Chapter 32 – Bloody Battle of Streb Fortress (3)
Bloody Battle of Fortress Streb (3)
It’s been a month since we started attacking Fort Streb. Crown Prince Prinz was in trouble.
Due to the defeat on the second day, they acknowledged that a full-scale siege would not work, and attempted to deploy knights, catapults, and tunnels, but the strong walls of Streve were not easily breached.
Prior to the deployment of the light infantry, the knights rushed in and tried to climb up while striking down arrows, but they could not withstand the rock throwing and tended to fall, so it ended in failure with only the precious lives of the knights lost.
The next time, they succeeded in destroying the arrow tower that massacred numerous imperial troops by throwing huge rocks with catapults, but since it was difficult to provide a steady supply of rocks, their purpose was changed to shooting large quantities of pebbles and their role was to assist archers. It was.
So over the past month, Prinz has invested heavily in what was to be his last resort, a tunnel operation. He finally launched a surprise attack at night, thinking he had secretly dug a tunnel to the corner of the castle wall three days ago, but it failed.
Count Redelmo, who noticed that the imperial army was digging a tunnel through the vibration felt in a glass of water, deliberately left the tunnel open, and when the hole was opened, he intercepted the imperial army that came out with the troops he had on standby, and started a fire inside. It smoked and suffocated all the imperial soldiers in the tunnel, completely sealing it off.
Moreover, yesterday, it was reported that the 11th Corps had been defeated and that 6,000 cavalry units were coming to relieve Streve by merging the armies of local lords.
In this worst situation, the corps commanders and staff put their heads together and thought about it, but no solution came to mind, so in the end, Prinz had to talk about withdrawing the troops.
“Whew, I can’t do that. Now that things have come to this, we must admit the failure of the expedition and withdraw the troops…”
“No, brother!!”
“Yuno? How did you arrive in just one day? I thought it would take at least two days. Did you come alone?”
When Prinz received word yesterday that Yuno would join, he immediately gave permission.
Prinz himself thought that if the enemy had begun full-scale support, it would be better to unite his forces.
“Half of the 10th Corps joined Streve, and the other half collected the remnants of the 11th Corps and are scheduled to arrive tomorrow. Since we did not know when the enemy would attack, we stayed up all night and marched as fast as possible, so we could arrive quickly.”
“Yes. I made a good decision. But are you telling me not to withdraw? I tried every means possible over the past month, but I could not get over that high wall. Even if I dug a tunnel or blocked the way for water to enter, I couldn’t find an answer.”
“Please give the 10th Corps a chance as well. Unlike the 1st Army, which was exhausted from a month-long siege, our 10th Corps has not fought a major battle and is still fresh. When the troops that recovered the lost soldiers arrive tomorrow, I will step forward the day after tomorrow.”〈 Br〉
“Do you have any special means? That fortress won’t fall if you just attack it blindly.”
“Just as the 1st team is exhausted, the defense team is probably quite tired as well. So, if I attack our corps, which is still intact, wouldn’t there be a slight change?”
Prinz thought about Yuno’s suggestion for a while. And he gradually began to think about raising Yuno’s hand. Yuno had a point, and since Yuno was the second-in-command of the expeditionary force and a corps commander, he had the right to act independently, so he thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to try again.
“Good! Feel free to use all the siege equipment we used! The engineers will be supported by the 5th Corps.”
Yuno confidently responded to his brother’s permission. And he immediately instructed his soldiers to learn how to operate siege equipment, and he also learned from the corps commanders how the previous battle was conducted.
The next day, when the remnants of the 11th Legion arrived, Prinz and Yuno rushed to greet them.
The group of 3,000 defeated soldiers was mostly made up of the Windrage army and was led by knights of the Windrage family. Printz pointed to one of the articles and bombarded him with questions.
“What on earth happened? How far did the enemy cavalry advance?”
“I’m sorry. Our army was fighting well against the enemy cavalry, but we were unable to stop a group of cavalry, which appeared to be made up of knights, and were allowed to break through to the flank. And the enemy army is stationed there after defeating our army and is rallying its forces.”
“The commander of the 11th Corps?”
“Prince Kent fled when the enemy cavalry approached the main camp, and as soon as he did, other commanders also began to flee. Naturally, the army collapsed, and we tried to control the situation as much as possible with the Wind Rage army as the center, but our soldiers were unable to escape. It was not prevented, and Prince Kent is presumed to have returned to the empire.”
“Tsk… Not a warrior, but a fugitive!! How can commanders leave their soldiers behind and run away!! As soon as they return to the empire, I will capture them all and immediately slit their heads!!”
Yuno smiled bitterly at the prince’s anger. There was a sense of self-reproach for ignoring his maternal grandfather’s advice and appointing Kent as commander of the 11th Corps, and it was because he thought it would be difficult for his maternal uncle to avoid the death penalty.
Duke Windrage would also go on a rampage for a long time, and according to imperial law, a commander’s flight from enemy combat was punishable by unconditional execution, so even Kent, the younger brother of the Empress and the prince of the dukedom, would likely be executed.
“Whew… First, let’s get our bodies together. Shouldn’t we regain the honor of the defeated Windrage army through victory? After resting for a day, we will begin the siege of Streve at noon tomorrow, so please join us.”〈 Br〉
“Yes! I will follow your orders!”
Yuno gathered the remnants of his 10th and 11th corps and prepared for the siege tomorrow.
Fortunately, as the Wind Rage Army was strongly trained under the Duke of Wind Rage, the soldiers of the 11th Legion blended into the 10th Legion without much trouble, and the 12,000-strong 2nd Legion was tense as they checked their weapons and armor in preparation for the coming siege. It has solidified.
Noon the next day. Prinz approached Yuno, who was preparing to rally the corps and give orders.
“Yuno. It is said that Tesseito’s reinforcements have begun to approach Streve. They say they are expected to arrive in three days, so if we cannot capture Streve today, I will order an unconditional withdrawal.”
“Yes, brother. I will plant the imperial flag in Streve before the sun sets today.”
Haha, your confidence is nice to see! That’s right. A general who leads an army shouldn’t shrink. This brother may not have been able to capture Streve because he doesn’t have the same confidence as you.”
Prinz patted Yuno on the shoulder and returned to his command post.
And Juno stood at the forefront of the 10th Legion and shouted to the soldiers.
“Gentlemen! Our 2nd Expeditionary Army is in unprecedented danger! Tesseito’s reinforcements are coming from the west, and the enemy cavalry that destroyed the 11th Corps is strangling us from the south.”
When he saw his soldiers swallowing nervously, Yuno continued speaking.
“But there’s nothing to be afraid of! All of this can be solved by taking down that Streve fortress. Isn’t it a very simple solution?”
“Yes! That’s right!!”
“You must have had a hearty lunch, right? After an exciting fight with this corps commander this afternoon, we will occupy Streve and eat it there for dinner!! I will prepare a delicious special meal, so if you want to eat a special meal, make sure you survive!!”
“Yes!! I understand!!”
“It’s a competition!! Let’s go!!”
Woowoowoo
With the sound of the horn announcing departure, the 10th Corps began its advance. And at the forefront stood Yuno.
Then, a senior soldier walking next to Yuno asked Yuno a question.
“No… Is the corps commander also going with us? He has to lead the troops from behind!!”
“Hmm? What can I do by making fun of the power of the Master? And don’t worry, someone else will take charge.”
When the veteran soldier turned around at Yuno’s calm words, there was a soldier wearing the seal of a white commander standing at the command chair where the corps commander should have been.
‘Holy shit… How can you command a corps by a mere white commander… Isn’t the corps commander crazy?’
And the white commander standing in the command chair was thinking the same thing.
‘You crazy prince… Ask me, a simpleton, to command some legionnaires… When that bastard asks me about this and that, I should say I don’t know… No, I shouldn’t have posted that proposal… I’m doing this for some kind of glory. Ugh… Ugh’
The centurion was a centurion who proposed to Yuno that he should join the Strebro troops, and after submitting the proposal, when Yuno asked him various things about troop command, he answered in as much detail as he knew, garnering Yuno’s attention.
His actions, which he did with the expectation of receiving at least a small reward, gave him the unexpected position of acting commander of the corps and placed him under tremendous pressure.
The white commander, whose name was Erich Mayer, was from a small baronial territory at the foot of the Monster Mountains and was part of a guard unit that hunted monsters that occasionally invaded the village.
Therefore, Mayer wondered how he could hunt monsters as efficiently as possible with the insufficient number of security forces, so he asked the baron to obtain a military book and studied numerous tactics. He rose to the position of captain of the baronial guard.
It was a high position for a country bumpkin, so he was quite satisfied with his life when the baron moved him to the capital and suggested that he become a captain to lead his soldiers.
Because it was a golden opportunity to experience the capital while living in the countryside, he accepted the baron’s offer. The baron, driven by his desire for success, supported his private army for this expedition and sent him, who was a centurion, along with him, leading to the Teceto Expedition, which was not even mentioned in the records. It even came out.
‘Oh my dear… I just wanted to save up money in the capital and return to my hometown to live comfortably… But I ended up doing something like this. What kind of acting corps commander are you talking to me about?!! Third Prince, you damn bastard~!!!’
However, contrary to Mayer’s thoughts, his conducting was quite skillful.
“The Wind Rage Army’s soldiers have not recovered yet, so please take charge of the left wall and only keep them in check! They say they will keep the wall in check, but they must not let the troops on the left wall come to the right, where they are the main attackers!”
“Hmm… Is this possible with 3,000 defeated soldiers?”
“8 out of 10 drivers are fine, so it will be enough to keep them in check. As soon as I give the signal, please tell them to put up a ladder and switch to a wave attack.”
“The main attack is on the right wall. We will slowly advance the Chungcha along with the 5th Corps engineers and the 103rd Heavy Infantry at the gate.”
At first, when Yuno said that he would appoint a hundred generals to act as corps commanders, the staff members who were extremely opposed to them also watched Mayer’s command and silently passed his orders to each unit.
While Mayer was distributing his troops, Juno, who was at the forefront of the main attack’s right wall, advanced the siege tower with his heavy infantry and blocked the rain of arrows pouring down with his shield.
“Hmm… If we don’t do something about those archers…”
Although Yuno sometimes used his courage to kill quite a few archers, the rain of arrows continued to pour down as if that was no problem.
He wanted to rip off the castle wall with a lot of energy, but if he did that, he would soon get exhausted, so he couldn’t use that method.
No matter how much the legionnaires tried to block them with their shields, arrows slowly trickled in through the gaps, and the imperial troops fell one by one, and Yuno’s heart became anxious.
