"Fire!"
Boom! Bang! Ka-boom!
Countless cannonballs fired from twenty-eight guns hammered the walls of Radensdorf. With our gunpowder nearly gone, I ordered the Royal Artillery Corps to throw every last bit of it into the assault.
Schneider and Marco worried that we’d run out of powder before the walls came down, but the whole point of pouring on such a frenzied barrage was to draw every set of eyes in the garrison toward the south gate.
"Powder! Bring more powder!"
"Damn it, dump it all in!"
The artillery had one job left, and this was it. Put coldly, the Royal Artillery Corps simply didn’t have the firepower to bring down the outer wall. So I let them blaze through their finale with a crude little fireworks show.
After making contact with Hoenir’s Klaus, I requested a war council. The crown prince showed keen interest in the feint-and-flank plan and judged it the only way to break the stalemate we were stuck in.
The scheme leaned entirely on our inside collaborators, which made it risky, but the princes also voiced their support, agreeing it was well worth the gamble.
As a result, an allied detachment was thrown together in a single night.
Even knights from prominent regional estates joined in droves. The princes committed their finest because they figured that if this operation succeeded, Radensdorf would fall for good.
The core of the plan was the Swiss assault squad.
Gedel would command the rest of the Swiss mercenaries.
The bravest and most capable of the Swiss were always the two-handed swordsmen and halberdiers who shattered enemy lines from the very front. These veterans commanded steep fees for their services.
And at their head stood the strongest mercenary in Switzerland, Leto.
That terrifying halberd of his would surely carve a path open for us.
We slipped quietly into the woods near the eastern gate.
Then we hid and waited in silence.
"Lord, grant us strength."
The operation was set to begin at noon, and as the moment drew closer, a tense Anton crossed himself and prayed. He’d been through plenty of battles, but very few of them on foot, which was why this rattled him.
Slipping in fast through a small door was the heart of this plan, so naturally the Gale Knights I led and the allied cavalry had all left their horses back at camp.
The allied cavalry under my command could fight just as well off their horses as on them. There was no leaving them out of a detachment like this.
This operation brought a lot of new faces.
Half the detachment was made up of knights, the elite force the princes had kept carefully hidden away.
Sly old foxes.
Only now were they bringing out troops like these.
They’d played these knights as a card because the rewards waiting for them, should this succeed, were just that tempting.
They wanted the glory of ending the civil war, no doubt.
The knights quietly recited their prayers and steadied their minds.
Leto and the Swiss assault squad took the lead.
The princes’ knights would charge in second, once the assault squad had punched a hole. I’d lead the rest of the troops in third.
Even deciding the order of entry had been a headache.
To knights, who love draping everything in grand flowery language, going first was a matter of great honor. But I cared about efficiency, so I handed that honor to the Swiss mercenaries.
The knights surely resented me for it, but this was the last battle and they weren’t my men anyway, so I just brushed it off. Their fighting skill was beyond question, at least, so they’d pull their weight.
Ka-boom!
A spire collapsed under the fierce bombardment.
It was almost time.
I slung my longsword across my back and gripped my razor-sharp halberd tight in both hands.
With the barrage drawing the garrison’s full strength to the south gate, the east gate held nothing but sentries. Far too few to put down any kind of uprising.
The distance from here to the east gate was considerable, but I could see it clearly.
Bang!
And at last the barred side door swung wide open. Soldiers, apparently the reinforcements Margareta had sent, were waving a commander’s banner. This was the moment we’d been waiting for.
"Attack!"
"Swiss assault squad! Advance!"
The elite assault squad with their two-handed swords and halberds burst from the woods and crossed the open ground in a single rush. The knights charged after them, and then my main force advanced.
In an instant, the east gate became a slaughterhouse.
"No! The gate’s open!"
"Damn it, hold them! If they break through, we’re all dead!"
The startled sentries attacked the men who’d opened the gate but failed to retake it before we arrived. Leto’s halberd split a sentry’s skull in a flash.
"We’re through! We’re finally through!"
Roaaaar!
Arrows rained down, but no one could stop the assault squad. The two-handed swordsmen tore the packed enemy ranks to pieces and bored straight in, and the halberdiers followed, hacking down foes with ease.
"Now we make Essenbach’s name ring out! Essen Knights, advance!"
"Belfort Shield Knights! Don’t fall behind Essenbach!"
The knights piled in as if competing, tangling with the garrison on every side. They fought viciously, clearly seeing it as a chance to win great distinction.
Sheer pandemonium.
But no one in this place was guaranteed safety.
Boom!
"Gah, look out!"
"Verflucht! Where are those gunners aiming?!"
A shell flew in from the south and struck the building right above my head. Shrapnel sprayed in every direction and the building came down. The shell must have hit a support column dead-on.
Crash!
"It’s coming down!"
Startled, I scrambled clear.
The spot I’d been standing on was buried completely under a heap of rubble. It was close enough to make my heart stop. A real stroke of luck, but I couldn’t help cursing.
"Son of a bitch! I almost died!"
I’d very nearly been killed by my own side’s bombardment.
"Anton! Send the cease-fire signal!"
Anton and his men, who’d pushed up onto the wall, frantically waved their flags to signal a halt to the Royal Artillery Corps, who were still hurling shells like madmen from the south.
"The shelling’s stopped! Seize the south gate!"
The knights and infantry units assigned beforehand scattered in all directions and began securing the key facilities. The garrison, which had resisted desperately, had already crumbled the moment our forces broke in.
The collaborators who’d survived against all odds rejoined us.
"Welcome to Radensdorf."
"I nearly died before I even took the place."
"Yes, I saw. Quite the spectacle you made."
Having found his composure again, the blood-soaked collaborator bared his yellow teeth in a grin. We had this area under control. There was scattered resistance from the garrison and the militia, but that would be cleaned up soon enough.
"Thanks to your help, we got in safely. I’ll see you’re rewarded for it."
"We acted to aid a sworn ally. We seek no reward."
Margareta’s vassals, only six of them left after fighting to hold the side door, were brimming with pride. They had dealt the rebels a fatal blow and raised their house’s honor high.
A vassal’s honor is the house’s honor.
"Now you must hurry to the inner keep."
"Of course. Can you guide us?"
"Certainly! Follow us!"
Margareta’s vassals knew the layout of the inner keep in fine detail. I gathered up the Gale Knights and allied cavalry who’d been on the wall. But the allied cavalry had all slipped off.
Eeek!
Help me!
You want to go raiding homes at a time like this?
A leopard never changes its spots, and that was them to a tee.