The Freelancers sent forward intercepted the Landwehr Brigade stationed near the town of Strutzenheim. They rode back on the main road to Mecklenheim, then sent a company through the woods to the Brigade and von Hohenspitz to let them know about the possible threat.
The General was pondering if he could just rush on Mecklenheim without a warning or let them know the war is official. Finally he decided to send orders back to the Freelance Companies with another courier: in which they were ordered to block the road between Strutzenheim and Mecklenheim as they were, but bring word of ultimatum under a white flag to the Flossian force stationed westwards.
The next day, von Hohenspitz would take Mecklenheim, a first battle in a long row for the Principality. He decided to pay the soldiers before battle, increasing morale further more.
At the Grühne Bridge north of Spülge
Dietrich von Spülge's mind, perhaps inspired by the fear of loss of his estate, produced a brilliant idea. He knew too well that the crossing army would be bottlenecked by the Flossian cavalry occupying the left shore of the river, so he ordered his pioneers to destroy the bridge and marched along the shore to the other bridge between Flögesholm and Willecheny. The work would make the Flossians believe it still was a full force stationed at the Spülge bridge, however, it would still take a full day to blow that one up, and the choice of crossing, being narrower, to let the whole brigade pass. This also gave the advantage to von Spülge to march on the enemy in battle order.
