"Report!" A fast horse caught up from behind Art, Angus and others who were walking in the middle of the team.
"Report to your lord, an urgent message from the palace of Besançon." The messenger caught up with Art and others, dismounted and handed the secret message to Art. Art hurriedly opened the secret message.
"Sergeant Major, the new king has given an order, ordering us to rush outside Thorne City within three days, and then attack Thorne City together with the Restoration Army in the East." Art turned to Angus and said to him, and handed him the secret message.
Angus glanced at it after receiving the secret message, then looked at Art and said: "Great, sir, the time to attack Thorne City has finally been determined."
“Yes, at first I was worried that something would go wrong. Now it seems that I was worrying too much.” Art took the secret letter from Angus, took another look at it, and then handed the secret letter to Ron beside him for safekeeping.
"Sergeant Major, we are about to reach the border of Thorne Province. We have ordered the whole army to take a short rest. After entering Thorne Province, they will be blocked by the Thorne army."
"Yes, sir."
"Is there any news from the task force?" Art continued to ask.
"Not yet, but it should be soon." Angus replied.
While the two were talking, Oliver, the deputy captain of the task force, rode towards Art and others from the front.
"Your Majesty, we found a small force on the border of Thorne Province, about a hundred people, all lurking in the bushes on both sides of the road. Some of our people are monitoring there, and the other part continues to scout in the direction of Thorne City. The captain sent me back to inform you of the situation so that the army can be prepared." Stanley reported the situation ahead one by one.
"Ambush on the plain?" Art said calmly, "Sergeant Major, you immediately bring a hundred people from the cavalry, all armed with special crossbows, and go around behind the small army and clean them up for me. The big army will arrive shortly." Art said, putting his right hand in front of his neck and making a gesture.
"Yes, sir, I'll do it right away." Angus took the order and left.
………
At the border of Saône Province, murderous intent is hidden in the bushes on both sides of the road. After receiving Bernard's order, a leading baron from Bernard's mansion rushed to the border of Saône Province to set up an ambush at night with about a hundred people "mobilized" from all over, in an attempt to block the outpost of the Welsh Army and slow down their march. It is better to say that it is a block than an interference. Facing the large and powerful Wells Army, this small force of about a hundred people just pushed itself into the tiger's mouth.
After learning that the Welsh Army had marched towards the Saône Province, Bernard's seat felt like nails were driven into it, and he could no longer sit still. He immediately called his only leading baron who was still in the palace and ordered him to lead fifty guards of the palace to the border of Thorne to stop the Welsh Army from advancing northward. In addition, on the way to the border, guards from other manors were mobilized to form a vanguard of about a hundred people to defend against the enemy, buying time for the defense of Thorne City.
The troops who thought they had a well-planned ambush had been discovered by the contingent of the Welsh Army before entering the bushes on both sides of the road, and followed them all the way.
"Baron, can we withstand the thousands of soldiers from the Wells Army?" The knights of Thorne's army lying in the bushes asked the baron who was leading the army in Bernard's house.
"Of course I know that I can't resist, but do you dare to disobey the Earl's wishes? Listen to me. When those bastards come over, we will retreat after fighting and continue the attack at the next place." After speaking, the leading baron brought the buckskin wine naan on his waist to his mouth and took a sip. He put the wine cork with satisfaction, put the wine naan to one side and leaned against the stone on the other side.
"Lord Baron, it stands to reason that their people should be here too." The knight said doubtfully.
"Have the people sent out come back?" asked the leading baron.
Not yet.
“What?” The leading baron was shocked. The sentinel sent out has been out for half a day, so it stands to reason that he should have returned a long time ago. According to reports from the first wave of people who went out to scout, the Wells Legion was no more than five miles away from the Thorne border. It's been a little while, and it should have appeared a long time ago. But looking into the distance from the bushes on the mountainside on both sides of the road, there was no shadow of them at all.
"Not good!" the leading baron shouted and stood up from the bushes.
"Have anyone been sent to guard the hillside behind?"
"This~" The knight on the side hesitated.
"Retreat quickly!" After saying this, the leading baron ordered a retreat. The other soldiers lurking in the bushes looked surprised and slowly got up from the ground and looked around.
Whoosh～
At this moment, more than thirty arrows with smoking tails had landed on the dry grass in the bushes. With the sound of sparks exploding, the dry grass where a soldier had just been lying suddenly burst into flames. The fire slowly ignited the dead branches and leaves on the ground in the direction of the wind...
"It's on fire!" A soldier just shouted out, only to see an arrow flying from the top of the mountain had already pierced his throat~
"It's on fire, run!"
Just when these Thorne soldiers who were ambushing in the bushes reacted, several other bushes were already burning, and the fire spread rapidly. Suddenly, the bushes were seen swaying left and right, and then there were shouts and shouts. The soldiers hiding inside were running around and rolling down the mountain.
The leading baron who was the first to run down the mountain wiped his face blackened by the smoke and looked at the soldiers who were on fire and rolling down the mountain in horror. Knowing that it was important to save his life, he quickly took the forty or fifty Thorne soldiers who had just saved a small life from the fire and fled northward along the road in embarrassment~
"Charge!"
Angus, who had been ambushing on the side of the mountain entrance in advance, saw that the archers on the top of the mountain had forced the ambush to the bottom of the mountain, and immediately led more than sixty cavalry to charge up.
"Lord Baron, their cavalry is catching up!" The knight looking back while running for his life said to the baron leading the army in front.
「Hurry, everyone, keep up!」
"Run quickly~" The soldiers behind saw the menacing enemy behind them and rolled and crawled along the road to escape. There were discarded spears, short swords and other weapons scattered along the way.
When the leading baron looked back again, he saw that the leading cavalry had cut down several Thorne soldiers, raising and lowering his sword with quick movements. The guys behind him were also ruthless, and the soldiers who were left behind were chopped to pieces with their flesh and blood flying everywhere, screaming...
"Stop!" Angus signaled to the cavalry behind him not to pursue.
"Lord Angus, why don't you pursue us? There are only a dozen or so of them left, let's rush in and kill them."
"We don't know the situation inside the manor. If we pursue a hasty pursuit, we will easily be ambushed. Withdraw!"
In the end, most of the fleeing Thorne soldiers were killed by the cavalry led by Angus. After they followed the leading baron and fled to a nearby manor, only a dozen or so were left. Angus was worried that he was too far away from the large army, so he stopped pursuing and quickly led his cavalry back to greet the arrival of the large army.
When a leading viscount who had just lost several important strongholds on the Eastern Front came with several officers to report the military situation to Bernard, who was sitting on a large leather chair. Bernard, who was discussing the defense of Thorne City with the ministers and dignitaries of Thorne Palace, heard that several more strongholds had been lost. He was so angry that he smashed the cup in his hand to the ground, scaring several officers to retreat quickly.
“Go, get those places back to me right away! Otherwise, all of you will come to see me!” Bernard, who was already livid at this time, roared angrily at the guys in front of him who were constantly losing battles. They were so frightened that they quickly took orders and exited the Lord's Hall.
"...My lords, where are we talking about~" Bernard asked after adjusting his mood.
"Your Majesty, Earl, we have just been discussing how to reduce our forces to defend Thorne City." A bachelor advisor beside Bernard replied softly.
"Oh, that's right. Seeing those bastards approaching Thorne City step by step, we should prepare our defenses as soon as possible."
"Ahem~"
"My lord, please take care of yourself," the bachelor advisor reminded.
"I'm fine. Everyone, tell me what you think." Bernard said coldly, wiping the corners of his mouth with a silk scarf.
"My lord, I am afraid that the front line cannot be defended. In my opinion, it is better for us to concentrate all the troops on the front line around Thorncheng and inside the city to resist the Liberation Army and the Welsh Army heading north." The military minister of Thorne Palace said. This guy turned out to be the military minister of the Besançon court. Before the situation was completely clear, he was an out-and-out fence-sitter. As Bernard's faction took control of the crown prince Robert, he fell into Bernard's arms like a grassroots and served as the military minister of Thorne's court, responsible for commanding the army to compete with the Restoration Army.
"Do you mean to give up all other places to that bastard from Flanders?" Bernard asked coldly, staring at the Minister of War.
"My lord, what I mean is~"
"Enough!"
The Minister of Military Affairs no longer refutes.
「下令，将各地的农夫杂役和城中能动的男人全都给我召集起来，一部分在守城军队的指挥下加固城墙。另一部分派到前线去给我顶住光复军的进攻，为索恩城加固城防争取时间。另外，将大部分在前线的士兵都调回来。」贝尔纳看了看低着头的军事大臣继续说道，「南边的那支军队有动静吗？」
"Reporting to your lord, there is no news yet." The officer in charge of city defense said.
"Send someone to have a look again. At this important juncture, nothing can be careless."
"Yes, Lord Earl, I will make arrangements immediately."
"Okay, let's go back and get ready."
"Yes, Lord Earl." Everyone exited the lord's hall.
"By the way, how did you do with the matter of contacting the court of Besançon?" a guy asked in a low voice.
"Don't worry, it's all been discussed. If they fail to attack the city, our people will..." Another guy leaned into the ear of the man next to him and whispered.
"Then I'm relieved. Seeing that Thorne's court is about to collapse, we should also think about our own future."