Chapter 26

When Baron Sidney led the Fourth Battalion of soldiers into the cave in the middle of the cliff, they found that the natives hiding in the stone caves in the mountain had already fled, leaving only an empty cave.

He Boqiang was not surprised. The natives had dug such a large pit for the 57th Heavy Infantry Regiment; it would have been strange if they hadn't fled.

The soldiers descended from the mountaintop using ropes, sliding down to the halfway point of the cliff, and entered the cave through a ventilation passage in the mountain wall. The entire cave was interconnected, with hundreds of stone rooms. These rooms were divided into living areas and combat zones. The living areas had soft dry grass laid out, and there were even traces of animal skins. The stone walls even had some graffiti and strange symbols. According to Suldak, these symbols were used by the natives to record the seasons, and they needed to store enough food before winter.

The combat zones were lined with lookout holes, from which arrows could be shot into the mountain hollow. If the 57th Regiment's longbowmen were to shoot, their arrows would have a range sufficient to cover the entire mountain hollow. Perhaps considering that wooden arrows would not be very effective against the infantry, the natives did not shoot a single arrow and were forced to retreat.

This was originally a natural cave, which the natives had expanded multiple times to reach its current scale.

The cave had a dedicated dining hall, toilet, and long corridor. Near the dining hall was a square pool about two meters on each side, with a hidden channel flowing with fresh mountain spring water. When the pool was full, the excess water would flow into a ditch through an overflow channel.

No one expected the natives to have such a hiding place in this mountain hollow, and even Baron Sidney, with his noble status, was greatly amazed by the cave.

In fact, this cave could serve as a medium-sized defensive stronghold.

The Fourth Battalion lost 268 soldiers in this operation, and Baron Sidney was in a terrible mood.

However, he couldn't blame anyone. This time, they fell into the natives' trap due to his own impatience. What Baron Sidney found even more unacceptable was that they didn't capture a single native in this operation to suppress the natives in the mountain hollow. His eyes were bloodshot, his lips were cracked, and from a distance, he looked like a venomous snake ready to strike, making everyone afraid to approach him.

"I hope the charm of Baron's sister is strong enough," Suldak said in a low voice to He Boqiang.

"Will this affect us?" Jelonnan, the black kid, asked with lingering fear.

Suldak wiped his mouth and said in a low voice, "We will probably be held accountable. I guess we'll be labeled with 'ineffective reconnaissance.'"

Jelonnan, with his big round eyes, said urgently to Captain Sam, "We need to do something. I don't want to be tied to the whipping post when we return to the camp. That would be too embarrassing."

Captain Sam had a stern face and didn't want to say much, "We'll see when we get back to the camp."

...

Fortunately, the sixty soldiers of the First Company, who were guarding the cave entrance at the bottom of the cliff, did not suffer any losses in this battle.

When the red-eyed hyenas surged over last night, the soldiers of the First Company also tried to drive them back.

However, after seeing the large number of hyenas, the sixty soldiers, exhausted, decided to hide in the cave under the command of Knight Jonah, the First Company Captain. They blocked the narrow entrance with stones and successfully avoided the hyenas' attack.

The soldiers of the First Company did not know that the natives in the cave above had fled during the night. They did not think about exploring the vertical passage above them, which was about a hundred meters long and chimney-like.

The cave built by the natives in the middle of the cliff had seven exits. Four of them were in plain sight, while the other three were extremely hidden. Only by carefully studying the internal structure of the cave could all the exits be discovered.

He Boqiang and the Fourth Battalion left the mountain hollow two days later. Baron Sidney did not forget the soldiers buried by the rockslide and spent a day and a half clearing the soil and sand from the mountain wall. They dug out more than fifty bodies and then returned to the camp with the bodies of their comrades.

...

When Count Monty Gos heard that Baron Sidney's Fourth Battalion had fallen into the natives' trap and lost more than 200 soldiers in the mountains north of the lumberyard, he threw a magic desk lamp at Baron Sidney's face and shouted at him so loudly that the sound could be heard outside the camp. Baron Sidney was scolded by Count Monty Gos, but he did not receive any substantial punishment.

This incident made many smart people in the camp realize the importance of connections.

After the Fourth Battalion lost nearly half of its soldiers, it needed new blood to replenish its ranks. Some squads had been almost completely wiped out, and the new recruits were not capable of forming a squad on their own. They needed veterans to teach them survival skills on the battlefield, so these veterans had to be transferred from other complete squads.

Captain Sam of the Second Squad of the Sixth Company received a transfer notice a week after returning to the camp. He was transferred to the Eleventh Squad of the Fifth Company as the squad leader and also served as the deputy company commander of the Fifth Company, a small step forward.

Captain Sam went to the Fifth Company as the leader of the Eleventh Squad, taking the black kid Jelonnan and the veteran Ian with him.

Suldak successfully became the leader of the Second Squad, but he felt a bit melancholic: to receive a promotion just before retirement, even though his salary didn't increase, it would be a bright spot on his retirement record.

On the day Captain Sam left the Second Squad, the squad welcomed two new recruits. Both were from the city of Helansa in the Tarapa region. Suldak enthusiastically asked them about their hometown. When he heard that they had experienced a major drought last year, with crop yields reduced by nearly half, he couldn't help but worry about his own village.

Unfortunately, these two new recruits were not from the same village as Suldak, and their villages were quite far apart, so they did not know the situation in Wol Village.

This time, the Second Squad was not held accountable, which surprised both Suldak and He Boqiang.

Unexpectedly, Baron Sidney took full responsibility for the mistake. Seeing that their superior did not make them take the blame, the soldiers of the Fourth Battalion suddenly felt that their boss wasn't so bad, aside from the typical arrogance and prejudice of a noble, he didn't have many other flaws.

The 286 soldiers who died in the mountain hollow had just been buried, and their belongings had not yet been sent home, but they seemed to have already been forgotten.

After all, the living needed to continue struggling to survive and fight for the Green Empire when they woke up the next day.

What about the dead? Perhaps they would fly to the realm of the gods, or perhaps they would be reborn as spirits.

Due to Suldak's relationship, He Boqiang did not officially join the 57th Heavy Infantry Regiment when it was replenished with new recruits. He remained a free agent outside the official roster.

Suldak had already started planning to apply for a second teleportation pass.

He planned to return to his hometown with He Boqiang after retiring.