Eagle City wasn’t a well-developed city. After all, previously it was only a marketplace situated in the middle of the surrounding towns. But later, just less than a century ago, with the increase of its importance to the surrounding towns, it slowly developed into a city. Because of the previous Lord’s plans to further promote the importance of its market, he decided to not build any insurmountable walls.
How strong could an army of three thousand civilians together with the men from two Earls possibly be? So the sooner Timothy started his counter measures, the better were his odds for him to win. If he was to give her even a little breathing space, she would quickly take over the whole of the Southern territory, making it very difficult for him to push her back.
After a night’s rest and a good meal, his troops were now ready to fight. The sun gradually turned from a weak orange into a ball of shining gold, dispersing the morning fog. Soon Timothy could see Eagle City’s earth-colored walls – in the eyes of the new King, they didn’t deserve to be called walls. At best, they could be called an earthen slope. From the bottom to the top of the slope, it was just a ramp. Even without a siege ladder, his troops would still be able to directly climb it on foot. Furthermore, the slope only had a height of one person and just enough thickness to accommodate one person on top of it. While this so-called wall was good enough to block refugees and bandits, it would never be able to stop his heavily armed soldiers.
It seemed the city walls were only very sparsely manned, apparently they weren’t ready to defend the wall.
“Your Majesty, the cavalry which was in charge of observing the South Gate have came back to report. They finally saw a group of men and horses moving.” Reported knight Linden, who ran back to the King while leading his horse by hand.
Timothy turned in the direction of Duke Frances and said with a knowing look, “It looks like she wants to run.”
Duke Frances took a careful look for himself and nodded, “That is most probably true, and can be considered a decisive action on her part. Eagle City isn’t suitable for a siege, if she tried to defend this city with her troops, it will only become a clear victory for us.”
“It turned out the same as you had expected during the combat meeting last night, she really did not expect us to react so fast,” he laughed.
“We arrived at just the right time,” Timothy said. “She was unable to move at night, even if she had wanted to.”
“You are correct, a march during night-time is a big taboo. If she really had done it, and we then took the initiative to attack, her troops would easily collapse. And once the troops collapse during the night, they will seldom have the chance to gather again. Even if she was able to flee back to Clearwater Port, it would only be delaying the inevitable.
“So, my dear sister had to wait until the morning to order the troops to retreat.” Timothy looked with satisfaction at the Castle of Eagle City, which seemed to be waiting for him to take it. It has to be hard on her, after all she has done, yet it didn’t turn out as she expected.
Garcia was too fond of the symbolic status of Eagle City, and the possibilities she felt when she stationed troops here – when holding the mansion of the guardian of the southern border, it would indeed be easier to conquer the hearts of the southern nobility. But the benefits were also accompanied by its own risk. Timothy had intentionally sent a slow moving diversionary army along the way, while at the same time rushing with a division of cavalry to the East, without any infantry.
The needed rations were transported by cart, which were following them. When they arrived at the Duke’s mansion they took the rest of the cavalry with them. From there they bypassed Eagle City and neared the city from the opposite side. The first mission of the cavalry was to block all roads, reducing the ability for the spies to pass on messages.
But such big military activity was impossible to hide forever, Garcia should have gotten the news of their attack two to three days earlier than their actual approach. So that when they started their retreat this morning, it could be considered as a hasty move. Retreating from Eagle City to Clearwater would take one day on foot. So even if they ran on their two legs, Timothy could still easily overtake them with his thousand men strong cavalry unit and easily kill them, which would naturally lead to the collapse of her ridiculous armies.
Unfortunately, as long as she threw her three thousand troops away, Garcia still had a chance to escape from Timothy’s clutches by leaving the city on her own by horse. Like this staying alive and returning to the Port of Clearwater wouldn’t be difficult.
Even in the case that she was able to flee, I would still have ended this farce, he thought.
“Your Majesty, according to the previously drawn up plan we should sepa