Herald of Steel - Chapter 1064: Securing the Mansion (part-3)

1064 Securing the Mansion (Part-3)

While Alexander launched an attack from the inside, securing the most valuable prisoners, Remus was of course busy doing his own thing, as were the men under him, who all had their individual tasks

And the first to act among all of them was the unit tasked with leading the ‘secure and containment’ of the mansion.

“There! There is the signal! Come men! The Pasha is waiting for us. Do as you were told. Kill anyone who resists and capture anyone who surrenders,”

Quickly spotting the flashing light from a small, designated window, produced by one of the legionaries holding a small handheld mirror and a lamp, the captain of that team excitedly brokethe ambient stillness of the night with this loud clear order, adding,

“And remember not to harm any of the lords! Remember that! It is a direct order from the Lord!”

The captain made sure to once again exalt the men to act with a measured hand as one last reminder, urging them to be careful when handling the valuable quarry that they were tasked with securing.

And the men quickly nodded to this, understanding the captain’s slightly ambiguous order without any trouble as the two words used to pronounce ‘lord; were uttered very differently.

One referred to Alexander.

The other referred to all the family members of the Margraves family collectively- men, women, children, and even some of the more respectable servants such as stewards, butlers, and elder maids.

“Yes!” The debriefed men replied to this with a loud chorus of hurrah, not bothering to keep the veil of secrecy regarding their attacks any longer, as they began to get to quickly march to their stations.

Their objective had been marked, so the 300 men unit quickly broke off into smaller teams of 30 to 40, spreading across the expansive mansion premises, intent to divide and conquer.

The first team was tasked with securing the surrounding grounds, which included things like the stables, the various granaries, storehouses, and even a few of the slave quarters.

While others infiltrated the insides, where they too fanned into different directions.

Some aimed for the large servant’s quarters on the first floor, intent on neutralizing these potential combatants who might otherwise choose to take up arms under their lord’s order later.

And given the suddenness of the attack, the sleeping or resting servants were caught completely off guard, and an instant later wisely decided to surrender.

Facing this group of armed men, wielding sharp swords and spears, the untrained mob would have been foolish to resist anyway.

So instead of dying on the stone floor needlessly in blood, they all obediently either raised their hands, got on their knees, or even simply formed into a queue like many of them had been taught by their slave master when they were captured.

Like this team, the teams that were tasked with fighting the guards face a similar, fortunate situation.

Mass surrenders and desertion became the norm all across the mansion premises, as like the servants, the Margraves family guards too chose to lay down their swords and shields without a fight, knowing at this point there was no hope.

These Margraves guards were scattered all over the mansion, in small groups of five to ten, tasked with overseeing a small part of the house.

So when Alexander’s legionaries ambushed them in a group with a 3 to 4 times number advantage, these isolated groups of men simply lost the courage to stand up.

A choice made all the more sweeter as the attackers made sure to dangle the juicy fruit of surrender in front of them, smacking their swords into their shields and shouting,

“*Bang*, *Bang*, *Bang*, Surreder! Lay down your arms! And you will live! Do not fight! You cannot win. Fight and be killed! Lay down and live! *Bang*, *Bang*, *Bang*.”

The small family militia was not simply equipped to deal with such a large scale coup, especially when it was being led by a warlord as seasoned as Alexander, with so many veterans under him.

Never mind they were also caught completely off guard by the attack launched at them under the shield of night.

These poor men were playing checkers in a game of chees.

Thus it was fortunate that all of them chose to bend the knee and not try to be a hero and go out in a blaze of glory.

There were of course a few hot bloods among them as there would be always, but luckily they did not get to cause too much trouble.

Whenever they were about to start, they would be urged by their surrounding comrades not to do anything stupid that would get both them and everyone else killed.

Hence the casualties produced in securing the mansion perimeter were very low, in the low single digits actually, with none of the Alexander’s men in there having suffered even a single wound, much less a loss.

This was really good news since some of the other teams were not so lucky.

Like the ones charged with capturing the various lords.

This happened because the Margraves guards these men encountered were selected to be bodyguards specifically due to both their skill as well as their loyalty, and thus most did not never leave their liege even in the face of certain death.

“Death is better than humiliation” Many of them cried out as they charged head first in desperation, thus managing to claim a handful of Alexander’s men’s lives.

Fortunately for Alexander, this kind of suicidal attack was not that effective as a whole, mainly due to the fact that Alexander’s men had very large shields to wall off such attempts.

And after the men had gotten close, the legionnaires could then use their shorter and more maneuverable swords to easily counterattack, starting with a bash of their shield to stun the other side and then sneaking past the other side’s much smaller shield to land a critical blow.

As for the reason why the Margraves family guards had much smaller shields, it was so that they would move around these cramped halfways easily, without suddenly bumpin’ them into the walls or even accidentally knocking over the vases and potted plants decorating the pathway.

Something that reportedly used to happen quite often when these men were equipped with the large, phalanx shields.

Thus the men were very happy to have their heavy, bulky, shields that were a true pain in the arms to carry all day around get replaced by a much more moderately sized ‘wooden screen’.

Although it was unknown how those men would feel about that now, given that many of them died due to the loss of this crucial additional wood.

Anyway, as the corridors were being slowly cleared out inch by bloody inch, the legionaries found themselves getting into a kind of killing rhythm, as they quickly figured out an optimal method for conducting this breaching operation.

They would start with a loud cry stating, “We only want to protect the lords in here safe. Stand down. And you will spared,” before launching a barrage of arrows from the Instant bows that many of the men carried, turning that corridor for a while into a wall of missiles.

And it would only after this hail of deadly projectiles were launched that the legionaries would proceed into melee, where, by this point, the enemy would be either mostly dead or at the very least incapacitated.

Thus requiring only a quick clean-up.

Of course most of the time, the legionaries did not need to get so far.

It had to be remembered that most of the corridors were generally undefended

After all, not every member of the Margraves had bodyguards defending their doors.

Such privileges were instead very rare, only provided to the high echelons of the house.

And these people were all clever men who knew how to read the situation.

Thus upon seeing Alexander’s soldiers in front of their room in the dead of the night, armed and armored, they easily figured out what was going on, and decided to wisely not fight but surrender, some even shouting towards their bodyguards,

“Stop! Stop! Do not fight. Let them good men in. They are our guests! They are our guests!”

They were truly the elders of a mercantile family, displaying the use of their silver tongue even in such dire situations.

And this was the most common way the inhabitants of the mansion welcomed Alexander’s men, with a few exceptions, particularly, the women and children who naturally screamed and howled in fear at the sight of these enormous armored shadows.

But they kept it to mostly only that- terrified bursts of air, but no attacks.

So they were easily pacified.

The only expectation of these two types of response was from Lady Miranda and Lord Cassius, with the former upon seeing the all too familiar blue armored men could not help but shout incredulously in fear and fury,

“What is the meaning of this Alexander? Have you gone insane?”

The lady posed this exact thing both to the thin air of her room out of shock, and then also later to Alexander himself, as she immediately sought out the man, the couple’s slumber for the night being kicked off to the moon.