Ironvine Territory (2)

Inside a village, Victor, along with his officers and Guard Cavalry, was inspecting the area. Victor pushed open the door of a house and found the interior in disarray, with furniture and miscellaneous items scattered all over the floor, as if it had been deliberately vandalized.

"It seems the residents here fled in a panic, leaving the rooms in such a mess," Foss said curiously.

After saying that, he found a huge wooden barrel, opened the lid, and found that it was empty.

"My lord, look, this should be a wooden bucket for storing wheat flour. I've long heard that the Freemen in the Southern Region like to grind wheat into flour and store it in wooden buckets. Today I've finally seen it for myself."

The inside of this wooden barrel has been cleaned very thoroughly; it must have been taken away by a local resident.

They only took the food; it seems they really did flee in a hurry.

Foss stepped aside to let Victor step forward to examine him, but Victor did not nod, clearly not agreeing with Foss's guess.

After examining the inside of the barrel, he reached out and touched it. The barrel was very clean, with only a thin layer of wheat flour at the bottom. Victor rubbed the yellow powder off his fingers and felt that the amount was not much.

He turned to the other officers and asked, "What do you all think?"

"Foss has just taken office as Regimental Commander. You've all been in this position for so long, it's time you set a good example as veterans!"

At this time, neither James nor Ron were present; they were on guard and reconnaissance with their Cavalry. The only senior officers accompanying Victor were Marvin, Foss, Knight Jack, Jackson, Baron Brown Jackson, and Marcus.

Meanwhile, the others were still deep in thought, and they also believed that things were not as simple as Foss had made them out to be.

At this moment, Marvin spoke up, "My lord, I believe the residents here evacuated in a relatively calm manner. Look how clean this flour bin is; it must have been cleaned up carefully by this family."

Victor nodded; this was the answer he wanted.

Foss was puzzled and quickly asked, "Then what's with all this clutter? If we had retreated calmly, we wouldn't have left the room in such a mess."

Knight Jack stepped forward, patted Foss on the shoulder to calm him down, picked up a wooden stick, and said to Foss, "Look what this is?"

"A wooden stick."

"I know, what I want to ask is what this stick is for?"

Foss examined the stick and noticed that one end seemed to be broken off; it wasn't intact. He immediately bent down to look at the debris on the ground and found a pitchfork with only the head remaining. He compared the short stick at the back of the pitchfork with the stick in Knight Jack's hand, and the breaks matched. This stick was indeed a pitchfork.

At this moment, Foss finally realized what was happening and looked ashamed.

Marvin also chimed in, "Even if they're in a hurry, the residents won't easily damage their farm tools, let alone look at these broken pieces of furniture."

These were probably not done by the original owner, but rather by the invading army during their search and looting.

The others nodded in agreement. Just as Marvin had said, even for Freemen, farm tools and furniture were important assets, and even if they had to discard these things for some reason, they would not easily destroy them.

Only hostile intruders would intentionally damage these things.

"My lord, just as you said, it seems that the Ironvine Territory has voluntarily abandoned their Northern Defense Line. They have also relocated the vast majority of their people. They certainly couldn't have done this without prior preparation."

Marvin spoke up, and the others echoed his agreement.

Victor also said to Foss, "Foss, you are also a veteran of the territory, and you have made many contributions to get to where you are today. But you can't stop there. In addition to doing your job well, you must keep learning."

After hearing Victor's words, Foss felt truly ashamed. He had indeed let his guard down; the other senior officers had all noticed the problem, but he hadn't seen anything at all.

Seeing that Foss had grasped the problem, Victor continued to the others, "The Golden Sunflower Family currently only has six regiments of troops, but this will certainly increase as the family's territory and titles expand. I don't want any of you to be left behind, understand?"

"Yes, my lord!"

Marcus, who had witnessed the whole thing, leaned close to Baron Brown and whispered, "Viscount Victor is indeed very good at training officers. His officers are very well trained. In other noble territories, officers are mostly trained based on who can fight or who has a closer relationship with the lord."

I plan to send officers from my territory to Two Rivers Territory to attend that officer training course in the future."

Baron Brown nodded in agreement, but he planned to send his children to the Two Rivers Territory later. His nephew was fighting in Victor's army and had indeed learned a great deal.

At this moment, Michael spoke up, saying he had something to report. He had just entered the room and saw Victor giving a speech to the officers, so he waited until Victor finished his brief instruction before speaking.

"My lord, we've discovered some wheel tracks. The marks are still fresh, indicating they left this place within the last few days."

Victor and his companions found it strange. Judging from the condition of the room, the villagers should have evacuated long ago. How could they have found traces from just a few days ago?

Victor and his team followed Michael directly to the tire tracks. Victor looked at the dirt road at another exit of the village and, sure enough, there were many tire tracks there.

He crouched down and touched it. Apart from the tire tracks in the center of the road, which had dried and hardened, the tire tracks in the grass on both sides of the road were still warm to the touch because they were still moist.

"The traces are definitely from within the last few days, but probably no more than two days."

Victor shared his opinion with the others.

Marvin immediately spoke up, saying, "It might be the Duchy Army that searched this village. If we follow these wheel tracks, we should run into them."

Judging from the depth of these wheel tracks, they must have made quite a haul in this village."

Victor nodded, then turned to Michael: "Michael, you take your squad and search along this road. See if you can catch them."

Victor's army was advancing along the Green Water River, which was not in the same direction as these wheel tracks, so it was normal that Ron and James's scouts hadn't noticed them.

However, if the army could be tracked down, Victor did not recommend annihilating another Duchy Army; the more they were eliminated, the better it would be for supporting Ironvine Territory.

Michael set off with his squad, comprised entirely of Michael original Night Unit, skilled in pursuing and searching for enemies.

Victor and his men temporarily ordered their army to halt their march and set up camp ahead of schedule. He planned to wait for Michael's pursuit results, and if he could find them, he would send a portion of his troops to eliminate them.

According to Victor's discoveries during this period, the number of the Duchy Army was greater than he had previously estimated. Not counting the Duchy's Fourth Legion, they had already discovered a legion of troops from the private armies of the southern nobles, although three regiments of them had been wiped out.

As for whether there were any other troops, Victor didn't know, but Victor knew that if they weren't weakened in advance, it would be difficult to deal with them even if they joined forces with Count Lloyd.

Although Victor didn't know where the Duchy had mobilized so many troops, he guessed that Ironvine Territory's sudden abandonment of the northern direction must be related to this matter.

As the night passed, Victor's Southern Marching Legion did not set off immediately. They remained in place as ordered by Victor wanted to wait for Michael's intelligence before deciding when to leave.

However, Michael did not disappoint Victor. At nine o'clock in the morning, Michael suddenly returned to the village. The first thing he said to Victor was, "My lord, I have found the army of that duchy."

From Michael's explanation, Victor learned that the army of this principality might have gathered a lot of food in this village and was reluctant to give it up, which was why their marching speed was so slow.

"This army is not large, only one battalion, no more than 1,000 people, but they have many wagons, which are basically full, so they did not go any further from here."

Their location is right on the east side of this territory; if we continue along the Green Water River, we certainly won't find them.

"This is a rare opportunity, Your Excellency, we mustn't let them slip by."