After Kyle Holden returned, Broken Bridge City was immediately sealed inside and outside. The people guarding the city gates were all direct descendants of the family.
When the young city lord Harding saw the second batch of knights returning from the war, he immediately knew why the direct line guard guarding the city gate had to solemnly report the matter, but controlled the information to prevent leaks.
Because what came back was a group of wounded, seriously wounded.
There were five knights in total, two had broken legs, two had large openings in their torsos, and one had a gouge on his head and could die at any time.
This is simply a waste of burden. Unless they can regenerate their limbs, these five knight masters will be useless.
The five knights were sent back in an old-fashioned carriage. The driver was an old farmer outside the city, who did this job of delivering people and messages for a reward.
The young city lord immediately gritted his teeth and sent the old farmer to prison, and then asked the five knights who came back what happened. Only one of the five knights with a broken leg could answer, and he roughly told the situation last night.
"The city lord ordered us to fight for honor, so we charged at the enemy. But the first wave of knights who rushed forward were all hung on the tips of their spears.
So what if we kill ten or a hundred of them? Those damn untouchables enchanted their weapons and could easily pierce the armor of the nobles."
The knight with the broken leg looked pale and his breath was unstable. But he was still very unconvinced. It was really shameful that ordinary infantrymen could use a first-level arcane spell to sharpen their spears.
"Fortunately, they didn't have many spears that could be temporarily enchanted. After the first row of infantrymen's spears broke, I rushed away from the second two rows of infantrymen and chopped off two or three of their heads."
Speaking of 'hacking and killing', the knight with the broken leg grinned again, this was already a very good achievement last night. But soon he said even more sadly: "It was too dark and the battlefield was too chaotic.
I followed a few colleagues and rushed out desperately. After a few hundred meters, I realized that there was no one around me. We tried to return to the battlefield, but soon discovered that the enemy had not let us go.
A group of light cavalry attacked us in the dark night. I swear, I fought them to the death. Both sides fought hard and suffered casualties on each other.
Their combat skills are not good, but they have to admit that the opponent's cooperation is better than ours. They can always attack our weak points and pick out lone personnel to attack. Two of our colleagues died quickly, and I and the other two had to retreat.
.”
The knight with the broken leg twitched the corner of his mouth a few more times, "The retreat is not always smooth sailing. Whenever we feel that we are safe, the enemy's light cavalry can always come out of the darkness.
We couldn't tell the direction, so we could only keep running away. As we were running away, I became separated from my colleagues. At that time, no one cared about the other, and just wanted to ride the horse and run away.
But in the end, I found that I had gone full circle and returned to the battlefield, fighting the enemy again, and ended up losing my leg. I thought I was dead, but I didn’t expect that they captured me and took me to Green Valley Town.”
After saying this, the Knight with the Broken Leg took out a letter from his chest and handed it to Harding.
"I didn't stay long in Green Valley Town. The evil Hugo probably saw that I was of no use, so he sent me and several other knights back, along with this letter.
He asked me to tell him something. He had about eighty captured Horton family knights in his hands, all with their hands and feet intact. He said that as long as we agree to his conditions, those knights can be returned to us."
The papyrus letters are very crude, the pages are stained with blood, and the handwriting is not very clear.
Harding stared at the knight with the broken leg and slowly took the letter. The content of the letter was very simple, requiring more than 80 captured knights to be exchanged for something. If the Horton family did not agree, those knights would be executed.
"Monster Hugo captured more than eighty of our family knights?"
Harding found it unbelievable. Shouldn't his knights be brave, good at fighting, and tenacious? But after calculation, more were captured than escaped, and more were killed in battle.
The knight with the broken leg smiled bitterly, "Yes, Hugo asked me to count them. Not many people died on the spot last night, most of them were killed while escaping at night.
More people surrendered in despair. They probably thought they could come back as long as they paid a ransom. But the evil Hugo obviously didn't think so."
The requirements in the letter are very simple. Broken Bridge City must pay a compensation for the defeat, lift the trade and transportation blockade, and submit a petition.
The first two requests are easy to talk about, but the last one is troublesome. Victor Hugo named him directly in the letter: "Bring the old wizard Bank who visited Broken Bridge City last night to Cold Wind City for disposal."
In just one day, how did Monster Hugo know that Bank from Longlegs was in Broken Bridge City?
Unless..., there is a traitor in the city.
Thinking of this, Harding couldn't help but sweat profusely. A series of names and portraits flashed through his mind like lightning. Those nobles who refused to send troops last night looked suspicious.
What to do?
The city lord was unconscious and the young city lord had no idea at all.
Agreeing to Hugo's request is undoubtedly equivalent to creating a gap with other aristocratic forces in the North. If the Long-Legs family is successfully restored that day, the Holden family will never be let go.
But if you don't agree...
Harding couldn't help but feel even more alarmed - more than eighty family knights were in the hands of the enemy, which was a valuable asset. If these subjects could be brought back, the Holden family's status in Broken Bridge City would not be shaken.
Where are the lessons learned from the Long-Legs family? If the family's strength is weakened, it will immediately be doomed. How to decide will test the ability of the ruler.
At this moment, it was the same night and the same post-war, Zhou Qingfeng was cleaning the battlefield in the nameless village, preparing to withdraw the team to Green Valley Town.
The heavily loaded four-wheeled carriage pulled the bodies and limbs of the war dead, rumbling ahead. More than a hundred wounded soldiers were lying in a temporary medical tent on the roadside outside the village, waiting for the second batch to set off.
Zhou Qingfeng has a large number of spell slots that can be converted into healing magic every day, but only a small part of the wounded can be rescued. The followers of the 'Mother of Disease' act as military doctors and use homemade herbal medicine to take care of the vast majority of the wounded.
"The infantry regiment suffered one hundred and eighty-two casualties, of which fifty-seven were seriously injured and died irrecoverably. The others should be able to return to the team after treatment."
Outside the medical tent, Infantry Regiment Commander Ma Han reported the statistics to Zhou Qingfeng.
This casualty rate is quite high. The infantry regiment has a total strength of 500, but only about 400 combat personnel. The rest are logistical support.
If the team loses more than 40%, it means a complete loss of combat effectiveness.
Both of them looked bad.
"Deploy people from the supplementary regiment to restore the combat effectiveness of your three battalions as soon as possible." Zhou Qingfeng ordered.
After taking the Cold Wind City, he immediately trained a supplementary group of 300 people. The training of the supplementary group was not enough, and the equipment was also much worse. But now it has to be strengthened even if it can't be done.
The cavalry team of about 100 people also suffered more than 30 casualties, and the permanent loss of troops reached 10%. The infantry can be easily replenished, but the cavalry can hardly be replenished.
The only thing that makes Zhou Qingfeng happy is that he defeated the Holden family in Broken Bridge City and eliminated the threat to the west of his family. He bet that after last night's disastrous defeat, if he gave Kyle Holden ten more courage, the other party would not
Dare to cause trouble.
There was a fierce battle last night, and more than two hundred noble knights were beaten and fled in all directions. This battle will definitely leave a deep memory for the opponent.
It was dark at night, and Zhou Qingfeng's light cavalry could not stop the enemy's escape. But the next day, the light cavalry from Cold Wind City drank the stamina potion and went to capture the prisoners with all their strength.
The fleeing nobles were in a panic at night, and their horses had no strength. Basically, they were all within five kilometers of the surrounding area, and they were able to catch them all at once.
More knights were captured than killed.
All the prisoners were handcuffed and sent back to Cold Wind City like prisoners. The dignity of nobility was nothing in Zhou Qingfeng's eyes, and the defeated were not qualified to raise conditions.
"With this group of prisoners in hand, I am not afraid of any trouble on the west flank. I can concentrate on dealing with the Butch family who are coming from the south. I heard that the emblem of this family is the Gorgon. I wonder how powerful it can be?
"
Zhou Qingfeng thought to himself that the real threat to Cold Wind City at present was the Banshee Castle. At this moment, a messenger came from the direction of Cold Wind City to ensure that he had timely communication with the city.
Nothing happened in the city. At most, there was a message from the strange maids - the modification of 'Quick Shadow' was very successful, and the owner will get a brand new mount.
But ‘Jiying’ himself had reservations about this statement.
(Internet beggars, begging for food online - help click on the WeChat account's "Tongchi Taoist" advertisement. Today is Tong Yan Da*.)