Iron Power And Sorcerer

Iron Power And Sorcerer Chapter 269

2021-03-04

Chapter 269 Preparing for War
The west side of the newly reclaimed province, with the Dajiao River - Guanghui River as the natural borders.

Crossing the Big Horn River and walking more than 100 kilometers to the west is the wintering pasture of the Telltown Department.

In the past month, tens of thousands of Teltown people continued to migrate here, making the number of tents in the wintering pastures unprecedented.

But no matter how many tents there are, there is no sight of ten thousand horses galloping, at most riders in small groups galloping across the sky.

The felt tent is far away from the felt tent, and the herd is far away from the herd, keeping a cold distance from each other, like an island in the yellow-green sea.

The reason for this appearance is, on the one hand, because of the social form of the Hurd people, and on the other hand, it is forced to survive.

The Hurds can be roughly divided into three classes:
Kota - that is full-time warrior, military nobles;

Tiheer——slave.

Because of the harsh and dangerous living environment, there is no difference in living standards and political status between Qianshou and slaves.

The slaves of the great nobles are definitely better fed, warmer, and even higher in social status than ordinary Qianshou—even if the former is a slave and the latter is not.

At the same time, the flattening of society has led to a good level of mobility.

After all, a Hurd may be the leader of Guizhou today, and maybe he will be kidnapped as a slave tomorrow and successfully achieve a class leap.

And even if it is the "Three Ministries" of the Terden Division, its organizational model is still "a group of small military nobles allegiance to a large military noble".

A small military noble plus his companions, guards, subjects and slaves is a miniature tribe.

The fire roaster is not only the loyal object of the small military nobles, but also the most powerful military noble.

The livestock that the pasture can carry is limited, and the Hurd family has to spread the distance for grazing; the expansion of the distance will increase the cost of domination. This loose social form will naturally evolve.

For the Hurd society, it was necessary for survival; but for the rulers, it was the dispersion of power.

The Firebender wants to make a difference. He has heard that the White Lion is "making up Qimin", and he also wants to reorganize the Teltown Department like the White Lion.

But now his prestige is not as good as it used to be, especially the loss of the golden man who sacrificed to heaven has attracted a lot of criticism. Whenever the fire roaster saw the Kotas whispering, he felt that the Kotas were making fun of him.

The white lion's accountant, Qi Min, is essentially compressing the power space of the small military aristocracy - this is clearly seen by the fire roaster.

But there is one characteristic of nomadic life: [herdsmen's property either has legs or can be carried on long legs and can run at any time].

If the kotas are unhappy with the fireboilers, they can take all their net worth and leave at any time, continue to be kotas in another tribe, or simply stand on their own.

Of course, this kind of "moving", which is like defecting, must have problems with procedures, and it is also very troublesome to wipe the buttocks, and it may even lead to a melee.

But when it comes time to lose interest, the Kotas will never hesitate.

Therefore, the fire roaster did not dare to act rashly. He must first stabilize the Terden department, and then squeeze the power out of the Kotas a little bit.

The quickest way to rebuild your prestige is to win battles.

For the Hurds, there is no problem that cannot be solved with spills of war. If not, it must be because there are not enough spills of war.

And the Firebenders have found a good target.

"Telltown children!" The fire roaster entered the tent majestically: "Are you ready?"

The Kotas in the tent no longer quarreled, They saluted the fire-boilers.

The fire-boilers convene the Kotas for a discussion, nominally to "divide the winter pasture."

The agreement with Palato is no longer binding, and the Tertown ministry no longer has to maintain the 100-kilometer buffer zone.

In this way, it means that the Teltown Department has created a large area of fertile winter pasture out of thin air, and the Kotas are all eagerly waiting for the fire roaster to divide the meat for everyone.

The fire roaster looked around the big tent, and said another thing first: "In the autumn battle, you and I were both present, and the wealth and women didn't loot much, but instead tired a lot of gelding. It's my order that is wrong, you can blame me."

The fire roaster exposed the shortcoming on his own, and the Kotas did not dare to answer at will.

"The children still plundered a lot of things." A veteran Kota said cautiously: "This is all your favor, the fire roaster."

The fire roaster sneered : "I haven't eaten the really tender and plump leg of lamb. A little bit of broken bones and corner meat is enough for the children to share?" Yes, but no one wants to take a stand.

Uncle, the fire roaster's pro-Uncle, stood up first and asked bluntly: "Fire roaster, just say it straight. We are all willing to go to the grass valley, but you have to explain the context clearly. Like The horses follow the lead horse, and you can tell us where to go, so that we can keep up with you."

"It's very simple. Although the two-legged man has suffered a defeat, he is still a tough bone." The fire roaster said gruffly: "Knife to knife, arrow to arrow, you and I may not win, and even if we win, there will be many casualties." One after another nodded.

The 30-year decline cannot be completely reversed by a single victory.

"So we have to go back to the way of our grandfathers and ancestors. We must be like wolves hunting yellow sheep, biting the small and weak first, and avoiding the big and strong." Grinning his teeth: "When the small and weak are eaten up, the big and strong can be slaughtered..." can't say this. There is Keta secretly said in one's heart: it must be the speech prepared for him by the "Echige" of the fire roaster.

Echige is the father. The fire roaster's biological father has died. The only person who can be honored by the fire roaster as Echige is the "interpreter" who fled to wasteland thirty years ago.

"Just say what to do!" Uncle of the fire roaster interrupted his nephew roughly: "Don't be reasonable!"

"Okay!" The fire roaster didn't hesitate. , he said sternly: "This winter is warm, the pasture is not completely dry, the horses have not lost much fat, and there is still room to fight again, and the two-legged man is determined not to think that you and I will send troops again.

Zhu Keta went back and ordered their troops. This year, the winter pastures will be divided according to their output. If they contribute more, they will get the fatter ones, and if they contribute less, they will take the poor ones farther. There is nothing else to say, just throw the beans and decide!”

After speaking, the fire roaster slapped the table, and the two slaves brought in a golden vase and two bowls containing red beans and black beans respectively.

The fire roaster took the lead in taking a bean from each of the two bowls and walked to the golden bottle. "Dang bang", a bean fell from his hand into the bottle.

Other Kotas also picked up beans and threw bottles according to their status and strength.

Cotas who are not strong enough are not eligible to roll beans, and those who are eligible to roll beans are not allowed to abstain from voting. Each Cota must choose a side. This is the bean-tossing decision, the simple and rude but efficient voting method of the Hurds.

The fire roaster turned his back to the golden bottle and waited until the bean toss was over before turning around.

He shook the golden vase up and down three times, pouring the beans into the pot at one go.

Red beans and black beans are distinct in color, except for the two black beans on the plate, everything else is red.

"Heavenly God witness!" The fire roaster loudly roared, fiercely smashed the pottery plate, announcing the completion of ceremony.

 …

When the Turtletown Department began to gather troops, Iron Peak County, a hundred kilometers away, was also mobilizing troops.

The assembly order will be sent to each Juntun Village as soon as possible. The armored carrier rumbled out of the arsenal, closely following the messenger.

The weapons and armor of the Tiefeng County Infantry Regiment were originally kept centrally, but now they have been delegated to individuals.

In order to minimize logistical pressure, Winters asked warriors to prepare their own dry food for two weeks.

For a while, the smoke from the kitchen in Juntun Village was everywhere, and every household was busy grinding, kneading and baking.

That is, at this time, the second company commander Bart Xia Ling discovered a serious problem - he had too many bachelors.

The Tiefeng County Infantry Regiment was reorganized from the surrendered Tiefeng County garrison army. As early as when Major Ronald was recruiting, the major deliberately chose refugees who had no family to join the army.

Because refugees without family members are more at risk, and refugees without family members need less food rations.

The new infantry regiment has inherited this structure, so most of the soldiers are fed by one person and the whole family is not hungry.

Normally, everyone can make do with a bite. When it was time to prepare dry food for two weeks, everyone was in a hurry-including Bart Shalling himself.

After walking around the village, Bart Xialing immediately stopped the family-by-household method of making military rations.

All the men, women and children of the whole village were gathered by him. The second company commander had seen how Old Saint Reid organized the soldiers to bake dry food. He decided to follow the practice at that time and prepare dry food for all the soldiers of the company.

Men do manual work such as dough kneading and grinding, while delicate work such as baking and water transfer are given to the few women in the second village.

A temporary oven was set up in the village square, everyone worked with a common purpose, sweated like rain, and the atmosphere was like a celebration.

Seeing this lively scene, Bart Shilling suddenly felt a bit desolate.

While the Second Company Commander was terribly busy, Winters was also very busy.

To deal with the blacksmiths' guild, Winters left the blacksmiths Boltin and Chaushaon's son-in-law to do it.

As the one who founded the guild of blacksmiths, the old blacksmith Boltain knew everything about the guild. Since he chose to be "slow", no one is more suitable for the knife than the old blacksmith Boltin.

After communicating with the old blacksmith, Winters' vision is not limited to the blacksmith's guild - the core of all guilds' interests is monopoly. And there can only be one monopoly in Tiefeng County, and that is the new government.

He arranged for Shire and Shaosha to cooperate and conduct a secret survey of all the guilds in Tiefeng County.

But these things have to make way for war. Winters arranged the assembly lines for the infantry companies, and fell asleep in bed for less than two hours before being woken up by Charles again.

The elders and farmers of the nearby villages, who are known to be good at farming, have been called to Gervodin and are waiting for the tribune to discuss it.

It's helpless to say that the bread has to be eaten one bite at a time, and things have to be done the same way.

Although the war is close at hand, the first problem Winters has to solve is the agricultural disaster caused by the warm winter.

In a sense, this matter is even more important than guarding against Heard barbarians.

Warm winters are rare, but not unheard of. Regarding the early jointing of wheat, the farmers everyone talking at once came up with all kinds of bizarre methods, such as holding a market in the wheat field.

A farmer in the village of Sanke solemnly vowed that the problem of jointing wheat seedlings could be easily solved by holding a market in the wheat fields.

Winters seemed to listen intently, 'ummmmm' nodded from time to time. In fact, his mind has already flown to wasteland, and his mind is full of the terrain of Tiefeng County.

Compared with running a county, marching and fighting is the job he is better at, more comfortable and more secure.

But he's more than just a soldier -- he'd realized it when he was in Wolftown.

At this meeting, Colonel Bode was also present.

For Winters' "rebellion", Colonel Bode indifferent expression, the two get along well as always, as if Winters was still the Hundred-Men Commander of the Expeditionary Force.

Winters also didn't ask.

In Winters' view, Colonel Bode's deep pool-like calm appearance may be a struggle and confusion:
Fighting desperately, being captured as a slave, dragging his body back to his motherland, only to find The fatherland is dead; which of the two new republics can represent Palato is still in dispute; his old party has raised the flag of rebellion, but it is because of this rebellious old party that he is lucky to survive from wasteland.

All the emotions and grievances are entangled together, and the cutting is constantly and the reason is chaotic.

Winters had no ability to unravel the Colonel, but waited for the Colonel to sort things out on his own.

Winters asked the colonel to come to the meeting, and the colonel had no objection. So there was a one-armed middle age person listening silently in the corner of the Conference Hall.

Colonel Bode accompanied Winters in this way. First, he held a civil affairs meeting, listened to the petitions of the citizens of Gervoudan, and then inspected the storage situation of Gervoudan.

The warehouse has not been inspected yet, and news came from outside the city—Samukin has just arrived in the suburbs with the wolf town labor camp.

So Colonel Bode and Winters went out of the city without stopping to hand over the "big labor camp" to Samukin.

In the past, prisoners of war in Vigne County were randomly assigned to various Juntun villages to assist autumn ploughing, and they also used the strength of Juntun Village to supervise the prisoners of war.

Now that the soldiers of the villages are regrouping, the prisoners of war can no longer stay in the villages, and must be regrouped again.

It was getting dark when Winters dragged his tired body and Colonel Bode back to Gervoudan.

All day long the Colonel seemed to be a shadow of Winters, barely speaking, just watching silently. Many people thought the one-armed middle age person was the tribune's entourage or bodyguard.

But the day wasn't over, Andre and Mason were at the camp waiting for Winters to meet.

Colonel Bode followed Winters to the meeting, but Don Juan and Moritz were not present - Winters did not want the Colonel to know of the existence of the two Veneta officers for the time being.

Lieutenant Colonel Moritz was too lazy to hold meetings, and Don Juan had already brought light cavalry into wasteland for reconnaissance. The two will abstain from voting in every vote, and their absence will not affect the decision-making.

How to concentrate the horses sent down? Where to choose the pile of baggage? How to defend the shoreline of nearly 300 kilometers? Whether to recruit militiamen... After discussing and making decisions one after another, there is only one issue left: whether to inform Legion of the enemy's situation in the newly reclaimed land.

"Report!" Andre sneered: "Don't say Legion's believing or not. If they ask [how do you know the barbarian's movements], how should we answer?

'Another group of barbarians told us.'

'The rebels colluded with barbarians! Kill him!'"

After one person played both roles, Andri concluded: "Damn It, in the end, Legion and Barbarians must beat us together."

"Can't say that either." Mason Senior retorted weakly.

"Can't you say that?" Andre sneered: "We are rebels, and the Hurds are barbarians. Rebels beat barbarians, and no one dies for Legion. Look at it!"

Andre got more and more excited as he spoke: "I want to say, not only should we not inform Legion of the new reclaimed land, but we should also find a way to lure the barbarians to Vigne. If we talk about wealth, Vaughan is not a better place than Vigne. Iron Peak County is richer? Let them go dog-eat-dog! It just involves Legion's energy, so as not to think about us."

"Don't deliberately lead to Vigne County, the monkey's butt-face will go by itself." Winters mused He wrote: "Last time, he clenched his fists and hit him, and he suffered a loss. This time, he will definitely stretch his palms and attack more. Let us pay attention to this and the other. The border line of the newly reclaimed land is more than 700 kilometers long... Which one? Kilometers are not safe."

Hearing this, Colonel Bode, who had been silent for a while, suddenly sighed: "The offense and defense have changed."

Winters, Andre and Mason Both looked towards Colonel.

Colonel Bird asked the youngsters bitterly, "Do you know why Turtletown has not moved once in all these years?"

Winters shook his head. How can these outsiders know the decision-making process of the Parato Army.

"Because they are the most honest and obedient." Colonel Bode said bitterly: "In order to maintain the internal balance of power among the Hurds, we fought Hurd on the north bank and released Heard on the south bank. At that time, the border The wider the line, the better, and we can strike from any point. Now, it's their turn to bite us."

...

Dark clouds, wind and rain are coming , While Winters, Bart Schilling, and many, many others were preparing for the battle without sleep or food, an insignificant little thing happened in Gervodin: a man returned to his home.

Axinia, who was putting her child to sleep, heard someone knocking on the door.

It was getting dark, and only slutty drunkards who wanted to take advantage would knock on her door.

Aksinya was silent, pretending that no one was home, but the knocking on the door continued without haste or slow.

Aksinya was a little scared. She first hid the two children in the closet, then took the poker and walked carefully to the door.

"Who is it?" she asked.

"It's me," a tired voice replied.

Aksinya's heart was beating violently, she slammed open the door, and outside stood her husband, Ivan.

The tongs fell to the ground, jumped, and stopped moving.

No hugs, no tears, no smiles, Aksinya stood silently.

At the age of seventeen, Aksinya married Ivan. In the fall of the previous year, her father was beaten to death by her big brother and mother with a chariot.

So Aksinya silently married from Wangqiao Town to Gervodin. The day after the wedding, the new husband beats the new wife severely. After the child was born, the violence was less frequent, but it never stopped.

At the time of the blind date, Aksinya may have some affection for the tall and straight Ivan. But now, she has no love at all, only the instinct of survival and the habit and numbness of life.

The only light that shines into life is her lovely child. Without them, she might already be dead.

Aksinya couldn't recognize the person outside the door: the person outside the door was tall, but very thin and thin, like a reed that could be blown down by the wind; the back was a little unconscious. The ground was hunched, and the shoulders slumped.

The person outside the door seems to be Ivan, but it doesn't seem to be.

"I..." The person outside the door licked his dry lips and said with difficulty: "...Did you petition the tribune for me?"

Ake Sinia didn't nodded, she didn't shake her head, she just stood silently.

The Adam's apple of the person outside the door struggled up and down: "Thank you."

A few hot drops dripped on the back of Aksinya's hand, tears.

Hot tears ran down her cheeks, the strong Aksinya bit the back of her hand, knelt on the ground, and cried bitterly.

The person outside the door hugged Aksinya, as if swearing: "I...I...I will never hit you again..."

"You said that." Aksinya murmured bitterly: "You have said this before."

The people outside the door shuddered, and tears also welled up in their eyes. The person outside the door grabbed Aksinia's hand and placed it on the brand mark of the Holy Emblem on her chest.

Aksinya heard the man swear: "This is the last time."

[Thanks to book lovers for collecting, reading, subscribing, recommending tickets, monthly tickets, playing Rewards and comments, thank you everyone]
[Would you like to give a scum a chance to redeem...it's really confusing. According to Winters' previous character, if he killed a scum like Ivan, he would kill him without hesitation, nor would he miss it afterwards]
[Ivan was captured just when "Winters realized that he had to It is necessary to know the canonical punishment to kill, and not to kill casually according to one's will." After that. If it was before, Ivan was already dead ]
[So Winters couldn't eat enough at that time, he still left a life for Ivan who wasted food]
[The author remembers that it was Samukin who said " Locking them up is a waste of food, I think it's better to kill them all." Winters replied "There is no food for this reason, it is not enough to be executed, and it is even more untenable"]
[This probably triggers a plot branch: should I kill Ivan]
[The author's original idea for this plot Yes, for Winters, he probably didn't think about it for more than a second when he made this decision, and Ivan's life and death were in Winters' thoughts. But for Ivan, Aksinya and their children, it will affect a lifetime. Although Winters can't feel it for the time being, the author hopes that through this incident, he can understand the weight of power]
[In addition, seeing Aksinya, let Ivan be redeemed, not for Ivan, but for阿克西尼娅，算是在另一个时空、另一个宇宙、另一本书里为一个悲剧人物改写命运吧]
[谢谢大家]