The vast land of Rovanion has several rivers that are famous in Middle-earth, such as the Anduin River that has witnessed countless historical events over the long years, the magical river in the Black Forest that has the ability to make people sleep, or the river that crosses the continent.
Running River in the Wild East.
The Running River is nearly a thousand kilometers long. It starts from the Lonely Mountain, flows through Riverdale City, Lake Town, the Woodland Kingdom and other gathering points of many forces, and finally merges into the Rune Inner Sea in Dovinion. It is Rovanion.
The most important trade route.
However, now this trade route is broken, and a very important section of it is occupied by the Dongyi people who like to plunder. These barbaric guys don't even understand the principle of long water flow. Any caravan that passes through their control area, no matter it is
No force from the south could escape having their goods taken away and turned into slaves.
Of course, the shrewd and cunning Ashur did not occupy this place just for plunder. He built an extremely large permanent camp in the running river between Heidelberg and Red River Town, with a population of nearly 20,000.
Living in this camp, just to build a wooden fence surrounding the entire camp, all the nearby trees were cut down.
Surrounding the camp are a large number of farms, which occupy the surrounding fertile land and convenient water resources. A large number of slaves work and cultivate here, and can harvest a large amount of fruits, grains and vegetables every year. The only problem is that these harvests are not enough.
Belonging to the people who actually worked, as slaves they could only get the food they barely needed to survive after begging hard.
Several winemaking estates occupy the nearby hillsides with the longest sunshine hours. The wine produced can not only satisfy the Dongyi people's carousing and drinking, but also has a lot of surplus to help Ashur win over the small tribes who live in poverty.
Ashur's residence, which can barely be called a palace, is also built on this hillside. After all, it contains his most precious resources, and his most loyal and powerful subordinates are also surrounding Ashur.
Numerous houses were built in the palace, giving the impression of people settling here.
After the Dongyi people settled here for several years, blacksmith shops, workshops and other buildings appeared in the camp. You can even see a few dwarves here. Some of them were dwarf merchants who were robbed, and some were accidentally brought in.
The residents of the Iron Hills, who had fallen into the hands of the Dongyi people, were now forced to provide reluctant services to their enemies.
Ashur, who already owned a large territory and abundant resources, actually looked down upon the little wealth obtained by plundering. The soldiers under his command spent most of their time urging the slaves to restore the productivity of the land as quickly as possible.
, after all, the caravans are plundering less and less, but the output of the land has been increasing in recent years.
As the leader who controls a party, Ashur has also been very busy over the years. On the one hand, he has to constantly urge his men to try not to kill the slaves in his possession if it is not necessary. He also needs these people to cultivate more land.
Building more houses, and all aspects of things in the camp require the services of these slaves. If you kill them, they will be gone. It takes more than ten years for a slave to grow up to be able to cope with all the work. This is for Ashur who is in urgent need of labor.
I mean, it's really too slow.
On the other hand, Ashur had set his sights on the southern region of the River Run a long time ago, where the climate is warmer and the land is equally fertile. Although the Rhovanian Kingdom was formed by northern humans in the past,
has collapsed, but they left a large legacy on that land. As long as there is sufficient labor, he can re-establish a kingdom on this land that respects the Dongyi people. This will not only greatly increase his
With his own power, he can better fulfill the orders of the Demon King.
For this reason, Ashur made preparations very early. Not only did he build several easy-to-pass bridges on the Benliu River, but he also dispatched two warlords under his command early to take root in the southern area of the Benliu River.
And these two subordinates have not wasted all his efforts, and have brought very good news recently.
That is, in this seemingly deserted plain, there are actually human gathering points. Although they are not as numerous and concentrated as the gathering points in eastern Rovanian, if everything goes well, it will be more than enough to obtain several thousand slaves.
.
This news is very tempting for Ashur, because the human kingdom on the other side of the Black Forest has always been strictly guarded against him, and there are powerful allies like elves and dwarves, who simply do not give him a chance to take action.
He has not acquired a large number of slaves for a long time, and in recent years he has only "traded" a few dwarf craftsmen from his own men.
Ashur, who is in desperate need of labor, has already begun to prepare his own tribe for war. Soon he will be able to gather an army of nearly 8,000 people and go to the southern area of the Runliu River to rob people after the beginning of spring.
After plundering, the two warlords each prepared an army of thousands of people, preparing to eat some scraps behind their commanders.
Just looking at his men who were excitedly preparing for war, Ashur always felt uneasy. He was too busy and couldn't remember where the uneasiness came from. But soon, the sentries around the camp
On this night, some strange things were brought to him, which solved Ashur's doubts.
They were broken corpses that had been frozen into ice cubes. Even after being placed in a warm house for half an hour, there were not many signs of melting. However, although this weird thing was extremely difficult to melt, it was not hard and light.
One leg can be kicked in two with just one kick.
Ashur, who had just completed this action, gradually became serious. As he often came into contact with things like the Nazgûl, he naturally knew that there were some powerful forces in this world. It was obvious that what was presented to him at this moment was
One of them, but it wasn't just these cold fragments that made Ashur nervous. The corpse on the ground was obviously dressed as a Dongyi person, and it must belong to those small tribes that had recently defected.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Only those people can be so poorly dressed in the winter, and the first group of people who followed Ashur to Rovanian have long since
In the process of looting, warm winter clothes were obtained.
At this time, Ashur, who had just woken up, showed no trace of sleepiness on his face. He frowned and looked at the sentry who woke him up in the early morning, and asked in a cold tone: "Is this found outside the camp?"
If the situation had not been extremely urgent, no one would be willing to wake up the moody and indifferent Ashur at this moment. The sentry responsible for vigilance work in the second half of the night did obtain some potentially important information, but given his status, he usually
Li could only see Ashur from a distance, and the terrifying legends circulating in the camp made him tremble in front of his serious leader.
"Sir, I am the sentry in charge of the west...northwest direction. When patrolling...patrol, I..."
Hearing this, Ashur gritted his teeth impatiently, waved his hand to shut the mouth of the ugly sentry in front of him, picked up a glass of foamy beer from the barrel next to him, and handed it to the men in front of him.
, motioning for him to drink it.
"Drink it and talk nicely."
The flattered sentinel took the beer handed over by his leader with both hands. "Gudong", "Gudong" and "Gudong" drank it all in one breath, then wiped his mouth and tightly held the silver cup inlaid with gems in his hand.
, and continued to speak.
Maybe it was because the attitude shown by Ashur greatly eased his mood, or maybe it was the smooth and mellow beer that calmed his brain. What the sentry said next was extremely fluent.
"It's like this, boss. When Uri and I were patrolling outside the wall, we heard a cry for help from the northwest, but it was too dark now and we couldn't see anything clearly, so we rode over and rushed there.
These fragments were found on the ground. In addition to these, there were two cavalrymen, who should be enemies. One of them seemed to be wearing bright silver armor, and the other was half black and half white. I couldn't see clearly, but the one wearing
The enemy in silver armor seems to have a blue light emitting from the bow in his hand, I can see this clearly."
Ashur sat down again and listened quietly to his men's report. After it was over, he raised his eyelids and glanced at the cup, and asked calmly: "Then what? Didn't you catch up?"
The sentry's mood had completely stabilized at this time. With the change in Ashur's face, his mentality also relaxed, and he even complained quietly in his heart, "Who said Lord Ashur is moody and will kill people when he says it?"
Yes, isn’t this easy to talk about?”
But he nodded and bowed and quickly replied: "Uri and I immediately caught up with them, but the horses of the two cavalrymen were so fast that they disappeared in the blink of an eye. We saw that we couldn't catch up and came back."
In fact, the two sentries looked at the weapons and equipment on the opposite side, and then looked at the strange pile of corpse fragments on the ground. They did not have the courage to chase after them. Instead, they frightened the two opposite people away by shouting.
, if they hadn't been quick to seize the opportunity, they would probably have died there.
But what the sentry said was correct. The Twilight Knight's elf horse was extremely fast. Even if they caught up, it would not be of any use.
After Ashur heard this, his face full of scars smiled, and his expression was even more terrifying than when he wasn't smiling.
"I've given you the cup."
The sentry was overjoyed after hearing this. He held the cup just because he had this idea. He felt that he had brought back some news this time, and he deserved to receive some reward. Moreover, through a glass of wine, he also felt that the Lord Commander
Still very easy to talk to.
"But you lied to me, Tad, take him out and give him thirty lashes."
A burly young man next to Ashur responded and led two people to drag out the bewildered sentry holding the silver cup. There was no big movement in the whole process.
Ashur didn't care about such trivial matters at all. He was thinking about the things behind the information. After a while, the screams outside the house stopped, and Ashur said to the guard captain beside him:
"Made, how many riders do I have currently?"
Madhu, who had been with Ashur for nearly ten years, immediately said respectfully: "Sir, you also know that our cavalry unit was severely damaged a few years ago, with less than two hundred left.
The tribe showed some filial piety, and I also exchanged some with them, uh, so there are 516 of them now."
Ashur nodded after hearing this. He also knew that although Mud said it was an exchange, it was most likely that he gave some goods symbolically and then took some by force. He didn't care about this. Since those warlords didn't come to him,
If there is trouble here, it means that Mu De is still measured in what he does, and it is not too ugly. Moreover, he really needs to add some cavalry. In his heart, he still appreciates Mu De's behavior.
Because at this time, Ashur had already guessed who was chasing his people. The bright silver plate armor and fast horses left a deep impression on him.
There is no other possibility at all. It must be the human kingdom on the other side of the Black Forest.
And Ashur also figured out at this moment where the uneasiness he felt during this period came from, that is, the two guys Rabat and Balmond had not reported to him for a long time. The last time was
More than a month ago, it was too long. The distance between the two sides was less than 200 kilometers. A well-trained rider, coupled with the horses, could make a round trip in a few days.
Ashur, who has been very busy in recent days, has indeed neglected this aspect of information, but the current situation is obvious. He knows that his two relatively loyal subordinates are probably finished. Of course, this is not the worst.
information.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! The Dongyi people's rule itself is very loose, and considering the land each tribe needs to survive, Ashur will surrender to his own warlord for settlement
everywhere on this land to prevent these people from plowing the land themselves for pasture.
But this decision made Ashur feel a little uneasy at this time. The enemy's cavalry archers had already chased him outside his base camp. So how many of the men he had recruited from Rune after all these years of hard work and money were left?
Woolen cloth?
Thinking of this, Ashur gritted his teeth and turned to his guard captain and said: "Immediately send cavalry to other tribes to check the situation. Be quick and send more people."
Madd looked at his leader's expression and knew that the matter was very serious. After serving Ashur for so many years, he knew that he could not ask anything at this time, so he immediately agreed and went out to make arrangements. At this time, Tad held a
The bloody silver cup came in.
Looking at the silver cup placed on the table, Ashur was obviously stunned for a moment, and then asked helplessly: "Dead?"
Tad replied dully: "Yes, how can he continue to live if he lies in front of you?"
After hearing this, Ashur waved his hand indifferently, stood up, took a glass of wine, took a sip and continued: "Die, die, if he has a family, make arrangements, I mean find a good one."
He is here to inherit his property and take care of his family, do you understand? They have been killed, who do you want to order?"
Ashur scolded the son in front of him with a look of hatred on his face, then shook his head and continued: "How are the preparations for the boys?"
Tad blinked, as if wondering why his father suddenly asked about this matter, but he still answered straightforwardly: "They have been ready for a long time, but you said they can't take action until spring, everyone is waiting.
.”
"There is no need to wait until it gets warmer next year. We should inform the captains of all sizes and let them get ready. After lunch, we are going to run north. Tell them to wear thicker clothes because it is going to snow. They also know what this means.
What are you wearing?"
Although he didn't understand why his father suddenly changed the order, Tad knew that the war he liked was coming soon, and a cruel smile appeared on his naive face, and he replied: "I know, who would...
If he is not ready before lunch, I will definitely break his legs."
Looking at his son who only knew violence in front of him, Ashur wanted to say something, but in the end he waved his hand helplessly and sent him out. He picked up the silver cup on the table and started drinking. At this moment, he really couldn't think of anything.
Understand, why does the guy opposite who calls himself the king dare to take action against me at this time? Is my analysis all along wrong? Impossible! Or is it that the old bastard in the fancy robe deceived me?
In any case, Ashur knew that his losses at this time must be extremely heavy. The more he thought about it, the angrier he became and he threw the silver cup in his hand violently. With a "Peng" sound, the red wine was scattered on the floor, and a few grains of it were scattered on the ground.
The scattered gems rolled down to the corner of the room, emitting little bits of light under the light.
And dozens of kilometers away, Allen, who had stayed up all night because of chasing the enemy, was currently observing the Dongyi camp in the distance with a telescope. This was his last target. This time Allen had no intention of attacking at all.
No matter how much scouts he cleared or what news he blocked, as long as he destroyed the stronghold in front of him, eighty percent of his plan would have been completed. Then he would immediately join Thorin's dwarf army and retreat together.
At this time, a bird flew down and chatted with Kress. Soon, Kress said with a somewhat unhappy face: "Boss, that stinky elf said that the mission
It failed. Although he killed the last enemy cavalry, he also alerted the others in Dongyi, and now he is rushing back."
Allen frowned when he heard this. He knew that since Hermione's mission had failed, he must have alerted his biggest opponent, the Dongyi commander Ashur who is entrenched here. This is a
A man who acts decisively and extremely shrewdly.
At this time, there are actually only two choices before Allen. One is to risk attacking the Dongyi camp in front of him tonight, and after completing the plan, go north to join Thorin's dwarf troops. The other is to give up the plan immediately and retreat.
I'll have a chance to compete with Ashur in the future.
For Allen, this was not a difficult choice at all. After hesitating for less than a minute, Allen said to Kress: "Notify everyone to gather at Bamond's camp, and by the way, let your raven companions
Send a message to Thorin, saying that my plan failed and did not achieve the planned goal. The Dongyi army may have attacked my position. Now, I need his help and hope he can join me as soon as possible.