Path of light

Chapter 428 429. Herrick’s Road to Freedom

In August 1407, the headhunters on the western front of the Pagisto Plateau in the Partington plane were forced to evacuate the Caldeum Mountains. Just three weeks later, the headhunters surrendered the Borean Gorge to the mine guards. At this point, all the headhunters have withdrawn to the northern part of the Pagisto Plateau.

Roy led four thousand mixed-blood elf warriors to occupy the North Wind Canyon.

The Mine Guard has now expanded to four brigades with a capacity of 1,000 people. In addition to Roy personally leading a brigade, Sabrina, Woods, and Mullin serve as captains of the Mine Guard. These four brigades Among them, the first team led by Sabrina is the strongest.

Nearly half of the mixed-blood elves in the first group are heavy swordsmen. As long as they break through, they will become sword dancers like Sabrina.

Sabrina led the first brigade to fight for two days and one night in the Borean Canyon, directly driving the headhunters from the southern entrance of the canyon to the northern wilderness of Pagisto Plateau...

Of course, throughout the entire battle, the Griffin Regiment and the Assassin Squad were fully cooperating.

Miss Tiffany has been protecting Sabrina's back. Her ice shield has blocked many short flying spears for Sabrina.

Sabrina killed almost all the headhunters on the plateau with her 'Dance of Radiance', and even killed two headhunter leaders at the southern entrance of Beifeng Canyon.

It was the death of these two headhunter leaders that caused chaos among the headhunters in the North Wind Canyon. The mine guards took advantage of the situation and entered. Sabrina carried a Seruki sword and killed them all. Passed through the entire North Wind Canyon.

Captain Herrick led 5,000 rebel fighters along the edge of the Kartim Mountains and rushed to the North Wind Canyon. Roy's mine guards had completely occupied the North Wind Canyon...

According to incomplete statistics from various mines, headhunters killed at least 10,000 mixed elves on the Pagisto Plateau.

These include three silver mines in the Kartim Mountains and two black iron mines in the Ghassan Mountains.

There were almost two thousand mixed-blood elf slaves in the three silver mines, and there were more than five hundred gray dwarf slaves, all of whom were executed in the mines by plateau headhunters...

These three silver mines were captured by the rebel soldiers led by Captain Herrick. It was precisely because the next two siege battles delayed the progress of the rebels that Captain Herrick arrived at the North Wind Canyon in time. , five days later than Roy.

…

A group of mixed-blood elf warriors, all riding argali, left from the northern entrance of the North Wind Canyon and slowly entered the cold wind-stirred northern wilderness of the Pagisto Plateau...

Captain Helic led the rebel soldiers to stay in the North Wind Canyon for only one day, and then left the North Wind Canyon in a hurry.

In order to avoid being tipped off, Captains Roy and Herrick did not even show up this time, and there was no communication between the rebels and the mine guards. This rebel soldier only borrowed a road from the North Wind Canyon to enter the northern part of the plateau.

All supplies provided to the rebels were directly allocated from Lysander's pack team and then transported directly by the Griffin Regiment. They almost never appeared in the logistics accounts of the mine guards.

A touch of fish belly white lights up on the horizon, and the stars in the night sky recede...

Kaka rode a griffon and carried Roy to catch up with Captain Helik from behind. He jumped off the back of the griffon and strode towards Captain Helik.

Captain Helik took the reins of the argali and stopped.

In the wilderness north of Boreas Canyon, you can see some unmelted snow in places where the sun doesn't shine.

A layer of withered yellow grass grows close to the ground, and a touch of new green is just under the dry grass blades.

Roy stepped on the thorny hay, walked up to Captain Herrick, and said to him:

"Captain Helic, actually you don't have to rush into the northern wilderness of the plateau. The mine guards can withdraw from the Borean Canyon immediately. In addition, you can also take over the three silver mines in the Kardeim Mountains. With these three In the silver mine, you can use the resources in the mine to exchange for any needed supplies. I believe that Lysander’s pack team will never refuse this deal."

Captain Herrick shook his head, smiled and said to Roy:

"The Caldeum Mountains are still too close to Padstow City. Now the Silver Pegasus Legion has to deal with the chaos in the Queen Egwene Islands. It can't take care of the matters on the Padstow Plateau for the time being. But once they solve it, The gray dwarves of the Queen Egwene Islands will soon turn around to deal with matters on the Partington plane."

"I have been thinking a few days ago about whether to live in the tundra on the Caldeum Mountains for a while. Later, I felt that it was too close to Padstow City. Those Silver Pegasus warriors came from Padstow. It only takes one day and night to fly from the city to here."

"In addition, I think the Kaltim Mountains can be a good buffer zone. Whether it is the Silver Pegasus Legion or our group of mixed-blood elf warriors, they probably hope that you can control this area and put it in the hands of the Silver Moon Elves. Here, we don’t trust them, and similarly, those Silver Moon elves certainly won’t let the mixed-blood elves control this place.”

"So after much thought, I decided to abandon the Kaltim Mountains and continue walking north."

"Hey, we didn't have this ability before. There was a lack of food on the Pagisto Plateau, and it was actually quite difficult for the mixed elves to move around freely on the plateau. Now with the elf biscuits, life sap and healing potions you provided, There are also some magic items necessary for travel, so this road will not be so difficult for us."

"And we can continue to show some shame to those plateau headhunters. They have killed so many of our compatriots, and now we are chasing them all the way. It is impossible to just let it go."

"Furthermore... I have always been curious about what the ancestral land of Gazan is like in the north of the Pagisto Plateau. That place is actually quite mysterious to the mixed elves on the Partington plane. Many friends They have all discussed it with me, but unfortunately I have never been able to give a correct answer. I want to take a look."

"We will open up the situation in the northern part of the plateau. There should be some mines here. We will capture two of them. When the time comes, I will exchange the ores with you for the military supplies."

"Don't worry, with us here in the northern wilderness, the headhunters will have no chance of touching the North Wind Canyon..."

Captain Herrick took Roy and talked a lot in one breath on a grassy hill.

When Captain Herrick handed over the two black iron mines in the Gasai Mountains to Roy, Roy actually owed Captain Herrick a big favor.

Unexpectedly, Captain Helic would give up the entire Kardim Mountains to Roy again this time, and he would lead the rebel soldiers into the northern wilderness.

Roy thought for some time and then said with a serious face:

"The mine guards will evacuate Beifeng Canyon in the next few days. We will go all the way north from Tianpu Canyon and enter the northern part of the plateau."

Captain Herrick patted Roy on the shoulder and said:

"That's really okay. When we work together to clear out all the headhunters in the northern plateau area, as long as the time is right, I will continue to explore north. At that time, I will trade several mines in the northern plateau with you for a batch of remote Good supplies.”

"That's no problem. I will have the Griffin Group support you at any time." Roy said.

After saying that, Roy and Captain Herrick stopped at the same time.

A red sun rises slowly from the horizon, shining on the vast wilderness.

Herrick looked at the northern part of the wilderness. There was still a lot of snow that had not completely melted in the shade between the mountains. The cold wind blew on his face, and the coldness froze his bones directly.

Roy rode on the griffin, and Kaka, who was sitting in front, patted the griffin's neck. The majestic griffin suddenly opened its wings, roared softly, jumped up, and flapped its wings several times in succession. It flew directly from the mound.

Taking off is the most strenuous. Once it flies into the sky and spreads its wings to fly in the wind, the griffon becomes much easier.

Kaka hugged the griffin, turned to look at Roy, and asked curiously:

"Where do they want to go?"

Roy knew that Kaka was asking about Captain Helic and the rebel army.

In fact, not only Kaka, but also many mixed elves very much hope that Captain Helic's rebel army can join the mine guard team. In this way, all these mixed elven warriors will be whitewashed.

But their thinking was a little too simple. How could the Silver Pegasus Legion's military accept these mixed elf rebels?

If they wanted to accept it, they would have accepted it during the peace negotiations three years ago, and naturally they would not have waited until now.

Roy set his sights on Captain Helik who was riding an argali. In the wilderness, the running argali brought up a trail of dust...

"Actually, where to go... doesn't matter to these mixed elf warriors, they are just looking for freedom!"

Roy said with narrowed eyes.

…

Captain Helic led five thousand mixed-blood elven warriors to fight their way along the Kaldim Mountains. This rebel army captured three castles in total, but did not capture a single headhunter prisoner.

When meeting the rebel headhunters, except for those who escaped, there were only a few corpses left.

Captain Herrick threw the corpses of these headhunters into the mine, filled it with a layer of sand, and even planted some sea buckthorn on the soil.

The elves firmly believe that life is above all else, but Captain Helic obviously does not think so. Under his leadership, this group of mixed-blood elven warriors almost never leave prisoners, and kill all the headhunters they meet.

But things were different on the side of the mine guards. Both Roy and Sabrina advocated not killing those headhunters who voluntarily surrendered.

Although Mu Lin had some different opinions on this, the mine guards could not make too big a splash.

The defeat of the plateau headhunters in the North Wind Canyon meant that they completely lost access to the southern part of the Pagisto Plateau.

At the same time, nearly a thousand headhunters have become prisoners of war and are currently being held in a temporary prisoner of war camp in the North Wind Canyon. These headhunters were confiscated with weapons and fur armor. In such a cold weather, they only wore clothes around their waists. Wearing a piece of skin, when the north wind blows at night, all the captive headhunters have to huddle together to resist the cold wind.

There are no wooden cages or tents.

The mixed elves just drew a place on a stone cliff and surrounded it with some stones.

Headhunter prisoners of war do not have any shackles on them. As long as they want to run away... they can run out at any time.

The mixed-blood elf warriors guarding outside the prisoner-of-war camp would not even take a second look, but whether they could survive depends on their ability to escape and hide.

Because there is a special team of hunters responsible for taking care of these headhunter prisoners of war, the escaped headhunter prisoners of war can be killed, which will make subsequent processing easier, and it is always easier to deal with than the living headhunters.

Roy even personally made a management regulation for the Headhunter prisoners of war, including providing two meals a day, and the group of Headhunter prisoners of war need to do morning exercises and practice some obedience training in the morning.

Roy wanted to send these prisoners of war to the mines, but before that, Roy planned to let them undergo a period of training in the prisoner of war camp, and also undergo a public trial. Every headhunter needs to be convicted and plead guilty. There will be another trial, and the final penalty will be to enter the mine to participate in labor reform, which will last for the rest of their lives.

Originally, Roy wanted to keep the three silver mines in the Kardim Mountains in normal operation, but when he went to the silver mines in person to see the actual situation there, he deeply understood the mood of those rebel soldiers who took no prisoners. .

It’s really miserable!

The headhunters threw the corpses of the half-blood elf miners and gray dwarf miners into the mine. After filling up the entrance of the mine, they blocked the mine with waste minerals and ore.

When Roy came to the silver mine, he found that the piles of corpses in the mines had not had time to deal with, but through the waste materials and ores, the strong smell of corpses could be clearly smelled, even inside the castle. Blood stains, a lot of blood splattered on the walls, turned into a purple-black color after drying, making those rooms look like torture chambers in hell.

"Those headhunter prisoners of war should be brought back and let them take a good look at the crimes they committed." Woods said with a pale face. He had vomited to the point where there was almost nothing in his stomach.

"Then not only do they have to undergo transformation in the mine, but they also have to repent twice a day, morning and evening!"

Roy covered his face with a handkerchief, walked out of the blood-stained castle, and said after a moment of silence.

"Roy, the silver mine here is temporarily unable to operate normally. Where are you going to send these headhunter prisoners of war?" Mu Lin, who followed behind, pursed her lips and asked reluctantly.

"Don't think about it, I won't send them to the spinel mine. Currently, the number of miners in the mithril mine is obviously insufficient, so they will all be sent to the Sudarso Mountains!" Roy interrupted Mu Lin directly. the last glimmer of hope.

The mine guards left the North Wind Canyon and did not choose to detour from the Kaldim Mountains, pass through the Ghost Crow Ridge and then reach the Sudarso Mountains.

Instead, they chose to take the same road that Captain Helic took a few days ago, from the Kaltim Mountains, directly across the wilderness to the northern part of the Sudarso Mountains.

Although this road is not easy to walk, fortunately there is a map drawn by Captain Herrick himself, and the gryphon cavalry who are familiar with the terrain here guide the way in the air.

Therefore, in mid-September, the four thousand mixed-blood elf warriors of the mine guard team completed the feat of crossing the Kaltim Mountains and crossing the wilderness, and arrived at the northern mithril mine of Sudarso...