Eshua did not simply walk in a straight line that cut into the steppe, but first walked west to the edge of the Gato steppe, and then north along the coastline of the Inland Sea. Although he returned to his heart, he did not want to repeat the farce of being driven out of the steppe by a large number of elite Gatu cavalry.

At first, Esher did avoid a lot of unnecessary trouble, but as he got closer to Livingston's borders, the attacks became more frequent and intense. At first, there were just a few unscrupulous rangers with no tribes, followed by a succession of scout cavalry, and finally the tribes on the outskirts of the steppe poured out one after another, evolving into a large-scale siege and interception along the coastline. A rider with his back to the water guarding a herd of well-blooded wild horses could not but make the people of Cato red-eyed.

The bow and arrows in Eshy's hand were really prepared for this moment, no matter how many ill-intentioned Xiaoxiao were there, if they approached Essho's range, an arrow would inevitably be nailed into his throat. The Cato were shocked and horrified to discover that the lone rider's archery skills were comparable to those of the green eyes of the great eastern forests, and that a single bow could unfold a sharp and precise killing network. None of the raiders were able to come within thirty paces of their target. And the rider seemed to have an inexhaustible physical strength, an inexhaustible supply of arrows, and the tired tactics of the Catu, which the Cato were proud of, were being cracked little by little by his deadly and uninterrupted sniping. The encirclement they formed was supposed to limit the range of their prey, but now they were forced to follow their prey.

At first, Esher feared that the Cato would give up their cavalry harassment and drown him with a rain of arrows—he had no difficulty dealing with the rain of arrows, but he couldn't protect every horse, but he found himself completely worried. The Gatu people who surrounded Eshua were made up of various tribes on the outskirts of the northern steppes, and were not monolithic. Esher was surrounded for three days and three nights, and even saw squads of different tribes fighting among themselves. What's more, the extremely extravagant tactics of intensive arrow rain can hardly appear in the tactical thinking of the Cato people, which is rooted in barren resources.

Entangled all the way, Eshua more or less sensed the love and fanaticism of the Cato people for horses. Sometimes he doesn't kill the riders, but instead focuses on sniping the galloping horses and destroying the formation of the raiders, so that once the chain reaction of collapse is triggered, Esher doesn't need to waste feathered arrows. And whenever a horse falls, the Cato react much more strongly than when they see their compatriots shot. Whenever a procession of riders was wiped out by Estheu's arrows, a number of Catubs would rush out of the encirclement to scramble for the horses that had lost their masters, taking care not to injure them by mistake.

After discovering this, Eshua changed his passive defensive approach and began to become aggressive. The encirclement of the Catotes, though not able to threaten Estheus, was significantly slowing him north. Not to mention that this is the northern steppe, and who knows when the "saboteur" Juda will appear here.

Eshua began to attack the encirclement on his own initiative, and sure enough, the Gatu did not dare to fire arrows at Ye indiscriminately, for fear that the horses would be damaged, so Eshua was able to slash and kill indiscriminately. The Cato saw that their prey was more terrifying than their bows, and the great battle axe flew up and down, as well as the severed flesh and bones. Estheus effortlessly fought his way through the encirclement and fought his way through the encirclement, before a well-equipped Cato hussar intercepted him. The Cato wanted to break up the herd of horses that were following Estheus, and rode away a few horses in the chaos, but they did not expect that there was a burning field, and the formation of the horses was maintained quite tightly, even if a brave rider jumped on the horse, Eshua turned around and shook his hand, and immediately an arrow shot the man down.

Seeing that Esher had torn apart the encirclement, most of the tribes wisely chose to give up, except for the new Cato hussars who followed suit. They carried a large number of spare horses, so they were able to drive their horses under their crotch without reservation, and if the horses were exhausted, they immediately changed on the spot. It was reluctantly embellished behind Aeshu.

Essho finally saw the outline of Fort Awasod on the horizon. He was already very close to the border, but after a long period of endless running and rushing, even the burning field showed a little fatigue, let alone the wild horses behind him. Eshua looked back and hastily counted them, and found that there were two mares, one of which had fallen out of the team at some point, and they were both relatively small in size, and their physical strength and will were unsustainable. However, as long as the border line is crossed, the garrison stationed here is enough to deter the pursuers in the rear.

Fort Awasod became clearer, but Esher noticed a small force of about thirty men in front of him. At first, he thought it was a patrol scout team, but he recognized it as a professional mercenary team from the mixed non-standard equipment, and at the head of the group was heavily armored spear-wielding infantry, holding up shields in the direction of Eshy, and the shields were all equipped with crossbows.

"Lord Baron of Ismorola!" Someone shouted at Estheu, "Go ahead, and leave your pursuers to us!" ”

But Estheu did not let his guard down, although the team in front of him was in a posture of helping him resist the pursuers, the formation that could be lined up seemed to be intercepting him. In addition, the timing of the mercenary appearance was suspiciously clever, and there was no other way to wait here early. All kinds of signs bred a strong vigilance in Eishu's heart, and before he could enter the effective range of the other party, he patted the burning field and signaled to turn around.

The other party obviously didn't expect Eshy's vigilance to be so high, and in a hurry, he launched a random shot, and the crossbow bolts landed in the air. However, Esher soon discovered that this small group was not the only one who was ambushing him. In his path there was a densely vegetated hill, from which emerged two teams of mercenaries of varying equipment, each with a crossbow in their hands. The arrangers of the ambush accurately anticipated the possible actions of Essiu, and handed the real trap to the feet that Eshua would step on.

There was no room for evasion this time, and the mercenaries did not care more about their horses than they did for themselves as the Cato did. With one hand swinging the wolf axe and the other grabbing it in mid-air, Eishu finally dissolved all the crossbow bolts that were fired at him and the burning field. After several rounds of intensive shooting, several wild horses were hit by arrows one after another, and one of the foals was shot in the vital point, neighed miserably, and fell directly to the ground. Fortunately, the damage to the other horses was not serious, the crossbow arrows were of average texture and did not penetrate the skin, and the ambushers also used light hunting crossbows with limited string tension. After the rain of arrows was over, the ambushers did not rewind their blades, but grabbed their blades, poured down from the hillock, and surrounded Essho.

Eshua squeezed the horse's belly with force, and Burning Field suddenly picked up speed as his left hand continued to break arrows from the shaft of the arrow. As he approached the ambush, Eshu lowered his body, splashed a sharp metal locust with his left hand, and placed the wolf axe directly with his right hand, cutting off the shield, blade, and human body that intercepted in his path. His response was decisive enough, but the ambush was too numerous, and even though Eshua cleared his surroundings into a no-man's land almost instantly, he could not use the same means to clear the way for the herd of horses that followed. After all, a few more horses were lost.

But Estheus did not have the spare effort to regret it, so he made such a long detour, and the Gatu hussars who were chasing closely behind him had already closed to a rather dangerous distance. Obviously, this was a ploy, and the Gatu hussars were actually driving Eshu into an already open pocket.

Essho was still keeping an eye out for potential ambushes nearby, but suddenly noticed a huge ballista aimed at him in front of him, and a fine iron crossbow about the diameter of an adult man's arm was mounted on a thick bowstring that had been stretched to the limit. Next to the trigger stood a middle-aged man, who smiled gently at Estheu's incredulous gaze and smashed the wooden hammer in his hand.