The settlements of the refugees are not very far from the Baishui River. After crossing the wasteland on the north bank of the Baishui River, they will enter the mountain forest area. The refugees hide in the forest and rely on the scarce food in the forest to survive.
The mountain forest is the joint product of the Tanzanian mines and the eastern hills. The undulating mountains slow down the force of the wind, giving the seeds that ride the wind a chance to take root and germinate here, forming intermittently distributed along the low hillsides, Not very dense woodland, and this woodland still had an owner a long time ago.
A short-lived "Kargor" family was briefly lords of the woodlands and the wastelands north of the Whitewater, but a plague put an end to that family's rule centuries ago, and now nature has long since Having smoothed out the evidence of the existence of human civilization, the collapsed castle of the Karger family sleeps quietly behind an unknown hillside, and these forests and wilderness are places that no one wants to care about because they are too close to the dark mountains.
As long as any family along the Dark Mountains is destroyed, everyone will unanimously believe that it is caused by the curse and chaotic magic from the wasteland of Gondor. Therefore, such unowned lands are everywhere in the extreme south, although it is far away from Andrew Lai. Viscount Sly's territory is only separated by a Tanzanian mine, but the viscount obviously never thought of sending his own people across the huge Tanzanian mountain to develop the land on the other side of the mountain.
Cecil combat soldiers wore lightweight enchanted armor that was easy to move, equipped with new heat energy ray guns and mana combat backpacks, and walked cautiously and quickly through the mountains and forests according to previous combat training. They had been away from the territory for a day and a night. I just had a rest and eating not long ago, and now I am in a state of excellent mental and physical strength, and the place where the refugees are hiding is not far away.
After entering the mountain forest, it is difficult to use the war horse, so Gawain left the car at this moment, led the horse and walked with Philip Knight, while Amber hung on the broad back of his "Krieg High Stallion", stumbling around Dozed off.
The reason for using "hanging" is because this half-elf lady is really not good at riding. In order to prevent falling off the horse, she used several belts and buckles to fix herself on the saddle. You can roll into the shadows at any time, and you are not afraid of being tied up tightly and affecting your running.
A guy with elf blood can't even communicate with a horse, he really deserves the shame of the elves.
"We are almost there," Knight Philip said, looking ahead. "In fact, there are many refugee settlements in this area, but they are all hidden in places that are extremely difficult to find, but as long as we can find one, we can easily contact others. of."
Gao Wen nodded slightly, but frowned slightly: "In fact, I always feel that this situation is a bit weird."
"Strange?" Knight Philip didn't understand, "Where is the weirdness?"
"Few people will catch slaves on a large scale after the frost moon, because after the frost moon, the temperature will drop and farming will stop, so much labor will not be needed. Instead, most people will enter a state of consuming food. To capture slaves under such circumstances, instead of letting them Instead, they need to provide food for nothing to feed them,” Gao Wen shook his head, “Unless it is a mine that is not affected by the seasons, there is a need for slave labor all year round, but the largest mine in this area is the Tanzania mine, and that Andrew The viscount has no intention of increasing slave labor recently... and he seems to disdain the act of capturing refugees as slaves."
"God knows whose money those mercenaries took," said Knight Philip. "Perhaps they are going to be sold to the central region, where there are many mines and merchants, and the price of slaves in the central region is high. Many people will take risks to buy 'private slaves. slave'."
Gao Wen was noncommittal, and soon, a thin smell of blood wafted into his nostrils.
"Stop!" He waved his hand immediately, and the captains of the soldiers of each team called to stop their teams in a low voice, and everyone became alert.
Even Amber, who was so sleepy on horseback, felt the change in the atmosphere instantly (this kind of vigilance is worthy of her bloodline, although it looks like she was counseled), opened her eyes suddenly, and then The whole person turned into a shadow and rushed to Gao Wen's side: "There is a smell of blood in front!"
"Holy light!" The chaplain Wright immediately drew a holy mark on his chest, "Someone is bleeding to death."
Under the leadership of Gao Wen, the soldiers quickly crossed the trees and bushes, and the situation of the refugee settlement was presented to them.
Those mercenaries have already started.
The settlement is surrounded by a circle of dilapidated wooden fences and thorns, but it obviously cannot resist the beasts with swords. There is a large open space between the scattered dilapidated tents. The refugees were driven to gather in the open space, and more than twenty heavily armed mercenaries were divided into two groups, half of them were guarding the outside of the camp, and the other half faced the gathered refugees with their swords out of their sheaths. A man in a black bust walked up and down in front of these poor soon-to-be slaves, yelling and cursing loudly.
And in the open space around them, you can see seven or eight dead bodies on the ground, all hacked to death by random knives. Obviously, at the first moment when the mercenaries attacked the camp, some people resisted for a short time, but this kind of resistance Destroyed like a thunder, those corpses that were hacked into pieces on the spot effectively prevented the escalation of the resistance and the situation getting out of control.
"The equipment is indeed well-equipped," Gao Wen analyzed while looking at it, "and half of them are mixed with civilians. Once the battle starts, they are likely to use those civilians as hostages..."
"Hostages? Are you thinking too much?" Amber glanced at Gao Wen, "Those are refugees who are treated like livestock by nobles and mercenaries. Nobles and their armies never care about their lives and those mercenaries must think the same way." Ours, that's why they won't use those people as hostages. But it's possible to use them as a shield at a critical moment... But as long as we can find a way to make a big noise and catch them off guard, those refugees will immediately flee, and in this case It is no longer under the control of those mercenaries. Before the hands and feet of those refugees are tied, now is a good time."
Gawain couldn't help being stunned when he saw the half-elf lady who analyzed everything well, and then realized that he was still influenced by the experience of the earth.
Hostages... That only works when you treat people as human beings, but here, there will never be a villain who puts a knife on the neck of an "untouchable" and threatens a nobleman and shouts "If you come here again, I will kill you!" Kill him" section.
Because "normal" nobles would not hesitate to kill "untouchables" along with robbers.
Thinking of this, Gawain sighed, and then took out two crystallized grenades: "Then let's make a big noise."
…
Mercenaries of unknown origin attacked the camp, and the few people who subconsciously chose to resist were cut to pieces almost instantly.
Cries and screams swept through the entire settlement in an instant, and subsided within a short period of time. The people were driven out of the tents and haystacks by the robbers and bandits with swords like driven animals. All gathered in the open space in the center of the camp.
As a refugee, even the last bundle of straw in his arms will be snatched, so the people in the camp are no strangers to robbers, but when they see the dress and momentum of these people, people with a little knowledge will realize that this is more serious than robbery. Robbers are even more terrifying: they are mercenaries, paid mercenaries.
Red-nosed Tom's older sister, the black-haired, black-eyed girl "Joan" huddled in the crowd, carefully averting her eyes to avoid eye contact with those vicious people. The pain from the dirt seeping into the wound, the first time those villains broke into the camp, she smeared her face with charcoal mixed with mud, and this appearance was quickly seen by a leader of the group of mercenaries Seeing that, the other party laughed and praised her as a smart girl, and then almost smashed half of her face with a whip.
He smoked while laughing so that her "makeup" could be permanently fixed on the face.
Blood was dripping on the ground mixed with mud, but Joan felt a little rejoicing in her heart, because the mercenary leader was cursing angrily:
"You bastards! You bastards! Bitches and bastards who only deserve to sleep in stinky gutters! Where's that cripple?! I know you've run away, I know you've run away! Damn... you already died eight just now, do you know how much money I lost?! Where did you hide that lame man!!"
Tom left a long time ago and went to a new direction to look for mushrooms and edible moss, just avoiding the sight of these mercenaries. When he came back, he would definitely notice the abnormality in the camp and he would run away.
Thinking of this, Joan secretly raised her eyelids, and glanced at the mercenary leader in armor with a silver-white long sword slung around her waist. She knew that soon there would be people around who couldn't stand the pressure and said she was Tom's. Sister, and she has long been prepared to die and let these long-legged beasts suffer greater losses. She can see that this group of refugees, including herself, can bring a lot of money to these mercenaries , and every time one dies, they will become more annoyed.
In many cases, this is the greatest resistance that the "untouchables" can make against the nobles and their minions.
But just when these thoughts popped up in Joan's mind, a strange movement suddenly came from not far away, and fell on her extremely sensitive ears that had been trained for years of hunting.
It seemed that two stones fell tens of meters away one after the other.
Before she could figure out what the "rock" was, she heard two loud noises like thunder coming from behind those mercenaries!
This thunderous noise was unfamiliar to everyone. Even when they were pointed at by swords, the refugees who were driven to the open space jumped up in panic, and headed towards the camp that was They ran away from the direction of the explosion, but those mercenaries who had experienced the bloody sword were calmer. Although they were also shocked, the first reaction that popped up in their minds was enemy attack! Meet the enemy!
This reaction was correct, not only for them, but also for Gao Wen. 8)