The Duke, of course, knew what a ceremony barrel was. Previously they were only used by the King at the beginning of major celebrations, but today nearly every Lord would use them. Even he had two ceremony barrels made out of bronze in his castle, they were used to light up snow powder. But that sound when compared with today’s breathtaking thunderous noise, couldn’t be further apart.
“The ceremony barrels would never be able to kill knights,” Count Honeysuckle said. “No matter what the Prince used, it was powerful enough to defeat us all. So what should we do next?”
Hearing this, Duke Ryan glared in his direction, the sound of the word “defeat” was especially ear-piercing. “We haven’t lost,” he insisted. “A battle alone doesn’t decide a war. We only have to reach the stronghold, there I can put another force together, while at the same time I will also cut off trade from the Shishui River.”
Without any food supplement, Border Town wouldn’t be able to survive for another month, and as soon as he dared to bring those villagers out, my knight will rush at them from all sides and in the end, defeat him.
Eventually, the victory would become his, just as had he wanted, but the loss he had already suffered couldn’t be made up with just such a small town… his dream of taking over the North turned out to be only a bubble. Damn! If I will ever catch that Roland Wimbledon, I will have to make sure to cut him into a million pieces!
“But my Lord, the fleets crossing over the Shishui River aren’t only coming from us, there are also ships from Willow Town, Fallen Dragon Ridge and Redwater City. If we cut everything off, wouldn’t…” Count Honeysuckle clearly wasn’t convinced.
“I will buy everything; it doesn’t matter to whom they sell. As long as they receive their money they will be satisfied,” said the Duke with a frosty voice, “Now everyone should head back to their own tent’s and go to sleep, tomorrow morning we have to rise early and ride further down the road with the knights. Everyone who doesn’t have a horse will stay behind to lead the mercenaries.
No one is able to march during the night, even if the 4th Prince intends to pursue us. He can only start at dawn, the first enemy he will encounter will be the mercenaries, he thought, even if that group of trash collapsed on the first encounter, I still have many people left who will fight for me.
During the whole of next day, the Duke didn’t receive any news of the 4th Prince having caught up. In order to confirm the news, he sent his trusted aides to expand the search range, but they all returned with the same news. This finally let him feel a little relieved, most probably this new weapon has the same problem as our trebuchets, they are too heavy to be transported and can only be used in defense. Relying on only his bunch of miners with their sticks, he doesn’t dare to act so reckless.
By three o’clock in the afternoon, the Duke had ordered his knights to stop for the day, waiting for the people behind him to catch up. Close to dusk, the mercenaries and freedmen were finally able to catch up with his remaining 66 knights. And they then all became busy setting up a circle of hastily erected tents.
He only had to survive for the night, tomorrow he could rush and reach Longsong Stronghold – then he would finally be safely behind his 30 feet high limestone walls, his hundreds of guards and the naturally formed moat. Even if the other side could use their new long-range weapon, he could just use the trebuchets placed behind the wall to counterattack. Against all this, the Prince couldn’t win.
But all day long the Duke had a constant feeling of discomfort, he constantly had the feeling that someone was staring at him from afar.
Most probably it is just an illusion, he thought, I’m might just be a little too nervous.
The next morning, the Duke was awoken by the sound of gunfire.
When he rushed out of his tent, he could see people everywhere who had covered their heads and were trying to sneak away like rats. Yet, from time to time he could still see a fountain of blood or sail splash into the sky. When he looked to the West, he could see the enemy lined up in their strange uniform, quietly standing outside his camp. At the moment there was only one thought in the Duke’s head – how had they caught up to us?