Chapter 446

Martin was also very martial. After seeing Litt put down his sword, he also took it back, indicating that he would not threaten Litt.

The Antica army was naturally overjoyed to see their commander win, while the soldiers of the Naples army were also timid when they saw that Martin, who was usually invincible on the battlefield, could not beat the opponent.

The two fought for more than ten minutes. If there had not been the previous conversation and the subsequent duel, this thousand-man army should have collapsed long ago.

"There is nothing to say, I am willing to accept the loss." Martin spread his hands helplessly, and then turned to look at his own troops.

"Brothers, we can't beat this army. For the sake of your lives, we will retreat to the base camp to rest first, and then make plans later."

With this order, the soldiers quickly put down their weapons, and then followed Martin out of here in an orderly manner.

"Leet... Master, is it okay to just let them go?" Virgil came up at this time, looked at the peasant army that had left, and looked at Leet beside him in confusion.

"Of course it's okay." Leet said this, as if she was still immersed in the exciting battle just now. She let out a long breath, and then said; "Orson once taught me that attacking the city is inferior to attacking the heart."

"This peasant army has only a little over a thousand people. Even if they retreat, it will not be such a big blow to us. On the contrary, when I talked to their commander just now, I realized that what we did before was not enough."

"Not enough?" Virgil asked in confusion.

"We have obviously reduced taxes in the occupied areas, and the governance and public security are also well maintained. Even so, are we not doing enough?"

"Yes, it is indeed not enough." Leet nodded. "At least, in their view, giving up resistance is not just about what we do."

"We also need to see what their superiors will do. Only when their superiors are disappointed will they lay down their weapons and choose to resist." Litt said this and continued to analyze.

"Look, Virgil, this army is clearly an army guarding the outer defense line. If we use troops normally, the first army to meet the enemy will put troops above the standard line even if we don't use the most elite troops, right? But the enemy didn't do that. From equipment to morale, their army is all like a peasant army, which is what we commonly call the third-line troops, cannon fodder."

"Generally speaking, cannon fodder is sandwiched between regular troops and follows the regular army to charge, so that morale will not collapse. However, this army can go to the front line and is listed separately in the outermost layer, which means that the commander does not want them to survive."

"So, as long as they realize this, they will easily understand that they have been betrayed, and then they will help us."

"I didn't expect that Master Litt could think of this level." Virgil did not hesitate to praise him.

"Hehe, this is what Orson told me, Virgil, you don't have to be so surprised." Litt smiled shyly when he heard Virgil say this.

"...Master Lit, you have really grown a lot." Virgil said this, his eyes full of relief.

"If you want to praise, praise Orson, he taught well."

"However, this army is only a thousand people at most, and they are mainly peasants. Even if they betray, the reward we get doesn't seem to be that much."

"Virgil, sometimes, doing things is not all about rewards. Although they are only a thousand people, it is at least a thousand lives. We can't save people on the front battlefield, but in this case, it can make more people repent, which is also a good thing for the rulers who will take root here in the future."

"Who will be the ruler in the future? It seems that it has nothing to do with us, right?"

"Well... who knows?" Lit said this, turned on the horse, and continued to lead the army forward to take over this position.

...

Martin led his army to retreat. On the way of retreat, he ran into Wiltz who came with the support troops.

"Martin? What's going on with you?" Wiltz saw the retreating army. Although everyone was retreating, they were in an orderly and complete military appearance. They didn't look like they had lost a battle at all.

More importantly, the number of people did not decrease, and there were no injuries.

Could it be that there was no fighting?

"Wiltz, is this the reinforcement you brought?" Martin said, looking at the troops behind Wiltz.

"Ah... because other fronts were also attacked, there was no way to allocate so many troops behind, so I could only bring the general's guards here."

"Is that so... there's nothing I can do." Martin heard Wiltz say this and sighed helplessly.

"By the way, Martin, what about you? What's the situation?"

Martin told Wiltz about the bet he made with Litt. Wiltz sighed when he heard it.

"Well, that's good, otherwise I would bring 500 people here now, and I guess I would come to collect your bodies." He said this and patted Martin on the shoulder.

"It's okay. It doesn't matter if you lose. The lives of our brothers are saved. As long as we have the green mountains, we will not be afraid of running out of firewood. Just don't let the people above know about this, otherwise they will think you are colluding with the enemy and lock you up."

"Of course I know that." Martin nodded, and then everyone turned back to the base camp.

When he approached the base camp and saw the flags in the camp, Martin looked at Wirtz in confusion.

"Wirtz, didn't you say there were no reserves?"

"Indeed, these are all the general's guards." Wirtz explained helplessly.

"I wanted them to give me more at first, but they only gave me 500."

"Didn't you tell them that the number of enemies was at least more than 10,000?"

"I did! But they didn't listen." Wirtz also complained.

Just as the two people complained to each other about the military system, someone came over from the other side.

"What's the situation? How did you come back so quickly?" Garibaldi's adjutant frowned as he looked at the returning peasant army.

"How did we come back so quickly!?" Martin was furious when he saw the other party, and his tone became stern.

"Let me ask you, will you be satisfied only if we die on the front line to the last man and stop consuming your food and grass?"

"What are you talking about?" The adjutant came up. Of course, he knew Martin, the rookie in the army.

After all, Martin has killed more than a hundred enemies since the beginning of the war.

Such a brave warrior must be promoted, so Garibaldi gave him the position of commander of a thousand-man army.

Logically, the other party should be fighting on the front line now, but he actually came back.

It's okay to come back, but why did he get so angry when he saw me? This made the adjutant very confused.

Just when Wiltz was about to go up and act as a peacemaker to separate the two people, he was stopped by Martin.

"Wiltz, don't interrupt, I have something to ask him in person."

As he said this, Martin looked at the adjutant, and the lion-like momentum made the adjutant a little scared.

"No... Officer, is there anything we can't talk about nicely? Why do you have to talk to me like this?"

"Then let me ask you, when the front line was in danger and I sent people to ask for help, why did you delay again and again, and finally only sent 500 people to support?"

"This is what the general meant." The adjutant said so, and quickly pushed the ball to the supreme commander.

Anyway, no matter how powerful Martin is, he is a nobleman, and he can't go against Garibaldi's will.

Because Garibaldi represents Giovanni's will.

"You always blame the leader when you encounter problems. Aren't you ashamed?!" Wirtz next to him couldn't help it anymore at this time.

"At that time, General Garibaldi meant to let you take me to select people, instead of giving you the quota of 500 people in advance. After all, these 500 people were selected by you. What does it have to do with the general?!"

"This..." The adjutant was panicked for a while when he heard Wirtz say this, and then he immediately came back to his senses.

"No, that's not the question now. The question now is, shouldn't you fight on the front line? I told you at the time that I would allocate 500 people to you and let you hold on for a while longer. What do you mean by coming back now?"

"What do you mean? The front line can't be defended at all. The number of enemies far exceeds 10,000, and their equipment is better than ours. If we are trapped there, we won't be able to hold on for even half an hour and will be wiped out."

"But that was an order! It was an order to let you hold on! Even if you all die in battle, you must follow the order. This is the duty of a soldier!"

At this time, the adjutant looked past the two people and saw the troops behind them. After measuring the approximate number of people with his eyes, the adjutant was so angry that his fingers pointing at the two people trembled.

"You... It seems that you have withdrawn without any resistance? Wait, I will report to the general."

After saying this, the adjutant turned his head and left angrily.

Martin and Wirtz looked at each other, and neither of them knew what to say.

"Anyway, at least we won't be idle now, right?"

"Well..." Martin nodded, and took his men to find a place to camp.

...

At night, the adjutant who was driven away in the daytime came here with a few soldiers.

He changed his arrogant attitude and came to Martin with a smile.

"Well, Sergeant Martin, the general invites you."

"Also, what happened today was my fault, I apologize to you here." After saying this, the adjutant lowered his attitude to the lowest level.

"Humph." Martin didn't give the other party a good look, but after all, it was the general's invitation, Martin still had to follow.

Came to the general's tent, at this moment, the stove had been lit, and the best wine and meat were laid out, which formed a sharp contrast with the residence of ordinary soldiers outside.

As soon as he walked in here, Martin felt uncomfortable.

Obviously, the soldiers were all wearing severe cold clothes, but these drunkard commanders were enjoying the same life as usual, or even more luxurious life here, which was really puzzling.

At this moment, in the central military tent, in addition to Martin and Garibaldi, there were several senior officers. They sat here without touching their food, and seemed to give Martin enough face.

As soon as Martin entered the military tent, General Garibaldi, who was sitting in the center, immediately smiled.

"Sergeant Martin, long time no see, how are you?"

"...Thanks to the general, I'm fine."

"Come on, take a seat." Garibaldi said, pointing to the last seat, motioning Martin to sit down.

Martin did not refuse and sat down directly.

Then, a lot of food and drinks were placed in front of him.

"I don't need it." Martin said, shaking his head. "These things are expensive. Instead of buying these things, it's better to buy more warm clothes and more rations for the soldiers."

"Well, our Sergeant Martin loves his soldiers like his sons." At this time, a senior officer sitting next to him laughed and teased.

"This is not loving soldiers like sons. I think this should be the most basic way to control soldiers. The gap between commanders and soldiers is too big, which will only make soldiers disunited."

"Okay, today's meal uses my personal money. Is Sergeant Martin satisfied?" Garibaldi said, picking up a piece of meat and putting it into his mouth.

"Come on, let's eat."

As Garibaldi said this, others also began to eat and drink.

Only Martin was still sitting there, looking at the table of delicious food and wine in front of him, without moving.

"Sergeant Martin, why don't you eat?" Garibaldi had eaten half of the dish, and only then saw Martin sitting there motionless, and asked curiously.

"Sorry, I don't know why the general asked me to come here today."

"Oh, you are talking about this." Garibaldi smiled when he heard it.

"Today, because of my mistake, Sergeant Martin was in danger. Fortunately, you were resourceful and calm in the face of danger, and withdrew all the troops in time, which ensured the vitality of our army. Is this a good reason?"

"If this is the reason, forget it." Martin said this and shook his head. "After all, the army was able to retreat unscathed, and it was not because of me."

"Oh? What do you mean?" Garibaldi said this and narrowed his eyes.

The reason why he pulled Martin into this place that was not for a low-ranking officer like him was that he felt a little guilty about what happened this afternoon and wanted to ease the relationship, but more importantly, he valued Martin's background.

Martin's family was a noble family in Florence. It would be fine if he died on the battlefield, but if the things in the army were revealed, and the family used this to put pressure on him, it would still disgust Garibaldi.

But now Martin has challenged Garibaldi's bottom line again and again. Even if Garibaldi knew that Martin's family was aristocratic, he would not be able to speak softly.

I respect you and respect you as a general, but you have to give me enough respect.

Martin obviously didn't want to respect Garibaldi too much.

Martin looked at Garibaldi and remembered that he had told Wirtz this afternoon that the duel could not be told, so he shook his head.

"Nothing, I just don't think my contribution is that great. As a commander, at least half of the credit on the battlefield belongs to my soldiers. They executed well during the retreat and did not collapse, which left the enemy no chance to pursue."

"That's true." Seeing that the atmosphere had eased, Garibaldi told his other purpose.

"By the way, Chief Martin, there is another reason for calling you here this time. Why don't you guess?"

"I'm sorry I don't know..."

"Okay, if you don't want to guess, I'll just tell you." Garibaldi called his adjutant, took out a letter of appointment from behind, and then asked the adjutant to hand it to Martin.

"This is a commendation for you. From today on, the commander of that army is no longer you. Your talent deserves to bloom on a higher stage."

Martin looked at the promotion book, which showed his promoted position.

From Chief Sergeant to Sergeant Major, the troops he commanded also increased from one thousand to five thousand.

It can be said that this is a promotion for himself.

Martin looked at Garibaldi puzzled.

I was defeated today, and when I came back, I had a big fight with Garibaldi's trusted adjutant. I thought today's dinner would be a Hongmen Banquet, but it turned out to be a celebration banquet?

What is Garibaldi doing?

"Sergeant Martin... No, I should call you Sergeant Martin now. Don't look at us with such strange eyes. Although the army values ​​seniority, it values ​​ability more. Your ability is obvious to all. If it were someone else today, this army would definitely not be able to get out of it unscathed, so I chose to promote you from so many reserve lists." Garibaldi wiped his mouth at this moment, stood up, and came to Martin.