Chapter 96 The last hurdle
"Direction to Xiangshu Village? Are you sure?"
Cleonte looked at the refugee in front of him in surprise, and the refugee looked at the person beside him timidly. Scout.
The scout immediately stood up and said: "Boss Cleonte, I have seen it. There are indeed traces of ruts and pedestrians there. They still covered it up, but I still discovered it."
< br>"Okay, when this is over, you will receive an extra salary."
"Beep, beep, beep." Cleonte immediately blew the copper whistle, "bastards, get up, don't rest."
The mountain mercenaries who were resting on the side of the King's Avenue stood up with complaints. , queuing up slowly.
“We are still marching at night...”
“It’s so dark, the country bumpkin farmer will definitely not be able to walk. Let’s chase him tomorrow morning.”
“Yes, they will definitely It’s time to rest.”
But the complaints of the mountain mercenaries did not affect Cleonte's determination at all. He waved his whip and whipped up the lazy mountain mercenaries.
Amidst the roar, the mercenaries still ran towards the path unsteadily.
Leading the mercenaries uphill and walking through the forest, they came to a path. Sure enough, Cleonte saw ruts on the ground.
And an unexpected guest.
“Cleonte, what are you doing here?”
"Chasing the shorthair." Cleonte looked at Berard in front of him.
“I found their traces and chased them all the way from the source. How did you find them?”
“I didn’t find them on the King’s Road, so I came to the small road to look for them. Hey, you Don't tell me, don't tell me, I found it."
"You found it?" Berard asked in a sinister tone.
In the clearing in the forest, iris flowers swayed gently.
The two groups of mercenaries stood behind the leader, rubbing the guns and swords in their hands, glaring at each other fiercely.
The plains soldiers look down on these noisy mountain soldiers, while the mountain soldiers can't stand these pretentious plains soldiers.
The two sides stood on this muddy path, their eyes as if they were fighting swords in the air.
"Okay, I don't want to argue with you, otherwise the shorthair will run away again." Cleonte waved his hand in a pretentious manner.
He took a few steps forward and came to a fork in the road. Pointing to the footprints and ruts on the ground, he said: "There are two ruts here. The shorthair must have split up and ran away. You choose one and I will choose one." , everyone does not interfere with each other.”
Berard came closer. He bent down and carefully observed the depth of the ruts on the ground.
After a while, he pointed to a road with deeper ruts and said to Cleonte: "I choose this one, you have no objection."
Cleonte squatted down , pinched a handful of soil, rolled it on his fingertips, and chuckled: "You go ahead."
Following Berard, more than two hundred Bai Feng mercenaries got into the forest. In the trail.
Looking at Berard's leaving figure, Cleonte sneered: "Idiot, one layer of new soil and one layer of old soil have obviously been crushed twice. The carriage must have turned back. This is definitely the way to go.”
The mountain mercenaries immediately followed Cleonte and walked towards another path.
The full moon gradually rose above the head, and the breeze blew through the branches.
Berard stood next to the suddenly disappeared wheel tracks, his chest heaving violently.
“Let’s go back.”
He turned around with his teeth gritted and ran back with his people.
The mercenaries trotted all the way back to the original fork in the road.
Without much pause, he turned his head and ran towards Cleonte's road.
Before getting closer, I heard the vague sound of horses neighing.
Berard's expression changed drastically. You know, when Cleonte entered the forest, there was no horse.
Waving the soldiers to slow down, Berard forced his tense face and stood there waiting.
After a bend, three carriages filled with stones drove out first, with Cleonte sitting on the side of the carriage, his face ashen.
As soon as he raised his head, he met Berard face to face, and both of them were stunned at the same time.
"You didn't find the shorthair?" "Why did you come here?"
The two sentences sounded at the same time.
As if they had thought of something, their expressions changed again at the same time,
“Quick, go to the fork in the road.”
“Don’t fall behind them, run, stupid pigs, run quickly. . ”
Just like when they first met, a group of people crowded at the fork in the road, pushing and shoving forward, even slower than walking separately.
Going back to the previous fork in the road, it was too late to form a team, so they started fighting against each other and ran towards the third path.
During this period, insults, stumbles and elbows were exchanged between the two teams of mercenaries.
Almost half an hour later, the two teams came back dejectedly, with branches and leaves in their hair.
Standing at this fork in the road, they looked around in confusion.
“Where did it go?”
“I can’t get there.”
The moonlight shone on the heads of the two men, and they raised their heads in confusion at the same time.
Is it possible to fly?
At the same time, the moonlight also shone on the shoulders of Horn and others.
The stream water submerged the knees and wheels. The stream water at night exuded a biting chill. Whenever a pair of wrinkled feet crossed the water, fragments of moonlight could be seen in the ripples.
“Push, push hard!”
"One, two, three!"
Seven or eight soldiers in black stood behind the carriage. Amidst the regular neighing of the draft horses, they pressed their shoulders against the carriage and pushed the carriage ashore.
In the trapezoidal river beach, under the dim moonlight, thousands of villagers of all kinds were struggling to walk across the cold stream.
The boy soldiers quickly shuttled among the crowd, passing orders and messages one after another to the elders who directed the people to cross the river.
These villagers crossed the creek and had to climb a steep slope to reach their destination - the King's Road.
Sitting on a big rock to rest, Horn raised his head, looked at the moonlight above his head, and counted the time silently.
"Your Majesty." A wet young man came to Horn with several boy soldiers.
"Rafeel, how are you? Are you hooked?"
"You are hooked, and you caught two big fish." Rafael replied with a smile.
"Very good." Horn stood up, said a few words, asked Rafael to return to the team, and climbed up the hillside.
After learning from the scouts that his whereabouts had been discovered by Berard, Horn immediately summoned the bishops and senators and decided to turn back along the previous track and pass through the forest. Instead of taking the Xiangshu Village route, he would take the King's Road.
Those carriages and refugees were all arranged by Horn, specifically to confuse the pursuing enemy troops.
Long before the fork in the road, they had already turned back along the ruts. That is to say, Berard was too young and could not tell the difference between old and new soil.
Clement took a shortcut and didn't notice the previous ruts at all.
I have to say, this trick works extremely well.
Horn originally only thought that one party would be fooled, so he took two approaches and hoped that they would check twice. Unexpectedly, he was able to fool both of them.
Holding on the ground, Horn climbed to the top of the slope and looked not far away.
Almost two hundred meters away, a road for four carriages to travel in parallel lay in the moonlight.
There is a Bendou Bridge three to five miles west from King's Avenue. On the wooden bridge, there is also an erected checkpoint.
After passing the Wandoumu Bridge, don’t take the main road, cross the canyon, and walk another seven or eight miles south to reach the entrance of the Road of Blood and Sweat.
Horn could already vaguely see the tip of the watchtower at that level behind the hills and trees.
This is the last hurdle left.
PS, it’s not a sudden update.
(End of this chapter)