Before long, Jell's men made another discovery. On the far side of the slope, they found two corpses. Jell took a close look and recognized them as the two warriors he had sent out the night before. The men had clearly been tortured before their deaths, their bodies flayed and torn with barely an intact patch of skin left. Their throats had been cut in the end.
Luda saw them too. These two had been renowned warriors under Jell's command, yet they had died here like this. He felt both a trace of gloating and intense anger.
"These duchy nobles are utterly detestable! We are all subjects of the Iron Birch Family, so why would they treat our warriors this way? Brothers, chase them! Catch them and repay blood with blood!"
"Chase them! Kill them!" Soon, every Barbarian warrior had been roused to fury. They surrounded Luda and shouted for revenge.
Jell said nothing at the sight. He simply followed Luda and the others as they passionately tracked the trail Jack had left, heading west.
As they pursued Jack, Jell began slowing his horse and quietly warned his men. Gradually, they fell behind Luda's party. When they reached a stretch of brushwood, he immediately led his troops charging toward the other side of it. By the time Luda and his men realized something was wrong, Jell and his troops had vanished from sight.
Luda was furious. He had thought that he was helping Jell leave the camp to carry out the chief's orders, and was even helping Jell capture the enemies who had killed his men. Yet Jell had turned around and sold him out.
"Once we return to camp, I must report this to Chief Anlie. Then we'll confiscate a good batch of the Jell family's livestock. The chief can have the meat, and I'll drink the broth." Thinking of how he could retaliate against Jell improved Luda's mood considerably.
With those thoughts settled, Luda continued leading his men along the trail. He did not believe an enemy force that had fled without even showing its face could be particularly formidable. Before Centurion Luda, they were nothing but chickens and dogs.
When Luda continued west with his men, Jell emerged from behind the brushwood once more. He led his subordinates at a great distance behind Luda. He was highly sensitive to the information he had uncovered, so he had decided to use Luda as bait.
Jack had meanwhile met up with the troops sent to reinforce him and learned that Victor would soon arrive with the main force. Jack was greatly encouraged. Rather than blindly counterattacking the pursuing enemy, he sent messengers to deliver the intelligence he had gathered to Victor at once.
Jack then followed yesterday's route and found a suitable place for an ambush: a dried-up riverbed between two small hills. He concealed most of his men halfway up the hills, while he led a fifty-man squad into the riverbed to serve as bait.
However, to keep the ambushers from being discovered, he deliberately moved the bait position a little farther forward. This meant the ambushers might be slower to provide support, and the bait would have to hold out on its own at first. He was worried that if the pursuing Barbarian leader was cautious and scouted the ambush positions in advance, they might not be able to hide them.
Yet Jack had not expected Luda to charge at them with his men without the slightest suspicion. The dry riverbed was covered in smooth pebbles. The area near Jack was manageable, but the farther down they went, the more pebbles there were.
Luda's men charged too hastily. Before they even reached them, more than a dozen horses fell, costing them a tenth of their force before the battle had even begun. Seeing this, Jack immediately ordered the standard-bearers to signal both ambush forces to attack. Meat had delivered itself to their doorstep; the only sensible thing was to eat it quickly.
Jell had been following behind Luda the entire time, and he had seen the bait as well. He believed that if it had been him, he would certainly have found a way to inspect both hillsides.
But after seeing Luda's clumsy performance, he became worried for the warriors who had fallen. Then, once the two sides clashed and no ambushers appeared, Jell began to wonder whether his judgment had been wrong.
At that moment, a large force of Cavalry appeared on both hillsides. They charged down the slopes and reached the battlefield in just three minutes. Before Luda's hundred-man unit could react, it was completely surrounded. Then came the thudding.
Whether in squad combat or individual combat, the elite warriors of the Horseshoe Tribe were no match for the Light Cavalry of Two Rivers Territory. With their numerical advantage as well, they quickly crushed them completely. Not a single man escaped, and Luda was disarmed and captured by Jack.
Watching this scene, Jell felt deeply helpless. He was now almost certain that this noble who had come here to reclaim the wilderness was no mere baron. What baron could possibly be this strong?
Jell now felt that the Horseshoe Tribe should never have gotten involved in this matter. They might suffer a devastating blow because of it. But on second thought, through the repercussions of this incident, this might also be the best chance to bring down Anlie.
After thinking this through, Jell immediately led his men straight toward the battlefield. When Jack saw another force of Barbarian Cavalry arriving, he became deeply concerned. He ordered everyone to remain on standby and prepare to fight again at any moment.
But soon, Jell led his troops to a stop near the riverbed. Rather than charging at Jack and his men, every one of them dismounted alongside Jell. Jell stepped forward alone and called out, "Greetings, honorable sir. I sincerely apologize for the trouble caused by our tribe's reckless kinsmen. May I ask which noble you serve? We are also vassals of the Iron Birch Family. We are not enemies."
"I am Jack, a knight under Baron Victor of the Golden Sunflower Family. Our lord will arrive shortly. Your tribe sent men to graze livestock on the grasslands we have occupied without informing us, and even drove away our scouts. Are you trying to start a war?"
The moment he heard this, Jell knew there was hope. He realized that his younger brother Jian and his hundred-man unit had already been discovered, but they were not dead. At most, they had been imprisoned. That was good news to him.
"We never wanted this either. We bear no hostility toward great nobles. It was the order of John, the eldest son of Iron Birch Territory, that made us do this. We hold no hostility toward Lord Victor. It was only because our tribal chief, Anlie, insisted on this that we acted as we did. We all opposed it beforehand." Jell continued to defend himself.
"Then did these men oppose it as well?"
"No, my lord. They are the hundred-man unit controlled by the Luda clan of our Horseshoe Tribe. They are Chief Anlie's loyal supporters. It was only through the Luda clan and the Wen family that Anlie's unreasonable orders were passed. We lacked the power to stop the chief's wrongful actions." Jell spoke with tears streaming down his face, to the point that Jack almost believed him.
Jack was in no rush, however. He first had Jell and his men, along with the captured prisoners, travel with them to the designated rendezvous point. Less than an hour later, a cloud of dust appeared in the distance. Figures of men and horses moved within it—it was the main force led by Victor.
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