Chapter 387: Halting the Iberian Advance (1/2)

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.