Chapter 533: Burning the Corpses, Specifying the Subsequent Action Plan

The fire burned fiercely, the thick smoke from the fresh wood rising straight into the sky, and soon, the gray smoke was intermingled with streaks of black.

The smell of the thick smoke also changed from the simple acridity of burning firewood to a much more foul stench.

This was the stench emitted by a human body being burned.

The onlookers stayed far away, pointing and gesturing toward this side; amidst the crackling sound of burning wood, there was occasionally the sound of human skin and flesh being scorched and splitting open.

"It stinks so much!"

"But the scale this time isn't as big as that time outside White Stone Pass! That time, inside and out, between our own people and the corpses of the killed bandits, there were several hundred people! But it seems those corpses were eventually handed over to the nearby church personnel to handle?"

"Yes, they came looking for us themselves, and Knight Jier handed the handling of the corpses over to them."

"Look quickly, it's Liweide's turn, may the gods bless him."

"What a pity, he died so unluckily; if he had been holding his shield at the time, the result would probably have been different."

Beside the bonfire where the corpses of the Defeated Soldiers were being burned on a large scale, Jier and the others had built a much smaller pile of wood and carefully placed a corpse on top of it.

Subsequently, Priest Bata'er lit the fire, igniting the dry kindling, then lighting the smaller dry wood, and finally the large pile of fresh wood.

The flames burned fiercely, swallowing the corpse of this unlucky shield-bearer.

Jier said nothing, while Priest Bata'er loudly praised the righteous act of the fallen man and expressed his regret over his death.

Some of these words were spoken for the soul of the deceased to hear, but more were spoken for the surrounding Warriors to hear.

Afterward, it was the turn of a smaller pile of wood nearby.

Because the three deceased female Villagers were reduced to mere remains, with most of their body tissues having disappeared, the amount of wood needed to burn the corpses was even less.

And since the three were similar in build and it was not easy to distinguish who was who after death, Priest Bata'er decided to burn their three corpses together, and in the future, their ashes would also be mixed together and handed over to their families.

If their families were still around.

Facing the people in the Cunzi, Priest Bata'er was even more proactive; he called over the others who had been rescued, leading them to pray together for the three deceased, blessing them to find peace for their Spirits after death, and conveying to them the news that their hatred had been avenged.

"May you find peace and no longer be tormented by pain and violence."

"The hatred has been dealt with, the enemy has been defeated and perished, and they have paid the price they deserved!"

"Please depart in peace! The dead need not linger in the world of the living. May you also be illuminated by the glory of the Great Agricultural God on your journey as the dead."

"Remember, diligent farming will surely bring a harvest, while opportunistic theft is not as good as hard plowing."

"There are no shortcuts in all things in the world; all must be sown, grown, fruited, and harvested."

The rescued female Villagers wept softly, and at this moment, they were reminded of those terrible days before, and those terrible Soldiers.

Jier said nothing, merely silently holding the map of the area around Changmai Cunzi, fretting over how to plan the subsequent actions.

The corpses would take a while to burn, and there were people watching over them there; after watching for a while, the others all returned to the Cunzi from the fields outside.

The injured Warriors had by now been helped onto the horse-drawn carriage, preparing to sit in the carriage and return to Lanse-Qingting Cunzi shortly; at this moment, they were receiving a letter from Jier's hands.

"Hold onto it well. After arriving at Lanse-Qingting Cunzi, hand the letter to the Old Priest in the Church. Remember, it must only be given to him. It bears the signatures of myself and Priest Bata'er, and that Old Priest will know the situation here at Changmai Cunzi. Also, keep this other letter safe; only hand it to the Old Priest after he has read the first one."

The letter was packed in a box, so there was no fear of it being damaged or becoming illegible due to rain.

Although Jier did not think it would rain in the next few days, it was even hard to say if it would rain at all this year.

"If it doesn't rain for a whole year, not to mention the casualties caused by the war, just the famine resulting from it alone—who knows how many people will die."

Jier sighed, signaling the driver on the carriage to set off, taking these wounded men to Lanse-Qingting Cunzi as quickly as possible. Once they left, they would only arrive at the Cunzi by noon tomorrow, by which time Jier and the others would have already set off again.

That evening, Jier and Priest Bata'er had an argument.

"I do not agree. Their physical condition is poor, and they should not accompany us on our movements. Even if we used another carriage to transport them to Lanse-Qingting Cunzi, I still would not agree to let them accompany us on our movements."

Jier tapped the table, rejecting Priest Bata'er's proposal to bring along the rescued female Villagers.

"But, but we cannot leave them in the Cunzi either. Even if we leave some people in the Cunzi, honestly, if we leave them here, what if another group of enemies comes? Can they still survive? Or rather, can the people we leave in the Cunzi still survive?"

"I don't even dare to imagine what kind of torture they would suffer," Priest Bata'er said painfully.

But Jier was unmoved: "Even so, we cannot take them with us. At most, we won't leave anyone in Changmai Cunzi; let everyone find a safe place nearby to hide, bring the necessary supplies, and fireproof the empty Cunzi."

"Warrior, I know you dislike that taking them makes it hard to fight and find it troublesome, but in fact, they can do a lot of work. For example, the work you currently have the Warriors doing—dismantling and cleaning the Metal Armor Plates on the enemy's Armor—can be completely handed over to them to do, allowing the Warriors to free up their hands to carry out more important training work."

Seeing Jier's expression shift, Priest Bata'er struck while the iron was hot: "Besides, they can also take on the cooking work. Some of the married female Villagers cook very well. You've tasted it too, right? How was it?"

Jier smacked his lips: "It was alright, the portions were quite large."

"Most importantly, the thing you are worried about—that it will slow down the movement speed of the team—will not happen. Because they can travel by carriage, just like the Warriors."

Jier retorted: "But this time we are heading south into the mountain forest area to the south. Our carriages can at most transport everyone to the edge of the mountain forest; to go any deeper, we can only walk. At that time, they will still slow down the speed of the entire team due to physical stamina. Don't forget, the enemies at Changmai Cunzi definitely have regular communication and supply transport with the enemies in the mountain forest. Although I don't know which day it is, if the enemies in the mountain forest discover that the supply exchange has been cut off, they will definitely send people out to check."

"They discovered our raid, so the suddenness of our battle here cannot be guaranteed. With us being at a disadvantage in numbers, it will be even harder to defeat the enemy."

"Even with me here, if the enemy sees things going wrong and scatters to flee, I won't be able to catch the scattered enemies. So the initiative and suddenness of the battle must be firmly grasped. If you want to defeat a larger force with fewer people, you have to seize these opportunities!"

Jier said a great deal, and Priest Bata'er fell silent, but from his firm face, it could be seen that he had not given up, but was constantly looking for a way.

The Priest really did not want to abandon those rescued Villagers, because he had already hidden and abandoned everyone once last time; this time, no matter what, he would stand with the Villagers of Changmai Cunzi.

In Jier's tent, Xueya Site, who had been present the whole time, spoke up. He scratched his head and suggested: "Regardless of everything, on one side you dislike that the girls can't walk in the mountain forest and will drag down the journey. On the other side, no matter what, you have to take the other party along to ensure their safety, right? Bata'er, what you care about most is actually their safety? And Jier, what you care about is the subsequent battle?"

Jier and Bata'er both nodded; clearly, Xueya Site, who had been listening the whole time, had found the core issue that each of them cared about most.

"Then how about this!"

Xueya Site gestured on the map around Changmai Cunzi: "Cunzi is indeed not safe, because the Cunzi is too obvious a target and the place is too big. The enemy's thirty-plus people couldn't guard the Cunzi well, and the one or two people we leave in the Cunzi certainly can't either. So it's better to follow what you said before: although the Cunzi was taken by us, we won't guard this place."

"Instead, we will transfer the personnel and certain supplies to a place further south." He pointed on the map, and the position his finger pointed to was a distance into the mountain forest to the south.

And this place was slightly offset from the straight-line path from the enemy's possible location to Changmai Cunzi; if the enemy sent people to the Cunzi, it would not be easily discovered.

"You mean, we establish a Forward Camp in the mountain forest ahead? And transfer the personnel and supplies there?" Jier rubbed his chin.

Priest Bata'er's eyes lit up: "In this way, it's unlikely the enemy will discover this Forward Camp that deviates from the nearest route. This place will be safe, and we can use this camp as a Jiedian to eliminate the enemy through battle."

"At the same time, after a large number of Villagers are rescued, they can also rest here first; they don't need to trek to Changmai Cunzi in one go. This is truly a good idea."

Jier considered it for a long time, then thought of something and asked Priest Bata'er to take out the Plant Concealment Cloak, Positioning Nails, and other items borrowed from the Mengtuoka Cheng Jiao Qu, which had not been used even once on the road.

By the time the Priest retrieved these two things from the pack on the prairie horse he was riding, Jier had already roughly planned out a general scheme.

"So fast?" The Priest was a bit surprised. They had only been arguing just now, and he hadn't seen Jier the Warrior do anything, so how did the whole plan get finished in the blink of an eye?

"Ha, I've been mulling over how to do this whenever I had free time, but I always had to face a series of problems and didn't voice them. It wasn't until I remembered the weapons and equipment we borrowed from Montoka City and the blessing abilities we obtained that I realized we had the tools and methods to handle these troubles from the very beginning."

Jier said triumphantly, then he pointed his hand at the map and stated his plan.

"It's like this: combining the equipment we obtained and the suggestion Xueya Site just gave, I think we should do it this way."

"First, we cannot stay in Changmai Cunzi, but we can make some preliminary preparations for our return after victory. That way, we can bring the surviving Changmai Cunzi villagers back to Changmai Cunzi to resupply and rest, and then leave here more securely."

"Second, we need to establish a hidden Jiedian in a remote and safe place in the southern mountains and forests. Because we have few people, the entire Jiedian doesn't need to be too large, but it must be concealed to avoid being harassed by wild beasts and Monster in the mountains and forests in the short term, and to avoid being discovered by enemy patrol units that might exist in the mountains and forests."

"After that, we will set out from here. The advance team will be divided into two parts. The Warrior and the drivers, along with the rescued Villager, will all stay in the Yingdi to undergo training. At this time, Priest, you need to stay behind to manage them and ensure that the team doesn't have any issues."

"As for me, Xueya Site and I will wear the borrowed Plant Concealment Cloak and carry the stone balls that go with the Positioning Nail. The Positioning Nail itself will be carried and kept by you, Priest, so that we can accurately return to the Yingdi in the unfamiliar mountains and forests."

"I will use the blessing ability personally granted to me by the God of Agriculture, which I haven't used yet, to rely on it to find the enemy Jiedian and hidden Mine in the mountains and forests. Xueya Site will use the captured Heavy Crossbow to assist me in clearing out the enemy's peripheral patrols and sentries one by one. Or, we won't kill the enemies, but bypass them instead, find the Mine first, and mark the locations of the peripheral enemies so that the Warrior can deal with these peripheral enemies later."

"We will find the Mine and try to scout the enemy's situation and the situation of the captured Villager; if conditions allow, I even want to see the situation inside the Mine. After all, these people are digging Mineral Ore, and I want to know how they handle such a large batch of Mineral Ore in such a remote place."

At this moment, Priest interjected: "Don't forget, Jier. Don't forget the prophecy given by Dashu Bi'ao!"

Jier slapped his forehead: "Right, the prophecy! That so-called 【Messenger of Fire】, right? The prophecy says he will be the key to this battle. But why? How could a messenger be the key to this operation? I can't figure it out. I will understand the specific situation when I go to scout the enemy's situation at that time."

Bata'er Jiaoshi nodded; he thought the same. Just racking one's brains in the village wouldn't reveal how that 【Messenger of Fire】 could turn the entire rescue operation around. To know the answer, one had to go deep into the enemy's side to investigate.

Priest knew that he wasn't asked to join this operation for two likely reasons. One was the previous night Scout operation in Changmai Cunzi, where he really held Jier the warrior back. After all, his own strength was insufficient; although he had no problems in head-on combat, he wasn't good at stealthy Scout.

And Xueya Site, who had traveled far and wide, might be capable, and he was also skilled at using the Crossbow, which could just happen to coordinate with the newly captured Heavy Crossbow to help Jier fight and Scout.

The other reason was because they were heading south to establish a new Forward Camp, and since there were both men and women in the Yingdi, someone had to be in charge, otherwise the young and energetic Warrior might do something to the rescued female Villager.

This candidate could only be either him or Jier the warrior; Xueya Site wouldn't really work because his strength couldn't suppress the others.

"Good, Jier the warrior, your plan has no problems. Let's do as you say!" Bata'er Jiaoshi nodded in agreement.

And Xueya Site was also eager to try: "This operation will definitely be a great adventure worth telling my children about in the future! Don't worry, Jier, I will definitely use all my strength to assist you."

Jier nodded, patted Bata'er Jiaoshi and Xueya Site on the shoulders, and the three of them clasped their hands together, shaking them heavily up and down.

"We must rescue the trapped Villager!"

"Defeat those Defeated Soldier!"

"Ensure the safety of our own people!"

The three said in unison.

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