Chapter 77: Setting Fire to the Camp
"Sir, we found a lot of miners in the cabin over there in the camp!"
Just as Gervis was standing beside the carriage and laughing foolishly, a guard ran over.
"Oh, then go and take a look!"
It was not surprising to see miners. I saw at least a hundred people in the camp on the mountain that day. Excluding more than fifty guards, the others were probably miners responsible for mining.
Led by the guards, Gervis came to the middle of the camp. Perhaps to prevent the miners from escaping, all the wooden houses were built in the center of the camp, a long distance away from the wooden walls.
When Gervis arrived at the door of the wooden house, the door had been opened. Five or six guards holding torches were standing at the door. Gervis looked inside with the faint light of the fire and saw more than 20 people crowded inside. It was hard to imagine that so many people were crowded in a wooden house of only more than 30 square meters.
"Sir, the two cabins next to it are also occupied by miners!"
The guard who came with Gervis pointed to the two wooden houses next door and said.
"Yeah!" Gervis glanced at the two wooden houses, then retracted his gaze and looked back at the wooden house in front of him.
"Who's the leader here?"
Seeing the miners trembling in fear, Gervis did not go in, but just asked loudly at the door.
However, facing Gervis' question, none of the miners dared to speak first. Most of the miners just glanced at one of them. When that man saw the people around him looking at him, he was frightened out of his wits. He knew that he couldn't escape anyway, so he could only raise one hand timidly and answered: "It... It's none of my business... I just work the hardest... That's why they made me the team leader..."
"Come out and take me to the mine."
Gervis knew what these miners were afraid of, but Gervis, a soldier under Lanny, would not show mercy when killing. However, he could not bring himself to kill these unarmed serfs and laborers. He just wanted to see what the mithril mine looked like.
No matter how scared the man was, facing Gervis's order, he could only squeeze through the crowd in fear, walked out of the wooden house, and stood beside Gervis with his hands and feet tied and bent over.
"Lead the way, and I won't kill you if you behave yourself."
Gervis took a torch from the guard next to him and thrust it in front of the man.
Under this man's guidance, Gervis finally arrived at the mithril mine. There were three mine entrances in the whole camp. The mines were not very deep, only more than ten meters underground. Gervis asked the captain of the miners and learned that there were a lot of ores here, but the rock wall was relatively hard, so it took more than a month to dig out five carts of ore.
After a rough inspection of the three mines, Gervis retreated. Through observation, Gervis discovered that the reserves of this mithril mine should be considerable. After all, the three mines were hundreds of meters apart and all contained mithril ores. Many mithril ores that had not yet been mined were exposed in the mine tunnels.
When Gervis finished inspecting the mine and came to the middle of the camp again, the guards had searched the entire camp and found no remaining soldiers. They only found a large amount of food in a wooden house, enough for more than a hundred people to eat for more than three months. This made Gervis very happy. Tonight's operation could be said to be a great victory.
"Lord Nashen, what do you say we should do with this camp?"
When the guards emptied all the food and loaded it onto the carriage they had used when they arrived, Gervis was ready to evacuate, but Gervis felt a little distressed when he looked at the huge camp.
Gervis really wanted to take over this camp and dig for mithril mines himself, but reason told him that this was impossible. Six titled knights had died tonight. The masked Gervis did not know their identities, but all of Lanny's men were noble vassals. No matter what the reason, killing a noble privately was a serious crime, and Gervis's head was not hard enough to fight against the nobles of the entire duchy.
Therefore, it is impossible to get this camp for the time being. However, once we withdraw today, even if Lanny suffers heavy losses, he will definitely send people to continue mining, and it will definitely be heavily guarded by then. Unless Gervis burns down this camp, Lanny's mining operations can be temporarily suspended.
"Master Gervis, we have no choice but to burn it down! Otherwise, Viscount Lanny will surely be able to resume production soon. It will not be so easy for you to break into this camp again in the future."
"Well, let's burn it, tie up all those miners and drive them into the woods."
After listening to Nashen's words, Gervis finally made up his mind. He actually knew that burning it down was the best way. However, Lanny attached great importance to the construction of this camp. Except for the fact that the building material was wood, other aspects were also very exquisite. It was completely a small fortress.
If Gervis and his men had not used wits tonight and Richie had not failed to further confirm their identities in a panic, it would be hard to say whether Gervis and his men could have captured the camp.
As a time traveler, Gervis has a strong desire to protect the buildings. He also wants to become stronger in the future so that he won't have to rebuild the camp after he takes back this place.
"Master Gervis, those miners..."
Nashen felt that Gervis was good in every way except that he was too kind-hearted. In his opinion, killing these miners would be the right way to put an end to all the miners. It would not only save the risk of exposing them, but also increase the difficulty for Lanny to mine again. After all, it would be a hassle to redeploy a hundred miners.
"Lord Nashen, it goes without saying that it doesn't matter whether these people are killed or not. Serfs cannot serve as witnesses to testify against nobles. This is the law of the duchy."
Gervis knew what Nashen wanted to say, so he interrupted him before he finished speaking.
The serfs in this world were lowly, so they could not serve as witnesses to testify against any crimes of the nobles. Gervis didn't have to worry about himself and others being put in danger because of these people, and these miners didn't even know them.
As for Viscount Lanny, Gervis felt that even if they did everything perfectly tonight, he, Gervis, would definitely be the top suspect. After all, he had a direct conflict of interest with him. But it didn't matter. Gervis would recruit soldiers when he returned. As long as he stayed in the castle honestly during this period of time, he could continue to go out and have fun when his strength increased.
Seeing that Gervis had made up his mind, Nashen stopped trying to persuade him. He gave a few instructions to the guards next to him, and immediately the guards were divided into two teams. One team of guards went to the miners' wooden house, threw the ropes found in the camp to the miners, and asked them to tie up the people next to them one by one, like stringing beads, one by one. After they were all tied up, the guards led them out of the camp.
The other team piled all the flammable materials in the camp next to the wall and the wooden house. After all the miners left the camp, they ignited all the flammable materials. The hay and sheets immediately burned violently under the ignition of the torches, and with the help of the gentle night wind, they quickly rushed up the wall and the wooden house. In an instant, the whole camp was engulfed in flames, burning with crackling sounds.
"Let's go!" Looking at the entire camp engulfed in flames, Gervis retracted his gaze, climbed onto the horse, and then gave an order to start the return journey with the carriage. This marked the successful end of the first journey of his life.
Thanks to the book friend "Li Er" for the reward! Thank you all for your recommendation votes! !
(End of this chapter)
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