Chapter 721 Good news comes frequently
The business road winds through the frost-stained wilderness. The dead branches of the bushes are wrapped in half an inch of ice armor, and the ice edges as thick as a thumb hang upside down like crossbow bolts.
Hans was lying in the pit behind the thorn bushes. The snow water seeping into the gaps in his mail condensed into thin pieces of ice, making a small "clicking" sound as his chest rose and fell.
The sound of bursts of ice exploding could be heard from time to time from the frozen river that passed through the commercial road. Every time this happened, it would always cause the soldiers who were ambushing in the bushes to feel a palpitation of their hearts.
Four hemp ropes soaked in butter ran parallel to the river and traversed the commercial road. They were covered with a mixture of gravel and soil. A layer of frost had already formed on the surface, perfectly covering these traps. Only the end of the rope in the front row was slightly raised - that was the flaw accidentally touched by recruit Andrew's trembling fingers.
“Hold your breath!” Hans tapped the bushes with the hilt of his sword, and ice shards fell on Andrew’s iron helmet.
This twenty-year-old young man's eyelashes are covered with ice crystals, and his fingers wrapped in iron gloves are nervously digging into the frozen soil.
At this time, the sound of squeezing ice and soil came from behind the bushes. The scouts were snaking close to the ground, their leather armor scraping white marks like spider webs on the frozen soil. "Fifty cavalry, more than two hundred infantry, half a mile ahead!" The veteran's left ear was missing half a piece, and the gap was covered with purple-black frostbite.
The mist was crushed by iron hoofs at this moment, and the falling ice made a crisp sound like the god of death knocking on a door.
The fat nobleman who rushed at the front was trembling with fat all over his body, his rosacea was so red and purple, and his three-layered chin was shaking with the bumps of the horse's back. Half of the silk shirt embroidered with gold threads was exposed under the mail. The front was stained with dark wine. The scimitar inlaid with emeralds kept hitting the horse's buttocks. The silver jug on the handle of the knife jingled with the armor~
This drunkard was obviously still drinking heavily in the castle cellar before evacuating. In his drunken eyes, he did not notice the murderous intention behind the rocks on both sides of the commercial road ahead.
Suddenly, the straight stumbling rope bounced up from the ground, and the front hooves of the fat man's horse suddenly twisted. The two-hundred-pound body fell into the bushes - a short sword pierced his thick neck, and the emerald scimitar flew out several distances and was stuck in the mud between Andrew. The new soldier froze in place, urine dripping down the cracks in the mail, forming a trickle on the ground. In the chaos, a one-eyed soldier rolled out from under the horse's belly after reacting. His left eye socket was as dry as a dry well, but his right eye was shining with a fierce light like a jackal. The fingers like dead branches had just grasped the gap in the bush, and a short knife had penetrated his pipa bone.
"How do you feel, man?"
Hans twisted the blade, and the barb tore out the bone. The screams of the one-eyed defeated troops alerted the rear array.
At this time, a blond knight with blue eyes shrank his horse and turned around amid the chaos, and retreated hurriedly on the white ice. The gilt breastplate reflects the cross-shaped cold light, and the silk handkerchief embroidered with violets slipped from the seam of the armor - this is the token that his wife tied on his chest on the eve of the expedition. The corner of the handkerchief is embroidered with intertwined swords and roses with gold thread. Just after taking a few steps, the dismounted war horse suddenly missed its front hoof, and the undercurrent under the ice cave wrapped around the horse's hoof like a poisonous snake.
Behind the blond knight, three crossbow arrows pierced the night sky and tore through the mist. When the first arrow penetrated his collarbone, he was reaching out to grab the falling silk handkerchief; the second arrow penetrated the wrist armor and nailed his palm to the rose pattern embossed on the breastplate; the third arrow penetrated from the lower jaw into the skull cavity, and the white feathers on the tail of the arrow were trembling with brain matter.
The hanging silk handkerchief was swept high into the sky by the strong wind, and finally covered the fat man's rosaceous nose. The gold thread roses on the handkerchief just covered his wide-open right eye, as if fate was mocking the farmers' fields in the land he occupied three years ago.
In the blink of an eye, fifty steel-tipped crossbow arrows were fired in unison, and the ice ballast carried by the arrows exploded into frost flowers at the seams of the mail.
On the ice on both sides where the commercial road intersects with the river, the roar of the ice exploding is like the awakening of a giant beast, and spiderweb-like cracks extend crazily under the iron hooves of the Lombard cavalry.
Behind the defeated troops fleeing south, Lusignan, the captain of the cavalry company in a black cloak, took the lead to leap across the fifteen-foot bridge. More than a hundred light cavalry formed a wild goose shape and surrounded the river bed. The hoofs of the war horses were wrapped in linen and slid out of silver tracks on the frozen soil.
Jafar held his battle ax backwards and galloped close to his horse's neck. The bear grease on the ax blade faded and reflected the light. When the blade cut through the cold wind, the sound it made resonated with the crisp sound of the ice bursting. This fierce general who had killed several heretics in the Colosseum now placed his battle ax across his horse and used both hands to pull a noose - the ice on the river bed suddenly collapsed, and thirty Lombard horses fell into the biting undercurrent.
"Start the gate! Inarticulate roars came in and out of Hans's throat. Twenty carts of logs that had been laid in advance rolled down the hillside, rolling toward the Lombards who were struggling to run to the river bank. Every log that rolled down roaring was nailed with cattle. A small collision with a horn nail is enough to kill someone.
The broken formation shrank like a melting snowdrift. The heavy armored cavalry at the front had their breastplates crushed by logs, and the screams of iron nails piercing their lungs were like a leaking bellows.
When Hans led the men to rush up, a lame and strong man burst out from the pile of households, the iron greaves dragging a two-finger-deep ravine on the ice.
This butcher who once smashed the city gates with a war hammer, his left leg below the knee was wrapped in a rusty iron shell, sparks flying in every step he took. When he grabbed half of the heavy sword and slashed at Hans, the gaped blade actually brought up a whirlwind of ice.
The long sword was slashed from the side, and the moment the blade got stuck into the mail collar of the lame strong man, Hans' wrist turned 45 degrees. The bear's grease-lubricated sword cut through the thyroid cartilage with precision, and a column of blood sprayed six feet high, condensing into red ice in the air that was ten degrees below zero.
The body of the strong man fell to the ground with a crash and the ice cracked. The dark red internal organs squeezed out from the cracks in the armor and stomach, and instantly froze into a lump of ice.
On the other side, the young soldier huddled next to the ice cave was peeing from his crotch, and the rusty dagger fell to the ground with a clang. Ten days ago, this freckle-faced guy was tending sheep not far from here. Now he tried to use his dagger to block the hooves of the war horse. When Jafar's knife came and smashed his collarbone, the flying ice shards carved permanent pockmarks on his face. The moment the undercurrent surged,
the soldiers around him threw cans of fire oil. When the incendiary arrow ignited the exploding kerosene, the explosive flames steamed the river water into mist. At this time, the temperature has already dropped to a low point, and the fog quickly freezes into canine-shaped ice cones at low temperatures. When the defeated soldiers running around fell down on the frozen soil, the ice pick array was already erected like the scythe of death~
At the foot of the hillside, a one-eyed man grabbed an ax and chopped down rolling logs. The rolling log jumped up instantly after hitting a raised stone, and the barb on it went straight into the empty left eye socket of the one-eyed giant.
This eight-foot-tall monster once tore the enemy cavalry's horses alive on the battlefield, but now its half-meter-long optic nerve was ripped out by the tip of the hook. When the log rolled over its twisted body, the frozen eyeballs bounced on the ice, and the final madness was reflected in the pupils. The cloaks behind the cavalry who kept coming were flying in front of the ice cone formation. Not long after, the north wind rose, and the heavy snow carrying the cold air engulfed the battlefield~
The cloak on Lusignan's shoulders swelled into a sail. He inserted his lance into the ice with his backhand to stabilize his body, but he saw the undercurrent under the ice wrapping his body and drifting towards the whirlpool in the middle of the river.
Hans was lighting wolf smoke in the snow, and the orange fire actually condensed into a waterfall of ice crystals in the blizzard.
After a round of fierce fighting, the surviving Lombard heavy cavalry took the opportunity to form a formation, with twenty kite-shaped shields forming a tortoise shell formation. The leader of the army, Earl Teerman, and several noble officers were surrounded in the middle, and everyone's eyes were full of horror. During the Battle of Sauron Castle, a group of people narrowly escaped death, but they never thought that the other party had already laid many ambushes on their way back, and obviously had no intention of letting them leave alive.
At this time, Lusignan suddenly tore off his cloak and threw it towards the enemy formation. The cloth soaked in kerosene ignited when exposed to the wind, but was instantly extinguished in the blizzard. Instead, it formed a thick black smoke barrier. Seeing this, the rest of the cavalry took the opportunity to cut in from the flanks. Their spears were used to pierce the seams of the leg armor at the lower edge of the shield formation, and screams were heard. This group of soldiers who were wearing heavy armor and loyally protecting their master fell one by one~
When the last heraldic flag fell into the glacier, the snowstorm suddenly stopped. More than a hundred broken swords were scattered on the ice, like a forest of steel thorns.
After this battle, except for more than 20 Lombard soldiers who escaped by chance, more than half of the Sauronburg garrison who fled south were killed or wounded, and the rest were captured.
After cleaning the battlefield, Hans's company and the cavalry company commander Lusignan each took one, and pressed the group of prisoners toward Sauronburg. When the good news from the north reached Sauronburg, Art was standing on the golden mountain in the inner castle's secret room.
"My lord, company captains Hans and Lusignan have returned with the fleeing Lombards." When the guard reported in a low voice, he deliberately avoided the row of iron hooks still dripping with blood in the corner - half an hour ago, there were still six Lombard nobles hanging here who refused to reveal the location of the treasure.
There were rhythmic screams coming from the depths of the dungeon, but Art didn't seem to hear them. He stroked the mottled Crusader emblems on the wall of the secret room, and suddenly remembered the Saracen elder who knelt in the treasure room and begged for mercy when he accompanied his father to conquer Tripoli twenty years ago. History is always strikingly similar, but this time it is the blood of Christians that dyes the sword red.
"Tell them to gather all the prisoners together, and the noble officers and the leading count will be kept alone~"
"Yes, my lord."
Outside the south city gate, Lusignan's cavalry was performing the art of death - twenty Lombard prisoners were chained in a circle,
Whenever the horn sounded, two lances would thrust from opposite directions. The watching recruits were still vomiting at first, but when the fourth prisoner's intestines splashed in their faces, they learned how to hide their fear with laughter.
At this time, it will be daybreak. Sauronburg before dawn became a hotbed of desire. The heavy team of laborers opened the oak door of the last chamber of commerce and found barrels of wine fermenting in the cellar. When the first drunkard jumped into the barrel, the others started beating each other with silver candlesticks. It wasn't until some clever guy discovered the Persian tapestry in the crack of the wall that the greedy melee turned into a frantic robbery.
When Art came out of the inner castle, he happened to witness the carnival, but he did not interfere. Looking at the shocking figures recorded on the parchment in his hand - four hundred complete sets of mail armor, two thousand fine steel swords, and enough food for twenty thousand people to survive the winter - he suddenly showed a cold smile. These supplies would feed three new legions, but the Lombards never expected that the fortress they had worked so hard to build would eventually become a springboard for the enemy to continue their march south.
When the first ray of light pierced the thick clouds, the messenger brought more exciting news - Kazak in the northern camp not only wiped out all the enemy troops, but also captured a total of 300 horses.
In addition to the horses that died from injuries, Kazak learned from the prisoners that each of the cavalry also had a spare horse. So he immediately sent people to bring back all the war horses hidden in the dense forest. In addition, more than 300 horses were captured in this battle, which could fully enable the Wells Army to expand by two more cavalry companies.
Standing on the north wall and looking towards the horizon, the black smoke rising there has not yet dissipated. He knew that when these war horses were matched with the gold recovered from the secret chamber, Burgundy's cavalry would sweep across the entire Lombardy plain like a plague>