plumnovel #280 - We won!
#280 - We won!
Supported by Armand, Hohn stood on the hillside of Pavia.
He struggled to remove his helmet, a smile on his lips, a dry laugh escaping his throat.
Below the hillside, the Edict Knights, their hands and big toes chopped off, wore heavy slave iron collars around their necks, lined up and moved forward in fear.
Further out on the plains, groups of Holy Musket Riders and War Monks were chasing the fleeing Night Watchmen and Transcendent Knights.
Hohn had somewhat anticipated Bo'olle's plan to hold the castle after preparing for defeat before the battle.
The Salvation Army was decent in both defensive and field battles, but their only weakness was siege warfare.
They had no explosives or siege cannons, so they could only rely on tunneling and climbing walls to attack the Fortress of Jeanne.
If they really used this kind of siege warfare, they wouldn't be able to take it down in a year or two.
By then, the nobles in the Ibe Plain would react and send Transcendent Knights and Edict Knights to attack from both inside and outside.
So the key points of this battle were two:
First, annihilate the Edict Knights or break up their formation;
Second, seize the Fortress of Jeanne and the castle.
Hohn's designed tactics were very simple.
Sneak attack on the Fortress of Jeanne, frontal assault on the Edict Knights.
The entire Salvation Army first went to the vicinity of the Fortress of Jeanne, deliberately being discovered, then Hohn led his troops to lure the enemy, while Jeanne led two legions and cavalry to hide in nearby villages.
This elaborate plan was because attacking directly from Gray Hearth Town would easily be detected by sentries and rangers.
So the key was to hide their tracks and divert the main force of the Fortress of Jeanne.
Hohn went the other way, actively using the exposed tracks of 6 legions to hide the march of Jeanne's 2 legions.
When the Salvation Army was discovered in an area and driven out, people would subconsciously think that this area was safe.
This way, Jeanne could launch a surprise attack from a position very close to the Fortress of Jeanne, otherwise she would be discovered by patrolling knights halfway.
On the front, Hohn led 6 legions to entangle Bo'olle, while Jeanne led 2 legions to attack the Fortress of Jeanne from behind, and then launched a surprise attack from the rear to annihilate the enemy.
During this time, Hohn led six legions to lure the enemy, disguised as an encounter, and lured the Edict Knights into the pre-arranged position a few days ago.
There were streams and slopes here, and Hohn set up a spider web barrier. It was raining lightly, the perfect terrain and weather.
His only miscalculation was the stamina and combat power of the Edict Knights, and the time it took for Jeanne to return after taking the Fortress of Jeanne.
But it didn't matter, they finally completed their strategic objectives.
"Brother!" Jeanne jumped off her warhorse, swinging her braids, and ran towards Hohn.
But her original joyful and high-pitched tone with a hint of coquetry turned into a sob the moment she saw Hohn, "You... you..."
"What's wrong with me? Let me tell you, I killed an Edict Knight with my own hands."
Raindrops pattered on Hohn's body, washing the bloodstains on his body into small streams.
A piece of iron was stuck in the middle of his left eyebrow, and blood soaked half of his face.
He couldn't open his left eye, not knowing if it was temporary or permanent.
His right hand hung down weakly, his thumb broken in the middle, a short axe stuck in his shoulder armor, and his breastplate was covered with sword and knife marks.
Blood bubbles were constantly blowing out from the gaps in his leg armor. Hohn could barely stand, leaning his left shoulder on Armand.
"Brother, how did you..."
"What did you say?" Hohn beckoned to her, "Come to the right, I can't hear on the left... that knight's deputy's weapon was a hammer-spear, and he smashed it on my left face, not playing fair, but luckily I was wearing a helmet."
"Brother, I'm sorry... I'm late..."
"You've done your best." Hohn coughed, "Don't worry, this should be a perforated eardrum. I have breathing techniques or a witch's constitution, so the probability of recovery is very high."
Jeanne didn't respond to Hohn's words. She touched Hohn's blood-stained face with tears in her eyes.
She almost didn't recognize this face. It used to be a farmer's face, then a scholar's face, and now it looked like a warrior's face.
Holding Hohn's face in her hands, Jeanne's head suddenly approached, and her chest touched his breastplate.
A warm breath came, and their foreheads touched, and their lips bumped together unintentionally.
The tip of her nose smelled faintly of chamomile, and the softness that Hohn's lips touched had a sweet and bloody taste.
The enemy's blood is the Valkyrie's best lipstick.
"Yo!"
"Hey!"
Immediately, countless jeering sounds rang out around them, and some even whistled. Even the wounded lying on stretchers sat up straight.
"Smooch——"
Releasing Hohn's neck, before he could say anything, Jeanne was already in a state of high red temperature.
"One more!" Victor, who was lying on the ground unable to move, shouted sideways.
Swirling his crutches like flying, Coleman landed on one foot and rushed over quickly: "Ah? Did they kiss? Oh, I didn't see it."
"Kiss! Kiss!"
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"Woo-hoo!"
Listening to the jeering around her, the Valkyrie, who had just slaughtered on the battlefield, seemed to have turned into a little girl, glaring at them angrily, covering her face, and fleeing the scene quickly.
"Okay, stop jeering, stop jeering!"
Standing on the hillside, Hohn shouted, laughing and crying. He finally suppressed the war monks who still had the energy to make trouble after the battle.
Supported by Armand, he held the gear sun flag and limped to the front of the hillside.
From the flat ground of the hillside to the top of the hillside, nearly a thousand war monks lay down, a reduction of nearly a quarter.
Similarly, more than 60 Edict Knights, dozens of Square Flag Knights, and hundreds of Squire Knights lay here.
Including the more than 20 captured Edict Knights, the Edict Knights who successfully escaped were estimated to be only a few.
Prince Condé's 1 of the 9 Edict Knight companies was basically wiped out here.
Of the 550 Transcendent Knights who had set out, less than 150 escaped. The Transcendent Knights and nobles of the entire Kush Territory were swept away by Hohn twice.
The total number of captured Night Watchmen and Armored Sergeants exceeded 1,200.
As for those Frankish Royal Knights, they probably knew that the Fortress of Jeanne had changed hands, and they didn't even avenge the 100 Royal Knights left behind, and ran away quickly.
In other words, nearly 8,000 square kilometers of land in the Kush Territory had fallen into the hands of the Salvation Army.
"Huh?"
Hohn looked up at the sky.
The rain that had been falling for half a day finally stopped, the dark clouds dissipated, and a half-corner of sunset appeared between the clouds and the mountains.
The mottled slanting sunset and afterglow inlaid the streams in the grassland with colorful fine scales.
The scales twinkled, like ripples ruffled in a lake.
The azure hills stretched the sunlight, drawing clear light and dark dividing lines in the heaven and earth like an oil painting.
Hohn was standing at the intersection of the light and dark dividing lines.
The air quieted down, and everyone present, war monks, Protectorate soldiers, accompanying priests, and even those prisoners, focused their eyes on Hohn.
Everyone's eyes were on Hohn, looking at this Pope who had never personally charged in battle for thousands of years, looking at this young man who led them to victory.
They were all waiting for him to say the last sentence, the sentence that everyone had been waiting for for a long time, they wanted Hohn to say it himself.
"Fellow brothers! Monks! Believers!" Raising the sun gear flag high in his left hand, Hohn announced to everyone with a tearful smile, "We have won!"
"We have won!"
"We have won!"
The cheers spread out like an explosion.