The "clean up" order from the lord spread among Cecil's soldiers, and this pursuit battle has entered a stage of almost mechanized operation, at least for the Cecil Combat Corps.
Every day, the forward scouts and the spies placed in the noble coalition will send the latest information to the commander of the combat corps. Even without this information, the noble coalition, which has completely lost its order, can hardly hide its whereabouts when fleeing , the Cecil Corps locked on the huge enemy army at a distance of not too far. As long as the opponent stopped, the artillery bombardment would start immediately. They did not eat normally, did not sleep normally, and almost did not stop. In fact, this is a test of willpower for both sides in the pursuit, but obviously, the test for the noble coalition forces will be even more difficult.
Cecil's soldiers had the opportunity to rest in shifts. After the victory, the surging fighting spirit of chasing after the victory also inspired them to continue to move forward. The constant destruction of the garrison points in various noble territories along the way brought them enough supplies, and in Cecil After the homeland security, several replacement reinforcements were sent from the territory, which further reduced the pressure on the pursuing troops.
On the other hand, the aristocratic coalition forces... They are rapidly approaching the limit.
In fact, they have already reached their limit. In this era, there is hardly any cohesiveness and discipline in the private soldiers of nobles. When dying on the battlefield like ordinary infantry, most of the ordinary people in this coalition army have lost the slightest will to fight.
One of the reasons why they continue to flee to this day is that the knights and nobles in the coalition army are still trying to maintain their dignity. The deterrent power of ordinary soldiers is even stronger. The coercion accumulated by these "upper class" has been deeply imprinted in the minds of those serf soldiers, private recruits, and young recruits for a long time, and the team is still barely maintaining the situation.
Another reason is the propaganda made by Earl Hossman before the war, and the rumors still circulating among the remnants of the coalition army. Many people firmly believe that the Cecilians rose by practicing magic and blasphemy. The fate of falling into the hands of the Cecil people will be worse than death. The land of Cecil is full of lies, crimes, blasphemy and crazy bastards. Such groundless rumors should be laughed off by rational people, but in Those superstitious and ignorant private soldiers took root deeply in their minds, and with the Cecils' relentless pursuit and terrible force, the power of these prejudices even made the noble private soldiers who should have no cohesion at all have been Persist until today.
But no matter how long they persisted, their physical strength and will were finally reaching their limits.
The cold night wind blew across the plain, and the night wind carried the sweetness of spring bells. The knight Balter from Cretland sat in a cold pit with his two knight companions and nine retinues. They silently counted the time together, and beside them, there were dozens of scattered people, dozens of private recruits, archers, coolies and serf soldiers from the Baltur area.
These are all the people who set off from Baltur and survived. Their lord is dead, more than a hundred of their brothers and sisters were separated on the way to escape, and even they themselves lost contact with the large army before nightfall . In the night, no one dared to light up the lights to look for companions, and no one even dared to call out to other noble regiments who might be walking next to them. The dozens of people who had finally reunited after being separated could only gather in this dark and cold night. Quietly waiting for tomorrow.
Waiting for the tomorrow that doesn't necessarily come.
No one spoke, and no one raised their heads to glance at the horizon even though a ray of the rising sun had already appeared on the horizon. Balter lowered his head, his bloodshot eyes fixed on the ground under his feet, hunger and sleepiness tore his nerves at the same time, making him not want to say a word or make an extra movement.
He hadn't slept for several days and nights. Everyone here hadn't slept for several days and nights. Even extraordinary people would be on the verge of limit in this situation, let alone ordinary people. Balter just wants to lie down now, he just wants to sleep, he just wants to go back to his warm manor, drink a sip of hot ginger wine, and then sleep for three to five days, but he knows that he has no chance, he can't Back to his own manor, because just yesterday, his team passed by that manor and was driven out by shells falling from the sky in a very short time.
Balter put his hand into his bosom, and silently took out his last food: a small piece of black bread that was as rough as a log, and with his movements, the people around him also took out the last piece of food from his body. Pieces of bread, dried cheese, slices of bread, or nothing at all.
These things are not their rations, but they snatch them from the farms or villages along the way, but most of the time they don't even have the chance to grab a bite of food. and lead them to flee through the barren wilderness, like wolves driving sheep.
There is no grill, no cooking pot, and the rising smoke will attract the "sky fire" of the Cecilians. This is one of the few useful experiences that everyone has summed up during the days of fleeing. This small group of fugitives brought the last morsels to their mouths. Before the first ray of sunshine hit their faces, they began to eat silently. Balter bit hard. He would never take a bite in the past. Inferior black bread, bloodshot eyes full of tiredness.
He wants to sleep, whatever it takes, he just wants to sleep now, he wants to eat and lie down, nothing, nothing to stop him.
A sharp whistling sound came from a distance, flying across the sky.
This sharp whistling sound is the language of the devil, the voice of death, disaster, and cursed gods. At the moment when the whistling sound sounded, Baltur only felt that every pore in his body was tightening subconsciously. Before the muscles subconsciously propped him up from the ground, his movements stopped due to another stronger and more irrational reason.
He doesn't want to get up, he just wants to rest, just to stay here quietly, to take his?mother?life and dignity! He can't remember it!
Balter's eyes were bloodshot, and he was almost gnashing his teeth looking at the ground under his feet. Around him, two fellow knights, nine followers, dozens of private soldiers, all of them stayed where they were after a brief trembling and nervousness. land.
No one stood up, only a few pairs of numb eyes lifted up and glanced around with a lifeless gaze.
A sharp whistling sound pierced the sky, and a terrifying explosion came from a distance. The ground under his body trembled slightly in the explosion. It was a terrifying force enough to make high-ranking knights and mages lay dead all over the ground. Listening to the explosion that didn't seem very far away, Balter silently picked up the food in his hand and brought it to his mouth.
The companions beside him did the same: after a brief hesitation, they continued to eat.
The second round of whistles came from the air, and a moment later, the second round of explosions resounded throughout the world.
The shock of the explosion and the weakness of his body caused the dry and hard bread in Balter's hand to fall to the ground. He looked at the dirt-stained bread almost numbly, reached out to pick it up expressionlessly, and continued to stuff it between his teeth. Between them, he bit down viciously as if chewing wood.
The third round of whistles came, and this time the explosion seemed to be a little closer.
Even if the "Sky Fire Explosion" landed on the top of his head, he didn't want to get up! They don't even want to wake up!
They tore and bit the remaining bread and bread, and the spirit of human sharing even surged out of some people's minds. Those who still had food divided the food into two portions and sent them to the mouths of their already hungry companions. Beside, amidst the deafening roar of the skyfire explosion, the knights from Cretland and their soldiers ate the last food in silence until the explosion subsided, until the unique irritating breath after the explosion of magic power floated around them .
Then they sat and lay quietly among the pits and stones, thinking and doing nothing.
When one of Cecil's "recovery teams" spotted the team, the team leader was taken aback.
Several noble knights and dozens of private soldiers sat only a few hundred meters away from the last shelling, half of them had already passed out, while those who remained awake watched Cecil fighting with numb expressions The soldier appeared in front of them, and the death-like eyes left a deep impression on the leader of the recovery team. After many years, the leader of the recovery team described the scene he saw like this:
"... After crossing that limit, their (nobles. Allied forces) will was completely destroyed. They moved on the plain like walking dead, and stopped when their physical strength was exhausted. They sat anywhere and our shells fell. Around them, they're totally unmoved, they'll eat the last of their food and just wait like that. Surrender? No, they're not going to surrender, they don't think about it at all, they just stay there , but when we arrived, they threw out the weapons very cooperatively, and the only thing they asked for was to sleep... It seems that as long as they can rest peacefully, let them do anything."
On the eighth day after the battle at Crushed Stone Ridge, the coalition forces of the fleeing nobles began to surrender in large numbers or to stay where they were, quietly waiting for the Cecils to "incorporate" them.
Knight Philip and Walder Peric saw the most unbelievable sight they had ever seen in the army: people who had completely lost their fighting spirit wandered the plains in groups like walking corpses, capturing prisoners no longer needed any fighting, You just need to shoot a few shots at the feet of those people casually, or throw a crystal grenade into the distance.
Naturally they would stop, and would even tie their own hands if they were given rope.
On the tenth day after the Battle of Crushed Stone Ridge, the Cecil Combat Corps entered the western region of the southern border. Through a series of detours, they circumvented a long arc in the Carroll-Consco area, and The "pursuit" continued towards the Horsman Territory, and in the afternoon of this day, Knight Byron led a thousand support troops from Cecil's native land and a large amount of supplies to complete the rendezvous with Philip's Corps.