In late autumn, the days begin to shorten and the sun begins to darken as soon as the sun sets.

In a clearing in the middle of a market town between Bramont and Wallonburg, two or three legion-clad task force soldiers sat around a campfire.

Oliver broke off half of the rye bread in his hand and threw it on the wooden plate of the old man beside him, and then put the hard bread into the wooden bowl, dipped it in the soup, soaked it a little, and then stuffed it into his mouth and took a big mouthful.

The old man with tattered clothes and gray hair was quite strong, and before Oliver had finished eating a piece of half of the bread, the old man had already stuffed the second piece (a small piece, a fifth of a pound) of rye bread into his mouth and chewed it desperately.

"Old fellow, don't choke to death if you eat slowly, the bread tube is enough for you to eat slowly today, and the adults will have to ask you something later."

The old man ignored Oliver's words, and reached for the third loaf of bread that was baking by the campfire.

"Old thing, you have to eat it in the soup, or you'll break your rotten teeth." The other soldier looked at the old hunter who could eat more than he could eat with his mouth open, and kindly persuaded him.

"Drink ~ drink water ~ occupy ~ stomach, can't hold ~ how much food." The old man swallowed the food in his throat, his mouth was full of stuff, and his hands were still desperately trying to put the bread in his mouth, and he was so choked that he almost rolled his eyes before taking a small sip of the soup......

"It's been how many years I haven't had a full meal~" The soldier just now pursed his lips and whispered contempt for the old man.

"Three years!" The old man quickly pinched up the crumbs of bread that had just been sprayed and stuffed them back into his mouth.

"Three years? Isn't that since the last time I fought with the Schwabians, I haven't had enough to eat? Oliver asked, he had heard of the war that had turned many of the border areas into red ground a few years ago, but he had not expected to recover for three years.

The old man stuffed the third loaf of bread in his hand into his mouth and swallowed it, then shook off all the crumbs that had been sprinkled on the torn clothes and put them into his mouth, beat his chest, and replied: "Over the years, first the lords have stripped us of a layer of skin—war taxes, grain, mules, horses, and livestock, and young men, and then the Swabians burned, killed, and looted, robbed money, grain, livestock, women, and slaves...... After finally driving the Swabens away, the lords returned, and in order to rebuild their fortified castles and lavish mansions, they began to impose land taxes, mules and horses, and forced labor...... We don't have the land to farm, we don't have livestock to cultivate, and even a little food is not enough to pay the lords' taxes that are higher than a year. ”

The old man shook his head and waved his hands, miserable.

Oliver, who was also the poorest of peasant families, knew how cruel the lords who ate human flesh and blood and squeezed human bones were, and he felt some sympathy for the poor thin old man, so he took a piece of roasted rye bread from the campfire and handed it to the old man.

"No, no, I can't eat anymore." The old man refused, but reached out and took the small piece of rye bread.

"Lord, look, I can't eat it anymore, can I take this piece of bread back to taste it for my little grandson? The lord's mill is too expensive, and we haven't made bread in a long time~" The old man's tone was almost begging.

"No, no, no, these are all military rations, and they can't be carried privately." Priority is given to the supply of military rations for the contingent, but it is not allowed to take food with them.

The old man reluctantly glanced at the black bread in his hand, touched his belly, which was almost round, and said to Oliver with a smile: "Then let me take a small bite of soup, and I can eat another one."

"Captain Oliver. The adults have finished the military discussion, and they have summoned you to report the military situation. ”

A guard poked his head out of the mansion gate and shouted to the Oliver in the courtyard.

"Okay Brother Matthew, let's come in at once." Oliver quickly got up and replied.

Seeing that the old man still wanted to forcibly 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 tattered clothes, "Take it back to your grandson to eat, don't let people see it." After a while, I went to all the adults and told me everything I knew. ”

The old man quietly touched the piece of bread in his arms, nodded again and again, and hurriedly followed Oliver and the others into the mansion.

The camp of the Border Garrison Regiment was stationed in the house of the tax collector of the market town, and the tax collector must have gathered his wealth and fled to a safe place in the hinterland of Jonah before the war began, so this became the headquarters of the Chinese army.

Despite all the candles on the walls, the room was still dim.

The commander-in-chief of the Frontier Garrison Regiment, Art, had already put on a full set of armor with the help of his personal guards, and when he saw Oliver and several people entering the door, Arte stepped forward and explained a few words, "Oliver, the Schwabian who attacked Walloon Fort has divided an army of three hundred men to attack us, I must personally lead my troops to stop it, and the battle to annihilate that small group of enemy troops is under the command of your Lord Odo, you report the military situation to him and assist Lord Odo to completely annihilate that group of mongrels for me!" ”

Oliver snapped, "Yes! My lord! ”

Art patted Oliver on the shoulder, swept over several of the task force soldiers with an encouraging look, and walked out of the room with four personal guards.

"Ron, cavalry and infantry ready without ......"

Art's figure vanished into the night.

Oliver withdrew his gaze and saluted Odo, the commander of the 2nd Infantry Regiment standing in the room, "Lord Odo, the task force tracking team has sent you orders, we have found the trace of that Swabian mongrel. ”

Otto immediately lifted his spirits, "Where?" ”

The Frontier Garrison was stationed five miles to the west, east and west to a hidden settlement in the wooded knolls on the side of King's Road.

It is less than two miles from the King's Road, which is constantly frequented by carriages, but because of the hard rocks on both sides of the side road in and out of the hills, the road is difficult to extend, so it does not become a prosperous village by the roadside, but on the contrary, the settlement is very closed from the road only seven or eight hills, and the most prosperous settlement is less than twenty farmers.

However, at this time, this settlement should be the most withered, and the original settlement of fifty or sixty villagers only had five or six living mouths, and they were just tools left by the Swaben to vent their animal desires.

The settlement had been sacked and slaughtered, and no one could be seen to breathe except for the poor peasant women, but the Schwabians had not set fire to the smoke so that outsiders would not find out, so the settlement's low, dilapidated houses had survived.

The scattered aftermath of the settlement was flanked by soldiers in armor and armed swords and axes, barely recognizable under the beating bonfires, with Schwabian noses and eyes, dressed in clothes and armor belonging to the Swabian army, and carrying Swabian weapons.

A rough estimate of the number of people in the settlement, from the campfires and visible patrols, is more than sixty, and it must have been the small Swabian army that was buried in the earth to raid the border garrison......

The reason why there were only sixty or seventy Swabian soldiers in the settlement was that the remaining thirty or forty men were sent to set up open posts and secret posts in all directions of the settlement, and if an enemy army attacked, they would immediately break up and flee into the mountains.

It may not be so simple to completely annihilate these cunning foxes.

In the dense forest of overgrown grass in the hills southeast of the settlement, two black figures draped in whole turf looked up at the glowing red bonfire under the hill, motionless.

They were the soldiers of the task force who had stayed behind to monitor the enemy forces in Swabia in the settlement, and the two had been lying here for half the night.

The night in late autumn was very cold, and fortunately they were covered with a layer of turf to cover their bodies, otherwise the two of them really couldn't stand the increasingly clammy and cold cold.

A soldier put the special bread in his hand on his teeth and knocked off a small piece, rolled his tongue into his mouth and chewed it gently, and said to his companion who was staring at the enemy army below the mountain: "This group of mongrels under the mountain is too tightly defended, they will change a group of sentries every once in a while, there are five sentry positions we can see, I also found a secret sentry on the periphery just now, they must have lurked outside the mountain to patrol the guard, our army even can't see their figures and fled, If the Chinese army wants to raise troops to annihilate this group of mongrels in one fell swoop, I'm afraid it won't be easy~"

The Frontier Garrison Corps was stationed in the market town of the Central Army in command of the camp, and all the regiments of the 2nd Infantry Regiment above the rank of flag commander were called here by Otto to discuss the battle plan for the small Swabian army.

“...... The place where the enemy army was hiding was in a hilly area on the edge of the mountain, and the King's Road to the north was the mountain, and the mountain was a continuous mountain range of mountains to the south...... Therefore, I think that the plan of directly leading hundreds of infantry to storm the enemy, as stated by the governor of Bangada, is not very feasible. Oliver rejects the simple plan of the 2nd Infantry Regiment's flag captains.

"Colin, you are also the adjutant of the 2nd Infantry Regiment, tell me what you think." Otto ordered the general, Colin is the oldest officer, has a lot of combat experience and a flexible head, so after Otto was promoted to the commander of the Second Infantry Regiment, he repeatedly begged Art to transfer Colin to his subordinates as the captain and adjutant of the first flag.

Colin hadn't been involved in the Flag Captains' suggestions, and he had been whispering to the old hunter hired by the task force, glancing at the topography map on the wall from time to time.

"Lord Odo, do you remember when we were hired by Lord Berrion to escort his rations to Fort Calk in Provence on his way to attack a manor outpost north of Calk?"

Otto thought about it carefully, and remembered, "I remember that at that time, Lord was still a new Border Inspector, and Lord Barrion was only a baron. ”

"You're saying we managed to lure the enemy out of the hole and then ambush it?" Otto instantly guessed Colin's intentions.

"Yes, we also used it later when we were fighting bandits, since we can't catch up and can't score, then let the enemy run out on their own, and then we will ...... again"

Some tricks are tried, and the more they are used, the better they become. The trick has been used many times to lure the enemy out of the hole, but the effect is still so good.

But the guy who used the bait began to curse again in his heart at this moment.

Eight miles west of the legion's station, a convoy full of goods and supplies was desperately fleeing, perhaps because the wagons were too heavy or perhaps there were occasional ditches on the plains that made it difficult for the convoy to move smoothly, and the convoy did not flee quickly, and the eight wagons covered with thick felt cloth crushed deep ruts on the turf - I don't know if it was expensive or not, but it was certainly heavy enough, either food or armament.

Fifteen or sixteen heavy guards with short spears beside the eight carriages chased the convoy at a rapid pace, and nervously glanced back at the seventy or eighty chasing soldiers behind them with teeth and claws.

Spencer, the baggage officer of the Yona Border Garrison, sat on a carriage at the end of the war, glanced back at the pursuers who were getting farther and farther behind him, and shouted to the carriages in front of him: "You really ran for your life at that time, why are you running so fast?" Slow down, slow down! ”

After speaking, he ordered the captain of the baggage transport team who was driving: "Hurry up, the mongrels in the back are going to stop, throw down the food on the car, let them see what is on our car, and don't throw some wild shit The group of dogs behind them won't go crazy." ”

In a short time, more than a dozen bags of military rations and wheat were scattered all over the rutted line of the convoy........

More than two hundred paces behind the convoy, seventy-five armored and armed Schwabians, led by an equestrian officer, ran two or three miles along the winding rutting line.

After two or three days of hibernation, the Swabian army that went around behind the enemy began to bite people again, this time they attacked the baggage line of the Burgundian army, the eyeline said that this baggage convoy carried a large amount of armaments and military rations to the war zone, and after a little hesitation, the Swabian commander who led the team ordered a small number of soldiers to stay behind and then pursue with most of the men.

The Swasons were not unwary of their opponents' machinations and, from what they knew before the battle, knew that the Welsh Regiment (the more famous) army had expanded from the small force that had crushed the local army in the Tebrun theater.

Knowing that their opponents were not good goods, the Swabians were very cautious in their pursuit, and instead of using their limited seven or eight cavalry in pursuit, they scattered them on both flanks and in the rear of the ranks to guard against possible enemy situations, and it was always right to be careful with wild wolves.

"Captain, great, sir, they started throwing things, the grain was husked and wheat, and even the military rations were thrown away, indicating that there were more valuable things on the convoy. We, are we still chasing? "A Swabian soldier was so tired that he was vomiting blood, and the ability of that baggage convoy to escape was too great.

"Those soft eggs only know that we can't catch up. Forget it, we are too far away from the mountain and forest line, and it is easy to be blocked by people. Commander Swabia was still sober, he saw that the team had chased too much and the baggage team in front of him did not seem to slow down much, so he planned to collect his troops and return to the nest, so he thought that he had run for half an afternoon.

Just as the commander was about to give the order to stop and turn back, the wheels of one of the wagons in the baggage convoy more than 300 paces ahead might have been damaged by stones or potholes, and the running wagon suddenly overturned on its side, and the materials in the felt cloth were scattered all over the ground.

A few of the baggage guards beside the overturned carriage ran to the broken carriage in a panic, held the brand-new weapons and armor on the ground in their arms, and continued to run forward, although two or three hundred paces away, Schwaper could still see that there were still many weapons on the ground that he had not had time to pick up.

"It's really loaded with weapons and armor, and if these weapons are sent to the war zone, our brothers will have to feel better." The Swabian soldier who was panting out of breath set up a tent with his right hand and looked at the loose carriage in front of him.

"Let's not retreat yet, let's see what's in that carriage."

As soon as the Swabian commander gave the order, more than seventy soldiers began to chase after him......

A mile ahead of the plain chase, the deep and wide Alsace River had formed a river bay peninsula, and in the low grass on either side of the entrance to the river bay peninsula, the soldiers of the 2nd Infantry Regiment of the four or five hundred Yona Frontier Garrison Corps were prostrate among them, and it was not easy to notice them if they were not standing tall and looking closely.

"Chief Colin, is the enemy not coming? Why is there no trace at all? The captain of the third banner of the second regiment, who was lying beside Colin, raised his head slightly and glanced into the distance, but did not see the shadow of the baggage team and the pursuers.

Colin pressed the head of the flag captain down, "Hide! Exposed location court-martial. ”

"Silence waiting!"

After Colin finished speaking, he simply put his hand under his head to make a pillow and glared.

As soon as he closed his eyes, a rapid birdsong sounded, Colin quickly opened his eyes and felt a wooden whistle from under him, and learned that the birdsong had blown three times just now, and then a dozen of the same birdsong sounded in the low grass where Colin was.

"It's coming, it's coming! The enemy has taken the bait! The boredom on Colin's face immediately changed to excitement, and he put his hand on the hilt of his sword, waiting for the horn of the charge.

About half a mile in front of the bushes on the flank of the river where the 2nd Infantry Regiment was hiding, Schwabian had closed the chase less than a hundred paces.

Commander Swabian knew from the captured local farmer that there was a river ahead, so he wittily asked his soldiers to divide into three teams, left, center, and right, and forced the fleeing baggage convoy in front of him to the direction of the river.

Victory was at hand, and the pursuing Schwabians had already seen the roasted suckling pig waiting for them to bite.

By the time the baggage convoy found itself cornered, they were already halfway through the river, and it was impossible for them to break through from both flanks, surrounded by water on three sides.

"That's not right!! Why didn't they panic? Cornered, they shouldn't be so calm! And isn't it too easy? The Swabian commander looked at the convoy that had stopped at the end of the river peninsula and beat a drum in his heart.

"Are there any pursuers behind?" The Swabian commander sat on his horse and looked behind him.

"Commander~My lord, no~cavalry~No enemy warning~" The sweaty soldier beside the commander replied intermittently.

"There's a lot of grass on both sides, you and you, you two each bring a few soldiers to take a look, don't ambush people." The commander on horseback felt that the grass on both sides was too dense for fear of an ambush.

The two soldiers, who were too tired to do so, did not want to go so far to the sentinels, and dragged their lazy walks, each preparing to pick someone to go to the two wings to deal with the errand.

At this moment, the baggage team at the end of the Heyuan Peninsula actually waved a white flag, which means obviously, since it can't be defeated and can't escape, it can only surrender.

The Swabian commander chuckled lightly, and shouted at the two soldiers who turned around and stopped to watch: "What do you see, you continue to go to the sentry on both sides, and I will take a few people over to have a look~" As he spoke, the commander casually ordered a few soldiers and kicked his horse and walked towards the Qianheyuan Peninsula.

"Man, are you still going to the sentry?" One soldier asked another soldier.

"Do you want to go?"

"Who TM wants to go? What are you tired of! ”

"Then forget it, the other side has surrendered anyway."

"Then forget it?"

"Forget it~ After a while, the adults asked and said that they had been there, save some physical strength, and when they grabbed things for a while, they had to run faster, I think there must be good things in the carriage."

A soldier looked at the commander who was walking towards the white flag convoy, and then looked at the accomplices around him, and whispered to the guys around him: "Otherwise, let's follow, lest these greedy wolves rob good things for a while~"

The other soldier nodded, turned to a few close friends around him and said, "A few of you will go up with me to protect your lordship, and the others will wait in place, waiting for your lord's military order!"

As he spoke, he led five or six close men towards the river.

None of them were a good thing, and the commander didn't order everyone to wait where they were, and everyone knew the careful thinking of these guys, and no one wanted to be left behind when they finally shared the profits, so they followed a few more Swabian soldiers who were thoughtful, and then a dozen, or twenty......

Gold and silver come first, and everyone is not willing to be left behind.

Just as all the Swabian soldiers crept into the entrance to the river peninsula, a low horn sounded......

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Chapter 339: Luring the Snake Out of the Hole