On January 27th, 1779 by the Galentea standard calendar,
The
As one might expect, even though this year's New Year celebration had been skipped, the festivities tomorrow would be all the more lively. Yet another batch of nobles had pledged themselves to the Norton Family's banner. At that time, Lorist would also confer titles upon a large number of landed nobles and honorary peers in recognition of their contributions to the family over the past two years.
Late last year, word had arrived that the mountain barbarian tribes were planning to raid the family's territory. While the news hadn't caused widespread panic, Fort Rockcastle — under heightened vigilance — still carried an air of tension and grim resolve. When Lorist returned to the rear keep of the central castle, he found only Diliana waiting to greet him, cradling their year-old son in her arms. Upon asking, he learned that her two nieces, Adorli and her younger sister Finnagali, had both gone to the newly established Baron Dinah's domain in Draymk Province. Diliana herself had declined to go along, worried that the cold weather might harm her precious baby boy.
The two newly acquired concubines also hadn't expected Lorist to return in January, and each had gone back to their own families to celebrate the year's end. Well, that was fine — as long as Diliana was there to warm his bed at night. Lorist still didn't get a good night's sleep, however, because his son was far too noisy after dark. The boy either wanted to be fed or screamed himself hoarse when his mother wasn't within arm's reach. On top of that, Lorist had been rather enthusiastic with Diliana three or four times, and as a result, he'd barely closed his eyes the entire night.
Lorist decided to take a nap in his study. He was shuffling toward it, yawning, when Schweid appeared before him: "Your Highness, Lord Tager and Mr. Dubov have been waiting in the reception room for over an hour."
Lorist wasn't surprised that Tager had arrived so early, but who was Dubov? The name sounded vaguely familiar.
Schweid saw Lorist's blank expression and knew he couldn't recall: "Your Highness, Mr. Dubov was formerly the captain of the Five Swords Mercenary Corps. You later appointed him mayor of Twin Mountain Town."
Oh, right. Back in the day, he'd hired the Five Swords Mercenary Corps to garrison the outpost at the junction between the family's territory and the Demon Dragon Mountains, serving as the first line of defense against mountain barbarian raids and providing timely intelligence for the family. But after Lorist had made a trip to the mountain barbarian lands himself, he'd learned that the barbarian clans nearest to the family's territory were embroiled in internal conflict and had no spare energy for plundering. So the outpost between the two mountains — aside from a few minor skirmishes in its first two years — had remained completely peaceful, and its importance had diminished greatly.
Later still, when the family developed the Black Mud Swamp on this side of its territory and erected a defensive wall along the border between Turtle Mountain and Reclining Ox Ridge, complete with two fortress strongholds and two garrison营 of the Royal Guard, the outpost outside the family's territory between the two mountains could be decommissioned. The family terminated its mercenary contract with the Five Swords Mercenary Corps.
When Lorist had ended the contract, he'd still wanted to incorporate the Five Swords into the family's armed forces. But Dubov, the captain, had declined the offer. He said he was getting old, no longer wished to live a life of risking his neck, and that the mercenary corps would soon be disbanded. Whether or not to join the Norton Family's forces would be left to each member's own choice.
However, Mr. Dubov was somewhat reluctant to leave the Two Mountains Outpost, where he'd lived for several years. Thanks to the long period of peace, the outpost had grown into a small town. Mercenaries and adventurers used it as a base for expeditions into the Demon Dragon Mountains, and traders familiar with mountain barbarian customs would venture deep into the barbarian clans to conduct barter. This drew some enterprising mountain barbarians to bring Demon Dragon Mountain specialties to the small outpost town for trade, turning it into a small window of connection with the mountain barbarian tribes.
At that time, Lorist had just returned from the mountain barbarian lands. The unspeakable experience had made the mountain barbarians the greatest taboo in his mind, and it hadn't even occurred to him to use this outpost town to infiltrate or influence the barbarian tribes. Since Dubov didn't want to leave, Lorist simply penned a decree appointing him mayor of the newly renamed Twin Mountain Town. Apart from an annual tax payment to the family, the family would have no further involvement — everything would be left to develop on its own. For Lorist, this place was outside the family's territory anyway. Whether it existed or not, the family didn't much care.
It wasn't until the family established the Wolleybear Intelligence and Investigation Bureau that Tager, as its director, took sharp notice of this small town that existed outside the family's territory. He dispatched personnel to conduct a thorough investigation and discovered that the town, under the management of former Five Swords Mercenary Corps captain Dubov, was being run in excellent order and showed great promise. Moreover, Mayor Dubov was content and well-behaved, consistently regarding Twin Mountain Town as Norton Family territory and never letting his ambitions run wild simply because the family didn't intervene. Each year, beyond the taxes owed to the family, he invested all surplus funds into developing public services and housing in Twin Mountain Town, transforming it into a settlement of over two thousand people whose economy centered on hunting, herb-gathering, and trade with the mountain barbarian clans.
This was much like the trading house the Kenmays Family had set up on the eastern side of the Northlands specifically for dealing with the mountain barbarians. It not only allowed the family to obtain large quantities of precious medicinal herbs and specialties from the Demon Dragon Mountains, but also served as a means to gather intelligence on barbarian movements.
At the time, however, Lorist's mind had been consumed by his scheming with the
"Bring me a basin of ice water to wash my face, then escort the two gentlemen to my study," Lorist said. He needed to wake himself up properly and get to the bottom of how the intelligence about the mountain barbarian tribes' imminent invasion had been gathered.
Tager and Dubov were soon brought to the study. After paying their formal respects, Tager relayed the chain of events that had led to the alert.
The matter had first been discovered by Mayor Dubov in Twin Mountain Town. Dubov reported that autumn was always the most active season for the various mountain barbarian tribes in the Demon Dragon Mountains, and trade between Twin Mountain Town and the barbarians reached its peak. While inspecting the trading market, Mayor Dubov had noticed something strange. This time, most of the barbarians who had come to Twin Mountain Town were unwilling to haggle with the traders. Even when they clearly got the short end of the deal, they shrugged it off and completed the transaction without complaint. Moreover, the supplies they purchased were mostly ironware and weapons.
Something was off. Mayor Dubov immediately grew alert. While it wasn't unheard of for barbarians to get the worse end of a bargain, in recent years the barbarians who came to trade at Twin Mountain Town were all wily old hands, each sharper than the last. More and more traders had been the ones getting duped — those who thought they could treat these barbarians as easy marks frequently ended up losing money themselves. But this time, these barbarians were trading with unusual docility. They didn't care about getting shortchanged and were buying up vast quantities of ironware and weapons instead of the everyday goods they'd always favored before. It was suspicious.
Mayor Dubov quietly approached an old mountain barbarian. This elder had once been saved by Dubov. It had been the old barbarian's first visit to Twin Mountain Town, when he'd run into a band of aggressive mercenaries. They'd taken a liking to a pristine white leopard pelt he'd brought to sell and insisted on trading for it with a cheap longsword, boasting it was a divine weapon. The old barbarian tapped it with his short dagger, and the so-called divine blade snapped clean in two. When the old barbarian refused to swap, the mercenaries accused him of breaking their weapon and swarmed him, beating him until he was coughing up blood.
As it happened, Mayor Dubov had been passing by and intervened, rescuing the old barbarian. After determining the facts, he punished the mercenaries. From then on, the old barbarian and Mayor Dubov had become firm friends, maintaining regular contact. The barbarian would often bring rare specialties and medicinal herbs as gifts when visiting Dubov's home. With this bond of friendship, Dubov was confident the old barbarian would share some information with him.
Sure enough, the old barbarian told Dubov that the previous year had been the Kupavisen Festival — a once-every-twelve-years celebration among the mountain barbarians, marking the birth year of Kupavisen, the Mountain God they most revered. All the barbarian tribes held various commemorative rituals and events that year, including monthly blood sacrifices in which large numbers of livestock were slaughtered as offerings to the Mountain God. The chieftains of all the major tribes also traveled to the sacred Smormeigen Mountain to attend the Baivis Assembly — though only the larger tribes participated, their chieftains being the Qiangbasen — the regional lords — of the various parts of the Demon Dragon Mountains.
The largest mountain barbarian tribe near the Norton Family's territory was the Habibaba Tribe. Its chieftain was a Great Qiangbasen, equivalent to a Grand Duke in the human nations, and he held jurisdiction over more than twenty other barbarian tribes. Previously, the Habibaba had been locked in a power struggle with another major tribe over the title of Great Qiangbasen. This time, after attending the Baivis Assembly, the rival tribe finally capitulated, and the Habibaba chieftain got what he'd always wanted — the title of Great Qiangbasen. Upon returning from the assembly, the Great Qiangbasen declared that it was time to teach the flatlanders down in the lowlands a lesson. All the subordinate tribes received mobilization orders, and it was very likely that next year the barbarians' combined army would descend from the mountains to plunder. That was why this year's traders had been buying up ironware in such quantities — they intended to melt it down and forge arrowheads and weapons.
The old barbarian advised Mayor Dubov to leave Twin Mountain Town next year and lay low, rather than standing in the path of the barbarian army's advance. The descending force would number at least a hundred thousand. The Great Qiangbasen had heard his scouts report that the Norton Family's territory had been developing rapidly and had set his sights on it. Apparently, some traders had even been bribed by the barbarians to serve as scouts and would guide the army when the time came…
After receiving this report, Dubov forwarded it to the family. Tager personally went to investigate and confirmed that the intelligence was genuine. It wasn't just the old barbarian who had confided in Dubov — many of the barbarians who came to trade, tempted by fine wine and exquisite luxury goods, had also revealed that a massive barbarian army would descend next year.
By the end of November, the old barbarian came to Twin Mountain Town one final time and told Mayor Dubov that a band of grass barbarians had arrived at the Habibaba Tribe. They had come to request that the Great Qiangbasen organize an army immediately to raid the Norton Family's territory, swearing up and down that the Norton Family's lands were now virtually undefended with barely any troops stationed there. When the old barbarian had descended the mountain, he hadn't known whether the Great Qiangbasen had agreed to the grass barbarians' request. He was simply worried that Dubov would be caught off guard and suffer an undeserved catastrophe, so he urged Dubov to get away while he could.
Lorist scoffed at the idea of a hundred thousand-strong barbarian army. The current Norton Family was nothing like his father's generation, when a few hundred barbarians could steal cattle and sheep and rampage through the family's territory with impunity. The modern Norton Family was a colossus, its strength rivaling an entire kingdom. Whether in military equipment or armed forces, it outstripped those primitively armed barbarians by an immeasurable margin. Forget a hundred thousand — even two hundred thousand would just be bringing food to the slaughter.
Besides, with temperatures far below freezing, the barbarians wouldn't have adequate cold-weather gear. Without sufficient warm clothing, they'd be able to come down from the mountains but never make it back to their homes alive. Once the heavy snows set in, they might freeze to death by the thousands without a single blade ever being drawn. Lorist estimated that the earliest the barbarian army could descend would be April, after the rainy season had passed.
"Your Highness, I have a map of a gold mine that I would like to present to you." Mayor Dubov stood up and carefully extracted a worn piece of animal hide from inside his coat, placing it on the table before Lorist.
Tager was visibly taken aback — clearly he hadn't anticipated this, which meant he hadn't known about the gold mine map either.
"To be honest, I didn't discover this gold mine myself, and it already has an owner," Mayor Dubov explained. "Two years ago, an old mercenary was hit by a poisoned arrow from the mountain barbarians. I found him unconscious while out hunting, but sadly the poison had already spread too deep, and I couldn't save him. On his deathbed, he gave me this map. Over the past two years, I've carefully searched and confirmed that the gold mine is located right here — deep in the Black Forest, in the stretch between Reclining Ox Ridge and Fort Rockcastle. There's a tract of hills and creek beds, and that's where the gold mine lies. However, that area is currently controlled by a mountain barbarian tribe of some twenty to thirty thousand.
Your Highness, I'll be honest — I did have selfish thoughts. I considered keeping the gold mine for myself. But I realized I couldn't handle that barbarian tribe on my own, so I can only offer this map to you."
Lorist appreciated Mayor Dubov's candor. At this point, he recalled the mountain barbarian cavalry he'd encountered on the road from Maple Forest Manor to Fort Rockcastle years ago. After
"Thank you, Mayor Dubov. Your contributions to the family are etched in our hearts. The family does not forget the loyalty of its people, and we are grateful for your efforts." Lorist stood and expressed his thanks.
"It's nothing. Serving the Norton Family is my honor." Mayor Dubov hastily returned the gesture, visibly flattered.
"Tager, take Mayor Dubov to rest in Fort Rockcastle for a few days. Once the Flying Tiger Corps arrives, we'll hold a war council to discuss how to deal with the barbarian army, and we'll need to trouble Mayor Dubov to brief us on the mountain barbarians' situation. That will be all for now."
"As you command, Your Highness." Tager rose to his feet.
"Thank you, Your Highness. I'm glad to serve the family," said Mayor Dubov.
…(To be continued.)