Chapter 397: Assassinating an Eastern Warlord

Since Berengar had first decided to annex the Teutonic State and incorporate it into his domain, he had ordered Linde to send field agents into the territory currently occupied by the Eastern Coalition, which was comprised of multiple countries such as Poland-Lithuania, the various Rus States, and the Golden Horde.

These Field Agents were tasked with sabotage, assassination, and deep reconnaissance to halt the Eastern Coalitions' advance into what little remained of the Teutonic State. It was a difficult mission, and at the moment, a field agent by the name of Jürgen Speck was deep behind enemy lines with a task that most likely would result in his untimely demise. 

Nevertheless, for the sake of the Fatherland, he was more than willing to pay the price. In his hands was a Schmidt Needle Rifle, with its range elevated out to a thousand yards. Having performed excellently in his marksmanship course, Jürgen was more than capable of making the shot. At the moment, he was sitting far away from his target, who was riding with his host.

Khadan was the current Khan of the Golden Horde, and he was riding with his warriors westward to Marienburg with a single purpose, to eradicate the last remnants of the Teutonic State. It would undoubtedly be a massacre if he and his 130,000 horsemen arrived within those lands. 

At that moment, Jürgen was aiming down his sight in the pouring rain as he waited for the Khan's approach. The man would be entering firing range any minute now, and the Agent could take his shot. Dressed in a splinter camo smock and field cap, Jürgen blended in with his environment at such a distance perfectly. 

Without a Khan to lead the Horde, the various clans would undoubtedly fall into infighting for the next ruler. Thus Jürgen took a deep breath and placed his finger on the trigger. His target was now within his sights. As he squeezed the trigger, the sound of thunder cracked in the air, startling the Eastern warriors. 

Initially, they thought it was just thunder, yet when they gazed over their fearless leader, there was a bloody hole square in the center of his chest. Due to the distance of a thousand yards and the poor weather, they had not seen the smoke plume that spat out of Jürgen's rifle and thus was unaware of how their leader had been slain.

Nevertheless, the Khan fell from his horse's back with shock in his eyes as he breathed his last breath. The moment this occurred, the Horde of 130,000 men erupted into chaos; they frantically began to search for the culprit, never expecting that he would lay hiding in the bushes a thousand yards away. 

However, in his panicked state, Jürgen made the foolish action of hopping on his horseback and fleeing the scene of his crime, which immediately caused the Horde's scouts to notice his presence. Had he just stayed put and hunkered down, it was possible that the Golden Horde would have assumed the death of their Khan was an inside job, and yet now with a lone horseman frantically absconding from the scene, they knew that their Khan had somehow been assassinated by an outsider. 

With this in mind, the Golden Horde began to chase after Jürgen with their swift horses. Whether he could escape or not was now in God's hands. The Austrian Agent hurried off as fast as his horse would allow him; luckily for him, Arabians had a high endurance level.

Nevertheless, despite spending nearly three miles outrunning his pursuers, his horse began slowing down; it could no longer endure its top speed and was completely exhausted. Considering he was left in the middle of nowhere, with no surrounding village to hide in, Jürgen knew he had only one chance of survival. 

After reflecting upon his choices, he quickly halted his horse, where he pulled out a piece of parchment contained within his pouch; with a fountain pen in hand, he pulled out a map of the area and marked down his general location with a single phrase written down, S.O.S.

After doing so, he attached the letter to the messenger owl that was contained within a cage tied to the Horse's saddle. After doing so he threw the owl into the air and sent it off to the nearest field camp of his nearby agents. Hopefully, reinforcements would arrive soon and liberate him from his desperate situation. 

If the eastern warriors of the Golden Horde wanted to pursue him, they would have to do so under his terms. Considering he was dressed in camouflage and wielding a superior weapon, Jürgen knew his only hope for survival was hiding out until his pursuers abandoned their quest to find him. After scouting out the area, Jürgen found a nearby forest that he could hide within until help arrived.

With this in mind, the man quickly began covering himself in mud to hide his white skin, where he then fled under the cover of the large forest. He hoped he would hide well enough that the eastern warriors would be unable to find him.

After roughly an hour had passed, Jurgen had found a small cave, where he took the chance to rest within; it was unknown if some form of predator lied within its depths. However, he knew that if he did not get out of his soaking clothes soon, then without a doubt, he would die from hypothermia. 

Luckily for Jürgen there were no signs of a beast camped within the cavern, thus the man quickly started a fire and stripped from his soaked clothes, where he reached into his satchel and pulled out a pair of medieval peasant clothing he kept as a spare in case the need arose where he would have to hide his identity. 

For three days, Jürgen stayed within the forest, hunting and trapping his food while surviving the land; just when he thought his pursuers had lost track of him, he felt a sharp pain pierce through his thigh. A barbed arrow stuck out from his leg just below the femoral artery. He was well and truly crippled. 

Though he tried to crawl away, he was eventually kicked over by a large Mongolian man dressed in the armor of his people. Just as the man was about to bring down his blade and decapitate the wounded field agent, his hand was stopped, and an even larger man began speaking to him with a stern tone, in a language that Jürgen did not understand. 

Before long, Jürgen was bound up with rope and carried out of the forest by Mongols. The worst imaginable situation had transpired; he was captured alive by the Golden Horde and would undoubtedly be tortured for information on his identity before being executed.

Jürgen knew the odds of rescue were low, and such resigned himself to his fate; even if aid could arrive, there was no conceivable way for them to break into the Golden Horde's encampment and free him from his bondage. Unknowingly to him, his owl had reported his location to the nearest field outpost, and thus, a team of agents was already on its way to search for his whereabouts.

...

Roughly a month had passed since Jürgen's capture, and at the moment, Hemma who was the Deputy Director of Royal Intelligence was standing within the halls of their headquarter's located within the city of Kufstein. She held a field report in her hand as a frown curled upon her lips. After reading through the information, she fully understood the situation at hand. 

Since Jürgen's capture, the Golden Horde had split off into various factions vying for the position of the Next Khan. The objective had been achieved, and their advance into the Teutonic State was halted. They were no longer united, and Jürgen was surprisingly still alive. Though tortured mercilessly, he had never revealed his identity. Thus the Mongols continued to keep him breathing for the time being.

However, his current location was deep within the camp of the prime candidate for the position of Khan. With 50,000 horse riders by his side, it would not be easy to extract the field agent from his predicament. A team of agents was constantly monitoring the situation, and they had sent a request back to Headquarters on how to proceed.

It would not take long before Jürgen had finally broken and revealed that this was a ploy by Austrian Intelligence to slow down the Golden Horde's Advance into the Teutonic State's lands. When that happened, open warfare would occur between Austria and the Golden Horde.

Such an outcome needed to be stopped at all costs. Thus Hemma, who was currently dressed in her work uniform, had a complicated expression on her lips. Until now, none of her field agents had been captured alive.

The information that Jürgen had available could quickly spark a war between the two countries. Thus two options presented themselves; either way, an elite team that she did not have available would have to sneak into the enemy encampment. 

After dwelling upon it for some time, Hemma sighed heavily as she stared at her Director of Covert Operations, who had handed her the report. After several moments of silence, she revealed her thoughts on the matter.

"It looks like I am going to have to request aid from the director herself..."

---

If you want to support me so that I can commission art of the characters in my novel, as well as maps, coat of arms, and other vital illustrations, please visit my Patreon page at 

https://www.patreon.com/user?u=7947078

All of the art will be released within my discord server for free.

https://discord.gg/nMWVhMaukT