Chapter 751 Abandoning the city and escaping at night
Even though Saul was the leading viscount of Avignon City, the barons of the following territories still ignored him.
"Quiet!"
Saul was furious, and the roar that resounded throughout the hall made these self-righteous guys stunned, and they all looked at the leading viscount.
Although the coalition commander of the southern territories in front of him has no real power, the hat of viscount on his head cannot be ignored.
After a while, Thor spoke again and said contemptuously: "Look at you, the Burgundians scared you like rats in a stinking ditch before they even reached the city wall. We are Lombards, not a group of cowards!"
As a leading viscount, Saul has the confidence to say this. He had participated in many Lombardy external campaigns, and with his military exploits, he had gradually grown from a little-known ordinary knight to become the leading viscount in the Lombardy court. However, his straightforward personality was incompatible with the nobles in the court, and he was eventually ostracized and assigned to a remote port city in the south, where he was responsible for combating pirates who robbed merchant ships.
Since the war between the two armies, Thor has been waiting for the recall order from the camp. But he did not receive any news until the Burgundians attacked Sauronburg. Even the petition he personally submitted to the palace fell into disarray.
It was not until the allied forces of the Marquis of Burgundy and the Principality of Provence marched again, and the troops went straight to the southern coastal ports, that he, the neglected palace leader Viscount, was remembered by the southern lords.
Saul, who received the order, did not compete with the family members and rushed to the assembly area at night to prepare to go north to defend the enemy.
But when he saw the so-called "soldiers" in the camp, most of his fighting spirit was extinguished in an instant.
Because the young and strong soldiers from all over the south were either recruited by the palace or fled the territory. The guys who were barely making up the numbers in front of them were either old or physically handicapped, and there were even a few twelve or thirty-year-old children among them. Those soldiers with a little fighting ability were taken as their own by lords from various places to ensure their own safety and protect the family's wealth.
After two days of long waiting, the team heading north to fight against the Northern Allied Forces finally set off amidst bursts of cheers from the people.
But during the assembly period, except for a few of these "soldiers" who had briefly trained for two days, the rest picked up real weapons for the first time. So their combat effectiveness is almost zero.
Even so, Saul still bravely led the team all the way north, and finally arrived at the city of Avignon two days later. But not long after arriving, news of the northern coalition's southward movement reached here.
Once they heard that the other side had thousands of troops, the peasants and soldiers who were just trying to make a living clamored to go home. In desperation, Saul had to promise that as long as they could hold on until the southern reinforcements arrived, they would double their original army.
After receiving repeated assurances from Sol, these peasants and soldiers reluctantly agreed to stay.
After solving the problem of the stay of these soldiers, unexpectedly, the leading barons sent by lords from various places posed another problem for him - no one was willing to listen to the dispatch of his leading viscount.
When Thor proposed that soldiers from each territory take turns to patrol and defend the city, he was immediately opposed by the two guys. They believed that it was not appropriate to leave the city at this time and could only stay in the city and wait for the arrival of follow-up reinforcements.
In fact, everyone understands that sending people out to patrol at this time will undoubtedly bear huge risks.
But Thor understood that if there were no own eyes outside the city, the northerners would probably suddenly attack the city of Avignon, and by then it would be too late to escape.
After bargaining between the two parties, it was decided to select some of the 500 native soldiers who knew a little bit about horseback shooting and go out on patrol under the leadership of a leading knight.
But when the news that the patrol team was attacked was brought back to the city, everyone felt as if they were facing a powerful enemy.
In order to prepare for the coming war, Thor hurriedly summoned the leading barons to discuss countermeasures.
This is the beginning of the scene.
Looking at the viscount who was leading the army with a gray beard in front of him, he was furious. The barons below instantly became silent and stared directly at Thor, not daring to show any dissatisfaction.
Saul stood up slowly while holding on to the handrail, walked to the edge of the steps, glanced at the timid guys in the audience, and continued: "If I hadn't ordered people to patrol outside the city, I'm afraid your heads would have been hung on the city wall by the northerners!"
Offstage, a bloated guy touched his wrinkled neck, and cold sweat began to break out on his forehead.
At this time, a blond baron wearing half mail and well-equipped weapons suddenly stood up and said loudly: "I say, we should take advantage of the northerners when they are not prepared, catch them by surprise, and kill them!"
Saul sighed softly, walked down the steps to the blond baron, patted his arm, and asked with a smile: "So what exactly should we do according to what you said?"
"This~us~" The blond baron was speechless for a moment.
Seeing that this hot-blooded guy couldn't hold back his fart for a long time, Thor couldn't help but laughed: "If we can drive the enemy out with just words, then why do we need the swords in our hands?"
From the faces of the people, it was easy to tell from the tone of the leading viscount that this old guy planned to lead them into a head-on confrontation with the northerners.
For these noble children who have empty baronet titles, this is undoubtedly asking them to die. But at this time, no one dared to question Saul's authority. After all, he was the commander-in-chief of the defending army.
·Reality is reality after all. Even if Saul is passionate, he knows very well that he cannot lead these stragglers to fight against the powerful regular army in the north. Even if these guys are worthy of a battle, with five hundred people fighting thousands of people, and they are still in the city of Avignon, which has extremely poor defense, they still have no chance of winning.
At this time, the northerners were five miles away from the city of Avignon, but the three thousand mercenaries promised by the southern lords had yet to arrive. If they were to confront the Burgundian army, these five hundred people would probably be slaughtered.
After much thought, Saul decided to abandon the city of Avignon and take the old, weak, sick and disabled people guarding the city all the way south, fighting and retreating.
In the middle of the night, the Avignon city defenders took advantage of the darkness to open the city gate, filed out, and fled southward. At the same time, two black figures hidden in a wheat field not far from the city gate lifted up the straw on their bodies and quickly ran toward the north. "—What, all the Avignon city defenders have withdrawn?"
"Yes, sir! We saw it with our own eyes. The number of people leaving the city is nearly five hundred, which is consistent with the intelligence."
At the Wells Legion camp, Art, who had just finished the military meeting and was lying down, was woken up by the guard Ron. Ron was accompanied by two spies stationed outside Avignon.
At first he was shocked when he heard that the Lombard garrison there had retreated overnight. But after careful consideration, Art felt relieved. He smiled and said: "It's a good thing they abandoned the city and fled south before we took action. As for us, we spent a long time here studying strategies to defeat the enemy, but it all turned out to be in vain."
"No need, just leave this matter to the people in the reserve group. It's a pity, what a good training opportunity, it was inexplicably gone." Art spread his hands, and an inexplicable feeling of disappointment came to his heart.
“Okay, let’s all go down. Tell Odo that the army will be stationed in Avignon after breakfast tomorrow. In addition, ask the first company to send a squadron of soldiers to bite the tail of the deserters and tell them not to lose them. These people are the ones I left for the preparation. Prepare regiments for training~"
"Understood!"
Early in the morning of the second day, thousands of Welsh troops marched southward, arriving at the city of Avignon in just half a day.
Before this, Colin's company had arrived here early and searched the entire city. Except for some grain and grass supplies, there was no big harvest.
This is not surprising. After Art led troops to capture Sauron Castle, almost all the lords, squires and merchants from all over the south fled to other places with their property within a few days. Most of the remaining residents were extremely poor, and naturally could not satisfy the occupying army's appetite.
—Sir, I really can’t figure out why those southern lords would send an army of five hundred people to resist our thousands of troops in such a city that doesn’t even have basic fortifications. "Looking at the low walls and dilapidated houses here, Odo shook his head repeatedly. Even the defense of the military fort that the Wells Legion had just left was much stronger than here. It is not difficult to explain why the Lombards evacuated here overnight.
Matt didn’t answer and looked around.
Apart from open plains and a few wheat fields, there are no decent rivers around. Compared with Wellsburg, the territory of his family, this place can at best be regarded as a larger market town. There are neither strong and towering city walls nor prosperous markets around it. In addition, due to the war, almost no one lives here anymore.
As for why the southern lords chose such a place to fight the northerners, Art was puzzled.
"Okay, come with me into the city to have a look."
With that said, Art took Odo and Ron towards the city and walked towards a valley area south of Avignon. A team dragging a long tail was walking crookedly on the trade road.
After a night of escaping, these Lombard soldiers who had escaped from the tiger's mouth were already foaming at the mouth from exhaustion. They walked to the river in groups of three or five, supporting each other with the branches they picked up.
At the head of the team, Viscount Saul, the leader, who was riding on a green-brown horse, raised his hand and raised his eyebrows, looking at the houses on the other side of the river with wisps of smoke coming out. Already hungry, he swallowed a gulp of saliva, then turned around and shouted to the soldiers behind him, "Everyone, hurry up and go to the village in front to rest your horses and cook some rice~"