customs clearance base

Chapter 1627 The First Battle (3)

Zhao Hu looked at the soldiers who gathered around him. Under everyone's suspicious gaze, Zhao Hu suddenly kicked the side of one of the big boxes.

The belongings loaded inside rolled and bounced on the ground, crowded each other and made a series of "warning" metal collision sounds, and the glittering belongings spilled out made everyone's eyes straight.

"I am very satisfied with your performance today. As I promised, these properties belong to you real fighters! Everyone can receive a gold coin as a bounty. You can get one more gold coin!"

Zhao Hu’s words made the entire camp completely boil. A gold coin is a farmer’s income for 20 years. Under the high degree of exploitation by the lords and landlords, many farmers have never seen what a gold coin looks like in their entire lives. They can see a silver coin Both are things to boast about in the village.

These peasant soldiers did not expect to get a bounty of a gold coin tonight, and their low morale suddenly became extremely high. Everyone shouted excitedly, "Master, you are the most generous person in the entire empire!"

One wounded soldier even covered his face and wept excitedly. The wounded soldier thought that he had not received a high bounty and had to return to the village with his scars.

But now the generosity of the lord is enough for him to propose marriage to the richest woman in the village, and even to buy a large piece of land, so that he can become a leisurely little landlord and live a comfortable life for the rest of his life.

"As long as you are willing to follow me, I guarantee that what you can get will be much more than what you get tonight!"

Zhao Hu is very satisfied with the excitement shown by the peasant soldiers. The army is like a bloodthirsty wolf. It not only has sharp claws and teeth, but also has a desire for food. Trained by familiar farm names into true warriors eager to fight.

I believe that if an enemy appears in front of these peasant soldiers now, these peasant soldiers will definitely pounce on them viciously and bite the enemy into pieces. Tomorrow, I will lead this army eager to fight to completely tear the Marquis of Cato into pieces.

Lord Liu Ming's castle was not very far from the camp of the Cato family. When the sky just dawned, Zhao Hu, who was walking, could already see the low and small stone castle belonging to Lord Liu Ming in the morning mist in the distant village.

The entire small castle is built on the low hilly slope behind the village. The outer wall of the castle is randomly picked up from the surrounding mountains to form a pile of large and small broken stones about 30 meters wide and two meters high. The half-moon-shaped low stone wall reveals a half-moon-shaped gap in the middle.

The outer defense of the castle is so simple that there is not even a moat, but a deep pit was dug outside the castle along the city wall. There is only a wooden watchtower at the gate around the castle, and a wide Long wooden planks used to lay over deep trenches and used as suspension bridges.

A long swallowtail flag without a family emblem fluttered on the top of the castle. This was because the lord was not in the ranks of the noble titles of the empire. It was just a title granted by the lord to his own subordinates or relatives. Naturally, he was not qualified to embroider the unique flag on the flag. family emblem.

"My lord, the white tents on the right side of the castle should be the residence of the Marquis of Cato. I heard that there is a large sheep farm in the territory of the Marquis of Cato. These tents are made of sheepskin, even if it rains. Water leaks are all good things, one can sell for three gold coins on the black market."

The hunter leader Munda pointed excitedly at the dozen or so leather tents made of white sheepskin in a circle outside the small stone castle, looking at those tents as if seeing bulging money bags.

Last night's battle allowed the hunters to get a gold coin each. Earning so much money so easily made the hunters' blood boil with excitement. The purse goes back to his woman and child, and he spends a comfortable winter.

Originally, the hunter leader Munda was not optimistic about his employer's night attack this time, but he did not expect that his employer was so magical. Just relying on two hundred farmers who had just trained for a month, it was easy to defeat the war vultures. Called the Cato Marquis Army.

Especially when counting the spoils after the war, Zhao Hu not only announced that he distributed all the property looted by Marquis Cato from the village to the soldiers, but also added an extra one to each of the three farmers who died in the battle and the eight injured. Compensation in gold coins, which made all the peasant soldiers rejoice, privately calling their lord "the most generous man in the empire."

The sound of the trombone "woo woo" came from the small castle in the distance. It seems that Lord Liu Ming's wishful thinking of seeking peace was not satisfactory. From a distance, he saw dozens of soldiers running sparsely from the white tent in front of the castle. They came out and gathered behind the tent with the eagle-billed vulture flag fluttering on the top, slowly moved out a large pile of wood like ants moving house, and started to build things.

"It's a small siege catapult! I didn't expect them to carry this!" Starn, who had participated in the siege battle, whispered as the building gradually revealed its outline.

Starn's words on the side made Zhao Hu's doubts suddenly brighten, "After a long time, this cunning Marquis of Cato has no sincerity in negotiating. This restless "poor neighbor" beside me.

I feel sorry for my "grass" father-in-law who is only a lord, not even a formal noble title. If he is really going to be taken over by this cunning Marquis of Cato, no one will come out to meddle in this matter.

"heck"

With the sharp friction sound of the machinery, a diamond-shaped stone found from a nearby soil slope was thrown in an arc by the small catapult that was just assembled, and landed on the gravel outer wall of the castle, kicking up a piece of gravel. .

A large stone with water chestnuts weighing tens of kilograms whizzed and rocked and hit the front of the watchtower next to the ditch. With a huge and violent impact, the right half of the wooden tower was smashed off by the sharp water chestnuts of the stone. , the wood inside the tower immediately scattered, like a firecracker that was thrown into the sky and exploded. Zhao Hu, who was ambushing in the distance, clicked his tongue secretly. He didn't expect this temporary catapult to be so powerful.

"There must be siegemen below who are adjusting the catapult, otherwise it will not be so accurate." Starn, who had participated in the official siege battle, did not expect this tattered catapult to be so accurate, but it only took a After many hours, after adjusting the left and right sides a dozen times, the target was accurately hit. In previous siege battles, there were many cases where the target was not hit after a day of smashing.

"Siege warrior?" This was the first time Zhao Hu heard this strange new term.From the name, Zhao Huguang felt that he should be someone related to city siege. Could there be a special siege engineer in this world?

"It's the people who are responsible for making and adjusting siege weapons. These people are very precious. The whole empire has only heard that they are in the emperor's army. I didn't expect to find them here." Starn saw Zhao Hu's face. With a puzzled look on his face, he quickly explained.

Starn's words made Zhao Hu happy. Zhao Hu had already discovered that in this world, even the smallest lord would find ways to build a "comfortable nest" of stone for himself.

If you can have a "siege warrior" in your hand, then these lords who like to hide in the "turtle shell" are the money bags in your hand, and you can beat whoever you want!

Seeing that the obstacles in front had been cleared away, Sir Catohou's soldiers who were watching the excitement outside the castle raised the siege ladders temporarily cut down from the nearby tree trunks and shouted forward. The first few soldiers used their weapons to The long wooden boards were placed on the deep ditch outside the castle, and the passage leading to the interior of the castle has been opened.

"My lord, the castle is about to be breached. Should we prepare to attack it?" Seeing a dozen heavy armored knights in vests slowly moving towards the castle, the hunter leader Munda saw Cato outside the castle. The Marquis' troops all showed their deadly backs to themselves, rubbing their hands in excitement.

That's all money. As long as the lord gives an order, Mengda thinks that he can definitely shoot an arrow through the enemy's neck before the enemy turns around.

"A soldier gets a silver coin, a knight gets a gold coin, and a lord, whoever catches him, I'll reward him with a piece of land. Everyone is ready to throw their guns. Let's kick the asses of these Toka people!" Zhao Hu lowered his voice and asked The soldier crouching behind him shouted that he had been nestled in the bushes for so long, waiting for the moment when Marquis Cato's army broke through the castle.

As his bounty was thrown out, Zhao Hu could clearly feel that the breathing behind him stagnated for a while, and when it sounded again, it was obviously much more dull, but the red eyes of the soldiers behind him exuded burning desire.

At this time, the Marquis Cato would never have thought that the camp behind him had been taken away overnight, and his defenseless back had been completely exposed to this cheap "squirrel".

Zhao Hu buried his body and led the soldiers behind him to move forward rapidly. He kept hearing the rustling sound of grass and trees around him. Suddenly, his eyes lit up and he ran nearly [-] meters in one breath. Marquis Cato luxuriously The large sheepskin tent was only a dozen meters away from him, and the hunters following behind him had already begun to draw their bows and arrows, aiming at the enemy with their backs.

(End of this chapter)