I, the prince in distress, send money

Chapter 199 Surrounded by Hungry Wolves
All players gathered in the army received the mission, regardless of whether they were in a warband, a solo player, a combat player, or a player focused on production or sightseeing.

Some were thrilled with Prince Chris's mission and eager to advance the main storyline, while others were indifferent because the mission required traveling through the night to raid the Minisian army, hold them back, and prevent them from reaching Wattradnoi.

This is by no means an easy task. Not to mention traveling at night, it's enough to exhaust one's body and mind... Of course, it's the game character that gets tired. Players can simply log off and shut down the game, letting the smart assistant help them get there.

Overall, the vast majority of players accepted the quests and were eager to advance the main storyline, allowing more players to enter the game, while a small minority were not interested.

……

The retreat of an army is never an easy task, but sometimes, as long as you are willing to pay a certain price, a forced march can be carried out.

A day's journey from Vortradnoi, in the army camp of Minisia, as the first rays of sunlight pierced the darkness and illuminated the earth, a sentry standing atop a mountain beside the camp was rubbing his eyes vigorously.

"When it's your shift turn, what do you think is for breakfast today?"

His companion, who was also yawning, asked Wade a question.

"Who knows? Probably oatmeal porridge, and if we're lucky, we might get some smoked meat."

Wade rubbed his sleepy eyes, his tone tinged with helplessness.

"But there's no use thinking about that now. Let's just hold on until we get our shift change."

"This is so boring. Can't you be more optimistic? Like, this morning, we might have black bread and fried eggs for breakfast?"

"You're too optimistic, brother..."

As the two were talking, suddenly, the sound of rapid hoofbeats broke the morning's tranquility. From the direction of the camp at twelve o'clock, three hundred meters away, three unsaddled warhorses broke through the thin mist and charged towards them.

The tin cans tied to their horse tails scraped against the ground with a sharp, clanging sound.

From a distance, Wade noticed the commotion. He quickly picked up the small red flag that was at his feet, turned around and ran to the side closer to the camp, where he shook it vigorously.

People in the camp below immediately reacted, with several cavalrymen rushing out of the camp to meet the three horses.

"what's going on?"

The sentry on the side muttered something.

"Is that our horse?"

"do not know……"

"boom!"

The two people who were chatting suddenly turned around and were stunned when they saw the three bursts of blood mist.

The cavalrymen who were approaching the three horses were too close to the explosion site. After the explosion, they all fell off their horses. The horses also fell down with cries of pain, or turned and ran wildly in the opposite direction, looking frightened and bleeding.

"Enemy attack, enemy attack!"

Someone shouted from below, and the entire military camp was instantly awakened. The chaotic shouts, bugle calls, and hoofbeats mingled together, as if the whole world had been thrown into chaos at that moment.

The explosion was so loud that even the soundest sleeper would be jolted awake.

Three hundred meters away on the ridge, five players wearing wolf jawbone insignia were observing the battle results through eagle-eyed glasses.

"Second brother, you cut the fuse too short! The explosives detonated prematurely, and those three horses were wasted!"

"It's not my fault, the horse was just too slow..."

The person being criticized muttered something.

"Besides, this is a lowly horse that we got by killing three NPC scouts, so it's not a big loss if we blow it up..."

"Explosives are expensive, bro!"

"Uh, okay, it's my fault."

"Stop talking, let's go, we need to move on to the next step."

The appearance of the three self-destructing horses was merely a greeting from the player to the Minisians, a beginning, not an end. Once all the Minisians were awakened, the player's planned next move proceeded smoothly.

Cavalrymen, holding a double-headed eagle banner in their left hand and the reins in their right, riding fine horses and wearing gleaming armor, suddenly appeared a kilometer away from the main camp. They stood one person every hundred meters, one after another, surrounding the main camp within visual range.

This was a very strange thing. The main camp reacted quickly. A cavalry squad of twenty dragoons left the camp and charged toward Prince Chris's cavalry, intending to drive them away and capture them alive in order to obtain intelligence.

The goal of driving them away was easily achieved. The cavalrymen carrying the eagle banners did not engage the dragoons in battle; as soon as the dragoons approached, they rode back.

Naturally, the dragoons continued their pursuit, as the mission to capture one of them alive was not yet complete.

However, as they chased the dragon riders out of sight of the main camp, after pursuing them for about four or five kilometers, they were surrounded.

More than fifty armored cavalrymen, also carrying battle flags, surrounded them from all directions. Before they even showed themselves, their flags slowly rose from the woods, from behind large rocks, and from the other side of the hill, like ghosts emerging from the ground, instantly encircling the twenty dragon riders.

The battle is about to break out.

At this point, the dragoons still had a chance to escape, because the player cavalry surrounding them were at varying distances and the encirclement was of varying thickness.

The largest group of players came from the rear, numbering over twenty. Each of them carried two flintlock lances, wore manganese steel breastplates, and had tall feathered cavalry helmets. They looked like men to be trifled with.

On the contrary, there were only three people being chased by the dragon riders ahead, and they were a hundred meters away.

So, without hesitation, the captain of the dragoons raised his saber and pointed it forward... Charge! Break through from the front!
However, the black and white bear being chased took the initiative to turn its horse's head, stuck the eagle flag in its hand into the saddlebag, grabbed its weapon, and launched a counter-charge.

He held a recurve bow in his left hand and an armor-piercing arrow in his right. The bowstring taut, the arrow flew, its red-painted shaft leaving a crimson trail in the air. The dragoon squad, a hundred meters away, was caught completely off guard; they hadn't expected their enemy to turn back, and so fiercely at that.

The dragon rider captain at the front saw the red lightning bolt heading straight for him. He instinctively raised his hand to shield his face, and the steel arrowhead had already pierced the gap between his helmet and neck guard.

The arrowhead protruded from behind the captain's neck, concealed by the lining of his armor, causing the eagle feathers at the end of the shaft to vibrate violently, spurting blood from his mouth and splashing onto the back of his hand.

This was a divine shot; no one knows whether Monokuma's arrow was due to luck or his superb skill and masterful execution.

But the power of this arrow completely disrupted the dragoons' breakout rhythm. The dragoon captain instantly lost his fighting ability. He clutched his neck, rolled off his horse, and crashed heavily to the ground, his blood staining the surrounding grass red.

To avoid their captain who had fallen from his horse, the dragoons who had already started their charge were forced to rein in their horses and slow down to prevent their hooves from trampling him.

Meanwhile, on the other side, the moment the dragoon captain clutched his throat and fell from his horse, Monokuma's second arrow was already nocked. This arrow was not aimed at the man, but at the leading warhorse.

With a piercing whistle that seemed to tear the air apart, an armor-piercing arrow pierced the eye socket of the second dragoon's horse. The horse neighed and rolled to the ground, tripping the two dragoons following behind.

As the third arrow left the bowstring, the black and white bear's warhorse had already passed the dragoon, and the arrowhead precisely pierced the seam of the dragoon's breastplate as he tried to slash at him with his sword. The third man tumbled off his horse, and the banner of his unit fell from his hand.

The scimitar whale banner fell to the ground and was trampled by horses' hooves.

Closely following the black and white bear, the two Han-Tang warrior cavalry groups also raised their lances and charged forward, each stabbing two charging dragoons off their horses.

Lin Ruoyu and his two companions inflicted heavy casualties on the dragon riders; the three of them took down five of their opponents in the midst of the charge.

The casualties are secondary; the biggest blow is to morale.

To the remaining fifteen dragoons, the sight of their fallen comrades, their tumbling warhorses, and their commander lying on the ground spitting blood created a terrifying chain reaction.

Their originally orderly charging formation began to distort. Some instinctively reined in their horses to slow down, some frantically changed direction, and others turned back to fire at the three Black and White Bears who had already passed by, wasting precious firing opportunities.

Overall, the loss of their commander caused the dragoons to fall into disarray, wasting a precious opportunity to break out and allowing players from other directions to successfully encircle them, blocking their escape route.

More than twenty player cavalrymen seized the opportunity to press forward, rushing within fifty meters and firing their flintlock lances at the dragoons.

At a distance of fifty meters, and in a chase on horseback, both sides were in motion. Even if the shooters were players, their shooting accuracy was not very high.

It doesn't matter if the aim isn't high; the most important thing is that the players are in groups of three, taking turns firing, with continuous gunfire, which puts enormous psychological pressure on the dragoons.

The dragoons also turned around and counterattacked while fleeing, but unlike the ancient archer cavalry battle environment, in the chase, the fleeing ones had the advantage of turning around and shooting arrows, while the pursuers were at a disadvantage.

The cavalry on both sides opened fire with flintlock muskets. However, the fleeing players, due to their awkward posture, had even worse accuracy. The two sides chased and fled for two or three kilometers, exchanging fire for about ten rounds. One of the pursuing players was shot and killed, while four of the dragoons fell from their horses.

As they continued their pursuit, the remaining dragoons' sense of reason finally snapped from being stretched too tight.

One of the dragoons suddenly let out a meaningless howl, turned his horse's head away from the column, kicked his horse's belly hard, and ran to the side. This caused more dragoons to imitate his behavior and flee in different directions.

At this moment, the players who had been following at a distance on both sides without engaging in combat found their opportunity and quickly launched a hunt like wolves that had smelled blood.

These player cavalry had been lying in ambush along the possible route the dragon riders might take, and now they finally bared their fangs.

They charged forward in twos and threes, carrying lassos and fishing nets. If someone resisted and opened fire, the players would get close and shoot with their pistols. Conversely, if the enemy fled desperately, they would spur their horses and chase after them from behind, throwing the lassos and fishing nets at them.

Once the dragoon is hooded or covered, he won't be able to escape. He'll either be captured alive or thrown off his horse and dragged to his death by the player.

Just when the five remaining dragon riders thought they had escaped, they rushed into a seemingly safe clearing in the woods. A hundred or so players then emerged from the woods and swarmed them, instantly plunging the enemies into despair.

……

Wade was still on guard duty. Theoretically, someone should have relieved him by now, so he could have gone back to the camp to eat a well-cooked bowl of oatmeal porridge and then go back to his tent for a good night's sleep.

However, Vader and his companions waited until their stomachs were growling, but no one came to relieve them. They didn't dare to leave because more people were coming from outside the camp.

The cavalrymen who had been driven away by the dragoons, carrying eagle banners, returned. They still stood every hundred meters, monitoring the camp's every move within sight of both sides.

The dragon riders who drove them away vanished without a trace, and not a single one returned, clearly indicating that something unexpected had happened.

Just thinking about it filled Wade with fear from the bottom of his heart.

More cavalrymen rushed out of the camp to drive away the enemy, while the main camp broke camp and prepared to march towards Wotradnoy.

Then once again, these departing cavalrymen disappeared without a trace, while the pursued enemy would reappear around the camp half an hour later, eyeing the Minieses.

At this point, even the most foolish Miniese would realize that things were not going well.

Just as the Minisians were preparing to ignore these watchers and continue on their way to Wotradnoi, the cannons roared.

Some of the cavalrymen were firing a cannon at the camp, and a large number of lead bullets came flying at them.

Because the shelling was launched from a great distance, the bombardment did not injure many people, but it successfully frightened a large group of Minieses, interrupting their work.

No one could ignore the threat of artillery and march in a normal formation.

Once again, the Minisian light cavalry, whose two squads had already gone missing, launched another attack. This time, they operated within a two- to three-kilometer radius of the main camp, never straying far from the main force. Their primary mission was to drive away the players, rather than to eliminate or capture them alive.

Even so, when players found that their attempts to lure them out were ineffective, they were still not willing to let these poor NPCs go. One brief but brutal encounter after another broke out, with gunfire and shouts of killing echoing throughout.

With their superior individual combat skills and fearlessness, players constantly moved in and out of the Minnesota camp, attacking and killing Minnesota cavalry, at one point forcing Minnesota infantry to form teams to come and provide support.

After all this commotion, the Minisian army finally managed to break camp around noon. Like a flock of helpless sheep, they were driven by the players, moving slowly and laboriously towards Wotradnoi.

An eerie atmosphere enveloped the entire marching column. The soldiers nervously looked around as if deadly danger lurked behind every bush.

(End of this chapter)