Eight miles southwest of the market town where the Border Guard Corps is stationed, the remnants of the mountain peaks extend to the low gentle hills of the plain farmland. Six figures bend down and carefully identify the paths leading to the mountains.

The clothes, armor and weapons of this group of people are different from ordinary soldiers or guards. They are wearing tight-fitting black leather armor covered with half-mail, wearing black half-helmets, cowhide boots, and fine iron forged weapons hanging around their waists.

A broad sword, and a short knife tied to the heel of the leg. Those who can use a bow have a walking bow on their backs, and those who can't use a bow also have a crossbow. In addition to swords and crossbows, these people also have a special crossbow on their backs.

The bag contained food, water, hooked ropes, and one or two sets of disguised casual clothes, whether they were merchants' Chinese clothes, farmers' short brown clothes, or refugee's ragged clothes, all of which were adapted to their respective roles.

They are the task force soldiers directly affiliated with the command camp of the Central Army of the Border Guard Corps. Yesterday they received military orders to track down the small group of Swabian enemy soldiers who were ambushing and attacking. In addition to the task force soldiers, there was also an old local hunter hired as a

The task force leads the way.

This task force tracking the enemy was personally led by Deputy Captain Oliver. It started from the fallow farmland where the army was ambushed. From the afternoon of the day before yesterday to now, the tracking team has been sniffing out the enemy's traces for a whole day and two nights.

this morning.

That small group of Swabian troops was cunning enough. After they succeeded in attacking, they fled toward the southwest, and then dispersed into five or six teams and ran in all directions. They would definitely gather somewhere to prepare for the next attack, but where they detoured

There are too many, and the area here is mostly plains with lush vegetation. As long as the enemy walks on the turf that is not easy to leave traces, it will be difficult for the task force to track their final traces.

In the early hours of this morning, two soldiers in charge of the southwest direction of the tracking team discovered the trampled traces of the large group of people and immediately reported to Dawson to assemble.

So Oliver gathered his soldiers to explore.

There are indeed traces of a large number of soldiers passing by here. The footprints on the soft path are very confusing. At a glance, there are indeed hundreds of people. The footprints are also pointing to the peak mountains in the south.

A soldier stood up, pointed in the direction of the footsteps and said: "Vice-captain, the enemy must have fled into the mountainous area after the attack. It is difficult to march on a large scale into the mountainous area, and it will be difficult for us to clear them out."

This view is in line with normal people's thinking. When facing enemy soldiers that far exceed your own, escaping into mountainous areas with complex terrain is indeed a good way.

Oliver didn't say anything after hearing this. He was a woodcutter. Although he was not as good at tracking prey as the hunters in the mountains, he would occasionally set traps to catch some wild animals as he traveled through dense forest hills all year round, so he was not familiar with tracking footprints.

Not a stranger.

Oliver always felt strange when staring at the footprints on the ground. The footprints were scattered all over the ground in a messy manner, but he always felt that there was a vague pattern among the messy footprints.

He half-knelt on the ground, pulled off a weed straw from beside him, and placed the straw among several sets of footprints to compare. "There is something abnormal about these sets of footprints." Oliver came to a conclusion.

"Vice Captain, there's nothing unusual about this, right?" A soldier simply lay down on the ground and got closer to examine it carefully.

Oliver put the straw into the groove of the foot of a footprint, and gently carved the scale on the straw with his fingernails. Then he moved the straw to the heel of the footprint, and carved the scale again with his fingernails.

"According to the statements of the attacked soldiers, the Swabians all wear cowhide combat boots. Normally, when people walk quickly, they exert force on the soles of their feet. The dents left on the soil should be deep in the front and shallow in the back, and there should be scratches on the soles of the feet backwards.

But this footprint is the opposite. It is deeper at the back and shallower at the front, and there are no scratches. I just saw it, and many of these footprints are like this." Oliver showed the two scratches on the straw to the soldiers beside him.

Oliver stood up, "And please identify them carefully. Although these footprints are very messy, many of them are similar in size and shape. I don't believe that the boots of these bastards are all the same size and shape."

After hearing this, the soldiers looked around and found that there were indeed many repeated footprints.

A soldier wiped the dirt off his hands, "No wonder, even if I asked why these footprints look weird, I can't tell what's different there."

Oliver suddenly woke up, "I remember Mr. Odo told us a battle case when we were at the officer academy. He said that when the patrol team was first formed, they were chased by a group of ruthless bandits for the whole afternoon, and finally escaped by making fake footprints.

of."Mobile version::

"They must have sent a small group of people to walk backwards and forwards on this dirt path that is easy to leave footprints, trying to draw our attention to the mountains to the south!" Oliver guessed the Swabian conspiracy.

"These bastards are so cunning! If I catch them, I will open their skulls, dig out their brains, and feed them to the dogs!" The soldier who first discovered this trail cursed fiercely. After running for a long time, it was just a trap.

"Forget it, it's all in vain." The soldier became discouraged after cursing.

Oliver didn't answer. He carefully recalled Lord Odo's speech in that officer training class.

Suddenly his head lit up, "Don't worry! There is still a chance. The number of these bastards trapped will not be too small. After the arrangement is completed, they will definitely join the group. If we can catch the tail of this group of bastards, maybe

We can also find the hiding place of the enemy's brigade."

"Since they want to confuse us, they will definitely cover up the traces of their final retreat." Oliver put the straw in his hand between his teeth to pick at the tartar, his eyes kept rolling.

"You all think about it, think about where the enemy will go when they retreat? If you can think of it, I will give him my share of bacon to eat at night!"

Several soldiers around Oliver were picking at their scalps and thinking hard.

The honest old hunter hesitated for a moment and touched behind Oliver, "Sir, sir, if I can guess right, can you reward me with the bacon tonight?"

Oliver turned around and glanced at the hunter who was dressed in tatters and carrying a single bow. There were many rivers and mountains nearby, and there were not many hunters. The younger ones were all recruited into the army as archers. Oliver searched all around and caught them.

Seeing such an old guy, and this old guy didn't seem to be good at tracking, Oliver suspected that he was disguising himself after hearing the commission of three pfennigs a day. Computer version:

Oliver glanced at the lame old hunter and said, "If you really catch the enemy's tail, I will not only give you a piece of bacon but also a bag of beer."

The old hunter had a smile on his face.

"If you let me run away, you won't even get a single copper coin from these two days' commission, you useless old thing." Oliver squeezed out a sentence between his teeth. The Chinese army only gave the task force two days.

God, if he couldn't go back with useful information at night, he might not be able to hand over the order, so he didn't want this old guy to waste his time.

The old hunter's face suddenly fell and he did not dare to speak anymore.

"That's what you old guy said!" Oliver urged impatiently.

The old hunter hesitated for a long time, "Master, I'm just telling you the place, you decide whether to go or not. If there is no one, don't deduct my commission, okay?"

"Say it quickly!!"

"I couldn't guess that the Savoyards would evacuate from that place. I didn't find any footprints leading to other places along the way. There are more than a dozen forks on this road, so I couldn't guess where they came from.

It ran there."

Oliver was going crazy with anxiety, "Can you stop talking nonsense?"

"Yes, sir, there is a trail leading to the hills to the east half a mile back from here. There is a place nearby that can hide people and make it convenient for them to come out and bite people at any time."

Oliver put all his attention on tracking the enemy's footsteps, but forgot to think about where the enemy would nest.

"Bastard, a group of people have water in their heads. Everyone clean up and we'll go search immediately."

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Chapter completed!