Chapter 54: The Mountain People's Village
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Fed looked at the mountain dwellers, the adults holding the hands of the children, who held some rudimentary dolls. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 infoEvery house, every household, did not leave the door of their house, and the poor were neither armed as the intelligence suggested, nor as the nobles had suggested, but each of them had hard weapons and were brave and fierce. Instead, Fid saw fear and worry in the eyes of these mountain dwellers.
One of the old villagers slowly let go of his granddaughter's hand and walked up to Fed, who dodged a few steps when she saw the other man's dirty clothes.
"You... Who are you? We're in the middle of nowhere, and there's nothing... Is it really what the robbers are talking about?"
"We are not robbers, we are mercenaries from Dumu City and Square Tower City, and we will not harm the innocent. The purpose is to investigate whether there are rebels hiding here," Fei De asked his subordinates to put away their weapons first, and the old man's granddaughter relaxed a little and no longer grabbed her mother's arm, "Old man, are the people you are talking about the rebels?"
The old man glanced back at the villagers behind him, there were hundreds of villagers, but most of them were skinny and malnourished, "We don't know who those people are, they come from far away, sometimes in the iron ore mountains, sometimes in other villages. ”
"Other villages refer to other villages of mountain dwellers, right?"
"Yes, there are five villages like ours in this area, and we don't have the largest number of people in this village, but they are located right at the exit of this iron mine, so we can often come into contact with those miners. The old man's drooping eyelids were almost completely covered by his eyeballs, but he still spoke quite clearly.
Feder asked the old man to look at the dozen or so miners and overseers, and the old man immediately said that these people were not mountain dwellers, but probably those who had come from afar to mine iron ore.
If Vittorio's information is correct, the small village must have been notified by the rebels, but the villagers here were not instigated. Moreover, it can be seen from the eyes of these poor mountain dwellers that they do not have the ability to confront the mercenaries, and if there are instigated mountain dwellers in the rest of the villages, it is estimated that with the physique and equipment of these people, six or seven mountain people together cannot defeat a single mercenary.
Maeve proposes to bypass the village immediately and continue the pursuit of the rebels, which, according to the map of the mountains, is not too far from the next village, estimated to be a twenty-minute walk, but may need to be guided by the locals here. While Fed was still thinking about what to do, Maev had already asked one of his knight subordinates to take out a few gold nuggets and hand them to the old man.
"This is enough money for you to tear down all these dilapidated houses and rebuild them!" Mafu waved her yellow cloak, "Hurry up and take it, and then send a few young and strong villagers to take us to the next village, we still have important tasks ahead of us!"
The old man didn't dare to take the gold, and the hundreds of villagers behind him were indifferent, just looking at Meifu with the most vigilant eyes.
"What!?Take it!Is it too little?I can give two more!"
Fed stepped forward and stopped Maevie's reckless behavior that was about to continue, "Old man, you don't want to be involved in the strife of us outsiders, do you?"
The old man immediately replied, "We have always lived here, and even those outsiders who have come to mine iron ore have coexisted peacefully with us, if we anger them..." It seems that the hill dwellers of this village are not as fierce as Herman suggests.
Fidel knew that the dozen or so miners were useless, so he decided to immediately recall most of his subordinates who were guarding the small forest, and then leave a part of the mercenaries to keep an eye on all the miners and stay in the village for the time being. Fed also took the gold nuggets that Mei Fu didn't want to take back, and put them in the old man's hands, saying that this was the money for temporarily renting some vacant land, and they would leave a part of the mercenaries to guard the dozens of miners.
Although the old man kept pushing back, Fielder insisted on keeping the nuggets behind. Fei De said that he did not need the residents to act as guides, but only needed to explain the situation and topography of the nearby villages.
Fidel knew that he had compassion to make such a seemingly "stupid" decision. You know, if they take both the miners and the mountain dwellers hostage, they will definitely be able to deal with the mixed forces of the rebels and villagers that will appear. But he didn't choose to do so, perhaps because of the emotions in the poor villagers' eyes, or other concerns, but in any case, Fidel just let his men stay in the village for a while, and then walked deeper into the mountains with all the assembled subordinates and Mave's knights.
At this time, the sun is about to set, and the moon will be seen soon. However, the nobles such as Feder and Herman had made an agreement that they would continue to advance even at night, which was one of the conditions of this mercenary mission.
All the mercenaries and knights took out their torches and began to advance through the rough terrain, but there were not many trees. Although this is a mountainous area in the Iron Ore Mountains, the center of the mountain, surrounded by several high mountains, is a basin, so from the beginning of the village left, everyone began to walk downhill.
According to the old man and the map, Fei De did not set out directly to the second village with a large number of people, but made a detour to the south to another small village with the smallest number of people, estimated to be only a dozen households, and that place would not be found even by those who mined iron ore, and should not have been incited. At night, it is very dangerous to fight in such a very unfamiliar mountainous area, and it may be safer to wait for Vittorio's information at this time.
To Fidel's reassurance, Vittorio's fourth intelligence letter also arrived in time, and the contents of the letter gave Fide a new direction.
"There are already some rebels who want to emerge from the mountain pass where the checkpoint was set, and the outcome of the battle is unknown, but it should be impossible to escape. But there were still thousands of rebels who never left the mountains, and hundreds of mountain dwellers were successfully incited to join the rebels. Although their weapons were rudimentary, this was their land, so the regimental commander and other captains must be very careful not to engage the enemy at night, and if they could, wait until the next morning, and the encirclement and suppression troops under the command of Herman will encircle the mountains and take the initiative to attack according to the situation. ”
Feder handed the letter into the hands of the crowd, and after reading it, Mafu and the captains agreed that it would be better not to take the initiative for the time being. In particular, Ayana said that the terrain ahead was very difficult as shown on the map, and that the small villages behind the terrain were also built halfway up the mountain, and that if they could occupy it and live peacefully with the mountain dwellers, it would not be a problem to survive the night.
"Then let's send a few people to communicate with the villagers in front of us..."As soon as Mei Fu's voice fell, a shout came from behind their army of more than 200 people.
"Mistress Maeve! it's an enemy!" shouted a knight from a high place, but before he could step down from there, an arrow flying from a distance struck him in the eye, and he fell to the ground with a scream.
"Everyone immediately retreat to the front!" Fei De immediately decided, "Patrick, you and I will break off the queen together!"
"No, Fed, you have a wrist injury, and after I break it with Winoki, you go forward with the Cavaliers and retreat to that small village!" Patrick's tone was firm, and one sentence made the reckless Feder understand his determination.
Without saying a word, Fei De continued to rush forward with Maev and Ayana, as well as more than a hundred mercenaries and the rest of the knights. When he looked at the map, he knew that he could reach the village by passing through the road ahead, and that place was so high that it was easy to defend and difficult to attack, and even if he encountered the rebel troops at night, he could fight.
After the advancing troops had walked some way, Patrick and Winotic's broken troops followed, and the mercenaries they sent to the front said that some enemies did appear behind, but those enemies just kept attacking them with bows and crossbows, and they were not very accurate, and they did not mean to approach and surround them.
Fyder suddenly realized that something was wrong, but just as he was about to stop the knights who were running at the front, the high terrain on the left and right and the small village in the distance ahead lit up together - that small village was a trap! All their mercenaries were driven into a trap that was surrounded!
Mafu was so frightened by the light of fire that she fell to the ground, the heroic female knight had long since disappeared, and even her most important blonde hair was stained with mud.
A man appeared at the entrance of the small village in front of him, and a large black eagle stood on his shoulder.
"Captain Fidel, we're meeting again!" Clermont exclaimed, and the eagle beside him hissed along, echoing throughout the valley and village.
Fidel also saw two figures appear next to Clermont, one woman with a crossbow in her hand, and the other with two short-handled guns stuck in her back, if I guessed correctly, those two were the rebel cadres who attacked him that night, and it seems that Vittorio handed over the information to him was not wrong in the slightest.
Patrick and Winoki led a small number of mercenaries to retreat and fight, but they also noticed that the retreating mercenary team in front of them entered a low-lying valley, and there were ambushed rebels in front of them and on the high ground to the left and right, and it was estimated that if Fei dared to take another step forward, they would shoot arrows hiding in the dark.
Surrounded by mercenaries and knights, Fidel kept thinking of what to do, and Ayana had already set up an arrow with a short wooden bow and aimed it at a tree on her left.
"It's too late to surrender now. Clermont's voice came from a hundred meters away, but after he finished saying this, the entire valley fell into a brief silence.
"Throw your torches out on either side!" Fed issued his last order of the night.