The next day, on the way to Attila.
Cong Wuyang was walking together with the main force.
The afternoon sun was still so scorching. If it weren't for Cong Wuyang's excellent physical fitness, he might have been dehydrated by now.
In the middle of the team, because they were afraid that Elsa couldn't keep up on foot, a simple shed was set up on an empty oxcart.
At this moment, Elsa was lying in the shed, feeling drowsy.
The team of more than three hundred people was driving the livestock and transporting supplies, struggling to make their way along the mountain path.
Fortunately, everyone in the team had been marked by the system and transformed into soldiers, and their physical fitness was much stronger than that of ordinary people. No one fell behind, but the team was no longer as neat as it was at the beginning.
After walking along the road for a few more hours, they were just about to find a place to take a rest, let everyone drink some water, and prepare for camping.
"Sir, a young girl has been found ahead. She said her name is Vina and Vigoro is her brother. She has something very important to tell him. Sir Vigoro has already gone to check it out," a soldier sent as a scout in front rode over and said to Cong Wuyang.
"Vina? What is a young girl like her doing here?"
Although he was puzzled in his heart, he still got up, took a horse, greeted Elsa, and then rode towards the front of the team.
It only took a few minutes. When he reached the front of the team, he saw Vigoro holding Vina in his arms. There was also a bamboo tube filled with water and a small piece of bread placed beside them.
Except for Eric and Darren who were at the end of the team, Ergou and the others were all there, looking anxious.
Vina's clothes were tattered, and blood was seeping out from the boots on her feet, but she was already asleep at this moment.
When they saw Cong Wuyang riding over, these people immediately surrounded him.
Vigoro knelt down in front of him and said, "Sir, bandits came to Attila last night. Many villagers were killed or injured. My father is hiding in the forest with the remaining villagers. I beg you, sir, to send some men to save our village."
"Sir, please send people to save the villagers."
"Please, sir, send people to save our families."
Ergou and the Klein brothers also knelt down and then said.
Cong Wuyang: "Alright, you can get up first. Did Vina say how many bandits there were?"
Vigoro: "She said she didn't see clearly at night, but there were at least dozens of them. They would kill anyone they saw. She didn't dare to rest all night last night and ran all the way here to Dehal to find me."
After learning about the basic situation, Cong Wuyang said:
"Vigoro, Ergou, and the two Klein brothers, the four of you and I, along with 75 soldiers, we will ride horses and rush to Attila immediately. I hope it's not too late."
These people hurried towards the horses. They also selected 75 experienced imperial infantrymen to make up a group of 80 people, just enough to ride 80 horses. He instructed the remaining soldiers to explain the situation to Eric and Darren at the back of the team, and asked them to take good care of the team, as well as Elsa and Vina.
With the rumbling sound of hooves, the team of 80 people rushed towards Attila at high speed. Among them, except for Cong Wuyang whose equestrian skill was at the full level of 300 points, only Vigoro and the two Klein brothers could ride horses. Ergou could only hold tightly to the horse's mane, lie on the horse's back, and clamp his legs tightly to keep from falling off.
The two Klein brothers learned how to ride because there was an old horse in their family, and they learned it when they were herding the horse since they were young. Vigoro could ride because his father was the headman, and his father had also raised a horse when he was young and taught him how to ride.
The other experienced imperial infantrymen were more or less like Ergou. They couldn't be considered cavalry but rather infantrymen on horseback.
The team was still moving forward rapidly. The mountain path was not easy to walk on, and only two horses could trot side by side. Riding on the horse, Cong Wuyang thought to himself:
"Vina started her journey last night. Although I don't know what time it was, she has been running for a whole night, plus the whole morning and several hours in the afternoon. That's at least 20 hours. We are definitely faster on horses than her, but it will still take at least 4 or 5 hours to get back to Attila. I hope everything is still in time."
Vigoro and the others beside him looked ahead, whipped their horses hard, hoping to make the horses run faster. They were extremely anxious.
...
"Giddyup, giddyup!"
On the forest path at night, only the shouts of driving the horses and the rumbling sound of the hooves could be heard. They had been riding for more than 4 hours, and they had stopped halfway to let the horses rest for a while.
Fortunately, it was a mountain path, and they didn't run at full speed. Otherwise, most of the horses would surely die on the way or fall behind. No matter how good the horses were, they couldn't keep running for hundreds of kilometers without rest, not to mention these ordinary horses.
...
In the quiet night, a group of burly men on horses came to the small stone bridge over the turbulent Via River and rode over it one by one.
This was Cong Wuyang and his group. After crossing the river, Attila was not far away. The group stopped by the river.
Cong Wuyang ordered: "Vigoro, you take a few men to scout the village and see if the bandits have left. No matter what the situation is, come back and report first."
"Alright, sir." After saying that, Vigoro led five or six soldiers and rode towards the village.
After Vigoro left, Cong Wuyang calculated in his heart: There are three directions to enter Attila. We haven't found any trace of the bandits in the direction we came from, and Dehal Fort is in this direction. The bandits should not have come from the hinterland of the Yavir Duchy.
Then there are only the directions of Arda Village and the Kingdom of Mania left. If this group of bandits came to plunder from the direction of Arda Village, there should have been some news received.
But we didn't hear any such rumors in Dehal. And the people in Attila Village were attacked at night without receiving any news in advance, so it's impossible that they came from the direction of Arda either.
The most likely remaining possibility is that they are bandits from the Kingdom of Mania. With the continuous war, there are always many people who can't make a living or are forced to become bandits.
Most of the land in the Kingdom of Mania is a gobi desert, with a vast territory and a sparse population. It's reasonable that a small group of bandits could sneak over here without being discovered.
Thinking of this, he said to Ergou: "Ergou, you take twenty men and go around from this direction to ambush in the direction from the Kingdom of Mania to Attila, in case there are any bandits who slip through the net and try to escape. If you hear the sound of fighting in the village, you lead the men towards the village and move forward slowly, and act according to the situation."
"Got it, boss. I won't let you down." Ergou, who was usually lively, didn't have the mood to play around this time and replied sullenly. Then he led twenty men and rode away.
Cong Wuyang led the team and walked forward slowly.
After waiting for almost half an hour, several riders appeared in the distance. It was Vigoro and the others who had come back.
Cong Wuyang quickly asked about the situation.
"These damned beasts. The village is already ruined. There are ruins everywhere and corpses everywhere. These scoundrels are still in the village, gathered in several houses and open areas around the big banyan tree."
"Judging from the burning bonfire, they must have celebrated. I don't know how many people are in the rooms. Judging from the scale of the bonfire and the more than ten people outside, there are probably forty or fifty of them."
"There are only a few guards on duty, and the rest are already asleep. There is no other sound, and there are no hidden sentries." Vigoro briefly reported the situation he had scouted.
"Oh? No hidden sentries. It seems that bandits are just bandits. They have no discipline at all." Cong Wuyang nodded and said.
"Everyone, tie the horses to the trees on the spot. Put a wooden stick in your mouths and don't make a sound. Sneak over and take them out!"
Everyone responded. The horses were tied to the trees in the forest outside the village, and the group of people slowly sneaked towards the village.
...
Beside the bonfire, two ragged bandits were sitting on a tree stump, chatting in a low voice. Several other bandits dressed similarly were lying beside them, sleeping. There were also many overturned clay pots around. Judging from the smell, they should be filled with wine.
"Umm~ ah..." Suddenly, a pair of hands reached out from the shadows behind them and covered their mouths. A sharp blade neatly sliced across their necks.
Cough, cough, cough... Blood gushed out from their mouths and the wounds, blocking their throats, and they could only make coughing sounds. Before the bandits died, they saw a group of soldiers wearing padded armor, iron helmets, and carrying small wooden shields slaughtering their sleeping comrades one by one. Their eyes went dark, and they knew nothing anymore.
"Enemy attack! Everyone come out quickly! There are enemies!"
A bandit who wasn't sound asleep heard an abnormal noise, opened his eyes, and immediately shouted.
"Damn it! There really are enemies. Everyone get up quickly, pick up your weapons and fight back." A bandit who heard the sound came out of the nearby small house. Seeing the situation in front of him, he also immediately roared and then, cleverly, ran towards the back of the village.
Seeing this situation, Cong Wuyang had to shout loudly: "Finish this quickly. Kill them all."
After hearing this, the soldiers became even faster and more ruthless in their actions.
Soon, some less intelligent bandits rushed up with various weapons to resist. But with just ragged clothes and weapons with notches, they couldn't even break through the defenses of the experienced imperial soldiers. They were killed one after another and posed no threat to the soldiers at all.
And their leader, "Matthews", who was originally in one of the houses, when he woke up and saw the commotion ahead, didn't care about the lives of his subordinates at all. He climbed out of the window with a few of his cronies and ran away...
He was running in the direction of the Kingdom of Mania.
After dealing with the remaining bandits in the village, Cong Wuyang instructed the two Klein brothers to take 20 men and continue chasing in the direction where the bandits had fled. The remaining people continued to search the village for any bandits who had escaped. Then he walked towards Vigoro.
Vigoro was kneeling under the big banyan tree at the entrance of the village, with his head touching the ground. In the light of the bonfire, two lines of tears could be seen on his face.
When he got closer, he saw that a man was hanging on the big banyan tree. It was Gorn. His upper body still had clothes on, but his pants were gone. He was hung by his neck with his hands tied behind his back.
Cong Wuyang stood under the tree, looking at Gorn's body, and also bowed to show his respect. After all, since he came to this world, Gorn had shown him enough friendliness. He had even invited him to stay at his house and told him many interesting stories from his youth.
The dead were gone, and he didn't know how to comfort Vigoro. He walked up and patted his shoulder, then squatted down beside him and asked the soldiers to go up and take Gorn's body down.
Just then, a group of people noisily walked into the entrance of the village. It was Ergou, who had been sent to block the road before, and the Klein brothers who had gone to chase the bandits. None of them were injured. In front of them, they were escorting several people. The leader had a fierce expression on his face and was still cursing.
Listening to Ergou excitedly telling the story of what had happened.
It turned out that the bandit leader, Matthews, had taken a few of his cronies and tried to escape back to the Kingdom of Mania along the small path, hoping to make a comeback. Unexpectedly, when they reached the forest ahead, several ropes were suddenly thrown at them, and several of his subordinates were caught on the spot.
Matthews tried to run backwards, but then he saw the Klein brothers leading people chasing after them from behind, so he had no choice but to surrender. However, he was still cursing, saying that if they didn't let him go, he would kill them and so on.
Cong Wuyang verbally praised Ergou and the Klein brothers and signaled the soldiers to take the people other than Matthews away and execute them.
He walked over and patted Vigoro, then turned and pointed at Matthews. He whispered in his ear:
"This person is yours. Get the information we want from his mouth. After that, you can deal with him as you like."