Chapter 162 Crossing the River, Crossing the River

On February 18, 1768 in the Gaylinthia calendar, the vanguard of the northbound convoy, led by Tiger Ross and Yuri, the commander of the scout light cavalry, went to the territory of Baron Shulas, the lower crossing of the Mitoblo River, where they were to build pontoon bridges, set up camps, and meet the convoys and displaced people who arrived later.

It was also on this day that El arrived at the city of Cobo to report to Lorlist, and as soon as he had recovered from his injuries after a winter of recuperation in Nadegas, he could not wait to hire a carriage and rush back with four guards. El brought two pieces of news to Lorlist, one was that on the way back he had encountered a troop of the Royal Guards sent by His Highness the Second Highness, numbering about 10,000 men, and that they would arrive in the city of Kebo in two days.

The second news is that His Royal Highness is building a fortress at a relatively dangerous mountain pass more than ten miles from the city of Venades, that is, on the road leading to the fortress and castle of Liechdana, and has mobilized forty or fifty thousand laborers.

Lorist looked at the map and felt something strange.

Shi Fatzi and Bodfinger, Telman and others had a lot of discussions. Shi Fatzi thinks that the more than 10,000 soldiers of the Royal Guard Regiment who are rushing to Kebo City should come to take over the city defense, after all, Kebo City is the center of Delemke Province, and it is a fortress city, easy to defend and difficult to attack, after Lorist made it clear that he refused to stay, it is impossible for His Second Highness to give up this city in vain, with these 10,000 soldiers stationed even if the second prince invades, it is enough to resist for a long time.

However, it is incomprehensible why His Royal Highness would build a fortress more than ten miles away from the city of Venades. It stands to reason that he should have greatly strengthened the defenses of Vannades and transformed it into a fortress city. Just occupy the transportation hub of the city of Venades. will be able to grasp the initiative on the battlefield. Offensive and attackable. Retreat can be defended, worry-free.

In the end, Bodfinger's opinion was the most plausible, believing that the fortress built by His Highness should be a way back, and that it could also be used to defend the city and prevent the enemy from besieging the city of Venades with all his might. It is also possible that even if the city of Vannades were captured, the defenders would still be able to ensure that the newly incorporated province of Yungshandra would not be invaded by the enemy as long as they retreated to the forts behind them.

Lorist agreed, but the convoy and the outcasts were about to leave the city of Cobo and return to their family domain. In the future, it is not their business to turn the world upside down here, and everyone should be concerned about when they will be able to cross the river and set foot on the northland.

Two days later, the 10,000 soldiers of the Royal Guard Legion sent by His Royal Highness arrived at Kebo City, and Shi Fatzi handed over the city defense and 20 million catties of grain to them.

To the surprise of Lorist and others, the troops of the Royal Guard did not strengthen the city defenses, but began to tear down the city walls, and they spent more than ten days to tear down all the six walls on three sides, and then destroyed more than a dozen towers, and finally left with food......

"I'm ....... every day" Shi Fatzi scolded: "What a vicious calculation, he is using our convoy as a bait......"

Lorist had a gloomy face: "We have to speed up the transshipment. Luckily we left a few days early. If it's going to be delayed until now, it's too late to start. Ordered the scout hussars to increase the patrol area and detect the movements of the nobles of the province of Demke. Especially the border with the Kingdom of Iberia to the south. The rest of the supplies and personnel here will be transferred to the downstream ferry port immediately......"

No one expected that His Royal Highness would send troops to tear down the walls of Kebo City. He had abandoned the fortified city of Kebo. There are still more than 300 miles of land from Kebo City to the downstream ferry port of the Mitobro River, and with such a huge scale of the northbound convoy, plus the drag of 100,000 displaced people, it will take at least two or three months, not to mention that there is the Mitobro River in front, so many people and horses want to cross the river It will take more time......

It is now the end of February, and even if the second prince leads an army to invade Demke Province in more than a month, it will only take about fifteen days at most to fight from the border to Kebocheng. When he found out that the city of Corbo was abandoned, he had two options: to head towards the city of Venades, or to chase the northbound convoy and stop it on the banks of the Mitobro River......

Thinking about the sheer amount of supplies and the scale of the northbound convoy, it was easy to figure out what choice the second prince would make with his greedy temperament......

Lorist was on fire, he was willing to hand over Kebo City to His Second Highness, and his original intention of taking out 20 million catties of grain was to hope that His Royal Highness would send troops to defend Kebo City and block the second prince's troops, so as to buy time for the northbound convoy and the displaced people to cross the river safely and reach the Northland. But he really didn't expect His Royal Highness to do such a desperate job, so he simply abandoned Kebo City and put the convoy in danger.

"Oh my god!" Lorist sighed as he looked up to the sky, he was not afraid of the second prince's army, and it was not impossible to arm the convoy with its current size and strength, resisting the attack of the second prince's army or even defeating them. He can kill 3,000 enemies and lose 800 himself, so why should he let his family arm and sacrifice for the hegemony of His Second Highness in vain? Even if he defeats the second prince, what benefit can he get? Nothing, maybe he will offend the father-in-law of the second prince, the powerful Duke of Fisabrun......

Indeed, no one is a fool, neither Lorist nor His Royal Highness. Lorist is bent on avoiding this troubled water, he is not willing to take the fire for His Royal Highness, he just wants to take the convoy and the homeless people back to the family territory to engage in construction and development, and become a self-contained. The Second Highness had to drag him into the water, wanting to use the force of the Norton family's northbound convoy to buy time for himself to prepare for battle, and even hoped that the convoy would fight with the second prince to lose both, so that he could benefit from the fisherman.

Lorist had to admit that he had miscalculated, and he should not pin his hope of holding on to Kebo City on His Second Highness. Now the Second Highness has come down to the bottom of the kettle, and he is on the fire again.

"Come, give the order......" Lorist pondered for a moment and gave a series of orders.

"Order Bodefinger to lead the heavy armor corps to the mouth of the river as soon as possible, take over all the affairs of the garrison camp, and arrange for the organization of manual logging and the construction of defenses......

"Order Rose, Telman. Pete each led the ironclad spearmen. Knights. The more cavalry archers went to levy the vehicles, sheepskin rafts and small fishing boats of the nobles of the province of Demke, the more the better. If there is a resistant......" Lorist paused, and coldly spat out four words: "Kill or kill!"

"Order Farea, Malek to lead the garrison to break off, and maintain order and safety in the march of the convoy and the displaced people. Those who deliberately delay the trip and make trouble will be killed!"

"Order the battalion of craftsmen, no matter what method is used. More than four pontoon bridges across the river must be built as soon as possible, and the scarce supplies and equipment must be handed over to the Ross to be responsible for the collection. ”

Reddy stood behind Lorist and copied the orders on velment, then handed them to Lorist to sign, Pat burned the red beeswax and put a stamp on the signature, and Lorist flipped the ring and stamped the beeswax. Finally, Pat turned the vellum paper with the command written on it and put it into the small silver cylinder, and dripped beeswax on the upper and lower joints of the small silver cylinder, and printed the angry bear badge, and then handed it to the guards to pass the order.

"We also have to speed up our actions, and by the end of this month, we will have to move the food from Kebo City anyway. Get out of here. Lorist turned to Fat Shi and said.

Shi Fatzi nodded.

......

It was the 6th of March when Lorist arrived at the crossing of the Barony of Shuras, in addition to nearly a thousand abandoned people who had been driven out of the convoy and the ranks of the outcasts. All the convoy personnel and displaced people are rushing to the ferry to camp in an endless stream.

Three pontoon bridges have been built over the Mitoburo River, and one is more than half built. A vehicle battalion has also been set up on the opposite bank, and the convoy personnel and vehicles that arrived in advance are crossing the river on two pontoon bridges. There is also a relatively large pontoon bridge used to allow vehicles to unload supplies and come back after reaching the opposite bank, and the coachmen leading the pack horses are lined up to walk back from the pontoon bridge carefully and slowly.

"My lord, let's go to the manor castle and rest for a while. Bodfinger, who came to greet him, said.

Lorist saw that Bodfinger was referring to Baron Shulas's manor castle, and asked casually, "What about Baron Shulas?"

"Who?" said Bo Finger's face was inexplicable.

"I'm talking about the local lord. Lorist said.

Bodfinger suddenly realized, and pointed to the ferry pier with his hand: "...... over there"

Lorist turned his head to see four or five corpses dangling in the wind on several high wooden shelves on the docks......

"Who did it?"

"Yuri and Rose. Boderfinger replied.

"Why?" asked Lorlist.

"This lord didn't let us build a pontoon bridge, saying that the banks of the hundred miles of the river were his territory, and if he wanted to cross the river, he had to pay the river crossing fee. Yuri and Rose were furious, so they hung him up, and by the way, they took over his manor castle. ”

Lorist was speechless, he was looking for death by himself, didn't he have long eyes, and he didn't look at the strong soldiers who came, and he thought it was a period of peace before the empire, and no one dared to offend the nobles. When did you not retract the manor castle to guard it to the death, and dared to come to ask for the cost of crossing the river, it was really a matter of asking for money and not dying, and it deserved to be hanged.

Yuri and Rose are not easy to talk to, one follows Lorist as one of the earliest starters of Dawn Academy, and the other has just been given the title of Tiger by Lorlist. Especially when the two of them went north with the convoy and hanged more than a hundred lords and nobles in the Kingdom of Antinac, they had long lost their awe of the aristocracy. Not to mention that when it comes to serious consideration, Baron Shuras belongs to the side of the Grand Duke of Madras and is a hostile camp, and there is no pressure on Yuri and Rose to hang him.

"Forget it, unload and bury them, after all, they are all old acquaintances, and it doesn't look good to hang like this. ”

"Yes, sir. ”

Ten days later, Rose, Telman, and Pete returned, and this was the third time they had gone out to levy, and the surrounding area had already been collected, so they ran a little farther, and came back with more than a thousand carts, more than a hundred sheepskin rafts and dozens of small fishing boats, and more than two hundred wagons full of supplies, which they seized after they hanged three rebellious nobles of the territory.

Lorist found that the sheepskin rafts, small fishing boats, and the small locke boats made during this time were enough to build six pontoon bridges, so he stopped Ross and their plans to go out again to collect them, and arranged to bring those vehicles to Shi Fat to speed up the transfer of personnel, and at the same time let the soldiers rest for two days, and then just cut down more wood to make wooden rafts to speed up the process of building pontoon bridges.

On March 18, a dusty Yuri arrived at the ferry, bringing news to Lorlist.

March 12, 1768 in the universal calendar of Guelintya. King of the Iberian Kingdom. Crison Iberia, known as the Second Prince, led an army of 70,000 men, claiming to be supporting the Archduke of Madras in his fight against the invasion of the Kingdom of Antinac, and attacked the Kingdom of Antinac through the province of Delemque, Duchy of Madras.

This time the second prince borrowed three corps from the frontier regiment of his father-in-law, Duke Fisabrun. Together with his own garrison and the private army of the nobles of his domain, he gathered more than 70,000 troops and entered the province of Dramke.

"My day, where did he get his military rations, hasn't he just begun the harvest of winter wheat?" said Loristech, who immediately understood: "Paralysis, one is more refined than the other. The second prince came to target the winter wheat that was about to be harvested in Demke Province, and borrowed grain from the enemy, and fought with the idea of levying winter wheat to replenish military rations!"

However, Lorist didn't care about the Second Prince's army at all. Five large and small pontoon bridges have been erected, and the sixth is under construction. The convoy and displaced people who arrived later did not need to wait in the camp at the ferry crossing, but could directly cross the river and go to the camp on the other side to rest.

The only thing that worries Lorist is the grain reserve of more than 120 million catties, calculated by a four-wheeled carriage carrying 2,000 catties of grain, 10,000 carts can only transport 20 million catties at a time, and they have to run back and forth six times after all the transportation.

Lorist summoned Bodfinger and asked him to lead the heavy armor corps across the river first, and to preside over the defense of the camp on the opposite side. More and more supplies and personnel crossed the river, and only Telman's knights and a squadron of scout hussars were stationed there, which could no longer fulfill the task of keeping the camp on guard.

Bodfinger was worried that he would not be able to defend himself against the attack of the Second Prince's army after crossing the river with his heavy armor corps.

Lorist smiled, there was no need to worry about the second prince's army now. Because the second prince wanted to collect military rations, it was impossible for him to come on a fast horse to pursue the northbound convoy. Even if it comes, it is a small unit, with the ironclad spearmen of the three brigades of Ross sitting here, and the small-scale rangers coming over just to deliver food to the door.

"By the way, after you cross the river, knock down the town on the other side, and hang the viscount at the gate of the city. Lorist commanded.

"Why, sir, it's just a broken town. "Bodfinger was curious. Ever since the convoy crossed the river to build a pontoon bridge to transport supplies and camp there, the broken towns over there have always been very well-behaved, honestly closed doors, and there is not even a single person who comes to interrogate and investigate. So much so that after Telman led the knights across the river, he didn't bother to take care of this broken town.

"The messengers sent by your convoy crossed the river and rested in this broken town, only to be accused of horse thieves and killed by the garrison, and only five escaped. The last time I crossed the river, I hanged the garrison that the viscount had sent to the ferry to collect fees, and today you will simply go and smash that thief's den for me. Lorist explained.

"Yes, yes, my lord. ”

After crossing the river under the leadership of Bodfinger, the heavy armoured corps launched a charge against the broken town by the river as soon as possible, and took the broken town at the cost of zero casualties. Half an hour later, Bodfinger snatched a war horse and rushed back in a hurry.

"My lord, there are not many people in that broken town, and it is said that the lord Viscount Davov has responded to the call of Duke Lukins, the Grand Duke of the Northlands, with his garrison and young men, to attack the Norton family, and it has been more than a month since he left......"

"What did you say?" Hearing the news brought by Bodfinger, Lorist almost jumped, Duke Luggins is not dead and has the idea of the Norton family again?

"Ordered Yuri to immediately send out the scout light cavalry to find out the news of the Northlands, and asked Jim to take a small group of men to get in touch with the family and see what was going on? He was a mercenary and knew the situation in the Northlands very well. Pat, you go with you. Lorist calmed down and felt no need to rush.

The walls of the Rock Castle are well known for their defenses, which are easy to defend and difficult to attack. Besides, with the magic arrow Josk in charge, he can rest assured. Another access to the interior of the family domain has been cut off by the burning of the rope bridge, and Grand Duke Lukins has called on the lords of the Northlands to lead an army to attack the Norton family territory, and there is no other way but to storm the Rock Castle. Just because the peasants of the lords of the Northland want to capture the Rock Castle? hehe, that's a joke.

Lorist felt that he would first investigate the situation and make plans after all the supplies and personnel had crossed the river. This time, it has to be good, slap that bullshit duke's face hard, again and again, again and again, provocation, is it really that you can only be beaten passively.

Shi Fatzi still used the transfer method of a battalion of 100 miles, and finally sent the remaining supplies, convoy personnel and displaced people to the ferry port before the end of March, and immediately started to cross the river.

On 3 April, the last wave of scout hussars who had been spying on the Second Prince's army also returned, bringing back the news that the Second Prince's army was busy harvesting winter wheat and suppressing the revolt of the nobles of the province of Delemk. At present, there is not one in ten territorial nobles in the southern region of the province of Demke, and all the unlucky nobles who were hung on the gallows by the second prince are all guilty of fornicating with the Kingdom of Antinac and rebelling against the friendly army of the Iberian Kingdom led by the Second Prince who went to rescue the Grand Duke of Madras.

On April 5, 1768 in the year 1768 of the Gaylinthia calendar, Lorist stepped aboard the ferry as the last person to cross the river and ordered the demolition of six pontoon bridges. At this point, the northbound convoy and the displaced people finally arrived at the Northland Plateau.

...... (To be continued.) )