It is already a cliff with a hundred feet of ice, and there are still flowers and branches. Walking out of the valley full of ice and snow and biting cold, although the spring outside is cold, but the strong spring has broken free from the shackles of winter. Mr. Long Clumber Haisen, an Army "guerrilla colonel" from the Free Confederation of Ulster, rode a single-cylinder two-wheeled motorcycle, wearing a Norman Army's winter trench coat, and drove unhurriedly on a straight dirt road. Prior to this, the soldiers of the Special Forces had already reconnoitred the target area, and in the small town of Gastie, the enemy had set up three cordons, with fences, barbed wire, and several checkpoints. Obviously, with just over a thousand soldiers guarding such a vigilant defense system, the forces must be very loose. Of course, they are equipped with trucks, horses, motorcycles, and bicycles, and they can quickly mobilize their forces to respond if an alarm is raised at a checkpoint or cordon, so the special forces must be careful to find a breakthrough in the enemy's cordon. No, they intercepted the motorcycle of one of the enemy's heralds on the way, hoping to find some important documents on this man, but unfortunately, the herald was ordered to deliver an official letter informing the friendly troops of the Gesti garrison that the friendly units had been replaced.

The content of the letter was bland and boring, and the only value was to make the special forces clear the names of the enemy's two garrisons, the 19th Special Garrison Regiment stationed in the small town of Gesti, and the 1331st Chasseur Battalion stationed nearby. According to the information obtained earlier, the strength of the enemy's garrison regiment is equivalent to half a regular infantry regiment - maybe less, and the so-called chasseur battalion is a kind of basic combat unit of the Norman army, its troops are usually in hilly or mountainous areas, generally belong to the light infantry battalion, good at defense and mobile combat. Through surprise interrogations of enemy heralds, they learned the exact location of the hunting battalion, its current strength, and the disposition of its weapons. They are stationed far away, and if something happens on this side of the town, it will only take more than two hours to march in the normal way, which means that the special forces must set up some blocking positions on the way to prepare for all kinds of unexpected situations.

Having "drained" the available information from the Norman herald, the officers of the Special Forces felt the need to send someone to replace him to Gastie, on the one hand, to reconnoiter the enemy's alertness in advance, and on the other hand, to make various preparations for the "rescuer" in advance. Weiss volunteered to go on a mission, but Octavier initially disagreed, and the Secret Service soldiers were eager to try, in which case he lobbied on the grounds that he was good at camouflage, Norman and good at close combat, and almost had to compete with everyone on the spot. Time was of the essence, and there was only one chance, Octavier thought about it and agreed to his proposal. So, riding a motorcycle that was not too stylish, Weiss made his way to the enemy outpost. He slowed down when he was still far away, and the seven or eight enemy soldiers on the other side of the outpost did not show much caution when they saw the heralds of their companions coming, after all, it was thousands of miles from the front line.

"Guys, I'm going to your regimental headquarters to deliver orders." Before arriving at the checkpoint, Weiss took the initiative to shout in Romance language.

A sentry stepped forward slowly: "Any news?" ”

"I heard that the war is coming to an end, and we may have to go home soon, and some of the people in it will also go home." Weiss replied vaguely.

The sentry looked at him, and had no intention of checking his papers, so he waved his hand and asked the others to open the sentry pole and let him pass. Breaking through the enemy's first blockade line with such ease was a little too easy for Weiss himself, even a little incredible. However, looking at the relaxed appearance of those sentinels, it didn't look like they were deliberately setting up an ambush. Maybe in the enemy's rear, these days are too peaceful!

He continued on his motorcycle, the road was still so straight, although it was a sandy road, it felt good when riding, there were large areas of farmland around, but some of them looked like they had been deserted for some days. There is not a lot of barren farmland, estimated to make up about a quarter of all fields, which means that three-quarters of the farmland is still tended, and there are a few farmhouses and barns scattered on both sides of the road. Weiss saw from a distance a barn that seemed to be half collapsed, out of curiosity, and at the same time a kind of intuition of reconnaissance, seeing that there was no one around, he rode to the barn, stopped the car, and went in to check it, there was nothing special about the barn itself, but where the walls and beams were broken, it seemed to have been blown up, which meant that there had been a war here.

How can there be a battle here? Weiss thought it was a little strange, this is between the two cordons, not too far from the town, could it be that someone once tried to escape from the town through the innermost two cordons, came here, and then fought with the enemy army catching up here, so the barn was blown up, and my barren fields, maybe also with the battle, what does it matter? After all, in a place with a very stable population, when productivity is relatively fixed, if some people suddenly leave or disappear, it is difficult for their farmland to be cared for by others, probably like this.

Then he looked around, and the rest of the farmhouses and barns, as long as they were relatively intact, were inhabited and surrounded by people. Winter has just turned to spring, and it is not yet the farming season, and the area does not look like there is an opportunity to hunt wild animals, and most people just move around their houses, washing and drying clothes, repairing farm tools, and doing simple tasks. Occasionally, Weiss was seen standing there looking around, and there was no overly surprised expression.

Weiss narrowed his eyes and looked at them, these people were basically not hostile to him. If it weren't for the urgency of the task and the time constraints, he would have been very interested in talking to these Normans to see what kind of country it was, and what kind of life its people lived. There are also these strange traces of battle, where they were born and why they arose.

After a while, he got back on his motorcycle and continued in the direction of the town, and it was not long before he came to the second blockade, which was not only barbed wire, but also a deep ravine that no one could normally jump over.

"Who are you? Where are you going? ”

This time, without waiting for Weiss to speak, the sentries shouted from a distance, he was not annoyed by this shouting, and rode the motorcycle to the sentry post unhurriedly, first took off his hat and windproof glasses, and plucked out his ears to indicate that he had just been disturbed by the sound of the motorcycle, and did not hear what the sentries were saying.

"Who are you? Where are you going? The sentinels asked again.

"I'm going to your regimental headquarters to deliver letters." Weiss shouted at the top of his voice.

His Norman language sounded a little strange, and the sentries stared at him, "Which unit are you from?" ”

"The 1331st Chasseur Battalion, this is my ID." Weiss took the initiative to take out the forged documents that the soldiers of the special forces had given him temporarily, to be precise, pasted his photo and made a fake steel seal. If you look closely, you may still be able to find some clues, but in this case, the enemy sentry is unlikely to see so closely.

Sure enough, the sentry on the opposite side just took his ID and looked at the photo: "You are a new unit!" Fortunately, I will be glad to meet you! ”

Before Weiss left, the sentry asked him again, "By the way, brother, what's the news outside?" About the front. ”

The question was the same as the previous one, they should have heard something before, but they were not convinced, and it seemed that the exchange of information from the outside world was not very smooth, or that it was relatively isolated. Weiss could only say it again as before: "It seems that the war is almost over, and some of us are going home, and some of us are going home." ”

"What does it mean to go home, to go home?" The sentry said with some emotion.

Did the Norman seem to be reluctant to go home because the war didn't have the desired effect and didn't lead to a brilliant victory, or because they were treated much better in the army than they were after they were disarmed and repatriated, or maybe both? Weiss thought to himself, but instead of communicating with the other party in depth, he continued to ride this motorcycle that was not strong enough to pass towards the first blockade line of the enemy. Once you enter the blockade, you will arrive at the target town, and in that town, there are thousands of special people who the Norman Empire intends to protect. They were not dangerous or political prisoners, but some of the more special people—some were expatriate officers, family members of officials, and these people had to pledge their "hostages" here because they did not have the absolute trust of the Norman leadership, some were scientists and their families who were not suitable for living in ordinary conditions during the war, and some were foreigners who were given special care, such as generals captured on the battlefield.

Through the information obtained before, Weiss knew that the innermost blockade line was the tightest and the most insurmountable, so he did not venture to force the blockade line again, but rode around the vicinity several times, carefully surveyed the surrounding terrain, and found out the enemy's situation, including the thickness and depth of the defense line and whether there was a secret sentinel alert.

As it gets dark, the town on the shore of the lake lights up, and from a distance, the lights of the town blend in with the reflection of the lake. Because the target town was such a terrain, the special forces planned two assaults, one by land and one by water, and they prepared some kayaks for this. When it was dark, and it was time for them to get ready for action, Weiss began to approach the innermost cordon of the enemy, and he found a place with fewer patrols. Alone across the trench, cut through the enemy's barbed wire, like those in the movies, as a lone hero, slowly and quietly slipped in. The enemy's sentries guarded such a long cordon that it was difficult for a man who acted more dexterously than a night cat to detect in time. In this way, Weiss crept into the town, and then walked down the street as if nothing had happened.

Unlike the barbed wire trenches outside the town, and the three-step and one-post, five-step and one-sentry alerts, this town seems to be like an ordinary town, most of the people wandering the streets are people in civilian costumes, they are walking unhurriedly, children are laughing, even pets seem very leisurely, walking for a long time before occasionally seeing a few people in uniform, they are also looking at the people around them from a distance, and have no intention of interfering with their actions. There seems to be everything on the various signs in the town, and at this point people are heading to a theater in the center of the town. The specifications of a small town should not have such a theater, but considering the special purpose here, the theater is very necessary to divert people's attention and bring people physical and mental pleasure, there are a few uniformed people at the door of the theater, they check the bills of every passer, it is said that the security of the theater should not be the responsibility of the military, but for such a crowded place, their security measures are extremely strict.