“...... On the Duchy's side, we must maintain the most basic relations, and once the city of Thorne is dead, we must count on our friends in the west to secretly support us......"

"Next, deploy the defensive ...... of each section of the wall"

"Oh no, Lord Earl, it's not good~It's not good~"

Bernard, who was gathering the garrison officers to discuss the city's defenses, was interrupted by a loud herald outside the lord's hall.

Thump~

I saw the herald run and step into the threshold of the lord's hall and fall on his heels.

"Earl~Earl, it's not good!" The herald got up from the ground in severe pain and reported the military situation in a hesitant manner.

"Bastard, what's the panic!" When Bernard saw the panicked fellow, he became furious and shouted at the herald.

I saw that the herald was so frightened by Bernard's reprimand that he quickly lowered his head, and he didn't even have time to pick up the helmet that had fallen to the ground. The officers present were also too frightened by Bernard's reprimand, but now they thought to themselves that it was indeed the herald who brought the news.

"Dumb? Speak! Seeing the herald standing motionless like a log, Bernard shouted.

"Report ~ Report to Lord Earl, a large number of enemies have appeared outside the east ~ east city gate, and they are approaching Thorne City step by step." The herald almost uttered word by word in a trembling voice, with a cry in his mouth, and his eyes full of horror, as if the enemy outside the city was coming at Thorne like a demon.

For this result, Bernard already had the answer in his mind. It's just that the speed with which the enemy arrived in Thorne City was indeed beyond his expectations. He originally thought that those ragtag armies outside the city, under the leadership of a small number of regular troops, could resist for a while no matter what, and buy more time for the defending army, but he didn't expect it~

Just as Bernard was overwhelmed by the sudden news, the officers sitting around the long table had already exploded, and although they had been prepared, they were still shocked.

"Shut up!" Listening to the noise of the hall, Bernard almost roared at the people present.

Silent......

After a while, after Bernard adjusted his mood, he said: "What are you panicking about, the enemy army has not yet started to attack the city and scare you like this?" Bernard glanced coldly at the fellows, all with their heads bowed and their faces fearful. For the old guy in front of them, they dare not speak out.

"Don't forget, the 20,000 troops of the Duchy failed to capture Thorne City for three months, and that bastard of Flender also wants to take Thorne City, hum!" Bernard sneered.

"Phew!" A mouthful of thick phlegm hit the small wooden horse representing the Liberation Army on the long wooden table~

The great battle that Bernard refers to took place during the time of the former Ireyaf's fathers. In order to control the country, the principality recruited nearly 20,000 people to attack the country, in a vain attempt to force Ireyaf to submit by force.

The army marched all the way to the province of Saône in the western part of the country, but due to the strong city defenses of the city of Saône and the desperate resistance of the Bo army, after several siege battles, the Duchy army suffered more than 2,000 casualties. Seeing that it had taken so many troops to storm the city of Thorn for a long time, he changed his strategy and switched to besieging the city. But the principality never imagined that the old marquis had already hoarded enough food for five thousand soldiers in the city to eat for two years, but in the end, he himself could not transport supplies due to heavy snow, so he had to withdraw his troops.

That's where Bernard's confidence lies. As long as there is enough food, grass and water in the city, he can consume his opponent alive outside Thorne.

Hearing Bernard say this, the officers present breathed a long sigh of relief.

"Immediately send an order to the troops defending the city, and close the city gate immediately after all the retreating soldiers enter the city!" Bernard gave the order calmly.

"Yes! Lord Earl. The herald hurriedly picked up the helmet on the ground and hurried towards the door~

…………

Outside the eastern gate of the city of Saône, the Liberation Army, under the command of front-line officers, pursued all the way to the enemy soldiers who fled in the direction of the city of Saône. These deserters were not the men and horses of the Western Army retreating to the city of Thorne, but the defenders of the city who took the initiative to go out of the city to harass the camp of the Liberation Army.

Yesterday, most of the Liberation Army arrived at the Thorne and camped in a wheat field a mile east of the city. After several days of pursuit and clearance, the army on the Western Front was completely defeated, and it continued to shrink its forces all the way to the city of Thorne. When the Libertists pursued all the way to a mile outside the city of Thorne, Flender ordered the whole army to halt the pursuit.

After months of battling Bernard, Flender was clear about Bernard's old fox's methods. Faced with the attack of the army, Bernard must have set many traps outside the city to kill and injure the Restoration army approaching the city of Thorne. Flender has been fighting for many years, and he has long been familiar with these intrigues and tricks, and he will definitely not be easily deceived. But what he didn't expect was that not long after most of the Liberation Army was stationed outside the city, Thorne sent an army of 50 cavalry and 100 infantry to attack the camp of the army, and even tried to burn his own grain and grass.

In the face of the enemy's provocations, Flender did not sit idly by.

After the first attack was successful, the second came a second time. This time, Flender immediately sent a hundred cavalry to bite the small force all the way, and ordered the army to be ready to attack the city at any time. Flender planned to take advantage of the gap between the enemy opening the city gate and send cavalry to charge over and control the city gate, and he himself led a large army to arrive after him in an attempt to capture the city of Thorne in one fell swoop.

Seeing that his own people were only a few dozen steps away from the city gate, a lunge could control the east gate when the drawbridge was raised. Looking at the cavalry getting closer and closer to the city gate, Flender was ready to lead his troops to attack the city. Unexpectedly, the accident happened~

I saw that the front hooves of the war horse that rushed to the front suddenly sank, and he knelt down in an instant, and the soldiers on horseback were thrown out under the action of strong inertia, and fell into a large pit that was enough to devour ten war horses. Immediately afterwards, the cavalry behind approached the trap step by step, and in the blink of an eye, seven or eight cavalrymen encountered the same trap one after another, and rolled off their horses one after another, and some of them were trampled in the abdomen by the hooves of the horses that followed behind, and immediately spat blood. The soldiers, who had escaped the traps and the hooves of their horses, had just risen from the ground when they were killed by the indiscriminate arrows of the city's defenders.

For a time, the cavalry pursuing the enemy was out of order. The dense number of arrows on the city wall flew towards this direction, and from time to time someone fell to the ground......

At this time, the remnants of the attacking army had approached the drawbridge and were fleeing for their lives one after another. Most of the pursuing cavalry were blocked half a mile away by various traps and could not get close at all.

Seeing this, Flender clenched the hilt of his sword tightly with his left hand. Seeing that he was about to succeed, he never thought that Bernard would be so cunning. Faced with the falling cavalry, Flender had no choice but to order a retreat and look for another fighter.

"Earl, they're back." The officer standing behind Bernard pointed to the retreating cavalry of the Liberation Army. Bernard did not speak, but quietly looked at the large military camp tent of the Liberation Army not far outside the city.

I saw that the secret hemp tents were neatly arranged, which could accommodate at least tens of thousands of people. Looking at the huge recovery army, Bernard couldn't help but gasp. He did not expect that in just a few months, the strength of the Guangfu Army would grow to such a point, and it was no wonder that the Western Army continued to retreat. In the face of such a formidable enemy, it will not be easy to hold the city of Thorne.

"Lord Earl~"

"Lord Earl~"

After the cavalry of the Liberation Army had completely retreated, Bernard did not say a word, turned around and left alone. The group behind him also hurriedly chased after him.

…………

A mile east of the city of Thorne, the Reconquista garrison. Art and his party set out from the Welsh Corps garrison and arrived at the Liberation Army camp after half a day.

"Cousin Art!" As soon as Art and the others got off their horses, Flender came out of the command tent and walked straight towards everyone.

After seeing Flender, Art also hurried forward. "Lord Marquis!"

"Lord Marquis!" Leonde was very excited to see Flender, whom he had not seen for many days.

"Finally when you come, go, follow me in." With that, Flender led the people to the camp of the command of the army. Once Art and Leonde were seated, Flender instructed his servants to bring them a glass of wine.

"Lord Marquis, I have brought you 30,000 pounds of grain and grass and 20,000 fennigs of military expenses that the army urgently needs. I captured it during the assault on Fort Marci. There are a lot of people in the Liberated Army, and I think you need these things urgently. Before Flender could speak, Art offered a generous gift.

"Cousin Art, you're too polite." Flender nodded in satisfaction.

"Lord Marquis, this is what I have to do." Art hurriedly bowed and saluted.

"Okay, since that's the case, then I'll take it. When I take the city of Thorne, I will return it to you double. ”

This was expected by Arter, and he would only get more benefits from Flender if he remained loyal to him at all times.

A few people in the tent talked to each other about the months of fighting. Flanders praised Arter's record of capturing Fort Marci and annihilating hundreds of Kodor soldiers. What made him even happier was that he was able to force Count Kodor to join his camp, which relieved a lot of pressure on Flender to unify the country.

After hearing how Flender reversed the unfavorable situation, changed from passive to active, and forced the Western Army to the city of Thorne step by step, Arte admired Flender's diplomatic ability, military ability and command ability. He was far from being able to compare with Flender, and even felt that it was his supreme honor to serve him.

After a brief conversation, Flender sent someone to take Art down to rest for a while, and ordered a dinner party to be prepared. He planned to take this opportunity to catch up with Yat and the officers in the Liberation Army, and initially discuss a strategy to break the enemy. A military council will be held early tomorrow morning to study how to break through the city of Thorne at the lowest cost, completely annihilate the defenders inside, and thus end the battle of the successors.

After the dinner, Art took Ron back to the tent to rest. After several days of marching, Art was already a little tired. After the army arrived outside the city of Thorne, he hurried to the garrison of the Liberation Army to receive the order, and he did not even have a chance to take a breath.

At this time, when he was full of wine and food, a sense of sleepiness struck, and Art wrapped himself in a wool felt blanket and fell asleep. After a while, there was a snoring in the tent......