"Team 4, follow me!"

In a wasteland fifty kilometers from Fort Agolon, Byron's sergeants were directing their soldiers, asking them to line up and set off with their heavy horses.

The heavy cavalry also mounted their horses, and placed their equipment on the camels, and divided into two teams to act as escorts on both sides of the team.

Although the heat had not subsided, Byron had already begun to lead his army north. After all, with such a large army, the logistical pressure is too great, although he is rich, he does not want to spend a lot of money because of logistics, and he does not want to have to retreat halfway through the siege because of logistical problems.

So he took his main army, as well as soldiers from Suno and Uxhall, a total of 4,000 troops, and went to Fort Agorlong first, and began the siege first. The rest of the troops followed Wiruga's food convoy north to join the siege. Prince Harauu finally compromised on the issue of military rations, partly because of his father's demands and honors, and partly because Byron cut off all supplies from outside the city to the city, which was a mutually harmful approach, but Prince Harauu himself understood that he could not consume Byron.

Therefore, he still sold the reserve grain in the granary of the city to Byron at a low price, and sent dozens of cavalry to escort the grain, so as to provide support to Byron. However, in this way, the 5,000 reinforcements originally said to be provided to Byron were reduced by 1,000 people.

Byron brought with him all the regular armies, the Peony mercenary regiment and the logging team, as well as the desert cavalry and the Kugit riders. The hero took Fatis, Kenrad, Kress, Arteman, and Rolf, and Alleyne and Bandak with their newly trained troops until all the preparations were completed before heading north to follow. Desaivi patrolled and guarded the town with his co-opted mountain people.

The people who followed Byron on this expedition were the elite of his troops. The support forces of Suno and Uxhall were also veterans and professional soldiers selected by the two counts, and the overall quality was much higher than that of the garrison of Fort Agorlon, which was why Byron dared to set out with these 4,000 men to surround a castle with a garrison that was also less than this number.

"Enough time to rest, Fatis, go tell the knights of Suno and Uxhall to get ready to go, our scout cavalry has been out for half an hour."

At this time, Byron had also put on a chainmail robe and rode the Thunder with Johnny's help. He looked at the Peony mercenaries who had already prepared for departure, and then at the Suno cavalry who had not made any moves, frowned, and called Fatis and asked him to urge the reinforcements of Swadia, lest the two forces separate.

The wagons, loaded with food supplies and siege weapon parts, had already moved ahead of the troops, with the desert cavalry guarding them on both sides of the convoy.

The troops began to march, and according to the plan, they would continue until the sun went down, and then they would set up their tents on the spot, raise a fire, eat and drink, and spend the night.

However, the early return of the scout cavalry broke the original marching plan. Byron urgently summoned all the knights and senior officers, and told them with a serious face that the scout cavalry had spotted a large garrison on the edge of a forest in the distance, and had engaged the opposing light cavalry.

Before a big battle, scouts tend to fight each other beforehand, and the commanders of both sides will continue to pour troops into it, forming a so-called refueling tactic. In the end, it is a head-on collision of the main forces of the two sides.

This is mentioned in some of the Calradia tactics books that Byron has read.

Soon, the discussion ended, and Rolf led nearly a hundred desert cavalry and all the Kugit riders to the position where the two sides were fighting. The troops in the camp were all ready, distributing weapons and armor, carrying these things and marching with them.

According to the scouts, the number of the opposing side should be between 4,000 and 5,000, and there are many horses, improvised catapults and ballistas mounted on carts, and it seems that the troops of Agolon Castle have poured out. It was five carleys away from their present position, which was uneven and wooded, and they must have been well prepared to wait for Byron to attack.

Fatis said that the terrain there was not suitable for cavalry combat, which reduced their advantage by half, and the frontal attack was more than worth the loss. Therefore, Byron divided the army into four parts, the mercenary halberdiers of the logging team, the Rhodok spearmen and crossbowmen and a small number of cavalry feinted head-on, the peony mercenaries and the main cavalry rounded the dense forest to attack the rear and flanks of the opponent, and the Suno knights led the troops to pin down the other side, so that the other party had no time to care about rescue. In the end, he himself led the rest of the army and the proud knights of Uxhall who did not want to listen to his orders as a reserve in case of accidents.

This arrangement is really helpless, the soldiers sent by Count Dilynard are all elite, and the officers and knights are a little arrogant, and they love to ignore Byron's words, and let them attack for fear that they will not obey orders, so they have to let them do the finishing work and save the scene.

He really didn't expect Count Mateas to dare to take the initiative to attack, but from the other party's point of view, it is better to take the initiative to defeat the vanguard led by himself in favorable terrain than to wait for the siege of the city, and directly end the matter. Not only do you not have to worry about the siege, but if the situation is good, you can recover the town occupied by Byron.

Of course, the same is true for Byron. Defeat Count Mateas here and capture Agolon Castle easily.

By the time Rolf reached the wasteland in front of the dense forest, they could already see the figures of Rhodok's army in the distance, and the banners that looked very slender because of the distance.

By this time, more than half of their scout cavalry had been lost, and their morale was on the verge of collapse. Byron's scouts were all chained cavalry, and their quality was much stronger than that of Rhodok. But the opposing reinforcements came faster, so they immediately fell into a disadvantage and were almost surrounded and annihilated.

Rolf's arrival saved them, and with his command, the desert cavalry rushed straight at the Rhodok scouts, javelins in hand, instantly breaking down their formation. And the Kugit riders also went around to the rear and shot them with bows and arrows. The soft armor of these Rhodok scouts could not stop the javelins and iron arrows, and they fell off their horses and fled in rout.

Rolf ordered a pursuit, but it didn't take long for another wave of reinforcements to arrive. These men were all traveling horses, and when they approached, they dismounted and formed a phalanx around the horses.

They were all heavily armed veteran spearmen and skilled crossbowmen, and as soon as Rolf got closer, the crossbows came at them, wounding several cavalrymen and two desert horses, forcing them to retreat some distance and watch the scouts flee.

However, it was not in Rolf's character to leave without taking advantage, and he yelled a few times, waved his flag, and his cavalry immediately dispersed and surrounded the opposing phalanx.

Rolf knew that the impact power of the desert cavalry was insufficient, and the losses would be very large if they collided directly. So he commanded these cavalrymen to constantly circle around the phalanx, throwing javelins, and riding archers to shoot standing up. The crossbowmen in the phalanx also returned fire, but their numbers were not enough to suppress the opponent, and because of the need for vision when shooting, several crossbowmen were soon shot and wounded because their bodies were exposed.

Rhodok's phalanx began to loosen, and Rolf also intended to attack from the weak opening. However, the neighing of horses was heard in the distance, and another group of noble cavalry of Rhodok riding southern horses rushed towards them with rifles and long war hammers, and the encirclement of Rhodok's phalanx also collapsed in an instant.

Rolf immediately sent his soldiers to report to Byron and ask for more reinforcements......