60 The torentine front
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-Third person
The Torentine River, the border separating the Prussians from the forces of Dorne, the Prussians never showed any intention of crossing the river for the siege of the castle island of Starfall.
When the Dornish learned that they had an enemy army at the gates of their lands, they acted hastily and on Lord Dayne's orders demolished the only bridge linking Dorne to the Dornish territories across the river.
Slowly, the Prussians began to settle in the area, ever vigilant of the Dornish forces that slowly began to arrive to help against the possible attack that Starfall could receive.
But the attack never came, the Prussians only set up simple fortifications on the other side of the river, closely watching the movements of their enemies and investigating possible crossings of the river.
Something they could not find, the Torentine is too deep and its course too aggressive to attempt a crossing, the only place where such a feat was possible was by the same bridge that had been collapsed by the Dornish because the water in that area only reached up to the chest.
With the passage of time the Dornish managed to gather about ten thousand men among the Dornish noble houses who rushed to support the Dayne.
The Prussian army on the other side began to be mobilized to the northern front, where the Teutonic knights were fighting against the Dornish horsemen.
With only the forces of two Prussian tercios left in the area, seeing this the Dornish felt superior to the Prussians, the Dornish attempted a ford crossing at night using the debris of the bridge as a support to cross.
When the Dornish had begun to set foot on the other side, hundreds of Prussian crossbows began firing their bolts, killing several dozen men on the spot.
The Prussian crossbows were fired rapidly in succession against the Dornish ranks who could do little as they were up to their chests in water and the few who had crossed were trying to form a wall of shields to avoid being an easy target for the Prussians.
Despair began to spread among the Dornish who began to retreat or try to get to the shores to fight the Prussians.
Even on a moonless night the Prussians moved with a proficiency that was to be expected from a professional army.
In a short time, they formed a line and began to march against the Dornish forces that had made it across, while their comrades continued the barrage of crossbow bolts against the soldiers in the river.
The Dornish were unlucky enough to be up against the most veteran tercios available in the Prussian army.
It was only a matter of time before the Prussians crushed the defense put up by the survivors.
The lightly trained levies were no match for the veterans of more than twenty years of war and the few knights who tried to fight found themselves in the desperate situation of having to fight at the same time against five or more Prussians who were trying to capture them for ransom.
The rest of the Dornish army must have watched helplessly as their comrades were slaughtered by the Prussians.
When the sunlight shone again, nearly a thousand Dornishmen had been killed in a matter of minutes in the fighting
While the Prussians had suffered no casualties, only blunt injuries and minor wounds.
The bodies of the Dornish were left out in the open, on the recommendation of a Finn to the Prussian commander, to attract those seeking to recover the bodies of their friends or masters.
Which happened, many knights had died in the river and their bodies had been trapped in the debris, so many men sought to try to recover the body for the reward that could give them their family, which made the Prussians constantly walk around the area shooting with their crossbows to the fools who did it.
So for three days, until finally the Dornish asked for a truce to retrieve the dead.
The Prussian commander agreed, as he did not want to generate eternal hatred from the Dornish for this act
Allowing to recover the bodies while they watched that nobody stayed on their side of the river, after this event the Prussians continued to watch the river and the Dornish as well, being mutually attentive to each other.
The Prussians continued to watch the river and the Dornish as well, keeping a mutual eye on each other's actions.
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''IT CAN'T BE THAT HOT!..... AAAAHH''shouted Siegfried almost in despair with the heat in the area.
''Complaining won't help anything'' said another soldier.
''But where the hell is it hot while it's RAINING, it's raining and it's hot enough to cook eggs on my breastplate'' said Siegfried as he threw a bucket of water over himself
''Apparently this damned place'' said a Prussian sergeant.
''Scheiße, I thought I'd never say it, but I miss snowstorms and temperatures that freeze you in seconds on the borders of Russia'' said siegfried as he looked at the river
''You are not the only one... I would propose that we drink beer, but that stuff must be hot too, everything in this damn place is hot'' said a Prussian captain who was responsible for guarding the ford.
The greatest enemy of the Prussians in the area has been the weather, with the arrival of the rainy seasons the Prussians were happy because they thought that the temperatures would go down
But their assumption was wrong, now it was hot and raining and they should almost all their camp was muddy.
But their presence in the area was entirely necessary, they had to watch that the Dornish did not try anything and make sure that the work in the quarries that had been set up in the area continued to supply the valuable stone for the buildings that began to spread throughout the reach.
''At least we can take off our armor, it wouldn't be so terrible if it weren't for that'' said a soldier to his captain.
''The Dornish could come back at any time, and with the damn rain, we can't use our crossbows, if we get our strings wet we are forced to fight hand to hand, so no one takes off their armor'' said the captain wiping off his sweat.
The sound of boots in mud caught the attention of the group of veterans.
''Governor's orders, I need some men to start checking the terrain for the construction of the fortifications that we must build to guard the river properly'' said an engineer with his clothes all wet.
The captain looked at his men and selected several of them including Siegfried.
The men followed the engineer who handed them picks, shovels and wheelbarrows because they had to dig a lot.
''I need you to dig until you find the rock on the ground or ten meters, we need that information to make the plans for the fortifications, so no slacking off,'' said the engineer to the group of soldiers.
The soldiers started digging following his orders regardless of the horrible weather conditions.
The Prussians worked for hours and always on the lookout for the other side of the river if the Dornish tried anything.
''This job should be done by the damn prisoners'' said a soldier who was tired of digging up mud.
''They're all working in the capital'' said Siegfried.
''Well, we're done for the day'' said a sergeant who had everyone's attention.
almost everyone started to grab their tools, but Siegfried while washing his hands found something that caught his attention.
A shiny golden piece he held in one of his hands.
It was small, but Siegfried recognized the color, remembering the coins of the same material that had passed through his hands during his long career as a soldier.
''Hey siegfried what are you waiting for... if you are left alone the Dornish will kill you'' shouted the sergeant
''I'm coming'' said Siegfried putting the gold fragment in his clothes.
For the next few days, Siegfried continued to do his work, digging for hard rock or digging up to the ten meters he had been asked to dig.
During his hard work, Siegfried had found several gold fragments, but then he found a big gold nugget while washing the dirt he had in a container, that's when he decided to tell his superior because it wasn't just luck
''Sergeant I think I found something important'' said Siegfried.
''What is it Siegfried, what is important, I don't want to waste time, the rain has me with little patience'' said the sergeant while he was watching the work.
Siegfried showed the nugget to his sergeant.
''Wow, where did you find it?'', asked the sergeant intrigued.
''in the ground I have found quite a lot in the last few days, I preferred to wait before giving notice because I didn't want to raise a false alarm'' said Siegfried handing over the nugget.
The sergeant remained thoughtful for a few moments
''Go to the engineer, he might decide what to do the information could be important for the governor'' said the sergeant
''Yes my sergeant'' replied siegfried.
The soldier quickly moved through the mud, searching for the engineer's place of work.
Siegfried entered the house and found the engineer working on the plans.
''Hey, not with muddy boots,'' the engineer shouted.
''Excuse me, but I found something important,'' said Siegfried.
''If it's not something important, you'll be sorry to waste my time'' said the engineer putting his quill back in the inkwell.
Siegfried showed the nugget and by candlelight illuminated the golden color of the gold nugget.
''MEIN GOTT, where did you find it?'' asked the engineer.
''In the land near the river, in the last few days I have found several pieces of gold... look'' said Siegfried, taking out a piece of cloth where he kept the gold fragments.
The engineer remained thoughtful and took out his clothes.
''Take me to where you found it...quickly...we might have something important'' said the engineer.
Siegfried obeyed and took the studious man to where he had been working for the past few days.
The engineer began to survey the land, but his eyes were fixed on the mountains near the river.
''How could I have been so blind'' said the engineer as he covered his face with his hands.
''What's the matter?'', said Siegfried.
''You see the formation in the hills, that kind of topographic formation means that there used to be a river in the area that must have dried up over time, it is likely that there is a lot of gold in the area, since all the heavy metal must have clustered in the area it is likely in other places as well'' said the engineer while looking at the surrounding terrain.
''Take your shovel let's dig, if we find gold.... you will be a rich man, the reward is yours, only if we find it'' said the engineer.
For the next five days, Siegfried became the engineer's personal worker who did all that time in digging out the earth and washing it while he was looking for the area where the vein of gold could be found.
Siegfried went on with his work when his shovel hit something hard, and as he began to clean it with his hands he saw the golden glow he had been looking for.
"Water" said Siegfried who was covered in mud.
The engineer handed him the bucket of water and Siegfried began to clean the vein and picked up a pickaxe to begin poking at the gold.
The more dirt Siegfried dug up, the larger the vein of gold grew, which seemed to have no end in the eyes of the Prussians.
You found it, you found the vein. ..... we must tell the governor... the king must know, we found gold in a very dangerous area, we still don't know how much there is, but we must keep it secret'' said the engineer.
''You think so?'', said the tired Siegfried.
''Clearly, for the Dornish these are the most fertile lands in their territory, if they find out that there is gold the Dornish will go to extreme measures to get it back and that would complicate the peace negotiations'' said the engineer.
Siegfried began to climb out of the hole he had dug.
''We have to hide it, fill the hole, we already know where to build the first fortification that will guard the river, I will make sure you get the reward you deserve'' said the engineer who began to fill the hole with dirt.
Siegfried obeyed, they filled the hole and returned to camp.
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