Chapter 431: Chapter 60 Contingency Plan_2
The troops advanced eastward along the riverbank, with Winters leading the way, Lieutenant Mason responsible for bringing up the rear, and Colonel Jeska managing the escort.
However, they encountered the Herders before they could find General Sekler.
Fortunately, it wasn’t the enemy’s main force, just scattered light cavalryn with ill intentions probing Jeska’s detachnt.
Dusack lunged at them, and the Herd light cavalry fled on their horses; when Dusack retreated, the Herd light cavalry reappeared. They avoided combat with the Paratu People, annoying like flies.
Not long after the encounter with the Herd light cavalry, Colonel Jeska called a halt to the march, and both Winters and Mason were summoned to a eting.
As soon as Winters saw the Colonel, the first thing he said was, “The Herders didn’t crush Sekler’s forces. Rear to the front, we’re retreating.”
...
“Retreating?” Winters was utterly confused.
“Retreating,” Colonel Jeska affird with conviction.
“Why?” Mason couldn’t help but ask.
Winters was also a bit annoyed: they had insisted on sending out troops before, and now they were suddenly talking about retreating—were they playing gas with everyone?
The anxiety Colonel Jeska initially felt upon hearing about Sekler’s ambush had completely dissipated: “The Herders are just a rabble. Their first wave of attack is the fiercest and most vicious, and yet a surprise attack. If Sekler’s forces weren’t broken in their first assault, subsequent attacks are even less likely to succeed. Since Sekler’s forces have already stabilized their front, there’s no need for our support—Floating Bridge is enough for their retreat.”
“Wait a minute,” Winters quickly interrupted. “How do you know General Sekler’s troops haven’t been routed?”
“If Sekler’s forces had been routed, would the barbarian cavalry play with us like this? The Herders’ focus is clearly not on preventing us from breaking in; they’re guarding against Sekler’s forces from breaking out! The barbarian cavalry are intercepting ssengers, cutting off Sekler’s communication. On the contrary, it shows that Sekler’s forces are holding their ground. Hurry and retreat, if we move forward, we’re going to be caught in a pincer attack!”
Colonel Jeska had never been one for military democracy and, aside from one ti being usurped, always had the final say.
When the Colonel ordered a retreat, the team imdiately reversed its order, now led by Mason, with Winters at the rear.
If it was just a matter of retracing their steps along the riverbank, Lieutenant Mason couldn’t go wrong no matter what.
Although Comrade Mason had dedicated his fervor to pig farming over the years, he still had a bit of his old edge.
Unfortunately, on the way back, they ran into another group of Herd Barbarians, sparking a small-scale skirmish.
Worried about being caught in a pincer attack from the enemy catching up from behind, Colonel Jeska ordered them to disengage from the enemy as dusk approached and head north to circle back to the bridgehead stronghold.
The Colonel was treating Mason as he would Winters, but he forgot that Lieutenant Montaigne was covering the rear.
By the ti Winters, who had been fighting in the rearguard, caught up with the main force, Mason had already led the detachnt into a ravine…
…
At this mont, Winters, lying in the dry grass, was feeling rather conflicted.
Mason’s luck was terrible in so ways but incredible in others.
For example, though Mason was lost, he had easily shaken off the pursuers.
Leading the detachnt blindly near the Herder encampnt, yet undetected by the Herders—was this good luck or misfortune?
Winters realized that the Herders down the slope were completely unaware that a few hundred of the enemy were hidden just a mile away in the ravine.
It could be an opportunity.
But could they take action?
After much thought, Winters decided they couldn’t.
This wasn’t a defensive encampnt but an open field battle. Although he couldn’t see how many Herders there were, they were certainly more nurous than Jeska’s detachnt.
What seed like an opportunity could very well end in utter destruction.
Suddenly, a rustling sound ca from behind; Winters was startled and his right hand already on the hilt of his sword.
“It’s ,” the voice of Lieutenant Mason.
Winters breathed a sigh of relief and put his steel spike back into his armguard: “What happened to your face?”
“Don’t talk about it,” Mason said, covering his eyes and lowering his voice. “How are things?”
“Not great,” Winters replied, his voice hoarse with thirst. He said irritably, “Let’s take the opportunity to retreat while they haven’t discovered us. If we don’t retreat soon, we’ll die of hunger.”
“Gurgle, gurgle,” two sounds ca from Winters’s belly, exceptionally clear in the quiet of the night.
Mason looked toward Winters, obviously having heard it too.
Jeska’s detachnt had set out prepared for combat, carrying nothing but weapons and ammunition. Food and drink were limited to what the soldiers carried themselves.
After continuous marching and a skirmish, everyone was starving.
“Brother, I have food,” Xial said, taking out provisions and a water skin from his chest: “And water.”
Xial had yet to fully change his way of addressing him; when no one else was around, he occasionally referred to his brother as he did when they were little.
The rations and water skin still had human warmth on them—all the food and drink the n had been carrying were long gone. Winters knew all too clearly that Xial had saved these by not eating or drinking at all along the way.
Winters licked his dry lips and took a small sip from the water skin. After moistening his throat a bit, he handed the rations and water skin back to Xial: “I’m too hungry to eat—it would just make feel sicker.”
“You’re not eating? That’s great,” Senior Mason was delighted, reaching for the water skin: “Give so.”
Winters angrily pressed the food and drink under himself: “I’ve changed my mind!”
“Don’t be so stingy.”
“Do you even have the face to say that?”
“It wasn’t intentional… How can I tell directions at night without seeing the stars?” Mason was extrely aggrieved.
[Note: Today was cloudy with a westerly wind—this detail about the weather was ntioned in a previous chapter during Sekler’s formation of defenses.]
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