Ride and Cut

Li Cha directly took the plate next to him and munched, and Gunther opened his mouth, but in the end he had no choice but to choose to get another one.

"Interesting things?" Annie simply couldn't understand why the soldiers in the Alpine Castle still have such a good appetite. Don't they know what nervousness is.

Li Cha raised his head and swallowed the full amount in his mouth with difficulty, and picked up the throwing spear at hand.

"I pulled it off that cavalryman's back." He struck the iron piece with a fork, and the sound was dull, more like hitting a stone, obviously impure.

"Look at the spear blade. The workmanship is so crude, the iron quality is so inferior, and there are still slags that haven't been cleaned. Even a country blacksmith who specializes in making farm tools has no face to make such a thing."

"And this spear is made of pitch pine." Li Cha said while showing it to the surroundings. "As far as I know, this kind of tree is easy to spontaneously ignite because of its rich oil content. It usually only grows in cold areas with ice and snow, and it is almost not distributed in Pompeii."

"Pine pine is often seen on the ice field in my hometown. We use this as a torch." Gunther interjected vaguely while chewing.

Li Cha broke the wooden pole into two with his hands, tore a piece of wood from the broken stubble, and put it on the candle. A moment later, a cloud of blue flames burst out suddenly.

The oil content of this kind of wood is shocking, and it crackles and explodes from time to time while burning, exuding a very strong pine fragrance.

"Have you seen it? I guess nine out of ten of these were made by the natives of the wilderness themselves." Li Cha sneered, "Damn, can you imagine? The natives of the wilderness who have the ability to mine and smelt iron!"

He is a thousand people who don't understand and ten thousand people who don't understand—first, where do the mineral deposits come from in the wilderness that has always been known for its barrenness;

An indigenous tribe can have as many as two hundred people, and the scale determines that they cannot complete the complex division of labor. The inheritance and exchange of knowledge depends entirely on luck, and the accuracy is often questioned.

Even if a group of gnolls found a mine by luck, how could they just know each other, know how to smelt it, and also happen to have the required material conditions?

"It might be meteorite." Hurt reached out and took the spear blade for a closer look, then shook his head and denied his guess, "It is obvious that the impurities caused by insufficient smelting temperature cannot be completely removed, so it is not meteorite."

"Expert." Li Cha raised his thumb.

"My lord, you may not have heard of some news."

Woya Trading Company has been engaged in wilderness trading for many years. With the backing of this local snake, Annie's understanding of the wilderness is far deeper than that of Richard, an outsider.

"The wilderness is very large, far larger than you imagined, and even larger than the entire Pompeii Empire. Those near the border are the weakest small tribes, because they face the threat of Pompeii and the living environment is the worst."

"However, few people know that there are many larger and more powerful tribes in the vast northern part of the wilderness. Some of these large tribes even have thousands of adult warriors, and their scale is no different from that of independent small kingdoms."

Li Cha nodded. He had never heard of such news, but it made perfect sense.

Pompeii may be able to tolerate a few shabby settlers making small troubles at the border, but he absolutely cannot bear the fact that the real powerful faction is too close.

"How can you allow others to snore on the side of the couch, that's the reason."

"On the side of the couch..." Annie recalled Richard's words, and nodded in agreement, "This sentence is really concise and meaningful."

"So you think it's the big tribes that attacked the mercenaries?"

"It's not doubt, but confirmation." Anne was not the elegant and virtuous type that Pompeii traditionally admired. On the contrary, she was full of heroism, and her tone of statement was very firm.

"Woya Trading Company has trade relations with the local tribes, and it will not be attacked at all at ordinary times. Only these outsiders will be so unscrupulous!"

"It's not surprising that large tribes have the ability to smelt iron, but why did they appear here?" Hurt interjected.

"When food was scarce in autumn and winter in previous years, they would go south to plunder small tribes and even civilians in Pompeii, but now it's only summer..." Annie spread her hands, indicating that she didn't know.

"Why do you care so much?" Gunther waved the spoon in dissatisfaction, "Anyway, if you dare to come to the Alpine Castle, you will knock them into concussions one by one!"

This guy has a very clear voice, and everyone in the big cafeteria can hear him clearly. The barbarian and the centaur applauded together, while the mercenary in the corner turned even paler.

"Hurt originally said that a shaman organized an allied force to deal with me. At that time, I thought it was strange. If I could persuade a group of unprofitable natives to help fight the war just by virtue of face, it would be called undead." Li Cha spread his hands.

"Now it seems that they were bullied by the jackals who went south, and they were desperate to bully me. Hehe, I look so like a persimmon?"

"Li Cha, take your followers back to Cologne, and temporarily abandon the Alpine Fort. The wilderness is already in chaos, and no one can accuse you of cowardice when you retreat at this time." Annie sighed.

"Dear Miss Anne, why do you want to go back to Cologne, just relying on these three or two chickens and dogs?" Richard slapped the table and laughed, "I still think I didn't come fast enough, I wanted to capture slaves to build a castle for me a long time ago."

Although it was still just a new territory, Richard had unquestionable authority in the Alpine Fort. Once he made a decision, all the others could do was to cooperate as much as possible.

The barbarians and the centaurs practiced the tactics of infantry and bow coordination in full swing on the training ground, trying to sharpen their guns before the battle.

The few centaurs with the most nimble legs and feet took up their duties temporarily and were released as scouts to investigate the disturbances around the entire Alpine Castle.

Li Cha wanted to take all the gold coins of the caravan. Annie didn't know what the money would be used for at this time, but she still gave it without hesitation. Trade teams don't carry too many gold coins, and after being borrowed 500 last time, there are only more than 200 left.

The money stayed in Li Cha's hands for no more than a quarter of an hour, and it turned into a few armors.

Fighting against the Gnolls captured a lot of old weapons and armor, most of which were left in the warehouse as tatters and no one cared about them. Annie is a very careful person. She asked the servants of the caravan to dismantle the relatively complete armor pieces and reconnect them with beef tendon to make up a dozen usable pieces.

These precious armors were distributed by Richard to the highest-ranking barbarians.

When charging, they will serve as the sharpest arrows to break the formation, undertake the most violent counterattack of the enemy, and play the role of final word! In any army that is not completely rotten to the root, this kind of elite must wear the best armor, get the highest salary, and drink the strongest wine!