At eleven in the morning, Claude brought Myjack and Gum to a stop at the entrance of the winding path, which was also the border between the mountains and the Black Forest.
The stream flowed down from the mountains into a small river that flowed deeper into the Black Forest. The riverbank there became the best place for travelers to stop and rest.
They set off from Hesse at half past six in the morning and it took them nearly four and a half hours to get there.
Apart from that, they were quite lucky as well. They didn't run into any trouble at the four campsites along the way. The only thing they encountered was a surprise attack from the bandits.
"Let's rest for half an hour and feed the horses some water. We'll eat some rations too. If everything goes smoothly, we'll reach Whitestag by four in the afternoon.
But since we didn't run into the bandits in the Black Forest, we'll have to be careful. We'll be ambushed on the winding path.
You two, keep your guard up. I don't want to see you two bleeding before we reach home. "Claude dismounted and led the horses to the riverbank before letting them drink water.
Myjack was still sitting on the driver's seat with a telescope in his hand. He was carefully observing both sides of the path.
Gum, on the other hand, jumped off the carriage and parked it. Then, he unloaded the two draft horses and untied the reins of the two healthy horses at the back of the carriage. Then, he led the four horses to the riverbank.
"Sir, there's no movement on the mountain. I don't see any signs of an ambush," Myjack said as he put away the telescope.
"That means there isn't. I don't believe a few bandits would be able to escape our eyes.
Let's rest for a bit. We'll scout out the area before we set off. "Claude crouched down and found a puddle to wash his hands.
"Jack, bring me the sack of ingredients from the carriage," Gum called out.
"Got it."
Myjack stood up and dragged the bulging sack off the back of the carriage, placing it on the ground beside the carriage with great difficulty.
He jumped off the carriage and untied the tightly fastened sack. He then took out five smaller sackcloth sacks and placed the oats, black beans, and chopped straw from the big sack into the five sackcloth sacks.
Once the sacks were tied to the necks of the horses, the five horses would be able to eat the concentrate from the opening of the sacks. This was the basic way to feed the horses on the road.
Gum took a bag from one of the horses and handed it to Claude. He then helped Myjack tie the five sacks around the horses' necks and put them in their mouths so that the horses could feed on their own.
Claude, on the other hand, found a flat rock and opened his bag to take out the rations he had prepared in the tavern.
Hound Tavern's most famous delicacy was their roast rabbit. The rabbit's stomach was stuffed with fresh mushrooms that tasted delicious with the juices seeping into them.
Of course, that was only when it was steaming hot. The three roast rabbits were cold and didn't taste all that good. Claude ate two mouthfuls of the mushrooms and found them tasteless. He took two slices of white bread and smeared some butter and honey on it before grabbing a piece of dried meat for lunch.
Myjack only tore off the hind leg of one of the roast rabbits. All three ended up in Gum's stomach.
As they might run into the bandits in the afternoon, the three of them didn't drink any alcohol. They ate their cold lunch with the cold water in the military bottle.
After resting for a while, they resumed their journey.
This time, Claude rode at the front of the carriage while Gum drove. Myjack used his spyglass to observe the situation ahead.
The mountain path was very quiet. They didn't encounter any merchants or pedestrians coming from Whitestag. The only sounds they heard were the wheels of the carriage and the clop-clop of the horses' hooves.
After walking for an hour and a half, Myjack finally noticed something amiss. "Sir, look ahead."
Gum stopped the carriage and Claude turned his horse around to the side of the carriage. He took the spyglass from Myjack and looked in the direction he was pointing.
The three of them had stopped at a high slope of the mountain path, which led to a hollow. The carriage had to follow the mountain path to the bottom of the hollow, and then climb up the mountain path to the opposite slope, which happened to be where the mountain path turned. On the slope next to the mountain path, there was a large tree growing abruptly.
Through the frame of the monocular, he could clearly see that the leaves of the big tree were half-withered, and there were messy traces of ropes being tied around the tree trunk …
Looking at the gentle slope and the thick shrubs at the bottom of the hollow, Claude realized what was going on.
It was obvious that the bandits had given up on ambushing the merchants at the border of the mountain path and the Black Forest because they felt that the terrain there was better.
As long as the pedestrians and vehicles reached the bottom of the hollow, the big tree on the hillside in front of them would be put down and block the mountain road. The mountain road behind them would be blocked, and the peddlers and vehicles at the bottom of the hollow would be like turtles in a jar, unable to escape.
The success rate of robbing here should be much higher than at the river at the entrance of the hollow.
After all, the terrain there was more open and it would be easy for them to escape.
"How many bandits did you find lying in ambush?" Claude asked Myjack as he used the spyglass to observe the terrain.
"I only found something off in four directions. I don't think there are many people lying in ambush ahead, maybe five or six. There's too much shrubs on the side of the slope, so I didn't find anything suspicious. However, I'm certain that the bandits have also set up an ambush on the side of the slope," Myjack replied in a similar whisper.
Claude nodded. They were all veterans who had followed him to ambush the Canasian scouts and were naturally well-versed in the art of hiding and ambushing.
That was something they learned from risking their lives on the battlefield. No matter what, it was much more perfect than the messy concealment of the bandits.
The eyes of the Canasian scouts were sharper than an eagle's. The slightest mistake in an ambush on the battlefield would be noticed and the ambush would turn into an ambush. Those who failed paid the price with their lives and those who didn't know how to hide perfectly were eliminated.
The bandits' ambush was full of flaws in the eyes of Claude and the other two. They didn't even know how to block the light and allowed their blades to shine in the grass.
Even the tree growing at the corner of the path looked rather unnatural. Anyone with a discerning eye would be able to tell at a glance that something was amiss.
No caravan would allow such a large tree to pose a threat to their carriages. Those who noticed it would have long since been chopped down.
The only thing that puzzled Claude was that there weren't many bandits lying in ambush on the hill up ahead. But when he thought about the gentle slopes on both sides of the hollow and his current position, it was obvious that the bandits had split up into two or three groups to flank him to prevent any fat sheep that got caught from escaping.
It was a pity that they didn't understand that splitting up was useless against Claude and the other two. They didn't know that distance would greatly affect the outcome of an ambush.
"Let's go down. Don't let them wait too long. Also, deal with the enemies on the slope on the other side first. Then, use the terrain to block the rest of the bandits behind the carriage. Understood?"
"Hyah!"
The big man whipped the reins and the carriage sped down the mountain path. Claude urged his horse to follow behind.
Walking down the two to three hundred meters long mountain path, the flat mountain path at the bottom of the valley was about a hundred meters long.
Many caravans would slow down at the bottom of the depression if they wanted to conserve their horses before slowly climbing up the slope.
Gum, however, wanted to use the momentum of the descent to have the two horses pull the carriage across the flat path to the slope on the other side.
This was out of the expectations of the bandits lying in ambush on the opposite hillside. They didn't even care about exposing themselves as they directly jumped out of their hiding spots and yelled for the trees to be released, the trees to be released, and so on and so forth …
At the bend of the mountain road, the towering tree on the hillside finally fell down. When the carriage was about fifty to sixty meters away from the road, it blocked the way.
Seeing that the carriage was stopped, the six jubilant bandits waved the weapons in their hands and rushed down the hillside, shouting something like "Robbery!
Raise your hands in surrender!
You want money but not your life … "
But all that awaited them was the sound of a gunshot. Claude had already dismounted and was standing beside the carriage. He raised his musket and fired at the leading bandit with a stone crossbow.
He then handed the musket to Myjack to load and load it. He took the other musket and began to aim at another bandit with a bow and arrow in his hand.
Four gunshots rang out and four bandits collapsed on the slope.
The last two bandits with spears and daggers were about ten meters away from the carriage when their footsteps slowed down.
Claude and Myjack were unhurriedly reloading their muskets while their four comrades were already on the ground. Looking at the daggers and spears in their hands, the two of them didn't know whether they should charge forward and fight.
Gum had already charged forward, throwing the two javelins in his hands.
The two bandits looked as if they were struck by lightning. They trembled as they reached for the javelins in their chests and fell to the ground with blood spurting out of their mouths and noses.
Only then did the silhouettes of about ten bandits appear on the hill where Claude's carriage had stopped. Another ten or so bandits jumped out from the bushes on both sides of the hill.
However, the bandits on the opposite slope were still more than four hundred meters away from Claude's carriage. The bandits hiding at the bottom of the slope would have to run another two hundred meters to reach Claude's carriage.
This was an unexpected situation that the bandits had never expected. Usually, it was very easy for them to ambush these passing merchants and independent carriages.
Once the two sides of the slope were blocked, the bandits on the other side of the slope would jump out and anyone who fell into the trap would obediently surrender and beg for their lives to be spared.
But this time, there was a big surprise. No one expected that the three of them, a carriage, and five horses would rush up the opposite hill without stopping.
Although the big tree on the other side blocked their way, none of the six accomplices who were lying in ambush survived. They were easily dealt with by the three of them.
But that didn't matter. They had more than ten times the number of bandits on their side.
A one-eyed bandit with a black eyepatch waved his old-fashioned musket at Claude's group and yelled at the bandits at the bottom of the slope, "Charge! Kill them! Avenge Heim and the rest!"
By then, the three muskets had been reloaded and were leaning against the carriage.
Myjack looked at the bandits charging down the slope and curled his lips. "Why aren't they riding horses?"
Myjack thought it through and replied, "Oh, they can't hide their horses during the ambush. Also, they might've killed the horses to fill their stomachs."
That was quite possible. It wasn't easy for 40 bandits to survive in the wilderness. Without sufficient food, even the dead bandits might end up in their stomachs, let alone horses.
Big Gum called out: "Jack, bring the two horses behind the carriage, I will see if I can pull this tree out of the way."
By the time Myjack returned with the two horses to Big Gum, the dozen or so bandits running down the hill were still a hundred meters behind them.
"They sure are slow," Myjack said disdainfully, "Are they hungry?"
"That's possible.
"Look at their footsteps. They're a little unsteady, as if they lack the strength to support themselves.
I'm guessing they might be lacking in salt. Salt can't be bought or looted in the wilderness.
You open fire later. You hit the left and I'll hit the right. The time it takes for them to reach us should be enough for us to reload three times. "
Claude wasn't wrong. When the bandits were a hundred metres away, they didn't even need to fire three times. Instead, they only fired five times before the remaining six bandits scrambled back. By the time they reached the bottom of the slope, they bumped into more than ten bandits coming from the opposite slope.
However, the bandits no longer had the guts to go up the slope. Eleven of their comrades had already fallen and there were only about twenty of them left.
However, they weren't willing to give up on Claude's group. As such, the six bandits that escaped became their scapegoats and were beaten up and insulted by the remaining bandits.
Gum had already used two horses to drag the tree on the path to the side. Finding it an eyesore, he untied the rope and kicked the tree down the slope. Seeing that the enemy hadn't reached them yet, he asked, "Sir, why don't we leave and ignore these cowards?"
As soon as he said that, Myjack pointed at the bandits at the foot of the hill. "Sir, look at that one-eyed man with a black eye patch. Isn't he the leader of the bandits called One-Eyed Lambach? The second lieutenant from Hesse said that he has a bounty of eighty crowns on his head."
Claude leapt onto his horse. "Let's lure them over. Charge within a hundred metres and aim. If they come after us, we'll retreat."
Claude's group charged down the hill and fired when they were within a hundred meters of the bandits. Three bandits were shot and fell to the ground. The remaining bandits rushed up the hill amidst the black-eyed bandit's curses and screams.
By the time Claude's group returned to the carriage and reloaded their ammunition, the enemies at the bottom of the slope weren't even within a hundred metres of them.
This time, Claude aimed and fired. By the time the first and second shots hit the two bandits at the front, the remaining bandits had already turned and fled.
On the other hand, the one-eyed bandit and the other bandit also fired at Claude's group with their old-fashioned muskets. However, the bullets flew off into the distance and the two bandits turned and ran.
"Gum, get on your horse. Don't let the two with the muskets go." Claude rode down the slope with Gum following behind him with a few javelins in hand.
About 60 meters away from the fleeing bandits, Claude stopped his horse and focused his attention on the one-eyed bandit. Gum, the big one, sped past him.
Bang!
A gunshot rang out. The one-eyed bandit clutched his chest and fell to the ground. The bandits beside him yelled, "Big Boss is dead!"
Gum was already very close to the escaping bandits. Javelins were hurled out one after another, piercing through the bodies of four to five bandits, including one who was holding a musket.
"Not good, the second-in-command is dead too."
A few bandits gathered together and one of them yelled, "Don't run! They're coming! Let's fight it out with them! Otherwise, none of us will be able to escape!"
Claude was already in front of them with his shotgun in hand. Bang!
The four bandits were turned into sieves and the world was finally peaceful.
"Put down your weapons. Those who kneel and surrender will be spared!" Claude said as he pointed the empty shotgun at the remaining bandits.
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