The Rhapsody of Mounted Blade Players

A week later, Ye Tianlong's [-] troops were finally assembled. Ye Tianlong handed over [-] troops to his master Li Rufeng, who was responsible for staying in his hometown, while he led the remaining [-] troops to attack Siwa. Kingdom of Dia.

Currently, the only ones bordering the territory of the Qinglong Empire are the Kingdom of Swadia and the Kingdom of Wikia. This time Ye Tianlong is going to lead an army to conquer the Kingdom of Swadia, so this country should not be able to spare any troops to counterattack the Qinglong Empire. .

On the other hand, the Kingdom of Navekia needs to be careful. Even though King Nayarogerk has succumbed to Ye Tianlong on the surface, who knows what exactly is going on in this guy's head. This time Ye Tianlong goes to the Kingdom of Swadia and will use most of his elite troops. All the troops were brought to attack the Kingdom of Swadia, leaving only a few newly recruited recruits left in the Azure Dragon Empire. There was no guarantee that the Kingdom of Vekia would not take advantage of this opportunity to send troops for a sneak attack.

Li Rufeng also understood this very well, so after taking over the [-] regular soldiers, she still felt that it was not enough, and planned to train another [-] militia troops in various places to assist the regular soldiers in defending the city.

The equipment of these militiamen does not need to be very good. Just like the militia units organized by Ye Tianlong in the past, each person is equipped with a steel breastplate, a pot helmet and a flintlock rifle. After all, these militiamen are used for Those who assist in defending the city do not need to be as sophisticated in equipment as regular soldiers.

The most important thing is that the militiamen do not need to be paid, and they only need to be responsible for providing three meals a day. Most of these militiamen are still farmers at home, and they only gather for training during the slack season.

Now that winter has just arrived, it is the slack season for farmers. Li Rufeng can directly start recruiting militiamen from various places for training.

Ye Tianlong, on the other hand, has already led an army of [-] people and is marching towards the Kingdom of Swadia.

King Haraus felt very depressed after learning from the scouts that the Qinglong Empire had sent troops. After all, it was already winter. According to previous practice, the weather was freezing and the countries should have a temporary truce. After all, This technologically backward continent of Calradia does not have modern down jackets and other warm clothing. Even food and grass may occasionally be out of supply during long-term battles. If the war continues in the middle of winter, we will freeze to death. More soldiers may die than in battle, so the gains outweigh the losses.

But now the Qinglong Empire obviously couldn't wait for this winter and directly sent out troops despite the cold wind.

You must know that a few days ago, Harlaus saw with his own eyes that the flowers and plants in his garden were covered with a thick layer of white frost. From this, he speculated that the temperature should have dropped below zero, so he was originally prepared Orders were given for the garrison in various places to shrink and hide in the city to spend the winter.

But now that Ye Tianlong is coming with his army, he can only start to assemble his army to resist his attack.

Ye Tianlong led the army here, and the first stop he arrived at was Fort Dechios. This castle of the Kingdom of Swadia had been captured by Ye Tianlong, and all the people inside were forcibly moved away by Ye Tianlong.

Afterwards, the Kingdom of Swadia seemed to have no intention of rebuilding this castle, so when Ye Tianlong led the army to arrive here, the castle still looked dilapidated and there was not a single person in the city.

But this is a city after all, and it can barely shelter from wind and rain. Ye Tianlong looked at the snow falling more and more in the sky, preparing to let the army repair here for a day before moving on.

He Cheng followed his company commander and was responsible for going out to find some firewood for making a fire to keep warm.

As a regular soldier of the Qinglong Empire, He Cheng's equipment is very luxurious. The iron armor of the past has been eliminated. Now they all have a set of full-body armor customized according to their respective body types. Steel plate armor, as for weapons, has also been upgraded. The original flintlock rifle has been replaced by a breech-loaded bolt-action rifle. Compared with the backward and primitive front-loading rifle like the flintlock rifle, the breech-loaded bolt-action rifle The rifle is much higher in terms of range, lethality and accuracy. The only flaw may be that the rate of fire is also not fast.

However, this shortcoming is not a shortcoming for Ye Tianlong now. After all, the bullets of this breech-loading rifle are copper-cased bullets, which are much larger to manufacture than the paper-cased fixed-loading bullets used in previous flintlock rifles. Now the Qinglong Empire Even if the military industry is fully developed, the output of rifle bullets is not very high, so Ye Tianlong deliberately asked Guan Jun to design and manufacture such a breech-loading bolt-action rifle with a slow rate of fire.

Because he has never seen more advanced firearms, He Cheng is very satisfied with the rifle in his hand. He usually maintains it according to the instructions of his superiors whenever he has time.

Recently, the temperature has dropped rapidly and it has begun to snow, which makes He Cheng worried that his rifle will freeze.

However, his company commander told him that these rifles were designed with the ability to withstand high and low temperatures, and would not be frozen unless the temperature dropped to minus [-] or [-] degrees.

After hearing the company commander's explanation, He Cheng felt a lot more relieved, but when he came out, he still held his rifle in his arms.

He Cheng stepped on the snow with his feet and felt that each foot would sink deeply. He estimated that the thickness of the snow was more than [-] centimeters.

Such thick snow really affects the march. It is no wonder that His Majesty the Emperor has to repair here for a day before moving forward.

He Cheng had the honor to see His Majesty the Emperor in person before. He looked ordinary, but his attitude towards these soldiers was very easy-going, and he had no airs about being an emperor at all.

"Stop! There seems to be movement ahead!"

Suddenly, Johnny, the vanguard who was walking at the front, issued a warning. Upon hearing this, He Cheng and others immediately stopped, picked up their rifles, and began to guard on the spot.

Company Commander Dong Lian raised his telescope and observed it, and soon discovered the target making the noise. It turned out to be a giant bear with a body length of more than four meters.

Perhaps because the heavy snow fell so suddenly, this giant bear has not yet entered hibernation. It was extremely hungry and continued to look for food in the forest despite the heavy snowfall.

At the same time that He Cheng and the others discovered the giant bear, the giant bear also seemed to have discovered He Cheng and the others. Although the bear's eyesight was not very good, its sense of smell was very sensitive and it could immediately distinguish what was in the air. The human smell wafts over.

It seemed that it had eaten people before. After smelling the smell of humans, this giant bear not only did not turn around and run away, but became excited. It roared from time to time and ran quickly towards the direction of He Cheng and the others.

"It seems there's no way to escape, Johnny, shoot this beast!" Company Commander Dong Lian saw this and ordered.

After hearing the company commander's order, Johnny, a sharpshooter in the company, raised his rifle and aimed at the giant bear's head with a shot.

The rifle in Johnny's hand was a special sniper rifle with a caliber of fifteen millimeters, while He Cheng and their ordinary rifles only had a caliber of eight millimeters.

The caliber of this sniper rifle is nearly double that of an ordinary rifle, and the recoil when fired is naturally much stronger. That is because Johnny himself is already a Mingjin warrior, so he can use this kind of weapon freely. Partner.

The increase in caliber naturally made the sniper rifle much more powerful. After the bullet hit the giant bear's head, it actually lifted a large piece of the giant bear's skull together with the flesh on its head. Fly out. The giant bear's body was suddenly stunned, and then fell heavily to the ground. After a few twitches, the body completely lost its life breath.

However, the sound of the sniper rifle when it was fired was really loud. After the gunshot, the snow on many nearby trees was shaken down.

It is precisely because of this that company commander Dong Lian will not let Johnny shoot if it is not necessary. After all, such a loud sound can easily attract the attention of the enemy. They have now entered enemy territory. It is always better to be careful. of.

After confirming that the giant bear was really dead, company commander Dong Lian sent a dozen soldiers to drag the body of the giant bear back, while the other soldiers continued to collect firewood.

He Cheng was also among the teams responsible for carrying the giant bear's carcass. This giant bear was huge and heavy, and it was very difficult for a dozen of them to drag it together. Fortunately, this place was not far from the castle, otherwise He Cheng felt that if they wanted to drag the giant bear body back, everyone would have to lie down exhausted.

After He Cheng and the others finally dragged the giant bear's body back, other soldiers also collected enough firewood, and fires were quickly lit in the dilapidated Fort Dechio.

As soon as He Cheng sat down in front of the fire, a comrade beside him handed over a piece of dried meat.

"What was just posted above is said to be beef jerky. It's delicious! It's just a little spicy!"

He Cheng heard that his comrades said it was beef jerky, and he couldn't wait to take a bite. After all, commoners like him had never tasted beef before! In the Song Dynasty where he lived before, it was said that only the landowners and wealthy people had the opportunity to eat this stuff. Unexpectedly, he now became a soldier and had the opportunity to taste this good stuff.

As a result, after taking this bite, He Cheng felt that his mouth was immediately on fire. This beef jerky was more than a little spicy! That's really spicy!

But spicy as it is, this beef jerky is really delicious. In addition to chili, there should be a lot of other seasonings added to it. He Cheng drank the cold water from his kettle and ate the piece of beef jerky, and soon he was sweating. At this time, He Cheng also understood why the superiors gave them such spicy beef jerky. It was probably to help them get rid of the cold.

And just when He Cheng had eaten most of the beef jerky, a gunshot suddenly reached his ears.

"Enemy attack, enemy cavalry discovered!"

Soon, the shouts of the sentries also reached the ears of He Cheng and the others.

Before setting off, He Cheng and the others had been told that the Kingdom of Swadia had an extremely elite cavalry force, so when they heard the sentry say that they had discovered enemy cavalry, how could they dare to be careless.

He Cheng directly stuffed the uneaten half of beef jerky into his arms, then quickly picked up his rifle, loaded the bullet, and then trotted all the way to a place with a large group of comrades under the command of the company commander. A line of defense was established at the gap in the broken city wall.