Chapter 135: Encounter

Northern wetlands. ()

Four people and three horses, we galloped on the Great Plains.

At that time we were passing through a pond, where there were a lot of mosquitoes, and the humming sound made the dreary weather even more confusing. I leaned over and hugged the horse's head in a drowsy way, asking as the pungent smell of the horse's body passed through my nostrils. The long jolts made me sluggish, so that I was no longer sensitive to the bites of flying insects. At one point I felt a bug stop in my face, but I didn't care about it until it flew away on its own.

We're moving forward. I heard my father thinking about when he would be able to leave Svadia and when he would be able to reach Nord. At that time, my father was thinking about how to settle down his family after going to Nord, and how to face the young friend in Beihai. Along the way, we don't dare to make any stops, we are worried about the danger behind us more than in front of us, we actually feel that the danger is only behind us, and every extra step we take, we are one more step away from danger, and we are one step closer to a safe place.

But suddenly, my father stopped, he reined in his mount, and stiffened his body to look out over a low mountain beam. I felt a little strange because I didn't know why he suddenly became hesitant. In the previous journey, my father did not shy away from the unknown dangers.

I squinted curiously on the horse's back and looked into the distance. It was a gentle slope surrounded by trees and the surrounding water veins converged to pass through the wetland, with the mountain beam pass in front of it being the only way to pass through.

The shimmering light floats, and the water-filled air makes the mountain beams look exceptionally clear. Above the ridge, the sun gilded it with a golden edge. From the depths of the wetland, muffled thunder came from afar, shaking every leaf of the fluttering reeds.

At last, I knew why my father had stopped: a man on horseback appeared on the top of the hill, and he seemed to be unsurprised by our presence, he stood on the top of the hill, watching us quietly.

Then, a bright red battle flag appeared behind him. More than a dozen cavalrymen clustered around the battle flag, and also appeared on the gentle slope. The cavalrymen pointed their spears at the sky, and gray-blue banners flew beneath the spearheads. After the cavalry appeared, a large number of cavalry surged up the mountain like a solemn cháo water, their armor glowing slightly, and between the light and the darkness, their number was expanded countless times.

At the end, a forest of spears pierced the sky behind the girder, and the forest stretched out from the far left to the far right of the girder. The soldiers were layered, their spears dense and neat. As the spearmen slammed their spears into the ground, a roar of thunder shook all around.

Our horses' ears twitched, and then they craned their necks to stare in horror at the humans emerging from behind the hillside.

Like the waves of a tsunami swept up the land, opposite us, a tsunami of armored spears had swept across the mountain beams.

I know the bright red battle flag, which is embroidered with the family crest of the Della family.

Opposite us were the soldiers led by General Wright.

I don't know why it took so many soldiers to capture our poor family, and those soldiers could almost be used to martial law a town.

Many of the junior officers shouted loudly among the soldiers, and the sound of orders came intermittently with the breeze. In the dense sea of soldiers like a city wall, a large number of crossbowmen suddenly poured out.

The crossbowmen were much more shabby than the soldiers behind them, many of them wearing only flannel uniforms and inferior leather boots, and they straddled the quiver, which was full of shafts, and the ends were covered with white feathers. The men advanced to a stop a few dozen yards in front of the spearmen. These people adjusted their formation slightly, and even I could see that they had slightly folded an arc from both ends of their formation, and we soon became the center of this group's stubborn attention.

These archers had been discredited for their involvement in the manhunt for my father dozens of days earlier. No one would believe the argument that these crossbowmen had encountered a massive attack in their own hinterland. It was unanimously agreed that the reason why the crossbowmen could not capture my father was because of incompetence. These arrogant soldiers would not accept this reputation easily. They have converted the shame of their own troops into the hatred of my family.

Therefore, when General Wright mobilized soldiers from all over the country to the north, a large number of crossbowmen asked to assist the troops from all over the country to go north together.

In view of the fact that many officers of the Western Army at that time were watching Wright with a joke attitude, these loosely organized crossbowmen with little combat experience applied for combat to fight very conspicuously. Those who know the inside know that these wretches are ready to make a name for themselves on a down-and-out lord, and those who don't know the inside story praise these people for their loyalty and courage, and actively go to the trouble for His Majesty Haraus.

Wright's subordinates came from a complicated background, and even Wright's personal guards were incorporated into the various lord groups and the emperor's guard. Wright appears to be the commander of the army, but in reality, almost none of the affiliated troops loyal to Wright remain with Wright in formation. Wright's every night in the tent will be known to countless people. Until now, Wright was a traitor to the Easterners, and a heretic to the Westers. Had it not been for the need for propaganda and the trade-off between the emperor, Wright's political life might have come to an end. Wright's continued existence as a general was only a compromise among the various groups of Westerners who were at loggerheads.

Wright was at the center of the vortex of strife and seemed calm, in fact, he couldn't sway any of the factions around him.

And in the current army, Wright is also unable to control the so-called 'subordinates' around him. These people only barely maintained a subordinate relationship with Wright, and many aristocratic families only regarded Wright as a classroom to familiarize themselves with the military and the imperial authorities, and some even only hung up false positions in Wright's army to accumulate seniority. For example, in Wright's cavalry unit, there were 12 cavalry captains and 6 non-commissioned officers, of course, most of these people were not in the camp, most of them lived in the aristocratic district of Paravon, and attended various banquets and outings every day, or rode horses to hunt and spend the whole day.

It was the forces behind these luàn messy soldiers that pushed Wright in front of our family.

The soldiers were ordered to execute the rebellious family, but instead used both hard and soft to put the butcher's knife into Wright's hands.

I don't know how Wright is feeling now, but as an imperial general who has been too deeply involved in the strife in the upper echelons, Wright's mood doesn't seem to matter at all. A lot of times, there's very little he can do.

"In place"

A series of cries spread from the crossbowmen camp opposite.

The crossbowmen dispersed, each distancing themselves from the people around them. The soldiers had to run, and the qualities of the untrained were evident here, and many of the crossbowmen stood on top of the others, huddled together with the others, and the already untidy lines became scattered, and the shouts and curses came and went, and finally those crossbowmen found their place.

Then I saw the crossbowmen bend down for a while and stick their bows and arrows on the ground, in fact, in this situation, there is no need to prepare too many bows and arrows, because this is not before the battle formation. The soldiers who did so didn't mean much other than to demonstrate, but even so, the crossbowmen were not willing to give up the opportunity to show their fighting skills in front of the army.

Once the crossbowmen were in place, the heralds were busy.

The white-robed herald weaved through the middle of each procession, alerting the surrounding soldiers to his orders, and when they were in place, they waited for the final order to be given. Everyone's attention was focused on Snowin. General Wright's body.

At this moment, all the battle flags fluttered for him, and all the soldiers fought for him.

At Wright's side, a knight rode forward.

The knight was richly dressed, covered in glittering armor, and the white jewels on his helmet fluttered in the wind. The soldiers made way for him, and a narrow passage parted in the center of the battle formation.

The knight passed the spearmen and archers, rode to the far left of the battle line, raised his left hand, and ran in front of the whole line while holding on to all the soldiers and officers. As the knight passed in front of him, each soldier began to shout. Some of the sword and shield guards began to tap their shields, and the spearmen and cavalrymen pointed their weapons at the sky, shouting excitedly.

Then, under the watchful eyes of all the soldiers, the knight came on horseback in a majestic manner. The knight's movements were extremely graceful, and the horse strolled triumphantly in his own huā garden, and the clods of earth under his feet were tossed off, and the knight shook from his waist to his shoulders, and his armor was as nimble and delicate as the scales of a fish.

Finally, the knight rode a few dozen yards in front of us.

He lifted his mask, then spread his arms to the left and right, and turned his empty hands towards the sky. This ritual is for God to see that he is not carrying arms, and for all to see that he is a just and courageous messenger.

The knight's action was met with a frantic response from the soldiers, and the shouts were accompanied by thunder.

The father rode forward more than ten yards, and nodded his forehead with his right hand to greet the knight.

The battle formation fell silent, and the soldiers were full of anticipation for the upcoming battle jiāowa. In countless legendary stories, there will be such a plot, but in reality, this kind of scene is still rare.

When he noticed that everyone's attention was being drawn, the knight spoke up at the right time.

"It's Huo. Arcadio second? ”

For the first time, I discovered that a man's voice could be so loud that I believed that the knight's words could be heard from any corner of the battle array on the other side.

"Yes." The father replied calmly.

"It's Huo. Arcadio II" Knight immediately conveyed the news.

The soldiers shouted again.

"Huo. Arcadio was the second of his father, Ho. Arcadio, who has the valley of the white dove. Many years ago, by the grace of the Méng Empire, he had to become a lord. However, over the years, his father's words and deeds have been more inconsistent with the ways of the nobility, and in recent years, he has even sponsored lawless people, which is to condone heresy to run rampant in the world."

Then the knight began to pronounce a sonorous sentence, linking almost every person and every piece of history in my family with rebellion and vileness. In the end, my family almost became a heinous demon family.

"However, His Majesty Haraus thought that mercy was the creed of the Emperor's rule, and under the gaze of God, Ho. Arcadio II only had to dismount and kneel to confess his sins, and His Majesty would forgive him all punishment, and only need to swear to enter the deep mountains and serve God for the rest of his life, and then allow his heirs to keep his territory. ”

“```。” The father was silent.

"Huo. Arcadio II: I am the hand of His Majesty, I am the tongue of His Majesty, and I am the scepter of His Majesty. I look at you with the eyes of Your Majesty, and I ask you with the voice of Your Majesty, can you confess your sins? Will your knees bend for your iniquity? ”

The soldiers all focused their eyes on their father, and most of them must have thought that in the next moment, his father would confess his sins to Haraus and the lords.

The father looked at the knight in front of him, at the knight who had performed the judgment ceremony perfectly, and then chou out his sword.

The buzzing sound of amazement spread throughout the military formation in front of him, and the knight also subconsciously grabbed the reins and lowered his other hand to the weapon at his waist.

"I," my father's voice trembled a little, but it grew louder and louder as he spoke. Arcadio the second, the baron of the White Dove Valley, the lord of the mountain!" Father's voice drowned out the knight just now.

"A word of advice is hereby given to the soldiers of the Empire and the close retainers of Harlaus."

"The usurper defies tradition, steals the throne, connives, and sucks the blood of the people. If God is still watching, I can guarantee that whoever follows this thief will perish."

An angry commotion erupted among the officers and soldiers on the opposite side.

"I trust in God, I respect justice, and I love the people. If I am guilty of any of them, I am guilty of a felony. If my knee is going to bend one day, it must be towards all three. But today, I don't see God; But today, I am still on the side of justice; But today, I see nothing but a group of cowards who ignore the poor. ”

"I roar and advise you to return to Haraus and tremble, or follow me to establish a new era."

There was a shout from the other side, 'Kill him,' and 'Kill him.'

"I am to you," the father pointed his sword at the knight, "and I respond to your accusation as follows. ”

"Since I am not guilty, how can I confess my sin. Since I am worthy of my soul, then why should my knees bend before you"

Father pointed his sword at the sky, "in the name of God and in the name of the new age"

"Lord on the other side of the mountain, not guilty"