Chapter 279 – Second Battle of Streve (Finish) *Catherine Occupies Streve*
Second Battle of Streve (Finish)
“Oh, damn it… If they had dug a tunnel inside the fortress, they would have noticed a long time ago, but since they were digging a tunnel in front of the fortress, I didn’t notice at all…”
Adjutant Esgran, who commanded the fortress instead of Tiruen, gritted his teeth as he saw the Balkan army’s heavy infantry flowing out of the tunnels like a swarm of ants.
Like a swarm of ants whose nest was attacked, the Balkan army came out of the tunnel and was climbing up the three rocky hills built right in front, and the height of the hills was almost as high as the top of the walls of Streve Fortress, so the Balkan army’s siege was on a new level than before. It was progressing quickly at a different pace.
“Shoot the arrow!! Pour boiling oil and set it on fire!! We need to buy time for His Highness the Duke to return!!”
Following Esgran’s orders, the defenders attacked, but unlike before, their defense had little effect on the Balkan army.
“There will be no attack!! Because of that hill, enemy heavy infantry can climb up with shields to block arrows, and the oil we spray quickly seeps into the rocks and soil, so it doesn’t catch fire!!”
If it had been just a perfect rock, the oil attack would have been effective, but the rock that Marie created with the earth spirit returned to compacted earth after hitting the castle wall and played a role in bridging the gaps between rocks, thanks to which thousands of heavy infantrymen were able to survive. Not only did it provide strong support to them, but it also blocked the defenders’ fire attacks.
Esgran could not help but be taken aback when the means of effectively blocking the enemy so far were completely blocked by the rocky hill.
“Ugh… Well, then shouldn’t we just collapse that rocky hill? Send in the troops and remove the rock chunks!”
“I already tried, but it’s impossible! The rocks are so heavy, and the troops deployed will be quickly eliminated by the Balkan army!”
‘Uh, what should I do? His Excellency the Duke would have come up with a trick to ensure victory even in this situation… What should I do…’
Even when Esgran hesitated, the Balkan army continued to climb the hill.
As the Balkan heavy infantry climbed to the top of the hill and started climbing up the last remaining 3 meters of the wall by installing ladders, the Tesseito defenders also began a desperate response despite no proper orders.
“Throw the stone! Push the ladder and knock it over!”
“Don’t stop shooting! Aim for the gap between the shields!”
Although some infantrymen fell down the hill from the rain of countless stones and arrows, the Balkan heavy infantrymen continued the siege with great courage.
“Quickly climb up! Isn’t it a thousand times easier than climbing up this high wall so far?!”
“The Commander-in-Chief promised the Wall Crown, a promotion to the first rank, and 100 gold coins to the ten men who climbed the wall first! Don’t be afraid of arrows and stones shooting from above! Trust your shield!”
Leading the siege at the head of the heavy infantry of the 4th Corps was Baron Grossman, commander of the 4th Corps.
Based on his achievements during the First Battle of Streve and the Balkan Civil War, he was promoted and given the title of semi-nobleman, and despite becoming a corps commander, he was leading the soldiers on the front lines.
“Our team is at the forefront! Don’t let others take over the Wall Hall!!”
“The crown of the castle wall is ours!! Follow me!!”
Baron Grossman’s leading leadership, the glory of the castle walls, and above all, the hope of taking Streve, which they had not been able to drop for the past several decades, with their own hands turned the Balkan army into literal berserkers, and they resisted the defenders. Climbing the castle walls, crushing them, finally a loud cry was heard from one place.
“The 437th team climbed the castle wall~!!”
“Everyone follows us haha!!”
When the news was heard that a group of ten people had succeeded in climbing from one part of the castle wall, Baron Grossman’s eyes brightened.
“Tiberis A Thousand Seal! Your unit succeeded in crossing the walls first. You must go and create a beachhead yourself!! You must continue to send his troops up!”
According to Baron Grossman’s orders, the 4th Corps quickly established a stronghold on the wall, and heavy infantry began to continuously climb up the Streve wall.
As the imperial army’s base was created in one area of the castle wall, the morale of the defenders plummeted.
And news of the breakthrough continued to come in from other places, and it wasn’t long before the top of the castle wall was completely taken over by the Balkan army.
“Esgran!! The enemy has occupied the castle wall. Now is not the time to be like this!! We must quickly destroy the castle wall and retreat the troops from the fortress!!”
At his subordinate’s mantra, Esgran panicked and bit his nails.
“B, but His Excellency has not returned yet… We cannot destroy the castle walls without his approval…”
“If this continues, the fortress will be completely taken over by the enemy! We have formed a defensive line on the way down to the castle wall to hold out, but it is a heavy burden!!”
“Oh, no! We must hold out at least until His Excellency returns… Put all the troops into defensive positions! It doesn’t matter if they are non-combat troops or anything!!”
“Well, that is…”
Inserting non-combat troops into the battlefield meant that the war was completely tilted, which could lower the morale of the soldiers, and could also result in his troops not being in sync with each other, so Esgran’s men were astonished. 〉
“This is an order!!! Hold on until His Excellency returns!”
“Oh, I understand!”
Duke Tiruen transferred the authority to activate the castle wall’s destruction magic to his lieutenant Esgran, so his subordinates, who failed to persuade their superiors, rushed outside to carry out a defensive battle with an obvious outcome.
And at that moment, Streve’s fate was decided.
“Holy shit… What are you doing, Esgran… Don’t worry about us, just destroy the fortress right now!!”
When the situation reached this point, the Duke of Tiruen did not care if his plan was discovered by the Balkan army, so he shouted at Fort Streve.
But no matter how much he screamed, his voice could not reach Esgran due to the battlefield being filled with all kinds of noise.
“Hohohoho, now that this has come to an end, why don’t you just give up? If you quietly cede Streve and the surrounding territory to us now, I will quietly send the three masters and knights who are here now to Carmarthen.”
“Woe, Empress!! A golden opportunity to completely annihilate the three masters of the enemy nation and Duke Tiruen’s elite knights… Ugh!”
Catherine silenced an aide who was speaking to her and threw him behind her.
“You idiot. Even if you attack the enemy here and now, it will be difficult to kill the most important Tiruen guy, and when dealing with an enemy cornered, your allies will also suffer great damage. Moreover, you can make them a key ally when dealing with Tesseito in the future. Lastly, the most important thing is that the relationship with the Alto Kingdom is broken…”
The staff who had been thrown back by Catherine looked to the side at the words of Commander-in-Chief Mayer, and there they could see Kayla, fully dressed in her robe again, casting a murderous look towards Tiruen.
“We can’t throw away the opportunity to recruit a Master of the Empress’s level, can we? Well, it may be decided a little differently depending on what our Majesty does… But it’s not a matter for us to get involved with… Tsk tsk. And Tiruennom will have no choice but to accept our conditions anyway.”
The staff who heard Mayer’s explanation just looked confused, but Mayer only smiled and did not answer his subordinate’s question.
And Mayer’s judgment was correct.
After hearing Catherine’s suggestion, the Duke of Thiruen closed his eyes and was lost in thought for a while, then opened them and raised a white flag.
“All armies! Stop the battle!! The white flag has risen!!”
“Tesseito soldiers, stop fighting!! Your commander has raised the white flag!!”
Duke Tiruen sighed deeply as he heard orders to stop the battle ringing out from all over the battlefield.
‘Esgran, you idiot… If we destroyed the fortress and preserved our troops, we could have launched guerrillas in the southern plains and harassed the Balkans until they were exhausted and lost their will to wage war… Phew… As expected, the staff. He was just a vessel… He was not good enough to be entrusted with being a commander…’
This time, Duke Thiruen, keenly aware once again of the lack of talent compared to Balkan, put away his sword and slowly walked in front of Catherine and opened his mouth.
“Mother Empress. Is that offer still valid? It’s not just an offer to guarantee our lives.”
“Of course, Duke. I promise you this on my honor and the honor of the Balkan Empire.”
“Good. In that case, I also promise to cede Streve on the honor of being the commander-in-chief of the Tesseito Army.”
The two people, who had been dueling and spewing out all sorts of unspeakable insults at each other, suddenly returned to their polite demeanor as leaders of a country and began holding talks.
The Bara meeting, where each other’s wishes were clear, did not take long to conclude, and the talks ended with the staff of both countries reviewing the treaty and Catherine and Thiruen stamping it.
“Then, the Balkan Empire and the Kingdom of Tesseito. The two countries will cease all hostile actions for three years from now, and the Kingdom of Tesseito will hand over Fort Streb and the territory northeast of Lake Simenotra to the Balkan Empire as compensation for this war. Do you agree?”
“I agree”
“Good. Instead, as the duke requested, we will ensure that the territory residents have the right to migrate.”
‘Still, if we take the territory’s residents, we have succeeded in minimizing the damage… It is painful to hand over the northeastern territory of Symenotra… But with that, we can exclude the Johannes Castle Front from our strategy… A very big loss. I can’t say that’
Balkan captured the troublesome Streb without significant damage, further expanded its territory, and erased the aftereffects of the defeat of Simenotra. Tesseito was able to secure the survival of all masters, the defeat in the Battle of Zenon Plain, and the defeat in the Battle of Streb Fortress. Both countries were able to hold talks that were satisfactory in that the damage was kept to a minimum.
And finally, the flag of the Balkan Empire was hoisted at Streve Fortress, and the good news of victory in the war against Tesseito spread throughout the empire.
*Catherine Occupies Streve Exposure*
*Catherine Dress Occupies Streve*
