Chapter 157: Before the Great Battle, the Whimsical Ideas of the Bandit Group Leaders

Jier certainly could not allow these people to light fires and roast meat; how long would that take?

"In such hot weather, can't you choose something else to eat? Must it be now? Look, my men and I are standing here under the scorching sun, waiting to continue our journey! Hmph, my men might be easier to talk to, but those alien Dwarves, they won't be so patient."

After Jier said this, those Caravans sheepishly extinguished their fires, put the cured meat they were preparing to roast back into their jars, and put away their iron signs.

The Caravan Steward leading the group walked up to Jier with an apologetic look and whispered an explanation: "Sorry, sorry, it's mainly because the inn we stayed at last night was too expensive, and everyone couldn't bear to eat such overpriced breakfast there, so we planned to eat some meat during the break on the road. As a result, we delayed the time."

Jier listened to the nonsense excuse from this person's mouth and nodded indifferently: "So that's how it is. But since we are traveling in the wild, it's better to do less of this time-wasting stuff, or just wait until night to roast it slowly. As for now, let everyone get on the carts and eat some sliced bread on the carts. Your Caravan has bread, right? If not, shall I help you borrow some from other Caravans?"

"No need, no need, no need, Sir Knight." The Caravan Steward hurriedly waved his hands to refuse. He glanced at the other Caravan Stewards, and the others nodded slightly at him. Apparently, the act of delaying time had worked, and he should stop while he was ahead.

"Put everything away and get on the carts quickly. I already said, roasting meat at this time is a really bad idea. If you want to eat meat, wait until tonight, and I'll let you eat your fill." After the Steward finished yelling at his subordinates, he turned back and asked Jier politely: "Sir Knight, how about you come over to eat some meat with us tonight? I heard that Knights can eat a lot, and they have to eat quite a bit at every meal."

Jier smiled: "That's right, if possible, I'll come to your place for roasted meat tonight."

After speaking, Jier turned around and shouted to everyone in the convoy: "Prepare to set off, everyone follow along, don't let anyone get left behind."

The large convoy continued to move along the Shanglu. Horse hooves and wheels passed over the dry Shanglu, kicking up dust that filled the sky. Even from far away, one could see the moving dust and the noise made by the convoy as it traveled.

Behind the hills and undulating slopes to the south of the Shanglu was the walking team of the Oakes Brothers.

They moved slowly along the way. Although they left early, just after noon, they sensed from the noise coming from the North Side that Jier's convoy had already overtaken them. However, this was within Da Oakesi's expectations.

Along the way, at the agreed-upon locations, he had converged with one Bandit Group after another that he had previously subdued and controlled, and the size of the entire team had gradually increased from over a hundred people to over two hundred.

However, although the number of people increased and the strength grew, the management and control of the entire team had also created many problems.

The Farmers in the Cunzi and the Bandits who were called over were collaborating for the first time. Neither side could stand the other, and ever since they converged, contradictions and conflicts had not stopped for a single moment.

Just a moment ago, Xiao Oakesi had dealt with a small-scale conflict that broke out due to a verbal dispute, giving both the fighting Farmer and the Bandit a few lashes each.

Did it look like both sides might calm down for a little while?

"Brother, I've had enough of them. Separate the two sides, they must be separated!" Da Oakesi summoned his own brother. He had truly had enough of these people's slackness and lack of cooperation and decided to change the way they traveled.

"Big Brother, it should have been like this long ago." Xiao Oakesi scratched his head and said embarrassedly.

"I know, you must think that these two groups of people shouldn't have been put together, but I had no choice. After all, if everything goes smoothly today, these people will all have to launch an attack together under your and my orders. I intended to let them get familiar with each other, at least to realize that no matter what they were like before, today they are companions fighting in cooperation."

Da Oakesi shook his head and said helplessly: "But I thought too much. This is not something that can be done temporarily."

"Then Big Brother, shall I go lead those Bandits? I have to take away the people from our inn, otherwise those people will be hard to manage," Xiao Oakesi said.

Nodding, Da Oakesi allowed his brother's suggestion. He himself would lead the young Farmers from the village, which was enough. This side had the most manpower, and unlike the Bandits who were divided into several groups and unfamiliar with each other, the Farmers in the village were united enough, and their brothers' family also had enough prestige in the village, so there was no problem with him leading the Villagers.

However, looking at the two gradually separating teams, Da Oakesi felt vaguely uneasy.

Can such a team with gaps really be the last team to appear in the battle that is about to break out today and take the final profit?

Not to mention some quick-witted people in the team, even he himself was not confident enough.

But if everything developed according to his own plan, theoretically, the development of things would become as he planned. And the team in his hands now would inevitably bring him enough victory and profit.

"I hope so."

Da Oakesi muttered.

'Blood Dagger' hurried along, risking the stamina of his horse and the overheating of his body, and finally arrived at the Jiedian Yingdi of the largest foreign Bandit Group on the nearby Shanglu just as the afternoon began.

There were not many people guarding here. The camp was mostly old, weak, sick, and disabled, with only a few Bandits who were not feeling well guarding the edge of the Jiedian, with horses tethered beside them. And the families of the Bandits in the camp were also prepared to transfer at any time.

After all, the vast majority of the main force of the group had gone out to plunder the Caravan. There was not enough manpower here. If someone really intended to attack their Jiedian at this time, then according to the instructions of the second leader, the Bandit families in the Jiedian only needed to carry some food and drink and evacuate the Jiedian directly.

As long as they identified who dared to attack them before evacuating, then after the looting ended, the returning young people would naturally find the trouble back with interest.

If the attacking side did not intend to let the fleeing Bandit families go, those young Bandits who were not feeling well would also ride away quickly and immediately go to notify their own team that was looting to return as soon as possible.

The valuable Caravan goods in the camp were all floating wealth. As long as the Bandit Group still had the manpower, they could naturally get those things back.

At this time, the Bandits left to guard the Jiedian saw a person riding a horse approaching quickly. They became vigilant in their hearts, looking far and wide at the open area outside the Shulin, but did not find any other approaching people or horses.

Only then did they relax and take the initiative to step forward to make contact.

"I am the boss of the Chalu inn 【Siren Ganzi】 — Blood Dagger. You should have heard of my name." Blood Dagger stated his identity as soon as he came down to avoid some unnecessary conflicts.

"Know, know, not only do we know, we have even seen you."

"A retired veteran Bandit, but you are not very old, are you?" Someone asked curiously.

'Blood Dagger' touched his weathered face and beard: "Wait until you have been Bandits for a few more years, and you will understand how many Bandits like me who can successfully retire have seen. No more nonsense, your group's people have all gone out to ambush the Caravan passing by this time, right?"

"Ah, yes, everyone set off one after another in the second half of last night. At this time, they should have been ambushed long ago, right?" A Bandit answered the other party.

After a moment of silence, 'Blood Dagger' frowned and asked: "Which families joined this looting operation? Didn't you hear the warning I issued last night?"

"What warning? But even if you had a warning, we are determined to rob this Caravan. Last night, everyone discussed it. As the largest Bandit Group, everyone should have the ambition that this scale deserves. Whatever we want, we will just rob it ourselves. Every successful looting will make our team larger and stronger!"

These Bandits spoke louder and louder, as if they really thought so themselves.

And 'Blood Dagger' spat: "How can things be that simple? If you could win just by having more people, wouldn't the Empire with the largest population have conquered the whole world long ago? Alright, I won't argue with you. Come one person, take me, take me to find the place where you are ambushing and looting."

"What happened?" Worried that things had indeed changed, they asked, and one of the Bandits who was in good condition climbed onto a horse, ready to lead the way.

"I discovered another team on the way here. It is a team secretly raised by the local Oakes Brothers. There are over a hundred people, and they seem to be taking a detour to approach secretly from the south side."

Hearing that there were only over a hundred people, the Bandits who were originally a little worried suddenly relaxed: "Hey, just that many people."

"I thought it was Duoen Town that was going to send hundreds of people, but it turns out to be just an innkeeper."

"Exactly, we even robbed the Caravan of the big Merchant Guild in the town, what can he, an innkeeper, do? Oh, sorry, I'm not saying anything about you."

Seeing that these people were not worried at all, 'Blood Dagger' sighed helplessly. He felt that his appearance of being so worried and concerned was truly very stupid.

Look, these guys have an indifferent look on their faces, as if any unexpected situation can be handled by them.

"Lead the way, these things are not for you to consider, just lead the way and let me go talk to your boss."

Really not wanting to talk more with these minions, 'Blood Dagger' sent away his own inn's horse that he had run all the way here with and exchanged it for a horse that the Bandits had looted.

The Bandit's horse was better, it seemed to be a prairie horse used by a certain Caravan Steward that was looted before. It's just that most of the Bandits were Farmers in the village and did not have much experience in raising horses. The tall horse that should have been fat and strong was now a little thin, and because of the lack of grooming of its hair and hooves, this prairie horse was not very smooth after running.

"You guys, don't you know that horses need to be ridden out for a walk every day? You just keep them tethered after robbing them?" 'Blood Dagger' couldn't help but ask.

The Bandit who was leading the way with him was not good at riding. He hugged the horse's neck and used the direction of the horse's neck to adjust the horse's direction. He could still answer: "What else? Anyway, we don't have many opportunities to use horses, and they will all be sold in the end. We don't use them, and they eat so much every day, so of course, we just tether them casually. It doesn't make much difference anyway."

'Blood Dagger' was speechless. He didn't bother to say anything more to these people, feeling that these Bandit Groups, which seemed to have a large number of people, probably wouldn't go very far.

After this matter was successfully concluded, he planned to find a way to cheat these Bandit Groups out of a few sums of money, and then exchange them for money to take his loyal Shop Assistants and leave here as soon as possible.

He was terrified that when these people were wiped out by the Merchant Union and the Thieves Guild in Dorn Town, he would be implicated along with them.

It didn't take long to reach the ambush site chosen by the Bandits; the distance was not far, and in fact, because their group was the largest, the lair of this Bandit Group was closest to the spot where the Caravans had camped for the night.

After about six kilometers, one could see some abandoned building ruins on both sides of the Shanglu.

"Right here, look, from our high vantage point, we can see the pits everyone dug in the wasteland on both sides of the Shanglu." The Bandit leading the way straightened up on horseback, fumbling to slow the horse down while pointing at the ground ahead.

Blood Dagger also saw those numerous hiding pits; not only did the two riders who had circled out from behind the northern hills see the Bandits, but the Bandits had naturally seen them as well.

More than a dozen horses immediately charged out from a small Shulin nearby; the riders on their backs were dressed in various ways and used different weapons, but the one thing they had in common was that they were all full of momentum, appearing to be the leaders of their respective Bandit Groups.

These people had, of course, all crossed paths with Blood Dagger, and many had even received guidance from Blood Dagger's Bandit Group experience, making them quite familiar with each other.

"Yo, isn't this the innkeeper from our Chalu? Are you here to check on the situation?" someone asked.

Another person rode over and immediately handed a square cloth for covering the face to Blood Dagger: "It's good to come and see, but you should still cover your face, old master, so that if a few of the other side run away after the battle starts, they won't happen to see your face."

"That's right, we owe it to the intelligence you provided that we've been able to know the strength of the target Caravans in advance several times, and thus prepare our forces."

Blood Dagger took the cloth and tied a knot around his neck, but did not put it on yet; he relayed to these dozen or so Bandit leaders of various attire what he had discovered on his way here, as well as his advice against attacking the Caravan of Knight Jier.

But these Bandit leaders did not show expressions of worry, nor did they intend to call off the operation.

"You are too worried; it's just some Villagers gathered by those useless brothers of Aokesi. If they don't come, fine, but if they do, we'll just crush them along with the rest, and while we're at it, after resting for a day, we'll take that so-called Bianji Cun of theirs too."

"Exactly, I heard it's a wealthy village; although it might not be as rich and valuable as these Caravans, there must be plenty of food, clothing, and houses to live in. If you ask me, I have a proposal: the several groups we have here now all have many family members of our people mixed into the Yingdi."

"How about this: after we take Bianji Cun, we send the family members of everyone in our respective teams to live in Bianji Cun? Let the original Villagers serve our family members. The useless waste in our respective teams can also be thrown over there to farm honestly."

"Hey, that's a good plan; my mother is always complaining that she often hears strange noises in the Yingdi, and occasionally people disappear into the mountains. Plus, sending family members over there can avoid a lot of the fooling around that happens in the teams."

"That's right, my team size is large now, and it's very hard to manage; after all, they are all family or relatives of my own or my subordinates, so they don't listen at all, and I can't bear to beat them."

Several Bandit Group leaders just went on discussing other matters after the event was over.

Seeing this scene, Blood Dagger, although influenced by their confidence, felt his inner unease slightly diminish, but he was also angered by the arrogance of these guys. Compared to these arrogant and blind fellows, what did his previous caution count for?

Fighting with the air?

It can only be said that these people hit a good time to be Bandits; the Knights and armies of the Nobles everywhere have gone to the front to fight, leaving the territorial security forces empty, which is why these guys with no real skills have grown large, with over a hundred, or even several hundred men under them.

Unlike him in the past, when his team size got a little larger, it would attract Knights to lead troops to suppress them, and every time that happened, he could only lead his team to hide in the deeper, safer mountains.

Just as he was overthinking, a mounted Scout Bandit rode over quickly; this person had good horsemanship and shouted loudly from horseback while still far away: "The Caravan is still two hills away (about 1.5 kilometers), and will be here soon. They seem to have sped up the Caravan in the afternoon."

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