It was really cold in the mountains, and the members of the condolence group, who wore a full set of warm clothes, buttoned the front of the cloak as well. Even so, it was not enough, and all the members chose to walk and exercise to make themselves feel warmer. The only ones who remained calm in the procession were probably the mules, who set out from the warm Aegean Sea, carrying oak barrels and bags of dried meat, and marched with the condolence group over the mountains and mountains to the camp of the Eastern and Western Roman armies.

The team walked around and around for seven or eight days, looking at the mountain and running dead horses, looking at the two mountain roads that were close at hand, it was likely that a deep canyon would suddenly appear in the middle, and a straight-line distance of dozens of meters needed to walk seven or eight miles more to get around. The most infuriating thing is that there are no locals to lead the way, and the condolence team relies on guides from various military stations, and these Eastern Roman guides can sometimes lead the wrong way themselves.

Finally arrived at the rest station, and the members of the condolence group walked into the door with heavy steps, not wanting to say a word. The guards in the barracks enthusiastically helped them unload their goods and arrange for mules. and led the people into their temporary quarters. Everyone didn't expect to be treated in the city for a long time, and the big wooden house with a leaky wind felt very good in everyone's eyes.

Inside the big wooden house, there were rows of three-story marching beds, and as soon as the exhausted people had put their marching bunks in place, the soldiers invited everyone to soak their feet. The pool was not big, not deep, and the hot water was just up to your ankles. The ratio of men to women is about 2 to 1, and more than 30 people are divided into two groups according to their gender, and they sit on the long wooden benches by the pool and soak their feet silently. The feet slowly warmed up, and then the body slowly warmed up. The guard brought two large buckets of hot water and added them to the two pools. Everyone rolled up their trousers and continued to soak their feet.

When it got better, the courtesan girl in the condolence group sang the newly learned tune softly, "The mountain road here has eighteen bends, and the waterway here has nine consecutive ......"

The singing was in their ears, and the tired crowd raised their heads, and many of them already had smiles on their faces. This is a song brought by the regular fleet from the Great Song Dynasty, and the sisters of the Jiaofang are naturally the earliest learners. Listening to the sisters singing the local songs of the Great Song Dynasty in the theatrical performance has been the spiritual sustenance of those Great Song Dynasty travelers in Europa Province. In this damn place, there is nothing more comforting than the songs of your hometown.

After singing, there was already laughter on the side of the sister paper. Everyone wiped their feet and washed their hands, and their mood was much better during the meal. After dinner, a fire was lit in the big room, and the inside of the house felt warm. Everyone asked the courtesan sister paper to sing another song, and the sister paper did not refuse, stood up and thought about it for a while, and then sang: "In the place where the peach blossoms bloom, there is my lovely hometown." Peach trees are reflected in the clear water, and the peach grove surrounds the beautiful village......"

Many people hummed in a low voice along with the courtesan girl's paper, which was a military song composed by Zhao Guan's family during the Northern Expedition of the Great Song Dynasty army, and everyone in the army and officials could sing it. Among the recognized top ten most popular military songs, "Where the Peach Blossoms Bloom" ranks fifth or sixth. The rankings are all the opinions of the people, just like who is the first in "Singing the Motherland" and "My Motherland", and there is no final answer to this debate.

Regardless of the ranking, everyone loves these vernacular songs. The scenery described in the song is the scenery that everyone has seen, which is particularly intimate. The Great Song Province of Europa is the territory of the Great Song Dynasty, and the Song people of the Province of Europa do not feel like this. The land with peach blossoms, poplar trees, big rivers, and rice flowers told in the song is the hometown they identify.

When the song was finished, everyone applauded. Everyone was in a good mood and had rested, so they talked about whether they wanted to move on. As he was talking, he watched the darkness outside, and it didn't take long to hear the sound of rain. Everyone knows that you will definitely not be able to go today, as is the case in the Mediterranean mountains in winter, and you don't know where the gusts of wind come from, and soon after entering the mountains, it will bring rain.

There were no single rooms in the camp and at night men and women lay in their dresses on the three-tiered marching beds. It wasn't until the guard bell rang quickly that some people woke up in a daze. The men rolled over, drew their weapons in the dim light of oil lamps, and rushed out the door. There were only about thirty people in the camp, and if there were a large number of enemies attacking at night, hiding in the house would be a dead end.

The sky was dark, and the rain had stopped. The cold and wet wind blew their faces, and everyone shivered, completely losing their sleepiness. Outside, shouts of slaughter were heard, and the camp guards raised strings of lit lanterns on several tall poles on the wall, and the camp was immediately much brighter inside and outside. The shouts and killings outside the camp immediately became more intense, and the screams rang out one after another, and the battle situation should be extremely bloody.

When the screaming completely stopped, there was a call outside. After the exchange, the door of the camp opened, and with the sound of horses' hooves, the heavily armed cavalry stepped into the camp from the darkness. Even though they knew that these people were friendly soldiers, everyone in the condolence group felt a chill on their backs.

The cavalry rushed in, led by the camp guards, and headed straight for the stables. When passing by the condolence group, there was a faint smell of blood in the air. The cavalry was silent and did not greet anyone. Some of the cavalry turned their heads to look at the people of the condolence group, and the cold light reflected in the eyes under the shadow of their helmets sent chills through the hearts of the condolence group.

The guards came over to greet the people of the condolence group, "The enemy has been killed, and now there are cavalry in the camp, everyone have a good rest." Back at the residence, the girls who stayed inside whispered what was going on outside. The man didn't go into battle, he could only talk about what he saw. The posture of the cavalry made them all feel that this was a battlefield, not a deserted mountainous area. So the narrative is also very short.

Listening to the movement outside, I don't know when everyone fell asleep again. When I woke up the next morning, I had breakfast and found that only the mules of the condolence group were left in the stable. Asked where the cavalry went, the guards said that they rested for a few hours and set off before dawn. Many also wanted to be able to travel with the cavalry and use them to protect the condolence group. When everyone was disappointed, they heard the captain sigh: "These cavalry are really hard. The regiment commander's sigh came from the heart, chasing the barbarians in the mountains in such a cold weather, he couldn't even sleep, and the hardships can be imagined.

When he set off, the regiment commander took everyone around in a circle, first to the place where the battle broke out yesterday. At a glance, the courtesans couldn't help but look away. I saw nearly a hundred corpses lying on the ground. The men stepped forward to take a closer look, and gasped even more. The corpses on the ground were men, women, and children, all of whom were killed regardless of age or gender.

The Han Chinese of the Great Song Province of Europa belonged to the 'active service' formation, and many of them served on ships. They could see that many of the barbarians had not been killed in battle, but had been taken prisoner and had their throats slashed with a knife. The attackers were clean and clean, and they had no intention of sparing their lives. Can you be so ruthless? The commander of the regiment, who had praised the cavalry not long ago, had such an idea. Looking around, everyone else had unbearable looks on their faces.

No one wanted to stay in this miserable Shura field, and everyone set off immediately. After walking for two more days in the cold wind, I finally saw a large camp. The camp was set up in a leeward col, and there were two large flags on either side of the camp entrance. On the left is the Western Roman Empire's gold double-headed eagle flag on a red background, and on the right is the Eastern Roman black double-headed eagle flag on a gold background.

The gate was heavily guarded, and even when they saw that there were guides and reconnaissance troops in front of the condolence group, a group of heavily armed troops still remained vigilant and came up to interrogate. After the exchange between the two sides, the condolence group was handed over to the guards at the gate, and everyone thought that they would be brought into the camp, but they did not expect that they were just arranged in an open space outside the camp. After waiting in the cold wind for a long time, I finally saw the Europa Provincial Teaching Team with the coalition forces come to greet them in person.

When I entered the camp, I saw that there were not many people in the camp, and during the conversation, I learned that the troops had been sent out to exterminate the barbarians. Thinking of what he saw a few days ago, the leader of the condolence team couldn't help but ask: "Is it all killed to exterminate the barbarians?" ”

Hearing the subtle emotions in these words, the faces of the members of the teaching team suddenly became ugly, and Sima Rong, who was the leader, said unhappily: "Why don't you kill and keep it?" ”

was scolded by their own people, and the condolence group knew that something was wrong, and asked tentatively: "Are our people injured?" ”

"What a wound!" Yang Sixian next to him said angrily.

was so angry, and the condolence group also felt a little aggrieved. When they entered the camp where the Great Song Teaching Group was located, the Teaching Group read the letter from Yang Congrong's envoy and introduced the situation. During this time, the Eastern and Western Roman coalition forces worked hard to exterminate the barbarians, thinking that the number of barbarians was small, mainly concentrated in the Iron Fort area. The Iron Fort is the only iron ore mine in Serbia, and without its output, the barbarians would have to fight with stone or wooden weapons. The original plan was to storm the Iron Fort in one fell swoop and fundamentally weaken the barbarians' fighting capabilities.

The initial extermination was more or less as expected, and then the process began to deviate from expectations. The barbarians are more numerous than expected, still a lot more. Wherever the coalition forces went, the barbarians retreated. When the coalition forces left, the barbarians harassed the logistics line. The number of barbarians was initially miscalculated, and the pressure on logistical security was increasing.

A month earlier, the all-out rebellion of the local guides used by the coalition forces had put the front in jeopardy. Speaking of this, Yang Sixian gritted his teeth, "We see that there are barbarians who are pitiful, so we will leave them alive and let them be a guide." Unexpectedly, those barbarians found an opportunity to kill the three of us! It's really a wolf's ambition, and it must not stay! ”

The members of the condolence group were stunned, these three people were definitely not members of the coalition army, but members of the Great Song Teaching Team. The members of the Great Song Teaching Team will not fight on the front line, but in a relatively safe position. Three more people died in such a situation, and the coalition forces must have suffered a lot of casualties.

"And after that?" The head of the condolence group hurriedly asked.

"After that? Then solve it completely. Yang Sixian's voice was full of uncontrollable murderous intent.

The head of the condolence group couldn't help but shudder, thinking back to the Shura field-like battlefield outside the camp, he felt that things had been strung together. The outbreak of such a horrific killing was not a private decision of one force.