Mercenaries and Adventurers

Facing Kiel's questioning, Blood Fangster explained with a bitter face: "My lord, Kiel, although these harpies look similar to humans, they are not smart. They are similar to wild beasts, but they have very strong abilities. Vengeance, as long as a harpy is killed, the monster will use its last strength to shout loudly before being killed, and other harpies patrolling and hunting around will come to avenge it."

Knight Crowe showed the original expression: "This thing did yell loudly before it died, but there were no other harpies around it. What's the reason?"

Ster guessed and said, "Maybe, this is a lone monster hunting alone? It would be great if this is the case, so that we won't be tightly entangled by monsters today."

Hearing this sentence, Knight Crowe was very dissatisfied. As a powerful knight, he was quite disgusted by this kind of behavior of being afraid or even afraid of monsters, so he lost interest in talking to this man again.

The knight patted Kiel on the shoulder, and whispered to Kiel: "Although this may be the case, you still have to be careful today, don't lead the way in front of the team, you take this local, and I will ask the baron for five horses Personal guard, you will lead people around the team on horseback, and go to support wherever there is an accident.

Rumi will command in the forward team, and I will rest in the logistics carriage, and call me when something happens. understand? "

Kiel put his heels together, smashed his right fist to his left chest, and saluted: "Understood my lord."

The knight then asked Keel to cover up the harpy body with something and hide it in their Kendal carriage. Because it can be seen from the reaction of Xueyasite that the locals obviously dare not deal with the harpies. In order to avoid causing panic among the local caravans, covering up is a must.

He took one last look at Xue Yaster, and said directly to the man: "You can't tell about this matter, keep your mouth shut, if you still want to eat with it!"

Xueyasite immediately knelt on the ground, swearing to promise not to speak out.

Although he looked sad on his face, he was worried that things would not go well.

"Keil, you also remember not to let this man talk nonsense, just watch him." With a word of advice, Knight Crowe walked away from the place where his vision was blocked.

-

Seeing the knight walk away, Keir pulled up Bloodfang: "Don't worry, if they want to come, then confront them, otherwise you can still think that monsters will accept the surrender of humans?"

"By the way, since you know the consequences of killing a monster, it is obvious that other people have defeated this monster before. What happened to them?"

Keel rummaged through the surrounding carriages and found a roll of tarpaulin on the roof, and then, taking advantage of the low wind around, wrapped up the monster's corpse with Blood Fangst and tied it up, asking curiously.

"Hey, it's not like there were no strong fighters who killed this kind of monsters on this grassland before, but most of them ended badly and couldn't get out of here. However, some people directly offered the harpies as much as the number of people in the team. The same livestock, I heard that the monster let go of that group of people."

To this answer, Keir shook his head. He felt that it was unlikely. If it was a caravan with a small number of people, it might be possible. It would be fine to buy a small amount of sheep from the villages along the way. But buying sheep in large quantities is probably unlikely.

After all, people's villages also rely on this kind of livestock to survive. If they sell all the sheep, how can they survive?

'It seems that if you are unlucky, you will have to face this monster head-on. '

Thinking in this way, Keel dragged the wrapped monster body and walked forward.

At this time, the surrounding wind became weaker, and it seemed that there was a window of weak wind, so a large number of humans poured out of the various underground buildings in the village.

A large number of horses and livestock from the army and caravan were also driven out by the villagers. After confirming the number and marking, they were quickly delivered.

Both the militiamen and the caravan guys took action, untied the ropes tied between the carriages, and then harnessed the horses to the carriages. The Kendall army is faster here, but the caravan is much slower, because not only the merchants have to find their own people among the strangers around them, but they also have to drive the villagers out of the underground buildings in the middle of the village. The sheep that came out were counted and delivered to the caravan stewards who bought the sheep last night.

Keir noticed that a relatively large number of sheep were handed over by the villagers to the caravan of the Kendals.

The meaning behind directly handing over the sheep to the army will inevitably make people look down on them, so these sheep were handed over to their own caravan in the chaos before departure.

After turning a corner like this, the Kendal people bought sheep just in case, without losing face.

After all, it is an army. If you are afraid of monsters, it will not look good.

"Woo——"

A loud horn was blown, which was the sound of Knight Rumi asking the baron's guard to blow it to set off.

The surrounding wind is low, but you can use the horn to signal everyone in the team.

I don't know if they bought the sheep from the villagers. Just after the huge team walked out of Thor Village, the local merchants in the western province jointly proposed to Baron Kendall, hoping that the caravan and the Kendall army should be separated. move.

Just like before.

Baron Kendall, who had just inspected the body of the harpy on a logistics vehicle, smiled disdainfully, and waved his hand in agreement with these people's requests.

"Everyone was unprepared yesterday, so they had to walk with us. It seems that such a short distance makes those local merchants very uncomfortable. As soon as I bought food that can 'contribute' to the monsters today, I immediately thought Separate." After sighing mockingly, Baron Kendall said to Knight Crowe.

"It seems that they are afraid of a real conflict between the army and the monsters, and they don't know which side they are on."

Knight Crowe gave the answer straight to the point: "There is an interest."

"Businessmen are right to be afraid. The management of the military in various places has not been very good all the time. A small half of the casualties of businessmen often happen when they deal with various military garrisons."

"A small half? What else is there?" the baron asked curiously.

"Others, there are also bandits who are also big heads, but when they meet bandits, the caravan will either lose all of them, or lose all their goods, or use money to bribe the bandits. Either the people are not injured, or they will all be lost."

"In addition, there are diseases, accidental deaths, wild animals, including monsters that ordinary caravans cannot deal with." Knight Crowe explained the news he heard from the Ice Flood Pass.

Baron Kendall rode on the horse, waved his hands to re-wrap the body of the harpies, and then said, "Claw, what do you think of these monsters?"

"My lord, what aspect are you talking about?"

"Various aspects."

Knight Crowe, who had been on duty all night, was a little tired, but it didn't bother him. After deliberating for a while, he shook his head and said, "It will definitely be over here in the future, unless the local Earl is willing to bring back the standing army on the front line of Caohai. Otherwise, it won't be long before everyone is in danger here, in the Strange Wind Grassland, and in the Cavin collar a little to the south."

"How do you judge? Tell me." The baron reached out to get the newly drawn map from the personal guard, and found their current location on the map—Tor Village on the Strange Wind Grassland.

This is just a place where the commercial route that runs through the north and south of the western province must pass. And Thor Village is just the first stop to go straight through the Strange Wind Grassland. If everything goes well today, they will go to the Rock Village, and tomorrow they will reach the Strange Wind Town in the middle of the Strange Wind Grassland.

Basically, if everything goes well, it will take five days to pass through here and reach the Cavin collar a little to the south.

Unlike the Strange Wind Grassland, which is not suitable for living here, the Cavin Territory is a Viscount Territory, with a vast area and a large population, and its terrain is more complicated than that of the Strange Wind Grassland.

The baron and Knight Claw rode side by side, and gestured around the first two, and found that the two places were connected, and there was no obstacle. It was simply a strange wind. The strong wind on the grassland only blew here. The main difference between the wind grassland and the Cavan collar.

But this is not to say that without the wind, the harpies are easy to deal with, quite the contrary. As long as it is flying in the sky, there is no easy enemy to deal with.

Not to mention monsters, even the trained falcons are very difficult to detect and attack.

"It's also my first time here, so I can only say some of my guesses and judgments, my lord."

"Speak, I'll listen."

"Yes."

Knight Crowe first pointed to the corpse of the monster on the carriage behind him: "I fought this thing, and although I killed it easily, it doesn't mean that other people can defeat this flying monster with normal means. "

"Did you see its pair of claws? The whole is strong and powerful. The sharp claws are as long as a palm, regardless of the gripping power of the monster's claws, but the solid claws of that length fell from the sky to attack soldiers. Soldiers It's hard to guard against."

The knight made a gesture of reaching out and clawing from top to bottom.

"Human beings live on the ground, and most of the enemies only include enemies in the four directions of front, back, left, and right. Therefore, the vast majority of people are unable to deal with the attack from the top of the head. Even if they face the enemy head-on, they still can't do much. Either shield Defense, or attack with the spear. You can't do both offense and defense."

"What about the crossbows? Shoot them with a crossbow?" the Baron suggested.

But he himself shook his head immediately: "Bows and crossbows are all projectile weapons. Not only are they limited to the height of the enemy above their heads, but the falling crossbows will also hurt their own people."

Knight Crowe added: "My lord, when monsters fly low and attack, the low-trajectory crossbows will probably kill a large number of their own people in actual combat. Although it is hard to say, if there is no other way, exchange one soldier for another." The harpies, it's probably feasible."

The baron frowned and didn't speak, but just stretched out his hand to signal Knight Crowe to continue what he said just now.

"My lord, just now was just an analysis of the simple means of ordinary soldiers against this monster. The bigger trouble is here. That is, we, including the past merchants, and the local people who seem to be safe but actually live are not aware of an important issue. information."

"How many harpies are here?"

Baron Kendall was a little puzzled when he heard this question, but he frowned and thought about it, then gritted his teeth and remained silent.

This is the reason why the southern Cavan Territory mentioned by Knight Crowe will also suffer.

"Monsters are also beasts, but they are difficult beasts with special abilities. Generally speaking, the number is completely related to the food supply and output of the monster's living area. My lord, just like the water power you are familiar with, the monsters here are stored. There are no knights, nobles and troops who can limit their number on the strange wind grassland, and sooner or later, when the water here is full, it will overflow."

"If you just follow the overflow, the Calvin collar should be able to respond in time and push back the monsters that overflow."

The baron continued: "But the trade road under our feet has brought a steady stream of vitality and resources to this place. Merchants want to pass here safely and quickly, so they used the method of donating live animals to build a new business with monsters that can easily obtain meat." There were no clear rules. And the local villagers also relied on the method of providing supplies and sheep to the caravans, and harvested the wealth to survive."

The baron was stunned for a while: "So that's it. I know how the imperial migrants who moved here settled down here, and they still have the wealth and resources to build an underground building of that scale. This is a lot of money. And The provider of this money, I guess, is either the Church of the God of Wealth, or a large local or kingdom chamber of commerce, or even a merchant guild. "

"After all, this business route will continuously produce wealth, and it is normal for someone to invest in it."

Knight Crowe said coldly: "But it feeds an unknown number of harpies."

"The live sheep that are donated are the floating soil on the embankment. The higher the pile, the more water will be stored. Once it is unsustainable, the balance between the two parties will be broken, just like the flood will submerge the fields and villages. The hungry monsters that emerge from the Wind Grassland will kill and eat all the places they can fly to."

Baron Kendall remained silent, just flicking the map in front of him with his hands.

On the map, the northern part of the Strange Wind Grassland is the direction the Kendals came from. There is frequent rainfall all year round, which is not suitable for the movement and habitat of the Harpies.

And to the east is the uninhabited land of the strange wind grassland that extends all the way. In that direction, there is not even a single human settlement. From here the grassland extends all the way to the border of the central province, but there are mountains and forests blocking it, and the mountains covered with dense forests should not be conducive to the liking of flying monsters like harpies.

Because the wings are too wide, it is not conducive to the flight of monsters in the forest, but here is the world of small raptors.

The wide and unobstructed terrain is the harpies' favorite and very favorable activity area.

Going further to the west of the Strange Wind Grassland, there is a place that doesn't even have a map. It was the sea of ​​grass that was mysterious and made people in the western provinces talk about it.

The sea of ​​grass where monsters and monsters are entrenched is more troublesome than the troubles in the strange wind grassland. Presumably the harpies have also suffered a lot there.

In this way, only the southward Cavin Territory, just because there is no strong wind, can maintain the current peace and stability before the number of harpies reaches the limit.

Seeing that Baron Kendall fully understood what he meant, Knight Crowe raised his mouth: "My lord, let's not talk about now, and we will arrive at Cavin Territory later. Do you want to pass this information to the nobles there?"

The baron hesitated, but still nodded: "Although the people there have nothing to do with us, no matter whether I am a human being or a member of the noble council, I should tell the truth about the situation. As for whether they will listen or not, that is their responsibility." It's my own business."

Speaking of this, the baron guessed: "Tell me, would the nobles in Cavin's collar know about what we can find out?"

But Knight Crow shook his head straightforwardly: "How is it possible? If they knew, would those adults still allow caravans to travel in this way? Measures should be taken, or limit the size of caravans, or organize mercenaries Or adventurers put a bounty on hunting Harpy to limit the number of monsters."

"But you see, they didn't do anything."

But Baron Kendall sighed secretly, and he didn't say anything in his heart: "Maybe it's not that I don't know, but that the benefits of business exchanges are huge. Compared with things that don't know when they will cause losses, seize the immediate profits first." Opportunities are the ideas and actual practices of some people. '

‘Even if some people want to do something, when only a few people want to do something, they will naturally be hindered by other nobles whose interests are damaged. Over time, no one took the initiative to do anything. And everyone may know that a fatal crisis will come one day, but before it comes, no one will do something for everyone at the expense of himself. '

‘Even if it’s a matter of life and death. '

Both of them stopped talking about the Cavin collar, and instead studied how to deal with the Harpy attack.

-

On Kiel's side, he was currently patrolling around the advancing army circle with Bloodfang and five baron guards on horseback.

Considering that the opponent's harpy might be flying in the sky, everyone prepared spears and crossbows. Kiel also took the opportunity to pretend to change his armor on the carriage, but actually entered the dream, changed his armor, and brought Put on the Yueshui head two-handed ax to deal with monsters.

In order to lighten the burden on the horses he was riding, Kiel put all the things he didn't use on his carriage, including the long sword hunting which was also not light in weight.

To deal with this kind of monster, the two-handed ax of the spiritual weapon should be fine.

When the Kendals first set off from Thor Village, there was no strong wind blowing on the grassland, so the Rumi knights who led the team asked the militiamen to try to speed up their pace during this time period, trying to wait until the strong wind blows, and walk more few steps.

In fact, the speed of the army at this time was dragged down by the militiamen, but it was impossible to allocate carriages for everyone to move, so the actual situation could only be like this.

Unlike yesterday afternoon, after setting off today, a large caravan composed of locals voluntarily asked to leave the team and followed far behind. So at this time, the marching queue of the army has also changed.

Although the Rumi Knight does not have the complex and powerful team control methods like the Crowe Knight, it allows the army to move complicatedly after deployment. But he's not an idiot either, so naturally he won't let the troops line up in a long line as usual, and he can't take care of the end.

The long queue is the optimal solution when the width of the road is limited, but it is not necessary on the open and gentle grassland. As the main body of the army's long-distance mobility, the logistics carriage is surrounded by everyone in the center. The logistics carriage was followed by some Kendal caravans. Unlike local caravans, as a caravan composed of Kendals, they would not feel that their own army was dangerous. After all, the experience along the way made them They were especially at ease with the baron's army.

Naturally, there is also the influence of Keir's previous incident in Grass Rat Town.

Outside the logistics carriage and the accompanying caravan, Knight Rumi divided the 500-man militia team into five parts that were easy to command, and deployed them on the front, rear, left, and right sides, and on the carriage in the middle.

There were 150 people in the front, 100 people on the left, 100 people at the left and 100 people at the back, and 50 people in the middle, squeezed between the front and back of the carriage, barely able to get on the carriage.

At the same time, all the militiamen in the middle of the car used crossbows, and half of the surrounding militiamen used spears and half used crossbows. People who used different weapons were mixed together. The spears were used to prevent monsters from approaching. Monsters are less effective, but slightly better than nothing, as an offensive means of attacking monsters.

After the arrangements were made, the Rumi knight asked the army to speed up the march.