When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

Chapter 563: Decisive Battle and Liberation

When Prince Conde advanced to the outskirts of Hotam County, it was already March 1446, 3 in the Imperial calendar.

After successively defeating two rebellious earls and looting three rebellious monasteries, Prince Conde's army settled down at Chak Abbey, 110 miles away from Feiliu Castle.

After ten consecutive days of running around and fighting, even the extraordinary knights with amazing endurance had to take a break.

On the one hand, they needed to wait for the arrival of the infantry in the rear, and on the other hand, they had to recruit food locally, arm farmers and hire wandering knights.

Since they had to travel hundreds of miles to provide assistance, Prince Kongdai and his men did not carry much food, especially the rations for the infantry in the rear and the fodder and beans for the war horses.

As for the armed peasants and knights, there is no need to mention them; that is just a side job.

The Church and the Priory are the two largest landowners in Hotam County. Currently, the nobles in Hotam County are standing against Prince Conde, while the Priory remains neutral.

So after the Thousand Valley Church in Feiliu Castle was disabled, the armed peasants and knights of the manor under the church naturally joined Prince Condai's ranks.

Although the number of people is small, it is enough to collect and transport grain.

The sun was shining brightly at noon, but the scorching sun could not heat the marble table because the cold winter wind was still blowing in the yard.

The stone bench was not too narrow, but it was like a small stool under the prince's butt. Wearing a furry animal skin cloak, he looked like a big bear curled up.

The weather was not that cold, but the prince, wrapped in his coat, felt so cold that his teeth could not stop chattering, and the white steam he exhaled from his mouth was extremely hot.

Two high-level monks, one on the left and one on the right, cast blessings on Prince Kongdai with sweat on their foreheads to alleviate and suppress the toxicity brought by the dragon potion.

He asked the old Pope for these three bottles of dragon potion.

At that time he asked the Pope for the dragon blood horse, but the Pope refused to give it to him.

Then he asked for three bottles of dragon potion and a dragon blood horse. The Pope approved it immediately and told him that the ordained monk was ready and he could be promoted at any time.

But he kept putting it off until Pope Johnny VIII died, but he never expected that it would really come in handy.

When the prince's breath was no longer scalding, the two exhausted monks were helped away, and Captain Edmund, who had been waiting for a long time, stepped forward and bowed.

"The grain cart was robbed again?" Prince Kongdai closed his eyes but showed no sign of anger.

"Yes, they used fireballs to burn our grain carts. Oristo went to chase them, but was ambushed by their infantry. He lost more than a dozen knights and retreated."

Prince Condé still had his eyes closed and was speechless.

Since their arrival, the Saviors had discovered a problem with their food supplies.

Starting from their arrival on March 3, over the course of three days, the light archers led by Murat and the orc hussars led by Grush began to continuously attack the grain transport teams.

To this end, the horse archers and hussars did not hesitate to destroy a large number of bridges and roads, and launched continuous harassment and night attacks to disrupt Prince Condé's army's rest.

Those nobles and knights were no match for Prince Condé in a field battle, so they fortified their positions and hid in their manors and castles.

Originally, Edmund and his men wanted to retaliate, but were rejected by Lacunio.

Hotam County is no longer the home ground of the Imperial Order Company. They are playing away from home and do not have an advantage.

After the fall of Feiliu Castle, the entire Hotam County basically fell into a state of anarchy. The people of Thousand River Valley were hostile to the church because of the Blue Blood Incident, and they were also hostile to Prince Kongdai because of the Lancers Incident.

If we launch a rash attack without infantry cover, it will be difficult not to encounter the tragedy of the Black Lettuce Village ambush again.

The clashes between the Imperial Company and the Hussars in recent days can prove this.

With the support of infantry and civilians, the casualty ratio between the two sides could reach 1 to 2.5, that is, two and a half hussars or infantrymen replaced one Knight of the Imperial Company.

Although most of them were knights at the level of squires, it was still an absolute blood loss for the Imperial Order Company.

"I heard that Melia mentioned the detention dock?" Sitting quietly on the stone bench, Prince Kongdai asked after a long while, panting.

"We arrived yesterday. We haven't yet figured out the latest movements." "How are the soldiers settling in?"

"They have rested for a day. They all know the breathing technique and recover quickly. Lord Lacunio distributed the monastery's property as a bounty last night. The soldiers are very motivated."

"Have they explored all the camps on the front line?"

"We have found one, but we cannot confirm the number of people. There may be only two squadrons."

"In that case, let's set off tomorrow and defeat their two squadrons first." Prince Condé opened his eyes and said to Edmund calmly, "Ask Mr. Lacunio to come to my place so that we can have lunch together."

"As ordered, Your Highness."

After walking out of the small courtyard, Edmund breathed a sigh of relief, not only because of the power of the Prince's Knight, but also because he received the news that he could finally go to battle.

This decisive battle was a relief for high-ranking knights of the Imperial Order Company such as Edmund.

Half of the imperial company under Prince Kongdai are remnants of the former Golden Sparrow family, and the other half are new knights who joined later.

The former, mainly composed of Lacunio and Edmund, hopes to restore the momentum of the Goldfinch family and gain a firm foothold.

The latter are mainly composed of bankrupt coastal knights such as Bo'oluo and Elad, who hope to gain new territories in the Thousand River Valley.

Since their establishment, their nine imperial command companies have basically maintained this number and organization, and the same group of people have been fighting for more than ten years.

Although there have been defeats, there has never been a large-scale loss of personnel, let alone such great pressure.

But the Thousand River Valley War made the old men of the Imperial Order Company regain the feeling of the first battle of Windmill Land.

At the beginning, they were unstoppable and easily captured the rebels in Xiaochi City, chasing that short-haired guy everywhere.

But since the Blue Blood incident, the situation has quietly changed.

First, Darnay, Duke of Kush in Jeanne d'Arc, was killed, and then a company of edicts led by Beaulieu and himself were all killed in the battle in Longsander County.

The war to the north to attack Meliati was even more unsuccessful. In the overwhelming rain of arrows, the four imperial orders were destroyed in half a year.

After that, the battle of Rapid City was unbreakable, and after the Savior Army reinforcements arrived, they once again wiped out the Command Company's troops in an organized manner.

For the first time, the speed at which the Imperial Order Company was replenished could not keep up with the intensity of the combat. As of today, the proportion of veterans in the Imperial Order Company has dropped to less than two-thirds.

It has been quite a while since the Imperial Order Company fought such a brutal war.
Compared to the Leia Civil War, neither the Duke brothers nor the King have lost more than one company of Imperial Knights so far.

The company captains have discussed this topic more than once. In the past, they didn't even need Lacunio's plan to defeat the enemy.

However, even with this plan that had no flaws at all, it was still torn apart by the people of Qianhe Valley.

At this point, even Prince Kongdai had to admit that the Thousand River Valley Salvation Army and the Duke of Hemashi's Army were their evenly matched opponents.

This time, it was not a simple suppression or reinforcement, but a decisive battle in a desperate situation.

Edmund walked along the corridor in a daze, stopped in front of Lacunio's room and knocked on the door: "Sir Lacunio, His Highness invites you to have lunch with us."

The next morning, the attendant knights rushed out first to disperse the cavalry who were watching nearby, and then Prince Conde, accompanied by hundreds of imperial knights and nearly 10,000 elite infantry, left the camp set up in Chak.

Between the King's Road and the green fields, the Salvation Army's Hussars fought under the blue sky.

Reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance, attack and counter-attack, one scene after another is played out in rotation.

Prince Condé and his army, like the eye of a whirlpool storm, marched quietly on the King's Road, while the Salvation Army camp was only 30 miles away.

On March 1446, 3 in the Imperial Calendar, Prince Kongdai, after three days of rest, officially marched into Feiliu Castle.

It was a sunny day.

(End of this chapter)