Soon, it was time to set out for Runestone.
Around the seventh hourglass in the morning, the servants at Gull Manor had already begun work.
The menservants handled sweeping, moving things, and assisting the craftsmen, while the maids washed curtains and clothes, cooked, and checked cleanliness.
The manor currently had over two hundred servants, including serfs, menservants, maids, and a dozen or so tailors. Its soldiers consisted of 21 personal guards and 100 militia.
There were also twelve craftsmen versed in Mohist craftsmanship, of course. They had risen early to research a new wall structure.
Outside Gull Manor.
Su Qin mounted his horse as the ministers and important figures came to see him off. He only needed to go alone on this long journey. Su Qin trusted his martial prowess stat.
After bidding farewell to Aila, the captain of the personal guard, and Yira, the head maid, behind him, Su Qin followed Pujin onto the road east.
Of course, Su Qin had left the craftsmen 50 gold coins. Research funding was naturally no place to be stingy.
But Su Qin had also left them with these words: "I want to see results when I return!" "No results, no meat with your meals!"
Essentially, level-two buildings required level-two craftsmen. Su Qin believed that under Gery and Downton's leadership, the craftsmen would definitely complete their task!
Su Qin handed the remaining 40 gold coins to Yira, giving her full responsibility for the manor's various logistical duties. Finally, he set off on his long journey with the last 10 gold coins.
There was only one road from Gulltown to Runestone: Hardstone Road, which led straight to the four-way junction at Augustus Castle. Naturally, it passed the Gull River.
The Gull River ran north to south through Gulltown's heartland. An ancient stone bridge, Gull Bridge, spanned it.
Beneath Gull Bridge lay the Gull River, formed by the Gull Mountains. The river consisted of rainfall produced when ocean monsoons met the cold air of the Gull Mountains, along with melted mountain snow. It was over fifty meters wide, and its deepest channel reached twenty meters, allowing some medium-sized cargo vessels to pass.
Around the riverbanks beside the Gull River were herders tending sheep and cattle. Water and grass were plentiful here. Farther away lay small villages, whose inhabitants made their living farming.
The people of these small villages were also subjects of the lord of Gulltown. They had to pay grain taxes to their lord, which were also an important source of food for the townspeople.
But thanks to a year-long tax exemption, they could live fairly well this year! With luck during the summer, they could reap two harvests a year. June would be this year's first harvest month.
As for why he had waived the taxes, besides dispelling the locals' hostility toward their lord and winning their support, Su Qin had other ideas.
The territory's warehouses currently held ten thousand units of grain, enough to feed the fewer than 300 people in Su Qin's castle very well. Ten thousand units of grain could feed 300 people for two and a half years.
The lord's manor also had 600 mu of private farmland, which could provide a considerable amount of grain each year. Two harvests a year meant 7,200 units of grain, enough to feed 600 people for a year. So Su Qin was not worried about food at all.
Ten li northwest of Augustus Castle, Su Qin had made a special trip to inspect the edge of his territory bordering the Gull Mountains.
Carrying his luggage, dressed in leather armor, with a spear on his back and a greatsword at his left side, Su Qin kept scanning his surroundings.
This was open plains, where many small villages were visible at a glance. Pujin had brought several attendants and was examining the road conditions alongside Su Qin.
Suddenly, Su Qin saw flames flickering in a distant village. Thick smoke was visible from several kilometers away. It definitely was not ordinary cooking smoke, because Su Qin could see houses burning. There were enemies!
Su Qin was about to crack his whip and charge over to see what was happening when Pujin called out to stop him! He wanted to prevent Su Qin from going!
Pujin looked at Su Qin. "Baron, keeping to our journey is more important. It will be dark soon. We must hurry to the next fortress!"
Su Qin looked at Pujin. Pujin knew what had happened but refused to go over. Pujin silently shook his head, signaling that Su Qin should not meddle. Why bother with people on the territory's fringes?
Su Qin was somewhat indignant. "Is this how you protect your subjects?"
Then he gave a loud shout! With a ringing neigh, Su Qin rode straight toward the small village several li away!
In the village, a mountain clan force of about seventy was burning, killing, and looting. They killed the men and carried off the women and livestock.
Blood flowed across the ground! The women were herded into pens like cattle and sheep, while some were assaulted on the spot.
They screamed incessantly, but what drove them to despair was that they knew no one would come to save them. The soldiers in the fortresses never concerned themselves with such matters.
As though they had an agreement with the nobles, the mountain clans only plundered small, remote villages.
After a village was plundered, another group would arrive to build a new one. There was no end to refugees who could no longer survive.
Outside the village, sharpened wooden stakes ten centimeters wide had been driven into the ground. Captured children had been cruelly impaled directly onto them! Their clothes were soaked in blood! Fresh blood stained the ground!
There were boys and girls, their eyes wide open, as though accusing the gods of fate's injustice!
A wildly laughing mountain clansman was about to impale a child on a stake! The child's hands were bound, and her legs struggled incessantly! She was terrified! She was utterly desperate!
Su Qin urged his warhorse forward at a gallop. As he drew close and saw those rows of horrors, anger surged from the depths of his heart, and his eyes seemed ready to blaze. He saw that wildling!
He immediately drew the spear from his back, took aim, and hurled it forward with all his strength. The wildling was laughing wildly when his vision suddenly went black. The spear pinned his head straight to the ground!
Su Qin's spear struck the mountain clansman squarely in the forehead, bursting it apart in a spray of blood and brains.
Riding past the stakes, Su Qin pulled out his spear. Leaving the child who had fallen to the ground alone, he crouched low over his horse and charged toward the village's main road at top speed.
On the village's main road, the mountain folk were looting valuables. Suddenly, some wildlings ahead heard a warhorse neigh. As soon as they turned, they saw Su Qin charging toward them on horseback.
They immediately raised their long axes and shields to defend themselves! They thought Su Qin would stop when he got close, but the closer he came, the faster he charged! It was as though he had no fear of them!
Su Qin went faster and faster, until three thuds rang out: thump, thump, thump!
Su Qin smashed straight through the front line's defenses, skewering a mountain clansman on his two-meter spear! The others were knocked to the ground!
After breaking through their defenses, he saw a man surrounded in the center. The man wore a chain of bones on his head and was encircled by barbarians! He had to be someone of high standing!
Su Qin's eyes lit up, and he charged over, skewering two barbarians outright. His spear pierced their bellies, leaving them hanging from its shaft. Su Qin lifted the spear with the two barbarians on it in one hand and swung it hard!
He flung the corpses straight in front of the leader, frightening him into stumbling several steps backward.
Then he suddenly caught sight of an archer atop a building drawing his bow to shoot him. He immediately twisted at the waist and hurled his spear, sending it straight through the archer's arm and into his chest.
Su Qin's martial prowess was twenty! Su Qin guessed that his strength alone matched that of twenty men, and that much of his martial prowess might come from his strength.
Above ten martial prowess, every point was another step up. Some people advanced through skill, while others advanced by developing their talents.
Seeing the leader trying to escape, Su Qin immediately turned, drew his longsword, leaped off his horse, and charged straight at the barbarian leader!
The leader frantically ordered his clansmen to hold him off while he kept retreating.
But this was Hercules! How could they stop him? He could lift a thousand jin with one hand, his might unrivaled!
Su Qin hacked apart several barbarians' wooden shields. After killing a few of them, he let out another roar! Like a lion, he frightened the barbarians into immediately retreating!
In a fight, momentum was everything! Once someone grew afraid, death was not far away!
Su Qin swiftly cut his way through, his sharp longsword slashing and killing at tremendous speed as he kept his eyes fixed on the leader.
In the end, his speed allowed him to catch the leader easily, and he beheaded the fleeing man outright.
When Su Qin returned carrying the barbarian leader's head, not a barbarian remained on the village's main road. He then searched the village's dozens of houses one by one, stabbing to death all the barbarians who were still committing assaults, unaware of what had happened!
In this battle, Su Qin had once again taken on a whole group alone! With his strength alone, Su Qin had killed one leader and thirty-five barbarians!
But in truth, he had failed in this battle. Failed utterly and completely.
The flames, the thick smoke, the blood, and the despair in the village behind him seemed to mock Su Qin's helplessness!
"Look, what good is it no matter how strong you are alone? Your gaze can only ever rest on Gulltown! How could you see the suffering and despair in the remote regions!"
But Su Qin truly could do nothing at that moment. He could only find a way in the future to eliminate the clans in the Gull Mountains.