Chapter 563 Decisive battle and relief
When Prince Condai advanced to the outskirts of Hotam County, it was already March 20, 1446 in the imperial calendar.
After successively defeating two rebellious counts and looting three rebellious monasteries, Prince Condai's army settled at the Chak Monastery, 110 miles away from Feiliu Castle.
After ten days of running and fighting, even the extraordinary knights with amazing endurance had to take a break.
On the one hand, they need to wait for the arrival of the rear infantry, and on the other hand, they need to recruit food, arm farmers and hire wandering knights on the spot.
Since they were running for hundreds of miles this time, Prince Kong Dai and the others did not carry much food, especially the rations for the rear infantry and the forage and beans for the war horses.
As for armed farmers and knights, not to mention, it is just a matter of helping others.
The Church and the Order are the two largest landowners in Hotam County. Currently, the nobles in Hotam County are on the opposite side of Prince Condai, while the Order remains neutral.
Therefore, after the Thousand Valley Church in Feiliu Castle became incapacitated, the church's manor armed farmers and knights naturally joined Prince Condai's formation.
Although the number of people is not large, it is enough to collect and transport food.
The bright sun was shining high at noon, but the blazing sunshine failed to heat the marble round table because the cold winter wind still lingered in the yard.
Not counting the narrow stone bench, it was like a small horse under the prince's buttocks. He was covered in a furry animal skin cloak and looked like a big bear in its nest.
The weather was not cold, but the prince, wrapped in his coat, was so cold that his teeth couldn't stop trembling, but the white steam exhaling from his mouth was extremely hot.
Two high-level monks, one on the left and one on the right, were sweating profusely as they used blessings on Prince Condai to alleviate and suppress the toxicity caused by the dragon potion.
He asked the old pope for these three bottles of dragon potion.
At that time, he asked the Pope for a dragon-blooded 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 quickly approved it and told him that the ordained monks were ready and he could be promoted anytime he wanted.
But he kept dragging it until Pope Johnny VIII died, but he didn't expect it to actually come in handy.
When the prince exhaled no longer hot breath, the two exhausted monks left with support, and the long-awaited company captain Edmund stepped forward and bowed.
"The grain truck was robbed again?" Prince Kong Dai closed his eyes, but showed no sign of anger.
"Yes, they used fireball to burn down our grain carts. Oristo went to pursue them, but was ambushed by their infantry, killing more than a dozen knights, and then retreated."
Prince Condai still closed his eyes and was speechless.
Since their arrival, the Salvation Army has discovered problems with their rations.
From their arrival on March 17, during these three days, the light horse archers led by Murat and the orc hussars led by Grouch began to continuously attack the grain transport team.
To this end, the cavalry archers and hussars did not hesitate to destroy a large number of bridges and roads, and continued to harass and attack at night, disrupting the rest of Prince Condé's army.
Those nobles and knights were no match for Prince Condai in the wild, so they stayed in the manor and castle.
Originally, Edmund and the others wanted to retaliate in kind, but they were rejected by La Cunho.
Hotam County is no longer the home court of the Imperial Company. They are fighting away from home and have no advantage in themselves.
After the fall of Flying Castle, the entire Hotam County basically entered a state of anarchy. The people of the Thousand River Valley who were hostile to the church because of the Blue Blood incident were also hostile to Prince Condai because of the Lancers incident.
If they attack rashly without infantry cover, it will be difficult not to encounter the tragedy of the ambush at Black Lettuce Village again.
The battles between the command company and the hussars in the past few days can prove this.
With the support of infantry and civilians, the casualty ratio of both sides can reach 1 to 2.5, that is, two and a half hussars or infantry replace one knight of the order company.
Although most of them were knights at the level of attendants, it was still an absolute loss of blood for the Order Company.
"I heard that Meliya mentioned Shushui Pier?" Prince Kong Dai asked, breathing heavily after sitting quietly on the stone bench for a while.
"I arrived yesterday. The latest trends have not yet been investigated clearly." "How are the sergeants settling in?"
"They have rested for a day. They basically know how to breathe and recover very quickly. Mr. La Cunho distributed the property in the monastery as a bounty last night. The sergeants are in high spirits."
"Have all their camps on the front line been explored?"
"One has been identified, but the number cannot be determined. There may be only 2 squadrons."
"In that case, let's set off tomorrow and eat two of their squadrons first." Prince Condai opened his eyes and calmly ordered Edmund, "Let Monsieur La Cunho come to my place. Let’s have lunch together.”
"As you command, 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 got the news that he could finally go to war.
This decisive battle is a relief for Edmund and other high-ranking knights of the Order Company.
Half of the imperial company under Prince Condai were remnants of the previous dynasty of the Jinque family, and half were new knights who joined later.
The former, led by La Cunho and Edmund, hope to regroup the Golden Birds and gain a firm foothold.
The latter are mainly bankrupt knights along the coast such as Boillou and Elad, hoping to gain new territory in the Thousand River Valley.
Since their establishment, their nine command companies have basically maintained this number and organization. They have been fighting for more than ten years with this same group of people.
Although there have been defeats, there has never been a large-scale attrition, let alone such great pressure.
But the Thousand River Valley War made these old men of the Command Company feel like they had fought in the Windmill Land War for the first time.
At the beginning, they were unstoppable, easily taking down the rebels in Xiaochi City, and chasing that short-haired guy everywhere.
But since the Blue Blood incident, the situation has quietly changed.
First, Darnay, Duke of Cush, at Castle Joan of Arc was killed, and then an imperial company led by Boilloux and himself were all killed in Langsand County.
The battle to attack Meliati in the north was even more unsatisfactory. Under the overwhelming rain of arrows, four imperial companies were beaten into half within half a year.
After that, the Battle of Rapids City went on for a long time, and after the Salvation Army reinforcements arrived, they once again completely eliminated the troops of the Order Company.
For the first time, the speed of replenishment of the company could not keep up with the intensity of the battle. Today, the proportion of veterans in the company has dropped to less than two-thirds.
The Imperial Company has not fought such a tragic war for quite some time,
Compared to the Leian Civil War, neither the Duke brothers nor the king have lost more than one company of Order Knights so far.
The company captains have talked about this topic more than once. In the past, they didn't even need La Cunho's plan to defeat the enemy.
However, even with this plan that showed no flaws at all, it was still torn apart by the people of Qianhe Valley.
At this point, even Prince Condai had to admit that the Thousand River Valley Salvation Army and the Hema Stone Duke's Army were their evenly matched opponents.
This time they were not simply suppressing or returning aid, but a decisive battle in a desperate situation.
After walking through the corridor in a daze, Edmund stopped in front of Lacunio's room door and knocked on the door: "Your Excellency Lacunio, His Highness invites you to come over and have lunch."
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Early the next morning, the attendant knights first ran out to disperse the nearby cavalry, and then Prince Condai left the camp in Chak with hundreds of knights and nearly 10,000 elite infantry.
Between the King's Road and the green fields, the Hussars of the Salvation Army fought under the blue sky.
Investigation and counter-investigation, attack and counter-attack, scenes were staged in turn.
Prince Condai and his army, like the eye of a whirlpool storm, marched quietly on the King's Road, and the Salvation Army camp was only 30 miles away.
On March 21, 1446 in the Imperial Calendar, Prince Kong Dai officially entered Feiliu Castle after three days of rest.
This day was a bright and sunny day.
(End of chapter)