On a hunter's trail southeast of Tarburg, four cavalrymen and twelve infantrymen ran through the hills and dense forests towards the junction of the southeastern mountains and plains. They were all wearing tattered clothes. Except for five or six of them who were equipped with leather armor and long swords, most of the remaining people were armed with iron forked shackles and single-knife clubs, like a group of fierce bandits gathering in the mountains and forests.
After walking for most of the day, everyone came to a small cave hidden in a dense forest. The entrance of the cave was not big enough for only three people walking together. The entrance was covered by miscellaneous trees and ivy, making it difficult to find it.
"Master Art, this is the hiding place we found. I went in and took a look. It is not small inside and can accommodate twenty or thirty people. From here, walk east for half a day and you will find a north-south highway after exiting the mountainous area." Angus pulled out his long sword and cut off the vines at the entrance of the cave. Art went in to check it out.
"This is it, it's very dry inside and can hide things."
"Ron and I went to check out the post. The rest of us will take a rest here and wait for my orders."
Since Swabia and Lombardy formed a military alliance in the early spring of this year and determined the strategy of conquering Burgundy, many such outposts have been built on the road at the southern end of the border. Their role is mainly to protect the food supplies transported to the northern border where the army is gathering. Since the tense war situation, the Count of Burgundy has shown no signs of sending troops to invade the Swabian border. The garrison at the outposts has been reduced and transferred to the northern line time and time again, so these outposts have gradually become temporary resting places for passing trains.
"Sir, Lord Angus and I did a count three days ago. Originally, there were only four soldiers and one horse in the checkpoint. Now there are more people. It is probably that the convoy transporting the baggage is resting here."
Att stared at the outpost for a long time. The wooden wall of the outpost was less than ten feet. If there were only four enemy soldiers, Art would dare to lead his troops to rush up and capture it. But now there is a baggage convoy stationed in the outpost. If he attacks rashly and the convoy guards and the enemy soldiers at the outpost resist, it is estimated that a lot of lives will have to be spared to capture the outpost.
"Ron, have you done any sentinel inspections before and after this? Are there any other manor strongholds or outpost towers?"
Ron recalled carefully and replied: "There are no manor strongholds and outpost towers half a day's ride south, but about seventeen miles to the north there is a small manor, which is the small manor at the foot of the mountain we saw on the hillside four days ago. We have reached these places, and we have not gone any further."
Matt thought for a while and said, "You go to the south and check the sentry again. I'll stay here to observe for a while." After Ron left, Art quietly walked around the outpost and found out that in addition to the four soldiers, there were about seven or eight carriage drivers and guards in the outpost.
The sun was rising above the tree, and just when everyone thought that the baggage train would not leave today, Jason, who had gone to scout, ran back.
Jason was sweating and ran to Art and reported: "Sir, the enemy's transport team has arrived with four carriages loaded with goods. It is less than a mile away from here. The team has four coachmen, three infantrymen, and one cavalry."
"So the people are sure. Prepare. "
"Sergeant Major, you will take Ron and Jason to intercept the front and rear of the road to prevent anyone from escaping."
Art took off the horn-stepping bow on his back, pulled out a few heavy diamond-headed arrows and inserted them into the ground in front of him.
On the south side of the avenue, the baggage convoy responsible for transporting a batch of military supplies and weapons to the northern border slowly moved forward under the leadership of a baggage officer. This was not the first time that he had transported military supplies from this avenue. Since the local garrison sent military supplies to the northern border half a year ago, After several large groups of bandits in the mountainous area were cleared, this road became much quieter. At the beginning, the baggage officials were still traveling cautiously, for fear of being robbed by bandits, but every time they passed by, they were in peace, and they relaxed after a while.
Just after turning around a prominent hilltop, a piece of dead wood appeared on the road. When the baggage officer was still wondering how the dead wood got to the middle of the road, a heavy arrow pierced his heart with a whistling sound.
"Enemy~enemy..." Before he could say a word, the baggage officer fell heavily from his horse to the ground with a thump. When everyone in the baggage team saw the leader falling off his horse, they realized that there was an enemy attack. They raised their long swords and short spears to defend the surroundings.
Yate had already rushed down from the dense forest with a dozen soldiers and surrounded the baggage convoy.
"Abandon weapons and not kill!!!" Atla filled his bowstring and shouted in Swabian with a southern accent to the several guards guarding the convoy.
A guard in leather armor said something urgently to the guards around him and the driver holding a short spear, then he held up his long sword and took the lead and started running towards Art. The bow string in Art's hand was loosened, and the leather armored guard received a heavy blow on the head. He fell to the ground and twitched a few times and stopped moving.
"Abandon weapons and not kill!!!" Art roared again.
The remaining two guards and four coachmen saw that two of their leaders had been shot and killed in an instant, and the opponent had a large number of people. There were still three riders not far away, so they had no choice but to slowly put down their weapons and kneel on the ground.
"Sergeant major! Take the people to guard the surroundings." Art said loudly to Angus who was swimming not far away.
"Odo, take them to the dense forest and tie them to a tree."
"Tuba, drag the carriage and the two corpses into the dense forest."
After speaking, Art stepped over the body of the leather armored guard, led the baggage officer's horse to a four-wheeled carriage, opened the large felt cloth covering the carriage, and put a lot of rye bread in a wicker basket in the carriage. Art opened another bag. Several carriages mostly contained military rations such as bacon, salted fish, and shelled barley. In addition, there were more than 20 neatly stacked leather bucklers, more than 30 pewter poles without spearheads, and more than 200 pounds of fine iron ingots for forging weapons.
…..
An hour later, a baggage convoy transporting military supplies slowly moved forward from north to south on the road in front of the mountain. The leading baggage officer was gnawing a piece of bacon on a dark red horse, and seven escort coachmen drove four carriages closely behind him.
Angus adjusted his leather armor, which was still stained with the blood of the enemy's baggage guard, and asked Art, who was riding a horse: "Master Art, is this possible?" "More. You must seize the gate in a while, and you can't let them close the door and defend it, otherwise we will have to storm the outpost." Half an hour later, Art and his party, disguised as just leaving the baggage train, appeared half a mile north of the outpost.
The guards at the outpost looked at the flag of the convoy and saw that it was clearly the baggage convoy that left the outpost in the morning.
"What are these bastards doing? Why are they coming back again?" The outpost commander looked at the approaching convoy and cursed.
“Did they turn back because there was danger ahead?” a soldier replied.
"It's not like that! You see they are not panicking at all, and they are walking slowly." The soldier said to himself.
The outpost commander kicked the soldier next to him and shouted: "You, go up and see what's wrong with them!"
The soldier who was kicked lifted his pants and slowly walked towards the convoy about a hundred paces away, cursing in his mouth.
· On the convoy side, everyone lowered their heads slightly, and their hands were already on the sword hilts at their waists and the short spears beside them.
Hate picked up the water bag with his left hand and pretended to drink water, covering his face. His right hand had already touched the hilt of the sword hanging on the saddle.
The convoy slowly approached the soldier who stepped forward to check. The soldier waved his hand to stop him:
"Hey! Why are you keeping your heads down~~"
"You, huh?"
The soldiers suddenly discovered that the returning baggage train had been replaced by a group of complete strangers.
"No! Close it quickly..." The soldier shouted instinctively, but Art's long sword slashed past and sealed the remaining words in his mouth forever.
"Damn it, there's an enemy attack!" The outpost commander saw the fallen soldiers not far away and said something bad, and quickly turned around and ran towards the outpost gate.
The moment the enemy soldiers discovered the identity of the convoy, Angus, holding a long-handled tomahawk, had already left the convoy and rushed towards the outpost first. While running, he spotted an enemy soldier running towards the gate of the outpost. The two were only about ten steps apart. Seeing that the enemy soldier was about to enter the outpost, and just as he was about to close the gate, Angus rushed forward while slowly raising the long-handled tomahawk above his head and then swung it hard. The long-handled tomahawk was swung with great force, drawing a high arc in the air, dragging its long tail and flying towards the slowly closing gate.
"Bump!" There was a muffled sound of a heavy hammer, and the long-handled battle ax was deeply embedded in the gate of the outpost, but the gate was still closed.
"MD! This bastard runs so fast." Angus couldn't help but cursed.
"Okay, let's attack quickly and capture this place before they raise the smoke."
“Odo, drive the carriage down the wall.” Art said and took off the buckler from the saddle, preparing to lead his men to climb over the wall on the carriage and attack.
"Lord Ater, I'll take the lead." Angus pulled out his battle ax, ran to the carriage, took off a round shield, and jumped onto the carriage.
"That's fine, you lead people to attack from this side, Odo leads people to climb over the wall from the other side, and I climb in from the front. The people inside have crossbows. Everyone obey my order and climb over together." After speaking, Art asked someone to lead a carriage and took Ron to jump on the carriage, making a climbing and jumping posture.
"Attack!" At the command, six people on the three carriages climbed up the wooden wall at the same time. Sure enough, a bow and arrow and a crossbow were shot from the outpost, but in the panic, six heads suddenly appeared on the wall. The two soldiers holding the bow and crossbow panicked for a moment. Only one light arrow hit someone at such a close distance, but the person who was hit was none other than Art.
When the sound of weapons clashing and swords piercing flesh came from the outpost, Art was lying on the carriage outside the wooden wall of the outpost. A light arrow with a flat head stuck deeply into his collarbone and pierced his left shoulder. A cold numbness was followed by a severe pain that could not be driven away. He tried to struggle, but the severe pain soon penetrated into his forehead and flooded his whole body. He felt that his limbs were weak and everything in front of him gradually darkened...
…
In a blur, Art was lying in a hot desert. The fierce sun was scorching the earth. Art's mouth was burning. His limbs were weak and his legs and feet were numb. He wanted to stand up and look for water to drink, but he couldn't use his hands and feet as if they didn't belong to him.
Just when Art was restless, a Steppenwolf slowly walked towards him. When he was questioning why the Steppenwolf appeared in the desert, the Steppenwolf was already drooling and walked up to Art, lowered his head and started biting his shoulder.
More and more severe pain was transmitted to the brain little by little...
"Ah~!!!"
Art screamed in pain, and the desert and the wolf in front of him suddenly disappeared, replaced by Angus holding a light arrow with a flat head in his hand, Ron who was cleaning the wound, and Odo and others surrounding the bed.
“Water, give me water.” Art’s weak voice sounded.
Ron quickly opened the water bag and brought it to Art's mouth. Art took a few big sips and choked on the water before he stopped.
"How's the war going?" Art wanted to get up, but the pain that tore his left shoulder caused Art to grin.
「大人，我们攻下了哨站，狼烟被我们及时扑灭了，但是敌兵顽抗，我们又有两个士兵受了轻伤，不过不影响战斗。下午我已经派人去将密林中的人接到这里。南北两边我都派了哨探，周边暂时没有敌情，一切安好。」奥多站过来答道。
"Okay!" After saying this, Art fell down and fell asleep again.