When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

Chapter 1188 Cold River Night Wind (Part 1) (Two-in-One)

The night wind on the Fittcat River was so strong it hurt your bones.

Just past midnight, the pontoon bridge over the river was only half-built.

A dozen or so rafts were chained together, half of them submerged in the icy river water, and the other half held in place by thick spruce logs nailed to the riverbed.

Both Alexei and Groyev misjudged the soldiers' marching speed and the extent of the damage to the roads in Bear Fortress.

The data and practices in those Holy Alliance military academy textbooks are all unusable.

The soldiers responsible for building the bridge were shivering, their hands turning purple from the cold.

Their fingers trembled as they gripped the axes, and they breathed white air into their mouths after each hammering of a nail.

They've been working here for three hours and can barely see the reeds on the other side.

But the river wind howled, and once again the sound of horses' hooves rang out.

"Bishop Theomiel! Bishop Theomiel!"

Three fast horses charged out of the darkness from the southwest. The lead rider had half of his shoulder stained dark red, and several torn strips of scarlet cloth hung on his armor.

He tumbled off his horse and staggered to Teomier's side: "We've been discovered! The vampires are here, at least ten thousand of them, and blood knights are leading the way. They're less than ten miles away!"

"you are lying!"

"I did not lie!"

"Damn it, I told you, you're lying!" Theomier gripped the reins tightly. "Seeing is believing, take me to see it."

Following the sentry, they climbed a small hill. Teomier held the binoculars up to his eyes, but his breath caught in his throat.

Under the dark sky, there was indeed a blurry patch of scarlet light moving around; it was the red eyes of the vampires reflecting the moonlight.

Densely packed, like surging waves of blood.

"How could it be so fast..." Theomier's voice trembled. "Weren't you ordered to keep watch on the main road? Why weren't you informed beforehand?"

"The scouts... none of them have returned!" Ranger coughed up blood. "There were high-level vampires flying in the sky casting spells on us. The three of us fought our way back!"

The night wind carried the sound like a stone crashing into a pile of soldiers.

The people who were busy around the pontoon bridge suddenly slowed down. The vampire was coming, and there were only ten miles left!
They instinctively retreated towards the riverbank, bending down to reach for their belongings.

The whispers quickly turned into an open commotion. A soldier threw down his hammer and shouted, "What's the point of building a bridge! We're all going to die if the vampires come. Let's run!"

"Run? Where to run!" another marksman, leaning on his crescent-shaped axe, stood up and retorted, "Jump into the river?"

"Why not surrender? I heard the royal court is giving bread to surrendered soldiers!" someone shouted in the darkness.

"Surrender? Have you forgotten how vampires treat prisoners of war and our loved ones?!" someone roared, but no one responded.

The soldiers who had previously shouted "Restore the country" along with Alexei now had only fear in their eyes.

Seeing the chaotic scene, Theomir felt a tightness in his throat. He drew his sword to stop it, but found his hands were trembling.

He was just a clergyman; he had never seen anything like this before.

He could easily suppress the soldiers' grumbling when Groyev was on the lookout for them, but when it came to himself, he couldn't utter a single word.

The crimson light was getting closer and closer, and even the river breeze carried a faint stench of decay.

Meanwhile, Alexei, despite his best efforts, was still a step too late.

When he arrived, standing atop a high mound, he saw the vampires closing in and the panicked, commotion of the shooting army.

Riding his red, curly-eared horse, Alexei prepared to charge down and join the firing squad.

Seeing his movement, Groyev quickly caught up and grabbed his arm: "Your Highness! You can't go!"

What are you doing? Why can't you go?

"The pontoon bridge isn't finished yet, and the vampires will be here soon. Once you go in, you won't be able to leave!"

"Let go!"

“These gray beasts are easy to recruit, but if you fall into enemy hands, there won’t be another Grand Prince Petrov’s son to unite the people!”

Alexei opened his mouth but couldn't speak, and Groyev released his hand.

He paced back and forth silently for a while, then suddenly turned his horse around and climbed the hill beside him.

He pulled out a monocular scope made by Saint-Gobain from his pocket and looked at everything in front of him.

Within the narrow field of vision of the telescope, the outlines of the vampire army were already clearly visible.

In the front row were Blood Knights riding devil horses and even higher-ranking heavily armored headless knights, each wielding a fine cold steel lance.

However, they are of low intelligence, almost none, and must be led by vampire cavalry.

In the middle were densely packed zombie infantry, marching in unison, while several high-level vampires flew overhead.

Finally, more main forces are slowly arriving.

On the flanks were tens of thousands of servant troops who had come with them. The most elite vampire soldiers numbered only about five thousand, but if you included the undead, the number was close to twenty thousand.

"Your Highness!" Groyev also climbed up the hill, his voice urgent, "We have already lost this time, we cannot afford to lose you as well."

Alexei put down the telescope, his fingers unconsciously tracing the engravings on the lens barrel.

It feels rough and a little painful.

He looked down at his hands, which used to be used only for writing tactical notes, but now calluses had formed on the handle of a gun.

During the day, he would touch the children's heads with this hand and tell them that he would take them to a good place.

Earlier, he had taken the hands of the knights who remained behind and said he would save the children's lives.

Now he had to break his oath? He smiled bitterly. He wasn't a real king; he was just a king in disguise.

Even a king in disguise knows one thing.

While at St. Tangier Military Academy, he copied a line of maxim from Horn's lecture notes: "You get your strength from the man you fight for."

“Groyev,” Alexei’s voice was deep, “go and keep an eye on the pontoon bridge, speed things up, and let the children cross first.”

"Your Highness..."

“I’ll go and calm the soldiers down.” Alexei drew his sword and turned. “I will stand with my people.”

Groyev was about to say something when he saw Alexei already riding down the hill.

He reached out, his fingertips barely brushing against the corner of Alexei's cloak: "Eh? Ah! Sigh..."

Young Bear Master gripped his knife and charged toward the chaotic soldiers, his cloak billowing in the wind like a fluttering flag.

The flags swept across the army, suddenly calming the quarrels and gradually silencing the commotion.

"Damn it, what are you all doing?" Alexei's voice wasn't loud, but it drowned out the soldiers' commotion.

Those who were about to run or surrender subconsciously stopped moving.

He dismounted and walked to the center of the crowd, his gaze sweeping over every face.

"The vampires have arrived, but the pontoon bridge hasn't been destroyed yet, and we still have guns and knives!" Alexei raised his knife. "If you want to run, I won't stop you, but if you run, do you think you'll live?"

Those who want to surrender, have you forgotten what happened to the Fatty Beef Burger? The bread the royal court provides is made with the blood of our compatriots!

A soldier muttered under his breath, "But there are too many of them..."

"More?" Alexei chuckled, pulled a breech-loading wind-up pistol from his waist, quickly unscrewed the breech, and loaded a pointed steel bullet. "They have Blood Knights, we have this!"

He raised his hand, aimed at a dead tree in the distance, and pulled the trigger. With a muffled thud, the dead tree's branches snapped and fell onto the snow.

"Go get the guns!" Alexei tossed the guns to the soldiers beside him. "Leverage the extra rafts, place the crescent axes on them to make chevaux-de-frise, and have the gunners line up in a horizontal formation."

The people in the back continued to build the bridge. Once the children were across the river, we would leave!

Anyone who dares to retreat or cause trouble will have their head chopped off by my sword!

The soldiers looked at Alexei, then at the approaching vampire army in the distance.

Soon, some people slowly picked up the guns from the ground, while others walked back to the pontoon bridge and picked up axes and hammers.

Theomiel finally roused himself, mounted his horse, and shouted, "As Your Highness commands! Form ranks! Musketeers in front, spearmen behind!"

"Woo——"

A horn suddenly sounded from the distant vampire army.

The Blood Knights quickened their pace, the sound of their hooves making the ground tremble slightly, as if they were charging towards this direction.

"Your Highness! Be careful!" shouted a soldier beside him.

Alexei didn't retreat behind the soldiers; instead, he mounted his horse and rode to the front.

He took a gun, quickly wound it up, and aimed it at the figures above the blood knights' heads.

Wearing scarlet soft armor, Pokkins flew through the sky, seemingly controlling the movement of the zombie soldiers.

Pointing the gun at that figure, the countless shots and practices at the military academy's firing range finally paid off.

Taking a deep breath, Alexei pulled the trigger.

"Bang!" The lead bullet whistled through the air and struck Pokkins precisely in the shoulder.

A stream of thick, black blood spurted out, and Pokkins groaned as he plummeted from mid-air.

He misjudged the distance of the wind-up gun and dared to come to a position of 300 meters, confidently refusing to wear armor.

In Pokkins' eyes, the clockwork gun was still that useless little thing that could only fire 150 meters.

Although the distance of 300 meters was somewhat difficult, Alexei hit the target with incredible skill.

"Hit! Your Highness hit that vampire count!" Someone shouted, and a cheer suddenly erupted from the shooting unit.

The soldiers, who had been tense, seemed to be injected with strength. The musketeers in the front row raised their wind-up guns and pulled the triggers at the charging Blood Knights.

The sound of gunfire rang out continuously, several blood knights fell off their horses, and the zombie infantry behind them slowed down.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Theomiel shouted, "Keep fighting! Don't let them get close to the pontoon bridge!"

The situation has actually been stabilized!
After Pokkins fell, the vampire who took over clearly did not have his skill in manipulating necromancy, and dared not fly into the sky to observe the situation.

Before long, chaos broke out in the undead army.

In the river breeze, the sounds of gunfire, cheers, and roars mingled together.

The soldiers on the pontoon bridge sped up, laying spruce wood piece by piece and quickly building the bridge towards the opposite bank. Surrounded by more than 10,000 troops, they actually succeeded in building it.

"Children go first!" Alexei commanded, glaring at a soldier who was trying to escape in the chaos.

But he knew in his heart that this seemingly impending victory was illusory.

Looking up into the distance, although Pokkins had been knocked unconscious, the vampire army hadn't been thrown into too much disarray; they were just a little slower.

Further away, a group of dark figures were moving; those were Lacunio's main forces, slowly closing in.

At the current speed, it's simply not enough for everyone to cross the pontoon bridge and reach the other side, especially since more main forces are on their way.

Sure enough, not long after, Lacunio appeared behind the vampire army.

He rode a black horse, stretched out his binoculars, and held them in front of his somewhat blurry eyes, intently watching the situation on the riverbank.

When he saw Pokkins being carried away, he frowned and immediately ordered, "Check Pokkins' condition immediately and report back to me."

"Have your minions flank from both sides, while the Blood Knights hold them off from the front. Don't let them escape!"

"Yes, Your Excellency."

Under the moonlight, a messenger rode on his warhorse, holding a torch, and loudly announced Lacuño's orders.

"Lord Lacunio's order is to relay it down: the auxiliary troops are to flank from both sides..."

The clear command echoed in the night sky, but Lacunio waited for a long time with his binoculars, while the auxiliary troops did not move.

"Go and urge them!"

"Yes."

After being urged twice, these auxiliary troops finally began their slow and hesitant advance.

Most of the vassal troops wearing Norn armor were soldiers from Baconburg who had surrendered earlier.

As they looked at the crescent-shaped axes of the archers and heard the gunfire growing louder, their steps faltered noticeably.

They feared vampires, but they feared Alexei's gun even more.

Now that Pokerkins' fate is unknown, who knows what they did? Why would they listen to a traitor?
They are all traitors; who is more noble than whom?
Lacunio, enraged, cracked his riding whip: "You bunch of trash! If you don't move, I'll have the Blood Knight kill you first!"

His adjutant advised, "Sir, the auxiliary troops are unreliable to begin with. Anyway, we outnumber them and can trap them slowly. There's no need to get angry with the auxiliary troops."

Lacunio took a deep breath and suppressed his anger.

He looked at the shooting troops on the riverbank, then at the pontoon bridge that had been erected, and felt slightly relieved.

Even if they build a pontoon bridge, not many people can escape.

The main force of the Blood Clan Blood Pact Gun Infantry has arrived; this riverbank will belong to the royal court sooner or later.

They were too slow; they were just fighting like cornered beasts. At best, they could only get the young master and the children to the other side of the river.

Although not all goals were achieved, at least most of them were accomplished.

"Lacunio—" A hoarse, inhuman roar rang out from behind a sloping hill.

Lacunio looked up abruptly and saw a warhorse rearing up in the full moon.

A tall warhorse carried a short old man, whose back was hunched, but whose voice was loud enough to carry across the entire riverbank: "The people of Grand Duke Petrov! The Death Hussars are coming!"

It's Kutuyov!
Under the moonlight, a deafening sound of horses' hooves rang out.

A dark mass of cavalrymen rolled over, wearing wolf-skin vests, their faces painted with battle markings, and their sabers gleaming in the moonlight.

Alexei was stunned. He looked at the hussars, densely packed, with even more dark figures crossing the hill behind them.

Like a flood that spreads across the hills.

There are at least two thousand people!
Those were the Death Hussars who had previously been scattered in other mountain strongholds; they had all come with Kutuyov.

How did they get here? How could they possibly come?

Didn't Kutuyov say that he didn't deserve the loyalty of the hussars?
But they came anyway.

The flashes of sabers stretched across the night sky, and the sound of horses' hooves made the ice floes in the river tremble.

Not to mention the auxiliary army, even the vampire army was slightly agitated at this moment.

Lema stood on the hilltop, Kutuyov looked down at the firing squad below, then at Lacunio in the distance, his voice filled with rage: "Lacunio! You traitor! Today I will bury you on the banks of the Fittkat River!"

After saying that, he pointed his saber forward and shouted, "Hussars, charge!"

(End of this chapter)