Chapter 443 - Tied Up Like A Common Hog (1/2)

Having sacked the capital city of the Kingdom of Portugal, Berengar had begun to lead the chase in the direction of the City of Porto, where he believed the hostile King had fled to. His ultimate goal was to end this war quickly. Thus, he planned to capture the King of Portugal and force his surrender.

Unfortunately, after laying siege to the City of Lisbon, the cowardly King was nowhere to be found. He had fled the City he was tasked with defending and left its people to their fate. Thus, Berengar now not only wanted to force the man to surrender, but he also desired to punish him for his dishonorable actions.

After all, if there was one thing that Berengar hated, it was a coward. A King who would leave his soldiers to be slaughtered so that he could buy some time for his escape was no king at all, at least not in the eyes of the Reichsmarschall of Austria.

At the moment, Berengar rode upon his red horse, whose name was Glory, as he trod forth, with his army of roughly 50,000 men behind him. It had been days since they had conquered Lisbon, and though a small force was tasked to stay behind and manage the conquered region, most of the troops belonging to the Triple Alliance were now in the field.

Scouts had advanced, searching for any sign of the King of Portugal and his host. Finally, after days of searching, they had been spotted. One of the scouts among Berengar's forces returned to the main army with an excited expression on his face.

The moment Berengar saw this, he smiled cruelly; at last, he would be made aware of the enemy's whereabouts. The Scout eagerly approached his King before reporting the intelligence he had come to receive.

”Your Majesty, we have spotted a caravan heading towards the border of Castile that we believe to belong to King Felipe and his family. It appears he has decided to completely abandon Portugal to our conquest and intends to hide among the Castilians with who we have a treaty. ”

The moment Berengar heard these words, he spat upon the ground in utter contempt. He could not believe that such a coward ruled over a once-mighty Kingdom like Portugal. If Berengar wanted to intercept the man, he was left with one option. He quickly questioned the soldier about the distance between his army and the party of the Portuguese King.

”How many days ride are we from his location?”

The Scout immediately pointed in the direction where he spotted the target and gave the available information.

”About three days ride towards the East from here. If you hurry, you can catch him before he reaches the border!”

With this said, Berengar snapped the reins of his horse and rode back to Palladius, where he gave him the orders he had devised within his mind.

”We have received word that King Luiz and his host rides for Castile; I will lead the Cavalry to the East where we will intercept him. You are to lead the majority of the army towards Porto. I want the City under siege by the time I return with the Portuguese King. Let us finally end this war!”

After saying this, Berengar did not wait for a response; his orders were absolute. Instead, he rode off and sounded the bugle where the 5,000 Cavalrymen followed in pursuit. They would ride for the next three days, with intermittent breaks before finding their target.

---

King Luiz was exhausted as he neared the Castilian border. He had given up his dignity as a monarch and fled the City of Lisbon when he heard reports of the Army of the Triple Alliance rapidly advancing through his southern borders.

Despite his best efforts to control the chaos in his territory, it had rapidly spiraled out of his control. With Brigands declaring themselves lords of their territories, and a lack of currency to stabilize his collapsing economy, he had completely and utterly failed to defend his territory.

Reflecting upon this, Luiz cursed the ministers who raided his treasury and fled for foreign countries. If not for them, he may have been able to mount a proper defense against the invaders from the South. However, he had no idea that Lisbon had so rapidly fallen, nor that the Austrian Cavalry quickly was approaching his location.

Instead, he gazed upon his wife and children with a bitter smile. He had managed to scrounge up the last of his wealth so that he could live a decent life in Castile as a monarch in exile. After all, the Aragonese Crown was close to unifying the two Iberian Kingdoms; surely his former ally would welcome him with open arms?