Kitzby, an important town on the northeastern border of Provence, was the first garrison city of Burgundy (the principality and county) that went south to reinforce the Eastern Legion.
After the Eastern Legion arrived at Kitzby, the Provence court sent a palace minister of military affairs and a group of palace dignitaries to personally visit the officers and soldiers of the legion and sent more than a dozen carts of grain, bacon, beer and cider to the legion.
The Eastern Legion was a reinforcement force sent by the Count of Burgundy to Provence, so the food and wages of the legion should be provided by the Count of Burgundy. However, in order to improve the morale of the soldiers, Provence issued a military reward of twenty pfennigs to each soldier of the legion. The rewards for officers and nobles were of course higher.
A group of Provençal people were sent to the military camp along with the reward. They were mountain hunters recruited by the court to point out the terrain and guide the roads for the eastern legion. As the outpost of the entire legion, Art was also assigned to two hunters, one old and one young.
In order to adapt to the environment of Provence and maintain the combat capability of the soldiers, Viscount Geoffrey ordered the Eastern Army to stay in Kitzby for five days for adjustment training.
Taking advantage of this rare opportunity, Art and several of his officers conducted crazy training for the thirty elite soldiers sent by the legion.
These thirty soldiers were divided into two squadrons according to Art's practice. Roger, who had been a mercenary, and Terry Doc, who had recently joined, were temporarily promoted to squadron captains of the two new squadrons.
At first planned to draw soldiers from the second and fourth squadrons to lead these two new squadrons, but considering the need to maintain the combat effectiveness of the two core squadrons and the characteristics of mercenary management, Art finally decided to let Roger and Tredok, who had been with the mercenary legions for many years, lead them. As for the four squad captains of the two squadrons, they were also selected from a few old mercenaries who were reliable and had good combat capabilities.
Since they are fighting under Art's command, Art will certainly not treat them badly. The combat effectiveness of these two newly formed squadrons of mercenaries carefully selected by Art and several people is not low. In terms of individual combat effectiveness, there are even many hundred battle mercenaries that are higher than those of Art's army.
Those who are able will get more. This is an everlasting law. Art generously gives all the elite mercenaries who are temporarily assigned to Art's command the same military pay as combat soldiers. However, the treatment of squad leader and squadron leader officers is slightly lower, and they enjoy the military pay of combat team leader and squad leader respectively.
The military salary of Art's army is much higher than the mercenary salary paid by the Eastern Army, so Art has to pay the excess by himself. However, Art needs to rely on these people to kill the enemy desperately and seize the loot. Art has agreed in advance to give 30% of the spoils seized to the mercenaries, and Art keeps 70%. After all, Art pays the mercenaries a huge amount of military salary on a monthly basis.
On the evening of the fourth day when he was stationed at Kitzby for repairs, Art, who had just finished a busy day of training, was hurriedly summoned to the military tent by someone sent by Viscount Geoffrey.
"Art, the legion's plan to march south to Aosta will be postponed because..." Viscount Jeffrey said to Art while sitting behind a simple wooden table in the camp.
It turns out that this afternoon a Provence baggage convoy transporting military rations was attacked by a rebel army north of Aosta. More than thirty grain transporters were killed and 50,000 pounds of rations were robbed.
"If there is no stable food and baggage transportation line, I would not dare to lead the legion south easily. Once the food and baggage cannot be guaranteed, thousands of people will have nothing to eat and drink, let alone fighting, I am afraid that all our soldiers will mutiny."
"You should have guessed the reason why I called you here, right?" Jeffrey said, looking at Art.
"Sir, I am the outpost of the legion. It is my duty to open the way for the legion. I have nothing to postpone." Art replied firmly.
Viscount Geoffrey stood up immediately, walked around the wooden table and patted Art on the shoulder, "Okay, this is what I want from you. I will give you seven days. After seven days, I want a baggage line that is not disturbed by the rebels." There is a group of nearly a hundred rebels who were inspired by the Lombards and are entrenched on the road between Kitzby and Aosta. According to people here, this group of rebels usually only dares to harass and plunder caravans that sell food and supplies to the war zone. Recently, it must be because Provence has been active in the south. They are probably ordered to openly plunder the army's baggage trains in an attempt to disrupt the Provence army's food transportation lines. "
“Nearly a hundred people? Is it more than a hundred or less than a hundred? Is there a fixed nest? How are the weapons and armor? Who is the leader?” Art asked a series of questions.
“No, I don’t know any of this, and the person who came to report the news to me doesn’t know the specific situation.”
“This~~~” Art didn’t know what to say at the moment?
Jeffrey pulled out a document with a lacquer seal from the wooden table and handed it to Art, saying: "This is a letter jointly signed by me and the Deputy Minister of Military Affairs of the Provence Palace. With this document, you can ask the lords from all over Provence to help you eliminate the rebels on the baggage line. If necessary, you can use this letter to mobilize the local garrison and the lord's private soldiers."
At took the lacquered document with both hands, "Sir, I have one more request."
"You said, I will try my best to satisfy you as much as I can."
Yat rolled up the document and held it in his hand, and said: "If I can wipe out the rebel army, I need all the gains. You must also know that I have an army Jeffrey thought for a moment and replied: "Okay, as long as the rebels are wiped out and the passage is cleared, I will not take a point for the victory, and I will also record a battle merit for you. In addition, if there are many rebels, If the situation is strong, you can also apply for the legion to send troops to assist in the suppression. How about letting Sir David be ready to assist you at any time?"
"Thank you, sir."
Att took on this difficult task? The mission...
………
After receiving the order to eliminate the rebels, Art immediately led the outpost team to leave Kitzby City and go to the southern grain transportation line.
At the end of the day, Art should be very active in clearing this road. Publicly speaking, this is the responsibility of the outpost team. If the rebels who attack the baggage line cannot be eliminated, the food baggage of the legion after moving south will not be stable; privately, this baggage line is also the trade route of the southern caravan of the European trading company. The southern caravan has always suffered from the chaos of this caravan and has to rely on the army's escort. If we can use this If you have the opportunity to clear these roadblocks, your caravan movement will be more convenient and safer, and this will also be counted as military merit...
In the early morning of the second day after leaving Kitzby, the outpost team was about to start clearing operations at a small castle forty miles south of Kitzby after a night of repairs.
After talking with several lords near the incident, Art has initially figured out the situation of this rebel army.
This rebel army was led by a group of Provençal deserters who surrendered to the Lombards. They had been a "running dog" army in the Lombard army until the Lombards were driven back.
The Lombards were at a disadvantage in Provence's new counterattack this year and had to retreat steadily. However, in order to harass the rear of the Provence army, the Lombards left behind this rebel army that was familiar with the local situation. This army initially numbered less than fifty people and mainly harassed the caravans transporting food for the Provence army. After recently learning that the Count of Burgundy would send the Eastern Legion to fight south, this rebel army became more active and constantly harassed the food transport convoys. Even the army's baggage convoys became their target.
"Lusignan, Jafar, from now on the sentry team will be divided into two teams. Each of you will lead a team of sentry riders in disguise and sneak into the southern road to spy on the rebels. If you encounter any situation, report to me immediately."
"Ron, you also choose a few clever soldiers to disguise themselves and go nearby to inquire about the traces of this rebel army. A team of nearly a hundred people often come and go, and it is impossible to completely hide the tracks. You go and pull out the enemy's tail."
"It's the master." Ron also went out of the military tent to select soldiers.
"Odo, Sergeant Major, follow me to contact several nearby lords to see if they can send troops to help us clear out this rebel army. After all, the rebel army is in the dark and we are in the open. We alone cannot completely eliminate the rebel army."
"Okay, no problem." Otto and Angus replied in unison.
After two days of hard work by several teams, the traces of the rebel army were finally found - just twelve miles southeast of the castle where the outpost was stationed, near a small lake in the low hilly area was the nest of the rebel army.
However, what is surprising is that just when Art figured out the traces of the rebel army and planned to launch an attack on the rebel army with an outpost team and about forty nearby lords' garrison and private soldiers, a mysterious letter was sent to Art's military camp through an unknown civilian.
“The rebels have asked us to go to the plains on the west side of the road eight miles south of here to fight early the next morning.” Arteri wrote this amazing private letter.
"The bandits took the initiative to attack the army in the form of a formal request for war. It seems that this rebel army is very courageous and has a large appetite. Maybe they regard us as a local peasant and soldier team in Provence." Art said with a smile.
"But this is fine, the victory or defeat is a matter of a few charges, which saves us the trouble of arranging a marching battle plan."
Is this a conspiracy?
Att really thought about this issue. After all, a year ago, the man in the position of the rebel army was named Art Wood Wells. At that time, he was using all kinds of conspiracy and tricks when dealing with the Swabian army. Again, there were too many evil people, and it was easy to "injure" himself. Therefore, in order to prevent the rebel army from playing tricks, Angus was specially sent to lead a team to the predetermined battle location and respond immediately if there was any abnormality.
Angus personally led a sentry to investigate and found out that the rebels really had no intention of setting up a conspiracy, so Art ordered the outpost troops to set out and booked the location in advance to seize advantageous terrain...
A purge battle was about to begin.