Alien Knights

Viscount Bartley's territory is located forty-five kilometers southeast of Muxi Town. Its jurisdiction includes seven villages, a quarry, a mill, and the fortress where the Viscount himself lives.

Todd discussed the details of the battle with Cumberland repeatedly before sending troops.

The advice given to him by the old knight is that the number of troops sent does not need to be too large, and the main force of the battle is the cavalry. If the viscount sends his troops out to the field, he will rely on the strength of the Muxi Knights to defeat the opponent's troops and take advantage of the situation to occupy the fortress; if the opponent chooses to stick to it, he will give up attacking the fortress and focus on plundering the population and wealth in the territory.

In terms of troop configuration, Huggins' "Successor" combat team was listed as the first choice, and then Cumberland dispatched 20 sergeants and 10 light cavalry from his subordinates as support, and finally selected 60 militiamen from Muxi Town as auxiliary troops.

At first, Todd expressed concern to Cumberland about the attack on the fortress by an army of only a hundred people, but the old knight didn't take it seriously at all, and said bluntly: "My lord, your worries are meaningless. From my point of view, there is no army in the Silver Ring Kingdom that can confront your heterogeneous cavalry head-on."

As for the commander of this battle, Cumberland naturally had no time to take care of it because he was busy recruiting prisoners and managing the security of Muxi Town. The rest of the knights did not have enough prestige to manage this army. In the end, Todd had to go out in person and assumed the role of commander. To his surprise, Rachel volunteered to join the army.

On April 3, 1171, an army composed of aliens, sergeants, and militiamen left the camp and started the first foreign battle in the history of Muxi Town, which also marked the official beginning of the expansion of the Muxi Knights.

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"These serfs don't seem to be afraid of us?" Walking on the dirt road in the village, Todd looked at the men, women and children standing in front of the large and small farmhouses. The latter's faces were full of curiosity and excitement, but there was no fear or anxiety.

Huggins rode a little closer on his horse, and replied in a low voice: "Muxi Town is a land of miracles, and this matter has already spread throughout the kingdom. What's more, there are several serf families in our town who came from here, and now their lives, which are comparable to nobles, have already been informed to the people here through the mouths of merchants. If it wasn't for the lord's forcible obstruction, these people might have wanted to give up their lives here and go to Muxi Town."

Todd nodded after hearing this, and looked at the flag behind him. The red cross in the pattern of "protective umbrella" was fluttering in the wind. He turned around and asked, "How far is it to Viscount Bartley's fortress?"

Edgar gnawed on the wheat cake in his hand, and said vaguely: "Go through a village and walk for another 20 minutes."

While waiting for the troops to actually march to the fortress, Todd looked at the building in front of him and was immediately disappointed.

The so-called fortress is a circle of walls made of polished stones. The outside is 25 meters long and 20 meters wide. The three-meter-high wall has six minarets and crenels, and a one-meter-wide passage is reserved on the top. There is also a battlement wall next to the passage to block the arrows of the siege army. Inside the city walls, there are lords' residences, barracks, warehouses, wells and some civilian facilities.

When Todd first heard the word fortress, the first reaction in Todd's mind was moats, urns, castles, watchtowers, and the majestic city walls that stretched for several miles. But the pile of stones in front of him is really shabby. The huge gap between reality and imagination made him a little at a loss.

The troops of the Muxi Knights stopped at a distance of 150 meters from the fortress. Todd looked at the densely packed soldiers standing on the city wall, and a few noble-looking people in armor pointed at them.

Edgar counted carefully with the ability of "Eagle Eye", and then said to the chief: "There are about 110 people on the city wall."

Todd made some calculations on combat power and understood that under the current situation, the possibility of the defenders taking the initiative to attack is not high. So, he dispersed 20 sergeants and 60 militiamen to the surrounding villages, organized the serfs to load the belongings they could take away into carriages, and began the transfer of population and wealth, leaving only Huggins' "successor" team and 10 light cavalry around.

The people on the city wall saw this move and began to talk about it, and the increasingly fierce quarrel reached Todd's ears.

After repeatedly confirming that the invading enemy had dispersed most of their troops to other places and was unable to return for a short period of time, Viscount Bartley's fortress gate was opened, and all the defenders were mobilized to attack Todd's troops at full speed with the idea of ​​a quick battle.

In order to boost morale, Lord Viscount and his vassal barons and knights shouted their battle horns loudly and rushed to the front line of the attacking troops.

In contrast to the Muxi Knights, Huggins and his "Successor" team unhurriedly climbed onto the horses, moved their arms, twisted their necks, then turned their horses' heads and rushed towards the defenders of the fortress.

The two armies are fighting together, and the strength is divided.

Fortress defenders, no matter what kind of weapons they have, cannot cause substantial damage to the "Successor" who has four layers of protection: armor, "keel", "metal skin", and "regeneration". However, the "Successors" can easily defeat any enemy in front of them by relying on the alien war horses under them and the "Dragon Bones" on their bodies.

The battle lasted only 5 minutes, and ended with the viscount being captured alive.

Except for a small number of people who fled, the vast majority chose to surrender to the Muxi Knights.

After the war, the knights found valuable treasures and a large amount of gold and silver coins from the viscount's residence. Todd looked at these gold, silver and jewels filled with a carriage, and was full of emotions. The hard work of farming and harvesting was not as enjoyable as a robbery.

Before returning, Rachel suddenly found Todd and said to him: "Chief, the number of aliens in Muxi Town has exceeded 100 people, and this is the upper limit of aliens we can recruit in the surrounding area. There are only two ways to further expand the alien race. One is to increase the territory of Muxi Town, so that we can expand the scope of recruitment; as for the second method..."

Watching the woman pull out a map from her bag, which was marked with dotted red circles, Todd looked at her with some confusion.

"There is another way, which is to try to contact those "hardliners" among the alien species..."

Todd heard a strange word in Rachel's mouth, and asked involuntarily, "'Hardliner'?"

Rachel unfolded the map, pointed to the red circles of different sizes and said: "The so-called 'hardliners' refer to those aliens who live alone and do not want to be disturbed by others. On the one hand, these aliens may have powerful abilities. When facing organizations such as heresy hunters or relief societies, they are completely able to protect themselves or even fight back; .”

Alien species with powerful abilities, far away from the world, unwilling to be disturbed. Todd touched the bridge of his nose. If they can really be persuaded to join Muxi Town, it will not only enrich the laboratory's "Ability Library", but also enhance the strength of the "Successor" troops.

Rachel continued: "In order to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings, I suggest that the first contact with the 'hardliners' should be as few people as possible on our side."

Todd looked at the woman and asked: "This is no problem, so where should we start first?"

Rachel moved her finger to a red circle on the map: "There is a cave four kilometers south of here. According to the investigation, there is a strange species inside. From the appearance, it is a thirteen or fourteen-year-old girl who can use the power of lightning."

Todd discussed with the woman for a while, and then made the following decision: he, Rachel, and Huggins went to the cave to persuade the alien, and the others escorted the captives and belongings back to Muxi Town.

After handling the handover matters, the three left the large team and rushed to the cave Rachel had mentioned.

Finding a hidden woods outside the entrance of the cave, tied the horse and brought weapons, Huggins lit a torch, and walked in the forefront, followed by Todd and Rachel.

The cave is somewhat damp, and scattered animal bones can be seen everywhere on the ground. The slope became steeper as they went in, and the three finally came to a room that resembled a cave hall.

With the torch in Hudgens' hand, Todd saw the whole room. The floor was covered with thick animal furs, and there were tattered daily necessities at the base of the wall. There were various charcoal graffiti on the wall. In the center of the room, in front of a huge natural raised stone table, someone made several human figures out of clay.

Todd approached the clay figure, just about to take a closer look.

A childish and crisp voice sounded from the other end of the cave.

"You are not allowed to touch my parents! 』

Todd followed the voice and finally saw the alien girl Rachel was talking about.

This thirteen-year-old girl's hair and eyebrows are all snow-white; her skin is also different from ordinary people, under the firelight, it is fair and flawless, and there is no trace of stain or pigment; her pupils show a sickly pale pink.

A girl with albinism.

This was Todd's first reaction.

But the girl's next move made him gasp in surprise.

In the dim underground cave, many blue "threads" began to glow slowly in the girl's body. The light grew stronger and stronger, even covering the light of the torch.

The girl took out an iron arrowhead from the shabby pocket, and put it on her chest. Then she stretched out her arms, facing each other in parallel. The blue "silk thread" under the skin of the arms, like a coil in a circuit, was wrapped round and round around the two arms.

Looking at the girl's actions, Todd always felt that this scene was very similar to a certain weapon seen on TV in his previous life.

After thinking for a while, Todd suddenly opened his eyes, grabbed Rachel and Hudgens, pulled them to the ground, and shouted loudly: "Get down!"

At this moment, as the blue "silk thread" on the girl's body became brighter, the sound of crackling electrical sparks came from the air. After the iron arrow trembled slightly, like a bullet fired from the chamber, it shot out at high speed from the "channel" between the girl's arms, and smashed into the wall of the cave, creating a large hole with a diameter of 30 cm.

Todd looked at this scene with a pale face, and finally remembered the full name of this weapon in his previous life.

"Electromagnetic Railgun".