Chapter 40: Bell's Counterattack Plan, Caimen Inn

The group quickly passed through the chaotic camp of people outside the town.

There was a wide road here leading straight to the west gate of Yemei Town, but everywhere else was haphazardly covered in makeshift shacks, or what looked more like semi-underground burrows where goblins might live.

In such crude conditions, within the circular space between the town and the massive trench, over ten thousand villagers from various villages in Northern Sasi County had gathered. Regardless of age, they sat numbly at the entrances of their shacks and burrows, staring blankly as Jier's group of outsiders entered.

Many young children numbly took dried wheat grains from their palms and chewed them, but due to the lack of water, their little faces were filthy and covered in dust.

Their parents watched them closely, terrified that if they were to lose focus for even a moment, their children would be snatched away and harmed. During the previous chaotic project to expand the trench, many adults from various villages had wandered around indiscriminately, which had caused quite a bit of trouble. The casualties from the resulting brawls between villages were even higher than the number of people snatched and killed by the parasitic monsters.

Because of this, the seemingly chaotic environment outside the town was actually secretly divided along the lines of where the villagers from each village lived; only people from the same village could smoothly enter their designated residential area, and anyone else who entered, regardless of their intentions, was beaten to death on sight.

Of course, the Town Guards and the officials of the Sasi Family were not included in this. The best way to distinguish these people was by the clothes they wore and their general demeanor.

Currently, only the people in town possessed sufficient food and water, as well as the more precious fuel for burning.

The wood Jier had previously helped the Sasi Family transport back from the lumber yard west of Yemei Town to use as fuel had actually long since been used up. Even with the town officials centralizing the use of fire to save fuel, the fact that so many people were temporarily gathered in Yemei Town—a small town of only two thousand people—still left the officials, who had no prior experience with such matters, worrying until their hair fell out and their mouths tasted bitter.

Beyond the shortage of firewood for cooking—to the point where they even had to demolish some row houses belonging to the poor in town to obtain wood—the issue of drinking water for the ten thousand-plus people inside and outside the town was also severe. Many people, let alone washing, didn't even have enough water to drink daily, and could only try to obtain some moisture from the public wheat porridge distributed twice a day.

Food, however, was not lacking; Sasi County itself was a grain-producing region, and every year the Sasi Family collected so much tax grain that they couldn't eat it all, couldn't sell it all, and couldn't even burn it all.

Every village paid a large amount of grain to the Sasi Family annually, and these goods filled several of the Sasi Family's underground grain warehouses, enough to feed the entire county for years without running out.

"In short, the people are suffering right now. But it's not all bad; at least everyone has enough to eat. I can't guarantee anything else, but I am confident that not a single person has starved to death inside or outside the town these past few days."

Bell said confidently to Jier beside him. He was very proud of this, because compared to other places, regardless of how safe or unsafe their governance was, at least they had never let the people go hungry. When the order was first given to summon villagers from all over to gather in Yemei Town, the order stated that the Sasi Family would provide enough food for all the people who came to take refuge.

At least on this point, the people of the Sasi Family had not broken their promise.

"But it still looks like everyone is in a bad situation." Jier looked closely at the numb people on both sides of the road; many of them swallowed involuntarily when they saw the water bags at the waists of the warriors in Jier's group.

"Is there no water in town?" As soon as the words left Jier's mouth, he knew he had asked a redundant question.

There had been almost no rainfall throughout the entire spring, and now that it was early summer, there wasn't even a large cloud in the sky. The fact that the wells in town could still draw water could only be attributed to the fact that they had been dug deep enough initially; otherwise, Bell would probably have had to order these villagers to migrate south as a whole, or have them return to their own villages on their own.

In that case, the order to gather the people for refuge would have appeared extremely foolish and fraught with endless future troubles.

Not to mention anything else, the expansion of the parasitic plant monsters would clearly have become an uncontrollable situation by then.

"The water in town is just barely enough, but you know, after distributing it to so many people outside the town, it will always seem insufficient. However, this is only temporary, just because we are trapped here and unable to launch a counterattack to strike at the forces of those monsters, which is why the current situation is so difficult."

As Bell spoke, he clearly brought up his "grand plan" again.

He waved his hands, his riding crop swinging incessantly before his eyes, like a successful general commanding troops: "I have it all planned out; the entire process is divided into three steps."

Jier raised a hand to signal for the other to continue.

"The first step! It is to concentrate the elite forces inside and outside the town to deal a heavy blow to the monsters surrounding the town! Once the number of these monsters wandering near the town is weakened or even completely wiped out, I can have some of the villagers return to the several villages closest to the town. This will immediately alleviate the current situation of resource tension within the town."

He added: "You know, don't look at how my Yemei Town is lacking this and that right now; in reality, the surrounding villages have all kinds of resources. When the villagers came to take refuge, they only brought their valuable and portable items. Grain, firewood, houses, wells—all these are available in the surrounding villages."

"There are five villages nearest to Yemei Town: Banjiu Cunzi, Flo Cunzi, Kangkaiqi Cunzi, Bitter Water Cunzi, and Celebration Cunzi. Each village originally had nearly seven or eight hundred people living there, so this alone could relieve a quarter of the town's excess population. Moreover, my people have judged that as long as we act quickly and keep striking between the time the monsters launch attacks and the time they expand their numbers, they won't be able to replenish with new monsters at all!"

"So, as long as we kill fast enough, we can break out?" Jier asked, squinting.

He felt this was a bad idea; surely the town's various resources were becoming unsustainable, right? So even if they had to endure losses, they had to transfer some villagers to the five villages closest to the town. The people in town must have considered the monsters' attacks and population growth during this process, but clearly, they had also calculated the losses and time for this process.

Should be doable, right?

Bell nodded; clearly, the plan he saw was more detailed, likely having been carefully calculated by his subordinates.

"What about the second step?" Jier asked.

Bell opened his left hand and turned it in a circle: "The second step is to expand the previous elite team, select adult males from the town and the villagers outside, and organize large-scale teams, estimated at around one thousand people, roughly divided into three groups. One group heads northwest to block the direction from which the monsters are coming and gradually approach their lair. One group heads southwest, sweeping through a dozen villages along the southwest to the south and southeast, cutting off the breeding of monsters in these places. Finally, one group strikes from the east, moving along the east and northeast until reaching the northwest to converge with the first group."

"This way, after crushing the main force of the monsters, we can basically clean up the scattered monsters all over Northern Sasi County. This will cut off the possibility of them expanding again later. And I will also issue an order later that everyone who goes out must be in groups of at least five to prevent a small number of people from being defeated and snatched by a single monster. This way, the hundreds of people in the second group can be divided into several teams to continuously defeat the monsters that appear occasionally in the surrounding areas, while the teams of the first and third groups carry out the third step of the plan."

Jier had a strange expression: "A decisive battle with the monsters, right?"

"That's roughly the idea, but clearly those monsters rarely have that thought; they are like a plague, ignorant and mindless but very terrifying. If handled improperly in a scattered or initial manner, regions without experience and the correct response will only be expanded upon and destroyed by them all the way. Only by shrinking our manpower in the early stages like I did, and not giving them the opportunity to expand wantonly, is there a possibility of defeating them."

"Makes some sense." Jier rubbed his chin with his hand and then asked: "What about the third step?"

Bell squinted and said: "I have asked the Priests in town. They have already inquired by offering Prayers to the gods and have learned many things behind these parasitic plant monsters. The expansion of these monsters must have a key large Altar in one place that communicates with the Evil God behind them. Initially, and even later, the cores of the increasing number of parasitic monsters were all transformed from that Altar."

"They keep expanding, snatching people, parasitizing them, and then offering various resources to that Evil God on the Altar, and the Evil God in turn sends more Parasitic Cores. These damned, despicable guys are nothing but tools for the Evil God behind them to expand its influence."

When he said this, he raised his head high: "And in the countless processes of the Evil God's expansion in the past, the other side has never once succeeded in the end. No matter which corner of human civilization it is in, He will eventually be wiped out by us humans!"

Jier applauded, invigorated by Bell's proud declaration!

Regardless of how this parasitic plant was wiped out under the influence of the Evil God in other places before, this time, he would inevitably be a part of wiping out the other side's latest expansion, and he would earn merit in the process.

With this thought, Jier immediately felt he had plenty of motivation; it was not at all because he was invited due to a previous agreement with the other party, or because he was indignant at the sight of Northern Sasi County being ravaged by parasitic monsters and took action.

At this time and place, he and Bell, these two young Knights, were not only the most capable people locally, but also important leaders of the local armed forces. Who else but them could undertake such a magnificent battle to defeat the minions of the Evil God and thwart their conspiracy to expand!

"I hope these battles can be written into poems in the future," Jier said with a smile.

Bell waved his hand: "They will inevitably be written into poems by the Bards in the taverns! My leadership and your martial prowess will be the most brilliant content in this poem! Jier!"

The Baron Heir extended his palm toward Jier; he specifically took off his left-hand gauntlet, and Jier also took off his right-hand gauntlet, and the two men shook hands tightly.

"In this battle, I will definitely fight with all my might!" Jier's eyes were bright. For him, other things didn't matter; being able to do something meaningful and be revered, recorded, and sung about by the people made him even more excited.

"That's right, in this battle, we will surely return in triumph!" Bell also said excitedly.

After the two Knights made their vow of victory, the group finally passed through the town's west gate. Under the vigilant eyes of the Town Guards on the west gate, the group arrived outside the inn that Bell had arranged.

The inn that housed Jier's group was not small, and its name was very strange: 【Caimen Inn】.

At this moment, the inn, whose main and side gates were indeed painted in colors, was in a state of total chaos inside.

From far away, Jier could hear many Town Guards inside the inn driving away other guests who were originally staying there; clearly, they were forcibly clearing out the inn to provide comfortable accommodation for Jier's warriors.

The Town Guards were pressed for time, so naturally, their actions were rough; they either threw a few coins at people and told them to pack up and get out immediately, or they directly started driving away the travelers who were temporarily staying at the inn.

These travelers were naturally not easy to deal with either; they were either Caravan personnel who couldn't return due to the appearance of parasitic monsters, or out-of-town villagers with connections in the town. In short, neither group was easy to provoke.

The former were able to go out and do business, so naturally, they were not afraid of trouble. When the Town Guards came to drive them away, they also blocked the entrances and exits of their rooms, refusing to move out unless they were first provided with other suitable places to stay.

Otherwise, even if they burned the inn down, they wouldn't be driven out in this chaotic situation. One had to know that although Yemei Town was relatively safe these days, it had been broken into once by parasitic monsters in the early stages. During the trench expansion of the past few days, they had also heard in town about the chaos and heavy casualties outside.

After all, the Priests of the God of the Dead in town were busy driving carts to collect corpses in and out every day, and these out-of-town merchants had all secretly seen it from the windows of the inn.

Even though the Priests specifically transported the corpses in the middle of the night to avoid causing panic in the town, the people from these foreign Caravans still found a way to know.

The latter travelers temporarily staying at the inn were all relatives, family, and friends of some people in town among the villagers outside. Even when the Town Guards went to drive them away, they had to toss out a few coins before they could even start to drive them out.

But the other party also refused to move out, because now that there were people both inside and outside the town, where could they possibly move to?

Therefore, they would rather die than move.

Just like that, when Jier and Bell brought their troop to the front of the colorful gate of the Caimen Inn, it was rowdy inside!

This scene made Bell's originally excellent mood feel as uncomfortable as if he had eaten a cockroach, not to mention that Jier was watching him right beside him, which made Bell lose even more face.

One must know that after his father, the current Sasi Baron, led the troops on an expedition, he theoretically held the greatest power in the entire Sasi County. Although he still needed to discuss and consult with the few influential elder relatives remaining at home when he needed the family's strength, if he couldn't even handle such a small matter in a town, how could he boast about defeating those parasitic Monsters of unknown numbers and leaving behind a victory epic that would be sung in Sasi County for a long time?

"Call for men, call another squad of fifty Town Guards over, and drive everyone in this inn who is unwilling to leave away for me! If any of them dare to resist, throw them all into the Jianlao!"

Bell immediately gave the order.

But Jier stopped the attendant who was about to relay the order: "Don't be hasty. If you drive them away, where are you going to let them live now? On the main street?"

"Calm your anger, this is not a big deal. Don't forget, we traveled all the way from the wilderness; in an environment where there was nothing in the wild, we were still able to camp for the night. In a town like this where all facilities are available, setting up camp is an even easier matter."

Jier did not care much about where to stay, and in an unfamiliar place, he was also afraid that his men would cause trouble or get into trouble if they lived separately in various rooms of the inn.

Jier tilted his chin: "Just clear the backyard of the inn for us, our entire troop will camp in the backyard of the inn. To tell you the truth, there are quite a few things in my caravan that need to be looked after, and I don't want to leave these vehicles full of supplies in a place with no one to watch them."

"Bell, let your men stop. For those travelers who have vehicles or goods, the vehicles can be temporarily parked on the road outside, and they can just move the goods into the house themselves. Everyone, enter the backyard of the inn from the side gate; we will camp in the backyard, just like spending the night outside."

Jier's concession still made Bell feel a bit embarrassed, but since Jier had already had his people move toward the backyard, he had no choice but to let the attendant go and notify the Town Guards who were still in a standoff inside the inn.

Subsequently, a burst of cheers and shouts of relief erupted in the inn, and many people looked at the troop entering the inn's backyard with complex expressions, and were frightened by the Armor worn by these people.

The knowledgeable Merchant immediately shrank back into their room, and some even wanted to jump out of the window to escape. But after waiting for a while and seeing Jier's troop begin to set up camp in the reasonably spacious backyard of the inn, they finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Jier did not go in directly; seeing that everyone was setting up camp smoothly, he followed Bell and rode his horse toward the Baron's Mansion.

Everyone would still have to suffer through their food and drink tonight, while he, Jier, would go to the Baron's Mansion to eat something good. No, that's not right, he was going to discuss the battle plan, not going there alone just to eat something good.

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