Mercenaries and Adventurers

After swallowing his saliva, Keir immediately yelled at Bloodfang: "We have to go back and help!"

The strong wind blew the young man's words into pieces, but Blood Fang understood it.

"It's too late!" He shook his arm: "The harpy has already flown far away. Besides, in this strong wind, the other party flies away with the wind. What do you use to chase after it?"

Kiel stopped tightening the straps of the hard cowhide armor. After a moment of stunned, he still beat his horse and ran towards the army.

A voice came from behind: "Then I will go too. I can't stop doing it just because I can't do anything."

Shaking his head, Xueyasite rushed to catch up.

Young people are like donkeys, they don't lose money and don't look back.

-

When the two rushed back from the previous journey, they saw the soldiers of the brigade scattered into hollow circles, guarding groups of logistics carriages in the center.

The soldiers in the front row held spears, and the crossbows in the back row were cocked. Everyone looked at the sky in fear.

Blood Fang shook his head and didn't say much.

There was an opening at the rear of the circular formation, and at this time Kendall and the caravan were entering the interior of the circular formation to hide from this opening.

As for the local caravan that was farther behind the army, it was still in a mess at this time. The dozens of healthy horses pulling the cart were frightened by monsters. It was the instinct engraved in the blood of their horses. After the roar and the stench, many horses neighed uncomfortably, and some of the most irritable horses even tore off the leather reins on their bodies, directly got rid of the confinement of the carriage, and fled around quickly with all four hooves flying.

The caravan guards were unable to catch up, because the horses under their crotch did not obey their orders. Not only did they not go to recover the escaped horses according to their owners' wishes, but they even gathered around other horses, seeking sense of security.

Therefore, after a group of guards on horseback from the Kendals arrived, they immediately dispersed two by two, took out ropes on the horses, tied them into loops, and ran after the fleeing horses.

When Keir and Bloodfang rode past Kendall's army on horseback, they soon came to the local caravan.

Kiel saw that it was the Rumi knight who came to support the local caravan with the baron's horse guards.

The merchants and caravan guys looked terrified. They didn't know whether they were afraid of the monster attack just now, or the sudden approach of cavalry from the Kendals.

Knight Rumi did not follow the baron's bodyguards to catch horses, but was talking to the leaders of various caravans.

Kiel ran directly towards the Rumi knight.

At this time, the strong wind blowing on the grassland gradually weakened, and the disturbing wind gradually subsided.

"Please don't worry, we will definitely guarantee everyone's safety. The promise made by my lord will definitely be fulfilled. In addition, regarding the monster just now, if you have any information, you can help us kill those monsters flying in the sky. "

Rumi Knight's words were unusually not supported by these local merchants. Some merchants didn't care, and some remained silent.

He was wondering, not knowing what to say.

At this time, Keir just ran over: "My lord, that monster is called a harpy!"

Turning his head, Knight Rumi recognized the owner of the voice: "It's Kiel. Where did you get information about that monster?"

Then, the knight saw the middle-aged caravan guard following Kiel.

Blood Yaster bit the bullet and opened the corner of his mouth to reveal half of his rotten teeth, which was extremely embarrassing.

"It's this, Bloodyaster, an old caravan guard who has been running on the commercial roads in the western provinces for ten years. He knows some information about this monster."

Before Xueyasite could say anything, the merchants next to him started talking one after another: "Since there is someone who knows, let him tell the knight, I have to go back and appease the guys in the team."

"Yes, yes, I know the name of Xuefang, a reliable old guard. I am more familiar with running this business route than running a woman. Ask him."

"Farewell, farewell."

After finishing speaking, these merchants turned their horses and left here one after another. In a vague way, Knight Kiel and Rumi heard these merchants startled by the Kendal cavalry rushing over. It seems that the danger of human beings is far greater than that of cannibals in the grassland. monster.

-

Knight Rumi snorted. He had better ears and listened more carefully than Keir. He understood that these merchants were more afraid of their Kendal army than the monsters on the trade roads.

Obviously a large sum of money has been paid, and the two groups have been walking for a while, but the vigilance and caution of the other party have not disappeared.

"That's right, the monsters only lost a few people and horses, and the losses were limited. But the army and horse bandits lost all of them."

The knight shook his head and looked at the middle-aged guard who was sitting awkwardly on the horse.

"Bloodfang. Hey, you dare to call it Bloodfang if you have rotten teeth. Tell me, how much do you know about this Harpy. Tell it all."

Xueyasite loosened the rope around his neck in embarrassment, trying to relax himself: "Master Knight, the one just now was called a harpy. When I heard that my parents came to settle here decades ago, there were such monsters here. .”

The knight nodded: "I can see that the local horses are very afraid of the monster. Obviously, it didn't happen in a short time. And the horses of our Kendal people are all horse breeds introduced from the eastern part of the kingdom, that is, the western part of the empire. So When the monster appeared, there was no reaction."

Kiel interjected at this time: "Lord Rumi, why are they all horses from the kingdom, but the breeds are different?"

"Little Kiel, do you still remember the Angry River we passed through before? Before the stone bridge of the Angry River was built, the communication between the western province and the northwest province had to take a detour through the swamp in the central province unless they could fly. area."

"As for the dwarves in this area before, the dwarves are not good at riding horses, haha, because the horses are too tall for the dwarves! They have to use ladders to climb the horses."

Speaking of this, Knight Rumi couldn't help it, and burst out laughing.

"I heard this joke in the kingdom's army. The army fought against dwarves before. Those dwarves only used horses to pull carts, and never rode them! Even the best horses."

The jokes liven up the atmosphere, at least that's what Bloodfang thought.

After settling his mind, Xue Yaster was no longer so restrained this time: "My lord, the grassland under our feet often has strong winds, so we named this grassland different from other places after the largest town here. "

"Strange Wind Grassland. We call it Strange Wind Grassland because there will be strong winds blowing from time to time for no reason. This place is not big or small. It takes at least five days to pass along the commercial road. The town I am talking about is In the center of the commercial road, it is called Weifeng Town."

Knight Rumi muttered: "It's really disrespectful to Fengshen, won't your names here bring disaster?"

But Bloodfang Shrugged: "My lord, the windy, man-eating monster."

"Ah, disaster has come? That's right." Both the knight and Kiel came to their senses.

Xuefang explained: "When my father first came here, there were not many harpy monsters on the Weifeng Grassland. But when we humans settled in the western provinces, those monsters would emerge one after another. .You may have heard that there is no knight lord in Weird Wind Town."

Knight Rumi didn't make a sound, apparently he hadn't heard about it, after all, he had never been to the western provinces before, and it was the first time he heard about it in the Guaifeng Grassland.

"No lord? A town? How is it possible? Who will be responsible for security and taxes?"

Keir asked the question instead of the Cavaliers.

The knight also nodded.

"There used to be, but because the harpies attacked the migrants and caravans, the lord led his troops to conquer them. Unfortunately, the entire army was wiped out. The lord himself died in the depths of the grassland where there was no one."

"Didn't someone come back later? After all, according to the map, Weifeng Town is located on the main commercial road leading to the southern part of the western province. This road is the closest. If you make a detour, it will take half a month's journey." consume."

Knight Rumi stroked the beard on his chin and asked hesitantly.

At this time, Xueyasite said cautiously: "There are. But, but."

"Hurry up and be happy."

Gere bumped into his latest partner, urging him to speak up.

"However, I heard that the master of the province, the Earl, has sent five knights from the army to take over as the lord for a long time. However, these brave knights were all killed in the battle against the monsters."

"all?"

Knight Rumi questioned.

Xueyasite nodded affirmatively: "Everyone who walks on the commercial road has heard of this, and I go to that strange wind town four or five times a year, and now there are still five knight lords in the town who established His mansion. But it’s all deserted now.”

Knight Rumi asked bluntly: "In this case, where even knights from the army were killed, how did the caravans and villages survive? Why don't they all be eaten up by monsters?"

"Of course not. Caravans usually buy some live sheep in the previous villages and towns, and drive the sheep to the front of the team. Those monsters will only attack the sheep that don't resist, and feed the monsters along the way. They won't attack caravans."

After hesitating, Blood Fangster said these words.

Sure enough, as he expected, Knight Rumi squinted his eyes dangerously after hearing this, and snorted heavily: "So, I see us as sheep in front of the team, because I think we will be attacked by monsters. Or do you want to try our quality?"

But then the corner of his mouth turned up: "But the monsters are not stupid, on the contrary, they are extremely cunning."

Kiel also grinned and followed the knight's words and laughed: "The merchants are regarded by the monsters as the usual sacrificial sheep, but they are behind the line!"

"Ha ha ha ha."

"Ha ha ha ha."

Kiel and Knight Rumi laughed heartily, while Bloodfang could only smirk awkwardly.

After waiting for a while, the baron's personal guards on horseback drove the escaped horses back to the local caravan. At this time, these merchants got out of nowhere and went looking for the lost horses of their caravan.

After the guards came back, they gathered around Knight Rumi, waiting for orders.

The baron's personal guards were not familiar with Kiel, so they only glanced at Kiel a few times. Only Lubis, who had worked with him before, came up to touch Kiel's arm and joked.

"Okay, let's continue talking about the harpies." Knight Rumi said to Blood Fang.

"Yes, my lord. Harpy, Harpy. By the way, this monster is more than two meters tall, without arms, and its body is similar to ours, but its arms are a pair of bird wings. The feet are not soles either. , they don't walk, even if they are said to be able to walk, they mostly use flying. On the soles of their feet are a pair of extremely hard and huge bird claws. Humans, sheep, horses, and beef cattle are flying down from the sky and grabbing their heads. .”

"I'm dead in no time!"

Speaking of this, Xueyaster had a terrified expression, obviously he had experienced this trick of the monster before.

"Looks like a human, what about the head and face?"

Knight Rumi thought of some bard stories, so he asked this question.

"Ah, my lord, they look similar to us humans, but their mouths are full of sharp teeth, they can't speak, and their eyes are much bigger. When they fly in the sky, they can catch jackrabbits or grass mice on the ground."

"You know pretty well."

Xueyasite wiped the sweat from his brow: "They barely eat this bowl of rice. And many of them are from the mercenary guards in the taverns on this trade road. I have only seen them up close once."

Kiel became interested: "Really? How strong are they in fighting? How many ordinary soldiers can they fight?"

Unexpectedly, Xueyasite waved his hand vigorously: "You can't think like this, it's wrong to think like this. It's a big mistake."

No one around said a word, obviously wanting to hear what he said was a big mistake.

"This kind of monster never fights us humans head-on. Or it hides in the grass on the side of the road, and suddenly jumps out when you pass by, grabs you and flies away. Basically, there is no way out."

"Shhhhhhhhhhhh!" Bloodyaster imitated the way the harpy attacked the caravan just now.

Obviously, it is impossible for ordinary people to survive in this way.

"Or, those monsters would grab the heavy objects they had prepared and throw them down from the sky, smashing all the enemies who challenged them to death on the grassland."

Speaking of this, the people around gasped. Obviously, if we talk about the former method, they still have a way to survive or defeat the monster, but in the latter method, this monster will naturally occupy the favorable side. Basically a no-loss tactic.

At this moment, Knight Rumi frowned tightly. Only then did he realize the difficulty of this monster, and why the five previous knight lords died.

He must have been crushed to death.

He had a rare shudder.

There is an ominous premonition lingering, and it may not be so easy in the next few days.

Thinking of this, Knight Rumi hesitated for a while before saying that sentence: "So, where should we get some sheep?"

The surrounding baron's guards were a little puzzled, but Bloodyaster heaved a sigh of relief: "My lord, it's fine if you say so, the sheep can be bought from the next village. Although it's a bit more expensive than other places, but With the army around, those villages will definitely not raise their prices much."

But at this time, Keir interjected: "So, how did the local residents survive under the harassment of such unexplainable monsters?"

Knight Rumi looked at Bloodfang.

Blood Yaster immediately smiled wryly: "You guys will definitely understand this when you see the village tonight."

-

Rumi Knight then asked the local caravans to get close to the Kendal army. Even though these local businessmen were not very happy, but considering that it would take a long time to reach the first village along the trade route on the Strange Wind Grassland, these caravans would still I recognized it with my nose.

It was really because, for the caravan, the damage from monster attacks was limited, while the troops in other places were too dangerous.

Bear with it.

When the local caravan approached the foreign army, they were startled by the Kendal army.

Then they became more frightened.

Kiel, too, was shocked for a moment by the army at this moment.

Because at this time, after they approached, they saw that all Kendall's troops were no longer arranged in a column during the march, but surrounded the logistics carriages in the center. These militiamen were in teams of ten, and each team was scattered into small circles. .

Small circles form a large circle to wrap the dense carriage in the center.

Half of the militiamen were holding spears to the sky, and half were holding unstringed crossbows, and they were vigilantly watching the tall grass around them.

On the flat grassland, the entire army is like a huge pixel spider covering tens of thousands of square meters, crawling slowly on the green grass paper in the form of a two-dimensional monster.

The militiamen walked in stride. Some circled teams walked fast, catching up with the front team from outside the circle counterclockwise, and some circled teams walked slowly. Slow down and step back in the direction of eleven o'clock.

A huge counterclockwise disc, like a clock with thorns, and like that huge flat monster spider moving slowly.

The local businessman had never seen this before, and was shocked speechless.

The stewards of the various caravans were even more vigilant, for fear that more and more caravans would gather along the road. Sooner or later, this army would take a fancy to the wealth they carried and plunder them all.

Keir was also speechless in surprise, he had never seen militiamen with such abilities before. Among other things, at least in this open place, the imposing manner is displayed first.

Not to mention anything else, any intelligent person or monster is unlikely to provoke such a team.

However, how could these militiamen, who only trained for at most half a month every year, accurately form such an army formation?

After a closer look, I found out~www.readwn.com~It turns out that the militiamen only care about whether their teams are in order, and how the overall formation works depends entirely on the presence of an extra Kendall town guard in each team .

At the same time, Knight Crowe also rode his horse around the big circle without stopping. He kept checking the position and speed of every team around him, and the shouting in his mouth didn't stop for a moment.

Knight Rumi smiled slightly at this, and saw that Kiel next to him was confused and shocked, and he proudly said to Kiel and Bloodyaster: "This is the response to the hordes of monsters and powerful monsters in the kingdom's army. Formation is also useful against magicians. It's a pity that there are mobile ballistas on the carriages of the Chinese army, or Imperial Type III magic vehicles. This way, the formation is basically qualified."

Although Keir really wanted to know what the Imperial Type III magic vehicle was, he thought it would be better to ask Knight Crowe privately.

But the Rumi knight then talked about other things.

"The formation of this army can continue to grow stronger as the members of the soldiers are constantly replaced, and the enemies that can be dealt with will also continue to grow."

He pointed at the small circle of militiamen on the periphery: "The soldiers should be more elite, all in armor, or replaced with town guards who are not bad for long-range and short-range attacks. It is best to add a knight to each team or fight Padres, such a team is very difficult to break up."

"If there are a few more magicians in the central army, it would be best to ride horses or fly, or provide special reinforced carriages. They will provide long-range attacks."

Then, it was difficult for some kingdom to come up with an army of this level, or the emergence of an all-knight army took up too many resources.

It made it difficult for Gere and Bloodfang to understand.