wait any longer, I will go crazy."
"Let's go back to the canyon and lead the new troops out of the valley to assist the border outpost..."