plumnovel #338 - Battle of Moncruz
#338 - Battle of Moncruz
The rolling dark clouds blanketed the sky as the hooves of boar riders and hussars scattered broken blades and arrowheads across the ground.
The war monks of the Black Hat First and Fourth Legions escorted the prisoners of war towards Black Pottery Town in the rear.
The veterans leaned wearily against the walls, passing around a jug of beer.
The new recruits, fresh from enlistment, cried and laughed as they embraced, chanting the names of deceased friends and relatives.
Still others frantically used ropes to strangle the captured Templar Knights, diligently performing CPR on the unconscious knights.
Even as the knights' tongues turned blue and purple-red blood seeped from their throats, the war monks refused to give up their rescue efforts.
"We won! We won!"
The high and mighty knights had truly been brought down by them. They had lost their loved ones and homes, living numbly like cattle.
But at least in this moment, they had exacted the most unforgettable revenge on the once noble lords.
Though it was just collecting a bit of interest, they couldn't help but feel excited, either wailing or beating the prisoners to vent their emotions.
Hohn often trained them as if they were synthetics, but they were still human. No matter how strong their faith, they would still feel fear and sorrow.
Jeanne did not forcibly restrain their behavior, even turning a blind eye to some violations of military discipline.
After such a long military career, she was no longer the village girl who couldn't tolerate a grain of sand in her eye. She naturally knew to leave the war monks a channel for venting.
Moreover, she currently had more important work to do, which was to tally the spoils of war.
"After that Hailwin's final charge, most of the knights surrendered," Collabo reported, his face bruised and swollen.
"Have the prisoners been counted?" Jeanne asked, feeding carrots to her warhorse, her voice as clear as a magpie's.
"They've been counted." Collabo also served as the clerk of the Holy Handcannon Cavalry Regiment, so this task naturally fell to him.
Relying on his memory, Collabo recited the numbers one by one: "We annihilated and captured approximately 150 Transcendent Knights, 200 Squire Knights, over 500 Night Watch Guards, and over 1200 peasant soldiers."
"What about the specific prisoners? I mean the Transcendent Knights."
"We captured 83 Transcendent Knights, including 23 Kush Knights, 46 Leia Knights, and 14 Fran Knights," Collabo said, picking dried blood off his helmet with his fingers.
Jeanne stopped feeding the carrots. "83? Why so many?"
"After all, the hand cannons fire a spread of buckshot. At a distance of about ten meters, it's enough to pierce armor, but the lethality is insufficient, so we have thirty more knight prisoners."
Jeanne nodded in sudden understanding, easily calculating the result using her knowledge level, which had finally synchronized with fifth grade.
In this battle, they killed nearly seventy Transcendent Knights, more than half of whom fell to the Holy Handcannons, with the rest to be divided between the boar riders and spearmen.
A bright light flashed in Jeanne's eyes, and she hesitated before speaking: "Would this be considered a major victory?"
"Of course it would, we completely annihilated over 150 Transcendent Knights."
After the previous tension and slaughter, Jeanne, whose hair and face were still stained with blood, showed a bright smile.
This battle was Jeanne's first independent command, without any guidance from Hohn or Jeschka.
This was also thanks to Hailwin's eagerness after his last defeat, continuing to attack recklessly.
Although she was repeatedly outmaneuvered in the game of love, Jeanne cleverly applied her failed experiences from the game of love to the battlefield.
She led the Holy Handcannon Cavalry and Hussars on a large detour, galloping sixty miles, bypassing the Moncrus battlefield, and first stealing Hailwin's home.
This led to Hailwin having nowhere to escape, and ultimately he could only choose to fight to the death with the Templar Knights.
But being served by the Norse Knights led by Mura, the Hussars led by Grush, and the Holy Handcannon Cavalry led by Jeanne, was his death ugly?
However, compared to Enrico, Hailwin had some backbone. He committed suicide by poison, only bringing back a bloody corpse.
Of the remaining thirty-odd Templar Knights, besides ten or so who died in battle, the rest were sent to the war monks to vent their anger.
At this moment, the remaining living Templar Knights, even with their transcendent bodies, were beaten beyond recognition.
A gust of wind blew in with grass leaves, and Jeanne closed her eyes and turned her head, suddenly feeling a bit of coolness on her cheeks.
With a rumble of thunder, she raised her head, and sparse raindrops drew circular spots on the walls of the fortress.
"It's raining, let's go, we're going back to camp."
With the help of the orderly, Jeanne took off her armor and first took a cold shower.
After wiping the blood from her hair and body, she changed into a fitted sack jacket and trousers and walked towards the castle hall inside the fortress.
Passing through the abandoned corridor full of decaying smell, Jeanne pushed open the gate of Moncrus Castle, inside which was the hastily rebuilt conference room.
"...So, in the future, it's best not to let any idlers stay inside the defense line."
"Even if they have to stay inside the defense line, if they dare to disturb the line, they should be dispersed without hesitation!"
"Before the enemy arrives, you should practice the rotation of defenses several times, and simulate all the emergencies first..."
"If it is a siege battle, with the protection of the walls, there is no need to save too much Holy Power, otherwise..."
Hearing the lively discussion in the conference room, Jeanne knew that they were holding a debriefing meeting.
The most ⊥ new ⊥ small ⊥ say ⊥ in ⊥ six ⊥ 9 ⊥⊥ book ⊥⊥ bar ⊥⊥ first ⊥ hair!
Bernardo, as the legion clerk, sat on a small stool, quickly recording with a charcoal pencil.
The sound of the door opening was not loud, but the legion commanders immediately sat up straight, waiting for Jeanne to take her seat.
"Why so serious? You don't not know me."
Jeanne stepped forward casually, patting them on the shoulders: "Congratulations on winning a great victory, at least eliminating one-fifth of the Ibe Knights' combat power, well done!"
Jeanne walked to a small stool and sat down, looking around the entire conference room.
Outside, dark clouds brought lightning and heavy rain, while a drizzle fell at the corner of the conference room.
Turning her head to look at Momuli, who was sitting on pins and needles, Jeanne punched him in the chest: "Who are you putting on this dead look for? Everyone makes mistakes, one mistake can't cover up your past achievements."
"Saintess, I..."
"Stop whining," Jeanne's voice lowered a bit, "The military judge's report will be sent out tomorrow. Reward for merit, punish for mistakes. The battlefield is ever-changing, no one can control everything."
After appeasing Momuli's emotions, Jeanne sat high up on the main seat: "What are your thoughts on the next distribution of land?"
Speaking of this point, several legion commanders perked up.
"According to our understanding these past few days, land distribution may be difficult," Coleman said with a pout, "The villagers here are too stupid."
"It's not that they're stupid," Zhuerdan sighed, "The church has been poisoning them for too long, they still see us as rebels."
Compared to the Kush Territory, where arable land was scarce and suppressed more heavily by the church due to the existence of Duke Kush, the Golden River Township, with its abundant land, unexpectedly did not have very sharp conflicts.
In their eyes, the church was the side of justice, and the Black Hat Army had tried small-scale land distribution before.
Even though it was a good thing, the villagers' resistance was quite fierce, because they believed that they had received the favor of the devil and would be punished by the knights and the Holy Father.
"No matter what we say, they don't want to believe us, especially that Blue Blood Monastery. They insist on witnessing it with their own eyes. I can't move the monastery over, can I?"
The more Coleman spoke, the angrier he became, wishing he could immediately go out and conduct a special fighting operation with those "troublemakers."
"We encountered these problems when we were recruiting in Black Pottery Town. We have a preliminary solution now," Jeanne thanked the flattered maid and took a sip of the cold-dispelling butter beer.
"Wait a few days, you'll know when Granpwen arrives."
"What exactly is the solution?" Zhuerdan asked curiously.
"Didn't you say you had to move the Blue Blood Monastery over to see it with your own eyes?" Holding the warm butter beer, Jeanne opened Bernardo's debriefing meeting records and scanned them. "Who said we can't?"
End... Oh, not yet.