The cold October wind blows across the endless fields of the Po River plain in Lombardy.

In the howling cold wind, a Lombard baggage team marched cautiously in the wilderness.

Seeing that the tail of the baggage team had left the gentle hill, everyone finally relaxed with their throats raised. The red-haired baron at the head of the team stepped on the stirrups and looked around for a few times. The wildness in front of him could be seen at a glance, and it was not too bad.

There may be another hidden ambush.

"Mountain people are mountain people, and they won't dare to come out if their opponents are stronger." The fat knight next to the red-haired baron pulled off the mail hood on his head, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, and chuckled contemptuously.

In fact, he was very scared just now. Before this baggage transport, three teams of baggage soldiers had been wiped out. Just now, the sentry scouts identified a lot of horse hoof prints in the gentle hills. He was so scared that he dug his toes tightly and kept half-way.

They sent several waves of soldiers to search the miles of gentle hills, and it took them more than half an hour to get out.

The red-haired Baron also breathed a long sigh of relief. He has always been cautious. Some time ago, the baggage was attacked one after another, and the superiors had no choice but to send him to escort it personally. This time, no problem can happen anyway. If this batch of baggage does not arrive at the battlefield ahead,

Those Lombard troops mixed with mercenaries will definitely mutiny.

The red-haired baron raised his hand and pointed forward, "There is a wooden bridge not far ahead. I'm worried that the enemy will set up an ambush there. Let's go and take a look."

The fat knight immediately ordered a few cavalrymen behind him to investigate.

"Take the people there yourself." The red-haired baron was worried that his soldiers would be lazy, so he ordered the knight to go check it out in person.

The fat knight felt that the red-haired baron was making a fuss, but he did not dare to disobey, so he had to reluctantly lead the three cavalrymen...

.........

In the endless wilderness of the Po River plain in Lombardy, a wooden bridge across the river stands quietly between the two banks. The bridge made of giant oak trunks still looks so strong and reliable after decades of wind and rain. There is a pier in the middle of the bridge.

, is also made of wood, but it is estimated to have been replaced in recent years, and is somewhat newer than the main body of the bridge.

There is a simpler wooden bridge about twelve miles upstream of the wooden bridge here, but it is not load-bearing enough and four-wheeled carriages loaded with ordnance and food cannot pass. There is a shoal four miles downstream where people and horses can wade across the river, but the baggage carriage cannot pass.

Also unable to pass.

Therefore, for dozens of miles upstream and downstream, this wooden bridge is the only passage for baggage.

Under the base of the bridge at the southern end of the wooden bridge, the bridge deck forms an angle with the gentle slope of the river bank. In the angle is a patch of grass half as tall as a man, which is not much different from the surrounding shrubs and weeds.

The weeds are completely covered with turf. If you climb down and look carefully, you can vaguely see some fresh dirt and incompletely covered footprints.

A faint sound of horse hooves came from the south, running towards the wooden bridge at an extremely fast speed.

After a while, the iron hooves of the war horses stepped on the wooden bridge deck, making a clicking sound.

In the deepest part of the grass at the base of the bridge, under the plank covered by the grass, a thin cavalry squatted in the hole, holding the fire sickle, his hand trembling slightly.

I can see the outside clearly through the small hole. The feeling of being buried in a pit is really uncomfortable.

I moved my head several times, but I could barely catch a glimpse of the bridge planks through the grass, and I couldn't get a glimpse of what was going on outside.

He nervously prayed in his heart that the cavalry on the bridge would pass quickly and not come down to check.

On the bridge, the tension in the heart of the fat knight riding on horseback was relieved again. He and his three cavalrymen had been riding all the way over. They lined up five hundred steps apart and connected the gentle hill to the bridge.

The entire plain was searched and some scattered horse hoof prints were found, but they all extended through the road towards the gentle hills behind them. Presumably even the enemy troops had fled away at this moment.

"You two cross the bridge and scout three miles to the north. If there is no enemy, just wait for the rear team." The fat knight is relatively fat, and riding on the bumpy horseback made his intestines feel a little uncomfortable, so he did not want to

Just keep going.

The two pointed cavalrymen ran across the wooden bridge towards the north with their horses under their belly.

The remaining cavalry were the fat knight's retinues, thinking they could have a little rest and hide away.

But the fat knight raised his hand and pointed, "Don't be idle, go to the bridge and take a closer look. Those Burgundian bastards are full of schemes and tricks. Don't let them cut down the bridge. It will collapse when the team passes by."

."

As he spoke, the fat knight also jumped off his horse, and the waist of the sturdy horse instantly became flat.

Tying the reins casually to the railings of the wooden bridge, the fat knight lifted up the hem of his chain mail skirt, picked up the waistband of his breeches, and walked down the gentle slope beside the bridge to the bridge base.

In October, the bushes and grass began to turn yellow. The fat knight drew his sword from his waist and glanced at the grass at the base of the bridge vigilantly. There was no enemy in ambush.

"I'm stunned, who can hide in such a big butt?" The fat knight laughed at himself, dragged the sword to the ground, and rowed towards the river.

Near the river, the fat knight stopped, inserted his long sword into the soft mud of the river bank beside him, lifted up his skirt, put his right hand into his crotch and took out the gadget, and looked at the wooden bridge and the bridge while peeing.

The bridge piers were carefully searched for signs of damage.

Just when my eyes caught a glimpse of a foreign object in the middle of the bridge where it connected to the piers in the river, I suddenly heard the sound of running shoes coming from my feet. I quickly looked down and couldn't help cursing, "What a waste. I just grabbed new shoes."

As he spoke, his whole body trembled, his right hand shook while holding the thing, and he lifted up his breeches with satisfaction.

With such an interruption, the foreign object that flashed in the corner of his eye had long been forgotten.

He looked around casually again, and found that there was definitely no place near the wooden bridge where he could ambush the enemy, and then turned around and returned to the bridge with confidence.

The cavalryman responsible for checking the bridge deck had just ridden his horse back and forth on the wooden bridge several times and confirmed that there was no danger here.

"Sir, there is nothing abnormal on the bridge." The cavalryman galloped up to the fat knight's side.

The fat knight had already taken out a wine bag from the front saddle of his horse, pulled out the cork, raised it to his mouth and took a sip of beer. He was tired from going uphill and downhill and was covered in sweat. Now he took a sip of beer.

I felt extremely comfortable.

"I heard that this stuff was brewed by the Burgundians, a group of barbaric mountain people who know how to make wine."

The fat knight's face was filled with contentment. When he opened his eyes, he found that his trusted knight was staring at the wine bag along the saliva, raising his voice and cursing, "You bastard, why are you still standing there? Go to the rear and tell the baron where this is."

Safety."

"Then Sir~"

"What am I? I am not allowed to guard the bridge for the army here. What if the enemy ambush comes again?" The fat knight found a grand reason for himself to be lazy.

"There is no ambush~" the cavalryman muttered and rode back...

After a while, a baggage team of several hundred people marched along the carriageway in the direction of the wooden bridge.

Although the cavalryman who turned back to report the situation to the sentry repeatedly assured that there was no danger along the way, the red-haired Baron was still extremely cautious and resolutely sent a group of sentries to the front of the team and five hundred steps to the left and right flanks to guard.

In order to be extra safe, he also left two cavalrymen on the top of the gentle hill he passed just now to observe the entire wasteland from a high position.

The red-haired baron even arranged the carriages of the baggage train to move roughly in two columns. Once there was an enemy situation, he could immediately turn the baggage carriages into a phalanx of carriages, relying on the carriage formation to resist enemy troops appearing from any direction.

The price of being too cautious is that the baggage train moves at an unusually slow speed.

The Lombard baggage team had already approached the wooden bridge. A team that had disappeared for a short while reappeared on the gentle hillside south of the wooden bridge. The bodies of two Lombard cavalrymen whose necks had been wiped by a sneak attack had just been stripped naked and thrown down.

Mountain.

It was still the same hillside that was no more than a hundred feet tall, and under the same few low miscellaneous trees, Angus stood up in his stirrups, built an arbor with his hands, and watched the procession of turtles.

The sky was clear today and the view was good. Angus could faintly see the heraldic flag flying by the team.

The team in the direction of Fuqiao seemed to be about to get on the bridge. Angus raised the reins with one hand, and the horse under him turned around and faced the east direction.

As far as the eye can see, a cavalry team of one hundred people is galloping on horseback. This cavalry is personally led by Jafar, the deputy commander of the cavalry company of the Welsh Army. The hundred cavalry are all one person and two horses, coming from five miles away.

The plan was to stop two miles away from the wooden bridge and wait for the two explosions.

"Lusignan, take out the bomb and prepare it." Angus' eyes turned back to the wooden bridge to the north, where the next key point lies.

Lusignan didn't say much. He jumped off his horse and called the soldiers behind him to take out three fist-sized "bombs" wrapped in papyrus from the saddlebags. They were clearly shaped like oversized firecrackers.

After taking out the "bomb", Lusignan carefully checked the fuse and fire sickle, and then returned to Angus to watch the wooden bridge to the north.

........

At the south end of the wooden bridge, the red-haired baron and the fat knight were directing the baggage team to go up the bridge and cross the river.

The fat knight originally thought that the entire baggage train would rush onto the bridge, but the cautious red-haired baron always felt that something was wrong. He once again sent people to search the north, south and one mile area around the bridge, and only ordered to cross the river after making sure that there would be no ambush.

.

The red-haired baron did not follow the fat knight's suggestion and directly drove the whole team onto the wooden bridge. Instead, he divided the entire team into three parts. The first part, most of the cavalry and a small part of the infantry, went up to the bridge and crossed the river first, and set up a formation on the other side.

In the fan-shaped defensive formation, the second part consisted of baggage carriages, packhorses, green mules and laborers. They began to cross the bridge after the cavalry had set up their positions. The third part, a small number of cavalry and most of the infantry, formed a formation on the south side of the bridge.

In defensive formation, wait for all the baggage to cross the river before getting on the bridge and crossing the river.

This kind of arrangement can be said to be basically flawless if placed in front of other ordinary enemy forces, but unfortunately their opponents are not ordinary enemy forces.

The Lombard baggage train began to cross the river on the bridge.

Thirty infantrymen followed most of the cavalry to the other side smoothly and built an arc-shaped defense line without any abnormalities.

The red-haired Baron led the baggage carriage and livestock onto the wooden bridge first. Until the red-haired Baron's horse stepped onto the solid land on the other side, everything was still normal.

The baggage, carriage and animals passed one-third, half, two-thirds...

In the hole under the wooden bridge, the thin cavalryman's hands were shaking more and more violently, and the lead wire he held in his hand was almost soaked with sweat from his palms.

The enemy's troops were marching overhead, and the officers' curses and the neighing of horses and livestock were mixed together. Every time the animals stepped on the bridge and made a clicking sound, the skinny man huddled in the pit would feel his heart skip a beat.

His eardrums were filled with the noise of enemy troops and horses.

"Did thunder sound already sound? Did I miss it... Will the enemy find me..." The thin man kept thinking wildly in his mind. The more this happened, the more panicked he became, and the tears in his palms came out.

Layer after layer of sweat.

Just when he was about to collapse, a muffled blast suddenly came from his eardrums.
To be continued...