() Rout.

In less than half an hour, our two brigades collapsed. Giovanni designated a meeting place and disbanded all the soldiers into squads and fled for their lives in different directions. Giovanni himself fled quickly down the hill with a few Valan knights, mounted the horses he had left there, and sailed away.

At first, I was surrounded by our soldiers, all of them trembling and trying to flee elsewhere. Fortunately, the defenders had no cavalry troops, and we were no slower than those defenders, and besides, the defenders did not dare to abandon the trading post altogether and chase after us.

After the defenders had routed us, they began to regroup and begin to count the casualties. As I fled into the forest with my squad, I looked back at the defenders, who were slaughtering our wounded soldiers in the same way as Giovanni's men, chopping them to death with large axes or stabbing them in the throat with spears.

In the forest, I felt better, but I still felt very depressed. After more than a day of shè blows, he had exhausted his physical strength, and at this time he was defeated and almost had no fighting spirit, and he just wanted to escape back to the camp. Giovanni would have retreated earlier, and he should have been satisfied with the first trading post, but he had to come and extend his victory, and now he was being chased and beaten.

Woo~Woo~Woo~

This is the trumpet of the attack, and I hear the sound of the hounds, are the defenders coming after us? We fled down the hillside.

When we were defeated, the wounded soldiers called for our help, but almost all of the Valan soldiers turned a blind eye and turned around and ran. The mercenaries would pick up the soldiers who could barely move and leave, and when the remaining soldiers were abandoned by us, they let out the same cries as dying animals.

If we had another hundred men in reserve, we would have taken the initiative at this time: after the defenders had left the barricades, they would face the fate of having no way out, and if they suffered a slight setback, their morale would collapse, but our Giovanni did not allow these 100 men to come out. After escaping into the woods. I was left with only Cruzkal and three other Varan soldiers. These people are just as flustered as I am. But once out of contact with the enemy, their experience begins to overcome panic and make them calm.

"We're getting out of the forest," said one of the Varan soldiers, "and it's their territory, and I don't know how many people they're hiding here." ”

"No," Guntz said. "The old loaches and these trading posts are very close to each other, and without Valankov's on-the-spot supplies, these trading posts would not have been able to sustain a large number of troops. Moreover, some time ago, the soldiers who were close to the old loach had already withdrawn to Valankov, and now these people are dead. The old loaches won't care, there won't be reinforcements from them around. ”

"I think there are two hundred men at that trading post," I said to them, "and the troops that have just attacked are one hundred and forty or fifty." The prince was too reckless to dare to besiege such an enemy with many purposes. ”

"There is a difference between men," said Kruskal, "and there are no more than fifty of those who can fight, and the rest are miscellaneous fish." But just now we were bewildered by that damn Salander trick. It was scattered by them. Don't you see? Many of the people who chased it out didn't even have boots. It's all the farmers and hunters recruited from the surrounding area, and they are vulnerable. ”

"Vulnerable. And then beat us up. A friend of Guntz said, "Listen, Rhodok, it's all gringos' fault. The Valans have suffered because they have dealt with you too much. If it hadn't been for the Salander artisans just now, we wouldn't have been so unlucky. ”

Kruzkal and the two Valans continued to stumble for a while, until we heard a noise at the same time, and we pressed our lips together and ran into the woods.

After a flurry of footsteps, a group of Salanders fled from where we had just stood, Salander mercenaries. The Valans snorted with contempt. The Salanders remained in line as they retreated, and they ran across the path in unison, led by the Salander mercenary captain from earlier.

"How's that guy?" I remembered the man who was almost killed by the captain, "the Salander soldier with a wound on his face." ”

"I wasn't hacked to death, Guntz stopped me." "But you're in bond." You let that captain Salander lose people in front of his men. ”

"What does this have to do with me," I went to see them at Guntz, "it's your hands." ”

"Hey!" Guntz shouted, "You are the boyar, we naturally have to listen to what you say, don't push it to us." ”

Several Valans looked at each other, as if disgusted and puzzled by my eagerness to get out of trouble.

I'd love to say I'm not a boyar, but I can't say that, and I'd be completely out of the way to say that. The only reason why my team has not collapsed is that I have the title boyar to protect me, and if I deny it for fear of involvement, they will probably flee to the woods at once.

"Yes," I said, "saved the life of a mercenary and offended a mercenary captain." ”

"In fact," said Cruskal, "the mercenary was eighty percent dead, and his captain's knife was so fast that it cut his calf to the point of blood, and he couldn't run away even if he was given a hundred pairs of crutches." Those guys at the trading post have been pressed and beaten for a day, and you say these people will do if they catch him? So it should be that you want to save a mercenary's life but you can't save it, and then you really offend a mercenary captain. ”

"Forget it," I didn't want to say any more, "he won't necessarily live to get revenge on me." Now how do we escape? Do you want to go back to the camp the way you came? ”

"You're boyar, you have the final say." Guntz said.

"You're veterans!" I shouted, "Varan's veteran." Doesn't the veteran know more than a bullshit boyar? Whoever knows the way, if he knows, leads the way. ”

A few of the Valan soldiers frowned and thought for a moment, "It's like a boyar saying, '''Rodok,'' they said to Kruzkal, "do you want to come with us?" ”

"I can't ask for it." Cruzcard said, "Giovanni hasn't paid me a commission yet, how can I go." ”

It was not difficult for the camp to get to the first trading post, but to get to the second one, it was necessary to cross the Ryazan River. On the way back, we had two options, the first was to move along the beach of the Ryazan River. It's a lot faster. But it's easy to spot; Or just cross the Ryazan River as quickly as possible and turn back to camp from the woods. It's slower, but it's safer.

"Let's go by the river," I finally decided, "anyway, the terrain around here is rough, and the cavalry can't run at all." We walked along the river and no one could catch up with us. Nothing happened when it was discovered. I just have to be very careful when crossing the river, and if I am caught at that time, it will be difficult to escape, and I can't swim. ”

The soldiers muttered, 'We all will,' but no one objected to me. There is no reason for an ordinary soldier to refute the order of a 'boyar', and if there is no danger, there is naturally nothing to do. Everyone can return safely; If something goes wrong, they can also put the blame on me, because I am the boyar.

"But Giovanni said," said Guntz as we walked through a wooded field that was getting darker, "and he told us to assemble at the assembly point. ”

Yes, when he left us behind and ran away, he asked us to go around a Kugit village. Those Kugit hated the people of the trading post. It is likely that we will be protected and supported. There will even be quite a few new recruits joining us. But '''

"Do any of you know how to get there?" I asked them.

"I know," Kruskar said. "Cross the Ryazan River, go upstream, and you can run there in half a day."

"That's the opposite direction to the camp," I said, "and there were only four of us." ”

I still don't really believe in Kruskal, this mercenary has only been with us for a few days, I just know that this guy won't be scared to run away on the battlefield, but whether he is loyal or not is reliable is another matter. Varan soldiers and I must not be the only ones who think the same way.

"That's right," said Guntz, "we'll go back to the places we know first." If we encounter patrols along the way, or new recruits who have come in, we will lead them to assemble. ”

"But," said Kruskal, "for a mercenary, disobedience is unforgivable, and who is to blame for it?" ”

"Me." I replied to him, and at the same time to silence a few of the Valan veterans.

These veterans know a lot more than I do, and I can't handle the slightest action, so it's better to take responsibility from the beginning and make sure they are obedient on the road.

When the moon came out, we had already touched the Ryazan River. The moonlight illuminates the slowly flowing Ryazan River, making it look like a cow. The river was covered with a dull mist, light as a veil. The bank of the river looks so wide, and for such a long distance, if someone hides in the forest and waits for us, it will be over, and anyone can kill us from the bank when we are halfway through the river. We waited patiently in the dark woods for two hours, quietly observing all the movements in the woods on both sides. For a while, I seemed to hear a cough, but none of the mercenaries heard me, and they told me not to be suspicious, and I didn't say anything more.

The white sand loomed on the riverbank, and occasionally a branch of an upstream tree or something floated down from the center of the river, which the mercenaries thought were corpses. The night was getting cold, the surface of the helmet was getting cháo wet, and it seemed as if the air was starting to fall heavily.

I decided to cross the river.

In front of us was one of the many shallows of the Ryazan River, and we took off our shin armor and boots, hung them around our necks, rolled up our trouser legs, tied our weapons with cloaks and carried them on our backs, and then we began to cross the river barefoot. The noise of entering the water almost woke up the gods, well, it was blasphemous, it almost alarmed the upper dì dū, but not a single soldier came running and fired arrows at us. This area does not seem to be within the jǐng ring of those defenders.

We slowly crossed the Ryazan River with our weapons on our shoulders and ran to the woods on the opposite side to put on again.

Now, I still have a choice, or go down the river and back to the camp, where there is a fire, barbecue, wine, a safe fence, and thousands of soldiers; Either go upstream, and then you will be entertained by the Kugit of unknown attitude, and the thanks of Prince Giovanni, who will probably pat me on the shoulder and say, 'Well done, Victor!' And then he forgot about it.

But it suddenly occurred to me that there was another way.

"How do we get there?" Cruzcard asked again.

"Go to the forest." I pointed to the depths of the woods in the Black Hole Hole, "Go straight." ”

"What?" The people around were amazed. "Where are you going?"

"The first trading post."