Eight miles southwest of the market town where the Border Guard Corps is stationed, the remnants of the mountain peaks extend to the low gentle hills of the plain farmland. Six figures bend down and carefully identify themselves on the path leading to the mountains.
This group of people's clothing, armor and weapons are different from ordinary soldiers or guards. They are wearing tight-fitting black leather armor covered with half-mail, a black half-helmet on their heads, and cowhide boots on their feet. They have broad swords made of fine iron hanging on their waists. There is also a short knife tied to the heel of their legs. They can use the bow on their backs. Everyone has a walking bow, and those who don’t know how to use a bow also have a crossbow. In addition to swords and crossbows, these people also have a special bag on their back. The bag contains food, water, hook ropes, and one or two sets of camouflage casual clothes, whether they are merchants’ Chinese clothes, farmers’ short brown clothes, or refugee’s rags, all of them are accustomed to their respective roles.
They are the task force soldiers directly affiliated with the command camp of the Central Army of the Border Guard Corps. Yesterday, they received military orders to track down the small group of Swabian enemy soldiers who were ambushing and attacking. In addition to the soldiers of the task force, there was also a hired local old hunter to lead the way for the task force.
This task force tracking the enemy was personally led by Deputy Captain Oliver. It started from the fallow farmland where the army was ambushed. From the afternoon of the day before yesterday to now, the tracking team has been sniffing out traces of the enemy for a whole day and two nights, plus this morning.
That small group of Swabian troops was cunning enough. After they successfully attacked, they fled toward the southwest, and then dispersed into five or six teams and ran in all directions. They would definitely gather somewhere to prepare for the next attack, but they went around too many places, and there were mostly plains with lush vegetation. As long as the enemy walked on turf that was not easy to leave traces, it would be difficult for the task force to track their final traces.
Early this morning, two soldiers in charge of the southwest direction of the tracking team discovered the trampled traces of the large group of people and horses, and immediately reported to Dawson to assemble.
So Oliver gathered his soldiers to explore.
There are indeed traces of a large number of soldiers passing by here. The footprints on the soft path are very confusing. At a glance, there are indeed hundreds of people. The footprints are also pointing to the peak mountains in the south.
A soldier stood up, pointed in the direction of the footprints and said: "Vice-captain, the enemy must have fled into the mountainous area after the attack. It is difficult for us to march on a large scale into the mountainous area, so it will be difficult for us to clear them out."
This view is in line with normal people's thinking. When facing enemy soldiers that far exceed one's own, escaping into mountainous areas with complex terrain is indeed a good way.
Oliver didn't say anything after hearing this. He was a woodcutter. Although he was not as good at tracking prey as the hunters in the mountains, he would occasionally set traps to catch some wild animals as he traveled through dense forest hills all year round, so he was no stranger to tracking footprints.
Oliver always felt strange when staring at the footprints on the ground. The footprints were scattered all over the ground in a messy manner, but he always felt that there was a vague pattern among the messy footprints.
He half-knelt on the ground, pulled a weed straw from beside him, and placed the straw among several sets of footprints to compare. "There is something abnormal about these sets of footprints." Oliver made a conclusion.
"Vice Captain, is there nothing unusual about this?" A soldier simply lay down on the ground and got closer to examine it carefully.
Oliver put the straw into the groove of the foot of a footprint, and gently carved the scale on the straw with his fingernails. Then he moved the straw to the heel of the footprint, and carved the scale again with his fingernails.
"According to the statements of the attacked soldiers, the Swabians all wear cowhide combat boots. Normally, when walking fast, the soles of the feet are strong. The dents left in the soil should be deep in the front and shallow in the back, and there should be scratches on the soles of the feet. But this footprint is the opposite. It is deep in the back, shallow in the front, and has no scratches. I just saw it, and many of these footprints are like this." Oliver showed the two notches on the grass pole to the soldiers beside him.
Oliver stood up, "And please identify them carefully. Although these footprints are very messy, many of them are similar in size and shape. I don't believe that the boots of these bastards are all the same size and shape."
The soldiers looked around after hearing this, and sure enough, there were many repeated footprints.
A soldier wiped off the dirt on his hand, "No wonder, I said why these footprints look weird but I can't tell what's different there."
Oliver suddenly woke up, "I remember that Lord Odo told us a battle case when we were at the officer academy, saying that it was the formation of the patrol team. At first, they were chased by a group of tough bandits all afternoon, and finally escaped by making fake footprints. "They must have sent a small group of people to walk backwards and forwards on this dirt path that is easy to leave footprints, trying to draw our attention to the mountains to the south!" Oliver guessed the Swabian conspiracy.
“These bastards are so cunning! If I catch them, I will open their skulls, dig out their brains, and feed them to the dogs!” The soldier who first discovered this trail cursed fiercely. After running for a long time, it was just a trap.
"Forget it, it's all in vain." The soldier became discouraged after cursing.
Oliver did not continue, he carefully recalled Lord Odo's speech in that officer training class.
Suddenly his head lit up, "Don't worry! There is still a chance. The number of these bastards trapped will not be too small. After the arrangement is completed, they will definitely join the main group. If we can catch the tail of this group of bastards, we may also be able to find the hiding place of the enemy's main group."
“Since they want to confuse us, they will definitely cover up the traces of their final retreat...” Oliver put the straw in his hand between his teeth to pick at the tartar, his eyes kept rolling.
"You all think about it, think about where the enemy will go when they retreat? If you can think of it, I will give him my share of bacon to eat at night!"
Several soldiers around Oliver were picking at their scalps and thinking hard.
The honest old hunter hesitated and touched behind Oliver, "Sir, sir, if I can guess correctly, can you reward me with the bacon tonight?"
Oliver turned around and glanced at the hunter who was dressed in tatters and carrying a single bow. There were many rivers and mountains nearby, and there were not many hunters. The younger ones were all recruited into the army as archers. Oliver searched all over and only found this old guy, and this old guy didn't seem to be good at tracking. Oliver even suspected that he was pretending to be a man after receiving the commission of three pfennigs a day.
Oliver glanced at the lame old hunter, "If you can really catch the enemy's tail, I will not only give you a piece of bacon but also a bag of beer."
The old hunter had a smile on his face.
"If I run away, you won't even get a single copper coin from the commission for these two days, you useless old guy." Oliver squeezed out a sentence between his teeth. The Chinese army only gave the task force two days. If he couldn't go back with useful information at night, he might not be able to hand over the order, so he didn't want this old guy to waste his time.
The old hunter's face suddenly fell and he did not dare to speak any more.
"That's right, you old guy!" Oliver urged impatiently.
The old hunter hesitated for a long time, "Sir, I'm just telling you the place. You decide whether to go or not. If there is no one, don't deduct my commission, okay?"
"Say it quickly!!"
"I couldn't guess that the Savoyards would evacuate from that place. I didn't find any footprints leading to other places along the way. There are more than a dozen forks on this road, so I couldn't guess where they ran from."
Oliver was going crazy with worry, "Can you stop talking nonsense?"
< br/> "Yes, sir, half a mile back from here there is an access road leading to the hills to the east. There is a place nearby that can hide people and make it easy for them to come out and bite people at any time."
Oliver put all his attention on tracking the enemy's footprints, but forgot to think about where the enemy would nest.
「杂种，一群人脑袋进水了，所有人收拾一下我们立刻去搜索......」
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