Practical Combat

Not long after spring began, the traveling merchants Soro and the others, commissioned by Zhou Ming, sold several thousand tons of grain from Glan Territory to the southern Iron Fortress Kingdom, gradually exchanging it for a large quantity of Iron Ingots.

There were roughly 5,000 of these Iron Ingots, each weighing 10 kilograms. They could be forged into 3,000 heavy-plow shares, 20,000 spearheads, 200,000 arrowheads, or 100 sets of iron armor.

The quantities that could be made from these Iron Ingots seemed quite impressive, but when Zhou Ming considered that a whole year of hard work had only earned him fifty tons of iron, at an exchange rate of 1,000 tons of grain for 1 ton of iron, he was left utterly speechless.

Of course, if he bought them within the Iron Fortress Kingdom, one ton of Iron Ingots definitely would not cost a thousand tons of grain. At most, it would only take one or two hundred tons.

The real major expense came from the "tolls" extorted by the various lords as Soro and the other traveling merchants passed through their territories. This added enormous extra costs to Zhou Ming's purchases of Iron Ingots.

"Once Glan Territory's Defense Force has finished training, I'll definitely teach those lords collecting tolls at every checkpoint a lesson! Better yet, I'll seize a mine in the Iron Fortress Kingdom, build my own furnaces to smelt steel, and produce tens of thousands of tons of steel a year. Then I won't have to fear those lords and kings causing trouble."

However, compared to that long-term plan, what Zhou Ming urgently needed to do now was turn these Iron Ingots into weapons and fully equip the more than 180 men of the Glan Territory Defense Force.

It was June, the height of summer, when animals multiplied and game was fat and plentiful.

Baron Garcia of the western Bodo Territory sent a knight to Glan Territory. He said there was less game in his territory than in Glan Territory, and he wished to hunt in the forests here for a while. Once he had caught enough prey, he would return to Bodo Territory. Did Lord Donny have any objections?

"Garcia, you old bastard! You want to take advantage of Glan Territory again! No hunting! The game in Glan Territory belongs only to Glan Territory. You're not allowed to hunt even a single one!"

Donny roared at the knight from Bodo Territory, determined to make the strongest possible statement in defense of Glan Territory's interests and dignity.

"Baron Donny, does that mean you intend to go to war with Bodo Territory? I seem to see that you do not have even a single knight at your side. You have merely trained a group of farmers outside your castle. Don't tell me you plan to rely on those farmers to protect your game?"

The knight spoke smugly, as if asking, Little fellow, do you dare wrestle with Baron Garcia?

"You—"

Donny rose in fury, pointing at him for a long while, but he could not bring himself to say anything defiant.

That was right. If they truly relied on those farmers outside the castle, who had trained for less than half a year, to fight Baron Garcia's knights, they would probably lose miserably.

He even felt some resentment toward Zhou Ming. Ryan was the same—why insist on training some Defense Force? Wouldn't it have been much easier to recruit a few knights? Otherwise, how could they have fallen so low as to let others shit and piss on their heads?

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

After soothing Donny, Zhou Ming said to the knight below, "Honorable Sir Knight, Lord Donny agrees to let Baron Garcia hunt in Glan Territory's forests. We wish him a pleasant hunt and hope he takes great care for his safety."

"Ryan, you—"

Donny glared fiercely at Zhou Ming. He even wanted to loudly demand how Zhou Ming could be so weak. At worst, a few people would die. Glan Territory had so many subjects—what did the deaths of a few dozen matter? Once Glan Territory lost its dignity and face, it would forever be seen as weaklings and cowards by others.

But Zhou Ming kept winking at him, as though he still had something to tell him. Donny could only suppress his anger. After the knight left the reception hall laughing loudly, Donny finally said coldly, "Ryan, you just threw away all of Glan Territory's dignity. What explanation could you possibly have now?"

"Sit down first, Donny. Baron Garcia merely wants to hunt a few animals from Glan Territory. Let them have them. Compared to the lives they are about to lose, consider it a small compensation."

Zhou Ming helped Donny back into his seat, then leaned close to his ear and explained a plan in a chilling tone.

"Good! We'll do it your way! Heh heh, Garcia, you old bastard, take your prey and go to hell together!" Ecstatic, Donny seemed already able to see Baron Garcia's miserable death inside a pit trap.

The next day, Zhou Ming brought the Defense Force, which had been doing basic training all this time, into the forest on the western side of the territory. Under the guidance of more than a dozen bandits experienced in digging pits and burying people, they set up an almost perfect trap in less than two days, then waited for their prey to take the bait.

Before long, Baron Garcia indeed led more than a dozen knights into Glan Territory's forest to poach some game. The moment they entered, they spotted numerous robust, fat animals leaping and fleeing through the woods. He immediately sighed. "When it comes to game, Glan Territory really has more. In my territory, I can't even find a decent-sized wild boar anymore."

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

He had to catch it!

Baron Garcia led his men in pursuit.

However, as they chased the elk through a canyon with steep walls on both sides, the ground ahead suddenly gave way. Baron Garcia, charging at the front, plunged into a pit trap together with his horse.

"Not good, it's a trap!"

"Save the Baron!"

"Not good! A lot of logs are rolling down from the mountain!"

"Ah!" A knight suddenly clutched his face and fell. A Poison Arrow had pierced deep into his eye socket.

Before long, under the combined assault of pit traps in the ground, thick logs rolling down from the hills, and dense volleys of poisoned crossbow bolts, Baron Garcia and his more than ten knights suffered grievous casualties in an instant.

Even the three or four knights who had not died immediately were soon reduced to corpses beneath the repeated attacks of sturdy nets, lime, and Wolf Tooth Clubs.

The incident in which Baron Garcia, lord of Bodo Territory, and all his men died in a bandit attack in the wilderness made the already famous Alibaba Thieves Gang even more notorious. Earl Lautz issued a bounty of five hundred per head, hoping that some brave warriors could wipe out this bandit gang that had long entrenched itself in Rose Territory and restore peace and stability to Rose Territory.

Unfortunately, this bandit gang came and went without a trace, acted cleanly and efficiently, and left no survivors. Their tracks could never be found. All he could do was issue a warning, advising barons who liked to go hunting not to leave home, and to be certain to watch their safety in the wilderness.

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

But in the third year, after going three consecutive years without seeing his daughter and granddaughter, Baron Sean of Nathan Territory finally sent people to Glan Territory to investigate. He learned that his daughter and granddaughter had long since died after contracting the "plague." He was immediately grief-stricken and shocked, and sensed that something was wrong. After secretly investigating, he reached a conclusion that filled him with rage.

His daughter, son-in-law, and two adorable granddaughters had most likely all died due to Baron Donny's despicable scheme!

Faced with the repeated questioning of Baron Sean's envoy, Donny flatly denied everything, insisting that there was absolutely no such thing! Baron Sean naturally did not believe him. He declared that he would report the matter to Earl Lautz, sue him for murder in the Earl's court, and demand that the Earl strip him of his territory and Nobility Title and hang him, avenging his daughter and son-in-law's family!

With things having reached this point, Donny discussed the matter with Zhou Ming and decided to go all the way—he might as well kill Baron Sean too, eliminating all future trouble.

Early the next morning.

The Alibaba Thieves Gang, which had expanded to more than 300 members through recruitment over the past few years, set out first. Split into ten squads, they burned, killed, and plundered throughout Nathan Territory, committing every kind of evil. This provoked the Nathan Territory knights into mounting a desperate campaign of suppression. But how could a mere dozen knights possibly be a match for cunning bandits more than thirty times their number? After losing half their knights in field battles, the remaining six had no choice but to hide inside Nathan Territory's castle, sealing the gates shut and not daring to take a single step outside.

The bandits probed with several attacks, but after leaving behind a few corpses, they found themselves utterly unable to do anything against the tall castle and could only sigh in frustration.

Just then, Zhou Ming arrived with the Glan Territory Defense Force, whose numbers had expanded to 600. In less than half a day, he breached the castle.

Zhou Ming's method was simple and brutal. He piled the sixty pounds of Black Powder he had accumulated and prepared over the past few years before the castle gate, packed it tightly behind with earth and stones, then detonated it. The heavy gate was blown open.

After capturing the castle, he ordered the bandits to kill Baron Sean's entire family. As for the remaining servants in the castle and the more than 2,000 people throughout Nathan Territory, everyone with sound limbs was relocated without exception to Glan Territory's major estates and workshops, where they became slave laborers for Glan Territory.

Yes, Zhou Ming had discovered that honest development was simply too slow. With an annual population growth rate of merely 6%, how long would it take to build Glan Territory into a super territory with a population exceeding 100,000 and more than 5,000 soldiers? Only frenzied plunder could possibly produce the fastest results.

Nor did Zhou Ming intend to let Earl Lautz reclaim Nathan Territory. So long as Earl Lautz sent a baron here, Zhou Ming would have the bandits ambush and kill one. On the surface, this would remain a chaotic land occupied by bandits, but secretly, it would still be governed and controlled by Glan Territory.

At this point, Earl Lautz finally realized the severity of the problem. Within only a few years, Rose Territory had lost one baronial heir and two barons to bandits, and even Nathan Territory's castle had fallen completely. If he did not eliminate this gang of bandits within his territory, Rose Territory would never again know peace!

After the lord's summons was issued, the fourteen barons of Rose Territory answered the call one after another. Within half a month, they gathered a massive suppression force consisting of 130 knights—including ten knights impersonated by Glan Territory bandits—300 mercenaries, and more than 3,000 farmers, among whom were mixed 600 Glan Territory Defense Force soldiers. They charged straight toward Nathan Territory, where the bandits were entrenched, bearing the imposing momentum of black clouds pressing down upon a city, determined to crush this gang of bandits completely!

However, on the very night this massive suppression force established camp, with the help of Glan Territory's agents within it, more than a dozen barrels of poisoned wine first killed large numbers of knights and mercenaries. Then a great fire burned all their provisions and horses. As they fled in chaos, they stumbled into the countless traps set by the bandits. In less than a day, the entire suppression force completely collapsed.

Aside from one baron who escaped by sheer luck, all twelve lords, including Earl Lautz and eleven barons, died in the chaos.

Rose Territory plunged into unprecedented leaderlessness and extreme panic.

Amid this utterly chaotic situation, Zhou Ming desperately plundered all the population and resources within Rose Territory. Before long, Glan Territory's population broke through the 20,000 mark, while the Glan Territory Defense Force reached his envisioned minimum requirement for formation: 1,200 men.