"Well, old man, this is the realm of Uxhall. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info" The knight grabbed the reins, his face hidden by his helmet twisted towards the old man, "For the rest of the journey, there will be a patrol of Uxhall and a mercenary on a cleaning mission to protect your safety, our mission has been completed, now we need to go back to the station to make a report." ”

"Sweeping mission?" the young man wondered, "what is that?"

The knight smiled and explained, "Although the world is peaceful now, there are always some greedy fellows who hope to get something for nothing. They tend to gather in the mountains and forests, ready to rob passing caravans or civilians at any time. And in the mercenary club of Uxhall, there is a long-term mission, which is to exchange the heads of these bastards for bounty. ”

"But... "Smack, a smoke pot.

"Alright, Knight, thank you for your care along the way. The old man put his hand into his coat, fumbled for a moment, and took out a money bag, "You have taken time out of your busy schedule to escort us, this is a little bit of our heart, please smile." ”

"Then you're welcome. The knight leaned in, took the money bag, and beckoned to the knights who were left behind, "Well, there will be a chance to see you again." Then decisively turned around and left with his own people.

The young man looked at the vanishing backs of the knights, and sighed, "It's so handsome." ”

The old man snorted, "No matter how handsome you are, you're just a mercenary." ”

"Who doesn't know that the Blood Blade Mercenary Regiment is the training camp of the Knights, looking at his equipment, it is estimated that sooner or later he will be knighted. ”

That's right, although the knight's equipment has to be prefixed with shabby or rough, at a glance, he knows that it is second-hand goods eliminated by the regular army, but after all, it is also sleeveless plate armor, after all, it is also a knight's giant helmet. Where can the sign of Svadia go?

The young man was envious for a while, and suddenly a flash of inspiration "Hey, old man, can I join... ”

Smack, it's another smoke pot, "As long as Lao Tzu doesn't have braids, it's impossible!"

"Really... The lad pouted.

It was said that Mu's caravan came out of Viruga and headed straight in the direction of Svadia. He chose his route rather carefully, starting from the village of Norma, making his way north along the White Pine Forest, resupplying at Aberon in the middle, and then walking to Fort Kerrydan. He has a good relationship with Nayan Almaty, so the Kujit of Fort Kerrydan should not embarrass his caravan. Moreover, in Viruga, it was reported that the Khan of Sega had been in contact with King Ragnar, presumably because he wanted military access to the Dehrim area, and the Kujit did not want to lose the forward position of plundering Svadia, so there should be enough soldiers to ensure his safety at Fort Kerridan. After a little refueling at Fort Kerridan, head north to Fort Ruda, from which you will eventually reach Kulau.

To be honest, for other merchants, this route directly involved three forces, certainly sinister, and, moreover, bypassed almost all the cities in Svadia where they could make money. But for Mu, he would rather maneuver in a few forces than encounter the Svadian Iron Cavalry on the plains of Svadia. Of course, the most dangerous part of the road is from Norma to Abbron, but if they are fast enough, they will be able to reach the territory of Kugit before Harauth can get information and react.

To deal with these red-shirted horsemen, he even purchased a batch of array spears in Viruga. The Array Spear was actually an attempt by the Rhodoks against the Svadian Iron Cavalry, but it was not suitable for the Rhodok soldiers. This spear is five meters long, and at first there was even a ten meter variety, which can only be used by three people. It was designed to kill the knights before their spears and horses collided with them. So, these spears were given a terrifying length.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with this design idea, and the Rhodoc army today does the same, for example, by equipping crossbow arrows on a large scale. It's just that these five-meter, or even ten-meter spears are not suitable for the terrain of Rhodok. Think about it, what it was like to march in the mountains and forests with a five-meter, ten-meter wooden stick? So, in the end, the spearmen and sergeants were given short spears of about two meters, or spear blades. Although there is a certain amount of risk when fighting cavalry, it also increases the speed of marching, and even allows soldiers to use some skillful combat moves, making them more flexible against enemies.

However, Mu didn't have this concern, anyway, what he was guarding against was to meet the heavy cavalry on the plains, as for the forest, after leaving Viruga, how much woodland could there be? However, Mu couldn't help but laugh at himself a little when he looked at the sky above his team, under the hovering harrier eagle, and the black pressed stick. Haven't you gone a little too far? Look at this caravan, how can it still look like a caravan? There are infantry columns, cavalry sentry, and archers pressing the formation, and most conspicuously, there is a special escort wagon in the middle! This pulls out, which one will think it is a caravan? No matter how you look at it, it looks like an army escorting supplies!

What's more, although he didn't like Haraus, he didn't offend the king, and he had no reason to kill himself. Even if you want to deal with Agna, the most priority should be to negotiate, isn't it? It's a big deal to ask for the ransom yourself, if not much, spend some money to ransom her, and Harlaus can also logically cut her down to a commoner, this "best of both worlds" method has long been used by the nobles. In this way, Haraus got his wish to reclaim his title and fief, and this beautiful female bodyguard with the attributes of a knight can follow him with all her heart, isn't it beautiful?

Just as Mu was doing deep self-reflection, a light horse came running from afar, and it seemed that it should be the bounty hunter under the one-eyed dragon, one of the men who had just been sent out to investigate.

The bounty hunter rushed straight to Mu and the one-eyed dragon, and before he could rein in his horse, he shouted loudly, "Chief, about twenty kilometers to the east, there is a team of bounty hunters approaching us!"

"What?" the one-eyed dragon frowned, he looked at the spears behind him, and wondered a little, the one who didn't open his eyes would come to touch this nail that was obviously not easy to mess with?

So, the one-eyed dragon asked, "How long will it take to get to us?"

"Uh, chief," the bounty hunter was a little embarrassed, "they... It's parallel to us, but the brothers in front of us have been observing for a long time, only to find that they have actually been leaning towards us, but only by a small margin. ”

"Cut, let's talk about it earlier. The bounty hunter pouted, "You don't even look at where this is, there isn't much land ahead of Eberon, and the teams on this road will probably choose to repair there, and their target must be Alberon in the west, not us." Made, I almost scared Lao Tzu to death. ”

Mu kept an eye on it, and asked casually, "Is there anything suspicious about that team of bounty hunters?"

"Suspicious ... Not really," the bounty hunter shook his head, "but they are strange. ”

"Oh, what's weird?"

"They're all very strong, but their heads are so small that they don't seem to be well developed," said the bounty hunter, "and you ought to go and see it, it's funnier than a circus clown." ”

Damn, won't... Mu's heart tightened, others might think this was funny, but he wouldn't. Because, the sense of déjà vu in this scene is too strong.

So, he quickly asked again, "Is it strange anywhere else?"

The bounty hunter was taken aback by his nervous attitude, and thought that something big had happened, so he quickly turned his brain, "Well... Well.... Oh, yes!" he slapped his thigh, "it's strange that those bounty hunters are armed with spears." ”

However, Bounty Hunter is a relatively open profession, and depending on personal preference, it is actually possible to equip any weapon. Just in order to catch more captives and sell them for money, they almost all used the fastest steppe horses, and most of their weapons were mainly blunt weapons.

But Mu was reluctant, "How many of them are equipped with spears?"

"Forty or so people are almost all equipped," the bounty hunter suddenly realized, "yes, that's really weird, don't they want to make money?"

The merchant looked at the one-eyed dragon with a cold face, "One-eyed dragon, let me ask you." What kind of tasks do bounty hunters use to equip with spears?"

"Bounty hunters don't equip spears when they're on any mission," the one-eyed dragon shrugged as a matter of course, "after all, our main income is to sell slaves, and corpses are worthless. Besides, techniques like spear charging are the preserve of knights, we untouchables... ”

The one-eyed dragon suddenly froze, as if remembering something terrible, and its eyes were as wide as those of a brass bell. After a while, I squeezed out a few words, "Boss, won't you... ”

"It's hard to say... ”

Yes, it's a terrible thing. In the land of Calradia, only two gangs would equip their knights with spears. The cute one in the north is called Virgia, and the one in the south is called Svadia, and unfortunately, they are in the south.

"Boss, who have you offended to kill you so 'unswervingly'?"

"How do I know that there are more people who want my life!" the merchant pouted

Although Mu wondered why Harlaus would give up a more gentle and efficient way to solve the problem, and had to tear his face, he didn't have time to think about it so much at this time. He immediately ordered, "Throw away all the goods, move at full speed in the direction of the forest line, and set up a defensive line at the edge of the white pine forest, hurry, hurry!"

Although the men were a little confused, and the velvet and spices thrown away made them feel distressed, the habit of obedience to orders for a long time made them move quickly, and the whole caravan moved towards the woodland in some confusion.

"What kind of horses are they?" asked the one-eyed dragon.

"Well, it looks like we're a prairie horse. The bounty hunter recalled.

"Tsk, that's a problem. The one-eyed dragon looked at the horizon in the east, where the harrier eagle was circling, and said, "Boss, there is not enough time, it is estimated that the convoy will be intercepted before it reaches the forest line." ”

Mu sighed and said, "So, I have to ask you for something." ”

"What?"

"Gain time. ”

"Holy!" the one-eyed dragon was startled, "You're going to send us to death!"

"Of course not. Mu waved his hand, "I don't need you to fight the knights in close quarters, just entangle them." ”

"Nima except for hand-to-hand combat, how do you want us to entangle?"

"With a crossbow. With that, Mu turned around and shouted at the busy guys, "Get together 50 light crossbows and hand them over to the bounty hunter!"

"Hey, we've never trained in archery!" protested the one-eyed dragon.

"I don't want you to kill those knights, you won't be able to shoot into their armor anyway. Mu untied a light crossbow from his back and stuffed it into the bounty hunter's hand along with the quiver, "You just have to shoot the horse, anyway, the Swadia knight is not equipped with long-range weapons, and it is no problem to shoot at close range, so you won't miss such a big target, right?"

"MD, double my salary for this trip!"

"Triple it!"

"Okay, that's a deal!" the one-eyed dragon waved his hand, "come with me when you get the crossbow, and let's go and meet those bulls for a while." "The one-eyed dragon and his party didn't travel long before they saw what the scout said were strange people. That's right, their over-the-top bodies and their riding guns behind their backs are too conspicuous. Of course, his boss has also analyzed that the reason for the physical incoordination must be that they are wearing another layer of armor under the cotton armor that bounty hunters are used to. As for what these knights would wear, the one-eyed dragon couldn't help but be weak.

The sleeveless plate armor of the Swadia knight is not just as simple as ordinary plate armor, it can be said that this is a specialized type of arrow-oriented, comprehensive defense system. In the beginning, the Swadia knights were equipped with full-body plate armor, which placed the whole body under the protection of the iron skin. However, when they confronted the nomads of Kujit, they found with some headaches that although their sturdy plate armor could effectively resist the slashing of the saber, it could not block the nomads' bows and arrows, especially the heavy arrows they had modified to fight against the armor units. Fortunately, Kugit iron resources are not abundant, and the vast majority of herdsmen are still using bone arrows or wolf tooth arrows, otherwise, let alone winning, it is uncertain whether they can retreat with dignity.

Many nobles felt that this was not a matter, but they were just rejoicing in the rare victory, and anyway, Kugit did not have much iron, so there was no need to take it too seriously. However, other people of insight did not think so, and although Cugit had little iron, what about Virgia? They were also famous for their marksmen! For this reason, they summoned some knights who had lived through that battle to study countermeasures.

Eventually, the sleeveless plate design was born. Its main part is almost indistinguishable from the chest plate of different plates, but its thickness has increased. But in order to reduce the weight, they simplified the defense of secondary targets, and other non-lethal parts of the knight, such as the limbs, will no longer be protected by iron sheets, and will be replaced by a layer of chain mail smocks. On the inside of the chain mail cover-up, there is also a thin layer of cotton lining. In addition, the knight's new robes were different, not just a layer of cotton cloth depicted with lions, but a layer of stud-studded leather armor on the chest. In this way, when the arrow comes, if you want to hurt the knight, you must first shoot through the leather armor, and then you have to drill into the plate armor, and even if you can shoot through the plate armor, the remaining force will have to deal with a layer of chain mail, and the last little impact force left, even if it is shot on the cotton armor, will not cause fatal injuries. It was this design that led to the later battlefield, when countless red-shirted iron horsemen were shot into hedgehogs and fought bravely, which made the friendly troops excited and the enemy frightened, and once again started the prestige of the red-shirted iron horsemen.

"Listen," the one-eyed dragon cleared his throat and yelled at his team, "the reason they're so strong is that they're wearing two layers of armor, so don't be afraid, they're not much stronger than us!, and the extra weight of that armor inside will slow down their horses severely!" he cleared his throat and continued to roar. And now, our task is to hold them back, not to annihilate them, just keep our distance, and then shoot with the crossbow arrows in our hands, understand, we don't need close combat, again, there is no need for close combat! Their knights are fully armored, but the horses are not, so remember for me, shoot the horses with all your might! Hear me clearly?"

"Understood!" shouted the bounty hunters, and some patted the crossbow in their hands as accompaniment. Indeed, not having to go head-to-head with the Red Shirt Rider made it a lot easier for them.

"Okay, let's charge!" The bounty hunters began to charge at the suspicious group of knights with all their might, and the group of knights, seeing that there was someone blocking the way in front of them, did not hesitate to put down the riding spears in their hands, and began to speed up at the bounty hunters.

The two sides got closer and closer, closer and closer, the one-eyed dragon narrowed his only eye, estimated the distance with the knight, and felt that it was about the same, so he shouted loudly, "Follow me, turn!" At the same time, he flicked his horse's head, and the momentum suddenly turned, and the two groups of cavalry who were obviously facing each other suddenly turned into a staggered pass, and the one-eyed dragon who avoided the opponent's front raised the crossbow at the same time, and at the moment when the leading knight entered the firing range, he decisively pulled the trigger.

With a terrible neighing of the warhorse, the knight was thrown off by his own mount. At this moment, the bounty hunters behind him also pulled the trigger, and several unlucky knights fell from their horses. It's just that they have hardly ever trained in mounted archery, and they haven't even trained to use crossbows a few times, so it's a pity that this wave of arrows hits a lot. But even so, the group of suspicious knights had no intention of changing their direction and approaching, and still galloped in the same direction.

But even so, the one-eyed dragon was satisfied. Now, there are 4 fewer knights who can raid the caravan. It's just that they are too close to the Cavaliers at this time, and if they slow down rashly like this, and then turn around, they will definitely be caught and beaten up. So, he ordered, "Follow me, rush over, and turn back and do another wave!"

The distance between the two sides continued to close, and the one-eyed dragon could even see the lines on the enemy knight's cotton armor. However, it was also because of this that his face suddenly turned pale. For he could clearly see that the knights on the opposite side had drawn their crossbows from their skins tied to their saddles.

A hand crossbow is a weapon that is smaller than a light crossbow and can be fired with one hand. They were actually the failures of Swadia's craftsmen in improving existing crossbow machines.

The original intention of the craftsmen was to make the crossbow a weapon so small that it could fit into a pocket or hide in a sleeve. It's just that, in the continuous experiments, they found that the most difficult thing to shrink is the crossbow arm, if the crossbow arm is too small, not to mention the range, just this power, even an ordinary fur coat can't shoot through. So, they had to compromise on size, and in the end, there was this hand crossbow. Although this kind of hand crossbow is indeed small compared to other crossbow machines, it is far from the purpose of portability. Moreover, the range and power have been greatly reduced, and at most it will bully the unarmored target, so it was abandoned for a time.

Until, a nobleman who had dealt with Kugit felt that his knights could only charge against the rain of arrows, but they didn't even have the means to fight back, which was too much of a nest. During his battles with Kugit, he often saw several Svadian cavalrymen hanging behind a Kugit cavalryman. However, they tried their best to catch up, and in a fit of rage they tried to reach out and try to poke the enemy's horse in the butt with their rifles. And the Kujites, while maintaining full galloping, can also turn around and shoot, and if they are lucky, they can also put two noble knights. How could he endure this kind of humiliation? So, he decided to strengthen the long-range attack ability of his knights. And, it didn't take a long time to take a fancy to this hand crossbow.

Ordinary crossbow machines, even light crossbows, are too big. Heavy knights already have a great burden, plus shields, riding spears, half-swords and maceheads, not to mention the weight, almost all the places where they can hang things on their bodies are full. If you carry a crossbow machine, even if it is a small light crossbow, it will seriously affect the knight's movements. Besides, the crossbow machine requires a lot of strength to wind, ordinary crossbow machine is infantry stepping on the ring, both hands pull up to wind, light crossbow is slightly better, one-handed can also be on, but whether it is the strength consumed or the "long" time required to wind, for the knight galloping on the battlefield, it is a fatal danger.

However, the hand crossbow is a weapon that does not weigh much and does not take up much space, and the winding work can be quickly completed with a strong pull of two fingers. As for the range and power, the knights don't need to use this kind of thing to attack heavily armored units, as long as they can shoot into the butt of the horse that is showing off their might in front of them! Not to mention, when the enemy's thinking is inertia, this crossbow is absolutely effective. Like, now.

A rain of arrows from the knights blinded the bounty hunters, who had never imagined that the Svadian knights would have crossbow arrows, so they still followed the one-eyed dragon as they passed by the knights. The knights naturally knew the importance of war horses, so their goal was also war horses. Although the bounty hunters were protected by cotton armor and would only suffer a few flesh wounds, the war horses did not, and just like that, a large number of charging bounty hunters were unfortunately thrown to the ground. Moreover, judging by the number of fallen horses, it is clear that these knights were trained.

The one-eyed dragon hurriedly threw down his light crossbow and waved his shield in quick succession, blocking a few arrows for his foal. But when he turned around, his eyes were shattered. Looking at the brothers struggling to get up, his heart was bleeding. But he knew that boring compassion would kill everyone, so he could only grit his teeth and leave with his subordinates without saying a word, without looking back. The bounty hunters, who were dismounted, were tragic, abandoned by the large team, lost their mounts, and had no chance of victory.