The icy chill of the night poured into the collar of the man from time to time, and the hand holding the weapon became numb and faintly unconscious due to the weather, and the sentry crouching at the farthest point carefully tried to move his body to warm up, but was stopped by the companion next to him in a low voice.

The companion was a mercenary, although he was not very old, but he was already very experienced, so although he was a little dissatisfied, the Agri sentry was still obedient and did not move again.

The main reason why this sentry was so obedient was that Alexander had orders that anyone who did not obey not only did not get his fair share of the reward, but was also severely punished.

Some of the mercenaries had been unimpressed by such an order, and some of them had been hung from roadside trees, and some had been given whips.

The Agri, on the other hand, were much more obedient than the mercenaries, who had learned how to use not only spears but also muskets to accompany their companions, and although the fighting Agri in the Bruini Valley still had to rely on the Bohemians to get out of their predicament, they were good enough to say to the mercenaries who had previously looked down on them: "We are not just a bunch of mud-legged men who can only farm the land. ”

But even so, the Agri could not help but admit that the mercenaries had experience that they could not match, such as now, when the Agri sentry tried to sit up, he was suddenly held down by his companions.

Then he heard a faint sound.

It was the sound of footsteps on the snow, and although it sounded a little far away, it was clearly a lot of people.

"Let's get back and report the news." The Agri felt their teeth chatter as they spoke, there were only two of them here, and the camp behind them was still far away, although Alexander had told the outpost to be vigilant at night, but when the enemy really approached, Agri thought that there was no partner around the two of them now.

"Be careful, you'll be found if you run back like this," the mercenary whispered in the Agri's ear, then pulled him back quietly, "Don't panic, we're only the closest to them, and there are others nearby." ”

The Agri nodded, not knowing whether he felt that his companion's words were right or that he was cheering himself up.

In the light of the snow, you can see the edge of the trees in the distance, and although it is impossible to see how many people are inside, the faint sound of the branches being touched spreads from one side of the trees to the other, and it sounds as if a whole group of people are approaching them.

The two sentinels cautiously ran towards the camp by the river, though it was unknown how many people came, but it was enough for the news to get back.

A sound of tearing through the air came from behind him, and the mercenary almost didn't think about it, and the Agri, after seeing a black shadow of the cold arrow flying not far from him, couldn't help but shout and run forward as he straightened up and ran forward.

The mercenary immediately jumped up and ran to the side, knowing that the Agri was hopeless, and that his shouting had brought himself the greatest danger.

Sure enough, before he had run a few steps, another whistling came from behind, and the shouts of the Agri stopped abruptly, and then fell headlong into the snow.

The mercenary began to run in stride, and the death of his companion bought him a very short time, but he knew that his chance of survival was fleeting, so he began to run towards the camp in spite of everything.

There was a brief shout behind him, and it was clear that the enemy had not expected that there was still one person alive after shooting down the Agri, and when they spotted the figure of the mercenary running in the snow, several men immediately raised their bows and arrows and shot at his back.

The whistling of arrows made the mercenary's heartbeat intensify again and again, but not only did his feet not pause at all, but he also swayed from side to side from time to time when he ran, he was clever not to choose a straight line like the Agri, but to change the direction of his running from time to time, he only hoped that the enemy behind him did not ride a horse.

But his wish was clearly in vain, and when he ran up the slope of the river, and at last saw the fire of the camp not far away, he was terrified by the sound of horses' hooves behind him.

The mercenary turned around and immediately saw a shadow on a horse rushing towards him, and the weapon held high in the hand of the knight on the horse emitted a cold cold light, which made him tremble in fear for a moment.

Although he knew that it was impossible to escape the pursuit of the warhorse, he still screamed in despair and turned and continued to gallop forward, but the shadow behind him quickly appeared on the white snow in front of him, and when he instinctively turned to look, he saw that the knight was raising his sword high above his head.

At that moment there were a few whistling sounds in the night, and with two crisp collisions and the neighing of the warhorse in pain, the knight tugged hard at the reins, and then he turned his horse's head and ran towards the woods.

The mercenary's feet trembled, and he stood in horror looking at the knight who had run back, and then looked back at the two men who were rising from behind a sunken snowdrift, and only then did he finally know that he was saved.

Then he immediately shouted and shouted to the two Agri, who were coming up, as he ran: "Go and tell the news, the enemy is coming!" ”

The two Agri had surprised expressions on their faces at the same time, and the mercenary soon realized that their eyes were not looking at him, but behind him, and he couldn't help but turn his head to look back, and when he saw a group of dark shadows swarming out of the woods, the mercenary couldn't help but let out another exclamation.

Alexander didn't sleep, and Carlo had been gone for a long time and hadn't returned, which made him a little worried.

What made him even more uneasy was that if those people really knew the route he was going to take, then it was likely that an ambush had already been set up on the road ahead.

Alexander knew that he had to pass through Lake Bracciano to get to Sanroni, and although he did not know much about the topography of Lake Bracciano, he still thought that it was a good place to set traps, because according to the map, there was a very steep mountain on the shore of Lake Braccano, and the mountains were densely wooded, although it was not summer, but the bare woods that had frozen and hardened might be more damaging to the march, so it was not suitable to pass, and the only road was between the shore of the lake and the peak.

That was probably the best place to ambush, and Alexander was sure that if the enemy had an ambush, it would be there.

But the sudden sound of the siren in the night suddenly destroyed Alexander's conjecture, and although he realized that something might happen on this night, he just didn't expect the enemy to suddenly appear at this time.

Alexander rushed out of the tent almost as soon as the first siren sounded, and immediately shouted, "There is an enemy!" ”

By this time one of the Agri, who had been running at the front, had already run to the makeshift wall in front of the camp, and with a deft leap of his whole body threw himself directly into the wall, and then he collided with one of his companions who happened to rush over, and the two of them fell to the ground and rolled together.

The mercenaries had already run out of their tents, many of them undressed but with weapons in their hands, while many of the Agri were unclothed and empty-handed.

The sudden attack made the soldiers, who had been peasants before, nervous and panicked, and even though Alexander had warned them to be vigilant at night, many of them were overwhelmed by the panic when the enemy suddenly appeared.

"Don't run around, hold the camp! You fools! A mercenary leader punched an Agri man in the face who was slamming in front of him, and then he grabbed the beaten Agri soldier by the collar and dragged him towards the parapet at the edge of the camp, "Aren't you working so hard just to be useful, and the enemy won't rush so easily by staying here!" ”

The leader's words calmed the Agri somewhat, and when he saw that the other companions were already flocking to the low wall, he followed behind with his spear in his arms at the urging of his companions, and did not stop until he hit the low wall.

"Looks like these guys can't do it at all."

One of the mercenaries looked triumphantly at the Agri who had gathered in front of the low wall, the peasants in their eyes were obviously a little panicked, many of them would only stick their spears out of the wall, and the musketeers, who seemed to be the elite picks of Alexander, were actually standing behind the wall with the spearmen, rather than gathering.

"Looks like our old man isn't doing much either." Another mercenary leader whispered to his companions, "Look what his musketeers are doing." ”

"I hope our enemies are few and not so strong, otherwise this battle may be dangerous." The leader of the mercenaries said with a gloomy face, he didn't expect that this mission, which was originally just to escort a food team, would suddenly become so complicated and terrible, and what annoyed them was that the contract had clearly stipulated that they were going to escort their young employer back to Naples before the business would be settled.

Alexander was already standing in front of the low wall, and he looked closely at the clearing outside the woods on the opposite side.

In the dim moonlight in the sky, you could see that there were groups of figures gathering in the clearing in front of the woods, although they could not see the number of people, but they should be quite a lot, otherwise they would not dare to attack their own team with cavalry.

"Sir," said an Agri musketeer, who held a musket that was noticeably larger than the others, and when he put it against the wall, it looked like a cannon. ”

Alexander nodded silently, he knew that this man was friends with Carlo, he used to be the best hunter on the farm, and now he was a musketeer like Carlo.

So far, Alexander's musketeers have used muskets that are mostly modified from the previous arquebuses, so it can be said that they have different styles, and many muskets are different because of the advantages and disadvantages of the craftsmanship when they are manufactured, and there will be some big and small problems from time to time.

This was because he didn't have that much money to make flintlock pistols on his own, not to mention the fact that the weapons used by these musketeers could only be regarded as the simplest way of firing fire, and although the musket of this way was indeed much faster than the arquebus, it was not much more powerful than the arquebus.

In this case, it is completely unnecessary to spend money on such things.

"Maybe it's time to think seriously about how to train a professional musketeer," Alexander thought to himself, looking at the muskets next to him, which were obviously thicker than the others, but everything had to wait until the current difficulties were over, "What happened to the Bohists?" ”

"My lord, they did as you were told," the musketeer lowered his voice, as if he was afraid of being heard, "and they were careful not to be noticed when they walked at night. ”

"I thought they were going to have to spend the night working for nothing." Alexander muttered to himself slowly, and then he stood up.

Standing behind a chest-high wall in the cold wind, Alexander first looked to both sides, and when he saw that the Agri gathered behind the wall were looking in his direction, Alexander simply jumped onto the wall.

"My lord, this is too dangerous." One of the Agri soldiers below shouted worriedly.

"They're far from us," Alexander smiled at the soldier, and then he jumped out of the wall and walked slowly along the edge of the wall, "Don't be afraid, they're no more powerful than the French people in Bruyni, they just appeared too suddenly, and don't forget that you still have companions with you, and whoever escapes is throwing your share of the danger to your companions, and you will kill the people next to you, and you will be driven out of the village when you return home in the future, think about it, do you still want to run away, And as long as all of us are not afraid, everyone has a chance to survive. ”

There was a commotion among the Agri, and people looked at each other, and the nervous mood slowly calmed down.

Flickering black shadows in the distance moved towards them, some of which were interspersed, and the fast-running shadows were clearly cavalry.

They quickly crossed the gap between the ranks, and then circled in a circle to both sides.

Alexander frowned slightly, he stared at the group of cavalry in it, and when he saw that they had finally stopped and turned around far away, and then the banks of the river began to run parallel to the river bank towards the camp, his eyebrows could not help but raise slightly.

"My lord, come in!" One of the mercenaries shouted loudly, not necessarily for Alexander's safety, but for the fear that if the employer died by the Bracciano River for no apparent reason, his reward might be lost.

The cavalry rushing along the river bank on both sides was getting closer and closer, and Alexander held on to the low wall and prepared to climb over.

At that moment, he heard a loud roar in the night, followed by a roar from far and near!

Then one of the tents in the camp was smashed into the sky by a huge projectile!

"Artillery?!"

Alexander, who never expected this hand, was stunned for a moment.