diymy #545 - Who would surrender without conditions?
#545 - Who would surrender without conditions?
Garinon swallowed hard, gazing at the castle scarred by fire and axe.
He reached out, just wanting to rein in his horse and stop, but the two squire knights beside him immediately flanked him.
"Can't I even have a drink of water?" Garinon's forceful tone betrayed his fear, even to his own ears.
The two squire knights said with insincere smiles, "Of course, please do."
But their hands holding Garinon's horse's reins didn't show any sign of letting go, and Garinon was even more distressed.
He clearly hadn't initially intended to make any small moves under Prince Condé's nose.
It was Count Samboli who had drawn him in, and he had thought of killing two birds with one stone: first, to sit on the fence and observe; second, to unite and resist.
Holding onto the idea of having a safety net, he participated in communicating with Melia and aiding the Holy Sun's army.
In the end, he was the one who got caught! He wasn't even the mastermind!
But he couldn't even expose the mastermind, otherwise, with Prince Condé's temper, it would probably be a major purge.
In the end, under Count Samboli's oath of "I will take care of your wife and children," he tearfully embarked on this journey of no return.
As for the other nobles of Hottem County, they naturally adopted the attitude of "Sacrifice your small self to fulfill my great self" to appease Prince Condé's anger.
The battle situation was currently undecided, so they couldn't rashly tear off their masks.
But as far as Garinon was concerned, the battle situation was already decided—Prince Condé was about to win.
The corpses strewn everywhere, the axe and sword marks on the city walls, the sound of taut bowstrings as they approached the walls…
Garinon's tears were about to fall. If you had these means, you should have said so earlier! Then why would the nobles of Hottem County have needed to sit on the fence?
This level of intensity wasn't the intensity of a siege to strike the reinforcements; it was the intensity of a real siege.
Accurately speaking, the Church's army was indeed conducting a siege.
Just like Lacunio had miscalculated the Savior Army's ability to recruit and deploy troops, Hohen had also miscalculated something.
He only thought that the reinforcements sent by Duke Osla were those territorial servants, but he forgot that the territory of Crushed Stone Plain was almost a vassal of Duke Osla.
Putzrio's younger brother, Arnold, had long since brought nearly ten thousand noble coalition troops to the border of North Mound County.
At this time, because of the Innocent Dam, the nobles were monitoring possible Shepherd uprisings, which conveniently concealed the movement of troops.
The so-called siege to strike the reinforcements was just to make Melia think that this was a war of attrition to strike the reinforcements.
Lacunio wanted Melia to believe that they still had a chance to rescue the Gray Horse Knight Wayne.
Once Melia led her troops out of the territory, facing the powerful enemy Prince Condé, she would definitely send out her main force, and the rear would be one hundred percent empty.
The noble coalition army of Crushed Stone Plain could then take advantage of this opportunity to break in, cut off Melia's retreat, and completely encircle her to death in Deer Horn Township.
So, the idea that Melia would arrive at the battlefield in ten days and then delay for another ten days until Hohen arrived was nonexistent.
Before Melia even reached the battlefield, the Outpost Fortress would have been captured.
Even if Melia wanted to return at this time, her retreat would be blocked by the noble coalition army of Crushed Stone Plain, and she could only fight a decisive battle with the Edict Legion with her retreat cut off.
Rather than slowly fighting a war of attrition, it was better to quickly fight a decisive battle, otherwise, it would be a big trouble when the Twin Stars merged.
Lacunio was different from Alman and Mizam; he never underestimated any enemy.
After learning that Melia had already sent troops, their only goal was to capture this castle before Melia arrived.
As the name suggested, this was just a castle that served as an outpost; Wayne had only added a circle of fortifications to the outside.
However, this circle of fortifications was breached in only two days by the Edict Legion, who arrived ahead of time.
Now, there were only 1,000 defenders in this castle, and they had to face an attack from ten times their number of enemies.
And they weren't ordinary enemies; there were 1,200 men from 4 Edict Legions, 7,500 men from 3 elite mercenary groups, plus 1,000 recruited guards and armored soldiers, and 300 local country knights.
Yes, due to the crisis of trust, Prince Condé didn't bring any of the noble armies from Hottem County.
As for the strength of this army, there was no need to say more about the Edict Legion.
As for those three mercenary groups, the North Mound Mountain Knights who had fought them would never classify them as guards or armored soldiers.
Unlike the miscellaneous mercenary groups hired by Boreo and Putzrio, these mercenary groups had all participated in the Battle of Windmill Land.
The Death Legion and the Eagle Legion were both in the top ten, vying for the top five, in the current mercenary market.
Harkuto's old employer, the White Maple Mercenary Group, was not as good as the former two, but it was still at the upstream level.
These people were all true veterans and were familiar with large-scale legion warfare.
If Prince Condé was willing to sign a century-long contract with them in the future, these people would smoothly become territorial servants.
If it weren't for the purpose of luring Melia out, these elite infantrymen would have captured this thousand or so people yesterday.
The battle situation was set, and he was doomed. Garinon drank the courage-boosting liquor in his waterskin, and tears finally couldn't stop falling.
How could he have been so blinded by greed, thinking that Melia and the warlock Hohen had a chance to fight?
"What are you here to do?"
The two squire knights beside him, holding white flags, shouted loudly at the castle, "We are here to send an envoy to negotiate with you!"
"Negotiate? What's there to negotiate? May the Holy Lord bless us; we can only fight to the death!" The spirited response of the mountain knights gave Garinon a glimmer of hope.
But he didn't know what the people on the castle had said, but they lowered a hanging basket.
"Lord Garinon, do we need to invite you?"
Garinon wiped his tears and snorted, "No need."
Then he fell off his horse and could barely stand straight by holding onto the saddle. Getting into this hanging basket meant death.
In the case of territorial disputes or title claim wars between ordinary lords, there was still the custom of not killing envoys and ransoming knights.
But the intensity between Melia and the Church could even be considered a heretical holy war.
Moreover, Prince Condé's task for Garinon was to force the Gray Horse Knight Wayne to surrender, but he had not been granted any power to promise any conditions.
Then what was there to talk about? Wasn't it just sending him to his death?
Who was the Gray Horse Knight? The old Duke's subordinate, Melia's swordsmanship teacher, a titled knight!
How could he possibly surrender?
The hanging basket slowly rose into the air, and Garinon felt his soul rising into the sky with the hanging basket as his body swayed with it.
Being escorted by several soldiers, the sobbing Garinon was even sent to the main general's room in a daze.
"Are you the envoy from Shire?"
He opened his blurry, tear-filled eyes but saw a handsome middle-aged knight with a worried look on the main seat.
This knight had a bandage on his left hand and was sizing him up. He was probably the Gray Horse Knight Wayne, known for his handsomeness.
Garinon was somewhat familiar with the middle-aged bearded man beside him, but he couldn't recognize who he was.
After the bearded man whispered a few words to the handsome knight, Wayne was stunned at first, then smiled and looked at him, "Are you that unlucky guy Garinon? The one who was jailed for trading with the Holy Sun's army?"
Garinon's sobbing suddenly stopped. His reputation wasn't that high that this titled knight could recognize him at a glance.
"It's me, Seizinger," the bearded man spoke. "Garinon, do you still recognize me?"
Garinon was stunned. He had used Seizinger as his timber supplier when he built his castle palace. Wasn't he a noble from North County? How did he end up here?
But he was about to die now, so he didn't have the mind to explore these questions.
Garinon tried to stop crying, but tears still flowed down uncontrollably. He choked and said, "I'm here to persuade you to surrender."
"Hmm, then what?" The Gray Horse Knight waved his hand, telling the snickering soldiers to leave first, leaving only Seizinger, Wayne, and Garinon.
"That's all."
"There's more; there must be more."
"Really, that's all."
"I'm asking you, aren't there any conditions?" Wayne lowered his voice.
"No, there aren't."
"Who would surrender without conditions?" Wayne widened his eyes. "You didn't embezzle the benefits given to me, did you?"
"Ah?"
Garinon and Seizinger exclaimed in unison, and both of their tears and smiles disappeared.
Seizinger even looked at Wayne's face as if he was seeing him for the first time.
"There's an old saying in the El Empire that those who recognize the changes in things are heroes," Wayne waved his hand. "I already know that defeat is inevitable, not only for this castle but also for the entire battle situation.
Since that's the case, why violate the Holy Father's will?
Go back and tell Prince Condé that I want an earldom, fifty beauties, and a thousand gold pounds!"