Unknown Knight

The town of Tianshuijing was bloody in the early morning, with blood splattered everywhere and the air filled with the stench of burning human flesh, which made people feel nauseous.

At this moment, it is more appropriate to call this place Blood Water Town. Nearly 200 bandits were almost killed. The blood of these people flowed everywhere, and some even formed small blood puddles. Just imagine, what if 2,000 people died, or even 20,000 people? It seems that the idiom "blood flowing everywhere" is really not an exaggeration.

After a night of fighting, more than a dozen soldiers from Fort Standstill were killed or wounded, but everyone was not affected by this and their morale was very high. After a night of coordinated fighting, the soldiers had a deeper understanding and cognition of fighting and killing, and the efficient collaboration and such great results not only increased their confidence and combat skills, but also boosted their morale.

Not all the people in the town were massacred. There were still more than fifty survivors, mostly women, about forty in total. They were basically abducted by the bandits for their sexual pleasure. They were driven into a house by the soldiers and kept in solitary confinement.

There were more than a dozen men imprisoned in a prison. The bandits were probably planning to sell them to slave traders. Five members of the camel caravan that had transported iron ore last time were also in there. They had not been sold by the bandits yet. They never thought that they would be rescued one day. They must have used up all their luck in this life. They were so excited that they burst into tears.

After eliminating all the remaining bandits, Aix ordered his men to pile their bodies in a sand pit outside the town and fill it with sand. There was no need to worry about the problem of stinking in the future, and it would not breed epidemics. The dry and hot climate in the desert would quickly take away the moisture from the bodies, turning them into thousand-year-old dried dumplings in this wasteland.

The victory in this battle was achieved so smoothly mainly due to the training in the previous period, the most important of which was about military discipline. The territory had very strict requirements on military discipline such as disobeying orders on the battlefield. The most serious violations would even lead to direct expulsion from the territory, which was tantamount to a death sentence for these soldiers who were mainly outsiders and slaves. Therefore, everyone consciously abided by the discipline. This army was a rare army in this era that was able to enforce discipline.

Although this army was established not long ago and its combat skills and abilities are not very high, due to the mutual cooperation and obedience to orders, there are not many casualties. Although its combat ability needs to be strengthened, it is still very good.

This was not only reflected in last night's coordinated battle, but also made today's subsequent search and pick-up orderly. The soldiers obeyed the arrangements and cooperated with each other during the search. There was no chaos or looting of any kind, and everyone consciously handed in the spoils.

This made Aix very pleased. It seemed that Niza, Bestur and others had put a lot of effort into training the army. He saw that an army with strict military discipline was growing up.

After a whole morning of searching, the harvest from this battle was very rich. There were a total of more than 1,500 gold coins, more than 3,000 silver coins, more than 10,000 copper coins, and other gold and silver jewelry, gems, pearls, and various utensils made of precious metals and wood, which were worth at least thousands of silver coins.

Just by looking at these valuables, you can tell that this group of robbers has been entrenched here for a long time, otherwise they would not have accumulated so many good things. Many treasures made of precious woods were even thrown aside, buried and covered in dust.

The harvest in terms of materials was even greater. The bandit leader Hassan seemed to have a strong sense of crisis. The food seized from the warehouse was enough for the bandits to eat for at least ten years. It was probably because of the dry climate here that the food would not become moldy, which allowed the bandits to safely stack all the looted food together, storing as much as they could, and could not even tell the new food from the old.

This does not include the large amount of various rock-hard dried meats and cheeses. Aix used a dagger to cut a piece of dried meat and put it in his mouth to chew carefully. The taste was fresh and rich, no less than Jinhua ham. Although it was a bit hard, it became an excellent dish after being stewed with water.

In addition, there are fresh fruits and vegetables stored in semi-cellars, mostly Hami melons, dates, figs, and watermelons. Some of these things have shrunk on the outside, and it seems that they have been stored for at least a year, but when you open them, they are fresh and edible. It seems that the cool and dry environment has few bacteria and can keep them fresh for a long time.

All of these foods combined would be enough to feed the territory's current population for several years. Aix felt that the biggest gain from a battle was these foods. He no longer had to worry about the more than 1,200 hungry mouths in the territory.

There were still a lot of supplies left, including more than 80 bags of spices, more than 50 bags of rock salt, more than 100 bolts of coarse and fine flax, 60 pairs of bundles of leather, more than 150 bolts of cotton cloth, 10 bolts of silk, more than 200 pieces of iron, more than 30 barrels of inferior beer, and more than 50 jars of wine of unknown origin.

There were a large number of strange and bizarre weapons snatched from the bandits and collected in the warehouse. Most of these weapons were crudely made, mostly scimitars of varying sizes, and there were almost no high-quality standard weapons. Aix planned to have these inferior weapons recast by the blacksmith to meet the requirements of array infantry.

However, there were some good weapons. Among them was a pair of meteorite scimitars that were extremely sharp, with beautiful feather patterns on them. It was obvious that they were not ordinary weapons. However, before Aix could even warm his hands, they were snatched away by Niza and Bestur, two of the Lianqiao.

Another item is the heavy iron staff that Hassan used. Although this heavy iron staff is only a little more than three-fifths of the weight of the six-petal iron hammer of Aix, it is longer, about one meter long, which makes up for the disadvantage of the six-petal iron hammer being too short. It is also made of meteorite iron, and there are gold lines on it, which must have an extraordinary origin. No one competed with Aix for the hammer weapon here, so he just kept it for himself.

In addition, there were 63 horses and 25 camels. Of course, the 30 from the Harrisi family were not included. No matter what Ivant thought, Aix wanted to make friends with him and naturally had no intention of encroaching on his camels and spices.

In this way, the territory will have sufficient camel caravans, and a cavalry team of nearly 100 riders can be formed. It is estimated that no other force nearby has so many cavalry. In terms of mobile forces, it can be said that it dominates the ground of Zion City.

After searching and picking up all the supplies, Aix left 30 soldiers here to guard, and the others escorted the supplies back to Fort Standing. Because the supplies were so huge, the territory sent people to use camel caravans and donkey carts to transport them back and forth for four or five days before they were all transported.

The next day, a sign was erected at the fork in the road leading to Zion City and Fort Standing. On the sign was a human head. It was the head of Hassan, the bandit leader who was so terrified of the surrounding residents and could stop children from crying at night.

This guy caused a lot of trouble some time ago, causing the nearby residents a lot of suffering. Now he has been hung on a sign. It really makes people sigh that the world is unpredictable and changes too fast.

There was also a notice on the sign, written in the voice of Lord Aix, Lord of Castle Standstill:

'The great robber Hassan has committed many evil deeds, killing people, robbing goods, and looting people's property and women. Now the great lord of the Standing Castle, Lord Aix, has sent out an army of justice to wipe him out. From now on, the people of each settlement no longer have to worry about the threat of robbers and can trade with peace of mind.

In addition, all the people who were hurt by Hassan's robbery some time ago can go to the comfort point set up by the Standing Castle to receive the condolence money for their losses. The kind Lord Aix couldn't bear to see everyone suffer and become poor, so he gave the people who suffered losses corresponding compensation.'

This measure taken by Aix not only eliminated the adverse effects of the previous period, attracted back the residents who had previously gone to Zion City to trade, but also deterred the scoundrels in Zion City who were ready to make moves, killing several birds with one stone.

He also gained a good reputation in the name of compensation. Anyway, the supplies seized from Tianshuijing Town were more than the territory could not use up, so it was no big deal to take out some of them to compensate the nearby residents.

Not only that, Aix also took the opportunity to form a cavalry, using the newly captured horses to form a cavalry team, with thirty horses in each team, a total of three teams, which took turns patrolling back and forth on the main road leading to Standing Castle to ensure the safety of life and property of the residents who came to trade.

These measures made Fort Standstill and Aix famous, and not only did the deserted Fort Standstill recover quickly, but it also became more prosperous than before.

After wiping out the gang of robbers in Tianshuijing Town, Aix made a fortune and became a real nouveau riche. He no longer had to worry about the lack of supplies and food. He became more thoughtful and could devote more energy to the development of his territory.

Judging from what Hassan said before he died, the force behind him is actually the power of Berbera. Although Berbera is more than 300 miles away from here, it is a big city with a population of over 10,000. In the eyes of the people of Berbera, the power of Aix is ​​probably just a small Karami. If they knew that they had destroyed the stronghold they had set up, they would definitely send troops to retaliate.

Therefore, when Aix returned, he deliberately left thirty soldiers stationed in Tianshuijing Town to serve as sentinel and guard.

The town of Sweetwater Well is more than eighty miles away from Standing Fort. Aix did not ask them to defend it, but only to play a role of vigilance. For this purpose, he specially dispatched fifty craftsmen there to demolish the existing houses and use the building materials obtained from the demolished houses to build a fortress around the Sweetwater Well in the center of the town.

The thirty soldiers stationed there earlier were soon replaced by thirty cavalrymen who were on duty. Aix asked them to form teams of ten and march forward for more than twenty miles, taking turns patrolling and guarding day and night. If they found an enemy attack, they were to return immediately to report and give up any place and return to their territory.

Aix, who was addicted to construction, also felt that the population of Standing Castle was too large. At the same time, the concentration of the population was not conducive to large-scale land reclamation. He relied on the vertical shafts along the water diversion tunnel and built a small base every two kilometers. There were three branch bases in total, each with about one hundred immigrants.

This stronghold was specially designed by Aix. Its structure is like a mini version of the Standing Fort, except that it is not topped by a natural mound, but a small man-made bunker.

The bunker is about 15 meters wide at the bottom, 7 meters high, 13 meters wide at the top, and the wall is 2 meters thick. It is built of rammed earth and is extremely solid. There are battlements and shooting holes on the top. The vertical shaft of the water diversion tunnel is located in the center of the bunker, and there are two doors in and out of the bunker.

The building materials were locally sourced, using soil excavated from vertical shafts and water diversion tunnels, mixed with water from underground canals. With more than a hundred people working together, the main structure was basically completed in more than a week.

The residents in the fortress all live in rooms dug along the walls of the shaft. The rooms are equipped with exhaust holes and light holes. The air is discharged upward through these holes, sucking out the cold air in the shaft, forming a hot and cold cycle to achieve a constant temperature cooling effect. In this way, no matter how hot it is outside the fortress, it is cool and pleasant inside the fortress, and it is like spring all year round.

There are four reasons for setting up these blockhouses. First, it can divert the population and alleviate the increasingly crowded population pressure of Fort Yili. Second, it is convenient to reclaim land. The blockhouses are built on vertical shafts, which makes it very convenient to get water to irrigate the land. Third, the blockhouses are located outside Fort Yili. The residents inside are both soldiers and farmers, and there are always sentinels and guards, which can play a role in outer perimeter guard. Fourth, the blockhouses are located on the water diversion tunnel, which is convenient for the maintenance of the water diversion tunnel and can also play a role in protecting the safety of water sources.

Building a bunker with four functions like this has brought a lot of benefits and efficiency, including the bunker in Tianshuijing Town, which is also built in the same form. This creates a relatively safe area around the Yili Fort, which is also conducive to the safe development of the territory.

It's just that although Aix can develop his territory with peace of mind, the bigwigs in Zion City cannot. At first, when they heard that Aix led his troops to pacify the Sweet Water Well Town where Hassan had been entrenched for many years, they were so frightened that they behaved themselves for a long time. They no longer dared to use any means against Aix's forces, either overtly or covertly, for fear that Aix would be unhappy and come to their door to demand an explanation.

However, as the story of the human head sign at the fork in the road spread more and more widely, the repeat customers of Zion City turned to Fort Standstill some time ago, and Zion City became more and more depressed.

The nearby residents were not stupid either. Although the City of Zion no longer charged a city fee, water was free to drink, and wages were halved like in Fort Standstill, everyone knew that this was only temporary and that it might return to normal someday.

The benefits of Fort Standstill are not limited to these policies. You can drink water for free, but the bitter and salty water here is hard to swallow. But Fort Standstill has sweet dew. Can you buy the delicious and refreshing dew in Zion? Do you have cheap and high-quality snow salt? Do you have a comfortable and cool rest area? Do you have a full range of cheap goods for sale?

Not to mention the clean and orderly streets and the harmonious atmosphere of courtesy and hospitality. Even the doorman's friendly "Good day!" greeting is not comparable to the uncouth doorman in your city of Zion. There is an invisible scale in everyone's heart that weighs good and bad, right and wrong, and it naturally tilts in the direction it should tilt.