After a series of battles, the outpost led by Art finally got a dozen days of respite in Aosta. ＋∧，.※.→o

After all, Aosta is an important town in the eastern part of the Duchy of Provence, and although the war has wiped out all the industries in the city, it is still a paradise compared to the sunless mountains and dense forests in the south.

In the past ten days, Yate not only paid the military salary to everyone on time, but also distributed some of the combat military rewards to everyone in advance according to the size of the battle achievements.

With money and money, the soldiers naturally have to be dashing, especially those mercenaries who temporarily join the outpost, and their habit for many years is to quickly spend every copper coin in their money bags while they still have a small life.

For a while, several deserted taverns and inns in Aosta City were lively.

When the mercenaries were hangover, the soldiers of the army belonging to Art did not squander it, not that Art did not allow soldiers to go to a safe place during non-combat time, but during this time, Art had too heavy training tasks for the soldiers.

Because Art received an order, the Eastern Army's original attack on Solburg will be assembled at the end of this month, and Art will take the outpost team south again to join the team attacking Solburg.

In order to minimize the casualties of the soldiers, Art sent people to collect the city defense of Solburg, and at the same time, Otto and Angus organized soldiers to conduct a mock siege drill for the defense of Solburg.

Aosta City Church Square, the Eastern Regiment station.

"Ron, you've got another little life back. But it's a pity that your handsome face will forever leave a trace of a warrior, and I hope Ollie won't dislike you. Art patted Ron who had returned from injury and said with a smile.

"Master, you saved my life again." Ron was reborn after the catastrophe, and his body was still relatively weak, so his tone was also very low.

"I just let you live one more night, and it was Father Robert who pulled you back from God. I didn't expect this priest who had nothing to do all day long to do still have this ability, and you should go and thank him. ”

As the outpost's chaplain, Robert did not follow the outpost to fight south after arriving in Aosta, and Art felt that the priest's attitude was too negative, so he also obeyed the priest's wishes and left him in the church in Aosta to pray for the outpost.

However, when Art returns to Aosta with Ron lying in the carriage, Robert, who learns that Ron has been invaded by an illness, offers to treat Ron.

Art of course declined the request, he didn't want Ron to be whipped with a cross by the priest or smeared with holy oil and poured onion sauce to exorcise the demon.

However, Robert quickly dispelled Art's concerns, telling Art that Ron was not invaded by demons, but that the toxin from the cheek stab wound had soaked into his head, causing confusion and heat in his body.

Art was really shocked when he heard Father Robert's words, this sentence would be understandable if it came from the mouth of the "heretical healer" Thomas, but it is quite strange that a clergyman should have such a rebellious understanding beyond the times.

After carefully observing Ron's wounds, Father Robert found a handful of carrion maggots and put them on the festering carrion on Ron's cheeks, allowing the deworms to devour the rotten flesh, and then he sent someone back to the church to take some inexplicable herb powder from his pouch and mix it into ointment and apply it to Ron's clean knife wound.

After a week of back-and-forth, Ron's festering wound finally began to heal, and Ron stood up again.

After this incident, Art's attitude towards this priest who had no sense of existence also took a turn......

"Father Robert is very good, but I always felt that he was not very much like a priest, and he always liked to mutter things that he did not understand. 5v,.●.●o" Ron said and couldn't help but touch the cotton cloth on his face, because the wound was healed and the flesh was a little glamorous.

Art knew what Ron was talking about, but he didn't take the topic, "Since you're almost recovering from your injury, go to Odo's to pick up the training of the 4th Squadron, the Commander has ordered us to leave for Solburg next week." ”

On the third Sunday of November, the autumn cold finally hit the southeast of Provence.

The Waiwei Fortress, two days north of Vilno, was crowded with people outside Fort Sol.

More than 500 people from the 1st Squadron, cavalry, gongnu team, and outpost of the Eastern Army Corps that rushed south to the aid of Provence, plus more than 90 remnants of the Provençal garrison originally stationed in Solburg, totaled more than 600 people and stopped in the north of Solburg.

Solburg, the first checkpoint for the Lombards to attack the eastern city of Aosta. Situated on a flat land across the river on the northbound avenue of Vilno, the fortress is a castle that, despite its name, is a fortress.

The defense of Thorburg was divided into three layers -

The most waiwei is surrounded by four stone high walls that are one hundred and eighty feet long, thirty-five feet high, and eight feet thick, and there are wooden arrow towers {guard towers} at the four corners of the city wall and the middle city gate, and the figure of a giant crossbow can be faintly seen on the eight arrow towers, and the city wall has a ten-foot-high, eight-foot-wide iron grille combined with an oak double-leaf fort gate in the north, south, east and west, as far as the city defense of the waiwei city is concerned, it is very similar to the county town of Tiniez;

The second layer of the castle's defense needs to be overlooked, it is a twenty-foot wide ditch that surrounds the whole of Solburg, unlike ordinary moats, this wide ditch is not naturally formed, he is the work of the townsmen of Solburg for decades, and this wide ditch is within the city walls, the wide ditch is first buried with sharp stakes and iron thorns, and then the flowing river water is introduced and filled, this wide ditch has both a moat and a sewage drain, not only is there danger everywhere, but also feces and urine floating, smelly;

On the inside of the ditch was a ten-foot-high fence wall, the third layer of defense of Fort Sol, and between the stone façade and the wooden fence there were four drawbridges through which the first to the third layer of defense had to be crossed, or else you would have to consider swimming through the stinking ditch where the spikes were buried everywhere.

After these three layers of defense, it is the city of Solburg, which has everything from the lord's hall, church, temple to citizen houses, taverns and shops, but after many years of war, there is no prosperity here, except for the soldiers who come and go to fight and die, only the military {food and weapons} merchants who are willing to work for money dare to enter and exit.

Regardless of what others think, Art didn't have much hope of capturing Solburg anyway.

It is slightly smaller than the county town of Tignets, but its defense is several times larger than that of Tignets. Not to mention that each of the three layers of defense can strangle the lives of countless people, just the three hundred Lombard defenders stationed in the city are an insurmountable obstacle.

After several outposts north of Solburg were captured by the Eastern Legion, the Lombards increased the defense of Solburg from 180 to 300 men in a matter of days.

The war between the two principalities of Lombardy and Provence had been going on for two years, and both duchies were at the end of their powers, and at this time it was possible to station 300 men in a castle that was not too big, and Lombardy did its best.

However, this made it difficult for the eastern legion on the besieging side, 600 people attacked the castle garrisoned by 180 people, and it was still possible to concentrate the advantage to find the weak part of the enemy's defense and strike desperately, and there was also a possibility of victory. But when 600 men attacked a fortified city garrisoned by 300 enemy troops, the possibility of victory was almost non-existent.

Although Geoffrey had lived in the court for a long time, he was not a military idiot, and after learning that the Lombards had increased the number of troops defending the city, he immediately scrapped the original attack plan, and while letting the rest of the 600 legions set up camp north of Solburg to establish a strong camp to prevent the Lombard defenders from attacking the city, he ordered the three companies of the eastern legion to garrison the other three castles to send half of their troops to Solburg to join the siege army.

Six banners, 360 men, were all assembled in the northern camp of Thorburg within three days.

Nine hundred and seventy men, this is the entire force of Baron Geoffrey's attack on Thorburg. If it is a field battle on the plains, as long as the tactics are appropriate, the number of troops three times the enemy can completely occupy an advantageous position, and the certainty of victory is great, but this time it is not a field wave battle but an attack on the fortified city of Fort Li, in the face of the Lombards who are well defended and have excellent weapons and armor and rich combat experience, victory or defeat dare not be presumptuous.

"Legion Commander, the outpost has experienced nearly ten battles since it went south to Provence, especially when attacking the farmstead Houtai, there were too many casualties, and now the entire legion only has more than half of my soldiers lost in battle, and we are really not suitable to participate in the battle of Dengcheng." In the military camp tent in the northern camp of Fort Sol, Art was asking the commander of the Eastern Army, Viscount Geoffrey, to be exempted from the siege of the outpost, and he already had a premonition that this attack on Fort Sol was to push the wall and fill the ditch with human lives.

Viscount Geoffrey needs a strong army as a "breaking hammer" to attack Solburg, looking at the entire eastern legion, only the outpost has proved its extraordinary combat power with a remarkable record, and Jeffrey certainly wants the outpost led by Art as the main force to attack.

But no matter how sharp the blade is, it can't keep chopping, not to mention that the owner behind this blade is still a powerful person in the court.

Jeffrey was torn as he paced back and forth in his tent, weighing the pros and cons. Of course, he could force Art to stay in the attacking team, but in doing so, he could lose a decent elite team, and at the same time, he could offend the power behind him.

After thinking about it for a long time, Geoffrey still hoped that Arter could be left behind and use this sharp blade to stab through the city defenses of Fort Thor.

"Art, you know that I have been very satisfied with your performance during this period of time, Count Balwyn asked me to give you more opportunities to make meritorious contributions when he recommended you to come to the legion, if you are willing to stay and attack the city, I can give you the first credit after breaking the city, such a military merit plus the operation of Earl Balwin, you should be able to understand." Viscount Jeffrey hopes to stimulate Art's ambitions through a military promotion.

Seeing that Art was unmoved, Viscount Geoffrey continued: "As for the soldiers under him, they can still be recruited if they die in battle, haven't you recently recruited a large number of young people from Provence to supplement the battle damage of your outpost?" After you are promoted to the title and expand your territory in the future, some people are willing to belong to your command, how can there be immortals who kill the enemy and make meritorious contributions, and when it comes to the siege, you can just follow me to command the army in the Chinese army, and you don't need to go into battle in person~"

The so-called climbing to the position of the prince, ten thousand people become dry bones, what Viscount Jeffrey said was vicious, but every sentence was reasonable.

"Legion Commander, you may have heard that before I was lucky enough to be promoted to military merit in the East, I was just a hunter in the mountains, and it was a merit earned for me by my men with blood and sweat, and it is inevitable that I will die or be injured in the march and battle, but I hope that my men can have more hope of life and less risk of death."

"And with all due respect, if you want to storm Fort Sol, you have to be prepared to lose half of your soldiers."

Yat's words stung Viscount Geoffrey a little, the fundamental motivation for him to fight in Provence this time was to make meritorious contributions and be promoted to the Lord, the soldiers of the Eastern Army were not his personal soldiers, as long as he guaranteed that the soldiers would not mutiny, he would not be heartbroken no matter how many people died in battle, he just had to step on people's heads and climb up.

"Sir Art, you'd better not talk nonsense, or I'll punish you for disturbing the army!" Viscount Jeffrey spoke in a bad tone.

"Also, if you don't get enough military merit when the time comes, don't go to Earl Balwin and say that I didn't give you enough opportunities."

Art bowed respectfully to Viscount Geoffrey and replied, "Thank you for your understanding, Captain, I know what my actions mean, and I believe that the Count of Balwyn does not want all my army to be halved in Provence, and the Count is still waiting for me to take this army back to the Count of Burgundy at his disposal."

Art had already moved out of Earl Balwin, and it would be inappropriate for Viscount Jeffrey to stay, so he said impatiently: "The Chinese cavalry team was originally responsible for defending the Lombard army in the direction of Vilno, since you want to protect yourself, replace the cavalry team in charge of waiwei defense, and send someone back to the Chinese army every other day to report the military situation." And I have to tell you that if you hesitate when I need you to take part in the siege, I will be court-martialed and severely punished. ”

"It's my lord!"

Viscount Geoffrey turned his back and waved his hand to signal Art to leave, and then studied the defense of Fort Tholl's city on his own......

"My lord, we really don't have to participate in siege battles?" In the camp tent of the outpost, Angus Odo couldn't believe it after learning that Art had pushed off the siege mission.

Like Arte's view, Angus and Otto had little hope of storming Solburg, and even if they did, they would have to die.

"Viscount Geoffrey is keen to keep us as the main siege force, and has promised to give us the first attack to retake Thollburg after the breach of the city. But I refused, for great merit needs to be received, and if all those who follow me die under that wall, I would rather not have such a feat. ”

Angus and Otto both bowed their heads and remained silent, they understood what Art had given up and what they had gained.

"My lord, I thank you on behalf of the soldiers." Angus whispered.

"Well, maybe Solburg isn't as strong as we thought, so don't complain that I've given up a great opportunity to make a meritorious service."

Both Otto and Angus chuckled softly.

"Sergeant Major, you set off at once, take the Sentinel to the south of Fort Sol to find the Legion Cavalry, tell them that the outpost is about to take over the task of guarding Waiwei, and then you look for an easy place to defend and difficult to attack as our defensive position."

"Otto, let everyone pack up the camp, we will leave the legion this afternoon to go to waiwei to be on guard, I am worried that there will be variables if we leave late. In addition, inform the baggage team to carry enough food and baggage, I am afraid that it will be difficult for the legion to supply us with enough food and supplies recently. ”

Art gave orders to the two lieutenants of the army, and each of them took charge of the work.

After the two left, Art also began to regulate his weapons and armor, since Ron left the Sentinel Cavalry to become the infantry commander, Art has not had a suitable personal retinue by his side, Felix occasionally makes cameo appearances on the mission of an entourage, but he is the only son of the baron, and it is not appropriate to always be treated as a servant.

Art remembered Ron's request to return to him after recovering from his injury, and said to himself, "Looks like we had to get Ron back sooner." 11166 net

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Chapter 193: Give up the opportunity to "make meritorious contributions".