Blood tax

Chapter 140 Outpost Battle

The plainly dressed Wizard Reid walked into the rebel tent on the muddy ground, and looked around in confusion and sorrow.

This place was originally full of elite warriors with full iron armor and swords, their mighty and sharp eyes were like blades.But almost all of these warriors were lost in yesterday's battle, leaving only a few leaders headed by Lance.

"Your Excellency Lance." The middle-aged man bowed slightly to the general in the camp center.Although his shabby clothes looked like a bum in Byelan, his gestures and gestures carried a mysterious and terrifying aura.

"Mr. Reed," Lance said, with a bandage on his body, he nodded with a decadent expression, saying hello, "The northern camp was broken, you know? It happened yesterday."

"Mosmoke was also killed, and the commander of the army was a knight named Griffith." Mr. Reed spread his hands, "I saw the soldiers who fled from there."

"Griffith?" As soon as the words were finished, a voice sounded from the corner of the tent, and everyone present stepped aside.Lansenis, who had once fought Griffith, sat on a box and wiped his long sword lazily: "I have fought him before, and he is so good at picking his feet. Mosmoke has that excellent set Why can’t you defeat the blessing of the armor?”

Lance glanced at Juggernaut, then turned his gaze back to Wizard Reed and asked:
"Your mentor should be satisfied, right? We killed an extraordinary wizard, but we also wasted precious time in this muddy place and paid so many heroes' lives. If we continue to delay, the army will be in danger."

"Well," wizard Reed sighed, "according to the plan, we need to capture one or two heirs of great nobles and give them to my mentor, so that he can give us more blessings and information."

"Blessings like Steel Rod Ferro and Wall?" Fang Fang Huo Lan, who was also in the camp, shouted dissatisfiedly, "It's useless at all, and you can only go three rounds against the lackeys of the nobles."

Another wizard, Daruno, who is now on the same side as Reed, immediately said:
"Being able to be promoted from a bandit to an Extraordinary, without being crazy or mutated, and experiencing a power that they have never had before, they should be grateful and satisfied.

"If it wasn't for our lord's arrangement, the army would not have had the opportunity to pass through the resistance of the noble coalition forces, and everyone is still grazing in the mountains.

"Now, we have rushed into the core area of ​​Verona, which is almost defenseless, and we have seized countless supplies, property, and weapons. Hundreds of heroes join us every day, and the army is getting stronger and stronger. All this is thanks to our mentor. bestowed."

Wizard Reed raised his right hand falsely, and stopped Wizard Daruno from speaking further before the others made a fuss:

"According to intelligence, one of Verona's main nobles, Earl Syndra, has organized an army composed of knights, city defenders, and garrison. He is coming from the north and will join the battlefield in a short time. Your Excellency Lance You must be ready to lead the attack, right?"

"You mean, do you look like this?" Lance pointed to his wounds all over his body, "Lancenis, can you take [-] infantry to defeat the enemy in the north, and I will stay here to organize new heroes."

"No problem!" Lansenis sat on the box and waved to everyone.

"Wait," Wizard Reed said, "I think His Excellency Lansonis should attack Baron Bate's castle with all his strength, and exchange those noble young masters and ladies for more support."

Lance shook his head: "It's not easy. Just now, more than 100 city defense troops and militiamen led by a knight attacked the checkpoint near the ferry, killing dozens of people. I just sent more than 200 soldiers there To intercept the ferry.

"The official army attacking there is the force to break through the northern camp. They use waterways to attack us everywhere. If we just sit back and watch, the east encirclement network of Beit Manor will be opened."

"It's just a checkpoint, what does he do?" Wizard Reed asked with a displeased face.

Lance narrowed his eyes and gave Mr. Reed a murderous look more like a beast than a human.Reed, who was stared at by this gaze, couldn't help trembling.

Lance quickly retracted his gaze and explained in a calm tone:

"It's not a checkpoint question,

"The northern camp and the checkpoint on the river bank have been hit hard one after another. If we don't take action, this army will tear up more gaps, and even lead to the defeat of the major battalions."

As he spoke, he raised his hands and clenched his fists: "The army, as a whole, looks fierce, but in fact, like a little girl, it will suddenly convulse without warning when it is slightly stimulated.

"Although our army is large in number, the heroes come from all over the country. They have not been trained, and the orders among the various troops are not unified. Once the continuous battle is unfavorable, the whole army will be at risk of disintegration, just like the Northern Camp.

"We can't take down the baron's castle, and it's okay if we can't take the hostages. This battle has already dealt a heavy blow to the nobles and their lackeys, and strengthened the momentum and strength of the rebel army. We can retreat to the mountains where the nobles are weak, and fight with them there. The other rebels gather together, accumulate strength and wait for the opportunity."

"No, no, you can't retreat!" Wizard Reed's teeth creaked, and he said again like a wild dog staring at his prey, "Can't Lord Lansenis go to the castle once? Come here as an extraordinary person, The noble heirs there must not be opponents."

Lanceris shrugged his shoulders boredly, and had no interest in such a plan at all: "Tsk, do you think I'm stupid for not knowing about attributes? Lord Lance can snipe and kill an extraordinary wizard. Could it be that the little bastards in the castle Can't you trap me with magic?

"I'm not a lawbreaker, if I fall into a trap, everything will be over.

"You do what you want! I will cooperate."

Lance, who was wearing heavy armor, giggled, opened his big mouth full of sharp teeth and said:
"The reinforcements of the noble lord will soon be surrounded from all directions. According to me, the families of those young people are far away in Bayeran. The purpose of using them as bait to attract the official army to fight us has been achieved. There is no need to continue to take risks.

"We need to gather more troops,

"We have a group of veterans of the Auxiliary of Verona who join our ranks and they have a deep grudge.

"Although the northern camp is under attack, the position of the southern camp is more important. If we hold it there, we will have a way out to gallop across the plains of Verona full of farms. I will go there to defend and organize the army.

"Lancenis, you take some old soldiers and three thousand good men to defeat the reinforcements from the north.

"As for this camp and Baron Bett's castle, don't worry, Master Reed, I will leave this west camp and the nearby 1000 or 500 troops, plus the [-] people left by the northern camp, to you. Wizard Luno can make his own decisions. I will send people to support you after I have rectified the new army."

……

Lance ignored the fierce opposition of the wizards, left the west camp of the rebels, and took a group of soldiers to the south camp by the Vero River.

This camp is located on the hillside of a small hill. It was originally used to confront Commander Maglius. After the opponent was washed away by the flood, it became a peninsula guarding land and rivers.

When Lance arrived at the camp, the more than 2000 soldiers gathered here were in disarray, neither martial law nor fighting.

"What are you doing? What are you all gathering to watch?" Lance yelled, beating the soldiers he met with the back of his knife.

"My lord, the three ships of nobles passed here not long ago and went north to attack a northern outpost. They killed dozens of brothers and left."

"I know that, what else?"

"Another group set up two trebuchets on the other side of the river in two boats!" A leader reported to Lance.

Are they going to bombard us from this distance? !Lance was surprised at first, but when he thought about it carefully, it was impossible to cover the rebel camp from the other side of the river, and there was no threat at all.

However, Lance still said cautiously: "Send a few boats to kill them."

"People have been arranged to go, but they also ran away," the leader responded. "Before you arrived, they shot a few rounds at us, and the fireballs were thrown on the nearby hill."

"Oh?"

Lance hurriedly looked up to the top of the nearby mountain.To the east of the South Camp, there is a small hill that is emitting bursts of smoke and flames.That mountain was still quite a distance from the South Camp, and it was very difficult to go up and down. The army could not camp there, and the fire would not spread into the camp.

"When did this happen?" Lance asked.

"An hour ago, when we heard that the outpost had been attacked."

Stupid lackeys of the nobility... Lance was relieved.The trebuchets on the opposite bank also stopped firing at this time. It seems that the officers and soldiers on the opposite side also realized that the distance was not enough, and had given up on this stupid plan.

If you want to bombard the camp with firepower, you must transport the trebuchet across the river and set it on the bank.But so what?With the strength of the rebels, they can be dealt with with a single charge.

Maybe the officers and soldiers would send elite soldiers to cover the catapults to reach the river bank, that would be even better, and the second-level team leader who killed Mosmoke should come.

Reassuring, Lance called the leaders over and asked them to summon the newly joined heroes to prepare for inspection and training.

Suddenly, he seemed to see some shadow moving on the top of the mountain not far away.The trees on the top of the mountain that had just been ignited had been burned, leaving black marks.

In the remaining thick smoke, there seemed to be a huge silhouette flashing past.

An ominous premonition flashed in Lance's heart, and he immediately shouted: "Take someone to the top of the mountain to see! Immediately!"

The strong wind blew away the smoke on the top of the mountain, and two trebuchets loomed above the bandit's head.

Before Lance could give an order, a trebuchet had already thrown a burning fireball here.

"Bombardment!"

"hidden!"

The fireball dragged a long trail of thick smoke across the dark sky, hit a camp tent, and opened a wall of fire in the camp.Splashing debris and flames set nearby houses and rebels on fire, and screams came and went.

"Quick! Go and kill those trebuchets!" Lance shouted.Before he finished speaking, the second fireball had already shot into the air.

……

"Okay, how shameless!" Senamon praised sincerely, looking down at the chaotic rebel camp and the rolling fireballs in the distance.

While Griffith launched the offensive, a small number of engineering squadrons were preparing to attack the rebel southern camp according to his plan.But they did not attack directly, but according to the order, they first bombarded the woods and bushes on the top of the nearby hill, burning out a small open space, and while the rebels were focusing on fighting in the north and trebuchets on the shore, Senamon took Someone sneaked up to the top of the still burning mountain, completed the deployment of two portable trebuchets, and then threw incendiary bombs at the rebels down the mountain.

The hill used as the shelling position is still some distance away from the South Camp, but with the height difference, the range of the trebuchet has also been increased.

In just ten minutes, continuous fireballs turned the rebel camp upside down.The place where they camped was originally small in order to maintain the terrain, and with the newly collected recruits and supplies crowded together, the fireballs were almost flawless.

However, the kerosene and stone bombs that the engineers could bring up were not many, and the material and mechanical structure of the trebuchet could not support long-term shooting.After shooting for a quarter of an hour, it seemed that it was going to be unsustainable.

The engineering soldiers poured oil on the catapult, lit it on fire, and slid down quickly along the rope tied to the boulder.

"Go catch them!"

Lance's face had been burned black, his two thousand troops were in a mess in the burning camp, and many newcomers simply took advantage of the chaos to loot.

With great difficulty, they pulled out more than 100 people, and the Extraordinary Mad Dog Matt led a hundred knives and axes to outflank them along the river bank.

Mad Dog Matt saw those shameless engineers coming down the mountain from afar, thinking that he must stop them by the river.

Two flat-bottomed boats had already parked on the side of the hill near the river bank, and the engineering soldiers descended from the hill in sevens and eights, fleeing to the boats in a hurry.

"Kill all the lackeys of the nobles!" Mad Dog Matt raised his arms and shouted, and all his men rushed forward with red eyes and howling.

Suddenly, a warrior in heavy armor and holding a halberd jumped out of the boat, and attacked the oncoming rebels alone.

"kill him!"

Mad Dog Matt barked wildly.Before the words fell, the halberd soldier had already killed three people in a row.Holding a terrifying weapon in his hand, he breathed out the wind, and the sword and shield were broken along the way. When he rubbed, he was injured and died.

Most of the swordsmen and axes of the rebels did not wear armor, and they were killed with a single halberd before the weapons in their hands reached the enemy.

"Running dog, don't be rampant!" Matt the mad dog saw his subordinates being massacred, he was furious, and jumped over with two scimitars in his hand.

His figure was agile, and some mysterious power was suddenly activated, which stretched his limbs, and he actually presented a monster like a praying mantis, and his advances and retreats were extremely strange.

"Sequence 8 'Alien' of the monster path?" The halberd soldier killed two more people and asked Matt coldly.

"Exactly!" Matt's two scimitars were connected to his hands, slashing like a shadow.

"Bah!"

The halberd and the long knife intersected, making a clear trembling sound.

Mad Dog Matt's inhuman legs kicked the ground, jumped up like an insect, and the blade swept across the halberdier's chest like a phantom.

In the midst of the sparks, the breastplate remained motionless, but the halberd turned like a windmill, and the heavy iron ball fell head-on.

"Pong!"

There was only a muffled sound, and all the axemen present saw their leader's brain burst, and he stumbled and fell to the ground.The halberd flipped between his arms and stabbed at the face.

……

"Master Griffith is so brave and unparalleled, as expected of Miss Lamor's favorite..."

"Shut up." Griffith said coldly.

Senamon, the engineering sergeant who led the team, hurriedly covered his mouth, and quickly changed into another compliment, "We have never had such a hearty shelling. How many enemies are there in the rebel camp we destroyed? Eight hundred?"

"I think it's less than one thousand and five!" The soldier on the side yelled, "It's so enjoyable to see them running away with their heads in their arms! When are we going to do it again?"

Griffith ignored them and stared at the distant river by himself.The bombardment just now lasted a little longer than originally planned due to its great effect, but the danger has also doubled.

He watched the bend in the river mouth, where the rebel pursuers should appear.Although flat-bottomed boats are highly adaptable, their speed is extremely slow, and the enemy can quickly catch up as long as they drive a light boat.

Fortunately, until they passed the mouth of the river, the rebel camp was busy fighting fires and no pursuers were sent.

Under three consecutive attacks, the rebel organization has fallen into chaos.

……

When Griffith returned to Yambol Town, more people and supplies had gathered here.

The town officials who were lazy and indifferent last night became particularly hardworking, arranging food and supplies before and after the run.Fiona is watching over them, and the locals are surprisingly obedient to her.

The girl was also very happy to see Griffith returning victorious, and immediately explained the reason to him.

It turned out that when she broke through, Sonia asked everyone to sign a power of attorney to her, requesting help from Bayeran on behalf of all the trapped people.

After Fiona got in touch with Old Town, although she didn't immediately receive the support of powerful supernatural beings and troops, all nearby forces were told to accept her command and dispatch.

Earl Chalon, who couldn't come to the scene, used various channels to sternly intimidate, and then made a lot of promises, and finally persuaded the Verona forces in this area.

Local officials are straightening out overland traffic to the ferry to Boulogne, where there are villages and estates along the way.In the case of limited ships and the river is full of wreckage and trees, if a large army wants to launch an attack, it can only reach the east bank by land, and then cross the river to the Boulogne Ferry.

In addition, they actually recruited a squadron of a regular army, and gathered 50 soldiers from five of them first.

They were part of the First Legion of Verona, which was only empty-handed, and they were supposed to go to Commander Maglius to take orders, but they were too slow to catch up.After the flash flood broke out, the superior units of these reinforcements were either swept away by the flood or blocked in other places, so that these troops could not find their commanders.

The inexperienced officials didn't even find a responsible officer for Fiona, but directly led the chaotic soldiers over, and gathered in the square in front of the town council to wait for the girl's orders.

Fortunately, Griffith arrived in time.The first time he saw the legionnaires of these five squads, he immediately frowned, and immediately understood why they fell behind.

These people were well equipped, with mail armor, javelins, and swords and shields, but their spiritual temperament was completely different from the legionnaires Griffith was familiar with. They stood crookedly in the square like a group of hooligans.

They are the Verona Local Legion, replicas of the Bayeran Eagle Banner Legion in various regions, managed and adjusted by the local nobles according to their habits.

When Fiona saw these soldiers from a distance, she always felt that something was wrong.But when she thought that these people could rescue Lana and the others, her mood brightened. She tried her best to calm down, thought about what she was going to say next, and then walked to the high platform in the middle of the square.Overwhelmed, Pashu followed her.

Griffith watched her walk toward the legionnaires like a bunny hopping to lecture a pack of wolves.He quickly grabbed Fiona and pulled her back into the lounge.

Fiona was startled to realize that Griffith had held her back and gave him an angry look.

"Fiona, have you taken courses in army formation and combat?"

"No, that's for the second grade." The girl replied honestly.

"Have you had experience in commanding operations before?"

"No hey~"

"Then leave it to me," Griffith thumped his breastplate, "Go to the town government and Old Town officials, ask them for more soldiers, and send me all the city defense troops in Old Town. Take your guards with you when you go."

The courses and missions prepared for young nobles like Sonia and Fiona are completely different from those of Shutoral.Commanding battles and training soldiers do not require high-ranking nobles to work hard. What they need to care about is the recruitment, establishment, equipment and tactical research and development of the army, and supply policies. They are the decision makers of the military and politics.

It is naturally the job of Xiutolaer and the lower nobles and officers to fight in battle in person, enforce the military law, and solve the needs of the rude soldiers.

　Griffith and Galadia will have character cards, and they have been busy with it for the past two days.It's pretty good.It's too late to add an update to the reader master today, and add an update on the weekend!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)