Chapter 45: Shadows
On the night of February 16rì in the 5th year of the magic calendar, a team was marching in the starry night among the hills on the west coast of the Eminole continent, relying on the detailed map in their hands, and the soldiers carefully avoided the large and small villages scattered on the continent.
The soldiers of the 3rd Reinforcement Thousand Detachment of the Fanos Continent set out on January 10 and quickly forced into the destination of this trip, the Broken Ice Port, at an astonishing speed of 30 kilometers ~ 40 kilometers every night.
In the first battle of Xilin Island, the 3,000 troops of the Fanos Western Expeditionary Army were almost wiped out, and if it weren't for the desperate pulling of the soldiers, the four famous generals of the Western Expeditionary Army would not have been just one of the Duqilie. Even so, Norton's left arm was severely damaged in the battle, and finally had to be amputated, which shows the severity of the tragedy. After the Western Expeditionary Army was assembled, since there were more than 60,000 commanders in the front army, it was impossible for the 45,000 soldiers to have their own complete subordinates, no matter how they were divided, and in this situation, the Western Expeditionary Army added a new cluster to the 1,000-man army -- the corps. According to Dahaino's explanation, the establishment of the legion is higher than the establishment of the 10,000-person team, and the legion can be under the jurisdiction of the 10,000-person team, but the 10,000-person team will not be under the jurisdiction of the legion, and the benchmark military rank of the supreme commander of the legion is 10,000 people, which at least makes all the 10,000-person commanders more satisfied. At present, each corps consists of 6 to 9 thousand-man squads, under the direct command of 10,000 commanders.
As the newly promoted commander of 10,000 people, Norton led the smallest legion, consisting of a total of 6 thousand troops, and was called the Third Legion within the Western Expeditionary Front. Although the 3,000-man team led by Norton was left behind after the first battle on Xilin Island, although it experienced a major defeat, although more than 60% of the robes lost their lives in the war, but the 3,000-man team reconstructed on the basis of these 300 remnants did not make people see how much vitality was damaged, and in the following months, the 3,000-man team showed strong combat power to show that they were still one of the best brave journeys in the Western Expeditionary Army. When Norton formed the Third Legion, he built a corpsion-level command unit on the basis of the 3,000-man Legion. This Leap Jump Operation is composed of the second, third, and fifth legions under the command of Norton, Merlin, and the Golden Dragon Knight Yemoda.
Crisscrossing the territory of a hostile country for more than 2,000 miles is far more difficult than the answer that the cadres of the small mercenary group sat in the hall on February 15 and drank tea and imagined. From 10 January onwards, the 3,000-man regiment marched during the day at all moments - the winter nights were extraordinarily long, and the camp was pulled out at 5 p.m. every night until 4 a.m. the next day.
One kilometer in front of the large group is an Amy Imperial Standard Guard, a human soldier with the insignia of the Lion River Defense Zone on his uniform, and as far as possible to guide the large team around the Imperial outpost as far as possible as he advances. If a pedestrian rushes into the group, the human soldiers on the periphery usually deal with it, and if they get too close to the team, they will immediately take action to capture the person and carry them to the team. Fortunately, pedestrians outside are extremely scarce on winter nights, and in the past 20 days or so, fewer than 10 pedestrians have become undeserved captives.
Judging by the time, it will be close to the ice break port the night after tomorrow. A faint sense of excitement could be felt among the soldiers who had worked hard for nearly a month, and the speed of the march was noticeably accelerated.
Whether it was a strong orc, a jīng werewolf, or a human with very poor night vision, all the horses were wrapped in their feet, and their hives were tightly wrapped on the horses' chews, and if it weren't for a small blue sè magic ball released by the magician at the front of the line, it would not have been possible to detect a large number of soldiers from a distance.
In the depths of the night, the red moon in the distance gradually disappeared into the sea to the west, and the dense stars shimmered, everything was as silent as a few days ago.
Suddenly, the cavalry's luan bell sounded from a distance, and it grew louder and louder, and after dozens of breaths, the sound of horses' hooves could be clearly heard under the luan bell.
Who? so fast? or this dark night.
Many of the old men among the human knights frowned slightly, in such a late night, such a cold weather, such a bumpy road, and even more snow. What kind of knight would let his horse run so unsparingly, and won't the horse's hooves be broken by the frozen ground?
A fiery dragon galloped out from behind the hill on the right, and in the dark night, under the fiery dragon were knights with pitch-black horses and pitch-black armor, at least more than 50 knights.
"What troops are ahead, immediately stop advancing and be checked, we are the Imperial Gyeonggi Garrison. The voice came from afar.
"Catch up, don't let the other side get close, prepare for battle, and annihilate the enemy. Norton gently instructed the officer next to him, and the brows of the 10,000-strong man, who was usually moody, were tightly knit together. This is the hinterland of the empire, the degree of danger is far from comparable to the previous Xilin Island, if there is a head-on conflict with human soldiers, surrounded by wide continental roads, it is estimated that the other party can gather more than 5,000 troops in one day, and the only 1,500 people in the 3,000-man team are not enough for the other party to fight. I don't know what went wrong on this trip, but I was blocked by the imperial soldiers. Like most soldiers, the 10,000 Commander can only beg the true god to bless the other party to be dealt with, otherwise, the enemy must be completely annihilated. The corners of Norton's mouth inadvertently showed a wry smile, more than 50 knights who can gallop wildly on a snowy night, if they want to be annihilated, this difficulty is even more difficult than fighting against 5000 enemies.
The Legion's order was quickly conveyed, and the human soldiers on the periphery jumped onto their mounts, and the light cavalry of about 100 men met them.
"We are armed with the Marquis Rocopo von Fairling, in the Lion River Defense District, and we have been ordered to report to Dìdū. "Most of the mercenaries have little loyalty to the country, and the loyalty of this knightly army built on the basis of mercenaries to the continent of Eminole is probably limited to that of their former employers. The Centurion is a mercenary veteran who is very familiar with the area of the Lion River, and has been hired by the Marquis of Rocopo von Fairling, so it is easy to deceive some unwitting patrols with this identity.
"Oh," as he spoke, the fire dragon had approached the soldiers of the Third Legion, and at the foreground were two black horses, which belonged to the majestic dragon foal that the prince of the dark horse often mentioned in the legend stepped on, much stronger than ordinary horses, and the knight figure on the horse also needed to be described as vigorous. The helmet mask was pulled down, and there seemed to be a cold luster behind the eye protection, the helmet was shaking with blue sè feathers, and the pitch-black plate leaf armor was obviously from the hands of the dwarven master craftsman, and there was no trace of luster under the jumping flames, and only in the dwarf tribe did this kind of chaotic armor casting technique, an exaggerated black sè cloak fell smoothly from the horse's back. Behind the two knights are the other black knights lined up like goose wings.
The Blue Feather Knight?
Norton was also slightly stunned, most of the Blue Feather Knights in the Emperor ** have the rank of squad leader or above, and there will be two Blue Feather Knights leading the team to patrol, which is enough to show how much attention the Imperial Gyeonggi Defense Region attaches to the surrounding defense. It seems that this level is not very easy to pass.
"Show the order of the military department. Why advance in the middle of the night?" the icy sound seemed to add more chill to the winter night.
"Lord Knight," the Hundred Commander was probably taken aback when he saw the other party's Ding Ling clearly, and his voice changed slightly: "We are on the order of Lord Marquis to go to Dìdū to listen to the order, Lord Marquis is the founding father of the empire, after hearing that the empire was attacked by a foreign continent, he hurriedly gathered the fiefdom soldiers according to the order of the emperor's ** department, and selected Jīng Rui from them in the hope of serving the country." The lord ordered us to rush to dìdū by starry night, but we accidentally missed the lodging, and there was no place to rest in the barren mountains and mountains, so we had to rush overnight, hoping that we could find a village and town tomorrow to repair for a day. The former mercenary replied without leaking.
"Oh, that means there is no military order, don't you know that the empire is already in the third-level jǐng ring?" the black-clothed knight was unmoved, and there was a hint of reproach in his words. "Immediately dismount and be inspected, the main general and I will go back to the emperor's ** department to explain, and the others will immediately camp on the spot, and they must not act privately without an order. ”
"This ......" The former mercenary showed a look of embarrassment on his face: "Your Excellency must know that the eldest son of Lord Marquis is the captain of the Imperial Boundary Forest Defense Area, and the second son is the captain of the Imperial Tongyun Pass Defense Area, and the Lord Marquis himself once served as the deputy head of the Emperor's ** Department, for us, Lord Marquis's dictation is equivalent to the order of the Emperor's ** Department." Your Excellency will punish the Marquis in the future, and it will be very difficult for us to deal with it. ”
The black knight may have a special relationship with other famous dignitaries in the empire, and when he heard that others were using the marquis to suppress him, he did not show any uneasiness and annoyance, but only maintained the due respect for the nobles in a cold tone: "This is wartime, everything is based on the national war situation, even if you are a high-ranking person like a marquis, you can't break the rules." ”
"Lord Knight, we are just a small leader of the army of the Marquis's fiefdom, and behind us is the wife and brother of the Marquis, he is in charge of this trip, you see if you go to talk directly, so you don't have to be too embarrassed by me. "The former mercenary is extremely experienced and has set a trap for the black knights of the Gyeonggi Defense Zone.
The two black knights exchanged glances and led their men into the so-called aristocratic armament.
The outer team of knights let the black knight enter, and seemed to inadvertently close the exit, and the slightly sweaty hand gripped the cold hilt of the sword hard.
"Kill, annihilate the enemy!" After the encirclement was closed, a roar suddenly erupted in the crowd.
The dense warrior drew his snowy long sword, and the half-orcs and bears half-crouching behind the crowd leapt from the ground, and the half-human-high mace pounced on the black knights with a gust of wind......
The two blue-feathered knights led by the rider urged their mounts at the same time, and the white sè light scattered under the feet of the black sè dragon horse, and the two mounts immediately took off into the air.
"Phantom Beast Knight!"
Some of the human soldiers of the Phanos Legion exclaimed, and werewolves and orc soldiers had also seen such flying knights, and the momentum of the besieging soldiers was immediately stunned.
"Stop! I'm looking for Lord Norton!" shouted the two knights in mid-air.
"Stop!" A low order also came from behind the orc, and at the moment when the black knight took off, Norton already regretted the order he had just given, and the other party had a phantom beast knight, and the total annihilation of the enemy was completely in vain. When he saw that the other party seemed to be friend and foe, he hurriedly gave an order.
Norton didn't expect that there would be two phantom beast knights in such a small team, according to the relevant information of the emperor, such knights have the benchmark rank of squad leader in the army, and even most of them are already senior military ranks such as imperial captain. Across the ocean from the Holy Snow Mountain, there are quite few phantom beast knights in the army of the Fanos Continent, and every four years, they can exchange the rarest rare birds and beasts for two or three places in a certain country to participate in the phantom beast trial, and there are many of them who have been eliminated, so there are probably only more than 10 phantom beast knights in the entire army, which is really not comparable to the countries of the Eminole Continent.
Accompanied by the orc guards, Norton stepped out of the queue, "I am Norton, who is Your Excellency, and how do you know about us?"
"Your Excellency Norton, my master has always cooperated with your army, and this is a letter from my master. The Black Knight fell to the ground, handed the letter in his hand to Norton, and took out another letter casually: "This is a letter from Lord Dahaino." ”
In the process of Norton's reading of the letter, another black knight briefly explained what happened: a month ago, when the Western Expeditionary Legion made a leap to attack the Ice Breaking Harbor, he sent a notice to the inner line of the Empire, and the inner line was shocked when he received the letter. When Fanos was a subordinate of the campaign, he didn't know that the small mercenary group had just taken over the ice port, and the combat effectiveness of this small mercenary group was incomparable to that of the original imperial squadron, and regardless of the numerical advantage, only the two dragon knights were enough to top the combat power of a squadron each. While lamenting that it was not that the enemies did not meet, the internal line summoned his direct subordinates overnight to go to Xilin Island to stop this action under the banner of the emperor's ** department. When the Black Knight saw that he had arrived at Haino and learned that the expeditionary force had departed, Dahaino was too eye-catching for his troops to move in the Empire, so he asked the Black Knight to chase after him again......
In the same cold narrative of the Imperial Knight, Norton read the two letters, and the half-orc brown eyes revealed not only luck but also heartfelt gratitude, and the only strong right hand stretched out: "Thank you very much for your immediate message, for your hard work and your subordinates, I myself express my gratitude to you on behalf of all the soldiers." The 10,000-strong man used honorifics in his tone.
The black knight seemed to ignore the big hand in front of him at all, and the pitch-black helmet was slightly chinned: "Thank me? As a soldier of the enemy forces, I really cannot accept such thanks, nor can I say words wishing you victory. ”
Norton and the other orcs were angry, and the cold tone that remained unchanged from beginning to end could only show one point, in the hearts of the two Blue Feather Knights, although the majesty of the head of the family exceeded their loyalty to the empire, but as far as the two people were concerned, there was always resistance to the alien race.
Many black knights surrounded the black knight and walked out.
"May I ask Mr. Knight's name?" As an orc, Norton didn't want to miss the opportunity to get acquainted with this kind of loyal human.
“...... I won't tell you...... lest you be captured, and then reveal my identity. ”
"Oh, how can you be so sure I'm going to be captured?"
"The title of His Excellency Baron Amy, the Golden Brain, is not called in vain, and the person who can escape under his calculations is too rare for me personally. ”
The two famous generals, who have always been known for their reticent words, almost said what they had said for a day in a short exchange.
Watching the long fire dragon depart quickly, Norton put the letter in his arms and said something that seemed to increase his confidence: "If it weren't for this letter, maybe I would have become a prisoner of the order, now...... Let's hope it's the other way around. ”
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