plumnovel #161 - Long Bridge, Bloody Road! (Part 1)
#161 - Long Bridge, Bloody Road! (Part 1)
The Joan of Arc's city hall was once again brightly lit, but this time, the hall, modeled after the Elven Council, was not filled with citizen representatives hastily summoned in the middle of the night, but with the esteemed Duke himself.
Beside the window, Barmanda sat on a velvet chair, concealing her mouth and nose with a feather fan.
Duke Kush, in his pajamas, angrily rebuked Zanderbeck, "When did I ever say I wanted to turn all the fifteen-year-olds of Joan of Arc into wine?"
"But that's what they're saying."
"And what edict says I'm going to kill them all?"
"I don't know, maybe we've been squeezing them too hard, and they're holding a grudge..."
In reality, even if the Duke wanted to wipe out Joan of Arc, he couldn't, because he simply didn't have the power.
Not to mention the insane idea of turning all the fifteen-year-olds of Joan of Arc into wine.
Even if he did, so much wine would only lead to a price crash, and blue blood wine has a very short shelf life; wouldn't that be a huge loss?
Besides, he's a distributor, not a producer.
What about the edict?
Prince Condé cherishes his reputation; the massacre of Small Pond City is pure fabrication, all made up by those citizens and small workshop owners who were robbed and extorted by mercenaries.
Besides, the Duke knows that vagrants are poor and have no value to exploit when levying taxes, so wouldn't Prince Condé know that?
Prince Condé came to Joan of Arc primarily to respond to the Church's decree to capture the Short Hairs, giving the Pope an explanation by capturing Horn, and secondarily to make a fortune.
At most, he'll harm the local citizens, merchants, and armed landowners; didn't you see that the well-informed stonemasons had already fled to the countryside to hide?
"So, what do we do now? They're already at the canal."
Darnay looked at his wife, Barmanda, who hid half her face behind the feather fan.
She also didn't expect her extreme pressure to backfire; mainly, she didn't anticipate that Horn hadn't fled Joan of Arc and even publicly exposed the Blue Blood Orphanage.
After the flood tax, bond prices, and grain prices exploded one after another, the emergence of vagrant riots was still within Barmanda's expectations, but their ability to mobilize nearly ten thousand young adults to reach Joan of Arc was indeed unexpected.
During the great French Blood Winter riot, when 300,000 farmers set out from their homes and arrived to besiege the capital, only 100,000 remained.
The remaining ordinary farmers, after their initial enthusiasm cooled, directly abandoned their teammates and ran away without looking back.
That these vagrants could arrive intact is truly a miracle.
Should we take a step back first? Or bribe their leaders and representatives of public opinion?
After thinking it over, Barmanda finally made a decision: "During our French Blood Winter riot, we paid the price of 50,000 farmers and 3,000 citizens; you should be prepared for that too!"
The mob must be killed; there's no other way. Originally, she wanted to slaughter them slowly, but once the Blue Blood incident was exposed, both sides tore off their masks, and there was almost no room for negotiation.
Moreover, their leader is still the die-hard Saint Son Horn, who is on the Church's wanted list.
The only option is to kill them.
"Okay, Frisiska, I appoint you as the plenipotentiary..."
"No." Before Darnay could finish speaking, Barmanda interrupted him forcefully, "We have to stay here to command from the center. Don't you know that if we leave, the local soldiers are very likely to be turned by the other side or simply desert."
This is a valuable lesson the French learned after suppressing countless mob rebellions and secret party uprisings—outsiders are always more trustworthy than locals.
"If you're not present, they'll think you can't see their betrayal. Don't underestimate this small difference; it can often determine who has the last laugh."
The Duke immediately became uneasy: "Then, how about I go to another place closer to the castle?"
After giving Darnay a somewhat disdainful look, Barmanda sighed impatiently, "You go deploy defenses over there; I'll supervise the battle on Citizen Road."
The couple agreed and separated, and Barmanda asked Frisiska, who was beside her, "Where are they?"
"They went to the Laborers' Quarter first."
"Quite clever," Barmanda muttered.
The entire Joan of Arc was built along the canal, with the Citizens' Quarter, Artisans' Quarter, and Laborers' Quarter all parallel to the canal.
Each of the three quarters has a road, also parallel to the canal, with the Citizens' Road made of cobblestone and wide, suitable for cavalry to operate.
The roads in the Laborers' and Artisans' Quarters are dirt roads and relatively narrow, with the canal on one side, making it difficult for cavalry to operate.
Horn's purpose in going to the Laborers' Quarter first also has another layer: if he launched an attack directly along the westward longitudinal Citizens' Road, he would encounter cavalry on the wide, flat ground.
But if he takes the longitudinal roads of the Laborers' and Artisans' Quarters, reaches a position parallel to the castle and city hall, and then launches a transverse attack from the small paths and alleys between the houses, the entire process will be a narrow tactical position unfavorable to cavalry.
Although he will still encounter the knights in front of the city square, it is better than encountering waves of attacks on the Citizens' Road with nowhere to hide.
At this moment, according to the original plan, Horn called a halt to the massive army, which had reached a position parallel to the city hall. The army of over ten thousand men slowly stopped.
According to information obtained from a local spy, a citizen whose cousin, who wishes to remain anonymous, claims that the Duke and Duchess are both in the city hall, and the Citizens' Road is full of mercenaries and several hundred knights.
This actually fits Horn's prediction of the Duke's strength: over 2,000 but less than 3,000 infantry, about half of whom are useless night watchmen and half of whom are decent mercenaries.
The most important thing is the nearly two hundred transcendent knights. As long as those transcendent knights can be dealt with, all that remains is to take the Duke and the castle.
In the blazing firelight, thick lines formed on the iron chain bridge above the canal, with a forest of spears reflecting the moonlight, firelight, and the red light in the eyes of the vagrants.
The thick iron cables raised the thick wooden bridge, and from the four bridge piers, about 110 yards away, one could reach the citizens' quarter.
Unfortunately, what Horn could think of, Barmanda could also think of.
"Doo-doo-doo—" Urgent whistles echoed in the night sky.
"The enemy, the enemy is coming!"
But just then, standing on the roof of a house, a scout shouted loudly towards Horn's side.
As soon as he finished speaking, a crossbow bolt was fired. Although he subconsciously dodged, the arrow still pierced his left cheek and exited from his right cheek.
The scout fell off the roof on the spot.
Neat footsteps came, and the reflection of metal shone in the darkness.
On the riverside stone road of the opposite Citizens' Quarter, large numbers of mercenaries wearing blue-black woolen jackets poured out of the alleys from the darkness, raising the spears and halberds in their hands.