Unknown Knight

Issam's words made the two patriarchs Sabir and Farhad agree deeply. The powerful army of the Harisi family failed to completely capture the Standing Fort and was said to have suffered heavy losses. Instead of doing this, it would be better to let the bandit Hassan do it.

The armed forces of both of their families were raised with money, and they would be reluctant to suffer the slightest loss. If they could get Hassan to come forward, they would be willing to pay some money, especially the businessman Sabir. Being well versed in business, he believed that paying others to do such risky things was the safest way and would not damage their own reputation.

After thinking for a while, he said to Isam:

"Captain Isam, it would be great if Hassan could do this, but there is one thing. He can rob but he cannot kill. After all, Zion City will have to rely on the people of the surrounding settlements to continue to prosper. Of course, he can kill those outsiders in Fort Standing as much as he wants. Their deaths are not worth it."

"Yes, that's what I mean. It's best not to steal their animals. It's fine to kill two and eat the meat, but they can't take the animals away and they won't be able to take care of them. It would be a pity if they die. I have a bunch of brothers here who depend on these animals for their livelihood."

Fahad added after hearing Sabir’s words.

Isam glanced at Fahad with disdain. He was also a vicious man who lived on the edge of a knife, but he looked down on Fahad the most. If the robbery really started, it would be okay to not let Hassan rob and kill people, but how could it be impossible to not let him rob livestock? However, he had to agree on the surface:

"Okay, okay, I will definitely explain this to him, but I haven't been open for business for a long time, and I haven't given him money for a long time. I don't know if he will give me this face."

The three clan leaders discussed privately for a while, and finally asked the great bandit Hassan to come out of seclusion for fifty gold coins to cut off the trade route to Castle Standing. Then they discussed again and decided how to cooperate with Hassan's action and strive to regain the lost business share.

……

For several days in a row, the number of merchants and residents coming to Fort Standstill to trade dropped drastically. On the day that Aix discovered something was wrong, a Bedouin riding a horse came galloping towards Fort Standstill.

A sentry recognized that this man was the patriarch of a large Bedouin family nearby. He often came to the fort to trade and was a good Bedouin.

He was shot in the back and was running desperately towards Fort Standstill. Aix, who was watching from the top of the city wall, asked someone to let him in. After James treated and bandaged him, he asked and found out that on the road to Fort Standstill, the big robber Hassan had sent people to block the road. Not only did they rob their property, but they also threatened them not to come to Fort Standstill to trade again, otherwise he would kill them next time they saw them.

This Bedouin chief also had a bad temper. He had planned to come to the castle alone today to drink a few glasses of refreshing nectar, eat a few strings of unique-flavor Barbie Q, spend the day comfortably, and then go to the beach in the evening when it was cool to wash off the dust on his body, and then go home to rest refreshed.

He didn't expect to encounter such a thing on the way. Not only did his good mood disappear, but the robbers also wanted to steal his beloved horse. This made the honest man angry, but he was reluctant to part with his beloved horse that he had ridden for several years. When a robber came over to pull his reins, he whipped the robber a few times and then ran away.

The robbers were not willing to comply with the order and ignored the agreement on whether to kill or not. They fired bows and javelins. However, in this cruel era, people with upright and violent personalities must rely on something. Although the patriarch was nearly forty years old, he was still a good rider and swordsman. He cut off the head of a robber with one sword, and escaped by dodging the horse. Although he was hit by an arrow in the shoulder by mistake, there were not many people who could escape like him. He was truly an old hero.

Aix comforted the Bedouin chief, telling him not to worry about medical expenses and other expenses, and to rest and recover, Fort Standstill will take care of him. This man was willing to brave the hail of bullets to come here, so he must be a die-hard fan of Fort Standstill and needs to be taken good care of.

Immediately, Aix gathered all the people in the territory who were good at riding horses, rode the only thirty-two horses, and went out of the city to meet the enemy.

When they arrived at the road that the Bedouin chief had mentioned, the bandits had already left, leaving behind only the resentful merchants and the bodies of three people who had been killed by the bandits to vent their anger.

They were all residents of nearby settlements who met on the road as they were traveling together, preparing to come to Standstill to trade. However, their livestock and property were robbed, and some even lost their lives.

Aix had no choice but to comfort them with kind words, and then escorted them home separately. He also patrolled back and forth along the line to ensure the safety of the residents passing by.

When the group returned to the territory after working hard for a whole morning under the scorching sun, Aix received another piece of bad news. It turned out that a small camel caravan of more than ten camels sent by the territory to the iron mine to transport ore was missing. They should have returned to the territory in the morning, but they had not returned yet.

Aix had to lead the team to the iron mine again. As expected, halfway through the journey, he saw bags of iron ore discarded on the side of the road, with several bloody corpses beside them. It was obvious that the camel caravan and the surviving team members had been abducted by the bandits.

After another investigation along the surrounding traces, no useful clues were found. The traces of the robbers eventually disappeared in the quicksand of the desert. Aix and his party had to return to Fort Standing in frustration.

After returning to the castle, Aix summoned the leaders to discuss countermeasures. Everyone had heard of the big robber Hassan before, and had regarded them as the enemy of the territory and paid special attention to them. However, this group of robbers did not seem to target the residents nearby and rarely appeared near nearby settlements. They were the kind of legendary figures that people only heard of but never saw.

This time, if it weren't for the people who were robbed saying that the one who came to rob was a bandit who called himself Hassan, Aix would have almost forgotten about this group of bandits. Naturally, everyone knew very little about them. He sent people to ask some of the residents who had more contact with the local natives, and they also didn't know much about this group of bandits whose leader was named Hassan. However, one thing was that this group of bandits led by Hassan almost never robbed nearby residents, and their reputation was very good.

According to the information he had obtained, Hassan and his companions were not some harmless thieves. Aix felt that they were more like parasites on the spice trade transportation line. They usually collected protection fees from the spice caravans, and occasionally accepted some commissions to do shady things for others in secret. It was obvious that this was the case this time.

This made it easy for everyone to think of the Harisi family who was defeated by the territory not long ago, but Aix immediately rejected this idea. After the last battle, Ivante should understand that the Standing Castle was not something their family could shake. They should have been defeated and it would be impossible for them to secretly collude with Hassan to do bad things in the short term.

Besides, their family's spice gardens are all outside the city. If they use underhanded tricks without any scruples, once they are discovered, and everyone sabotages each other without any scruples, their family will surely suffer greater losses. I'm afraid that the spice gardens that provide food for the entire family will be eaten up by Aix.