Blood stained field

When Artys and his fleet arrived at Snakewood, he already knew that the stronghold was being held by Terrance Lynderly, son and heir of Lord Lynderly, with a garrison of just over 300 men. So he divided his troops and left Ser Julius at the head of 500 soldiers with enough cannon to lay siege and take the stronghold.

***

At the time Artys and his main army of 3500 were marching within a few miles of Heart's Home, he decided to land first, to march overland and draw into battle the joint troops of House Corbray and Lynderly, which already numbered 5000 men. Meanwhile, his fleet would follow, and surround Heart's Home by water.

It was now late morning, but not yet noon, the wind was still and all you could hear were the sounds of thousands of feet marching to the beat of drums.

After marching for a short time, Artys's forces finally found themselves in a position overlooking Heart's Home in the distance. However, they also saw an army marching towards them. It seems that the enemy was indeed lured in and chose to take the field in an attempt to intercept Artys's forces and eliminate them before they entered the castle confines. As such, Artys shouted for his troops to hear.

"Form ranks!"

Commands from him were passed on to officers and non-commissioned officers before finally reaching enlisted personnel. With this command, Artys's army formed lines and began loading their weapons. The artillery battery also began to take up an elevated position above the field below where the enemy army was marching. The cavalry did their job and positioned themselves on the flanks, where they would soon be attacking the enemy army.

The enemy had a heavy cavalry of about 1500 men led by Jon Lynderly. As such, the 800 cuirassiers in Artys's ranks slowly began to stomp on the enemy position as his infantry readied their muskets. The waves at the time were used to protect the flanks of Artys' line infantry. With this formation, Artys's quickly assembled forces began to march slowly and evenly towards the enemy army, the cavalry already starting their attack.

As the cavalry advanced towards the enemy, the thunder of the 12-pounder guns resounded in the distance as explosive shells were dropped on the enemy forces. The explosive blast and shrapnel from the shells hit the enemy forces. Quickly turning lightly armored recruits into chunks of meat and meat paste. Limbs were scattered, heads rolled, and blood stained the snow below.

Artys was naturally at the head of the cavalry and quickly drew both pistols from his horse's saddle; it was already loaded and ready to fire; all that needed to be done was set the flintlock action, which Artys and his cuirassiers did in unison. He used the same tactics as in his last battle, his cavalry charging in unison and almost completely tearing the enemy cavalry to pieces, with the remaining horsemen scattering in terror. While Artys regrouped his cuirassiers to attack the infantry.

The enemy had some archers with them and began shooting at the steel-clad horses of Artys's cuirassiers, at this period the bard was still an effective way of protecting his horse and as such Artys spent a large sum of money armoring the horses. of his cavalry, after all, they were very valuable, it would be a shame if they died so easily on the battlefield.

The arrows fired at his cavalry as a great hail fell from the sky as if they were raindrops, but to the dismay of the enemy forces, the arrows failed to seriously injure either the horses or the cuirassiers. Instead, three-quarter armor and steel bar covered most of the cavalry's body, deflecting bolts as if a padded arrow were striking them. At the very least, a few arrows found their way into gaps in the armor, but these weren't vital areas and, as such, did little more than inflict pain on the knights and their horses.

As such, the enemy recruits quickly raised their spears, anticipating a clash from the heavily armored cavalry forces, however, before such a situation could occur, the horses strafed towards the spear walls and galloped to the side. As the horses maneuvered in this manner, the hundreds of Cuirassiers pulled the triggers of their pistols and aimed at the enemy at close range.

As the hundreds of pistols fired, they quickly cut through the meager defenses the recruits were equipped with and shattered the bodies of men who made contact with the lead balls. Blood-curdling screams filled the air as the recruits' blood sprayed their comrades. After firing their shots, the cuirassiers quickly holstered their pistols and unsheathed their heavy cavalry swords as they redirected their horses for a full-scale attack.

By this time, the enemy ranks, made up mostly of rookie recruits, were filled with terror and dread as they were pushed by the slightly more veteran forces behind them into the meat grinder. They couldn't help thinking to themselves that the weapons Artys and his army wielded were some form of vile sorcery obtained by consorting with the devil's minions. These were an ignorant and superstitious bunch, their turbulent thoughts filling their fearful minds as they got closer and closer to the enemy formations.

When the musketeers finally came within firing range, they formed a proper firing squad with the first column kneeling and the second column holding their rifles above the heads of their kneeling comrades. The officers gave orders to fire, which resulted in over two thousand lead shells flying across the range and into the bodies of recruits advancing on them.

***

Ser Lyn Corbray stood frozen, watching his troops cut down with no chance of fighting back by the boy Royce's demonic weapons. His body reacted moments later and he rode away, fleeing towards the castle.

***

In a single volley, the hostile troops were quickly overwhelmed by Artys' technological superiority, many of whom began to break ranks and flee back to the city after their commander Lyn Corbray fled. As for the brave souls who remained and continued to fight Artys's forces, they were quickly cut down by another hail of fire before they even reached their enemies.

Artys didn't immediately pursue them. Instead, he raised his fists and gave the opposite order. After all, he wanted to test the power of his cannons by tearing down the wall of Heart's Home.

"Stop!"

With that, his strength suddenly stopped. After surveying the violent remains of the battlefield, Artys noticed a sea of ​​corpses whose blood had seeped onto the ground below. The grim sight left those uninitiated among Artys' ranks feeling sick to their stomachs.

After staring at the gray scene, one of the officers asked Artys about the defeat of the enemy.

"Shouldn't we chase them?"

Artys just shook his head and pointed his bloodstained sword at the piles of hundreds of corpses strewn across the icy ground. A wicked smile was on his face as he revealed the details of his plan.

"They have already paid a heavy price for rebelling against me; when the survivors return to the fortress and inform the garrison of what they witnessed here today, how do you think it will affect the morale of the defenders? Also, I want to besiege Heart's Home and liberate the power of the cannons over it to show the Lords that they will not be safe even in their castles if they decide to go against me."

Without giving the officers time to respond to his remarks, Artys raised his sword in the air and commanded the army behind him.

"I want a siege camp built before sundown! Onward march!"

With that, the army that had suffered few casualties in this battle began to march on the castle of Heart's Home, where they would besiege it for the next few days. Artys knew how his other troops were faring. As such, he smiled as he rode in the vicinity of Heart's Home.