Unknown Knight

The dry and hot desert wind has been blowing for the entire morning. It only takes an hour for such dry and hot wind to wash away all the moisture in a dripping wet towel.

In such an environment, almost no living thing can survive for a long time. The high temperature and drought will drive away all life from here, leaving only a lifeless desert of death in this area.

A camel caravan consisting of more than ten people and more than twenty camels and horses was traveling in this deathly desert. These people were all wearing long robes wrapped tightly, leaving only their eyes to see the road, and they were in a hurry, as if they were being driven to leave this deadly area as soon as possible.

Judging from their attire alone, they should be a small Bedouin tribe. However, even the Bedouins, who are known as the people of the desert, would not easily travel in the desert at noon, which made their actions seem very suspicious.

Aix used a fine linen handkerchief to cover the nosebleed that was flowing again, cursing in his heart that it was bad luck.

Ever since Ran Ying and Ai Su's children became pregnant, he was full of energy and was afraid that he would have trouble reporting back to Tangquan Fortress, so he declined the women that Rogge, Ivante and others wanted to give him. However, he developed a problem of excessive internal heat, and the dry climate here made it easy for him to have nosebleeds. Especially since this operation, every noon when the yang energy was at its strongest, he almost always had nosebleeds, and the few spare handkerchiefs he carried with him were all stained red.

That’s right, this group of Bedouins in disguise was none other than Aix and his group. Besides him, there were Bestur, Majid, Jeb, and eight experienced Bedouin warriors.

The main purpose of their trip was to prepare for the attack on Berbera and to conduct reconnaissance on the environment and enemy situation of the city.

After climbing over a huge sand dune, the city of Berbera was already in sight in the distance. However, it was noon now and the scorching heat made everyone in the city stay at home to escape the heat. There were almost no people on the streets, and the earth-gray buildings in the city made the whole city seem covered with a layer of dust. At first glance, it looked like a relic in a secret place.

Judging from its scale alone, the area of ​​Berbera has surpassed any city that Aix has seen since he came to this world. Moreover, due to the relatively low rainfall, the city walls are built with rammed earth. The convenient material supply and the strong financial resources of the Lord of Humamu made the rammed earth walls very tall.

Aix estimated that the top of the city wall was about 15 meters wide, which could not only accommodate crossbows, catapults and other city defense equipment, but also chariots and horses. It was also about 20 meters high. If you stood at the foot of the city and looked up, you would have a sense of déjà vu as majestic as a mountain.

Just to build such a tall city wall, the siege tower must be built to be extremely huge, which invisibly increases the pressure on logistics. It seems that the plan to capture Berbera must be carried out with great caution!

For five or six days, Aix's Bedouin team not only scouted the surrounding environment, but also sneaked into the city twice.

I don’t know if it’s because of the last failure, but the entire city of Berbera is guarded by soldiers all day long, and a curfew is imposed at night. There are night patrols of more than ten people each, patrolling everywhere.

Aix had tried several times to get close to the city wall to spy on the city defense, but there were four barracks in Berbera, all located near the four city gates, and the towers on the upper city wall were all located inside the barracks, which made the entire city defense a relatively independent area in the city, making it difficult for outsiders to infiltrate and destroy it.

Moreover, the city has a strict rule that no outsider entering the city is allowed to bring weapons into the city. They must deposit their weapons at the storage area at the city gate. When entering the city, they will be issued an identity plate made of reed board. When leaving the city, they can use the identity plate to collect the weapons deposited at the city gate.

These measures prevented outsiders from sneaking into the city and waiting for an opportunity to destroy the city defenses, or from attacking the city from inside and outside and taking over the city in one fell swoop. It seems that the Lord of Humamu still has some ability and is not as useless as imagined.

Since there is no way to break through the city, it seems that the only way is to think of a way outside the city. Fortunately, the city of Berbera seems to be very confident in the city’s towering walls, but does not pay so much attention to the safety outside the city. In addition, the temperature is too high during the day, and the city only sends scouts out of the city to patrol the surrounding strongholds every few days. This time gap gives Aix room to operate.

After some reconnaissance, a small town called Nico finally came into sight. Aix decided to capture it first as a strategic fulcrum for the next attack on Berbera.

This is a town with a population of more than 1,500 people. There is a manor of Lord Humamu and two warehouses in the town. The rammed earth wall of the town is more than ten meters high. There are fifty soldiers directly under Lord Humamu and fifty regular militiamen stationed in the town. In addition, there are about three hundred reserve militiamen in the town. In case of emergency, these reserve militiamen can be armed at any time.

The reason for choosing this place is mainly because there are three things that Aix has his eyes on. First, the city wall here is not very high and can be easily breached. Second, there is a spring with abundant water in the town, which can usually meet the water needs of the people and livestock in the town and the irrigation of nearby farmland. It should not be a problem to supply thousands of troops. Third, the location of the town. The town is only three kilometers away from the nearest seaside and five kilometers away from Berbera, which is convenient for the army to land and occupy, and also convenient as a stronghold to attack Berbera.

Aix, Bestur and Majid disguised themselves as horse dealers and sneaked into the town of Nico and stayed there for two days. Unlike Berbera, the armed personnel in the city seemed loose and idle. No matter day or night, there were no more than a dozen people patrolling on the city wall, so it should not be difficult to break through.

A few days later, Matilda arrived with a fleet consisting of five cogs and eleven sampans. They docked late at night as agreed, and landed near the town of Nico under the guidance of the campfires set up on the shore.

A total of more than 500 soldiers got off the ship. These soldiers were all elite soldiers under Aix and were considered the vanguard troops. They included more than 200 heavily armored infantry, more than 200 archers, more than 50 slingers, and more than 50 reconnaissance cavalry.

They took advantage of the moonlight to rush to the outskirts of Nico town overnight. Axe ordered two hundred soldiers to ambush outside the two city gates of the town, and then took the remaining one hundred people and quietly came to a blind spot that had been previously discovered.

The city wall here is relatively secluded, and patrolling soldiers are usually too lazy to come over to check. It takes at least ten minutes for them to come over. During this time, even an ordinary soldier can go up and down the city wall several times.

After the special flying claw was thrown onto the city wall, the first person to go up to the city was the agile Bestur. He tightened the rope, and with a few "rubs", he climbed up the city wall in the blink of an eye. Then, after throwing down the rope ladder he carried with him, he hid in the shadows to keep watch.

Soon, more than a dozen soldiers climbed up the city wall with the help of rope ladders. Axe finally felt relieved, knowing that this sneak attack was a success.