Chapter 195 Hedging!
Xu Laihuai carried the last few gold coins in his family and brought 72 knights including Tahan and 12 level 7 heroes including Yan Feng.
Of course, in addition to this knight force, there is also a caravan composed of Wei Yihong and Urdola, a total of 14 people.
There were a few more temporary workers in the caravan. Their wings were all folded, Elvi, who was wrapped in a white cloak, and Jian Yuan, who was wrapped in a black cloak.
Of course the reason for taking Jianyuan out is to collect more information, not to mention Elvi. Anyway, her wings can be folded, and Xu Lai plans to take her wherever she goes in the future.
Xu Lai thought about those 14 griffons and decided not to take them out after all. It was too ostentatious.
Even Count Aini has not been released for use, or even he has not been released. Xu Lai carries these griffons with him, isn't he inviting hatred for himself?
Because there was a caravan behind them, Xu Lai and the others were not very fast.
However, even so, they were much faster than most teams on the road, especially when they were about to approach Fort Kaunaston, many caravans or refugees fell into the Xu River intentionally or unintentionally. Come and wait for someone behind you.
Xu Lai was holding a banner (Vanguard: Behemoth Killer), followed by paladins and knights. At first glance, it was a powerful lord guard.
In addition, Xu Lai was also followed by Wei Yihong's caravan. In order to avoid danger, other caravans naturally wanted to form a team with Wei Yihong and the others.
Although Wei Yihong's caravan was not large in number, there were only 14 people including guards and helpers, and Xu Lai added two more.
But their speed is not slow. They only need to ride two horses per person, and even the goods are carried by several pack horses in turn.
The two cloaked men who were not riding horses were not seen running. However, no matter how fast the caravan was, they were never left behind. At first glance, they were the hidden masters in the caravan.
Wei Yihong also did not refuse the caravan that passed by and wanted to join. Even before entering Kaunaston Castle, he gave dozens of pairs of leather armors carried by two pack horses at the price of 80 gold coins each. Sold.
Leather armor is not very defensive, but the key is that it is light enough so that it can be worn by stewards in the caravan and ordinary people.
The defensive power of heavy armor is sufficient. Ordinary people cannot wear this thing at all. Even if they reluctantly wear it, they will not be able to move.
This price is already comparable to the price when the war between man and beast just broke out, but these businessmen want to take advantage of Xu Lai's momentum, but they are embarrassed to pay nothing.
Just like when you go to the canteen to ask for directions, you can either buy a pack of cigarettes or a bottle of water.
Of course, there are also people who refuse to buy anything. For example, the refugees follow them from a distance, and Xu Lai will not go out of his way to drive them away.
However, when the team started to speed up, he would not stop and wait for these refugees.
At night, the camp on the caravan side became even more lively. Several camps around had only a faint light of fire, but Wei Yihong's place was brightly lit.
There are not so many cloaks at home, not because there is no cloth, but because we have not prepared them before.
Otherwise Xu Lai wanted to disguise all his knights. After not fighting for a few days, his hands were itchy and he wished that some blind horse thieves would come over right now.
The Holy Light Knight and the Valiant Knight were newly added to the team. Not to mention anything else, just the Holy Light Knight’s concentration aura and the Valiant Knight’s heroic aura added 5 points of armor, 3 points of attack and 6 points of morale.
The archangel is now in Wei Yihong's team, so the 5 points of morale are not added.
60 points of basic morale, 1 point of morale of all mankind, 3 points of morale of the entire empire, 7 points of master leadership skills, 3 points of vanguard flag, plus Xu Lai in the leading position is another 10 points.
Coupled with the heroic knight and the holy light knight, the morale has reached 90 points, which is a high morale state with a 10% increase in all three attributes of attack and defense speed.
If someone bumped into him at this time, Xu Lai estimated that he would rush to the front in a panic.
"Sir, the tent has been set up. You can go to the practice meeting."
After a while, Tahan came over and asked Xu to practice.
There are a total of 10 marching tents, and Xu Lai brought them out this time. However, these tents can only be enough for 60 people to recover, and Xu Lai is not used to sleeping with others.
So Tahan and his knights slept outside, leaving the tents to Xu Lai and the heroes.
This time we went to Fort Kaunaston, the marching tent was also the key material to be purchased.
“Where is Yan Feng?”
Tahan smiled naively and said: "That guy couldn't sit still. He relied on the speed of his horse and said he was going to patrol outside."
Xu Lai had a complete map obtained from the temple, so Kaunaston He knew the location of the fort very well. After marching throughout the day, he would probably arrive there tomorrow evening.
It doesn’t even have to wait until evening. Tomorrow afternoon, we will be able to reach the area of influence of Fort Conaston. There should already be knights from Fort Conaston patrolling there.
At that time, Xu Lai did not need to worry about the caravan and could go directly to Fort Kaunaston.
I don’t know if Count Aini has returned. This time his knights suffered huge losses, and there should not be many knights who can go out on patrol.
While he was thinking, Xu Lai vaguely heard shouts from a distance, and it seemed that a horse thief had really broken in.
Xu Lai's eyes lit up. He didn't have time to rest, and immediately ordered: "Tahan, hurry up, let everyone get on the horse!"
It is not without benefit to walk slower during the day. , At this moment, all the war horses are very energetic, which is enough for the knights to charge for several rounds.
Mounting on the war horse, the field of vision suddenly became vast. As expected, there were dozens of torches moving in a line in the distance.
Xu Lai, who had experienced a battle for the first time, knew that although there were only a few dozen torches, it did not mean that there were only a few dozen horse thieves attacking. The level of horse thieves and thieves is not high, and they usually move in groups, ranging from nearly a hundred people to hundreds of people.
Originally they did not dare to provoke the caravan escorted by Xu Lai, but who made Xu Lai not drive those merchants away? The caravans accumulated more and more, and now they have gathered more than a dozen caravans. Hundreds of people.
So many people are distributed around Wei Yihong, even far away from Xu Lai.
It is said that money moves people's hearts, and Xu Lai and the others may not necessarily provide assistance to unrelated caravans. They rob some peripheral caravans from a distance, and they can run away immediately even if there is danger.
The only thing to blame is these horse thieves. They are really unlucky.
Xu Laizheng was worried that there were no wild monsters to fight. When he met them at this time, he was so sleepy that he fell asleep on the pillow.
"Tahan, you lead the knights to outflank from the left, and I will lead the trainee knights to outflank from the right."
If Yan Feng and the others were here at this time, with this group of sharpshooters suppressing the formation, Xu Lai will be more confident in leading this group of recruits.
But now it was both wild and dark, and Xu Lai couldn't send a message even if he wanted to. Unless he got a telephone, or people from the temple set up altars everywhere.
"But sir..." Tahan was naturally worried about Xu Lai.
However, Xu Lai personally raised the vanguard flag and scolded: "We are slow. When we go up first, you will be on top. You must surround this group of horse thieves and don't let them get away.
Stop talking nonsense, immediately Action!"
After saying that, Tahan directly controlled the 54 trainee knights and started running.
In the dark night, Xu Lai and the others had no torches, so charging like this was actually very dangerous.
Fortunately, there are not many people in Xu Lai's group. With his current mental strength, micromanaging this group of trainee knights is not a problem at all.
Even without torches, the sound of a group of armored knights charging was quite a sight.
Soon Xu Lai and the others were discovered by the horse thieves. This time they were led by a fourth-level deputy commander of the thieves. Ever since the Prairie King issued the order, the entire grassland horse thieves had a miserable life.
Now that the ban has finally been lifted, and a group of caravans have gathered, the deputy commander decided to take this step after thinking over and over again.
Not only the horse thieves received the news, but also the mercenaries who were using trucks and goods to form a formation to resist.
They all cheered, and their morale, which was almost desperate, suddenly burst out again.
In the darkness, the deputy commander of the thieves used night vision goggles to clearly see the incoming knights. There were only 55 of them, including Xu Lai, and their ranks were not high. They were all fourth-level trainee knights.
These thieves also heard about it and knew that the knights of the officers and soldiers had suffered huge losses. They guessed that they did not have much power to suppress the bandits at this time, so they dared to rob so close to Kaunaston Fort.
Although he didn't know why the enemy wanted to divide his troops, it didn't stop the deputy commander of the thieves from seeing dozens of level 4 knights and hoping to give them a try.
He whistled fiercely, and the thieves who were struggling with the mercenaries in front immediately abandoned their opponents and circled out.
The deputy commander pointed his finger in the distance, and all the thieves immediately understood.
Those who hold up their spears hold up their spears, and those who draw their bows draw their bows.
Although the thieves are only level 3, their numbers are there after all. Even if there are still thieves who can't get rid of them for a while, there are still hundreds of people charging towards Xu Lai.
The level is only one level away, and the equipment is even better.
And as long as the enemy in front of them is defeated, there will be countless lambs waiting for them to slaughter. The morale of the thieves will even drop, and they will compete with Xu Lai and the others howling.
The lethality of the charging thieves is no less than that of a fourth-level warrior. After all, there is a huge charging damage bonus.
Although the arrows in the sky are sparse, their accuracy is not very good, far worse than that of third-level archers.
But after all, there were a lot of arrows, and out of hundreds of arrows, there were always two or three that fell on Xu Lai.
Unfortunately, the power of the riding bow is not as good as the foot bow, and Xu Lai and the others are still far beyond the standard shooting range of the thieves.
The arrow landed on Xu Lai, and except for a few tinkling sounds, it did not cause any damage to him.
The charge of the level 5 knight retinue can only accumulate up to 100% additional damage. The level 3 thieves can increase the damage by 30%, which is enough.
However, the noble war horse under Xu Lai's crotch is wearing a heavy vest, and the magical armor on his body is not low in armor. The most important thing is that it is blessed with ultimate defense technology, which reduces physical damage by 50%.
This does not include the protective effects brought by morale, aura, etc.
Therefore, facing the oncoming cold light, Xu Lai gritted his teeth, without even closing his eyes this time, and just collided head-on with the knight on the opposite side.
After the Pioneer Flag was upgraded, its attributes became stronger, but its length and weight did not continue to increase.
This thing is slightly more difficult to use than the heavy lance, but it is longer and does more damage.
When the opposing bandit's lance was still more than one meter away from Xu Lai, his vanguard flag had already pierced the bandit, and soon the bandit behind him also pierced it.
After the death, the thieves' lance still hit Xu Lai's chest with inertia. Unfortunately, it had lost much strength at this time. With the blessing of Xu Lai's various effects, he didn't even have any health points. Knock it off.
(End of this chapter)