The Sage of Einar

Chapter 424: Conquest of the barony of Baltimore

The next day, Einar realized that he was much better after talking with the deer. Although it was something strange, it had a quite functional therapeutic function.

This is also why Einar decided to create a post and postman system to be able to carry letters from one place to another.

He had not thought about this before because the size of the island was too small, however with the increase in territory it will be essential to have a postal system.

Not to mention that at least Einar would like to have constant contact with his family.

After bathing and having breakfast, Einar advanced with his army towards the exit of the forest of the barony of Kinsale.

The road was not complicated enough, nor were there any attacks by rebels or bandits when they got out of those forests.

They could see an immense amount of hills which indicated that they were in the Barony of Baltimore whose capital was in the farthest part in the west.

So they would have to walk at least three days to get there.

Knowing all this, the soldiers advanced, already completely reunited, leaving only a small outpost which would be in charge of taking care of the vanguard of the army.

The hills of Ireland in that area were extremely beautiful as they were covered with green grass and some flowers that made them look quite pleasant to look at.

During their way through the hills, they came across many small towns whose main activity was sheep raising.

All the towns immediately surrendered to Einar, not thinking of fighting for the Baron of Baltimore, because he was nothing more than a bloody nobleman who had taken it upon himself to steal their few profits with high taxes.

Taking advantage of the unrest of the people, Einar made the residents of the barony take them safely to the capital of the barony.

Also, he also earned some sheep and goat cheese, which was distributed in the army as a bonus for all of them.

Although progress was slow, they reached the castle and the city of Baltimore in a period of two and a half days.

Which were not very big. Although the castle had stone walls, the city was only protected by wooden walls, which did not measure more than three meters.

All the soldiers of the Nordic army then surrounded the city and the castle to be able to initiate with the siege. For his part, Einar sent a messenger to request his surrender.

The messenger carried the message but only received a refusal from the defenders because they believed they would be able to win.

Hearing that, Einar only caressed his nasal septum because he could not believe the stupidity of the defenders. He did not know if they were too idiots or if they had a lot of confidence in their four meter walls. 

But because they were extremely sure that they were going to win, Einar punished them in the most horrible way possible, so he decided to divide the castle and the city in two.

He did this with the intention that whatever he did in the castle would not affect the small town next to it at all.

First, he order to assemble the ballistas and the onagers, so during the following days the siege weapons began to be assembled when they were ready.

Einar ordered to place containers with Nordic fire on the onagers. Once the ammunition was already placed, he was ordered to shoot only at the castle.

The containers with blue Nordic fire flew out and in a short time fell on the castle, which began to burn without showing signs of stopping.

As a form of clever movement, Einar made the calculations so that some of the containers fell on the castle gates.

Thus preventing them from escaping from the hell that Baltimore castle would become.

The shouts of the soldiers and some people in the castle began to be heard. Even some soldiers jumped from the walls to the ground.

Well, the heat they were feeling inside was so strong that they felt as if they were in an oven, so they preferred to die or save themselves after jumping over the walls.

Unfortunately, they never thought they would ever need to jump, so they had placed some sharp wooden sticks under their walls, which ended their lives quickly most of the time.

Well, for those who were unlucky, there was only an agonizing death which made them suffer because not only did they have a few broken bones, but they were completely pierced by the wooden sticks.

Somehow they could no longer move so they were simply bleeding slowly, waiting for the death that would free them from that pain.

For a few hours, the castle burned, although the screams stopped being heard a long time before, so it could be assumed that all had died.

Even more so when the castle’s battlement tower was collapsed by fire, at that moment Einar again sent a messenger to the city to demand its surrender.

The city of Baltimore accepted the surrender, as the defenders and citizens were afraid of suffering the same fate as the castle.

For them, at that moment, the war had already ended because the last thing they wanted was to die screaming like the baron’s soldiers did.

When Baltimore City defenders came out unarmed and hands up, they were quickly subdued while being searched for some kind of hidden weapon.

The citizens also came out, so they were checked to prevent them from taking any action against the soldiers.

After this, a group of soldiers entered the city and in the center of it a flag of the Nordic nation was placed, which waved while everything was prepared to sing the national anthem.

Although it had been in the making since the beginning, it had a slightly more important meaning, as it was the most southeastern city in Ireland.

After playing the national anthem, everyone prepared to rest as in two days they would advance to the city of Tralee, which was in an area of ​​swamps.