Chapter 96 The Last Checkpoint

"To the direction of Xiangshu Village? Are you sure?"

Cléante looked at the refugee in front of him with surprise, and the refugee looked timidly at the scout beside him.

The scout immediately stepped forward and said, "Boss Cleonte, I checked. There are indeed traces of wheels and people walking there. They tried to cover them up, but I still found them."

"Okay, when this matter is finished, you will receive an extra salary."

"Toot, toot, toot." Cleonte immediately blew the whistle, "Get up, you bastards, don't rest."

The mountain mercenaries who were resting on the side of the King's Road stood up with complaints and lined up slowly.

"Marching at night..."

"It's so dark, the country bumpkin farmer won't be able to walk. Let's chase him tomorrow morning."

"Yeah, they must have taken a break, so they can rest for a while."

But the complaints of the mountain mercenaries did not affect Cléante's determination at all. He waved his whip and whipped the lazy mountain mercenaries.

Amid the roars, the mercenaries still staggered towards the path.

He led the mercenaries uphill, through the woods, and came to a path. Sure enough, Cleont saw tire tracks on the ground.

And an unexpected guest.

"Cleonte, what are you doing here?"

"Chase the short-haired one." Cléante looked at Bellard in front of him.

"I found their trail and followed them all the way from the source. How did you find them?"

"I couldn't find the King's Road, so I came to the side road to look for it. Hey, don't tell me, don't tell me, I really found it."

"Did you find it?" Bellard asked sarcastically.

In the clearing between the trees, the irises swayed gently.

The two groups of mercenaries stood behind their leader, rubbing their spears and swords, glaring at each other fiercely.

The plains soldiers looked down on these noisy mountain soldiers, while the mountain soldiers couldn't stand these pretentious plains soldiers.

The two sides stood on this muddy path, their eyes seemed to be fighting swords in the air.

"Okay, I don't want to argue with you, otherwise the short-haired cat will run away again." Cleonte waved his hand in a pretentious manner.

He took a few steps forward and came to a fork in the road. He pointed at the footprints and wheel tracks on the ground and said, "There are two wheel tracks here. Shorthair must have split up and fled. You choose one and I choose the other. We won't interfere with each other."

Bellard approached, bent down, and carefully observed the depth of the ruts on the ground.

After a moment, he pointed to a road with deeper ruts and said to Cleonte, "I'll choose this one. Is that okay with you?"

Cleonte squatted down, pinched a handful of soil and twisted it between his fingertips, chuckled and said, "Go ahead."

Following Bellard, more than 200 White Maple mercenaries entered the forest path.

Looking at Bellard's departing figure, Cleonte sneered, "Idiot, there is a layer of new soil and a layer of old soil, it is obvious that it has been rolled twice. The carriage must have turned back and must have taken this road. Let's go."

The mountain mercenaries immediately followed Cleonte and headed towards another path.

The full moon gradually rose above my head, and the breeze blew through the branches.

Bellard stood beside the wheel tracks that suddenly disappeared, his chest heaving violently.

"Go, go back."

He turned around with gritted teeth and ran back with his men.

The mercenaries trotted back along their own path to the original fork in the road.

Without stopping, he turned around and ran towards the road leading to Cléante.

Before I got close, I heard the vague sound of horses neighing.

Bellard's face changed drastically. You know, when Cléante entered the forest, he didn't have a horse.

Waving his hand to ask the soldiers to slow down, Bellard forced a tense face and stood there waiting.

After a bend, three carriages loaded with stones drove out first, and Cleonte sat on the side of the carriage with a grim face.

As soon as he looked up, he met Bellard, and they were both stunned.

"You didn't find Shorthair?" "Why did you come here?"

Two sentences sounded at the same time.

As if they had thought of something, their faces changed again at the same time.

"Hurry, go to the fork in the road."

"Don't fall behind them, run, you idiots, run fast."

Just like when they first met and were fighting for the road, a group of people were crowded shoulder to shoulder at the fork in the road, pushing and shoving each other as they moved forward, even slower than if they had walked separately.

Returning to the previous fork in the road, they had no time to form a team and were scrambling to run towards the third path.

During this time, insults, tripping and elbowing were exchanged between the two parallel teams of mercenaries.

About half an hour later, the two teams came back dejectedly, covered in dust and with twigs and grass leaves stuck in their hair.

Standing at this fork in the road, they looked around in confusion.

"Where did this go?"

"I can't come."

The moonlight shone on the two men's heads, and they raised their heads at the same time in confusion.

Can it fly?

At the same time, the moonlight also shone on the shoulders of Horn and others.

The stream water submerged the knees and the wheels. The stream water at night exuded a biting cold. Every time a pair of wrinkled feet passed through the water, fragmented moonlight could be seen in the ripples.

"Push, push harder!"

"one two Three!"

Seven or eight soldiers in black stood behind the carriage. Amid the neighing of the horses, they put their shoulders on the carriage bed and pushed the carriage ashore.

On the trapezoidal river beach, under the dim moonlight, thousands of villagers of all kinds were struggling to walk across the icy stream.

The child soldiers quickly moved through the crowd, delivering orders and messages to the elders who were commanding the common people to cross the river.

The villagers had to cross the stream and climb a steep slope to reach their destination, the King's Road.

Sitting on a big rock to rest, Horn raised his head, looked at the moonlight above his head, and silently calculated the time.

"Your Majesty." A young man, all wet, came to Horn along with a few child soldiers.

"Rafael, how's it going? Did you take the bait?"

"It's hooked. Two big fish." Rafael replied with a smile.

"Very good." Horn stood up, gave a few instructions, asked Rafael to return to the team, and then climbed up the hillside.

After learning from the scouts that their whereabouts had been discovered by Bellard, Horn immediately summoned the bishops and elders and decided to turn back along the previous wheel tracks, cross the woods, and take the King's Road instead of the Ringing Tree Village route.

Those carriages and refugees were arranged by Horn specifically to confuse the pursuing enemy troops.

Long before the fork in the road, they had already turned back along the rutted tracks, but Bellard was too young to distinguish between new and old soil.

Cléante had taken a short cut and had not noticed the previous wheel tracks.

I have to say, this trick works amazingly well.

Horn originally only wanted one party to be fooled, so he set up two routes, hoping that they would explore twice. Unexpectedly, he could fool two people.

Supporting himself on the ground, Horn climbed to the top of the hill and looked not far away.

About two hundred meters away, a road wide enough for four carriages to run side by side lay in the moonlight.

Three or five miles west of the King's Road, there is a curved bean bridge. On the wooden bridge, there is an upright checkpoint.

After crossing the Wandoumu Bridge, instead of taking the main road, cross the canyon and walk south for another seven or eight miles, you will reach the entrance to the Road of Blood and Sweat.

Horn could already vaguely see the tip of the arrow tower at the checkpoint behind the hills and trees.

This is the last hurdle left.

　P.S. No, it’s not a sudden update.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)