When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

Chapter 872 Detour
If Horn could hear Besser's voice at this moment, he would definitely say that it was not the hand of the Holy Father that moved fate.

Beth thought everything was arranged, but in fact it didn't matter even if she hadn't guessed it.

If it wasn't the Border Knights who attacked, the General Staff would have a contingency plan.

If the Border Knights choose to withdraw to Hotam County after the mountain road is cut off, the General Staff has a contingency plan.

However, Horn always executed the most likely plan, and as a result, the Border Knights accurately stepped into every trap.

So this is not the great help of the Holy Father, but the profound knowledge and upbringing of the Holy Grandson.

How does a profound knowledge show itself? It means that one’s predictions about the enemy are always correct.

However, Horn, who was usually calm and composed, now looked a little gloomy.

After driving the rangers across the river, the centaurs turned back.

Horn ordered his men to survey the area along the river and find a place to set up camp nearby.

Just when I turned around, I heard someone report that the centaurs had returned.

When he arrived at the river, he saw that the originally clear river was now faintly red.

Large groups of shepherds and the Thousand Valley garrison stationed on the Gravel Plain were driven to the riverside and killed in front of the Guards.

Row after row of outpost garrisons and mountain knights were forced to their knees, while the Centaurs Batu took up double-edged axes and knocked off four or five heads with one blow.

As for the Huolichi, they drove groups of men, women, old and young to the riverside, just like hunting on the grassland.

They either jumped into the river and drowned, or were shot to death by the Huolichis with arrows and then kicked into the river.

After several rounds, the river was filled with corpses and scarlet red, so red that it was blinding.

"Cinderwind."

The unfortunate Ladenburg city garrison officer wiped his sweat and stepped forward: "Your Majesty, I am here."

"I'm asking you, didn't I ask you to call back the troops stationed at the outposts and mountain knights on the other side of the river?"

"They said that it was the land that Her Majesty Meliati had granted them, and they would never come back unless Her Majesty Meliati gave them an order."

"pedantic!"

Horn cursed.

The reason these people don’t come back is still the same reason—they are vassals of vassals, not my vassals.

In their view, Horne's order for them to go back was an overstepping of his authority.

The mountain knights have the responsibility to defend the land. Princess Meliati handed the land over to them, and they will come back as soon as Horn calls them.

What is this? It is a blasphemy against the honor of mountain riders.

"What should we do now?"

"Did we capture any Centaur scouts?"

"...It's a combination of man and horse, it's too heavy, and it has an extremely violent temperament, so it's a bit difficult to catch."

After hesitating for a while, Horn turned around and said, "Push the clockwork cannon over here and blast them away."

Allowing the Centaurs to kill like this without taking any countermeasures will have a significant impact on the morale and cohesion of the army.

Even if it's just for show, you can't just do nothing.

The Centaurs had seen clockwork cannons in Hotam County, and the river was only two or three hundred meters across, well within the range.

After being bombarded with several shells, although only a few horses were scratched, the Centaurs still left the riverside, cursing "villains".

The Centaurs arrived in the morning of May 22nd, and the vanguard of the Border Knights arrived in the afternoon.

By the evening, except for the rear troops who were still camping in the back, most of the border knights had already arrived nearby.

The sheep forcibly confiscated from the shepherds were turned into mutton and goat milk, which became the food for the border knights who had been on the march for three days.

This time the tents were replaced with large wooden tents to accommodate more people.

Nearly a hundred people sat in the tent around a few roasted sheep.

According to the configuration of the Border Knights, every 20 to 50 knights and their affiliated sergeants form a flag team, commanded by the flag captain.

Every 3 to 4 flag teams are led by a knight, and the total number of people is generally around a thousand.

Therefore, the 60 flag captains, 18 knight commanders, plus the three major grand masters, the chief knights, the chief priests and accompanying priests and monks in the camp are the decision-making level of the entire Border Knights.

Compared with the Empire's stacked-roof organizational structure, the Knights Templar's organization from top to bottom is already quite efficient and capable of execution.

Among the Leia and Norn people, it is common to see a certain earl with three soldiers sitting at the same table with a certain knight with two thousand men.

"Our plan of sudden attack across the river may fail." Sitting on the main throne, the Grand Commander said to the many knight commanders who were drinking goat milk wine.

The Knight Commander then added: "The people of Thousand Valley came prepared." Their original plan was that the Centaurs would arrive at the river first, suppress the locals from cutting down trees, and build rafts and sheepskin air bags.

After the army arrived, they used rafts and sheepskin air bags to form a floating bridge to cross the river.

Under normal circumstances, a river of two to three hundred meters would take them one day and one night to build a bridge to cross.

Unexpectedly, the Centaurs encountered the rangers of the Holy Alliance as soon as they arrived at the river.

Then they discovered the Holy Alliance Army on the other side of the river, and there were quite a few of them.

The question now is, since the surprise attack failed, should we still build a bridge and force a crossing?

"Even if the Holy Alliance mobilizes its troops faster, can they still outrun us? It must be that some Holy Alliance noble is patrolling the border. It would be embarrassing if they were scared off like this."

"The people of Qianhe Valley should not be underestimated. Even if they are a local army of unknown quality, they have clockwork cannons. Forcing a crossing is not an option."

"Since a surprise attack and a forced crossing are both unsuccessful, we can only continue northward to the territory of the Broken Stone Nobles, then cross the river from the stone bridge and head south again...or we can just withdraw our troops."

"Sir Emeric, where did this army come from? Didn't the spies in the Thousand River Valley have any explanation?"

The Grand Commander could only shake his head: "I haven't received any news yet."

"Didn't they say that the mad pope transferred all his evil spies to the Hotham County front and Mountain County?"

The head priest in charge of relevant intelligence connection slammed the table impatiently: "It will take time to wait for the information to be transmitted."

The flag captains were still eating and drinking, taking big bites of mutton, while the knight commanders gathered together to talk.

"Or, should we set up camp here and confront each other first, and then make plans after receiving the news?"

"No, it's a taboo to neither advance nor retreat." The Grand Commander rejected this idea. "The people of Qianhe Valley are good at mobilizing troops on a large scale. If the Iron Fist or any other regiment comes, the result will probably be the same as that of the Bear Gnawing Castle."

Unlike Bear Gnawing Castle, the road from Laden Castle to Upper River County is a wide valley, and there is no Andre's broken bridge strategy.

However, Laden Castle is a large fort, making it more difficult and time-consuming to attack. If a large military group from the rear comes to support, the Battle of Malenbo might be repeated.

"Advance or retreat, at least there should be an explanation." The priest stroked the cross on his chest with his long, skinny hands.

"Let's build a bridge and try to force a crossing first. If that doesn't work, we can go north and continue the attack." Knight Commander Cosme was silent for half the night before he finally spoke. "Even if the Thousand River Valley people mobilize a large army, we will be able to find out in the first place."

He glanced at the head priest: "I have to give an explanation to the Pope as well."

A burping flag captain wiped the cheese from the corner of his mouth and said, "What if the people of Qianhe Valley really mobilize a large army to come here? What should we do?"

"Are you stupid?!" The knight commander beside him kicked him angrily, "Is that a dog you ride every day? That's a warhorse!

If the army really comes, we can just run away. Do they dare to chase us out on this vast plain?"

"Hahahaha." The tent was suddenly filled with a happy atmosphere.

For the Border Knights, where every infantryman has at least one mule, mobility is their greatest strength.

If I can't beat you, can I still outrun you?

…………

"Boom!" The stone bullets created huge splashes on the water, shaking the floating bridge made of sheepskin air bags and rafts.

The Knights' sergeants and infantrymen screamed and fell into the rushing river one after another.

No matter how much the knight commanders roared, these flag teams were unwilling to march forward again.

This group of cowards from Qianhe Valley who only know how to use clockwork cannons are too accurate in their shooting, much more accurate than the artillery team on Leia's side.

From morning to evening, they tried to build floating bridges in different places, but none of them succeeded.

At night, they even tried to build it again secretly at night. This time, they managed to build one-third of it, but were stopped by clockwork guns and shotguns.

The two sides confronted each other until dawn, when clockwork cannons were delivered and six cannons broke the pontoon bridge into three pieces.

After that, until noon, they were not seen on the other side of the river again.

The rangers carefully crossed the river by boat and brought back the news soon after.

The Border Knights withdrew in the early morning, and judging by the wheel tracks and horse hoof prints, they must have headed north.

Standing on the dirt slope, after repeatedly confirming the whereabouts of the border knights, Horn suddenly turned his head and shouted to Besser: "Besser."

"I'm here, Your Majesty."

"I'll give you a mission."

"Your Majesty, please speak." Besser became excited.

"Dig."

(End of this chapter)