On the carriageway outside the monastery, Matthew and the others had already picked up swords, axes, bows and spears to guard the surroundings, and Ron ran behind Art in small steps, "Master, the footprints are all fresh, they should have been left last night, and most of them are in the direction of the monastery." Instead of taking the avenue, the group went through the dense forest, and it could not have been Lord Berion's soldiers. ”

Art also crouched on the ground, carefully discerning the footprints of various shapes and sizes, and following the direction of the footprints, it could be roughly deduced that the group of men came from the mountains of Lamelle, numbering more than eighty, and that there must have been a small number of horses and livestock.

"Ron, look at these hoof prints." Art pointed to several hoof prints that were much larger than a horse's hoof.

"This is not a war horse or a riding horse, this is a cultivated horse."

"Look at these footprints, these are not cowhide and deerskin boots, but are wrapped in worn linen, and it is impossible for Lord Berion's army to fight with ploughed horses, and soldiers cannot even have boots, and more importantly, there is no need for the army to hide in the dense forest." Art has identified the footprints.

"Yesterday Lord Berion told me that his army had been sent out to surround the rebel bandits, who had been forced into the monastery fifteen miles north, and I guess this was the rebel group that had been "besieged", and that they had escaped from the blockade and stabbed Berrion's Chinese army, and that the encirclement army had either been defeated or traitorous and traitorous. ”

Art grabbed a handful of grass and wiped the mud off his hands, then got up and held the hilt of his sword, and commanded Ron with a grim face, "Ron, quickly call the two Vilno cavalry brothers."

Ron hurriedly called over two Vilno cavalrymen who were on guard by the roadside.

"Lord Art~"

"Lord Art?"

Art looked at the two cavalrymen, "It's too late to argue my guess, you two hurry back to the monastery and report to Lord Berion, just say that I guess there is a group of rebel bandits planning to attack the monastery, the number is nearly hundred, there are a small number of horses, the composition of the rebels is complicated, there may be a lot of civilians who have fallen into the hermitage, let Lord Berion hurry up and deal with it." ”

"The other man immediately galloped out of the mountain, and if he encountered the army of Lord Berion, let them support the monastery at once, as fast as possible, there were less than fifty soldiers in the monastery, and the strength was not superior."

Art quickly arranged a task for the two Vilno cavalrymen, urging them to act immediately.

The two Vilno cavalrymen did not dare to delay for a moment, jumped on their horses and kicked their horses and galloped.

On the road, there were three guards under him, Atrohn and Matthew, who were on guard.

"Master, what shall we do? Go back to support Lord Berion or leave the dangerous place out of the mountain? Ron asked.

According to common sense, Art is just a guest, he has already made the right response, and the next thing has little to do with him.

However, Berion's role in Art is too important, aside from the inextricable interests linked, even if a friend suffers, he can't bear to be alone, not to mention that he doesn't want Berion to be killed like this, the future of the European Continental Comptoir still needs the help of this young and promising Provençal military upstart.

"Ron, wrap your horse's hooves in cotton cloth and put a noose on your horse's mouth, then follow the direction of the footprints, and return when you touch the enemy's tail. Don't be reckless, and if you are in danger, you should immediately go back to save your life. Art said as he ran back to his saddle, pulled an old cotton coat from the mattress, cut it into four pieces with a knife, and gave it to Ron to wrap his horse's hooves.

Ron picked up his cotton robe and rags and kicked his horse.

"Matthew, assemble everyone! Check the weapon armor. ”

Art gave the order and began to organize his weapons.

The knight's sword on his waist is Art's core melee weapon, but Art didn't plan to use him to stab the butts of more than a hundred rebel bandits, because it was too dangerous for the enemy to be outnumbered in close combat; On the sheath of the saddle behind the horse was tied a sac made of cowhide, which contained five spears about six feet long, which were shorter than short spears, and the shaft of the spear was relatively thin, and the tip of the spear was a long round iron cone, which could be pierced through as long as it was thrown accurately; Considering in advance that he was going to enter the hilly and mountainous areas, he did not carry the long guy who was inconvenient to use the spear, but there was an eighty-pound riding bow in the bow bag in the front saddle, which was hard enough compared to the sixty-pound riding bow he carried before, and there were twenty light arrows and ten heavy armor-piercing arrows in the quiver, and Art was not here to fight, so he would not carry too many arrows.

In addition, Ron also specially selected a heavy hammer from Vilno's arsenal for everyone, the so-called heavy hammer is actually a two-foot-long wooden handle with a three-pound iron ball on it, this thing does not look very good, but with the galloping war horse smashed on the human body is absolutely skull-shattering.

Putting his weapons and armor in order, Art led the three guards down the lane and steered them in the direction of the messy footprints......

Six miles west of the monastery, a large group of 100 people was quietly approaching under the cover of a large dense forest, and their tracks were very hidden.

This team was the remnant of the rebel rebel army that the Vilno garrison had been encircling for a long time.

The so-called rebel bandits were traitors who were willing to kneel before the Lombards and prostrate themselves to slavery in the war between Provence and Lombardy, and then took up their swords to oppress the civilian population of Provence.

Their composition was complex – robbers, prisoners, hooligans, refugees, thieves, and defeated soldiers who surrendered to the Lombard army, who could betray even their own country and naturally had no dignity or mercy.

The damage inflicted on Provence by the rebels was comparable to that of the Lombard army, who knew the terrain and knew the situation well, and could act as a guide dog for the Lombard army and wreak havoc in the rear of Provence.

When Art was hired to fight in the eastern part of Burgundy, he annihilated an army of rebels and bandits.

The war between the two principalities has long ended, but these maggots are very tricky, they are essentially a group of bandits and bandits funded by the enemy, there is no organization and no military discipline, hidden in the deep mountains and dense forests and valleys, it is difficult to exterminate.

After more than a year of purging, the rebels and bandits in other parts of eastern Provence have basically disappeared, but in the mountains of southern Provence, there are always a group of mongrels who come out from time to time to rob and kill.

The "best of the best" was this group in the jungle to the west of the monastery, numbering nearly a hundred, led by a renegade former Provençal knight and a few of his associates, who had secretly supported the Lombards.

The core of the team is more than 40 rebels who have fled from the north to the south, and most of the rest are mountain bandits, hooligan thieves, and mountain people and homeless people who have escaped repeated encirclement and suppression, and many of them have been driven down from the northern and central parts of the Lamel Mountains.

At its largest, this team gathered more than 180 minions, and after a cold winter in the mountains of Lamel, they woke up in the early spring, and after a series of murders, arson, and ransacking villages, they finally attracted the attention of the southern garrison of Provence, and more than 200 border garrisons entered the mountains half a month ago.

After all, the rebels and bandits could not defeat the standing army, and they were unable to cope with the encirclement and suppression of the Vilno army in the face of murder in the mountain villages in the past, and they lost seventy or eighty people in just half a month.

Just yesterday the rebels attacked a garrison to the north, breaking a gap in the encirclement, but instead of fleeing north or hiding eastward into the mountains, the rebels threw off their pursuers and turned south, for they learned from the captured petty officer of the garrison that the commander of the garrison, Viscount Berrion, had his Chinese army in the monastery to the south.

The fight and flight around the clock had drained the rebels' physical strength, and as soon as they announced that they were resting on the spot, the guys threw off their armor and staggered into mud.

A man in long-sleeved chain mail, a standard uniform, and a heavy axe at his waist lifted the full helmet on his head, pointed the wine bag to his mouth, poured a large gulp of low-quality beer, and then wiped the spilled juice from his beard and whispered to the people behind him: "A bunch of deadly mongrels! This is not a village in the mountains, so quickly send people to patrol and sentry around! ”

Everyone was already paralyzed, and they were not willing to patrol and sentry, and finally the rebel commander had to force a few of the newly recruited minions to stand guard.

A few minions were sleepy and hungry, and they reluctantly dispersed around the dense forest with their short spears and farm tools in tow.

The raid was supposed to be a quick one, but running around day and night had already consumed too much physical strength, and the rebel commander, no matter how anxious, could only let his minions recover in the dense forest and then attack the monastery when it was dark......

However, the rebels' stay was doomed.

Just as the rebels were repairing in the dense forest, a fast horse galloped along the dense forest road into the monastery, and a moment later, Viscount Berion, who was stationed in the monastery, immediately adjusted the deployment of the army.

However, Berion did not immediately lead his army to evacuate, he sent two groups of secret sentinels to reach in the direction of the possible attack of the rebels, and transferred all the cavalry and most of the infantry out of the monastery to ambush on the gentle slopes of the mountains to the north......

Behind the rebel bandits, five shadows were also quietly approaching.

"Master, I have tracked down that group of people, they are resting in the dense forest, there are almost a hundred people, most of them are armed with improvised weapons, some even carry farm tools, but there are also many elites in armor, all gathered in the center."

"They just sent out four groups of two or three guards each, and I didn't come close to observe them so as not to expose them." Ron hunched over his waist and tried his best to keep his body down and move closer to the Arts, who were hiding behind a bush.

The Artists hid about half a mile from the jungle where the rebels were entrenched, and the horses they rode were tied to a pile of rocks farther away.

"Master, there are too many of them, we can't beat them, and once we get entangled, it's even more troublesome." Ron wasn't timid, as a battle-hardened veteran, he just told the truth.

Art didn't have a plan in his mind, he just instinctively couldn't let this group of rebels attack Berion, but there were too many opponents, even rogue bandits could crush him.

After a moment of contemplation, Art looked around at the terrain - unfamiliar, not even a place to procrastinate.

"The rebels come from complex sources and have different combat strengths, as long as Viscount Berion can be prepared, he will definitely not suffer a big loss, as long as we try our best to delay and disrupt the enemy's pace, we can fight if we can, and run away if we can't." Art sets the tone for this unexpected battle.

"Ron, you take Matthew to the right, and I take the rest of the people to the left, first roughly understand the nearby terrain and landforms, and then run without running around, and then return here to gather."

With that, Art leaned a light arrow from his quiver on his back against the bowstring, beckoned two guards and touched it to the left......

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Chapter 394: Attack and Delay