Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 701: Queen, Bishop, Knight, Soldier (Part )
"At that time, we received a notice from the village that we were going to deliver military supplies to the imperial court. But halfway through, we met an official from the government office, who told us that we had taken the wrong road and that the army was heading northwest. So we quickly turned around and headed northwest."

"Wait a moment." A muscular man with a beard and businessman's clothes behind the table interrupted him, "Is there a road in that direction that can directly pass a large vehicle?"

"Yes, yes." The middle-aged man sitting on the bench replied nervously, "This road is relatively new, so you may not know it yet. We worked overtime to repair it at the end of last year."

"The road is being repaired quite well..." Another sturdy man with an oriental face muttered to himself, then asked, "Then go on. What's next?"

"After that, we walked along the main road, hurrying up, and caught up with your Majesty's troops after two days of travel." The middle-aged man replied, "The war hadn't started yet, so we exchanged supplies with them outside the camp. After that, because they provided meals, we planned to stay there for another night and go back the next day, which was safer."

"Are there still enemy activities on both sides of the road?" asked the bearded burly man while taking notes.

"No, the roads here are always safe." The middle-aged man shook his head. "The court attaches great importance to these roads. The village chief also said that these roads are the cornerstone of our country. Each village is responsible for the safety of the roads within a certain distance, and the government will also send people to patrol back and forth."

"That should be pretty good, right?" The sturdy man was a little puzzled. "Isn't the efficiency of the Wu Wang Mansion very high? They have been managing this place for just over a year, and they have wiped out all the bandits."

"We haven't wiped them out yet." The middle-aged man explained, "The second largest gang of robbers here is Master Kang Baqi, who is stationed at the southern crossroads. After the court arrived, they summoned him to surrender."

"What about the biggest one?" the bearded man asked curiously.

"Hehe, the biggest gang is from our village." The middle-aged man smiled naively: "We don't rob anymore, no one robs here."

"..."

Perhaps because they were too frank, both of them were a little uncomfortable. However, they were professionally trained after all, and they had seen a lot of things here, so it did not affect their work. They still recorded the distance and time of the transportation step by step.

"In that case, the place outside your camp the next day will be the place for the fighting." The bearded burly man said after looking at the transcript.

"Yes, it's about two miles north of the camp." The middle-aged man answered confidently.

"Which one?"

"We belong to the Ming Dynasty."

"Oh, it's all unified...it's so fast." The two of them hurriedly wrote it down.

"People in other villages may not understand, but it's different in our village." The middle-aged man explained: "I helped to set up those milestones myself."

"You are on the main road, so maintenance is your responsibility, right?"

"Yes, as you know, our village has more experience in managing roads."

"Oh……"

"After that, we took a nap. But when we woke up the next morning, we heard that the enemy was approaching. A centurion who called himself George came over and said that there were too few people in the camp, and asked if we wanted to help. We thought, since we were here to work for the palace, we might as well do it to the end. So we took our weapons and followed him out."

"Aren't you common people? How could you just do it so casually?" The well-dressed man was a little surprised.

"It's not bad actually. The men in our village have fought with others a lot, and none of them are novices." The middle-aged man explained: "As for the formations they talked about, although we don't understand them very well, Captain George has also explained it, so we can just follow him. He only has ten people under him anyway, so with a few more of us, he can still take care of it."

"Ten people..." The bearded man scratched his head: "Go on, what's next?"

"After leaving the camp, the army quickly formed up. About an hour later, the other side also arrived and deployed their troops." The middle-aged man continued.

"How many of them are there?" asked the sturdy man.

"I don't know." The middle-aged man shook his head: "I estimate that there may be several thousand? Ten thousand?"

"Then there's no need to guess." The other party stopped him: "You guys don't know either, right?"

"Well, we are just here to help temporarily..." The middle-aged man scratched his head: "But I heard from the captain that there should be a little more people on our side. Because the enemy also came in a hurry, it seems that they didn't gather many people. But I think the difference should not be too big. Because the area occupied by the two groups of people seems to be about the same."

"After that, everyone stays in the formation and is not allowed to move. We are still at the back of the formation, so we can't see the situation around us clearly. Anyway, just follow the group." He thought for a moment and said, "But judging from the sound, the other side should be rushing over first."

"Then, the war drums on our side also sounded. I saw the people in the front row moving forward, and I guessed they were fighting with the other side - but the captain wouldn't let us catch up, so we could only stand there and watch." He explained deliberately: "You two, it's not that I'm afraid of death and don't want to go. No one in our village is a coward. It was really the captain who held us back..."

"Alright, alright, no one blames you." The two men hurriedly stopped him: "You centurions did the right thing. It's the right thing to do not charge. How can you rush in like a swarm of bees..."

"Is that so?" The middle-aged man scratched his head: "In that case, the battle itself doesn't seem to be much to talk about."

"After that, the enemy should have been repelled. The brothers in the front formation were obviously moving forward, pushing the enemy back. We also wanted to move forward, but the centurion still wouldn't let us, so we could only wait there."

"About two quarters of an hour later, I saw the flag of His Majesty the King of Wu began to wave again and beat the drum. This time the centurions finally moved, so we hurried to follow and move forward together."

"The battlefield was actually right next to the main road. After walking for a while, we could still see traces of the previous battle. After the people in the front row left, someone went there specifically to carry away their own people who had fallen on the ground. Even so, when we walked over there, we could still see a lot of corpses and dying people, and weapons and sundries were scattered all over the ground in a mess."

"The enemy was defeated by you?" asked the bearded strong man.

"That should be it." The middle-aged man said, "In the past, we just blocked the road and fought a few caravans. We have never seen such a big scene, so we are a little curious. But the captain said that His Majesty is urging us to hurry up and stop looking. He also said that we always wanted to rush forward before, but now we are asked to hurry up, why are we still so slow?" "We were a little unhappy to hear that, and felt that his words were too harsh, as if we didn't know how to fight at all and were running around on the battlefield. But he is an official, so we listened to him and followed him. What do you think, is this reasonable?"

"Uh..." The two looked at each other and said, "Go on. How long have you been chasing me?"

"About half an hour." The middle-aged man replied: "The place is actually on the side of the road. To save time, we just keep walking along the road."

"The previous few people said that you were ambushed when you were chasing. Was it here?" asked the bearded strong man.

"Definitely not. I have a deep impression of it." The middle-aged man shook his head firmly. "Because our captain also said this once. There is indeed a forest on the side of the road. The captain was a little suspicious and said that there might be a trap here. But the superiors urged us to move quickly, and the enemy looked really embarrassed. It didn't look like they had the chance to ambush."

"Also, someone in the team comforted us by saying that he was from this area. Before the imperial court came, he would go to the forest from time to time to steal wood, and he was very familiar with the terrain here. We just need to be careful and don't be too timid. Later, when we walked over, we did not encounter an ambush."

"Also, I remember clearly that the enemy came from the front. We were all rushing forward on the road, but the people in front of us suddenly retreated. They ran back, and we didn't know what to do."

"When we were chasing, we formed a long line along the road. We didn't know how to deal with it. The captain wanted us to change our formation, and shouted for everyone to leave the road and line up on the side. But everyone was so crowded together that few people listened to him. In the end, we and a group of people next to us - about 30 or 40 people? - ran to the edge of the woods in a daze and even set up our formation in a serious manner, trying to defend against the enemy's attack."

"After a while, we saw a large group of knights rushing over from the front. Their flags and robes were colorful, and they were definitely not ours. We quickly prepared for defense, but the enemy went after the people running around on the mainland."

"At this moment, we can't see the flag of our guard anymore, and we don't know where His Majesty has gone. The knights are rushing around in the crowd, driving us all into disarray. The centurion said the situation is not good, and we have to change our plan. Let the local man lead the way, and we quickly retreat to the woods."

"During this period, we were also chased. Those iron cans were obviously trained, so they were very difficult to fight. Fortunately, it was not the first time we encountered such a difficult target. George the Hundred and his men seemed to have learned some magic skills from the monks, so they were able to deal with it. After fighting for a while, they probably saw that we were poor and tough and there was no point in doing anything, so they left on their own initiative."

"Then you went through the forest and returned home?" asked the bearded man.

"We didn't dare to go back directly, for fear of attracting the pursuers home. We thought that since we had a guide, we could just hide in the woods for a few days." The middle-aged man replied, "In the end, there were more than 200 of us in this group. Captain George was not actually the highest-ranking official, but we thought that although he had a foul mouth, he was the most reliable at this time, so we nominated him to lead the way. Let's see how to deal with this troublesome situation."

"After a day's rest, everyone has recovered. Captain George called everyone to discuss. Some people think that this time we will lose a lot, and it looks like the Ming Dynasty is doomed. Why don't we disband, cover each other, leave this dangerous area, and then go home..."

"Emm..." The two people on the opposite side couldn't hold back anymore. However, seeing the middle-aged man stop with a strange look on his face and start to think, as if he was doubting whether he had said something wrong, he had no choice but to urge him, "Don't worry about us, just keep talking."

"Uh, okay..." The middle-aged man nodded: "You two don't have to worry too much about this. People who say weird things are everywhere. Most of us are still prepared to persevere."

"At that time, Captain George also said that although we suffered a loss without knowing why, most of the brothers were not here in the first place. If we disband now, it would be like giving Sigismund an opportunity to kill us one by one - he is a very bad man and will definitely hunt us down in this way. Therefore, the most urgent task is to gather everyone together again, and it would be best if we can find His Majesty and the gentlemen to restore the organization of the army. After that, we will go find Sigismund, kill him, and avenge the brothers who died along the way."

"We thought what he said made sense, so we decided to listen to him. So we all came to the edge of the forest and started to explore. Some of our village also planned to go home to get information."

"But at this time, a woman suddenly came."

"She brought a dozen horsemen and approached our camp, asking us if we were subordinates of the King of Wu and if we knew where the King of Wu was. We didn't know where they came from, but the followers looked like they were dressed like knights, so we suspected she was working for Sigismund and quickly became alert. But she said some strange things..."

"What did she say?" asked the sturdy man.

"We asked her who she was, and she said she was the queen of the King of Wu." The middle-aged man replied, "We didn't know about this, and we thought this woman was just talking nonsense. Because she couldn't produce any evidence - and she is Frankish, and the queen should be Oriental, so why is she here..."

The two people on the opposite side seemed to be somewhat amused when they heard this. The middle-aged man thought he had said something wrong and looked suspicious.

"Nothing, just keep talking." The sturdy man urged.

"Uh, I see you two are laughing there..."

"You must have seen it wrong. We have all been professionally trained and we are not going to laugh."

"oh oh……"

Although still confused, the middle-aged man continued, "We told her directly at the time that the situation was chaotic and we couldn't just listen to others. She said that we could understand why we didn't believe her, but right now, she was the most suitable person to take charge of the situation, and that was not wrong."

"She proposed to let our strongest warrior compete with her. We all thought she was strange, but she and her subordinates did seem to be quite impressive. Captain George personally sparred with her and was unable to defeat her. We thought that we couldn't fight her head-on under the current circumstances, so we agreed to it. I was about to go out to look for someone, so I took the opportunity to leave."

"The villagers said that there were indeed quite a few people nearby, all asking about King Wu's situation. After discussing it, we asked one of us to go back and report the news, and the others set out to contact everyone. I was responsible for looking for Sir Frank, so I followed the way here, and then I met you two. You know what happened next."

"Okay, that's all." The sturdy man nodded and glanced at the notes beside him: "You can leave now."

"Okay." The middle-aged man stood up, bowed, and left quickly.

"Ah." The bearded man shook his head and sighed, "This report is not easy to write again."

"Record it truthfully," the sturdy man said, "These people have never met each other along the way, so some of their statements are contradictory, but this is normal. As for their testimonies, they all contain their own understanding and judgment, which may not be the truth. But through these different perspectives, we can summarize the general situation at the time. Everyone this time was very cooperative, and our investigation was relatively successful."

"Not really, there are some places, really..." The bearded man muttered, feeling a bit embarrassed: "Boss, look at this, how should we write it? Should we just do what they said, and write 'The King's Army Was Defeated', 'Sigismund Defeated the Ming Army' or something like that?"

"Uh..." The sturdy man hesitated: "Then let's just write 'Wu Jun'."

"OK……"

(End of this chapter)