It sounds like it has something to do with a small valley, and Yun wants to check it out, but is rejected by Lynch and his followers.

Murphy sent them away, far away, far beyond the confines of the stockade, but he didn't care, this was his only sister, and no matter how far he went, it was not enough.

But when he returned to the village, he found that the gate of the village was crowded with people, there were thousands of people, most of them were men and strong women, only a few children, and there was not a single old man.

"What's going on?" Murphy asked aloud.

Immediately, he was surrounded by a surging crowd.

When Philip and the others arrived at Murphy's camp, they had already been put in, leaving only excrement all over the ground, emitting a sky-high stench.

Chand and the others carefully walked around with their noses covered, and even Philip was brought back a lot of unpleasant memories.

Old Potter skillfully opened the door of the village and went in to report the news, while Philip waited anxiously outside, how he wished that as soon as he entered the stockade he could see the little face that haunted him.

Old Potter is back, and there is a wide open gate.

Chand and the others protected Philip in the middle, drove in in battle formation, and even agreed on an emergency communication signal and a meeting point for retreat.

Philip ignored the fact and walked in first, making his rounds, looking for the familiar figure.

"She's gone, and you're two days and one night late. Murphy said dejectedly, waiting for the other party's thunderous wrath.

But to his surprise, Philip did not get angry, but just rubbed some long strands of hair and sighed.

In the end, it was still a step late, and it was obvious that it was not the same route as them, and they missed each other halfway.

Who could he blame? Murphy, or the monster tide?

"In which direction are they going?" he asked eagerly.

Murphy replied, "The northwest road, they want to take a boat to another city, if you want to chase it, it's still too late." ”

Philip stood up and walked out quickly: "Lend me a few unicorns, and return them twice." ”

Murphy followed and replied, "Unicorns aren't a problem, but now you're in more trouble, or we're in more trouble." ”

Philip paused, stared at Murphy's face that looked like old Patton, but was dozens of years younger and slightly flushed, and asked, "What's the trouble?"

"Prairie people, here they are!"

"Philip, I've got something to tell you, they've found traces of the steppe wolf, and they're in big trouble. As soon as Murphy's words fell, Paul came from the outside, the expression on his face a little hideous.

"Prairie people, how did they end up here, what do you know?" asked Philip, whose face became serious, hurriedly.

"Recently, there have been a lot more people in the village, all of them have fled from the east, most of them have been destroyed by the tide of beasts, and a few people claim to have seen the steppe people with their own eyes.

Not the usual few dozens, but many, endlessly the same sea of people. Murphy said in a solemn tone.

Rumbling, the anger of the mountain god, the tide of beasts, and the steppe wolf, a series of words flashed in Philip's mind, and he instantly sorted out his thoughts.

The steppe wolf Kou didn't know how to destroy the moat-like mountain, bypassed the eastern defense line of the empire, and used this middle ground as a springboard to go all the way north, as long as he easily uprooted those outpost camps, he could invade the entire southeastern hinterland of the empire in one fell swoop.

You can even go all the way east, besiege the city of Gokan, and attack the eastern line from behind.

If this really happens, not only Gaokan City, but also a series of military princes in several major military cities can apologize with death, including his mad lion family.

Philip's brow furrowed tightly, he had to make a choice.

Love is still loyalty, women are still family and empire.

After only thinking for more than ten seconds, he made his choice, and there was actually nothing for him to choose.

"Lend me thirty unicorns, and if you want to stay here, you and your descendants will be protected by the entire city of Gokan for the next hundred years.

Of course you can come with me, immediately, immediately. ”

Murphy also made his own choice: "The unicorn lends you, I don't go." If I don't die in the future, I'll go to the city of Gokan to find you. ”

Men should be quick and decisive in their work, and there were no more greetings, and Philip gave the order, and the thirty samurai who were on guard around the house had already arranged their armor and outfits.

All the extra supplies were thrown in place, they knew the importance of the matter, and at this time light loading and weight loss was a must, only Duke quietly carried the bear beast's tooth on his back.

"What's the fastest way to get back?" asked Philip Old Potter.

Old Potter didn't think about it, and hurriedly replied: "First to the north, then to the east, as long as you reach the Heishui River, you can make a raft and go downstream, and you can reach the Red Moon Pass in two days." ”

Thirty unicorns were quickly led to them, and Philip mounted Natalie, took one last look at Murphy and said, "Your stockade is not safe either, and they will not let you go just because you are a half-blood." Retreat west as soon as possible, or maybe they won't chase after them. Take care!"

"Take care!" Murphy sighed as he stood at the gate of the camp, looking at the dozens of figures in the distance.

Then he closed the door and stood there and said in a loud voice: "Now everyone obeys my orders, pack their bags, and as soon as it gets dark we will move westward." ”

With their mounts in hand, Philip was fast, even on narrow mountain roads.

In just an hour, they reached a fork in the road.

From here to the west, it was the direction in which Yun'er left, and if he left his large army to chase after him now, there might be a glimmer of hope.

Heading straight north was the route they had taken back to the city of Gaokan to report the news.

Philip took a deep look at the road to the west, tightened the reins in his hand, smacked Natalie on the abdomen, and sped north without hesitation.

Yun'er and the others have been walking for two days, and they are going in the opposite direction, so they should not encounter danger.

"Let's go, I'll go back to the camp, maybe I can help them kill a few steppe wolves. At this time, Jom, who had been seriously injured before, clutched his chest and said, with a trace of bitterness on his face.

After only an hour of galloping at high speed, he judged that he could not afford such a fierce maneuver, and that he would become a burden to the entire team, slowing them down.

And now, speed is life, the hope of countless people of the empire.

Philip nodded, beat his chest with one hand and shouted: "For the sake of the empire, take care of your brother!"

Jom hammered his chest with his only remaining hand: "For the Empire!"

It wasn't until they had gone far that Philip looked back, and the lonely figure on the hill was still standing there watching them.

On the southeastern border of the empire, in addition to several huge military cities separated by hundreds of kilometers, there were dozens of outpost camps built on the roads that the steppe people had to pass through such as mountains and valleys to prevent sneak attacks.

Both sides sent a large number of scouts to scout and test each other on this staggered defensive line, and countless warriors died here every year.

Parker, the 49-year-old Grand Knight, is one such person in charge of the military village, and more than 80% of his more than 500 men are veterans who have served here for more than ten years.

When winter came again every year, according to custom, he sent two of his captains three days ago, each with 120 scouts into the opposite mountain forest.

I don't know how many recruits will come back alive this time, those damn councilors, with the budget in their hands, would rather build more warehouses than use the money to recruit a few more soldiers.

For the fifth year in a row, all of his units are far from being at full strength, and their staffing is stuck at the lowest passing mark.

For this, even the commander of his chief was helpless, and every time he met his hopeful eyes, he would pat him on the shoulder, showing a helpless expression.

yes, he knows it's not just a matter of budget.

There have been no major wars for more than ten years, and the conditions in the border villages are very bitter and cold, and there are fewer and fewer young people willing to join the army.

More and more young people are increasingly keen to enter the middle of the empire in search of a decent and comfortable job.

Even if he hadn't loved this profession and this land deeply, he wouldn't have chosen to let his son join the army and become a soldier, which would have caused his wife to complain.

The dozen or so young men who were newly recruited this year were still snatched by him from his old friend Kampas, and as long as they were tempered this winter, they would grow into qualified soldiers.

He stood on the city wall, using his telescope to scan the mountains and forests in the distance, and everything was calm, no different from usual.

It's just that today there was a little drumming in his heart, and an uneasy premonition enveloped him.

An hour ago, the two reconnaissance teams should have returned, although this kind of thing had happened from time to time in the past, but this time it was rare for the two reconnaissance teams to be late together, not to mention that the two most experienced captains under him were leading the team.

Unlike the outposts of the southern defensive line, the eastern defensive line is divided into three tiers from large to small, and the outposts here are more advanced and smaller, but they are much more numerous.

"Parker, how's it going?" said his lieutenant, Larry, who was also a Grand Knight.

Parker shook his head and handed the telescope to Larry.

"If there is no news before sunset, raise the alert level to three and report to the division headquarters at the same time. ”

Larry was about to reach out and take the telescope, when he suddenly froze there in confusion, looked around and asked, "Old man, did you hear anything?"

Parker also listened carefully and shook his head, "What did you hear?"

Larry crouched down, pressed his ear to the ground, and turned on his awakening, one of his awakening abilities was hearing enhancement.

Suddenly, his face changed drastically, and he stood up and shouted, "Alert." ”

Then he said to Parker, "There's something down there, getting closer." ”

Before he could finish, the sound grew louder and louder, and even Parker could hear it, as if something was wriggling and gnawing.

Before they could react, they felt the entire wall tremble, followed by more violent vibrations, and the cracks visible to the naked eye suddenly extended upwards from below, widening and widening under the action of gravity, and then more small cracks.

With a loud bang, the wall in the northeast corner split into dozens of pieces of different sizes, and the whole collapsed, raising dust that covered the sky and the sun.

When the dust cleared, everyone found that a gap more than ten meters wide was revealed, and more than a dozen soldiers who could not dodge were crushed underneath, and the rest were also covered with a layer of gray color, and fell to the ground horizontally.

The other parts were also crumbling, and another shock came, and this time there were also two gaps in the wall of the front wall several meters wide, and the defense ability of the entire military village almost collapsed.

Suddenly, a soldier let out a frightened cry, and several large black insects more than half a meter thick and more than ten meters long emerged from the bottom of the ruins in the northeast corner, their round flesh was covered with tiny scales, and countless sharp teeth in the mouthparts on the top of their heads were biting frantically, which was terrifying.

A warrior slashed it with a sword, but he could only barely break off a few scales of the strange insect, cutting a small wound that could not cause much damage to it.

Parker shouted to the rescue and eliminate the strange insects, and suddenly Larry pointed to the distance and said to his old partner:

"Old man, we're in big trouble. ”

Parker looked in the direction he had indicated, and saw a red edge appear in the forest that had been deserted, like an outline drawn with a red pen on the outside of a green picture.

He knew that it was not red paint, but the unique brown leather armor of the steppe wolf, and it was not a sidestrip, but the traces left by countless wolf bands over the mountains.

"First-level combat readiness, all in place, report to the division headquarters, and light the beacon fire.

The three cordons and light and dark checkpoints did not give early warning, and it seemed that this group of miscellaneous people was well prepared. ”

Parker picked up the telescope and continued to look over there, there was more and more brown, less and less green, and in less than a minute, a third of the green had disappeared, and the overwhelming brown wolf cole pounced on this side.

Judging from the visual inspection alone, there were no less than 10,000 horsemen, and in terms of size, equipment, and behavioral analysis, this was by no means a scout of the steppe people, but the vanguard of the army, and according to his experience, there would never be less than 100,000 people in the dense forest behind the mountains.

Thinking of the two brigades that had not returned for a long time, Parker pinched the hilt of his sword in distress and said to Larry beside him, "Old man, we have killed more wolf cubs than anyone, and we will drink again when we get there." ”

Larry took out his second-level longbow, tested the hardness of the bowstring, and grinned: "You were better than me when you were in school, but if you were better than a wolf, you never beat me." ”

Parker laughed, holding his shield and drawing his broadsword at his waist to face out of the walls, and suddenly became serious again, and said, "Old man, it is my honor to die with you. ”

Larry brought over four thick arrow boxes, which were densely packed with hundreds of arrows: "Haha, now is not the time to talk about this, why do you have to kill tens of thousands of wolf cubs."

But Martha and Linda won't be lonely anymore and can compete and scold the two of us.

For the Empire!

"For the Empire!

As he spoke, Larry let go of the three arrows in his hand, and without seeing how he moved, three more shot out in the blink of an eye, pulling out grooves in the brown wave.

Parker closed his visor and commanded the remaining soldiers to adjust their huge bed crossbows and trebuchets, and place barrels of oil next to the battlements.

This outpost camp is small, but it is well equipped, and even if it loses a piece of the wall, the complete defense facilities will still make those wolf cubs crush a big tooth.

Then he called the adjutant to his side: "There are still 12 young people left from last year and this year, you will gather them in a moment."

If the city is broken, you can take them through the back door and go to the second line of defense, and you must keep our seeds, please!"

The adjutant knelt on one knee and pleaded, "You let me stay, let someone else go." ”

Parker kicked him to the ground and yelled, "Obey orders!"

It wasn't until the adjutant cried and turned away that he grabbed him again and whispered in his ear: "Take care of your aunt and say sorry to her for me." ”

In the other direction of the depths of the mountain, old Griffin curled up as best he could at the base of the tree, covering the mouth and nose of a young man in his hand to prevent him from exclaiming.

Old Griffin wasn't old, he was just 40 years old, but his pale hair and beard made him look much older than he really was.

He is already an old scout, and he has killed at least more than 2,000 grassland scouts in his 20 years in the army, with more than a dozen old and old wounds on his body, and killing wolves has become an instinct of his.

But it was the first time that his scalp was tingling like today, and even the big war more than ten years ago did not bring him as much pressure as it did today.

Not far away, the steppe wolves drove over one by one, and it had been a full two hours, but there was still no end in sight.

Relying only on visual inspection and mental arithmetic, there are already 50,000 people, and this is just a passage.

The steppe people actually consumed a whole team of 10,000 people as bait and lured them over, which shows that the plot is very big.

His brigade has been dispersed, and I wonder if the captain who always likes to take advantage of small things is still alive.

Old Griffin saw with his own eyes that he was surrounded by hundreds of steppe wolves, and at that time he had lost an arm and was blind in one eye, but he was still laughing loudly at this group of wolf cubs.

But old Griffin swore to Mother Earth that if he could be brought alive in front of him again, he would rather be taken advantage of by that bastard for another time, and invite him to drink the bitter ale of the Blue Butterfly for three days.

Fortunately, Larry's shrewd ghost should have fled back, at least the wing side would be somewhat prepared.

The young men under his command are no longer trembling, this is the man of our Ward clan, how can he be afraid when he sees this group of wolf cubs.

He slowly let go of the young man's mouth and made a gesture to him, and the dozen scouts behind him also hid themselves in their own ways.

But before he could think about which direction to move next, he heard a sharp eagle's cry in the sky.

Old Griffin said badly, he was found in the end, these steppe wolves have too sensitive noses, and they are all the ghosts of this group of beasts flying in the sky.