Sid Warren sat on a knee-high rock, smoking a thick cigarette, and sighed softly as he watched the dim sunlight scattered into the sky from the top of Mount Luoshan.

He was an old resident of Elena, and the Sid family had taken root here since there was no town in the mountain plains before Elena. His ancestors were traders in the mountains, then they worked as hunters in the mountains, and then they cultivated wasteland and farming, and gradually settled down in this plain. But in Sid's generation, because he offended people carelessly, he was robbed of all his property, made a slave, and lived at the bottom of society, not even qualified to be a human being. Sid thought his life was over, but he ran into a desperate Gastens, drove out those big landlords in three or two clicks, gave him the status of a new farmer and four acres of land, and gave him hope again.

However, this hope of security did not last long, but he planted a crop of potatoes on his own land, and the war began. First the Western Military Region and Prince Eliot, and then the Negru Republic, Elena's army fought back and forth, and was beaten to the doorstep by the enemy. Sid signed up to join the army, but he was too old to help. The adults in charge of the army assigned him to the militia sequence, and asked him to take care of the few trails on Luoshan Mountain every day while he was farming, so that no enemy spies would touch him. In the beginning, there were also nearly two regiments of soldiers who did the job. But later, the battle situation was tense, and two companies of mobile troops were left behind in Luoshan, which was responsible for taking care of the entire mountainous area. And these mountain trails were left to him alone.

One person, guarding the small half of Luoshan.

After smoking the last cigarette in his hand, Sid knocked the cigarette pot on the stone, knocked off the pyroxene inside, and hung the cigarette pot on his buttocks. He stood up, looked up at the sky, and bent down to pick up the fading pyroxene.

At the end of the day, it was time to eat, and the guards at night naturally had a patrol column to take over, so he didn't have to worry too much.

But at this moment, the sound of rustling came out of the woods. Sid, who was already familiar with the sound, knew that someone had crossed the trail into the mountains again. The situation in Elena is tense these days, and although there are not many people who want to enter the mountains through this trail, there are still a few. If he is alone, he can handle it alone, and he also killed two suspected spies who couldn't match the code. And when two or three or even three or five people appeared together, he sounded the siren first, called the left-behind soldiers of the two companies, and dealt with it together. In this way, it can be regarded as keeping the peace of this mountainous area.

Sid was an old mountain man, and as soon as he heard the voice, he knew that there were a lot of people coming. He backed away, hiding himself behind a bush and reaching for the trumpet. Now in the war, the two companies that stayed behind to maneuver moved quickly, and as long as he blew the horn, someone would soon come to support.

The sound of rustling in the woods became louder and denser, and suddenly, people came out of the trees, and then, one by one, two, three, four, came out of the woods one after another. The people gathered at the exit of the trail and surrounded a man in the middle.

Sid's hand reaching for the trumpet stopped in mid-air. He didn't know those people, but he knew the clothes of those people, which were the gray uniforms peculiar to Elena's soldiers, neither ostentatious nor imposing, and the colors that no country's armies would use, but they won the favor of Chairman Garstens. Since those people were wearing gray uniforms, they must have been Elena's troops. Sid breathed a sigh of relief and stood up from his hiding place.

"Hey! What kind of troops are you? ”

The men were blasted by Sid's voice, and almost instantly pointed their guns at him. Sid could even hear the grunt of the steam pack. He took a step back and raised his hands.

"I'm a farmer from Elena, my name is Sid, and I'm in charge of guarding the mountain road. Which unit are you? Why is it coming in from the trail? ”

"This uncle", a man who looked like the leader, walked out from the back of the line. Sid watched him get closer and closer, watching his face become clearer, and he vaguely felt as if he had seen this person.

"I'm Gastens Warren, I've just come back from the battlefield, how is Elena doing now? Where did the enemy hit? ”

Gastens Warren?

Sid opened his mouth slightly, but did not speak. Elena is in a bad situation, and even a marginal figure like him has heard a lot of rumors. Now when he saw Gastens appearing in front of him, he felt that his whole body was trembling.

"Chairman Gastens! You're finally back! ”

Sid shouted, and without saying a word, pulled out his horn and blew it with all his might. The loud sound of the horn echoed in the mountains, gradually spreading, stirring up a flock of birds to circle and chirp in the air.

However, contrary to Sid's prediction, the soldiers guarding Gastens rushed up shortly after he blew his horn, cutting off the music that had just been played. One of the young, dark-faced young men pressed Sid's hand tightly with his hand, and his voice was fierce.

"Say, why are you blowing the trumpet?!"

"I'm ......", Sid was stunned by the reaction of the men, and he paused for a moment before continuing to answer the question.

"We have two companies of soldiers not far away, and I sounded the trumpet to call them over. They waited like me for the chairman to come back, and the chairman came back, and everyone must be happy! ”

Sid felt that his explanation was in place, but the soldier and his companion still clung to him, leaving him feeling a little puzzled and aggrieved.

"How do we know that what you say is true? ——”

The soldier was about to speak, but was interrupted by Gastens, "Alright, little Leyson, this isn't a liar. Let's take him and hide to see who is coming, don't we all know? ”

"Oh......"

The soldier, known as Little Leyson, whispered yes, and then let Sid go. But he didn't apologize, and he didn't apologize, but looked at Sid with suspicion a few times, and then took him with him and hid in the bushes with everyone. Sid was dissatisfied with the soldier's behavior, but thinking of the current situation, he also knew that such caution was necessary to protect the safety of the chairman. Together with these people, he remained silent, waiting for the appearance of mobile border guards.

"Uncle, I'm sorry that Laisen was a little reckless just now, we are also worried about Elena's situation, and we are afraid that if the enemy controls the inside of Luoshan, we are a little offended, I hope you don't mind."

Gastens moved directly to Sid and apologized personally. Sid didn't mind this matter in the first place, but now seeing that the chairman was so polite to him, he was even more honestly afraid, he waved his hand again and again, indicating that he didn't mind, but he still didn't dare to speak. Seeing this, Gastens smiled and patted him on the shoulder, asking about the recent situation. But Sid has always been guarding the border, and most of the news he knows is heard, which is vague and difficult to distinguish between truth and falsehood. Gastens talked to him, but with limited information, he asked no more. A group of people sat or crouched, hiding in the woods, waiting for the team to arrive at the sound of the trumpet.

After only a while, the sound of horses' hooves appeared in the distance, and nearly 200 people from the third and fourth companies of the border column responsible for guarding the Luoshan area appeared near the place where Sid sounded the trumpet. As soon as Gastens and Leyson saw these people, most of their worries were relieved. These people were wearing Elena's gray uniform, and they should be their own troops. However, to be on the safe side, Gastens arranged for Leyson to go over with Sid first, confirm his identity, and then walk out of the woods.

"Chairman's !!!!"

The soldiers of the third and fourth companies were both surprised and delighted to see Gastens. They didn't expect Gastens to appear in front of them in such a way, and after confirming the identity of the chairman, they surrounded him and talked nonsense. Gastens reached out to reassure everyone and asked about the recent situation. The soldiers were a little more well-informed than Sid, and it didn't take long for Gastens to figure out the general situation.

The army of the Neglo Republic has been forced to the banks of the Liuyin River, ready to attack at any moment. Prince Eliot has breached the New Sand Pass, and Elena could be captured by the enemy at any time.

"There's no time, let's go to Elena!"

Hearing this, Gastens no longer had the heart to gossip. Before he rushed back to Elena, he was a little worried that the Negru Republic would take the opportunity to make trouble in his absence, but he didn't expect Elliot to really dare to tear up the covenant and fall into the ground. Now that Elena is in such a situation, it is largely due to Eliot's proposal to form an alliance. Without that proposal, Gastens would not have taken the production brigade and the guerrilla brigade to destroy the enemy's steam artillery, and Elena would not have concentrated a large number of defensive forces on the west flank, thus leaving the east flank empty and giving Eliot a loophole.

"Let's go back and settle Elliot's account, and the top priority now is to rush back to Elena immediately!"

Since Gastens has made a decision, the soldiers naturally carry it out unconditionally. The third and fourth companies gave Gastens more than twenty horses, and arranged for the fourth company to accompany the escort, before he and Gastens reluctantly said goodbye. Sid Warren, an old farmer, let out a long breath as he stood on the side of the dirt road and watched the chairman ride away from the warriors. Carey Warren, the commander of the Third Company, who had remained in place, came to his side, took the cigarette pot from his waist with great skill, and turned out pyroxene and tobacco from his waist bag, put it to his mouth, took a deep puff, and then let out a satisfied moan.

"He's the chairman......"

Sid muttered to himself, his gaze still fixed on the chairman's party. They were galloping on horseback, kicking up a tiny cloud of dust under the setting sun.

"Not really," Kerry Warren nodded, "I've met the chairman a few times before. One time we were training as a team, and the chairman came to see us and was shooting with us on the field. He is also very good at targeting, and his hit rate is not much worse than that of our best comrades. At the time, I thought he was young, and now that I look at it, I still think he is young. ”

"He is a man favored by God, and he is already our chairman at the age of eighteen. What were you doing when you were eighteen and when I was eighteen? I don't understand anything. He is the chairman, the one who is favored by the gods, so naturally he is different from us", Sid did not hide his simple faith, "However, the chairman came back with such people? What about the big troops? And what about our production brigades and guerrilla brigades? With only these 20 people, it's not easy to win the enemy, right? I've heard that there are 70,000 or 80,000 enemies. Just rely on these two dozen people, how can you win? ”

Sid's question was so difficult for Kerry Warren that he took another deep puff of smoke rings and paused for a long time before giving an answer with some uncertainty.

"Maybe there's an ambush outside, ready to take the enemy's back route. The chairman is so powerful, and he uses soldiers like a god, it's normal that we can't understand and don't know. ”

"Well, that's nature," Sid nodded, took the pot from Carrey's hand, took a puff of his own, and smiled and spit the smoke ring in Carry's face.

"Little Carrey, the chairman is back, so do we still need to run?"

Sid asked for the notice that Kerry had brought before, because the enemy had already broken through the Luoshan Pass, and it was no longer meaningful to guard these trails on Luoshan. According to the order received by Carey, an old farmer and militia like Sid can evacuate tomorrow, flee into the mountains with his guys, and then go down the mountain when the battle calms down. Sid didn't want to leave, and now that Gastens was back, he naturally asked about it again.

"Of course not", Kerry scratched his head, his face full of trust, "The chairman is back, and we can naturally win against those Negru dogs." Why should we run when we can beat them? ”

"That's right," Sid nodded, handing the pot to Kerry. Kerry took the last puff and helped Sid knock out the pyroxene inside, handing him the pot along with the pot.

"I'm leaving, and I still have patrol duties, and I can't spend it here all the time. When the chairman came back, according to what the chairman just instructed, don't talk nonsense, we are still waiting to give the enemy a good look! ”

"I know, I know," Sid laughed like a rat in a granary, "and I wouldn't say that." ”

"That's good."

Kerry Warren took his leave, then turned and got on his horse and left. Sid stood still and watched Kerry's team go away, then glanced back at the dim sunlight on the top of Mount Luoshan, carefully placed the smoke pot and pyroxene, and set out on the way home.

A song gradually sounded in the mountains and forests, an old song sung by the Sid family for generations, telling the story of a hunter who hunted in the mountains, met a beautiful fairy, and fell in love. The old and melodious singing echoed in the forest, gradually drifting away, so that Luoshan at dusk also brought a trace of joy.

The sky will be dark.