Chapter 17: The Jungle

Ray sat under a large tree, and carefully sharpened an oak stick with a machete, one and a half meters long, the thickness of a fist in the middle, and gradually tapered on both sides, with a few grooves cut out on it. At his side, six bowstrings were twisted into something the thickness of a little finger, and as long as the wooden stick in his hand was sharpened, they could come in handy.

Three days earlier, the Van army had dealt a crushing blow to the enemy in front of the last wooden barrier, and after losing more than 7,000 infantry and wounding nearly 20,000 enemy soldiers, the troops retreated towards the interior of the gorge. Early in the morning, the coalition army was attacked head-on, panicked for a while, and forgot to order the Bicester Iron Cavalry to pursue, and after staying on the battlefield for a day and a night, he advanced into the gorge.

In the middle of the Teke Canyon is a road that allows three horse-drawn carriages to travel side by side, which is already one of the few wide roads on the mainland. On the side of the road, there are woods, and after the dense woods stretch for three or five miles towards the cliffs on both sides, they stubbornly leave their companions at a height of more than 100 meters from the ground, and then disappear after sparse trees. Such conditions were obviously not suitable for large corps operations, so after the Van Legion secretly retreated, the Smart coalition could only follow slowly, unable to launch a large-scale attack.

Vi's heart was much more relaxed, she was sure that her plan was correct, with the complex terrain and dense jungle in the canyon, they could slow down the advance of the coalition army in a good time, and weaken the impact of the Bicester Iron Cavalry as much as possible, maybe, maybe they could destroy the enemy legions in the canyon. Wei laughed silently, she was too naïve, this was impossible.

A few birds flew leisurely through the air, and a few leaves fell gently. In the past three days, the Van Imperial Army has retreated for nearly thirty miles, and the coalition forces have stopped in place for some reason, as if something has happened within them, and for a time they are unable to continue to pursue Vant's army. Wei shook her head, forget it, let them go, anyway, it will be a day to delay for a day, it is much better than having a duel with the other party now.

Her eyes looked at Lei in the distance, this young man who had been officially appointed as the commander of the First Division was actually less than eighteen years old? Although he really wanted to teach him how to use the military's standard Dou Qi, and he had now been promoted to a bronze fifth-order knight because of his military merits, Wei thought about it for a while, and now he didn't have time to cultivate those Dou Qi methods, and maybe he would be injured because of his reckless luck, so he dispelled this idea. However, the wooden stick in Ray's hand is really strange...

Ray twisted the stick vigorously, and the stick made a 'whew' sound, and it returned to its original shape strongly. Ray grinned happily and began to tie the twisted bowstring into the groove on one side, and then, with all his strength, he bent the stick a little and tied it firmly at the other end. A longbow that Lei used to hunt in the mountains appeared, the rough bow body was more than a meter long, and the thick bow body did not look like it could be pulled by human power at all. As for the bowstring the thickness of the little finger, no matter how you look at it, no one can pull it.

He gently tugged on the bowstring with his thumb, and with the sound of a 'squeak', the longbow was drawn into a full moon shape, and Ray sighed with satisfaction, great, it was really his luck to be able to find such a suitable oak stick. Three days of leisure time were spent on it. However, judging from the feel, the power that this bow can exert will be terrifying. Ray tried to set up a sharp arrow on the bowstring, and then pulled the bow and shot the arrow, and with a 'whoosh' sound, there was no arrow shadow at all, and almost at the same time as he opened the bow, the feathered arrow had been nailed to a small tree five hundred feet away, and the small tree with the thick mouth of the bowl was pierced by his arrow.

Auf near Ray was taken aback, he stared blankly at the arrow shot by Ray, shook his head, and muttered: "Monsters are monsters, how can an ordinary soldier pull such a bow?"

Lei grinned: "Ordinary soldiers can't do it, elite soldiers can, Lord Auve, I had experience when I was in the mountains, the greatest power of this longbow is not to shoot directly, but to shoot at an oblique angle, and after the special long bamboo arrow falls from the sky, it can easily shoot through the body of a big bison." ”

Auf was stunned for a moment: "You're kidding, that's the lethality of a strong crossbow." ”

Ray looked at Auf with a serious face: "I'm telling the truth, if you use projectile, ordinary people can shoot a distance of 700 feet, and the arrows falling from the sky have a terrible lethality." If the wind is favorable, it is not difficult to fly a thousand feet, but it is much easier to deal with the opposing magicians, whose shields are also made of three layers of leather, right? ”

Auf pondered for a moment, then nodded lightly and said, "Maybe you have a point, if we have time, or if we can survive this battle, we can try." If that's the case, why do we bother to make expensive crossbows? And you don't need to shoot accurately, do you? There aren't a few perverted archers like you. ”

Lei laughed: "You don't need it, as long as you can shoot the arrows out and maintain a certain density." In our mountainous area, hundreds of hunters can shoot their bows at the same time, and they can hunt a pack of wolves in an instant... Oh, and I didn't mean the Silver Wolf Legion. ”

Auf laughed, and Wei's voice was already heard, "Ray, Off, come here." "Beside her, I don't know when there are already several high-ranking generals, all of them looking worried, it seems that something bad has happened.

The two looked at each other and hurriedly walked over, Ray hung his bow on his body, and carried a bayonet in his hand, looking nondescript, which made the generals and soldiers on the road stunned. The two of them sat down casually three meters in front of Wei, and Auf asked, "My lord, what's the matter?"

Wei puffed out her eyes and looked at Lei, and scolded in a low voice: "Lei, look at your appearance, where do you look like a division commander? But forget it, at least those soldiers also admire you very much, you seem to be able to do anything... Do you have any extra food in your ranks?"

Auf and Lei were stunned, and Auf was shocked: "Why, is there something wrong with the food?" By the way, they fled after being defeated, and brought three days of rations at most, I should have thought of this. He explained to Ray: "It is the custom of the Imperial Army that every soldier must prepare three days' worth of dry food before the start of the war, and eat and replenish it at any time, so that no matter when the war starts, three days' consumption can be guaranteed no matter what... However, if the Dragon Legion only had three days' rations, it would be a trouble. Auf explained here, but the generals of the Dragon Legion were already flushed with shame, and they bowed their heads one by one.

Wei shook her head and said, "No matter how much food is still carried in our infantry brigade? first solve some problems for the brother troops, and then we will think of a way, no matter what, we will hold out for seven days, and after seven days, the private army corps of two provinces can come to meet us, and they will bring sufficient food and grass at that time." ”

Auf frowned: "My lord, no matter how we save, the food carried by our infantry team is only enough for so many of us to eat for a day and a half, after a day and a half, what should we do?"

Wei's brows were also furrowed, and her slender eyebrows were tightly wrinkled together, adding a touch of sadness to her face, but it was very beautiful.

Lei's heart trembled a few more times, and he hurriedly put aside the strange thoughts in his heart, and asked puzzledly: "Is food so difficult to solve?"

A fifth-order golden knight of the Wild Dragon Legion smiled bitterly, slapped him on the shoulder and said, "Lei, without food, how can soldiers fight? If we don't have the strength, we can't walk or wield a knife, and we can't hold on. ”

Ray looked at him strangely, until the golden knight thought there was something dirty on his face and rubbed his face desperately for a while, then Ray said, "However, there is food everywhere here." ”

Wei was stunned for a moment, and then drank: "Lei, what nonsense, where is there grain here? The widest part of the Turk Gorge is more than 20 li, and it is more than 400 li long, and there are no inhabitants in it, so how can there be grain there? No one has opened up grain fields here." ”

Lei quickly stood up, walked to the bottom of a tree, and pulled out a large patch of wild grass casually, he said with a smile: "These are wild vegetables, after soaking them in boiling water to remove the bitterness, they taste very good." This is called gray rabbit ears, as well as cat's tooth cabbage, purslane, tiger moss, etc., are very delicious wild vegetables, here are forests everywhere, that is to say, there are wild vegetables everywhere, wild vegetables under a tree are mixed with a little grain, and the gruel boiled out is enough for three soldiers to eat for a day. ”

Before those generals could react, Lei had already untied his bow and arrows, pulled out his bow, and shot an arrow, and after a while, a wild fowl weighing more than two catties fell from the sky. Ray smiled and said: "As for these game, no matter how big a soldier's belly is, one such bird is enough for him to eat for half a day, right? In the past few days, I have looked on the road, and there are the footprints of wolves, black bears, tigers, and other fierce beasts in the Turk Canyon, and any black bear is enough for a squadron soldier to eat for several days... There's food everywhere, I'm not wrong. ”

From Wei downwards, all the senior generals were stunned. These nobles, they never had to worry about logistics when they fought in the past, and with the powerful military strength of the Van Empire, they have never been in the predicament of running out of ammunition and food, so they can't understand at all that there are actually many things to eat in the mountains and forests.

Wei swallowed her saliva a little depressedly, shook her head and said, "Really... We didn't think of it ... Imperial Military Academy, it doesn't seem to have any relevant courses, right?"

Jerry leaned over and said a little depressedly: "Yes, the Imperial Military Tutorial always teaches us how to fight a winning battle on the basis of perfect logistics support, but it has never taught us how to find food in the process of retreating after defeat." Oh my God, our empire hasn't lost a war for thousands of years, and it's really made us all... ”

Wei shook her head, sighed, and said: "Okay, Lei, that's it, the main task of your first division is to collect wild vegetables and beasts, well, what about the military discipline officer? ”

Lei snickered in his heart: "You nobles don't know these things, but the soldiers know it, you ask those soldiers who grew up in the mountains, hehe... However, it seems that the soldiers of the Five Beast Legion and these three major military systems are all selected from the vicinity of the imperial capital, and perhaps, they don't know these common senses. It's cheap for me, and it's a great achievement. ”

Another day passed, with this day's time, the Van army arranged heavy defenses in the dense forest, about a mile long road was filled with rocks and wooden piles, Bicester Iron rode here and only dismounted and walked, and in those dense forests, there were countless traps, falling wood, sharp bamboo thorns and other murder weapons. Ray brought out his hunting skills in the mountains to the fullest, and countless evil traps came from his mind. For example, near a water source, he asked his subordinate soldiers to arrange countless lassoes, and as soon as a person stepped on it, he would immediately be pulled into the sky as a whole. Although you can't kill the enemy, it's enough to dislocate and break the enemy's feet and neck, which is even more uncomfortable on the battlefield than killing them.

After understanding the actual effect of these traps, Lian Wei and the commanders of the legions were enthusiastic to make more than a dozen lassoes and put them around a clearing in the forest.

Auf shook his head and said, "Could it be that our Imperial Military Academy will still open a mountain trap course in the future? Really, in the past, wars were fought around the city, where is there such a fight in the woods? Hehe, such a sharp piece of bamboo, you dare to sit down and see if your ass doesn't bloom. Auf smirked and stuck a few sharp pieces of bamboo into a trap.

Jerry grinned and commanded a dozen soldiers to arrange a few nest bows, which were originally used by hunters in the mountains to ambush tigers and other fierce beasts. Jerry smiled and said, "Well, it's not compatible with the knightly code, alas, but since the knight code has been violated, then it's better to simply violate it to the end." Their 500,000 or so troops attacked our 100,000-plus troops, which would have broken the rules of fair dueling. ”

And several high-ranking generals under Wei were each armed with a strong bow similar to Lei, and muttered: "Knight duel, you can't use crossbow arrows, it's not bright and unfair." However, if you are a few countries fighting one of us, ******, why do we pay attention to fairness?" These high-ranking knights are the few people who have outstanding archery skills and can pull such a strong bow without using their fighting spirit, and at this moment, they are all assigned to Thunder...

After four days of delays outside the canyon, meeting after meeting, Carlin, after wearing out his mouth, finally got the generals of the empire to agree to mobilize the main forces of their own country to attack the Van Empire. As for the Levle Empire, their advance legion was completely wiped out, and without Kalin's request, their emperor had already angrily sent all the soldiers of the 'Blades of Grass' legion 110,000 people, together with the 30,000 heavy infantry of the 'Divine Blessing' legion of the Imperial Capital of the Lefu Empire, to rush over and kill them.

Carlin pouted slightly, as if he was saying it to himself, and it seemed to be saying it to others: "Alas, the Levin Empire knows that it is going to divide the spoils, so it is very active, they have less than 250,000 regular troops in the country, right? Of course, the countries that have worked hard have the most abundant spoils. ”

The generals and nobles of the other empires looked at each other, their eyes flashed with a cold light, and they hurriedly walked out of the tent.

Karin immediately summoned Shapoko: "Is that barbarian of Bobkat already taking people away? Sure enough, he is a monkey who is anxious, and he can't reason with him, and now he is about to catch up with the army of the Van Empire, right? That idiot, what is the use of their iron cavalry in the Turk Canyon? But it's only 120,000 iron cavalry, forget it all dead, it will be a siege war in the future, and they will not play much role... Dead, we are at ease... Hmm, how much grass do they have left?"

Sha Poke sneered and said: "Their grain and grass are now supplied by us, after all, all the grain and grass in the four southern provinces have been looted by us, and they will have no food if they don't rely on us." ”

Carlin touched his chin, nodded, and muttered: "Then, you should be careful, don't give them too much food and grass, hehe, just let their soldiers be half-full, anyway, they can fight, but you can't let them have too much power... Or, when their reinforcements arrive, simply cut off their food supplies. It is always good for us to consume more of their national power. ”

Shapoco was silent for a moment, and asked, "Miss Karoka has an urgent letter, she asks how you are doing here. Everything is fine in the imperial capital, all the defense systems of the imperial capital have been taken over by her, and she has killed several envoys sent by the Duke of Sharu to the imperial capital, and the situation is very good. ”

Carlin waved his hand and said with a treacherous expression: "Of course it's good, of course it's good, soon I can conquer the entire Van Empire... Tomorrow the army will march overnight, no matter what, give me a break through the Teke Canyon, and then, it will be a flat river, and we can sweep the entire Van Empire. Vant's legion has been almost wiped out by us, and with those private armies, it is impossible for them to be our opponents. ”

The 120,000 iron horsemen led by Bobkat had already arrived at the place where Wei and them were resting during the day, and the sentry in front suddenly returned and reported: "Your Highness, the road ahead has been cut off, and a lot of rocks and logs have been piled up on the road, and it is impossible to pass through. ”

Bobkat frowned, and immediately ordered: "Then, all dismount and pass on foot." Walk through the woods on both sides, and be careful not to leave the road more than a mile, and beware of ambushes inside. ”

Several generals took the promise, and the herald who ran back and forth went. Bobkat looked at the moon in the sky overhead, and then at the dark canyon, and he whispered, "Damn it, but, in any case, the Van soldiers are not as strong as our soldiers, and one of our soldiers can always defeat two of them." They still have about 100,000 people, we have 120,000 people, as long as everyone doesn't get separated, how can they endure me?"

The Bicester Iron Riders dismounted one after another, pulling their 'Thunder Beasts' into the dark forest.

For these cavalrymen who grew up in the northern desert, the biggest ambush was just a bunch of soldiers jumping out from behind the rocks, and they were not accustomed to hunting, and they could not imagine how few terrible dangers were hidden in the mountains and forests at night. Of course, this cannot be blamed for Bobkat's incompetence, because even in the military textbooks of the Van Empire, the traps that Ray suggested were not written, and Ray was simply hunting these enemy troops as wild beasts. And the Van soldiers are hunters who hide in the dark.

With his strong strength, Bobkaat walked at the front of the queue on the right with his sword raised, and beside him, there were hundreds of high-ranking knights, including nine mad bear knights guarding him tightly.

Bobcart listened dissatisfiedly to the 'clicking' of branches, leaves, and blades of grass under his feet, and said, "It's strange, why do they have so many trees here? ”

As soon as he said this, he quickly closed his mouth, for he heard his own voice coming far away, and even in the woods on the other side of the road, there was the frightened gasp of the 'Thunder Beast'. The Bicester warriors froze and continued to walk forward. They really didn't know much about the woods at night, they didn't know that the sound of 120,000 people in the dense forest in the middle of the night was enough for the enemy to notice ten miles away.

Thunder ghostly led a few high-level golden knights to the front for a while, and with his hunter's instinct, he bypassed the trap set during the day and reached the edge of the trap area. He vaguely saw countless black shadows swaying in front of him, and suddenly muttered in his heart: "Idiot... What an idiot, walking in the middle of the night in the dense forest, you don't want to die? Not to mention our arrangement, a poisonous snake can kill your most powerful knight. ”

Lei slowly drew his bow and gestured at the tallest black figure in front for a while, and then shot an arrow.

With a 'whoosh', the arrow had barely detached from the bowstring before reaching Bobkat's door. In the dense forest of the dark night, it is possible to have such a terrible quasi-head, and only the hunters in the mountains have such ability, and of course, only the best of the hunters have such instincts.

Bobkat quickly raised his left hand, grabbed the arrow with one hand, and continued to advance a foot in Bobkaat's palm with strong force and sharp arrow, and then stopped. Bobkaat felt a hot sensation in the center of his palm, and the rapid flight of arrows made his iron gloves hot. He was shocked in his heart, who could shoot such an arrow in such a dark environment? He already felt that his face was bleeding.

A few more feathered arrows flew over, a little weaker than the one just now, but it was enough to make the seven golden knights of the Bicester Empire fall to the ground, and they groaned in low voices, except for two people who were shot in the face and died, everyone else was shot in the thighs, arms, etc.

Bobkaat raised his giant sword angrily, took a few steps forward, and scolded in a low voice: "Come, knight of the Van Empire, I challenge you. ”

Ray sneered: "Dear lord, I am an ordinary commoner, the honor of a knight does not exist for me, I am happy when you die, why should I duel with you? What is your status in the Bicester Empire? If I can have the same title as you, I don't mind coming out to duel with you." ”

Several golden knights beside Lei laughed in a low voice, anyway, the master will be Lei, and it is also Ray's business to deal with challenges. As Ray said, he didn't have any honor to speak of, so he didn't need to go out and get stabbed.

Bobkat had already heard where Ray was, and with a roar, he strode forward, and a white fighting aura came out of his body, and the cold air made the nearby plants and trees hang with hoarfrost, which looked so terrifying. With a swing of the giant sword, a thick sword qi was about to burst out, and then Bobkat stepped on a noose accurately, shook his right foot, and the huge body with three heads, which was taller than ordinary people, flew upside down into the sky with a 'whew'.

With a 'boom', his sword qi flew out and hit the ground heavily, smashing the ground and shaking for a while, and a deep hole appeared on the ground.

Bobkaat quickly twisted his waist and slashed at the vine that bound his feet and neck, but the white fighting spirit on his body was like a lighthouse in the dark night. Before his knight pounced, three arrows roared and shot at his face, throat, and lower body.

Bobkat's sword sliced through the vines, and his huge body fell from the air in disarray, and the three sharp arrows lost their target, only the one that shot at the door in front of him grazed his thigh, taking away about two taels of flesh. Bobkat roared in pain, got up quickly when he landed, and continued to pounce forward, and then he gave the order that he regretted: "Attack with all your troops, and kill the vile Vant." ”

Hearing Bobkat's order, Ray and the others were stunned, this idiot, this idiot, he has already suffered, is he still not willing to give up?

However, more than 20,000 Bicester men were already rushing towards this direction with heavy weapons. Ray shook his head, and a hundred feathered arrows shot out quickly, and nearly eighty Bicester soldiers fell to the ground with a miserable howl, and then, with a few golden knights who also shot a large number of enemies, turned around and left.

The Bicester approached the first trap area, and the dense lassoes kept flying up from under the fallen leaves, and the big men screamed and were pulled up, and they only felt trembling all over, as if the bones were all pulled apart. Their feet and necks are even more painful, and some have noticed that their feet and necks have been sprained or even broken. Even more unfortunate were the ones who had come across the poisonous vines, the spikes of the vines piercing their flesh and causing their entire thighs to swell rapidly.

More than a thousand Bicester cavalry were dragged into the sky in embarrassment, hanging in the air like wind chimes and swaying back and forth.

Bobkaat was lucky enough to make it through the lasso area, and then he stepped into a pit a few feet in diameter, sinking half of his thigh. Fortunately, he reacted quickly, and before the bamboo thorns below pierced the soles of his feet, he had already carried enough fighting energy to shatter the sharp bamboo thorns. Bobkaat pulled out his leg with difficulty, but found that a small hole had been punctured in the palm of his foot, and after being silent for a while, he suddenly roared: "The whole army retreats, retreats, damn, what the hell is this place, not a place to fight... Despicable Vaticans ... Save your companions, retreat, retreat... ”

Hundreds of cold arrows were fired, and dozens more Bicester soldiers groaned and fell to the ground, and Bobkat angrily grabbed a wounded golden knight and fled with him out of the forest.

A dozen Vat generals let out laughter and sent Bobkat and their brigade away from afar.

In just half an hour's contact, more than 500 Bicester people were killed, but more than 1,500 people were strained in the foot, and more than 3,000 soldiers were stabbed, arrowed, and sprained.

Bobkat listened angrily to the report of his subordinates' casualties, gritted his teeth, and let out a series of curses in anger.

At night, the Turk Canyon is even more secluded.