Actual Combat

Shortly after spring began, Soro and other Traveling Merchants, whom Zhou Ming had entrusted, sold thousands of tons of grain from Glan Territory in the southern Iron Fortress Kingdom. In return, they brought back a large amount of Iron Ingots.

There were about 5000 Iron Ingots (10kg each), enough to forge 3000 heavy plowshares, or 20,000 spearheads, or 200,000 arrowheads, or 100 sets of iron armor.

The quantity of items that could be forged from these Iron Ingots seemed quite considerable. However, considering that the result of his year of hard work only yielded five tons of iron ingots, an average of 1000 tons of grain for 1 ton of iron, Zhou Ming was somewhat speechless at this exchange rate.

Of course, if he were to purchase within the Iron Fortress Kingdom, buying one ton of Iron Ingots would definitely not require a thousand tons of grain; one or two hundred tons would be sufficient at most.

The real major expense was the "toll fees" extorted by various lords when Soro and the other Traveling Merchants passed through their territories. This added a huge extra cost to Zhou Ming's purchase of Iron Ingots.

"Once the Glan Territory Defense Force is trained, I must properly deal with these lords who charge at checkpoints! It would be best to occupy a mine in the Iron Fortress Kingdom and smelt steel myself, producing tens of thousands of tons of steel a year. Then I won't fear those lords and kings causing trouble."

However, compared to this long-term plan, what Zhou Ming urgently needed to do now was quickly turn these Iron Ingots into weapons and fully arm the 180-plus members of the Glan Territory Defense Force.

Mid-summer, June, the season when animals breed and prey are plump.

Baron Garcia of the Bodo Territory to the west sent a Knight to Glan Territory, saying that the prey in his territory was not as abundant as in Glan Territory. He wanted to hunt in the forest here in Glan Territory for a while, and when he had caught enough prey, he would return to Bodo Territory. He asked if Lord Donny had any objections.

"Garcia, you old bastard! You want to take advantage of Glan Territory again. You are not allowed to hunt! The prey in Glan Territory belongs only to Glan Territory, not a single one is allowed to be hunted!"

Donny roared at the Knight from Bodo Territory, wanting to use the strongest stance to defend the interests and dignity of Glan Territory.

"Baron Donny, are you saying you plan to go to war with our Bodo Territory? I seem to see that you don't have a single Knight by your side? You're also training a group of farmers outside the castle. You don't mean to rely on these farmers to protect your prey, do you?"

The Knight said with a smug tone, as if asking, Little fellow, do you dare to challenge Baron Garcia?

"You—"

Donny stood up in anger, pointing at him for a while, but couldn't say anything strong.

Yes, if I really rely on those farmers outside the castle who have been training for less than half a year to fight a battle with Baron Garcia's Knight team, I'm afraid I'll lose completely, right?

He also somewhat blamed Zhou Ming. Ryan is really something, insisting on training some defense force. How much easier it would be to recruit a few Knights. Otherwise, how could I be reduced to being ridden over and defecated upon?

"Donny, don't be angry, calm down. Leave this matter to me."

Zhou Ming comforted Donny and said to the Knight below, "Esteemed Sir Knight, Lord Donny agrees to Baron Garcia hunting in the forest of Glan Territory. We wish him a pleasant hunt and ask him to pay close attention to safety."

"Ryan, you—"

Donny stared intently at Zhou Ming, even wanting to loudly question him why he was so weak. At most, a few people would die. There are so many people in Glan Territory, what does it matter if dozens die? If Glan Territory's dignity and face are lost, from now on, it will always be seen as weak and cowardly in the eyes of others.

But seeing Zhou Ming constantly winking at him, as if he had something else to say, he had to suppress his outburst. Only after the Knight left the reception hall with a loud laugh did he say with a cold face, "Ryan, you just completely disgraced my Glan Territory. What do you have to explain to me now?"

"Sit down first, Donny. Baron Garcia just wants to hunt a few prey from Glan Territory. Just give them to him. Compared to the lives they are about to lose, consider it a slight compensation."

Zhou Ming helped Donny back to his seat and whispered a plan into his ear with a chilling tone.

"Good! We'll do it according to your plan! Hmph, Garcia, you old bastard, go to hell with your prey!" The excited Donny seemed to already see the tragic state of Baron Garcia dying in a pit trap.

The next day, Zhou Ming took the entire defense force, who had been doing basic training, to the forest west of the territory. Under the guidance of over a dozen experienced pit-digging and burying thieves, they set up a nearly perfect trap in less than two days, just waiting for the prey to take the bait.

Before long, Baron Garcia indeed brought his dozen or so Knights to the forest of Glan Territory to hunt for prey. As soon as they entered the forest, they immediately saw many strong and plump prey leaping and fleeing through the woods. He immediately sighed, "Speaking of prey, there really is more here in Glan Territory. In my territory, I can't even see a wild boar of a decent size."

Suddenly, Baron Garcia's eyes lit up. An elk, a rare elk was ahead.

I must capture it!

Baron Garcia led his men in pursuit.

However, while chasing the elk through a steep-sided canyon, the ground ahead suddenly caved in. Baron Garcia, who was leading the charge, fell into the pit along with his horse.

"Oh no, it's a trap!"

"Quick, save the Baron!"

"Watch out! Many large logs are rolling down the mountain."

"Ah!" A Knight suddenly covered his face and fell. A Poison Arrow was deeply embedded in his eye socket.

Before long, under the heavy assault of the large pit trap on the ground, the thick logs rolling down the mountain, and the densely shot poisoned crossbow bolts, Baron Garcia and his dozen or so Knights suffered heavy casualties instantly.

Even the three or four Knights who didn't die immediately were quickly turned into corpses under the heavy siege of sturdy nets, Lime, and Wolf Tooth Clubs.

The incident where Baron Garcia, the lord of Bodo Territory, was attacked by thieves in the wilderness and all his men were killed, made the already famous "Alibaba Thieves Gang" even more notorious. Earl Lautz issued a bounty of 500 gold coins per head, hoping that some heroes of the jianghu could eliminate this gang of thieves who had long been entrenched in Rose Territory, and restore peace and tranquility to Rose Territory.

However, this gang of thieves came and went without a trace, acting cleanly and leaving no survivors. Their whereabouts were always elusive. All they could do was issue warnings, advising the Barons who liked to go hunting not to go out, and to be sure to be safe in the wilderness.

After this incident, Glan Territory experienced two years of stable development.

But in the third year, Baron Sean of Nathan Territory, after not seeing his daughter and granddaughter for three consecutive years, finally sent someone to Glan Territory to inquire. He learned that his daughter and granddaughter had unfortunately passed away long ago due to contracting the "Plague". He was immediately very sad and shocked, and also sensed that something was amiss. After sending someone to investigate secretly, he came to an infuriated conclusion.

His daughter, son-in-law, and two lovely granddaughters were very likely all killed by Baron Donny's despicable plot!

Facing the repeated interrogations from the envoy sent by Baron Sean, Donny vehemently denied it, claiming that there was absolutely no such thing! Baron Sean naturally didn't believe him and stated that he would report the matter to Earl Lautz and sue him for murder in the Earl's court, demanding that the Earl strip him of his territory and title and execute him by hanging to avenge his daughter and son-in-law's family!

When things reached this point, Donny discussed it with Zhou Ming and decided to go all out and simply kill Baron Sean as well to eliminate future troubles.

The next morning, early.

The Alibaba Thieves Gang, whose numbers had expanded to over 300 through recruitment in recent years, set off first, divided into ten small teams, burning, killing, and looting everywhere in Nathan Territory, committing all sorts of evil deeds. This provoked the desperate encirclement and suppression by the Nathan Territory Knight team. However, how could a mere dozen or so Knights be a match for the cunning thieves whose numbers were more than 30 times theirs? After losing half of their Knights in the field battle, the remaining six Knights had to retreat into the Nathan Territory castle, with the city gates tightly shut, not daring to take a single step outside.

The thieves tentatively attacked a few times, leaving behind a few corpses, but were helpless against the tall castle and could only sigh in admiration.

Just then, Zhou Ming arrived with his Glan Territory Defense Force, whose numbers had expanded to 600. It only took him less than half a day to capture the castle.

The method Zhou Ming used was very simple and brutal. He piled the 60 catties of Black Powder he had accumulated and prepared over the years at the city gate, then sealed it tightly with earth and stones behind it, and then detonated it. The heavy city gate was blown open.

After capturing the castle, he ordered the bandits to kill Baron Sean's entire family. The remaining servants in the castle and the more than two thousand people in the entire Nathan Territory, as long as they were physically sound, were all moved without exception to the various large manors and workshops in Glan Territory to serve as slave laborers for Glan Territory.

Yes, Zhou Ming found that developing honestly was too slow. With an annual population growth rate of only 6%, it would take forever to build Glan Territory into a super territory with a population exceeding 100,000 and over 5,000 soldiers. Perhaps only rampant plundering was the fastest way to achieve results.

Not only that, Zhou Ming did not intend to let Earl Lautz reclaim the land of Nathan Territory. As long as Earl Lautz sent a Baron over, he would have the thieves intercept and kill him, making this place appear to be a chaotic area occupied by thieves on the surface, but secretly, it would still be under the management and control of Glan Territory.

At this time, Earl Lautz finally realized the seriousness of the problem. Within a few years, Rose Territory had successively lost one Baron heir and two Barons to the hands of thieves, and even the Nathan Territory castle had completely fallen. If this gang of thieves within the territory was not eliminated, Rose Territory would never have peace!

After the lord's conscription order was issued, the fourteen Barons within Rose Territory responded one after another. Within half a month, they assembled a large encirclement and suppression force consisting of 130 Knights (including ten Knights disguised as thieves from Glan Territory), 300 mercenaries, and over 3,000 farmers (mixed with 600 Glan Territory Defense Force soldiers). They marched directly towards Nathan Territory, where the thieves were entrenched, with an imposing aura like a dark cloud pressing down on the city, intending to completely crush this gang of thieves!

However, on the night this large encirclement and suppression force had just set up camp, under the operation of the Glan Territory insiders, first, more than a dozen barrels of poisoned wine poisoned a large number of Knights and mercenaries, then a large fire burned all the grain and horses. In the chaotic escape, they also fell into a large number of traps set by the thieves. The entire encirclement and suppression force completely collapsed within less than a day.

Except for one Baron who luckily escaped, twelve lords, including Earl Lautz and eleven Barons, all died in this chaos.

Rose Territory fell into an unprecedented state of leaderlessness and extreme panic.

In this extremely chaotic situation, Zhou Ming desperately plundered all the population and resources within Rose Territory. Before long, the population of Glan Territory broke through the 20,000 mark, and the number of soldiers in the Glan Territory Defense Force also reached his expected minimum requirement for forming an army, which was 1,200.