customs clearance base

Chapter 1651 Rise (13)

The villagers near the iron mine used their leisurely evenings to transport the iron ore. If they were lucky, they could make two trips in one night, and they could spend all their taxes for the whole year in fifty days. Of course, the villagers would run away for such a good thing. He was extraordinarily diligent, and in just a dozen days, he had already piled up a mountain of iron in the back mountain warehouse in the blacksmith area.

The crowds weaving through, the bustling night market, and the busy blacksmiths, there was no tension in the iron tower fortress before the war, and the crowd inside did not show the slightest worry that the Kazakhs would break through this fortified fortress.

The Kazakh special envoy Alice, who followed the guards to the bedroom to rest, stopped. Standing on the high corridor of the castle, she could have a clear view of the bustling scene below. The continuous fire below made the sky red.

"Who are these people? What are they doing down there?"

Looking at the noisy scene inside the outer wall of the castle, Alice did not expect to see this scene in this well-defended fortress. This is not like a heavily guarded fortress at all, but more like a bustling medium-sized town.

Alice, who served as the special envoy this time, was not only the envoy of negotiations, but also the task of reconnaissance for the defense of the fortress.

"The sky and the earth are big, and eating is the biggest!"

The secret agents of the Kazakhs have already found out that several large grain-producing areas in the south of the empire are transporting a large amount of grain to the Iron Tower Fortress. It is conservatively estimated that the grain accumulated in the fortress may exceed one million shi, enough to feed all the Kazakh troops for two Year.

For Alice, who is in urgent need of food, Zhao Hu, who has occupied so much food, is a big customer. As long as he can get one-third of the food from his hands, all Kazakhs will not have to go back to the prairie hungry. .

Alice discovered that the previously dilapidated iron tower fortress had been re-fortified by the Roman Empire. The [-] or so defenders mentioned in the secret agent's report were still a conservative estimate.

Just looking at the large barracks covering an area of ​​nearly two miles and the many soldiers walking back and forth below, Alice thought there were at least 5000 people.If the farmers and merchants staying in the fortress are counted together, the strength of the fortress will definitely exceed the [-] mark.

Twenty thousand!It is almost two-thirds of the total number of the Kazakh southern invasion army, and the soldiers are all wearing excellent mail armor. Even when drinking, they don’t forget to put their weapons within a range that they can get at any time. The weapons glow red under the nearby torches ,

Despite the hustle and bustle below, there are still dozens of teams of soldiers patrolling the vicinity in an orderly manner. From these, Alice knows that these are not ordinary farmers and soldiers, but well-trained professional soldiers.

Alice thought to herself that there were no more than [-] elite Kazakh fighters, and it was just a dream to capture this well-defended and heavily guarded fortress, and the most elite steel-armored warriors had to be there.

The main force of the Kazakhs had already fallen into the quagmire of the siege of the imperial capital, and it was impossible to mobilize excess troops to attack a heavily guarded fortress.

Even a cavalry regiment stationed in the town of Hittairu was just brought by Alice from the royal court as a show. The Kazakh king has a strict order. Attack the fortress without authorization, because it was the last cavalry unit guarded by the Kazakh royal court.

This is also the helpless background for Alice to come to negotiate. If there are tens of thousands of elite soldiers in hand, the Kazakhs have already started attacking the iron tower, and they still need to negotiate with the iron tower fortress.

Alice, who is full of confidence, did not expect that Zhao Hu, who holds a large amount of food in his hand, has no sense of redeeming people, and instead puts on a rascal face who only recognizes money, which makes Alice who bears the heavy responsibility feel very headache.

The Kazakhs went south this time to rob a lot of money, but most of it was in the hands of the left guard king who was in charge of outflanking, and some of it fell into the hands of Prince Hasas, the deputy commander of the royal court guards, and finally stayed in the hands of the royal court guards. At most six 10,000+.

Wang Ting pays more attention to the number of captives in his hands. Those are the gold lumps that can be exchanged for large sums of gold coins. Instead of marching with heavy belongings, it is better to bring the golden lumps who can walk by themselves.

But now Alice finds out that the royal court was wrong. The emperors of the Roman Empire are like iron barrels surrounded by themselves. The 20 Roman defenders inside are worse than the Kazakhs. It is said that they are all eating people. Food is coming.

However, the Iron Tower Fortress, which holds food, is not interested in these captives at all, which makes the more than 100 noble captives useless in addition to consuming their own little food.

Zhao Hu still didn't know the pride of the Kazakhs. The news that the famous son of the eagle fell in the Suodalai mountain area in the south of the empire three months ago caused quite a stir among the Kazakh high-level officials.

The central radicals headed by King Zuowei believe that there are many hills in the south, which are not conducive to large-scale cavalry operations, and are easily ambushed by those cunning Romans. Attacking the south itself is a wrong plan. The prince confirmed that this speculation was correct with his own life.

Under the advice of King Zuowei, who advocated capturing the central region, Wang Ting had to give up his plan to divide his troops to the south and concentrate all his forces to attack the central region. Only then did the bloody siege of the imperial capital break out.

If Zhao Hu of the Iron Tower knew that it was his unintentional move that made the Kazakhs give up this plan that might conquer the entire Roman Empire, I don't know what he would think.

Alice knew from the Roman Empire military report intercepted two months ago that her deadly enemy, Prince Hasass, died at the hands of the wretched Zhao Hu, the iron tower.

And judging from the current construction situation inside the Iron Tower Fortress, it is estimated that the large amount of property that Hassas plundered did not escape the clutches of this dead Zhao Hu. You idiot, after working hard for half a year, you actually took advantage of a weak Zhao Hu, what a disgrace to the Kazakhs!"

If you want money and money, you need food and food, and you still have an elite army of tens of thousands in your hands, if you are yourself, you will not care about the life and death of the captured nobles.Alice secretly sighed in her heart, this task is really difficult!

"Those are the refugees resettled by my lord and the merchants who came with the army. They are always so enthusiastic. Such trade activities usually last until dawn. I hope these people will not disturb the envoy's rest?" The guard who led the way saw the sadness on Alice's face, thought he had offended the special envoy, and quickly replied respectfully.

"Businessmen? Why did these merchants appear in the fortress?" Hearing the guard's explanation, Alice became even more puzzled.

"Our adults say that the army needs food, weapons, and supplies. These merchants can provide us with the things we need, and we can also hand over the things we don't need or the spoils of war to these merchants. It can save us a lot of unnecessary expenses by killing two birds with one stone!"

"Food? Supplies for city defense? Merchants? Dealing with loot? Need to supply at any time! Transport by yourself? What do you mean?" Alice tried to connect the information in her mind, and her mind was a mess.

That night, Alice in the dream saw arrowheads, stones, and logs raining down on her army from the towering walls of the iron tower. Teams of businessmen risked dangerous arrowheads and kept sending various supplies to the tower. Fortunately, the amount of supplies for defending the city has not decreased but increased, and the corpses of the Kazakh warriors I commanded are higher than the city wall. ,

Bright red human blood flowed out a river of blood under his feet, and an incomparably wretched Zhao Hu was picking up pieces of meat from his teeth with a small stick in his hand, standing on the city wall with a scornful smile on his face.

"what!"

This unbelievable scene made Alice let out a crisp scream, and sat up to realize that she had had a nightmare.

"A city defense force can get supplies from suppliers at any time. Is this battle still going to be fought?" Alice muttered to herself, got up and went to the window of the castle, pushed open the wooden window frame, and heard the noise of entertainment outside the window Suddenly, a gust of night wind blew, and Alice felt the chill behind her. She touched it with her white hands, and the clothes on her back were wet with cold sweat.

The next day, the negotiations on food still kicked off in the lobby of the iron tower.

"Except for captives, we can negotiate other conditions! I am a kind person, and I believe that there is nothing that cannot be exchanged in this world, it only depends on whether you have the value."

Alice saw Zhao Hu, who had just finished breakfast, walk in with a contented expression on his stomach, picking his teeth with a toothpick in his hand, and smiling as he did in his dream last night.

Seeing the beautiful Alice arrive at the hall before him, Zhao Hu, who led his subordinates into the hall, bent over with embarrassment, gave a noble arm salute, and sat on the chair arranged in advance.

"I'm really sorry, I didn't expect Miss Alice to come so early. Although our two countries are in a state of hostility, you are a guest of our Iron Tower after all. It is very rude to ask a guest to wait for the host in our Roman Empire. In order to express our apologies from the Iron Tower people, we are willing to reduce the original price by another [-]%, and I hope that Miss Alice will not refuse."

Not only did Zhao Hu not blush when he told a lie, but his face was sincere. Hearing that Zhao Hu was willing to reduce the original price by another tenth, the straightforward Alice almost jumped up in joy, and found that this dead Zhao Hu was also He is not a philistine lord who only recognizes money as he thought.

She was willing to reduce the food payment by hundreds of thousands of gold coins just to express her apology to herself, and even saluted herself in a chivalrous manner, which made Alice feel a strange sweet feeling in her heart, as if floating in the clouds.

(End of this chapter)