Mayor Marco covered his face with his hands, rubbed his cheeks fiercely, and said:
"I know how big the hole is here. I originally wanted to plug it up, but I really can't do anything..."
His voice became smaller and smaller, and then he asked Surdak again:
"I gave Duodan Town to you, why do you still want to embarrass me?"
He smiled helplessly, leaning on the wooden railing of the steps and said: "We all came here from the Bena Province and want to build a career for ourselves. Why are you making things difficult for me?"
He stared into Suldak's eyes and said tentatively: "Let me go, and I promise to disappear from the Bailin plane and never come back."
Surdak took out a stamped letter from his magic pocket and said calmly to Mayor Marco:
"This letter is a report against you. It will be placed in the inspection room of Wilkes City Hall in a week. I hope it won't cause you too much trouble."
Mayor Marco stared at Suldak, his hoarse voice full of hatred. He was trying his last struggle, his voice was hysterical, and he said:
"Why do you have to go through the review of the House of Representatives... You know, these crimes are not too serious to me. As the mayor of a border town, the most they can do is confiscate my property. I can't
I don’t want to... my life will be extremely difficult in the future, please let me go!"
There was prayer, threat, anger, and repressed madness in the voice.
Surdak was not moved at all, shook his head and said:
"There is some money that can be taken, such as the taxes left in the treasury after all the expenses in the town are settled. Of course, there can also be other gray income. Even if you are involved as the mayor, it doesn't matter..."
He paused briefly and then continued:
"But to me, many things have a bottom line. Some money should not be taken. As long as you take it, I will not forgive you."
"For example, misappropriating funds for military supplies and selling military reserve supplies privately at low prices. What I can't stand the most... is the slave trade. You should not condone those slave traders, and you should not leave enough living space for them in Dodan Town.
.”
Surdak stared hard at Mayor Marco and said:
"According to imperial law, I will detain you to await the trial of the Wilkes House of Representatives. Maybe you will be sent to Wilkes City, and maybe you will be tried here."
Surdak pointed to his chest and said sincerely:
"Like many other garrison commanders, I came here to look for opportunities to expand territory, and preferably gain some merit."
He looked at Dodan Town before dawn, stood up and spread his arms as if to hug, and said:
"So what I need is a stable and sustainable town, not a town that you have made a mess. Since you have slowed down my progress, I don't mind asking you to leave."
"You can calm down these days and think about what kind of sentence is best for you." Suldak's eyes were a little cold.
Mayor Marco looked at Suldak in surprise, the last glimmer of hope disappearing from his eyes.
His face was full of prayers, he climbed two steps forward on the steps, grabbed Suldak's trousers and begged:
"What I did, I will admit, can you let them go, please..."
Suldak looked condescendingly at Mayor Marco, who looked pitiful, and said readily: "Of course, I have no interest in causing other people's wives to break up."
Mayor Marco knew that this was the final agreement reached between himself and Suldak, so he asked: "When will you send me away?"
Suldak was well prepared and took out a piece of parchment from his magic belt bag, handed it to Chief Marko along with a pen, and said:
"If you are willing to sign this confession, you can leave Dodan Town with Quartermaster Handel. Or you can wait for the House of Representatives to make the final sentence on you after receiving the letter of accusation from here, and wait until the judgment is delivered.
Dodan Town, I will personally send someone to take you back to Wilkes."
Marco slumped down on the steps weakly, using up his last bit of strength, he said:
"I am willing to plead guilty. Please let me go to Wilkes with Quartermaster Handel."
Suldak walked down the steps, looked back at Mayor Marco, and said, "Well, in the morning you will set off for Wilkes City with Quartermaster Handel."
…
It has been three days since Viru left Dodan Town and he has not returned yet. It seems that the situation in the Invercargill Warcraft Forest is more complicated than imagined.
Facing the beast tide that could break out at any time, Surdak decided to go to the Warcraft Forest to find out in person.
So he found Aung San, the most experienced collector in Dodan Town, as his guide and prepared to leave the town early in the morning.
In the early morning, Suldak saw off the quartermaster Handel at the intersection south of the town.
He handed a list of supplies to Quartermaster Handel, and handed over a magic caravan filled with Mayor Marco's family, Mayor Marco and Captain Hans to Quartermaster Handel.
Handel did not expect that Suldak would capture Mayor Marco in just one night and ask him to sign a confession.
Today, Mayor Marco and Captain Hans are sitting on their horses dejectedly with their hands tied by ropes.
The family members in the magic caravan crowded near the window and looked out the window with worried faces. Their eyes were full of fear for tomorrow.
Quartermaster Handel escorted these military supplies and brought an escort team. Therefore, Mayor Marco and his party went to Wilkes City, and Suldak did not need to send additional escorts.
He saw off the quartermaster Handel at the intersection in the south of the town. The quartermaster Handel had no choice but to take the mayor of Marco with him and set off for Wilkes before the morning dewdrops cleared.
.
Subsequently, Surdak led two cavalry squadrons, accompanied by the ogre Gulitem and the half-elf archer Samira.
Andrew stayed in the town of Dodan to manage the cavalry battalion.
Surdak's team, led by Aung San, passed through the gate of the northern city wall, followed the green grassy Dodan Canyon, passed the border of the occupied area, and entered a vast hilly land.
This hilly land is sandwiched between the Invercargill Monster Forest and the Dodan Gorge. The hills are covered with low shrubs and are rich in various berries.
Aung San was very familiar with the roads here. Every time Surdak felt that there was no road ahead, he led the team around a few hills, and his eyes suddenly opened up, making Surdak feel that the Invercargill Warcraft was far away.
The forest is one step closer.
Along the way, Surdak's team happened to encounter an indigenous tribe migrating south. These indigenous tribes were full of hostility and wariness towards Surdak's cavalry.
Amidst a burst of whistles, a group of tribal warriors escorting the tribe's migration, holding wooden spears and bows and arrows in their hands, seized the commanding heights of various terrains and looked at the cavalry squadron with wary faces.
The cavalry squadron also dismounted immediately, picked up the weapons in their hands and made a defensive posture.
The veterans in the front row raised their shields, the veterans in the back row held spears, and the recruits in the third row held alloy bows and put steel arrows on the bow strings to guard against the sudden rush of the indigenous warriors.
Aung San's face turned pale. He did not expect that he would bump into a migrating indigenous tribe on the path he had chosen.
However, it seemed that both parties were relatively restrained and looked at each other warily.
The warriors in the tribe saw Aung San in the cavalry team and secretly signed to him to ask what was going on.
Aung San could only make a few quick movements to tell the natives on the opposite side that his group was just passing by accidentally and did not expect to encounter them in the hilly land.
Surdak was riding on horseback, squinting at these local natives.
The ogre Gulitem and the half-elf archer Samira were waiting for Surdak to give the order to attack, but Surdak turned to Aung San and said:
"You tell the other side to let them go first. I am not Mayor Marco, and I have no interest in slaves. It's just that... this place is destined to become the land of the Green Empire in the future. If they want to come back to live in the future, they need to ask me
Pay a certain population tax. If you don't have money, you can exchange it for various Warcraft materials or magic herbs, even dried cranberries that are everywhere in the mountains here. Can you explain it to them clearly?"
"We came here to become the rulers here, not to act as butchers." Surdak added.
Aung San did not expect that Surdak would actually say this, so he nodded quickly, spread his hands, walked over with a calm face, and said a few words to the warrior captain of the indigenous tribe.
Then they saw the indigenous tribe leaving quickly and quickly disappearing into the hilly land.
As expected, Surdak's cavalry squadron did not pursue pursuit, but Samira shot and killed two ghost leopards following the indigenous tribe.
The two hungry ghost leopards appear to have been stalking the indigenous tribe for several days.
They cannot completely disappear in the sun, but their fur has turned into a color similar to that of trees. They are difficult to spot when hiding in the shadows. They are as elusive as ghosts, so they are called ghost leopards.
This is the most difficult to capture among the first-level monsters.
They are usually elusive and will flee away from any danger.
They are the fastest athletes in the jungle. As long as they want to escape, almost no one can catch them.
These two ghost leopards may be greedy. They may have eaten the tribe's natives in the past few days. They have regarded the tribe as a herd of sheep, following them silently, only when they are hungry.
They will only come out to hunt when they are hungry.
The warriors of the indigenous tribes were unable to deal with the ghost leopard for a while, so they could only be more careful.
They even tie a small wild boar to the big tree outside the campsite every night, hoping that they can have a change of taste.
These two ghost leopards did not escape Samira's eyes, and she even took a fancy to the fur on them that was almost integrated with the jungle. If the fur of this ghost leopard was made into a cloak, Samira would
Completely hidden in this jungle.
Half-elf archers are particularly sensitive to natural scents, so they can easily find their hiding places in the jungle, and when hunting them, they shoot two arrows through their heads.
The ogre Gulitem happily picked up the ghost leopard carcass. He was looking forward to the taste of these two big cats.
Surdak cut off the head neatly and then peeled off the fur.
He gave the leopard meat inside to Gulitem, the fur to Samira, and kept the head for himself, and told Samira: "Next time you hunt this kind of prey, try not to shoot through the head..."
"
"Shoot on the back of the neck, shoot on the back of the neck, shoot on the back of the neck, only say the important words three times."
"Leave the head to me, it's not convenient to store such bloody things!"
While Suldak was resting, he whispered to Samira.
"Your requirements are getting more and more demanding. I'm not even sure I can hit this ghost leopard with one arrow..."
Samira applied a layer of nitrate salt on the inside of the fur before it dried in the shade. There was no way to dry it completely in the sun, so she had to stack it together and put it in a backpack.
The hilly land is full of various wild beasts. With their excellent reproductive ability and a small number of natural enemies, the pine-striped wild boar has numerous groups of large and small. In each group of wild boars, there is an adult male wild boar who is not afraid of bobcats and wolves. They are sharp and sharp.
Its fangs can easily penetrate the belly of a lone wolf.
Hunters from Dodan Town often hunt here, but they must also be careful of the large carnivorous beasts here. The most difficult ones are the ghost leopards and man-bears in this area. Every year, hunters die in this hilly land.
Aung San gave a very detailed introduction along the way, but apart from eating meat, these wild boars have almost no use and are not valuable. Hunters come here to take risks to hunt pine-grained wild boars. Basically, they are found because they cannot open the pot at home.
An act of desperation.
Compared with these pine-grained wild boars, they prefer elk in deeper forest areas. At least the beautiful antlers can be sold for a few dollars, and the meat is more delicious.
Unexpectedly, the products here are quite rich, and groups of prey can be easily found in the hilly areas.
The marching rations brought by the cavalry squadron were not needed at all. A pine-striped wild boar hunted along the way was enough for the cavalry squadron to eat two meals.
Surdak does not advocate grilling game in the wild, especially this kind of forest game that may contain parasites. Not only is barbecue a waste of ingredients, it is very likely that a certain piece of meat is not cooked well enough, and the cavalry will be infected after eating it.
certain diseases.
Therefore, he required that the wild animals hunted should be slaughtered, bled and skinned as much as possible, then broken into smaller pieces of meat and carefully cleaned, and then set up a large iron pot to stew the meat.
These cavalrymen, who were accustomed to being poor in the desolate land, were also accustomed to hunting a single prey, and the whole village gathered together to eat meat and drink soup.
Therefore, no one thought there was anything wrong with Suldak's request. It was already a custom in the cavalry battalion that everyone gathered next to the big iron pot and lined up to share the meat and drink the soup.
Aung San squatted next to the camp, watching the cavalry begin to line up. Just as he was about to take out a piece of dried meat from his bag for his lunch, he saw a cavalry squadron leader throwing a large wooden bowl into his arms.
inside, waving to him and shouting:
"Don't stay there in a daze, hurry up, those guys won't be merciful, and you won't be able to get good meat later!"
Aung San was in a daze, pointed to his nose and asked: "Can I eat these too...?"
"Otherwise? Do you still want to go to Lord Gulitem's place to eat and drink? Come here quickly!"
The captain of the cavalry squadron grabbed the spoon from a cavalryman, first fished out a piece of meat for Aung San, poured a layer of thick oil soup on it, stuffed him with an eighth piece of pancake, and cooked it for him.
To demonstrate, break up those scones and dip them into the soup...