"Jack, are you really prepared for the dangers that are to come?" Fabian asked Jack after a long sigh. He could see the same proud and fearless spirit emanating from Jack as before.
Nodding heavily, Jack said stubbornly, "Yes, I've made up my mind.
Seeing Jack's insistence, Fabian shook his head and said nothing more. In his heart he understood that Jack had finally grown up. Maybe a little temperance wasn't a bad thing at Jack's age. Not to mention that Fabian knew that Han Shuo would definitely take good care of Jack and would never allow his friend to get hurt.
Fabian's silence meant that he was no longer against the idea. Jack then turned to Han Shuo with eyes full of expectation. Han Shuo, half a head taller than Jack, stood in front of him and patted him on the shoulder. He said sincerely, "Don't rush into such a decision for now. Stay in Brettel City for a few days. Let me know when you've thought things through clearly.
Brettel City wouldn't be quite so peaceful for the next few days. Maybe when Jack sees the cruel realities of war for himself, he'll automatically drop this idea, Han Shuo thought to himself.
Han Shuo didn't discuss this topic with Jack any further. However, he was more interested in Jack's favourite girl, Jessica, and asked all sorts of questions about her.
From Jack's stammering answers, Han Shuo came to understand that the girl named Jessica was the daughter of a small nobleman. Her father had done some business with the Boozt Merchant Guild and had met Jack as he'd often visited Boozt. At the time, Jack's love was one-sided. He was a mere accountant for the merchant guild, so of course he couldn't attract the attention of the nobleman's daughter. Not to mention that Jack's chubby body had no advantages in his favour.
Jack had also found out about Jessica's ideal man by using cunning methods to extract this information. In the aristocracy-dominated Profound Continent, even Phoebe, the owner of the Boozt Merchant Guild, wasn't accepted by the upper class. How could Jack, a small accountant, be accepted?
Jack now hoped that Han Shuo would help him out of his fanatical love for Jessica and perhaps out of his truly motivated attitude.
The cheerful atmosphere continued throughout the banquet, the guests feeling very much at home. Outside the City Lord's mansion, the civilians who'd heard the news were reluctant to disperse and kept coming. The temptation of free food had exceeded Han Shuo's imagination. The hired servants were busy all day, but still couldn't keep up. This situation dragged on until the sun set behind the mountains and the veil of night was about to cover the earth. It was only after the Knights' friendly persuasion that the crowd of civilians finally dispersed.
The previous night had been moonless. Tonight it was conspicuously bright, as if the moon were making up for yesterday's day off. Standing in the highest bell tower of the city lord's mansion, Han Shuo looked out over Brettel City bathed in moonlight. Brettel City was huge, covering an enormous area. Houses occupied every stretch of land up to the city gates in four directions, capable of housing millions of inhabitants.
Brettel City had originally been built as a military base from which to attack the Seven Great Duchies. Even after many vicissitudes and humiliations, Brettel City still stood proud. Had it not suffered the severe retaliation of the Seven Grand Duchies after many failed attempts to conquer it, Brettel City would probably be one of the strongest cities in the Lancelot Empire.
A lot of gold coins had been spent on the renovation of Brettel City. Han Shuo hadn't held back in raising and improving the city walls. In addition to the six terrifyingly powerful magic crystal cannons, many war chariots and stone-throwing catapults now filled the originally empty posts along the wall. Various pieces of equipment of great firepower had been assembled.
Brettel City had just begun to show its fangs like the ferocious, gigantic war machine it was. Having invested millions of gold coins, it was ready to crush any arrogant, ambitious invaders who dared to come.
From the direction of Seamist City, a brigade of a thousand men was gradually making its way back. This brigade of soldiers belonged to Dorcas. Their shining weapons and sturdy armour were on a completely different level than those of last night. Each sword was worth at least three gold coins, and each set of armour and helmet was worth at least five gold coins, as they were forged from the finest steel.
In addition, each soldier was equipped with other sharp, nimble weapons, such as daggers, which were worth over ten gold coins. However, there were soldiers who should have been knights, but were temporarily assigned to infantry units due to a lack of warhorses. War horses were a scarce resource even in Lancelot's kingdom. In fact, the Seven Great Duchies were experts at breeding horses. It was a pity that Han Shuo hadn't found a way to buy them from them.
A thousand soldiers on war horses marched orderly towards Brettel City under Dorcas' leadership. These people must have been through many battles, each looking distant with a subtle gleam of madness in their eyes. Their armour and weapons had been polished to a shine, but the bloodstains on their clothing underneath were obvious.
From the highest point of the city lord's mansion, Han Shuo looked down at Dorcas for a while before whispering to himself in satisfaction, "Three days, twelve bandit groups. Out of the thousand soldiers who set out, nine hundred and sixty have returned safely. Only forty dead. Quite a talent indeed!"
Half an hour later, Dorcas had changed into a clean outfit and walked under the moonlight towards the city lord's mansion. Han Shuo met him in the living room.
"Dorcas, very well done. Have all twelve bandit groups been completely destroyed?" Han Shuo looked at the kneeling Dorcas and asked smilingly.
Shaking his head, Dorcas looked up at Han Shuo and said, "Sir Count, there are still over seven hundred of them alive."
Han Shuo frowned and still did not allow Dorcas to stand up. His finger unconsciously tapped the arm of his chair. He squinted at Dorcas and asked, "Dorcas. You led a thousand soldiers out of here. With your methods, you wouldn't have allowed seven hundred bandits to escape, would you?"
Dorcas looked up at Han Shuo, his expression unchanged as he replied, "Sir Count, twelve bandit groups have been completely destroyed, all obstacles between Seamist and Brettel City have been cleared. But your humble servant doesn't think that blind killing is a good way. The crimes of those seven hundred bandits aren't enough to sentence them to death. They were only helpless and forced to commit crimes to survive.
"This servant believes that if Your Lordship wants Brettel City to develop as quickly as possible, a correspondingly soft policy is needed, apart from the weapon of mass slaughter. The bandits are easily tamed. Once they have experienced some moderation, they will sincerely submit to you, my lord. They will also become your fierce and loyal warriors."
Han Shuo was silent for a while after hearing Dorcas' words. Then he looked at Dorcas and slowly nodded as he said, "Dorcas, your words aren't wrong. I hadn't really thought it through. Hm. Then you must have recruited all seven hundred of these bandits, but why don't I see them?"
Dorcas nodded his head, still on one knee as he hadn't been ordered to stand. He said respectfully, "That is correct. Seven hundred and forty-two bandits have all surrendered and are clearing the battlefield by my order. My Lord, the road from Seamist City to Brettel City is littered with the rotting corpses of refugees. This kind of situation is very detrimental to the development of Brettel City, so I've ordered the bandits to remove all the eyesores from the roadside."
"Very good, Dorcas, that's very considerate of you. Mm, right, all your people are back. Aren't you afraid that the bandits will run away?" Han Shuo first praised the other before asking sceptically.
"My Lord, you may not know that the lives of those bandits are no better than those of the refugees. I only promised to give them the same treatment as ordinary soldiers in Brettel City, and they agreed without hesitation." Dorcas replied before pausing for a moment. He took out a large bundle and handed it to Han Shuo with both hands as he said, "A total of thirty seven thousand gold coins were found after raiding the twelve bandit groups. There was also silver, jade and ores worth several thousand gold coins, which the soldiers are now transporting to the warehouse. As for some worthless weapons, I left them in the cave of a bandit group for now, as they were too heavy and their value wasn't very high. I felt there was no need to bring them back, so I left them there."
"Good. Well done. You've thought this out very well. Rise. I will record your achievement of great merit. As long as you keep this up, you'll get what you want sooner or later!" Han Shuo looked deeply at Dorcas and said, "Brettel City is your stage. It seems that you are slowly getting used to your new position. Our empire has sent the great armies to the seven duchies in the east, but we haven't been able to dominate them. But now that we're here, we must seize the opportunity to rise to new heights. We will show the mediocre talents of the Empire, who couldn't do it, how we do it".
"Your servant vows to follow you to the end, my lord!" Dorcas let out a loud cry. He stood up straight in front of Han Shuo, like another invincible Demonslayer Edge.
"Very well then, you are dismissed. The gold coins are temporarily in your custody, consider them the capital for the armour and weapons of the seven hundred newly recruits." Han Shuo signalled Dorcas' dismissal. After he left, Han Shuo fell into silence, pondering over Dorcas' words about tempting the bandits. He felt that there was indeed some truth in his words.
Two days later, early in the morning.
Dick rushed over to Han Shuo with a report: "My Lord, several large bandit groups of the same size as Troda's group are gathering in a forest over six miles away from Brettel City. I received this information from a member of the Dark Mantle who is on a mission in one of the duchies. I have heard that these bandit groups have a total of fifteen thousand people, all of whom are ready to rush over and plunder our city with a vengeance.
"It's about time they came!" Han Shuo snorted coldly, then said, "Send some people to keep an eye on their whereabouts. Fifteen thousand bandits? This will be the first real challenge that Brettel City will have to face!"
"My Lord, do you want to notify the mountain tribe chiefs? It's too dangerous this time with just the three thousand soldiers guarding Brettel City. The mountain people might be able to help us!" Dick suggested.
Han Shuo shook his head and said, "Not for now. This is a test for us. The results of this battle will determine if I can make them do my bidding in the future. Huh! Even though we only have a little over three thousand soldiers, the walls of Brettel City are no longer as tattered as before. I've spent so many gold coins on Brettel City! Do you think it's that easy to destroy?"
Han Shuo dared to say this because he was quite confident. The soldiers could hide on the high city walls and wait for the enemies to exhaust themselves while they used their new equipment, such as the large war chariots, fire and stone-throwing catapults, to attack from below. The six magic crystal cannons were no frills either. If the worst came to the worst, Han Shuo could summon the great undead army to join the battle. He believed that it wouldn't be that easy for fifteen thousand bandits to break into the current Brettel City.
The entire Brettel City had unwittingly gone on high alert. Groups of soldiers were dragging huge boulders through the streets. However, for some unknown reason, the war chariots and giant magic crystal cannons that the citizens had grown accustomed to seeing on a daily basis were tightly wrapped in grey cloth, as if afraid of being discovered.
The initially indifferent civilians began to take an interest in this new city lord. In addition to the Tali Mountain bandits being wiped out, there was also news that a dozen bandit groups had been wiped out between Seamist City and Brettel City.
In addition, an endless stream of food had been distributed to them from the city lord's mansion at yesterday's food festival. For once, the civilians had been treated to a fine, filling meal. Their confidence in the city was slowly growing.
However, they were used to the City Lords betraying them at critical moments. With the real crisis yet to come, it was still unknown whether this new City Lord was worthy of their trust. Therefore, the civilians had yet to sympathise with the new City Lord. They just watched the changes in Brettel City quietly and with a wary eye.
After another day, the four gates of Brettel City were all closed tightly. Merchants and civilians alike were forbidden to leave. From time to time, soldiers appeared at the four gates, their watchful eyes scanning the scene outside. Several small teams of knights on warhorses rode tirelessly around the city.
Though the knights didn't say anything, the citizens of Brettel City had seen too many painful wars. They could smell a familiar scent in the air.
War was coming!