Twelve days later, Talburg welcomed a rare liveliness and feast.
The Quartermaster Corps, led by Quartermaster Cooper, Quartermaster Sartre, and Quartermaster Lawrence, returned to Talburg with thirteen horse-drawn carriages, escorted by thirteen merchant escorts (who also served as coachmen). This time, the Quartermaster Corps only carried a small amount of siege equipment and food supplies, because, according to Art's arrangement, the main purpose of the Quartermaster Corps' visit to Talburg was to transport the spoils of war acquired and plundered since the expedition back to Valley Wood Fort.
Art's army had served the Court for free for three months, and according to Earl Baldwin's arrangement, another army would come to Talburg to relieve them after three months.
There would be two possible scenarios during the next three months of garrisoning Talburg.
The worst-case scenario was that Talburg would face a siege by the Swabia army. Given Talburg's defensive situation, it would be absolutely impossible to hold out against a numerous and well-prepared enemy. If this situation occurred, Art would not hesitate to withdraw his army to garrison the Glarus County city. The second scenario was that Talburg would not be attacked by the enemy again until the end of the service period, in which case Art would treat the remaining service time as a period to rest and train his army in Talburg.
However, in either case, Talburg would not need to continue stockpiling large amounts of food supplies or keep too many laborers and farmers. Therefore, Art decided to take advantage of the current relatively peaceful and ample time to have the Quartermaster Corps bring the accumulated supplies, idle laborers and farmers, and prisoners of war back to Valley Wood Fort as soon as possible, so that there would be fewer encumbrances even if they had to flee in the future.
Along with the Quartermaster Corps, besides personnel and supplies, three pieces of news also returned:
The first piece of news was that the Swabia army to the east of Talburg should temporarily quiet down, as the fighting on the northern front was becoming increasingly fierce. Both Swabia and Burgundy County were continuously dispatching troops to the battlefield, and the two sides were fighting over every military fort and every town along the border, leaving corpses strewn everywhere. Moreover, with the Grand Duchy of Burgundy sending a 1,500-strong elite Soldier unit to join the northern battlefield, the Swabia army's offensive was becoming more and more difficult. The Grand Duchy of Swabia had no choice but to once again forcibly conscript armies from various regions and deploy them to the northern front.
This news confirmed the military intelligence that Ron and his team had gathered. Seven days ago, over 150 Soldiers were drawn from the Teblen County city garrison to support the northern front. After more than half of the Teblen County city garrison Soldiers were withdrawn, Bilton became even more docile, with the fort's garrison absolutely refusing to step outside the city walls.
Three days ago, Art had taken a few cavalrymen to circle around Bilton. The entire Bilton didn't even dare to let a dog out to bark at them. However, the Swabia Quartermaster Corps, which had previously transported military supplies through the mountain edge roads, preferred to take a longer route to bypass the Bilton line. Coupled with the fact that all the village forts, manors, and large and small settlements were closed and heavily guarded, it was no longer easy for Art to plunder anything.
The second piece of news was that the person who stabbed the merchant convoy was identified as the probationary knight Dean. After resolving the issue of the seized merchant goods, Sartre specifically investigated the matter. He bribed a servant of a trade guild and learned that the Dean Family indeed had a deep friendship with John. Furthermore, Dean had become the Quartermaster responsible for collecting and escorting military provisions around Earl Baldwin, which was definitely a lucrative position, and constantly being around the Earl also made it easier to gain recognition.
Dean's father was the most powerful southern goods merchant in Tinietz County. Before the chaos in the South Land, their family monopolized the southern goods trade route from Tinietz to Besançon.
When gathering for the northward march, Dean saw that Art's accompanying merchant convoy carried a lot of southern goods. At that time, he harbored animosity, which is why he deliberately made things difficult for Art's army along the way. The conflict in the Lucerne military camp was also intentionally arranged by him, originally to deter Art and take the opportunity to warn him not to interfere in the southern goods trade. However, he never expected to be utterly defeated by Art's "Black Robe Army." Afterward, Dean learned that Art had voluntarily petitioned to go to the border to die, and he gradually felt relieved, because he knew that the border area was about to become a sea of corpses, and Art was very likely to become one of the corpses in the pile.
However, to Dean's surprise, his family recently informed him that a large merchant convoy with over a dozen four-wheeled carriages had suddenly appeared in the southern provinces, counties, and towns, purchasing southern goods. The merchant's son's instinct told him that this was a wild dog trying to snatch meat from a sleeping lion's mouth. When he sent someone to inquire, he found out that this convoy was actually that Art's Quartermaster Corps. Now Dean had to settle both old and new scores...
Hence, the subsequent encounter of the Quartermaster Corps in Besançon.
After Art heard this, he carefully recalled Dean's various actions during the northward march of the army. He also knew that he would continue to clash with Dean and the merchant family behind him in the future, but these were all matters for later.
The third piece of news was learning the detailed situation in the Valley from Cooper. Last time, Lawrence left in a hurry and did not report the Valley's situation in detail. This time, after Cooper's return, Art specifically asked about the Valley's situation in detail. After learning that everything in the Valley was normal, that the Valley Land had a bountiful harvest of grain, and that wasteland was continuously being reclaimed, the stone hanging in Art's heart was finally put down, because the Valley's position in Art's heart was too important. It was where all his sweat and gains from the past two years, spent to gain a foothold in this era, were located.
Tonight's banquet in Talburg was very sumptuous. To welcome the return of the Quartermaster Corps and to reward the officers, Soldiers, and laborers of Talburg for their achievements over several months, Odo specially ordered the kitchen to slaughter a pig and a sheep. The pig and sheep were seized from Biertun Fort and raised in the military fort. Normally, they were reluctant to slaughter them because these pigs and sheep were fresh meat that could be raised and preserved for a long time. In addition to fresh pork and lamb, there were also several large barrels of wine and a batch of fresh fruits and vegetables brought by the merchant convoy from the North Land.
Soldiers and wounded Soldiers could get enough meat, wine, fruit, and vegetables. New recruits, guards, and ordinary laborers could get a small amount of meat and large bowls of meat broth, as well as enough rye bread. Even the prisoners of war held in the inner fort dungeon could get a portion of gruel mixed with meat broth...
On the second floor of Talburg's inner fort, ten people sat around a makeshift "long table." Art, of course, was at the head of the table. Seated around the "long table" were, in order: Old Butler Cooper, Deputy Captain Odo (injured), Deputy Captain Angus, Sentry Cavalry Captain Ron, First Squad Captain Bass, Second Squad Captain Kazak (injured), Fourth Squad Captain Tuba, Fort Guard Captain Lawrence, and Quartermaster Corps Quartermaster Sartre. These individuals were Art's core people; they were the strongest support for Art's grand ambitions.
On the first floor of Talburg's inner fort, a group of people also sat around a low table temporarily made of wooden planks. They were: First Squad Second Combat Squad Leader Colin, Second Squad Second Combat Squad Leader Weiz (injured), Third Squad First Combat Squad Leader Passat and the newly appointed Second Combat Squad Leader Bangda (the original squad leader was killed in action), Fourth Squad Second Combat Squad's newly appointed Squad Leader Keliduo (the original squad leader was severely wounded), Sentry Cavalry troopers Jason and Leide (injured), and Andrew, a former peasant Soldier captain who had outstanding combat achievements in the defense of Talburg and voluntarily chose to join Art's army. These individuals were the backbone of Art's army and the core fighting force of this army.
Andrew, who had just joined Art's army and was attending such a banquet for the first time, seemed a bit awkward. This peasant Soldier captain, who was about the same age as Art, was originally a woodcutter from the mountains in Yona Province. Both his parents were alive, and he had a younger brother. Earl Baldwin conscripted peasants from his territory to gather in Besançon to serve as peasant Soldiers in the war. Andrew was conscripted as expected, and then unexpectedly assigned to Art's army. Afterward, because of his sturdy physique, he was selected by Odo into the peasant Soldier squad. He followed Art to the battlefield with the mindset of going to his death, but on the battlefield, this plain-looking young woodcutter, whose combat skills were ordinary, relied on the archery skills he had accumulated from occasionally hunting with a bow while cutting wood in the mountains. He single-handedly shot and killed three enemy Soldiers while guarding the flank platform. Later, the captain of his peasant Soldier squad was killed, and Andrew was temporarily appointed as the peasant Soldier captain by Odo and was responsible for commanding the final platform defense battle.
More than ten days ago, most of the peasant Soldiers and laborers received their overtime pay and provisions and left Talburg to return home. However, Andrew was unwilling to return to his hometown to be a miserable woodcutter, so he chose to stay and join Art's army. He was able to attend this inner fort dinner, first, because he was the highest-ranking among the peasant Soldiers who stayed, and Art intended for him to become a Combat Squad Leader after the army expanded. At the same time, it was also to set a good example for the newly joined peasant Soldiers...
Andrew picked up a wooden conical cup in front of him and took another large gulp of light beer, then silently observed the people clinking cups on the wooden table. Andrew was not eloquent but was very good at learning. From the very beginning when they gathered in Besançon, he showed a relatively strong learning ability, and was considered one of the peasant Soldiers who quickly grasped individual combat skills and battle formation training. Moreover, through these past few months of contact, he increasingly felt that this Black Robe Army in front of him was different from all the armies he had seen before, because he had never seen an army train Soldiers like them. In his hometown, the lords all had their own armies, but those army Soldiers would never endure such heavy and intensive training, nor would they have such strict military discipline or such high military pay and treatment. All of these things made Andrew feel new, and also made him more determined to become an excellent warrior in this army.
"Brother Andrew, let's have a drink." Colin, who had fought alongside Andrew on the platform, proactively came over to clink cups with Andrew.
"Officer Colin, thank you for your care. If you hadn't pulled me up then, I would have been shot dead by the enemy on the platform." With that, Andrew drained the wine in his cup with a hearty gulp.
Colin also finished the wine in his cup, then, burping, looked up at Andrew with a slightly flushed face and said, "Brother Andrew, you are a peasant Soldier captain, and I am just a squad leader. Since I call you brother, don't call me 'Officer' anymore. In the army, only Soldier squad leaders and above are considered Commanders."
Andrew smiled and rubbed his head, then turned to the wine barrel to refill Colin's and his own cups.
Colin raised his wine cup and, pulling Andrew, said to the Combat Squad Leaders at the wooden table, "Let me formally introduce everyone. This brother is Andrew. From now on, he will be our Soldier brother. Come, let's raise a toast to Brother Andrew's joining!"
"Raise a toast!"
"Fight side by side!"
The shouts of the crowd echoed in unison.
...
Outside the inner fort of Talburg, except for the four Soldiers and eight laborers standing guard and on patrol on the outer wall, all the other Soldiers and laborers were enjoying this rare battlefield feast.
After several months of intense fighting, they had slain many enemy Soldiers, but many Soldier brothers they had spent day and night with were also severely wounded or even left them forever. They felt sad for their fallen brothers and fortunate for being alive. Regardless, they could still stand here, drinking wine and chewing meat; they were the lucky ones chosen by the Holy Lord...
