Clam before the Storm

"It seems so my lord. According to the scouts, thinking that we are occupied by the beast waves, they plan to ransom the convoy alongside Newt and Graham at a very steep price, at least twice as much they were demanding previously. They even think that we do not have enough man to deal with them while we are busy in the fortress, so they are blatantly demanding the ridicules amount of money from us." Nathen said anger clear in his voice.

"Damn those greedy bastards, hitting us when we are at our lowest." Alfred hissed angrily. It was too much for him. Looting the convoy is one thing but Monroe and Campbell's tried to kidnap his friends and two of his closest aids. This getting far from just business and getting into territory of being personal.

He has to retaliate. But not now. No matter how angry Alfred was getting, with his remaining rationality he knew that everything has a place or time. And now is not the time for getting revenge. But the time to save his allies first.

"Yes, my Lord, the two families take us as fools and are trying to extort huge amount of money from us. My lord, we cannot certainly take this humiliation by laying down. We have to retaliate against them or they will think we are weak." Nathen said.

"You are correct Nathen. We will retaliate against the two families for sure, but not now. Our first priority should be reusing our friends and catching those bandits. Other things come later. In time the two families will fell our wrath for sure."

Alfred took a deep breath and calmed himself down first. He did not want to take any decision while bring in a fit of rage. After getting his rage under control, he turned towards Nathen.

"Have the scouts discovered the location of there hideout?" Alfred asked.

"Yes, my lord. The scouts not just have located the bandits' hideout but also have surveyed the nearby area and drawn a rough map of the area. This is the reason that they took so long to return." Nathen replied.

"Where is the hideout? Are they still in our territory? Or did they smuggle them to their own territory?" Alfred asked.

"No, my lord. They are still in our territory. Those bustards think that by hiding nearby, they will be able to outsmart us. Hiding near, but trying to make it look as if they are not within out direct reach." Nathen replied.

"So, they are still nearby?" Alfred had already figured this much by himself. He was just waiting for Nathen's confirmation. As for how he figured that out? Actually, it was easy. This was the peak of the winter in the north. So, there will certainly be snow heavily blacking all the path in and out of the Autarch territory. It will take a huge amount of manpower to clear the road. So, Alfred suspected before the group was hiding nearby. "Good very good. Where are they hiding? How near is there hiding destination?"

"My lord, the two family's forces are currently hiding in a small cave in the forest of twilight, south of our current location. It will take us probably one day to their hiding locating." Nathen said taking out a hand drawn map from his pocket and handing over it over to Alfred top see.

When took the hand drawn map from Nathen, the first thing he noticed that was the immensity of Autarch family's territory. It was big. And how big one might think? Well, it will be like putting together Monroe and Campbell family's territory plus the Margrave Gold horn's own territory will only make up 60% of Autarch family's territory. So, Alfred was shocked after looking at the size of the land he owned.

Yes, his land. Even if, technically the land still belongs to the grand duke, the management of the fief belongs to the noble family under duke's command. But technically the Autarch family being mostly an autonomous family that is supposed to just guard the Northlands, the lands belong to Autarch family as a whole.

As the Autarch family is so big, it shares its southern border with three counties. The counties of Campbell and Monroe family in eastern and central southern part of hits border. The last stretch of its southern border the Autarch family shares it with the free lords that occupy western part of the grand duchy. As for the eastern and western part of Autarch family's territory, it was mostly cost lines, sandy beaches and rocky reefs.

The Autarch family territories were mostly filled with forests, hills and rivers. There were two major rivers originating from the Ashmir mountain range, which has several tributaries throughout the grand duchy. Even if this kind of land would be a natural goldmine of people of the future, for people of this era, Autarch family territories was a wild and backward land with no potential at all, except the mines.

Although Alfred hugely disagreed, he knew that it was not the time to think about development. First, he has to take of the mess created by the two families. Alfred studied the map carefully and noticed the Nathen was talking about.

"Is this the place?" Alfred asked pointing at the spot which was marked in the map.

"Yes, my lord. That is the place where the bandits of the two family are hiding. The scouts have made sure that they did not make any mistake and took enough time to be sure." Nathen replied.

Alfred took a closer look and found what Nathan was talking about. A small cave near a hill was marked in the map. The map was very detailed and showed multiple ways to reach that place and it even marked all possible exits in and out of the forest of twilight.

"Tell me about the bandits Nathen. Did the scouts find out their exact number? And how strong they are?" Alfred asked.

"My lord, as far as the scouts have found out, there are nearly two hundred bandits hiding in that cave. The scouts tried to find out about there battle strength but could not find much. But after observing the bandits they were able to figure out all the petrol routes and the have noted all the points of interest in the map." Nathen explained.

Alfred smiled in satisfaction. He was very happy how much the scouts have found out about the enemies' hideout and did such a detailed survey of the land surrounding it. Now he had enough information about his enemies' so that he can mount a counter offensive.

"Nathen, make sure to reward the scouts for there good work after we are done rescuing Newt and Graham. They have collected enough crucial information that would be useful to mount a rescue." Alfred said contently.

"Can we, my lord?" Nathen asked Alfred with hesitation in in his.

Looking at Nathen's hesitation Alfred frowned.

"What's wrong?" Alfred asked.

"Its about the number of levies we can send my lord. I don't think we have enough numbers to secure victory my lord. Even if the bandits only number two hundred in total, I can bet that even if they are not strong as a knight, they will be elite of their respective families. It will be hard for us to match that number of elites for us. Even if we replace the elites with levies, we would have to certainly deploy twice the number of troops they have to be even stand a fighting chance. Even if we could, our current situation forces us to concentrate most of our resources in the fortress. That leaves us with little to no man power to compete against them." Nathen replied.

Alfred understood what Nathan mean.

"Nathen, even if we can't move most of levies and what little elites we have, don't we have enough number of serfs? Didn't you say that they were now ready enough for such fights and hold their ground against such foes? I thought you meant that." Alfred said.

"My lord, that's imposable. Those serfs have only trained for a month and could barely fight the levies for only a short amount of time. There is no way they could hold five for even five minutes against the likes of elites. There is simplify no chance of that happening." Nathen replied.

"What if we deploy the eagles alongside the serfs? Don't you think they will give us an advantage against your so called elites?" Alfred asked.

After listening to what Alfred said just now, Nathen started to think.

"My lord, as long as we deploy at least twenty eagles, with two groups of serfs I think we have a good chance of storming bandits' hideout." Nathan said while contemplating.

"I don't think we can spare that many eagles at this time." Nathen said shaking his head. "Don't forget we are just in the middle of the winter, when the beast wave is the strongest. I don't think diverting that many eagles and man would be wise. At most we can spare five eagles and a single group of serf to rescue our friends."

"My lord, numbers you just said are far from enough. We need at least twice the numbers of serfs and quadruple the number of eagles to storm the bandits successfully. Other than that, I don't think we stand a chance if we don't field the number of troops I suggested." Nathen said while shaking his head.

"Nathen you don't have to be so pessimistic you know? Think positively for a bit. I never said anything about storming the bandits from the front. I know doing such think will be foolish and did not even consider such plan." Alfred said to Nathen.

"What do mean then my lord? We are not attacking the bandits? Then how are we going to rescue every one?" Nathen asked in confusion.

"There you go again, I never said anything about not attacking." Alfred explained. "We will attack the bandits. But just not from the front. Let me explain you my plan and after that Ill tell you what thing we need to execute it."