Chapter 116: Raid
Sir Hunter's temporary camp is located in the jungle east of Opalhausen logging farm, which is already close to the territory of the Fieldhausen Ranch.
In the past few days, the wind and snow have changed from energetic young people to twilight old people, and there is no longer new snow on the ground. The layers of old snow have begun to melt, and some places can even see the yellow and withered hay on the grass after the snow has completely melted.
This is undoubtedly good news for the invaders, but the only thing that makes them complain is that it is much colder when it melts snow than when it snows.
Hunter's temporary camp was very simple - leaning against a small cave, several tents were set up with tarpaulin around, and several guards and secret whistles were arranged to guard the camp.
Hunter and his men would spend the night in the cave in a comfortable wool blanket, while those tightly tied prisoners outside were miserable. Hunter was even reluctant to let the prisoners get close to the campfire and warmed up - he was afraid that the prisoners would get closer to the flames late at night and burn the rope tied to their wrists and escape.
"Mr. Hunter, you've got a good harvest!" Outside the temporary camp, sentries wearing armed clothes and thick cloaks greeted their return partners.
Led by Hunter and Fox, the cavalry returned to the camp with supplies and dejected captives with their heads raised their heads.
Hunter rode his horse outside the cave, stepped on the kickstand and got off the horse. A private soldier took the reins from his hand and tied the horse to the tying post.
"How are those prisoners?" Hunter took off his heavy gloves and rubbed his hands toward the bonfire.
"Two more freezes to death, my lord." The private soldier said as he walked behind Hunter.
"Then we will remove their equipment and throw the bodies outside the temporary camp. We will soon drive back to Lord Quinier's siege camp, and we will not have time to deal with these broken things."
"Okay, my lord." The private soldier responded and walked towards the direction of the bound captives.
"Legore, go and arrange for people to carry the food and grass onto the pack horse's back and put it on the trailer. Fox, let someone fan the cured meat we just seized. Damn, I'm so hungry now that I can swallow a whole cow!"
Lunch time came soon, two bonfires rose in the camp, and the rolling smoke broke through the bare forest shackles without any obstacles and soared into the sky.
The soldiers in the camp sat on the ground with wooden bowls and spoons and ate steaming minced beans and porridge, replenishing the heat and energy they had lost in the snow.
"We just light a bonfire in the enemy's territory without any concealment. Are we not afraid of being brought to us by their army?" said a soldier wearing a leather hat with some concern.
"It's okay, we beat their people to the point of falling, let alone hitting them. I guess they won't have time to hide now!" The soldier next to him said indifferently, rubbing his mouth with his golden braid.
"I have captured so many prisoners this time, how much ransom will be? These nobles really made a profit!" A middle-aged soldier with a brown beard looked at the captains tied tightly by the camp with eager eyes and said enviously.
"It must be quite a lot. Come on, my guy, land, money, wine, slaves, women, and you will have any of them. Look at that guy Bowles, who just won several big victories with the lords. How cool is he now?" The soldier with golden braids said, chewing the tiny pieces of meat in his mouth.
"You are right. Look at his farm, his beautiful female slave, the life he lives now, to be honest, I am almost envious of my envy." The middle-aged soldier with a beard spoke more and the voice became smaller and the air was filled with a faint sour smell.
"I just hope that after the war is over, I can change to a better helmet." A soldier with a stubble face glanced at the rusty and pothole-burned segmented helmet beside him, and shook his head helplessly, "I don't ask for it, just have a good nose-protecting Norman helmet."
"Ha, I think you might as well ask Baron Quinier for a new home. It's better not to ask for it. Just a stone castle is enough!" The soldier with golden hair tied into braids said sarcastically, making the soldiers next to him laugh.
The sarcastic soldier with a stubble face turned red and put down the wooden bowl. He was about to respond a few words, but unexpectedly, a white feather arrow flew through the air and inserted it on his back. The words he didn't say turned into blood, and it couldn't stop overflowing from the corner of his mouth.
"Enemy attack!"
The soldiers who were still laughing and joking just now threw the bowl on the ground, wanting to get the wooden shields they piled by the tree. At this moment, the feather arrows that followed also began to quickly shuttle between the crowd.
"Swoosh, swosh..."
"Puff!"
“Ye,Ye…”
"Ahhhhhh!"
In an instant, the whistling of arrows breaking through the air, the muffled sound of sharp arrows hitting the human body, the crisp sound of arrows hitting the chain mail, and the shrill wail of the injured resounded throughout the temporary camp.
“Where are they?”
"In the forest on the periphery..." A soldier who had just picked up a shield from the ground was hit in the chest by a feather arrow.
His chain mail made a sharp and sarcastic friction sound. Although it was not broken, he was still hit by the huge force and fell to the ground, moaning in a low voice.
"Hey, where did the enemies come out?" Sir Hunter, who was enjoying lunch in the cave, looked horrified and immediately threw away the wooden bowl, put on a Norman helmet, and tied up a mail to protect his throat.
"Damn it!"
Fox didn't expect that the temporary camp would be attacked suddenly at this time. He had set up secret whistles, and he didn't know what went wrong. The soldiers who put secret whistles did not warn them in advance with the people in the camp.
"I'll take someone to break through immediately. Don't forget those pack horses that have already carried food!" Sir Hunter held up a shield with his family's heraldic pattern and walked to the entrance of the cave, and turned around and explained to Fox behind him.
"Okay Lord Hunter!"
When Fox poked his head out of the cave in a lewd manner, a ripple arrow happened to hit the rock wall next to him, and the splashed tiny earth and rocks hit his face, scaring the guy to death.
"Don't be afraid and don't be delayed. You are so embarrassed to say that you are the son of a knight. Now it seems that you are not even as good as a farmer!" The knight following Fox laughed at him.
The timid and cowardly nobles are undoubtedly the shame and jokes in the circle of these martial aristocrats.
Fox found that his body could not stop trembling due to fear, and the laughter from the knight behind him made his face red to his ears.
He gritted his teeth, raised his shield, ran towards the horse-pillar beside the cave, and shouted loudly to the cavalry around him who could not raise his head with arrows, "Everyone, break through, ride your horses and break through!"
However, at this time, many serf soldiers holding pitchforks and spears and private soldiers of the Dorsten family rushed into the camp.
Some cavalrymen had just untied their reins and stepped on their horses and got on their horses, and were poked or beaten by soldiers holding long poles and weapons and returned to the ground, and were then killed or captured by serf soldiers who rushed forward.
So, some cavalry gave up the opportunity to get on their horses and fled, and simply held up shields and swords among the serf soldiers.
The cavalry fought bravely like pedestrian knights. The clean and neat sword skills caused heavy casualties and injuries to the soldiers of Dorsten. For a moment, no one dared to approach them, the timid farmers of the Dorsten family and the private soldiers with poor sword skills.
There were unfinished rice bowls everywhere, broken limbs, feather arrows inserted into branches, mud and corpses, blood everywhere, and wounded and bodies with earnest blood.
The crow on the branch watched the biped animals under the tree kill each other meaninglessly, intending to wait until all this stopped and continue to enjoy the precious meal time that had not yet ended at noon.
"What are you waiting for? Kill them all!" As the battle cry sounded behind him, the serf soldiers and private soldiers rekindled their morale and rushed towards the few elite cavalry left in the camp who were fighting in infantry.
Since the soldiers on both sides are now fighting together, the dense rain of arrows has always stopped temporarily in order to avoid accidentally hurting the friendly forces.
"Fox, you damn, where is the person? We opened a gap and bring people here quickly!"
A shout came from afar from the forest southwest of the camp. Fox, who was anxious and anxious, seemed to have grabbed the life-saving straw, and hurriedly took several cavalrymen to ride the pack horses carrying food to the southwest.
However, when they had just ridden out of the camp, the arrows were like sharks smelling blood, and rushed towards them one after another.
"Shit!"
A poor pack horse was caught two arrows, and along with the food on its back and the panicked cavalry, neighed in pain and fell to the ground.
The fallen cavalry was like fresh meat thrown into a hungry wolf pack, and immediately became the target of gathering fire. When he just stood up and struggled to sit up from the snow, the arrows coming from the wind made him fall to the ground again and never get up again.
Since the archers ambushed outside the camp were a bit far from the gap in Fox's escape, except for intercepting the unlucky cavalry, most of the arrows were stopped by trees, and the archers could only listen to the sound of horse hooves gradually moving away with regret.
The battle in the temporary camp is coming to an end at this time.
A dozen pedestrian cavalry who stayed and could not break through noticed that they were fewer and fewer companions around them, and the heads gathered in the dense forest in the distance, knowing that they were defeated.
"Stop, I surrender!"
Life is a precious gift from God to man, and fighting does not necessarily have to end in death. These cavalry can regain their freedom at the cost of money or equipment, and have a chance to make a comeback in the future.
"Tie them first, I'm not sure if those who follow the traitor Fox will talk to us about honor!" Military Chief Eric said, rubbing the blood from the sword on the armed clothes worn by a dead cavalry, and retracting the sword back into the scabbard.
"Jonas, count the casualties and seized spoils!" Lange shouted loudly, untied the tightly tied mail to protect his throat, and breathed happily in the cold air mixed with the strong smell of blood.
"Okay Young Master!" Seeing that the battle was over, Yonas, who was hiding behind the archers' front, knew what he was going to do next, so he trotted all the way.
Under the surveillance of private soldiers, the serf soldiers unloaded the equipment of the deceased and unified it on the open space in the center of the temporary camp to facilitate statistics from the financial manager Yonas.
Archers gathered scattered arrows in and near the camp.
Some enemies who were not dead were finally killed were finally killed by the soldiers. Anyway, they would never survive no matter how hard they were. Instead of enduring severe pain before they died, it would be better to be relieved.
"Master, Fox and their leading nobles escaped with at least half of the food and grass. We only recovered the food and supplies they had not had time to take away from the cave and the trailer." After a while, Yonas, who had finished counting, returned to Lange's side.
"Oh, no matter what, this can at least solve our current urgent need." Lange shook his head helplessly.
On the day when Foldeburg was besieged, the fat old man, the head of the logging farm, came over in panic and told him that a lumberjack saw a raiding team of elite cavalry wandering inside the baron's corps.
At first, Koother and Lange did not appreciate the power of this robbery team.
Until these two days, the recruits from the two richest villages in the Baron's corps were raided by the robber cavalry on the way to gather in Dorstenburg, and all the food was stolen. This made Koother very angry.
Judging from the familiarity between this group of cavalry and the territory, it should be led by the traitor Fox.
What's even more outrageous is that just the night before yesterday, a fire broke out in the granary of Dorstenburg.
Although it was discovered early, unfortunately, after passing through all the soldiers, grooms and servants in the castle, half of the food and grass were still lost.
This made Koother wonder if there was a spy inside his camp who had not yet been exposed, but he had no evidence for the time being.
At least, he really couldn't stand this group of rogue robber cavalry now.
According to reports from forest rangers in the territory, the group of arrogant guys set up camp in the jungle east of Opalhausen logging farm.
So Koother decided to let the military chief Eric and Lange join him, with his private soldiers, other archers and recruits who had already assembled, raid their temporary camp. He wanted to teach these lawless guys a good lesson.
"We killed twelve people and captured ten people. However, we also lost twenty-eight serf soldiers and two archers, most of whom were killed when the enemy's leading nobles took the lead in breaking through." Jonas's voice pulled Lange back from his thoughts.
"Ha, we caught them off guard. Compared to their damage to war, this is acceptable." Military Chief Eric nodded and signaled to Yonas to continue.
"We seized ten chain mail, fourteen armed clothes, ten iron helmets, nine iron swords, fifteen cavalry shields, and twenty cavalry spears. In addition, we seized eighteen horses, two of which were dead."
"The harvest is pretty good," Lange nodded with satisfaction, "we have to bring the loot with us now and return to Dorstenburg as soon as possible."
"Don't we go after the escaped cavalry and let them take the food and grass?" Jonas asked carefully.
"These cavalry are likely to go back to the siege camp outside Folder Fort. After this raid, only seventy or eighty people can fight in my hands. What can I use to fight against that shitty Baron Quinnier?" Lange explained to Jonas impatiently.
Chapter completed!