Chapter 173 Small Conflict

There are currently seven villages in Crescent Moon Territory.

Today's dens are no longer considered villages, so they are not included.

Four of them were left over from the village war period. They have now grown a lot and are no longer starving.

There are also three villages that were rebuilt on destroyed villages. The cost of rebuilding the villages destroyed during the Village War was not high, and there was still reclaimed land left.

As the population of the den grew, Rand arranged for its reconstruction.

However, Rand is not very merciful. He does not have enough capital to show mercy. His governance logic is very simple. Those who have contributed to the hideout will never be treated unfairly, such as the soldiers in the hideout.

In the hideout, the soldiers' welfare has always been of the highest quality.

Then there are the villagers who are willing to work hard and complete the indicators of the den. For these people who are willing to work hard, Rand will at least ensure that they will not starve or freeze to death. As the den develops, Rand will gradually try to improve their living standards.

But the speed won't be too fast.

But Rand at least allowed them to accumulate wealth, rather than taking all of their hard-earned money and leaving them with just enough to survive.

Perhaps only when compared with the nobles of this era, Rand is the benevolent Lord Rand.

Although the welfare certainly cannot be compared with the level of social welfare in Rand's previous life.

Nowadays, the pressure on the den is always very high, and the military and heavy industry are the main development directions.

Of course, this heavy industry refers to blast furnaces.

Rand owns iron ore, but it is not easy to transform the iron ore into strength and wealth.

…

In a border village southwest of Crescent Moon Territory close to Heyuan Territory, Baron Heyuan and his knights were trading with the merchants here.

As a border village, a small trading post was set up here.

Baron Heyuan has been a client of the den since a long time ago.

When Rand and Baron Huyuan had a conflict, he knew that a group of fairly powerful forces had appeared here, but he was really surprised that they could actually defeat Baron Huyuan.

Later, this Rand became involved with the Black and Brown Marquis, and Baron Heyuan began to use his decent political sense and previous observations to make his choice.

That is to say, to make friends with Rand's forces.

He should be the first nobleman to show goodwill to Rand, except for the Marquis of Black and Brown, and thus he has gained a lot of benefits. For example, during the civil war, he looted more things than others, and his army suffered less losses than other nobles. Baron Heyuan would not think that this was due to luck.

Today he came to visit the border village as usual to see if there was anything new or interesting here.

When he showed goodwill before, he bought some Crescent Neck products. To be honest, he didn't have much expectation at first, but later he found that they were really good.

"What is this?" Baron Heyuan, dressed in noble aristocratic clothes, picked up a square solid with a fragrant smell and asked the person in charge of the trading post.

There are many merchants in this small trading post. Some of them are unwilling to walk a long way to the hideout to trade, so they will stop here to sell and buy.

Those who are qualified to do business are considered superior to the non-aristocratic group. Generally, only those with aristocratic status or aristocratic background are barely qualified to do business in this world.

However, compared with real nobles with fiefdoms, they are definitely far inferior.

Merchants were very reserved when facing Baron Heyuan, fearing that they would offend the Baron and be punished.

On the contrary, the villagers who have been here are better. Most of the time, Baron Heyuan is easy to talk to. Of course, they know that Baron Heyuan is easy to talk to because of their lord, Rand Nicholas.

"This is soap," the head of the trading post introduced. "It can effectively remove stains and has a refreshing scent. It can be used for washing clothes or taking a bath."

As he spoke, the person in charge also demonstrated how to use it and what the effect was.

Baron Heyuan took a look and found it very novel. He planned to buy a dozen pieces to take back and try them out. This is why he likes to come here to shop so much now. He can always find practical and novel good things.

Moreover, the price was very cheap for a baron like him and he could totally afford it.

Just when Baron Heyuan was about to ask about the price, the guards beside him suddenly grabbed his shoulders and pulled him back.

At the place where Baron Heyuan was originally, a tentacle rose into the sky.

The small trading post, which was originally built with a thatched hut, suddenly collapsed.

The various local specialties, seasonal fruits and vegetables, as well as practical goods purchased from traveling merchants were all scattered around.

The merchants and villagers who were originally here also panicked and started to flee.

The village's self-defense forces rushed forward with wooden shields and spears.

Baron Heyuan's guard is a senior professional. He spent a lot of money to buy this guard, but now it seems that it is worth it.

Just as Baron Heyuan was about to escape on horseback to the place where the horses were parked, he saw many men in black robes rushing towards him from outside.

The black-robed man also brought with him some horrific monsters of strange shapes.

There weren't many of them, less than fifty, but when you factor in the monsters they were carrying, it was a large number.

At least all the major intersections have been blocked.

Baron Heyuan looked a little constipated. He did not bring many guards with him this time. Originally, there were no cultists left in the area after the clearing out by the boar riders of the Marquis of Black and Brown.

How come it’s only been a short time and now cultists have appeared again, and on such a large scale?

Is he going to die because of being chased by cultists just because he went out to the market? What an inglorious way to die.

Baron Heyuan mounted his horse, drew the decorative sword from his waist, and held it high.

Charge forward with two or three guards behind him.

Baron Heyuan was quite strong when he was young and had fought in battles, but later he gradually became fat and now has a big belly.

But when he charges forward now, he still has some of the heroism of his youth.

An arrow shot down, killing the cultist around Baron Heyuan.

Then there were more arrows flying around, killing the monsters brought by the cultists and their cult master.

Elsa pouted aside.

When she was being hunted by her family and Lisa came to the rescue, she wasn't so handsome. At that time, Lisa's arrows were weird and deadly.

Now that Rand is here, it's a bit of a show-off, and it looks very cool.

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She hasn't had a chance to show her abilities yet. As a ranged unit, a Ranger needs to be faster at times like this.

Baron Heyuan quickly reined in his horse and retreated.

This situation clearly means reinforcements have arrived. We are really lucky, but we don’t know which top professional they are.

Rand motioned to Ellie and Elsa to protect the civilians, then poked Lysa beside him with his elbow, signaling her to kill slowly and remember to leave some alive.

Based on current observations, the means of attack include controlling the tentacles and controlling this strange-looking monster.

These creatures controlled by the cultists are extremely terrifying and twisted. It is common for them to have tentacles on their bodies, but some also have eyes all over their bodies, some have mouths all over their bodies, and some have six legs and six tails.

There are all kinds of looks, and it’s hard to tell their original prototype.

As for whether they have more abilities, we will have to wait until we capture them to find out.

Rand put down the shield in his hand and went to meet Baron Heyuan.

He had a very good impression of Baron Heyuan. After all, when he first started to make his fortune, if he and Baron Huyuan attacked from both sides, Rand might have died before he could achieve his goal.

Baron Heyuan also dismounted and looked at Rand. Although he had met him several times, every time he met him, he would sigh at Rand's youth.

He was really young and promising. He also looked down on common people. When Rand was nothing, he just showed kindness to him. But now, Rand was a viscount, and he had to call Rand "Sir Rand".

Although he had no complaints about this, he still felt sad.

…

On the Xinyue Territory Defense Line, many weeds have turned yellow in autumn, and it looks a bit bleak at first glance.

But the camping sites of Tanr and Fenris are still bustling with activity.

Although there was no special entertainment and Rand strictly prohibited anything related to gambling, at least there was good food.

It was quite enjoyable to be able to hear gossip from the Centaurs transporting supplies from time to time.

There was not much entertainment in that era. Even if they were given holidays, they would help out at home when they returned, such as feeding livestock.

Now, chatting in your spare time has become a very high-quality form of entertainment.

"Line up and stand guard!" The grassroots officer conveyed the order to the soldiers.

And the soldiers, at a speed unimaginable for other armies of the era, went from a loose and leisure state to picking up weapons, forming lines, and becoming a silent army.

Taner walked out of the main general's camp, followed by Fenris, who had a gloomy face.

"Follow me." Taner's face also looked unhappy.

The assembled army marched quickly and then entered the main road, where a team of scouts had already stopped a team of cavalry.

The cavalry threatened to attack several times, but the scouts were not afraid at all and looked fearless.

Taner led a few hundred infantrymen to the front, took a few deep breaths, and his expression changed several times before he forced a smile: "Sir, may I ask what can I do for you?"

The leader was a viscount who looked down at Taner, waved his whip, and said coldly, "Get out of the way!"

Taner basically understood the situation.

The nobles of this world have always been plundering people, and this is especially true the further north you go. The northernmost Ice Sea Kingdom is simply the United Nations of bandits.

The situation in the Frost Moon Kingdom was much better, but wherever the army passed, unless the local lord was prestigious enough, had a high status and strong military strength.

Otherwise, you will basically suffer a loss.

The nobles of the Northern Alliance more or less have some barbarian blood, and are brave in fighting the enemy, but it is really laughable to expect these nobles to have any chivalry, especially any chivalry towards the villagers in the village.

It’s just that sometimes the local nobles who were robbed would receive compensation, and sometimes not.

(End of this chapter)