I’m a Rebel in Another World

Chapter 33: Crossing the River

Originally, Henwil had planned everything perfectly - he just needed to lead his hundred-man squad to tear open the enemy's defensive perimeter.

The Ironwall warriors following behind would then be able to scatter the border army's final defensive position.

Everything went normally at first, but problems quickly emerged when several knights charged out from the opposite side.

Not the mounted kind, but warriors of knight rank.

These metal cans, though their battle energy had been completely depleted, wore full heavy armor and wielded greatswords.

Relying on their superhuman physiques, they ruthlessly harvested lives from Henwil's hundred-man squad like combine harvesters.

Helpless, Henwil could only intervene. His original plan was to have the soldiers provide cover and distraction while he output damage from range with his bow, playing the ADC role!

But whether in games or reality, archers always draw massive aggro!

The moment Henwil stealthily shot and killed one knight, the remaining knights immediately noticed him.

Simultaneously, one of the knights knocked soldiers aside and charged straight toward Henwil.The other knights pressed back the Ironwall soldiers who tried to rescue him.

Just like that, Henwil was forcibly separated from his hundred-man squad.

Fortunately, the knight attacking him had already sustained numerous injuries, with blood flowing from multiple gaps in his armor.

After more than three months of training, Henwil's physical fitness far exceeded that of ordinary adults, giving him some ability to cope for now.

Wielding shield and spear, after a series of entangled combat, he finally managed to stab the wounded knight to death.

But then more elite armored soldiers charged forward, forcing Henwil to grit his teeth and fight on.

The armored soldier he killed with his hand crossbow was already the sixth elite soldier he had slain.

Currently, Henwil held a long sword in one hand and a shield in the other, barely managing to defend against attacks from two elite soldiers.

But he wasn't worried anymore - the sounds of battle behind him told him his guards had already dealt with those four knights.

Sure enough, just as Henwil parried the long swords of the two armored soldiers, several spears thrust from behind him, knocking both soldiers to the ground.

Before they could get up, the spearmen following behind thrust into the gaps of their armor, killing them completely.

The spearmen immediately formed a protective circle around Henwil.

Henwil pushed aside those around him, pointing his long sword at the enemy commander's banner: "Don't worry about me! Charge forward! Cut down their banner!"

Several minutes later, Henwil rushed onto a pile of corpses and cut down the banner with one sword stroke.

The border army's main commander had already been carried away by his subordinates to break through the encirclement back when Henwil charged into the inner defense ring.

Following their prior agreement, Duwien ordered them to intentionally let the border army commander escape.

Now that the banner had fallen, the entire battlefield situation transformed!

The guards around Henwil had practiced many times before, shouting at the top of their lungs in the Ika Kingdom's language: "Your commander is dead! Surrender and live! Surrender and live!"

The great rout began!

Seeing this situation, Duwien immediately dispatched the five hundred cavalry beside him to begin driving away the routing soldiers.

By dusk, the Ironwall Legion's right flank finally began regrouping.

After hastily cleaning up the battlefield, they followed the arriving logistics troops toward the direction of the border river.

At noon two days later, the right flank forces arrived first at the border river.

They immediately set up camp here, establishing defenses while awaiting Fabio's arrival and beginning to cut trees to make rafts.

Another day passed, and Fabio arrived with the left flank forces.

Henwil found Fabio and had him issue orders for combat troops to rest while logistics personnel worked in two shifts cutting trees and building rafts.

Fabio didn't understand this: "Henwil, we just went through a bloody battle and rushed here without rest - everyone is exhausted.

Now the border army and allied forces' blocking troops have been crushed by us. They suffered heavy casualties and no longer threaten us.

Even if they come to harass our river crossing, they'll need several days to rest. We should rest too, at least for one day!"

Henwil pointed at the map: "Exactly because we crippled the kingdom's border army, we need to organize the crossing even faster.

This is the border between two nations. The kingdom's important fortresses, main garrison forces, and support troops have all been crippled by us.

Now that the allied forces are counterattacking, they absolutely cannot allow problems here that would create a third front within the kingdom.

They will definitely dispatch elite forces to suppress us while also intimidating the duchy to prevent us from joining with Worui Duchy's forces to tear open a gap here.

Therefore, the kingdom side has likely already received news and is gathering elite forces to come eliminate us.

If border army scout cavalry appear around us tomorrow, that will confirm my suspicion is correct - the enemy is indeed planning this.

Knowing the situation was urgent, Fabio organized scout cavalry to drive away the border army's scouts while mobilizing everyone to begin cutting trees and building rafts.

That very night, the river crossing operation began.

Crossing at night was dangerous, but Henwil chose not to send people across on individual rafts.

Instead, he connected the rafts together to form a floating bridge.

In one night, they managed to send over two thousand wounded soldiers and more than one thousand logistics personnel across the river.

It was already early winter - the river hadn't frozen yet, but the autumn floods of the rainy season had passed.

The river flowed gently, and the surface wasn't too wide, only about two hundred meters across.

Except for the central channel, most areas had water depths of just over four meters.

This allowed them to drive long wooden piles into the riverbed as anchor points for the floating bridge.

At daybreak, they disassembled the floating bridge back into rafts to mislead the scout cavalry.

On the second night of crossing, they added another disassemblable floating bridge but only sent two thousand people across.

More importantly, they sent supplies across. As Henwil put it, after returning to the duchy, they might not receive supplies for quite some time.

Even if they did, it wouldn't be much - the entire duchy hierarchy didn't want to see an overstrength combat legion.

Especially one that only obeyed Fabio's commands.

Therefore, they needed to bring back all their winter cotton clothing, bedding, and food supplies.

Combined with some materials provided by the duchy, they could survive the winter.

As long as Fabio could withstand pressure from the duchy until spring arrived next year.

Without weather constraints, this legion of over ten thousand troops would be enough to make the entire duchy hierarchy back down.

Thus, on the second and third nights of crossing, they focused on transporting supplies and mules across the river.

During daytime, to mislead the border army's scout cavalry, they still had many rafts crossing.

But the efficiency couldn't compare to the floating bridges, and what they transported were mostly cavalry and even some gold, silver, and treasures.

This created the false impression for the border army that Fabio wasn't in a hurry and was greedily transporting his trusted followers and wealth.

Based on the number of rafts and transportation efficiency observed by the border army, it would take at least a month to transport over ten thousand people across the river.