After leaving Centurion Stan, Luther went to the tents of the Whistlers. Along the way, he encountered injured soldiers with bandages wrapped around various parts of their body. Some still had arrows sticking out of their bodies. All these injured soldiers gave him a hostile glare.
But Luther doesn't mind. Their anger will be replaced with loyalty soon enough, fake loyalty but loyalty nonetheless.
"Assemble the cohort" Luther shouted in a commanding voice.
The soldiers looked at him for a moment but they did not listen to his words. Luther was actually a little irritated by this. In the entire history of Tulosa, he should be the only prefect who was treated this way.
"I said, assemble the cohort!" Luther screamed. The soldiers again stopped what they were doing, but this time they glared at him with murderous eyes. Luther was a little afraid.
"What gives you the right to command us?" a soldier asked. He had bandages wrapped around his arm.
Luther lifted his chin and looked at the soldier. He needs to act tough. "What gives me the right?" Luther laughed "Your oath to the army. Don't tell me you forgot that you promised to always follow the orders of your prefect. Not following my command is a betrayal to Tulosa which is punishable by death"
"You are" the soldier stammered "You're still our prefect?" his eyes went wide.
"Of course soldier" he smiled and went closer to him. He then put his hand on the soldier's shoulder "I am Luther, Prefect of the Whistler cohort"
"Why!?" another soldier asked angrily "Why were you not demoted?!"
"Yeah. Many of my friends died because of you!"
"It was your fault!"
"It's General Sigurd. He is the general's nephew so he can't be demoted!"
"To hell with that. He doesn't deserve to be our Prefect."
"We need to protest!"
Luther threw a bag of gold coins towards the soldier. The soldier dodged the bag, causing it to fall to the ground. Everyone was silenced by Luther's actions.
"You did not catch it soldier. You don't want it?" Luther said in a mocking tone
"What?"
"It's yours. Take it" Luther gestured towards the bag of coins
The soldier looked at the bag of coins. He slowly bent and picked up the bag. "Why?" he looked at Luther confusedly
Luther did not answer him. He turned to the rest of the Whistlers "Fifty gold coins!" he emphasized the amount "I will give every single one of you fifty gold coins. Follow me as your Prefect and I will give you this amount. It's worth four years of your salary. I will make you rich if you follow me. Furthermore, I will give you all the loot of the cohort. I will not take a single coin from your future loot."
The Whistlers were silent for a long time. Not a single one of them made a sound. Luther dreaded their silence so he broke it. "Any questions?"
A soldier slowly raised his hand. Luther gestured that he should continue "You will give us money?"
"Yes" Luther answered
"For what?"
"Your loyalty"
"So you're bribing us?" another soldier asked
"No, comrade. I am not bribing you" Luther smiled "It's a gift for your loyalty"
"That's bribing" the soldier reasoned
"Let's not stick to technicalities" Luther said. Bribery was illegal in the army so he didn't want to admit it.
"And why should we agree?"
"Because I am sincere. I want you to forget our past misfortunes. Let's start anew. Besides, fifty gold coins is a huge sum. It would be a shame if you pass on this offer" Luther reasoned
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"I will follow you!" a soldier shouted
"Wait! We shouldn't be hasty. We just lost five hundred of our comrades because of him."
"Don't tell me that your comrades are more important than fifty gold coins? The people you lost are already dead. Whether you accept my gift or not, they will never come back. So why not accept my gift? It's free money. You need to offer your loyalty of course, but like what I said, fifty gold coins is a huge sum."
Luther wasn't actually worried that the Whistlers would deny him. The Whistler cohort was a mercenary company during the civil war. They were infamous for being greedy so Luther was certain that they would accept his offer.
"When?" the same soldier asked after a moment of contemplation "When can you give us the money?"
"After we get back to Tulosa. I don't have that much right now" Luther admitted "But I will give you promissory notes instead. You can exchange the note after we get back. Also, don't be afraid that I will let many of you die just to lessen my expenses. The money of those who died will be shared by those who survived at the end of the campaign"
The soldier frowned at first but then he knelt in submission. "Long live Prefect Luther. "
"My loyalty is yours" another soldier did the same. What followed was a chorus of soldiers offering their 'loyalty' to Luther.
Luther felt pleased. Money can't buy everything, but it sure is powerful.
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After a day of marching, Timothy and his army met up with the soldiers from Knightsend. The soldiers gave his exhausted men fresh food and clean clothes. The food and clothes boosted the men's morale. It had been a week since they had fresh food and clean clothes. In fact, they were running out of food. After resting for a bit, he called for a meeting.
All the Prefects, the Quartermaster, General Marvin, James, Erik and Timothy went inside the war tent.
"First of all, I want to thank you for coming to my aid." Timothy looked at General Marvin "Any other General would have never risked coming to help me"
"Any friend would help their friend in need. Also, Castonia can't afford to lose you" Marvin replied "Besides, the soldiers would kill me if I refused to help you" he jested
Timothy grinned and nodded. "What's the report on our combined numbers and supplies?" he then asked the Quartermaster
"3245 soldiers from Knightsend and 7035 from the army you brought. That would total to about 10,280 sir. Additionally, we have about 2000 horses at the ready. In terms of food, I'm not sure Your Highness. Should I include the food you brought?"
Timothy knew what the quartermaster meant. All the food left from their march were stale bread. Stale bread wasn't actually bad for the body. It tastes bad, but it doesn't lead to food poisoning. Timothy nodded his head.
"If we include that. Well" the quartermaster thought for a while "I estimate our food to last for three more weeks. We also have food reserves back at Knightsend in case we need to retreat."
"How about weapons, armors and shields? Include those stored at Knightsend"
"We have enough mail for the whole army Your Highness. We also have enough halberds, swords and spears. But we only have about 2000 shields"
Timothy nodded. The shortage of shields was understandable. Since most of the infantry use halberds as primary weapon nowadays, shields became less popular in Castonia. "Crossbows and bolts?" he asked the quartermaster again
"Nearly four thousand usable crossbows back at Knightsend and I think more than a hundred thousand bolts"
"We have an abundance in supplies and weapons. Now let's talk about strategy" Timothy smiled. He then pointed at the burning forest in Mercus Plains. "You may have heard already but the Tulosans are stuck here"
"Yeah. That was a genius move" General Marvin commented "Now that the army is undivided, we have a chance to destroy them."
Timothy chuckled after hearing General Marvin "What do you mean 'we have a chance'?" he smiled "We already won"
Everyone gave Timothy a questioning look.
"Your Highness I think it's too early to claim victory. It will be hard for us to defeat the Tulosans in the field" Erik said
Timothy always knew that this was Erik's weakness. His friend was good at tactics, but not at strategy. He was meticulous, but he always fails to see the bigger picture.
"Look at the map" Timothy said. He then pointed at their current location and traced his finger towards Knightsend. "What do you see?"
Erik squinted and looked closely. His eyes then went wide "We" he looked at Timothy "We are blocking their supply lines!" he exclaimed
Timothy smiled. Erik learns fast. "Not just theirs but also the larger Tulosan army's supply lines. They probably didn't expect this to happen. I mean who would expect that the soldiers from Knightsend were crazy enough to sally forth and break the siege. By breaking the siege, we also blocked their supply lines. They will run out of food soon enough. They will have no choice but to attack us to keep their supply lines open. In that case, we will go back to Knightsend and defend the castle"
"So we will retreat to Knightsend and do nothing?" General Marvin asked
"We will go back to Knightsend, but that doesn't mean we won't do anything. Like what I said, we already won the moment you broke the siege and blocked their supply lines. It's checkmate no matter how you look at it. It's just a question of how much we will make them suffer. We could just do nothing and let them retreat to Tulosa. Many of them will die of hunger and exposure. The larger army besieging Timur and Greenwater will also have no choice but to retreat. It will be a win for us. If they choose to assault the castle instead, they can't win. They are dangerous now because of their cavalry, but cavalry is useless in castle assaults. Either way they will lose men."
"So what's your plan?" General Marvin failed to hide his excitement and grinned from ear to ear.
"First we need to make sure they assault the castle. I need saboteurs to burn their food. They are running out of food now, but if the saboteurs succeed, the Tulosans will have no choice but to assault Knightsend. Do you have a man for this job?" Timothy asked General Marvin
"Yes and they're good"
"That's perfect then. If they can burn the Tulosans' food, then I can promise you a miracle." Timothy stood up examined their expressions. All of them were confused.
"A miracle?" Erik questioned
"Yes" Timothy smiled "A complete victory that will be remembered for centuries to come"