The days in late autumn begin to shorten, and the sky begins to darken as soon as the sun sets.
In the open space in the middle of a house in a market town between Bramont and Wallenberg, two or three task force soldiers in tight leather armor were sitting around a bonfire.
Oliver broke off half of the rye bread in his hand and threw it into the wooden plate of the old man next to him who was devouring it. Then he also put the hard bread into the wooden bowl, dipped it in the soup to soften it slightly, then stuffed it into his mouth and took a big bite.
The old man with tattered clothes and gray hair had a strong fighting spirit. Before Oliver had finished chewing half of one piece of bread, the old man had already stuffed the second piece (small piece, one-fifth of a pound) of rye bread into his mouth and chewed it hard.
"Old fellow, please eat slowly and don't choke to death. The bread tube is enough for you to eat slowly today. The adults will have to ask you questions later."
The old man ignored Oliver's words and stretched his withered hand to the third piece of bread baking by the campfire.
"Old man, you have to eat with the soup, otherwise your rotten teeth will break." Another soldier opened his mouth and looked at the old hunter who could eat better than himself, and advised kindly.
"Three years!" The old man quickly picked up the crumbs of bread that had just spat out and stuffed them back into his mouth.
“Three years? Didn’t you say you haven’t had enough to eat since the last time you fought against the Swabians?” Oliver asked. He had heard that the national war a few years ago had turned many border areas into red soil, but he did not expect that it would not recover for three years.
The old man stuffed the third piece of bread in his hand into his mouth and swallowed it. Then he shook off the crumbs scattered on the torn clothes and put them all into his mouth. He beat his chest and replied: "Over the years, first the lords stripped us of our skin - forced war tax, forced food, forced mules, horses and livestock, forced young men, and then the Swabians burned, killed, looted, robbed money, food, livestock, women, slaves... .. After finally driving away the Swabians, the lords came back. In order to rebuild their fortified castles and luxurious mansions, they began to impose land taxes, mules and horses, and forced labor... We have no young people to farm, and we have no livestock to cultivate the land. Even if we can barely grow a little food, it is not enough to pay the lords' higher taxes every year. "
The old man shook his head and waved his hands in misery.
Oliver was also from the poorest farmer, and he knew very well how cruel those lords who ate human flesh, drank human blood, and squeezed human bones were. He felt a little sympathy for the poor thin old man, so he took another piece of toasted rye bread from the campfire and handed it to the old man.
"No, no, I can't eat anymore." The old man refused and reached out to take the large piece of rye bread.
"Sir, look, I can't eat anymore. Can I take this piece of bread back home and give it to my grandson to try? The lord's mill is too expensive, and we haven't made bread for a long time~" The old man's tone was almost begging.
"No, no, no, this is all military rations and cannot be carried privately." The contingent's military rations are given priority, but they cannot eat and take them together.
The old man glanced at the piece of black bread in his hand reluctantly, touched his almost round belly, and said to Oliver with a smile: "Then let me take a small mouthful of soup, and I can eat another one."
"Captain Oliver. The adults have finished the military meeting and have called you in to report the military situation."
A guard poked his head out from the gate of the mansion and loudly called to Oliver and the others in the courtyard.
"Okay Brother Matthew, we'll come in immediately." Oliver quickly stood up and replied.
Seeing that the old man still wanted to forcefully eat the piece of bread, Oliver snatched the bread from the old man's hand, and then stuffed it into the old man's thin and ragged clothes, "Take it back to your grandson to eat, and don't let anyone see it. I will tell you everything I know when I go to your lords later."
The old man quietly touched the piece of bread in his arms, nodded repeatedly, and hurriedly followed Oliver and others into the mansion.
…..
The border garrison's military camp was stationed in the town tax collector's house. The tax collector must have packed up his family property and fled to a safe place in the hinterland of Yona before the war started, so this became the headquarters of the Chinese army's command camp.
Even though all the candles on the walls had been lit, the room was still very dark.
The commander-in-chief of the Border Guard Corps, Art, had already put on a full set of armor with the help of his personal bodyguards. Seeing Oliver and others entering the door, Art stepped forward and said a few words, "Oliver, the Swabians who attacked Wallonborg separated a group. An army of three hundred people is attacking us. I must personally lead my troops to stop it. The battle to annihilate that small enemy army will be commanded by your Lord Odo. You should report the military information to him and assist Lord Odo to completely annihilate those bastards!"
Oliver stood at attention, "Yes! Sir!"
Att patted Oliver's shoulder, glanced at several task force soldiers with encouraging eyes, and then walked out of the room with four personal guards.
"Ron, are the cavalry and infantry ready..."
At's figure disappeared into the night.
Oliver returned his gaze and saluted Odo, the commander of the 2nd Infantry Regiment who was standing in the room. "Lord Odo, the task force tracking team is reporting back to you. We have found traces of the Swabian bastards."
Odoli He immediately raised his spirits and asked, "Where is it?"
Five miles to the west of the border garrison station, east to west to the hidden settlement in the dense forest hills on the side of the King's Road.
This place is less than two miles away from the King's Road, where people and horse-drawn carriages are constantly coming and going. However, due to the hard stone walls on both sides of the access road to and from the hills, it is difficult to expand the road. Therefore, this place has not become a prosperous village beside the road. On the contrary, this settlement, which is only seven or eight hills away from the main road, is very isolated. At its most prosperous time, there were less than twenty farmers in the settlement.
However, this settlement should be the most desolate at this time. The original settlement of fifty or sixty villagers only has five or six living people, and they are just tools left by the Swabians to vent their animal desires.
The settlement has been looted and slaughtered, and no one can breathe except for the few poor peasant women. However, in order to prevent outsiders from discovering the thick smoke, the Swabians did not set fire to it, so the low and dilapidated houses of the settlement survived.
The scattered aftermath of the settlement were surrounded by soldiers wearing armor and carrying swords and axes. Under the beating bonfire, they could barely be recognized as having Swabian noses and eyes, wearing clothes and armor belonging to the Swabian army, and carrying Swabian weapons.
Based on a rough estimate from the campfires and patrol posts visible to the naked eye, the number of people in the settlement exceeds sixty, and they should be the small Swabian army buried in the soil that attacked the border guard regiment...
The reason why there are only sixty or seventy Swabian soldiers in the settlement is because the remaining thirty or forty people were sent to set up open posts and hidden sentries in all directions of the settlement. Once an enemy army invades, they will immediately break up into pieces and flee into the mountains.
It may not be that simple to completely annihilate these cunning foxes.
In the dense forest overgrown with weeds on the hills to the southeast of the settlement, two black figures covered in turf looked up at the glowing red bonfire at the foot of the hill, motionless.
They are the task force soldiers who stayed to monitor the Swabian enemy forces in the settlement. The two of them have been lying here for half the night.
The late autumn night was very cold, but luckily they were covered with a layer of turf to protect themselves, otherwise the two of them would not be able to bear the increasingly damp and cold air.
A soldier put the special bread in his hand and knocked off a small piece with his teeth. He rolled it into his mouth with his tongue and chewed it gently. He said to his companions who were staring at the enemy soldiers down the mountain: "These bastards at the bottom of the mountain are too well defended. They attack every once in a while. A group of sentries will be replaced. There are only five sentries we can see. I just discovered a hidden sentry on the outside. They must still be lurking on patrol outside the mountain. Our army can't even see them and flee. I'm afraid it won't be easy for the Chinese army to annihilate these bastards in one fell swoop~"
….
The Central Army Command Camp was located in the market town where the Border Guard Corps was stationed. All the flag captains and above of the 2nd Infantry Regiment were called here by Odo to discuss the battle plan against the small Swabian army.
…The place where the enemy army is hiding is in the hilly area on the edge of the mountainous area. Going out of the mountain to the north is the King's Road, and going south into the mountain is the continuous peak mountain range. It is conceivable that these cunning foxes must have set up surveillance on me outside. They will flee into the mountains before our army can get close... Therefore, I think the plan of directly leading hundreds of infantry to attack the enemy as mentioned by Chief Bangada is not feasible." Oliver rejected the simple plan of several flag captains of the 2nd Infantry Regiment.
"Colin, you are also the adjutant of the 2nd Infantry Regiment, tell me what you think." Odo ordered General. Colin was the most senior officer, with rich combat experience and a flexible mind. So after Odo was promoted to the commander of the 2nd Infantry Regiment, he repeatedly begged Art to transfer Colin to serve as the first flag captain and adjutant.
Colin did not participate in the suggestions and suggestions of the flag captains just now. He had been chatting in a low voice with the old hunter temporarily hired by the task force, and occasionally glanced at the topographic map on the wall.
"Lord Odo, do you still remember when we were hired by Lord Balian to escort the army supplies to the Chalk Castle in Provence and attack a manor outpost in the north of Kalk?"
Odo recalled it carefully and thought about it, "I remember that at that time, your lord was still the first patrol officer, and Lord Balian was still just a baron."
“You mean we try to lure the enemy out of the cave and then ambush him?” Odo instantly guessed Colin’s intention.
「对，后来我们在萨普剿匪的时候也用过，既然追不上打不进，那就让敌人自己跑出来，然后我们再......」
............
有些诡计百试百灵而且越用越精。 This strategy has been used many times to lure the enemy out of the hole, but the effect is still as good as before.
However, the waiter who acted as bait began to curse again in his heart at this moment.
Eight miles to the west of the legion's station, a convoy loaded with goods and supplies was running away desperately. Perhaps the cargo on the carriage was too heavy or there were occasional ditches on the plains that made it difficult for the convoy to move smoothly. The convoy was not running very fast. Eight carriages covered with thick felt cloths made deep tracks in the turf - I don't know whether it was expensive or not, but it was certainly heavy enough. It was either food or weapons.
Fifteen or six baggage guards armed with short spears beside the eight carriages hurriedly chased the convoy while nervously looking back at the seventy or eighty pursuers behind them, with their teeth and claws snarling. Some of the guards with crossbows in their hands would stop from time to time, draw out light arrows, shoot a round behind them, and then run away.
Spencer, the baggage officer of Jonah Border Guard Corps, was sitting on a carriage at the rear. He glanced back at the pursuers who were getting farther and farther behind him, and shouted loudly to the carriages in front of him: "You were really running for your lives at that time. Why are you running so fast? Slow down! Slow down!" ”
After saying that, he ordered to the transport captain who was driving: “Quickly, the bastards behind are going to stop. Throw the grain off the cart and let them see what’s in our cart. If we don’t throw some wild shit, the dogs behind us will go crazy.”
After a while, more than a dozen bags of military rations and wheat were scattered on the rutted line where the convoy was running... More than two hundred steps behind the convoy, seventy-five armored and armed Swabians, led by a mounted officer, ran along the winding rutted line for two or three miles.
After two or three days of dormancy, this group of Swabian troops who had gone behind enemy lines to harass began to come out to bite people again. This time they attacked the baggage line of the Burgundian army. The eyeliner said that this baggage convoy carried a large amount of armaments and military supplies to the war zone. After a slight hesitation, the Swabian commander who led the team ordered a small number of soldiers to stay and then pursued with a large number of troops.
The Swabians were not unprepared for their opponents' tricks. Based on what they knew about the enemy before the war, they knew that this army called the Welsh Army (more famous) was the expansion of the small team that defeated the local army in the Tebrunn theater.
Knowing that the opponent was not a good person, the Swabians were very cautious in their pursuit. They did not use the limited seven or eight cavalry in the pursuit. Instead, they dispersed them on the two wings and rear of the team to guard against possible enemies. It is always right to be careful when dealing with wild wolves.
"Captain, sir, sir, they started to throw away things, grains, shelled wheat, and even military rations, which means there are more valuable things on the convoy. Should we still give chase?" A Swabian soldier was so tired that he almost vomited blood. The baggage convoy was so good at escaping.
"Those weaklings only know how to run away so that we can't catch up with them. Forget it, let's not chase them. We are too far away from the mountain tree line and can easily be blocked by others on our way back." The Swabian commander's mind was still clear. He saw that the team was already too far behind and the baggage team in front didn't seem to be slowing down much, so he planned to withdraw his troops and return to the nest, thinking that he had spent half the afternoon running in vain.
Just when the commander was about to give the order to stop and turn back, the wheel of a carriage in the baggage convoy more than 300 steps ahead might have been damaged by a stone or a pothole. The running carriage suddenly overturned on its side and the supplies in the felt were scattered all over the ground.
Several escorts running beside the overturned carriage panicked and ran around the broken carriage, holding the brand-new weapons and armor on the ground in their arms and continuing to run forward. Although two or three hundred steps away, the Swabians could still see that there were still many weapons on the ground that they had not had time to pick up.
"It's really loaded with weapons and armor. If these weapons and equipment are sent to the war zone, our brothers will have to suffer a lot." The Swabian soldier, who had regained his breath, set up a tent with his right hand and looked at the broken carriage in front of him.
"Let's not retreat now, let's go and see what good things are on that carriage."
The Swabian commander gave an order, and seventy soldiers began to chase again...
"Sir Colin, are the enemies not coming? Why is there no trace at all?" The captain of the third flag of the second regiment, who was lying next to Colin, raised his head slightly and glanced into the distance, but saw no trace of the baggage train or the pursuers.
Colin pressed down the flag captain's raised head, "Hide it! Expose the position and deal with it according to military law."
"Silence and wait!"
Colin simply put his hand under his head as a pillow after saying that, and narrowed his eyes.
Just after he closed his eyes, a rapid bird song sounded. Colin quickly opened his eyes and took out a wooden whistle from under his body. He imitated the bird song and blew it three times. Then, more than a dozen of the same bird song sounded in the short grass where Colin was.
"Coming, coming! The enemy has taken the bait!" The boredom on Colin's face immediately changed to excitement. He put his hand on the hilt of his sword, waiting for the horn of charge.
About half a mile in front of the short grass on the flank of the river where the Second Infantry Regiment was hiding, the Swabians had narrowed the pursuit distance to less than a hundred steps.
The Swabian commander knew from the captured local farmer that there was a river ahead, so he cleverly ordered his soldiers to be divided into three teams on the left, center and right to force the fleeing baggage convoy in the direction of the river. Once they were forced to the river, those people had no chance of escaping. Not to mention that the carriage could not cross the river, all the baggage guards had to be pushed against the river bank to be slaughtered. The baggage convoy was also stunned by the pursuit, and actually ran towards the river obediently.
Victory is at hand, and the chasing Swabians have already seen the roasted suckling pig waiting for them to bite.
By the time the baggage convoy found itself cornered, they were already halfway up the river, surrounded by water on three sides, and it was no longer possible to break out from both sides.
"No!!! Why didn't they panic? They shouldn't be so calm when they were forced into a dead end! And isn't it too easy?" The Swabian commander looked at the convoy stopped at the end of the Heyuan Peninsula and felt a drum in his heart.
"Are there no pursuers behind you?" The Swabian commander sat on his horse and glanced behind him.
"Commander, Sir, there is no cavalry, there is no enemy warning," the sweaty soldier beside the commander replied intermittently.
"There are a lot of grasses on both sides. You and I, you two each bring a few soldiers to take a look and don't let anyone ambush you." The commander on horseback felt that the grass on both sides was too lush and was afraid of an ambush.
The two extremely tired soldiers were not willing to go that far to scout, so they took a lazy walk and prepared to pick people to go to the two wings to handle errands.
At this moment, the consignment team at the end of the Heyuan Peninsula actually flew a white flag. The meaning was obvious. Since they couldn't fight or escape, they had no choice but to surrender.
The Swabian commander chuckled lightly, and shouted to the two soldiers who turned around and stopped to watch: "What are you looking at? You continue to scout out on both sides. I will take a few people over to have a look~" After saying that, the commander casually ordered a few soldiers and kicked his horse towards Qianheyuan Peninsula.
“Man, are you still going to scout?” one soldier asked another soldier.
"Do you want to go?"
"Who the hell wants to go? How tired are you!"
"Then forget it, the other side has surrendered anyway."
< br/> "Forget it?"
"Forget it~ When the adults ask later, just say that you have been there, save some energy, and you have to run faster when you grab things. I think there must be good things in that carriage."
A soldier looked at the commander who was walking towards the white-flag convoy, and then looked at his companions who were watching him eagerly, and quietly said to the man next to him: "How about we follow up, so as not to be robbed by these greedy wolves~"
Another soldier nodded, turned around and said to the few close associates around him: "You guys come up with me to protect the Lord. The others will just wait there, waiting for the Master's military orders!"
Hand, he led five or six close associates towards Heyuan.
Everyone is not a good person, and the commander just did not order everyone to wait where they are, and everyone knows the little thoughts of these guys, and no one wants to be left behind in the final sharing of the spoils, so a few more lively Swabian soldiers followed, then a dozen, more than 20...
The gold and silver were in front, and everyone was unwilling to be left behind.
Just after all the Swabian soldiers quietly entered the entrance of Heyuan Peninsula, a low horn sound sounded...