The third Tuesday in June, the sunset.
Outside the large, secluded guest room by the window on the second floor of the "Returner" hotel outside the city of Besançon, a caravan guard with a dagger hanging from his waist stood guarding the door. There was also a guard on the attic of the hotel looking around.
In the guest room, Stanley, who was dressed as a wealthy businessman, and Oliver, who looked like the leader of the caravan guard, led eight men who looked like guards, coachmen, and laborers around the rough clay terrain on the wooden table.
With the involvement of Red Beard, owner of the "Mill" tavern, the Besançon task force adjusted its original assassination plan and changed the location of the assassination from Count Bernard's mansion to the road between the farm in the north of the city and the city of Besançon. Therefore, the ten soldiers of the task force also "ended" their identities as beggars and fruit and vegetable sellers in the city of Besançon. They changed into the attire of a caravan escort and evacuated to the "Returner" hotel outside the city.
Yes, this is also an eagle eye nested by Art in the north, but it is different from Redbeard's "mill" eagle eye nest. This is just a point. The "Returner" shop owner only occasionally pays people to find out information, but he doesn't know who he is working for.
"My deputy steward and I have repeatedly surveyed that route in the past few days, and this place is the best ambush location." Stanley inserted the wooden-handled short knife into the clay sculpture sand table between the two hills near the north of the city between the city of Besançon and the farm north of the city.
Oliver took over and said, "This is only one and a half miles away from the north gate of Besançon. It is basically close to the city gate. Most people will be less vigilant when approaching the door of their homes."
"And the road passes between two hills. Although the hills are desolate, they are now overgrown with grass and are convenient for hiding and raiding. Our hand crossbows can only hurt people within twenty steps, so this time we have to get a few crossbows in addition to the hand crossbows each person is equipped with. Bernard usually brings ten guards to the farm for secret meetings. We can only win the battle behind four or five guards at the beginning of the ambush."
"Of course, our first target must be Bernard. We cannot annihilate all his guards, and it is impossible to annihilate them all."
Oliver is not confident enough, he is indeed an extraordinary person who can choose to be the Earl's personal bodyguard. At least the Earl of Bernard's bodyguards they know are all warriors who have experienced battles in the army.
"Bernard's personal bodyguards are all officers who have come out of the army. They are usually leading knights or trainee knights. Each of them can easily defeat three or five ordinary soldiers, so we don't expect to kill many guards. Everyone is focusing on Bernard. Biting off a piece of Bernard's flesh is more useful than killing several guards!" Stanley added a few words.
"Steward, shall we put some venom on all the arrows?" asked a man who looked like a guard.
In the dusk, a riding horse carried a sturdy man in a hood and cloak out of the east gate, which was about to close, and ran quickly towards the town outside the city. Due to the fat body, the riding horse could not run, and the man on the horse was so anxious that he kept kicking the horse's belly with his spurs.
After a while, a group of people arrived in the town and headed straight towards the hotel in the town...
When Redbeard appeared in the guest room of the returnee with a sweaty face, Stanley and others had just practiced an emergency retreat after the assassination was successful or failed.
"Mr. Redbeard, why did you suddenly appear here? Did something go wrong? Do you need to evacuate here immediately?" Stanley looked at Redbeard and thought his whereabouts were exposed.
“Let me have a sip of wine!” Redbeard grabbed a clay pot filled with inferior beer from a low table by the wall, raised it to his mouth and took a big gulp.
"Two stewards and fellows, Bernard did not return to the mansion after being dismissed from the palace today. He suddenly went to the farm in the north of the city."
Stanley frowned after hearing this, "At this time? No, it's too urgent, we have no time to prepare."
"He only brought four personal guards." Red Beard only added.
Stanley raised his eyebrows, lowered his head and thought for a moment, then looked up at Oliver and several core members, and Oliver nodded.
"Deputy Steward, immediately bring people to prepare weapons and apply venom to the weapons and arrows."
“Remember to put on the short boots of the Eastern Border Army.” Stanley added emphatically.
"Coachman, prepare the horses and tools."
The two core backbones each called a few of their men to get ready.
"Mr. Redbeard, we are about to take action. You should always pay attention to the movements of Besançon. If there is any disturbance, send news to the south immediately!"
"Okay! You also need to be careful. If you cannot escape on your own, send someone to find me immediately."
...
As dusk fell, at the door of the bedroom of the farm house in the north of Besançon, Count Bernard, the palace finance minister who was nearly sixty years old, tugged hard on his silk robe to make himself solemn and solemn again.
Looking around Bernard's figure, you can vaguely see a plump woman lying motionless on the bed, with traces of whipping and burning with wax drops all over her body...
Bernard's mood finally calmed down a little, and his anger at being impeached by Baldwin at the court meeting was also vented.
"I have arranged for your son to enter the knight school, and I will make him a qualified knight." Bernard turned his head and said lightly, and then walked straight towards the gate of the mansion without looking back. Several personal guards wearing armor and holding swords followed Bernard's pace.
The sky is getting darker and darker, but Bernard must return to the mansion. The wizened and thin old woman at home is still sitting in the inner house like an old crow, waiting for him.
Bernard has no feelings at all for that witch-like woman, but now that he is in adversity, he must rely on his old wife's family power as a reliable external force, so he does not dare to offend the countess easily.
Bernard left the farm house and got into the two four-wheeled carriages parked in the courtyard. The four personal guards also jumped on their horses. The two guards took the prepared torches from the farm servants and walked in front to light the way. The carriages quickly disappeared on the carriage path leading to the city of Besançon outside the farm... ..
…..
"Coming, coming! Less than a mile away!" A masked task force soldier standing on the hill observing the sentry took a few steps and ran towards Stanley who was personally leading people to dig horse traps (Note) and deep trench roadblocks at the foot of the hill.
Hearing that the target of the operation had arrived, Stanley ignored the unfinished roadblocks and said, "Quickly, flatten and camouflage the roadblocks and get ready to fight immediately." As he said that, Stanley picked up the crossbow leaning on the roadside, pedaled and pulled the string, and then carefully placed a crossbow arrow that was still coated with an unknown brown liquid into the arrow slot of the crossbow body.
The remaining soldiers of the task force also hurriedly threw the farm tools for digging holes and trenches into the grass beside the road and hid them. They took out their hand crossbows and loaded them with arrows. They also adjusted the short daggers and long swords at their waists to the most suitable position for drawing. Then they followed Stanley and Oliver to the weeds on the hillsides on both sides of the road, where they crawled and hid.
Bernard's carriage soon appeared on the carriage road north of the hill. Two mounted guards held torches leading the way, and two mounted guards guarded the rear. The special carriage in the middle was steered by an old coachman and headed steadily towards the north city gate.
The scattered candlelight in the residential area outside Besançon could be vaguely seen. The guards who were leading the way on horseback breathed a sigh of relief. The count's arrangements today were too sudden, so there was no time to mobilize those "stern-tongued" guards. Therefore, only these four personal guards accompanied the noble and solemn count to "secret talks".
Nowadays, the situation in the count is delicate and full of crises. As the count's personal bodyguard, he is even more cautious at this time. He is always on tenterhooks. At this moment, the city gate is approaching. The two guards in front let out a sigh of relief.
The war horse walked briskly between the two hills. After passing the hill, you can see the torch lit by the defenders on the gate of the north city of Besançon. A guard held the torch in his right hand and held the reins in his left hand. He turned to look at the carriage about ten steps behind him, and then continued to move forward.
At the moment when he turned his head, the war horse under him suddenly paused, and then there was a crisp sound of fracture when the front hoof bent. The front hoof of the war horse was broken, and the horse immediately fell forward and fell to the ground. The guard on the horse was caught off guard and was also thrown off, with one leg still hanging on the stirrup.
Faced with the sudden crisis, several of the count's guards reacted very quickly. The other guard in the front immediately threw away the torch, took off the kite shield on the right saddle, drew out the knight's sword from his waist and stared at the hills on both sides with vigilance. The two guards at the back also immediately approached the carriage, using their bodies and shields to block the carriage carrying Count Bernard.
In the darkness, there were a few rustling sounds, and seven or eight crossbow arrows flew out from the grass on both sides of the hill. Most of the arrows flew towards the carriage carrying Bernard. The guard who fell to the ground and had not had time to get up was hit by the torch. The head was too close, and he was lucky enough to be hit by an arrow in the face. In a hurry, the arrow missed and missed the vital point. The guard reluctantly tore off the short arrow hanging from his cheek. When he was about to stand up with his hands, he felt a numbness spread from his cheek to his head and then to his whole body.
"The arrows are poisonous~" The guard only had time to yell out before he collapsed to the ground unable to move. He watched helplessly as a group of black shadows rushed down from the hills on both sides, and a short sword was pierced towards his face...
At the moment of the first battle, one of the count's guards was stabbed in the neck by a poisonous arrow, but the remaining three guards were not so easy to deal with.
After a round of arrows, ten masked black figures ignored the guards in front and ran directly towards the carriage with swords and crossbows. Five or six black figures entangled the two guards who jumped off their horses and resisted. The remaining people stabbed the coachman to death with a sword and prepared to open the side door of the carriage.
But the two guards in plate armor blocked the side door of the carriage with all their strength, and allowed the black figures to chop at them without leaving an inch. For a while, the black figures were unable to open the door and assassinate Bernard who was hiding in the car.
If you fail to hit the target, you will lose the opportunity.
The horse guard leading the way turned around and rushed over, knocking away the two black figures fighting against the door guards. He reined in the reins and turned around to attack again.
Stanley saw that he could not open the door for a while, so he went around the door and jumped onto the coachman's seat. There was a small gap here for the people in the carriage to order the coachman.
Stanley put a poisonous arrow into the arrow slot, opened the hand crossbow and pointed it at the gap.
The arrow made a "bang" sound in the carriage, and it must have been nailed to the thick wooden board of the carriage.
Stanley drew the arrow and cocked it again, and followed the gap to prepare to fire another arrow. However, the guard on the other side had already discovered the black shadow in the front. Regardless of the current enemy, he risked being attacked on the back and swept his shield sideways towards Stanley's leg, who was half-crouching to shoot.
· Stanley, who had already dug his fingers into the suspension, suddenly suffered a heavy blow. He froze, raised his crossbow, and the arrow flew into the carriage from an unknown angle.
"Ah~"
There was a dull cry from the carriage. It turned out that the crossbow arrow bounced off the carriage and penetrated Bernard's calf...
"Woo~Woo~Woo~"
At this time, the guard on horseback took out a horn from nowhere, raised his neck and blew the horn.
"Withdraw! Withdraw! Withdraw!" Stanley knew that he could not assassinate Bernard, and he did not know whether the arrow hit just now. There were already two black figures lying on the ground. If he continued to fight, he might not be able to escape.
Oliver immediately led his men to drag up the two moaning companions on the ground and fled towards the side of the hill.
Stanley glanced at the motionless man on the ground, endured the pain, pulled out his dagger and broke the neck of the man on the ground with a knife.
shall not want to fight;
Bernard was not dead. The poisonous arrow only hit his calf. After returning to the Earl's Mansion, several of the doctors who supported him took turns treating Bernard. Due to the lack of excessive activity and timely treatment, the poison on the crossbow arrow did not penetrate into his torso. After taking many antidotes, Bernard's complexion returned to rosy.
At noon the next day, the palace was extremely furious when they learned that the finance minister, Count Bernard of the Margins, had been assassinated outside the city. The Marquis of Ivrea, who was on the hospital bed, coughing up blood, personally ordered the dispatch of thirty palace guards and two hundred elite soldiers of the Praetorian Guard to conduct strict inspections inside and outside Besancon. One hundred of Count Bernard's personal soldiers were also dispatched from the mansion to search for criminals.
Ivrea also sent the palace prime minister to personally lead the palace justice to the place where Bernard was assassinated and conduct an on-site inspection, except after Bernard's two bodyguards were killed in the battle.
After arriving at the battlefield, the Justice quickly found a crossbow-wielding man wearing the uniform of a caravan guard. The careful Justice soon discovered that the boots of the caravan guard were very special, because they were the standard boots of the Eastern Frontier Army...
What is even more strange is that early in the morning the next day after Bernard was assassinated, someone found a missing piece of bloody cotton used to bandage the wound in the corner of an alley near Earl Baldwin's mansion in the east of the city. It happened to be the outer wall of Earl Baldwin's mansion.
Thinking of the court meeting yesterday afternoon, rumors have begun to spread that it was Count Baldwin's "beheading"~
For a time, the city of Besançon was filled with uproar.
Just two days after Bernard was assassinated, a leading viscount and three barons of the Western Frontier Army were killed by several waves of men in black of unknown origin overnight. The bodies of the two assassins were very tattered, but they all had one surprising thing in common. They were wearing the same lining, and this lining assembly came from the same place - the Eastern Frontier Army in Yona Province.