The cold October wind blows across the endless plains of the Po River plain in Lombardy.
In the howling cold wind, a Lombard baggage team marched cautiously in the wilderness.
Seeing that the tail of the baggage train had left the gentle hill, everyone finally felt relieved with their throats raised. The red-haired baron at the head of the group stepped on the stirrups and looked around a few times. The wildness in front of him was clearly visible, and it was impossible to hide the ambush.
"Mountain people are mountain people, and they won't dare to come out if their opponents are stronger." The fat knight next to the red-haired baron pulled off the mail hood on his head, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, and chuckled contemptuously.
In fact, he was very scared just now. Before this baggage transport, three teams of baggage soldiers had been wiped out. Just now, the sentry scouts identified a lot of horse hoof prints among the gentle hills. He was so scared that he dug his toes tightly. They sent several waves of soldiers to search the gentle hills for half a mile, and it took more than half an hour to get out.
The red-haired Baron also breathed a long sigh of relief. He has always been cautious. Some time ago, the baggage was attacked one after another, and the superiors had no choice but to send him to escort it personally. This time, no problem can occur. If this batch of baggage does not arrive at the battlefield ahead, the Lombard army mixed with mercenaries will definitely mutiny.
The red-haired baron raised his hand and pointed forward, "There is a wooden bridge not far ahead. I'm worried that the enemy will set up an ambush there, go and have a look."
The fat knight immediately ordered a few cavalry behind him to investigate.
“Take the people there yourself.” The red-haired baron was worried that his soldiers would be lazy, so he ordered the knight to check it out in person.
The fat knight felt that the red-haired baron was making a fuss, but he did not dare to disobey, so he reluctantly led the three cavalrymen and ran...
.........
The Po River Plain in Lombardy In the boundless wilderness, a wooden bridge across the river stood quietly between the two banks. The bridge made of giant oak trunks still looked so strong and reliable after decades of wind and rain. There was a pier in the middle of the bridge, which was also made of wood, but it was probably replaced in recent years and was newer than the main body of the bridge.
There is a simpler wooden bridge about twelve miles upstream of the wooden bridge here, but it is not load-bearing enough and four-wheeled carriages loaded with ordnance and food cannot pass. There is also a ford four miles downstream where people and horses can wade across the river, but the baggage carriages cannot pass either.
So within dozens of miles upstream and downstream, this wooden bridge is the only passage for baggage.
Under the base of the bridge head at the southern end of the wooden bridge, the bridge deck forms an angle with the gentle slope of the river bank. In the angle there is a patch of grass half as high as a person, which is not much different from the surrounding shrubs and weeds.
The weeds are all covered with turf. If you climb down and look carefully, you can vaguely see some fresh soil and incompletely covered footprints.
The faint sound of horse hooves came from the south, running towards the wooden bridge at an extremely fast speed.
After a while, the iron hooves of the war horses stepped on the wooden bridge deck, making a clicking sound.
In the deepest part of the grass at the base of the bridge, under the plank covered by the grass, the thin cavalry squatted in the pit and held the fire sickle in his hand, trembling slightly. He curled up and pressed his right eye to the side, trying to see the outside situation clearly through the thumb-sized hole in the plank. The feeling of being buried in the pit was really uncomfortable.
Hand moved his head in several positions, but he could barely catch a glimpse of the bridge planks through the grass, and there was no way to peek at what was going on outside.
He nervously prayed in his heart that the cavalry on the bridge would pass quickly and not come down to check.
On the bridge, the tension in the heart of the fat knight on horseback was relieved again. He and his three cavalrymen lined up five hundred steps apart from the horseback riding. They searched the entire plain between the gentle hill and the bridge and found some scattered horse hoof prints, but they all extended to the gentle hill behind through the road. Even the enemy troops had fled at this moment.
"You two cross the bridge and scout three miles to the north. If there is no enemy, wait for the rear team." The fat knight is relatively fat, and his stomach is a little uncomfortable riding on the bumpy horseback, so he is unwilling to continue forward.
The two pointed cavalrymen ran across the wooden bridge towards the north with their horses under their belly.
The remaining cavalrymen were the fat knight's retinues, thinking they could rest for a while and hide away.
But the fat knight raised his hand and pointed, "Don't be idle, go to the bridge and take a closer look. Those Burgundian bastards are full of schemes and tricks, but don't let them cut down the bridge deck. It will collapse when the brigade passed by."
Speaking of which, the fat knight also jumped off the horse, and the waist of the strong war horse instantly became flat.
Handing the reins casually to the railings of the wooden bridge, the fat knight lifted up the hem of his chainmail skirt, picked up the waistband of his breeches, and walked down the gentle slope beside the bridge to the bridge base.
October, the shrubs and grass began to turn yellow. The fat knight pulled out his sword from his waist and glanced at the grass at the base of the bridge vigilantly. There was no enemy in ambush.
"I'm stunned, who can hide in such a big butt." The fat knight laughed at himself, dragged the sword to the ground, and rowed it towards the river.
Approaching the river, the fat knight stopped, inserted his long sword into the soft mud of the river bank beside him, lifted up his skirt, put his right hand into his crotch and took out the small gadget. While peeing, he looked at the wooden bridge and piers, carefully searching for signs of damage.
His eyes just caught a glimpse of a foreign object in the middle of the bridge where it connects to the bridge piers in the river. Suddenly, he heard the sound of thin water shoes coming from his feet. He quickly looked down and couldn't help cursing, "What a waste, I just grabbed new shoes."
Hand said, his whole body trembled, his right hand shook while holding the thing, and he lifted up his breeches with satisfaction.
With such an interruption, the foreign object that flashed in the corner of his eye just now has long been forgotten.
He looked around casually again. There was definitely no place near the wooden bridge where he could ambush and measure the enemy. Then he turned around and returned to the bridge with confidence.
The cavalryman who was responsible for checking the bridge had just rode his horse back and forth on the wooden bridge several times and made sure that there was no danger here.
"Sir, there is nothing abnormal on the bridge." The cavalryman galloped to the side of the fat knight.
The fat knight had already taken off a wine bag from the front saddle of his horse, pulled out the cork and raised it to his mouth to take a sip of beer. He was tired from going uphill and downhill and was covered in sweat. Now he took a sip of beer and felt extremely comfortable.
"I heard that this stuff was brewed by the Burgundians, a group of barbaric mountain people who know how to make wine."
The fat knight's face was filled with contentment. When he opened his eyes, he found that his trusted rider was staring at the wine bag along the saliva, raising his voice and cursing, "You bastard, why are you still hanging around? Go to the rear and tell the baron that this place is safe."
< br/> "Then Sir~"
"What am I? I am not allowed to guard the bridge for the army here. What if the enemy ambush comes again?" The fat knight found himself a grand reason to be lazy.
"There's no ambush~" The cavalry muttered and rode back...
After a while, a baggage team of several hundred people marched along the carriageway in the direction of the wooden bridge.
Although the cavalryman who turned back to report the sentry situation repeatedly assured that there was no danger along the way, the red-haired Baron was still extremely cautious and resolutely sent a group of sentries to the front of the team and a distance of 500 steps to the left and right flanks to guard.
To be extra safe, he also left two cavalry on the top of the gentle hill he passed just now to observe the entire wilderness from a high position.
The red-haired Baron even arranged the carriages of the baggage team to march roughly in two rows. Once there was an enemy situation, he could immediately turn the baggage carriages into a phalanx of carriages, relying on the carriage formation to resist enemy troops appearing from any direction.
The price of being too cautious is that the baggage team moves extremely slowly.
The Lombard baggage team had already approached the wooden bridge. A team that had disappeared for a short while reappeared on the gentle hillside south of the wooden bridge. The bodies of two Lombard cavalrymen whose necks had been wiped by a sneak attack had just been stripped naked and thrown down the mountain.
It was still the same hillside that was no more than a hundred feet tall, and under the same few low miscellaneous trees, Angus stood up in his stirrups, built an arbor with his hands, and watched the procession of turtles.
The sky was clear today and the vision was good. Angus could faintly see the heraldic flag flying by the team.
The team in the direction of Fuqiao seemed to be about to get on the bridge. Angus raised the reins with one hand, and the horse under him turned around and faced the east direction.
As far as the eye can see, a cavalry team of 100 people is galloping on horseback. This cavalry is personally led by Jafar, the deputy commander of the Cavalry Company of the Welsh Army. The 100 cavalrymen are all one man and two horses, coming from five miles away. According to the plan, they will stop two miles away from the wooden bridge and wait for the two explosions.
"Lusignan, take out the bomb and prepare it." Angus's eyes turned back to the wooden bridge to the north, which was the key to the next step.
Lusignan didn’t say much. He jumped off his horse and called the soldiers behind him to take out three fist-sized “bombs” wrapped in papyrus from the saddlebags. They were clearly shaped like oversized firecrackers.
After taking out the "bomb", Lusignan carefully checked the fuse and fire sickle, and then returned to Angus to watch the wooden bridge to the north.
…..
At the south end of the wooden bridge, the red-haired baron and the fat knight were directing the baggage team to get on the bridge and cross the river.
The Fat Knight originally wanted to rush the entire baggage train onto the bridge, but the cautious red-haired Baron always felt that something was wrong. He once again sent people to search the north, south and one mile surrounding the bridge, and only ordered to cross the river after making sure that there was absolutely no ambush.
The red-haired baron did not follow the fat knight's suggestion and directly drove the entire team onto the wooden bridge. Instead, he divided the entire team into three parts. The first part, most of the cavalry and a small part of the infantry, went up the bridge and crossed the river first, setting up a fan-shaped defense on the other side. The second part of the formation consisted of baggage carriages, packhorses, green mules, and laborers. They started to cross the bridge after the cavalry had set up their positions. The third part, a small number of cavalry and most of the infantry, set up a defensive formation on the south side of the bridge, waiting for all the baggage to cross the river before getting on the bridge and crossing the river.
Such an arrangement can be said to be basically flawless if placed in front of other ordinary enemy forces, but unfortunately their opponents are not ordinary enemy forces.
The Lombard baggage team began to climb the bridge and cross the river.
Thirty infantrymen followed most of the cavalry to the other side smoothly and built an arc-shaped defense line without any abnormalities.
The red-haired Baron led the baggage carriage and livestock onto the wooden bridge first. Until the red-haired Baron's war horse stepped onto the solid land on the other side, everything was still normal.
辎重马车牲口过了三分之一，过了一半，过了三分之二......
木桥下的坑洞里，瘦个子骑兵手抖得越来越厉害，攥在手中的引线已经快被他手心的汗水浸透。
The enemy's team was marching overhead, and the officers' curses and the neighing of horses and livestock were mixed together. Every time the animals stepped on the bridge and made a clicking sound, the skinny man huddled in the pit would feel his heart skip a beat.
His eardrums were filled with the noise of enemy troops and horses.
"Did thunder sound already sound? Did I miss it... Will the enemy find me..." The thin man kept thinking wildly in his mind. The more this happened, the more panicked he became, and layers of sweat broke out on his palms.
Just when he was about to collapse, there was a sudden muffled sound in his eardrums.
The Grenadier Company of the Wells Corps is located in the Wild Wolf Valley, not too far from the cavalry company's station. Before the southern expedition, in order to adapt the war horses to the explosion of bombs thrown by the grenadiers, they had specially received adaptation training with their war horses, so they were very familiar with the sound of such thunder.
The first thunder exploded, and the thin man thought it was an illusion. He swallowed hard to calm himself down.
"Boom! Boom~rum~rum~~~" The muffled sound of thunder once again reached the thin man's eardrums.
He was sure that it was an order to light a fire, and murmured "promoted to squad leader, promoted to squad leader", trembling slightly, he pulled out the cork from the wooden tube fire breaker he had prepared, put it to his mouth and blew out scarlet sparks, and hurriedly fumbled for the fuse in his hand.
After touching it several times, the fuse in his hand was not ignited, and the thin man became a little panicked.
Him He quickly pinched off a section of the lead with his fingers, blew up the fire again and moved it closer.
Still not ignited.
This time the thin man was really panicked. He was just about to lift the huozhezi and blow on it again, when a drop of sweat from the tip of his brow fell on the huozhezi, extinguishing the slight scarlet color.
"Fire sickle, I still have a fire sickle." The thin man huddled in the pit was completely panicked. He took out a fire sickle from the bag at his waist and struck it against the flint and tinder, but no sparks came out...
A moment ago, on the south side of the wooden bridge, a fat knight on horseback was taking a big drink from the wine bag. The red-haired baron forced him to stay in the rear and command the final infantry to prevent the enemy from sneak attack from behind.
There is not even a hare to be seen for miles around, how can there be enemy troops? Even if there are enemy troops, they can be seen in all directions and can be seen from a mile or two away. Even if there are enemy troops coming, just cross the bridge quickly. It has to be so complicated.
Although he was unconvinced, the fat knight still did not dare to disobey the military order, so he had to lead a dozen cavalry and a large group of infantry to guard the south bridge.
Suddenly, there was a thunderous explosion over the gentle hill in the south.
The fat knight was startled by the loud noise and looked up at the sky. Where did the thunder come from in this clear sky? He was a little surprised when there was another muffled sound of thunder.
The fat knight felt something was wrong.
His instinct was to stay away from the gentle hill over there. He shouted loudly to the soldiers at the south bridge head not to panic, but he had already jumped on his horse and climbed onto the wooden bridge.
At this time, less than two-thirds of the baggage team had passed, and the carriages and animals on the wooden bridge were very crowded.
The fat knight kicked the horse's belly hard, and the horse squeezed a path on the crowded wooden bridge.
Just as the fat knight was crowding to the middle of the wooden bridge, a stream of white smoke floated under the bridge. The fat knight curiously went up to smell it, which made him cough violently.
The fat knight's pupils suddenly dilated. He opened his mouth in horror and paused for a long time before exclaiming, "Poisonous smoke! Poisonous smoke! Poisonous smoke!"
Just as the fat knight's voice spread, the wooden bridge suddenly shook violently and exploded with an earth-shattering explosion.
Then followed by the second, third, fourth and fifth tones.
The wooden bridge shattered, sawdust flew everywhere, men and horses neighed, and blood and flesh splattered...