The joy of such a good harvest in the nameless valley has not infected the world outside the valley.

Since the fall of Bogdan last summer, the war situation in southern Provence has become increasingly unfavorable.

Just after the harsh winter, the Principality of Lombardy launched a larger-scale invasion into the southern border of Provence. Although the troops recruited by Count Olesny from the north were continuously replenished to the important cities and military fortresses on the southern border, the southern border of Provence was still

It was eaten away by the first city of Lombardy.

Misfortune never comes alone.

Just after the autumn harvest, Duke Witote of Lombardy summoned an army of nearly 3,000 people to march north in person. He followed the Rammel Mountains all the way north and broke through various fortresses in eastern Provence...

At this time, the Marquis of Corray, who had lost the strategic fortress of Verno in the east, fought and retreated with a remnant army of less than a thousand people, and retreated all the way to the central town of Aosta...

Urban freemen in the occupied areas of southern Provence and the soon-to-be war zones in the east, as well as small lords and gentry with some assets, took their families and families northward to escape the war early. Uncontrolled bandits in the mountainous areas of eastern Provence are also becoming increasingly rampant.

After autumn, more and more refugees fleeing north came to the southern border of Burgundy. They included free citizens from Wilno, peasant gentry from Alfero, and even people from the Aosta region began to flee north.

Duke Witott carried out the most greedy plunder and the most brutal massacre in the occupied areas. The captured towns and villages turned into hell, and everyone in the cities and villages that were about to become war zones was in danger.

At the end of September, Duke Vladis of Provence conscripted all the young men in the north who were over seventeen and under thirty-five. An army composed of more than 5,000 combat soldiers and 3,000 auxiliary soldiers and laborers was led by the Duke of Provence.

Personally lead the rescue mission to Aosta...

…………

Three days ago, on the business road from north to south along the Lameier Mountains, a middle-aged fat man wearing a silk lining and a gray cotton gown, with a black agate dagger hanging on his waist, pressed on the back of a donkey.

Above, the sun shone dazzlingly on his bald head. Behind him was a four-wheeled cart with ten single-drawn two-horse carriages and eight men wearing leather armor, holding short spears and long swords hanging from their waists.

Caravan caravan composed of caravan guards;

Behind the caravan, there was a large group of traveling traders and hawkers and women wearing heavy makeup and low-cut corsets. They were either butchers carrying bacon and mutton legs, farmers carrying apples and onions, or even wandering beggars accompanying them empty-handed. The group traveled day and night.

They rushed to Aosta all the way. They were as excited as vultures smelling carrion. The war might not be so bad for them.

The caravan in front suddenly stopped moving forward, and all the caravans huddled together to form a square formation. The caravan guards all guarded the front with spears and swords drawn.

The bald and pot-bellied caravan leader was standing among the guards at the moment, wiping the sweat from his head while asking the guards who went to explore the road.

"Are you sure it's four riders?" the bald man asked.

"Yes, sir, I can see clearly, there are four riders and a horse carrying cargo." The young guard replied affirmatively.

"What kind of flag are you flying?" Baldhead asked.

"There is no flag and no armor." The young guard replied.

"It's strange. There is no flag and no armor. Whose army is this?" The bald man said to himself.

"Regardless of whether there is danger or not, everyone should get their weapons and prepare for battle! Rick, go and put up the coat of arms of the Dean family and Count Olesny. Jon, go behind and tell the tails

"There may be danger ahead. Those who are afraid of death should run for their lives. Those who are not afraid of death should come and help us guard the carriage. We will be rewarded afterwards!" the bald man ordered to the people around him.

After a while, a puff of smoke and dust rose from the south side of the trade road. Four riders wearing hoods, casual clothes, and swords hanging at their waists galloped towards them. As soon as they saw the caravan, the four riders stopped their horses.

Come down.

After a moment of confrontation, a man who looked like a leader whispered a few instructions to the people around him, and then the four riders drove their horses down the business road, bypassed the caravan from the farmland beside the road, and then galloped northward... The bald man turned around and stared blankly.

I stared blankly at the dust rising up behind me, feeling puzzled~

The alert had just been lifted, and the caravan drivers were waiting to drive forward. At this time, there was another rumble of horse hooves not far away, and a large cloud of dust rose up...

"We are the caravan of the Dean family of Burgundy, hired by Count Olesny of Provence, and we are transporting military supplies to Aosta. Please get out of the way of the trade, otherwise you will bear the wrath of Lord Olesny!

"The bald man pointed at the flying eagle heraldic flag on the caravan and shouted sharply, but his voice was a little trembling.

Opposite were a dozen masked riders on bad horses, and behind them were more than thirty men in ragged farmer's clothes holding blunt knives and long sticks.

A jackal chasing a few hares encountered a group of plump lambs... At this time, the robbers were obviously not afraid of the earl, who was already badly disturbed by the war.

At sunset, except for the dark red bloodstains on the ground, the business road returned to its former peace.

…………

In the northeast of the nameless valley, next to a boulder on the slope at the exit of a canyon, Art was smearing wolf dung on a muzzled green mule.

Recently, Art often rides a green mule in the wilderness outside the forest to follow the traces of the Steppenwolf.

The wolf attack in early winter last year left a deep impression on Art, and convinced him that there must be a large number of steppenwolves living in this wilderness. The fur of steppenwolves is much more valuable than that of forest wolves. After doing a good job,

After preparation, he decided to take a risk. If he could catch a few Steppenwolves with intact fur, he and Cooper would have a better life this winter.

More than twenty days of hard work paid off. Along the edge of the forest to the north of the valley hut, riding northeast for half a day, there was a canyon that led deep into the mountains. Deep in the canyon was the den of a group of steppenwolves.

Art had figured out the hunting patterns of wolves, so he spent three days setting up several traps with a depth of more than fifteen feet at the entrance of the canyon. It was not far or near from the wolf den, and the wolves returned to the den.

The only way to go is that the vigilance of wolves when returning to hunt is weak, and the possibility of trap hunting is relatively high.

As expected, the pack of wolves should return to hunt before sunset today. Early in the morning, Art led the green mule and hid behind the boulder at the lower wind outlet of the slope of the valley entrance.

The sun was just setting in the west. Yat sat on the ground with his back against a boulder. He picked up a water bag and poured out a handful of water and fed it to the mouth of the green mule in front of him. The green mule was about to lower his head to drink water when suddenly his eyes opened and his head moved back. Yat

Te immediately noticed the alarm, turned around, held the bow with his left hand and pinched an arrow with his right hand, put on the bow and drew the string, and turned around lightly from the boulder...

In the wilderness in front of the canyon, a rider wearing a hood and wearing casual clothes led the way, followed by two cavalrymen wearing light armor and holding riding bows, one after the other.

The Hooded Rider is a knight of a count in the Principality of Lombardy. Half a month ago, he and three of his subordinates were ordered to bring a secret letter to the ruler of the Burgundy County, the Marquis of Ivrea, and twenty pieces of gold worth more than two thousand dollars.

Eighteen thousand pfennigs of gold cakes (1 gold coin equals 1,440 pfennigs) were used as a "meeting gift" from Verno through enemy territory to the city of Besançon, the capital of the Burgundy County.

After sneaking for half a month, except for being almost ambushed by a group of bandits at the foot of La Mer Mountain, the journey was pretty smooth. They had reached the southern border of Burgundy, and they could reach Tyniec by riding one day further north, where they would arrive

Under the escort of the garrison, he went to the palace of the Marquis.

But not long after they entered the Burgundy border, they were bitten by seven or eight light cavalry from the northern border of Provence. From noon when he and three of his men broke through, the two light cavalry behind him were already chasing them in the wilderness.

Having been with him all afternoon, the horse under the hooded rider was foaming at the mouth.

The canyon was in front of him, and the hope of escape was getting bigger and bigger. The hooded rider kicked the horse's belly with his spurred boots. The horse neighed and sprinted a few steps before leaping over a pile of wolf dung. At this moment

, there was a tearing sound of heavy arrows piercing the air from behind, and the hooded rider was hit in the back by a heavy armor-piercing arrow. He immediately fell off the horse, and the right foot that had just kicked the horse hard slipped into the stirrup, and the war horse kicked the horse again.

The hooded rider dragged him for more than ten steps before stopping.

When a light-armored cavalry saw that the hooded rider was injured and fell off his horse, he spurred his horse and rushed towards the canyon. Just as he was galloping until the hooded rider stepped on a pile of wolf dung for more than ten steps, the horse underneath him dwarfed and fell into the canyon.

A deep pit...

A light armored cavalryman behind saw that something was wrong. He immediately reined in the reins, turned over and dismounted, looked around with his bow, and groped forward. He glanced at his companion who fell into the pit and broke his neck, then walked around the pit and moved step by step to his hood.

Beside the rider.

Before the hooded rider entered the canyon, Art had quietly touched the boulder on the mountainside to behind a clump of withered grass at the entrance of the valley. At this time, the light-armored cavalryman who was about to bend down to detect the hooded rider's breath would never have thought that there was only one person behind him.

At twenty paces, a flat-headed light arrow had already flown out from the fully drawn bowstring with the arrow twisted slightly.

Chirp~ Along with the whistling sound of arrows cutting through the air, a light arrow pierced the throat of the light armored cavalry.

After shooting down the light armored cavalry, Art quickly stepped forward and mounted the hooded rider's horse to chase back the frightened and running horses of the light armored cavalry. After chasing for a mile, the distance became farther and farther, and the horse under him also became wider and wider.

Running slower and slower, Art had to give up.

Before sunset, Art only had time to take away the weapons and armor from the light-armored cavalry on the ground, pushed the corpse into the pit, and then used his war horse to carry the unconscious hooded rider with an arrow in his back back to the wooden house in the valley.

…………

The next morning, the wooden house in the valley.

"Cooper, are you ready?" Art turned to the old man's cabin and asked as he adjusted the ropes on the saddle.

"Master, it's all packed up. The guy was injured too badly and won't wake up for a while. But to be on the safe side, I tied his hands and feet with canes." Cooper walked out of the cabin and tied the knife

The half-scythe with a wooden handle was put into his waist.

"Don't bring that broken sickle, use this." Art said, picking up a dagger and throwing it to the old man.

"Wait, Cooper." After saying that, Art turned around and entered the house, took off the oak single bow and bark quiver from the wall and handed them to Old Cooper.

"Sir, I don't know how to do this~" The old man was at a loss with his single bow and quiver.

Art took the single bow, pulled out a light arrow from the quiver, made a motion of stringing the arrow, stringing the bow, aiming and releasing it, and then patted the single bow into Cooper's arms.

"Just try these few moves. If there is danger, just draw the bow and aim from a distance. It doesn't matter whether you can hit the target or not," Art said.

"Just for show, I can do this." Old Cooper imitated Art and did a set of moves.

Old Cooper had never ridden a horse and did not dare to gallop with a mule. It was not until the sun went up the mountain that a young man and an old man rode a horse and a mule to a dense forest not far from Wolf Valley.

The two men hid their mules and horses in a hiding place, carried bows and swords on their backs, and a large bundle of hemp ropes slung across their shoulders, and sneaked halfway up the hillside on one side of the canyon.

After observing for a long time on the mountainside and confirming that there was no abnormal movement at the mouth of the canyon, Art held the bow and arrow, bowed and moved toward the mouth of the canyon, while Old Cooper slowly followed Art more than twenty steps behind.

Descending to the valley mouth, the traces left by yesterday evening remained unchanged. After Art signaled Old Cooper to avoid several trap pits, he came to the pit at the front of the valley mouth. He looked over and saw that he fell upside down at the bottom of the pit.

They were holding two people and a horse. Even after the people were exhausted, the horse was still neighing softly.

"Cooper, you will find a hiding place in a while, observe both sides of the valley mouth, and if there is any situation, immediately shoot an arrow to warn." Art tied one end of the rope to the tree trunk next to him, held the hemp rope tightly with both hands, and after giving orders to Cooper, he began to follow the path.

Descend to the bottom of the pit by rope.

…………

"Master, what should I do with the injured horse? It would be a pity to let it rot in the pit like this." Old Cooper looked at the injured horse in the pit with a look of regret on his face.
To be continued...