Although spring rain is as precious as oil, the rain this time is really too little. There has been almost no rain in the past half month. It is not a good thing to be sunny every day.
If it doesn't rain again, a spring drought seems inevitable. Production in the North has been largely destroyed this year. If another spring drought occurs, life in the coming year will probably be even more difficult.
Only the Hunter Territory, under Richard's governance, had built a lot of water conservancy facilities, and the situation was slightly better.
However, these things are not what Richard needs to worry about for the time being.
Based on the reconnaissance of the Sentinels and Griffins, Richard has completely determined the number and movements of the ogres.
A total of three thousand ogres, carrying tens of thousands of kobolds, rushed straight towards them, frightening the small nobles on the road so much that they huddled in the castle and shivered.
In contrast, a group of men and horses dressed in slightly chaotic clothes were marching towards the southwest. There was no way, except for the more than 2,000 people of the Flying Bear Army, whose armors were relatively uniform, the armies of other lords all had their own attire.
, but I finally got the armor together, and it looks pretty powerful.
After integrating several troops, Richard decided to take the initiative. The team was a bit chaotic, but it still had combat effectiveness. Anyway, there was nothing worth defending along the way. Without reinforcements, he retreated.
Entering the castle and being surrounded makes you passive.
This road is full of dilapidated villages. It's okay in Bande Territory. Not long after the ogres started to wreak havoc, they only harmed one or two villages. The more you go southwest, the more and more refugees there are.
Many lords in this direction have completely given up on the people under their rule and closed their castles tightly, just to protect themselves.
Although there are many refugees fleeing on the road, the scene of remains on the roadside and thousands of miles away from people has not appeared yet.
After all, the ogre disaster has just begun. The Northern Territory has been stable for so many years, and the common people still have some food in hand. However, this year's spring farming has been greatly damaged. By next year, there may not be enough food.
Surrounded by a group of nobles, Richard rode a horse from the West and walked at the front of the team.
The refugees along the road basically did not dare to approach the coalition army when they saw it. Most of them avoided the army in advance. Some brave ones would observe it from a distance, and maybe they would also guess in their hearts whether these troops could defeat the ogres.
Drive away.
Richard also noticed these refugees. When he saw this group of refugees dragging their families with them, fleeing like headless flies, Richard suddenly thought of something.
"Quil"
"Master Richard"
Quill was located a little further back, but he could still hear Richard's call and quickly answered.
"Send some people to collect the refugees and guide them to Hunter Territory for Manager Egg to resettle them."
"Yes, Master."
The Northland has a short development time and there is no shortage of land. There is still enough wasteland in the Hunter Territory to accommodate more people. Population and land are the foundation of a feudal regime. Richard will never give up the opportunity to increase the territory's population.
And he recruited these refugees to give them a chance to survive. After going to the Hunter Territory, they should have some relief in the coming year, and there is still a chance of survival. Now in the North, except for the Hunter Territory, Piaoxue City may not have much food left.
"well"
After giving instructions to Quill, Richard sighed softly involuntarily.
"Why do you sigh, my lord?"
As soon as Baron Band set out on the road, he took up a position beside and behind Richard. He was so close to Richard that he even heard Richard's slight sigh.
"The ogres are raging and people's livelihood is difficult."
Richard's words are somewhat sincere, although for Richard, he is the profiteer from this ogre invasion. If the ogres had not broken the order in the north,
The Hunter family had no chance to expand their power several times, and he, Richard, had no chance to lead the coalition forces as a knight without title and be surrounded by a group of nobles.
After all, chaos is an upward ladder, and heroes are born in response to the times.
But after all, Richard is not a hard-hearted hero. Even though his two lives have made him quite rational, he still can't help but feel a little compassion when looking at this group of refugees with sallow faces and frightened expressions.
"Master Richard is kind! With Master Richard leading us, our army will definitely win this battle."
Baron Bender still complimented him habitually, or perhaps with a little sincerity.
"Ah"
Richard nodded to Baron Band, smiled self-deprecatingly, and cursed secretly in his heart.
"Pretentious"
If you ask the common people or the ghosts and gods, you have to climb to that position before you are eligible to choose.
"Send my order, speed up, and arrive at the reserved location to camp before dark!"
"Boost!"
"Boost!"
After Richard's mind cleared up, the whole team seemed to have regained its vitality.
…
A castle to the southwest,
The castle has lost its original aristocratic style and is now a scene of hell on earth.
There are no living people in the castle, and there are terrifying ogres standing around.
If you want to find the original owner of the castle, you may only be able to find a trace in the boiling iron pot.
"Master Hachi, according to your instructions, the city gate has been completely destroyed and several sections of the city wall have been demolished."
An ogre wearing fairly exquisite heavy armor was sitting on the steps of the castle hall listening to his subordinates' report.
Hachi was the captain of this thousand-man team. According to Grugesh's order, Hachi led a thousand-man team and four recruited small tribes directly to the second area of the Bander Territory.
Hachi strictly followed Grugesh's orders, basically ignoring most of the human lords' castles along the way, but forcibly captured a small baron's castle on the last stretch of the road.
It seems that this lord is unlucky. The location of this castle happens to be not far from the battlefield that Hachi has reserved. It is also perfectly blocking Hachi's back path.
In order to prevent the rear areas from being harassed by the humans in this castle during the war, Hachi took advantage of the fact that the coalition forces led by Richard had not arrived and captured this obstructive castle in one fell swoop.
The reason why the castle is being destroyed now is because the ogres are not good at defending the city, and the size of the castle makes it uncomfortable for the ogres to live in. It is better to destroy it to avoid being used by humans.
"Where is that human army?"
"According to the kobold's report, they should collide with us after tonight."
After all, the direct descendants of Grugesh have been trained for a longer period of time, and they have basically possessed the basic qualities of an army. Although they cannot compare with Richard's detection methods, they can still detect large groups of human armies in advance on the plains.
"Send the order, tonight, let the soldiers have a good rest tonight, and tomorrow we will fight to the death with humans."
No matter what tricks you use to eliminate several tribes, you will be completely crushed tomorrow.
Hachi is very confident about tomorrow's battle. Humans only have 7,000 troops, but he has nearly 3,000 ogres, and one thousand of them are direct descendants who are fully armored. He can crush this human army with his eyes closed.