Mountain barbarians! The first people in the convoy to spot the charging mountain barbarian cavalry let out shrill cries, and the convoy fell into a great commotion…
"
Just as the twenty-odd guards around the convoy were scrambling to form a line abreast behind Lorist on horseback, a chestnut-blue steed broke out from the front of the convoy, dashing forward to meet the mountain barbarian cavalry charging in from the distance. The rider on its back drew a great blue bow, and when the mountain barbarian cavalry were still about a hundred and fifty meters away, the bowstring began to sing like an unceasing peal of thunder…
One after another, mountain barbarian riders were shot from their saddles by streaks of blue lightning. From a hundred and fifty meters down to seventy or eighty, more than twenty riders were unhorsed…
The remaining twenty or thirty mountain barbarian cavalry reined in their mounts in terror, then suddenly let out a chorus of jabbering shouts, wheeled their horses round, and fled back toward the mountain forest behind them…
Josk drew in a deep breath, lightly shaking out his arms, which had gone slightly numb from the rapid shooting. He channeled his
Then one of the mountain barbarian riders wheeled back, halting at the edge of the trees, turned to point at Josk, and shouted and gesticulated in a stream of jabber. Although Josk could not hear clearly, none of it could possibly have been complimentary. He grew angry and drew his bow again, letting fly a single arrow.
The mountain barbarian rider hurriedly threw himself flat to dodge. He was quick — Josk's arrow only tore away his feathered leather helm and struck a pine tree as thick as a bowl behind him. The pine trembled violently, then split apart at the spot the arrow had struck, and the upper half of the tree began to topple.
This single shot of Josk's had actually snapped a pine tree clean through. The mountain barbarian rider, having narrowly escaped death, looked up. With his helmet gone, a head of long golden hair tumbled loose — the rider was a mountain barbarian woman. Although she had been lucky enough to dodge Josk's arrow, she was so terrified out of her wits that she did not notice the upper half of the pine falling on her. Fortunately, several mountain barbarian riders emerged from the trees, took hold of her mount's reins, and pulled her into the forest, sparing her from disaster.
The half-felled pine, caught for a moment on the branches of nearby trees, finally crashed to the ground, kicking up a great cloud of dust. By the time the dust settled, all trace of the mountain barbarian cavalry had vanished into the woods.
If it had not been for the more than twenty mountain barbarian corpses scattered on the ground and the riderless horses wandering about, the headlong charge of those dozens of riders just a moment before would have seemed a passing dream — as if it had never happened at all.
As Josk wheeled his horse back, the now-settled convoy suddenly burst out in cheer after cheer. "Divine archer! Divine archer!…"
Lorist spurred his horse forward, clapped Josk on the shoulder, and said, "Well done!"
Then he lifted Josk's right arm high and shouted to the convoy, "Josk!…"
The convoy gave a thunderous response. "Josk! Josk! Divine Archer Josk!…"
Josk rubbed his nose and said a little sheepishly, "My lord, isn't that a bit much?"
Lorist said, "Josk, you've earned it."
…
Because they had run into a wandering band of mountain barbarian cavalry, and to keep the escaped riders from bringing back reinforcements, Lorist decided not to stop and rest at the small lake ahead, and ordered the convoy to keep moving.
Sedekamp led several guards in rounding up the mountain barbarian cavalry's mounts and in searching the corpses and recovering their weapons. Lorist called Steward Hansk and Steward Kedan over and asked the two of them whether the appearance of mountain barbarians in this area was a common occurrence.
Hansk shook his head. "My lord, I've never heard of mountain barbarians turning up here, and there's no record of it in the family annals. Generally speaking, the mountain barbarians operate in the regions near the Demon Dragon Mountains, close to our family's territory. But here we're far from the Demon Dragon Mountains — strictly speaking, this is the Black Forest and the wasteland hill belt. Although the family has no garrison in this region and doesn't watch it day to day, in the past hundred years no one from the family has ever encountered mountain barbarians while passing through. I'm more inclined to believe these were a band of mountain barbarian cavalry who happened to wander here by chance."
Sedekamp finished searching the corpses and clearing the battlefield. He had several guards leading the more than twenty captured mounts at the rear, and rode forward to Lorist.
"My lord, take a look at this." Sedekamp held up several small leather pouches.
Lorist undid one of the pouches and tipped its contents into his left palm. In his hand appeared a small pile of glittering golden sand.
"Gold dust!" exclaimed Steward Kedan and Steward Hansk together.
"My lord, almost every one of the mountain barbarian riders Sir Josk shot had a pouch like this with gold dust on him. And on one of them I found this." In Sedekamp's hand was a nugget about the size of a thumb.
"A gold nugget!" Lorist's eyes lit up.
"My lord, I suspect this stretch of forest, or this hill country, very likely has a gold mine in it. The reason those mountain barbarian riders appeared here may well have something to do with the gold mine. I would suggest, my lord, that you send people to search this region. If we find a gold mine, the family will no longer have to worry about a lack of funds to develop the fief." Steward Kedan spoke eagerly.
Lorist took the small nugget of gold from Sedekamp's hand, hefted it, and examined it for a moment. He raised his head, looked off at the ridge in the distance, then at the
stretch of woods into which the fleeing mountain barbarian cavalry had disappeared. In the end he shook his head. "We don't have enough armed strength right now, nor enough manpower, to develop this region. Even if there is a gold mine, we'd have no guarantee that we could mine it safely. The more likely outcome is that the family would get tangled up endlessly with the mountain barbarians over the gold mine, and we might end up paying a price far higher than whatever we'd get out of the mine — a poor bargain. Let it go for now. The gold mine has no legs; it won't run away. Let's wait a while —
once our northbound convoy has arrived, we'll have the strength to send troops to scout this region."
…
The convoy finally arrived at the castle worksite at around ten in the evening. Because word had been sent ahead, Miss Tresti had already had the slave laborers prepare a campsite, and had laid on hot meals to welcome the travelers who had been on the road all day.
Chewing on a piece of bread, Lorist asked Reidi, who was standing by, "Where is Miss Tresti?"
"My lord, Miss Tresti waited until ten o'clock and then went to bed. She entrusted the place to my management. If you want to see her, I can go and wake her," Reidi said.
"Never mind. All I really want to ask is how the wall up ahead is coming along. We'll be able to see it in the morning anyway. If there's nothing urgent, don't disturb her. By the way, Reidi — go and bring
A worried-looking Steward Boris soon appeared before Lorist.
"Ah, Steward Boris — what's the matter with you? Your face looks ready to burst into tears. What's going on?" Lorist asked, full of curiosity at the sight.
Steward Boris dropped to his knees before Lorist. "My lord, please save my family. If Viscount
Lorist gave a start. "Get up first, Steward Boris. We can talk this through. Tell me where your family is, and I'll see if I can bring them over and reunite you all."
Steward Boris refused to rise, kneeling on the ground as he said, "My lord, my family is all at Red River Valley Manor in Viscount Kemmes's domain. In two days the Kemmes family will once again be sending a supply convoy to this castle worksite. As soon as that convoy arrives and finds the worksite occupied by the
"Get up first, Steward Boris. I sent for you because I wanted to know the full details of the Kemmes family's supply convoy — how many wagons, how many escorts — and to see whether we can swallow up the convoy. After that you can tell me about Red River Valley Manor, and I'll see if we can get your family out," Lorist comforted him.
With his family's lives in the balance, Steward Boris's account this time was even more detailed. He said that the supply convoy due on the tenth would have over four hundred wagons. As had been customary in past trips, two hundred wagons would be carrying three thousand barrels of rubber-vine sap — fifteen barrels per wagon, each barrel holding a hundred catties, and including the barrel itself each wagon was about two thousand catties. The remaining two hundred or so wagons would be carrying grain, various smoked and cured meats, liquor, cloth, construction tools, and other supplies.
The escort for the convoy was the Flying Feather Mercenary Corps. This was a mercenary band that had been very active in the northwest during the civil war; they had about two hundred men, and the corps' badge was a white goose feather stuck in each member's hat. Their commander was Adams, a Three-Star Silver and an old hand seasoned by many battles. The Flying Feather Mercenary Corps had over ten Silver-rank experts, with the rest at Iron and Bronze. To keep the Flying Feather Mercenary Corps, the Kemmes family had paid a steep price — they were Viscount Kemmes's principal armed force.
Red River Valley Manor, on Viscount Kemmes's lands, was about a day's journey from this castle worksite — six or seven hours on horseback. It had now become a transit depot for supplies, where vast quantities of grain and construction materials were stockpiled, all under the management of Viscount Kemmes's chief steward, Peirado, and guarded by a dozen or so household guards of the Kemmes family.
Not far from Red River Valley Manor was an immigrant town the Kemmes family had spent a great deal to establish by gathering up refugees. It had over two thousand inhabitants and had raised a hundred-man garrison squad. However, if in two days' time the Kemmes family was also planning to ship a thousand slave laborers to the castle worksite, then that hundred-man garrison squad would likely escort the convoy as well.
After Steward Boris had finished his account, Lorist asked him whether it might be possible to lure the Kemmes family's supply convoy in close to the castle worksite and use force to compel the Flying Feather Mercenary Corps to surrender, so that the Norton family could capture that great quantity of supplies.
Steward Boris replied that it would be a little difficult. Adams, the commander of the Flying Feather Mercenary Corps, was a cunning and suspicious man. He recognized many of the mercenaries who had previously been stationed at the worksite; if upon arriving with the convoy he did not see the familiar faces of those mercenaries on the walls, he very likely would not enter the castle worksite at all.
Lorist glanced at Josk, who was sitting nearby and busy gnawing on a meat bone, and asked, "How about it? Confident you can pull one over on them?"
Josk set down the bone, picked up the linen napkin from the table and wiped his mouth. "My lord, no need to wear yourself out coming up with schemes. Give me a small squad of guards and I can wipe out this Flying Feather Mercenary Corps in open battle and seize the convoy."
Lorist laughed. "No good. In open battle I'm worried about heavy casualties. Think about it — our guards are all of bandit stock; they've had no proper military training. When the fighting starts, they still revert to bandit ways and swarm in like a mob. So long as the wind is with them they're fine, but if they run into hard bone they're guaranteed to take a beating. They know nothing of battlefield coordination. Mercenaries seasoned in war, like the Flying Feather Mercenary Corps — the moment they form up in proper battle order, our guards will suffer badly."
Sitting just below Josk, Ovekis lodged an indignant protest. "My lord, we are your family's soldiers now — we are not bandits."
Lorist waved Ovekis off. "All right, don't take offense — I was only making a comparison."
"If we can trick the Flying Feather Mercenary Corps and the supply convoy into the castle worksite, that's the equivalent of shutting the door to beat the dogs — not only will we reduce casualties, we can also use the mounted ballistae on the walls to force them to surrender. That mercenary commander recognizes the mercenaries who surrendered to us earlier, doesn't he? That makes things easy. Pat…" Lorist called out.
Pat stood up.
"Ride through the night to Poplar Flats and ask the mercenaries there if they'd like to make a little extra coin. So long as they help us lure the Flying Feather Mercenary Corps into the castle worksite, each man will get ten Gold Forde as reward. I only need twenty of them. Whether they agree or not, you must be back by the morning of the ninth. Understood?" Lorist ordered.
"Yes, my lord. I'll be off at once."
"Mm. It's a hard ride. Be careful on the road and watch yourself…"
(I missed three updates before, so today I'm making up one chapter first.)
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