Iron Powder and Spellcaster

Winters was not surprised that the militia took down the gang without any difficulty.

He had three arrows and nearly forty men. If he couldn't get rid of the twenty bandits, then his work would be in vain.

Angelou accidentally got one point right - "It's much easier to fight bandits than to hunt them."

For the "fishing and hunting tribe", hunting is equivalent to military training.

Laying out the route, planning the time, and attacking separately are typical military operations.

When Winters migrated with the Red River tribe, he discovered that the Hed people set up and broke out of camp every day during the migration. In fact, it was no different from marching.

"March, march, the marshal leads us to victory by marching!" Fighting is a boring process of marching, setting up camp, and breaking out of camp. The time spent in battle is actually very little.

…

The militia team arrested the gangsters and ransacked their homes.

"Twenty-two were captured alive. There were two more who wanted to resist, but they were all solved." Pierre could not be said to be happy or angry. He said expressionlessly: "There are a few broken swords and broken spears, but only a few pieces of food." Bags of wheat and rye.”

Winters also sighed: "Why are they so poor?"

"If you're not poor, you won't be a robber anymore." Pierre asked in a low voice: "Let him go? Or?"

He made a gesture of wiping his neck.

Winters thought for a while and said, "If we let them go, they will still become bandits."

Without saying a word, Pierre turned to leave.

"Don't worry." Winters called to Pierre.

Pierre waited quietly for Winters' order.

Winters frowned: "It won't do to kill them indiscriminately. These are farmers who are dedicated and they only ran out when they couldn't survive."

"I'll do it, don't worry." Pierre said softly.

"That's not what I meant." Winters patted Pierre's arm: "Single out the habitual criminals and bury them. Take the others back to Wolf Town."

Pierre's eyes widened: "You want to recruit them?"

"Of course not." Winters shook his head and smiled bitterly: "Where can I get so much food? If we really want to collect it, we have to sort it out."

"That……"

Winters made up his mind: "Give them something to eat, find something for them to do, let them settle down first, and take it one step at a time. There is not enough food, so we will find a way to buy and exchange it. We will wait until the autumn food comes."

"Then... in what name are they restrained?" Pierre thought quickly: "If they are not militia."

"What about the hard labor prisoners?" Winters asked back: "According to the new land reclamation laws, they should all be hanged. We will not kill them, let them serve as hard labor to atone for their sins. Make it clear to them that they are not serving a lifetime of hard labor, and they can be released if conditions permit. They return home.”

"I think it's okay." Pierre nodded heavily: "I'll make arrangements."

After saying that, he raised his hand in salute, turned and left.

Winters looked at Pierre's back and didn't know what to think.

Pierre is a good young man, smart, reliable and capable.

Winters could trust Pierre with his life, and Pierre would trust him with his life without hesitation.

But Pierre has changed, he is no longer the carefree little Dussac he once was.

Perhaps the world has changed, and Pierre chose to respond with a cold heart.

Winters has a brother-like affection for Pierre, and he hopes to protect Pierre so that the latter will not go astray.

But he is not sure what the future will be like.

Winters sighed, why did he have to worry about Pierre? He himself has changed.

"Working prisoners? Slaves?" Winters smiled bitterly and shook his head: "Didn't this become the Hurd tribe?"

…

Early August.

sunny.

Outside the village of Senges Valley in Blackwater Town.

A simple two-story round wooden village stood alone at the edge of the forest.

The village is very small, less than twenty meters in diameter.

This wooden village was originally a place for the villagers of the Senges Valley in Blackwater Town to hide from bandits, but instead it was occupied by a group of bandits.

Pierre held up a door panel as a shield and approached the wooden village in three steps and two steps at a time.

"Listen to the bandits inside! Surrender immediately! Otherwise we will set fire to it!"

When Pierre went to convince others, Winters was leading three arrows to build a simple battering ram outside the range of the crossbow.

In just one week, the militia team wiped out several groups of bandits near Wolf Town.

As Winters said, militiamen and bandits were inherently at odds.

The bandits brought harm to the common people, no less than the grain collection team.

In addition to the above-board reasons, Winters also had a more obscure idea: he wanted to get some food from the bandits.

How can we eat enough just by hunting? Moreover, the best parts of the prey are exchanged for grain, and the rest are offal and offal.

Winters felt nauseous just thinking about eating wild vegetable and intestine soup twice a day.

But at present, this plan has failed because the bandits have no surplus food.

But the bandits still have to be suppressed, even if there is no reason, and even more so if there is a reason.

The Senges Valley gave Winters a very good reason: two large loads of wheat.

Not barley, not rye, not oats.

It's wheat, the best grain.

Winters, like the militiamen, ate black bread every day, which made his stomach ache.

Even for this chewy, thick bread, there are only two pieces in one meal. Winters even began to miss the three meals a day of dairy products he had enjoyed in Akagawa.

The news that the Wolf Town garrison was back spread to nearby villages and towns, and the news that the Wolf Town garrison was leading troops to suppress bandits also spread like wildfire.

The villagers of Senges Valley, who had been forced into desperation by a group of bandits who committed evil deeds, felt like seeing a life-saving straw when they heard the news.

The village chief of Senges Valley rode a donkey and drove a day and a night to Wolf Town to request Winters to enforce the law across the border.

And he promised that Winters could take away everything the bandits owned as trophies.

Except the women—the women of the Vale of St. Guis.

This group of gangsters not only robbed food and money, but also harmed women.

A dozen women from the Senges Valley were snatched into the village by bandits and never came out again. Five of them were not even married, and the youngest was less than fourteen years old.

Needless to say, Winters was angry. When the militiamen heard this kind of thing, they were also itching with hatred.

Winters would take care of people like this without any reward.

There was no need to boost morale at all, everyone rushed to the Valley of Senges overnight with weapons in hand.

Winters originally wanted to lure out the bandits and ambush them in the wilderness.

But the bandits were very alert. When they discovered that the sentinel had been touched, they immediately retreated into the wooden village.

The battle reached a stalemate for a while.

After a while, Pierre ran back.

"What do you say?" Winters asked.

The militia was extremely lacking in siege capabilities. Winters had no functioning muskets, no cannons, and very little gunpowder.

It was best if the enemy was willing to surrender, and Winters did not want to see his soldiers climbing ladders and fighting for their lives to attack the city.

Pierre's face looked a little strange. He scratched his hair and said, "The bandit leader made a condition."

"What conditions?"

"He...he wants to duel with you."

…

The bandit leader was a burly man, nearly two meters tall, who looked as ferocious as a bison.

He was wearing plate armor, not an ordinary infantry plate cuirass with a skirt, but a set of officer's three-quarter heavy plate armor.

He didn't know where he got a pair of cavalry leg armor and a boat-shaped helmet.

Although the combination of this armor is a bit nondescript, it can be called luxurious.

Because even his opponent, the young resident officer, didn't have plate armor.

However, the bandit leader is currently lying on the ground with a pig-hunting spear stuck in his face. He should be dead.

The village that was noisy and cheering just now suddenly became silent.

Winters took a deep breath. He had not encountered such a request as a duel before the formation for a long time.

This feeling... is really nostalgic.

"Who else?" A thunderous voice swept through Lin Hai.

Winters pulled out his pig-hunting spear, lifted up the bandit leader's helmet, and asked again: "Who else wants to come?"

The village gate first showed a small crack, and then suddenly opened.

…

After controlling the gangsters, the next step is to identify them.

Find out the habitual bandits and leave behind those simple farm children and those who have not been infected with the lawless banditry habits.

The Wolf Town militiamen are already familiar with this process.

The village chief of Senges Valley promised two carts of grain, but Winters brought four carts - hoping to pack away the spoils.

Everyone is doing their job, and Winters doesn't need to intervene.

He stayed next to the body of the bandit leader and inspected the plate armor on the other party's body.

After the inspection, Winters raised his eyebrows slightly: "Oh, this is really an officer."

"It should have been stolen or robbed." Charles said with relief.

Pierre came out of the stockade and walked quickly back to Winters.

His lips trembled and he whispered: "You...come and take a look..."

Pierre led Winters into the stockade. In the two-story building of the stockade, Winters saw a dozen women who had been tortured into disgrace.

Some are still alive and some are dead.

The bandits were not raping them, the bandits were killing them.

The gang leader used this method of venting his animalistic desires to force all gangsters to "join the gang."

A very young girl, no older than Ella and Scarlett, sat in the corner of the room, her hands tied to the wheel, her head hung low.

The blood underneath the body dyed the wooden floor red.

The militiamen used their clothes to cover the girl's naked body, which was covered in blood and mud. She was already dead.

One woman was still alive, and when the militiamen tried to clothe her, she seemed greatly aroused.

She desperately hid back, waving her arms randomly and letting out a blood-curdling scream.

She has gone crazy.

Pride, complacency, the excitement of the duel, the joy of victory... these emotions in Winters disappeared in an instant.

There was only sadness, powerlessness, and anger in his heart, the kind of anger that could burn the world.

The militiamen also stood in silence, clenching their fists and gritting their teeth.

"Bring them here!" Winters breathed heavily and said with difficulty: "Untie her."

The bruised and swollen gangsters were brought to the girl.

Before Winters could speak, a skinny gangster suddenly knelt down and begged loudly for mercy: "Sir! Hammerhead and his associates forced us to do this! If we don't do it, they will kill us! Palin was the one who was Hammerhead killed him! His body was buried in the stockade!"

Winters drew Vashika's saber.

"Really! We were really forced!" The skinny gangster's nose was filled with tears and tears. He threw himself at another gangster with rosacea and shouted: "That's him! That's him! He's Hammerhead's accomplice! And him With him!"

Winters grabbed the rosacea gangster by the hair and dragged him to his knees in front of the girl's body.

The rosacea gangster was so frightened that he was paralyzed and incontinent. He begged desperately: "Sir! Have mercy on me! Show mercy!"

Winters put his saber on the rosacea gangster's neck.

The militiamen were waiting for that moment.

Winters stopped, let go of the rosacea gangster, and threw the saber back to Vashika.

"Thank you! Thank you, sir!" The rosacea gangster ignored the poop and urine on the ground and kissed Winters' boots with all his strength: "I'll work hard for you! I..."

Winters kicked hard, and the iron plate-nailed toe of his boot shattered the rosacea gangster's jaw.

…

The threshing floor of the Vale of Senges was turned into a makeshift execution ground.

All the villagers came.

Regardless of men or women, everyone has sadness on their face.

Fathers and mothers who lost their daughters cried and cursed, and they longed for justice.

In special times, keep everything simple.

After the accusation and trial, came the execution.

The rosacea gangster was tied to a stone grinder.

Winters is both judge and executioner. He carried out the executions himself - a job that no one else could do.

He raised the iron-clad wheel high and hit the rosacea gangster's left arm hard.

Accompanied by the sound of bones breaking, the rosacea gangster's left arm was bent at an unnatural angle, and the bone stubble was exposed.

Blood splattered on Winters' hands and cheeks. He expressionlessly lifted the wheel and slammed it down again.

After the left arm, come the right arm, right leg and left leg.

The gangsters who were watching the execution were all so frightened that they became incontinent. Several gangsters knelt on the ground and retched.

The rosacea gangster was still breathing, so Charles and Pierre freed him from the stone grinder.

Accompanied by screams and muffled sounds, the gangster was nailed to the wheel alive.

An innocent girl once died on this wheel, and now one of her murderers is tied to the same wheel.

Rosacea gangsters were hung on public display until they died.

After death, he will continue to be displayed in public, until vultures and crows eat up his carrion, until only his bones are left.

This is wheel punishment, one of the most severe and cruel punishments.

Even professional executioners are unwilling to execute this kind of punishment because it is too cruel.

According to the new land reclamation laws, if a crowd was gathered to block the road and plunder, the first offender would be rounded and the accomplices would be hanged.

The round of torture was followed by hanging.

The six habitual gangsters were hung from a crooked tree at the entrance of the village. They twitched a few times and stopped moving.

Thirty-three accomplices were flogged.

The militiamen who carried out the execution did not spare any effort. After twenty lashes, some of the accomplices were whipped to death.

As for the dead bandit leader "Hammerhead", his bones were reduced to ashes.

He will always be suffering in the fire of hell. Even if the angel blows the trumpet of the end of the world, he will not be able to get up from the grave.

For the surviving accomplices, hard labor awaits them.

The public trial and execution soon came to an end.

When the Langtun Town militia left, the village chief of St. Geese Valley held Winters' hand tightly and burst into tears: "Thank you... thank you..."

It was originally agreed that only two carts of wheat would be given, but the villagers of Senges Valley loaded two more carts of oats and rye, and tried their best to load more, hoping that the militia would take more.

"I..." Winters hesitated. He was emotionally unable to accept the food, but he needed the food.

He held the old village chief's hand and said firmly: "If this happens again in the future, you can come to me and don't need to give me anything."

…

Winters made the journey back with a heavy heart.

After reuniting with Pierre and other old men, everything went well for him.

Life is hard.

Half a portion of wheat, two portions of rye, and one portion of oatmeal coarse bread were not enough to satisfy him—even in the wilderness, Winters had never experienced such hardship.

Moreover, there were endless quarrels with his subordinates every day - except for Pierre, everyone else was blind, and he had to teach everything step by step.

But Winters is happy.

His body is weary, but his spirit is happy.

He felt out of place in the Red River Department, in the King's Castle, and in the Mitchell Manor.

He had woken up from his dreams more than once, and more than once he had felt that there was an enemy ambushing him in an invisible corner.

After returning to the army, Winters felt like a fish in water. He slept soundly, breathed easily, and he no longer suppressed his emotions subconsciously.

He laughed loudly and got angry to the point of death. Whoever he wants to teach him a lesson will definitely have a boot print on his pants.

His men were not surprised by this, and even respected and loved him more because of his temperament.

Unexpectedly, Vashika was kicked the most and the hardest, and still walked up to Winters with a silly smile every day.

Winters is not only happy, he even has some pride and self-respect. He is very satisfied with everything he has done.

He fulfilled his obligations as a resident officer, he rebuilt Wolf Town bit by bit, and he protected the peace of Wolf Town - even if it was only temporarily.

"Why do I want to stay here?" he asked himself more than once.

There is only one answer: "I am unhappy, I want to protect something, and I want to change something."

But to what extent and how widespread the changes would be, Winters could not figure out clearly.

Is it possible to change Plato? One person against a country?

"This is too arrogant." Winters' reason told him that this would not succeed.

So he set his goals as small and realistic as possible: "I can't do many things, but I can at least keep Wolf Town safe."

However, what he saw in the Valley of St. Guis told Winters bloody: "Not enough."

Brother Rhett warned him before his death: "If you don't plan for the eternity, you can't plan for a moment; if you don't plan for the overall situation, you can't plan for a region."

Wolf Town, not enough.

When the world goes bad, honest farmers can turn into the most brutal thugs in the blink of an eye.

If Jevaudan and even the entire newly cultivated land are burning, how can the small town of Langtun survive alone?

Winters realized he had to take a longer view.

He is thinking.

(A total of 4 chapters have been added, currently 4/4).

I don’t know if book friends have noticed it.

Prior to this, Winters' attitude towards habitual gangsters was "bury them". There is no trial and no publicity.

This is the simplest and most straightforward way to handle it from his point of view.

The Valley of Saint-Giusz was his first execution of bandits with "clear canonical punishment".

His mentality actually changed, so he didn't kill the rosacea directly.

He can kill happily, but he cannot kill like this. Because he has gradually become a "public power", he must bear more responsibilities and can no longer care about himself and be happy and comfortable.

[Thanks to book friends for their collection, reading, subscription, recommendation votes, monthly votes, rewards and comments, thank you all]