On the evening of the second day after talking to Carlos, the scouts sent out had already made progress, and Wen and Mafa, who were in charge of the reconnaissance, came to report the situation.
Both of their faces looked a little solemn, which was inconsistent with their personalities.
"What's wrong?" I asked, "Did you two miss dinner or lost your wallet?"
"No, boss." Mafa shook his head: "Our scouts sent back preliminary information."
"Have you got information? This is a good thing!" I chuckled: "Why do you still have such a dead look on your face?"
"Boss, look at it!" Wen handed over a few pieces of paper: "After knowing this, I don't believe you can still laugh."
"What?" I took it and glanced at it: "Unidentified troops were found at the exit of the Divine Alliance side of the canyon... This is what I expected. Is there anything abnormal?"
"What's unusual? Boss, are you kidding me?" Wen said eagerly: "It's an army with an unknown identity, but now no matter what kind of army it is, there is no need to hide its identity!"
"Mafa, where are you?" I looked at Mafa: "Is there any information sent back?"
Mafa nodded and smiled hard.
"Go and call them here." I put down the information in my hand: "We need to make arrangements."
Since everyone was waiting for the information to be sent back, they all arrived in a short while. As soon as a few people sat down, I asked Wen to report the information he had first.
"That's right, our scouts followed the canyon and found an army of about 6,000 at the exit of the canyon. They were well-equipped and built a camp at the mouth of the canyon to prevent any
People are entering and leaving the canyon, and there are also a large number of tribal refugees who were shot by them in the canyon." Wen pointed to the map and said: "But in their entire camp, there is no flag, and neither soldiers nor officers wear military uniforms, so so far
Their identities cannot yet be determined..."
"Only this?"
"Yes."
"Mafa, tell me what you said."
"Yes, boss... everyone knows that we lost contact with the rear before the Tucheng Battle, and we didn't know what was going on outside in the past few days in the passage. So my people and
The first task today is to contact the personnel we left behind, but we failed..." Mafa said: "All our intelligence personnel who stayed on the dividing line between gods and demons before the war have disappeared!"
"All missing?" Carlos frowned: "What else happened?"
"There are small groups of cavalry all over this area from the mouth of the canyon to the line of Garia. Because we didn't dare to reveal our identities, we couldn't go deeper. And in the areas we've already reached, we couldn't find a single person." Mafa said.
: "So we don't get any news about the war situation outside...that's it."
"Okay, that's the intelligence. Let's share your opinions." I looked at the people around me: "As an excellent commander, you must not only be able to fight, but also learn to assess the situation."
"Assessing the situation?" Jack asked puzzledly.
"To put it simply, it is to see the essence of things through surface phenomena." I explained to Jack: "Are you interested in being the first to express your opinion?"
"I think..." Jack touched his nose: "I'd better watch and think more."
"Moya, you come first!"
"Yes, boss. I think the biggest suspicion here is their identity!" Moya moved his body towards the map: "At this time, I think there is no need for any troops to hide their identities.
.”
"Oh?" I couldn't help but feel very interested when I heard Moya express his opinion: "What do you think?"
"This is the Divine Alliance side of the dividing line between gods and demons. If the Divine Alliance blocked the passage, they could do it openly. Why should they be secretive? Boss, do you still remember when we reported to the military headquarters? Those
The officers, big and small, are very concerned about their status, and would be extremely nervous even if there is a little bit of mud on their clothes...Sealing the canyon is a trivial matter, how could they use this trick?" Moya said: "Of course, to make them do such a thing
It is not impossible to make a big sacrifice, then this matter must be very serious."
"What if it's the Demon Alliance?" I was very pleased to hear Moya's explanation: "They also have a reason to pretend."
"Well... I think so, boss. There is no reason for the demon alliance to appear here, let alone to block the passage behind him." Moya lowered his head and thought for a while: "The demon alliance... if they open another channel in order to cooperate with it,
In the Battle of Tucheng on one side, it is indeed necessary to pretend. But it has been nearly twenty days since the Battle of Tucheng. During this period, there is no way that a demon coalition force of more than 6,000 people can still wait.
Here, because this is not a place controlled by them..."
I already knew the origin of this army, and Carlos, as the general staff officer, naturally also understood it, but Moya came to the conclusion based only on the intelligence in hand... Carlos and I looked at each other, and we were both a little surprised.
Ya's growth, his analysis is very correct, this guy finally found out the sharp side of his thinking - I am very happy.
Then I turned my eyes noncommittally to Helter, and I motioned for him to speak.
"Boss, I think there is a higher chance that this army belongs to the God-belonging coalition." Haiert thought for a while and said: "No matter where the army here comes from, they should all be enemies to us."
"Tell me more details."
"Before we retreated from Camp, boss, didn't you say that the war between gods and demons was about to end? In twenty or so days, the battle outside must have come to an end. And according to the agreement signed by the alliance of gods and demons,
, once the war is over, both sides must immediately withdraw from the dividing line between gods and demons!" Haiert's finger heavily poked at the exit of the canyon on the map: "At this time, the troops that appeared at the exit of the canyon must have ulterior motives.
Man’s purpose!”
"Even if they have ulterior motives, they are not necessarily targeting us." I picked up the cup and took a sip of water: "Even if that's the case, what are you going to do?"
"There's nothing to think about. They pose a direct threat to us when they appear here. No matter who they are, we will kill them without leaving a trace!" Haiert twirled his finger on the map: "Even if they are
The troops of the God-belonging coalition will be traced in the future, and we will also have excuses...Who told them not to wear military uniforms at this time?"
"Of course, they may be targeting us, or they may not be targeting us, but Geert, if you attack them just for not wearing military uniforms..." Carlos interjected: "This reason is too poor, if they are not
Against us, the temple and the military will not let us go."
"Wouldn't it be better to say it was an accidental injury? It's not like this kind of thing has never happened..." Haiert said: "Besides, the boss can solve any problem."
Hearing Haiert say this, everyone looked at me.
"You're right, I can solve any problem, let alone such a trivial matter." I could only nod my head and said, "Now we can't know the situation outside, so everyone can just speculate."
"The battle situation outside..." Moya said: "I think the war between gods and demons is over."
"Well, tell me." I asked calmly, "Who wins and who loses in the end?"
"The victory of the demon alliance... This can be seen from the fact that they mobilized a large number of troops to encircle and annihilate us." Moya said: "Those troops came from the second theater of the demon alliance, basically at the dividing line between gods and demons.
On the other side. If they didn't win, how could they possibly mobilize troops from such a far away place?"
"Does this need to be said?" Haiert snorted: "Now the Divine Alliance Army must be on the way to withdraw, and..."
"And what?" I looked at Geert.
"Boss, I wanted to tell you a few days ago, how could we be surrounded by the demon alliance in Tucheng? Who blocked the canyon in front? Someone betrayed us!" Haiert said: "And now
, the people blocking the canyon are right in front of you, boss, what are you still thinking about?"
"What do you think?" I said, "What should we do?"
"First take them all in one pot, and then go directly back to Gallia."
"Good idea..." I stood up: "Just do it!"
Carlos looked at me in surprise: "Sir..."
"That's it." I interrupted Carlos with my eyes: "Moya and Jack went to supervise the training of the troops, Carlos immediately formulated a combat plan, and Marfa had to find a way to get in touch with Garia."
"yes!"
"Wen, your scouts need to increase the scope of their reconnaissance at the canyon exit." I drew a circle on the map: "Everyone, go back and do your work!"
"yes!"
Haiert, who didn't hear his own name, was confused: "Boss... what about me?"
"You?" I started to take off my armor: "Go get two horses and let's go out for a walk."
Geert accompanied me, and it took us almost two hours to ride the horse until we reached the end of the passage. I didn't say a word on the way, and under my influence, Geert could only follow me obediently.
There is a mile-long dense forest at the end of the passage, and beyond this dense forest is a flat plain. If we are cavalry, we can reach my advance base - Garia, an important border town of the Sibia Empire - within three days.
There are two regiments with a total of 5,000 people guarding here. The two regiment leaders knew that I was coming and trotted to report to me.
"Go back to your posts." I didn't want to hear their nagging at all: "Get ready for battle!"
"Yes, sir." One of the regiment leaders answered me: "We are always on guard..."
I glanced at the officer: "Are you doubting my words?"
"No sir! We'll go right away..."
"Haert." I dismounted and walked towards the dense forest: "Follow me."
Ordering the guards to stay where they were, I led Helter through the dense forest and stood on the plain outside.
"Boss, what are you going to do?" Haiert was confused: "Why are we here?"
"Because I want to talk to you." I walked without looking back: "How far is it from the canyon exit?"
"It's twenty miles long."
"Twenty miles is not very far." I nodded: "We can talk while walking, let's go!"
"You want to go to the mouth of the canyon?" Haiert was stunned and asked, "What are you going to do there?"
"Let's go kill those six thousand people." I glanced at him and my tone was unusually calm.
"What!" Haiert shouted: "Boss, what did you say?"
"I said, let's go kill those six thousand people." I turned around with a half-smile on my face.
"No problem." Haiert was stunned for a moment, and then became excited again. His hard-lined face was filled with a red light of excitement, and his sparkling eyes bulged: "I'll go call a group right away.
One group is enough!”
Looking at the way he was gearing up, he looked like a starving ghost after seeing abundant food.
"No, what I mean by us is you and me." I stared into Geert's eyes and said slowly, "It doesn't include anyone else."
Obviously, my words seemed to pour cold water on Geert, and his originally excited face immediately turned pale.
"Boss, are you okay?" Haiert looked at me in disbelief. I think he must be doubting my mental health: "Just the two of us... going to deal with six thousand people?"
"That's right, it's the two of us."
"Are you crazy, boss? There are two of us against six thousand people... This is impossible!"
"How can it be impossible?" I said calmly: "You are so good at martial arts, and I can do some magic."
"That's not enough to deal with six thousand people!" Haiert almost yelled. He jumped up, reached out and grabbed my shoulders, and his eyes were so sharp that they seemed to penetrate my head:
"You're crazy! You know what the consequences will be..."
"Consequences?" I slapped Haiert on the face: "You still know the consequences!"
"Boss! Why...you hit me!" A trace of blood hung on the corner of his mouth. Helter was stunned by me. He shook his groggy head and stared at me fiercely: "You have never hit me in the face. I
What's wrong?"
"That's right? You're right? Do you know who the other party is? Do you know the consequences of attacking rashly? Do you know that reckless behavior will put everyone in danger? If they are the enemy's vanguard
, what will be the consequences of your reckless attack? What will be the consequences if you attack a friendly force!" I said coldly: "Yes, I hit you, are you very unconvinced? You have always been unconvinced, right?
, ever since the day I climbed into the orchard and became the boss when I was little, you have been very dissatisfied, haven't you?"
Perhaps he didn't expect me to mention this suddenly. Helter wanted to say something, but he opened his mouth but was speechless.
"It seems that you really care about this title. Is this title really so important to you? So much so that you have to do everything possible to express yourself and prove that you are better than me." I continued: "I'm not wrong, right?
?”
Haiert swallowed dryly with his Adam's apple, but still didn't speak. Although he was silent, his inner struggle was all on his face.
"You should still remember what I said earlier, I hope you, I hope all my brothers are stronger than me, I hope you can make your name famous all over the world with dignity... But this does not mean that you can do things regardless of the consequences.
"I said: "You are one year older than me, you should understand this."
As if my words stimulated him, Haiert's eyes became fierce: "I didn't!"
"No? Then who is attacking without knowing the enemy's situation? Is it me? It's okay if you want to kill the enemy and make meritorious deeds, but don't drag my soldiers to die!" My voice gradually became louder.
Not planning to leave any room for him: "Have you ever looked carefully at the dead soldiers? Have you looked carefully at their eyes? Those shocked, confused, helpless... and finally despairing eyes!"
At this moment, I seemed to have returned to the blood-red Tucheng, and seemed to hear the dying cries of the soldiers. My chest felt like it was bound by an iron ring, and I almost went crazy with the feeling of being out of breath.
…
I gritted my teeth and shook off the blood-stained nightmare, and glared: "As your boss, if you want to be cool, I will go with you. I will not let the soldiers accompany you to die."
"You're going to die!" Helter rushed over and came face to face with me, shouting, "I will definitely win!"
"There is no victory in a useless battle! You can't impose your desire for victory on others!" I grabbed Helter's collar and drove my words into Helter's ears word by word:
"It's true that soldiers dying in battle is nothing, but I won't let them die meaninglessly."
"What does it mean to be meaningless!" Haiert could hardly control himself and shook my hand away: "I am a commander. How can it be meaningless when I lead my soldiers to fight bloody battles?"
"Commander? You can only be considered a third-rate commander now."
"Then how good are you? You're not even close to me!" Haiert turned his head and looked aside, his neck was as hard as if it were made of iron, and he said a hard sentence: "Without me, you would have been finished."
"Yes, I'm not much different from you..." I sighed: "It's different when you have military exploits... Let's let strength speak for itself. Do you still remember how to fight?"
"Remember!"
"Then what are you waiting for? You arrogant idiot! A short-sighted fool!"
"I'm not an idiot!" Haiert's eyes turned red and he clenched his fists tightly: "I'm not a reckless man either!"
I was too lazy to talk nonsense, so I punched him. Haiert dodged a few times at first, but couldn't stand my repeated provocations, and finally yelled and started fighting with me.
This fight lasted for a long time, with no one holding back, and there was no audience.
After half an hour, Geert and I were both out of breath and lying on the ground like mud.
With the exhaustion of physical strength, everyone's irritable mood has also eased a lot. Amidst each other's heavy and rapid breathing, our eyes gradually relaxed.
We lay on the field, with the gentle wind slowly combing our sweat-soaked hair. In the end, the two of us burst out laughing after looking at each other for a long time, just like when we were kids.
"Bah! Bah bah..." Haiert spat out a few pieces of rotten grass in his mouth: "You're doing this again, you're so shameless, you're not even a noble!"
He said that because... I acted rogue again in the fight.
"Noble? When did you think I was a noble again?" I chuckled: "It feels bad to suffer a loss, doesn't it?"
"Come and eat!" Haiert complained angrily as he wiped the dirt from his face.
"Damn!" I sat up and rolled my eyes at Geert: "I will eat anything, as long as I don't suffer a loss."
"Damn!" Haiert slowly crawled over and sat next to me: "It hurts..."
"Why are you sitting so close? Sit a little further away." I pushed him: "Has the problem with you been solved?"
"Don't push me... I have no strength." Haiert said: "What... is going on?"
"What's going on?"
"I'm talking about our relationship." Haiert said: "On the one hand, I know that you are my boss, and I also know that I value our relationship very much. But on the other hand, I want to surpass you in everything.
...Holy shit, I've tolerated you for a long time, and I can't suppress this desire no matter how hard I try."
"The reason why people are called people is because they have feelings, and desires are possessed by all living things. In fact, this is not a contradiction. As a person, the most difficult thing is to correctly handle the balance between feelings and desires.
." I said: "You are a smart guy, you should know how to do it. In fact, the relationship between people is very delicate, and I can't give you any advice."
"How should I choose? My head is about to explode." Geert lay helplessly on the ground, picked up a piece of grass and bit it in his mouth: "Boss... can you tell me how to do it well? Tell me.
"
"No."
"Why?"
"No reason."
There was a long silence.
"I don't know what I am doing..." Haiert shook his head and said, "Tell me, boss, even if I am begging you."
"You are blinded by desire..." I said, "Don't you take a good look at yourself?"
"Look at yourself?" Helter muttered, tilted his head to one side and inhaled gently, enjoying the scent of the grass carefully: "I don't even have time to look at others, so I still have time to look at myself?"
"Yes! This period of time is too impetuous. We are overwhelmed by so many things that we have no time to look at ourselves." I nodded and said, "There are too many miscellaneous things, and my thoughts are also very messy."
"No wonder you don't show up often these days. It turns out you went to examine yourself." Haiert turned around and looked at me and said, "Boss, tell me the results of your examination, or I can borrow it."
"I need to handle some things correctly." I said, "This problem is not unique to you. The relationship between me and Fichet is also a big problem."
"Fichet and you?" Haiert was stunned: "What's wrong with you?" (To be continued)