It wasn't too late, but the sky over the Vaal was darkened by a dense cloud of clouds, and the downpour of rain wrapped in the thick clouds never fell.

After the battlements of the western wall, Baron Walter, commander of the 1st Regiment of the Jonah Legion, stretched out his right arm and let the guards wrap a piece of hemp-gray linen around the arm that had cut a gap, and the chain mail hanging from the arm had been cut by the thick-backed broadsword of the Western army.

Therefore, the enemy army besieging the city retreated, but as the supreme commander of the defenders, he had already personally climbed the wall to fight, and I am afraid that the western army would not have a seventh siege, and tomorrow would be the last defensive battle of Vaal City.

A young man who looked like an officer with the army climbed up from under the wall, came to Walter, and whispered, "Captain of the Legion, the battle damage of the enemy and the enemy has been calculated. Our army~"

"There is no need to report the casualties of our army, just say how many casualties the enemy has supplied." Walter can roughly estimate the number of casualties of his army, the western army is not only elite soldiers but also has a large number of heavy siege equipment, so in just a dozen miles, the elite of the first regiment basically died at the head of the Vaal city wall, and now as the main force to defend the city, it is already those who accompany the army and the forced peasant soldiers in and around the city.

"It's my lord. After our inventory and rough estimation of the corpses under the city, the Western and Western troops had already killed about 200 in the first four attacks, and more than 50 people should have been seriously wounded, and in the fifth attack in the past two days, more than 100 people were lost, and no less than 30 people were seriously wounded. ”

Walter stood up and leaned against the wall to look at the Western army camp outside the city, and said fiercely: "Why are these bastards so deadly? Nearly a single infantry regiment was not ready to withdraw from the battle, were they ready to die all of them under the Vaal City! ”

Walter didn't know how strong the Praetorian Guard was, nor how high the price offered by the Besançon court after their victory, but he was surprised by the stubbornness of this group of "old soldiers".

The guards finally bandaged Walter's wounded arm, waved them back, and asked the officer shū jì who was standing in front of him, "Are all the granaries and arsenals in the city with fire oil?"

With a tired and decadent look on his face, the shū jì official replied, "The three barns and an arsenal are all equipped with fire oil, and as soon as the city gates are broken, the guards will immediately light the fire oil and burn the grain and grass."

Walter nodded, "These food and equipment must not fall into the hands of the enemy, with these food and grass equipment, they can use this as a base to go straight in." ”

"How many civilians and laborers are there in the city?" Walter asked again.

After a moment's thought, the shū jì official replied, "There are about 150 civilians who have not been transferred to the city wall, and most of them are old, weak, women, and children, and they can't wield swords."

"I didn't expect them to be able to fight the enemy in hand-to-hand combat, but they could always lift stones and throw them down the city, and they could still be refilled."

"Order, let the men take out all the fruits, vegetables, wine and meat stored in the city, so that all the civilian laborers are fed and drunk, and after they are full, they will be given some simple weapons, and tell them that as long as they go to the city to fight, they will have wine and meat every day!"

The shū jì official thought about it, and now it was only like this, so he turned around and prepared to make arrangements.

"Wait!" Walter stopped the shū jì officer.

"I remember there were dozens of prisoners in the castle prisons, right?"

The shū jì official really didn't know how many prisoners were held in the prison under that castle, "My lord, this ~ I haven't been to see it ~ "

Walter raised his left hand and waved, "It doesn't matter how many prisoners there are, let them all out!"

"Huh?"

"Tell these prisoners that if they will take up arms to defend the city for us, I will personally pardon them for all their sins after the war; If they refuse to fight for me, I will kill them all before the enemy breaks through the city!" ”

"Yes! Be! ”

The shū jì official trotted towards the inner fort.

"Legion ~ Grown, there is an abnormality in the outer half mile of Dongcheng ~ !" A guard of the eastern city wall ran to the head of the western city wall, and did not have time to catch his breath.

Walter thought that the enemy was going to attack the eastern city again before dark, so he immediately climbed up with the battlements and ran around the southern battlements with a few guards to the top of the eastern wall.

Standing on the eastern wall of Vaal City, you can vaguely see the movement of people and horses fighting about half a mile away.

The large military camp of the Western Army was stationed a mile outside the West City, and the one outside the East City was only the wài wéi outpost camp of the Western Army, with two flag teams of nearly 100 stragglers stationed, they were mainly to block the reinforcements of the Eastern Army that might come from the east, and there were several small garrison posts along the road further east, which had been flattened by the cavalry that suddenly appeared.

"Legionnaire, it's cavalry! It's cavalry! Two groups of cavalry are charging at each other, and they are about to break down the enemy camp garrison! The commander of a flag team at the head of the eastern city wall saw the movement in the distance and exclaimed loudly.

"It's the reinforcements that have arrived! Reinforcements have arrived! The soldiers guarding the city around the flag commander also cheered and shouted.

Walter was not as excited as the soldiers, he put his hands on the battlements and tried to look into the distance, they tried to see the size of the cavalry, but it was so dark that Walter couldn't count the number of cavalry that were no bigger than black beans.

As far as Walter could see, two groups of cavalry from the Wells Legion were riding through the scattered stragglers of the Western Army, slashing and sprinting back and forth.

The deputy captain of the cavalry, the knight Reyek, straddled a brown Norman horse, holding a long-handled iron-headed hammer weighing five pounds in his hand, and under the neighing of the war horse under him, Reyeke raised the round-headed hammer in his hand and picked it up from the bottom to the top, and then drew a circle and smashed it towards the back of a fleeing Western army.

Bang~ sound, the spine of the fleeing Western Army was smashed alive, and a bloody crater appeared behind him.

Crushed to death a fleeing enemy soldier, grabbed the reins and stopped running, then turned to look at the dozen or so Western troops who were still gathering beside the commander and holding spears and shields behind him, Rejek turned his horse's head and kicked the horse and ran back dozens of steps, then jumped off the horse and threw away the reins, grabbed the tail handle of the long-handled hammer with both hands, and dragged the heavy hammer towards the gathered Western army to run and rush.

The distance of more than ten steps allowed Reyek to accumulate enough strength, and when he rushed to the west two steps in front of him, Reyek roared, and picked up the long-handled heavy hammer dragged behind him and smashed it diagonally, and the heavy hammer smashed into the shield wall of the western army with a wind whistle, and the two western troops behind the shield were instantly smashed to the ground, and a crack appeared in the shield wall.

Rejek took advantage of the situation to pick up the hammer in reverse again, and only to hear the crunch of a shield breaking bones......

Reyek's command skills may be mediocre, but as a warrior who survives by war, his personal combat power is impeccable......

Eighty-three stragglers of the Western Army, in the face of the charge of twenty or so raiding cavalry, were completely routed in less than a meal.

More than 30 lying corpses were left on the ground, and the rest were dragged and wounded and fled back to the Western Army camp outside Xicheng......

By the time it was dark, the Welsh Legion cavalry had completely captured the camp.

"Sir Reyek, you hurry up and lead a squad of cavalry to continue to block the right flank, your lord's line is only a mile away." Lusignan, the captain of the cavalry on a black warhorse, commanded Rejek.

Reyek said yes, then put the hammer on his shoulder, stepped on the back of the war horse led by his men, and led the cavalry towards the right flank.

As soon as Reyek's figure was blurred, a mile east of the Vaal City, there were scattered fires, at first there were only a dozen fires, then one or two hundred torches appeared on the left and right, and finally suddenly a large area of fire appeared, and thousands of torches appeared in the dark night wilderness.

Baron Walter, who was at the head of the Vaal City, let go of his hanging heart, and in his experience estimated that at least fifteen hundred torches would have to shine that brightly. In other words, the number of friendly reinforcements was at least 1,500, and the two flanks of the army were still one or two hundred torches.

Walter was wondering which reinforcements could have more than 1,500 men, knowing that the entire Eastern Frontier Army (the standing army against the Swabians) was only about 2,200 men.

Walter really couldn't remember, but at this time it didn't matter whose army it was, he only knew that Vaal City would definitely be able to hold it......

The bystanders are confused, and the authorities are clear.

For this plan, the officers and soldiers in the Welsh Regiment actually had no bottom in their hearts.

At least Colin and Weez, the two flag captains, are bottomless.

Weiz walked in front of the right wing of the Third Banner Team, less than five paces away from Colin who was in front of the left wing of the Second Flag Team, and the two flag captains had a common posture, they both held a torch with a flaming flame in their left and right hands, and even an elongated torch tied to their backs, which looked quite strange.

The flag soldiers behind them were also separated by two people, holding spears in their right hands and torches in their left hands, and they also had a torch tied to their backs; The few officers who did not carry spears carried three of them, as did Collinweitz.

"Brother Colin, you think that Dunnis's bad idea can really fool the enemy? Can you disturb the hearts of the enemy? Wezz's hands shook the two torches in his hands, and he looked up at the long-handled torch tied to his back.

"Who knows, I guess it can still be of some use, otherwise adults won't adopt it, but this trick can also fool the enemy's eyes tonight, and I still have to expose my strength tomorrow morning."

Weiz also nodded in agreement with Colin's point of view, "That guy Dunnis relies on a mouth to deceive people, every time he comes to my flag team to chat with the soldiers, he is full of spittle, and every time he has to praise the adults and the two adjutants." We all admired and loved Lord and the two lieutenants, but I really couldn't say anything about him like that. ”

"That's it, those ideological and political officials have no role except flamboyant tongues, but the soldiers just like to deal with those guys!" Colin also complained twice.

The two of them were soon a mile outside the east gate of the Vaal City.

"Stop advancing, set up camp on the spot, triple the gap between the tents, and raise three bonfires per squad."

"Stop moving forward and set up camp ......"

The legion commanded several heralds in the tent and roamed around.

"Widening the gap?"

"Isn't each squad a campfire? Why are there three bonfires all of a sudden? How much firewood does this have to burn? Weiz looked at Colin puzzled.

Colin shrugged, "Don't look at me, I don't know, the summons are executed!" ”

"The squadrons halted their advance, camped on the spot, the gap was tripled, and three bonfires were made for each squadron. Fast! ”

As soon as Colin and Wezz gave orders to the soldiers under their command, Matthew, Arter's personal bodyguard, ran to the two of them and conveyed the second order: "Chief Colin, Chief Weez, my lord has an order, and each flag team will send two squadrons to guard the patrol for half a mile outside the battalion." The two chiefs were responsible for the west and south sides, respectively. ”

"Yes!"

"Matthew, isn't it true that half of the infantry is on guard outside the camp?"

"Yes, Chief Colin, and the gōng nǔ team and cavalry are all on guard outside the camp, and only the heavy infantry team remains in the camp."

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

The Western army camp in the west of the Vaal City was in a hurry, and the Western Army, which received an urgent enemy situation, could not care about the fatigue after a whole day of siege and death, and picked up weapons from the camp tent to prepare for battle.

The camp of the Western Army commanded the tent, and a Viscount of the Palace Praetorian Guard Legion who commanded the Western Army shouted and asked, "Fifteen hundred?" And more than that? No way! Most of the rebels' armies have been pinned to the northern front, where did they get so many army reinforcements? ”

"Do you see clearly?"

"Commander, you can see clearly, there were more than 1,500 torches when they appeared, and after camping outside the East City, we also counted the number of bonfires, and the preliminary estimate is that there are 12,300 people."

"Have you counted the heads?"

"The rebel reinforcements sent more than 200 stragglers to the outposts around the camp, and our sentries could not get close to them, so they could only estimate the number of campfires. However, there are more than 200 sentries in Wài Wéi alone, and the size of the rebel reinforcements will not be less than 1,000. ”

"Didn't the Sentinel's report a few days ago say that only an army of five or six hundred men had arrived from south of Jonah? It seems to be the Welsh Legion. ”

"Could it be that the enemy has been hiding their tracks and deliberately making us unclear about the scale?"

The commander of the Western Army was still confused, but the enemy army was already close to Vaal City, and he did not have time to investigate the origins in detail.

"Immediately send one company from each of the 1st and 2nd Regiments of the Praetorian Guard Legion, plus all the cavalry of the Frontier Legion, to monitor the enemy outside the east gate of Vaal City, and never let them enter Vaal City." The commander of the Western Army decisively ordered.

The herald turned to give the order, and a knight-like officer with a gray beard in the camp stood up and said to the commander in the main seat: "Commander, could this be a bluff on the part of the enemy?" According to the hostile notice of the court (referring to the court of Besançon), the number of the rebel Welsh legions was no more than five or six hundred. ”

The commander of the Western Army bowed his head and was silent, he also thought that this was a conspiracy of the rebels to send reinforcements, but the Western Army had been fighting for many days, and today had just ended a bloody battle, and he really didn't dare to take the risk.

In the camp, the commanders of the Western Army also whispered to each other......

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

In the middle of the night, a dark shadow escaped the close surveillance of the Western army outside the northern city and crawled into Vaal City with a flying zipline, bringing with him a secret letter from Art to the commander of the Vaal defenders.

The letter informed the defenders that there were thousands of reinforcements, and that most of the troops would sneak out of the barracks and go around the rear of the enemy tonight, and when the time came, Arter would lead the army to attack the Western Army, and the team of Shadow Hide would also attack from behind......

Art did not tell the secret source of the "army of a thousand", and the messenger did not tell him on the grounds of confidential military information.

Walter was relieved.

However, if Walter knew that Art was playing a dangerous game at all, he would not have said anything to accompany him crazy......