Chapter 4: Where Did All These Bandits Come From?

"Your Highness, Your Highness."

The next day at noon, John woke up to the sound of knocking on his door.

John, still half asleep, climbed out of bed, rubbed his eyes, took a sip from the cup beside him, and lazily rinsed his mouth before finally getting up.

"What's going on?" John asked, straightening his clothes a bit and then opening the door.

Outside stood the old knight John had brought with him, his face clearly showing panic.

"Your Highness, we are surrounded by bandits!"

"What?!" John instantly woke up, and with the old knight in tow, rushed towards the city wall. "Damn it, how can we be surrounded by bandits in such a large city?"

"I know, Your Highness," the old knight replied, clearly shaken. "It's my first time seeing something like this too. There are just too many of them."

...

Underneath the walls of Gloucester, a large group of ragtag individuals, dressed in all sorts of colorful clothing and without a unified banner, gathered in disarray.

"Edmund, Gloucester is such a large city. Can we really take it?" one bandit knight asked the man next to him.

The man named Edmund had long brown hair, a prominent nose, and a pointed chin, showing his Norman ancestry. In fact, he was a descendant of a knight from the Normandy region.

He didn't respond to the bandit knight's question. In truth, he was just as unsure.

But his employer had offered him too much. If he could pull this off, he would enjoy endless glory and wealth.

Seeing that his lord didn't answer, the bandit knights around Edmund fell silent.

Most of them were small knights who had lost their land, along with many recruited bandits, gathered around Edmund. Although most of them were not very strong fighters, their numbers made up for it.

John, standing on the city wall, was dumbfounded.

The crowd below the wall was vast and mixed beyond John's imagination, including Welsh, Anglo-Saxons, and Normans. Most importantly, their numbers were overwhelming.

This scene reminded John of the high school rallies from his past life. By his estimate, there were nearly a thousand bandits.

"This is fucking ridiculous. How did so many people gather silently?" John couldn't help but curse, voicing the confusion of everyone around him.

With such a massive scale, it was definitely not something ordinary bandits could gather. Upon closer inspection, many of them were even wearing equipment that only knights could afford, indicating they were not just a ragtag group.

As John looked at these formidable enemies, he felt a sense of unease.

"How many men does Gloucester have in its garrison?" John asked a Gloucester soldier beside him.

The soldier stuttered, "The previous batch of serving knights has already gone home, and the next batch hasn't all arrived yet. Right now, there are only seven knights left in the city..."

Only seven knights left?

"What about their squires? What about the soldiers in the city?" John asked anxiously. "How many able-bodied men can be deployed to the battlefield?"

At this point, the soldier seemed confused. Seeing that he didn't seem to know anything, John realized this guy wasn't reliable.

"You, go and count the knights in the city and their squires," John ordered, pointing to one of his own knights.

Then, he looked at the old knight beside him. This loyal old knight, named Guillaume, had been a veteran soldier who had followed Henry II all the way from Anjou.

Guillaume lowered his head and asked, "Is there anything you wish to command, Your Highness?"

"Take two knights and their squires, and go open the armory. Then bring all the weapons and armor over," John said solemnly. "Understood?"

Guillaume simply nodded, indicating he understood his task.

After dispatching all his men, John once again stood on the city wall. The standard bearer behind him instantly understood and raised the flag of the Plantagenet royal family.

When the bandits below saw this flag, they instantly felt a chill run down their spines. The crowd seemed to explode like a depth charge, with everyone starting to murmur and gossip.

This annoyed Edmund greatly. He stepped forward from the crowd and walked to the front, facing John directly beneath the city wall.

"I am Lord Edmund of Clifton. Your Highness, my master has instructed me to deliver a message to you," Edmund's tone was unusually fierce, "You'd better surrender now and hand yourself over obediently!"

What, the Fourth Prince? How did he know?

John felt things were becoming increasingly confusing. He was now both shocked by the enormity of the bandits' force and surprised by Edmund's audacity. Challenging the most favored prince within the kingdom was definitely a risky move.

"Edmund, you better understand, I am the son of the great King, the Prince of England, the future heir of this country," John spoke without showing any sign of fear, "You are indeed quite bold now, but you'd better have the guts to face the consequences later!"

John's words were exceptionally arrogant, and the knights around him laughed. This was the John they knew.

John did not stop insulting and continued: "You bastard, you lose your courage as soon as you take a shit. If you dare to lead a group of stinky hooligans to surround the prince, I will hang you from a tree later!"

Edmund was dumbfounded. The prince's verbal attack was beyond his expectations.

"You're speechless? That's it?" John glanced at the knights and soldiers gathering behind him, "Quick, ride your donkey back home and ask your mom if she squished your brain when she gave birth to you, you dumb pig."

After the tirade, John leaned back, smirking.

"Why so quiet?" John was a bit curious, "How many men can we muster now? How many horses?"

The first to react was the veteran knight, William. "Your Highness, we have twenty-seven knights here, sixty-five squires, and two hundred militia from Gloucester. Apart from the knights, there are eighteen horses available."

John did some mental calculations and felt it was sufficient. "Good, then let everyone who can ride take a set of armor and weapons. The rest of the weapons and armor should be distributed to the militia."

Such straightforward measures stunned the knights. This Prince seemed to have shed his previous stinginess.

Outside the city walls, Edmund continued his tirade, his insults echoing loudly. Initially stunned, he had finally regained his composure. However, John didn't even look his way, which only made him angrier.

Against the backdrop of his furious shouting, John's soldiers quickly finished arming themselves and stood ready.

"Your Highness, that bastard is still yelling outside the walls," a knight reminded.

John paused for a moment, then poked his head out again to look. Edmund was indeed enjoying himself, completely unaware of what was about to happen.

"He won't be shouting for long," John said with a smirk.