Berserk, Total War: Second Son of Nobles

"Where are you from and what do you do?"

"Sir, I came from that village and went out to work to support my family."

"Nonsense! You support your family, and you all carry weapons, right? What on earth do you do?"

The forest officer ordered his men to bring these young men who were wondering who they were and where they were into the tent and interrogate them one by one, and then reported to John.

John really wanted to understand the local situation so he met with them, but it was obvious that they were just young men who had just left the village to become mercenaries. Apart from knowing where the lord's castle was, they knew nothing else. So John decided to take over the village in front of him first.

"First, surround the village, then sneak into the village, and then capture everyone in the village and wait for my orders."

So the first invasion of Balden by Midlan officially began. The soldiers quietly surrounded the village, and then entered the village to arrest people. Many villagers were attacked while they were sleeping, and then they were forced into the center of the village one by one. The process was quite smooth, but there were still many people who resisted. However, how could the common people who didn't even have a weapon in their hands be the opponent of the fully armed soldiers? They were severely beaten. Considering that in order to maintain their rule in the future, they couldn't carry out too many bloody massacres, so there were no deaths this time. Moreover, there were less than 300 people in the whole village, from the village chief and priest to the elderly, the weak, women and children. They were all arrested in a short while and locked up in the barn in the village.

Then, John used the system to recruit refugees on the employment interface. The refugees were not only numerous but also cheap, and included men, women, young and old. He ordered them to live in houses that originally belonged to the villagers of this village, try to familiarize themselves with their own homes, pretend to be villagers of their own village, and then call the village chief and the priest over.

"Who are you, uncles?" the village chief said tremblingly.

"We come from the mountains. Life there has been tough lately, so we plan to go down the mountain to borrow some food and money," John said, imitating the bandit's tone.

When the village chief heard that it came from the mountain, he immediately knew what it meant, so he said: "Gentlemen, please look around our village. There is really nothing valuable. If you like something, just take it away. Don't hurt the people in our village."

John replied: "Don't worry, we won't do anything that is not sustainable, but our family needs to stay with you for a few days. I hope you can help me find some empty houses, or better yet, build some houses."

When the village chief heard this, although he was annoyed that they refused to leave, he still gave a guarantee for the house construction. He promised that as long as John and his team could provide enough materials, they could build a house for 200 people in a month.

So John asked a team of soldiers to supervise their work and prepared to go to the next village. At this moment, the guards suddenly came and said that the group of young people who had just been captured had information to tell him. So John returned to the camp and met Joseph's brother.

Joseph's brother also understood at this time. Although the equipment of this group of people was uneven, their mental state and accent showed that they were not local bandits. In addition, the news that Midland merchants would not come to trade made Joseph's brother guess the truth in a short time - Midland was going to use military force against Balden.

However, he also analyzed the current situation. Since he had no chance of making a breakthrough under the control of the Kingdom of Balden, he might as well join Midlan and take advantage of his local status to lead the Midlan army to prove his worth. At least he would have a chance to change his origin.

Thinking of this, he and a few others reached a consensus and asked the soldiers guarding them to tell John that they had important information in exchange for John's meeting with them.

"What intelligence do you say you have?" John asked.

"It's almost spring, and the nobles will ask the villages under the castle to select young people to work in the castle. If you want to attack the castle, we can cooperate from inside and outside and open the city gate to let the army in. I know a small path that can lead to the vicinity of the castle without anyone noticing, and we can attack the castle at night."

"Then how can I trust you? What if you tell on me?"

"You can send a few people to follow us. We were originally serfs. Even if we continue to work for the Barden nobles, we cannot change our status. I hope you can let us return to free people after the war."

"Okay, someone give each of them 5 gold coins." John said and asked someone to give each of them 5 gold coins.

"This is just a deposit. After the success, in addition to changing your status to free citizens, each of you will also receive 10 gold coins. Even if you die, the money will be given to your family." John said, and at the same time he came up with a plan on how to quickly gain the support of the local people.