Unknown Knight

Ever since Aix and Resarit had their last sparring match and achieved a "breakthrough" on the spot at the training ground, he seemed to have grasped the essence of martial arts and has been keen on practicing sword skills these days.

Especially after Amanti made the protective gear with hard leather outside and filled with cotton inside as required, he became more interested in real-life sparring. Later, he could even fight back and forth with the powerful Sophia, which gave him some confidence.

On that day, he and Sophia were practicing with protective gear when a soldier came to report: the merchant caravan led by Manid was attacked, with heavy losses of people and goods. Manid barely escaped with his life and fled back with serious injuries.

After Manide's last water trade, the overall results were good. Aix asked him to take advantage of the good market conditions in the spring and make another land trip. Who knew that such an accident would happen within two days of his departure.

When Axe arrived at the medical center, Manide was lying on the hospital bed and letting Catherine treat the two arrow wounds on his back. Fortunately, he was wearing protective plate armor produced in the territory, so the arrows did not penetrate deeply into the flesh, otherwise Axe estimated that he would be in great danger this time.

Seeing Axe coming in, the young businessman in his early twenties cried out "Wow" and tried to turn over immediately. Axe hurriedly held him down, told him not to move, and lie down to bandage his wound first.

After hearing Manide's tearful story, Axe roughly understood what was going on.

It turned out that they were a group of more than 40 people, driving 20 new trucks loaded with leather products, precious furs, snow salt, spices and other goods. After more than a day's journey, they would reach Kudan City in half a day.

Suddenly they were attacked by more than a hundred people who were lying in ambush in the woods. These people were highly skilled in archery and were prepared. Several rounds of arrows caught the caravan members off guard. They didn't even have time to take out their shields. They were surrounded and killed one after another.

Fortunately, the members of the traveling merchants were all elderly people. They knew the importance of their leader, Manide, and tried their best to cover him while fighting and retreating. Finally, the scouts behind the team came and gave their horses to him, allowing him to escape alone.

"Didn't you send scouts in front and behind? How come there was no trace?"

"Sir, you brought me here, don't you know me? According to the custom, we sent scouts ahead and behind.

But this gang of robbers was too cunning. They actually used the thick rotten leaves in the forest as cover. The scouts didn’t find anything. When the convoy passed by, they suddenly stood up and shot. We didn’t have time to react at all. Wow…”

Manide cried heartbrokenly, and Axe couldn't blame him. Indeed, this kind of sudden attack was really difficult to deal with. It would be useless for him to take over, and he might even lose his life.

"Do you know who he is?"

Aix asked, there have been no reports of large bandits numbering hundreds in this area.

"I don't know. I have taken this route many times with my caravan, and I have never heard of any powerful bandits along the way.

All I know is that these people usually wear leather clothes and leather hats, carry leather shields, are good at archery and javelin throwing, and their weapons are spears, sabers and two-handed axes.

However, some of them were wearing standard leather armor, which did not look like old bandits, but rather like someone I had seen before."

"I've seen it before? Think about it carefully."

"My Lord, do you still remember the last time we were in Kudan? The time when Voldrat Boyer blackmailed us for horses?"

"You mean Voldrat Boyer...?"

Axel's eyes narrowed into slits and his fists clenched.

"I just think it looks a bit like their soldiers' attire, but I don't dare to confirm it."

Human life is at stake, Manide stammered and dared not say anything.

After hearing this, Aix nodded and said:

"Okay, take good care of your injuries first, don't worry too much, just be happy to be back. If you remember anything that you missed, have someone pass it on to me in time."

Having said that, he led all the leaders out of the clinic.

Although this matter has not been confirmed, based on Voldratboye's character, Aix feels that it is almost certain.

Not to mention the bandits numbering over a hundred, which were rare in this era (as mentioned before), Aix almost believed Manide's words alone. After all, he had been doing business for so many years and had some basic insight.

After returning to the temporary residence, Aix immediately summoned all the leaders to a meeting, and also called the local expert Igor to come and asked him some relevant questions.

According to Igor, there were indeed some bandits who were hunters nearby, but they generally made a living by hunting. They were scattered in caves and ravines on the vast snowfield from Tangquan Fortress to Kudan City, and were called snowfield bandits by the outside world.

They usually have about a dozen or twenty people in each group, and they will occasionally attack caravans, but it is rare for them to attack caravans as large as the territory, and it has never been heard that their team is so large.

Aix felt gloomy in his heart, knowing that it was most likely Voldrat who did it. He really wanted to send troops to destroy him immediately, but the other party was a great nobleman, and nominally his territory still belonged to him. In time of war, he would be in charge of overall planning and dispatching, so he couldn't just force his way in.

But we can't just let it go like this, and we don't know if there are any members of the caravan alive. If there are, we must find a way to rescue them as soon as possible.

He immediately asked Resarit and the other leaders to gather the team, and kept Cress to question him.

He once heard from Kress that there was an aunt from a distant place working in Kudan City, and he wanted her to go to Kudan City to gather some information.

Who knew that as soon as he said this, Cress told him that everything had been prepared for a long time. It turned out that since the special operations team was established in the territory last year, she was asked to be responsible for reconnaissance and intelligence gathering, and she had been working on this matter.

At that time, she discussed it with Bandak. They felt that Voldratboye in Kudan City had conflicts with the territory and was close to it, so they should know more about their situation, so they established contact with her aunt.

It’s just that the snow had just started to melt this year, and the information from there hadn’t had time to be transmitted before this happened.

Axe nodded, affirmed her approach, and told her to report such things to him in the future. The situation was urgent right now, so she'd better go in person instead of acting alone, and it would be best if she had some cover.

He called Bandak again, and the three of them discussed it and decided to pick some capable new members of the territory and sneak into Kudan City under the guise of bounty hunters.

Then he announced that he was buying slaves at a high price to see if he could redeem the surviving caravan members in this way. Cress then took this opportunity to sneak into the city.

Soon, a team of fifteen bounty hunters set out from the east coast of Aslum and headed towards Kudan City. Cress, who was disguised as a man, was among them.

On the military side, after discussion with the leaders, Aix decided to cast a wide net to round up the enemies, starting from the vicinity of the territory and advancing towards Kudan City to prevent the presence of hidden snowfield bandits around the territory.

The specific plan was to spread out one hundred light cavalrymen, investigate and advance forward, and once they found a stronghold of the snowfield bandits, they would gather the troops to wipe them out.

Regardless of whether they are involved in this matter or not, we should suppress them first. These days, being outside the law is a sin and any lord can capture and punish them.

If you encounter a large group of snowfield bandits, blow the horn to gather the team, cooperate with each other to eliminate them, and try to minimize the losses.

Soon, the troops were assembled, with a total of 100 light cavalry, 35 heavy cavalry, 100 array soldiers, 50 sharpshooters, including the 20 Yakuts led by Shemir.

One hundred light cavalrymen were like a big net, separated by a distance of one hundred meters and spread over an area of ​​more than twenty miles.

The territory already had some experience in this kind of dragnet-style search; last year's war with Tuojunayan and the recent hunting of wild beasts in the wilderness had all been conducted in this manner.

Less than ten miles after leaving Tangquan Fortress, someone came to report that traces of snowfield bandits were found in a cave.

Aix couldn't imagine that there were bandits so close to the territory. He hadn't thought of it before.

The snowfield bandits hiding in the cave tried to resist at first and even shot a few arrows at the surrounding infantry. However, when they saw the large number of cavalry swarming in from afar, they became completely scared and walked out of the cave obediently and surrendered.

This is a settlement of more than 20 people, including men, women, old and young, there are only about 20 people in total. In fact, they are just wild hunters without any sense of belonging.

There was nothing good in the cave except some furs. There was nothing valuable. The food was almost gone, and chopped skins were being cooked in a clay pot.

Bandak led his men to interrogate them and found out that there was no connection between the attack on Manid and the group. He also found out that there were two hideouts nearby that were about the same size as their settlement.

Upon hearing this, Aix stopped the wide-ranging search and immediately ordered a siege to avoid wasting extra energy. One of the settlements of more than 20 people surrendered obediently like the first one, and all of them were captured.

However, they encountered resistance in the second group of more than 30 people. They relied on the caves to fight back stubbornly. Aix had to shoot several of them to death as a punishment and threatened to set fire to them and suffocate them to death if they did not come out. Only then did these wild and unruly people come out and surrender.

Bandak led his men to interrogate the suspect and indeed gained some information. They said that there was a settlement of nearly 150 people nearby, which was the largest stronghold of all the snowfield bandits in the vicinity.

There is also a small market inside. Every once in a while, merchants from outside will come here and exchange their supplies for or purchase furs from the surrounding snowfield bandits. It is the trading center for more than a dozen gangs of snowfield bandits in the surrounding area. They usually take their harvests to that settlement to sell.

Aix looked up at the sky. It was already three or four o'clock in the afternoon. The capture of more than eighty snowfield bandits also affected the operation, so he ordered fifty light cavalrymen to escort these prisoners back to Tangquan Fortress first.

The rest of the people set up camp in the valley around the cave to rest, and then launch an attack on the group of snowfield bandits tomorrow.

To be on the safe side, he also sent Shemir and others to conduct reconnaissance in snow camouflage uniforms. After confirming that everything was correct, they would just wait for the raid tomorrow.