The war was won, but the town of Dusseldorf did not fall into a sea of joy like other towns.
After the news of victory came from the gate of the town, most of the people and merchants were only in commotion for a while. They were grateful to God, thinking that their prayers must have come true. God did not abandon them, but blessed them.
Immediately afterwards, there was the same numbness as usual.
Like the enemy troops outside the town before, they had not had enough to eat for many days. Many people closed their eyes piously and prayed to God, hoping that a caravan full of food would come to the town quickly and the price would be free. Too expensive.
The moat outside the town was filled with corpses of siege soldiers. Many corpses had been soaked for many days and were frighteningly bruised and swollen.
Some stretches of the river were filled with piles of hay bundles and empty barrels, the work of siege laborers. Such a simple pontoon bridge had amazing buoyancy, and it was actually able to allow the handyman carrying a siege ladder to step over it safely, which once gave the city defenders a headache.
The originally beautiful and solid wooden and stone structure of the town wall in Dusseldorf was riddled with holes by catapults, and landslides occurred in some places. The fragmented and already overwhelmed town wall collapsed three days ago.
If Count Loon had not considered that the pontoon bridge could not bear the weight of too many soldiers wearing armor and holding weapons, they might have chosen to cross the moat and launch a general attack from the collapsed town wall.
At this time, the battlefield outside the town and the gatehouse at the entrance of the town had been cleared. The soldiers transported carts of equipment to the armory in the town - mostly battle-scarred chainmail and leather jackets, as well as many Helmet dented with dried blood.
After Earl Berg's soldiers and the soldiers of the noble coalition cleared all the trophies to be handed over, they began to scavenge for "treasures" among the piles of corpses.
The so-called barefoot is not afraid of wearing shoes. Some serf soldiers without shoes did not care about other people's smelly feet. They found shoes among the corpses and hurriedly put them on and took them as their own.
The poor serf soldiers whose families were short of clothes took off the clothes of some corpses that were still intact and put them under their armpits.
Some serfs also untied the chin ties that were tightly tied on some corpses and took away their stuffed turbans. In addition to providing an extra layer of protection on the battlefield in the future, they could also be worn to keep warm in the winter.
Those who are lucky can also find silver rings on the fingers of some corpses that have not been carefully searched, or find silver crosses around their necks. This is a huge fortune for them.
But for the time being, no one is willing to clean up the corpses in the moat and take off their equipment - the moat now has an overwhelming smell of corpses, mixed with severed limbs, organs, blood, feces, vomit, and all kinds of garbage, which is extremely disgusting.
Perhaps, after all the corpses in the open space have been carefully searched for a second time, and there is really no oil or water to scrape, these hungry serf soldiers and free people soldiers will put their greedy hands into the filthy moat floating corpses.
Simon held his nose and rode "Lucky" across the wooden bridge at the entrance of the town.
The bodies on the wooden bridge have been cleared away, but fresh blood and unknown liquids still remain on it, and the air is filled with a disgusting mixed stench.
There was only one soldier standing guard at the gate of the town, a young man with a spear. He was exhausted, his eyes were red, and he looked like he hadn't had a good night's sleep in days.
"Good day, Sir." The soldier recognized the coat of arms of the Dorsten family on Simon's robe, and said hello to Simon feebly with a strong effort.
"What a sin this is." Simon shook his head and sighed in his heart.
Even though there was a shortage of supplies in the town, Earl Berg still decided to hold a celebration banquet. Although it seems a bit shabby from a normal perspective, the nobles and soldiers who have been fighting hard for many days are looking forward to it. Of course, the unlucky soldier assigned to stand guard didn't think so.
On the way to Count Berg's inner castle tower, Simon saw many slovenly, ragged, and disheveled townspeople. What's funny is that the owner with a sad look at the door of the tavern is wearing clothes that are obviously one size too big. Simon speculates that the siege during this period has made the owner's big beer belly lose a lot of weight, and the previous clothes are now too big. ()
Except for the tavern, the blacksmith shop and most of the shops and workshops in the town have not resumed business. The wounds caused by the war in towns will take time to heal.
The town of Dusseldorf is not big. Not long after walking, Simon came to the inner castle in the center of the town.
The inner fort can be said to be a castle built in a town. Although the fort wall is about the same height as the outer town wall, it is obviously not as thick as the latter.
There is a certain distance of open space in front of the fort wall. There is nothing else in the open space except some tents and small stalls set up with wooden sticks and tarpaulins.
"Good day, Sir!"
There were two soldiers standing guard at the gate of the inner fort. They wore iron nose helmets, chainmail coats, and a sharp iron sword at their waists. Their spirits were completely different from the listless young man at the gate of the town.
Simon could tell from their warm and positive greetings that they were in a state of elation and joy.
It turns out that the two of them are Earl Berg's newly recruited private guard soldiers.
They were originally just ordinary free people soldiers, but because of their outstanding performance in this war, they were not only granted fiefs, but also received iron helmets and chainmail from Earl Berg's armory, as well as a high-quality armed sword. .
Obviously, they have obtained the ticket to the aristocracy. Whether they can successfully enter and make the jump in the end depends on their next fate.
The structure and layout of Earl Berg's castle is somewhat similar to that of Dorstenberg, but his tower is very interesting.
Unlike other lords who built spacious gates on the first floor, Count Berg's tower had no entrances or windows at all on the first floor and was built of solid stone.
The real entrance to this tower is on the second floor, connected to the ground by a movable wooden ladder with a gentle slope. When the enemy comes, they only need to set fire to the wooden gentle slope ladder, and the enemy will hardly pose a threat to the people in the tower.
"This is a wonderful design. I will discuss it with Ryan after I get back and figure it out." Simon was amazed in his heart.
At this time, two large trestle tables had been set up in the open space of the inner castle. Some private soldiers have already taken their seats, laughing and drinking beer with their companions next to them.
The seats on the fort are reserved for private soldiers, and those for nobles should be in the lobby of the tower.
Simon walked up the gentle wooden slope to the second floor of the tower and entered the tower lobby.
The lobby of the tower was large, with a large trestle table covered in white linen in the center. There was no food on the table yet, but there was enough wine, although it was all inferior beer and malt liquor.
There were already many people sitting at the table, and the sound of nobles drinking and having fun almost knocked down the ceiling. Simon immediately saw the center of the crowd - Lange and several other barons.
Lange was smiling broadly while drinking and talking with Baron Wolfe, Baron Karl and another nobleman whom Simon did not know. He burst out laughing from time to time, causing the other knights at the table to laugh together.
I guess everyone has heard the news that the old Cooser is dying and has made a will, and Lange is about to succeed as the new Baron Dorsten.
At this time, although Lange was still just a knight, few people still treated him as a knight.
The other barons had inadvertently placed him on an equal footing with themselves, while the young knights fawned over him with flattering expressions.
"The terminator of the Norman pirates, the legitimate ruler of Fordeburg, Lord Simon from Dorsten has arrived!" The castle caller at the tower door shouted loudly, and Simon immediately attracted the attention of all the nobles. .
Lange's mouth was tightly closed, and his eyes when looking at Simon were a little cold, but the enthusiastic and bold Baron Wolfe broke the silence with his unique loud voice.
"Look who is here? It turns out to be Simon, haha, take your seat, my brave and fearless warrior!"
After Baron Wolfe finished speaking, the nobles smiled, briefly greeted Simon, and then continued their conversation.
Simon felt a little left out. ()
But if you think about it carefully, this is normal.
Although the Germanic nobles admired brave nobles, that was all. After knowing Keother's will, they understood that no matter how powerful Simon was, he would only be a small knight in the future, one of the many vassals of the new Baron Lange.
It is true that although Simon is quite capable and fights bravely, for now, these short-sighted guys feel that the political benefits of having a good relationship with Simon are not great. If they have this time, they might as well have a good relationship with the newly promoted Baron Lange.
"It's very realistic." Simon sighed, sitting next to another strange knight at the end of the table.
The strange knight had heard about Simon's deeds, and chatted with Simon without a word with great interest.
Simon looked around and noticed the silent Earl of Berg at the front of the trestle table, the supreme ruler of the entire earldom.
Although Earl Loon was dead and the enemy's troops were wiped out in pieces, Earl Berg, like most of the townspeople, was not happy.
The earldom has been ravaged by the war, and except for a few places that are still intact, other territories have basically suffered varying degrees of damage.
In addition, apart from the three surviving knights of the inner palace, the only remaining vassals under him were Baron Wolfe, Baron Karl, Keother who was half buried in the ground, and Baron Shigerburg who had just been rescued, that is, The nobleman Simon didn't recognize.
Although he selected a group of brave freedmen soldiers and serf soldiers to join the private army that suffered heavy casualties, this could only be regarded as licking some blood on the surface of the wound, and the wound would still take a long time to recover.
But at least what comforted him was that he had eliminated most of the troops in the earldom of Loon and captured a large number of their serfs and freedmen soldiers.
Count Loon's defeat meant that his territory's treasury was now empty and could not afford to fight again. As long as Earl Berg did not sign an armistice treaty with them, he could legally send troops to devour their territory and make it his own.
Now that the news of Earl Luo Weng's defeat has not spread far, he has to send troops immediately before the lords around Earl Luo Wen can react. Now is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to annex the earldom of Loon.
If someone else picked the peach in the end, Earl Berg swore that he would not forgive himself.
Thinking of this, Earl Berg cleared his throat and placed the wine glass he had been holding on the table. There was a clear "clack" sound. The nobles who were good at observing people immediately stopped talking and focused their attention on On the earl.
"Today is undoubtedly a day worthy of celebration. We killed our damn enemy Count Loon to a pulp and were completely defeated!"
"Oh yeah!"
"Kill them all!"
The nobles raised their glasses and drank with the count, and some cheered hysterically.
"Perhaps you all thought that the war ended after killing Earl Lowen this afternoon, but what I want to say now is that it did not." The Earl said calmly after finishing his glass of malt wine.
"What?"
The nobles began to be confused, and some smart nobles had already guessed the count's intentions, with unspeakable expectations on their faces.
"The current Earl of Loon is vulnerable, just like a stripped woman waiting for us to conquer! I can't believe you can sit here and drink so calmly!"
Earl Berg's slightly vulgar metaphor surprised the nobles, but soon they reacted and the expressions on their faces became fanatical.
Seizing more land means that the benefits they gain will increase exponentially, which is much higher than obtaining a batch of trophies on the battlefield.
Earl Berg was very satisfied with this. He took another glass of malt wine handed over by the servant, drank it in one gulp, wiped his mouth with his sleeve and said: "The Earl of Loon is surrounded by eager wolves, we must act as soon as possible. , otherwise this piece of fat will be taken away by others."
