The Surrender Sword

"My god, where did you find them?"

When Damian appeared with eighty peasant mounted archers carrying short bows, Joan was stunned.

Peasants who could shoot arrows were easy to find, and there were plenty who could ride horses, but to find both skilled horse riders and archers, especially ones with horses, was indeed rare and valuable, given that they also had crude round helmets and thick cloth armor.

With a few more years of wealth accumulation, they might even become soldiers.

Damian had his reasons for this. According to the system, the arrival of these peasant mounted archers was due to Damian's increased prestige from the last trade fair. They had come voluntarily from all directions to help Damian.

Even Joan, faced with this bizarre and incredible scene, could only assume that Damian might naturally excel at recruiting soldiers.

In other territories, such individuals were usually appointed as recruitment officers, responsible for finding soldiers during battles, and they were often powerful nobles.

However, Damian had been sent to a monastery and almost ended up as a monk.

Most armies marching out only consisted of eighty mounted archers.

Of course, as a family, Amelia brought two knights and four attendants to support them. When she found that Damien unexpectedly brought out the cavalry archer formation again, she sent the infantry without horses back home..

Joan had a slightly better position, with six knights and over twenty attendants who could all ride horses or donkeys, making them all mobile cavalry.

The sight of over a hundred cavalry marching together excited Conosa, who was secretly watching from the city walls.

"Madam, news from the capital of the Principality." While Conosa was engrossed in the cavalry's departure, her ally in the Principality had sent the latest updates from the capital.

"What… I see. So that's how it is!" Conosa angrily put away the letter. She finally understood why her brothers had been causing trouble everywhere recently, but the Duke paid no attention.

It turned out that the Kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire had long been at odds over the ownership of the Burgundy Kingdom in the south.

Recently, the King of France and the Archbishops of Reims and Sens had fallen out, leading to a series of meetings where they cursed each other, causing the royal court to be paralyzed.

However, this had made the previously captured Duke Diodorak increasingly vigilant.

The current Holy Roman Emperor continuously coveted the Lozarengia Principality, hoping to reclaim its territories and distribute them to his confidants. If the King of France could maintain his strength, he could protect Diodorak and his principality from invasion. But the situation within the Kingdom of France was chaotic, forcing Diodorak to prioritize domestic stability.

Considering the frequent incidents in the Gothingen County, he considered it a turbulent and unstable place, which was why he sent Andreas over, hoping he could capture Conosa von Nosnberg and bring her back to the capital.

Double standards, absolute double standards!

Not wanting the Emperor to take away his territory, yet wanting to seize Conosa's. Wanting to detain Conosa but ignoring her brothers.

The Countess looked at the letter, growing angrier by the minute.

"When Damian returns victorious, I will promote him again!" Conosa gritted her teeth even more.

…

Damian's current official position was just a court priest. The special units he unlocked were only longbowmen, pilgrims, and some basic units.

Although he was the lord of the Free City of Bovendon, it was a title of nobility rather than an official position. As there were almost no types of territories like free cities in the region, he was still an unofficial lord.

In this situation, only if Damian convinced Conosa to divide and acknowledge the trading privileges of the Free City could he truly unlock the rewards of the Free City.

In this raid against the bandits, Damian did not make any special preparations. He casually sent out scouts, and soon discovered traces of the bandits causing trouble near a small forest southeast of the city.

In fact, the bandits lacked discipline, thus failed to hide their formation effectively.

Peasant mounted archers, holding torches, appeared on the plain following ten knights including Damian.

At the same time, the bandit knight Henrik began to feel uneasy upon realizing that he was being targeted by a group of cavalry.

In the medieval era, knights who received basic knight education evaluated strength and weakness very simply.

The more horses the opponent had, the more powerful they were.

Upon closer examination, Henrik noticed that the opponents were all mounted while their side consisted of a group of unarmored and undisciplined bandits.

Though he could also sense that the mounted individuals were peasants, and as long as there was an archer unit, he was confident in commanding the archers to break the morale of the peasants.

Unfortunately, the bandits did not have a well-trained archer unit at all.

Their best-trained activities were in robbing and assaulting women.

"Damn you, Count Schmalen, for deceiving me!"

When Count Schmalen called him, he clearly stated that there was no formal resistance force in Gothingen County anymore, allowing him to be prepared to conquer as the vanguard troops at all times, and he would be conferred knighthood on the spot upon success!

Looking at the hundreds of horses and soldiers, were they really the so-called no resistance force?

"Attack!"

Damian raised his spear and, along with the knights and attendants, advanced in a straight line.

Meanwhile, the peasant archers spread out on both wings, moving along with the advancement of the knights.

To be honest, these peasant archers on horseback could hardly be considered qualified in terms of combat effectiveness, especially from the perspective of cavalry.

As soon as those bandits saw this formation, they immediately turned and ran into the jungle. Damian wanted to send the peasant archers to chase them, but also feared being counterattacked, so he could only maintain a certain distance for expulsion.

The shooting accuracy of the peasant archers was very poor, even at a distance of over thirty meters, they still couldn't hit accurately, relying solely on luck. Moreover, their horse riding skills were limited; whenever they charged, they wobbled and almost fell off.

Even some of the horses were so weak that they began foaming at the mouth and refused to move forward after running for a short while.

No wonder they were so cheap.

Despite so many flaws, the peasant archers, with a total of 80 people, barely managed to expel the bandits with a rain of arrows, making them scatter and flee in the wilderness and forest.

"Let's go!"

Joan, who had received complete knighthood education, noticed the opportunity, drew her shiny steel sword, and called the knights and attendants to attack.

Damian did not intervene, instead mixed in and charged towards Henrik's position.

Although he had fortunately killed Howard in the previous battles, Damian's martial arts still needed practice. Joan swiftly and gracefully killed two people in a row, while Damian's spear was stuck in a bandit's neck and could not be pulled out no matter what.

At this moment, the bandit knight Henrik mistakenly believed that Damian was the weak point of the army and charged towards him.

But at this moment, the peasant archers quickly turned their horses and shot arrows towards Henrik.

The warhorse of the bandit knight was weak to begin with, after being hit by the arrow, it collapsed directly to the ground and could not get up again.

Henrik struggled to get up and took a few steps forward before tripping on a stone, falling right in front of Damian's horse.

Damian immediately pointed his spear at him.

Henrik, covered in sweat, suddenly had an idea and raised the sword in his hand: "I surrender! I am willing to offer my ancestral sword!"

Suddenly, there was a notification from the system:

[Victory in battle, obtain Level 1 treasure: Henrik's ancestral sword: melee damage +5, when surrendering, reduce the enemy's killing intent towards oneself]