Chapter 111: Recovering A Corpse

With the beginning of the new day, Bertrand and his corps entered the city of Joltz. 

From the northern gate, half of 2nd Corps approached the tavern where they believed the rebels were hanging out. A singular battalion of 1,000 infantrymen surrounded the tavern while their enemies inside were still fighting off the massive hangover.

The battalion commander did not want to alert the enemies, hence why he did not give a verbal command to storm the tavern. Instead, he gave a simple closed fist gesture to signal his men to storm the large tavern. 

As they quietly yet quickly rushed towards the building. There were two entry points into the tavern. There was a big double door entrance connected to the street while the other was a side door that led into a small back alleyway.

There was no confirmed number of rebels inside the establishment but an estimate carried out by scout the night prior had numbered their forces around over a hundred men. The tavern was meant to be used as a staging point for rebel activity directed at the northern gatehouse's garrison. 

If the Fontaine army were to besiege Joltz, the rebels would see to it that the northern gate would be lifted for their saviours outside the wall. In the meantime, they were carrying out small ambushes on patrols in the nearby area and spread their influence. Unluckily for them, their activity had been picked up upon and had them marked for death. 

The rebels inside the tavern were groggy and suffering from the aftereffects of a wild night of drinking and singing. Before they could even recuperate from their bulging headaches and foggy brains, Luxenberg soldiers breached the interior of the tavern.

To say it was a one-sided slaughter would be an accurate description of what took place in the tavern. As soon as the Luxenberg soldiers burst through the tavern's doors, it was on sight. 

Luxenberg bayonets went straight to work. Silver serpents sunk into the pale skin of the rebels, like a hot knife through butter. Their wails served as the morning alarm for the few remaining rebels who had not yet woken from their deep slumber.

The soldiers of 2nd Corps unleashed their fury upon the rebels, who were acting like headless chickens. Frantically they ran around, trying to find their weapons and defend themselves. It was hard to believe that this was the same group of people that had taken the lives of many soldiers of Luxenberg.

The raid of the tavern only lasted half an hour. Within that time, more than 100 rebels had been killed while another 30 surrendered. This victory was only but a taste of what General Bertrand and his men had planned. 

From the eastern gate General Bertrand lead his men down the main street towards the city square. His arrival stoked fear in many of the civilians unaffiliated with the rebel, they knew that this city would further develop into a battlefield. 

A few rebels had seen the advancing reinforcement and were quick to scurry to the market to muster a host of rebels. They had used the surrounding buildings near the square as defensive positions that had proved vital to their success. No Luxenberg infantryman was safe when there were shooters in those buildings.

General Bertrand was aware that the city square would prove to be difficult to take. If he was brazen enough to rush all of his infantry in, the city square would fall into his hands but at the steep cost of Luxenberg men's lives. To mitigate the losses suffered General Bertrand had wheeled his cannons along with him in the advance.

Those cannons only had one purpose, to destroy the buildings that sheltered rebels. But before they could do that, Bertrand needed to secure a foothold in the city square so that he could comfortably deploy his guns.

With this in mind, General Bertrand sent forth 3 infantry battalions to secure a foothold in the square, they were not to push in too far but only secure a small section that rifles on the opposite side could not reach. 

The city square was wide and long, this worked to Bertrand's advantage, at least half of the rifles in the surrounding building could not reach them and so his men were able to boot out any rebel camping in a building along the eastern section of the square.

 Although the rebels had put up a harrowing resistance, the Luxenberg soldiers were able to set up their cannons along the eastern section of the square. While the battalions were securing the foothold and setting up the cannons, they managed to find Vandamme's body.

It was crucified on a flimsy cross in the middle of the square, right within the firing line for all buildings around the square. A brave soldier by the name of Friedrich offered to go on a suicide mission to retrieve the fallen general's body. Along with him were 9 other soldiers who bravely stepped forward for this mission.

It was a significant undertaking for the 10 men, but they showed no fear and no doubt in the face of this mission. With the supporting fire of their brothers in arms, the 10 men dashed across the no man's land of the square to Vandamme's body. In the process, however, they had lost 3 runners.

Friedrich, who was in charge of the men, organised them to cut the ropes binding the general to the flimsy cross, all while doing so under suppressing fire. Sadly another 2 men had died trying to deal with the rop constraints. Frantically they worked and managed to secure the decomposing and defiled body of the once proud general of 4th Corps.

With their target obtained, the remaining squad of 5 soldiers bolted back to their main force. All of them had flung the general's body over their shoulders and ran in unison with one another. Miraculously they were able to keep in sync with each other as they tried to beat the gauntlet of musket balls.

Everything was going well until the man at the front of the group had his brains shot out of him and collapsed, thus halting the scurrying soldiers. While trying to reorganise, Friedrich had been shot in both the left leg and right shoulder.

The 3 remaining men had managed to get the general on their shoulders and tried to help up their leader, but he shook his head and yelled, "Leave me behind you halfwits. I will only slow you down. (pant, sight). Now run you dumb fuckers, see to it that our mission does not fail."

They dared not hesitate and continued their mad dash to the main force. Friedrich on the other hand leaned up against a fallen merchant stall and loaded his musket, he was not going to sit there and wait to die. Shakily he stood up to take aim while hobbling on one healthy leg.

With a short breath, he pulled the trigger, surprisingly hitting a fortified rebel in the eye. Shortly after his kill, he tried to load his musket again behind the cover of the stall, yet that could not save him from the several musket balls that littered his body with holes. During his last moments, he could see his squad member rush into the secured section of the square. He conjured up a faint smile before drawing his last breath.

With the return of the general's body, Bertrand could only look at his friend with heartbroken eyes. The man he considered a friend was now a defiled and decomposing corpse, barely resembling the comrade he knew. 

Bertrand began to spiral, he was furious, distraught and needed a way of quelling these turbulent emotions. As such, he dispatched orders to his cannons and what followed next was utter carnage.