Day after day of diligent training, good instructors, good weapons and equipment, all aimed at reducing the bloodshed and sacrifice in actual combat - this truth should have been known for a long time. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info but for some reason, as time goes by, some people begin to boast of the "genius warriors" who carry out "self-realization" in actual combat.

Marshal Rosentha Gustav Kivir, the famous Suomyr general whom we mentioned in the previous chapter, is believed to have said these words when training a certain group of officers who thought they could manage their strategies without the daily training of soldiers:

"You think you don't need to train, you think you can't do it in training just because you're not serious enough, just because training imposes too many restrictions, and when you get into the actual fight, you will perform better. ”

"But you're not. ”

"If you can't be calm and show every bit of strength in training, then when you enter the actual battle, you will only fall into endless panic and helplessness. ”

This great marshal of more than 1,000 years ago, with wisdom and vision ahead of his time, explains the complex and meticulous training program he created. These include the use of equipment, the advancement of hand-to-hand combat, weapon dressing, infantry coordination, infantry coordination, command issuance, and even torture and torture, as well as various languages, communications, geographical environments, etc., all of which are extremely complex training in the eyes of today's people, although they did not change the fate of Suomir, which was already a small country, but later achieved the shockingly disciplined elite legions and generals of the huge and invincible Laman Empire.

Throwing an armed civilian into battle has a ninety percent chance of dying from an enemy attack, another nine percent from a mistake or trampling by one's own men in battle, and the remaining one percent, and a zero ninety percent of the other accidents, such as diarrhea, poisoning, fire, flooding, or even falling, - only one in a thousand, if not one in a thousand, that a peasant who has never been well trained will survive his first battle.

A large factor in determining this probability is weapons and equipment, and the reason why things like spears and shields run rampant anywhere in the continent of Rigal is not because of how powerful they are. It takes at least a week and a half for an old blacksmith to forge a long sword, or a long sword, and the iron-making process is still one of those cheap products that has not been carefully polished and the equipment is very rudimentary.

But the amount of metal and man-hours required for such a longsword was far greater than that of a spear. The time to make a long sword is enough to make a dozen or twenty spears, the tip of the spear consumes a relatively small amount of iron ore and the wood can be found everywhere, not a particularly large size, even novice blacksmith apprentices and farriers can be built effortlessly, combined with various factors, if it is one person or a dozen or dozens of people, it is just that, to arm hundreds of thousands or even tens of thousands of troops, this one of the lowest cost, manufacturing requirements, and man-hours of all the lowest weapons, will obviously be the best choice.

The reason why this kind of weapon that rampant through all parts of the continent is still dominating the frontal battlefield of mankind is that in addition to being cheap, it is also simple and easy to use, if you form a formation, you only need to know how to poke forward, unlike long swords and long knives, you have to pay attention to various swings and power to master the angle - and extend along this starting point, as this "cheap" and "mass production" The composition of the militia summoned by the lords of the countries on the West Coast, you naturally can't expect the nobles above to equip them with any kind of armor.

There is no invincible armor in this world, and the attack power of the weapon and the defense of the armor are not a fixed and simple value, what a cuirass can do is to cover most of your body so that you will be traumatized by the enemy The surface area of the body is greatly reduced, and with the arc of the excellent shape, the arrows fired at you are bounced, its defense comes from the shape and design rather than the simple thickness, so the weight of thirty or forty kilograms of excellent full-body armor is enough to provide nearly invincible protection.

Although it can still be damaged by heavy cavalry and some armor-piercing weapons, given the relative rarity of such weapons, a noble knight with bright armor and trained in professional combat has a much higher survival rate on the battlefield than low-level mercenaries and militiamen who have nothing. And this is the main reason why the West Valier Kingdom, with the noble cavalry as the main force, has become the most powerful country on the west coast of the entire Mobigas.

Having said that, the Lamanite Empire's well-trained legions spent a lot of time learning how to work with allies and how to kill enemies most effectively, and the professional regular army was a far cry from the West Coast militia. And if these soldiers, who are training all day and night, do not talk about the command, the time and the place, if they simply calculate the absolute number of people in a confrontation between the same number, the survival rate is unusually high compared with the militia.

With a little time and a bit of brain, anyone will conclude that a trained person will definitely have a much higher survival rate than someone who goes into combat in the first place. It is true that many of those who have survived the battle have summed up their own set of experiences, but most of the time, they are just lucky, or brute force or speed.

After all, many people who learn this skill are geniuses themselves, and with a superb starting point and excellent mentors, when they or they have learned all this diligently, when they encounter the need to use it, at least compared to those who lazily lie on their stomachs and feel that as long as the time comes for them to do everything, these people will be more calm and rational, and understand how they should do it.

......

The horses' hooves trampled on the still wet mountain path, and the most suitable word to describe Henry and his party at the moment was a big defeat, even if the two leaders of the team had not said a word for a morning, the four surviving novice mercenaries were naturally dejected, and even the most gagging and eloquent Ofimio did not squeak again for a long, long time.

The damage of this hunting mercenary team under Jerónimo this time is not unmistakable, although Henry, who knows the small calculations in the heart of this mercenary team leader, feels that the reason why he is so depressed is probably more related to the snake dragon skin, but no matter what, the mercenary group has lost these manpower, and it will probably be difficult to replenish it for a long time.

Although it is a bit cruel to say, the death of those novice green card mercenaries is not a big deal, after all, the south is so prosperous, and the big mercenary group with names and surnames wants to beckon a few newcomers, and there will still be many people who want to come in. What really hurt the vitality of old Juan's mercenary group was the death of the three orange mercenaries, although the mercenary who was in charge of controlling the field like Jerónimo and passed out the night before was in fact uncertain, but the possibility of him surviving that flood was very slim, and everyone tried their best to search yesterday and could not find it around, so he had to give up.

The veteran, after a long time and many missions to be upgraded to the orange badge mercenary is an extremely rare talent, this kind of character is not only more efficient in doing things, but also in the cultivation of new generations, their status is irreplaceable.

Among the many large hunting mercenary groups like the old Juan, this kind of mercenary squad that hunts a specific creature regularly according to the season can only be counted as a second-tier team. The front-line hunting mercenary team is the face of the mercenary group in the world, they will take on challenging hunting tasks with high pay, the entire detachment is composed of elites, and no one is lower than the blue card level, and after breaking into a reputation, it will bring more commissions to the mercenary group, so a virtuous circle.

A team like this, which can draw on the experience of the predecessors, and has veterans leading the team with novices, is a second-line support force used in the team to train a new generation of members - but even this is very controllable, as long as it is based on previous experience, it will not be too big, and the hunting behavior is mature and sufficient, because of the stupidity of a single individual member, there is still a tendency to get out of control from time to time.

It's okay to lose everything, and the losses of the younger generation are still within the range of bearing, because of a series of reasons, the patriarch who is an elite member died or disappeared three people in the mission at once? - Even if Jerónimo didn't collude with the Bhatti Merchant Group, these times he returned to the mercenary group, and as the leader of the squad, he would definitely be left out in the cold for a long time without a mission.

After all, no one wants to follow a squad leader who has an experienced hunting expert but doesn't listen to the advice of the other party and camps in the wrong place and ends up in an accident. Even if Juan didn't want to fight his little report, the four young mercenaries who survived, as well as everyone else, including Henry and Mira, were all through the previous conversation.

In order to save his reputation, even though he has lost the snake dragon skin that was the target of the trade, there is still a possibility that Jerónimo will choose to kill people. Considering this, Juan Sr. decided to return to the town as soon as possible, on the grounds that he had lost his flatbed carriage and was left with only mules and horses, and that he did not need to consider the terrain required for the carriage to travel again.

When he proposed this plan, he naturally wanted to avoid the Batty merchant group that might still be ambushed nearby, and Gironimo didn't know if he had guessed that old Juan had seen through his plot, so he sighed very decadently, and then did not respond to his decision in agreement or against it, but just stayed in the team and slowly moved forward, very quietly.

"Stop!" Gironimo stopped talking, and the old hunting expert became the de facto leader of the entire team. He raised his hand and ordered the group to stop at a spot on the halfway slope where the white stone was exposed, and then probed left and right for a while, and took the short bow and wooden arrows from the saddle.

The food they carried was exhausted, and in order to fill their stomachs, everyone had to hunt and gather food while moving forward. Although old Juan said that he was good at archery, he and the others carried very limited arrows on this trip. Fortunately, the experienced hunters were all skilled at hand, and they took the slender trees from the nearby woods, sharpened them with a knife, and then roasted them to carbonize them, so that the tips of the arrows were hard enough to hunt small creatures, and then they tore off the longest feathers of the wild children they hunted, and wrapped the resin from the trees as a binder to fix the three arrow feathers, and the simple arrows were made in this way.

As a precautionary measure, the hard feathers that could be used as arrow feathers obtained from the previous hunts were collected by Juan Sr. and Federó, who also knew how to use a short bow, into packages on the backs of mules and horses, which came in handy at this moment.

The two of them turned and left to hunt, while Euphiumio, another young mercenary, and Henri Milla and their group began to pick up firewood from the surrounding area. They still haven't been able to get out of the area covered by the heavy rain the night before, and despite the scorching sun, the moist moisture still remains on the forest floor that is shaded by dense southern forests.

Fortunately, the people present had the most basic ability to survive in the wilderness, and the degree of dryness was judged by the crisp sound of breaking, and most of them, including the freelance mercenaries, were able to collect enough wood in a short period of time.

It is a more rugged route, and the mountain springs here are not as easy to find as they used to be. Both humans and horses need water, and horses and mules can get water from grass, and humans who can't do the same can only seek water from some fruits that are common in the tropics.

While waiting for the hunters to return, the firewood burned slowly, and it took more than half an hour for everyone to collect some common non-poisonous wild fruits nearby.

Half a pot of water was filled with various colors of flesh, and although they were sold brightly, how did they taste, but several people who were staring at them, including Mira, who were watching them gradually start to roll, couldn't help but frown. But our lady of Loan hesitated here and now, but Mr. Sage did not stop for a moment, and ran to the palm trees that were common in the tropics nearby, and peeled them off with his hands and feet under the bewildering eyes of others.

Henry chose some new palms, which he could quickly and completely peel off, and the brown skin and green leaves fell to the ground in cascading tones, and then the exposed snow-white palm core was decisively broken by the sage with his bare hands. He turned his head and saw that Mira and Euphilio on the side of the pot were both staring at him in a daze, and the expressions on their faces did not change, they just broke off and threw them at each of them.

"Eat, eat, see. Henry was succinct, then turned his head and went back to gathering.

"......" The young mercenary frowned and stared at the thing in his hand, while Mira, who trusted Henry very much on the other side, took it and took a bite.

"How's it going......" Although there is some embarrassment between the two of them because of a series of things in the past few days, they can be regarded as people who share hardships, Opemio said this to Mira curiously in West Coast English, and the girl didn't take the previous things to heart, and turned her head with her beautiful eyebrows: "It's a little bitter......"

"But it's delicious. She said this, and then took another bite.

The palm core, which is used to satisfy hunger, is rich in nutrients, so it is another dish to add to the pot of soup with a lot of pulp. The bitterness more or less calmed the sweetness of the soup with too much sugar, and when Federo and Old Juan, who had been out for more than two hours to complete their hunting, returned with wild children and rabbits, the old hunting expert's expression was very subtle when they saw this scene. He stared at the sage for a long moment, as if to ask him why he knew about this southern delicacy that only veteran hunters knew.

And Henry, of course, fooled it with a shrug.

The old hunting mercenary who sighed and shook his head didn't intend to dwell on this question any longer, but the next second, as he walked this way, he found that the sage had reached for the hilt of the great sword behind him - Juan, who had already established a relationship of trust with him in this series of events, did not suspect that he was trying to attack him, but dropped his prey, grabbed Federo and began to run forward.

The experienced and decisive move was quite correct, and in the next moment, the sound of heavy horses' hooves came from the front, and a line of mercenaries riding grassland war horses and wearing leather armor came out of the rainforest.

Henry, Juan, and Mira all glanced at the boiling cauldron, and it was the white smoke from the apparently undried firewood that caught the attention of the men—but if they were just here to get a bite of food, the two mercenary leaders in front of them, who looked quite well-dressed and rode on their horses, and wore the purple badge that was the mark of the elite, had just met the old mercenary with a squinting goatee, and his expression became heavy.

"Batti Merchant Group ......"

A simple word was enough to explain everything, and Henry watched the men carefully, carrying nothing but horses and weapons. Even if they were traveling lightly for an ambush attack, it was obvious that they didn't even have basic survival supplies, and the only explanation for these people being in an unplanned place was that they also encountered a flash flood or other disaster during a thunderstorm, and in the process of escaping, they coincidentally found white smoke burning here.

Just as Henry, Juan and the others observed these people from the Barty merchant group, the other party also easily judged the loss of goods from the embarrassment and attrition on this side, but the purple-branded mercenary led by him tilted his head after a moment of hesitation, and the few people behind him still immediately held the weapon on his waist.

"No! our cargo is gone, nothing, nothing!" said Gironimo as he got up and opened his mouth. Although the fundamental reason is that he is afraid that he will also be wiped out, or whether he really intends to defend himself as the captain of the squad, we don't know for the time being, but all in all, he rushed forward like this, and then began to try to reason with the other party.

"The plan has failed! Even if it goes on now, there is nothing of value left, canceled, canceled, you know!" He didn't seem to intend to hide his calculations any longer, and anyone who wasn't in the wrong mind could guess it. Henry, who was standing behind Gironimo, took the opportunity to quickly gauge the reactions of the rest of the team - the two freelance mercenaries who had gone into the water to save them, as well as the four green-carded newcomers, including Euphemio and Federo, were all at a loss, while the remaining three -

"Are you serious or acting? If you're acting, then I think you can go to the Grand Theatre in Ella City and play a major role, because you look like a real idiot. The red-haired mercenary leader taunted Heronimo in a calm tone, and finally realized that the other party's original intention was to kill his group regardless of whether he succeeded or not, and the team leader was furious, and directly reached out and grabbed his greatsword leaning against the stone - but before that, the three freelance mercenaries, who had been silent, launched an attack on him.

"Ding-" Hunting mercenaries were not good at fighting between people, and in his panic, Gironimo only had time to barely block a blow with his sword as a shield, and was immediately forced to retreat towards Henry's side.

"Hehe, what a mess—" The terrain here is a steep slope all the way down, and they don't necessarily know how to fight right away. The purple mercenary and a dozen other companions turned over and dismounted and walked towards this side while mocking, the two free mercenaries saw that the other three were against the water and the leader was a purple card, the other party was outnumbered, and they were also in a panic at this time, the three blue card mercenaries who were against the water jointly attacked towards Jerónimo, the heavy giant sword was suppressed in this situation and could not be lifted at all, and the slow attack speed made him have to raise his hands high if he wanted to attack, but once he did this, he would inevitably open the front door and would be caught by the weak point and the sword would seal his throat。

"Goodbye, poor fool. The mercenary of the purple card grabbed Jerónimo's attention as if he was playing tricks, and slashed at his neck from the left side with a knife that was all in front of him, but the expected feeling of the bones and muscles being cut did not come.

"Ding-Qiang-Bang-Huh" block, and then he used his sword against his blade to use his wrist to pull a sword flower to the side - the purple mercenary judged the opponent's approach in an instant, and in the next second, the three blue-card mercenaries of the Bhatti merchant group who were besieging Heronimo were forced to retreat with a powerful vertical slash from the oblique stab.

"Back to back, weapons unsheathed!" Henry screamed in surprise and woke up the people who were still confused, "Boom-" Mira and the other two mercenaries drew their long swords and long knives from their waists, while the red-haired mercenaries who had been staring at their wrists for a long time silently turned their eyes to the sage again.

"You guy...... There are two, but do you know who I am. ”

"......" Henry was silent, the corner of the purple mercenary's eyes twitched, and then said slowly: "Okay, then remember well, I am the fastest swordsman in the Barty Merchant Group, Christo of the Wind, and the number one soldier in the entire southern border." ”

"Remember the name, because I don't want you to know who killed you-"

"Huh-" The silver light flashed, and the long knives in both hands stabbed straight out. (To be continued.) )