After resting in Tarburg for more than twenty days, Art's arrow wound was basically healed and he was able to do some simple swordsmanship training, but he still had some pain when pulling the bow and shooting.

During the past twenty days, the defenses of Tal Fort were further strengthened under the command of the old butler Cooper, and Cooper filled in the collapsed wood and stone structure of the outer wall of the military fort.

In addition, under Cooper's command, a wooden waiting platform has been built on the hillside to the right of the main entrance of Tarburg. The waiting platform is surrounded by a peaked wooden fence with a height of 20 feet on all sides. There is a 30-foot-high canopy inside.

The archery tower allows eight archers to shoot at the same time. There is only a narrow door that can allow a single person to pass through. It is open behind the waiting platform. The waiting platform is surrounded by deep pit traps, and there are sharpened wooden thorns wiped with dung in the traps.

The waiting platform and the military fort are less than a stone's throw apart. If either side is attacked, the other can fire arrows to help defend it. If the enemy besieges the Tarburg, eight soldiers who have received simple archery training will be stationed at the waiting platform.

, the function of the waiting platform is to cause harassment and casualties to the enemy flanks attacking Tal Fort, so that they cannot concentrate on attacking the city, so whether the arrows fired can hit the target is secondary, as long as a large number of arrows can be fired

Just throw it towards the enemy formation; the reverse is also true. If the enemy attacks the waiting platform, they will also face arrows and rocks from both directions of the waiting platform and the military fort.

…………

In the open space behind the Tal Fort, ten thatched men were erected under the back wall. Fifty steps away, ten soldiers who were drawing and pulling the strings of arrows were correcting the posture of drawing the bows and holding the arrows under Jason's roar.

Behind the soldiers, there were two rows of soldiers waiting to train their bows and arrows.

Letting soldiers learn basic archery was started after Art was stationed in Tarburg. Previously, Art lacked bows and arrows, and accurate archery cannot be practiced in a short time, so Art only required sentries and squad leaders.

The above-mentioned officers must undergo archery training, but the soldiers are not required to do so. But now Art has more than a dozen redundant rifle bows and thousands of arrows, and as a defender of the city, he does not need to have very accurate archery skills.

So Art also began to let ordinary soldiers and peasants and soldiers practice bow and arrow. His requirement was that everyone could pick up the rifle and throw the arrows in their hands towards the enemy. Whether they could hit the target or not depended entirely on luck.

In addition to strengthening the outer walls and setting up flanking waiting towers for the defense of Tal Fort, the caravan accompanying the army also purchased a batch of kerosene sealed in small clay pots from the North. This kerosene is a powerful tool for attacking and defending the city and is not easy to purchase.

Therefore, the caravan only purchased forty cans of fire oil. These cans of fire oil will be thrown into the enemy's formation through the trebuchets in the inner fort tower at the critical moment of defending the city, burning the enemy's siege equipment or disrupting the enemy's formation.

Art also sent people to Gelalu City to purchase and request more than a dozen bundles of arrows of various types. In addition to those carried with the army, purchased by caravans and previously seized, there were already more than 2,000 arrows in Tal Fort, and they would all be

When defending the city, it becomes a deadly weapon above the enemy's head.

During the twenty days that Art was recovering from his injuries, the army did not rest.

During this period, Odo and Angus respectively led soldiers disguised as bandits to the southwest border area of ​​Swabia to harass the enemy's supply lines or "capture" one or two scattered small settlements. Both teams achieved some gains.

However, since the enemy's baggage outpost was destroyed and two convoys were plundered, Swabia has strengthened its defenses. The garrison strength of various outposts has been significantly increased, and the number of guards on the baggage convoy has also increased.

When Odo led ten soldiers to intercept a grain transport convoy, he was killed by an ambushed crossbowman on a carriage. Fortunately, Odo reacted quickly and was able to escape after killing one person and seriously injuring two others. Afterwards, Art punished Odo.

, suspended his military pay for three months, but retained his military position.

On the other side, Angus led four sentries to attack a small farm manor, but the farmer was a disabled veteran who had experienced battles. He led two manor guards with stone walls and two hunting bows.

Shengsheng held off Angus and the others for half an afternoon. Later, the surrounding manor settlements sent people to rescue them, and Angus had no choice but to return with his sentries and cavalry without success.

However, what surprised Art was that the bandits and bandits who had been dormant in the mountains of southwestern Swabia for a long time may have been affected by the harassment of Art's army. After seeing through the current situation of empty defenses on the southwest border of Swabia, they formed various groups.

The gangs of bandits, interceptors, raids, and ambushes took turns taking turns to appear and disappear.

Banditry suddenly broke out across Swabia's southwestern border.

Not surprisingly, the news of the Burgundian army's entry into Tarburg was known to the Swabians. They sent a sentinel to the east of Tarburg in an attempt to approach the sentinel, but were led by Angus.

After the sentries and soldiers drove away, there was no trace of them again. Art guessed that they would concentrate their forces to attack Tal Fort after quelling the banditry in the southwest.

In Tarburg, Art is preparing for a large-scale raid. For a raid, Art has started planning five days in advance.

Five days ago, a mysterious letter was received in a large manor fifty miles south of Biltenburg. The letter was written by a bandit leader who claimed to be Krul, the King of the Mountain. In the letter, the guy who claimed to be the King of the Mountain requested this

The large manor will provide his "army" with military pay of 100,000 pfennigs or equivalent food goods within five days, otherwise he will gather a "mountain army" to capture the manor, plunder the manor and leave the manor untouched.

Leave no grass behind.

At first, the aristocratic manor owner thought the letter was just an extortion trick by bandits, so he didn't pay much attention to it. However, in the next few days, the small villages and settlements around the manor were attacked by several groups of unidentified bandits one after another.

The total number of bandits in the group exceeded 60. Now the manor owner was really scared. While he wasted no time recruiting farmers to organize training and strengthening the manor walls, he kept sending people to Biltenburg for help, claiming that all the people in the southwest border area were in danger.

The bandits and bandits will all gather to attack his manor, and he promised that if the Biltenburg garrison could help him fight off the bandits, he would spend 20,000 pfennigs as military expenses for the garrison to assist in the suppression.

Baron Jeffrey von Trond, the shepherd of Biltenberg, was troubled by the increasingly rampant banditry on the southwest border, and this group of greedy and cruel wolves actually dared to assemble to attack the large manor village castle, so Baron Jeffery

He immediately agreed to the manor owner's request to send troops to assist in the suppression, but Baron Jeffery still knew a little about military affairs. While he recruited farmers from various places around Biltenburg to form a bandit suppression army, he also did not forget to send out sentries to inspect the tower.

Movements of the Fort Fort garrison.

…………

Obviously, the "declaration of war" was sent to the manor by Art. In order to make the owner of the manor believe that a group of bandits were going to capture his manor, Art sent two dozen soldiers from the unexposed area.

Hunters entered Swabia on a trail, changing various clothes and flags to raid and plunder the villages around the manor, creating the illusion of a gathering of bandits.

On the Talburg side, after creating the illusion of a "bandit invasion" of the large manor south of Biltenburg, all the troops retreated back to the military fort. Since five days ago, the gate of Talburg has been closed tightly, and the outer walls

The station was filled with elite soldiers who defended the city. They looked like they would never go out to stir up trouble. However, those elite "city defenders" were all peasant soldiers and laborers who had put on the clothes of soldiers. The real

All the elite soldiers are now gathering in the open space of Tal Fort and preparing to set off.

In the inner fort of Tarburg, all the army commanders stood around Art.

"Yesterday, a group of enemy spies came to spy on Talburg. They should have returned to Biltenburg to report the situation that we cannot defend. At noon, the sergeant major had already led two sentries to kill the enemy hidden sentries that might be hiding along the way.

And enter the outposts around Biltenburg. If most of the Bilten garrison goes to the south to suppress the bandits, then we will capture Biltenburg as planned."

"I personally commanded all four squadrons of soldiers and sentry teams to attack Biltenburg this time. Ron's sentry team was responsible for patrolling around Biltenburg to provide early warning and intercept those who might escape to report, especially

It’s the south.”

Art turned his eyes to Odo who was standing in front: "Odo, have you selected the soldiers who will be the first to seize the goal?"

Odo stepped forward and replied: "We have been selected. The six soldiers are the most elite veterans of each team. They all wear leather armor inside and Swabian army clothes outside."

Art asked Cooper again: "Cooper, are the carriages you have prepared ready?"

"Sir, eight empty iron-clad carriages have been parked at the gate of the castle and are ready to go at any time."

"Okay, Odo is temporarily responsible for the defense of Tal Fort. All personnel in the caravan are temporarily under Odo's command. Cooper will assist Odo in garrisoning Tal Fort. Let's prepare to go."

Everyone left the inner fort one after another and returned to their respective posts to prepare.

Odo did not leave with the others. When Art was the only one left in the inner castle, Odo walked to Art and said to Art with a slightly aggrieved expression: "Sir, I know it was my mistake last time.

The army was ambushed and lost soldiers. But I still want to follow you to attack Bültenburg~" Otto really wanted to follow Art to attack Bültenburg. He believed that only by making another military exploit could he wash away his last interception of the enemy's train.

The shame of being counterattacked.

Art stared into Otto's eyes, and replied with a serious expression and a firm tone: "Odo, I told you, the ambush incident was not entirely your fault, and I have already punished you for your fault.

So you don’t always have to take these mistakes to heart. The reason why I won’t take you with me in the attack on Biltenburg this time is because there must be a backbone here in Tarburg. I took all the soldiers away, and there are only some peasants left here.

Soldiers and laborers, if there is an unexpected enemy situation, there must be a calm officer to command them. We can think of a raid on Biltenburg, and the Swabian army may also raid Talburg. If something goes wrong in Talburg,

If we go deep into enemy territory, we will have no way to retreat. So I asked you to stay in Tarburg because we cannot do without you here."

Odo still left the inner fort resolutely with a reluctant expression to inspect the "defensive troops" on the outer wall. This is also what Art admired about Odo. Although he was extremely reluctant, he would still carry out the order without hesitation.

.

…………

In the evening, Angus, who went to make inquiries, rode back to Tarburg.

"Sergeant, what's the problem? Why are you the only one back?" Art quickly got off the outer wall and asked Angus.

Angus handed the reins to a peasant soldier behind the castle gate and replied: "Lord Art, everything goes well. As you expected, we found two enemy spies on a hillside twelve miles south.

We quietly went up and killed one, and learned from another spy that there were no other sentries around, and he did not withstand the torture, so he told us that most of the Biltenburg garrison had set out to raid the "assembly" of bandits in the south.

There is news that there are less than 20 guards in the city. I later sneaked around Biltenburg and found that the gate of Biltenburg was tightly closed. There were indeed only a few sporadic guards on the fort wall. I estimated that there were only about ten guards.

Now I have two sentries on guard on the east road to prevent anyone from coming to spy again."

Art waved his hand excitedly, "Sergeant, our work has not been in vain these days, our plan is starting to work."
Chapter completed!