Chapter 65 Departure Once Again

  The last mysterious knight was beheaded by the thieves more than an hour later, several masters guarding the leader fought to the death, blocking stones with their bodies and cutting down thieves with their swords. They persisted for a while before finally being killed. I found that there were countless broken stones around them, and nearly 400 thieves had been killed by their hands. However, not one of them, including the leader, begged for mercy or surrendered; they all died in battle. Their bravery and determination earned my admiration, and even my knights couldn't bear to use giant rocks against them, which led to a significant increase in the thieves' casualties. The old wolf was forced to call his men up the mountain to throw stones, finally ending the battle.

  Next was the cleanup of the battlefield and counting the casualties. Naturally, my main force was unscathed, while over 3,000 bandits were killed and more than 1,000 injured, almost four times that of the enemy. Upon receiving the news, I was shocked and felt a pang of gloom in my heart - I never thought that my first battle after coming out of the mountain would be a defeat!

  After a big battle, it was already noon. I treated the three armies in the camp and also invited Lao Lang and several other bandit leaders to come over. They might be afraid that I would clean them up, so they brought many guards with them. Now, I don't want to say anything else, so I arranged for everyone to go downstairs to eat and drink. I invited the leaders and my five generals into my tent, set up a table of wine, and after everyone sat down, I said: "Today's battle was well fought by everyone, let's not mention past things, from now on, you are all my vassals, no matter what happens, I will take responsibility for it!"

  "Thank you, master!" Knowing I was hinting at them, several thieves were moved to tears.

  "From now on, don't call me master, it's annoying! From now on, just call me young master!"

  "Yes! Young master!" They all responded crisply.

  "Now let's talk about your arrangements!"

  Several guys immediately straightened their backs!

  "My territory is poor now, but its area is as large as the other four provinces. The richness of its products surpasses them. It's just that the forces from all sides are complex and intertwined, and no one has been able to suppress them before. Now I'm here, relying on your great army and my grandmother's influence, can you suppress them?"

  "Master! Definitely no problem!" The old wolf said: "With your power and your god-like military strategy, you should be able to suppress all the forces there and truly grasp control of your territory!"

  "Haha! I wouldn't dare claim to be 'like a god in using troops'!"

  "Why?" asked the old wolf

  "It took you over 4,000 casualties to take down their 1,000 men, what's there to be proud of? Actually, I was still too impatient. If we could have held out for two more days, it would have been an easy win."

  "It's none of your business!" The old wolf and others blushed, thinking I was blaming them!

  "Master! Do you know who the leader is?" Old Ma said

  "Do you know?" Poor Dao asked excitedly

  "I just went to take a look and I actually know him!"

  "Who is he? How come there are so many masters around him!"

  "He is the eldest grandson of the Ishihara family, the eldest son of Shunei Ishihara, the commander of the Genbu Corps. He has been serving in the Genbu Corps all along and hasn't returned home for nearly ten years. Without a doubt, he will be the next commander of the Genbu Corps!"

  "No wonder!" I couldn't help but laugh and cry at the same time. Originally, I came out to avoid the Ishihara family, now it's even worse, I've killed another one of their important members. Am I destined to be arch-enemies with them?

  "So this time, Young Master's battle should be considered a victory, and a great one at that!"

  "Yes! Young master!" Li Gang said: "If it were in an open area, these 10,000 or so thieves wouldn't stand a chance against their 1,000 men. Now with just this many casualties, it's absolutely a remarkable victory!"

  Seeing others also say it's a great victory, I'm a little happy and said: "It's all thanks to the bravery of the old wolves and others in killing the enemy that we have this victory, let's raise a glass to them!"

  "Cheers!" After everyone drank, I continued to say: "This time the deceased will be compensated with 10 gold coins each, the injured will receive 5, and the rest will receive 1. The 300 people who followed me in the charge will receive 10 gold coins. Old Wolf should be remembered for his outstanding contribution, rewarded with 5000 gold, and the other leaders will be rewarded with 4000."

  "Thank you, Master Xie!" The crowd cheered, none of them had expected me to be so generous.

  "Go for it! I won't let you down!"

  "Yes! We swear to follow Young Master to death!"

  "Old wolf!"

  "Please give your orders, young master!"

  "Each of you, select 100 elite troops from your subordinates to serve as the garrison for my capital. The rest will follow me to our territory to farm, I'm currently short on civilians to work the land!"

  "Yes! Young Master Tian's orders!" The words sounded nice, but I could see that they were all somewhat reluctant.

  "Bolazi City is now a city, but the population is only in the thousands, so the city guard doesn't need to be too many! However, it will definitely become a huge city in the future, and by then the city guard will have tens of thousands. You are all going to be generals!"

  "Everything depends on Master's orders!" They immediately became spirited.

  "Master! What about us?" Li Gang asked

  "You're here now because the front line is calm, but once it's not calm, can you still stay here? I want to keep you, my father won't agree either, so I have to quickly set up a team of people!"

  "Oh!"

  In this way, both groups of people understood their future development path and got along harmoniously.

  The atmosphere on the wine table began to liven up, and several guys were all drunk, drinking until dusk, and they were carried away before it was over. I didn't want to drink and crawl down, so I had to escape halfway and find Xianya for fun.

  It seems that we can't leave today, so we'll have to set off tomorrow. I don't want to travel slowly with a bunch of wounded people, so after distributing food and gold coins, I left Old Wolf and the others behind to escort the wounded, while I led the original team forward.

  After walking for several more days, it's estimated that Boluo City is only three days away. However, on this afternoon, another unexpected event occurred. The poor Taoist couldn't help but exclaim: "Did I not pay respects to the gods before leaving? Why did I bring 3000 men and still get robbed all the time?"

  "Haha! Young master!" Old Ma said: "These people are even more ruthless than the Ishihara gang!"

  "Really?" The poor Taoist asked in surprise, and began to observe carefully.

  These thieves actually had less than 500 people, and they dared to challenge the 3000 regular army? Among them, there were more than 30 cavalrymen, but they didn't ride horses, instead, they rode a kind of six-level magic beast called "earth dragon". The earth dragons were over two meters tall, and their tails added another six meters. They had a grayish-black color with a thick layer of scales on their bodies, making them super defensive. Their heads were huge and triangular in shape, with two sharp horns that pointed straight forward. Judging from the sharp teeth in their mouths, they definitely weren't herbivores!

  The knights and the people on the ground were dressed similarly, with animal hides wrapped around their chests and lower bodies. Their two arms were exposed outside, not paying any attention to the cold. These guys were all robustly abnormal, tall like my father at about 2 meters 40, short ones also over 2 meters, with muscles bulging all over, showing incredible strength. Their faces were painted with colorful patterns, like Indians, except they didn't have feathers on their heads, but their hair was very long and scattered down to their waists. Each person's weapon in hand was different, some had big knives, axes, but most were huge wooden clubs, with a large stone tied to one end of the club to increase lethality, the common point being that all the weapons were unreasonably heavy.