Chapter 155 Crossing the River

According to the contents of a small manual issued to officers, a complete field camp must include trenches, walls, drainage channels, stables, toilets, two entrances and exits, must have an easily accessible water source, and must be located in terrain conducive to defence.

But the actual situation is that there are good and bad camps along the supply line, and they are generally guarded by one to two tents of soldiers, and no more than three tents at most.

One part can accommodate two full regiments, with complete walls and trenches. It was a temporary military camp built when the army passed here a few months ago;

The rest are much simpler, just digging a circle of earth ditches in a flat open space is considered complete.

Most of the campsites are located close to rivers, and are built on the west bank of the trekking field and pontoon bridge. On the one hand, it is to obtain water sources, and on the other hand, it is also to ensure the safety of pontoons and wading grounds.

Rivers, the most troublesome thing for the baggage team during the march was the river.

Because they rely on melting water from ice and snow for replenishment, the rivers in the Great Wilderness are severely affected by the seasons.

When rainfall is abundant in summer, the river can swell to several meters deep. Winter will enter the dry season, and most of them can be waded on foot - this is one of the reasons why we choose to send troops in winter.

From the perspective of the overall environment, the water system sandwiched between two mountains originates from the melted ice and snow of the Shade Mountains and the Golden Summit Mountains, and is a typical dendritic water system.

Geographer Bai Ruisi compared the land sandwiched between two mountains to a leaf. The river running from west to east is the main vein, and the tributaries at all levels are side veins and fine veins.

According to this metaphor, most of the rivers that caused trouble for the baggage trains were not even veins.

But even if it is only a calf-deep river, one dip in this season is enough to bear.

Although winter in Plato rarely freezes, it does not prevent it from being cold.

…

One after another, the carriages drove through the shoal about ten meters wide, and the baggage team arrived at today's camping site.

But this does not mean that the day's hard work is over. The coachmen are busy unloading the horses, and the militiamen need to tidy up the camp facilities: clearing the trenches, strengthening the walls, and re-excavating the latrines.

While others are busy hoeing the ground, the person responsible for cooking in each tent has to light the fire, fetch water, and prepare food.

As compensation for marching with iron pots on their backs, they did not need to participate in heavy physical labor - but it is hard to say which one is more tiring, cooking or digging toilets.

After the reorganization was completed and the night guard and patrol personnel were arranged, Winters issued the order to disband.

He was cold and hungry now, and his butt hurt like hell from sitting in the saddle all day. He just wanted to drink hot soup and rest quickly.

But Lieutenant Colonel Jessica stopped him midway. Also called by the Lieutenant Colonel were Bud and Andre.

The lieutenant colonel still had his usual lukewarm tone: "You guys will have dinner with me."

The three lieutenants looked at each other.

Lieutenant Colonel Jessica has been in office for more than three weeks, but he has always had a business-like attitude. So far, he has no personal relationship with the three Winters, and he doesn't seem to have any intention of enhancing personal friendship.

However, the ensigns could not refuse the invitation from their immediate superior to have dinner.

But the lieutenant colonel did not go back to the barracks directly. Instead, he led the lieutenants towards the stables, where the horses of the baggage team were placed.

The three Winters followed the lieutenant colonel around the stable, watching the lieutenant colonel touch the sweat on the horse's back and check the horse's hooves and legs from time to time.

The captain in charge of feeding the horses was Dussac, who was in his thirties. After hearing the news, he hurried to the stables. Facing the four officers, he looked very nervous.

Lieutenant Colonel Jessica glanced at the tenth captain and asked coldly: "It wasn't long before the horse was brought into the shed, right?"

"Yes, sir." The tenth captain wiped the sweat from his head.

The lieutenant colonel reached out and grabbed a handful in the manger: "What is this?"

"Excellent ingredients, sir. Make sure there is enough, and no millimeter will be deducted."

"What is this?" The lieutenant colonel kicked the barrel next to the manger.

The captain became more and more frightened: "Water! It was just taken from the river, make sure it is clean."

Lieutenant Colonel Jessica suddenly burst out, picked up the bucket and threw it at the Captain.

The ten-capion didn't dare to hide. He was hit by the bucket and took a few steps back before he could regain his balance.

"The sweat on the horse's body is not even cold! How dare you give the horse water and food!" The lieutenant colonel slapped the captain again and knocked the captain to the ground: "Do you want to die?"

The tenth captain panicked and begged for mercy: "I...just..."

"Shut up!"

The ten-capion captain got up and did not dare to speak any more.

"Tomorrow go find your centurion and receive ten lashes." Lieutenant Colonel Jessica looked at him with disgust: "Get out!"

The ten captains fled as if they were pardoned.

"Get rid of his captain," the lieutenant colonel said to Andre.

"yes."

…

Later, in Lieutenant Colonel Jessica's tent.

The lieutenant colonel and second lieutenants sat around a small table, still talking about what happened just now.

"You bastard!" Lieutenant Colonel Jessica was still angry: "It's not that I don't feel sorry for my own animals! Look at their horses, they are all waiting to stop sweating before feeding them."

The baggage train consisted of a hundred carts and more than two hundred draft horses. Some of the carriages and horses are the property of the army, and the coachmen are just hired workers; the rest of the carriages and horses are owned by the coachmen, and these coachmen are paid more.

The coachman's horse, the coachman looks after. The lieutenant colonel arranged for several Dusak to look after the army's horses.

But they don't seem to care much.

"How about letting the coachman take care of it?" Winters asked.

"Similarly, it's not that I don't feel sorry for my own things." The lieutenant colonel shook his head: "The coachman is not as easy to restrain as the soldiers."

The few people were speechless for a while, eagerly waiting for dinner to be served.

The lieutenant colonel thought for a while and said: "The carts are fully loaded now, which is the most demanding time. There must be no accidents. We only have four spare draft horses, which are more valuable than soldiers. An officer must be assigned to take charge of this matter." , Only those under the supervision of military officers will not slack off."

The lieutenant colonel looked at Winters first and shook his head. Then he looked at Bud and Andre, probably trying to choose one of the two cavalry officers.

Andre immediately avoided looking. Bud sighed and said, "I'll do it."

"Okay, then it's you." The lieutenant colonel nodded.

The orderly opened the curtain and brought each plate to the officers.

Winters was already numb with hunger, but the smell of food made his stomach churn again.

The four soldiers didn't have any pre-meal prayer process. They could start as soon as the food was placed on the table.

But Winters just tasted the paste on the plate and almost spit out the soup he drank yesterday.

It was so disgusting, sour and smelly, as if it had been washed.

If something looks like swill, smells like swill, and tastes like swill, then it should be swill, right?

Winters looked at Andre in shock, and Andre looked at him in shock.

On the other hand, Jessica and Bud looked normal, as if they were eating different things.

"Sir, do you usually eat this?" Andre asked cautiously.

The lieutenant colonel was breaking the bread that was hard due to dehydration and replied casually: "I'm not inviting you to a banquet. I'm helping you correct your mistakes."

"What is wrong?"

"It's a mistake to get too close to the soldiers!" the lieutenant colonel said coldly: "I understand the feelings of the rural troops, but you are in the army now. Keep your distance from the soldiers, otherwise it will affect your judgment."

Although the Lieutenant Colonel didn't say it explicitly, Winters knew what the Lieutenant Colonel was referring to, which made him a little annoyed.

Andre laughed and asked Bud: "Can you eat this?"

Bud glanced at Andre and replied: "If you were born into a tenant family, you could still eat it."

"Okay, stop being picky." Lieutenant Colonel Jessica was quite dissatisfied: "It's good if you can have food in the military camp. Soldiers are not chefs. If they can cook something well, they are considered qualified. Who cares about the taste?" ?You have never fought, otherwise you would be able to eat a plate of pig food."

The three people who had gone through a lot together exchanged glances wordlessly, with no intention of correcting the lieutenant colonel.

"It's not a matter of whether we've fought or not." Andre said slowly, stirring the paste on the plate with a spoon: "It's just that in comparison, the things you have here are really hard to swallow."

"Compared with whom?" Lieutenant Colonel Jessica raised an eyebrow.

"Compared to...Monty [Montagne's nickname]'s orderly."

Lieutenant Colonel Jessica sneered, obviously not believing it.

The next day, the lieutenant colonel wrote.

On the third day, the lieutenant colonel did something "worthy of him".

Blacksmith Balian was transferred to the brigade headquarters as a full-time cook.

…

Although there was a de jure "buffer zone" between the Hittites and Plato's spheres of influence, the geographical definition of the buffer zone was constantly changing.

In the buffer zone agreed between Ned Smith and the three Hurd tribes back then, the part south of the Jinliu River is today's New Reclamation Province.

[Note: Jinliu River is the name of the rushing river in Plato]

Generally speaking, the Platuan people are pressing forward step by step, and the Hittites are retreating step by step. There is roughly a hundred kilometers of no-man's land between them.

It is said to be a no-man's land, but in fact it is not completely uninhabited.

The most common is the shepherd.

The original agreement between the two parties was that "the Platuan people will not cultivate land, and the Hittites will not herd livestock." There was no provision that the Platuan people could not herd sheep in this area.

This is not a play on words, because nomadism among the forces is a traditional skill of the Palatuan people.

As early as the year 273 of the Imperial Calendar in Plato, a national wool guild—the Mesta Honor Society—had appeared.

Even Plato's herding words have much of their etymology from Hittite.

Agriculture cannot bring gold and silver, so before the Republic era, Mesta's taxes had always been an important financial income for the Duke of Plato.

After Richard IV inherited the Duchy of Plato, he also received more than 10,000 pounds of silver income from Mesta every year. [Note: Approximately 98,000 ducats in gold coins]

The poor Palatine shepherds drove their sheep across national and religious boundaries. Not only did they have to migrate with the seasons between the forces, but they also had to guard against the plunder of the Hittites.

But it was these low-level shepherds who accumulated wealth for the Plato nobles, allowing them to build castles, hire armies, and tenaciously wage long-term wars with the Hed tribes.

In history, if Plato had not withstood the large-scale eastward invasions of the Hed tribes several times during their heyday, Forsland and Veneta would have fallen under the iron heel.

The shepherds of Plato left behind a lonely castle on the old border, as well as countless stories and legends featuring them.

Because of this, even though the vast majority of Palatuan people make a living by farming, Andrei likes to use the derogatory name "Japanese guy". We have reason to believe that this indecent description may have actually happened.

…

Sheep herding in no-man's land was considered an officially endorsed industry, and it was even a pillar industry in Plato.

However, there are also businesses that are not officially supported by Plato.

For example, some farmers who cannot afford land will secretly go to uninhabited areas to open up wasteland.

The Plato government will not go out of its way to capture them, nor will it provide any protection to the landowners, let alone recognize their property rights.

There are also many bandits and robbers who will hide on the other side of the boundary river to avoid the limelight.

Many land grabbers were brutally murdered by them, but the government rarely dispatched law enforcement forces across the border river. Such people mostly relied on bounty hunters to catch them.

Added to this are caravans and smugglers.

Plato officials sometimes allowed mutual trading, and sometimes prohibited mutual trading. The winds are always changing, but the need is always there.

As the saying goes, "Tobacco, wine, oil, cloth, and sugar come from the east, and cattle, sheep, mules, and horses come from the west."

When mutual trade is allowed, they are caravans, and when mutual trade is prohibited, they are smugglers. Anyway, there are always people driving convoys between the Hed tribes and Plato throughout the year.

For most of the time, the Plato government turned a blind eye - but that was to livestock and groceries such as cattle and horses, tobacco, alcohol, sugar and oil.

Any caravan that dares to smuggle iron, guns, and gunpowder will be punished. Even if they have crossed the center line of no man's land, the Palatine Hussars will hunt them to death.

However, because of this, the selling prices of iron tools, guns, and gunpowder in the Hed tribes were extremely high, so it was not uncommon for people to take desperate risks.

In addition to the Platuan people, there are also Hud people in this "no man's land".

The three major tribes that signed the agreement with Ned Smith were [Haidong], [Suzi], and [Telton], but there were also a large number of small and medium-sized tribes of the Hed people.

There are always Hurd tribesmen who enter the buffer zone after suffering disasters or failing to compete for pasture. These Hurd tribes are also not protected by the councils of ministries.

Sometimes they robbed Plato private settlers, and sometimes they were massacred by private settlers, bandits and even Plato hussars.

All in all, when a person steps into this "no man's land", he is leaving all the laws, rules and civilization in the world.

Hurds, shepherds, land robbers, robbers, smugglers... all kinds of people struggle to survive here.

Sometimes they cooperate and sometimes fight. Except for the sword and gun in the hand, nothing can protect a person's life and property.

The goal of the Plato Republic's current campaign is to push this area 100 kilometers further west.

…

It took the baggage team twelve full days to cross the no-man's land that was hundreds of kilometers wide.

Most of the Platuan people grew up hearing stories about "there are bandits on the other side of the border river", so they were inevitably a little wary at first.

In the end, not to mention bandits, we didn't even encounter a few rabbits.

We walked all the way without any trouble, and everyone felt a little lost.

There was nothing we could do about it. Three hundred-man teams were responsible for escorting the goods. Only bandits with bad ideas dared to attack the baggage team.

…

The buffer zone was bounded by the river on the Platuan side and also on the Hedian side.

Moreover, the boundary river of the Hedians is much more elegant than that of the Platuan people.

What blocked the convoy was a large river nearly 400 meters wide. The current was fast and bottomless, with only a swaying pontoon connecting the two banks.

After crossing the river via the pontoon bridge, the convoy stopped at the camp at the head of the bridge to rest.

However, the defenders refused to let the idlers enter the camp, and the small traders could only spend the night outside the camp.

The garrison at Qiaotou Camp was also much larger than that of the previous camp. There were enough troops of a hundred men under the full command of a captain.

After settling in the convoy, Winters and others climbed up to the camp tower to take in the view.

"Look, this river should be what Hurd calls [Kulvalea], which means the river that takes away souls, the river of the underworld." Brother Rhett pointed at the river and said with a red face: "I have heard this for a long time. The river is so majestic and you can see it today, it truly lives up to its reputation!”

"Culvalea...Culvalea..." Winters chewed the word for a while, and suddenly realized: "Isn't Culvalea a kind of dance? It seems like...the Dance to the River Styx ?”

Brother Rhett chuckled and said: "You are still not convinced that you are uneducated and incompetent. That is [culvaletta]. The etymology is the same, but the affixes are different."

He only heard Hestace say it once, and Winters couldn't remember how to read it. Thinking of the old shaman, he sighed sadly.

"Why are you sighing with such a magnificent view in front of you? The wind is ruining your mood!" The old monk rolled his eyes.

"I think of an old friend." Winters smiled: "Old man, you have to live a little longer, don't die casually!"

"Don't worry! I will definitely be alive before I die!" The old monk laughed, but he didn't shy away from it.

There probably won’t be any tonight. I have been writing since 4 o’clock yesterday morning. In the past few days, I would go home and sleep first, then get up and write. I will try to adjust to the jet lag by having a good rest tonight.

Thanks to the book friends who voted for recommendation before;

Thanks to book friends Soda Bird and Knight of Heaven and Earth for their recommendation votes;

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