This old tribune obviously dislikes Livius and his son, and has directly called them bastards.
"Hide in the mountains? Livius Don't even want your own manor?"
Wendy expressed her incomprehension. She and Risadiran looked at each other, and they both shook their heads.
"There are many minerals in the mountains, all of which are owned by the Livius family... The bastard father and son probably think those minerals are more important than the manor..."
The tribune didn't seem to be an old fool, but that was all he knew. After all, he was too old to go out and investigate.
But the lord can understand. Livius father and son have offended everyone around them. They obviously feel that they are not very safe in their own manor.
Since Livius gave up his own manor, the Lord led his team to settle in directly, so as not to waste time by setting up camp.
The governor's family estate is very large, with dozens of houses connected on the mountainside.
This is a typical high-walled compound in the old Baxian. It is a courtyard in nature, with many tall arches and huge Stone Pillar, but it does not build a towering castle like the high-ranking nobles of the Pande Continent.
In fact, if a castle was built here, then Fidne Village should probably be called Fidne Castle - this place is actually far beyond the average village in terms of scale.
The location and view of the manor are very good. At the foot of the mountain is the valley road leading to the entrance of the village. From within the manor, you can basically see the entire village directly across the valley of a hundred meters.
Probably the only bad thing is that this manor is isolated on a mountain. Once the foot of the mountain is surrounded, there is nowhere to run.
"Is this the narrowest place around?"
The lord stood on the highest terrace of the manor, looked around, pointed to the entrance of the village and asked.
"Yes, this was originally a road opened in the canyon to transport ore. After that, as there were more people, it continued to widen, and it is as wide as it is now."
Seeing that Li Ang occupied the Livius family's manor and began to survey the terrain, the old tribune's eyes lit up. "This... sir, are you going to deal with that bastard father and son?"
"To be honest, my main purpose for coming here this time is to deal with Snake Worship Cult. I have to fight an ambush near here... but I don't have enough manpower. It's not easy to seal off the enemy in this valley that is hundreds of meters wide..."
The lord did not deceive the tribunes. When fighting abroad, he must find help from locals who are familiar with the terrain.
"Snake Worship Cult? Now I really want Snake Worship Cult to come and kill these two bastards Livius and Lord Fabius! They killed many people in the past few days on the pretext of dealing with Snake Worship Cult... In fact, we all know that most of them are innocent people!"
The tribune gritted his teeth and said, while the wrinkled skin on his face was trembling. "If you need help, maybe you should rescue the people in the village."
"How many people are left in the village now? Does anyone know the specific location of the Livius family's properties in the mountains?"
The lord took a few glances into the village, and could see some people hiding and looking this way. There were probably a few old people who survived.
"Of course the people in the village know that many old people in the village have worked in those mines... Every year there are always some people who can't afford the taxes who go to work in the mines..."
The tribune sighed, "But I don't know where the father and son are hiding. There are a lot of minerals in the mountains."
The so-called mining labor is actually just some excuse to force people to mine - it is actually the same thing as the prayer tax and urination tax imposed by some noble territories Lion Territory.
This tribune is obviously a minor nobleman, and the mining service cannot be arranged for him, so he may not be familiar with the mines.
But it was obvious that he must be familiar with the people in the village.
"It seems that we really need to get the villagers back... go gather everyone who is still alive in the village, and I will get you some food..."
After sending the tribune back to gather the villagers, the lord began to move around to wait.
After hearing that the lord was willing to distribute food to them, within an hour, all the survivors in the village gathered outside the manor.
When there is no food to eat, the elderly, no matter how inconvenient their legs and feet are, become very efficient.
In fact, there are only about 200 surviving elderly people left, and they can't consume much food.
The purpose of distributing food to these people is not to attract people's hearts. The people's hearts in this place have been destroyed by Lord Fabius a long time ago, so there is no need to deliberately invite people to buy them.
The main purpose is to put these people to use.
It will take at least a day for the infantrymen walking behind to get here. Whether they can arrive in time for the Snake Worship Cult army is unknown.
With only a cavalry force of 800 people, no matter how successful an ambush is, it is impossible to completely annihilate the Snake Worship Cult army.
When facing Snake Worship Cult, the lord was not thinking about how to defeat the enemy.
But how to annihilate the enemy.
In order to annihilate the enemy, all available resources and manpower should be used.
Therefore, even if there are two hundred old people in ragged clothes in front of them, the lord thinks they can be used.
Originally, Li Ang considered using the locust-like habits of the Snake Worship Cult army to set up an ambush. After the infantry arrived, they would then try to encircle it on both sides and block the Snake Worship Cult army in the valley.
But the valley is 100 meters wide, and Li Ang has too few people, so it is not easy to arrange.
And Snake Worship Cult disciples are different from ordinary rabble - they are not afraid of death.
This means that even if the ambush is successful, in order to block the enemy in the valley, one's own losses will definitely be considerable.
Those female warriors under Noldo Elves and Amy are all precious. It would be uneconomical to lose too much.
Now that he knows what bad things Livius and his son have done, Li Ang will of course consider bringing back those forcibly recruited villagers to solve his current problem of insufficient manpower.
After looking at the old people queuing up to receive food at the gate of the manor, the lord got up and went to a room in the manor and knocked on the door. "Elisa, are you ready to be a priestess again?"
"Hiss... I didn't expect that after leaving Divine Cult, I would still have to do these jobs... hiss..."
Elisa inside the house opened the door.
She had changed back into her priestess outfit, and her low-cut snake-patterned armor exposed her white neck and shoulders, and her deep ravines looked quite alluring.
In the afternoon, a 'Snake Worship Cult priestess' led two hundred 'followers' in ragged clothes to a large mining area in the mountains.
This is actually an open-pit mine. The entire mountain looks like it has been cut out of section. The mountain is divided into several layers, and many people are busy on each layer.
The soil layer in the mountain section is very new, obviously this mine has just been excavated on a large scale.
Most of the people in the mine were chained and looked like slaves.
There are a lot of people, no less than 2,000 people can be seen directly in the mine.
No matter how powerful the Livius family is, it is impossible to have so many slaves - obviously, the people here are civilians who were forcibly recruited, and they are just forced to be treated as slaves.
Livius father and son are not very active in military training, but they are quite active in mining.
"What is that... the Snake Worship Cult people? The Snake Worship Cult people are here!"
There were obviously people watching around the mine. As soon as Elisa and the old people appeared nearby, someone started shouting.
Then there was a "ding-dang-dang-dang" bell, obviously the sentinel in the mine sounded the alarm.
"Hiss... is this such a big reaction?"
Elisa curled his lips.
The people in the mine had begun to make a noise and commotion, and soon afterwards, a troop of about two hundred people appeared on the top of the mine.
At this time, Elisa had led this group of 'followers' back down the mountain, directly back to the Livius family's manor.
It only took the Lord a few hours to find the whereabouts of Livius and his son - or rather, it was not that they found it, but that they could expose their whereabouts themselves.
In fact, the method used by Li Ang is very simple.
As long as Elisa, the real Snake Worship Cult priestess, appears in the largest mining areas with her 'followers', then Livius father and son will definitely panic, and they will definitely organize their own real troops - either to transfer or to fight.
They killed three thousand people in the name of dealing with Snake Worship Cult. Now that they see the priestess of Snake Worship Cult appearing here, of course they will think that Snake Worship Cult has come to take revenge on them.
Even if they are not here for revenge, they are definitely here to rob someone. Livius, the father and son, will naturally find a way to solve the problem.
If they don't come forward, Elisa might actually recruit those villagers as Snake Worship Cult priestess...
The number of 'followers' brought by Elisa, that is, the old people who are familiar with the geographical environment and responsible for leading the way, is just about two hundred...
This is a number that makes Livius and his son very embarrassed. They can kill three thousand people in batches within a month without any resistance. They must be ruthless and courageous enough.
But they didn't dare to directly attack Snake Worship Cult disciples with more than 200 people...
After all, Snake Worship Cult has a reputation for not fearing death. No one wants to fight with a similar number of desperadoes unless necessary. If you lose, you will die, and if you win, there will be no benefit...
If the losses were too great and they were unable to suppress the villagers who had come by force, a civil uprising might kill them.
Because they only have 200 soldiers with real combat effectiveness in their hands. In addition, there are only more than 300 slaves raised by the family who are obedient.
But those house slaves could only stare at the villagers in the mine - these house slaves who used to mine every day have now become foremen and are quite motivated to wield whips, but it is okay for them to beat people, but it is definitely unreliable to fight.
In other words, the only ones that can be used for fighting are the two hundred private soldiers.
So Lord Fabius tracked the location of the 'Snake Worship Cult Priestess' very carefully, neither getting closer nor farther away.
But after seeing this 'Snake Worship Cult force' entering his family's manor, Lord Fabius became a little uneasy.
Although the father and son do not live in the manor, but hide in the mining area in the mountains, this does not mean that they intend to give up their property...
Moreover, these two hundred soldiers are also private soldiers of the family. They have always looked after the family and the courtyard in the manor. It can be said that they know the environment of the entire manor very well.
People naturally gain a lot of confidence in a familiar environment. Coupled with the mentality of "protecting the family industry", Lord Fabius decided to take a little risk.
He led the team into the manor through an unknown secret passage.
To be honest, the lord really didn't realize that there is such a secret passage in this manor - the exit is under the bed in the inner room. The lord hasn't had time to check the bed yet.
This secret passage probably hollowed out the mountain and led directly to the other side of the mountain.
This is actually a risk protection measure commonly used by the estates of the great nobles in this era - you can escape for your life in an emergency.
However, although Li Ang did not know that there was this secret passage in the manor, Lord Fabius obviously did not know that there were so many people in the manor...
After he led his soldiers out of the secret passage, he gathered twenty or thirty soldiers in the bedroom, preparing to launch a surprise attack on the 'Snake Worship Cult Priestess'. As soon as he went out, he found himself surrounded by a large group of people holding bows and crossbows...
This scene seemed familiar to him - half a year ago in White Deer Fortress, he also faced such a scene, and then he was surrounded by a large group of crossbows and fired at him.
Fortunately, this time he had enough experience, so he reacted quickly - he fell to his knees with a plop, raised the sword in his hand above his head, and surrendered incredibly quickly.
"Oh, there is actually a road here?"
The lord hurried to the inner house of the manor and was a little surprised when he saw Lord Fabius on the ground and the soldiers kneeling in a row beside him.
"Lord Fabius, lead the way quickly and bring back the villagers you captured..."
"Sir, we have news. The scouts discovered some Snake Worship Cult disciples in the valley thirty miles to the southeast. They are probably the leaders of the Snake Worship Cult army."
In the evening, Wendilf came to report.
"It seems that at noon tomorrow at the latest, Snake Worship Cult's army will pass through here. I don't know if Silver Hand can arrive by then."
Li Ang looked at the map in front of him and stood up. "Has the arrangement in the valley been completed?"
"The guards are ready... But sir, this manor cannot be defended for long. Although the villagers have been rescued, they can only help us build fortifications. They have not received any training and cannot fight... We still do not have enough manpower, nor do we have enough arrows."
Wendy reminded with some hesitation.
The Noldor have been fighting repeatedly during this period, from Buyulin Village to Serendil. Basically, the arrows fired from each place cannot be recovered. At present, each Noldor only has about seven or eight arrows on average.
The territory of the Bacchus Empire is not as competitive as the fierce lion or Raven Territory. It is difficult to replenish the arrows for bows and arrows. Even if you want to use human arrows, you can't find a place to get them.
"It's okay, at least now, even if we are surrounded... we still have a way to leave."
Li Ang shook his head. "Wendy, although those villagers have not been trained, in fact most of the Snake Worship Cult gangsters have not been trained either. Letting them block the village entrance is the best choice... If the resistance of this village appears to be too strong, the main force of Snake Worship Cult may not be fooled..."
In fact, the safety of the villagers is quite guaranteed because wood piles have already started to be driven at the entrance of the village.
The entrance of Fidne village is actually the most dangerous place in the entire valley. Since it is continuously widened, both sides of the village entrance have been dug into steep vertical cliffs.
Although this place is now about a hundred meters wide, it is still the most suitable terrain for an ambush.
Wooden piles more than three meters high are being nailed to the entrance of the village in a dense manner. They have been nailed several layers. There is basically no room for people or horses to pass between the wooden piles.
With the help of thousands of villagers who are familiar with the environment, it is not that difficult to control a hundred-meter-wide valley.