209 – Operation ‘Storm’ (4)
A week after the military meeting, 15,000 soldiers personally led by me and 2,000 chores recruited locally We arrived at Orleans Castle, the capital of the Duchy of Orleans, with me.
The Orléans army, which arrived at the castle only three or three days before us, entered the castle, joined up with his existing soldiers, closed the castle gates, and entered the fortress.
They couldn’t assemble an entire army because their duke died, but they mixed and deployed the soldiers they had gathered on the 4-meter-high wall at the rate of one citizen per soldier.
It is a method of increasing the number of defensive troops, as if adding water to alcohol to increase the amount when there are few troops in a defensive battle. It’s like, in the military, if you gather a teaching assistant and trainees to work, the efficiency increases to some extent.
So, the command system of the army inside the castle is a mess, so if you make up your mind and try to cross the wall, you will be able to cross over without difficulty. However, even if you sit still, you can eat the castle, so there is no need to sacrifice your precious soldiers.
However, if you are besieging an enemy’s castle, it’s normal to have a toughness to quickly drop the enemy’s castle, even if it takes only 1 minute and 1 second. My soldiers and I had experience in conducting similar operations when attacking the Countess of Hellsman.
And if people do well at first, they can do similar things twice, even five times better. Based on that experience, I devised a way to more effectively demoralize the enemy.
When I came out of the barracks with evil thoughts, the serfs hired as chores were shouting loudly to the soldiers inside the castle walls.
“His Highness the Duke is also dead, but Max, just surrender and come out!! He said that if His Highness the King opens the city gates and comes out, he will not be held guilty!”
“Look, soldiers. To be honest, it’s unfair to be conscripted, but do you want to go through hardships by forcibly participating in a battle you’ve already lost? Let’s just desert tonight. Your family is here too.”
“What’s the point of enduring inside the walls, eating disgustingly tasteless barley porridge and scraps of vegetables? When you come out, I’ll give you a beer with a grilled chicken leg, so please come.”
If knights or bastard officers shouted to demoralize the enemy in this case, it is highly likely that they were saying something like this.
Reinforcements will not come, your duke is dead, he will be defeated, turn to our wise and great King… stories and so on.
Those things have some effect, but for the serfs, whose survival and immediate food are more important than honor… In that way, things like family, survival, tasteless food, hunger, and a difficult future will be much more palpable.
After a while, a knight standing on the wall said to us as if striking back.
“Aren’t you bastards ignorant of the grace bestowed by His Highness the Duke? They are like these children of Satan! Can’t you repent of your sins right now and come to your senses?”
That guy said it as if he was trying to scold the serfs who worked under me and bring them to their senses, but in reality he was scolding the soldiers inside the castle wall to wake up.
As evidence of that, knights in silver armor, though hard to hear here, began walking among the soldiers.
Yes, that also works because the supply is at least sustainable and bearable. If the food gradually runs out, the seeds will not be eaten.
“Yes, you guys!! Cowardly Creutel traitor! How could a former marquis of the empire fight so cowardly? He will fight fair and square on the battlefield, so why kill the Duke so brutally!
How ashamed would your father and mother be when they see their son doing such a thing as nobles?”
At last, the best swear word that has been used beyond the times, even swearing at parents came out.
The officers and subordinates standing around me seemed angry when they saw the guy asking questions about the mother and father of their respected lord…
As long as you don’t get scolded for lol or wars like this or genocide without a cause, this is a compliment.
That’s also true, if I could respond with a different strategy or tactic, I would have resolved my feelings of injustice by attacking first. However, since I can’t do that, I’m only expressing my anger and resentment with abusive language.
‘You won! You damn bastard!’ It’s like shouting.
I smiled at the angry officers around me and gave the order.
“I don’t know. When the supplies arrive, let the chores sit down on the ground and get some rest. And everyone will be hungry, so cook a lot of locally bought pigs, cows, and chickens and tell them to eat there without discriminating between regular soldiers and chores.”
“It is understandable that officers and soldiers are allowed to eat meat to their heart’s content. However, if you give the same meat to the chores… It costs a lot of money.”
Certainly serving meat to soldiers is part of a good “Moral boost” Tactic, but serving non-fighting chores can seem like a waste.
However, in a situation like now where supply is limited due to siege warfare and the morale of the starving guys in the castle has to drop to the ground, it is more effective to clearly show the size of the reward you will receive if you surrender and come out. .
“Think about it. Wouldn’t it be heartbreaking to see even a chore who couldn’t be treated like a soldier eat a lot of meat? Even knights who know honor must be like that, but what about the feelings of the serf soldiers who barely survive a year by farming… So don’t talk nonsense, order the supply corps and prepare the meat so that you can eat it without wanting. Enough to be sure.”
“Yes, I understand. By the way, what are you going to do with the leftover meat and bread? Wouldn’t it be a waste to throw it away?”
Roasted meat and bread that are out of reach can be processed into stews or sandwiches and given to soldiers on alert at night to supplement calories, but…
I thought of a way to use it much better than that.
“Do not give all the meat at once, cut it with a knife and distribute it. Cook the leftover meat for a late-night snack. Also, as soon as our intelligence unit reports that food rationing inside Orléans Castle is serious, deliver 10 to 20 servings of grilled meat to some of the enemy soldiers standing guard at the enemy’s castle wall through the workers.”
I know that serf soldiers and citizens, no matter how disinterested in honor, will die if they take food from the enemy carelessly.
So those who want to live a long time will refuse at first, even if they are suffering from starvation, but some will just accept it if it is believed that it is given without getting anything in return.
In addition, unlike South Korea, in this place where the relationship with the neighbors is strong, unless the soldiers are openly invited to come in, they will not kill the chores who live in the next village.
“In a castle where the food situation is getting worse and worse, if you continue to provide food only to the troops that the first ones received… ? Even after knowing that the first ones who ate it died because of it, gradually there will be people who secretly eat it or share it with the unit commander to cover their mouths.”
Because humans are beings who eat people of the same kind and even their families when supply is reduced and food is gone.
If the enemy continues to receive food for nothing in return, he will eat it secretly without feeling guilty because his hunger is ahead of him.
Enemy commanders who saw that would think that they were being provided with food because the commanders of the lower units, no, the lower unit’s commanders were conspiring with us. If this continues, those who have been divided in command but are barely united will consider betraying for the sake of ‘territories and soldiers’ from then on.
And to convince you of this…
“Soldiers who stand guard will take turns, but the position where each unit will stand guard will be the same. So, continue to provide food to the unit the one who first received the food belongs to. Convincing them that since your comrades betrayed you anyway, you wouldn’t be able to survive if you were framed.”
“Your Highness… “
“Before that, infiltrate the Intelligence Corps members and start spreading rumors saying, ‘We will give 1,000 gold coins and a territory to the first soldier and commander to open the castle gate, respectively.
Also, spread rumors about betraying those who are less popular or slightly higher among them. Then knights and commanders, soldiers and citizens will not trust each other and will go mad with suspicion.”
With that said, I waved my hand and ordered the officer to leave for quick execution of the order.
Just in time, soldiers belonging to the supply unit came out with plenty of food such as cooked beef, pork, and chicken, as well as various kinds of bread and beer.
I grabbed the most delicious-looking roast pork hind leg with my gloved hand and walked out of the enemy’s arrows.
The officers and soldiers around looked frightened when they saw His Highness approaching the enemy.
From Noble mtl dot com
Ignoring that, he took a big bite of the pig’s hind leg in his hand and said in a sneering voice.
“Your lord, His Highness, the Duke of Orléans, is so virtuous that he couldn’t serve even this kind of food to his serfs. I pity you guys who serve such a miser as your lord. I am not yet able to share food with you who oppose me on the wall, but when you open the door, I will share all of this with you. My soldiers, I have prepared a little something to eat, so eat as much as you want.”
After saying that, I quietly ate a pig’s back leg and moved to the rear camp.
I told the other counts to do this when besieging the castle.
I wonder how long it will last.