Road to the Crown

Chapter 259: Chargning at the traitors

30th July 1574

"Fuck!'

Forcing my dear Helga to move even faster than, I gripped the rifle in my hand even harder than before. 

To think that those bastards would dare to make their intentions clear right fucking now! Yet this alone was also proof that I wasn't the only one meddling with the history! So far, I could still attribute their aggressive expansion on my lands to their wish to consolidate their power and create a proper dominion within Commonwealth borders, but to think that they would dare to openly move out from the main camp and march down to the mining town!

Thankfully, as near to my place the main camp was, it would still take them at least three to four hours to move their main forces to my city, meaning, that even with the delay of the message, as long as I hurried my troops, then those barely trained troops at the mining town should still have a chance at holding the aggression back!

"As much as I pity your current situation, isn't this a good thing?"

Riding beside me, outside of all the mobile troops that my own forces could muster and put on the horseback, Jan with the entire cavalry of the united army didn't seem to be stressed by the situation at all.

"What the fuck do you mean?"

Hearing Jan's words, all the rage and worry boiling within my soul got even closer to erupting. Just what the fuck could he mean by that?

"You know, since he dared to go against you openly, now you won't have to worry about being branded a traitor? Isn't that a good thing? Not only you will get to deal with them right away rather than worrying about their potential schemes during the war, but you will also most likely get your freedom of actions while at the front!"

As much as I agreed with the points that Jan brought about Ostros revealing their true faces being a good thing strategically wise, there were two more aspects of this matter that made it really awful.

"First thing first, it's not my situation, but ours. Without the rear help of my mining town, half of the production of ammunition and weapons for the army will be gone, not to speak about the ongoing investment in that land and constant training of new, modernised troops. But even if I were to push that matter aside, how could I enjoy the notion of a damned great noble attacking the barely protected industry area, one where my dear wife is staying?"

Forcing Elia to stay back and hold the fort was necessary due to how worried I was about her health. No matter her character, there was simply no way for me to bring her to a battlefield while she was in a blessed state! 

Yet as if the fate or some kind of grandmaster of this world wanted to make things hard for me, just when I thought that I managed to finally pull the danger out of Elia's way, those damned bastards spit in the face of all my efforts and made this unpredictable and completely idiotic move!

Because what could be the reason for their sudden reveal? An attempt at destroying my powerbase? But even if they were to succeed, that basically meant revealing their cards in face of still a powerful army! And doing so would also mean that they would openly admit to making a fool out of most of the nobles that participated in its creation, instantly making them enemy number one across the entire country!

Maybe they were really involved in the eastern invasion then? If I were to take this guess for true, then I could find some strategic purpose in their actions, yet even then, it would be nothing more than a fuckfest of stupidity from their side!

"We will reach the outskirts soon, everyone, prepare for the battle!"

As my thoughts went into disarray with me trying to make any sense of what was going on, this huge cavalry group created by literally every single man capable of riding the horse that could be found within the entire army, started to prepare themselves both mentally and physically for what was about to come. 

Right now, we could already hear the shouts and firing from where the city was, indicating that even after hurrying all the way here, we were still to late to rout the Ostros troops before they would reach the populated areas of the town!

"Pull your weapons!"

Despite being the most involved person in the entire battle, I wasn't the one to command the attack. It wasn't even Jan, nor one of the other prominent nobles that was leading the charge! Rather than that, one of the apparently famous riders, known from all his exploits during the previous wars, was now commanding this enormous force of nearly six thousand horsemen, yet rather than endorsing himself in some tactics, he simply ordered everyone to charge straight at the enemy, even before our potential target would enter our line of sight!

Yet as fishy as this entire affair sounded to me, I didn't really have the time nor mental capability to bother myself thinking about it all. Right now, I could only hope that my barely trained two armies that remained in the city were somehow capable of holding off the attack so that this mass of cavalry that was coming to their rescue wouldn't end up destroying the entire place that they were supposed to protect!

"CHARGE!"

The same moment that the enemies came to the sight of the front line of the horsemen, the noble leading all of us raised his sabre high above his ground, and swung it forward in the simple gesture that even an idiot would understand!

Thanks to how well trained my Helga was, I didn't even need to hold her reins, as I knew she was perfectly capable of following the entire mass of people forward. But rather than banking on this fact to pull both my firearm and my sabre, I allowed my steel to rest in its scabbard while busying both of my hands with my supreme rifle alone!

With two magazines hanging out from my belt and eighteen shoots in every single one of them, I preferred to kill as many damned traitors from afar, before being forced to actually swing my metal around!