“General, General!”
With a gentle rocking, Hammond gradually woke up from his unconscious state.
As the scene before him gradually shifted from blurry to clear, Hammond relaxed; this was his room in Silverwing City.
But soon Hammond realized something was amiss.
“Night raid! What is the situation with the night raid?” Hammond instinctively asked.
But recalling the situation before he lost consciousness, Hammond suddenly burst into laughter and said to his subordinate beside him, “I had a dream that we failed the night raid, and the enemy’s firearm blew my head off. This might be a warning from the goddess; we need to discuss the night raid plan in detail.”
The subordinates around Hammond exchanged glances, worry almost written on their faces.
“General…”
A pharmacist stepped forward and said, “Please lie down again; I need to check your head.”
The smile on Hammond’s face froze, and then he sighed in despair, “Is it true?”
“That’s right, General; everything that happened last night really happened.”
After the adjutant finished speaking, he stepped forward and detailed the situation from the previous night.
Thanks to Hammond’s instinctive defensive moves when he was targeted, he managed to draw on all his magic power almost instantly, taking a high-explosive shot directly and only ended up fainting.
At that moment, the knights had retreated beside Hammond, ready to listen to his orders on whether to continue fighting or prepare to retreat.
Seeing Hammond get hit, the adjutant swiftly scooped him up and took over his command, starting to organize a retreat.
“You did well.”
Hammond sat on the edge of the bed and patted the adjutant’s shoulder.
“But General, many brothers were left in the camp…”
The adjutant wiped his tears; in his eyes, being captured was no different from dying, especially under Doug’s propaganda. Just thinking about how the brothers would soon endure inhumane torture plunged the adjutant into endless guilt.
At that moment, in the prisoner camp, a prisoner was slurping hot noodles.
It was said that this military meal was invented by the governor of Graywhite Territory, made from various filling grains ground into noodle form, which could be eaten once boiled in water and was very filling.
If boiled in hot water with a little seasoning, it was a delicacy that ordinary people could only eat during goddess festivals.
This prisoner finished a bowl and reached out to the cook for another.
“Brother, add more seasoning.”
After saying that, he even burped contentedly.
The cook looked up at the prisoner and advised, “Eat less; it’s not good to eat so much early in the morning; it will affect the upcoming drills.”
“Oh, I’m a prisoner; what drills do I have?”
“That’s true.”
As the cook chatted with the prisoners, he filled another bowl for this prisoner.
The prisoner happily started slurping the noodles again, tears streaming down his face as he thought about the inhumane life this army’s prisoners led, probably even better than before they were captured.
To maintain military discipline, Hammond executed military law quite strictly, especially during battles. Not to mention this kind of noodle, even having a hot meal was already a privilege.
The knights under him were different from those noble knights; most of them were very old-fashioned Lars Knights, the kind that could recite the knight’s code without missing a word.
Everyone had grown accustomed to it over the years of fighting, until the prisoners tasted the rations of the First Army Group.
After finishing his noodles and broth, this prisoner patted his belly in satisfaction. Lord Hammond was right; this army was indeed a bunch of pampered soldiers; even the military rations were so good, he envied them greatly.
As this prisoner stood up to digest, the symbolically significant gate of the prisoner camp opened, and a group of new prisoners was being pushed in, shouting and cursing the soldiers guarding them.
“Yo, Brother, you guys were captured too?” Upon seeing a familiar face, the prisoner instinctively called out.
But then he realized that his reaction had been too excited, completely unlike how a prisoner should behave, and immediately changed his expression.
Just moments ago he was satisfied after eating, and now he looked deeply resentful, wishing he could kill all the guards.
The newly arrived prisoners saw this prisoner and immediately showed excitement, rushing toward him despite the guards and eagerly asking, “Dean, are you alright? Did they torture you like Governor Fang Ge said? Are you doing well?”
The prisoner named Dean immediately said with a serious face, “They are not human; they used various methods to torture me and tempt me with different things. But everyone rest assured, I didn’t betray any of you, nor did I betray the general! Burp!”
If it weren’t for that last burp, Dean’s statement would have been quite convincing.
At that moment, the cook nearby loudly asked, “Hey, new prisoners over there, are you still eating breakfast? If not, I won’t continue cooking!”
What? Breakfast? Most prisoners were somewhat unfamiliar with that term.
Normal people only eat two meals a day, right? Do even prisoners get breakfast?
Dean just awkwardly smiled and said, “My treat, my treat, everyone please.”
Several new prisoners sat down inexplicably with Dean and began slurping noodles, starting to chat as they ate.
“That’s too much; we worked so hard last night trying to rescue you, but you guys were eating this kind of stuff.”
A professional knight, while crying, slurped on his noodles, excitedly causing a few noodles to go up his nose.
“Yeah, I’m sorry.”
Dean and several earlier captured prisoners lowered their heads.
“It’s not that we didn’t want to help; we were controlled the moment we heard the commotion last night.”
“Nonsense, Dean, you were sleeping so soundly last night; if I hadn’t called you, you wouldn’t have woken up! Sorry, Cook, could I have another bowl?”
The newly arrived prisoners curiously asked, “What does ‘comrade’ mean?”
“It means like-minded person.”
“What common ground do you have with the enemy?”
The newly arrived prisoners immediately stood up angrily and said, “You guys were bribed with this little noodle broth and betrayed the general? No wonder the night raid failed; it must have been you guys who leaked the information!”
“Ah? We didn’t know you were going to do a night raid!”
Even though the tail end of winter had already passed, the atmosphere suddenly became inexplicably cold, as if an early spring chill had arrived.
A guard nearby saw this and blew his whistle, saying, “Northern border people don’t fight northern border people; any issues should be solved peacefully; fighting is not allowed!”
Several prisoners immediately sat down obediently to continue slurping noodles; after all, they needed to eat well to have the strength to think about other things.
And besides, what the guard said about northern border people not fighting each other seemed to be true. The knights who were captured earlier looked not tortured at all; in fact, they even seemed to have gained a bit of weight after just one night.
With such favorable treatment, those somewhat old-fashioned knights who followed Hammond did not feel the need to make any moves.
