176 – Fishing Operation (3)
A week later, Sornas Castle.
The sound of someone knocking on the door rang out in the silence of Seongju’s office.
“Baron Sornas, this is urgent news.”
Hernan von Sornas, the lord and baron of Sornas Castle, frowned when he heard the sound.
“With the defeat of our Barcelo army, I think that locust will be strained from having to feed the mercenaries and other nobles and soldiers. “It’s urgent news again.”
He was just a baron, so just feeding the soldiers stationed here and supplying them with the necessary weapons seemed like it would break his back.
That’s because even if those insectivorous bastards were stationed there for just one month, two months’ worth of our territory’s budget would be lost.
When the urgent news of the enemy’s invasion was added to that, I couldn’t control my anger.
‘If we fight at this level, we’ll go bankrupt.’
However, Sornas was a nobleman of Barcelo, and he had no choice but to follow the military orders of King Barcelo in order to survive.
In return for disobeying orders, one would have to suffer a much more miserable fate than losing one’s territory and title, or having one’s head blown off, or going bankrupt.
“f*ck it, come in!”
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The messenger was very nervous when he heard that voice.
If you were caught by a baronet, you could not only be subject to all kinds of creative insults even though it wasn’t really a fault, but in the worst case scenario, you could be flogged.
“I will go in.”
The Baroness looked down at the incoming messenger.
“I have a lot of work to do right now. So, please be as short and concise as possible and only talk about important issues.”
“Yes, I understand.”
The messenger took a breath and opened his mouth.
“A force of approximately 15,000 troops under the Count of Dion, Imperial Army of Montmartre, is now passing through the town of Endora.”
Baron June couldn’t believe his ears and tilted his head.
No matter how fast they marched, there were two small fortresses and castles along their route.
In other words, if they were acting based on common sense, they came down by capturing two castles that could cut off their own rear supply.
‘Marino Castle and Bluha Castle are both places where the troops stationed there will collapse in at least a day or two, right?’
After thinking about it carefully, an answer naturally emerged from his head.
After the answer was given, a smile appeared on his stiff face.
“Did you look like you had been in battle?”
“There was no sign of fighting at all.”
The baronet slapped his knee and stood up.
“I see! It went very well. Deus must be helping me.”
The messenger who saw Baron June, who had been so angry just a moment ago, look so happy seemed very suspicious of the scene before his eyes.
But the baronet’s eccentricities did not stop there.
“Hmm, I brought you some very good news. Yes, it was a lot of trouble to rush a long way.”
When the baron tapped him on the shoulder, the messenger was even dumbfounded.
Anyway, the boss in front of him, who seemed a bit crazy, handed him a few silver coins.
“You worked hard to come a long way, so use this money to have a drink with your colleagues tonight. And then you go out and tell the high-ranking people of this castle, including Baron Talon, that I have something I would like to share with you. After that, you can skip today’s work altogether.”
The messenger was thinking that he would be lucky if he didn’t get criticized, but when he suddenly received such a windfall, it was difficult for him to control his joy.
“Yes, thank you. “Baron.”
An hour later, everyone in the castle, including the baronet, gathered in the conference room.
**
Sornas Castle conference room.
Before the baron came in, the knights and mercenary captains who had gathered here were guessing what would be said.
A mercenary leader first cautiously opened his mouth.
“Can you guess why the Baron called me?”
A knight from Sornas Castle answered those words with a grin.
“It’s obvious, it’s obvious. “Now, the high man of Montmartre will lead a large army to attack this castle, so this will be an order to prepare the castle.”
If you think about it from a common sense level, that was correct.
That’s because it was impossible to predict what kind of crazy person would invade the enemy’s territory without considering that the ‘rear retreat and supply’ would be blocked.
At those words, the faces of everyone here were filled with worry.
Someone sighed, another held his head, and Baron Talon slammed the desk down.
“How on earth can we stop a large army coming from there with only 2,000 people! I roughly heard the story, and the amount coming down from above is 15,000! “Holy sh*t!”
Survey warfare is the most efficient tactic when dealing with a large number of troops with a small number of troops, but if the difference in numbers exceeds 4 times, no matter how advantageous the defense is, defeat is almost certain.
So, of course, they couldn’t help but become irritated at this time.
“Baron Sornas has arrived.”
When Baron Sornas, the castle’s garrison commander, entered, the conference room instantly became quiet.
“Everyone, please sit comfortably.”
When everyone except Sornas was preparing for a defensive battle…
“As you all already know, Count Dion of Montmartre is now coming to Sornas Castle with a large army of 15,000 soldiers. According to the messenger, it will arrive in three days.”
After the Barcelo Kingdom army was defeated and retreated to reorganize, they have been preparing for a defensive battle.
They planned to conscript serfs and use them as garrison soldiers, and took measures such as stockpiling various weapons and food, etc.
So, although there were people who were scared or nervous that Count Dion was leading a large army, there were no people who were embarrassed by the unexpected situation.
On the way, Baron Talon asked on behalf of everyone.
“Then, are you planning to prepare for the battle?”
At those words, Sornas shook his head.
“I don’t plan on fighting the Battle of Su-seong.”
In preparation for the enemy’s attack, we continued to strengthen the castle’s defenses and prepared a ‘water castle’, but when we heard that it was not necessary, everyone was dumbfounded…
Sornas’ words continued.
“According to reports from messengers, Count Dion and his large army are now rushing down to Castle La Massana. “They didn’t even care that their supply route was cut off, passing by the two castles in front of us.”
“Then their supply route will not be cut off. Can you guess why you’re in such a hurry to do something like that?”
The knights and mercenary captains around him, including Baron Talon, nodded in agreement with those words.
Of course, Sornas himself was not sure what Count Dion’s intentions were, but…
I began to think about his actions so far, the situation he is currently in, what Montmartre County is pursuing, etc.
Soon, what he thought was the perfect guess came out of his mouth.
“There is no doubt that they are in a hurry because they want to capture Ramasana Castle as quickly as possible.”
Baron Talon nodded his head after hearing those words.
“Right now, there are only a small number of regular soldiers and mercenaries in Lamasana Castle, but it will take a lot of time to advance by capturing each small castle one by one. Then, taking advantage of that opportunity, Ramasana Castle will gather the surrounding serfs, mercenaries, and nobles to strengthen the castle’s defenses.”
Other knights and mercenary leaders also nodded in agreement.
“As Baron Talon said, if we recruit a large number of troops from Castle Lamasana, we can sufficiently block the 15,000 men led by Count Dion. However, now the troops are dispersed in each castle, so although Lamasana Castle is a key castle for defense and supply in the region, it only has about 4,000 troops.”
“It is safe to say that the enemies risked their lives in a bid to take over Ramasana in a short period of time.”
Strictly speaking, Martin did not take such things into consideration when devising the strategy to catch them, but it was just a plan made with the assumption that if the Montmartre army ignored the fort on the way to La Massana, they would be caught on their own.
The fact that there were only about 4,000 people in Ramasana Castle was an unintentional luck.
Because this fact played a large part in the belief of the two barons here that Count Dion was preoccupied with conquering La Masana Castle.
Baron Taron laughed at their foolish mistake.
“You idiots, is it okay to skip the basics no matter how urgent your accomplishments are? Still, we have no choice but to teach. So, the first thing to do is to cut off the supply…”
Sornas shook his head at those words.
“If the supply is cut off, they will come to their senses and retreat. “Count Dion may be blinded by greed now, but he is not a fool.”
“No matter how deeply you sleep, if you get hit in the back of the head, you wake up.”
“So, just leave it like this, by the time they surrounded Lamasana Castle. “I think it would be a good idea to attack them jointly by cooperating with Count Pilaf at Lamasana Castle and other defensive units on the road to Lamasana.”
“I agree with that opinion.”
After completing the agreement, Sornas immediately called other messengers.
“Tell this immediately to the castle lords and garrison commanders on the way to Ramasana Castle. ‘Let the Count of Dion pass by and be ready to go out at any time.’.”
“Yes, I understand!”
When the plate was laid, everyone, including Baron Sornas, could not hide their joy.
Because these people, no, they were actually people who were crazy because they wanted to succeed in somehow restoring the prestige of King Barcelo.
Because the opportunity was right in front of my eyes.