Mercenaries and Adventurers

Kiel threw out the long sword, and the long sword that came out of his hand spun and pierced the last bandit who tried to run into the cave.

Carefully holding up his shield, Kiel tentatively approached the dark entrance of the cave.

Sure enough, as he expected, as soon as he approached the cave entrance, several small spinning knives flew out of the cave.

However, Keir had already expected that he turned sideways and lowered the overall height of his body at the same time, so that there was not much of him facing the robbers. And most of these small areas are hidden behind his metal shield.

Dangdang.

After three consecutive beeps, several throwing knives hit the front of his shield.

Being able to hit him, it seems that these bandits have been preparing to target for a long time, but unfortunately their plans have already been counted by Kiel.

Approaching the bandit who was still struggling on the ground, Keel carefully stretched out a hand, grabbed the bandit's hairy foot, and dragged him to the side of the cave entrance regardless of the bandit's desolate cry.

-

The side was full of militiamen with bows and crossbows strung up, and the ground on one side was piled up with the bodies of many bandits who had been shot.

Knight Crowe rode his war horse and strolled over tick-tock.

"My lord knight, the entrance to the bandit's lair has been captured! However, the bandits have made a defensive position in the entrance passage of the cave, because the terrain is not open, and they will throw weapons whenever they see people." Kiel saw him Tell the knight about the latest situation.

"Very good, let's stop here today. Hehe, give those bandits a night of fear, and start tomorrow in the daytime, and use a day to take down the bandit's lair." The knight jumped off his horse, hit the ground with a thud, and shook his body. Without shaking, he patted the war horse, let it play aside by himself, and then said to Keir.

Kiel walked into the knight and explained his worries to him: "The bandit's lair has a spacious interior, and there are also a lot of supplies. The cave passage is very narrow, which is not conducive to the militia's team to use their bows and crossbows to shoot."

Waving his hand, Crow Knight said that he knew these concerns of Keir: "Ha, I already have a solution, such a turtle defense, you can't do it, right?"

Keel nodded.

"Imagine that you are very hungry, and you found a turtle that shrank into its shell. How can you have a full meal?" While talking to Keel, Knight Crowe commanded the follow-up militiamen to move the big tree in the distance. The shield was carried to the entrance of the bandit's cave, but it should not be too close to prevent the bandit from throwing torches and burning down the big wooden shield.

Kiel was stunned by the knight's fantastic metaphor.

He took off his helmet, took a deep breath of cold air, and lowered his head in thought. After a long time, he gave the knight an answer: "Trick it to stick its head out, and then cut it off with a knife?"

"I plan to take down the bandit's lair tomorrow, and I don't have any extra time to lure them out." The knight did not approve of Keir's method.

Kilby scratched the dagger at his waist: "Then stab the dagger into the tortoise's limbs and where it retracts. A few more stabs will definitely kill the tortoise."

The knight pulled out Kiel's dagger from Kiel's waist, and then threw it into the air. The dagger spun straight up and down, and when it fell to the height of a person, it was caught by the knight's suddenly extended fingers.

"Aren't you afraid that the bandits will wipe out and kill the people you rush in? In melee, the narrow cave passages are difficult to use the militia's numerical advantage. They are all good boys from various farmers, and so are you. I don't want you to die In this remote place, even if I exchange one with the bandits, I feel at a loss."

Keel scratched his hair and laughed. The militiamen who heard them talking also laughed.

Returning the dagger to Kiel, Knight Crowe finally gave his answer: "At the seaside, people catch turtles, usually after washing the turtles, they just turn them over and roast them on the fire." He made a gesture of flipping his hands: "It doesn't matter if the tortoise can't get out of the shell, or whether it's alive or not, just roast it, and it will be cooked and ready to eat soon."

Kiel added: "Can the turtle's shell be its pot?"

The knight's dull laughter came from under the thick steel helmet, and he pointed at the tall and dark mountains behind him under the light of the torch: "Look, does this mountain look like a turtle's shell? Tomorrow, no matter what the bandits think, smoke them and let them die here."

"oh!"

"It would be nice not to kill with your own hands."

"Can it be done in one day?"

"It's definitely possible. Sir Knight said yes, then it can be done."

The brigade of militiamen moved the big wooden shield over. At the same time, under the command of the knights, the militiamen moved the wooden boxes and obstacles left by the bandits who lost their positions one by one to the entrance of the cave. With these obstacles, the bandits Even if they really figured it out at night and suddenly launched an attack with all their hands, it would be impossible to break through the numerous obstacles set up by the militiamen, and they would be killed by continuous crossbow shooting in the open space at the entrance of the cave.

Knight Crowe divided the militiamen into two parts, and sent one part back to the big camp. After the situation was under control, they safely spent midnight collecting dead branches and leaves in the nearby forest, and felling some small trees. Waiting for it to be delivered at dawn tomorrow.

The other half of the militiamen stayed at the entrance of the cave, as preparations to defend against the bandits who might jump over the wall and fight to the death.

In order to keep warm, the militiamen lit many fires to ensure that all the militiamen had fires to keep warm. At the same time, the clerk's assistants also brought food, made dinner on the spot, and then used a cart to pull back the stripped bodies of the bandits.

The corpses had to be dealt with uniformly, and Knight Crowe specially arranged for several people to burn the corpses at the downwind behind the militia camp. They don't need to fight, they just need to cut down trees during the day, then chop them into firewood, and then burn the headless corpses of the bandits killed in the day with firewood at night.

The heads of the robbers were naturally piled up in a pile of snow, and these things were used to calculate credit. And after returning to Bingxun Pass, it was also used as a witness to show the achievements of the militiamen to the merchants of the pass.

As for the bandits' respective weapons and equipment, or the property they carried on their bodies, generally speaking, if they were not particularly valuable gadgets or good things, they belonged to the militiamen who killed the bandits themselves.

So in the past two days of killing, not only Kiel's own camp was full of spoils, but even the few militiamen who spearheaded with him also had a lot of spoils.

Iron products, these militiamen are tightly packed, because these metal weapons can be made into a light and tough farm tool by a blacksmith, which completely saves the purchase cost of iron materials, and they only need to pay the blacksmith in the village to make it. Fees and fuel costs will do.

Kiel originally wanted to spend money to buy some cheap bandit weapons with good raw materials, but as a result, almost none of the militiamen were willing to sell their spoils.

Kiel also expressed helplessness.

Knight Crowe didn't forget that there is another exit from the bandit's lair. In other words, that exit was specially reserved by him for the robbers to escape.

With a back road or a choice, people will not be so united, there will definitely be differences. This result was exactly what he wanted.

Just as Knight Crowe expected, ever since the bandits' lair was officially attacked by the militia, every night, there would be bandits who felt that they couldn't defend themselves and had no way out. Taking advantage of the darkness and the deliberate relaxation of the bandit leaders, they climbed out from the vertical patio with a rope, turned around and ran away without a trace.

But there is no way to get down to the top of the mountain in winter at night. Keel and the others slowly touched it during the day, and a small half of these bandits who had never walked this road stumbled and fell off the cliff, fell to their deaths up.

But this kind of death due to his own reasons can't frighten these bandits who just want to live.

However, after these bandits went down the mountain tremblingly, they didn't know that what awaited them would be the militias arranged by Knight Crowe to block them.

Except for the direction of the militia camp, all the other ways to go out were blocked by the melee militia who had the best combat experience arranged by Knight Crowe and had performed well in previous training.

These fleeing bandits will be greeted most kindly and fatally by the militiamen who have been waiting for a long time.

-

In addition, Knight Crowe looks careless, but in fact he has a lot of experience in the battlefield. Since he joined the army as an adult, he has been involved in many wars, large and small.

So every tiny fatal point, he has defensive arrangements.

Keir did not follow back to the camp, and he was also asked by the knights to stay at the front line at the entrance of the cave. Sitting by the fire, he watched Knight Crowe commanding people to move a long simple ladder abandoned by the bandits next to the entrance of the cave.

In order to prevent bandits from climbing out of the vertical patio and attacking the defenseless militiamen from the mountain on the top of the cave, he specially arranged for a team of militiamen to climb to the other side of the cave entrance with the captured wooden ladder. The top of a rock face.

He asked these militiamen to set up fires to keep warm. If they saw bandit activities on the top of the cave, they would shoot arrows to kill the infested bandits. Keep the militiamen below safe.

Kiel had to admire this cautious defensive measure. If he was allowed to command these militiamen, he would probably adopt other means to eliminate these bandits.

But no matter how it is done, there will definitely not be such an elaborate arrangement as the Crowe Knight.

Keir had nothing to do in his spare time, so he guessed what caused Knight Crowe's command style. After all, the knight himself is a very powerful warrior. As far as he estimates, Knight Crowe can kill them without injury on open terrain with only a spear and the thick armor of him and his horse. That's hundreds of people.

It doesn't even take as long as an afternoon.

But what is the reason.

Knight Crowe hadn't mentioned much about his previous career in the Kingdom's army, so Keir naturally didn't dare to ask.

In this way, except for the occasional screams of the bandits when they fell off the cliff from the back mountain, the whole night was spent very peacefully.

---

At dawn the next day, the militiamen who had returned to the camp to rest last night each dragged a large amount of dead branches and leaves and firewood to the front line at the bandit's cave lair.

After the militiamen had eaten the food, they were full and full of strength. Crow Knight began to direct the last day of the attack.

The bundles of firewood smeared with grease were thrown by Kiel and the militiamen from behind the big wooden shield into the entrance of the bandit cave not far away, followed by a large number of lit torches.

The first batch of firewood thrown in burned quickly, and the bandits were not given time and opportunity to move the firewood away.

Then, a ball of dead branches and leaves wrapped in the dirty animal skin worn by the bandit was also thrown into it.

Those things before can only be said to be amazingly hot, but for the bandits who retreated a little, it was not very unbearable. But it's different once these things are thrown in.

These miscellaneous things burst out a lot of unpleasant smoke immediately after seeing the flames. The smoke was thick and lingering, and along with the wind flowing from the cave entrance to the interior of the cave, it poured directly into the bandit's lair.

There were originally four bandit leaders, but only three came out at this time. That bandit leader who has always been more timid, like a businessman more than a bandit, ran away secretly with a few cronies last night.

This made the other few people who had no morale feel that they were going to die. But relying on the fact that their caves are easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the iron arms arranged behind the hands of Bingxun Pass, they originally wanted to continue to resist like this, defending until the militias ran out of supplies, and retreated by themselves.

At that time, they will naturally win a big victory, even if they themselves have suffered heavy losses.

It was only when they could smell a puff of smoke in the room where they were meeting and discussing, and their subordinates came to report, that they knew what methods the militiamen were going to use to deal with them.

The militiamen are going to smoke them all to death in the cave!

Several leaders hurried to the passage of the cave, resisting the choking smoke, crawled on the ground to have a look, and found that the militiamen at the entrance of the cave were constantly throwing pee-wet wood into the burning flames, and there were Some messy things were also thrown in, producing a lot of foul-smelling thick smoke and entering the cave along the direction of the airflow.

"Can it be extinguished? Cough." De Lang shouted loudly, and the three of them couldn't stand the thick smoke, so they returned to the cave after taking a look.

Only the calm-looking bandit leader was left patting his chest, then wiped his blackened face, gritted his teeth and said, "Whether you can or not, you must quickly find water to put out the flames."

After finishing speaking, he directed the bandits under his command to push the large stone jar to store water, and pour it down directly at the entrance of the passage. At the same time, Iron Arm was also asked to organize manpower, no matter men, women, old or young, to fetch water from the water source inside the cave, and quickly transport the water.

As for De Lang, he had to take a group of people out from the vertical patio and occupy the patio, so that the militia could not let the militias drop fuming things from there.

De Lang took his men and rushed over immediately. On the way, he found that the smoke pouring into the lair was taking the same road as him.

When he came to the vertical patio, he was disappointed to find that all the smoke came out of the cave from here. If you want to climb up, you have to endure constant smoke harassment.

None of his subordinates were willing to do such a thing that was estimated to be fatal, even if De Lang punched them all, it would not work.

There was no other way, so Delang had to take out his double-edged axe and tell his subordinates that whoever hits him next, and whoever dares not to climb, will be hacked to death immediately.

Immediately afterwards, the selected bandit looked desperate, so he had no choice but to carry the rope and wipe the ground with his hands to wipe off the sweat from his palms. The bandit was coughing choked by the smoke, while carefully looking for a gap where he could climb up.

After climbing halfway, because of the cover of the smoke, the bandits who looked up from below could no longer see the figure of the bandit. They could only know from the sound of the other party's continuous coughing that the guy was still climbing.

But soon, the bandit above suddenly fell down amidst a series of coughs.

After landing on the ground, he twitched and vomited blood from his mouth and nose, and was carried down.

Although he is not dead, he can only live for a few days no matter how you look at it.

The decapitated Delang didn't speak, but raised the heavy double-edged ax with one hand, and shook it at the bandits under him in demonstration, and then pointed at a bandit casually with the other hand.

The bandit who was hit was so frightened that he fell to the ground. He kept waving his hands and begged Boss Delang for mercy, saying that his son had just been born and he didn't want to die yet.

"If you don't want to die, your child will die because of your cowardice!" After speaking, Delang strode over, and as soon as his arm fell, he split the bandit in half.

"His child drowned! Women are also rewarded to the guy who dares to go up next! Then, it's you!" De Lang said the punishment, and then pointed to another bandit.

Although this bandit was full of reluctance, he didn't even frown when you asked him to go out to fight with others, but it's usually not difficult for you to let this bandit climb up the crack on the edge of the vertical patio.

But all the smoke that pours into the cave now comes out here, like climbing a chimney, or a chimney with a fire.

The bandit found a muslin cloth to cover his mouth and nose, but he felt unsafe, so he asked his companion for some water, after soaking it a little, wrapped it around his face and climbed up with a rope on his back.

This time, the bandit's coughing was much less, and De Lang was very satisfied, and said loudly that he would reward this guy with a few gold coins later.

Seeing that this was not too difficult, the other bandits also found fine cloths, soaked them and wrapped them around their faces.

After waiting for a while, a rope was hanging down from above, and the robbers began to climb up the rope one by one.

With the rope on the top as a climbing aid, the rest is not so troublesome for these bandits. They wrap the rope around their waists, then grab the rope with both hands and kick off the rock wall with their legs. Using both arms, the bandits quickly climbed up.

The smoke continued to suffocate them. Fortunately, their mouths and noses were wrapped in wet cloths. Although it was difficult to breathe, they could still bear it. Of course, the eyes couldn't take it anymore, so they could only close them tightly.

I really don't know how the guys before endured this kind of smoke, even as soon as they opened their eyes, they were so smoked that they had to close them tightly.

And the guy before had to climb the rock wall to find his way, and then go all the way up.

-

De Lang watched his subordinates climb up one by one. He also put the double-edged ax aside. When it was his turn, he tied the double-edged ax to the bottom of the rope first, and then climbed up first, and then Pull the weapon up.

Seeing a bandit crawling staggeringly in the air, Delang couldn't help but curse: "@#￥#! Hold on firmly, be careful not to fall and hit me!"

The bandit reluctantly agreed, and then climbed up.

But after a while, a bandit fell from above.

A person fell unexpectedly, startling the bandits below, and one unlucky bandit was hit. Fortunately, he only rubbed against him a little bit and suffered a slight injury.

"I just said, this guy usually messes around in the house all the time, his body is so weak that he can't go up at all." A bandit who lived in the same room as the bandit commented.

"Then you don't tell me earlier! It's bad luck! Who is it?" De Lang originally wanted to order another bandit, but when he looked down at the soft-footed bandit who fell to the ground, he suddenly found that the bandit had a knife on his arm. a wound.

It wasn't from a bump when it fell, but a knife wound.

He suddenly looked up at the vertical patio shrouded in smoke, his face changed again and again, and the teeth in his mouth were about to gnaw. The bandit next to him looked strange, and was about to ask the leader what was going on, why he was so angry~www.readwn.com~ As a result, the decapitated Delang yelled at the courtyard: "You militiamen! They are all honest farmers, but they didn’t expect to have such a vicious mind! Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn! Have the guts to come down and compete with me! See if I kill you with an axe. Come and kill some !"

Amidst his cursing, the smoky courtyard seemed to be silent for a while, and then, one after another, the corpses of decapitated bandits fell from above.

Many bandits who stayed below were hit and injured.

Angrily, De Lang raised his ax and swung it from bottom to top, splitting a headless corpse that fell on his head.

Now, the thieves all know what happened above. It turned out that the bandits who went up just now were all killed by the militiamen who were ambushing above, and even let down the ropes insidiously, allowing the bandits below to climb up one by one along the ropes.

-

On the top, Keel and a few militiamen left the body of the last bandit whose head had been severed, hoping to kill one or two unlucky bandits who didn't escape.

"Ahem! It's okay, it's okay, everyone, get out of here, remember to bring their rope, this rope is very strong, and it may be useful in the future." Keir finally couldn't bear the choking smoke, Go away and take a big breath of fresh, cold air.

The militiamen next to them all beamed with joy. A bandit's head is worth one silver coin. A family may only be able to harvest one gold coin of food after a year of farming. How can farming get money faster than killing bandits?

And it's the most convenient way to do it now.

"Are these bandits stupid?"

"Hey, it's still the Kiel brothers who are smart and know how to trick them."

Kiel smoothed his hair and smiled triumphantly: "That's not it."