Chapter 263: 262: Battle at the Eastern Border

Months had passed and while wars waged in Bohemia, and North Africa, Eastern Europe was far from peaceful. Seeing that the Rus and the Golden Horde had begun to invade the Teutonic State, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth decided to avenge their loss at Grunwald and had joined the fray.

After their defeat in Grunwald and the increase in the Teutonic State's power, the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania had unified into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth decades earlier than in Berengar's previous life. 

The reason for this was simple, the Teutonic State was a growing threat, and by uniting their two countries they could gain an advantage against their common foe. As such the Teutonic State found itself surrounded by hostile forces, all of them held considerable power.

At the moment, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was considered one of the great powers of Eastern Europe. With the coalition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Golden Horde, and the various Rus states, the Teutonic Order was now facing an overwhelming threat. 

The Order had already lost all of the territory gained from its war with the Grand Duchy of Moscow and had been forced back to their initial borders where they were currently holding the line against overwhelming odds. 

The choice to withdraw from the newly conquered regions and defend the heartland was not taken lightly by the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order. He knew that his forces would be unable to keep ahold of the lands they had previously gained and thus opted to make a strategic withdrawal. 

He hoped to sue for peace with the other powers by giving up their gains in their previous war. Instead, Poland-Lithuania joined the war and was hellbent on the Teutonic State's destruction. At the moment, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order was standing on a castle's ramparts on the State's eastern border. 

In the field below was a coalition of forces waving the banners of their nations and individual feudal lands. The army was well over 50,000 strong, compared to the 10,000 defenders the Teutonic Order had managed to scramble together to defend the gateway into their territory. 

The man instantly cursed under his breath as he gazed upon the massive horde that had gathered outside the Castle. 

"Damn that fool, Simeon! If he were not obsessed with getting revenge on Berengar the Accursed, I wouldn't have lost so many troops in Oberstdorf! With those 10,000 men, this could have been prevented!"

The Teutonic State was on the precipice and besieged on all sides. Whether they would continue to survive as an independent State or face complete and total collapse was up to him. To this, the Grand Master merely sighed as he voiced the thoughts on his mind.

"The last Grand Master of the Teutonic Order? I don't know whether to laugh or cry."

Luckily for him, none of the men beneath his command were around to hear his doubts. It would indeed harm morale if the word were to spread how doomed the Grand Master felt inside.

The siege had yet to begin truly. Instead, the army had gathered outside the gates with the intent to intimidate the defenders behind its mighty walls. Of course, to an army of Catholic Fanatics like the Teutonic Order, such a thing would never occur. 

Even if they had begun to fill their ranks with criminals to compensate for their losses, the indoctrination that occurred during initiation had completely brainwashed these criminals into soldiers of Christ, who feared no death.

Thus the intimidation tactics had not achieved the effect desired by the besieging forces. At the moment, the besieging troops were in the middle of constructing trebuchets in the field. These weapons would be used to bombard the Castle for the foreseeable future. 

Of course, trebuchets were constructed below the walls by the Teutonic Order, and upon seeing the enemy siege weapons being constructed, the Grand Master yelled at his men below the ramparts.

"Prepare to fire into the enemy formation! I want those trebuchets knocked out before they can do some real damage!"

With this command, the siege had finally begun, and as such, the Teutonic Order instantly began loading the trebuchets with jars filled with pitch; these jars would be lighted before being tossed at the enemy trebuchets which were under construction. The hope was they could eliminate the enemy's siege weapons before they could be built appropriately.

The numerous trebuchets within the Castle began to toss their burning pitch jars over the walls and enemy formations. The first volley fired utterly missed their targets and instead landed on soldiers in the field, lighting them aflame and spreading the tar-like substance across their ranks. 

With this, the Grand Master lowered the visor on his helmet and ordered the archers to fire upon the enemy infantry.

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"Knock! Draw! Loose!"

With these commands, a volley of thousands of arrows began to fill the sky and rain down on the opponents below, blocking out the sun as it did so, at least to some degree. Despite this, the attackers did not move their position, most of them raised their shields, and others were directly affected by the volley. 

Arrows and Bolts made their way into the bodies of dozens of men; some of them died on the spot, others slowly fell to the ground and began to bleed out. Many were utterly unaffected as their armor had blocked the projectiles from achieving their goals. 

As arrows and bolts were launched on the coalition forces below, the attackers returned fire upon the Teutonic Order's soldiers and loosed their arrows upon the men stationed on the ramparts. It was significantly more difficult to hit an archer hiding behind a merlon than it was to rain arrows on opponents standing in the field.

As such, the defenders were primarily protected by the Castle's mighty walls as they continued to reap the lives of the enemy forces with their volley fire. While the arrows fell upon the attackers, the Teutonic Order had finished reloading the trebuchets and launched another volley at their targets.

This time one of the pitch jars had landed on its target, and its flame instantly began to engulf the enemy trebuchet, which was nearing completion. Slowly but surely, the burning pitch began to turn the wooden siege device into ash.

The engineers nearby who were unlucky enough to be covered in the flaming tar-like substance screamed in agony as the flames engulfed their bodies. Despite this, nobody moved to help them, and soon they fell to their deaths. 

Under the missile fire of the Teutonic Order, the General of the Golden Horde gave his Order from atop his horse.

"Raise the ladders!"

With that, men from all coalition nations began to rush towards the wall while carrying ladders with them. The intent was to scale the walls and fight the defenders atop the ramparts. While these ladders were moving into position, the Polish-Lithuanian commander gave his decree.

"Release the battering ram!"

Upon hearing this, the Polish-Lithuanian Forces in the vanguard immediately began pushing the battering ram into formation. The ram was wheeled and covered with fortifications to protect against missile fire. The heavily armored infantry used to push the device was relatively safe from the Defender's actions.

However, when the Battering ram finally got into position, the Defenders immediately unleashed a cauldron of burning pitch onto the enemy below; though the men operating the battering ram were directly protected from the substance, it slowly began to eat away at their covering. 

Eventually, the coalition soldiers were left without protection from the missile fire. More importantly, the next wave of the burning pitch left them roasted alive in their armor as the enflamed viscous substance coated them. 

When the Teutonic Grand Master gazed upon the sight of the enemy battering ram being destroyed, he smiled beneath his visor and yelled at the enemy, who could neither hear him nor understand him.

"Enemies of God! I Swear to the heavens that you will break your army taking this Castle! Though I may die, I will enter the Kingdom of Heaven smiling knowing that the Teutonic State survives!"

When the defenders heard these words from their Grand Master, they were overtaken with zeal and roared the battle cry of all crusaders into the air as they fought for their very survival.

"God wills it!"

The chant of the Crusaders while they desperately defended their Castle on their Eastern Border echoed into the air as the coalition forces attempted to break through the Teutonic Order's defenses. In doing so, the enemy forces fully understood the determination of the enemy they were facing and knew full well that this war would be a long and bloody one.

This was merely the first day of the siege at the Eastern Border, and it would last for many more. The brave German soldiers of Christ held onto their territory, fighting and dying for their belief against an army they deemed to be heathens. 

The results of this battle would not be known to the world at large for some time. Ultimately the Teutonic Order would be defeated, and their Grand Master killed in battle. The loss the Teutonic Order suffered at the Eastern Border would open the flood gates for the coalition to invade their lands. Within a year's time, the Teutonic State would find itself in shambles, barely holding on to what little land they had left.

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