Chapter 183 Another Encirclement
"Village Chief, what should we do next?"

The militiamen on the low wall at the entrance of the village opened the gate, walked out, and pushed the carts loaded with food into the village.

"What else can we do? Go door to door and count how many unused clothes there are in the village. After a week, we have to come up with at least 1,000 sets of clothes. If it's not enough, let them work overtime to get them."

The village chief weighed the purse in his hand. There were about thirty or forty gold coins in it. Normally, if they were put on the market, they could buy four or five hundred sets of clothes.

But according to the market price, it is definitely not enough to satisfy those soldiers.

The village chief decided to make more preparations to avoid angering the soldiers.

"The clothing stored in one village is definitely not enough, so we have to go to another village."

Lanzabel had no idea what the village chief was planning.

According to general experience, a village of that size would not normally stockpile more than three hundred sets of winter clothing.

The money in that purse should be enough to buy all the winter clothes they have and still have some left over.

In Lisabel's understanding, the money for the extra clothes should be regarded as the premium for the expedited order and a small price to pay for showing sincerity. After all, they only gave the villagers one week to collect winter clothes.

The resistance fighters had no way to conduct purchasing operations in large towns, and in most cases, these gold coins were of little use to them.

For the villagers, this little bit of gold is very useful. Spending a little more money can effectively increase their enthusiasm and their trust in these resistance fighters.

"The next village is here, probably still a day's journey away."

The sergeant next to him pointed out a location on the map.

"According to the plan, it will take about half a month to collect all the replacement clothes."

Time is not abundant for Lisabell and her companions. The Chinese pursuers have probably already noticed their destination. Based on previous experience, Lisabell and her companions will probably have about a month to move around before the pursuers arrive at this territory.

Here, Lisabel and her companions could not engage in direct confrontation with the pursuers. They needed to completely integrate into the local village society within a month so that the pursuers could not distinguish them from ordinary villagers.

This is not something that can be won simply by changing clothes. They also need to gain the trust of the people in these villages and towns so that they can live in this place like ordinary villagers.

"Time is a little tight."

Lisabel looked at the map. A large part of this territory was located in the mountains. As long as she could find some locals as guides and bypass the blockade of the Gong Kingdom's pursuers, it would not be a bad idea to continue playing the cat-and-mouse game with the pursuers as before.

But this is only a choice that will be made as a last resort.

No troop could endure that kind of long-distance march indefinitely.

Lisabel looked around. The morale of the resistance fighters seemed good now, but from some subtle details, it could be seen that the actual situation of this team was not optimistic.

A large number of armors show signs of wear and tear. Although their protective effects have not been affected for the time being, if they are not repaired in the near future, the man-hours required for repair will increase significantly when they are damaged further.

A large number of archers had very few arrows left in their quivers, and could only sustain two or three battles of medium intensity.

As for rations, there was not much to worry about, thanks to the abundant reserves in the nobles' granaries and the supplies carried by the blockade troops.

But generally speaking, the resistance fighters need a stable rear base to rest and recuperate. "Is it possible for them to continue to flee?"

Some staff officers were busy working on the map, updating the map in the command room based on the reports from the Principality troops in the front.

Because of the physical distance between the front-line troops and the capital of the principality, although the news from the front line has the fastest channel to reach the capital of the principality, the map in the command room can only reflect the situation about a week ago.

Morarichi waited on the side for the staff to finish their work, and looked at his adjutant who had also finally had some free time.

"From the reports from the front, their condition is not very good."

The adjutant flipped through the documents in his hand. In addition to the content that needed to be reported directly, there was also a lot of information that did not need to be reported directly. This information was not a high priority, but when Morariqi mentioned it, the adjutant had to provide him with this information immediately to assist him in making a judgment.

"The armor of the resistance fighters we encountered was worn out, and they could hardly withstand more battles. The density of their firepower was also gradually weakening during the harassment. It seemed that they were intentionally saving arrows."

The adjutant read the report of the Duchy troops on the front line in the file at the beginning of the year. All of this can show that it is now difficult for the resistance troops that have been running around to continue to escape.

"Then they need to stay there for at least a while."

Morari walked to the side of the map and waved away the group of staff officers who were updating the enemy and friendly situations on the map.

"Sir, the map is not yet..."

"Those situations from almost a week ago are not that important."

After noticing Morari's impatience, the staff officers did not insist and quietly retreated.

"They obviously have no way of confronting our troops head-on in this terrain."

All the arrows on the map pointed to one place, which was the destination that the Principality speculated was Lisabel and the others.

"They will definitely not stay in a place like this for long. Although I don't know why they chose this place, but this time, as long as they stop, I will not give them any chance to escape."

Moralich quickly marked all possible places where Lysabel could be.

"There is no need to chase them. All troops should be sent to these positions to block any possible routes of their departure. Let the small 52nd Regiment and the 13th Regiment reinforce them and do not leave any gaps."

The adjutant quickly wrote down the orders.

These orders were quickly conveyed to the pursuing Principality troops, and subsequently the routes of these pursuing troops were changed.

"It looks like it will be a while before things change enough."

Farui saw the movements of the Principality's troops in the sky. They obviously thought that Lisabel would break out after a brief rest, so they did not press on the resistance immediately.

This means that the resistance fighters have more time to gain the trust of the locals, and the actions of the local nobles naturally make it easier for the villagers to trust the resistance fighters.

Once they complete the blockade and enter the mountainous area, they will be surprised to find that the resistance seems to have disappeared out of thin air.

(End of this chapter)