The Lombards retreated to the inner fort of the farm and could not escape. Although the inner fort was small, it was entirely made of stone and was extremely strong. Otto organized several groups of soldiers to carry broken wooden logs and attack the inner fort gate, but they were never able to open the inner fort gate.
"Sir, the gate of the inner fort is too strong to be broken through, and the enemy keeps pouring kerosene and boiling dung water from the arrow holes of the inner fort into the gate. Several of our soldiers have been scalded." Odozo frowned and returned to Art.
Matt waved away the guards who were bandaging his abdominal wound, and endured the pain and replied: "I have seen it. Let the guys stop attacking and retreat to a safe area to rest and wait."
Otto saw that the cotton cloth wrapped around Art's abdomen had begun to ooze blood, and he said worriedly: "Sir, how about you go to a safe place outside the farm to rest and recuperate. Later I will lead the soldiers to charge the inner fort with giant trees."
In the decisive battle on the back wall just now, Art took the lead, leading Luo. En and others rushed into the Lombard formation at the most critical moment. Even though Ate had great combat experience and ability, Qi was stabbed in the abdomen by the Lombards who fought desperately against the wall with a short spear. The diamond-tipped short spear penetrated his chain armor and punctured his belly. Fortunately, Ron on the side arrived in time to cut down the enemy soldier, and the spear tip could not penetrate.
"My injury is not serious, just bandage it to stop the bleeding. Don't attack the inner fort gate for the time being. There are iron bars inside the gate. It's useless to hit it hard. You send people to keep an eye on the inner fort to prevent the enemy from plotting. In addition, arrest Time is tight to treat the wounded soldiers. There are a few soldiers who are bleeding badly and have to stop the bleeding quickly, otherwise they will not be able to come back. "Ron, call all squadron commanders to discuss the matter at the fort gate and let everyone work together to find a solution."
Ron took the order to leave. After a while, several squadron commanders who were not injured in the battle gathered at the gate of the farm's outer wall.
…
On the afternoon of the day when the outer wall of the farm was captured, except for the two squadrons of soldiers who had suffered serious battle losses to guard the outer wall and monitor the enemy in the inner fort, all the other soldiers and baggage team soldiers carried axes and wood saws and went to the dense forest around the farm to cut down trees and pick up dead branches. The soldiers went back and forth between the farm and the dense forest, transporting pine logs and piles of dry firewood to stack outside the farm.
By the time it gets dark, a large pile of sticks and firewood has been piled high under the outside gate of the farm, and the number is still increasing.
While the soldiers were gathering firewood everywhere like ants, the soldiers monitoring the Lombards outside the gate of the inner castle were also idle.
Att taught a few simple words of Lombard to some soldiers with loud voices, and asked the soldiers to take turns shouting into the inner fort.
"Go out and surrender, disarm and don't kill!"
"Kill the commander and raise your head to receive the reward!"
"If you don't surrender today, you will land tomorrow."
Several soldiers kept repeating these few words. After a while, when other soldiers learned it, they became groups of three or five people who took turns to persuade the Lombard garrison in the inner castle to surrender.
The Lombard garrison is not afraid of the siege at all. After all, they have stored a lot of food, drinking water, weapons and equipment in the inner fort. As long as the fort gate is not broken, there is no problem in holding on for ten and a half days. When the time comes, Sauerburg will definitely find a way to come to the rescue of the Lombards in the farm. Therefore, the Lombards in the inner castle turned a deaf ear to the calls to surrender outside the castle.
However, this arrogance lasted until the early morning of the second day.
Early in the morning, when the Lombards opened their eyes, which they had just squinted after a nervous night, they were surprised to find that the walls around the inner castle were piled with dead branches and firewood and extremely flammable pine wood.
The Lombards now understood why the enemy soldiers who attacked the city yesterday were collecting firewood and dead trees. It turned out that they wanted to make "braised meat" after being suffocated in the stone inner fort. Now the Lombards were really panicked. They hurriedly took the water stored in the inner fort from the arrow holes and the fort. The outer wall of the top sentry tower collapsed, but just after pouring a few buckets of water, the Lombards stopped their ineffective actions because they discovered in despair that the enemy troops outside the inner fort had poured kerosene on the firewood pile. Moreover, with so much firewood, the water stored in the inner fort was not even enough to pour firewood...
At saw that the firewood stacked by the soldiers during the night had surrounded the walls of the inner fort, and nodded to Odo. Odo left the wall with a smirk on his face and started to let the soldiers prepare to set fire.
However, before turning the Lombards into "stewed meat", Art still planned to persuade them to surrender again.
"Listen up to the defenders in the inner fort. I am the commander of the army in front of you. I have given you a whole night to think about surrender. Now you have the last chance to open the door and surrender, otherwise I will light the firewood and let you try the fire of purgatory." Art shouted in a pure northern Lombard accent that he had not used for many years.
"You are a Lombard!!!" The Lombard garrison commander, who had not spoken since retreating to the inner fort, asked outside through the arrow holes in the inner fort.
Matt didn’t answer.
"Since you are a Lombard, why would you sacrifice your life for the Provence dog?"
Att remained silent.
Seeing Art's silence, the commander of the Lombard garrison thought that he was moved, and continued to roar: "I am the baron leading the outpost under Count Walder Burley of the Principality of Lombardy. If you are willing to surrender to me with your warriors, I can give you endless wealth and status after this battle."
"The Provence people are about to be destroyed by us. There is no need for you to be loyal to a dying monarch. Believe me, the Provence people who surrender to us will still be able to obtain wealth and glory that they can never imagine. Not to mention you are a great Lombard warrior." The Lombard garrison commander became more and more excited as he spoke.
Att's face became more and more gloomy, not because of the words of the Lombard garrison commander persuading him to surrender, but because he heard the words "Ward Burley".
"Odo, set fire!" Art shouted to Odo under the wall.
Odo had already led the soldiers to light the torches. Upon hearing Art's order, Odo and seven or eight soldiers threw the burning torches towards the pile of firewood at the base of the inner fort wall.
The torch fell smoothly under the pyre of the inner fort, and the flames jumped and connected with the dead branches and ignited bit by bit on the pyre. After a while, smoke began to rise, followed by rising flames...
"Everyone, keep an eye on the gate of the inner fort. Once the enemy troops rush out, kill them immediately." At the order, Art turned around and looked in the direction of Solburg in the south.
"Sergeant Major, there is an unidentified cavalry team that has bypassed Lord Balian's army and passed through a hunter's trail in the southeast. There are about ten people. Chief Lusignan is leading a few sentries to deal with them." Neighing, he raised his front hooves and stopped in front of Angus, "Sergeant, there is an unidentified cavalry team that bypassed Lord Balian's army and passed through a hunter's trail in the southeast. There are about ten people, and Chief Lusignan is leading a few sentries to deal with them."
Felix’s attendants took off the horns and puffed out their cheeks to blow a low rallying call.
After a while, Jafar led a sentry horse and galloped from the patrol post in the west.
"Angus, sir, what's going on? Fighting?" Jafar pulled the reins and turned around, speaking in Burgundian that he was not very proficient in.
"The Lombard cavalry escaped Lord Balian's blockade and came around from the southeast. They are probably coming to support the farm waiting post. Lusignan has already held them back, and we have to drive them away. Your Excellency said that the inner fort will be captured today. We cannot let the enemy know that the Lombard garrison is still defending the inner fort, so that they can give up."
"Let's go and fight!" Jafar understood what Angus said and pulled out the long-handled war hammer from his waist.
Angus jumped on his horse and led five or six sentries to kill towards the southeast...
Further south of the shielding line formed by the sentry team, Viscount Balian sent an army of more than 150 men to station on the road that the Lombard army must pass through the same farm waiting station. At the same time, several Provençal armies in other directions also made it look like they were going to attack Sauerburg. It was precisely because Viscount Balian sent troops to contain Sauer with all his strength.堡的伦巴第军队，这两日亚特才能不受干扰地攻打农庄及周边的哨站......
............
目光拉回农庄内堡战场，内堡附近警戒放哨的士兵全都撤到了外墙上，因为燃烧的火焰和浓烟已经把整个内堡笼罩了，柴火燃尽之前里面的伦巴第人估计是跑不出来了。
However, this circle of fire will not be extinguished for a while, because this is a hilly and mountainous area, and the most indispensable thing is hay and sticks for making fire.
In the inner fort, about twenty Lombard defenders were feeling the suffocation caused by the sudden rise in temperature and the torment of the choking smoke.
As time went by, the stones building the wall became hotter and hotter, and the air in the castle was ignited by the heat conducted by the stones.
"Water, I want water, give me water!" A Lombard soldier opened his armor that was soaked with sweat and clamored for water to relieve his fever.
But the drinking water stored in the inner fort is limited, and it is impossible for the soldiers to use it all at once in order to hold on for a long time, so the Lombard commander flatly refused: "If you drink all the water, what will you use to hold on and wait for reinforcements?"
The soldier retorted: "Sir, if you don't drink water when it's so hot, everyone will turn into a roast pig. Anyway, it's better to drink enough water and then jump into the fire. It's much better than dying of thirst."
After threatening for a while, the commander lowered his tone and comforted: "Guys, if you hold on a little longer, our reinforcements will definitely be arriving soon. Don't forget that there is a huge and invincible Lombard army behind us. As long as everyone holds on to this battle, I will definitely ask for rewards for everyone. Think about it, your wives, sons and daughters are waiting for you to go back with your military exploits and rewards..."
The commander used the reinforcements from Lombardy in the south to offset the despair in the hearts of the soldiers, and then used the generous military rewards after the war to activate the courage of the soldiers.
The courage and tenacity of the Lombard soldiers were almost rekindled in the impassioned spirit of their commanders.
Until a burst of Lombard language came from outside the inner castle, "Baron Schmitt, I am Pedro, deputy captain of the cavalry of Sauerburg. Come out. We failed. The army of Provence blocked the road to rescue. Viscount von Bilen sent us to see Let's see if you are~"
Matt did not let the captured Lombard cavalry continue and patted Angus on the shoulder, "Sergeant, take him down. You also go down and bandage the wound. It's hot here, so don't let the wound fester."
Then Art yelled at the inner castle at the top of his voice: "Baron Schmidt, you can continue to wait and become a roast pig, or you can honorably surrender to me with the soldiers, and I will give you the courtesy of a noble."
After a long time, there was still no response from the inner castle, only a few metallic clangs of swords were heard...