Twelve days later, Taal Fort ushered in a rare bustle and feast.

The caravan under the leadership of the three stewards of Cooper and Salter Lawrence was escorted by thirteen caravans (and coachmen) pulling thirteen wagons back to Talburg, this time the caravan carried only a small amount of garrison equipment and food supplies, because according to Art's arrangement, the main purpose of the caravan this time to Talfort was to transport the booty captured and plundered since the expedition to the valley wooden fort.

Arter's army had been serving the court for three months without pay, and according to Count Balwin's arrangement, another army would come to Talburg to replace them in three months.

The next three months at Taal Fort will have two scenarios.

In the worst-case scenario, Talburg would face a siege by the Swabian army, and with the defense of Talburg, it would be impossible to hold it in the face of a large and well-prepared enemy army, and in this case, Arte would not hesitate to withdraw with his army to the city of Glarus. The second situation is that Taal Fort will not be attacked by the enemy until the end of the service period, and the rest of the service time Yat should be spent in Taal Fort to recuperate and train the army.

But in either case, Tarburg did not need to continue to hoard a large amount of food and materials and leave too many servant farmers behind, so Art planned to take advantage of the relatively calm and abundant time around him now, so that the accompanying caravan could bring the materials piled up in Talfort and the idle servant farmers and prisoners of war back to the valley Wooden Fort earlier, so that even if he had to run away in the future, he would be less burdensome.

In addition to the personnel and materials, there were three pieces of news that came back with the caravan:

The first news is that the Swabian army east of Tarburg should stop for the time being, because the fighting on the northern front is becoming more and more intense, Swabian and Burgundian are constantly sending troops to the battlefield, and the two sides are fighting for every military fort and every town on the border line, and as the Duchy of Burgundy sent an elite army of 1,500 people to join the northern battlefield, the pace of the Swabian army's offensive is becoming more and more difficult, and the Duchy of Swabia has to force troops from all over the country to enter the northern front again.

This news corroborates Ron's military intelligence. Seven days earlier, the defenders of Tebulon had been drawn to support the northern front with more than 150 men. After the defenders of Tebrun County were drawn more than half of their soldiers, Bilten became more honest, and the defenders of the fort never stepped beyond the walls.

Three days ago, Art had taken a few cavalry to go around Bilten, and the whole Bilten didn't even dare to bark at them, but the Swabian baggage team, which had been transporting military supplies by road on the edge of the mountain, would rather run farther than bypass the Bilten line, and the various villages, castles, manors and settlements were closed and strictly guarded, so it was not easy for Art to loot again.

The second piece of news was that it was found out that the person who stabbed the caravan was the probationary knight Dean. After solving the matter of the seizure of the caravan's goods, Salter went to investigate the matter, he bought off a servant of a merchant guild, and learned that the Dean family did have a deep friendship with John, and Dean had also become the baggage officer of Earl Balwin's side in charge of collecting and escorting military rations, which was definitely a fat difference, and it was easier to be appreciated by the Earl's side often.

Dean's father was the most powerful southern merchant in Tignets, and the family monopolized the southern trade route from Tignets to Besançon before the Southern War.

When Dean assembled in the north, he saw that Art's accompanying caravan was carrying a lot of southern goods, and he was hostile at that time, so he would make things difficult for Art's army all the way, and the conflict in the Lucesin military camp was also deliberately arranged by him, in order to deter Art and take the opportunity to warn him not to get involved in the southern goods trade, but he never thought that he was beaten by Art's "black-robed army", and then Dean learned that Art petitioned to go to the border to die, and he gradually became relieved, because he knew that the border area was about to become a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, It is also highly likely that Art will be one of the corpses in the pile.

However, to Dean's surprise, not long ago, the family came to say that a large caravan of more than a dozen four-wheeled carriages suddenly appeared in the south to buy southern goods in the southern provinces, counties and towns, and the merchant's son instinctively told him that this was a wild dog who wanted to snatch meat from the mouth of the sleeping lion......

So there was the encounter with the caravan in Besançon later.

After hearing this, Art thought carefully about the various actions of leading the army north to Dean all the way, and he also knew that he would continue to clash with Dean and the merchant family behind him in the future, of course, these are all later words.

The third news was that he learned the details of the valley from Cooper, last time Lawrence was in a hurry and did not report the situation in detail in the valley, but after Cooper returned this time, Art specifically inquired about the situation in the valley in detail. After learning that everything was normal in the valley, the grain in the valley was abundant, and the wasteland was constantly being reclaimed, the stone hanging in Art's heart was also put down, because the valley's position in Art's heart was too important, and there was all the sweat and harvest he had put in in order to stand in this era in the past two years.

In order to welcome the return of the caravan and reward the officers and soldiers of the fort for their exploits in the past few months, Otto deliberately let the house slaughter a pig and a sheep, the pigs and sheep were snatched from Biltenberg and raised in the fort, and they were usually reluctant to slaughter, because these pigs and sheep were fresh meat that could be raised and preserved for a long time, in addition to fresh pigs and mutton, there were several large barrels of wine and a batch of fresh fruits and vegetables brought by the caravan from the north.

Soldiers and wounded soldiers were given enough pieces of meat, wine, fruit and vegetables, recruits, escorts, and ordinary laborers were given small cuts of meat and large bowls of broth and enough rye bread, and even prisoners of war in the dungeons of the Inner Bunker were given a portion of wheat paste mixed with broth......

On the second floor of the inner fort of Talburg, there are ten people sitting next to a patchwork "big long table", of course, the upper one in the center is Art, and the people sitting around the "long table" are the old butler Cooper, the vice-captain Otto (wounded), the vice-captain Angus, the sentry captain Ron, the first squad leader Bass, the second squad leader Kazak (wounded), the fourth squad leader Tuba, the captain of the fort team Lawrence, and the caravan steward Salter, these people are the core people around Arte, and they are the strongest help for Arte's hegemony.

On the first floor of the inner fort of Tarburg, a low table made of wooden planks was also surrounded by a circle of people, they were Colin, the leader of the second combat team of the first squad, Wei Zi, the leader of the second combat team of the second squad (wounded), the first combat team leader of the third squad, Passat, and the new leader of the second combat group, Bangeda (the original team leader was killed), the new leader of the second combat group of the fourth squad, Clideo (the original team leader was seriously injured), and the cavalry Jason and Red of the Sentinel Cavalry (wounded), and Andrew, a former peasant captain who had outstanding achievements in the defense of Talburg and volunteered to stay and join the Yates army, these people are the backbone of the Yates army and the core of this army.

Andrew, who had just joined the Yat army and was attending this kind of banquet for the first time, seemed a little cramped. This peasant captain who is the same age as Yat was originally a woodcutter in the mountains of Jonah Province, and his parents had a younger brother at home, Earl Balwyn conscripted the farmers of the territory to assemble as peasant soldiers in Besançon to participate in the war, Andrew was unexpectedly drafted, and then was accidentally sent to Yate's army, and then because of his strong body, he was selected by Otto into the peasant squad, he followed Yat to the battlefield with a heart of death, However, on the battlefield, this mediocre-looking young woodcutter shot three enemy soldiers by himself while he was chopping wood in the mountains and occasionally hunting with a bow. Later, the captain of his peasant squad was killed, and Andrew was temporarily appointed by Otto as the captain of the peasant squad and was responsible for commanding the last waiting guard.

A few days ago, most of the peasants and servant farmers had received their over-service money and left Tarburg to set out on their way home, but Andrew was unwilling to return to his hometown to be a hard-working woodcutter, so he chose to stay and join Arte's army. He was able to attend this Inner Fort dinner because he was the highest "position" among the peasants and soldiers who remained, and Yat intended to let him be the leader of the battle group after the expansion of the army, and at the same time, he also wanted to set a good example for the peasants and soldiers who had newly joined the army......

Andrew picked up a wooden conical cup in front of him, took a big sip of light beer, and then observed the people on the wooden table without saying a word. And through the past few months of contact, he felt more and more that the black-robed army in front of him was different from all the armies he had seen before, because he had never seen an army that could train soldiers like them. In his homeland, the lords had their own armies, but the soldiers of those armies had never endured such heavy and intensive training, nor would they have such strict military discipline and such high salaries, all of which made Andrew feel new and made him more determined to be a good warrior in this army.

"Brother Andrew, come and have a drink." Colin, who had been fighting alongside Andrew in the waiting stage, took the initiative to come over and clink glasses with Andrew.

"Thank you, Chief Colin, for taking care of me, if you hadn't pulled me at that time, I would have been shot dead by the enemy in the waiting platform." With that, Andrew happily drank the wine in his glass.

Colin also drank all the wine in the cup, and then said to Andrew with a slightly red face with a full burp: "Brother Andrew, you are the captain of the peasant army, I am only the team leader, since I call you brother, you don't call me the commander anymore, only the commander and above are considered commanders in the army."

Andrew smiled and touched his head, then turned to the barrel and filled Colin's and his glasses with more wine.

Colin picked up his wine glass and pulled Andrew to the leaders of several combat teams on this wooden table: "Let me officially introduce to you, this brother is called Andrew, and he will be our soldier brother in the future." Come, let's raise a glass to the addition of Andrew Brothers! ”

"Let's have a drink!"

"Together!"

The shouts of the crowd rang out.

…………

Outside the inner fort of Talfort, except for the four soldiers and eight laborers standing guard on the outer wall, the rest of the soldiers and laborers were all enjoying this rare battlefield banquet.

After months of fierce fighting, they killed many enemy soldiers, but there were also many soldiers and brothers who were with them day and night who were seriously injured and fell or even left them forever......