Banner of the Evil God

After a fierce battle, the winter sweep army led by Dal finally wiped out the major worry for many years, and it did not pay a painful price - because Sui Xiong mercifully bestowed a large range of divine grace, so except for the three unlucky archers who died directly in the battle, the rest of the participants were all able to survive, and not even one was left with a disability.

When Baron Dal got the news, he smiled from ear to ear, and his fat face was full of joy.

Seeing the ogre tribe growing stronger and stronger, he was actually very worried. Sometimes he was also worried that these guys would invade in large numbers, destroy one or two villages, or even attack towns.

If there were really hundreds of ogres coming to kill, Dal City would probably not be able to stop them. What's more terrifying is that the ogres are very intelligent. If they really want to attack the city, they will definitely drive a large group of monsters to be the vanguard or cannon fodder, and may even break through the village first and drive the refugees towards the town to hit the morale of humans and consume more of their food, which will naturally make it easier to break through the town.

Of course, a single ogre is not so intelligent, but when they form a group, they often breed chieftains or shamans, so their wisdom level will be greatly improved, and their threat will also be greatly increased.

This is like a special group of people on Earth who are truly peaceful when their proportion in the population is less than 2%, start to disrupt social order when it is above 5%, promote laws that are beneficial to themselves through riots and other means when it reaches 10%, launch terrorist attacks everywhere when it exceeds 20%, and persecute others when it reaches 40%...

The accumulation of quantity will lead to changes in quality, no matter which world it is in.

Fortunately, Baron Dahl does not have to worry about this problem, because the group of ogres in his territory have become the best kind in the world - dead ogres.

From the ogre camp, everyone did not find many valuable spoils. It can be seen that the dragon is very good at plundering, and did not leave much oil and water. Even some rare ores were taken away by it. Fortunately, the corpses of the ogres are good spoils in themselves, and because of the cold weather, these corpses are well preserved, and there is enough time to slowly deal with them.

The military wizard therefore applied for some odd jobs and built a temporary workshop at the original ogre camp site to process these materials most efficiently.

Because there were too many materials and too few people - this kind of technical work could only be done by the military wizard and his two apprentices, and those helpers could only help out, do some insignificant odd jobs, or help them with logistics - according to the military wizard's estimate, it would take about a month to process everything.

This "processing everything" does not mean that all the materials are made into magic props, but only the process of turning those ogres into materials.

Of course, the mopping-up army could not wait for a month at the foot of the mountain, so after leaving enough manpower and supplies, Baron Dahl led the busy mopping-up army for almost a month, from one victory to another, exhausted but in high spirits, and returned to Dahl City singing a triumphant song.

When they returned to Dahl City, the messenger had already passed the news of victory back. The people in the city were all happy to go out on the streets, cheering for the victorious expeditionary army - or maybe there was also a factor of watching the excitement, after all, some spoils of war were really rare, such as wild boar heads that were almost bigger than a person, and several hideous ogre heads, such things, ordinary people really couldn't see them at ordinary times.

Baron Dahl rode his horse in the middle of the team, enjoying the cheers of the people on both sides, and couldn't help laughing.

Although he was not a knight, he also liked the feeling of being loved by the people for destroying monsters.

The premise was that it didn't cost too much.

But his good mood didn't last long. After returning to the castle, he saw the unconcealed worry and anxiety on the face of his son who came to greet him.

"What's wrong?" He asked with a gloomy face.

The son came to his side and reported something in a voice that only the father and son could hear clearly.

Baron Dahl's face became more and more gloomy. He was silent for a while and said: "Block the news for the time being and talk about it in two days."

"Father! This matter is a bit urgent!" The son advised worriedly.

"No matter how urgent it is, it's not urgent in one or two days." Baron Dahl had regained his composure, sighed, and said, "Wait two days, everyone has worked hard, let everyone be happy for two days first."

The son understood what he meant, sighed, and nodded.

"By the way, you will announce later that those who participate in the mopping-up army this time, if they are soldiers, will be paid half a year's salary; if they are hired, they will be paid three months of hiring money; if they are civilians, they will be paid bonuses according to the soldiers' monthly salary." Baron Dahl thought for a while, and then said, "The dead, regardless of their status, will be given pensions according to the standards of soldiers... No, five times the pension!"

The son nodded and took note of this matter.

This would be a huge expense. If it were in the past, he would inevitably persuade them. But now...even this young man with a tendency to be a miser, really has no intention of saving money.

Money is a good thing, but it is only useful if you can use it. No matter how much money you have, what use can it be if you pile it in the coffin? It will only attract tomb robbers!

A moment later, the news he announced made the whole army cheer. The victorious soldiers were elated by the generous bonuses, and even the families of the soldiers who died in battle were relieved of their sorrow by the surprisingly generous pension.

In the next few days, Dal Territory was like a festival, and everyone was smiling. The city's taverns, restaurants and other entertainment venues were full every day, and the women who worked in the service industry also had an unexpected income.

Two nights later, the atmosphere in the small conference hall of Dal Castle was extremely heavy.

"Just when my father led the sweeping army to attack those monsters, the king's capital came to the messenger." The one who started to talk about these things was the young baron who received the messenger at that time, "Two groups came before and after."

Hearing this, the old knight with white hair and beard, who was almost a centenarian, frowned and asked: "Is it the noble faction and the merchant faction?"

The young baron nodded and sighed deeply.

"Did they meet?" asked another knight named Dal.

Shake your head.

"It's good that we didn't run into each other." The knight breathed a sigh of relief.

"But their words this time were very harsh." The young baron said with a bitter face, "Both sides said that the current situation can no longer tolerate anyone trying to play both sides and be a centrist. They are forcing us to take sides."

"Take his mother's side!" A knight with a scar on his face said viciously, "If they want to fight each other, that's their business, none of our business!"

This is also the unanimous opinion of the senior officials of Dal Territory. Dal Territory is far away from the emperor, and the Dal family has ruled here for generations, and it seems to be run like an iron barrel. No matter how the nobles and merchants fight and make trouble, they are confident that they can protect themselves. Why should they take sides?

Just like what the rude knight said, take sides? Take his mother's side! Bullshit!