I'm not a lord

Chapter 222 Crush them!

On the muddy road, a cavalry force of several hundred men was trudging along with great difficulty.

As the vanguard of this western expedition, the second brother, Hugo, bore the heavy responsibility of gathering intelligence and clearing paths for the entire army.

In the plains, the skills the barbarians had honed in the forests were rendered useless, and they had to rely on swift cavalry to conduct pre-battle reconnaissance.

Of course, before the formal attack on Tuanliu County, the second brother had already sent light cavalry to conduct reconnaissance of the terrain and enemy situation on several occasions, and had also obtained a fairly detailed map from his elder brother.

Even though the roads were muddy, his early march was as smooth as silk.

Within just three days of the expedition, the vanguard under the second son's command had already captured two manors and seized a small amount of grain and livestock.

Agricultural production in Turbulent County remains based on manors.

The serfs' production and life still revolved around the manor, and each manor would govern a number of villages, making it look much like a feudal territory.

In territories where centralized power had been established, the Marsh Duke would appoint a loyal court steward to manage the estate and collect surplus grain and livestock each autumn.

Therefore, these estates did not store large quantities of food and supplies for long periods, and the advance troops did not manage to acquire much spoils of war.

At this very moment, under the eaves of a mud-brick house by the roadside, an old farmer with white hair sat there, his cloudy eyes gazing intently at the army marching along the road.

Because of the pre-war warning issued by the manor steward, the young people in the village had already fled into the mountains with their family's stored food and livestock.

Those who remain in the village are mostly elderly people who can't move around much.

Although the average life expectancy these days is only in the early thirties, there are occasionally some lucky people who can live to be fifty or even sixty years old or older.

As the old farmer sized up the army, the young cavalrymen in the army were also sizing him up.

The old farmer was not afraid of this imposing cavalry force.

Just yesterday morning, a cavalry unit carrying the same banner also passed through the village.

But the cavalry did not ransack the houses or steal anything from the villages.

According to the leading officer, they were the army of the Earl of White River in the east, and their mission was to occupy Turbulent County.

The leading officer also said that the Earl of White River was known for his tolerance and compassion, and would never allow his troops to plunder ordinary farmers.

As long as the peasants do not rebel and pay their taxes obediently, the count is willing to provide them with shelter and protect their property and land.

The old farmer found this explanation very novel.

In his memory, his village had suffered countless invasions from outside forces.

Those menacing outsiders would take away everything of value, including food, clothing, ironware, livestock, and children.

What cannot be taken away will be burned to the ground, including the unripe grain in the fields; in short, nothing will be left behind.

Only under the rule of the Marsh Duke could this village enjoy a few moments of peace intermittently.

The old farmer initially didn't believe in the so-called army of the Earl of Shirakawa.

But after a day of observation, this army was indeed law-abiding, neither robbing nor stealing, and they even had to pay money to buy livestock.

Some soldiers even helped repair the leaky houses of several elderly people who stayed in the village.

These things were all very new and exciting to the old farmer.

His sense of right and wrong was very simple.

He's willing to pay taxes to whoever is willing to protect him.

Is there a big difference between the Duke of the Marshland and the Earl of White River?
They're all just lords coming to ask for money and food anyway.

Therefore, when the cavalrymen, dressed identically and carrying the same flag, passed through the village again, the old farmers dared to sit outside and admire the heroic figures of the young cavalrymen.

Trust is something that is both difficult to build and easy to establish.

This is the benefit of establishing a professional army and paying its soldiers adequately.

Because of their stable and generous treatment, Lynn's soldiers looked down on the meager wages of their fellow villagers.

The military has strict discipline. Anyone who dares to plunder civilians or hoard spoils of war will be punished with a whipping and two weeks of confinement, and any medals or honors they have received will be revoked.

Moreover, most of these soldiers came from humble backgrounds and had very stable families, so they had no reason to make things difficult for others from similar backgrounds.

Meanwhile, a small castle located ten kilometers west of the village has entered a state of maximum combat readiness.

They couldn't stay away, because the second brother's vanguard had already surrounded the castle.

The lord appointed by the Duke of the Marshland stood behind a firing port in the city wall, carefully observing the army outside the castle.

"There must be two hundred cavalrymen, right?"

After briefly counting the number of enemy troops, the lord of the fortress felt dizzy.

What makes him so capable? To think he could fight against two hundred men with only twenty soldiers.

Moreover, judging from the shouts of the enemy troops outside, these people were only the vanguard, and another 5,000 troops were on their way.

His little castle could be filled with human lives alone.

His equally young adjutant beside him murmured, "This is the army that defeated Earl Blackwood, how could their numbers be small? But all we need to do is hold the castle and wait for reinforcements."

Both the chief and deputy lords of the fortress were court knights of the Duke of the Marsh.

Their father was also a court knight, so it was a case of the sons following in their fathers' footsteps.

Because of their military achievements, they were sent by the Duke to guard the castle, and most of the soldiers under their command were recruited from nearby areas.

Essentially, these two men, along with their soldiers, were considered 'court knights' of two different units, enjoying benefits and treatment roughly equivalent to those of higher-ranking court knights.

The Duke's court distributed salaries for twenty men to them, who then distributed them to the soldiers below, thus leaving some room for embezzlement.

If it weren't for war, the two of them would have lived a pretty comfortable life. When they got tired of staying in the castle, they could go to the nearby town to have some fun.

"Reinforcements? Where are the reinforcements? The Duke is far away in the Crown Territory, and Earl Blackblown is dead. No reinforcements will come to save us!"

The young lord angrily pounded on the wall.

If he could really get reinforcements, he wouldn't be so anxious now.

If the enemy only had these two hundred men outside, he wouldn't panic at all.

The castle he was stationed in was built on a small hill shaped like a pineapple bun, giving it an excellent geographical advantage in the face of siege warfare.

Moreover, the overall shape of the castle resembles a rounded watchtower, with the walls and towers seamlessly integrated into one.

The castle is not surrounded by a moat, but is connected to the outside world by a narrow iron gate that is only a little over one person wide.

The fort has enough food to last for five months, and also has dozens of barrels of ale, so there is no need to worry about the enemy cutting off the water supply.

There are about thirty similar castles in Turbulentshire that occupy advantageous terrain. The Duke of the Marsh built these castles with the intention of completely shutting down the besieging forces.

With just twenty men guarding this tortoise-shell-like castle, they were able to withstand an siege by an enemy force ten times their size for over a month.

Normally, a month would be enough time for Golden Deer Fort to receive intelligence about the enemy and send out a large number of reinforcements.

If they can hold out until reinforcements arrive, the castle and its garrison will have accomplished their mission.

The problem is, where are the reinforcements for Golden Deer Castle now?
The Duke of the Marsh took almost all his possessions with him in his quest for the crown.

The young lord saw clearly that they had now fallen into a miserable state of isolation and helplessness.

As for the allied forces in other castles of Turbulent County, they certainly wouldn't dare to come out to provide support easily.

The thirty-odd castles in Turbulent County combined have less than a thousand soldiers at most, and the vast majority of them are pure infantry without warhorses, not much better than the lowest-ranking conscripts.

Let them defend the city; they can also use the pre-drilled firing holes to harass the enemy's siege with crossbows and spears.

However, if they were allowed to rashly leave the city to provide support, they would only become appetizers for the enemy cavalry.

As the adjutant said, this was the army that had defeated Count Blackwood; how could their cavalry not be strong?

"Then what should we do?" The adjutant was also at a loss.

The young lord gritted his teeth and slammed his fist into the wall again.
"We can only hold our ground and leave the rest to fate. The Duke's task for us is to defend the castle!"

He had sworn to fight for the Duke of the Marsh for the rest of his life.

Before he became the lord of the castle, the duke also gifted him a longsword and a warhorse.

His family also depended on the Duke for support, and his wife and children lived near Golden Deer Castle.

Logically and emotionally, he could not possibly betray the Duke of the Marsh.

Having made up his mind, the young lord drew his longsword from his waist, and his unwavering will, along with the cold glint reflected from the blade, instantly spread throughout the entire tower.

"Anyone who dares to mention surrender will have their head chopped off with this sword the Duke gave me!"

The next day, the second son, Hugh, led his large army to the military camp outside the castle.

Upon entering the camp, he summoned the cavalry company commander, Leshek, and asked, "Company commander, what's the situation? Is the castle willing to surrender?"

Leshke, who had recently been promoted to company commander, stood ramrod straight, wearing half-plate armor and an iron helmet. He shouted as he replied, "Reporting to the battalion commander, the enemy not only refuses to surrender, but even dares to fire crossbows at our messengers!"

Before Hughes arrived with his main force, Lesshek had twice sent men to the castle to persuade them to surrender, and had promised the castle lord that as long as they were willing to open the gates and surrender, the magnanimous Earl of White River would treat them prisoners well.

If they wanted to leave, they could leave freely after the war without even having to pay a ransom.

But what greeted the messenger was a cold crossbow bolt that landed right at his feet.

Upon hearing this, Hugo flew into a rage: "How dare they! Since they refuse to surrender, then crush them!"

Before the war began, Lynn's mission was to capture every castle in Turbulentshire.

His ultimate goal was to completely annex Turbulent County, which required eliminating all resistance forces within the county.

Those who can be persuaded to surrender will be persuaded to surrender; those who cannot be persuaded will be sent to hell. There is no third way.

Although these castles are all easy to defend and difficult to attack, a forced attack would inevitably result in the loss of a lot of manpower.

But once you capture a few troublesome castles, some spineless cowards will naturally choose to surrender.

Death is the only hardship throughout history, and those who dare to sacrifice themselves for righteousness are few and far between in any era.

Moreover, Lynn's timing for sending troops was excellent, coinciding with the imminent ripening of the autumn wheat.

As long as a policy of appeasement is widely implemented and military discipline is strictly controlled, there is no need to fear a large-scale exodus of local serfs.

Although the second son, Hugh, decided to attack the city, he did not rush to do so. Instead, he left his army to besiege the castle while taking the main force to besiege another castle to the south.

With a force of over three thousand men, it's impossible to serve such a small castle, and such a large number of men also cannot be fully deployed on a cramped battlefield.

A fan-shaped attack, striking from multiple points, is the only way to speed up the capture of the castle.

The next day, Lao San Yang led the main force of the infantry into the battlefield. That afternoon, he sent out two companies of infantry and two hundred barbarian archers to attempt to attack the city.

Leading the charge was Lucas, a former refugee, whose 50th squadron was also composed of refugees.

"We will never forget that it was the Duke of the Swamp and his mercenaries who destroyed our homes and killed our loved ones!"
"It was the kind and compassionate Earl who took us in, and he even gave us free food and land, allowing us to live a life we ​​never dared to dream of before. Today is the day we repay his kindness!"

Before launching the assault on the city walls, Lucas stood in front of his squadron and gave a speech to boost morale.

He was illiterate and not very eloquent; he learned these slogans from Lynn.

But even this simple slogan was enough to inspire the soldiers' high morale.

As he said, it was the Duke of the Marsh who destroyed their homeland, and it was Earl Lynn of the White River who allowed them to regain their homeland.

Now, they have rallied under Lynn's banner, ready to unleash their fury on the Duke of the Marsh's castle.

"Capture the castle and slaughter the enemy!"

Wearing the standard plate armor of a company commander, Lucas carried a siege ladder and charged ahead towards the miniature tortoise-shell castle.

Behind him were fifty soldiers, equally eager for battle.

Beside them were barbarian archers, using wooden cover to suppress the castle's firing ports with their bows drawn.

The powerful sound of horns echoed across the plains.

A tidal wave of soldiers surged toward the castle like ants.

Inside the castle, the young lord was facing this siege tactic of combining archery and footwork for the first time.

However, this tactic is essentially no different from combining infantry and crossbowmen, and it is considered the most common siege tactic of the time.

The problem was that the enemy archers' accuracy and firing density were far beyond his expectations.

Just as the soldier beside him popped up and killed an enemy infantryman with a crossbow bolt, seven or eight arrows immediately shot towards the hole, two of which pierced the soldier's face, killing him instantly.

The battle had only been going on for three minutes when the enemy infantry, braving crossbow bolts, carried the ladders to the foot of the castle.

At the same time, although four or five enemy archers had fallen, their arrows showed no sign of stopping, and they continued to suppress the crossbows inside the castle with a relentless barrage of arrows.

It's as if they're not afraid of death at all!
"Hold on!" The young lord climbed to the top floor of the castle, trying to push down the enemy's ladders, while shouting to boost morale.

However, the enemy simultaneously erected five siege ladders; as soon as one was knocked down, another was immediately erected on the city wall.

Half an hour later, only five surviving guards remained in the entire castle.

Lucas was the first to reach the top of the castle, drew his iron hammer from his waist, and smashed the castle lord's head with a single blow.

(End of this chapter)