When Aaron saw his men leading those captives and even more local people into the castle, as if transformed into wild beasts, he understood that he had achieved victory today.
By the time the sun had risen high, news of the breach of Davis Castle had spread throughout the nearby area.
Many locals with covered faces joined the ravenous mob, acting like thugs.
He simply guarded the main gate of the castle, not refusing any of the thugs; he allowed them to enter the castle, explore one hall after another, discover one secret passage after another, confront and wear down the enemy, and even remove every nail from the big gate.
"Almost there..."
Aaron looked at the chaotic castle and motioned for Sanchez and others to follow him into the hall.
Blood was everywhere in the corridor. If his men had forcefully attacked, they would have suffered heavy losses.
However, at this point, there were very few casualties among Aaron's men.
Screams and maniacal laughter echoed from the various rooms. In the main hall, several bandits with bottles of wine draped in silk roamed about, some dressed in torn-down curtains.
The robbers instinctively divided into groups, confronting each other but not daring to face the regular army.
"To quickly break through the castle, my spoils of war will be significantly reduced..."
With this thought, Aaron arrived deep into the castle.
This was his deserved share, an area that the unruly thugs didn't dare trespass; those who did had already been reduced to corpses.
At this moment, behind a door, the suppressed sobbing of a young woman could be heard.
Upon hearing this, the smile on the men's faces turned mischievous.
"I remember saying that the spoils and women would be distributed equally!"
Aaron's expression suddenly darkened. He knew the nature of his men, and it was unlikely that he could impose restrictions.
However, blatantly defying orders like this would decrease the fighting power of his men. If they all behaved like this, they would quickly lose their advantage as a regular army, unable to suppress the thugs. They might not even be able to leave this territory!
Bang!
With a cold face, Aaron stepped forward and kicked open the door.
Inside the room, there was clearly a lady's boudoir, with curtains made of silk shielding the velvet bed.
At the moment, several dead thugs littered the floor, and a man was undressing himself. Seeing Aaron, he hastily pulled up his pants, his face quickly revealing an embarrassed smile: "Boss, let me explain... it wasn't me who did it, it was those thugs."
"Yeah, it wasn't you who did it, but you were just about to do it..."
Aaron directly approached and hit Ba Zhi on the back with the scabbard of his sword.
Bang!
Ba Zhi's body swayed, and a scarlet trace appeared on his back.
Aaron continued forward, using his sword to lift the curtain and saw a tearful face: "Hilver Davis?"
She was the only daughter of Lord Davis and Colin's fiancée, the heroine who brought about this war.
Aaron had seen her at their engagement ceremony, remembering her as a proud woman, but now...
"Take this woman with you; she might be useful."
Regardless of the woman's condition, Aaron gave the order and asked, "What about Lady Anna?"
"That woman was hacked to death in the next room, along with a few children!"
Ba Zhi answered with a sense of regret. It would have been much better if Sir had arrived a little later.
As for the heir to the Davis Domain, he was fighting on the battlefield alongside Lord Davis.
"Take all the spoils and leave this place. We must board the ship before noon!"
Aaron nodded, glanced at the corpses, and gave the order.
Even if someone reported it, it would take time for the reinforcements to arrive from the front line. As long as they boarded the ship and sailed downstream, they would certainly escape!
In any case, he was determined not to defend the castle to the bitter end, dying together with the enemy army only to have Colin benefit in the end.
That's not realistic!
...
When the sun reached the middle of the sky, the two ships had already set sail.
"If Father is astute enough, he should have prepared upon receiving my letter... And the chaos of the enemy's army is the best sign."
"If we seize this opportunity, we can completely end this war."
Aaron Sotos stood at the bow of the ship, looking at the boxes of spoils and secretly thinking.
The sooner the war ends, the fewer people will die.
Compared to that, today's sacrifices are nothing.
If the war continues, perhaps ten times, even a hundred times more people will die than today!
"However, my main goal is still for myself."
Aaron heard a low sobbing sound coming from the young women; they were all 'spoils of war,' including maids in the castle and nannies with a bit of beauty. After all, Aaron's men were animals.
Of course, there was also a gem among them - Hilver Davis.
He had a premonition that this woman would be quite useful.
"And from now on, the war has little to do with me."
Aaron took a deep breath.
...
Widow Bay Camp.
Two ships were anchored outside the camp, and a group of jubilant robbers were excitedly preparing to split their spoils.
"I will divide this loot into three parts: one part for the lord, one part for me, and one part for you all!"
Aaron Sotos took out a pen and paper and began allocating the spoils.
Since there were so many things, including livestock and women, it was a bit messy for a while.
"Also... All the books belong to me."
Aaron picked up a book bound in papyrus, which was almost falling apart.
After all, before he invented the paper mill, the most used in the Green Forest was still papyrus. This type of paper was inferior to parchment, and its only advantage was cheapness. Later, new paper completely crushed it and drove it out of the market.
However, before the paper mill operation, precious parchment was rarely used, so most of the books were still made of papyrus.
"As you wish, Sir!"
Ba Zhi bowed.
"Don't think this will get you out of that whipping."
Aaron snorted coldly. As punishment for disobeying military orders, even though the evil act did not succeed, a whipping was inevitable.
As he rummaged through the box filled with papers, he suddenly felt something and took out a piece of parchment. He knew right away that the information recorded on it must be extremely valuable.
After secretly placing away the parchment scroll, he pointed to the box filled with silver coins and copper coins: "Divide it, small team leader take a double share, plus whoever wants women and livestock will have a reduced share!"
After putting forth a generally fair allocation plan, Aaron didn't care about his men's wild celebrations and returned to his tent to study the parchment scroll.
Upon opening it, a dark map emerged.
"So, it's a map."
Aaron's eyes showed interest as he looked at the map. He saw that the top half of the map had about a third of forest, marked as 'Green Forest.'
And then, at the bottom of the map, there were castles guarding all the convenient transportation points, forming a kingdom.
'Kagash Kingdom... The true ruler of this land, I have heard of its reputation...'
'But in the hearts of the people of that kingdom, we Green Forest people are probably just barbaric monkeys living in the forest, right?'