Chapter 24: The Recovery of the Royal Capital 1
Chapter 24: The Battle to Reclaim the Royal Capital 1
Crystal Yew Castle was the capital of the Kingdom of Aldo, named after the huge crystal stones on the Labson Mountain near the city.
The previous kings of the Rodney Dynasty had moved the capital several times, and it was finally settled here during the fifth term, and since then it gradually became the political and economic center of the entire kingdom. After ten generations of kings, the capital has a population of over 100,000, making it one of the largest cities in the known world.
In the spring of the 1990’s of the Holy Calendar, the eastern part of the kingdom was attacked by the barbarians of the highlands, and Her Royal Highness Princess Catherine personally led an army to expel them, and after the princess’s army arrived in the eastern highlands, the Grand Duke Giles, whose fiefdom was located in the south, raised a rebellious flag and began to rapidly march to the north.
But worse was to come, as Sir Hath, the commander of the city guards who had remained in the royal capital, betrayed the crown and also started a rebellion in response to Giles in the south.
It was already noon, and the fields on both sides of the King’s Highway leading to the royal capital were still busy.
It’s not that the peasants don’t want to take a rest, it’s just that the city guard’s rebellion some time ago made the neighborhood of the royal capital chaotic for a while, everyone dared not go out and delayed a lot of agricultural work, now it’s a little bit more stable, so in order to not miss the time of cultivation, many people get up in the morning and work all day long.
Many birds chirped and flew in from the north, and when people looked up, they saw an army at the end of the road.
Some were nervous until they saw the flags flying in the procession and breathed a sigh of relief.
As one group of soldiers after another passed by, smoke and dust rolled down the road, and the large number of people and uncountable flags merged into a colorful river that meandered towards the royal capital.
“Giddy–” a group of people dressed as knights steered their horses past a group of walking soldiers, rushing towards the front of the group, the leader was a female knight, a head of shiny and glittering golden hair moving with the wind, like golden flames flying in the air.
When they were about to reach the very front of the group, the knights realized that there were people riding towards them in front of them, and they pulled the reins and slowed down their horses.
The person who came quickly reached the knights, he faced the leading female knight, his right hand stroked on his chest and nodded slightly, “Your Highness.”
Catherine waved her hand to signal him to be excused and asked, “What’s going on up ahead?”
“The vanguard has already joined up with the first-arriving King’s diligent army in Oren Town, and the temporary command has already been set up, waiting for you to go over.”
“Good, all of you hold on tight, let’s hurry over.”
“Yes!” The crowd behind them led the order, while urging their crotch horses, following Princess Catherine as she galloped away.
About half an hour later, Catherine’s group arrived at the Oren Township government hall that served as the temporary command headquarters, just as she dismounted, a female general appeared at the doorway and walked to the bottom of the steps and knelt down on one knee.
“Your Highness!”
The female general had black hair and black eyes, and she was even wearing a black armor, contrasting sharply with the princess’s white armor.
Catherine immediately reached out her hands to pull up the female general, then embraced her tightly and said with relief, “Ofina, thank you Lord of Light for arranging for you to be with me even in such a time of danger.”
“Your Highness, I have sworn to follow your side forever.”
A hint of gentleness appeared on the female general’s frosty face.
“Thank you, Ofina …….”
“It is my duty to serve my lord. Your Highness, the diligent lords from all over the world are still waiting for your summons.”
“Good, I’ve seen quite a few men and horses along the way, I didn’t choose the wrong person to send you to summon the industrious lords.”
Catherine praised while tightly pulling Ophena’s hand, and the two of them walked into the government hall together.
Seeing the princess arrive, the group of people inside who were having a heated discussion stood up in unison to greet her.
Catherine walked to the main seat of the hall and sat down, signaling everyone to take their seats, Ofina sat down on her right hand side, and the rest of the people who followed the princess also looked for seats to sit down.
The princess looked around the hall and nodded in satisfaction.
“After the change in the royal capital, my father’s health was not good and he ordered me to temporarily take over the affairs of state, an order signed by His Majesty himself. “
The princess unfolded a scroll of paper, and immediately an attendant took it with both hands and handed it to the people in the hall to circulate in turn, and the royal decree was indeed signed by His Majesty the King himself.
For Catherine to regulate the country, the people have no objection, this princess highness’s ability has long been famous, at the age of five she can write, at the age of ten she can do martial arts, when her peers are still honestly gnawing on the books she will be able to assist the sickly king to deal with all kinds of affairs, the ministers are also praising her.
At the age of fifteen, she formed her own knighthood, and repeatedly led her troops to the highlands to drive away barbarians of all sizes that were attacking the kingdom, so it was no wonder that she was asked to lead the troops this time.
Catherine said in a loud voice, “It is only when the country is in danger that one can recognize the hearts of the people, for all of you to abide by the ancient oath and assist the royal family in times of emergency, father will surely feel immensely gratified.”
The people present rose to respond to the princess.
“Your Highness, the Harden family will follow the royal family to the death ……” “As witnessed by the God of Heaven, the loyalty of the Derry family to the royal family has always been the same ……”
“I, the Airdrie family, would like to be Your Highness’s forerunner in the crusade against this rebel, Giles!”
“Giles’ betrayal of His Majesty the King is a crime that cannot be punished, the Lord of Light will punish him.”
……
After the group of lords from out of town had finished expressing their loyalty to the royal family, the meeting entered the substantive stage: discussing how to recapture Crystal Glory Castle.
“Your Highness, Giles’ main force has been blocked by Duke Dodge, and is temporarily unable to gallop to the aid of the rebels in the royal capital. The city guards are only a mere 5,000 men, while we have more than 40,000 men, so we don’t need to wait for the later arriving hardworking army, tomorrow we’ll gather all our forces, and we’ll be able to recapture the king’s capital in a single blow.”
“These 5,000 men are the elite guarding the royal capital, they are not temporary conscripted peasants, it’s better to be cautious.”
“Are you looking down on us, the foreign troops?”
“I definitely don’t mean that.”
“My intelligence indicates that Hals has coerced at least twenty thousand young men to defend the city for him.”
“Lord Merlin is overly concerned, what is there to worry about with a rabble that will then rout like wild beasts at the sight of the royal banner.”
“They only need to know how to operate the defending equipment, the walls of the royal capital are not those earthen fences in the countryside that can be broken in a single hit, it’s hard to conquer them without more than 10 times the strength advantage.”
……
After an afternoon of discussion, the meeting decided that Duke Walker would point 15,000 men to feint at the north gate of Jingyao, and Princess Catherine would lead the main force of 25,000 men to attack the east gate of Jingyao.
The next day, the attack on the north gate started first.
On the side of the royal party’s army, first of all, the stone throwers and archers appeared, due to the accuracy problem, the stone throwers mainly played the role of psychological deterrence, what really caused huge pressure to the defending party was the archers, a team of archers threw a dense rain of arrows to the city wall.
The rebel side lacked archers, and there were occasional sporadic counterattacks, but most of them could only rely on their palisade walls and shields to fend off the rain of arrows.
Taking the cover of the stone-throwing vehicles and archers, a large number of King’s Party soldiers pushed siege vehicles, siege hammers, and other large instruments to move slowly towards the city walls.
From time to time, people on the city walls were hit by arrows and fell to the ground, the real city guard soldiers were still relatively calm, holding their shields up to protect their bodies tightly, but the militia who were forcibly conscripted couldn’t do this calmly, especially when someone beside them was hit by an arrow.
One of the militiamen finally couldn’t take it anymore, with one of the men on his left and right dead and one wounded, he figured that the next arrow was going to be pushed into him, and took advantage of the fact that the next set of arrows hadn’t arrived yet to leave his defensive position, and quietly moved over to the horse path that led to the city’s ascent.
“Hurry up and get the hell out of here.”
This was the only thought in his heart.
Seeing that the horse road entrance was up and unguarded, the militiaman was about to rejoice when suddenly a sharp pain struck him in his front chest connected to his back. Looking down, a bloody spearhead emerged from his own chest. Before he could figure out what happened, his consciousness gradually blurred and he fell forward onto the city wall.
The city guard officer behind him pulled out his spear with red eyes and hysterically yelled to the others, “This is what happens to deserters who go AWOL, shoot on sight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Just then ……
“BANG!” A loud collision sound came, it was the sound of a siege vehicle touching the city wall.
“Kill–“
A large number of King’s Party soldiers shouted to the heavens and rushed up the ladders along the siege wagon.
“Prepare the kerosene! Sword and shield soldiers forward.”
The rebel side was also on standby.
“Woo–“
The attacking and defending sides coincidentally blew their horns, announcing the official start of the attack and defense battle of the royal capital.
Not very good at describing war scenes, readers will be able to read it.
(End of chapter)