Unknown Knight

Since the production of coal, the construction of the territory has entered the fast lane, especially the development of iron smelting.

There are two iron mines near the territory, and Bedouin herdsmen often come to trade with high-quality iron ore. However, iron smelting requires very high furnace temperatures and the burning of large amounts of combustibles. The cost of refining iron ore was too high before, so Aix prefers to spend a high price to buy iron tools, which is more cost-effective.

Now with coal, things are different. Large-scale iron smelting can be carried out, which has brought the territory into the true Iron Age. It is not like now, where all tools are made of wood except for some iron-covered ones at the top, which are very easy to break. Few warriors are equipped with all-iron weapons. Most of them only have a reed-steel spear with an iron head. Even short swords are rare.

For this purpose, Aix specially designated an area downwind outside the city and built an iron smelting workshop. Since the workshop was built, black smoke has been billowing out of the chimney without stopping.

In order to avoid the hot weather during the day, the camel caravans that transported ore and coal to the iron smelting workshops worked at night. The long camel caravans that set out in the evening and returned in the morning became a unique landscape in the territory.

With the production of iron tools and the popularization of high-quality tools, the production efficiency of the entire territory has also been greatly improved.

Not only that, the armaments of the territory have also been greatly improved. The soldiers are equipped with sharp iron weapons, the leather armor is inlaid with iron guards, and the leather helmets are covered with a layer of iron plates on the outside. The overall defense has been greatly improved. Judging from the equipment alone, his troops are the most elite in this area.

With coal as fuel, the territory's pottery industry has greatly improved. Coal provides a higher temperature inside the kiln, making the fired pottery stronger, thinner, more beautiful, and more leak-proof. It soon became a well-known best-seller in the vicinity, and the pottery workshop in Zion City was not far from bankruptcy.

……

Under the leadership of Aix, the territory prospered day by day. Its rapid development, strong competitiveness and wide range of influence seriously squeezed the original economic center of the area - Zion City.

In the secret room of the Sabir family, Patriarch Sabir, Patriarch Farhad and Patriarch Isam are holding a secret meeting.

The rise of Fort Standing is fatal to the prosperity of the entire city of Zion. However, the one who is most affected is not the largest family, the Harrisy family. Their family started out by growing spices. As long as the spice merchants still come to the city, their family will not be affected. Since the last attack on Fort Standing, the Harrisy family never mentioned the conflict with Aix again.

The people in the city most affected by the rise of Fort Standstill are the Sabir family, the top business family, and the Farhad family, the livestock family. The second largest group is Isam's mercenary group. Now there is basically no one in the city who hires them.

These three people hated Aix's Standing Castle to the core, especially Chief Farhad. He knew that when Aix first entered the city, he thought that they were just a dozen people with seven or eight guns and could be controlled by him at will. He didn't expect that now they would become the ones who squeezed him out and had no way to survive.

Transformed from prey to hunter, Chief Fahad not only felt regret, but also resentment. The group of hooligans following him now only survived by eating northwest wind all day long. There were almost no people in the city selling livestock. If they were not given jobs to make a living, the team would be disbanded. Then what was the point of Fahad staying in the city? Thinking of this, Fahad couldn't help but cleared his throat and asked Sabir:

"Brother Sabir, did the Harisi family really capture that Fort Standing last time?"

Sabir scratched his head uncertainly after hearing this, and said in a somewhat suspended tone:

"That's right. I asked old Ivante carefully. He said that they broke through the so-called Standing Castle in Aix, but both sides suffered heavy casualties at the time. After a fierce battle in the city, they had no choice but to surround the Standing Castle. In the end, the two sides reached an agreement that the Harisi family would make up for their losses by selling slaves to the Standing Castle.

But it was thanks to that hypocrite Ivante that he was able to do this, and actually started a business with no capital, snatching all the outsiders who had settled in the city and selling them as slaves, and took the opportunity to make a fortune. "

"That's not right. I heard that the people from Fort Standing captured the Harisi family and they had to use slaves to redeem their own people."

The mercenary leader Issam said that his mercenary career was not only wild but also wide-ranging, but the news he heard was different from Sabir's.

"Think about it carefully, Captain Isam. How can you release a captive so easily? How can you not ask for the ransom until the Harisi family goes bankrupt? I also asked several acquaintances in their family, and they all said the same thing.

Besides, their family has been keeping a low profile since the last battle, and the members of the family rarely come out to walk around. They probably sensed something was wrong and knew that we were behind their loss, so they started to be wary of us. Where did you hear this from?"

Chief Sabir asked Chief Isam in confusion. He was also unsure. What could Chief Isam say? Should he tell Sabir that the news he got was just gossip?

It turned out that on the day when Chief Ivant was captured, he came to his senses after talking with Aix and realized that he had been tricked by two sinister guys, Sabir and Fahad.

When he was imprisoned in Weng City, he personally instructed his relatives and soldiers to announce to the outside world that once they were released back to the city, they had not lost the battle, but had made peace with Aix, and the condition of the settlement was to sell some slaves to Aix.

The soldiers in their family were of a single composition, basically all relatives, with common interests and sharing weal and woe, and they implemented Ivant's instructions very well. Of course, there were some people who were not in agreement with Ivant and told the truth to the outside world, but more people said what Ivant had instructed, which made this wrong news become the mainstream in the city and successfully misled people from other families.

However, the three families of Sabir are now forced into a corner by the increasingly powerful Fort Standstill, and have no choice but to hold a secret meeting here, thinking of uniting and taking back the interests that were taken away by Fort Standstill.

"Anyway, I secretly observed the area near the Standing Castle. The wall there is built on the mound. The wall is quite high and it is really difficult to attack. I guess the Harisi family must have spent a lot of effort to break through part of it. We still have to make a long-term plan."

Chief Farhad said that he actually wanted to sneak into the city, but Zion City was not big, and they, the locals, all knew the outsiders, so it was not easy to sneak into the city. If they were caught, it would be troublesome, so they could only watch from afar.

"In fact, I don't think we need to launch an attack ourselves. They don't produce anything there. Now all the supplies they need are sold to them by residents outside. Even the nectar and white salt they sell need people around to buy them. We just need to find someone to stop the people going to Fort Standstill, and that's it."

Isam said that he often escorted people in the surrounding areas and had dealings with nearby bandits, especially the one named Hassan. In fact, the two of them were good friends and good allies in private, a black and white duo with two sides of the same coin.