CH 154 Country Of Lions

The sky was gray, and before the sun had fully risen, the earth was shrouded in a hazy blue.

Tarry led three thousand knights through the wilderness of Legrand. In the blue mist, the armor on their bodies glowed coldly, and there were dark red blood stains in the gaps of the armor, which were the traces of their fighting all the way from Porto Port. His squire, Duna, rode close behind him on a brown horse.

"Those damned b*tches of Legrand."

The squire, Duna, complained to Tarry.

Tarry glanced at his friend, there was still a scar on his face that hadn't healed, and the bone deep wound was visible. Looking at the wound, it looked like someone had bitten off a piece of flesh from his face.

Tarry knew how the wound came about. When they passed a small town the day before yesterday, the garrison rested there for the night and replenished their dry rations. Duna coveted a local blond shepherdess, and while attempting to do that business, the blond girl bit down hard on his throat.

If it wasn't for Duna avoiding fast enough, it wouldn't be a matter of a simple wound on his face now.

The blond shepherdess with freckles on her face was like a madwoman. She bit down on Duna's face fiercely, no matter how much he kicked and hit her, she would not let go. The other knights who were watching the play saw that the situation had devolved, shot an arrow and only then did she fall back on the haystack, still biting down on the torn piece of flesh in her mouth.

Duna was cursing at the time, and wanted to finish the job while the corpse was still warm.

Tarry stopped him, set the pile of grass on fire, and issued a massacre order.

"Could that girl have been possessed by a demon."

While taking in the cold air, Duna raised his hand to take off his helmet. The shepherdess bit so hard that the helmet irritated the wound, causing blood to continue to flow out.

Tarry didn't answer.

The last expression of the blond shepherdess who fell on the haystack the day before yesterday kept reappearing in front of his eyes. In fact, that face was very ordinary, and only a guy like Duna, who was not picky about his meat and vegetables, could develop evil intentions. The face of the young woman with freckles was half red with blood, and her expression was distorted. It was not despair or fear, but a kind of incomparable hatred and resentment, and a certain indescribable thing.

And the thing expressed in her eyes, he seemed to have seen it many times since he set foot on the land of Legrand.

It was precisely because of that expression that an inexplicable fear exploded in Tarry's heart, so much so that he instinctively ordered the village to be burned, and burned that expression that made him fearful in the raging fire.

It wasn't until the whole village was burning in flames that an old man pounced on them, grabbing a stone and trying to smash them to death, then Tarry suddenly realized why he was terrified.

He watched the old man holding the stone being lifted up by the knight's spear, still holding the stone with his old hands until he died, and staring at them with fixed eyes.

The old man's eyes overlapped with those of the shepherdess. There was no fear or regret in those eyes, only strong hatred and anger, just like the eyes of a lion. He had seen many such eyes! Since the Eternal Knights landed, they have fought all the way, he had seen this look on the Legrandians too many times!

This time, the Eternal Knights, as the vanguard of the Holy Legion of the Holy Land, did not carry too many supplies when they advanced. The small manor towns and villages they passed by were their natural supply points.

In the previous Holy Legion movement, this method of "supply on the spot" saved time and effort for the Holy Legion, and the effect was extraordinary. However, this time in Legrand, their "supply on the spot" operation seemed to be much more difficult than before. In the past Holy Legion movements, the villages and small towns encountered in the face of the murderous knights either fled early or paid the ransom in advance, and provided very little resistance——how could civilians resist the well-equipped knights?

Only this time, their progress in Legrand was frustrated.

Along the way, in the manor towns they encountered, the Legrandians would rather burn the food and grass by themselves than provide any necessary supplies for the Eternal Knights. They had to actually attack ordinary villages and slaughter some adult men before they were able to rest there.

Tarry couldn't figure it out, what inspired these people to raise their weapons against the prestigious Eternal Knights?

They were just ordinary people! The best self-defense force was just wearing rough and crude leather armor, holding simple swords, while the rest of the elderly, women and children were holding kitchen knives and wooden sticks——were they trying to be funny?

Tarry couldn't figure it out.

He looked back at the army he was leading. In fact, according to the original plan, he should have brought a larger number of troops to Yoringshire County. However, although the march of the Eternal Knights progressed quickly, after the cities were captured, the citizens faced the powerful enemy who invaded their city with more hostility than any nation they had encountered before.

The Eternal Knights had no choice but to leave more manpower to garrison the strongholds they had finally captured.

The people of this country, the Legrandians, from top to bottom, seem to have a kind of fierceness flowing in their veins, as if everyone was a lunatic here.

Roaring like a group of lions, like a group of lions never surrendering.

Tarry had never encountered such a country, never encountered such a nation that seems to be able to burn their cities, but not their backbones.

This made him feel an extreme fear in his heart.

Vaguely, Tarry's confidence in the rapid destruction of the country by the 200,000 strong Holy Legion was shaken.

"My lord, we are almost there."

The person in charge of guiding the team was a priest, wearing a crumpled black robe, sitting on a mare with a beer belly, secretly rubbing his sore back with his hands. Obviously, this fellow, who was more familiar with the types of wine than the holy books, was tortured enough by the rapid march all the way.

"Through that valley, the Kendy Plain is in front of you, just cross the plain and we'll arrive."

He had been on the road since the day before yesterday, and Tarry was inevitably tired at this time. He looked in the direction pointed by the priest and breathed a sigh of relief: "Accelerate forward, and when we reach the plain, we will camp and rest."

The reason why they  during the day was because once they were stationed at night these days, Legrand's self-defense forces would launch harassment attacks at night. They fired lit wooden arrows at the tents from a distance, and at one point nearly burned the entire camp. The Eternal Knights were tormented enough, and from then on, they had to choose to rest during the day.

Yoringshire was the last castle they had to conquer on this route.

Once they occupied Yoringshire County, they could control the hub of the Doma River in the forward direction, and take care of the follow-up troops in the backward direction. The outpost was the foothold. At the same time, Tarry got the news that the army organized by Legrand was also marching towards central Legrand. If they didn't take Yoringshire County before them, after being surrounded by the army, this small number of Holy Legion would not end well.

Right now, the timing was just right. Legrand's army was moving slowly, and it would take at least five days to reach the vicinity of Yoringshire County.

By that time, they would have already taken advantage of the backhand that the head of the Inquisition Bureau had set up when he occupied Yoringshire County to capture this important military point.

"Full speed ahead!"

Tarry ordered.

Bearing the exhaustion of riding all night, the knights cheered up. The horses neighed, and the cavalry with the Eternal Cross engraved on their armor marched towards a relatively narrow valley.

The wind blew down from both sides of the valley, and Tarry felt a little uncomfortable after wearing the helmet for so long. He also undid the shield attached to the chain mail under the helmet, preparing to get some air.

As soon as it was untied, a piece of wood chip was blown to Tarry's face by the wind. 

He took the wood chip off his face and was about to throw it away when he suddenly thought of something and held it in front of his eyes——it wasn't the bark that peeled off naturally, it was the debris of fresh artificial logging.

Tarry immediately raised his head. He looked around the valley on the left and right sides. Such terrain was really suitable for ambushes.

Before entering the valley, the reason why they relaxed their vigilance and did not send anyone to scout first was because they knew that it was impossible for Legrand's army to arrive here at this time. But the fresh wood chips right now gave him a premonition that he didn't want——the logging was done in autumn, and it was still midsummer. Why didn't they cut it early or late, but just when they passed through this valley, someone had cut the trees here?

On the battlefield, giant logs were usually used to…

Block the way!

Thinking of this, Tarry's heart suddenly missed a beat. He raised his hand and shouted loudly, "Stop! Turn around! Retreat!"

The knights looked at Tarry in surprise, but before he could emphasize it a second time, loud rumbling noises came from both sides of the valley.

"Damn."

Upon hearing this sound, Tarry immediately turned around.

He saw sections of giant trees rolling down from both sides of the valley.

"We are ambushed! My lord!"

The priest who led the way was shaking as if he was dancing at this moment. His voice was shrill, and his fat face was completely white.

Duna backhanded him: "Shut up! I still haven't asked you if you deliberately brought us to an ambush!"

Legrand's dark red battle flag was raised in the forest, followed by figures standing up from the bushes on both sides of the valley. They all look down on them from their height, the other party having been waiting for a long time.

"Defense! Gather!"

Tarry couldn't care less about pursuing these matters, he drew his sword and ordered sharply. At this time, the Eternal Knights' front and rear were blocked by rolling down giant trees, and the opponent's intention was obvious, that is, to trap them to death in the valley.

Tarry was taken aback by the sudden attack, but after a brief shock, he quickly calmed down. Legrand's army could suddenly appear here, meaning the opponent's number could not be much larger than theirs. As the elite of the Holy Court, it was not the first time for the Eternal Knights to encounter this kind of thing in a canyon.

As long as they survived the initial longbow suppression, they would be able to launch a counterattack against the enemies in the valley.

However, unexpectedly, Tarry did not hear the neighing of the war horses, nor the sound of arrows being fired.

Following the downwind, Legrand soldiers with hand cannons aimed their muzzles at the Eternal Knights trapped in the canyon. Gunpowder smoke and sparks rose from the muzzles of the muskets in their hands at the same time, and solid bullets made of iron and lead were shot out with a loud roar.

The well-trained war horses of the Eternal Knights all lost control. They screamed and charged around crazily.

Because at this moment, the cannons on both sides of the valley exploded like thunder!