OBS Chapter 273 Long Live Coal Briquettes
Chapter 273 Long Live Coal Briquettes
Winter 1452 Eastern Border of Nilan Territory
A cordon composed of numerous fortresses spans the entire snowfield. If the legendary angel looks down, he will find that dozens of black dots on the pale earth form a line separating Midlan and Yoda.
But if you move your sight a few dozen meters to the east, you will find another line of black dots, but the black dots on this line are smaller and denser.
"All Yodas, form a line and head north! North Harbor is only three days away!"
The blizzard mixed with the shouts of the soldiers on the fortress echoed on the plain. Under the observation of the soldiers on the city wall, a team of Yoda refugees were struggling to move forward in the snow a few dozen meters away.
"drive!"
Several cavalrymen rushed over from the south, and the leader was holding a flag. On the flag was neither John's black eagle on a white background nor the emblem of any knightly order, but a little black duck.
In order to prevent the refugees from being captured by Yoda's cavalry when they were heading north, the city of Nilan specially dispatched a team of cavalry from the Federation of Vulnerable Groups to assist.
In the city controlled by John, except for the city walls, streets and some government buildings which were directly controlled by the city defense army, other places were organized by the ministers themselves. For example, Simon's Chamber of Commerce and Reginale's Chamber of Commerce were guarded by Simon's caravan guards and Blackwatch mercenaries, the office of Spy Minister Wesker was guarded by his servants and stationed assassins, and the church where Pros was located was directly stationed with a 100-man team of the Crusader Knights.
As the guard of the orphanages, hospitals, and schools under the Federation of Vulnerable Groups, this armed force not only has melee combat, but also archers and cavalry. It can be said to be a normal army.
Although the above-mentioned armed forces are not subordinate to each other, they are all commanded by Hank when John is not in the territory.
In terms of importance, this army and the city defense army are both second-line troops, responsible only for security tasks within the territory, while the first-line troops are the major knightly orders and the troops that can follow John into battle or be stationed on the border of Yoda.
Looking at the endless refugee group in front of him, a cavalryman couldn't help but sigh:
"What on earth is going on? The scale of this exodus is greater than during the plague or famine."
"Now is not the time to discuss this. Instead, we should send these refugees to Beigang immediately." The cavalry captain shouted in the wind and snow.
"The food is here!"
At this moment, someone on the city wall suddenly shouted, and then a basket was sent down along the rope. Several people rode over, untied the basket from the rope and opened the lid, and a burst of hot air hit their faces.
In addition to a few pieces of bread and sausages, there was also a roasted chicken wrapped in paper. It looked steaming hot as if it had just been baked, with a greasy luster on it. Even heavy snow could not move people's eyes away.
"There's roasted chicken! We finally have some hot food to eat..." A cavalryman shouted happily when he saw the hot food. They had been running around all day without a sip of water or food, and now they finally saw some meat.
However, before he could finish, he was slapped by the captain. Before the cavalryman realized what he had done wrong, the cavalryman next to him turned his head towards him. Looking in the direction where the cavalryman turned his head, he found that the Yoda refugees who were originally queuing up to go north in the distance suddenly gathered towards them.
"What are you doing? If you take another step forward, I'll execute you on the spot!"
Seeing the movement of the refugee team on the opposite side, the cavalry immediately drew their swords, and at the same time, the defenders on the city wall also opened their bows and crossbows and aimed at the refugees after realizing that something was wrong. They gave them a chance to live, but they still wanted to rob them. Do they really think they are a welfare home?
After seeing the crossbowmen on the city wall ready to fire, the refugee team quickly came to a standstill. The cavalrymen who were closer to the refugees could only hear some whispers inside, and the two sides continued to confront each other.
After a while, an old man wearing a linen cloak and leaning on a cane came over with the help of several refugees.
He first stretched out his dark and cracked hands to the cavalrymen to show that he had no ill intentions. Then, after saying a few words to the refugee group, he walked towards the cavalrymen in the wind and snow, leaning on his crutches.
When he was about ten meters away from the cavalry, the old man stopped and pleaded in a very humble tone:
"My Lords, please give us some food."
"Didn't the previous fortress drop some rations for you? What you need to do now is to continue moving north, and someone will give you food ahead." The cavalry captain responded.
"Sir, you don't know that the food was already cold when it was distributed to us. Some of our children were sick before. Please give us some hot food, otherwise they will not survive until tomorrow." At the old man's repeated request, the cavalry captain first distributed some food to the cavalrymen, and then handed the remaining basket to the old man.
"The food is still warm. Let the children eat first, and then put some babies in this warm basket. I will ask the next fort to prepare some hot water and warm up the food."
"Thank you so much, thank you for your kindness." The old man was about to kneel down to the cavalry captain, but the cavalry captain replied:
"I am only completing the task of sending you to North Port safely. As for gratitude, if you can arrive alive, please go and thank our Lord John..."
At this point, the cavalry captain stopped and looked at the black duck flag in his hand, and continued to say to the old man:
"…and thank Master Coal."
Just as the refugee team was about to move forward, suddenly a refugee on the periphery shouted, and then a panic immediately swept through the team, and the entire team rushed to one side of the fortress.
Looking at the sudden change in front of him, the cavalry captain shouted to the city wall:
“Don’t attack the refugees yet.”
Then he rushed forward, pointed his sword at a refugee and shouted:
"what happened."
"Sir...Sir, Yoda's cavalry is coming. They are here to capture us!" the refugee shouted nervously.
“How many people came from that direction?”
"This... I don't know, I just heard others shouting this."
"All the cavalry, follow me!" the cavalry captain shouted, and led the cavalry to rush eastward. After rushing out of the refugee team, several people stopped and took out binoculars to observe the surroundings.
"over there!"
At this time, a cavalryman shouted to the others, and following the direction he pointed, a team of cavalrymen in black armor rushed down from the snow hill in the distance. The cavalry captain observed with a telescope and found that there were about forty or fifty cavalrymen.
"Captain, should we meet them head-on?" a cavalryman asked the captain.
"Go tell the people on the city wall to fire at that place. Everyone else, take out your long-range weapons!"
As the captain spoke, he took off the musket from his back, and the others took out their bows and crossbows and lined up to face the approaching cavalry head-on.
"Captain, those cavalry are charging towards us in an attack formation!"
"Okay, everyone aim at the leader and wait for my order to fire." The captain also loaded his musket with gunpowder and lead bullets and aimed the musket at the leading enemy cavalry.
When the two sides were less than a hundred meters apart, the captain shouted:
"emission!"
In a flash, several arrows and lead bullets were shot directly at the opposite side, but due to the heavy snow, they could hardly cause any substantial damage to them.
"boom!"
But accompanied by several thunderous noises, several artillery shells penetrated the wind and snow and directly hit the Yoda cavalry team. For a moment, the people and horses on the opposite side were thrown to the ground, and even the original charging formation could not be maintained. They had already run away before the second round of artillery fire arrived, leaving only bright red blood on the ground and several broken corpses.
Seeing the Yoda cavalry, who were like ordinary evil spirits, leave in disgrace, the refugees cheered immediately. After fleeing for countless days, they were finally able to escape the control of these demons. Some refugees even shouted:
"Long live Lord John! Long live Lord Coal!"