Chapter 547: The Situation at the Enemy Stronghold (Part 2)

Jier unfolded the heraldic cloth in his hand, a small piece of fabric embroidered with the enemy knight's crest, roughly a square with sides of thirty centimeters, simply stitched with colored thread depicting the personal or family crest of that Knight Hartna.

Looking closely, Jier finally saw some details of the crest that were not visible from a distance.

For instance, the mounted knight in the center of Knight Hartna's crest was not a true knight, but an image of a cavalryman fighting on horseback. The surrounding flowers, horseshoes, and other items were also not of a standard style. However, Jier could not recognize these things or what they each represented.

One must know that in this other world, the difference in equipment between a knight and a cavalryman is quite easy to distinguish. The cavalryman's weapons and equipment look similar to the cavalry in the films and television works of Jier's previous life: warhorses with simple armor, cavalry armor mainly protecting the front, and relatively light, long, yet sharp and pointed weapons as their primary combat gear.

Knights, however, are different; the human knights of this other world have much taller warhorses, generally weighing over a ton, as only such a powerful physique can carry the much heavier warhorse armor and the knight himself.

The weapons used by knights are also heavy weapons or peculiar magic armaments. At a single glance, one knows they are not items used by ordinary people.

Therefore, even though the crest embroidered on this cloth was simple, Jier judged with a rough glance that it was the image of a cavalryman charging with a sword.

"So, he comes from a cavalry background?"

Jier muttered to himself, which indicated that the Knight Lord of this unit likely came from a cavalry family, not a knight family. It was only in his generation, or perhaps the previous one, that someone in their family—or even he himself—had become a New Knight.

This experience seemed similar to Jier's own.

"I just don't know how his martial arts are." But then Jier shook his head, because he had already learned from other sources that although Knight Hartna was full of suspicious points, the wounds on his body were unlikely to be faked.

To protect a unit of two hundred subordinates through the perilous Southern Mountains, even at the cost of dozens of lives, was barely enough; only by having Knight Hartna, as a knight, charge at the very front in every battle and take the greatest risks, was it possible to preserve these Defeated Soldiers.

But the price was that the severe burns he already had on his body not only failed to improve but had worsened.

According to the intelligence Jier had obtained, this Knight Hartna had begun to stink all over not long ago, remained motionless, and had even fallen into a coma; clearly, he had lost control over his unit and was not far from death.

Jier sighed, feeling a sense of sorrow for one of his own kind, and secretly resolved in his heart that no matter what happened in the future, he must never, ever make the same mistake as this Knight Hartna.

As a knight, it is fine to charge at the front line during battle, but one must not sacrifice one's own life for the lives of subordinates, because you may protect their lives, but they may not be willing to sacrifice their lives to fight for you after you are severely wounded.

Look, these Defeated Soldiers are a realistic example.

Jier shook his head, once again selected a wooden house on the west side, and let Big Nose approach to Scout.

Although these wooden houses were crude, the structures were built very sturdily; it seemed that because it was difficult to make wooden doors, these Defeated Soldiers simply did not give these wooden houses a normal door, but instead dug a downward passage on one side.

To enter the house, one had to walk downward first, then climb into the interior of the house from below.

This wooden house did not even have doors or windows, so naturally, he could not see what was inside.

"Go, Big Nose, good dog. Go sniff those four wooden houses one by one and see what's inside!" As soon as Jier finished speaking, Big Nose, invisible to others, ran out huffing and puffing, accelerated and leaped just like last time, jumping over the towering wall.

This time, it even bumped into a patrolling enemy Soldier on the wall, but even so, the enemy still did not react and walked past while laughing and talking.

Jier saw Big Nose quickly pass straight through the enemy Tents scattered everywhere and approach the wooden house closest to it.

This fellow ran around the massive wooden house several times in a hurry but could not find a way in at all. Please, even if this wooden house had doors and windows, your huge size wouldn't be able to squeeze in, would it?

Jier hoped Big Nose would notice the Earth Pit leading downward in front of the wooden house; that was the correct entry passage, and it didn't even need to go inside, just sniff carefully at the entrance of the passage to tell him what was inside.

But Jier did not expect that Big Nose did not need to go to such trouble at all; it shook its head, its body seemed to become somewhat more transparent in Jier's eyes, and then it just slammed itself against the wall of the wooden house, and half of the giant dog's body phased into the wooden house.

The giant dog was too big, and because the wooden house was made of rough tree trunks, although it looked quite large from the outside, the actual space used inside was not large.

At least when Big Nose poked half its body in, it filled up a small half of the house's interior.

Then Big Nose retreated by itself, shaking its head, seemingly having made a discovery.

It did not continue to investigate other houses but took the initiative to return to Jier, informing Jier of its findings with woof-woof barks.

"The inside is piled full of cold metal? Oh! I understand, this room is where the enemy stores the already smelted Iron Ingot."

Jier then frowned; a room full of Iron Ingot, at least ten to several tens of tons, after being smelted in this remote place, although the enemy considered this an important fortune, how could they transport it away?

One must know that in the price of goods and commodities, the cost of logistics and transshipment often accounts for the majority. Sometimes, the cost of logistics and transshipment is even higher than the value of the goods themselves!

Therefore, many Merchant Guilds with insufficient strength like to transport goods that are light, high-priced, and not easily spoiled by environmental changes.

And once the goods themselves are heavy, low-priced, and prone to spoilage due to environmental changes, as long as they touch upon any of the above points, the logistics and transshipment price of this item will rise in a straight line.

And the value of transporting this item will then decrease.

Today is an example; the raw Iron Ingot that these Defeated Soldiers drove the Villagers of Changmai Village to dig and smelt as free labor are good things, but their current location is not good.

To transport the unusually heavy Iron Ingot out, one must pass through the surrounding Forest, then send them north to Changmai Village, and then from Changmai Village go further north, passing through villages like Lanse-Qingting, Big Tree Village, and Shichui Village, all the way north to Yemei Town in North Sas County, where they can officially get onto the busy trade route.

Just this journey alone, how much manpower and how many wagons would it occupy, and what would be the consumption and wages for this manpower and these wagons? And how much time would it take to make a round trip from here to the north? One must know, this is heavy Iron Ingot; some of the broken second-hand wagons under Jier's command could not even carry these Iron Ingot, and these heavy and small things require very sturdy heavy-load wagons.

And the road from Changmai Village all the way north does not support wagon transport for these heavy Iron Ingot.

So the problem arises: what should these Defeated Soldiers do, guarding these valuable but untransportable Iron Ingot?

They can't just bury the Iron Ingot on the spot, can they? And make some kind of treasure map or something to fool the Defeated Soldiers under their command as if it were treasure?

Then it would be a wonder if those Defeated Soldiers didn't rebel!

Thinking of this, Jier could not understand how the enemy was dealing with this problem, so he stopped thinking about it, waved his hand, and let Big Nose continue to investigate other wooden houses.

Woof!

Big Nose excitedly rushed out again; it seemed that as long as Jier gave it some orders it could fulfill, it was very happy to complete them.

This time, it came to another wooden house, and just like last time, it seemed to do something to make itself more illusory, thereby passing its entire body through the wooden wall.

After it poked a small half of its head inside, it seemed to be startled and took the initiative to retreat.

A massive dog face was full of terror.

Jier frowned, not knowing what kind of thing could even startle a Spirit Dog?

He saw Big Nose running back in a hurry, barking a series of woof-woofs, seemingly expressing the panic in its heart.

"A very heavy rotting stench? The room is very dark? Only two people, one sitting blankly, one lying on the ground stinking?"

Jier immediately judged that the two people in this room, the one lying on the ground must be the severely wounded Knight Hartna, and there was another person, who should be that Knight Adjutant?

It should be.

Only a Knight Adjutant whose interests are highly bound to the knight would be able to endure the stench and stay in the house to provide care and guard duty when the knight is so severely wounded.

At this time, Jier looked carefully at the surroundings of that house and found that there were more or less some enemy Soldier Tents around other houses, but only around this house was there not a single tent.

It is possible that those Defeated Soldiers betrayed Knight Hartna, so they dared not get too close to the other party, or it is possible that those Defeated Soldiers simply did not want to smell the rotting, stinking odor on Knight Hartna's body.

Jier sighed, waved his hand, and let Big Nose go to investigate the third house.

Inside the almost completely pitch-black wooden house, the Knight Adjutant Piluo suddenly stood up, but he then swayed his body and had to support himself against the wooden wall next to him to stand steady; that was because he had been sitting for too long just now, and he felt dizzy from standing up suddenly.

"My Lord! Lord Hartna!"

Using the faint illumination from a Glowing Badge at his waist, the Knight Adjutant hurried toward the injured Knight, who lay motionless in the middle of the room.

"My Lord! Are you awake? Did I see correctly just now? Did you open your mouth to say something?"

Adjutant Piluo held the Glowing Badge in his hand, carefully examining Knight Hartna, whose exposed half-face was wounded and festering. Beneath the thick armor the Knight wore, there were even more severe burns.

The Knight's equally injured neck moved with a swallowing motion, as if thirsty for water. Adjutant Piluo immediately took the Knight's Silver Water Bottle from the side and carefully poured the clear water inside into the Knight's slightly parted mouth.

Knight Hartna struggled to swallow the water, then remained quiet for a while.

The Adjutant, however, remained motionless, patiently waiting for the Knight.

"Piluo..."

Knight Hartna called out in a hoarse, soft voice.

The Adjutant immediately knelt on one knee and replied loudly, "My Lord, I am here!"

After catching his breath for a moment, Knight Hartna still asked with difficulty: "What... time is it?"

Hearing the Knight ask this, Adjutant Piluo fell silent for a moment before answering with difficulty: "It has been half a month since you last woke up. But their people still haven't come!"

The Adjutant's words were full of dissatisfaction and hatred, as if he deeply loathed the other party for not arriving as agreed.

Knight Hartna slightly opened his right eye, which was not burned, and looked at the surroundings by the faint light: "The quantity... of Iron Ingots?"

"It reached the amount you agreed upon with them long ago, but no one has come at all! In this remote place, no one cares at all, neither the Kingdom nor those people! It seems we have long been forgotten by everyone. My Lord..."

Adjutant Piluo muttered to himself in pain.

But Knight Hartna did not care about this; he spoke slowly to comfort him: "They will come... they will come. This... agreement, in terms of profit... the other party, has the... advantage. Greedy people... will not forget, every... single coin, they... should have earned."

"I hope as you say, My Lord. Since you are awake now, do you want to use that Potion? Or?"

Piluo asked cautiously.

The Potion he spoke of was the only Courage Potion left that the Knight had not yet used. After drinking this Courage Potion, no matter how severe the injuries, a Human would not feel pain and could barely recover the ability to fight one battle.

But every time it was used, the body would be under great pressure, and the original injuries would worsen.

Like Knight Hartna, he had used this Potion many times while crossing the Southern Mountains, but with each use of the Potion, the severe burns on his body became more difficult to control.

Originally, even injuries where flesh and armor had melted together were not fatal for a formal Knight, at least not to the point of being unable to move. But because Knight Hartna used the Potion to fight Monsters and Magic Beasts every time thereafter, his injuries worsened further.

Fortunately, after defeating some Monsters, he ate the Monster meat, which was rich in energy and nutrients. This poisonous Monster meat was a chronic poison to ordinary people, but to a Knight Rank powerhouse, it was actually a good thing for replenishing the body's nutrients and energy.

Thanks to this Monster meat, Knight Hartna, who kept falling into a coma due to infection from his injuries, was not at risk of starving to death; as long as he had water, he could barely hold on.

"I... just felt that something came over. Could it be... a false... hallucination?"

Knight Hartna tried to look left and right, but could see nothing in the dim house.

"Something? My Lord, do you want me to go out and check?" The Adjutant's eyes lit up as he asked eagerly.

Knight Hartna nodded slightly and added: "Pay more attention... to the sky."

"I understand, My Lord."

The Adjutant fed Knight Hartna some more water, then, seeing the Knight struggling to stay conscious, he rushed out of the house in a hurry.

As soon as he went out, the wooden house was plunged into complete darkness.

In the darkness, the sound of Knight Hartna gritting his teeth was exceptionally clear: "Why, why did things end up like this?"

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