Chapter 388: 387: Halting the Iberian Advance

Arnulf gazed into the distance; what he saw was the glimmer of an army's iron armor. Roughly three hundred yards away, on the fields of Andalusia marched well over 10,000 Iberian Catholics. However, they were dreadfully unaware that within firing range were two hundred and fifty members of the Granadan Royal Guard.

Why were they unaware, you might ask? The reason was quite simple, Arnulf had instructed the men beneath his command to paint their armor and clothing with mud.  While the Granadan Royal Guard was equipped with mirror pattern armor protecting their vitals, underneath it was a series of green tunics that represented the colors of Al-Andalus. The tunics and armor worn over it were now stained in the earthy tones of the mud, creating a decent enough camouflage. 

This was not the first enemy unit they had ambushed since their guerilla war had begun, but it was most definitely the largest. Due to the overwhelming numbers of the Iberian Union, they had split off into smaller armies, besieging towns, cities, and castles in a rapid conquest of the land. 

Arnulf had decided to combat this threat by splitting his own small and elite force into multiple cells, whose objectives were to cause sabotage to the Iberian Armies and assassinate their leaders. Open conflict was strictly forbidden. These cells acted as mounted infantry which formed a web around Northern Granada. 

If one cell was in danger, it could quickly be supported by another nearby via the use of smoke signals. The current plan that Arnulf was engaging in was simple, wait until the Granadan host was in firing range and target the leadership. 

Interestingly enough, they had finally caught themselves a big fish. The Army in front of them appeared to belong to none other than Duke Lorenzo de Benavente, the same man who had worked alongside the order of Calatrava to defeat the Granadan Royal Army in battle quite some time ago.

If not for his efforts, then the likelihood of the Iberian Union acquiring arkebuses and falconets would be pretty low.  For all the lives lost in the Battle of the Andalusian Plains, this was now Arnulf's time to get his vengeance. As such, he ordered his men to prepare their weapons.

"Load your weapons if they aren't already, and prepare to fire on my mark. See that bastard with the de Benavente coat of arms? My guess is that's the Duke, so aim your sights on him and the nearby officers!"

As such, the men cocked their rifled muskets and aimed the sights downrange at the targets lying before them. The Iberians were now roughly 200 yards away from the hidden force of Granadan guerillas, and it was at this moment that Arnulf gave his command.

"Open fire!"

With that said, his soldiers pulled the trigger, and with it, the echo of gunfire resounded in the air as the minie ball projectiles were propelled downrange and into the bodies of the enemy. Blood instantly splattered across the plains, and the Iberians soldiers immediately began to react to the ambush.

Though not all of the projectiles had hit their targets, it was enough to take out several officers, and most importantly, the man dressed in the colors of house de Benavente. He had multiple gunshot wounds through his torso; the likelihood of surviving was practically nonexistent. 

After firing their first shots, the Granadans ran off from their positions and unhitched their horses hidden in a ditch below, where they rode off into the desert. Though the Iberian Knights immediately pursued, they were ultimately left behind by the unarmored horses in use by the Granadan Royal Guard. 

As Arnulf and the Granadans escaped, a man-at-arms dressed in plate armor without a surcoat quickly approached the man assumed to be Duke Lorenzo de Benavente. The man-at-arms quickly unfastened the bascinet of the man who was bleeding out to reveal the face hidden behind the helmet. Unfortunately for Granada and its soldiers, he was not Lorenzo de Benavente, the man most hated by the soldiers of the Granadan Army. 

As the men-at-arms saw this, he quickly took off his helmet to reveal that he was none other than Duke Lorenzo de Benavente in the flesh. In doing so, he touched his forehead to that of the dying man and began to speak to him in a comforting tone.

"My dear friend, I thank you for your sacrifice! I promise you that I will not allow these damned Moors to get away with what they have done! I will drive every one of them from these lands, and it is all thanks to you!"

Knowing that the Granadans were targeting high-ranking officers in the Iberian Union's armies with hit and run tactics, Lorenzo had accurately predicted that Arnulf and his men would sooner or later make an attempt on his life. As such, he had dressed as an ordinary man-at-arms and allowed another to take his place as a decoy. 

He was on the lookout the entire time for an enemy ambush, but never did he expect that the Granadans would blend themselves in with the terrain. The very idea terrified the Duke to the core of his being. If they had to be on the lookout for potential assassins within every bush, tree, and ditch, it was going to be a long and strenuous campaign. 

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As such, the man decided he would need to devise a series of tactics to counteract this new style of warfare that the Granadans had begun to engage in. An army on the march could not easily blend in with their surroundings; the very slightest of movements would instantly give away their position to a well-trained eye. 

While Duke Lorenzo began to think of new tactics to deal with the Granadan Guerillas, Arnulf led his soldiers out of enemy range and into a small encampment set up in a valley set a fair distance apart from the nearest cells.

There were no tents or any other noticeable print of their presence.  Instead, the lodgings were built from the land itself, with primitive lean-to shelters being the standard form of covering. They made sure to make in-ground fires that concealed their presence to cook whatever they managed to hunt throughout the land. 

After arriving in the camp and dismounting from their horses, Arnulf gathered the men together as he laid out a map, which had many markings upon it, primarily enemy and allied positions, as well as ongoing areas of conflict. 

As he read over the map, he made several markings signaling the movement of the roughly 10,000 men they had encountered and the location they were likely to strike at. After doing so, he rolled up the map. Where he then tied it to the leg of one of the Falcons employed by their unit as a means of communication. This intelligence was sent back to General Ziyad Ibn Ya'is, whose forces comprised the primary defensive army within the borders of the Emirate of Granada. 

The mission of the men under Arnulf's command was not just to engage in guerilla warfare but to act as reconnaissance, reporting the movements and numbers of the enemy units. Having fulfilled this duty, Arnulf sighed heavily as he took off his helmet and wiped the sweat from his brow. After doing so, he began to speak his thoughts on the ongoing conflict to one of the Austrian Officers beneath his command.

"I wonder if the First Division will be enough to handle the Iberian advance. Every day fanatical Catholics arrive in Iberia to join the Reconquista. Their numbers grow by the day while ours dwindle. It is only a matter of time before we are defeated. I pray that his majesty's reinforcements arrive swiftly."

The Austrian Officer quickly grasped Arnulf's shoulder and reassured him about their future victory.

"Do not fret; you know as well as I do how a single division is organized. It's established with the intent to wage war independently if necessary. Three Infantry Brigades will arrive, accompanied by a single Cavalry Brigade and an Artillery Brigade, That's roughly 25,000 men.

I also hear they will be equipped with some mysterious new weapons; supposedly, some of these new rifles were highly effective in the war for independence. I do not doubt that when the First Division arrives, we will eradicate the Iberian Union once and for all and establish a powerful ally in the west!"

Upon hearing this reassurance, Arnulf began to feel much better about his position; if they could continue their actions and hold off the Iberian Advance for just a few more months, then victory was assured. He could not wait to see what magnificent new weapons King Berengar had provided the First Division with. 

As such, the two men began to devise new plans for their next offensive. Their web of guerrilla cells was sure to cause a massive headache for the Iberian Commanders and the Crusader Orders who supported them. Whether or not they could hold off the Iberian Advance until Austrian Reinforcements arrived had yet to be seen.

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