Fighting the Fire

Victor arrived at the riverbank with his Guard Cavalry. At this moment, his Cavalry troops were all on the east bank of this tributary of the Blackwater River. Many of them had already laid down their weapons and begun to clear the battlefield, count the prisoners, and treat the wounded. However, most of them were standing in the river channel, splashing water on the burning boats to put out the fire.

Upon seeing Victor's arrival, the officer who had been directing the firefighting efforts from the shore rushed over to Victor and saluted him.

"Viscount Victor, greetings!"

Victor recognized the officer immediately; he was none other than the commander of the support force sent by the Blue Rose Territory, Sir Belger.

Victor had previously learned about Belger of the Blue Rose Territory from James. Berg was one of the military commanders under the Viscount Blue Rose. He was experienced and capable, and had led the Blue Rose Territory's Cavalry in battle for many years.

In addition, Victor preferred to concentrate his Cavalry forces, so after meeting him, Victor took the Cavalry from several other support War Department and formed a temporary Cavalry detachment, which was then placed under Belger's command.

"Sir Belger, how is the battle going? What are our casualties?"

Belger said respectfully, "Viscount Victor, our casualties are few, and the enemy's resistance is not very fierce."

Besides those injured by stray arrows, several unfortunate individuals were swept away by the river. Fortunately, the current is not strong, and I have already sent people downstream to search for them; they should be able to be rescued.

But..."

When he said the last sentence, Belger hesitated for a moment.

"Yes, it's just that the enemy commander was too reckless. He set fire to the ships shortly after we started fighting, before we had even boarded them."

Fortunately, the commander committed suicide afterward, which allowed us to persuade the soldiers and laborers of the grain transport fleet to surrender.

Victor saw the fleet of ships burning fiercely on the river, more than twenty ships lined up like a fire dragon.

At this moment Cavalry the shore splashing water to put out the fire, but even the captured laborers were also brought to help fight the fire. However, there were too few of them, and they did not have any suitable fire-fighting tools. Several people had to share a wooden bucket.

However, this amount of water was far from enough to fight the fire. Even though the firefighters were already standing in the river and splashing water onto the boats, it had little effect on the fire.

Seeing this, Victor frowned and quickly ordered Belger, "Don't waste time. We can't possibly put out the fire on the entire fleet. Quickly gather everyone together and save one or two ships first."

"Yes!"

Belger hurried off to relay the order. Little Paru, standing beside Victor, watched his departing figure and said, "Sir Belger, you're good at commanding Cavalry, but your adaptability is lacking. If you were an officer from our territory, you would have already started focusing on putting out the fires before you even arrived."

Victor smacked Little Paru on the head. "Belger Berg is a seasoned veteran, how could he not understand this principle? It's just that his experience tells him he can't make decisions on his own before his lord arrives!"

Little Paru covered his head, seemingly understanding but not quite. Victor didn't say anything more and directly ordered the guards to go and put out the fire.

Soon, the fires on most of the boats on the river grew stronger and stronger. Many of them were burned through to the bottom and sank into the river, with only the parts above the water still burning.

Victor muttered to himself, "Something's not right with the fire; the grain ships couldn't have burned so quickly!"

Just then, Belger found Victor: "Viscount, we rescued a ship, but something seems off about what's on board."

After saying that, Belger handed the item in his hand to Victor to look at.

Victor looked down and saw that Belger had a handful of wheat stalks in one hand and wheat husks in the other.