As Yuwan crested the rugged mountaintop, the view before him opened up dramatically.
Orange-yellow wildflowers bloomed across the land, forming a stark contrast to the previously barren mountain trails. When the autumn wind blew, the sea of flowers would ripple in waves, a natural beauty that always invigorated weary travelers.
And the small town faintly discernible in the center of the flower field was his destination – Frostwind Town.
This was his sixth time crossing the valley.
Although Yuwan served as the squad leader of the advanced machinery team, he was also a soldier of the First Army. With the issuance of the Supreme Headquarter's accelerated evacuation order, many soldiers like him were thrown into emergency rescue operations.
So far, his route had not been attacked by demons, perhaps because it was too far from the Red Mist, or perhaps the demons simply didn't care about these fleeing refugees. But regardless, every person brought back to Neverwinter meant more strength for Neverwinter.
And he had gradually brought nearly a thousand people to the rear.
As usual, the team would set up camp outside the town, then send people to negotiate with the refugees staying there, and evacuate them in batches. Back during the first visit, the First Army had already warned the residents that the road ahead was dangerous, and it was best not to venture south without authorization. As long as they waited in the town for a few days, the Graycastle army would escort them away.
Of course, not everyone would believe such words. In fact, Yuwan had encountered desperate refugees several times along the way, some who had run out of food, others who were being chased by wild animals and had nowhere to go. But this was already a relatively fortunate outcome, and those even more unfortunate had died silently in the valley.
This time, however, Yuwan noticed something different.
Looking from the hillside, Frostwind Town, which had previously been sparsely populated, now had many more figures.
"Did some major city collapse?" Hansen, the reconnaissance soldier in his team, whistled. "So many refugees in just over ten days, we're going to be busy."
Yuwan was also quite excited. After working hard for a month or two, he had only reached nearly a thousand people. This trip might be enough to equal or even exceed his previous results.
Although he didn't know why these refugees didn't choose other, easier routes, but instead gathered in this small town located at the bottom of the valley, as long as they came, the First Army had a duty to take them to a safe place.
With that thought, everyone's pace quickened.
It was easy going downhill, and half an hour later, the team arrived at the campsite outside Frostwind Town. The refugees in the town also noticed their arrival. Many people crowded onto the streets, quickly forming a torrent of people heading towards them.
"These people... are a little too eager, aren't they?" someone joked.
"Didn't we tell them to wait in the town?"
"Could it be that they've run out of food and hope to get some from us?"
This statement was accepted by most people.
"If a catastrophic disaster really happened in a nearby city, it's normal that they wouldn't have brought enough food," Yuwan quickly made a decision. "But this is not conducive to us counting heads and maintaining order, we still have to stop them. Ten people, set up a checkpoint with me, the rest are responsible for guarding."
He knew the horror of a runaway crowd. If they couldn't stop the refugees, and begging turned into a riot, these people wouldn't be much different from robbers and bandits.
In most cases, these two types of people were only separated by a fine line.
"Yes!"
The soldiers quickly dispersed, holding the firearms behind them in their hands.
As the distance between the two sides continued to shrink, the figures of the refugees became clearer and clearer.
Yuwan raised the megaphone, adjusted it to the maximum volume, and shouted, "This is the First Army rescue team from Graycastle, please don't panic, stop immediately, and stay where you are to listen to further instructions. We have plenty of food and medicine, but distribution requires your cooperation! Repeat, stop, or we will take forceful measures!"
The crowd hesitated slightly, but soon ran again, as if being pushed by something behind them.
Yuwan frowned and told his teammates to point their guns at the sky, preparing to fire a warning shot.
At that moment, Hansen let out a soft gasp.
"Huh?"
"What's wrong?" Yuwan asked.
"Squad leader, their attire seems a bit strange..." Hansen said while observing with binoculars, "Have you ever seen refugees carrying rolls of cloth?"
"Cloth?" Yuwan was immediately confused. He snatched the binoculars and looked towards the crowd – at this moment, the distance between the two sides was about three hundred meters, and the binoculars could roughly see the other side's clothes and belongings. Judging from their attire, this was indeed a group of desperate fugitives, but as the reconnaissance soldier said, most people were carrying a strip of cloth of varying lengths, some on their backs, some hanging from their waists, which looked strange no matter how you looked at it.
Refugees would bring everything they could before fleeing, which was human nature. The First Army usually asked them to abandon their baggage and travel light, but would not interfere with things that would cause trouble and inconvenience to the migration, such as gold dragons. In the past two months, Yuwan had also seen many strange "family fortunes," but cloth strips were still the first time he had seen them.
But the more he looked, the more he felt something was wrong.
This group of refugees seemed to be wearing rags, but they were all wearing shoes. And those ragged clothes didn't look old at all, but seemed to have been recently damaged.
The distance between the two sides had narrowed to within two hundred meters.
"Bang—"
A teammate fired a warning shot.
The crowd immediately dispersed, and a scene that made Yuwan's blood run cold appeared – probably startled by the gunshot, several people at the front hastily opened their cloth strips, and under the cloth strips were surprisingly the standard firearms used by the First Army!
This action seemed to set off a wave in the crowd, and others followed suit. Those cloth strips of varying lengths were actually used to hide weapons. The things wrapped underneath ranged from swords to halberds, and they had everything.
He suddenly realized that this was a trap!
"Retreat to the camp!" Yuwan shouted to his teammates, "Run!"
Before he could finish speaking, a burst of intensive gunfire came from the other side!
Yuwan even heard the whistling sound of bullets flying past his ears. Clusters of dirt splashed from the surrounding grass from time to time. The other nine people also reacted and turned around, crouching and rushing towards the camp—
The team had camped there several times. Although there were no bunkers or trenches, simple sand and stone ramparts still existed. It was originally built to resist possible demons, but now it had become the only cover on the open hillside.
By the time Yuwan climbed and scrambled into the rampart, there were no teammates standing on the field. Compared to the non-stop gunfire on the opposite side, the camp's counterattack seemed very sporadic – starting with the nine people who had set up the checkpoint, a team of forty people was clearly a more noticeable target. At the thought that they might have encountered a concentrated fire without any defense, Yuwan's heart jumped to his throat.
He grabbed Hansen, "Quick, go see how everyone is!"
After the other party ran away crouching, he also set up his gun, aiming at the "refugees" who were surrounding him from all sides.
No… they were definitely not real refugees, but probably nobles who had surrendered to the demons!
Only the demons could get so many weapons from the First Army!
Damn it, Yuwan thought bitterly. He never expected that his own kind would use refugees to set such a trap – did they not understand who they were helping?
"Squad leader," Hansen returned faster than he imagined, in just a few breaths. "Everyone is fine, only one person is slightly injured. He has already been bandaged and it basically doesn't hinder combat."
Yuwan couldn't help but be stunned, "Only one person injured?" The gunfire just now was clearly so intense.
"Yes," Hansen also seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. "Luck seems to be temporarily on our side. Now everyone has been assigned to their defensive positions, and we will defend to the last moment!"