Chapter 754 Allied Forces
Three thousand mercenaries are enough for the Welsh Army and the Palace Guards. But if you add the eight thousand elite soldiers and generals of the Principality of Provence, maybe the southerners will retreat in spite of the difficulties.
With no time to think about it, Art turned his attention to the mercenaries again.
"Where is the southern army?" Art's fingers kept sliding back and forth between several important counties and military forts on the trade road leading to the south.
Odo walked forward and put his finger on a place where a knight's sword was painted to represent the military fortress, "Here is less than a day's journey from us."
Matt looked at the position of Odo's fingers, rubbed his palms, and said: "These guys move very fast. Stanley and the others only received news two days ago. I didn't expect that in just two days, they would be right under our noses."
"Yes." "My lord. I always feel that this mercenary army is very different from those hired by the Duke of Lombardy before. Just in terms of marching speed, the soldiers hired by these southern lords are much stronger." As the deputy commander of the legion, Odo's view of this mercenary army is correct.
At stood up slowly and began to walk back and forth carelessly in the camp~
As for the mercenary army, he had almost no information about them. Where are they from? How is the combat power? Are you loyal enough to your leader? These are unknown answers.
In fact, after the northern army captured Sauronburg, lords from all over the south gathered together to discuss whether to hire an army out of their own pockets to protect their own territories.
Since the beginning of the war between the two sides, the Lombard court has recruited almost all the young men from all over the country into the army. And with repeated defeats and retreats, there were almost no troops left in each territory.
With the news that the northern army was going to conquer the southern territories, in order to protect their own territory, the southern lords spent a lot of money this time.
Different from the mercenary army that was defeated outside the city of Santia, this overseas mercenary army is composed of professional soldiers with good combat capabilities, and they are all fierce and aggressive guys.
In order to win the participation of this powerful army, the southern lords spent almost one-tenth of their wealth.
Expensive has its advantages. Compared with ordinary mercenaries, these people are not only highly disciplined, but also highly cohesive. They do not have the straggler atmosphere of ordinary mercenaries. The kind of incidents of robbing homes and plundering people in their employer's territory will never happen to them.
In addition, even if this group of mercenaries did not know much about the enemies they faced, these guys dared to take risks. As long as the price offered by their employers is right, they will not hesitate at all even if they are asked to go to hell and fight the devil.
Compared to ordinary soldiers, they are simply walking killing machines.
Indifferent, ruthless, disciplined, and fierce in combat, this is the best evaluation of them.
Suddenly, Art stopped, opened the tent door, walked outside, turned and looked to the south.
Now that Balian's Provence army has temporarily lost contact, and a mysterious mercenary of unknown origin has appeared in the south, Art, who thought he was sure of victory, suddenly became more worried.
At this time, there was a sudden noise in the camp where the prisoners were held.
Angus was about to go to check, but was stopped by Art. "Don't make such a fuss, they're just a bunch of prisoners of little use."
Afterwards, a few people entered the camp again and looked for suitable battle locations based on the distribution of towns and military forts on the map.
After a moment, Odo spoke first.
"Sir, according to the intelligence of the task force, that group of mercenaries is mainly composed of infantry, and there is also a cavalry of about two hundred people. I think it will be more beneficial to us to choose a terrain that is convenient for diving in advance."
Att removed his hands from the table, stood up straight, thought for a moment, and then explained: "Your idea is indeed correct. But if we can think this way, the enemy may also do the same."
Recalling the battle with Von Bilen on the Po River Plain, Art still has a deep memory. If he hadn't temporarily adjusted his tactics and added the blessing of secret weapons, he might not have won that battle. Even if you win, you will pay a heavy price.
Nowadays, every decision to go south is related to the final victory of the southern expedition, and Art dare not be careless in the slightest. Coupled with the lack of sufficient understanding of the thousands of mercenaries, we cannot take it lightly.
Looking at the distance between the two armies, which was less than a day, Art felt a little embarrassed.
"Sir, there is news from Earl Balian!"
Suddenly, the voice of Bob, the secretary of the Chinese Army, came from outside the camp.
Hearing this news, Ye Te's frown instantly relaxed.
"Quick, show me!" Art eagerly took the secret message from Bob's hand.
"Our army has arrived at a plain area less than a day's journey from the southern army. We hope that you will speed up your march and encircle the enemy with us." Art whispered the secret message in his hand.
Everyone who heard the good news finally breathed a sigh of relief.
It turned out that Arter, who had not received any news from Balian, ordered Bob to keep sending secret messages to the Provence army. Since Balian had been clearing out the remaining Lombard army in the southwest mountains in the past few days, the secret message had not yet reached him. As soon as the war was over, Balian hurriedly sent a secret message to Art using a flying pigeon, intending to cooperate with the Burgundian army to attack the mercenaries from the south from different directions and quickly clear the obstacles to the south.
As for how Provence learned of the existence of the mercenaries, Balian did not tell them. But as the leading earl of the Provence court in charge of the battle against Lombardy, Balian would naturally pay close attention to the movements of his opponents at all times.
The reason why the Principality of Provence was able to defeat the Lombard army from the border this time was not only due to its strong military strength and Balian's wise command, but also the scout team that had been scattered in various cities in Lombardy was indispensable.
Compared to the contingent under Art's name, the team sent by the Principality of Provence was larger in number. They had already crossed the border at the beginning of the war, and were deployed in various capacities such as merchants, hawkers, or refugee beggars at the city forts and checkpoint fortresses in Lombardy.
They conveyed important military information to the Provence army and assisted their own soldiers in attacking the city.
After reading the secret message, the pressure in Art's heart suddenly decreased, and he smiled and said to Angus and others: "Great, with the assistance of the friendly forces in Provence, our pressure will be reduced a lot."
Angus also sighed: "Yes, sir. In this way, we will have an absolute advantage in terms of military strength, and we will definitely annihilate all those mercenaries!"
After thinking for a while, Art said to Odo, the deputy commander of the legion: "Odo, tell Lusignan immediately and ask him to send a squadron of cavalry to rush in front of the mercenaries as quickly as possible, find a suitable place to ambush, and wait for the arrival of the follow-up army. Don't take the initiative to pick on the mercenaries, you can only monitor them secretly."
"Yes, sir." Odo opened the door and left quickly.
"Sergeant major! Give the order, the army will break camp and go south one hour before dawn tomorrow, no mistake!"
"Yes!"
"Ron, tell the special agent Guys from the team, please pay close attention to the movements in Milan. In addition, notify the lords of the autonomous city-states with predetermined code words to let them prepare. Once we take over the southern areas, we will immediately send troops to Milan to prepare their people."
"I know, sir."
After a few people left, the priest Robert, who had been silent, came forward with two glasses of wine and said calmly: "It seems that everything is under your control."
Robert nodded slightly and said happily: "Then I wish you in advance to conquer Milan as soon as possible and realize your ambition."
Att smiled and said nothing.
Ding!
The two clinked glasses and drank in one gulp.
.Hurry, hurry, fill me up with wine!”
In the large tent, a long-haired man with a reddish face shouted loudly at the maid next to him, frightening the already timid girl.
Just as the maid was picking up the flask and preparing to fill the cup with the overflowing wine, she was stopped by the leader who was sitting on the main seat in the camp.
"Wait a minute!"
The leader then picked up the wine glass in front of him, shook it in his hand and drank it down in one gulp.
Seeing the leader speak, the long-haired man wiped his somewhat confused eyes and asked with a smile: "Legion Commander, it's rare that you are so happy today, how about we have a few more drinks?"
At this time, the other people sitting around the table looked at the leader who was called the legion commander by the long-haired man almost at the same time, without saying a word.
The leader winked at a handsome young man with long hair behind him. The man stepped forward quickly, picked up the wine flask and filled the glass.
As the chair under him squeaked, the leader suddenly stood up, picked up the wine glass and came to the long-haired man. He squatted down and said with a smile: "Do you still want a drink?"
"Yes, Master Legion, I think we can indeed drink two more drinks." As he spoke, the long-haired man smiled and glanced at the other people sitting there.
Wow!
As soon as he finished speaking, the leader poured the wine in the glass onto the face of the guy in front of him.
"How is it, does it taste good?" the leader asked with a smile.
The wine splashed on his face instantly made the long-haired man almost out of breath. After reacting, he immediately stood up, bowed his head and bent over, looking groveling.
The leader glanced at the long-haired man, then turned around and said to everyone: "I have said that during the march, you must stay awake at all times. If anyone is too drunk and misses the business, the wine that will be left on his face next time will not be such a delicious wine~"
"I will obey the order of the Legion Commander!" Everyone stood up and shouted at the same time.
"Okay, let's all disperse. Let's set off on time at dawn tomorrow!"
"Yes!"
Everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief after watching the leader and the young man around him leave.
Outside the camp, hundreds of military tents of various sizes were neatly arranged. Before dark, this mercenary team hired by the southern lords camped here under the orders of the Chinese army.
At dawn tomorrow, they will continue to the north to fight against the northern army that invaded Lombardy."