Chapter 55: The Counterattack Plan Begins: The Temporary Warriors and the [Record Report] of the Accompanying Officials

Early the next morning, the Warriors, knowing they would be going out to fight Monsters today, got up lazily and without much excitement. Those with Faith in the God of Agriculture went to pray with the five Priests of the God of Agriculture who had arrived at the Yingdi, while the others gathered sluggishly around the iron pots, waiting for the early morning meat-added wheat porridge to be ready.

Because they had received the supply of materials promised by the Merchant Guilds yesterday, the food everyone ate today was much better.

A lot of cured, salty fatty meat was added to the wheat porridge, including cured pork, beef, and mutton. The drivers who cooked the meal added them to different pots of wheat porridge respectively, not mixing them together. They also wanted to see which meat-added wheat porridge was the most delicious and most favored by the Warriors.

Obviously, the wheat porridge with beef was the most delicious. Compared to the gamey smell of cured pork and the muttony smell of cured lamb, the taste of beef had no shortcomings, and everyone liked eating it very much.

It was just that the amount of beef was the smallest. After all, Yemei Town was an agricultural area, and the beef was produced from old Plowing Oxen that died in the surrounding villages; there was no specialized beef cattle farming locally. These most recent supplies of beef were only obtained because the Villagers outside the town were truly out of money, so they sold their own Plowing Oxen, which they had brought along to Yemei Town, to the Merchant Guild in town to raise funds.

The people from the Merchant Guild naturally would not raise these Plowing Oxen for nothing, and they did not have much arable land belonging to the Merchant Guild, so they slaughtered the Plowing Oxen the moment they got their hands on them and cured the beef with salt.

If these cured beef were transported to other places, they would naturally be expensive commodities that could be sold at a high price. But now that these Merchant Guilds were sending them to Jier for free, Jier also felt their support and determination for this counterattack plan.

After all, compared to the losses caused by the severed Shanglu, the trade income from this beef seemed insignificant.

Jier repeatedly gave instructions to the people left behind at the Yingdi, especially those captured prisoners, telling the Dwarf to watch them well. They must not be allowed to run away! Furthermore, do not pay attention to any words from those Human Soldier prisoners; these people could say any outrageous lies in order to escape.

"Rest assured, I am not a fledgling bird born yesterday. In fact, when your Human grandfather's grandfather had not even been born, I was already a manager of a mine pit. The things I have seen in my life are far more than what all of you have seen added together."

Old "Iron Fist" stroked his beard and said.

These past two days, he had taken off his Armor. After all, he was old; wearing Armor temporarily was fine, but wearing it all day long was more than his body could handle. With too much burden, his shoulders and old waist would complain.

Dressed in plain clothes, he looked like an elderly Human old man. Because of his advanced age, his height had shrunk, reaching only the abdomen or chest height of a young person.

Because he had a gray, bushy beard, he looked even more like an elderly Human.

Therefore, these past two days, he occasionally left the back courtyard Yingdi and appeared in Caimen Inn in the image of an elderly Human, and surprisingly, not a single Human saw through the ruse. Through casual chatting, he also learned a lot of news—news from the outside world.

"Jier, go ahead and set out with peace of mind; I will have my people guard the Yingdi here," the old Dwarf said at the end.

Jier also left Xueya Site here. Because there were five Priests of the God of Agriculture temporarily in the team this time, the Herbalist Zuojigela also stayed at the Yingdi. However, he was not without work; Jier would try his best to have his subordinates bring back the remains of the Monster vines for the Herbalist to process. The Herbalist needed to collect some raw materials for making Potion in Yemei Town, as well as bottles, wooden stoppers, and the like for the Potion itself.

And he was to trial-produce small batches of Potion with three types of effects.

These Potion were of little use to the current Jier; they were prepared for the few most powerful Warriors under his command.

"Everyone get on the carts, everyone get on the carts! This time, our elite main force is responsible for quickly breaking through the Monsters entrenched in the Cunzi, while the accompanying group of Town Guard and Armed Civilian will escort hundreds of civilians, and afterwards occupy and control the Cunzi we have taken down."

"You are in luck this time. Not only can you get daily combat wages from me, but you can also get a batch of extra combat wages from the Sasi Family. And listen well: for that kind of parasitic Monster with a blooming head, the Sasi Family has also offered a new bounty! This much! Gold Coin!"

Jier said loudly, and opened his palm to let the Warriors who were getting on the carts to prepare for departure see the number he was offering.

The appearance of this bounty made many Warriors who prided themselves on their skills look at each other. Visibly, morale improved quite a bit. Bawei, this guy, even shouted ostentatiously: "Ha, this bounty is mine!"

The others thought the same.

Behind the windows of the rooms on the side of Caimen Inn near the back courtyard, many guests living in the inn were eavesdropping on Jier's declaration before departure. They naturally heard Jier's words, and some Caravan guards temporarily staying here were also tempted. This was not a small sum of money. If they could defeat one of the Monsters with blooming heads that this young Knight spoke of—although they had never seen this kind of Monster—as long as they defeated one, wouldn't they have earned the income of a year or two?

There was no job in the world that made money faster than this.

Therefore, before Jier and the others departed and left the inn, many people took the initiative to rush out of their inn rooms and came to the back courtyard to find Jier, who was riding a horse.

"What? You want to join temporarily?" Jier frowned, looking at these guards and thugs with all kinds of weapons and equipment.

They were of different heights and weights, and some looked like they were not simple characters at first glance, some looked like they had been licking blood from the edge of a blade for years, while some had simple equipment, and some were thin and weak.

In terms of strength, there were strong ones and weak ones.

"Why should I let you join? Look at my team; where do you think you are stronger than them?"

Comparing people to others will make one die; comparing goods to others will make one want to throw them away.

Jier's subordinates were all sturdy because they were well-fed and well-trained, and they had experienced more than one cruel battle, so their temperament was cold and capable. Coupled with a set of Plate Armor wrapping them from top to bottom, it was clear at a glance that they were elite Warriors who could fight three or four people at once.

If Jier's subordinates charged at these people who ran out to join, one wave of charging would probably rout them.

These Caravan guards and thugs also scratched their heads, knowing that they were far inferior to the young Knight's subordinates, but they still wanted to join this battle. After all, staying in the town, not only could they not find work, but they also had to pay Caimen Inn every day. The expenses in the town were much higher than before; after all, prices had risen quite a bit.

Therefore, these guys who relied on force to make money and were eating away at their savings naturally did not want to sit and wait for death; they had to seize every money-making opportunity they saw.

"Please, sir, everyone hasn't earned a single coin these days; it's really difficult."

"My lord, we really have no other way. We don't want wages; as long as you can give us a bite to eat and drink, just take us with you!"

"Even if we die, it's no loss to you, right? And as long as we can defeat some Monsters, we only need half—no, one-third of the reward you lords give!"

Jier smiled: "No wages? Just food and drink? And only one-third of the combat reward? Are you heroes from stories who fight for justice and love?"

This group of Caravan guards and thugs burst into laughter.

"Fine." Jier's expression turned cold: "But I must say this first: you must obey my orders. If I tell you to attack, you attack; if I tell you to assemble and follow, you must assemble and follow. Those who cannot do this will be executed on the spot. Is that understood?"

Some timid people became cowardly and wanted to retreat, but more guys with little money in their pockets rushed forward and shouted: "No problem, no problem! This is too easy, my lord, we will listen to you!"

Led by these people, those who wanted to leave couldn't leave either, and nearly twenty people joined Jier's command just like that.

Cannon fodder is naturally the more the better. Jier did not care about the combat effectiveness of these people, but it was also a good thing to have them distract some of the Monsters' attention and numbers during the battle, making it easier for them to defeat them one by one.

Therefore, Jier briefly registered their names and nicknames, as well as their respective physical characteristics, to facilitate recording individual combat gains later.

Adding these people to two extra empty horse-drawn carts, Jier, who had been delayed for a while, finally rode his horse, leading the five Priests who were also riding horses, followed by five horse-drawn carts full of Warriors, two horse-drawn carts full of supplies, and one horse-drawn cart carrying the Mao Maos—six riders and eight carts—and walked towards the Cunzi West Gate.

At the same time, at the North Gate and East Gate of the town, two teams each walked out of the town gates with high spirits.

At the North Gate, it was the team led by Bell himself. He brought the Priests of the God of Wealth and many young people from Knight Families, fully armed, and surrounded by a hundred Town Guard and a dozen elite Soldiers, preparing to approach the nearest Cunzi in the direction of the North Gate.

Similarly, another batch of Town Guard also organized two hundred Armed Civilian, preparing to take more than six hundred selected Villagers to set out later to go to and occupy the Cunzi taken down by the former. After these eight hundred Villagers were gone, the survival pressure on the people on the north side of the town would be reduced a lot; at least the water for everyone to drink could be saved quite a bit, and the conflicts between the Villages would also be reduced a lot.

The East Gate was led solely by the Priests of the Sun God Church. They dispatched almost all of their middle-aged and young Priests, about fourteen people. Under their command were fifty Town Guard, fifty Merchant Guild guards and thugs from the town, and three hundred Armed Civilian. They planned to conquer two Villages in the first step and transfer more than a thousand people out.

Almost all the Armed Civilian were equipped with Single-handed Axe and short spears. The former could chop plant Monsters, and the latter could use the length of the weapon to limit the approach of the Monsters. It was the best combat means the town could provide to the people under the circumstances where there were few other options.

And these Armed Civilian also brought their own dry rations and clean water saved by their families, wearing several layers of thick clothes to protect themselves, regardless of how hot the current season was.

After all, compared to being parasitized by Monsters, feeling hot from wearing too many clothes was not a problem at all.

Not to mention the other two routes, let's just talk about Jier's side.

His team certainly couldn't just have his own people going out to fight. There were naturally liaison messengers and people sent by the Sasi Family to monitor and observe, and two officials from the town were temporarily inserted to be responsible for document statistics and recording the combat process.

These were methods Bell had seen and heard from his elders, and he naturally arranged them all.

The command of the entire team was in Jier's hands, but the major decisions he made would be reported to Yemei Town by the messenger riding a horse at high speed, and relayed to Bell-Sasi from Yemei Town. And the situation in every aspect of the entire team would be recorded in books by the two town officials who joined the team, which would facilitate the statistics of military exploits later and also allow people to understand firsthand in the future what exactly happened here and now.

【Summer of the 94th Year of the Kingdom, 12th day of the Fanyue Month】

【This is the first day of the counterattack plan. We met with Knight Jier's team outside the West Gate of the town. Unlike what was agreed, in addition to the elite armored Warriors going into battle, Knight Jier's team had two more carts of messy "Warriors." These people clearly came from different places and all joined temporarily. Keqi boldly asked Knight Jier about the origin of these people—we are people of the Sasi Family, so we naturally have to be responsible for this operation, and understanding their composition is a must.】

【Knight Jier said that these two wagons of people are all caravan guards and shop thugs residing at Caimen Inn, who want to join in temporarily to earn a sum. I boldly raised my doubts about this, and the young Knight understood what I meant, frankly stating that he would not place these people in critical positions during battle to avoid any mishaps. Are these people merely bait to attract the attention of the Monsters? Truly terrifying, this young Knight.】

【Equally eye-catching is the last carriage in Knight Jier's convoy, which seems to carry little, only four or five Wooden Boxes containing very light items. When Keqi and I wanted to go over to inspect them, the driver stopped us—how bold! This lowly thing driving the carriage actually blocked us from approaching? I originally wanted to reprimand this person, but considering they are not our subordinates, and Young Master Bell had instructed us before coming to speak less and record more, we recorded this wagon of suspicious boxes here instead. Keqi suspects that there might be prostitutes from the Red House hired from town inside; as for their purpose, it clearly goes without saying.】

【The several noble Agriculture Priests following Knight Jier summoned the young civilians accompanying this expedition. These farmers are only equipped with simple things and cannot be compared to Knight Jier's Refining Qi elites at all. Neither Keqi nor I believe they can be of any use; one can only say they might be able to slightly resist the impact of a small number of Monsters.】

【I heard that Knight Jier's team had already routed the Monsters of a Cunzi in the south before coming here? This is truly good news, meaning that before the operation has even begun, half of our mission for this journey is already complete.】

【Since the only entrance and exit to the huge trench is on the west side of the town, our side will set out first and head straight west to the nearest Cunzi. Young Master Bell's group will depart from the town's north gate, travel along the inner edge of the trench to reach the trench's entrance and exit, and after exiting, move around toward the north. As for the noble Sun God Priests, they will have a harder time; they need to lead people to assemble at the east gate, circle the north side of the town, reach the trench's entrance and exit channel on the west side of the town, and move along the outer edge of the trench, first moving north, then moving east, to attack the Cunzi they need to take down.】

【According to the plan on the map, since Knight Jier's side is closest to the channel entering and exiting the town, their resupply is the most convenient, so the number of Villages we are responsible for in this operation is the largest. From the Cunzi on the west side of the town to the several Villages in the south, as well as the Cunzi to the southeast of the town, all fall under our responsibility. Young Master Bell and his group need to find and block the source of the Monsters coming from the Xīběi direction, preventing more Monsters from coming near Yemei Town. The north, northeast, and east directions, which the Sun God Church is responsible for, also have several Villages that need to be taken down.】

【Considering the mobility of the massive team, Keqi and I discussed it and feel that we can take down one or two Villages today, and have a wave of Villagers settled in the first Cunzi taken down under the protection of the Armed Civilians. As for the Young Master's side, they estimate they can take down Blue Well Cunzi in the Xīběi direction and have the accompanying Villagers settle down together. May the gods bless them.】

【The Sun God Church's team is more troublesome. Keqi estimates that because they have to circle most of the inner ring of the trench and then circle a small part of the outer ring, by the time it gets dark today, this group might not even reach the first Cunzi they need to attack. There is no other way; this group setting out can only camp in the wild for one night with the civilians. This is dangerous; it is a dangerous situation that anyone could foresee, but I heard that the noble Sun God Church Priests are already prepared and are not afraid of leading people to camp in the wild with no cover.】

【Is it because the temperature at night is not low? It doesn't seem like that; the Priests are very confident, as if they are not afraid of the terror of the night?】

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