War is never as impassioned as the troubadour makes the blood boil, and after the initial blood surge, all that remains is endless panic and torment.

On the fifth day of departure from Kitsby, a convoy of more than 120 men rushed non-stop, and by evening had reached a small village on the edge of the Aosta theater of operations.

It was here that the people really felt the power of war to destroy everything.

The village of Hades, originally a large village with more than 200 permanent residents, was only two days away from the city of Aosta, and was supported by the north-south trade route and became a temporary settlement for business travelers, and if there was no war, it might have become a prosperous trading town in the near future.

Today, the former inns, taverns, shops, and shops have all been reduced to piles of charred peat, the smooth village roads are covered with maroon stains of blood left over from the rain, and the bustling streets of the past are only three or two red-eyed, empty-mouthed, wild dogs dragging out the corpses that are not completely decomposed and gnawing in the rubble. The wild dogs were already almost crazy, and they were not afraid of the crowd pouring in beside the ruins, and kept biting the corpse, taking out the rotten liver, intestines, stomach and lungs from the belly of the corpse and chewing it~

"Whoosh~"

"Woo~Woo~Woo~"

An arrow flew out of Jason's bow and stabbed into the stomach of a wild dog, causing the dog to howl and struggle. The other two wild dogs were startled by a sudden arrow and took two steps back, staring at a group of people not far away with blood-red eyes, shaking their noses, making a low voice from their throats, seeing that there were too many enemies, the two wild dogs confronted the crowd for a while and then had to look at the uneaten corpses and fled into the ruins~

"Master, this~too~ I remember that although there was some chaos here in the early autumn of last year, it was still a prosperous place, but for most of the year, it has become hell." Ron was speechless for a long time by the sight in front of him.

Art did not answer Ron's words, and followed Baron Berrion to kneel on one knee, clutching the cross around his neck, with a holy cross hanging on his chest, and reciting a prayer to God in his mouth, while everyone behind him also drew crosses and bowed their heads and whispered prayers.

Baron Berrion got up and returned to Arte's side, and ordered: "The brigade will camp here tonight, and in the evening you will arrange the sentry and select two more clever cavalrymen to follow me to the south sentinel, and now we have entered the area controlled by the Lombard army, be careful not to be careless."

Yate took the order and asked, "My lord, is it dangerous for the brigade to find a hidden forest outside the village to camp here?"

Baron Berrion looked around and replied, "The Lombard army can't control all the areas around Aosta, so those bastards have turned this place into scorched ruins, and since they have burned this place, they shouldn't be able to return here easily." You have people find a few complete houses where the soldiers can sleep and recuperate. Pay attention when lighting a fire, and try to block the fire from the broken walls......"

"Yes, sir!"

Art turned and went to arrange the rest of the camp and the sentry.

............

Night had fallen, and six horsemen on the trade route to Fort Kalk had appeared on horsebacks wrapped in cotton cloth.

Hades is only a day's journey to Fort Kalk, but the closer you get to the heart of the theater, the more likely you are to encounter the enemy. In order to prevent the convoy from being targeted by a large number of enemies, Baron Berrion decided to take advantage of the night to lead people to find out the enemy's situation.

Baron Berrion led the unfamiliar road of Art, Ron, and Jason to form three two-person sentry groups, one group went south along the trade route, and the other two groups were two miles away from the trade road to the south, and the three groups agreed to rush back to Hades before sunrise, regardless of whether there was any invincibility.

Art and Baron Berrion were in charge of the most dangerous trade routes.

The two men drove south, and at the height of the moon they arrived at a small manor ten miles outside of Fort Calke, which was the private farm of the lord of Fort Calke, managed by the steward Borg, and the main body of the manor was a stone tower about thirty feet high, and there were several huts in the low walls under the towers, and all the houses outside the walls had been burned and razed to the ground.

There were a few fires in the tall towers, and a few drunken men shouted and cursed.

Two torches were planted in the battlement wall at the top of the tower, and an unfortunate fellow who had been ostracized by the commander was squatting and dozing off by the battlement, smelling the smell of beer wafting from the tower below, and the unfortunate fellow had cursed them several times in his heart.

Little did the half-squinted fellow know that two heavily armed enemies had lurked less than two hundred yards outside the manor.

"My lord, is Kalkburg besieged? Otherwise, how could it be possible to set up a level here to cut off the road to Kalk. Art asked, staring at the manor tower in front of him, which was serving as a sentry post.

Baron Berrion wasn't sure, but he knew that the Lombard army was outnumbered, and the siege of Aosta was still a bit difficult, so how could he still have the spare strength to send troops to set up a card here during the siege of Kalkburg.

"Yat, I think Kalk should not be besieged, I guess they just want to cut off Kalk's communication with the outside world, so that the people in the fort lose hope of foreign aid, and then concentrate on the attack."

"Let's go, let's go around here first to the front sentry, if there is really no siege, let's come back and find a way to kill these watchdogs~" Baron Berrion said.

The two retreated to the haystack outside the manor, where the horses were hidden, and led the horses around the manor towards Kalk.

As a result, as Baron Berrion thought, the castle was not besieged, but the surrounding arteries were successively blocked by the Lombard army, many surrounding villages were slaughtered, and the enemy tried to cut off all the supplies and personnel of the castle.

By the time Art and Baron Berrion rode back to Hades, the sky had begun to show the whiteness of the fish's belly. The other two groups of sentinels had already returned to Hades.

"My lord, we arrived at a mile or so outside of Fort Kalk in the middle of the month, and found no enemy posts or patrols along the way, and we passed through two small settlements, both of which were in ruins. Jason's group was pretty much the same. ”

After confirming that Fort Kalk was not surrounded, Baron Baron Berrion summoned his squires and several commanders of Arter's patrol party to discuss in the tent how to remove the watchtower that stood in the way of the trade road leading to Fort Kalk......

It was dawning, and after deliberation, everyone worked out a more feasible strategy of action.

It was close to noon before the southbound convoy lazily pulled out camp and hit the road. By the time they reached a hill two miles north of the manor's watchtower, the sun had already set, and there was only a dim glow in the setting sun.

Most of the convoy was parked in shelter behind the hill, where Tubba's squad and one of Baron Berrion's attendants tended to the food and the newly recruited soldiers. The rest of the patrol party, led by Baron Berrion, pulled a four-wheeled carriage loaded with grain, salt, ale and wine, and walked towards the manor on the south side of the road.

In the twilight, two soldiers armed with bows and crossbows on the battlement wall of the manor tower were laughing and talking about the wonderful experience of burning, looting, and raping ** women in Provence.

While they were arguing over who had been on the most women, a four-wheeled carriage and two horsemen appeared on the north side of the road.

"Stop!!" A soldier shouted loudly in a broken lingua franca. Another soldier hurried downstairs to report to the post commander.

The carriage stopped, and shouted to the manor after forty paces: "Is it Lord Borg?" We are merchants who deliver grain to Fort Kalk, please let us go. ”

Standing at the gate of the manor, the commander of the sentry post wearing an iron scale armor and a pointed iron helmet was so happy that his mouth was cracked, and he had just been stationed here for seven or eight days, and a fat sheep was delivered to the door by himself.

"Haha, Master Borg has become a dead dog, you don't need to go to Kalkburg, just leave the goods here."

The commander's words, which were clearly in a Lombard accent, woke up the bewildered coachmen, who, realizing that the place had been occupied by the Lombard enemy, quickly turned their horses and ran back the way they came.

"Leave two of you, and the others will chase me after you!!"

"My lord, could it be a trap?" A soldier next to the commander reminded.

Just as the commander hesitated, the soldiers on the tower snapped their crossbows, and the crossbow arrows swooped down towards the carriage under the tremendous tension of the crossbow, and a jar full of ale on the carriage was shattered by the crossbow arrows, and the fragrant wine flowed down the carriage to the ground, and in a short time floated to the nose of the tower commander.

The commander looked up and asked the soldiers on the battlement wall in a loud voice: "Is there an ambush ahead?"

The soldiers on the battlement wall looked out as the carriage faded away, and it was impossible to see clearly in the gray distance. He looked at the several carriages that were gradually moving away, and his heart was anxious, "My lord, there is no ambush. You hurry up and catch up, and if it's too late, you'll run away. ”

The commander had no more worries, and called the six disheveled soldiers in the tower to the only three horses in the stable, and the three horsemen followed the scent of ale on the ground one after the other, all the way north of the road......

The seven enemy soldiers who were pursuing had just left the tower, and three men in black with short swords and swords quietly touched the tower~

On the carriage on the north side of the road, Spencer was galloping while desperately throwing the grain on the cart to the ground.

Colin saw that this guy kept throwing the goods on the car to the ground, and quickly stopped: "Spencer, what are you doing, why are you throwing it on the ground??"

Spencer pushed Colin away and replied, "Throw some cargo to keep the fish from unhooking."

"You're a mongrel coward, obviously you just don't think the cargo is too heavy to run fast. Our mission is to lure the enemy into an ambush circle, what if we run too fast and the enemy can't catch up? ”

"Can't catch up? You look back, you're almost biting your ass. Get out of my way, don't get in my way. As he spoke, he threw a bag of grain on the ground.

The commander who was following closely behind was really worried about fraud ahead at first, but when he saw the heavy objects thrown down on the carriage one after another, he was sure that the people in the carriage were indeed running for their lives, and finally strengthened his determination.

"Guys, chase after you! There must be something good in the carriage ahead, and whoever grabs it will belong to him!! With that, he kicked the horse's belly a few times, and the horse under him quickened his pace, and several soldiers behind him also chased after him excitedly like a hungry man seeing a woman.

How could the carriage that pulled the goods outrun the war horse, seeing that the carriage that was sixty or seventy paces ahead at the beginning was getting closer and closer, the commander of the watchtower who was in the lead had already shouted excitedly, and the broadsword in his hand was drawn out by him and made a gesture ready to slash.

Suddenly! At the corner of the road, the carriage came to a sudden stop!

A heavy arrow flew towards the commander's face, and then a dozen black-clad soldiers rushed out of the grass on either side of the road......