"Your Majesty, Marquis, they succeeded!"
Looking at the loud arrows flying from outside the Northeast Gate, Leander, who was responsible for contacting the troops attacking the Northeast Gate, said excitedly to Flanders.
Flender raised his head and glanced outside the northeast gate, then turned to look at the east gate.
"Immediately send someone to inform the South City Gate that the Northeast Gate has been captured. Everyone attacks on all fronts and conquers Thorne City in one fell swoop!"
"Yes!"
" Order the whole army to rush forward and capture Bernard alive, and reward him with ten thousand pfennigs!"
"Kill!"
Flanders then pulled out the broad sword from his waist and rode towards the city gate.
Twenty personal iron guards rushed out.
………
"Your Majesty, it's not good!"
In Earl Bernard's Mansion, the messenger ran towards the hall of the mansion in panic.
"Your Majesty, the Liberation Army is coming!"
"What?"
Bernard, who was sitting on a large leather chair talking to several officers, immediately stood up, rushed to the messenger, grabbed him by the corner of his clothes, and pushed him to the ground.
"How could those bastards rush in?" Bernard's body was trembling, and he pointed at the messenger and asked loudly.
"Your Majesty, Earl, the enemy rushed in from the gate in the northeast corner. They are now heading towards the east city gate and the south city gate." The messenger said with a cry of horror.
「Northeast Gate?」
"Yes, your lord, the defenders who escaped back said that Viscount Mark's people took advantage of the unpreparedness of the defenders to rebel and attack. Then they opened the city gate and let hundreds of enemy soldiers rush in."
"Tell me again who opened the city gate?" Bernard couldn't believe his ears.
"It's Viscount Mark." The messenger straightened his hat and quickly got up and continued.
"Come here, arrest that bastard Mark. I'm going to chop off his head myself!" I saw Bernard shouting loudly, spittle flying everywhere.
"My lord, I'm afraid it's too late." Bernard's bachelor advisor suddenly stood up to dissuade him. "That bastard must have run away a long time ago. The top priority is to ensure the safety of you and the Crown Prince. Once the city gate is breached, those barbarians will definitely not let us go."
Bernard didn't speak, he just stood there panting, his blood rising, his face flushed. After a while, he asked the bachelor advisor behind him: "Have the arrangements for the ship I asked you to prepare been arranged?"
Bernard did not speak, but walked around the hall, clenching his fists. He never imagined that the defense he had worked so hard to set up would be destroyed in the hands of a domestic thief.
"Your Majesty, Count?" the bachelor advisor called softly.
Bernard turned around and looked at the officers around him. "You guys, go up and hold me back immediately. I will take the crown prince and prepare to leave the city immediately. Immediately retreat to the west afterward!"
"Yes, Lord Earl."
Bernard hurriedly walked out of the Lord's Hall and ran towards Robert's temporary palace.
………
While Art was watching the battle on the city wall not far outside the South City Gate, the messengers of the Liberation Army came to the South City Gate on horseback.
"Master, people from the Chinese army are here." Ron immediately reminded Art when he saw the person coming.
"Lord Ater, the Northeast Gate has been captured by our army. The Marquis ordered the Wells Army to attack the South City Gate across the board, and cooperated with the Longxia Army to capture the South City in one fell swoop and advance into Thorne City."
h "Okay, you go back and tell the Marquis that I will fulfill my mission."
h "Yes."
h Immediately, the soldiers were ordered to leave quickly.
「Ron.」
“Sir.” Ron turned his eyes from the city wall to Art.
"Immediately send an order, all soldiers who can still fight, immediately join me in attacking the city, and must capture the south gate for me."
"Yes, sir."
"Wait!" Art suddenly thought of something.
Just as Ron was riding his horse to leave, Art suddenly stopped him.
"Tell Stanley to lead a hundred soldiers to ambush outside the west city. That old guy Bernard will not wait for us to catch him."
"Yes, sir."
"Odo, sergeant major, immediately organize everyone to attack with me, and seize the opportunity to break through the south city gate when the rear of the defending army should be attacked inside."
“Yes, my lord.”
………
“Hurry, they’re coming up again!” When the officers on the city wall saw the Welsh Legion attacking again, they immediately shouted to the soldiers guarding the city.
"Charge!"
Following Art's order, the Welsh Legion attacked across the board. The baggage team, the cavalry team, including Art's personal bodyguards and the military law team, as long as they could still fight, rushed towards the south gate in a swarm~ "Phoenix, Antayas, you two are in charge of the west wall. Bass. , Wall, you two are responsible for the east wall. Odo, Sergeant Major, you two break through from the middle with me."
Then a few people dismounted and rushed towards the city wall~
On the other side, the soldiers of the Liberation Army who had breached the Northeast Gate had also appeared on the street not far inside the South City Gate.
"Sir, someone is coming over there." A sharp-eyed soldier saw the crowd rushing over from the other side of the street and immediately reported it to the city guard officer.
"Could it be one of ours?" The city guarding officer stood on the city wall and stared intently, his eyes full of expectation. After a whole day of hard fighting, his men had been reduced by two-fifths, and the soldiers' physical strength was almost exhausted and they were in urgent need of reinforcements. When he saw the soldiers holding swords getting closer and closer, he began to wonder.
“Sir, their military uniforms don’t seem to be the same as ours~” The sharp-eyed soldier rubbed his eyes and looked outside the city at the uniforms of the soldiers below, then turned around and looked at the uniforms of the soldiers who had run to the end of the street towards the south gate. By the faint light of the torches on the city wall, the defender suddenly shouted: "Sir~"
Then a flying sharp arrow pierced his abdomen.
"No! Those are rebels!" Seeing the soldiers lying on their backs beside him, the city guard officer shouted.
For a time, the soldiers guarding the south city gate suddenly became confused. They were all panic-stricken, with fear and anxiety on their faces.
"Sir, what should we do?" a soldier asked with a cry, hoping to get an answer from the officer guarding the city.
"Why the hell are you crying!" He said and kicked the guy on the ground. The soldier who was squatting on the ground and crying fell to the ground. Ignoring the pain and looking at the rebels who were already rushing towards the city wall, the soldier threw down his sword and got up and ran towards the other side.
"Run, the rebels are coming!"
As a soldier's voice sounded, the other soldiers who were defending against the enemy glanced around and began to feel shaken.
"Hold them all to me. If anyone dares to escape, I will kill him first!"
Speaking, the guarding officer pointed his sword at the soldiers present. Then there was only a whooshing sound, and a light arrow pierced the forehead of the city guard officer. He staggered and fell to the bottom of the city wall, and saw blood slowly flowing out~
“Brothers, run quickly.” Seeing the city guard officer being killed, the soldiers standing on the city wall instantly lost their backbone. First, they looked at the corpse under the city wall in horror. After reacting, they all abandoned their armor and ran all the way down the city~
"Come on! Don't let them escape."
Art, who had climbed to the top of the city wall, saw the enemy starting to flee, rushed up and chopped off the head of a soldier who was still resisting, and immediately summoned the soldiers who had rushed up to chase the fleeing enemy soldiers.
Beneath the city wall, the troops of the Liberation Army saw the enemy soldiers fleeing in all directions, and they continued to pursue them, harvesting the heads of the defeated soldiers. For a moment, the soldiers guarding the city ran wildly to various parts of the city...
At this time, the Liberation Army outside the east city gate also attacked the city wall with the cooperation of internal forces. The situation began to favor the siege party. After seeing that the large forces of the Liberation Army had rushed forward, Flanders expected that Bernard would definitely escape before breaking the city, and immediately ordered his men to surround him, vowing to capture Bernard alive.
The group looked panicked, looking around from time to time for fear of being discovered.
"Your Majesty, we have arrived." One of the hooded men said softly.
“You guys will go out of the city to investigate and make sure there is no ambush outside the city, then I will take the prince and the marchioness out of the city. We will meet at the manor three miles outside the city, and someone will meet us there.”
"Yes, Your Majesty the Earl."
"Hurry, open the city gate!"
"Yes, sir."
The defenders used the winch to pull up the hinge step by step, and with a deep sound, the heavy iron gate of the West City was slowly raised.
Immediately, three hooded men and a few soldiers jumped on the boat, followed the water out of the west gate, and disappeared into the night~
………
“Quickly, bring those bastards up!”
Outside the hall of Earl Bernard’s Mansion, Leander was leading seven or eight soldiers to twist several captured garrison officers to the hall of Earl Bernard’s Mansion. At this time, the person sitting on the big leather chair in the hall of Earl Bernard's mansion was no longer Bernard, but Flanders, the new ruler of the count.
"Your Majesty the Marquis, these bastards were encountered by my men while they were escaping to the west city gate."
Leander said to Flanders as soon as he entered the gate.
“Kneel down!”
Only a few city guard officers with blood on their faces and mud all over their bodies struggled desperately and refused to kneel down. In their view, the so-called marquis in front of them was just a scum who usurped the power of the county, and had no sense of honor as a nobleman at all.
Seeing several people staring at Flanders, they wanted to rush up and chop off his head. Leander was furious and kicked a prisoner behind the knees, causing the man to fall to his knees. Then several people beat and kicked the prisoners.
"Stop!"
Flender raised his hand to signal Leander not to treat these guys so roughly. Then he slowly stood up and walked towards a few people.
"As long as you tell me where Bernard took Robert, I can spare your life."
"Bah!"
The officer who had just been kicked to the ground opened his mouth and spat spit at Flanders without any intention of begging for mercy. Leander suddenly became furious and knocked the guy's teeth to the ground with a slap.
Flender took out the silk scarf from his waist and wiped the saliva on his face, then left the scarf on the ground. He came close to the prisoner and said, "The last person who dared to despise me like this has turned into white bones!" After that, he pulled out the long sword from his waist and chopped off the guy's left arm to the ground, and the blood flowed~
"You are lucky enough."
Suddenly, everyone present widened their eyes and held their breaths, not daring to make a single sound. Only the guy who was rolling back and forth on the ground in pain roared and cursed loudly. Immediately afterwards, Flanders cut off his head, and the head rolled down with blood in front of several other prisoners kneeling on the ground. They were all so frightened that their bodies were shaking, their faces were ashen, and they hurriedly begged for mercy.
"My Lord Marquis, I say, I say. My Lord Earl, no, Bernard took Robert and escaped from the Water Gate of the West City when you broke through the city gate. He ordered a few of us to resist the attack of the Liberation Army. We really don't know where they are now." As the prisoner spoke, he cried and begged for mercy, and kept banging his forehead on the floor.
"Come here, immediately send five speedboats to catch me up, and send another three hundred cavalry out of the west city gate to search along the river bank. You must capture that bastard!"
As soon as Flanders heard that Bernard had fled west, he was so angry that he smashed the chair next to him to the ground. Once Bernard is allowed to escape into the Principality, the consequences will be endless.
"Pull these bastards down and chop them down, hang their heads on the wall of the east city gate, and offer flags to the dead soldiers!"
"Yes, Lord Marquis."
Then, Leander took out a few guys who were struggling and screaming. Then several screams were heard outside the hall ~ "Your Majesty the Marquis, my brother-in-law's people have captured that bastard Bernard!" The Phoenix people arrived before they could say anything.
Flanders, who was furious, immediately stood up and planned to walk out the door.
As soon as he entered the door and saw Flanders and many Liberation Army officers there, Phoenix's expression immediately became serious.
"Inform the Marquis, Lord Art's men captured Bernard outside the west city gate who was about to escape to the west."
"Okay!"
Flanders immediately hurried towards Phoenix.
“Where are they?”
Flanders asked anxiously.
"My Lord Marquis, Mr. Art is bringing them here. He ordered me to report to you first."
"Okay. Has that little bastard Robert been caught?"
"They were all caught together."
Flanders was extremely excited after hearing this, but his expression did not change much.
Not long after, Art took Bernard and Robert into the hall.
"My Lord Marquis."
At entered the door, he half-knelt to greet Flanders.
"Cousin Art, there is no need to be polite." Flanders quickly walked forward and helped Art up.
"Thank you, Lord Marquis."
"Where is that bastard Bernard?"
Flender was eager to see Bernard's appearance when he was escorted in front of him by his own people.
“Bring them up!”
“Let’s go!”
Immediately afterwards, Bernard and Robert were escorted into the Lord's Hall by soldiers from the Welsh Legion. I saw that Bernard was covered in dirt, his black cloak was stained with mud, and dripping with sewage that smelled like sewer~
The Lord's Hall of the Earl's Mansion was a place that Bernard was once extremely familiar with. Perhaps even he himself did not expect that one day he would be escorted by the enemy into his Earl's mansion.
"Kneel down!"
"Stop!"
Flender slowly walked towards Bernard and the others, circled around a few people, and then set his eyes on Bernard.
"Bernard, you didn't expect it. I told you a long time ago that sooner or later I will stand in the hall of your Earl's Mansion to accept your surrender. What else do you have to say now."
Bernard raised his head and glanced at Flanders, his eyes dim. Then he turned and looked at Robert and the former Marchioness.
"Flanders, you win. As long as you let us go, I am willing to surrender to you." After saying this, Bernard lowered his noble head.
"Okay. Since you have surrendered to me, I can guarantee your lives. Take them to me and imprison them first, and then return to Besançon with the army."
"Yes, Your Majesty the Marquis."
"Art, which one of your men captured Bernard this time? I want to reward him well."
"Back to the Marquis, this man is one of my squad captains, and he used to be a prisoner..."