Having just left the frontier fortress, James IV was extremely nervous. And the eight hundred infantry, brought out of the fortress, surrounded the perimeter three times. Fifty Scottish knights, on the other hand, surrounded James IV twice.

In order to guard against a possible attack by the enemy with heavy crossbows, James IV sat in the only four-wheeled carriage in the border fortress. The carriage was covered with a cloth so that outsiders could not see what was going on inside. And James IV, in the carriage, also wore a full suit of plate armor......

Then, James IV also sent 5 knights out of the team, constantly scouting the surrounding environment. If you see something suspicious, report it immediately......

In this way, the team trembled and set out on the road to the north. However, because of the 800 infantry with him, the march of the entire team slowed down. Coupled with the difficulty of walking in the mountains of southern Scotland, the pedestrian travels at a speed of less than 30 kilometers every day. The Edinburgh to the English border is about more than 100 kilometers, and if you change between two horses, you can reach it in one day.

However, Edward only gave one horse per person, and it was a sprint horse with poor stamina. And because of the defeat in the last war, Scotland is now seriously short of horses, and there are no horses to transfer in the border barracks. In desperation, the whole team could only maintain a slow pace of less than 30 kilometers per day.

But along the way, it has been calm, and even, there are no horse thieves who covet this team. This made James IV full of doubts:

"Could it be that I blamed Edward?"

According to the general situation, if Edward really wanted to attack and kill him, not to mention the army ambush along the way, at least, there must be sneaky spies to observe their movements. However, several knights who were proficient in reconnaissance said that they did not see any suspicious figures resembling spies along the way......

James IV was convinced of the words of his knights, after all, reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance on the battlefield were the minimum military basic abilities of knights from knight families, and they had been trained since childhood. Moreover, the few knights sent out by James IV were all old knights in their thirties and forties, with rich experience and fierce eyes. Whether it is a spy or an agent, you can tell at a glance. Even if you can't see it, you will be suspicious. However, it was too quiet along the way......

In fact, James IV and his men did not know that their group had been under the surveillance of the enemy all along. It's just that the people who monitor them have an artifact - a telescope......

With a telescope that can observe their movements from a distance of 10 kilometers, there is naturally no need to send people to reconnoiter closely. These telescopes are made of the finest optical glass in Marin's hands. In order to remove the impurity iron ions, which are the main culprit of the discoloration of the glass, Marin had his craftsmen use high-carbon steel mills to grind the quartz sand used to make the glass into a very fine powder. Then, the quartz sand is "washed" several times using dilute sulfuric acid. If there were iron ions, they would have been dissolved by dilute sulfuric acid long ago. Once filtered, it will be removed with the solution.

In this way, the white glass burned by quartz sand powder with almost no iron ion impurities is very pure and transparent. Used to make a telescope, it is definitely top-notch.

Moreover, Scotland is a sad country with a mountain majority. If it's on the plain, if it's covered by a forest, it's really hard to observe. However, in the mountainous Scotland, the gold medal spies of the North Sea Chamber of Commerce under Marin can easily see the enemy's movements ten kilometers away as long as they climb the distant mountain and stand on a high ground...... Because, the higher you stand, the farther you can see......

Therefore, although no one was sent to reconnoiter closely, the movements of James IV and his party have always been under the monitoring of the gold medal spies of the Beihai Chamber of Commerce. It's just that James IV didn't know.

After all, other countries do not yet have a telescope as a military artifact. And the knights sent out by James IV to reconnoiter were all reconnoitred with the naked eye, where can they compare to an opponent who stands on a distant mountain and uses a telescope to reconnoitre? According to the traditional way of visual reconnaissance, they naturally do not see any problems.

After arriving at the Lauder Valley, which had reached more than 60 kilometers from the border, James IV finally breathed a sigh of relief. Because, further on, there is only a narrow mountain road in the Lauder Valley. It is almost impossible for the English side to want to ambush on this road. At least, it was impossible to send cavalry to ambush. Even if there is an ambush, at most only a group of infantry can be sent to ambush, and because of the need to climb mountains and mountains, the number of people must be very small. If it's just infantry, it's not much...... James IV looked at the 50 knights around him, full of confidence......

Then, he made a decision that he regretted too much -

"Alright, thank you for sending me here. Now that I'm safe, I'm not far away from Edinburgh. Now, go back to your barracks. Remember, the British, we must not let them infiltrate our borders! ”

"Yes, my majesty!" The border guard, with 800 fighters, made a decisive U-turn and began to rush back.

After a night's rest in the village of Lauder Valley, James IV and his 50 knights rode their horses refreshed and continued north.

At this time, they were only more than 40 kilometers away from Edinburgh. If you change to infantry, you may have to march for a day. Replace them with cavalry...... It seems like it's still going to take a day, or even more than that......

In fact, if James IV had been willing to take off his plate armor and throw away the heavy armor of his horse, they would have been able to return to Edinburgh in one day.

The problem, however, was that James IV, after signing that ominous treaty of mutual succession, was always afraid that he would be killed. Therefore, he and his knights did not take off their plate armor to prevent assassination on the way.

Now, James IV was convinced that there would be no more formed English armies ahead to stop him. However, the Assassins who used crossbow arrows had to be guarded against. If the other party shoots a poisoned arrow at him, it will be all over......

Therefore, James IV preferred to continue to wear heavy plate armor with his men, and to have his horses wear horse armor as well, rather than travel lightly.

However, the full set of plate armor and horse armor was very heavy, and what Edward gave them was a group of war horses with very poor stamina, and there was no horse transfer. Therefore, the whole team stops and goes, and cannot go fast. All in all, the speed of the team's advance may not even be as fast as the infantry......

In the afternoon, they had only reached the vicinity of the Gobridge Valley, a dozen kilometers away......

One of the knights excitedly said:

"Your Majesty, the Gobridge Valley is ahead. Once you have crossed this valley, you will enter the southern plains. When you get to the plains, you're home! ”

"yes, it's home!" James IV also showed a happy expression......