Chapter 893: Before Dawn, a Conversation with the Village Elder

A giant bird glided over the wide valley between two steep mountains; in the air, it looked like a pitch-black handkerchief fluttering in the wind, gradually gaining altitude on the air currents.

When its altitude surpassed the steep mountain ridges on both sides, the morning light shining from the east plated its entire body with a sacred golden edge. However, this giant bird did not turn its head toward the direction of the sunlight, but instead continued to lower its head, circling in the high sky above the valley by means of the air currents.

From its perspective, the valley remained pitch black; the massive mountain bodies blocked all the morning light, causing the valley to not yet formally begin a new day, even at this moment.

But it was not entirely pitch black.

One spot that the giant bird had been watching was illuminated in the darkness by a "faint" firelight from the ground.

The giant bird's vision was excellent—this was one of its innate abilities—so it saw, amidst the small firelight, many Humans preparing equipment and organizing teams.

"Coo-coo-coo—"

"Coo-coo-coo—"

The sky overhead remained pitch black with twinkling starlight, and the emblem of the great Spirit slowly slid across the firmament, but in the Babotali Valley, in the Villager courtyard on the south side of Torito Village, the domestic fowl reported the official arrival of a new day right on time, according to their original nature.

The campfire that had been rising and burning for most of the night was somewhat dim at this time, but soon Villagers came forward with firewood and dry grass to add fuel.

"Add less, didn't you hear the rooster crow? It won't be long before the sky brightens!"

Someone walked by carrying a Short Sickle and took the opportunity to give the Villager in charge of adding firewood a well-intentioned reminder. The Villager adding firewood scratched their hair, but still dumped the fuel they were holding into the campfire all at once.

Then, they picked up a dark, slender Metal Fire Stick from the side to poke at the campfire embers a few times, and soon the bright flames illuminated the surroundings once again.

The firelight flared up, revealing the figures of the Villagers—some sleepy, some excited, some calm, some focused—in the darkness of dawn.

Following the requirements of the young Knight from outside, these Villagers had each prepared some combat equipment they felt they could use. Look, some people were wearing at least five layers of clothing, some men's, some women's from their homes, and some even simply tied their Wheat Straw pillows to their chests with rope as protection.

Others had dismantled the thin bed boards from their homes, tied a circle of rope around the middle, and barely managed to hold them in their hands to use as large Mudu. It looked quite good, with plenty of protection, but the Villager holding the shield had their vision completely blocked by their own bed board, and it was unclear how they would move forward once they started.

Some farmers put their minds into combat, holding a pitchfork in their left hand and a manure scoop in the right, with a Short Sickle for harvesting crops hanging on each side of their Linen Cloth belt. They wrapped their heads with thick linen cloth found at home, covering their vital head, face, and neck, leaving only a small portion of their eyes and nose exposed for observation and breathing.

More Villagers simply prepared a little, mostly following the young Knight's suggestion: tying their Wooden Pot Lid to their chest with rope, then grabbing two handy "weapons," one long and one short, and that was it.

Jier walked among the motley "armed" Villagers, pointing out equipment errors from time to time and guiding them to correct them. By the time he had roughly inspected the Villagers, the sky above had also faded from pitch black, revealing a faint white light from above the great mountain on the east side.

"The sky is brightening."

Jier sighed, then looked left and right, confirming that the team had formed several large groups according to their general closeness, each group having at least forty or fifty people, each gathered into a cluster, and these several groups finally combined into the team of Villagers resisting the Dwarf at this moment.

An elder from the village, surrounded by others, found Jier, and Jier asked first: "Have the Tusi Brothers already taken people and set off?"

The old man coughed, his aged but unusually ruddy face full of suppressed excitement: "The eldest brother took five people to the north side of the village. Isn't their number a bit too small? It's very likely they won't be able to finish setting up the road blocks and kindling in time in the morning, right?"

Jier waved his hand indifferently: "It's best if it succeeds, but it doesn't matter if it isn't finished. Whether it can finally produce the effect I want is still an unknown matter. The key to the whole thing is still here with us."

The old man nodded upon hearing this.

Jier continued: "If we fail to negotiate with the Dwarf here—this is a major premise—only then will their arrangements have a chance to be put to use. Honestly, I don't think those arrangements will really have much effect, but doing them is a good thing after all, ensuring that if the negotiation fails, the battle situation will still be in our favor."

The old man looked at the ambitious Villagers around him with some worry: "Because you don't think highly of our combat power here, right? Knight Jier. To be honest, although they are all our juniors and children, compared to the Patrol Militia I saw in the distant Empire when I was young, everyone is much worse."

Jier shrugged: "You can't look at it that way. Everyone was farming yesterday, and asking them to be on par with trained combat militia today is still a bit too much. I don't know how the Empire's militia is, but compared to our Kendall County militia, well, hehe."

The old man then reported on the actions of the other two Tusi Brothers; these two had also been asked by Jier to take people to the east and west sides of the village, doing the same tasks of blocking the road and setting up kindling.

The roads inside Torito Village were narrow, basically only allowing two or three people to walk side by side. Since there was no need for horse-drawn carriages to pass through, one only needed to move two large wooden tables from the homes of Villagers on both sides of the dirt road, place them tilted, and find some heavy objects to press them down to complete the task of blocking the road.

You might say, is that it, just tipping over the large wooden tables? Who can that stop? But you must understand, the enemy now is a Dwarf; the height of a Dwarf is naturally not high, and this height can actually be said to be a height that will cause movement difficulties for a Dwarf. After all, what Jier wanted was not to completely block the roads the Dwarf might move on, just to cause them difficulty in passing.

When a Dwarf encounters such an obstacle that is not completely impassable during a retreat, the team will inevitably be split because of these small obstacles; those with weak mobility will fall behind, the team will be stretched out, and the front and back will be unable to look after each other, which can create opportunities for those pursuing or ambushing to attack and capture the Dwarf.

After saying this, the elder of the villagers looked again at these uneven resistance teams, shook his head with a movement that was not easy for people to notice, and then said to Jier: "If a battle really happens, relying on everyone, I'm afraid there will be very heavy casualties. Even, if I may say something unpleasant, don't look at the fact that everyone has the advantage in numbers, but as soon as they come into contact with the Dwarf, and the front row of Villagers is defeated, the whole team will collapse."

The old man added: "You know, things like resisting the Dwarf have not happened here before."

Jier raised his eyebrows and asked: "Can you tell me in detail?"

The old man touched his long, graying beard, narrowed his eyes, as if recalling, and only then explained to Jier: "When the first few batches of migrants entered here decades ago, there was actually resistance. You know, before coming, everyone was prepared to fight a small number of Dwarf. After all, this was originally the territory of the Dwarf. Thanks to the mercy of the Spirits and the activity of the Bard Hols, this place was returned to the Human."

"There are too many people in the Empire and too little land—at least the people's land is too little. At that time, everyone living in difficulty, under the propaganda of various churches, plucked up the courage, supported each other, and suffered a lot of hardships before coming here from the Empire. We were all prepared to bicker, brawl, and fight with the Dwarf."

Jier pulled the corners of his mouth unconsciously. He realized that these old people, as long as they talked about the past, would start from the beginning, regardless of whether it was appropriate to tell old stories at this time.

But it was he who asked people to talk in detail, so he couldn't just eat his words and spit them out, right?

So he had to pretend to listen carefully. Fortunately, although this person was old, they seemed to understand that this was not the time for long-winded talk, and soon they got to the previous resistance.

"However, after arriving here, everyone didn't encounter many Dwarf, and didn't even meet many people at that time. The road was full of migrants from the Empire like us, and migrants who had settled here first. Heh, the people in front were cunning and lucky; they occupied the best areas. And this place was so vast that later ones like us, we migrants, always fantasized that on the new land ahead, there would be a piece of land with suitable terrain and lush water and grass waiting for us to occupy."

The old man had an expression of regret and annoyance on his face at this time: "We walked and walked, walked and walked, crossed rivers, passed through various new settlements, and finally were unfortunately led here by the Dwarf Road that had always existed under our feet and facilitated our travel. Damn it, this place was so remote, and there was a group of Dwarf!"

"And then? What happened?" Jier asked.

"What else could it be? Everyone was detained here by this bunch of Dwarf and couldn't leave. At first, the Dwarf were very nervous, but the arrival of us migrants seemed to solve some of their big problems. Food! These Dwarf were miners; you could tell after getting a little familiar with them. They were a bunch of Dwarf miners in a mine. It seems that in the past, food was supplied by external Dwarf towns, but when those Dwarf left, they left them behind."

"Those Dwarf needed you, right? Your arrival solved their trouble, hmm—but it's also possible that your arrival, on the contrary, made them lose their best opportunity." Jier interjected.

Jier continued along what he had just said: "If at that time, because the Dwarf miners here were short of food, they had to leave here and find a way to return to their own Dwarf Kingdom territory. Honestly, that would definitely be a difficult thing, no less than you migrants from the Empire coming here. As a result, they missed that opportunity. After accepting your settlement for the first time, they went further and further down a wrong path."

"Because as time passed, the difficulty for these fewer than fifty Dwarf miners to cross a nascent Human Kingdom would gradually increase. Not to mention that on my way here, I passed through the Western Province, which is at war with the Dwarf in the border areas further west all year round. A team of Dwarf, hmph, would only be treated as a vanguard Scout team of the Dwarf by the people of the Western Province and eventually wiped out by the army or a Knight Lord."

Hearing what Jier said, the old man shrugged his shoulders, gave a wry smile, and continued to talk about what he said before: "Saying so much is just to say that when I was young, although the number of people in the village was not as large as it is now, they were all young men and women, and they had experienced a lot of migration, and their organization and skills were not bad. You know, some migration teams of dozens of people could even force back wandering Magic Beasts."

"So?"

The old man sighed: "As a result, in the early years, a few years after the Dwarf detained everyone, because of the management problems here, we actually had a certain degree of confrontation and fighting with the Dwarf. But as for the result, not to mention that the skill of the Soldier Captain at that time was much more powerful than the one you, the Knight, captured now, just a cluster charge of dozens of armored Dwarf broke the Villager team at that time. Those Dwarf didn't kill anyone, just used sticks and fists to injure and knock out many people, but even so, many people suddenly realized how big the gap is between us Human and these Dwarf."

Jier immediately comforted him: "You don't have to say that. In my opinion, the main reason is just the gap in weapons and equipment. Otherwise, as I said before, how could the Western Province have been fighting the Dwarf at the border for many years? If the Dwarf were all that powerful, how could the Western Province have kept the land? Right. Equipment problem, the key is the equipment problem."

The old man smiled wryly and pointed his finger at the messy armed Villagers in front of him, reminding him: "But the equipment today isn't much better, is it?"

Jier laughed twice and explained: "That's right, so the key problem today is not how the equipment is, but—me!"

Seeing the young Knight from outside point to himself, the old man opened his eyes wide: "You?"

"Yes, me. If it weren't for me, although the dissatisfaction with the Dwarf in the village still exists, it would still be far from enough to resist them. The key lies in the equipment. These Dwarf are not stupid; they won't watch the people in the village arm themselves. From what I have seen and heard, the defense and expulsion of beasts and Monsters in the surrounding mountains and forests are all done by the Dwarf, right? The only thing Human can intervene in seems to be the Tusi Brothers from outside. But the three of them have special skills, which must be counted separately."

"So, the key is you?" The old man looked at Jier, muttering something.

Jier confidently patted the armor and weapons on his body, and even pointed to the direction outside the village to add: "I have an Armored Warhorse outside the village. The terrain in the village is not suitable, so I didn't let it in. How about it, me, an Apprentice Knight."

The old man was noncommittal. To this, Jier supplemented his previous judgment: "You have to understand that after a day of fighting today, those Dwarf couldn't do anything to me at all. My ten percent of skills haven't been fully exerted yet. And them? Not to mention being tired and terrified, they are also fearful and retreating, right? More importantly, at night, I led people to capture the Dwarf Soldier team mainly responsible for fighting."

The old man understood a little.

Jier continued: "Plus, in the afternoon, I injured several powerful Warriors who believe in the Dwarf Spirit. The power and skills that those Dwarf can bring out have basically been dismantled by me. Otherwise, after losing the Dwarf Soldier team in the first half of the night, why would those Dwarf be so quiet in the second half of the night? They are afraid! Do you understand? They are afraid, afraid of me. As long as I am still here and have the strength and willingness to fight, those short guys have no chance of winning."

Speaking up to this point, Jier faced the ready-to-go Villagers and waved his hand vigorously: "So, I am the key to confronting and negotiating with the Dwarf. Although everyone's morale is good, when things go smoothly, you are mainly providing atmospheric support. Of course, this is also very important; with everyone's support, those Dwarf will understand what they have truly done wrong and honestly hand over the management power of the entire Valley."

Speaking to the end, Jier also quietly walked to the old man's side and whispered into the old man's ear: "If, and I mean if, the situation turns to the worst, and everyone has a direct conflict with the Dwarf and is defeated, I am also confident that I can defeat the Dwarf here one by one, alone. For every Human Villager who dies, I will let go of my restraints and kill one Dwarf to take revenge. Believe me, if the Dwarf leader is a reasonable person, he will make the right choice."

Having received this assurance, the old man nodded with relief, patted the young Knight's armor shoulder guard, and said with a smile on his face: "Then I can rest easy. Please feel free to do it, Knight Jier. Lead these Villagers who still possess Yongqi in their hearts, and strive for the things that everyone should have had."

"But I still have one question."

The old man finally said: "Why are you doing so much? And how should our poor Cunzi repay your kindness?"

Jier touched his nose and stammered: "This... uh, let's discuss it in detail after things are successful. But please rest assured, the things used to repay me are things you definitely possess, and it won't be difficult."

The old man narrowed his eyes, guessing the young Knight's words.

Is it a beautiful girl?

Or is it the Cunzi territory needed for someone claiming to be an Apprentice Knight?

Or perhaps the Villager team formed by the male Villagers in the Cunzi armed up?

Or the wealth of every household among everyone?

Oh, the old man slapped his forehead; he had only been thinking about things on the Human Villager side, but if the scope were expanded, they Humans didn't have many things worth taking out, but the Dwarf side was different.

It seems the bulk of this young Knight's profit this time should come from the wealth or compensation on the Dwarf side?

Thinking this way, the old man felt he had figured it all out completely.

Little did he know, what Jier truly valued was the land in the Cunzi, as well as the stored grain that every household in the Cunzi had accumulated in large quantities. This place could not only accommodate the long-term residency requirements of his Refugee Team, but with the sudden increase in population, the stored grain in the Cunzi was also enough to support the massive consumption of the Refugee Team before they could reclaim land and harvest grain.