Chapter 113: Executing Rebels

Since Bertrand and his corps left to reinforce Joltz, Victor and the remaining men under his command had managed to easily take the Godert city of Auderbrast. The siege of the city was brief and resulted in minimal casualties.

Once the city had been captured he and his army fortified the city while Victor and his officers stayed at the Godert Palace. They had managed to capture the Duchess of Godert and her two young children.

Duchess Elaine Godert had silvery white hair with violet eyes. Her Husband Duke Albus Godert had black hair with the same eye colour. Of their two young children, the oldest, Eric, was freshly 16 years old and looked like an exact copy of his father. Meanwhile, the youngest, Alicent, favoured her mother's appearance. She was merely 12 years old.

The Godert family did not flee the city when they heard of the oncoming advance of the Luxenberg host. Duchess Alicent and her children would not be able to get far if pursued by the enemy cavalry, so they laid their faith in the defenders miraculously defeating Victor's army.

As time would tell, the Duchess's faith was poorly placed. They had not heard about the new weapon that Victor possessed and when they soon found out about it, the defenders quickly surrendered, not being able to put up a decent fight.

With the capture of Auderbrast, Victor had seized three valuable hostages. If compelled to, Victor could use these hostages to secure a hefty ransom or obtain the loyalty of an enemy duke and his army.

For now, this was not a real concern for Victor, he was more invested in what was happening in Joltz.

The day after Bertrand's arrival, he was quick to ride the momentum that he gained the day prior. There were only two key locations left that were supposedly a hotbed for rebel activity, however, Bertrand was quick to make clear that more rebels could be hiding anywhere in the city, so they had to be drawn out.

Fortunately for General Bertrand, he had the perfect way to draw out these rebel scum. During the raid on the tavern near the northern gate house, the men in the battalion had captured 30 rebels, most of them had seen to few winters while the rest looked like they had seen to many.

The general's plan was simple. They would execute the prisoners in the city square, hoping to draw out some zealous rebels who would try and save their comrades. If they did not then they were leaving their fellow rebels to face the firing squads of Luxenberg.

If that plan did not work, then Bertrand would publicly display the impaled corpses of the dead rebels outside the city, baiting their friends to try and take them down, similar to how they used General Vandamme's body as bait.

With a plan devised he used his soldiers to announce the public execution of 30 rebels. This would hopefully draw a crowd of people to witness what happens when you assault a man in the Luxenberg army.

The next day General Bertrand set up soldiers in the rubble mounds and destroyed houses around the city square. He also vacated a few big buildings nearby and stationed a few dozen soldiers in each. They would not be caught unawares again, if the rebels did try something, they would be swiftly dealt with.

To make sure this execution seemed genuine, General Bertrand was front and centre for this whole event. He wanted to make sure that his men were adequately commanded and could deal with any possible scenario that the rebels dared throw at them.

By midday the event began, starting with a speech from General Bertrand. "People of Joltz, my name is General Henri-Gatien Bertrand, commander of the Luxenberg Army's 4th Corps. We are gathered to witness the King's justice. These men beside me have committed heinous acts of high treason. As such they shall swiftly executed and receive the same treatment they gave my friend, General Vandamme." 

Although the citizens did not know what he meant by, ' receive the same treatment they gave my friend, General Vandamme,' they would soon marvel in horror as to what the French General had in store for them.

After the speech, 10 of the rebels were lined up against a wall all expressing different emotions. Some were shitting their pants with fear as they did not want to die, others found peace in their impending demise and prayed. One was laughing uncontrollably, what they were laughing about remained a mystery.

With the first lot of prisoners lined up, the guards began to cover their heads with sacks, so they would not be able to see the musket balls fly towards them. Many onlooking civilians were crying out, with some pleading for mercy, but their cries fell on dear ears.

There would be no mercy for them and General Bertrand would make sure of it. With the rise of his sabre, the firing squad loaded their muskets, awaiting for the sabre to fall. Once all of the men in the firing squad had finished loading, Bertrand's sabre swooshed down, signalling them to fire.

Accurately the firing squad was efficient in executing the prisoners, one shot, one kill. These men were veterans of the Luxenberg forces, they could easily get a musket ball between the eyes of their enemies.

This process of executing prisoners happened two more times and yet there was no action from the rebels. It was annoying for the Luxenberg soldiers who had been lying in wait for them, but it could not be helped if they did not take the bait.

A potential reason as to why the rebels did not make an attempt to free their comrades was that they had already lost a substantial amount of their numbers due to the raid on the tavern and the carnage that unfolded at the city square.

There are probably still thousands if not, tens of thousands of rebels still inside the city, but given the fact that there are almost 900,000 people who live in the city, their numbers were merely a fraction. 

People watched in horror as the bodies dropped and were then promptly loaded into a cart. They were denied the right to bury these men, for the revenge-driven general was firm in his decision to follow Victor's orders to the letter.

They would be impaled and treated like trophies as they similarly did to General Vandamme.