Chapter 78 Mountain Encampment
"Enough! Stop it, all of you!"
Finally, someone calmed down first and quickly spoke up to stop them. "Don't forget what General Frol and Marshal Saslov told us before we set out!"
The soldiers who had been wrestling with each other immediately stopped, exchanged glances full of disdain and annoyance, then simply got up and stood together properly—just with some distance between them.
The sudden shift left Anne and the others amazed and curious about what had been said. But for the rest of the journey, the six remained silent.
Anne had no choice but to follow more closely to avoid missing any conversation they might have.
Perhaps because of the earlier fight, all six people including Zotfort seemed distracted, and they looked back much less frequently.
They continued like this until they reached a fork in the road. The six men glanced at a tree by the fork and decisively took the right path. Duncan checked the direction—it wasn't the road leading to the Viller Empire.
He turned back and nodded to the others. "Doesn't seem to be heading back to the military camp. There might really be a base around here."
"I'll circle around to the cliff above them and take a look. You guys keep following, and don't get lost."
Anne gave him a helpless glance. "Just go already."
"You got it."
With permission granted, Duncan grinned, immediately pulled a dagger from his boot, circled around back, and nimbly climbed up the cliff face. His skilled movements made Cynthia grit her teeth and mutter, "This guy told me before that he wasn't good at climbing. He insisted I climb up the tree myself to scout the situation!"
The three people beside her all smiled, and Samira almost couldn't hold back her laughter. "You actually believed him when he said that? Don't you know Duncan spends all his time out in the wild? Climbing mountains is nothing to him—how could he not know how to climb trees?"
"I... I... I'll make him pay for this when this is over!"
Morris quickly took her side. "Alright, when we're done fighting and head back, I'll help our young lady catch him."
"I don't need your help—I can do it myself!"
The four of them laughed and joked around. After walking for another three hours, Anne suddenly stopped, raised her finger to her lips to signal silence, then peeked out to look ahead before quickly turning back. "We're here."
Everyone immediately became serious. Seeing how quickly they got into position, Anne nodded approvingly. "From our angle, their camp seems to be in a valley."
"Looks like there are only about two soldiers guarding the entrance. Those six just said something before being let in. As for what it's like inside, we'll have to wait for Duncan to get back to find out."
Samira frowned at this. "If it's inside a valley, that means there's only one entrance and exit—it's always been an easy-to-defend, hard-to-attack position. No wonder they chose this place. They know that even if someone comes, it won't be easy to break in."
Cynthia also turned to Anne. "What about using the same method as before—just send a herd of beasts in?"
Anne shook her head. "Setting aside the fact that this is already mountainous terrain where buffalo herds won't come, even if they did, given how narrow the valley is, only one or two could run in at a time. That would be enough for them to pick off one by one, and we'd just end up providing food for their army."
"As for other animals, the Else Mountains aren't like the Drogo Mountains. The animals here don't have much aggression. Even in groups, they can't cause them any harm."
"Anne's right."
Duncan suddenly appeared from the cliff face, swinging down with his dagger before landing and speaking seriously. "The Viller Empire people really know how to pick locations. This valley isn't big—narrow at the top and wide at the bottom. The only ventilation is at the top and the valley entrance, but actually, the height difference between the valley top and the entrance is only about ten meters. They must have dug straight down several dozen meters, deliberately carving out this space. I just looked through the telescope—rough estimate is about three or four thousand people. With our forces, it'll be hard to take them down."
"Plus, on the southwest side, they seem to have a food storage area. Even if we block the entrance, they probably won't have much trouble in the short term. They could even send up signal smoke to call for help. Then we'd be the ones surrounded."
Anne frowned. If things continued to develop this way, once those deserters informed the rear army about the battle situation, the allied forces of the two countries would definitely be on guard. They might even send more soldiers to attack Savannah again—that would be a big problem.
Duncan continued, "If this were a city, we'd need siege weapons like catapults at the very least. If possible, it would be best to pour oil on the stones and set them on fire."
Anne was startled. "Set them on fire?"
Duncan nodded. "Right. I just looked—most of the buildings inside are made from local materials, using various types of wood. As for stone materials, maybe because they just got here not long ago, or because large-scale mining would be too obvious and easily discovered by our knights, there isn't much of that. So if we could roll burning boulders in there, the entire valley would probably go up in flames."
Anne met his eyes and immediately understood what he meant.
Morris, however, stroked his chin in confusion. "But wouldn't the smoke from the fire be noticed?"
"That's true, but sometimes smoke is just another kind of signal."
Anne nodded. "Master Anson once told me that when armies are far apart and can't send messengers in time, or when they're surrounded, they use smoke to pass important signals. It can be a call for help, or it can report other information—like mission accomplished."
"Alright, alright, so tell us, what should we do?" Morris eagerly stroked his sword hilt. Recent life-or-death battles had noticeably sharpened his swordsmanship, and the improvement thrilled him.
"First, leave markers so that when the soldiers behind us catch up, some can stay in place and wait to attack through the main entrance, while others follow our route in. We'll infiltrate first and burn their food supplies on the southwest side Duncan mentioned. Duncan, use your skills to reach the highest signal platform and prevent any messages from being sent."
Before Duncan could say anything, Cynthia snorted coldly. "Sending this 'can't climb trees' mountain-climbing expert to handle it—aren't you afraid he'll be halfway up hugging a pole and crying?"
He scratched his head and smiled helplessly. "Alright, alright, I'll take care of this one. You all be careful too."
After thinking for a moment, he continued, "I observed for a while just now. Most of them are gathered in the open area on the northeast side, and some are patrolling the whole area. About every ten minutes, a team passes by."
"You can check if their food storage has any oil. If so, take it out and pour it everywhere. When you light the fire, it'll spread over a large area."
Anne nodded. "Good, we'll keep that in mind."