When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

Chapter 884: Battle of Dusk Bell Mountain (Prequel)

"Everyone respects Dalia and worships Kracherus."

"Alexandre Cruz, is this the name of all heroes?"

Early morning of October 6th.

On the blue Nauan River, waves are rolling with water plants.

On the silky silver river, a floating bridge that rises and falls with the turbulent current is shaking and swaying between the two banks, like a giant brown and yellow snake.

On the back of this giant snake, the sound of orderly footsteps and military songs passed across the upper reaches of the longest river on the continent.

The Nauan River, where it flows into the sea at the Fengmill Land estuary, can reach a width of nearly a thousand meters.

But in this upstream area, at its source area, the distance is less than 100 meters.

Andre stood on the shore, the river water washing over the bank soaking his shoes.

He looked at the marching Iron Fist Regiment and just stuffed a candied fruit into his mouth.

According to yesterday's intelligence, the Border Knights have decided to retreat after an unexpected incident.

Although they lost a large number of horses and animal power, this does not mean that the Border Knights completely lost their mobility.

According to the staff's estimation, due to the early withdrawal of the border knights, they are very likely to bypass Andre and join forces with the nobles of Shattered Stone.

Once the Border Knights joined forces with the Stonebreakers nobles, Horn would be the one to lead the expedition.

Either retreat or plan in vain.

Or they could launch a head-on attack and exchange the blood of their soldiers for a tragic victory.

Neither of these is what Horn wants, at least if there are other options, he would not choose either of these.

"How long will it take?" Andre asked incoherently, feeling the bitter-sweet taste in his mouth.

"It will take at least another hour and a half, Mr. Advisor."

Andre took out his pocket watch and glanced down: "It's seven o'clock now. We must all cross the river before nine o'clock. Tell the chef and the barber to come over and cook on the spot. We will eat after crossing the river and set off after we are full!"

"Yes!"

The adjutant's response and chest-beating were powerful enough, but they were drowned out by the loud "March of the Salvation Army".

“Looking at the world today, who can compare with him?”

"Only me, line after line, the Holy Alliance Salvation Army..."

Riding past the Guards who were marching to the sounds of military songs, Horn hurried to the front.

The messenger sent by Brune had been waiting for a long time: "Reporting to Your Majesty, Lord Brune has initially occupied the entrance of the stairs, and the border knights have not made any moves."

The staircase entrance mentioned by the messenger was actually the place where thousands of guards blocked the border knights at the beginning.

The entrance of the stairs is the pass of the Dusk Bell Valley. The plain passage only two miles wide mentioned earlier is here.

It was also the battlefield chosen by Horn.

"Your Majesty." Besser pointed at the pass while holding a map. "Are you sure they will fight you here? Isn't this obviously a trap?"

"Even if they know it's a trap, they will still fall into it." Laurent doesn't like Besser. "Hasn't it been confirmed before?"

Horn suppressed Laurent, who was becoming more and more irritable as he grew older, and explained to Besser: “As a staff officer, you should know the importance of intelligence.

We must have self-knowledge, and we must also have sufficient understanding and rational judgment of the enemy."

After so many days, with the investigation of the Holy Fathers, the intelligence of the French spies, and Horn's personal interrogation, he already had a general understanding of the Border Knights.

To put it nicely, these knights have a very ancient style; to put it bluntly, they are pedantic and as pure as the period before the Hundred Years' War.

Horn saw and admired their inheritance and development of the spirit of chivalry.

But times have changed!
The extravagant style before the Hundred Years' War is no longer there.

Most of the inland knights have learned more practical tactics and a longer-term vision.

If it were the Leia army, they would have retreated long ago.

But these border knights are still hesitating, mainly for the sake of boastful honor. It is good to have faith, but the faith of the border knights is to maintain the group of knights or nobles.

They just do honor for honor's sake.

Faced with such a bait, under the influence of the lower-level knights, "public opinion" will inevitably affect normal military command.

This was caused by the Knights' overly primitive "military democracy", and even Horn would not be able to solve this loophole.

"But that's not necessarily the case, right?" Besser continued to ask, "Since they all have the intention to withdraw their troops, it means there are still sober knights among them."

"We are not saying that random factors will not appear, but that the probability is very low, so we just need to act in the most likely direction."

He took out a silver pot from his bosom and unscrewed the bottle cap made by the dwarf, revealing the spiral bottle mouth underneath.

What's in it is not alcohol, but coffee with medicine, milk and sugar added to it, the kind that makes your heart jump to your throat after taking a sip.

Horn needs to wake up, the battlefield is not a joke.

"Meng Sai, the battlefield in the plains is now handed over to you. Do what you can do, but don't run away if you can't. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

…………

"The battlefield is no joke!"

Emeric was annoyed by the buzzing of a group of knight commanders admonishing him, so he had to yell.

The previously noisy mound finally became quiet at this moment, and the surrounding flag captains all looked at it sideways.

Rubbing his throbbing veins, Emeric advised earnestly, "You've all seen how cunning these people from the Thousand River Valley are. Will they just leave the door wide open and wait for us to attack?"

"Maybe they are careless and want to give chase?"

"Our trick is to lure the snake out and then kill it with one blow."

"If we don't fight this battle, we won't have the chance to enter the interior of the empire next time. Do we have to bear the brunt of the women's knights for the rest of our lives?"

The Grand Commander put on a stern face and was about to scold them, but he saw Cosme coming towards him.

Emeric's eyes revealed undisguised irritation.

This bastard was always timid before, how come I didn’t notice that he was so stubborn?

"Sir Emeric." Cosme still had that frowned look on his face, "You promised me that you would fight back if the Thousand River Valley attacked."

"That means, oh, that means the people of the Thousand River Valley have left the Dusk Bell Valley." Pointing to the narrow plain in the distance, Emeric patted the saddle irritably, "Look for yourselves, is this a battlefield suitable for attack?"

The battlefield chosen by the people of Qianhe Valley was just right, and it happened to be stuck in this place.

If they were to attack here, the passage was only two miles wide and there was their position on one side, so the border knights could not use their cavalry tactics at all.

If they were to evacuate at this point, the defenders in the city would appear in front of them.

This group of defenders bombarded them for more than ten days, bringing them the insult of female knights, but their own side did not suffer more than 500 casualties.

At this moment, the despicable locals appeared in front of them without any fortifications or shelters. Shouldn't they fight?

Retreating because you're afraid it's a trap?

The will of the knight commanders that had been suppressed by Emeric finally rebounded.

"How about we vote?" A knight commander spoke first.

Emeric's muscles suddenly tensed up. This was what he feared the most.

Seeing that Emeric didn't speak, the knight commanders rushed forward again, surrounding Emeric and continuing to persuade him.

"Alright!" The commander who had been silent and sullen suddenly shouted, "You want to fight, right? Fine, I'll let you fight!"

Before the knights could be happy, Emeric said, “But let me make it clear first, I am against the attack and will not get involved in this.

I have been ill recently and have chest pains. According to custom, Cosme, you will temporarily take over my command duties!"

(End of this chapter)