Unknown Knight

The city of Berbera, the spice capital of the known world, is a magical place. Apart from the unique frankincense, almost no other spices are produced here, but all kinds of spices are sold here.

There are dozens of spice workshops of all sizes in the city, processing various high-quality spices day and night, making the whole city filled with a strange and special smell.

Whether it is black pepper, cinnamon, saffron, benzoin and other spices from the mysterious Eastern continent, or thyme, pepper, basil and other spices from the Gronia continent, or rosemary, tarragon, dill and other spices from the Calradia continent, as well as cloves, nutmeg, cumin and other spices from unknown origins, dozens of popular spices in the world can be bought in Berbera at a relatively favorable price.

In addition to the dry desert climate that allows the spices concentrated here to release excess moisture, allowing the spices to maintain excellent quality for longer and facilitate long-term sales, the most important thing is that this place is located at the intersection of the Eastern and Western continents, and all high-value-added commodities circulated between the East and the West must pass through here.

“You will all walk on my ways, enter my cities, and pay my taxes.”

——Thus said Abdul Humaim, the first lord of Berbera.

Ever since the city was built here, the Humamu family has been controlling the key point of this east-west continent, and each generation of city lords calls themselves "Humamu".

Their family enjoyed the advantages of geographical location and the dividends of the spice trade, and lived a life comparable to that of kings and nobles, but they engaged in activities similar to highway robbery and called themselves "Humamu" to the outside world. This name, which means courage and generosity, is really ironic.

In fact, merchants traveling east and west did not have to pass through this city that collected a waist-cut tax (a tax that collected at least half of the profit). There were vast deserts and uninhabited mountains nearby, and the city was close to the sea with convenient sea transportation so they could take a detour.

But if you, as a businessman, think so, then you are underestimating the magnificent prosperity of the city of Berbera. The lord of Humamu has two trump cards to rely on. One is an army of more than 1,200 people, and the other is a navy with more than 30 large and small ships and nearly 1,000 people.

This army of more than 1,200 people is a fully professional army with everyone wearing armor and all of them are elite. Every soldier has passed strict screening and assessment, and finally the best ones are admitted. This army can be regarded as a strong army in the world in all aspects, and it is an army that the Lord of Humamu City has spent a lot of money to raise.

This army was not only his pride, but also the basis for his survival. He had relied on this army, plus several thousand militiamen temporarily recruited, to successfully resist many expeditionary forces with tens of thousands of troops. He had never been defeated and was known as the Invincible Legion.

Another reliance is the naval fleet composed of more than 30 ships of various sizes. The total number of people in this naval fleet reaches thousands. A naval fleet of this size and the advanced ships in the fleet can be called a first-class naval fleet in this era. In this water area, it is even invincible and is known as the Invincible Fleet.

On the surface, this invincible fleet mainly helped the Lord of Humamu to maintain order in the waters, collect taxes from the trading ships, escort its own trading fleet, protect the safety of merchant ships that had paid, and so on.

They were also secretly responsible for robbing merchant ships of hostile forces, disrupting maritime trade in nearby waters, and monitoring and blocking the spice trade of other forces in nearby waters. This is how the city of Zion's cut-off maritime spice trade came about.

Sometimes they would simply lower the white sails and raise the black sails, directly transforming themselves into pirates and engaging in a no-cost business. The Black Sail Pirates was another name for this fleet, and they were the most feared and notorious sea robbers in the area.

With these two trump cards in hand, any caravans nearby that wanted to engage in east-west trade had to take a detour through Berbera to make it prosperous.

Not only that, in order to further refine the control, the Lord of Humamu also deliberately supported some retired professional soldiers from the city of Berbera, letting them form a nominal mercenary group, and controlling various important trade routes on the nearby land like bandits. For example, the great thief Hassan once served as a professional soldier in Berbera.

Recently, there has been no news from Hassan, who controls the trade route from Zion to Berbera, and the spices from Zion have not arrived. When Lord Humamu was hesitating whether to send someone to Zion, a secret letter from Zion was handed to him.

The writer of the letter was the patriarch of the Sabir family, one of the five major families in Zion City. This Sabir family leader was actually a force secretly supported by the Lord of Humamu City.

As the spice producing area closest to Berbera, Zion is naturally a place that the city lord Humam must control. Once the spices produced by the Harisi family here do not meet his requirements and most of them are sold to Berbera, the thief Hassan and the chief Sabir will be the means to hold the Harisi family hostage.

The letter from Chief Sabir said that a force called Standing Fort had appeared nearby. It not only destroyed Hassan who was entrenched in Tianshuijing Town, but also blocked the spice trade from Zion City to Berbera. Chief Sabir wrote the letter hoping that Lord Humamu could send troops to destroy the force of Standing Fort.

The Lord of Humamu City had no interest in intervening in the dog-eat-dog fight among the affiliated forces. What he would rather do was to let these people consume each other. When their brains were used up to defeat each other until both were defeated, he would then exit with a crushing attitude and participate in the final distribution of benefits.

As for the destruction of Hassan, who was secretly affiliated with him, the lord of Humamu didn't care at all. This kind of force, which was actually independent under the name of Berbera City, was a group of people who would only follow whoever feeds them and would be indecisive. If they were destroyed, they would be destroyed. As long as he put in some effort, he could quickly support another one.

These were not reasons for Lord Humamu to take action. What moved him was a sentence that Chief Sabir added at the end of the letter, saying that an underground water source had been discovered in Fort Yili, which was enough to irrigate thousands of acres of land.

You have to know that the value of Zion City lies in the cultivation of spices. The temperature difference between day and night here is very large. This climate is very suitable for growing spices, and the quality of the spices produced is also superb. The reason why he disdained Zion City before, in addition to the fact that it was desolate and remote, was mainly because there was a lack of fresh water and the spices that could be produced were limited, giving people a feeling of being useless. He was only willing to inform some affiliated forces to infiltrate and remotely control it.

But if we take into account the thousands of acres of newly reclaimed irrigated land, and if all of these lands are planted with spices, then the city of Zion will become an important spice producing area, and direct control will be necessary.

So Lord Humamu immediately wrote back to Chief Sabir, asking him to send troops from Zion City to harass Fort Standstill in Aix to achieve the purpose of coordination. He would then send a large army to attack Fort Standstill from behind, striving to win the battle and help them destroy the force of Aix.

In fact, Lord Humamu's purpose was not limited to this. He could not state it clearly in the letter. In his opinion, since he was already here, after capturing Fort Standing, it would not be a bad idea to take over the city of Zion as well.

In this way, the spices produced in the two places will be firmly controlled in his hands, bringing him a valuable income. At the same time, his strength will be taken to a new level, making it worthwhile for him to come here from afar.

After formulating this strategy, Lord Humamu did not hesitate and immediately led an undefeated army of one thousand men and an invincible fleet of five hundred men, and launched a secret attack on Fort Standstill by sea.

From Aix's perspective, the attack from the Lord of Humamu was completely unexpected. In fact, ever since he killed the bandit Hassan in Tianshuijing Town, Aix had been worried about the threat from Berbera City for a while. However, after studying the land distance between the two places and the actual situation along the way, he gradually let down his guard.

You have to know that in ancient times, wars were largely fought with logistics. The land distance between Fort Eyrie and Berbera is as much as three or four hundred miles. This distance is not far from a modern perspective, only about three hours on the highway. But it was different in ancient times. Under normal circumstances, in ancient times, if a troops could march twenty or thirty miles a day, it was considered a relatively fast march.

What is referred to here is the march in normal areas. During the march, one can purchase or even directly rob food and fresh water supplies in the surrounding settlements. One can also recruit a large number of nearby civilians to help transport supplies and military supplies.

But this is an uninhabited desert area. Not only is the march difficult, but it is also impossible to collect any necessary supplies from nearby. If it is a large-scale march, it would be good if they can cover more than ten miles a day.

Just imagine what it is like to march in a hot and dry desert. Most of the supplies need to be transported by horses and camels, which requires a large number of horses and camels to pull the supplies, and these large numbers of horses and camels will bring about a lot of consumption.

The most devastating thing is water. The water carried by a camel is enough for two people to drink for a few days. It is okay for a small team of dozens or hundreds of soldiers to march, but what about thousands or even tens of thousands of people? Where can you find so many camels, not to mention marching for twenty or thirty days in such an environment? It would be a life-threatening situation.

Aix had learned about the situation between Zion and Berbera, and knew that apart from the town of Tianshuijing, where there was fresh water, there was no other place to replenish water along this distance.

Then it is not difficult to calculate. If Berbera sends a force of thousands of people to attack, relying solely on the starting point for supply, it will need at least 2,500 fully loaded camels to transport supplies and water, and this is only the amount consumed to reach Fort Standstill.

Once the two armies are deadlocked and consume time in siege, the battle may last for another ten days or half a month. There is no need for Aix to launch an attack, as the invading enemy can be defeated by the delay.

By this calculation, it is impossible for Berbera to launch an attack from land. Even if it reluctantly sends troops, it can only support a small force of several hundred people at most. This is equivalent to delivering food to Aix, and it cannot shake Fort Stand at all.

Then Berbera could only go by sea. However, based on Aix's understanding of the ships at that time, he believed that at most 500 people could be transported by sea. He himself had tried to transport troops by water.

Therefore, after comprehensive analysis, Aix felt that it was impossible for the people of Berbera to launch an attack on him. This was his inference based on the known information, but he did not fully understand the shipping of that era. He did not know that there were not only dragon-headed ships with small loads on the sea at that time, but also larger and more capable cogs.

This is a large ship that can carry more than 300 people at a time. Only a few of them are needed to transport Berbera's army and military supplies to the vicinity of Fort Standing. Berbera has more than ten of these large ships that can sail long distances.

It was Aix's lack of understanding of the situation that almost destroyed the power he had worked so hard to build.

After feeling that Fort Standstill was a piece of fat meat that could be chewed, Lord Humamu immediately issued an order to march towards Fort Standstill. The advantages of the professional army soon became apparent. He did not need to mobilize, but only needed to prepare materials and water sources. The next day, an expedition fleet consisting of five cogs and more than ten sampans set out from Berbera. It only took them five or six days for the expedition fleet to sail to the waters near Fort Standstill.

They first landed some cavalry and destroyed several Bedouin family tribes in the desert in order to find a usable fresh water source. As a result, they only found a bitter water well that could only provide drinking water for dozens of people, so they had to find another way.

Later they discovered bunkers outside the Standing Fort. Lord Humamu originally wanted to take down one of them, but when he saw the bunker that was more than seven meters high and there were several bunkers not far away guarding each other, he thought it was a purely military defense facility and that there must be troops stationed in it. He was afraid that if he attacked and failed to take it down immediately, it would alert the troops in the Standing Fort, which would make Aix fully prepare in advance, causing unnecessary trouble for the attack and turning the battle into a war of attrition that would waste time, money and food, endangering his already fragile supply lines.

Of course, the Lord of Humamu, who claimed to be good at business, would not do this. What he needed was to maximize the benefits and minimize the losses. So he decided not to alert the enemy first, but to quietly land in the nearby bay, and then rely on the fresh water and supplies brought by the ship, seize the opportunity, and try to take down the Standing Fort in one fell swoop. Then, there would be no need to capture the difficult bunkers on the periphery one by one, and they would probably fall by themselves by then.

It is not known whether it was because of quantum entanglement between Chief Sabir and Lord Humamu of Zion City, which caused them to sense each other, but Zion City actually took the initiative to send cavalry to attack the patrol cavalry of Standing Fort, successfully attracting Aix to send troops to attack Zion City.

When the reconnaissance cavalry came back with a report that X of Fort Standing had actually transferred the main force out of the city, apparently to attack Zion, Lord Humamu slapped his thigh with joy. This was truly a godsend opportunity for him, and he immediately ordered his subordinates to reorganize the troops and be ready to attack at any time.