Temple Sword

Chapter 132 The Law Of Blood

1321, Month of St. James (July)
Trencin, Hungary

---

The entire Anjou army is like a snake with no tail, winding all the way to the north.Even on their strong horses, those who walked in front could not see the end of the whole procession.

Charlie's chest was nearly bursting with pride that, in his 33 years of life, he had never led a war of such magnitude, and an army of such incredible size and invincibility.

He rode first, a wise king, and an honorable knight, surrounded by captains of the standard and knights of the court, the finest men in the kingdom.

A little further away from the marching procession, there was a separate procession consisting of court officials, stewards, and chaplains.

Charlie doesn't think these people will ever feel the same way he does because they're not really part of it all, they're not one with this serpent army, they're simply following it.

If I hadn't needed them, I would have sent them all home, thought the King.What does all this mean for these delicate officials?They participated in the war, but did not really participate in it.

To them, it's all just numbers, spending and words.But for others, including him, it was art, the art of war.

After thinking of this sentence, Charlie smiled with satisfaction, and reminded himself that after arriving at Trencin's castle, he had to use this speech at the first subordinate meeting, or at a banquet.

The journey from Levice to the heart of the North takes just three days.The army did not rest much and was advancing steadily, although this time, as on the previous departure from Timisoara, there was no demand for a forced march.

By the morning of the third day, the towering white walls and minarets of Trencin were clearly visible, and there was palpable tension.Excited murmurs could be heard here and there as troops rumbled toward the nearly white castle the color of bright sand.

Along the way they passed only two abandoned villages from which the villagers had apparently fled to the fort on the rocky hill, but most villages did not seem to be in a panic.

The people knew that Charles Anjou and his army were coming, but apparently were not afraid, knowing that he was not a foreign lord coming to ravage their land, but someone else might be their new lord in the near future.

Appreciating the bravery of these peasants, Charles led most of his army around the edges of their villages, punishing those who The army collects all the food it can find, but cannot loot anything else.

The army arrived under Trencin's castle on No. 13 of St. Jacob's month, and everyone could see from the very beginning how different this time was from Levice: Charlie was fighting for a bloody battle. Prepare, he talks differently and acts differently.

He no longer paid attention to solemn etiquette, with his left hand on the scabbard hilt, and his right hand gestured fiercely, welcoming his knights, commanders, and captains into his tent.

The camp of the Anjou army was built under the fortress, forming a semicircle. To the north of the castle was the Vach River, and the army also cut off all roads leading to the river bank.The king rubbed his palms excitedly: No one can escape from the castle, no living person can pass through this wall of soldiers.

For reasons of form and decency, he sent a messenger into the castle anyway, demanding the surrender of Mate Chuck's brother-in-law, Esteban Sternberg, and his men, but he knew the answer would be What, so as soon as the messenger left, Charlie ordered five counterweight trebuchets to be erected.

"I want all five of these trebuchets to fire at the southern wall," he said to his military engineers in the siege camp. "We don't throw corpses, and we don't set fire to the strongest castle in the North. We only do Absolutely necessary destruction, so focus all those trebuchet fire on one point!"

"Yes, Your Majesty." The chief engineer bowed to him, "We will find the weakest point and carve a gap in the wall."

The man was about to stride out of the king's tent when Charlie called him from behind.

"Wait!" The king waved his hand and hesitated for a while, as if he had changed his mind. "Don't start a siege until morning! Get your trebuchet ready, but don't shoot a single stone! I'll give them time to think about daylight. After that... God have mercy on them! You can go now."

The man bowed again, hurried away, and began to assemble the heavy siege machinery.

---

"Come on, for your stupid mother's ass's sake!" shouted Isstvan Lakfie, jumping up and down in his flag camp, "Oz, Alexander! Move that cauldron away, But stop putting it in front of the tent door lest everyone trip over it! Where's your fucking brain, Bess? Get dressed right now!"

"It's too hot here, Captain!" Said the tall young man Sekei, who was less than 20 years old.Whenever he got the chance, he would walk around the camp topless. No one really understood his habit, and they didn't care, but it made Lakfey very unhappy.

"You could be shot by an arrow at any moment, you idiot!" bellowed the captain, sitting on his new horse.

Although he was cursing loudly, most of his men knew that he was actually in a particularly good mood. "Get your clothes on, Bess, or I'll let you clean shit for a week! What am I going to tell your parents if you die here?"

The young man hurriedly went to get dressed, while Lakfei continued to shout enthusiastically.

"We're at war, boys!" he roared louder than before. "Put on leather, put on iron clothes, and take up weapons, you breeches fools! Otherwise you won't know how to die, don't make me angry anymore, or..."

Lakfe stopped talking, because he noticed that Antar Bator and his weird attendant Simon were watching him from behind, and he didn't know how long they had been watching, but they had a suppressed smile on their faces.

"Damn it," he exclaimed, "I mean, you're welcome, Commander."

Since their night raid together in Levice, Lakfi has seen Antares differently and the way he speaks to him has changed.

He was beginning to see how wrong he had been about the knight, a brave fellow, Lakfee had never seen him fear.

He held back the raiders almost single-handedly, he rode his stolen horse with natural ease, and wielded his sword as if the weapon were part of him...

The captain of Transylvania recalled all this time and time again, usually alone at night in his tent, and was surprised to find, after a while, the respect he had developed for the man he despised.He hadn't often realized his mistakes in his life, but this time he was.

"Is everything all right, Isstvan?" Antal asked in a cheerful voice, always amused by the characteristic Sekay curse.

"It's all good, Lord Barto," the bearded man on the horse nodded, "I've never felt better, I'm taller than all the bastards now! If they make a mistake, I can also notice faster, Bess, my boy!"

Suddenly he called out to the boy in the linen shirt coming out of the tent, "What are you wearing? You're not here for your wedding night, and you don't have your little bride here, or am I mistaken?"

"But the captain!" The soldier pulled his chin and tried again, but Lakfei didn't budge.

"Go back to the tent and put on the soft armor! If I have to correct you again, you are ready to watch us attack the city from the cage!"

Bess ran back into the tent again, and Antal approached the captain on the black horse he had acquired in Levice.

"Get your men ready, Isstvan," he said gravely, "it's going to be a bad fight. When the sun rises, everything will go wrong, and once the catapults break through the breach in the wall, we'll attack. "

"Will the royal army take the lead?" Lakfei was a little surprised.

Antal shook his head. "We're all going to attack," he said softly. "The whole army, everyone. Charlie wants to use all his strength to crush them."

"Is it deterrent by force?" Lakfee asked.

"Forcing deterrence," the knight nodded, "Trenchin is the den of poisonous snakes and the most important stronghold of Mate Chuck. Behind the city wall is his most elite army, the toughest and smartest men.

They will not give up a fight, just as a king will not back down.It was probably the craziest fight we've ever been in. "

Maybe bloodier than Rozgoni, he added in his mind, but didn't say it out loud.

"So we don't hold banquets anymore, do we?" Lakfee turned around in the saddle, looking up at the fortified castle spreading out on the rocky hill.

"Damn it, it's huge! Somehow, I don't want to climb this wall with a siege ladder. I'd rather make a big hole in the gate like Bertonde smashed the gate of Constantinople."

"If you do, Charlie will immediately make you Governor of Transylvania," Antar's mouth curled into a half-smile. "If I remember correctly, Botonde is a strong man like you."

Lakfe couldn't tell whether the knight was making fun of him or praising him, so he shrugged his shoulders and waved his hands.For some reason, his mood was not as good as before.

There seemed to be an ominous breeze blowing from the river behind the castle, bringing prophecies of misery and death.

In the great siege camp below Trencin, the Sekai captain, who had never feared any war, thought if only he could return home now.On the side, Antal had similar thoughts in his mind, and the two fell silent at the same time.

Then Istvan Lakfi shook his head, as if waking up from an unpleasant dream, and to distract himself, he shouted towards the tent again.

"Bess, my boy, for shit's sake!" he yelled in a gruff voice. "Have you got that damn soft armor on?"

---

As night fell, there was no sound in the tents of the siege troops, and there was silence in Trencin Castle.

After dinner with the chief officers of the castle garrison, Esteban Sternberg retired to his chambers, the bedroom of his brother-in-law, for a short, sober and uneasy sleep that would be bloody Last sleep before starting.

After the death of the great lord, Esteban left everything in the room as it was, retaining the royal splendor, and he did not move anything except to remove Mate Chuck's body.

He entered the door, hung up the iron chain on the door, and was immediately startled.

In the darkened bedroom, a man in a black cloak stood with his back to him, just before the crucifix hanging on the wall, where Mate Chuck himself had once knelt and prayed.

"I wasn't here," the cloaked man whispered in a broken voice, "I wasn't here when he died."

The man held out his trembling hand to the cross as if the man crucified on it was Mate Chuck.He wanted to touch the victim's face, but at the last moment he withdrew his hand between the folds of his cloak.

Esteban Sternberg recognized the intruder immediately.

"How did you get in?" He pretended to be calm and asked, "We sealed the entire castle, not even the usurper's messenger."

"Please," the gray-haired knight turned around with a contemptuous expression. "I know all the hidden corners of this castle. I know every exit, entrance, and tunnel. Better than you..."

Estevan was getting impatient, he couldn't stand this man and didn't want to talk to him for too long.

"What do you want?" He approached a small table and poured wine into a gold goblet, not intending to pour it for this unexpected visitor. "Why are you here?"

"Did you see those counterweight trebuchets?" the knight asked back.

"I saw it, and then what?"

"By morning, they don't sit still so well."

"I know that too, is there anything else you want to tell me?"

"You're all dead, all of you."

"You say you're dead, then you're dead." Istvan sighed, took a sip of the highland red wine, and then refilled the glass.

"Don't be silly!" There seemed to be a hint of fear in the other man's voice. "The North can no longer stand against Charles. He is no longer the king who beat us back at Buda, nor the king who fought us at Rozgoni...he...he is already a true millionaire." King of the Army."

"You sound like a sycophant licking his asshole."

"I sound like a sane, normal person," the knight corrected. "Tell me, have you looked out the window? More than 3 people have surrounded your castle, and no reinforcements are coming to help you!"

"I don't need any reinforcements," the castle master's mouth tightened. "We have enough people here that we have hope as long as the walls stand, and those walls are impenetrable."

He drank another glass, then stopped pouring himself.He put his hands on the table, leaned back, raised his head, closed his eyes, took a breath, exhaled it, and took a few deep breaths, as if something was uncomfortable.

He was never a fighter, he never rushed to the forefront of the battlefield, preferring to lead everything from the rear.

He inherited a heavy inheritance and responsibility from his brother-in-law, but he was determined not to hand over Trenchin to Mate Chuck's greatest nemesis during his lifetime.They'll fight on and keep going.They were well prepared for the siege.

Stephen opened his eyes, and the gray-haired knight was standing in front of him.The man looked into his eyes desperately, and his voice was full of pleading.

"Don't you understand what I'm talking about?" He tightly grasped the castle owner's arm, "You must abandon this castle! You must open the gates of Trencin to the army of Anjou!"

Esteban Sternberg wrenched himself free from the man's grasp and stared at him in shock.

"Have you betrayed us?" he exclaimed. "Who is your allegiance now?"

"I will be loyal to Mate Chuck until the end of my life!" The knight hit his chest with his right fist. "I served him and that's why I don't want his legacy reduced to ashes and wreckage."

"This situation will not happen!" Esteban raised his voice, "If you are really my brother-in-law's loyal servant, you will stay here and fight with other rebels."

"Your brother-in-law didn't make me swear to die." The man reminded, "I won't stay here, I just came to let you understand the truth.

You know, no castle or army in this kingdom can stand against the army of Charles Anjou.He has raised an army, and he will not rest until he has conquered the whole of the Highlands, and even the entire Kingdom.

Do you want me to tell the truth?Well, I'm not interested in your pathetic life, Istvan the Czech.I'm only interested in what Mate Chuck left behind, and the only way to protect it is to stop resisting.

Because if you don't bend your knee, Charlie and his army will level everything, think with your damn Moravian pig head! "

"We'll hold on," insisted the Castle Master. "No army can break Trencin."

"If you surrender the castle now, you'll get out alive," the old knight tried again, "and Mate Chuck's legacy, though it will fall into other hands, will remain intact. Then, one day , it may belong to us again, but only if you open the door..."

"Good guy!" Esteban Sternberg smiled wryly. "Do you really think that Matai's heritage is all stone, metal, and wood?

If you think so, then you are dead wrong... the most important thing we have inherited from Lord Mate Chuck,"

He stared fiercely at the knight and said, "It is the law of blood: we do not bargain with foreign lords, nor accept the rule of foreign kings! We are our own kings and will not bow before our oppressors!"
If you just want to discuss surrender with me, you'd better go back to your new master, Felician. "

He filled his glass again, and by the time he had poured the third glass down his throat, the knight had vanished without a trace.

　①Botond is a legendary figure in Hungary. It is said that he was a leader of the Alpad family in the 10th century. He went to Constantinople to ask the Byzantine emperor to pay tribute when he attacked to the east. Way to settle, the Greeks sent a tall warrior, while the Hungarians sent short Botonde.Botonde first opened the gate of King's Castle with an axe, and then killed his opponent in a duel.The Byzantine emperor and his wife watched the duel and left in shame, but refused to pay tribute until the Hungarians began pillaging across his empire.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)