Chapter 679 Little Burger with Smelly Feet
The most classic riverside swamp in Black Snake Bay is essentially formed when the tributaries of the Morne River fail to form a river channel, and the river water is dispersed in depressions and mire.
This swamp is a long strip, extending for about ten miles, with sand dunes, puddles and streams crisscrossing it. The shallowest places are only ankle-deep, but the deepest places can sink the entire person.
Therefore, the soldiers of the noble coalition who were marching among the reeds and water plants followed closely the footsteps of those in front. If they made a mistake, no one would come to catch them.
Taskin is one of them. Although he is not a knight or a snake man, as an auxiliary force, mercenaries like them still have to follow them to fight.
Shoulders rubbed against shoulders, various axes, spears, halberds and daggers collided with each other, making crisp clanging sounds along the way.
In the warmer Black Snake Bay in March, his nose could only smell the smell of fermented foot odor and armpit sweat.
Although there was no sun in the sky, the boat-shaped helmet on his head still burned his scalp.
Although the weather is hot, they still wear burqas and even tie their cuffs and trouser legs with cloth strips, but they cannot go shirtless like the locals.
The local Black Snake Bay people have been soaked in anti-mosquito oil since they were young, and they are not chased by mosquitoes and flies the size of strawberries.
However, it is different for these foreign soldiers. Let alone taking off their clothes, if they just take a sip of water, insects will come out of their skin at night.
If it weren't for the huge salary of 1 gold pound per month, Tuskin would never have come to Black Snake Bay.
Even now, he regrets taking this business. This life is really not what a person should live.
"Dudududu——" The sharp whistle woke up Tuskin, whose consciousness was gradually blurring. He stood for a long time before he understood the order to stop eating.
“Where should we eat?”
"Just find a place for yourself and don't expose yourself."
After listening to the team leader's speech, Taskin and others looked at the streams and puddles all over the ground, and had to carefully find out the real path and found a large rock.
More than a dozen people crowded in and found a place to eat.
Putting the spear aside, Taskin took off his sun-heated helmet and took out a cloth bag from his heavy backpack.
Spreading the cloth bag on his lap, Taskin first took out half a loaf of pressed wheat bread, which was more like a biscuit than bread.
But even so, everyone around them looked at them with envy, because their staple food was chewed dry sweet beans, which were ground, steamed and sun-dried into flakes.
In Taskin's own words, eating this is like committing suicide by swallowing a razor blade.
As for lighting a fire for cooking, it is impossible, because Black Snake Bay is generally very humid. Once a fire is lit, smoke will billow, and the enemy can see it from miles away.
Firewood is not enough even for the nobles when they are marching and eating. How can we give them evenly to these big soldiers?
Continuing to take out a ball of sour hummus and a long hairy salted fish tail that smelled of foot sweat, Taskin spent another 2 dinars to buy a small half bottle of rye beer, which was considered a meal. here we go.
Take off a piece of hard bread, break it into two pieces, add hummus, salted fish meat, wild vegetable leaves from the roadside and some salt from your fingernails in order, and a delicious Laota burger is completed.
After devouring two small hamburgers in a row, the craving for food in Tuskin's stomach improved a lot. Looking at the few salted fish meat and bread left, he still resisted the desire to finish them all in one go.
As the old mercenary who brought him into the industry said, you should always leave yourself the last bite to eat on the battlefield.
Although I don’t know whether the veteran meant to take a bite before the war to replenish his strength, or to take a bite after the war to facilitate his escape, or to take a bite before death instead of being a starving man, anyway, this is what Tuskin has always done.
After putting away the food, Taskin stood up on the big rock, drank rye beer, and looked around.
This was not something he was just idle and bored, but something he had to do.
They are not the group of royal knights whose command and planning are so clear.
If you don't always pay attention to the movements of the large army, maybe everyone is gone and they are still in the same place.
This kind of thing happened all the time. Whenever we set up camp on the march, there would be stragglers returning to the camp in the evening or even before starting the next day.
Looking from the big rock, the narrow swamp between the river and the forest was dark and crowded with French soldiers carrying various flags.
Not counting the snake servants, there were more than 4,000 elite mercenaries and knights participating in the battle. This is already a quarter of the army's number and almost half of its combat effectiveness.
As for pulling these main forces out for a decisive battle, judging from Taskin's personal experience, it is a decision that is neither good nor bad.
Attacking will prevent the concentration of troops, but it can control the initiative on the battlefield. Although staying behind can only passively defend, it can also concentrate most of the troops for defensive counterattack.
It can only be said that staying behind is biased towards concentration, while attacking is biased towards movement.
This unnamed swamp is the only way to pass by land from Sora Castle to the Temple of Avis. Because it is too difficult to walk, caravans mostly use water.
But now the port fleet on the side of the noble coalition was taken away by Duke Bodoza, while the Salvation Army side was blocked by a sunken ship in the river.
Even the few ships in the port of Avis Temple are not enough to transport three hundred soldiers, and they are of no use. That's why Count Kazi thought of coming here in advance to ambush.
"Woooooooo..."
"What's going on?" Standing on the big rock, Taskin shouted to the mercenary in front.
Relying on word of mouth from the mercenaries on the big rock, a piece of news quickly spread throughout the reed field: "We encountered the enemy in front, and there were only six or seven companies of vanguard infantry. Count Kazi asked us to press forward quickly and take advantage of the enemy on the other side. The two thousand people were eaten before the main force arrived.”
Oh, it came a bit fast, they haven't arrived at the scheduled location yet.
Check out the 16-9 book bar and see the correct version!
Almost at the same time, the knights yelled at the snake servants and their roars resounded throughout the swamp: "Idiot, take my armor and touch it with a little water, and I will chop off your heads."
Taskin raised his toes: "How far away?"
Soon after, the human signal towers standing on the high ground sent back the message: "I don't know, it's not visible to the naked eye anyway."
Invisible to the naked eye? There was still some time. The old mercenary touched his chin and decided to go to the front to have a look.
If it's easy to fight, just take the news back. If it's not easy to fight, forget about it.
Asking people to keep an eye on the backpack, Tuskin jumped out with a lunge and jumped to the ground with the spear stuck in the mire: "Let's go and have a look."
A dozen familiar mercenaries immediately surrounded him, pushed aside the reeds, randomly grabbed the rope around the neck of a snake man, and ran towards the mound at the edge of the swamp.
Since they were traveling lightly, without any armor or heavy weapons, it only took a dozen mercenaries a quarter of an hour to reach the edge of the swamp.
The other young mercenaries were still gasping for air, but Tuskin only looked slightly red.
He threw away his helmet, grabbed the tree trunk with both hands, and quickly ran up a palm tree. He built a pergola with his hands and looked towards the north.
Sure enough, hundreds of knights could see dense figures behind reeds and shrubs about 2 miles away. It was not yet clear whether there were any follow-up troops.
"How's it going? Tuskin, do you feel like you can fight?"
Standing under the palm tree, the other people raised their heads and asked Tuskin on the tree.
"The military formation is quite neat, but I don't have much experience. I stand too spread out, so I can rush..." Riding on a tree branch, Tuskin heard a strange dull sound as soon as he finished his words.
"Tum——"
There was a scream in the air, and a water column as high as a person inexplicably rose from the puddle in the distance.
"I am a super demon..." Just as the mercenary "Magician" below was exiting, Tuskin suddenly turned his head and looked towards the river.
On the river, a catamaran barge was shaking violently. It could have been the boat, but they were almost 2 miles away.
"Taskin, are you going to fight or not?"
While he was thinking, he saw a small black dot rising from the bow of the ship.
When another water column jumped from the swamp lake, Tuskin's judgment system completely failed. After more than ten years of battlefield career, he was unable to make a decision at this moment.
(End of chapter)