Chapter 378 News from the upper reaches of the river
"I am Bana, a member of the Snow Eagle Legion Ranger Battalion. Thank you both for saving my life!"
Seeing that everyone had stopped chasing, the few rangers who had escaped death breathed a sigh of relief. One of the rangers who looked like a captain immediately saluted respectfully to Gerveth and Gandalf.
"Well, we belong to the Principality of Zeon, so rescuing you is no problem."
"By the way, why are you being chased by so many rangers?"
Gervis waved his hand, then asked Bana curiously.
Even though Bana is just a squad leader of the Rangers, he has the strength of a low-level bronze. If the opponent's Rangers did not have three titled knights, Bana would not be in such a mess.
"Sir, half an hour ago I was ordered to lead a team to advance west along the river for reconnaissance. We encountered an ambush by this group of rangers five miles above the river bank. We retreated all the way back and lost four brothers. We were rescued by you here."
Bana honestly told Gervis about the ambush and pursuit.
"Logically speaking, the rangers of the Principality of Alban should not have to run westward. We all come from the north!"
Gervis was a little puzzled. The west was all the territory of the Principality of Alban, so there was definitely no need to send so many rangers there.
"My Lord, there is a shallow beach above the river. We just saw someone building a dam on it. We wanted to go further to check it out, but we didn't expect to be ambushed!"
"What? Building a dam?"
Gervis was shocked!
"Could it be that the people of the Principality of Alban have also thought of using floods to deal with us?"
This is really possible!
The terrain of Baiyan City is flat, and although there are gentle slopes with a drop of more than ten meters around it, if the dam was broken and water was released during the siege of the Principality of Jean, the soldiers under the city wall would definitely be scattered.
And because the walls of Baiyan City are built with huge stones, ordinary floods cannot shake Baiyan City at all, but the defenders can stand as steady as a rock.
Gervis looked at his cheap father and continued to ask, "Bana, are there many people building dams upstream?"
"Sir, there are about 200 of them, but from a distance they are mostly dressed like serfs and peasants. There seem to be only about 30 soldiers in armor. The more than 50 rangers who just chased us should also be stationed there!"
Bana quickly answered Gervis.
"Very good! Bana! There's nothing going on here! You can go back and report the situation first!"
Gervis nodded. There weren't that many people, so it would be easy.
If the Jones family chooses to set up camp in the west and also be responsible for the attack in the west, then the safety of the upstream must be guaranteed, and the people of the Principality of Alban must not be allowed to build the dam.
"Yes, sir! I don't know what your surnames are, so I can report your military exploits to my supervisor when I return!"
Although seven or eight enemy rangers escaped, more than forty enemy bodies were left by the river.
Such a contribution is not small, so in order to repay Gervis and others, Bana thought about reporting the credit to Gervis and others himself after returning.
"My name is Gervase Gale, and this is my father Gandalf Gale!"
"But there's no need to report your military achievements! We will report these things ourselves when we return to the camp later, so you can just go back!"
Gervis naturally knew what Bana was thinking. If Bana, a captain under the king, reported it, it must be a real achievement, and no one dared to downplay it.
However, if the merit is reported, the current spoils will also need to be handed over later.
Because the rangers' mission is to charge quickly, their equipment is not very valuable, but the horses they ride are worth a lot of money, and are comparable to the lowest-grade war horses.
If ordinary infantry were killed by them, Gervis would definitely report it without hesitation in exchange for merit.
But looking at the more than 30 intact war horses still wandering around the river, Gervis felt that it would be better not to report this credit for the time being.
"Yes, sir! Then I will return to the camp to report my work. Thank you again for saving my life!"
Barna immediately understood what Gervis meant, but of course he had no objection. Gervis and others saved their lives, and they all knew about this tacitly.
"Father, it seems we need to quickly choose a location for the camp and then head upstream to check the situation. Otherwise, if there is a flood, we will definitely be the first to bear the brunt!"
After Bana and the others left, Gervis said something to Gandalf.
"Little Gervis, you are right!"
"You know more than your brother now! This will make your father feel relieved!"
Gandalf was very happy and patted Gervase's shoulder.
Then Gervis and Gandalf walked around and chose a mound of earth one kilometer away as their campsite.
This mound is located at a high altitude, so there is no need to worry about the enemy using water attacks. The only problem is that the mound is covered with saxaul trees.
However, Gervis and Gandalf thought that since they needed to build a pontoon bridge anyway, they might as well just cut down the saxaul trees to set up camp and kill two birds with one stone.
After determining the location of the camp, Gervase and Gandalf recalled the soldiers responsible for cleaning the battlefield. All the enemy corpses had been thrown into the river and were flowing down the river.
The war horses and weapons and armor that were still usable were gathered together.
"Father, I only want 10 of these horses, you can take the rest!"
Gervase stood by the river, waved his hand, and divided two-thirds of the herd to Gandalf.
"Little Gervis, this is too much. How about father and you each take half!"
When Gandalf heard what Gervis said, his mouth almost broke into pieces with joy, but although he received the kindness of his youngest son, the horse was not prepared to really accept it.
"Father, listen to me. I am not short of war horses now. The ones I robbed from the Coconut Gold Knights last time were all top-quality war horses, enough for all my guards to ride!"
Gervis persisted.
To be honest, Gervis doesn't really think highly of these horses which can still be considered as the lowest grade war horses. He already has more than a hundred top grade war horses.
But his cheap father was penniless, and only a few of his guards had a few horses, and they were all ordinary horses, which was quite shabby.
"In that case, then father will accept it!"
Seeing that Gervis was firm in his tone, Gandalf no longer insisted and happily accepted two-thirds of the horses.
After taking the spoils, Gervis and Gandalf returned to the camp first. As for going five kilometers upstream, they still needed to inform Alice and then bring more people with them.
When Gervis and his party passed the east side of Baiyan City, the troops led by the Lord of the North had already set up camp, and a not-so-violent conflict broke out in the moat under Baiyan City.
The major earl families did not launch a real attack this morning.
Because there is a moat forty to fifty meters wide outside Baiyan City.
The top priority now is to fill the moat and open up a siege passage, as well as prepare siege equipment such as siege ladders and catapults.
At this moment, under the east wall of Baiyan City, there were thousands of serfs being driven by soldiers to fill sand into the moat.
The moat was only 20 meters away from the city wall, and the total length of the river was only 70 meters, so the longbowmen of the Baiyan City defenders could easily attack these serfs.
Of course, the Principality of Jean did not leave these serfs to die. They still equipped them with a large number of longbowmen to provide cover and continuously shoot arrows at the city walls.
However, because the shooting was from bottom to top and there were wooden sheds on the city walls, the effect was not very good. The psychological pressure caused to the enemy was much greater than the actual damage.
It is worth mentioning that Gervis noticed that, perhaps in order to save stones or hide the existence of the catapults, the defenders of Baiyan City did not use the catapults to attack the serfs who were filling the river at this moment.
Gervis silently noted this detail. Later he would have to ask Alice to remind the Lord of the North to disperse the soldiers of the Welton family when attacking. Otherwise, if they rushed in at once, a single stone might hit a large area.
(End of this chapter)
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