episode_0032

Bloody Battle of Fortress Streb (3)

It’s been a month since we started attacking Fort Streb. Crown Prince Prinz was in deep trouble.

Due to the defeat on the second day, they acknowledged that a full-scale siege would not work, and attempted to deploy knights, catapults, and tunnels, but the strong walls of Streve were not easily breached.

Prior to the deployment of the light infantry, the knights rushed in and attempted to climb up by striking down arrows, but they could not withstand the rock throwing and tended to fall, so it ended in failure with only the precious lives of the knights lost.

The next time, they succeeded in destroying the Arrow Tower, which massacred numerous imperial troops, by throwing huge rocks with catapults, but since it was difficult to provide a steady supply of rocks, their purpose was changed to shooting large quantities of pebbles and their role was to assist archers. It was.

So over the past month, Prinz has invested heavily in tunneling operations, which were a last resort. Finally, thinking that they had secretly dug a tunnel to the corner of the castle wall three days ago, they launched a surprise attack at night, but it failed.

Count Redelmo, who noticed that the imperial army was digging a tunnel through the vibration felt in a glass of water, deliberately left the tunnel open. When the hole was opened, he intercepted the imperial army that came out with the troops he had on standby, and set fire to it. It smoked and suffocated all the imperial soldiers in the tunnel, completely sealing it off.

Moreover, yesterday, it was reported that the 11th Corps had been defeated and that 6,000 cavalry units were coming to relieve Streve by merging the armies of the local lords.

In this worst situation, the corps commanders and staff put their heads together and thought about it, but no solution came to mind, so in the end, Prinz ended up talking about withdrawing the troops.

“Phew~ I can’t do it. Now that this has happened, we have to admit the failure of the expedition and withdraw the troops…”

“No. Brother!!”

“Yuno? No, it arrived in just one day? I thought it would take at least two days. Did you come alone?”

When Prinz received word yesterday that Yuno was joining, he immediately gave permission.

This was because Prinz himself thought that if the enemy had begun full-scale support, it would be better to unite the forces.

“Half of the 10th Corps has joined Streve, and the other half is scheduled to arrive tomorrow after collecting the remnants of the 11th Corps. Since we didn’t know when the enemy would attack, we stayed up all night and marched as fast as possible so we could get there quickly”

“Yes. Good decision. But you’re telling me not to withdraw? I tried everything I could over the past month, but I couldn’t get over that high wall. Even if I dig a tunnel or block the way for water to enter, I can’t find the answer”

“Please give the 10th Corps a chance as well. Unlike the 1st Army, which was exhausted from a month-long siege, our 10th Corps has not fought any major battles, so it is still fresh. When the unit that recovered the lost soldiers arrives tomorrow, I will go out the day after tomorrow”

“Do you have any special means? That fortress will not fall if you attack it blindly”

“As tired as the first team was, the defense team must have been quite tired as well. So, if I attack our corps that is still intact, wouldn’t there be some variables?”

Prinz thought about Yuno’s suggestion for a while. And my thoughts gradually shifted to raising Yuno’s hand. Yuno’s words had a point, and since Yuno was the second-in-command of the expeditionary force and a corps commander, he had the right to act independently, so I thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to try again.

“Good! Feel free to use all the siege equipment we used! Engineers will be supported by the 5th Corps”

Yuno confidently responded to his brother’s permission. He then immediately instructed the soldiers to learn how to operate siege equipment, and he also learned from the corps commanders how the previous battle was conducted.

The next day, when the remnants of the 11th Corps arrived, Prinz and Yuno rushed to greet them.

The group of 3,000 defeated soldiers was mostly made up of the Windrage army and was led by knights of the Windrage family. Prinz pointed to one of the articles and bombarded him with questions.

“What on earth happened? How far did the enemy cavalry advance?”

“Sorry. Our army fought well against the enemy cavalry, but was unable to stop a group of cavalry that appeared to be made up of knights, allowing them to break through to the flank. And the enemy army is stationed there after defeating the friendly army and is rallying its forces.”

“Commander of the 11th Corps?”

“Prince Kent fled when the enemy cavalry approached the main camp, and as soon as he did, other commanders also began to flee. Naturally, the army collapsed, and we tried to control the situation as much as possible with the Wind Rage army at the center, but we were unable to prevent our soldiers from escaping. And Prince of Kent is presumed to have returned to the empire”

“Tsk… You’re not a fighter, you’re running away!! How could these so-called commanders leave their soldiers behind and run away?! As soon as they return to the empire, I will catch them all and immediately slit their heads!!”

Yuno smiled bitterly at the prince’s anger. He felt a sense of self-reproach for ignoring his grandfather’s advice and appointing Kent as the commander of the 11th Corps, and he thought it would be difficult for his uncle to avoid the death penalty.

Duke Windrage would also go on a rampage, and according to imperial law, a commander’s flight from enemy combat was punishable by unconditional execution, so even Kent, the younger brother of the Empress and the prince of the Duke’s family, seemed likely to be executed without a move.

“Phew… First, get your body together. Shouldn’t the honor of the defeated Wind Rage army be restored through victory? After resting for a day, we will begin the siege of Streve at noon tomorrow. Please join us”

“Yes! I will follow your orders!”

Yuno gathered the remnants of his 10th and 11th corps and prepared for the siege tomorrow.

Fortunately, as the Wind Rage Army was strongly trained under the Duke of Wind Rage, the soldiers of the 11th Legion blended into the 10th Legion without much difficulty, and the 12,000-strong 2nd Legion was tense as they checked their weapons and armor in preparation for the upcoming siege. It solidified.

Noon the next day. Prinz approached Yuno, who was preparing to rally the corps and give orders.

“Yuno. It is said that Tesseito’s reinforcements have begun to approach Streve. It is said that they are expected to arrive in 3 days, so if they cannot capture Streve today, they will order an unconditional withdrawal”

“Yes. older brother. I will plant the imperial flag on Streve until the sun sets today”

“Hahaha, your confidence is nice to see! okay. A general who leads a group of soldiers must not shrink. This brother may not have been able to capture Streve because he didn’t have the same confidence as you”

Prinz patted Yuno’s shoulder and returned to the command center.

And Juno stood at the forefront of the 10th Legion and shouted to the soldiers.

“Gentlemen! Our 2nd Expeditionary Force is in danger like never before! Tesseito’s reinforcements are coming from the west, and from the south, the enemy cavalry that destroyed the 11th Corps is strangling us”

Yuno continued speaking when he saw the soldiers swallowing their saliva nervously.

“But there’s nothing to be afraid of! All of this can be resolved by capturing that Streb fortress. Isn’t it a very simple solution?”

“Yes! That’s right!!”

“You must have had a hearty lunch, right? After an exciting fight with this corps commander this afternoon, we occupy Streve and eat there for dinner!! We will prepare delicious special food, so if you want to eat special food, make sure you survive!!”

“Yes!! Okay!!”

“It’s time to participate!! Let’s go!!”

Wooo

With the sound of the horn announcing departure, the 10th Corps began its advance. And at the forefront stood Yuno.

Then, the veteran soldier next to Yuno asked Yuno a question.

“No…. Is the corps commander also going with you? You have to lead the troops from behind!!”

“Hmm? What are you doing by making fun of the power of being a master? And someone else will conduct, so don’t worry”

When the veteran soldier turned around at Yuno’s calm words, there was a soldier wearing the seal of a white commander standing at the command chair where the corps commander should have been.

‘Holy shit… How dare you command a corps to a mere white commander… Isn’t the corps commander crazy?’

And Captain Baek, standing in the command chair, was thinking the same thing.

‘You crazy prince… ask me, a simpleton, to command some legionnaires… When that bastard asks me about this and that, I should say I don’t know… no, I shouldn’t have posted that proposal… I’m doing this for some kind of glory. Ugh…uhhh’

The centurion was a centurion who proposed to Yuno that he should join the Strebro troops, and after submitting the proposal, when Yuno asked him various things about troop command, he answered in as much detail as he knew, garnering Yuno’s attention.

His actions, which he did with the expectation of receiving at least a small reward, gave him the unexpected position of acting commander of the corps and placed him under tremendous pressure.

The white commander, whose name was Erich Mayer, was from a small baronial territory at the foot of the Monster Mountains and was part of a guard unit that hunted monsters that occasionally invaded the village.

Therefore, Mayer wondered how he could hunt monsters as efficiently as possible with the insufficient guard force, so he asked the baron to obtain a military book and studied numerous tactics. He rose to the position of captain of the baronial guard.

It was a high position for a country bumpkin, so he was quite satisfied with his life when the baron moved him to the capital and suggested that he become a captain to lead his soldiers.

Because it was a golden opportunity to experience the capital while living in the countryside, he accepted the baron’s offer. The baron, driven by his desire for success, supported his private army for this expedition and sent him, who was a centurion, along with him, leading to the Teceto Expedition, which was not even mentioned in the records. It even came out.

‘Oh my dear…. I just wanted to save up money in the capital and return to my hometown to live comfortably… but I ended up doing something like this. What kind of acting corps commander are you talking to me about?!! Third Prince, you damn bastard~!!!’

However, contrary to Mayer’s thoughts, his conducting was quite skillful.

“The Wind Rage army’s soldiers have not recovered yet, so please take charge of the left wall and only keep them in check! They say they are keeping a check, but the troops on the left wall should not be allowed to come to the right, where the main attack is!”

“Hmm… Is it possible with 3,000 defeated soldiers?”

“8 out of 10 articles are fine, so it will be enough to keep them in check. As soon as I give the signal, please tell them to hang the ladder and switch to a wave attack”

“The main hole is the right wall. At the gate, we will slowly advance the Chungcha along with the 5th Corps Engineers and the 103rd Heavy Infantry.”

At first, when Yuno said that he would appoint a hundred generals to act as corps commanders, the staff members who were extremely opposed to it also watched Mayer’s command and silently handed down his orders to each unit.

While Mayer was distributing his troops, Yuno, who was at the forefront of the right wall of the main attack, advanced the siege tower with heavy infantry and blocked the shower of arrows with his shield.

“Umm…if we don’t do something about those archers…”

Although Yuno sometimes used his energy to kill quite a few archers, the rain of arrows continued to pour down as if that was no problem.

In his heart, he wanted to rip off the castle wall with a lot of energy, but if he did that, he would soon become exhausted, so he couldn’t use that method.

No matter how much the legionnaires tried to block them with their shields, arrows slowly trickled in through the gaps, and the imperial troops fell one by one, and Yuno’s heart became anxious.