On the last day of December, a rare heavy snowfall hit the southern continent. In this southern continent, which should have been mild and rainy, it was extremely cold.
What is colder than this weather is the hearts of the Lombards in Solburg and their frozen bodies.
A week ago, the enemy troops outside the city burned their firewood. What was originally a despise suddenly became an important war material in the city. The Lombards had to cut down on the firewood used to make fires for heating and hid in the same biting stone houses to escape the severe cold. Every day, Lombard soldiers who could not withstand the cold fell asleep in the stone houses.
The morale of the Lombard garrison was low, and the morale of the Eastern Army, which was the initiator, was also low. The Lombards inside the city were short of firewood, while the eastern legions outside the city were in desperate need of food.
Because on the night when they burned the firewood in Sauerburg, the Lombards actually took advantage of the people outside the city who were excited to celebrate and relaxed their vigilance to send an elite team to sneak out in the dark and sneak attack the Eastern Army's food and fodder with kerosene.
The Eastern Legion also expected that the enemy would counterattack, but in no case did they expect that the Lombards' revenge would be so swift and unprepared.
It was difficult to extinguish the grain and grass that had been poured with fire oil, and the Lombards did not hesitate to block the soldiers who were putting out the fire. As a result, by the time the legionnaires killed the blocking Lombard raiders, most of the grain and grass had been burned.
The Eastern Legion exploded.
Garrison troops and besiege the city, led by grain and grass. Once there is no sufficient food and grass to sustain it, no matter how elite the army is, it will not be able to support it.
In order to stabilize the morale of the army, the commander of the legion, Viscount Geoffrey, immediately sent a baggage team carrying a large amount of money back to the city of Aosta to collect food, grass and baggage.
Without this blizzard, perhaps the crisis could have been successfully overcome. However, after a blizzard came, the baggage line of the Eastern Army was completely blocked. Even if the baggage team could raise enough food and grass baggage, they would not be able to successfully transport it outside the city of Sauerburg before the snow melted.
The snow outside the tent was already knee-deep, but there were still goose-feather-like snowflakes floating in the sky. Looking at the sky that had not cleared up at all, Viscount Jeffrey was extremely anxious, but there was nothing he could do.
“Lord Legion Commander, the food supply for the army has been less than six days. The soldiers’ rations must be reduced again. I suggest that the two meals a day should be adjusted to one meal a day. The wheat paste should be thinner and the rye bread should be mixed with some bark grass roots. This may last for ten days. In half a month, maybe by then the snow will melt, and the baggage train will be able to arrive from Aosta City with food and supplies." In the military tent, the adjutant of the legion responsible for the management of the army's baggage asked Viscount Jeffrey for instructions to once again reduce the share of the army's food that the soldiers could not satisfy.
"Didn't I ask you to lead the troops to search the manors and villages around Sauerburg again? Why are there only six days of food and grass left?" Jeffrey put his right hand on his forehead and looked sad.
“Sir, the manors and villages around Sauerburg had been plundered by the Lombards long before we arrived. Not to mention the food, even the rags and clothes were burned by the Lombards.” The adjutant felt bitter when he thought of the manors and villages around Solburg that had been plundered and slaughtered.
The food consumption has slowed down a bit. There are battles over there every day, and the soldiers don’t have enough food to fight, and now that the roads are blocked by heavy snow, the friendly troops still have no way to supply food and supplies. However, Viscount Balian still promised to support us with two thousand pounds of military rations, but the snow has been thicker in the past two days, and we can’t transport it for a while~"
"If the carriage can't get through, won't you send soldiers to carry it? Two thousand pounds of food can last for three to five days. In addition, send someone to the Eastern Army's troops stationed at the other three castle fortresses to send orders to each of them to transfer five days of rations to the siege army of Saulburg, and send people to transport it as soon as the snow melts."
"Big "People, I'm afraid~"
"Afraid of what?"
"The other three places also have difficulty in supplying food and grass. Moreover, there are Provence friendly troops in those castles and fortresses. Our defenders may be willing to grit their teeth and pick out some food from their mouths and send it over, but those Provence defenders..."
"I know all this. This is not an emergency. Tell the friendly troops in Provence that these grains are on loan. Once our baggage train goes south, I will send someone to return it immediately. That's it, hurry up and do it." > After the adjutant left, Viscount Geoffrey continued to stand at the door of the camp and looked at the flying snow outside. Suddenly he turned his head and asked the captain of the guard who was following behind him: "What is that Art doing recently? Now that the road is blocked by heavy snow, it is impossible for the Lombards of Wilno to go north to rescue Sauerburg. There is no need to send so many people on guard outside. Why hasn't he returned to camp yet?"
"I don't know about this. I have given him an order to go back to camp for a period of time and wait for the snow to melt before returning to the outer perimeter to guard. But Sir Art said that he must stay on the outer perimeter to protect the safety of the army." The captain of the guard replied.
There was a strong contrast with the starvation of the legionnaires in the northern camp of Sauerburg. At this time, in the garrison of the southern outpost of Sauerburg, Art was eating fresh minced meat porridge soaked in rye bread around a brazier in the tent with Odo Angus and several other close officers.
"My lord, they deserve it. You have warned that the Lombards may come out of the city at any time to retaliate. As a result, everyone takes your words seriously. Who can blame you? They can only blame themselves." Odo puffed up his cheeks and was indignant.
Angus put down the rye bread in his hand and replied: "That being said, we are a team of the Eastern Army after all. If the Eastern Army cannot attack Sauerburg for a long time, we will be trapped here. Over time, we will starve and freeze."
Att poured the last mouthful of wheat paste into his mouth, put down the wooden bowl, sighed, and said slowly: "Yes, the sergeant major is right, now we are in the legion, and we are as proud as the legion. We ran here from distant Burgundy , not to endure hunger in this ice and snow. What everyone is looking forward to is to complete the mission of the legion as soon as possible and return home with military honors."
"Sir, do you have any plans?" Odo raised his head and asked.
"Have you figured out a good way to break the city???" Otto asked quickly.
Att gave a wry smile, "So many excellent commanders in the legion have figured out ways not to break the city. Is there any strategy I can think of to quickly break the city."
The excited expressions of Odo and others disappeared.
"But I have thought of a way to solve the urgent need of the legion."
h "You mean to raise urgently needed food for the legion?" Angus guessed one or two.
"I guess the legion's baggage team has almost done the work of raising food. In early December, the Principality of Burgundy sent 600,000 pounds of military food to Provence, and the eastern front, which was the key battle area, was allocated 200,000 pounds. Of this batch of food, 120,000 pounds were hoarded in the city of Aosta, plus the previous The grain merchants of the Count of Gendy have transported the grain reserves to Aosta for sale. As long as the legion's baggage train carries enough money, there is no problem in raising 30,000 to 50,000 pounds of grain.
“But what can we do? The road is blocked by heavy snow, and the grain carriage cannot move forward in knee-deep snow,” Odo said.
"It is true that ordinary carriages cannot move forward in the snow, but there is a kind of car that can." Art said mysteriously.
Matt did not reveal the answer to everyone, and asked Felix to call Roger, a mercenary who came down from the mountain.
"Roger, tell us about the kind of carriage that you mountain people use in winter." Art said to Roger who walked into the camp.