"We followed the paw prints all the way to the Blackwater River, and then we found that these strange beasts did not cross the river. They turned a corner by the river and continued to escape into the forest. Many of the strange beasts only saw traces of blood, but no traces of blood.
If you look at the body, it must have been dragged into the lair by the beastmen or those werewolves."
In early winter, the temperature had dropped to an unbearable level. After Walter and Lawrence had rested, Rhodes called them back up. He wanted to know the situation outside the castle. Although the castle looked very strong,
Reliable, but compared to city walls and towers, Rhodes believes in circumstances and hard power. A lord without intelligence is a wolf that has lost its sense of smell. No matter how strong a castle is, it is useless when it encounters large-scale siege weapons. Rhodes's wish is to hope that in the future
Be better prepared before the enemy arrives. Of course, many small town residents don't actually think so.
"Are there many corpses? I mean alien beasts and normal animals."
Rhodes sat in his exclusive seat and asked seriously.
"More...more than in previous years. Moreover, you can see that many prey were not killed by long-range weapons, but directly hacked to death or bitten to death."
Ranger Lawrence answered. There was a hint of uneasiness in his gray eyes. Obviously, without the lord's analysis, he could already judge the horror of this tide of alien beasts. In human hunting methods, spears or bows and arrows are used to hunt from a distance.
Shoot the prey at a distance, wait for the prey to be injured, run away, and bleed to death. At this time, the hunter walks up and kills the prey. However, these beasts and werewolves are obviously not like this. They go directly, using their own speed and strength
Suppressing prey is something that normal humans cannot do. And the more corpses like this, the more beastmen there are.
Rhodes also had the same worries. The intelligence in recent days was not good news, so he made preparations early and ordered people to sell more ore reserves in the castle and purchase more bows, arrows and javelins in preparation.
When the beastmen besiege the city, you can use long-range weapons to drive them back.
The castle is the people's strongest line of defense, but the castle guarded by Rhodes is not large in scale. Black Hammer Castle is located in the barren northern wasteland, and the food reserves cannot be too large. Therefore, once the blood moon comes, the beastmen will
When the werewolves and werewolves attacked in large numbers, there were naturally not many refugees to take in. This is why many people left the town long before winter arrived.
There is a deep mine near Black Hammer Castle, which is the only reason to attract those civilians to come here. As a lord, Rhodes’ salary and remuneration to everyone are not low. This is why Black Hammer Castle still has hundreds of people.
residents’ reasons.
"Beast men, werewolves... By the way, Muros, is there any news about the trading ship sent to the empire in autumn?"
The two men reported to each other word by word. After Rhodes probably knew the situation, he asked about another matter. This was done by dragging the butler Muros.
This was an old man in his fifties. Based on his memory, Rhodes knew that this butler had worked with his family for most of his life, so he could probably trust him to do many things.
"Not yet, I guess I won't be able to come back in a short time. The coastline is blocked by the Norscans. It's good that they don't go ashore to plunder. I haven't even received a letter. I guess Captain John is hiding in the imperial port.
I don’t dare to come out yet.”
replied Muros, the loyal steward.
Rhodes was a little disappointed, but he couldn't blame himself. Blackhammer Castle was in a remote area, and the only source of income in the territory was the mine. After a year of excavation, workers' wages were deducted, and they could only accumulate money in the autumn. He wanted to buy the empire.
Firearms are not a small expense.
In fact, Black Hammer Castle still has room for development. Rhodes knows that although the climate here is cold, there are large plains areas around the town that can be cultivated. The soil is relatively fertile, and it is possible to harvest once a year. In addition,
There are a large number of log resources in the Black Forest, which are all channels for development and prosperity. However, due to the special geographical environment here, it is located at the northernmost tip of the Kingdom of Kislev and is full of old forces left by Chaos. The castle cannot accommodate too many
There are so many civilians that every winter, a large number of civilians will be lost and relocate to large towns in the south to avoid attacks by beasts and werewolves.
The population is too mobile and there are no permanent residents. As a result, the economy can never be upgraded to a higher level. Rhodes, a poor lord, will never be able to hire more soldiers. This is a vicious cycle.
On the contrary, if the town can be defended and civilians can be protected, then many industries will have the possibility to develop. To this end, Rhodes sent people to the empire to purchase firearms, trying to make civilians feel safer through advanced weapons.
But pirates are rampant, and this road is like walking on thin ice. As for going south to plead for the support of the kingdom's noble forces, don't even think about it. Firearms and magic are the key to dealing with beastmen. In a normal duel, one beastman can easily deal with five human adults.
, but with firearms and hiding in the castle, a human soldier can kill a dozen beastmen... Similarly, a wizard can also deal with a dozen or twenty beastmen and werewolves.
There is no shortage of wizards in Kislev, but the Snow Queen is a scammer. She continues the centuries-old tradition of this kingdom. All ice wizards must receive unified training and study in the capital. They must also obtain the approval of the principal of the magic academy wherever they go.
Only then. Blackhammer Castle is such a small place, and the Queen will never send her wizard here. Otherwise, high-paying Rhodes is acceptable.
Just when a few people were worrying about these nonsense, the rapid footsteps of guards sounded outside the door.
"Werewolf...we have caught the werewolf. Sir..."
The guards spoke intermittently because of their excitement, but the unexpected news still made everyone stand up from their stools immediately. Like Rhodes, Ranger Lawrence and Cavalry Walter also wanted to see what it would be like to capture a werewolf alive.
…
The cage where the werewolves were imprisoned was an iron prison car. In the small town square, hundreds of civilians gathered to watch. They rarely saw the werewolf prisoners, so they all stood next to the prison car and observed carefully. Their eyes were full of curiosity and curiosity.
With fear.
According to the guards, when capturing the werewolf, they did not catch the werewolf directly. They first set up a trap and used a whole sheep as bait, then caught him with a fishing net, and then shot him with poisonous arrows. When the guard told the whole story
During the process, Rhodes couldn't help but feel a little confused. It took so much effort to catch a clumsy werewolf, and it took several people working together to catch it. If it were on the battlefield, these human soldiers would be just appetizers for the werewolf...