Iron Powder and Spellcasters

   Chapter 276 Fire

fire.

   A fire that burns to the horizon.

   The monsoon cheered, the fire burned into a line, swept away toward the east, and spread out of sight in the blink of an eye.

  The beasts trapped in the fire ran like crazy, and the marmot mouse was driven by instinct to dig deeper.

   Thick smoke billowed into the sky. The smog was carried by the westerly wind and flew to Tiefeng County, which is dozens of kilometers away.

   Lieutenant Andrea Cellini spit the black ashes in his mouth, and drove his horse on the scorched earth that had been burned by the fire.

  The air was hot, the smoke was choking, the horse was restless and snorted, and Andre's subordinates were also coughing.

   Arson doesn’t require too many people, and Andrei divided his subordinates into five teams and went to different places in the no-man’s land.

   "The fire head is small over there." Andre pointed to a hillside in the northeast: "Go and make up."

  The two cavalrymen saluted and sped away.

   Fires are not uncommon on grasslands. A lightning strike or a negligence may cause the Vulcan to descend.

   However, for the Hurds, deliberately setting fire to provoke the wrath of the gods is unprecedented and unheard of.

   Unlike the forest fire that burns to the sky, the fire head of the grassland fire is very low, and it looks like a low wall from a distance.

  The tall vegetation of the forest hinders the flow of wind, while the grassland is open and boundless, and the wind can sweep the earth with raging fire.

  Especially in windy weather, the flames spread terribly fast.

   Animals running in panic were either overtaken by flaming flames, or ran and fell down.

  Andre's warhorse stepped on a stone, and the charred surface of the stone was rubbed off by the horse's hoof, revealing the dark red tender meat inside.

  Andre stared at the "stone" and carefully identified it - it should be a duiker. The poor little thing is born in spring, grows in midsummer, and dies in a sea of ​​flames before it has experienced its first winter.

   Gently pulled the reins around the dead antelope, and Andre looked around, and the once prosperous grassland had now been burned to a purgatory-like death.

  The earth was scorched black, and only a few dark red embers that had not yet been burned were flickering, like the breathing of a dying person.

  The sound of hooves came from a distance, and a group of cavalry was galloping towards Andrei.

   "It's Commander A." The guard hurriedly reported to Andre.

  Don Juan led the cavalry all the way to Andre.

   "Let's go!" Lieutenant Hu An said carelessly to his junior: "The barbarians have come this way."

  Andrei held the reins, no emotion could be seen on his face, after a long silence, he slowly said, "Not enough."

   "Not enough?" Don Juan didn't know why: "What's not enough?"

   "Not enough to burn."

  Tang Juan was surprised at first, then laughed wildly, and finally laughed up to the sky: "At least hundreds of thousands of hectares of grassland have been burned, but it's not enough? The grassland is so big, how can it be burned clean? Enough."

   After finishing speaking, Don Juan greeted the cavalry of Tiefeng County: "The front is the fire field, and the enemy is behind. Let's go north, bypass the fire field, and return to Tiefeng County through Vigne County."

   "Yes!" The cavalry answered in unison.

   Iron Peak County is upstream, Vigne County is downstream. The further downstream you go, the more water the [Big Horn River-Glorious River] has, the harder it is to cross.

  So Winters arranged for the cavalry team to focus on burning the upper reaches—that is, the grasslands on the border between Lower Iron Peak and Middle Iron Peak.

   The cavalry squadron in Tiefeng County is limited, and there is no time to take care of it in Upper Tiefeng County and further north.

   "Let's go." Don Juan pulled Andre's sleeve: "You're still addicted to burning."

   "It didn't burn enough." Andre's eyes were cold: "The fire is good, but the wind is not right."

   "What do you mean?" Don Juan let go.

Andre pointed to the thick smoke on the fire with a horse whip: "The summer wind is west, and the winter wind is east. We are in the east, and the Hurd people are in the west. If you burn like this, you can only burn pasture and burn to Tiefeng County. Can't burn the Hurds."

   "Then what should we do?" Don Juan laughed: "I can't ask the Lord to bless you and change the direction of the wind, right?"

   "Senior."

"What's up?"

   "If you want to burn the Hurds, you have to go further west." Andre's expression was calm: "Give me all the horses of your cavalry."

   "What do you want to do?" Don Juan said with a sullen face: "Are you **** crazy?"

  Andrei didn't answer.

   "West?" Don Juan stretched out his hand and asked, "The barbarians are swept over like a net, and there are Hurd cavalry everywhere, how do you get there?"

  Andrei didn't answer.

   "Even if you can break through that net, it will still be the territory of the barbarians if you go west." Don Juan grabbed Andre's collar and asked aggressively: "There is no guide, the language is not good, and there are enemies on all sides, how can you survive?

  Andrei still didn't answer.

   "There is no rear, no support, or even no plan!" Don Juan scolded sharply: "What kind of **** battle is this! One wrong step is the complete annihilation of the army! Reckless, stupid, and ignorant!"

  Andre asked casually: "Then are you going with me?"

   "Go." Don Juan replied with a grin.

  …

   The thick smoke from the burning pastures drifted dozens of kilometers away, and Shovel Harbor was also shrouded in smog.

  Shovel Harbor Mayor Portar coughed into the church and complained loudly: "Damn! What the **** is the weather? Where is the fire?"

   Mr. Alpha was sitting on the seat in front of the altar, looking at a notice with gusto.

   Hearing Portal's vulgar words, Mr. Alpha pointed to the holy emblem without raising his head: "Pay attention to the words, Mr. Portal."

   The mayor of Portar hurriedly salutes.

   "What are you looking at?" The Mayor of Portar asked with a flattering smile.

   "This?" Mr. Alpha raised the notice in his hand: "The Guide to Preparing Prisoners, which Gervoudan sent over this morning."

The heads of the   Terdun people were sent to various villages and towns for publicity, together with the "Communication Bulletin" and "Guide to Preparing Prisoners".

  Shovel Harbor has many heads, so there is no "first pass", only announcements and guides.

  In the "Communication Bulletin" in the temporary supplement, the rebels enthusiastically publicized the victory of Shovel Harbor to the villages and towns of Tiefeng County and even Lin County.

   However, in the announcement, the writer deliberately blurred the boundaries between "Shovel Harbor Government" and "Tiefeng County Government"... This is probably the benefit of having the right to speak.

   "We fought desperately, but the rebels took credit for it." Botar cursed harshly: "What a **** suffocation!"

   "It can't be considered a credit. Didn't you also praise the people of Shovel?" Mr. Alpha tapped the paper lightly: "It's a bit interesting for this guide to prepare for prisoners."

   "Interesting?" Mayor Portal was a little confused.

   Mr. Alpha took out several previous announcements and said with a smile: "Although I'm not sure who the author is, but the other party's ability to make up jingle is getting better and better."

   The mayor of Portar was even more baffled.

"[Hide your food and prepare your guns; when the barbarians come, don't panic]; [Hide with him, hide with him, but don't carry him hard]; [If there are few barbarians, surround and kill him; if there are many barbarians, avoid him]... Mr. Alpha's smile could hardly be hidden: "It's actually a tactic of 'forest beggars' during the Sovereign War, and it was made up as a jingle."

   "Oh." Portar answered vaguely.

   Portal knows "forest beggars" and "tactics", but he doesn't know these two words together.

  However, the content of the guide, which Botar understood as soon as he listened to it, was nothing more than a warning to the farmers to hide their food and property, and the barbarians of Heard fled into the forest when they came.

   "Go on." Mr. Alpha handed the guide to Portal: "Post it in each village."

   "Send it on? Don't hold back?" Portal was taken aback.

   Previously, the announcement sent by Gervoudin stated that unless the cavalry was ordered to send it to the villages and towns by itself, the Shovel Harbor would not be intercepted.

   "There is no need to cut this guide." Alpha smiled lightly: "I can't write this."

  …

  The raging fire has panicked the Terton staff.

  When the fire just started, the Terdun people who were 50 kilometers away discovered the clue—the terrain of the great wasteland was flat, and the thick smoke rising into the sky could not hide it.

  The fire-boiler hastily summoned the Kotas to discuss matters in the great tent.

  The way of the Teltown division is like migration. Depending on the size of the herd, each Kota occupies a width of several kilometers or even tens of kilometers.

   At this moment, the entire Teltown Department is like a long snake lying on the grass field more than 200 kilometers long.

   Therefore, there were only a few leaders who were able to come to the big tent for a while, and most of them were blood relatives and direct descendants of the fire-boilers.

   "Poisonous! Poisonous heart!" The fire roaster's uncle shouted as soon as he entered the tent: "Aren't the two-legged people afraid of burning themselves?"

   For the Hurds, arson is equivalent to cutting off all living beings, and it is a major sin of dismemberment.

  The soil layer of the grassland is already thin. When the fire burns and the wind blows, the soil layer will become thinner. The grass was burnt out, unable to hold the soil, and the next was the Yellow Calamity—sandstorm.

   The fire roaster sat on the ground with a sullen face and said nothing.

   "Tai Chi, what's the use of talking about this now?" The old interpreter reprimanded the uncle of the fire roaster: "Sit down first, and we will discuss a reason."

  Tai Chi - The uncle of the fire roaster has three points of respect for the old interpreter, so he didn't say anything more when he heard this, he just found a place and sat down angrily.

   Seeing that almost everyone was coming, the fire roaster said with a pale face: "The tent is either my blood relatives or my companions. You are all my whips, shadows and arrows. If you want to say anything, just say it directly, don't cover it up."

   "What else is there to say?" Tai Chi roared furiously: "The pasture is burnt to the ground, so what's the use of walking slowly? Either retreat, go around, or just rush over!"

   The other leaders in the tent also murmured their approval.

  The Hurds do not carry flour or gunpowder, and the physical strength of horses is their most precious war resource.

   Compared with cattle and sheep, horses are extraordinarily expensive. If you don't eat or drink well, a horse can lose nearly 100 pounds of fat in seven days, which is terrifyingly fast.

  In order to save the fat of the war horses, the fire roasters carefully controlled the marching speed to ensure that the horses could walk and eat all the way.

   The fire roaster even ordered that the horses not be milked - because milking can also cause the horses to lose fat.

  Without the food source of mare's milk, the Terdun people had to drive thousands of ewes from their wintering pastures to follow the raiding chapters. Marching with a flock of sheep also slowed down the speed of Teltown.

   And ewes are also precious livestock, and it is inevitable that they will go all the way and die on long journeys. The fire roaster brought the sheep out, but he did not plan to bring them back.

  Thousands of ewes are missing, and the Tertown department will lose tens of thousands of lambs over the next few years.

   In other words, the cost of looting in late November is much higher than the cost of looting in mid-September.

   The Fireboilers and even the Tertown Department are making big bets.

   "Withdraw, circumnavigate, and rush." ​​The old interpreter said loudly: "Tai Chi is right, there are only three ways to go!"

  The old interpreter changed the conversation: "Let's talk about detours first, where do you and I detour?"

   "Walk upstream or go downstream." Tai Chi replied without hesitation: "Where else can I go around?"

   "I went to the front to investigate." The old interpreter said in a deep voice, "The fire is burning very big, and if you go upstream, you will enter the mountain!"

   "Then go downstream."

   "Downstream is the route for other chiefs."

  Tai Chi snorted: "Just say it directly, you can't get around it, why don't you have it?"

   The "marching route" agreed by the fire roaster in advance is not only the route, but also the "looting range".

   It is self-evident that it is easier to cross the river upstream than downstream, so the fire roasters have a bit of selfishness in assigning the marching route.

  The fire roasters set the marching route of [Baowuer]—that is, blood relatives and direct descendants—upstream;

   set the marching route of [Aheita]—that is, the small chiefs who were originally a part of themselves and who were forced or voluntarily attached to the Terdun division—at the lower reaches.

The   Platoons set fire to the pastures upstream, just in the way of the roaster and his cronies.

   "You can't take a detour." The old interpreter bluntly objected: "I don't know how long the fire will burn. Once you take a detour, you can't detour for hundreds of kilometers. If you don't talk about the delay, what will the Aheita people think?"

"Hey!" Tai Chi slammed his fist on the thigh, spitting saliva all the way to the other side of the tent, and he yelled, "How did the two-legged people know about your and my movements? Which crow doesn't eat it? Meat leak? Find the betrayal of this rotten belly! Thousands of arrows shoot him to death!"

  The fire roaster clenched his fists, and everyone in the tent shuddered.

   "We'll talk about these things later." Seeing this, the old interpreter immediately said something to ease the atmosphere: "In short, the rebels in the new reclaimed land have already learned that you and I are going to loot. No matter how they learned about it, they just knew it.

  You and I are now like wolves lying in ambush in the grass, and we were discovered before we got close to the antelope. The antelope is about to run away, and the wolf has only two choices, either save his strength and watch the antelope flee, or catch up and give it a try. How to choose, let's discuss. "

   The Fireboiler's face was ashen, and the others—whether it was his cousins ​​or henchmen—couldn't speak at all.

   In the end, it was Tai Chi, the uncle of the fire roaster, who supported the fire roaster to sit on the "sweat seat" first.

Tai Chi looked at his nephew and said mercilessly: "Enough, fire roaster. The two-legged people in the east of you and I know that you and I are going, and the two-legged people in other places must also know. It was discovered by the antelope from a distance. A wolf, you shouldn't waste your energy chasing it.

   The loss to you and me is not too big, just a few horses and sheep died, and it is still too late to return to the winter pasture. If the Aheitas want to go, let them go, you and I will go back here! "

   The other Kotas in the tent all murmured in agreement.

The   fireboiler might need a big raid to regain his prestige, but the other kotas don't.

   Compared with the illusory trophies, the Kotas care more about their exhausted horses and their eaten sheep—even if they are blood relatives of the fire roaster.

   The fire roaster lowered his eyes and stared at his fist without saying a word.

   "Fire roaster, what do you mean by not talking?" Tai Chi couldn't hold back his violent temper, and shouted: "If you don't talk, then throw the beans and make a decision!"

  The atmosphere in the tent suddenly cooled down.

  The fire roaster raised his head and said coldly: "Whoever wants to throw a bean and agree, stand up."

   No one dared to stand up, even Tai Chi continued to sit.

"I've already had a bean-throwing decision, and I don't need a second time. I've made up my mind to go through the scorched earth and go straight to the two-legged man's territory." Broken: "Who dares to destroy the heart of the army again, there are such arrows!"

  Tai Chi groaned angrily, turned his head and stopped looking at the fire roaster, but didn't say much.

   Others in the tent also bowed their heads in submission.

"You don't have to worry, Zhu Keta." The old interpreter said with a smile: "Betraying the party is nothing more than burning a grassland that is dozens of kilometers wide. You and I can walk through it in a few steps. After crossing the river and reaching the rebel's site, there will naturally be food and drink. Can the rebels burn uninhabited grasslands and their own land?"

   These words made the others in the tent a little relieved, and all the Baowuers cheered up and pressed their left **** together to say yes.

   At the same time, the First Juntun Village of Forge Township, Tiefeng County.

   Peter Bunir, nicknamed "Short", was held down by four or five soldiers, and he cried hysterically: "That's my house, don't burn it! Ah! Don't burn it! Please! Have mercy! Ah..."

   The first company commander, Tamas, looked at the grass hut in front of him, gritted his teeth and gave the order: "Burn! There will be an order in the resolution, burn them all!"

   Short Peter's cry was so piercing that no one could bear to do it.

  Tamas grabbed a torch and set fire to Peter the dwarf's dilapidated house with his own hands.

  The flames circled from the wall to the roof, and eventually devoured the entire prefab house, and the wailing of Shorty Peter no longer sounded like a human voice.

   "Go." Tamas held a torch: "Go and burn my house!"

   [Catch up with…]

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   (end of this chapter)