The night came and darkness blanketed the planet. Lucas and everyone walked towards the city and met with Lyra and Sarah who had been scouting the area. They hid inside the forest, just before a cliff over the city and the grassland around it. The army or Marquis Loit camped around the city, they mostly camped on the north side of the city and a few camped around the city.
“Commodore, we estimated the enemy to number around 10.000, they consisted of armed soldiers in plate armour some were mounted soldiers, archers and armed peasants,” said Sarah.
“Interesting. So they used a levy system to field their forces.”
“Indeed, it seems they are lacking professional soldiers. If there were any, they numbered only a little compared to the lightly trained peasants.”
An army of this kind relied on the mobility of the mounted knights and the leadership of the lord or commander who led them. The society had not considered the importance of a professional and permanent army, instead, they still used a levy system. The levy system was a method of conscription originating from the Roman periods, especially in times of war. The nobles would conscript their citizens, such as farmers, fishers and any capable body to fight for them and use them to boost their numbers in a war. The downside of this system was, the production of daily necessities such as wheat and farm products as well as many other things will be significantly reduced while they were at war.
“How about the commanders of the army?”
“I have identified their leaders,” said Lyra. She explained where their tents were and the estimation of their role in the army.
This levy system also would not guarantee the professionalism of the army, since they enlisted commoners and their training was lacking and often rushed, and they must bring their own weapons and clothing, even though some were provided by the nobles they served. Therefore the army mainly relied on the leadership of the noble or commander leading them, if they were taken out there are huge chances that the army would fall into disarray and even be routed. Furthermore, they didn’t have a clear chain of command or a protocol when their leaders were taken out, different to them, the Imperial Navy had clear protocol about that. If a captain of the ship was gone or taken out, the designated second-in-command or the next rank officer would take over the duty as the captain of the ship, and all the crews would follow their commands.
“What about the supply?”
“They stored their supplies just behind their main camps,” said Lyra. The supply storage was lightly guarded.
In a war, the decisive factor to winning the war was not the strength of the army or the capabilities of their commanders, but it was the supply and logistics of the army. History has proven the importance of supply and logistics, multiple wars were won with a war of attrition. Napoleon's advance to Russia was broken and his army was destroyed because of their lack of logistics and supplies for the winter and their reliance to gather their supplies along the way, which the Russians denied using scorched earth tactics. The advance of Germany's army in World War 2 was also halted because of the lack of winter logistics and they eventually lost their front. There were many battles and wars that were lost and won because of supply.
Lucas knew the enemy was besieging the city and therefore they would need a massive supply to feed their army for a long time. He thought he would use the supply for his own gain. He also knew the importance of leadership in the military and how it would affect the army if something were to happen to the leader.
“We will shoot at their commanders and create confusion on them. Are there any skilled magicians in the army?” asked Lucas. Lucas had asked Mary before about the power that they saw in a video, Mary explained that it was magic. Everyone could use magic in this world and the difference between them is the capacity and ability of the magic they can wield. A skilled magician would be able to destroy a group of people alone and therefore they must be taken out early.
“Yes, there are some.”
“Good, we will take them out too. We will shoot them from the top of the cliff and do it in mixed intervals to confuse them. Set your rifle to silenced and shoot only when you are sure you will hit them. Tonight is perfect for us, there are no winds and it is cloudy, it will mask our movement and position,” ordered Lucas to the crew. They left their bags behind to be guarded by Mary and Emma.
They positioned themselves on a vantage point overlooking the whole camp and the city. They could hear faint voices coming from the camp. They lay down on the ground as low as they could and hid their positions with bushes and branches. Soon, the army below would experience hell itself.
The camp was lively even though they were in a war. The soldiers knew they won the war already, the Loyalist’s forces were split up and besieged in this city and the Royal capital and they just needed to wait until they surrendered their city. Rob sat around a fireplace with the friends he knew from the village.
“Oy, Rob. How does it go with Rin? Heard you will marry her,” asked his friend.
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“Yes, I promised to marry her after I came back from this,” answered Rob.
“Oh, well well well, looks like our little bird has come out of his cage.” his friend teased him.
“So, did Rin make that?” said the friend with a scar on his cheek. He was referring to the scarf around his shoulder.
“Yes. She said it was a good luck charm.”
“It does help us win the war.”
“You are a lucky one, Rob.” his friend hugged Rob with his hand around his shoulder.
Suddenly, there was a commotion from the other side of the cap. From afar there were shouting and the sound of people running and panicking. From the tent near them, someone came out.
“My Lord,” said his friend.
“What is happening? What is the commotion all about? Are the defenders sallied out?” asked the man who just came out from the tent.
“We don’t know. I will go and as–” before Rob could finish his words. Suddenly the man fell down, they checked on him and found out he was dead.
“Wh-what happened? Where the hell did the enemy come from?” his friend was scared.
“Hey, Our Lord has been killed, what should we do?”
“Shit.”
“Prepare to fight then,” Rob told his friends. They picked up their weapons and ran looking for the enemy. When they were running along, they saw chaos in the camp. He saw commanders and nobles who led the army murdered and the magicians who were with them were also being killed. The camp fell into confusion, disorder and panic blanketed the camp.
“It was the ghost! The ghost attacked us,” shrieked a soldier with a frightened face.
“This land is cursed, we are being cursed. Run from this place,” shouted another soldier while running.
Rob and his friends were confused. They did not know what they should do.
“Hey, where are the enemies? What kind of magic is this?” said his friends, frightened.
“Look, the Marquis is still alive.” Rob pointed at one of the tents. From the tent came out a man, he was Marquis Loit, he looked surprised when he saw the army was in disarray. He saw one of his commanders dead near the tens and when tried to look for his other commander, he dropped to the ground.
Rob and his friends were scared. Their army's leader was killed right in front of their eyes.
“Let us run away from this place and go back to our village, they are only taking out the commanders of our army,” said Rob’s friend. They decided to run and deserted the army to go back to their village.
When they were running away, suddenly Rob’s chest felt a pain on his chest and his breathing became slower. He could not run anymore and his vision grew darker, he knew the enemy must have gotten him. He thought they were only aiming at the commanders, then he dropped to the ground and at his last moment he looked at the sky above and wished he could see Rin and their children together and live their happy lives together. His vision finally went black and he passed away.
The guards on top of the city wall were surprised by the commotion in the enemy’s camp.
“Hey, call Captain Breznev here,” said one of the guards. The other guard then ran to get the Captain. Not long after, the Captain came and saw the chaos that was happening below.
"What is this? What is happening?" said Captain Breznev with a confused face. He wondered if the Royal Capital sent reinforcements but he could not see fighting. Could it be the work of magicians? Breznev kept thinking and assessing the situation. He saw the majority of the army was still alive, but they had been routed. Chaos and disorder were seen in the army, and then some of the enemy’s soldiers came closer to the walls.
Captain Breznev ordered everyone to prepare for battle. However, the men who were running towards the wall had not brought any weapons on them. Confused, he decided to kill them, afraid of it being a trap. The archers kept shooting at the enemy as they kept coming towards the wall.
“They are crazy! What are they doing?” Captain Breznev could not grasp the situation.
“Should we keep firing at them, Captain?”
“Yes! Kill everyone who approached the wall.”
That night the army of Marquis Loit was routed, for those who went into the wall of the city, hoping for safety, would not see the rise of the sun again.
The sun was just about to rise from the east, the situation had calmed down, and the army of Marquis Loit had left the plain surrounding the city. Darkness still blanketed the sky, Captain Breznev stood on top of a wall near the gate.
“What madness happened there?” said a guard.
“Whatever it was, we should investigate it.” Captain Breznev sat down, his back on the wall. He wanted to take a rest for a while.
Suddenly a shout was heard, “A group is approaching,” shouted the guard on top of the gate. Captain Breznev jolted up and looked at the approaching group, he could not see them well because of the darkness. He could see that one of them wore a robe. Some archers were preparing to shoot at the group.
Then, Captain Breznev could clearly see an outfit he always knew, the Aruburn’s knight uniform, “Hold your fire. They are friendly,” shouted Breznev. The archers put down their weapons. He wondered who it could be, all the knights were inside the city except for one, Emma.
The group came closer to the gate and stopped, “Open the gate, Lady Mary and her benefactors want to enter the city,” shouted the knight.
“Open the gate!” ordered Breznev and the gate was opened. He was in disbelief because he knew the voice, it was Emma. He immediately ran down to the gate and saw them. It was Lady Mary and Emma together with 6 unknown people with dirty fine clothing.