Ride and Cut

In the fierce battle, the blood will not feel anything. Many people only realize that their physical strength has been seriously exhausted when the dust settles and their emotions begin to relax.

The advanced system soldier comes with a little status recovery function. For barbarians and centaurs who have just been released from a bloody battle, this recovery is also very precious, so that they can at least maintain the physical strength of normal actions.

In contrast, the dwarf warriors were much more miserable. Their lost physical strength could only be slowly made up by rest. Many of them sat slumped on the battlefield and refused to get up.

"Sendak, how are your casualties?" Li Cha didn't look carefully, but he had a rough feeling that the three-digit number might be unstoppable.

Once the difference in individual combat power between the two sides in a war crosses a certain limit, the exchange ratio will skyrocket to an exaggerated level. For the wilderness, the Alpine Fort Guards are basically above the limit, no matter how hard they try, they can only give it for nothing.

But unfortunately, although the dwarf's strength is not bad, it is obviously still below the limit. In the face of the huge disadvantage of quantity, the loss will inevitably be heavy.

However, this battle killed half of the old people in the wilderness, and they never had the slightest courage to dare to spy on the iron ore. The strategic goals of the alpine fort and the dwarves were all achieved.

Li Cha yelled twice but got no response. He turned his head and saw Robbie's mournful face in the rain.

"Uncle Sendak is dead!"

He held a corpse in his arms, nearly half of the entire breastplate was dented by the heavy blow, and the broken bones and flesh inside could be seen from the cracks. The continuous rainwater that fell from the sky flowed in from the gaps in the armor, but when it came out, it was as clear as ever. It was obvious that the blood in his body had been drained long ago.

Walking over and squatting down to lift off the helmet visor, Li Cha saw Sendak's pale face with his eyes closed, already lifeless.

He was probably worried about the safety of the tribe before, and he always had a worried and determined look on his face. Now that he finally unloaded all the burdens, he seemed to have a kind of peace and tranquility that he had never seen before.

"May you rest in peace." He had a good impression of Sendak, a bold and brave dwarf. But in today's fierce battle, whether it can survive to the end depends on luck.

"You are the patriarch now, take responsibility." Li Cha patted Robbie on the shoulder, looking straight into his eyes, "To count the casualties of the soldiers, deal with the corpses of the dead outside, the most important thing is to quickly organize manpower to rescue the wounded soldiers."

He looked up at the dark clouds in the sky, and from time to time there were purple electric snakes flickering, and the rain was so dense that it seemed to be pouring water. Pieces of pea-sized raindrops hit the skin, which was both cold and painful.

In such weather, those soldiers who are exhausted or injured will lose their temperature quickly when exposed to the outdoors. Enough lives have passed away today, and it would simply become a joke to expand the loss because of this.

Robbie picked up Sendak's body and left, looking panicked and helpless.

Richard brought his guards back to the station to repair. Although the dwarves, women and children mourned the loss of the tribal warriors, they still tried their best to maintain respect for the Alpine Fort who participated in the battle, and provided enough food and water.

However, most of the people had no appetite, and they were chatting together in small groups to soothe their tense nerves.

The lord changed into clean clothes and sat at the door with a stool. He couldn't help but be speechless as he watched the continuous flow of troops carrying the corpses of his soldiers outside.

"It's so miserable." The dwarves paid a solid price in blood for their perseverance.

"Yes." Annie leaned against the wall, listlessly playing with an arrow cluster in her hand. The half-elf's fingers were very dexterous, and the clusters of sharp arrows flew around dazzlingly, but never pierced the skin.

"I don't know how many are left."

"I counted just now, and there are about two hundred dead." Annie sighed.

This kind of scene today is completely different from the usual small-scale conflicts, and it is also the only one for Anne in her life. She vomited from behind the wall at the most primitive bloody scene when the battle was fierce, and she is still a little sluggish now, so she had to play with arrow clusters to divert her attention, but it didn't seem to have much effect.

Li Cha calculated in his heart, before the battle, there were 500 dwarf fighters who were zero, but now including the wounded, there should be less than 300 left. You must know that they were originally a large tribe with nearly a thousand warriors! No amount of pain can describe the pain.

Fortunately, the most difficult moment has passed, and the next thing to do is to wait for the arrival of the full moon night.

If you want to say that you are heartless, you have to count the second general Humha. They saw that the food brought by the dwarves just now was untouched, so they sneaked away and ate Hesai with their cheeks, and they still felt that they hadn't been discovered.

Li Cha drew out the dragon-slaying giant sword. Due to his violent use, the originally straight blade now clearly showed an arc.

"Can we talk about the weapons business?" Annie hesitated, but finally spoke up.

"Don't be too busy, I'll ask you something." Li Cha tried to straighten the blade with his foot, but quickly gave up - he stepped on the curved blade into an M-shaped double arc.

"Okay." Annie is now starting to worry that Richard will kick Voya Firm away and cooperate with the dwarves.

In fact, she was thinking too much. If Li Cha wants to realize the products, he must rely on commercial power. The Woya Firm, which he has been familiar with for a long time, must be a better choice than other strangers.

"As far as I know, the iron smelting tax in Pompeii is very high."

"Yes." Annie nodded.

The officials of the Empire may be confused about other things, but they are all experts in money. They fully understood that the demand for iron in the wild represented a huge financial benefit, so Pompeii swallowed the biggest piece of the pie for itself by imposing heavy taxes.

The wool will not come from the donkey, and the taxes paid by the iron merchants can only come from the natives. Therefore, every tax money put into the treasury is equivalent to the natives doing white labor for Pompeii's finances.

This kind of method is actually not new at all. In Li Cha's cognition, it can be called trade scissors.

In the past, Woya Trading Co., Ltd.'s behavior of mining and smelting iron in the wilderness was undoubtedly cutting the tail of Pompeii imperialism.

"If we sell the ironware produced in the wilderness back to the country, will we need to pay taxes other than the road tax?" Li Cha wondered if they would be cut anyway, and it would be a pity for his conscience not to step up his efforts.

He doesn't think much of the needs of the natives in the wilderness, it's too low-end, and it's a high-volume business.

If you want to make a fortune, you have to start with the Pompeii market, such as other pioneering nobles.

He knew without any investigation that border development was definitely a big business. A piece of shitless territory may not be a big deal, but the accompanying nobility is worth a lot to some people, and doing business with them is more promising than going around the wilderness.

"From a legal point of view, it doesn't seem to be necessary. But...the iron ore will be exposed."

"It's fine if you don't need it." Li Cha selectively listened to only half of it.

Annie's thinking is still habitually from the perspective of the business, and she is worried that once she is exposed, her peers may come to snatch the business.

Li Cha is afraid of a fart - there are people who are capable of wrestling with him on this one-third of an acre of land, and they look down on the income of an iron mine; but those who can look at the income of an iron mine are not too strong, and if they dare to come, they will be beaten into a pig's head by him.