He never expected that the people in the inner city would act like cornered dogs, desperate enough to risk everything for their lives. They rallied all the slaves in the inner city, modified some shield carts by mounting doors vertically on hand carts, and forced the slaves to charge the
Lorist suddenly recalled a joke from his previous life during the Liberation War. A bald commander had cursed his subordinates for being worse than pigs — tens of thousands of pigs or rabbits would take two or three days to catch, but you lost tens of thousands of men in a single morning to a handful of rabbits, absolute incompetence...
But now, the enemies who had fled from the inner city had truly learned from the pigs, and that gave Lorist a terrible headache. Pigs only knew how to run, but these enemies fought back. With death closing in, they became desperate — those who couldn't escape began fighting to the death against the pursuing Norton Family forces. Among them were no small number of Silver and Gold-rank swordsmen, and the Norton Family forces carrying out the encirclement and pursuit suffered a sharp increase in casualties.
Left with no choice, Lorist ordered all family soldiers to form formations before pursuing. Upon encountering enemies they couldn't handle, they should prioritize self-preservation, hold the enemy in place, and wait for the family knights to arrive. While he himself rushed about providing reinforcements wherever needed, he also urgently dispatched orders for Tiger Ross, Malek, and the other family knights who had just arrived at the dock area that evening and set up camp to come provide support.
Lorist didn't issue the order to sound the recall horn and withdraw until the afternoon. By evening, everyone had gathered in the main tent. When Lorist received the casualty report, he wished he could slap himself twice. Over 2,900 casualties, including 824 killed in action — essentially an entire battalion wiped out. The majority of the fallen soldiers had died bravely at the moment the defensive line was breached during the enemy's breakout.
Lorist's expression shifted between dark and light, his heart filled with extreme regret. Last night when that old man came as an envoy, he should have pretended there was room for negotiation, rambled about compensation and such, stalled the enemy, and let them wait comfortably in the city to die. Why did he have to tell the enemy outright that he would show no mercy and leave them no way out? He'd scared the old man to the point of collapse, the old man had gone back and ordered Bodfeng to build a pyramid of skulls before the wall, forcing the inner-city enemies into a desperate gamble.
A miscalculation! Lorist let out a long sigh. He needed to learn from this lesson — looking down on the enemy as less than pigs and dogs, treating them as cattle and sheep waiting for slaughter, only to have his face slapped in the most brutal fashion.
Apart from the heavy deployment of forces at the main gate of the dock area, the other three gates were each guarded by only one heavy infantry battalion and one wheeled steel crossbow battalion. Lorist had always believed that a single wheeled steel crossbow battalion with five hundred crossbows was more than enough to seal off one city gate, but he had forgotten that his family soldiers were not made of iron — they needed rest too. When the enemy forced those slaves to push the shield carts against the defensive positions in the middle of the night, fewer than a hundred crossbows were able to fire immediately. That was how the enemy closed in and broke through the defensive perimeter...
"My Lord, we've finished the count." Bodfeng walked into the main tent, his left shoulder wrapped in bandages — he'd been wounded again.
When the enemy broke out in the dead of night, Bodfeng had been the first to rush to reinforce the line, and he'd saved old man Injelek's life in the nick of time. The old man had been cornered by three Great Swordmasters, darting about with nowhere to run. Fortunately, Bodfeng arrived and took on one of the Great Swordmasters, finally giving Injelek some breathing room...
Bodfeng was still a tier below a Great Swordmaster, but with his formidable defensive swordsmanship, he could barely hold his own. Then Tiger Ross rode in on horseback, completely shifting the balance. One of the two Great Swordmasters facing Injelek saw the situation turning against him and abandoned his companion to flee, while the remaining one was beaten to death by Tiger Ross and Injelek working together.
The Great Swordmaster locked in combat with Bodfeng grew anxious and tried to flee as well, but Bodfeng risked his life to pin him down, taking a sword strike to his left shoulder and holding on until Injelek and Tiger Ross arrived. The Great Swordmaster could only accept his death in despair.
"Speak," Lorist said, pressing his hand to his head.
"My Lord, the enemy left behind 7,432 corpses. Nearly 5,000 died on the road between the gate and the defensive perimeter during the breakout, though over 1,700 of those bodies were slaves. After a full day of searching, we captured more than 35,000 prisoners, the majority women and children."
Damn. So the inner city had held roughly 70,000 people. Between the dead and captured, that was only about 40,000 — nearly 30,000 enemies had escaped. It was easy to guess that the vast majority of those who got away were young and able-bodied men who had abandoned the women and children behind. Lorist could only hope that Josk and
"Hand the captured prisoners over to Hickod. Have him separate out the women to establish a military prostitution camp. The rest should be turned over to the newly formed slave garrison battalion for practice — let those with grievances settle scores, those with grudges take revenge. Have all the severed heads treated for preservation. Ross, you'll oversee this."
"Yes, my Lord." Ross stood up.
"Malek, the task of clearing the inner city is yours. Once it's done, store all seized goods and provisions in the inner city first. Also, regarding provisions for the slave camp, switch to resupplying every three days from now on. Understood?"
"Understood, my Lord." Malek replied.
"Bodfeng, reorganize our family forces. Leave two heavy infantry battalions and one wheeled steel crossbow battalion here to defend the inner city and monitor the slave camp. The rest will rest for three days before advancing on the Hamidas Royal Capital." Lorist instructed.
"As you command, my Lord."
A guard entered the tent and announced: "My Lord, Tager reports to you."
Hm? Tager was still on the island? Lorist was taken aback. Over two months ago, he had ordered Tager and El to infiltrate the Haneabada Kingdom through the Peterson Trading Company. The purpose was twofold: to gather intelligence on Nubite Port and the Hamidas Royal Capital, and to see if they could ransom the captured family knights and civil officials. After two months with no word, Lorist had been forced to take the risk and deploy troops. He hadn't expected that after all this time Tager was still on the island. What about El?
"My Lord, El and I posed as nephews of high-ranking Peterson Trading Company executives. When we got here, we discovered that the Peterson name carried no weight whatsoever in Nubite Port. The Chikde Trading Company had the closest commercial ties with the Haneabada Kingdom, and the Peterson Trading Company had no overlap with them. The slave owners and slave traders here wouldn't give us the time of day. But they took us for young masters out to see the world and treated us politely enough."
Even though Tager had received a cold reception from the major slave owners and slave traders in Nubite Port, he had still thrived like a fish in water. He befriended the middle and lower-ranking people of the area and quickly gathered a wealth of intelligence — how many noble slave owners and slave traders had attacked Shilovas Island, how many displaced persons and slaves each had received, where they were laboring, and what they were doing.
Tager had even recorded the inventories and quantities of goods stored in every warehouse and trading house in Nubite Port. Additionally, through ransoming and other means, he had rescued over a dozen former residents of Shilovas Island. But when Tager tried to return to report to Lorist, he was dumbfounded — there were no suitable ships...
The Peterson Trading Company vessel that had brought them to Nubite Port had unloaded its cargo and departed. Now Tager wanted to return but couldn't find a suitable merchant ship. His acquaintances warned him against boarding random vessels, especially those of unknown provenance or those belonging to slaving squads. Traveling alone with over a dozen slaves — mostly female — on such a ship, he could easily be attacked by the crew or a slaving squad at sea, and his body thrown overboard to disappear without a trace.
The best option was to stay for another month or so and wait for the Chikde Trading Company's fleet to arrive at the end of October, then return on their ships safely. So Tager had been forced to remain in Nubite Port, waiting for Lorist to arrive. His luck hadn't been great, though — he'd been dragged into the inner city by some of his acquaintances and had only managed to hide and slip away during the enemy's breakout. After the Norton Family soldiers entered the inner city and he identified himself, Lorist had already gone in pursuit of the enemy. Tager had to first settle the residents he'd ransomed, and it had dragged on until now.
"The Chikde Trading Company's fleet will come here at the end of October?" Lorist's interest was piqued.
"Yes, my Lord. The intelligence I gathered indicates that the Chikde Trading Company's fleet visits Nubite Port every April and October for trading. Last April, the Chikde Trading Company's third young master came along, and at the welcome banquet he got drunk and let slip that they had designs on our Shilovas Island. The plan had to be shelved when the Glass War broke out. He was also the one who revealed that our family was recruiting tens of thousands of displaced persons on Shilovas Island for development, which is what gave those slave owners and slave traders the idea to target those displaced persons and attack the island." Tager explained.
"Heh, the Chikde Trading Company, the third young master — what a fine scheme of borrowing a knife to kill." Lorist understood. He would settle that account in due time.
"Where is El?" Lorist asked.
"My Lord, El went to the Hamidas Royal Capital. This time, over 1,300 of our family soldiers were captured on Shilovas Island. Aside from over thirty who died from abuse aboard the ships, the rest were all sent to the gladiatorial arena in the Hamidas Royal Capital. Sir Shrade and Sir
Tager began to cry: "My Lord, please hurry and rescue them! Of those still alive, fewer than two to three hundred remain. They've been forced to fight magical beasts in the arena and battle other slaves — too many have already died. At last month's so-called Founding Day celebration, over five hundred of our family soldiers died in the arena. El and I were sitting right there, watching them die horrible deaths — it felt like our hearts were being torn apart. The spectators complained that the fighting wasn't entertaining enough and demanded that the wounded all be executed... Everyone in that capital deserves to die, my Lord..."
Tager's words fell on Lorist like boiling oil on a flame. Every family knight in the tent rose to their feet in fury, clamoring for an immediate attack on the Hamidas Royal Capital.
"We need to think about this. From our landing yesterday morning until now, our family soldiers haven't had a proper rest. That's why the soldiers on the defensive line were sleeping so deeply last night, and the enemy caught them off guard and broke through. It will take a fast horse one day to travel from Nubite Port to the Hamidas Royal Capital. The tens of thousands of enemies who broke through this morning will be able to deliver the news there by tomorrow. I believe the people there won't be in the mood for gladiatorial spectacles anymore. Our family knights and soldiers in the Hamidas Royal Capital's arena should be safe for the time being. Rest well for three days, build up your strength, and then we march on the Hamidas Royal Capital to avenge our brave soldiers!"
"Yes, my Lord."
"Tager, what is El doing in the capital?" Lorist asked.
"My Lord, El is playing the role of a young master obsessed with swordsmanship. He's bribed the arena manager, using our family soldiers — including Sir Shrade and Sir Jim — as his 'training partners.' This way, they can avoid being selected as gladiators for the bet-matches between major slave owners and nobles, which would be a death sentence. During the Founding Day celebration, Sir Lafate died protecting Sir Shrade, and Sir Jim and Tock the assault captain were wounded..."
"What about Shrade?" Lorist asked with concern. Sir Lafate had been a company commander in the Third Imperial Guard Battalion. When Shilovas Island was attacked, he had been dispatched to reinforce White Bird Town and was captured after being wounded and knocked unconscious. Lorist hadn't expected him to die bravely in the arena protecting
"Sir Shrade is fine — he only suffered minor injuries. But even so, the arena's owner suspects he's someone important. El tried to ransom him but was refused, so he can only visit daily under the pretense of training. El has been trying to contact the gladiator-slaves in the arena to find an opportunity for a breakout — to fight their way out of the Hamidas Royal Capital. But it's very difficult. The arena has two Great Swordmasters guarding it, and the gladiator-slaves have no weapons. They couldn't possibly succeed..." Tager replied.
Fatty Shi was still alive. Lorist finally breathed a sigh of relief. Injelek stood up: "My Lord, what if I infiltrated the Hamidas Royal Capital and rescued Sir Shrade and the others first?"
This concerned his precious granddaughter's lifelong happiness. To ensure his beloved granddaughter wouldn't become a widow at such a young age, and that his adorable great-grandson wouldn't lose his father, the old man was willing to go all out.
"You won't do," Lorist shook his head. "You held your ground at the rear gate — who knows how many people saw you. If you show up in the Hamidas Royal Capital, a Great Swordmaster will come for you immediately. You'd be throwing your life away, and worse, you'd put Shrade and the others in danger."
The old man sat down in frustration, knowing full well that Lorist spoke the truth.
"If anyone goes, it should be me. Besides the old envoy from last night, no one in the inner city knows what I look like. When we sort through the corpses later, keep an eye out, and also search among the prisoners to see if that old man escaped. If he didn't, I can go to the Hamidas Royal Capital and see if there's a way to rescue Shrade and the others first," Lorist said.
"My Lord, you can't take that risk..." The family knights in the tent all stood up to protest.
"That's settled. Say no more — getting the troops organized and rested is what matters. We march in three days. Don't worry about me. With my skills, I doubt there's a Great Swordmaster in the Hamidas Royal Capital who can match me. I might even cause some trouble for the enemy while I'm at it," Lorist smiled.
"Tager, coordinate with Malek first. Point out the valuable storehouses in Nubite Port and have the goods moved into the inner city for safekeeping..."
Tager stood at attention and saluted: "Yes, my Lord."
...(To be continued.)