Just after leaving the border fortress, James IV was extremely nervous. The eight hundred infantry brought out from the fort surrounded three circles. Fifty Scottish knights surrounded James IV twice.
In order to prevent the enemy from attacking with a heavy crossbow, James IV entered the only carriage in the border fortress. The four-wheeled carriage was covered with cloth to prevent the outside from seeing the situation in the car. And James IV, wearing a full set of plate armor in the carriage ...
Then, James IV also sent five knights to leave the team, and could not help scouting the surrounding environment. If you see a suspicious person or thing, report it immediately ...
In this way, the team embarked on the road northward. However, because of the 800 infantry, the marching speed of the entire team slowed down. Coupled with the difficulty of walking in the mountains of southern Scotland, every day, this pedestrian's driving speed is less than 30 kilometers. The Edinburgh to England border is about one hundred kilometers, if the two horses transfer, it will be there in a day.
However, Edward only gave one horse to each person, and it was still a sprint warhorse with poor endurance. Because of the last defeat, Scotland is now severely short of horses, and there are no horses to transfer in the border military camps. In desperation, the entire team can only maintain a slow advance of less than 30 kilometers per day.
But along the way, it has been calm and even, no horse thief coveted this team. This makes James IV full of doubts:
"Did I blame Edward?"
According to the general situation, if Edward really wants to kill him, let alone an army ambush along the way, at least, there must be a sneaky spy to observe their movements. However, several of the sent out knights who were proficient in reconnaissance said that along the way, they did not see any suspicious characters like spies ...
James IV was convinced of the words of his subordinate knights. After all, reconnaissance and anti-reconnaissance on the battlefield are the basic military basic capabilities of knights from the knight family. They have been trained since childhood. Moreover, the several knights sent by James IV were all old knights in their 30s and 40s, with rich experience and very venomous eyes. Whether it is a spy or a spy can be seen at a glance. Even if you can't see it, there will be doubts. However, it was too calm along the way ...
In fact, James IV and his men did not know that their group had been under the surveillance of the enemy. It's just that the person who monitors them has an artifact-a telescope ...
With a telescope that can observe their movement at a distance of ten kilometers, there is no need to send people to reconnaissance. These telescopes are made of the best optical glass in Marin's hands. In order to remove the impurity iron ions (iron ions are the culprit of discoloration of glass), Marin let his craftsmen use high carbon steel grinders to grind the quartz sand used for making glass into very fine powder. Then, dilute sulfuric acid was used to "wash" the quartz sand several times. If there is iron ion, it will be dissolved by dilute sulfuric acid. Once filtered, the solution will be removed.
In this way, the white glass burned out of the quartz sand powder with almost no iron ion impurities is very pure and very transparent. Used as a telescope, it is definitely top-notch.
Moreover, Scotland is a sad country with a mountainous majority. If it is on a plain, if it is covered by a forest, it is really difficult to observe. However, in the mountains of Scotland, the gold spies of the North Sea Chamber of Commerce under Marlin, as long as they climb up the hill and stand high, they can easily see the movement of the enemy ten kilometers away ... because the higher you stand, the more you see The further away ...
Therefore, although no personnel were sent to the reconnaissance, the movement of James IV and his party has been under the supervision of the gold spies of the North Sea Chamber of Commerce. It's just that James IV didn't know it.
After all, there are no military artifacts like telescopes in other countries. The knights sent by James IV to reconnaissance are all reconnaissance with the naked eye. Where can it be comparable to the opponents who use a telescope to reconcile on a hill far away? According to the traditional method of reconnaissance with the naked eye, they naturally see no problems.
After reaching the Lauder Valley, which has reached more than 60 kilometers from the border, James IV finally breathed a sigh of relief. Because, in the Lauder Valley, there is only one long and narrow mountain road. It is almost impossible for England to ambush on this road. At least, it is impossible to send cavalry to fight in ambush. Even if there is an ambush, at most it can only send a batch of infantry to ambush, and because of the need to cross the mountains and the mountains, the number is definitely very small. If it is only infantry, there are not many people ... James IV looked at the 50 knights around him and was confident ...
Then he made a decision that he regretted—
"Okay, thank you for sending me here. Now, I am safe, and not farther forward, that is Edinburgh. Now, go back to your barracks. Remember, guard against the British guys, never let them Take the opportunity to penetrate our borders! "
"Observe ~ www.novelhall.com ~ My Majesty!" The border guard will bring 800 soldiers, decisively turn around and start to rush back.
James IV and the 50 knights under his command rested for a night in the village of Lauder Valley, then calmly drove the horse to the north the next day.
At this time, they are only 40 kilometers away from Edinburgh. If you switch to infantry, you may have to march for a day. Change to their cavalry ... It seems that they still have to walk for a day, not even more ...
In fact, if James IV was willing to take off his plate armor at this time and throw away the heavy horse armor on the war horse, they could indeed return to Edinburgh in one day.
However, the problem is that after James IV signed the ominous mutual succession treaty, he was always afraid of being killed. Therefore, he and his knights did not take off the plate armor, which was to prevent the assassination halfway.
Now, James IV is convinced that there will be no more troops formed in England to stop him. However, assassins using crossbow arrows are forced to defend. If the opponent shoots a poison arrow at him, it's all over ...
Therefore, James IV would rather continue to wear heavy plate armor with his men, and let the war horses wear horse armor instead of wearing lightly.
However, the full set of plate armor and horse armor is very heavy, and Edward gave them a group of war horses with poor endurance, and there is no transfer horse. Therefore, the entire team can't move fast. It must be counted, the team's forward speed may not be as good as infantry ...
It was only in the afternoon that they walked to the Gobridge Valley more than ten kilometers away ...
A knight said excitedly:
"Your Majesty, the Gobrich Valley is in front. As soon as you pass this valley, you enter the southern plains. When you reach the plains, you are home!"
"Yes, home!" James IV also showed a happy expression ...