Chapter 163: The Scorching Sun Shines (Part IV)

"How is it?"

Jier lifted his blood-stained steel face mask, revealing the young, callow face beneath, and asked.

Looking at Jier's face and the smile upon it, the old Dwarf felt a chill in his heart and replied with dissatisfaction: "You've done everything yourself, this time... it's alright, I can only say it's alright. Hey, look, my men just threw two throwing iron hammers each in one go, and the effect was remarkable!"

Jier turned his head to look at the traces of battle near the caravan, pointed at the dozens of bandits lying dead or heavily wounded on the ground, and nodded: "Not bad. It seems I also need to prepare a batch of these medium-range throwing weapons for my warriors. Not necessarily the iron hammers you Dwarves are good at; hmm, I think a few short throwing spears about a meter long would be good. If mastered, the power is not small, and they are applicable to many situations."

The old Dwarf was somewhat dissatisfied: "Clearly, iron hammers are better. You young people don't understand. When facing enemies wearing armor or possessing sturdy carapaces, this kind of attack method that can shatter armor or directly injure the interior is so wise. In the process of mountain-opening and mining, the type of monster most easily encountered is various large insects with sturdy carapaces."

Jier, however, thought more: "Since you have encountered many of these large insects with carapaces, what about their carapaces after they die? This thing sounds like an excellent material for crafting armor, it must be worth a lot of money."

As soon as this was mentioned, the old Dwarf, who had been slightly self-satisfied, changed his expression and began to mutter words of regret.

Jier listened for a moment and then understood that because the Dwarves could craft their own metal armor, they looked down on those insect carapace materials and basically burned them all to fertilize the fields for the villagers. Had he known that those insect carapaces, which had good toughness and sturdiness—especially since they were not heavy—could be used to make armor and sold for money, the old Dwarf would have felt he had lost a huge sum of money.

Leaving the old Dwarf to ache over the large sum of money lost, Jier saw that the hundreds of bandits on the entire battlefield had basically been routed and scattered, and the human warriors and Dwarf warriors he had sent out had each killed or captured many bandits, so he shouted loudly for everyone to return.

The team could not be too scattered. It was already evening, and in a while, night would fall. His gathered warriors were certainly not afraid of those bandits, but if those more numerous bandits returned after dark, relying on their familiarity with the surroundings and sudden attacks, it was possible they could kill or kidnap a few of his men.

But the group had pursued too far. Although no one was foolish enough to chase bandits into the surrounding woods, the large pile of bandits forced to surrender kept the temporarily guarding warriors occupied. Cleaning up the battlefield and escorting the surrendered bandits back (only those with light injuries were qualified to surrender; no one cared about the heavily wounded bandits) was a task that took far more time than the previous battle.

Seeing this, Jier had the archers jump off the wagons to control the bandits already escorted back to the caravan, while the drivers drove the relatively empty wagons toward the wilderness beside the Shanglu to help escort those surrendered bandits.

The warriors made the bandits throw all their weapons together, then take off their outer clothing. The long trousers were used to temporarily bind their hands behind their backs, and the clothing was wrapped haphazardly around their heads to cover their eyes, forcing these bandits to blindly and slowly follow the orders of the escorting warriors to move.

If anyone ran around, they would get a kick; if they ran again or had a dirty mouth, they would be beaten severely. If any bandits resisted or tried to escape, the warriors would directly kill the defenseless fleeing bandits, letting the wails of these people before death serve as a warning to the others.

First, escort the surrendered and lightly wounded bandits. Jier had no use for these people, but sending them to the Suishi Cheng ahead would clearly serve some purpose. Although escorting them back to Duoen Town could sell these bandits for a sum of money, it would take too much time.

He planned to continue on the road first and let them see how to handle these bandits at Suishi Cheng. If there was some reward, that would naturally be best; if not, Jier didn't care, as it was just a few meals after all.

Just in this chaotic situation with corpses everywhere, Jier was the first to notice movement in the south.

He hummed, naturally knowing there were people there, but he had already routed a bandit group of hundreds; he naturally didn't take this unidentified force, whose numbers were clearly inferior to the former, seriously.

He poured water from his waterskin through the gaps in his armor, letting the clear water flow inside the armor and over his body, taking away a large amount of accumulated heat and making him feel more comfortable.

He patted the Tianxuecao, which was in good condition, and remounted his horse: "Work again, good partner."

The Tianxuecao shook its head, seemingly not feeling much about it; anyway, it only needed to run during the battle, the actual fighting was done by its master, and it didn't exert much effort.

The caravan Stewards who had originally come over to curry favor with him saw Jier's actions, looked at each other, and froze. The clever ones thought of something and began to hesitate.

At this moment, Jier's men at the caravan were quite scattered. Except for a few archers and wounded warriors, most had dispersed to chase and capture bandits. The equally terrifying Dwarf mercenaries had also mostly dispersed to help the human warriors catch people, leaving only a few Dwarves wearing sleeveless armor guarding an old Dwarf who was the leader of the Dwarf mercenaries.

Although there were not many of these Dwarves, seeing the confident and calm appearance of the old Dwarf, and the Double-handed Heavy Weapons—each more heavy and terrifying than the last—that the surrounding Dwarf warriors were leaning on, the caravan Stewards knew these people were not to be underestimated either.

Perhaps, these guys who looked powerful were the trump card Knight Jier was confident in?

Damn it, if they hadn't been afraid to talk to this old Dwarf mercenary leader for fear of Knight Jier suspecting them, they would have long since used more wealth to bribe these Dwarf mercenaries. By then, even the Oakes Brothers would likely not be a match for them, these caravan Stewards.

Unfortunately, after weighing things, these caravan Stewards decided to wait and see if Knight Jier, who had already shown sufficient strength, could defeat the Oakes Brothers. If the Oakes Brothers weren't up to the task, then don't blame them for having done nothing.

Before Jier set off to fight again, he looked meaningfully at these caravan Stewards who didn't look like they were about to rebel. He specifically found the old Dwarf standing on top of the ox-cart cargo, whispered instructions to him, and then rode away.

The old Dwarf waved his hand, letting the Wild Power God Priest, who had been inactive, cast Divine Art on all the Dwarf warriors using Heavy Weapons, and then scattered everyone except 'Shishou'—not to other places, but into the various caravans.

If those caravans made no move later, that would be fine; if they really, as Jier said, were to rebel in coordination with the newly appeared enemy, then these Dwarf warriors using Heavy Weapons would let everyone know what kind of combat power could shatter a wagon in one blow!

Dwarf warriors buffed with strength enhancement, when using Double-handed Heavy Weapons, had the ability to collapse stone houses. Wagons? Let alone shattering them, even knocking them away in one blow was possible.

The Oakes Brothers' team was a bit late.

That couldn't be said; they didn't arrive late according to expectations, it was just that the battle between the caravan and the bandit group on the Shanglu developed too quickly.

One must know that for hundreds of scattered bandits to attack a caravan protected by armed forces, the actual battle is usually very long and troublesome, especially when one side has a large number of armored warriors.

If the bandits didn't have good armor-piercing weapons or experience in dealing with armored warriors, the battle would become a very time-consuming, dragging affair.

They would have to use their numerical advantage to overwhelm the individual armored warriors, or use the hot weather to exhaust the stamina of the armored warriors alive.

In Da Aokesi's estimation, everything should have developed exactly like that.

When he appeared at the edge of the battlefield leading his two-hundred-man team, what he should have seen was a caravan stuck and unable to move, surrounded by hundreds of bandits, fighting for their lives between the wagons.

Knight Jier and his warriors would inevitably be exhausted, perhaps even suffering significant losses, and the bandit group, having fought a difficult battle and suffered heavy casualties, would be even less likely to let anyone in the caravan go because they had lost too many brothers.

Both sides would likely be fighting tenaciously with the thought that if they just held on a little longer, the other side would collapse.

And they, the brothers, would appear with their men and bring immense psychological pressure to both sides on the field.

When he led his team to attack the outer bandits, the bandits would naturally collapse due to being attacked from both inside and outside, and be entirely wiped out or captured by a fresh force like his. But by then, the armored warriors in the caravan or Knight Jier himself would have exhausted their stamina in the final counterattack.

His team, along with the caravan Shop Assistants, would suddenly move and take down the stamina-depleted Knight Jier and the armored warriors in one fell swoop.

As long as they then took advantage of the situation to capture the bandit camp, which was empty of its base, obtain the large amount of caravan supplies seized by the bandits, and rely on the captured families to threaten the surrendered bandits into serving him, the Oakes Brothers would naturally have the qualifications and strength to participate in the Duoen Town Merchant Union.

No, perhaps the Merchant Union would be begging him to join.

Everything was thought out perfectly, but when the team crossed the rolling hills that blocked their view and saw the situation on the Shanglu ahead, the development of the situation was very different from what he had expected.

The caravan did not seem to have stopped on the distant Shanglu, which looked like a trap, but had stopped further away and gathered into an elliptical shape that was easier to defend.

However, when Da Aokesi stopped his horse and took out a Telescope he had specifically bought to peer at the distant battlefield, he found that the caravan side was empty of manpower; at most, only the caravan's own people remained, while the others seemed to be scattered across the entire battlefield, constantly chasing or escorting bandits.

And besides the pits dug by the bandits being quite conspicuous, the rest of the battlefield was filled with the corpses of those bandits, which were very eye-catching.

Many corpses of bandits wearing messy clothes had fallen outside the caravan's defensive perimeter, but on the eastern Shanglu and the wilderness, even more corpses had fallen in the open, and many masterless horses remained in place; it seemed that the bandit leaders who rode horses had mostly been killed in battle here.

"What's the situation?" Da Aokesi looked puzzled.

"Big brother? How do you see it now?" His brother, Xiao Aokesi, had the bandit subordinates stop, then rode over alone to ask about the situation. Both brothers had Telescopes to see into the distance; these things were sold in alchemy shops in big cities, and naturally, they were also sold in Duoen Town, a trade center.

Da Aokesi steadied himself and looked at the situation again through the Telescope, finding that although the reality was very different from what was expected, there were benefits. Knight Jier's side seemed to have fought a fierce defense around the caravan; their own losses were not large, but it clearly caused the bandit side to lose confidence.

And the fact that the Bandit Leader was killed in the wilderness far from the caravan also seemed to have contributed to the formation of the bandit side's rout.

All of this was originally very unfavorable to the Oakes Brothers, but as it happened, Knight Jier's men, who had successfully defended the caravan, had actually scattered extensively to chase those bandits. He didn't know if they were full of pent-up anger or if Knight Jier couldn't control his hot-headed men.

But clearly, this was an excellent opportunity. Those armored warriors were very difficult to deal with when gathered together, and the Dwarf mercenaries of unknown strength were not weaklings either. But these people scattering to chase the fleeing bandits gave him a perfect opportunity to lead his team to attack the few with the many.

Once he thought of this, he became excited and said loudly: "Ha, military books say that a general who can always maintain the organization of his own soldiers on the battlefield is a qualified general. That Knight Jier cannot control his men, letting them scatter to chase the enemy; not only does he lack organizational ability, but he also wastes a large amount of stamina."

He immediately issued an order: "Now is the time for us to act. Everyone, listen to the order: the merchants at the caravan are our own people, everyone else is to be routed! Keep the team size, do not disperse, attack! Rout all those scattered enemies! Attack!"

Xiao Aokesi also immediately shouted loudly: "Brothers, follow me, we are going to rout those guys! Tonight will be a night of harvest!"

"Oh oh oh!" The bandits controlled by the Oakes Brothers howled in unison, each one yelling like a hungry wolf.

With the group of Shop Assistants led by Xiao Aokesi acting as the main force, the inn's personnel and the Bandit Group's men trotted forward together. Da Aokesi, however, was more rational, having his force of Bianji Cun farmers move at a slow pace; although their movements were sluggish, they were more like a clenched fist, ready to strike and wound at any moment.

If anyone with experience saw this scene, they would surely realize that the situation was completely finished, and those people would prioritize retreating.

But Jier, who rode up alone on horseback, clearly did not have that intention.

Seeing the Knight, whose entire body and warhorse were splattered with a large amount of fresh blood, Xiao Aokesi was shocked, but he did not believe he would lose.

"Ha, seeing so many of us, you still dare to charge up? Are you tired of living? Brothers, charge up and surround him! Whoever can kill that Knight, I will personally reward him with one hundred Gold Coins! Whoever can pull that Knight off his horse, I will reward him with fifty Gold Coins!"

Upon hearing such a large bounty, the surrounding Bandits all became excited, waving the various weapons in their hands and running with large strides toward Jier. Among them, only the experienced Duanjiao felt something was wrong; perhaps this Knight named Ji was coming over alone to intercept and delay them so his men would have time to assemble.

But to charge over with just one man and one horse to face a group of over a hundred people—was he tired of living?

Or did the opponent truly think his armor was thick enough to block all the attacks from their side? One must know that although their local, long-standing Bandit Group was composed of ragtag individuals, each of them possessed some special skills honed over many years.

Throwing lassos, precise Throwing Spears, casting nets to capture people, throwing tripwires, precise stone-throwing, and so on—all were quite decent.

However, when he was charging with his own Bandits while riding a borrowed donkey, he saw that the blood-covered armor on the Knight's body actually had faint, iridescent streams of light flowing across it, and he knew things were looking bad.

This Knight might be young, but if the opponent possessed some special means, they—ordinary people, ordinary Bandits—could not withstand the blow of supernatural power! Thinking this, he immediately led his trusted subordinates to slightly deviate their own unit from the main force, as if to bypass the encirclement of the opponent and charge toward the Knight's flank.

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