Armored Cavalry, survive in a world full of mods

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The Kingdom of Hols has existed for over 1000 years, and the reason they have been able to continue to this day is due to the insurmountable natural barrier in the north of the kingdom.

There was a huge gap in national power between them and the empire. This country had three times their size and the most fertile central plains, which made their population prosperous and their treasury full.

But now this insurmountable natural barrier is at risk of being damaged, yet they remain so short-sighted, even willing to jeopardize the overall situation for the sake of a plunder.

But the old man also knew that he had no other choice... Unlike the empire's standing army, these lords brought their own territorial soldiers and conscripts from their own territories in order to obtain more wealth, which is why they had traveled thousands of miles to come here.

The soldiers were making a fuss because food was running low in the camp; they were dissatisfied with their dwindling rations.

Count Curitens arrived just in time with his 3000 troops, which was a good thing, but they did not bring enough food, which increased the pressure on the camp...

The tent door was flung open again, and a servant entered to report:

A total of 12 nobles wanted to meet him...

Taloris sighed again, covered his face, and made up his mind.

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

Teres learned some rather interesting news... The current lord's wife is not the lord's son's real mother, but a stepmother.

He was puzzled at the time, wondering why such a young lady of the lord could give birth to such a big son... but considering the generally early marriage age in the Middle Ages, he did not have too many doubts.

But the reality wasn't as horrific as he imagined; the city's lord hadn't married a child in her teens...

Of course, these were all byproducts. The real news he received was that even the lord's son, his eldest son, was unaware of the massive armory.

A lord, who had reigned for over a decade, concealed a vast armory within his inner city, unknown not only to his wife but even to his eldest son. What were his intentions?

Considering the large number of strong slaves in those cities and the wealth he had accumulated, no one who knew these things could fail to understand the lord's thoughts.

And now everything that this lord had—his ambition, his wealth… even his city and his family—was no longer his.

For an ambitious person, nothing is more terrifying than this... all their efforts have benefited others, and years of forbearance, savings, and hard work have all turned into meaningless things.

He simply couldn't imagine what the lord would feel when he saw this place from outside the city...

Now his armor and weapons have been brought out, and the strong slaves in the city have been distributed with them. Even the money has been put to use, but he is not the one enjoying all of this.

Moreover, he had to live in constant fear that the secrets of the city would be leaked, leaving his family with nowhere to go in the entire Kingdom of Hols.

Just as Tersolius was reflecting on this, Arka suddenly came over and reported the information gathered by the scouts...

"You mean the Holstein army has started looting the surrounding villages?"

"Yes, sir. According to our intelligence, all five nearby villages have been looted and burned to the ground... We have not found any survivors."

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"Truly breathtaking..."

Tersolius shook his head, deeply moved by this unique situation of the Hols... Talina's village was completely destroyed by a Hols cavalry led by a minor lord.

It was as if they were in an enemy country, where they were burning, killing, plundering, and abusing their own people with impunity on their own soil... and they could only raise military supplies in this way.

They didn't know how to establish reasonable grain requisition measures, nor did they know to build warehouses along the marching routes; the lords didn't think about repairing the roads in their own territories...

This country had almost no opportunity to expand outwards, but thanks to the protection of its mountains and seas, it has survived to this day.

After thinking for a moment, Tersolius suddenly had an idea... This information seemed like it could be put to use...

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News of the massacre of the surrounding towns spread like wildfire through the city. The citizens, who were already terrified by the inexplicable betrayal of the kingdom, were even more frightened by this news. Everyone could guess what would happen to them after the city fell.

With no way out, the citizens finally stopped resisting the imperial rule, and Marcus found his work inexplicably easier, leaving him completely bewildered.

59 Reinforcements (1)

The catapult's boom was slowly pulled down by the winch. Amidst a series of commands, the four soldiers, their faces flushed, finally managed to get the metal mechanism into place.

The enormous stone projectile was lifted by two soldiers working together, then placed into a huge net. With all preparations complete, at a command, a soldier raised his wooden hammer and slammed it heavily onto the mechanism…

The counterweight box creaked and groaned as it slammed down, slowly raising the long launch bar until it reached maximum speed at the very end, launching the massive stone projectile directly into the air.

The heavy rock quickly turned into a small black dot, streaking across the pale sky and crashing into the ground in front of the city wall amidst the expectant gazes of the Hols people. It then sank deep into the ground with a dull thud, kicking up a large clump of soil.

"It's veering off course! Adjust it again!"

The soldier standing on the wooden tower shouted loudly down, and a Holstein man in a robe came to the catapult, took the wooden hammer from the soldier, and struck a protruding wooden block several times.

Soon, another huge rock was transported over, and the soldiers began to pull down the long jib again, and the massive counterweight box slowly rose once more amidst the creaking of the wood.

The process was the same as before: the stone projectiles were loaded into a net bag, and after everything was prepared, they were launched as the soldier struck the trigger.

The massive rock streaked across the sky once more, this time its impact point extending further forward, but it still didn't touch the city wall. It tore through a small patch of land before sinking deep into the ground, but the dull thud seemed to travel along the ground to the city wall, making the people standing on the mountain feel their feet tremble.

A mountain man raised his longbow high, then briefly calculated the distance and direction. A look of unease crossed his face, but he still released his grip...

Sure enough, although the arrow flew out with the airflow, it landed dozens of meters away from the catapult, which made the Hols soldiers laugh and continue to launch the catapult's stone projectiles with great enthusiasm.

After another half hour of calibration and adjustment, this time the stone projectile finally hit the city wall solidly... It shattered into several stone fragments and bounced back, sinking into the ground again.

The slaves and mountain people standing on the city wall felt a slight tremor under their feet, and then nothing more... The walls of Alpert were a full four meters thick, enough to allow carriages to run on them, so this sudden tremor naturally had no impact.

Just as these guys were still curiously craning their necks to look at the inconspicuous marks on the city wall, a cavalryman charged over with the swishing sound of iron scales scraping against each other, kicking them to the ground one after another, while shouting loudly for everyone to hide behind the battlements.

After saying these words, the cavalryman nimbly ducked and hid behind the meter-thick battlements...

The next instant, a massive rock crashed to the side, shattering several marble slabs used to build the city wall into sharp fragments that flew everywhere. Several slaves and mountain people, caught off guard, screamed and tumbled to the ground; two others were already silent…

The cavalryman was nearly driven mad with anger, but he still rushed to the side of these people and shouted down towards the city wall. Several strong slaves immediately carried over a strange thing from the side: two wooden poles connected by a whole white cloth. They put their wailing companions on it, and then each of them carried them away, one at each end.

The area for settling the wounded is located just over 200 meters from the city wall, and today it is fulfilling its duty for the first time...

After several people were carried in, Tarina immediately went forward to examine them. She hesitated for a moment, then immediately ordered the two who were already dead to be carried away...

Although the women around had witnessed such a bloody scene before, this was their first time being in charge of treating the wounded, so they seemed somewhat flustered.

For a moment, people were doing all sorts of things... Some rushed to get white cloths to wrap the wounds, some hurriedly fetched hot water, and some wanted to find herbs... Some even did nothing but frantically shout in panic, and the scene became chaotic.

"Don't run around!"

The girl's slightly stern voice suddenly rang out, drawing all the women's attention to her, which made her flinch slightly.

……

"Listen carefully, doctor. Everyone encounters an emergency for the first time, and they often panic. As a leader, your job is to guide their thinking, prevent panic from spreading, and tell them what they should do..."

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The girl took a deep breath:

“Bryce, Kunna! You two take their clothes off, being careful not to aggravate the wounds… Elsie, Daphne, you two go get some clean bandages…”

Her mind had never been so clear. Tarina methodically assigned tasks to everyone, and the previously flustered women, now knowing what they were supposed to do, immediately sprang into action…

The tattered clothes on the wounded were immediately removed to prevent them from sticking to the wounds, and the pebbles embedded in the flesh were pulled out one by one. After a flash of pale blue light, the bleeding stopped.

The excessively large wound was cleaned and then stitched up with needle and thread. A clean bandage soaked in medicine was then applied to it, and the bleeding quickly stopped.

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They had made ample preparations, so they quickly rescued these unfortunate fellows... of course, only temporarily; what happened next depended on their own luck...

A mountain archer and a crossbowman were very unlucky to have their heads smashed. In fact, they had already stopped breathing on the city wall, but the slaves still brought them down... and now they are being taken out to find a place to bury them.

To prevent a plague from breaking out in the city, Tersolius ordered that all the dead must be buried in the cemetery... and even demolished two abandoned houses to make room for them.

"Dr. Talina, what do we do next?"

Tarina, whose hands were still stained with blood, was suddenly stopped by a woman. When she turned around, she realized that everyone was staring at her expectantly...

"Go...go, go wash these rags used for cleaning wounds again...someone else might be brought over later, everyone be prepared."

The women agreed and immediately got to work, while only Talina remained standing there, somewhat dazed…

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The massive rocks launched by the heavy catapults crashed against the city walls again and again, each time producing a deafening roar that shook the entire city, but the damage they caused to the thick walls was very limited.

Only after continuously pounding the city walls for more than ten days could they possibly cause real structural damage... But during this period, the boulders launched into the city inevitably affected the morale of the city.

Residents living near the city walls felt great panic and demanded to move closer to the city center to avoid being crushed by the huge stones being hurled in.

Thesolius then issued an order to demolish houses near the city walls, and some of the fine timber salvaged was put to use by the city's craftsmen.

Tersolius wasn't prepared to be attacked indefinitely. From the moment he entered the city, the artisans were summoned and busy with a project. This would give the Holsteins a big surprise when they launched their full-scale attack…

The following period was the most difficult and longest phase, marked by the constant bombardment of catapults.

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The mountain people and slaves stood at the base of the city walls, dumbfounded as the huge rocks crashed into the walls and rolled into the city, but because the surrounding area had been cleared, they didn't hit any obstacles...

These enormous rocks weren't specially crafted projectiles; they were massive blocks quarried directly from the mountains, with sharp, jagged edges, making them impossible to roll. Over time, they accumulated into a large pile on this open area near the city wall.

This area has become a veritable death zone; only the most reckless dare to go in... You never know when a stone might fly by and smash you into a bloody pulp, so much so that you'd be mixed in with the soil and indistinguishable, and you'd have to turn the land over to use it as fertilizer.

Neither the mountain people nor the slaves intended to be used as fertilizer. They pitched tents directly at the base of the wall and lived there for the next few days. If the enemy launched a surprise attack, they could climb the wall in the blink of an eye to defend themselves.

A group of strong, clever, and diligent people were assigned to operate the machinery on the city wall. They were seeing such things for the first time and needed to be taught by others.

There was no shortage of such candidates. On the day the city was breached, although many soldiers who tried to stop their iron cavalry were crushed on the spot, many others were taken prisoner... Among them were many who were originally operators of catapults.

The city's defenses were quite complete, including not only a dozen small catapults, but also many giant crossbows, oil canisters, and the like.

The garrison soldiers who had already fallen into their hands naturally had no intention of resisting, or rather, they had already recognized reality and were even quite eager for this opportunity, so they were all released quickly.

On the afternoon of the same day that the Hols' heavy catapults began to unleash their power, the catapults on the city walls also began to retaliate. Relying on the cover of the sturdy city walls, the two sides fought back and forth for a time... Thanks to the height of the city walls, even small catapults had a fairly good range.

The Hols' catapults were frequently hit, though rarely directly due to the distance. Nevertheless, they immediately erected tall wooden fences in front of them to protect their catapults.

The fence would be smashed to pieces from time to time, and whenever this happened, soldiers had to risk their lives to repair it.

This was certainly not a good job. The chances of being hit by a stone were slim, but not impossible, and if you were hit, you would die a horrible death... But for the sake of those shiny gold coins and blood-stained whips, one soldier after another carried the nailed wooden fence up to repair it.

Both sides suffered few casualties, but each death was extremely gruesome... sometimes they even had to be scooped up from the ground with a wooden shovel...

The slaves quickly adapted to their new situation. They went from being terrified when they first saw the gruesome deaths to now being able to calmly clean up the bodies and bury them...

They are already people who have suffered greatly, and their psychological tolerance is often much lower than that of others.

This was the fourth day of the city's siege...

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A magnificent yellow warhorse galloped along the road, accompanied by hundreds of its sturdy brethren. The subtle, vibrating sound of its armor rubbing together was like a continuous swarm of bees buzzing together.

A dozen or so bright red flags were erected among the rapidly advancing cavalry, and in the very center of the column, a thick, glossy black flagpole was held in the hand of a tall cavalryman.

A golden double-headed eagle stands on the horizontal bar at the top of the flag. The flag, made of thick silk, has a golden surface covered with tiny characters embroidered on it, and the edges are decorated with a circle of bright red tassels and border patterns embroidered with gold and silver threads.

At the very center of the banner is a burly cavalryman, fully armored and wielding a spear, poised to strike. Even his warhorse is clad in heavy armor, its golden silk fluttering as if it too is galloping at full speed.

The swaggering armored cavalry swiftly advanced along the well-maintained roads within the empire, passing one post station after another, but rarely stopping, only resting when both men and horses were at their physical limits.

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"General, water."

Nathamus stiffly accepted the ceramic jug, its leather outer layer still damp with water. He picked it up and gulped down the icy well water until his thirst was quenched. Only then did he let out a long sigh and vigorously wipe his mouth with his sleeve.

"We've passed Karites now, haven't we?..."

"Yes, General, we will reach Labufia tonight..."

Natamus glanced at his chief bodyguard:

"Just say what you want to say. When did you start to stutter like that?"

The tall, imposing captain of the guard hesitated for a moment before speaking:

"General, our men are exhausted... If this continues, things might go wrong."

As soon as he finished speaking, the captain of the guard fell silent. He knew what his suggestion meant... and he knew how anxious his general was. If he had the chance, he would have loved to take off the horse's four legs and put them on himself...

But they really couldn't continue traveling like this... If they continued like this, the people could barely hold on, but their warhorses certainly couldn't. It would be safer for them to rest until tomorrow morning before continuing their journey.

Natamus stroked his stubble-covered chin, pondering for a moment...

“You’re right. Let’s rest for today… and continue our journey tomorrow morning. Go and tell the manager of this post station to feed our warhorses salted grain and a few eggs.”

He didn't get a response for a moment, and when he turned around, he found his captain of the guards looking at him in shock.