Chapter 242: Duantoutai Checkpoint, Jier

Before nightfall, Jier's caravan barely managed to reach this important checkpoint between the two territories.

This checkpoint, which had troops stationed on both sides, had a resounding name—"Duantoutai."

According to the bankrupt farmers in the team who had passed through here before, there was a fairly large execution ground here, where all death-row prisoners sentenced by decree from both the vast Earl's direct territory and Bendige Jun were executed in a unified manner.

Because there was a year-round need to handle the corpses of executed prisoners, there was also an underground temple of the Church of the God of the Dead here, along with a significant number of Church Priests.

There was a barracks on each side of this checkpoint, under the jurisdiction of two different Noble Lords, but fortunately, when passing through here, whether traveling from Bendige Jun to the Earl's direct territory or from the Earl's direct territory to Bendige Jun, the checkpoint tax only needed to be paid once.

After all, this checkpoint had been established for a long time, and the barracks and tax officials on both sides had long ago negotiated an agreement on how to split the collected taxes; as for how exactly it was divided, that was a secret that traveling merchants could never find out.

Aoni had sent someone on horseback ahead of time to notify the barracks on the Bendige Jun side of the checkpoint to avoid misunderstandings and chaos when their caravan approached.

Therefore, when the drifting clouds in the sky reflected the residual glow of the sun about to sink below the horizon, there was already a considerable number of Soldiers on the open ground outside the checkpoint "welcoming" them.

"Caravan, slow down and gradually approach the Duantoutai checkpoint. Heh, the name of this checkpoint is so strange when you say it out loud."

Jier smiled and shook his head, accelerated his horse, and approached the personnel at the checkpoint ahead of the caravan to make contact.

"Greetings, Knight Jier. I am the Deputy Captain of the barracks stationed here at the Duantoutai checkpoint for our Bendige Jun. I am very happy to welcome a brave man joining this war. I wish you and your team many kills and great meritorious service!"

The speaker was a sturdy rider around thirty years old, wearing a set of plate armor, but this equipment belonged to the kind of ordinary plate armor that people with average physical fitness could wear and fight in. This man and the Soldiers under his command wore coats with blue stripes, and two Soldiers were riding on horseback; one held a bright flag, the larger of which was the Noble Emblem of the Bendige Baron family, while the smaller flag was a banner of the barracks established here by Bendige Jun, depicting a building that was only half a barracks, along with half a Shield, and a Long Sword pointing downward guarding the Shield and the building.

Jier looked at another group of people nearby; their flag corresponded exactly to the former, with one flag depicting the other half of the barracks building and the other half of the Shield, but the difference was that this side had an upright bow and arrow, which was different from the Long Sword of the former.

"Greetings, I am Knight Qiao Jier, from Kendall County in the Northwest Province. Previously, because of a temporary mission, I was sent out by the Kendall Baron, and I am now on my way to rendezvous with the Kendall Army. I heard that they are stationed near Tianguang Zhen, about a day's carriage ride after passing through the checkpoint. Fortunately, my previous mission took up too much time, and I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to rendezvous with my army before this war began."

Jier shrugged: "You know, once the war officially starts, the situation in various places will become chaotic, and it will be very difficult to find an army that has traveled from afar. After all, I heard that the various Noble Lords of the Southern Province have conscripted a very large army this time."

The personnel at the checkpoint nodded one after another, and Jier happened to look at the other group: "And this is?"

A rider on horseback stepped out from the group of people with red stripes on their clothing: "I am the Deputy Captain of the barracks on the opposite side. A few days ago, a large foreign army did indeed pass through here, and they were indeed temporarily stationed outside Tianguang Zhen. However, I spoke with the Knight leading that army, and they did have people sent out to execute a commission for the Church, but that person was not a Knight..."

When the man said this, the sense of suspicion was already very strong. Of course, the other party was not from Kendall and did not understand the confidential affairs of a local army from the distant Northwest Province; he was just doubting Jier's identity.

After all, the equipment on Jier did not look like the specialized Knight gear worn by traditional Knights. The warhorse under him looked decent, draped in shiny, large metal armor plates, but Jier's own attire was not like that.

Especially since he lacked the personal Knight emblem decoration that every Knight had. After all, Knights were already land-owning Lords who possessed land granted by higher Nobles and were formal Nobles whose names were recorded in the local Noble Council. Such Nobles would all be registered, choose their own unique Noble Emblem, and paint or embroider this thing on the vast majority of their equipment.

At least there should be an emblem in a conspicuous position on his horse, right? At least there should be an emblem in a conspicuous position on his Shield or armor, right? At least there should be a colored flag painted with his Knight emblem, right?

Having nothing at all made it look very suspicious.

Faced with this question, Jier was not panicked. He had already thought about how to answer relevant questions during the long journey, but previously, whether dealing with the Baron Heir of Sasi County or being a guest at the banquet in Suishi Cheng, he had never been asked such questions by these real Nobles.

After all, Jier's strength was visible to the naked eye. A person with the strength of a real Knight must possess the status of a Knight; this was the reason why those people had never doubted Jier's identity. Moreover, the Northwest Province was so far away that even if one prayed to the God of Nobility to ask, it would be difficult for the deity to answer such small, cross-regional matters—they were too busy.

Jier smiled and pointed to the northwest: "You are right. When I set out with the army this spring, I had not yet officially obtained the status of a Knight. But I learned powerful Knight skills from my teacher, Knight Doddell-Kela, and fought side-by-side with another Knight who was also leading the team, Lord Pángkè-Lūmǐ. I gained the affirmation of our Kendall Baron, who promised that as long as I wanted, I could obtain a title and a fief from him at any time; the location of the fief has already been chosen. Recently, I have been conceiving my personal Knight emblem; I feel that the specific style and glory of the emblem have a lot to do with my performance in this war."

Jier spread his hands: "If I don't fight well, the Knight emblem will just have to be simple; how embarrassing, it would be a bit of a letdown to the cultivation of Knight Kela and the nurturing of the Kendall Baron. If the fighting goes well and I can make a name for myself, that would be great. I think I could add some glorious symbols to my personal Knight emblem?"

Hearing Jier's answer, the Deputy Captain of the barracks who had implicitly questioned him lowered his head slightly, apologized, and led his team back to the barracks on the other side of the checkpoint.

The Deputy Captain of the barracks on the Bendige Jun side welcomed Jier and his team with a smile, complaining that his old colleague had always been a suspicious and cautious fellow, which had offended many people, so while several other deputy captains had followed the barracks' original Knights to set out, he himself had been left behind.

"Oh, what about you? A person as enthusiastic as you, why were you left to guard the barracks and couldn't participate in this war? This is a very regrettable opportunity." Jier was a bit surprised. The two rode side-by-side, talking while waiting for the caravan behind to gradually slow down and approach.

"As for that... have you heard about the war last year on your way here?" the other party asked in return.

Jier nodded and briefly recounted some of the things he knew.

"It seems you have your own intelligence channels and know much more than I do. That's right, I voluntarily applied to stay behind to guard the barracks. Please don't look down on me; I don't mean to curse everyone else participating in this war. I am just worried about this year. If there is no corresponding method this year, will the result be similar to last year? After all, an army that doesn't fear fire and can freely set fires, as well as a powerful hero who can crush an army—without sufficient countermeasures, one cannot deal with these two troubles."

The Deputy Captain said this to Jier in a low voice, his face full of apology and helplessness.

Jier shrugged: "Your concerns are correct, but I think those local Lords who control vast resources cannot fail to solve these two problems. They must have made preparations to be able to assemble an army that I heard is very large. Besides, such a large army itself might be a solution to these two problems. Although it is a bit cruel, as long as one's own army is large enough, one can always exhaust the manpower and resources of that fire troop of Aofēilìnè. As long as enough capable Knights are gathered, one will certainly be able to exhaust the stamina of that legendary hero."

He concluded: "Isn't that what war is? Whoever has more people has the advantage. When one side's number is several or ten times that of the other, the advantage is naturally several or ten times as well."

Jier's words seemed to make the Deputy Captain, who was not optimistic about the war, feel much better, but soon he began to worry about the safety of other colleagues and the Knights he served, fearing that they would really become the massive cannon fodder used to exhaust the enemy's manpower and stamina, just as Jier said.

The caravan approached. Jier led the team and had the Deputy Captain of the barracks lead the way to see where these people and carriages would stay tonight.

The barracks on the Bendige Jun side of the checkpoint certainly could not let these outsiders stay, even if most of the barracks' Soldier and officer dormitories were empty, and the inns on both sides of the checkpoint did not seem to have enough guest rooms.

"Then there is no need for such trouble. Is there a large enough open space here? It would be fine for me and my people to find an open space to camp for the night," Jier suggested.

The Deputy Captain pointed in several directions and finally found a ruin of a building that had been mostly demolished inside the checkpoint for Jier and his group. This place was located in the central area of the checkpoint, right next to the temple building of the Church of the God of the Dead—of course, the above-ground part of the temple building; most of the temple building was located underground, and without an invitation from the Church, it was almost impossible to have a chance to go in and visit.

And the place in front of Jier and the Church was an execution square that spanned the left and right sides of the checkpoint. Opposite the square, directly facing Jier and his group, was a sturdy stone building, which was said to be a secure prison where death-row prisoners were temporarily housed.

The barracks were behind the prison, on the south side of the checkpoint.

As soon as the sky darkened, many shops at the Duantoutai checkpoint closed their doors, and the pedestrians and small caravans on the road returned to their homes and the inns where they were staying. Only Jier's caravan lit up lights in a place similar to building ruins, preparing to camp.

According to the introduction, the open ground under their feet was originally the location of the tax office for tax officials, but the wooden tax office, which had been built for decades, had gradually aged. Coupled with the lack of rainfall this year, not even a drop, the climate was quite dry, and the old wooden tax office had a small fire in the last two months.

The tax officials on both sides were not having it, clamoring to rebuild the tax office from an old wooden structure into a sturdy, fireproof stone building.

Because the tax officials controlled most of the income at the checkpoint, they could get whatever they wanted. The demolition work was carried out immediately. Now, more than two months later, the entire building had basically been demolished. Next, they would start digging the foundation and laying the foundation stones for the new building.

It must be said that, apart from the difficulty of driving ground nails to set up Tents, everything else here was quite good. The ground was exceptionally flat; laying out sleeping bags to sleep on was a bit hard, but there were no other troubles. And although it was an old building after demolition, the foundation had not yet been dug, so there was no harassment from snakes, insects, rats, or ants, which was much better than being in the wild.

The subordinates were busy setting up camp with clanging sounds. Those bankrupt farmers who had just joined today looked at a loss; after all, they had been told they were arranged to do logging work to get firewood, but now everyone was camping in the center of the checkpoint, and there wasn't a single tree around, so where were they supposed to log?

Therefore, the old man who had barely been able to speak to Jier before had to find Knight Jier, who was talking to the Deputy Captain of the barracks, with a trembling heart.

"Knight, I am truly sorry. We didn't find any trees around that we could use for logging to get firewood. Everyone can't do anything now; I am truly sorry for your kindness. Look, can you find something else for everyone to do?"

The old man was also tanned by the scorching sun, and his body looked thin due to long-term hunger; he looked more like a Spirit than a living person.

"This is?"

The Deputy Captain of the barracks looked at the old man who had come over and asked in a low voice, confused about the situation.

"Oh, this was when we passed through Didi Zhen today. I saw some bankrupt, pitiful farmers who had come over from the Earl's direct territory. My Warriors saw that they were pitiful, so I brought them all along."

Jier explained casually, and then said to the old man: "Like this, there is a ready-made well here at the checkpoint. Go find Xueya Site in the team and have him arrange for some Soldiers to help you fetch some clean water, and then take that water to carefully take a bath by the drainage ditch on this land. At the same time, I will have people arrange new clothes for everyone. After you finish bathing, change directly into those new clothes, and throw all the old clothes you have now into the campfire to burn. After eating, go find the team's Herbalist and let them help you deal with some external wounds and internal parasites on your bodies. Eat some deworming Herb or something."

Hearing Jier's arrangement, the old man remembered it carefully and repeated it after Jier's arrangement. Jier nodded with satisfaction and pointed to Xueya Site, who was directing others to do things not far away, telling the old man to find him.

"Lord Jier seems to handle this very skillfully?"

Jier smiled: "Considered relatively skillful. This is only twenty people; I have dealt with a Refugee Team of at least eight or nine hundred people before; that was the real trouble."

The Deputy Captain of the barracks looked at the bankrupt farmers who were a bit at a loss, shook his head slightly, and said to Jier in a low voice: "Lord Jier, you might not know that helping these people is really a troublesome thing with little benefit. Your team is here to participate in the war, after all. What will you do with the women and children in these farmer families when the time comes? You can't let them go to the battlefield, can you? They can't protect themselves."

"And if you send people to protect them, it will only be more troublesome, and you won't be able to gather all your strength to strike out like a fist. And I must say, your kindness is good, but there will be countless local residents directly affected by the war near the battlefield, and they will be several or ten times more miserable than these people. What will you do then?"

This person had a worried expression, which made Jier feel distressed as well.

That was correct; once the battlefield opened up near towns or villages, countless local residents would be dragged into it, and they would certainly be dragged into it.

What should Jier do when that time comes?