Unknown Knight

Chapter 86: Popularity and Decay

The Kugits, who were skilled in cavalry warfare, left their horses and were slowly squeezed into a narrow corner by the slow but effective advance of the combat team.

The archers in the trio held their guns but did not shoot, allowing the shieldmen to advance and the spearmen to stab. But if a Khergit wanted to draw his bow and shoot, they would use a crossbow to kill the Khergit archer at close range.

This strategy of deterrence and advancement was a tactical idea that Aix had told him in advance. It frightened the Kugit people and made them cower under their shields, not daring to resist easily. Little by little, they were compressed by the broad shields that surrounded them from all directions.

It was not until Aix asked Ran Hu to persuade them to surrender again that more than 60 Kugit people's swords, guns, arrows and shields fell to the ground with a crackling sound.

This is exactly the effect that Aix wanted. In his eyes, these Kugits are important resources, horses, and glittering gold coins.

Not only that, these Kugits could also be used as slaves, but he had other ideas.

The battle yielded a huge harvest, including more than 50 gold coins, more than 300 silver coins, more than 5,000 copper coins, as well as a number of gold medals, gold and silver jewelry, jade ornaments, and gems.

More than sixty elite Kugit cavalrymen, three minor Nayan nobles, more than eighty Kugit war horses, and countless armor, horse gear, weapons, arrows, etc. were captured.

The military supplies, including grain, cheese, dried meat, vegetables, fruits, wool felt, leather, tents, etc., took two trips with the territory's thirty trucks but still failed to transport them all.

In addition, there were more than 330 Vigers. The fort was almost built, and they had been tortured to the point of being skin and bones. Aix estimated that the Kugits intended to kill at least half of them.

Now these people are the actual subjects of Aix. They have no choice but to follow Aix. If they stay, they will only die.

Aix was not going to waste Shules, which had no subjects left. He left more than 200 people to demolish all the houses in Shules and also demolished one-third of the fort's weak defenses.

All the stones, wood and rammed earth he obtained were used to reinforce the dock. He wanted to build this fortress into a permanent fortification.

According to Aix's idea, after the fortress is completed, it will be a square blockhouse of 50 meters by 50 meters, with a stone-covered outer wall and rammed earth-filled inner wall, 3.5 meters thick and 6 meters high, with protruding arches at the four corners and a trench outside, making it a solid stronghold.

This will be the first line of defense against the invasion of the Kugits and also the outer buffer of the Tangquan Fortress. With this bunker, the safety factor of the territory will be greatly improved.

Aix also left behind thirty light cavalry, commanded by Ran Hu, to be responsible for all matters concerning Fort Schulers.

He was also told that the scope of reconnaissance to the east should be expanded to a distance of thirty miles, until it reached the foot of the snow-capped mountains at the border between the two countries.

After completing these arrangements, Aix led his subordinates back to Tangquan Fortress in a mighty manner.

After returning to Tangquan Fortress, Aix and his party were warmly welcomed by the people. The elders of Talboliya were the most experienced in this regard. Not only did they line the streets to welcome them and scatter flowers along the way, Amanti also asked several young girls to present wreaths to Aix and the other leaders.

The most excited were the local Vigers. Many of them found their lost relatives and were grateful to Aix and the other leaders, full of praise.

That night, the people of the territory held a grand bonfire party in the outer castle grounds. This activity has now become a regular feature of the people of Aix.

Everyone sang and danced, ate and drank, and had a great time.

Although the subjects came from all over, including Swadians, Vaegirs, Han Chinese, and Nords, they spoke different languages ​​and sang various tunes, but after a joyous banquet, everyone felt less alienated and more identified with each other, and some even secretly developed stronger feelings for each other.

Looking at the harmonious and happy people, Aix was very satisfied. He felt that the value and significance of being a lord was here. Such activities were very good and should be held more often in the future.

With the addition of new subjects and more than sixty Kugit slaves, the labor shortage has improved a lot, and the construction of the territory has been accelerated. Aix is ​​confident that the entire fortress will be completed by the time winter comes.

Soon another month passed, during which time Aix asked Bandak, Manide and Fatis to lead a team on two business trips.

Once by water, going downstream, passing through the cities of Kudan, Kulau, Sagos, and Ocheze, and finally from Ocheze along the coastline to Rivacheze, and then returning along the same route.

Along the way, they sold leather armor, leather products, snow salt and other items produced in the territory, and resold leather, iron materials, iron tools, linen, wine, cheese, smoked fish, silk and other items produced in the cities along the way.

The route passed through the Nordic territory. Although the cities they stopped at were all cities with good relations, Aix did not allow them to fly their dragon flag to avoid unnecessary trouble.

When they arrived at Wocheze, Bandak also handed over the letters that Aix wrote to the Lord and Lady of Iaya and Miss Gangde respectively.

The letter to the Lord and his wife of Iaia mainly suggested forming a joint water transport caravan with them. This would not only promote the circulation of goods along the way, but also resist pirate robberies, increase bargaining power for goods in the passing places, and thus have more commercial competitive advantages.

The business-minded Iaya City Lord and his wife immediately agreed to the request, and a caravan of twenty-one dragon-headed ships was formed, with Aix, Iaya, and Gand each providing seven ships.

The joint caravan, flying the flag of Iaya, only made a trip to the city of Rivacherze, but the lord of Iaya earned as much money as he would normally have earned in several months. He was so happy that he sent a letter of thanks to Aix along with the fleet, praising his future son-in-law highly.

As for Miss Gangde's letter, the beginning content said that he had forgiven and understood her previous actions, but it would not happen again and that she was not allowed to hide important things from him in the future.

Then he said some corny words that are too inconvenient to write here, which aroused Miss Gangde's sexual desire. When the fleet returned, she insisted on following it to Tangquan Fortress.

Along with Miss Tsuna, there were also thirty shield maidens and more than fifty single women.

The shield maidens were specially picked by Miss Tundra to support Aix because she was afraid that the territory of Aix would be newly established and lack defensive capabilities. The leader of the team is Nia, the one with the cross scar on her face.

As for the female bachelors, everyone knows that ever since X sent more than 200 male bachelors to the Shieldmaiden Village last time, the male subjects in his territory have already established a good reputation among the Nord women. There are even Nord women who are worried about getting married and specifically come to the Shieldmaiden Village, hoping that X will send another wave of male gods over one day.

The arrival of Miss Tanda made the relationship between Axe and her reach the honeymoon stage again. In order to make the two of them more comfortable, Axe shamelessly booked the use of the hot spring for several days in a row. Not only did he and Miss Tanda take a bath together, but sometimes he also asked Cress to come along.

For a time, there were constant rumors about Lord Aix, which made the two leaders, Amanti, who was in charge of government, and Niza, who was in charge of propaganda, very troubled.

The two of them finally decided that since the amount of hot spring water was large enough and no one knew how much was discharged into the river through the culvert every day, and there was still a lot of open space in the outer castle, they might as well build an exclusive hot spring pool for Aix as close to the inner castle as possible. After the inner castle was repaired in the future, they could build a staircase leading directly to the inner castle to prevent the subjects from finding out that their lord was doing nothing all day and was taking his wife to take a bath together.

Another business trip was by land, starting from Tangquan Fortress, passing through Kudan City, Zhivadin City, Dehrim City, Viruga City, and finally arriving at Jelkala City.

In addition to selling snow salt, leather products and leather armor produced in the territory, the main purpose of this trip was to purchase some cheap food and side dishes such as dried meat, apples, cabbage, etc. for the territory along the way.

The territory currently has no food production, and with most of the summer already passed, it is too late to replant. Apart from planting some vegetables with a short growth cycle as supplementary food, other crops should wait until next year.

By the way, we also sell some high-net-value goods such as olive oil, silk, fine linen, woolen cloth, etc.

Both trips made a lot of profit, especially the one by water, which not only transported a large amount of goods but also had a very low cost, especially for food.

When purchasing grain by land, even with the help of new trucks, a quarter of it will always be lost on the road, sometimes more. The loss by water transportation is very small, less than one-tenth.

Faced with the huge profits from the two trading trips, Aix wanted to go out for some fun as well, but the leaders firmly disagreed and even organized a special meeting, where all the elders gathered to denounce his irresponsible and frivolous behavior.

Now that the territory has just started to gain some momentum, he is going to take risks again. What if an arrow is shot from somewhere in the dark, all the brothers' work will be in vain. They disagree, absolutely disagree.

In order to keep Aix, whose heart had already gone wild, the leaders racked their brains and took great pains.

Desevi hunted the most delicious flying dragon in the jungle for him; Sophia discovered and collected a number of bitter roots as thick as carrots for him; Robin Hood hunted the fattest stag in the forest for him; Igor caught fat salmon for him; Catherine dug truffles for him that were rarely found even in the palace, and so on.

After all these operations, Aix became fat and bloated, his eyes turned red, and he became angry. He would go around catching Miss Gand and chasing away Miss Cress before dark.

That overflowing energy was inexhaustible, it was simply inexhaustible. When he was alone, he would secretly tease the little girl Sophia, making the little girl, as white as paper, smile, blush and have her heart beating fast when she saw him.

The most outrageous one was Mayor Amanti. This leader who sold himself to Aix was very prepared to be a slave. In order to corrupt his respected benefactor, he designed a lord's mansion in the inner castle specifically for Aix. He took the design draft to Aix and told him how spacious and gorgeous the bedroom was, how warm the bear skin on the floor was, how many people could sleep on the soft big bed, and so on.

The key point is that this person would occasionally bring the blueprints to ask for his opinion, which made Aix feel more involved and immersed in the story. Every day, he indulged in his imagination of the decadent life in the future and no longer had the energy to think about the frivolous ideas that the leaders did not want him to have.