Unknown Knight

Berbera is one of the few big cities in this wasteland. Its urban population has reached more than 33,000 people, which is considered a top ten city in this era.

This does not include the population of the surrounding villages and towns. If the population under the jurisdiction of the surrounding villages and towns is added, the population controlled by the city lord Humamu is about 100,000 people. It is not an exaggeration to call it a small kingdom.

The Heishui River outside the city is nearly 100 meters wide and is a perennial river that flows all year round. In May and June every year, sudden floods from upstream will overflow the river bank and submerge both sides of the river.

When the dark river water recedes, it will leave a layer of fertile black soil on the land near the river banks. This black soil is very suitable for the growth of crops. After the flood recedes, the local people will sow various crops such as wheat and soybeans, and they will have a good harvest in a few months.

This made Berbera a famous and fertile place within a radius of nearly a thousand miles. However, the limited water resources of the Black Water River could not irrigate much land. Only the narrow area on both sides of the river lived with a relatively dense population, and the rest of the surrounding areas were hot and dry desert areas.

The Lord of Humamu is the owner of this oasis-like land. The surrounding thousands of miles of desert create a relatively isolated regional feature, which makes it impossible for any nearby force to challenge the existence of Berbera City. This makes the Lord of Humamu the only ruler in the surrounding area and also cultivates his character of having the final say.

However, his aura of final say has been restrained a lot now, because every day many nobles in the city, both big and small, stand guard outside the gate of his mansion, asking him for their relatives who have fallen on hard times in Castle Standing.

It turned out that since the failure of the last sneak attack on Zion City, the army he led was almost wiped out, and about two to three hundred nobles in the army were also captured by Fort Standstill.

It would be fine if other professional mercenaries were captured, but these nobles in the army were all children of wealthy and powerful families in the city, and many of them were even nephews and nieces who were closely related to the Lord of Humamu.

These people would block him at the gate of the City Lord's Mansion every day to demand an explanation, crying and making a fuss, and the more assertive ones even dared to point at his nose and curse at him, which was simply a disgrace.

For more than a month, Lord Humamu hid in his mansion and did not dare to leave. He was very aggrieved and not only was he secretly mad in his heart, he had also been issuing recruitment notices recently and ordered the nearby dependent forces to provide manpower and money to prepare for his second attack on Fort Standstill.

Not only that, he also contacted Chief Sabir, who was supported by the city of Zion, and asked him to collect all the information about Fort Standstill so as to pave the way for his future attack on Fort Standstill.

According to the recent news from Chief Sabir, this rising fortress is really a towering date palm tree, and it has actually attracted a force to attack from the sea.

According to the intelligence sent to them, when Fort Standstill was preparing to launch a second attack on Zion City, this unknown force suddenly launched a surprise attack from the sea. They used fire attack. The bay in the direction of Fort Standstill was full of flames, and Zion City could see it. This forced them to withdraw their troops and return to support. Although they eventually repelled the enemy and Fort Standstill was not lost, the loss was certainly estimated to be considerable.

It seems that he has to speed up the recruitment and training of soldiers, and the preparation of food and fodder. Otherwise, if it is too late and someone else gets there first and picks the fruits of Fort Standstill, he will suffer a great loss.

Whenever he thought of this, the Lord of Humamu City felt excited. The last time he escaped in a panic, he felt very dissatisfied. In his eyes, it was only because of his momentary carelessness that the enemy's sneak attack was successful.

Thinking about it now, he was defeated so hastily that he and all the generals who escaped back were not sensitive to the defeat. They believed that if they had turned around and attacked with all their strength, they might have been able to kill the enemy general in front of the battle line, which would have been a different scenario.

Like all losers, this hindsight mentality and the regretful and self-comforting fantasies of "what ifs" and "what ifs" are what prevent them from learning from their failures and avoiding becoming losers again.

This was the case with the Lord of Humamu, who had never failed. He even believed that as long as he could kill a powerful general like Aix, who was like a god descended from heaven, he could easily win with his elite troops. For this reason, he ordered the craftsmen in the weapons workshop to make a crossbow specifically for shooting and killing Aix based on his high attack and defense characteristics.

Little did he know that it was this mentality of his that brought him disaster. After seeing the intelligence, the originally hesitant Aix finally made up his mind to eliminate him, the biggest threat to Castle Standstill.

Although Aix knew that Berbera's forces were the biggest hidden danger to the territory, he was always hesitant and could not make up his mind to attack them. The main reason was the pressure on logistics supply, especially the pressure on drinking water sources.

As we all know, the reason why the Humamu family was able to control the city of Berbera for so many years was not just because of the huge amount of money they had to support the army, but mainly because of the isolation effect brought by the barren land within a radius of nearly a thousand miles around.

This isolation effect will make any invading enemy face tremendous logistical pressure, especially in terms of water use. You can't just draw water from home. In this hot and dry area, even if you bring water, it would be a lot if one-third of a bucket of water is left. What a huge logistical transportation system would be needed just to draw water!

Other things like food, weapons and equipment, and even firewood for burning, also needed to be transported in large quantities, because there was almost nothing in the area where they marched except endless yellow sand.

Therefore, this desert stretching for thousands of miles is the most powerful defense of Berbera. It is precisely relying on this protection that the Humamu family has been able to survive for so many years and still stand firm in such an important place. The lord of Humamu even jokingly called this thousand miles of yellow sand his "desert wall."

During this period, there were forces that coveted Berbera's important location and wealth. These forces launched several expeditions with as many as tens of thousands of troops, but they were all defeated by the hot and dry environment of the desert and the unsustainable logistical pressure.

The lord of Humamu was also very smart. He fully realized the huge geographical advantages of Berbera. He not only filled up all the small water sources around, but also moved the scattered population to the settlements with city defense fortresses.

He also built fortresses on other major water sources and stationed heavy troops to guard them. Once these fortresses were breached, the defenders would poison the water sources of the fortresses before retreating to prevent the water from falling into the hands of the enemy.

Relying on this strategy, the Lord of Humamu City repelled four or five attacks from external forces and firmly controlled the surrounding areas in his own hands.