Unknown Knight

Smelling the bloody smell filling his nostrils and looking at the corpses lined up in front of him, Axe's mood also turned sour.

After coming to this world, he also tried hard to realize his own value through struggle, to benefit and protect those who followed him, but every time he had to passively face the harm and challenges brought to him by all parties.

He coldly glanced at the more than 250 captives kneeling in front of him, and said to the leaders who were waiting for orders in a voice that everyone could hear:

"Each bandit den will select a captive to lead the way and bring the army to accept the surrender. Anyone who dares to disobey and refuse to surrender will be killed regardless of gender, age or status. No one will be spared.

Take the rest back to the territory. If anyone tries to escape on the road, don't bother chasing them, just shoot them. If anyone dares to make noise or cause trouble on the road, kill them all! "

"Leader!"

The leaders responded loudly, and then dispersed to carry out the action.

Aix's words made every prisoner tremble with fear. They lowered their heads, not daring to raise them. They obediently followed the part of the army led by Niza and returned to Tangquan Fortress.

They were escorted by fifty light cavalry, fifty array infantry, and twenty sharpshooters.

The remaining troops were led by Resarit to clear out the remaining people in the snow bandit's lair.

By dark, the remaining old, weak, women and children in the dozen or so snowfield bandit dens around were all disarmed and surrendered. Except for a dozen people who resisted and were killed, a total of more than 400 people were captured.

At the same time, they rescued 17 captured caravan members. All of them were injured to varying degrees, but their injuries were relatively minor. The seriously injured were killed on the spot by the snowfield bandits.

Fortunately, Aix acted quickly, so the survivors of the caravan were not escorted to Kudan City to be sold. It seemed that Cress would be disappointed.

They also rescued more than 50 men and women who were captured by the snowfield bandits. These people were all intended to be sold as slaves by the snowfield bandits. However, the snowfield was still very cold, so Aix decided to take them back to the territory first, otherwise they might freeze to death there.

In total, more than 50 bundles of animal skins, more than 40 bundles of nitrated leather, and some grain, spices, coarse salt, tools, silk, and other sundries were seized from these bandit dens.

There were some gold, silver and other treasures, but not many. There were only more than 200 gold coins, 1,100 silver coins, more than 5,000 copper coins, and some gold and silver jewelry, precious utensils, etc.

When escorting more than 400 prisoners back, Aix also ordered the dozen or so cave dens to be set on fire, cutting off the foundation of these snowfield bandits.

Halfway through the journey, they met more than 300 militiamen organized by Amanti who came to support them.

The troops did not return to Tangquan Fortress until the late night. No major incidents occurred on the way. There were only two people who escaped. After they were caught up and shot by the light cavalry, no one dared to make any waves anymore.

Now the entire Tangquan Fortress has become a big prison. The more than 700 prisoners have suddenly made the fortress overcrowded again. Aix had the prisoners imprisoned separately. More than 200 young and strong people were all imprisoned in the dungeon for ease of management, which also eliminated their idea of ​​escaping.

The remaining 400-odd old people, the weak, women and children were driven to the horse farm, where they lit a few bonfires and gave them some dry straw, just to keep them from freezing to death.

The next day, Aix presided over a work meeting, the main topic of discussion was the captives, which were more than 700 snowfield bandits and their families.

At the meeting, Aix decided to put these people on trial. The specific measures would be similar to the last handling of the captives in Fort Lerag. Bandak would take the lead and all the leaders and people would cooperate.

Under the surprise interrogation of the public security team that had already begun to take shape in the territory, the interrogation gradually achieved good results under the policy and strategy of isolated interrogation, mutual verification, reduced sentence for reporting, heavy sentence for concealing, leniency for confession and severity for resistance.

The most important achievement was to clarify the context of the attack on the caravan. As the interrogation continued, everything became clearer and the truth came to light.

It turned out that the cause of everything was the old bastard Voldratboye. Ever since Aix was conferred the title last year, he first watched the joke, thinking that Aix was merely there to fill the hole when facing the Kugit army, and would be eaten alive by the Kugits sooner or later.

But when Aix gained a firm foothold, he first captured Schulersburg and defeated Tojunayan's army, and later raided and occupied Fort Lerag, gaining a large territory. The old man became jealous again.

He felt uncomfortable when he thought that these places had once belonged to their family, and that Aix had managed them so well and made them so powerful.

He didn't even think that it was their own fault for not being able to keep it under control, and now that others have taken over, he is jealous and starting to do bad things.

He first wrote a letter to King Yarogelk to complain, making up a lot of excuses, such as plundering the people, secretly communicating with the Kugits, forcibly crossing the border, etc., all of which were fabricated lies.

Fortunately, King Yarogerk knew his virtues and was trying to make the two families restrain each other and fight each other. He neither responded nor took sides, and just blocked his ears and pretended not to know these things.

After his complaint failed, Voldratboye was furious, but before he could think of any measures, the long winter had arrived. The severe cold froze the land for thousands of miles, and no one could do anything, so he had to give up for the time being.

The long and cold winter not only made it difficult for him to do anything, but also caused heavy losses to his territory. After finally surviving the long winter, he found after an investigation that many of his people and livestock had been frozen to death, and there was not much food left.

He had not yet recovered from the war with the Kugits last year, and his finances were now in a stretched state. Just when he was at a loss, he saw more than a dozen fully loaded sloops led by Manid on the river.

He was suffering from the red eye disease again, thinking that if he had no way to deal with it on the water, would there be no way to deal with it on land? He immediately contacted his white glove on land, the so-called Wolf Boyer.

However, Wolf Boyer was very self-aware. He said that he had coveted the caravan in the territory of Aix before, but the caravan's guards were too powerful and he did not dare to take action.

In order to encourage this guy, Voldratboye not only lent him fifty Vaegir archers to help, but also told him that the profits would be shared 50-50 instead of 30-70.

This emboldened Wolfboye, and he decided to ambush the caravan in the territory. He deployed a large number of reconnaissance posts along the routes often taken by the caravans, and moved most of his troops to strongholds near the routes, ready to act at any time.

They planned carefully and prepared well, but they were caught off guard and the fate of the caravan can be imagined.

It seems that the feud with Voldratboye is becoming increasingly irreconcilable. Aix still has a grudge against him for blackmailing him for horses last time, and now this matter has happened again.

Not only did the caravan lose more than 20 lives, but also five old brothers whom Aix had met since his first business trip. They had followed Aix from Suno to Talboliya, and then to the current Tangquan Fortress. They worked hard and died before they could enjoy a few days of good life.

How could he not hate you? He immediately sent a 100-man light cavalry force in two groups to take revenge.

They went down the river from the east bank on the Aslum side and attacked Tismo, the largest village controlled by Voldrat, burning down his village, killing his livestock, and looting all his villagers.

He rushed all the way from the side of Tangquan Fortress to the outside of Kudan City overnight, and shot rockets into Kudan City under the cover of darkness. Aix wanted to burn down Kudan City.

That night, outside Kudan City, more than 50 people led by Ran Hu ambushed in the dense forest outside the city. When it was late at night, a group of people sneaked to the vicinity of the city wall in the dark and spread out over one-third of the length of the city wall.

Each of them took out five rockets prepared in advance, and then ignited them in rapid succession. Before the defenders could react, they retreated back into the dense forest.

Half of the roofs of the main buildings in Kudan City were made of wood. Each member of Ran Hu's troops fired five rockets into the city, and soon seven or eight fires of varying sizes broke out in the city, and the entire city was suddenly in chaos.

At the same time, fifty riders led by Fatis blocked all the entrances and exits of Tismo Village, and then drove the villagers out from house to house.

After gathering the villagers together, they asked which ones were related to Voldratboye, tied them up, and then drove the villagers and livestock back.

When the team escorting the villagers was about halfway back, the few cavalrymen who stayed behind set fire to all the houses in Tismo, even the animal sheds were not spared, and a raging fire broke out inside and outside the village.

On the next morning, when the terrified people of Kudan opened the city gate, they found the heads of more than a hundred snowfield bandits and Vijia archers neatly stacked together in the open space opposite the city gate.

The head placed on the top was that of Wolf Boyer, the famous snowfield bandit leader nearby.

Aix is ​​no longer afraid of making a mortal enemy with Voldratboye. To be neighbors with evil, you must not only be on guard at all times, but also be vengeful and repay every grievance, otherwise you will be bullied.

Another result was that after five days of hard work, all the snowfield bandits received corresponding punishments. Among them, more than 20 were sentenced to hanging, more than 100 were sentenced to heavy sentences of five to ten years, more than 250 were sentenced to ordinary sentences of three to five years, and more than 200 were sentenced to light sentences of one to two years.

The territory also organized a trial meeting of unprecedented scale for its people. The relatives of the caravan victims, the rescued captives, and the women who were abducted and married all stood up to identify and denounce these cruel beasts, venting their anger and dissatisfaction. The angry crowd stoned to death seven or eight death row prisoners sentenced to death by hanging on the spot.

There were more than a hundred people left, including children and women who had indeed committed no crime, and more than fifty captives captured by the snowfield bandits. Aix dispersed these people into various resident groups.

As for those who rescued the captives, Aix-Ex was free to stay or go, but the territory would not provide any travel expenses for their return home. It was good enough that they were not asked for a ransom since they had saved their lives. However, if they really wanted to go home, they could apply for work in the territory's workshops and save money to go home.

The territory is currently planning to build a new village and needs a large number of laborers. These prisoners can be used to work as atonement for their crimes. Construction sites, mines, and logging camps are all good places for them to go.

Moreover, the original workers of these sites are also there. They receive generous salaries and eat several times better than them. This also allows these re-education through labor inmates to see from the side the comfortable life they will have after becoming prisoners.

The prisoners in Lelag Castle were also good role models for them. Several prisoners who had only committed minor crimes had been released early because of their good performance. When these people had free time, Bandak would find them to give educational speeches to the prisoners in custody.

Although the food for the prisoners was not very good, it was enough to fill them up, and the clothes were worn out but kept them warm, which made many prisoners feel that their lives were better than when they were snowfield bandits. If they were released after serving their sentences and became formal citizens, their lives would be so wonderful.

The increase in the number of prisoners made it more difficult to supervise them. In order to facilitate Bandak's stability maintenance work, Aix also allocated him 30 more militiamen as auxiliary police forces. At the same time, he notified the garrisons in various places to help manage and supervise the prisoners undergoing labor reform.

After a lot of efforts, these prisoners who were arrogant and agitated at first gradually calmed down. Even some individuals who wanted to escape temporarily gave up the idea because they felt hopeless.