In the yard, Tia kept scolding Locke Senior, who was standing on the other side with his head down. "How can you feed the horse rotten potatoes and leftover rice?"
"It's just an animal. How would I know it's so delicate?" Locke Senior quipped.
"Do you think it's a donkey?" Tia put her hands on her hips and raised her voice when Locke Senior dared to talk back to her.
Locke twitched his mouth speechlessly. The animals in the village, such as cows and pigs, would indeed eat anything. Not to mention spoiled food, they would even chew rotten grass roots and dry tree bark with gusto.
However, those were domesticated animals. Warhorses were different.
As far as Locke knew, his horse was usually taken care of by a special breeder hired by the baron. It ate a mixture of fine wheat and soybeans, which was even better than the soldiers in the army.
That was why horses were more expensive than humans. Apart from the value of the horse itself, the cost of taking care of the horses was also not a small amount.
Cardoj was the only one who could afford a cavalry platoon because he had De Sandro as his backing. Few barons or even viscounts could form a cavalry platoon.
"It's okay. I'll get someone to take a look at it. It won't die." Locke Senior stopped the two who were arguing.
"You won't have to pay for it, will you?" Locke Senior asked softly as he brought Locke aside.
"Nope!" Locke smiled. The horse had a stomachache, but it wasn't seriously injured. Locke didn't have to get someone to take care of it. It would probably recover in half a day.
Warhorses that survived on the battlefield all had strong vitality, and Locke's was one of the best of them all.
Since he couldn't ride to town, he didn't bother to walk. He had completed his mission anyway, so he just had to wait for Hanses and the others to return.
In the afternoon, Hanses, Kane and a group of soldiers from Maple Village returned.
"How was it? Did Uncle Yoshk and the others return to town? "Locke asked.
"They're all back!" Hanses replied.
Kane, who was on the other side, exclaimed, "My opponents are trash. I haven't even gotten serious yet and they're already down."
"Yeah, that 'Boulder Brothers' were crushed to death by my brother." Hank had probably been with Kane for a long time. Even his tone was very similar.
"What about you? Did you get anything?" Locke asked Hank with a smile.
Hank became shy and hesitated for a long time before saying, "No, it wasn't my turn yet. My brother and the others took care of all the thieves."
"Haha …" Everyone around him burst into laughter.
Kane's words were half true and half false. It wasn't that he couldn't make a move, but that he wasn't allowed to make a move at all.
Hanses was very protective of his brother. Hank had only been in the army for a few months and had not even participated in a real battle once. How could Hanses let him take risks?
On the other hand, Hank did not have the guts to risk his life. Other than his glib tongue, his other weakness was his cowardice.
However, being a scout didn't require courage. Kane didn't give up on teaching Hank because of Hank's small faults.
The soldiers of Quarryton didn't suffer any losses in this operation. Only a dozen of them were slightly injured due to carelessness.
Only the civilians of Quarryton, who had never seen such a big scene, would consider it an injury. For example, one of the veterans didn't take the scratch on his arm seriously at all.
These three groups of thieves were the largest near Quarryton. In just a day and a half, they were wiped out by the returning soldiers, causing the remaining groups of thieves to be alarmed.
Some of the shrewd leaders had already quietly moved their subordinates to the territories of other nobles.
At present, only Cardoj had returned with the main force of the local nobles in Dor. The rest of the nobles were still suppressing the uprisings in Shalor.
After leaving Cardoj's territory, there were plenty of places for them to do whatever they wanted. They just needed to fight for territory again.
On the other hand, some of the less intelligent thieves who wanted to go head-to-head with Cardoj's soldiers were in trouble.
For the next week, Locke spent almost half of his time on horseback. The soldiers of Quarryton seemed to have returned to the days when they were fighting in Shalor. Every day, fragile lives were lost under their swords.
Holding a bright yellow longsword, Locke slit the neck of the last bandit in his hand and sheathed the sword that was dripping with blood.
This was a group of bandits that gathered on a mountain ridge between Quarryton and Luoxia. They were also the group of bandits that was the furthest from Quarryton.
In the past week, the soldiers of Quarryton had almost massacred the area around Quarryton. The countless bandits that had been rampant here for years were wiped out by the soldiers one by one. Apart from those who fled when they realized that something was wrong, only a few escaped and hid in the dark, trembling in fear.
This was the last target.
"Let's go!" Locke called out. The cavalrymen got on their horses and followed behind him with their spoils of war.
Billy had never felt so refreshed before. The grey forces that had been suppressing the civilians of Quarryton had been wiped out within a week.
Not only did the soldiers bring back a safe living environment, but they also brought back a lot of wealth.
As the mayor, many of Billy's relatives relied on him to open some shops in the town.
In the past few years, because of the war, people didn't have enough to eat and the level of consumption was very low. These shops could only guarantee that they wouldn't lose money. But now, especially this week, these merchants had made a lot of money.
There were only about two thousand people in Quarryton, including the villagers of the village. In just a few years, these two thousand people had supported nearly three hundred bandits of various sizes, which showed how terrifying it was.
Faced with the accumulated wealth of these bandits, the soldiers who had just made a fortune in Shalor didn't care about it. But the townspeople of Quarryton were different. They were dazzled by the pile of copper derahls.
Yes, it was copper derahls, which was the main currency in circulation in a small place like Quarryton.
As for silver derahls, it was very likely that it would be difficult for the seller to get change.
Locke ignored the feast of loot distribution. He might be a little interested if these copper derahls were exchanged for silver derahls.
The continuous operation to suppress bandits in Cardoj's territory for more than a week really shocked the bandits who had been in the territory for years.
Not only Quarryton, but Rocky Town, Harvest Town, and Luoxia Town were also bustling with activity. The soldiers led by Cardoj taught the bandits, who could only bully civilians, a vivid lesson. The tuition fee was their lives.
With a few towns and villages as the centre, there was almost no bandits' nest in a radius of two hundred miles.
Only some of the more remote areas in the territory still had bandits.
The atmosphere in Cardoj's territory was shaken. Overnight, everyone didn't close their doors at night.
When the commoners in other territories saw this, they suffered greatly and secretly ran to Cardoj's territory to settle down. The baron warmly welcomed them and arranged a residence for every commoner who came to seek refuge.
Not only Cardoj's territory, but the entire kingdom's young and strong labourers had suffered great losses during the five-year war. At this time, talent was fundamental. The more people there were, the more prosperous the territory would be.
In order not to let Cardoj's territory, which was about to expand into a viscount's territory, fall into an awkward situation where there were too few people, Cardoj waved his hoe and ruthlessly poached the nobles next door.
In fact, the baron ordered the suppression of bandits not only for the sake of stability in the territory, but also for another reason. He wanted to drive these bandits to the territories of other nobles.
When the commoners living under the rule of other nobles saw that Cardoj's territory was stable and prosperous, while the place where they lived was filled with chaos and danger from time to time, they were able to make a decision as long as they weren't stupid.
In the following month, there was a wave of immigration in the other noble territories around Cardoj's territory.
Many commoners risked being imprisoned and hanged by their lords to go to Cardoj's territory to enjoy a peaceful life.
Locke's vision wasn't that high, so he couldn't see the changes in the entire territory. He had been very busy recently. What was he busy with? He was busy with the wedding banquet.
Before the soldiers returned, the ratio of men to women of the right age was 1: 5 because almost all the young men had gone to join the army.
Now that the soldiers had returned, the ratio of men to women of the right age had changed to 1: 3.
Currently, there were more than 2,000 commoners in Quarryton, and about 500 of them were of marriageable age. There were less than 200 men, and the rest were all women.
There were at least 200 girls in Quarryton who couldn't get married. Why? Because the men who were supposed to be their husbands had died at the frontline.
Although the atmosphere in Quarryton had always been joyous after the soldiers returned from the frontline, it had always been dead silent before this.
Since the end of the war five years ago, a total of more than 300 young men had joined the army. So far, only a hundred or so had returned.
Quarryton looked harmonious and stable on the outside, but it was actually filled with bitterness and tears.
The soldiers who returned were now all popular in Quarryton.
Whether it was their rich pockets or their innate advantage as men, the women in Quarryton went crazy for them.
Hans's family, for example, had almost broken the threshold of their house. It was all because of the marriage between Hans and Hank.
As for Locke, he was even more annoyed.
He was currently attending the engagement ceremony of a soldier from Maple Village. Since the soldier was also from the cavalry platoon, it was only right for him to attend.
"Do your best!" Locke patted the soldier's shoulder. Since he was a member of the cavalry platoon, he might have a mission at any time, so he couldn't be the groom for the time being.
He had stayed at home for more than half a month, and he was going to visit Suzanne and the others. He hadn't seen them for more than half a month.
He also didn't know when Angelina would return. She said she would come back soon, but he hadn't received any news yet.
Locke wouldn't admit that he was stimulated by the recent weddings in Quarryton and Maple Village.