But the lightning in Jeanne’s hand continued, once again striking the phalanx of soldiers. Sparks flashed, and three more White Maple Infantry fell.
"We’ve already called for surrender," a rcenary shouted indignantly.
"You surrender, doesn’t an I agree."
Under the protection of a full four companies of Child Soldiers, a youth erged from the crowd and slowly pulled down his hood.
"You killed eight of my n, I will kill eight of yours. That’s fairness."
Hakuto glanced in that direction and saw a young man dressed in a Pope’s robe that had been altered into a sleeve-tight outfit. Seeing Hakuto looking at him, he fiercely stamped the staff in his hand on the ground.
The cruciform ornant imdiately fell off the staff.
The youth casually squatted down, picked up the ornant, and plugged it back onto the long staff in his hand.
"Put your weapons on the ground; you can keep your private property, but the weapons and armor must remain."
"We demand to keep a dagger per person under the ancient Lefi rule, and not be abused."
"Alright." Horn agreed without hesitation.
Hakuto exchanged glances with his companion, thinking it wasn’t too bad a surrender condition.
After all, they had a Witch; it was quite fortunate they weren’t massacred.
Under Jeanne’s watchful gaze, they obediently ford a queue and handed over their weapons and armor.
The fine breastplates, chain mail, helts, short swords, and long spears—once these weapons and armor were arrayed on the ground—the tension between the Black Hat Army and the Imperial Guard imdiately thickened.
Thirty fine breastplates, twenty sets of riveted chain mail, fifty nasal helts, seventy 4.5-ter-long spears, forty short swords, ten pickaxes, five shovels.
The haul was too bountiful.
"How do we deal with these prisoners?" Dass approached Horn and whispered.
"First, interrogate them, have Jeanne watch. Then, let those brothers who have never seen blood...," Horn lowered his voice, pondering for four or five seconds.
While Horn was quietly giving orders, Jeska suddenly shouted joyfully from the other side.
"Hakuto, is that you? Hakuto!"
Jeska focused on Hakuto, who was tied up sitting on the ground, and sprinted joyfully toward him.
"Jeska!" Hakuto first shouted in disbelief, then burst away from the guards beside him, filled with fury, and slamd into Jeska’s chest.
Jeska was knocked down instantly, with his eye patch flying off.
The Black Hat Army on both sides imdiately rushed up, each clamping down on an arm, dragging the old soldier called Hakuto up.
"You killed the whole company, and you still have the face to appear in front of ."
"If I hadn’t killed them, the whole army would have been buried."
"Oh, you killed them, and now only we are buried!"
"It was Banifus who hard us, and now you’re choosing his side?"
"I was hired by Leia Kingdom, not mumble mumble mumble—"
A Black Hat Army soldier stuffed a rag into Hakuto’s mouth, rendering him speechless, glaring angrily at Jeska.
The Empire’s rcenary Corps operate in two modes: one is the old-style Black rcenary Corps model, recruiting mainly through hotown fellows, well-acquainted, united as one.
The other is the new-style White rcenary Corps model, where each captain contracts separately, using a layer-by-layer subcontracting thod, which is more flexible and has higher credibility.
The first type, being fellow hotown folks, are familiar with each other, giving the whole rcenary Corps a great sense of belonging, sotis even leading to regularization.
In the Norn Region, quite a few such rcenary warlords exist.
The rcenary Corps Jeska and Hakuto belonged to was a Black rcenary Corps model, hence the relatively good relationship between the two.
Of course, that was before.
Jeska, who was ambushed by Hakuto, didn’t get angry. He dusted off the mud on his backside and sighed lightly.
Horn walked to Jeska’s side, pointing his chin at Hakuto: "You know him?"
"Your Grace, I was just about to tell you about him." Jeska lowered his voice, "This is Hakuto Jonifan, among the people I know, he’s the best at training troops and fighting wars.
If he could join us, our journey ahead would surely be more peaceful."
"Oh..." Horn raised an eyebrow, "A professional, I like it. How do we win him over?"
"Just tie him up and take him along." Jeska chuckled, "Those soldiers have seen I know him. As long as we take him away, by the ti we reach the Black Bone Marsh, guess who will take the fall?"
"Alright, let’s do it this way. Blindfold these soldiers, break their toes to ensure they can’t fight for a month."
Horn summoned Dass to interrogate, nodded at Jeska: "Then you will be responsible for dealing with these soldiers afterward."
"As you command, Your Grace."
Horn walked out two steps, then turned back to pat Jeska on the shoulder: "Since we ca from Red Mill Village, we’re old friends. Next ti, if you have concerns, just speak up directly; don’t feel your dignity is worthless."
Jeska’s smile froze slightly.
Having cautioned Jeska, Horn, leaning on the staff, walked over to Dass.
After Dass had interrogated those captives, seeing Horn approaching, he stood up to greet him.
"Your Grace, we have the details now." Dass ca over and explained everything to Horn.
"Such a situation?" Horn couldn’t believe it, "Are you saying Cléante thought we were released by Belard, while soone else thought we were released by Cléante, simply because they didn’t exchange information?"
"Seems like the Church is no different from us," Duvalon comnted with a laugh, "This is just like what happened with René and the other day."
"And you have the nerve to talk." Horn slapped the back of his head.
His military strategy was designed in imitation of the military regulations of a legendary king from another era.
The peasant army, to prevent ambush, would establish a true camp and a false camp when encamped, setting up guards by the false camp, ready to alert.
This was vital experience summarized by the peasant army during prolonged confrontations with official troops.
Given specific problems require specific analyses, Horn hadn’t copied everything but had made a series of modifications for this world.
But the purpose of setting up fake camps was solely for defense and alert.
When Cléante first arrived, Horn had the whole army prepare for a decisive battle, waiting left and right with no sight of them, and only then dispatched three regints to scout.
How could you all be so dramatic?
Standing aside, Jeanne suddenly asked, "Wait, do you an that they won’t be chasing us for at least half an hour?"
"Yes." Dass replied oddly.
Jeanne looked at Horn, her eyes gleaming: "The road by their camp definitely can’t have many soldiers."
Horn was suddenly enlightened.
The routes out of Yier Mountain Pass were nurous, with many obscure little paths to take.
The two of them set up defenses, patrolling everywhere rather than setting up a checkpoint directly at the pass because there were too many paths, impossible to cover completely.
That’s why Qianqian, knowing there might be a heavy ambush from them, still chose this route.
While Roswell Pass only had three roads out, there were horizontally and vertically entwined twenty paths here, reaching everywhere, making it a gamble to find an exit.
But this information was tantamount to saying they would position their main forces on other routes, except for the camp.
If Horn and the others were fleeing via the camp route, wouldn’t they have been discovered long ago?
So, the camp couldn’t possibly have too many soldiers left.
"Go, bring Jeska here, and find so quick-witted and agile soldiers."
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