Eagle Tamer
After all the enemies were eliminated, the battlefield finally returned to calm.
As dusk fell, the stench of burning grease filled the grasslands. The fallen soldiers of the Blazing Fire Tribe were stripped of their equipment, doused with Fire Oil, and burned on the spot.
The bodies of the Two Rivers Territory soldiers from Mesopotamia were treated with embalming agents by the medical team and taken back to Two Rivers Territory for burial. After all, it was not far from Two Rivers Territory, less than ten days' journey. The unique herbal embalming agents would prevent the bodies from decomposing even in the high temperatures of summer.
The engineering corps was using specially made steel clamps to nail shackles to the prisoners. A total of more than 1,700 prisoners had been captured. Originally, there were more than 2,000 prisoners, but the disabled and seriously wounded prisoners were executed directly. These prisoners were all legitimate war slaves, elite warriors of the Blazing Fire Tribe, and had to be treated strictly.
These war slaves will be sent back to Two Rivers Territory. Victor doesn't intend to keep them; he simply sells them to slave traders as war slaves. War slaves from elite tribes can fetch a good price. Because of the Civil War two years ago, the Cavalry of the inland nobles suffered heavy losses, and many of these war slaves were bought by the inland nobles to serve as Cavalry units in their territories.
The nobles of the Grand Duchy of Vera have a tradition of using serfs as Auxiliary Troops. The main army is still composed of Freemen, but the use of Barbarians war slaves is a tradition passed down from the Northern Frontier nobles. Since the Civil War two years ago, the price of Barbarians war slaves has continued to rise. This batch of war slaves will sell for at least 3 gold coins, and together they can probably sell for 5,000 gold coins, which is a considerable fortune.
The scribe recorded the battle damage on parchment: 127 crossbows needed to have their bowstrings replaced, 451 spearheads were chipped, and 179 horse armors, 347 chainmails, and 589 half-body armors needed to be repaired—the number of dead was accurate to 187, including four crossbowmen who were killed by fire warriors who were feigning death while clearing the battlefield.
The number of wounded was less than the number of dead, only 112. The fighting was fierce from the start, with both sides deliberately finishing off the wounded. That's why Victor ordered the execution of the disabled and seriously wounded prisoners of war after the battle. Under normal circumstances, Victor would at least have tried to save them, or at least provide some end-of-life care. It can only be said that the Blazing Fire Tribe army went too far.
As for the spoils of war, the Two Rivers Territory's troops had already taken all the wealth of the Iron Palm Tribe that the Blazing Fire Tribe had brought back. Although it was not as rich as the spoils obtained from the Blazing Fire Tribe, the more than 60,000 sheep, more than 13,000 horses, plus a considerable amount of gold and silver treasures, were still a large fortune. Most importantly, they obtained two treasures from the remnants of the Iron Palm Tribe.
When the clerk was tallying the Iron Palm Tribe prisoners of war brought back by the Blazing Fire Tribe army, he discovered two male slaves among the nearly two thousand female slaves. The key point was that these two male slaves were neither handsome nor effeminate. When Victor first saw these two men, he thought that there were fellow transmigrators like him among the high-ranking members of the Blazing Fire Tribe, perhaps from Chengdu.
Later, when the Intelligence Department interrogated them, they learned that the two were animal trainers sent by the Iron Bone Tribe to support the Northlands Iron Palm Tribe. They were skilled in eagle and horse training. Victor knew that the Steppe Barbarians had a special kind of animal trainer who could train eagles. This eagle training technique was not just about training eagles for fighting. The war eagles they trained could be used for communication and reconnaissance, which was extremely useful.
Ever since he learned of the existence of such Eagle Tamer, he had been trying to find them, but unfortunately, such people were rare on the grasslands. Even Jell and Luda of the Horseshoe Tribe had only heard of them but had never seen one, and the vassal Barbarian Tribes of the Iron Birch Territory did not have such talents.
Victor had tried to search for it during the battle with the Barbarian Tribal Alliance last year, but unfortunately he found nothing. He never expected to find it here so suddenly, which was a pleasant surprise.
No wonder the Blazing Fire Tribe, already enraged, didn't kill them. After all, such special talents are invaluable to any force, and how could the cunning Volcano Chief not recognize their importance?
In particular, this Eagle Tamer had a well-trained war eagle, which was a rare large bird of prey from the Northlands Wasteland.
This raptor is somewhat similar to the golden eagle of Victor's previous life, with a wingspan of over 4 meters and a weight of 10 kilograms. When hunting, it can directly grab a 30-kilogram adult gazelle. According to Number One's analysis, this raptor can fly at an altitude of at least five or six thousand meters. Its special visual structure is enough to support it in accurately identifying prey at an altitude of thousands of meters. These characteristics led the Barbarians to call this giant eagle the Desert God Eagle.
In addition, they are larger and smarter. After training, they can distinguish the approximate size of an army, although the maximum is only 10,000. They can also use body movements and calls to express the location and number of the army, but this alone makes them a low-end version of a reconnaissance satellite. In addition, because they are large birds of prey, they have good memory and can reach a top speed of 200 km/h. It only takes three hours to send a message from here back to Two Rivers Territory.
Victor took a great liking to the giant eagle named Gale as soon as he saw it. The eagle was agile and graceful, as if it were a work of art sculpted by nature with the most exquisite skills.
However, this Eagle Tamer named Morey was very uncooperative and arrogant. He received special treatment from the Intelligence Department, which is why he took the initiative to reveal this information.
However, Victor, out of concern, also participated in his interrogation. Through the Calculation Module, he discovered loopholes in his words. His falconry skills were only slightly better than those of ordinary Eagle Tamer; he was simply more experienced. What was truly special was this Desert God Eagle. Analyst Number One believed that Morey's most unique feature was his ability to capture and breed Desert God Eagle.
Fortunately, Morey has become much more obedient after being beaten up, and Victor plans to use a gentler approach to slowly extract these technologies from him.
Victor believed that with the Number One and the Calculation Module, these technologies could certainly be optimized, and before Two Rivers Territory could manufacture aircraft, the use of this Divine Eagle would be enough to give Two Rivers Territory a strong reconnaissance advantage.
In order to get Morey to cooperate, Victor offered Morey the treatment of Detachment Commander: he would be free if he served the Two Rivers Territory for ten years, and would also receive a severance payment of 50 gold. At the same time, Victor did not take back the five female slaves given to him by Volcano, the chieftain of the Blazing Fire Tribe, but instead made Morey his wife and mistress.
After all, according to the laws established by Victor, private ownership of slaves was not allowed in the Two Rivers Territory. The slaves of mid- to high-ranking military officers were all under the unified management of the territory's slave department. If they were killed or injured, not only would the slave owners have to pay compensation to the territory, but they would also be fined.