Your soldiers look askance at each other, before one of them finally volunteers. The Cossacks huddle together, whispering among themselves, and eventually they pick one of their number to go with you. You manage to find a couple Tokarev TT-33s, and bayonets make a handy knife for close-work. The Cossack grabs a flintlock pistol, and a large and rather cruel looking knife. Thus armed, you head out for the closest village.
The village is surrounded by a large number of fields, orchards and animal pens. Except for the animals in the pens, they're completely deserted. Judging by the various tools scattered about, the inhabitants of the village must have fled once they spotted the army, which is still fairly far off. Creeping cautiously forward, you eventually reach the outskirts of the village.
The village isn't very large, and is comprised of a cluster of about twenty brick houses, with various outlying buildings that are probably related to farming. Safely concealed behind one of the buildings, you survey the centre of the village. A large crowd of people wearing crude tunics and simple dresses are clustered around a group of horsemen. Unlike the Cossacks, these horsemen seem more professional. They wear black shirts with white breeches and what looks like a pair of bandoleers strung along their chest. Their hats are tall, cylindrical, and ordained with a black feather and has a badge with a skull and crossbones stuck on the front. Their weaponry is similar to the Cossacks, namely sabers, carbines and pistols, though they seem less crude. Additionally, just like the Cossacks, each of the horsemen sports a massive mustache.
With the thirty-or-so horsemen is a rather bookish-looking man, wearing a black coat, yellow pants and with a pair of wire-framed glasses perched on his nose. He seems to be communicating with the villagers by writing into a book before handing it to their leader. Or at least you think that he's the villager's leader. Unlike the other villagers he's wearing an extremely white sheet, wrapped around his body. He also has a couple of golden rings on his fingers.