After two days of repairing in the village where the rebels were entrenched, the southern caravan arrived in the village with empty wagons from Kitsby to transport away tens of thousands of pounds of captured grain, which was to be transported to Aosta and sold to the court of Provence and the baggage of the Viscount of Berrion as military rations.

Early in the morning of the third day, the Eastern Legion, which had learned that the rebels had been wiped out, moved south from Kitsby, and Art left the village with the outposts, either standing or lying, and returned to the Legion on the North-South Highway.

However, after the battle to clear the rebels, Arte's forces increased somewhat, as the 3rd squadron of Kazak, which had been sent to Provence to serve as a caravan guard for the south, also returned to Arte.

After Kazak's return, Yate assigned the 3rd Mercenary Squadron to the 1st Mercenary Squadron, which had suffered heavy battle damage, to form a new 1st Mercenary Squadron, while the Kazak Squadron still retained the number of the 3rd Squadron......

The rebels were entrenched on the road southwest of the village, where the Eastern Legion was stationed.

In the camp of the Chinese commander, Art is reporting to Viscount Geoffrey on the situation of the battle to clear the rebels.

"Legionnaire, the battle situation is as I said, the outpost suffered very serious losses in this battle with the Provençal rebels, the first squadron under my command was almost completely wiped out, the third squadron also suffered heavy casualties, and the entire outpost lost almost a third of the battle, fortunately, after the battle, there was a caravan from the Count of Burgundy that had a good relationship with me, and they took the initiative to send a caravan to escort me to join my command." Art briefly reported the beginning and end of the battle to clear the rebels, and also explained the origin of the sudden addition of fifteen soldiers to the outpost, but did not mention the capture of the battle or the true origin of the "rebel caravan".

Viscount Geoffrey is a military magnate from the court, and he only cares if Art successfully completes the task he has been given.

Of course, the war capture is also a topic of concern for him, although he promised not to ask for any spoils of war from Art, but it was promised from the perspective of the legion, and by no means on behalf of him personally, if he could not obtain benefits through the war, why would Viscount Geoffrey give up the comfortable life of the Besançon court and travel thousands of miles to the war-torn Provence army to fight.

Fortunately, Art was a "sensible" subordinate, with three thousand silver coins plus half a cart of raw silk wool and salt cloth, which Art gave to Viscount Geoffrey.

"Art, this time you have made a great record in the battle to clear the rebel army of the baggage line, and I have ordered the clerk to record your battle exploits, and when you return to Besançon, these battle exploits will be reported to the Marquis along with the subsequent battle exploits, presumably the Marquis will be pleased that the Earl has a warrior Lord like you." With a heavy money bag in his hand, Viscount Geoffrey's attitude towards Art was much kinder.

Viscount Geoffrey complimented Yat a few words, and his tone was a little more serious, and asked, "I heard that you have imprisoned two Provençal knights who assisted you in suppressing bandits for a whole day, is there such a thing?"

Art secretly cursed the two soft eggs in his heart, and replied respectfully: "Legion Leader, I didn't expect these two bastards to sue you first. Here's how it happened~"

Before Art could talk about the evil deeds of the two local minor lords, Viscount Jeffrey raised his hand to stop Art's words, and said: "Don't worry, I just want to tell you that I have suppressed the slander of the two of you, and I believe that you will not imprison them for no reason, besides, how can I blame a warrior for the slander of a foreigner, you don't have to pay attention to them, I will treat you fairly."

Money can gag your ears, and that's true.

Art thanked Viscount Geoffrey for his wisdom and hinted that he would continue to give Viscount Geoffrey certain "expressions" in future victories......

After returning to the corps, the soldiers were comforted and treated, and the weapons and armor that were repaired and replenished for battle damage were all not listed.

In short, as the first battle of the Eastern Army south to Provence, Arte's reputation became more and more famous throughout the legion, and Arte was low-key and kind in the legion, and soon some flag captains frequently visited Atte's military tent, and after Danfan camped all the way south, there was never a shortage of legion officers who drank and talked freely in Atte's military tent.

In this way, more than 1,200 soldiers of the Eastern Army and an entourage of almost the same size finally arrived at the edge of the eastern theater of operations in Provence, which is also the support point of the entire Eastern Front - Aosta.

When the nobles and officials of Aosta held a banquet for the Eastern Legion in the lord's hall in the city, Count Marcelo, the court treasurer, was quite surprised by Art's appearance in the corps of Legion, and Count Marcelo even personally clinked glasses with Yat to welcome him, and Count Marcelo's unintentional move raised Arte's status in the legion.

Towards the end of the banquet, the military vice-minister of the court of Provence, who was in charge of liaison with the Eastern Army, gave a brief briefing on the battle between Aosta and Vilno, which was supporting the Eastern Army on the Eastern Front.

"Ladies and Lords from the Northlands, forgive tonight's banquet for not being able to express our gratitude to the guests of the Northlands for their thousands of miles of help. Nowadays, there is a lot of war in Provence, and Aosta has just emerged from the siege of the Lombards, so we can't afford to entertain you. But the wine and delicacies that are owed to you today will be doubled after the Lombards have been driven out. ”

Everyone at the banquet laughed and raised their glasses to express their gratitude to the military vice minister who spoke.

The military lieutenant raised his head and took a sip of the wine in his glass, and continued: "Ladies and gentlemen, as the commander of the Eastern Theater of Provence, I have been quite frustrated lately. In the afternoon, I received a report from the southern hilly battlefield that five days earlier the Lombards had recruited a force of 800 mercenaries from the southern region of Genana into the hilly area north of Vilno, and with the support of this mercenary, the Lombards had quickly pushed the battle line north for more than twenty miles, and the line we had managed to hold on to began to retreat northward. In just five days, we lost more than 120 warriors, three villages and a castle......"

“…… The story of the Count of Burgundy's war in the Northland and the Swabians has spread to Provence in the south of the continent, and we are fortunate to be friends with such a strong neighbor as the Count of Burgundy with a strong army, Provence is fortunate to have the support of the Duchy of Burgundy and the Shell, and it is also fortunate that the southern theater of Aosta can be supported by such a strong force as the Eastern Army. I hope that such a mighty army of yours will teach us a hard lesson to the hungry wolves of the south, and let the murderous enemy roll out of every inch of Provence......"

"God belongs to us, glory to us! Amen! ”

"Amen! Amen! ......" The hall resounded with prayers, and people raised their glasses again......

At noon the next day, in the tent of the command camp of the Chinese army in the eastern corps station, a group of officers were in front of a sand table and carefully listened to the battle plan and defensive deployment discussed by the corps commander and the lieutenant of the court of Provence.

Viscount Geoffrey stood in front of the sand table, glanced at the officers surrounding him, and said: "According to the requirements of the Provençal court, our task in the near future is to hold on to several castle fortresses between Aosta City and Vilno, and resist a new round of counterattack that the Lombards may launch at any time. ”

"Since one of the southernmost castles had been captured by the Lombards a week earlier, the number of castles we needed to defend was reduced to three. However, there is an even more difficult task that we need to accomplish with a native army of Provence, and that is to recapture the castle that had fallen a few days ago and hold on. ”

"I ordered the second, third, and fourth companies of the Eastern Regiment to be stationed in three castles to assist the local militia troops in guarding the three castles."

"The first squadron of the legion, most of the cavalry, a crossbow team, and an outpost, all of them, a total of four hundred and twenty men, accompanied the Chinese army to recover the castle newly occupied by the Lombards."

"The baggage team and the personnel who went south with the army stayed in Kitsby City to provide food, baggage, and armament supplies for the three defenders and the reconquistad army."

"Early tomorrow morning, all the teams stationed at the castle will go to the garrison location......"

"Yes, command!" The officers of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th companies got up one after another to answer the order, and turned around and walked out of the camp to arrange the garrison.

After the officers of the other companies had left, Viscount Geoffrey called a few of the remaining officers around him, and said in a deep voice: "Your task is more difficult than theirs. They are holding the fortified city, but you will go with me to attack the fortified fortress, and many of the soldiers who will accompany the siege may bury themselves here, but with death comes immortal merit and glory. ”

After listening to Jeffrey's words, one of the flag captains of the First Company asked, "Legion Commander, since recovering this castle is so difficult, why don't you let the entire Eastern Legion go with you?"

Jeffrey glanced at the officer, nodded approvingly, and replied, "Originally, I agreed with you, just lead this legion to recapture that castle."

"But the battle is not as simple as we thought, and now it is an urgent task to reclaim that castle, but it is also urgent to hold on to the other three castles. If any of these three castles were to be captured by the Lombards, the entire battle between Oster and Vilno would be turned upside down. The line maintained by the Provençal with their blood and lives will move northward, and the city of Aosta may be plunged into war again......"

"In view of the above considerations, the court of Provence wants us to hold on to the castle while we do our best to recover the castle in the south......"

"Next, I'll arrange for the deployment of the southern castle to be recovered."

"First of all, the Legion outpost......"

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Chapter 182: Heading to the Battlefield