In the next few days, the situation at Fort Kalk became increasingly unfavorable. There were more and more sporadic enemy troops lingering in the villages around the castle. Every day, a group of enemy troops came to the fort gate to call for battle, although the soldiers in the city strictly abided by the military order and closed the doors.

He couldn't go out, but the enemy soldiers continued to curse him every day, which was so disgusting that the defenders in the fort were all suffocating.

On the afternoon of the third day when the convoy arrived at Fort Kalk, as usual, dozens of enemy soldiers arrived outside the fort. This time, they were not only the enemy soldiers calling for formation, but they also took into custody a dozen old, weak, women and children kidnapped from surrounding villages.

A dozen innocent civilians were escorted to kneel more than 150 steps outside the fort gate. Behind them stood seven or eight bare-chested soldiers holding sharp blades. The soldiers had evil smiles on their faces, and their swords and axes were in the hands of the civilians.

Putting it on and taking it off the neck, the farmer kneeling on the ground was frightened and his eyes were filled with tears, and he screamed in agony.

Several enemy cavalrymen rushed forward and showed off their power in front of the gate of Fort Kalk. They threw some stumps and broken arms around, shouted and pointed and cursed at the people on the wall. Seeing no one on the wall responded, they ran back to the civilians and used their weapons.

The daggers slashed the throats of civilians one by one...

There were desolate and desperate cries outside the castle. The shrill screams were heart-wrenching, and everyone on the wall looked ugly.

Baron Balian stood behind the wall, his hands making a banging sound.

"These animals! My lord, let me lead my men and charge them out!" A knight beside Baron Balian could no longer bear the humiliation in front of him.

The number of enemy troops coming today is less than thirty, none of them are wearing heavy armor, and they only have five cavalry. It seems that they can be easily defeated.

"Ivan, didn't you notice anything was wrong today?" Baron Balian asked the knight beside him who was gnashing his teeth.

Knight Ivan was only angry that the enemy army slaughtered Provence civilians in front of them. He didn't pay much attention to the changes in the enemy army today and looked up at the enemy soldiers.

"Sir, most of their cavalry is missing."

"Their cavalry must be hiding behind. Once you lead the troops out, they will definitely rush out, so we have to continue to hold back."

Knight Ivan pointed at the civilians outside the city who were about to be killed, and then pointed at the red-eyed soldiers on the wall, and shouted: "Are we going to let those bastards slaughter our civilians in front of us? Sir, this is a great shame!!

!”

Baron Balian glanced at the knights beside him and roared in a low voice: "It would be a great shame to lose Fort Kalk. If you are besieged by cavalry when you go out now, will I lead my troops out to rescue you? If I am also ambushed,

Who else will guard this castle? Aosta is besieged by enemy troops. If we cannot leave a way out for Aosta, tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians in the city will be massacred."

"Then we just watch?"

Baron Balian lowered his head and pondered for a while, then said: "Go and quietly bring all the crossbowmen over, fire the crossbows and kill as many as you can..."

............................

In Fort Kalk, Art is training the soldiers of the patrol. Of course, he is also helping Baron Balian train the newly recruited soldiers.

Almost all of these new soldiers were farmers and citizens before. Art and Odo had to teach them step by step how to hold spears and swords, how to use shields, and how to avoid incoming swords, axes and spears.

From the day the convoy arrived at Fort Kalk to deliver the food, Baron Balian and the patrol team terminated their employment. However, enemy soldiers have been present in Fort Kalk for the past two days, and the patrol team was unable to pass smoothly with more than a dozen carriages and drivers.

In the war zone, Art had to stay at Fort Kalk and wait for the opportunity. Baron Balian provided the food and accommodation for the patrol and the convoy free of charge. In return, Art agreed to train new recruits for the baron, so that the baron did not have to transfer personnel from the city wall for training.

Already.

Seeing Knight Ivan quietly climbing onto the city wall with seven or eight crossbowmen, Atal grabbed the knight who was hurriedly passing by and asked, "Sir Ivan, what happened?"

"Art, the Baron asked me to go up with a crossbow and shoot the enemy soldiers outside the city."

Having been at Fort Kalk for a few days, Baron Balian had always turned a blind eye to the provocative enemy soldiers outside the city, but today he wanted to shoot the enemy soldiers.

"Ron, put on your armor and follow me to the wall to have a look." Art decided to go up and have a look.

When we arrived at the crenellations of the city wall, the killing outside the city had stopped. The ground was covered with pools of brown blood, and more than a dozen corpses lay paralyzed on the ground.

Seven or eight crossbowmen quietly found their way under the crenellated walls and headed out of the city through the crenellations. One hundred and fifty steps, a distance of more than two hundred yards, was not too far for a crossbow. The crossbowmen squatted on the crenellations.

They lined up behind the wall, used winches to string up the strings, and put the special round-headed short arrows of the crossbows into the arrow trough. Baron Balian on the side took a bullhorn bow and tied a red ribbon on the light arrows.

The bowstring was stretched and thrown towards the sky in the direction of the enemy troops outside the city. The light arrows rushed up into the sky and turned into black spots. After a while, the light arrows with red ribbons were nailed dozens of steps in front of the enemy. The enemy

The army saw a light arrow shot from the top of the city, which caused a burst of laughter.

Behind the wall, the crossbow captain stretched out his head to look at the red ribbon fluttering in the wind outside the city. He squatted half-crouched and raised the crossbow slightly at an angle. The seven crossbowmen beside him followed the captain's movements and put their crossbows in their hands.

The crossbow raised.

"Get ready~"

"put!!"

There was a loud banging sound behind the stacked wall.

Eight heavy arrows from crossbows suddenly shot out from behind the stacked walls and shot up into the sky...

The enemy camp was still laughing.

But when seven or eight black dots fell from the sky, they could no longer laugh. Eight heavy arrows shot down three soldiers in an instant. A war horse was shot in the neck, and the knight on its back suddenly jumped up and fell.

Come down.

The fun is not over yet, the enemy soldiers are still looking around for the sneak attack of the crossbowmen. The crossbow behind the wall stack has been strung and the crossbow arrows are being put into the arrow trough.

Jump, jump, jump~!!!

Another eight heavy arrows flew out. This time the enemy soldiers scattered in all directions, and the crossbow arrow only hit one enemy soldier.

This time, it was the turn of the soldiers on the city wall to laugh, their anger for many days being shot at the enemy with these heavy arrows.

"Okay, the crossbowmen stop shooting and save some arrows."

Art knew that the crossbow was more powerful at range, but it was rare to maintain such accuracy beyond two hundred yards.

"Baron Balian, your crossbowmen are really powerful." Art said sincerely.

Knight Ivan smiled and said to Art: "Brother Art, these crossbowmen were trained by our Lords ourselves. Just like our archers, they are all marksmen."

Art had seen Baron Balian's shooting skills, and lamented that his own shooting skills were still not as good as Baron Balian's.

Looking at the cavalry galloping out of the city a mile away, Baron Balian turned to Art and said: "Art, it's your time to leave tonight. If you miss tonight, I'm afraid you won't be able to escape so easily.

Lost."

Seeing that Art didn't understand what he meant, Baron Balian pointed to the outside of the city and explained: "In the past two days, enemy troops have begun to gather around Aosta. I guess they were unfavorable in the siege of Aosta the day before and planned to storm Fort Kalk."

"You have to break out before the enemy forces surround Fort Kalk."

Art's face was full of sorrow. Lombard infantry was stationed around and the cavalry was patrolling. How could Art, with more than twenty soldiers, allow more than a dozen carriages and many coachmen to safely break out of the encirclement.

"Don't worry, I won't let you break out alone. Yesterday I received an order from Aosta. Tonight we will attack the enemy's military camp outside the city to disrupt the enemy's deployment. Then you will take the opportunity to tear us apart.

Escape through the gap opened."

Art understood what Baron Balian meant and returned: "Thank you, sir!"

Baron Balian waved his hand, "Go down and prepare. We will take action before the full moon tonight."

.............................

The hot and humid summer night enveloped this small town in central Provence. On the business road outside the city, a dozen carriages carried dozens of black-clad soldiers and coachmen.

About a mile in front of the convoy, more than twenty cavalrymen were leading their horses quietly towards an open space next to the commercial road on the north side.

The army in Fort Kalk is mainly based on infantry, so it lacks cavalry. However, only this attack can cause chaos to the enemy camp, and the patrol can take advantage of the chaos to break through the Lombard army's defense line. Therefore, Art knew that the defenders lacked cavalry.

Along with Ron and Jason, they also joined Baron Balian's cavalry team to attack the camp.

Ron and Jason participated in this kind of real battle for the first time. For him, more than twenty cavalrymen were already a large-scale cavalry formation. Although Ron was nervous, he was still quite excited.

He led the hoof-clad war horse behind Art without making a sound. Before setting off, Baron Balian repeatedly warned that the key to a night attack was to win by surprise. If the enemy was aware of it in advance and was prepared, his twenty or so

The cavalry had to leave dozens of corpses in the enemy camp.

Jason was about the same as Ron. Sweat had soaked through the linen lining, and the sweat-stained leather armor made a slight creaking sound.

"Sir Ron, I will follow you and the adults in a moment~" Jason was a little too nervous. If he didn't say something, he felt like he would go crazy.

"Hush!! Silence!" Ron turned his head and shouted softly.

Jason swallowed, patted the horse he was leading, then tightly grasped the battle ax on his waist, and strode to follow the team.

There were more than twenty military tents set up under a hillside five miles north of Fort Kalk. After inspection, it was found that there were more than 180 Lombard soldiers stationed here. Fort Kalk remained silent for several days, allowing the enemy to

The soldiers relaxed their vigilance, and they would not have thought that the defenders in the city would have the courage to leave the city for a night attack.

Knight Ivan personally led four soldiers to crawl forward, and quietly reached a dozen steps behind the sentries on the hillside. With a shout, several people jumped up from the ground, rushed to the two sentry posts and stabbed them to death with a sword.

There was a lot of moonlight in the sky and a few people were not quick enough with their actions. The sentry noticed the enemy attack and screamed before he died. The screams of the sentry were heard in the camp down the hillside~

"Everyone get on your horses and charge forward with me."

Baron Balian gave the order, and more than twenty cavalrymen all mounted their horses.

Art got on his horse and took advantage of the hazy night to look back at the commercial road behind him. He saw a group of faint black figures rushing north.

"Ron Jason, you two must follow me closely. After passing the round, run directly to the north."

"yes!"
Chapter completed!