Age of Heroes

WAR TENT

After the dinner they all meet in Arial war tent discussing their next course of action to penetrate deeper into Vangua lands and seek redress from herald.

They seated on the cushion bench while Arial is listening to West counsel.

'I advise caution, my lord. I know the family of Alsancon lords and Montberry. I can persuade them to let us pass. Their blood is strong and the bloodline of Zephyr branch. Borveaux might not be easy to persuade but Dantes lords are known to support whoever that he believes would win. He sways where the wind blows. Let me send them letters reminding them of their blood and promising them land, while we march to Arleans.' West advises, his face shows his apparent concern for this expedition.

'Borveaux is just a border away from Arleans, right?' Arial asked

'Yes, when the Saint King die, the usurper King, Harald combined Darc and Arleans giving his family a large area of rule. Then when we reach Borveaux we can build fortification near the borders. If my lord looks at the map there is an open space near Arleans border. We can do the decisive battle there.' West pointed to the area in the map and the other officers nodded, some praising of Lord West analytical observation.

Arial is evidently listening to him and he agreed with West proposal.

'Then we will wait to see whether the lords of Alsancon and Montberry could be persuaded.'

After a few days of waiting and a few rounds of persuasion and negotiation, the lords of Alsancon and Montberry allow access and Arial march unhindered by enemy troops. 

Everything look smooth sailing

However, this is not to say that Arial doesn't have his own share of troubles. 

There is a skirmish near the Borveaux city, Berliens, before the city surrender because of Arial soldiers which numbered almost one hundred thousand 

How could they oppose such might!

Such expedition with so many men also require many supplies which Arial get from his trading companies and by pillaging the unaffiliated villages. 

But Arial did not pillage the city or village that swear fealty to the Dragon forces when they march through the land.

Strength and might is sometimes a very effective tool for making people submit. 

But Arial knew they swear such fealty fearing they would be harmed. Their loyalty is not true loyalty. After all Arial knew they rather be ruled by their own people.

Arial knew this but still he did nothing. It is fine if he won. Then the people that swears fealty have nothing else to be guilty about. 

This is why Arial did not include them in his army even though some lords express that they wanted to join. 

Arial fears to be backstabbed by these unknown lords and surely his Caelum lords will not feel comfortable with an Anglais Raxons in their midst, fearing treachery at the crucial moment.

On reaching Borveuax the fortification is immediately built. Workmen duly take up their tools; and began their construction

The prefabricated wood necessary to build the castle would have been already prepared in Arrandy and trans­ported across the border. 

On the outside, the villages that put resistance are being burned, woman and children flee in panic but by strict orders of their lords none would chase a fleeing woman and child…only those who have resisted.

Villages and other cities around Borveaux is sacked to the ground, burned to ashes and laid to waste. 

Such is the might of the Dragon forces. 

With their blaring red dragon banners proudly displayed, it invites fear to the Vanguan people.

The Borveaux area nearly fell to ruin if not because of Kyle advice to the other lords to exercise constraints.

But they all say this is the Duke plans. Arial scorched earth policy is premeditated. 

He would have calculated that reports of men, women and children suffering on Harald's own land, people whom Harald knew and was duty bound to protect, would incense his enemy and it was to Arial advantage that Harald should be provoked into a decisive early encounter. 

Arial had to win. Harald just have to make the war into a draw and force him into the negotiation table. 

This is the situation presented to Arial and once he is decided on a course Arial did not hesitate to use all means on his disposal to make his will a reality.

It was a rampaging of dragons. 

Arial may not have touched Alsencon and Montberry but Dantes and Borveaux villages and cities is devastated and laid to waste.

And in wars, while Arial forbid the killing and raping of woman even Arial do not have eyes everywhere and those units that is out of the Duke control near the Dantes area, they engaged in these forbidden acts which if the Duke heard of it, each one of them would lose their heads for such offenses.

In Dantes where the Vice-captain is given a lot more freedom and ease of mobility, this is where the devastation truly showed itself, as corpse littered the Old Empire roads, the smell of rotten corpse can be smelled near every village, the work of a unit which is called the Rampager unit by the Vanguan population led by Lord Sacron of House Aldness, one of the noble houses of Althea.

They enjoy in indiscriminate extermination.

Every village they enter will end with the whole village exterminated, not one soul left alive as their path of rampage continues while Arial and his vassal lords is in Borveaux engaging in discussion of the Conquest.

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IN THE WAR TENT

BORVEAUX

It has been a few weeks since they are stuck at Borveaux. Arial has met the forces that Harald had left before he went to the south and this is delaying Arial march to Arleans.

Arial is in his war tent discussing strategies and tactics, the messenger come and deliver him a letter from the scouts he has send.

The look on Arial face is a mixture of shock and delight when he reads one particular messages from his agents

'What is it my lord?' Arial did not answer. Instead he laughed, a nervous laugh.

'My lord?'

'The Crowned Sword is coming' Arial reply. And then he looks outside his war tent and he smiles at the opening horizon.

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