After a midnight trek, Black Cloak drove a wagon of six pounds of gold to an abandoned mine in the middle of the woods.

This kind of waste ore is common in the mountainous areas of Lorraine, which are full of mineral deposits. From the outside, the dense mine tunnel mouth looks like a king-size anthill beehive, and the mine tunnel inside is criss-crossed, like a maze. Once upon a time, it was crowded and hot, and when the mineral deposits were exhausted, they were quickly abandoned. Due to its remoteness from cities and towns, it is rarely frequented by adventurers except for idle adventurers, but in times of war, such abandoned mines can become a refuge for those who flee or a hiding place for those who resist......

At this time, the sky was twilight, and the black cloak on horseback followed from behind, and the two entered a tracked mine entrance together. In terms of size, not to mention ordinary horse-drawn carriages, even trucks can drive into them.

About a quarter of an hour later, a group of more than a dozen riders in fur coats followed fresh ruts to the vicinity of the abandoned mine. Leading the way for this group was a one-eyed man, with wrinkled facial skin and a somewhat gray complexion, and the only eye that showed cunning and greed.

Except for the howling north wind, the huge abandoned mine is quiet, there is no human figure, no warning signal, no sentry or barracks, but every deep mine road may hide one or more pairs of vigilant peeping eyes, and every dark mine road may shoot deadly bullets. As a result, the riders did not go straight into this pocket-shaped abandoned mine. Some of them dismounted and climbed the ridge with spears to seize the vantage point, while others continued to block the way in and out of the abandoned mine.

Although reluctant, under the coercion of the riders, the one-eyed man trembled and rode into the abandoned mine, but he only dared to wander around, probing his brain, and did not dare to approach any of the mine crossings, let alone enter them alone. As a result, he went round and round around the abandoned mine, and was not killed, nor was he killed, but the riders outside did not urge him, nor did they come in to see it himself, but waited there without hurry.

After about half an hour, a mechanical roar was heard in the sky. I saw three Norman warships descend from the clouds and hover hundreds of feet above the ground, and the bow guns were aimed at the abandoned mine. Then, one of the Norman battleships lowered the frame, and the rider sent a man to the bottom of the battleship to communicate with the crew in the frame, and the crew took out a field telephone from the frame and gave it to the rider, and then the frame rose back to the battleship, and the direct communication between the air and the ground was carried out in real time through this wired telephone.

After another half hour, there was a cacophony in the direction of Wallens. Armoured combat vehicles were seen driving the way, military trucks following suit, and a large number of vehicles drove along the abandoned tracks to the abandoned mine. Hundreds of Norman soldiers quickly disembarked and set up a blockade on the perimeter of the pit, surrounding them and firing them with field guns towed by trucks. As long as the upper peak gives an order, he can pour artillery fire on the target.

From the appearance of the Norman reconnaissance outpost to the arrival and completion of the siege by air and ground forces, there was no unusual movement in the abandoned mine, but the fresh ruts extended to this point, and the Normans believed that the resistance was hiding there. With all the backups in place, the riders entered the scrap mine with their toes in high spirits. They deliberately unbuckled their collars, revealing scarlet, glaring collar badges.

Only the one-eyed middle-aged man is still the same as before.

"Surrender or die!"

The horse came to the middle of the abandoned mine, and the leading rider roared vigorously.

But there was only an echo here, no response.

The leading rider frowned, he waved his hand to signal his entourage to come forward to investigate, and the two riders dismounted decisively, pointing a gun at the one-middle-aged man to the mouth of the mine where the fresh ruts had disappeared. At that moment, a smoking thing suddenly flew out of the mine.

"Pineapple Bullet!" Someone let out an exclamation in Norman.

After the explosion, several people at the mouth of the tunnel were all discouraged. The riders picked up their large-caliber revolvers and shot into the pit with a bang, but it obviously didn't help!

"Retreat! Fall back! The leading rider angrily beckoned the crowd to withdraw from the mines, and they certainly couldn't have been frightened by a single pineapple bullet. On the contrary, the Jackrice Bullet convinced them of the fruits of their efforts in the middle of the night: this was the secret lair of the Resistance!

The riders withdrew on their front feet, and the Norman battleships in the sky and the Norman artillery on the ground immediately opened fire. The rumbling sound of artillery startled the birds and birds in the mountains and forests to fly in all directions, and the violent explosion filled the abandoned mine with smoke and dust, and I saw that the mountain was collapsing and the ground was cracking. It's an absolute disaster for those who are in it!

Five minutes later, the shelling stopped, and after another seven or eight minutes, the smoke and dust in the abandoned mine had cleared, but the outline had changed dramatically. The shelling of this magnitude directly destroyed many mine crossings, and it is expected that a large number of mine tunnels at the depths also collapsed, but this was not enough to ensure that the resisters were cleared. The Norman cavalry, who had served as reconnaissance outposts, re-entered the abandoned mine, shouting at the unblocked mine entrance, trying to persuade the surviving resistance to surrender, but still receiving no response.

Persuasion to surrender failed, and heavily armed Norman infantry began to enter the abandoned mines. They were in teams of ten to twelve men, with riflemen, machine gunners, demomen, and flamethrowers, especially the latter, carrying a large tin can, and a long tubular flamethrower in his hand, with flames dancing on the sprinkler heads, like flame demons coming out of purgatory. When the fire dragons rush into the mines, people can feel the scorching heat from afar, and if it is combined with desperate wails and screams, it will give people the illusion of purgatory.

Outside the abandoned mine, next to an armored command vehicle equipped with radio equipment, a particularly tall officer held a telescope in his hand, intently observing the ongoing clearance operation in the abandoned mine. He has a wide forehead and a high nose, and there is a heroic spirit between his eyebrows, and before he has fully entered middle age, he has already worn a silver collar medal with a red background, and a golden eagle-shaped medal hangs on his neck, which is a manifestation of outstanding military achievements. In the eyes of most Normans, such an officer was an admirable character, but the fly in the ointment was that he had a succinct short haircut, not the long hair characteristic of the aristocracy, which meant that he came from an ordinary family, and unless he was appreciated by the elite, it would be difficult for him to cross the invisible chasm and become one of the top ranks of the military world, even if he was outstanding in ability and loyal to his superiors.

Except for the spinach bullet that didn't kill even a single Norman soldier, the scrap mine was a Norman "one-man show" from beginning to end. So the officer, who was at least half a head taller than the average Norman soldier, said to his adjutant with an intent, "Ah, Quagrar, you say...... If those rats are hiding in a pit hundreds of meters deep, are we going to block all the exits, or are we going to go in and clean them up? ”

This lieutenant is the height of an ordinary Norman, his physique is not particularly burly, and his appearance is also ordinary, if there is anything special, those bright and agile eyes faintly reveal his unusual agility.

"It stands to reason that the exit can be blocked, but here's a very real question: why did the enemy choose this pit to hide? In addition to the possibility of having a clean water source, I think there should be access from elsewhere. If you think about it, as long as there is a way out, they don't have to fight with us, and in fact they don't have to fight with us. ”

The officer responded: "Well, your analysis is correct, the enemy should have a way out. In this way, our men have to go in, and the enemy can flee quickly, but their equipment and supplies cannot be transferred immediately, and we can still gain something from this trip. ”

The adjutant looked up at the battleship suspended in mid-air: "With such a big pomp, if you don't gain anything at all, I'm afraid it will be difficult to escape punishment!" Anyway, it's still very early before dark, so if you simply search thoroughly, you may be able to catch some old and weak soldiers who can't escape yet. ”

The officer agreed, so he called the herald, and was about to give the order, when a young non-commissioned officer leaned out of the door of the armored communication vehicle: "Colonel, we have received an urgent telegram, and the message is still being received, but judging from the first half, the situation is not very good......"

The tall officer glared and said, "What do you mean it's not good?" ”

The young non-commissioned officer wanted to speak and stopped, but the tall officer had to walk over patiently, and when he heard the other party's whispering, his face immediately changed greatly.

The adjutant stood aside, the general content in his ears, and the expression on his face became solemn. At that moment, the roar in the sky changed in pitch, and when I looked up, I saw that the three Norman warships were rising and turning, and the telephone lines used for air-to-ground communication were also cut and left behind by the crew.

"Could it be...... Is this a trap set by the enemy to lure us here so that we can attack Wallens? The tall officer speculated hatefully.

The adjutant held his chin and pondered: "Not necessarily! ”

The tall officer's face softened slightly: "What do you think?" ”

"You should remember that the enemy disappeared for a while after successfully ambushing our troops outside of Slane, and then, when we received information from the 'carrion' that the enemy wanted to attack Wallens, I wondered what the enemy should remember about Wallens! Blowing up the thermal power plant, cutting off our electricity supply, so that we could not organize production with the equipment of the factories in Lorraine? Well, they have our two field guns in their hands, and then they get the shells, and secretly transport the cannons and shells out of our warning range, bombard the power plant facilities, and achieve the goal, which sounds logical, but sir, think about it, how much of the things produced in the factories in Lorraine can be used on the battlefield? The adjutant spoke quickly, and even so, it still felt like his expression was far from keeping up with his mental reactions.

"Your analysis is correct, this is indeed a logical hole that can be easily overlooked." The tall officer paced in place with his hands behind his back, and said as he went, "But if their real purpose is not Wallens's thermal power plant, why should they try to get shells, just to increase their combat firepower?" Or a sneak attack on our warships? ”

"If the information we received from the enemy prisoners of war was accurate, and we were ambushed by a group of reservists who were not even soldiers, then they must have used better weapons and equipment than we did, and there was no reason for them to expect two ordinary field guns to increase their firepower...... According to this logic, they must have been premeditated, and most likely had nothing to do with the thermal power plant in Wallens! What exactly could that be? ”

Looking around and pondering for a long time, the tall officer's eyes suddenly widened: "Could it be that their purpose is to lure us out and then set up an ambush to annihilate us?" ”