On the sixth morning of the army's garrison in Talburg, a Cavalry squad rushed out of the narrow gate and crossed the makeshift wooden bridge in front of it, galloping eastward along the carriage road, raising a cloud of dust behind them.
The leader of the Cavalry was Art. After the basic defensive fortifications of Talburg were completed, he decided to take Angus, Ron, and a few light Cavalry deep into Swabia to personally scout.
By the time the sun was above the treetops, the five Cavalry had reached the foot of a hill about twenty miles from Talburg. This was already within the borders of Swabia. Art and the others hid their warhorses in the shade of trees below the slope, then climbed to the top of the hill, standing behind a few scattered trees to look out over the flat, wide land below.
From where Art and the others stood, a faint white dot could be seen on the horizon—that was Teblen City, the heavily fortified southwestern border town of Swabia. West of Teblen was Biltenburg, the closest fort to this hillside. Around Biltenburg were scattered four village estates and about a dozen small settlements. In the golden wheat fields on the plains surrounding the estates and settlements, farmers were harvesting the first batch of early-ripening wheat.
Leide looked at the rolling golden wheat waves and concluded that the villages and estates below the mountain must be very prosperous, and even the smaller settlements must have surplus grain. He couldn't help but ask in a low voice, “Sir, should we first ‘attack’ those estates and villages or first ‘occupy’ those small settlements?”
Just as Art was about to answer, Angus's voice rang out: “Now is not the best time. The farmers haven't finished harvesting the wheat, nor have they paid their taxes, nor have they exchanged their surplus grain for silver coins. If you try to rob them now, you'll get nothing and instead provoke a strong reaction from the Earls.”
Art nodded and said, “We cannot plunder these farmers for now. Our current mission is to, while ensuring the defense of Talburg, act as mountain bandits and rogues to harass their army supply lines or take out some small outposts and settlements.”
“Why pretend to be mountain bandits and rogues?” Ron didn't understand. In his mind, army battles were always face-to-face charges and Fighting.
“Young fellow, you're being foolish again. If you dare to attack cities and seize territory under the banner of the Burgundy army today, tomorrow a large number of troops will come to besiege you. And they will first suspect that we are an army from Glarus County, then they will certainly send troops along the carriage road behind you to capture Talburg, and then advance into Glarus County. No army will tolerate a hungry wolf appearing behind its back. Now, the Grand Duchy of Swabia has not yet declared full war, and Glarus County is still relatively stable. If Glarus is captured because of us, then we will not have peace. But if we pretend to be ordinary mountain bandits and rogues, it's different. The army will not be alarmed, and those Earls who have already collected enough taxes will not, unless absolutely necessary, go to clear out some mountain bandits and rogues begging for food at this time…” Angus explained to Ron.
Art scanned from south to north and then from north to south, finally fixing his gaze on the mountains about a dozen miles to the south.
“Sergeant, do you see that mountain over there?” Art moved next to Angus, raising a hand to point at the southern peak.
“Are you saying we'll come out from there to harass them?”
“Coming out from there, the locals will be more likely to see us as ordinary mountain bandits and rogues, which will minimize the suspicion of the Grand Duchy of Swabia's army and the castle Earls. As long as a large number of troops don't appear, we are more than enough to deal with the guards of those villages and estates.”
Art turned to Angus and said, “Sergeant, tomorrow you take Ron to scout that area, see if you can find a road that goes directly from Talburg to that mountainous region, and then find a hidden place nearby where we can stockpile supplies.”
“Okay. I'll take Ron to scout tomorrow.”
The group looked out from the hillside for a while longer, noting the size, distribution, and connecting roads of the villages, estates, and scattered settlements below, then turned back, mounted their horses, and returned to Talburg.
… … … …
As soon as they returned to Talburg, they saw Odo with Soldiers surrounding a group of people in front of the makeshift outpost on the west carriage road of Talburg. Art rode forward and saw several individuals who looked like merchants drawing their swords and confronting Odo.
“What's going on?”
Odo lowered his long sword and walked to Art's side, “Sir, these people claim to be merchants from Swabia who just returned from trading in Burgundy. Now that the two countries are on the verge of war, what merchant would dare to go trade in an enemy country? Moreover, these five armed individuals only carried one cart of worthless groceries, not at all like a merchant caravan. When we went to intercept them, one of the riders tried to escape, and after being pursued and intercepted by the arriving Soldiers, they took out a large amount of silver coins to try and bribe the Soldiers for passage. I intended to search and question them, but they actually drew their swords and resisted! Sir, what should we do?”
Upon hearing this, Art drew his long sword, walked into the crowd, and with a swing of his sword at a fellow wearing armor and holding a sword, directly cut a gash in the fellow's head.
Before the remaining few could react to what was happening, they were stabbed and cut down by the surrounding Soldiers.
“Leave two alive, kill all the others.” Art pulled a piece of rag from his in arms, wiped the blood from his sword, turned, jumped onto his horse, and entered Talburg.
… … … …
Inside the inner fort of Talburg, a fellow, bruised, swollen, and bleeding from wounds all over his body, was tied to a pillar. Art was still smashing his stomach with a wooden stick.
The fellows who were surrounded and killed in the morning were usually merchants and travelers, but their hidden identity was “Hawkeyes” disguised as merchants to gather information. After some interrogation, the other fellow who was left alive had already confessed that he was originally a merchant from Burgundy, but this time he was mainly lured by the fellow tied to the pillar, who brought his men to Burgundy County as “Hawkeyes” disguised as merchants to gather information. They had already scouted important army deployments along the eastern border of Burgundy County. This time, they were carrying the Burgundy army deployment map they had drawn, bypassing the heavily guarded northern border, and sneaking back to Swabia from the southeastern mountains. They hadn't expected this dilapidated military fort, abandoned for decades, to actually have a garrison. Tense throughout their journey, they naturally relaxed once they reached the mountains, but they never expected to jump into an outpost set up by Art's newly stationed army.
Art poured a bucket of cold water on the unconscious “merchant leader.” The “merchant leader” groaned and woke up again: “Fellow, we already know your true purpose. Tell us what you know, and I can spare your life.”
Art pulled out the short-handled hunting knife from his waist, pointed it at the fellow's crotch on the pillar, and said, “If you don't speak, you won't be a complete man.” He then told Ron to untie the fellow's belt.
The fellow on the pillar spat a mouthful of blood at Art, gritting his teeth and roaring, “Bastard, devil, you damned devils, if you have the guts, stab me to death with one sword!!!”
“Good, you can still speak.” Art ripped off the fellow's pants and slowly moved the short knife towards his crotch.
The fellow's hands and feet were tied, so he could only struggle with his head. Seeing the short knife about to cut, the fellow finally broke down, crying, “I'll talk! I'll tell everything!”
… … … …
After about the time it takes to eat a meal, Art exited the inner fort, took the wet cloth Ron handed him, and wiped the blood from his hands. “Ron, you guys go back in and continue the torture. Get everything out of his mouth, ask whatever comes to mind, just keep him alive.”
“Lord Art, we can proceed with our actions with peace of mind for now,” Angus said to Art with a smile.
“Sergeant, although Swabia does not have a standing army specially assembled and stationed in the southwestern border region, the local Earls certainly still have some defensive forces. If we make too much noise, the local remaining troops will definitely gather to deal with us. In the short term, the one hundred fifty men remaining in Teblen and Biltenburg are not enough to capture Talburg, but we must be stationed here for at least half a year. For such a long time, if the northern army does not engage in large-scale battles for a long time, the Swabia army can withdraw troops at any time and return to the southwestern border to deal with us. So, we still need to act cautiously for now. When Swabia is too tied up in the north to spare any effort, then we can make bigger moves, and by then they will not have the extra energy to deal with us.”
“Hmm, that would indeed be more prudent.”
“Sergeant, this afternoon, you take the enemy intelligence we captured and that ‘Hawkeye’ to Glarus City. Please ask Lord Herries to send a messenger to the Court with this information on the Swabia army's movements. I will also write a private letter to Earl Baldwin to report on our situation stationed in Talburg. Have the messenger take it along.”
“Additionally, I will send men with you to Glarus City to purchase some grain and supplies. The merchant caravan has not yet returned, so we must stock up on more grain and supplies in case of unforeseen circumstances…”
A moment later, Ron also came out. He walked to Art's side and whispered, “Master, that fellow has spilled everything he knows, and he can't be beaten anymore, or he'll die.”
“Hmm, give him a bowl of wheat porridge to keep him alive. Sergeant will take him to Glarus County later and hand him over to Lord Herries.”
“Okay, Master, but what about that other timid lackey? Should we kill him?”
“That fellow cooperated well with us, and he indeed has experience in business. Although he is a Burgundy, he is fluent in Swabia, and he might be useful in the future, so let's keep him for now. Hand him over to Spencer to serve as a laborer, but make sure to keep a close eye on him; he mustn't escape.” After Art finished giving instructions, he ascended the outer fort wall to inspect the sentry posts.
On the outer wall, two squads of Soldiers, led by Bass and Tuba, were, with the assistance of laborers, reinforcing several arrow towers and watchtowers on the outer wall with timber felled from near Talburg. Other laborers were stacking stones collected from around Talburg into piles every ten paces or so.
On the watchtower at the top of the inner fort, a homemade small human-powered trebuchet was being assembled and tested under the direction of two carpenters. A small, pottery-jar-sized stone was loaded into the trebuchet's sling.
“Fire!!”
With a command, two Soldiers standing at the front end of the trebuchet simultaneously pulled down the traction rope at the other end of the wooden lever. The stone in the sling, following the movement of the trebuchet's wooden lever, traced a long arc. After reaching its apex, the stone detached from the sling and flew towards the uninhabited open ground in front of Talburg.
“Only a little over a hundred feet away, the power is too small. Add another traction rope~” The carpenter glanced at the mark in front of the fort gate and said to the other carpenter beside him.
The carpenter then found another thick hemp rope and tied it to the other end of the trebuchet…