In a burned-out farm eight miles west of Vaal City, the Western Army, which had been chased by the Eastern Army for eight or nine miles, was temporarily stationed here. The open space around the farm was full of retreating soldiers. They were gathered around piles of bonfires with thick smoke, feeling depressed. It was roughly estimated that there were less than 400 Western Army soldiers in the farm.
In the center of the farm, a dozen Western Army commanders were leaning or sitting around the "hall" of the farmer's mansion that had been burned to rubble.
Looking up at the water dripping from the eaves of the broken roof, a Western Army commander wiped the rainwater from his head and mumbled: "If I had known I had to escape to this hellish place, I shouldn't have set that fire, and now there is no place to shelter from the rain~"
Next to the officer, an accomplice with blood-soaked linen wrapped around his arm was squatting in front of a bonfire that could not light up an open fire, playing with a piece of wood soaked in rain. He snorted and said sarcastically: "Okay, you are lucky enough not to be hacked to death by the enemy. You still want to take shelter from the rain! Do you think this is a comfortable barracks for your palace guards? Do you want me to grab a few more maids for you to warm your bed?"
Officer Nagging was not happy at all, and he immediately became angry after being ridiculed by his companions, "You, the Western monkey, should be chopped to death on the battlefield, so as not to spray feces everywhere with a foul mouth!"
The comrade from the Western Border Army who spoke out stopped after hearing this, threw away the wet stick in his hand, rubbed it and stood up, pretending to fight Officer Nagging.
"That's enough! If you continue to argue, I will drag you out and chop them all!" The top commander of the Western Army opened the guard who was bandaging his head and shouted loudly at the two fighting cocks.
The two "fighting cocks" finally stopped, each turning their heads and ignoring each other.
The ruins fell into silence again, except for two occasional coughs caused by the thick smoke of wet wood.
The clatter of war horses interrupted the gloomy atmosphere in the ruins. Two soaked cavalrymen galloped over from outside the farm, bypassed the pile of staggered soldiers and walked into the "hall" without doors, windows or walls.
"How is it? Are the rebels preparing to attack?" The commander of the Western Army jumped up from the fire and walked to the cavalry in a few steps.
The cavalryman shook his rain-soaked sleeves and looked very embarrassed. He turned slightly to avoid the attention of the officers and whispered: "Lord Viscount, the enemy troops have withdrawn to the city of Vaal~"
hh "Ah? Why did they withdraw? They gave up the pursuit?" The commander of the Western Army looked puzzled.
The cavalry turned to look at the eavesdropping officers, and lowered his voice again, "The rebels didn't have many ambush troops at all. The number of ambush troops that suddenly appeared was only a hundred or so. Our soldiers who stayed behind also confirmed that they had crossed the large military camp. There are indeed less than two hundred enemy soldiers in the stronghold~We were fooled~"
Even though the cavalry's voice was very low, a sharp-eared Western Army officer still heard it. He jumped to his feet and shouted loudly: "What? There are less than two hundred soldiers in the ambush?"
The ruins of the farm immediately exploded, and the commanders of the Western Army beat their chests one after another. Humiliation and anger filled the entire sky.
"You don't believe me! I've said a long time ago that the rebels were just using conspiracy and bluffing, how about it? I guess I'm right. I told you that no troops infiltrated the enemy camp that night, so who of you believe me?" An officer stood up, spread out his hands, jumped to the campfire and pointed at everyone.
This man was the leading baron who was responsible for monitoring the movements of the Wells Army camp that night. He was scolded bloody for "letting go" the rebels and "ambushing" them early that night. Now that the truth was revealed, he immediately jumped out to avenge his grievances.
“If you had followed my advice from the beginning and attacked the rebel army’s unformed formation, we would have been lying in the city of Vaal, drinking wine and eating barbecue!” The leading baron glanced in the direction of the commander intentionally or unintentionally, and the meaning couldn’t be more obvious.
"**, you have the nerve to say, if you hadn't led the troops to flee today, how could we have lost so miserably? It was you, the bastard, who led the troops to flee, and my soldiers were swept away!" Another Western Army officer also jumped out and pointed at the leading baron and cursed.
"What does your soldiers running away from me have to do with me? Who said I was routed! I was planning to lead the rear troops back to attack the enemy army at the rear!" The baron who led the army had a stern look on his face.
"**, then you are really brave. The enemy soldiers rushed from the northwest, and you led the soldiers to meet them towards the southwest. In the end, you rushed back to the camp and snatched all the military pay. Wow, you are so brave!" Another officer sneered at the "brave" leading baron.
The baron who led the army became even more angry when he saw that the officers of the two Guards Corps were mocking him, "You old soldiers of the Guards Corps, your mouths are harder than shields, and your teeth are sharper than spearheads. If you have the ability, just use your mouths." Go and take back the city of Vaal, bite the enemy's throat with your fangs, and tell me what kind of horse excrement you are spraying here!"
"I think you bastards like to spray excrement all over your mouth!" A Guards officer immediately counterattacked.
"Say one more thing? Believe it or not, I can tear your mouth open with just one hand!" The frontier soldier with one arm hanging slapped the guard officer on the head...
Well, originally it was just a matter-of-fact discussion, but now it has turned into a fight between the western frontier army and the guards...
Cang~Bang!
A heavy sword cut off a long table in the ruins. The loud noise caused the officers who were struggling together to stop their movements and turned to look at the blushing Western Army commander.
"Whoever dares to move again, I will chop off his head with one sword!"
The commander of the Western Army put down his harsh words, dragged the still trembling heavy sword, kicked away the two officers who were wrestling on the ground, and walked straight outside the ruins.
The elderly military adviser who stood in the corner of the ruins without saying a word looked around at the officers, shook his head and followed the pace of the Western Army commander...
........................
"You lazy fools, keep up the pace and don't fall behind. These are not peaceful days, although we are still some distance away from the war zone. But there is really no telling when the Eastern Army will come. "
Outside the Black Iron Castle, three days' journey north of Besançon, four patrolling castle defenders were patrolling northward under the leadership of a small officer. The war between the east and the west had begun. Although the Black Iron Castle, an important defensive fortress in the north of Besançon, had not yet become a war zone, the local garrison felt increasingly that the crisis was approaching, so the patrol team also moved further.
There is a low hill in front of the patrol team. When climbing up the hill, there is an endless wilderness (weedy plain). The patrol team will climb to the top of the hill to take a look around and then return to do business.
As he was about to climb to the top of the hill, the young officer stopped to take a breath. He took off the wine bag from his waist and took a sip of low-quality beer. After a sip of wine, the young officer's interest was aroused. He climbed up hard while humming a lewd country tune, thinking that he would find a "high mountain" to climb after returning to the city.
The little officer climbed slower and slower, and his chubby and round head gradually appeared in sight on the other side of the hill.
"...The girl's lips were like flames, igniting my dry heart. I lifted up the girl's long skirt and touched her -"
The song stopped suddenly.
“Captain, what did you get into the girl? Keep singing!” The soldiers following the young officer were still beating the beat, urging the young officer to continue singing obscenely.
"Captain? Sir Captain! Why don't you keep walking?"
The soldier looked up at the young officer who was nailed to the spot motionless, walked around and climbed up half a step——
The patrol soldier's scalp went numb, "My God~"
…..
"My God, my legs are broken."
"God can't walk for you. If you don't keep up, you'll have to wait for the supervisory team in the rear to carry your body and march. Those guys in the supervisory team don't care whether you are a servant or not."
On the other side of the hill line one and a half miles north of the Black Iron Castle, an army of more than a thousand people was advancing towards the Black Iron Castle at a high speed.
The leader of this army, riding a tall war horse and being escorted by a hundred-man guard, was none other than Flanders Otto, the commander of the Longxia Legion, Lord of Longxia of the Duchy of Burgundy, and Crown Prince of the Count of Burgundy.
Flanders personally led the most elite thousand mercenaries and five hundred servants of the Longxia Army on a long march for a whole month around the border between the Principality of Burgundy and the Counties.
Although the Duchy of Burgundy has a suzerain relationship with the Count of Burgundy, the border will not be open to the army. As the lord of the Duchy of Burgundy, Flanders will neither be restricted by the duchy nor have to worry about being blocked by the Count of Burgundy when marching in the duchy. In addition, the Longxia Army marched in a concealed manner, and no one knew about it until they arrived at the Black Iron Castle, the northern center of the Count of Burgundy.
Of course, the villages, settlements, and military forts along the way were ordered to be "sealed" by Flanders, otherwise the news of the army's march south would have reached the Black Iron Fort.
Flender raised his hand to signal the army to stop advancing, then raised the reins and led his personal guards and several legion adjutants to drive horses up the gentle slope from the north to the top of the hill.
Several corpses of Black Iron Castle garrison patrol soldiers were lying on the other side of the hill. The Longxia Legion outpost, which had just killed the patrol soldiers, was groping for the corpses.
An adjutant sat upright on horseback, raising his hand and pointing to the castle in the south that was still emitting smoke under the setting sun. "Your Majesty, Marquis, less than two miles ahead is the Black Iron Castle. The castle defenders only have 170 people. Our people have sneaked into the city in disguise. As soon as the army arrives, they will burst out from the city to respond."
"Criti, before I resume my title of Marquis, you should still call me Earl." Flanders immediately corrected the flaw in the title of adjutant Criti, but there was no hint of reproach in his tone.
"Yes, Lord Earl. Should I attack quickly before the defenders can react?" The viscount's adjutant named Kriti Ika asked for instructions.
Flender raised his head and glanced at the sky. It gets dark late in summer, and the Longxia Legion still has a lot of time to move.
"The order was given to the legion to charge quickly and capture the Black Iron Castle immediately before the defenders had time to set up defenses."
Flanders immediately added, "The order was given to the soldiers, after the city is broken, no one is allowed to loot and kill the blacksmith shops and craftsmen in the city. These are things more precious than gold..."