Chapter 182 The Army Arrives
December 4th, 8pm Earth time.
In the other world time, it was three o'clock in the afternoon.
Charlie Rex had just arrived at the west gate of Innadri City with an army of 120 Sokri mercenaries, more than a dozen Westham Town Hall agents, two hundred security guards, and several Orc volunteers (...) when they received the first batch of "prisoners of war" sent by the undead.
Looking at this group of half-fruited men who cried for help as soon as they saw a living person, Rex couldn't even make an expression. He could only pretend to be calm and accept them. Then he paid the territory reputation and the rewards that the undead liked with copper coins as usual - if he didn't give them rewards, these undead would be very scary.
"Have they already started a war?" The mercenary leader, Kane, looked at the thirteen sturdy lizard horses that were led along with the captives, and his forehead was full of question marks.
Those dozen or so half-naked men didn't look like ordinary people (there were hardly any with plump bones among the ordinary people), but Ken didn't quite believe that they were real soldiers... The only thing that couldn't be fake was the lizard horses. These special military horses with Warcraft blood were different from the common ones like the unicorn gray horses. Even few middle-class families in the city could afford to raise them.
Wagner, the local expert, stood there for a while with a complicated expression. After Rex had given the undead the task of setting up camp and sent away the group of loud-mouthed undead, he spoke quietly: "The smallest combat unit of the city defense army is a cavalry team of fifty people, and they are not allowed to leave the camp without orders."
"Of course these guys can't be the city defense army." Ken waved his hand and said, "Are they private soldiers?"
It is very common for nobles to have family knights and private soldiers, and they usually have a certain level of combat effectiveness; however... if most nobles do not have a strong head of the family, or if there has been peace for too long, then the private soldiers they keep will definitely be the first to rot - otherwise, mercenary groups across the continent would not have so many noble patrons.
"A hundred years ago, there were still traces of bandits roaming around in Innadri. Although the nobles' private soldiers were becoming increasingly embarrassed, they were not as useless as they are now." Wagner said anxiously, "These people should be... children of nobles."
Ken was stunned for a moment, then he looked surprised.
Nobles are usually large families, with the main branch and side branches often having hundreds of people in total.
Although legendary novels circulating in the market often feature a plot in which a down-and-out protagonist unexpectedly gains the favor of a noble lady, and the lady's family happens to have no heir, allowing the protagonist to rise to a high position and become the head of a noble family, such cases would not happen in reality. Not to mention that it is rare for the main branch of a noble family to have only one daughter in a generation, even if the main branch really has no one left, there are still countless children from the side branches who are eyeing the succession order and are eager to take on the throne.
In every noble family, there is a group of young children with a lower inheritance line. They are born with a silver key in their mouths and enjoy the convenience brought by the surname. They can receive better education than middle-class children, and they are only one step away from real power.
However... the journey of waiting to take over power is extremely arduous, not to mention that most of them actually have no chance of coming into contact with power - they are not valued by the family like the main heirs, and except for a few who can please the elders, most people do not get much support from family resources.
Once the person higher in the line of succession among their peers takes over the title, they will lose the little special privilege they had when they were "reserve nobles"; once the oldest male in the family dies, they will be separated from the family and become a branch line, living in the shadow of the main branch all their lives.
Ken, the mercenary leader who has been employed by nobles for many years, has seen many such people. These people always seem to be eager to squander their lifelong willfulness while they still have the privilege of inheritance, and they behave in a dissolute manner.
"...I see. No wonder he could ride a lizard horse, and no wonder he fell into the hands of the undead." Ken said clearly.
The problems of the Tarantan Undead are so numerous that they make people worry, but at least one thing is certain, these undead will not maliciously attack civilians - during the years that Kane and his mercenaries were forced to serve as NPC mentors in the Exile Town, they had never seen the undead embarrass the women who did odd jobs.
"No matter who they are, once they are captured by the undead, they are prisoners." Rex said indifferently, turned around and called a security guard to take these young men away.
Ken looked shocked.
"I'll go settle the horses." Wagner nodded and walked away.
Ken: “???”
"We need to build a bigger prisoner camp..." Rex muttered, looked around, and walked towards the security team that was setting up camp.
Ken, who stayed where he was, looked at the backs of the two men in confusion.
No...well, after all, we captured someone from a noble family, didn't you guys have any reaction?
Captain Ken , who had no idea that an earl's nephew had once cleaned the sewers in Westham , looked confused.
The people from Westham openly camped outside the west city gate, and the news soon reached the ears of the City Lord's Mansion and the Bartles family.
“So arrogant!”
Adela III was furious at first, and then he quickly ordered his butler Gould to transport the last batch of treasures out of the city through the north gate.
After protecting his own interests, Adela III had time to summon the nobles in the city to discuss how to deal with the enemy.
Generally speaking, territory wars between nobles rarely end at the city walls. In most cases, both sides agree on a battlefield and deploy their troops to fight at the border of the territory. The winner takes all, while the loser cedes land and pays compensation.
During a territorial war, neither side would massacre the inhabitants of the enemy territory or burn down villages - after all, land and people were property, and the loser needed to plunder civilians to prepare compensation, while the winner would automatically become the master of the land and people after occupying the new territory, and there was no reason for him to destroy his own property.
Although they would not implement the Three Alls Policy, the nobles were not shy about conscripting the common people in their own territories, and would usually generously send these common people who had just put down their hoes to the front lines to serve as cannon fodder - it didn't matter how many lower-class men died, as long as there were still women, new subjects could be added quickly.
However, this time the situation is different...
Firstly, Westram was originally a territory within the territory of Innadri. There was no border line between the two sides, and both sides could send troops to arrive the next day. Charles Rex deliberately did not give time to conscript civilians, and brought the army here only three days after declaring war. Even if Adela III was not in a hurry to transfer property and sent people to conscript civilians as soon as he received the letter, with the mobilization capabilities of the local rulers of this world, don't expect to be able to organize the civilians in just three days.
Second, Westram's main force is the undead who don't need supplies, and the Bartles family, who are richer, simply can't use the strategy of relying on logistical supplies to drag the enemy to death...
Even though Adela III tried his best to put on an attitude to the nobles that "we have a big advantage this time and can win with a simple attack", none of the local nobles had a stupid brain. Everyone knew that the Bartles family would be finished this time, and Innadelli would have to have a new owner in a few days.
Despite this, these local nobles did not shirk their responsibilities. Each family contributed the private soldiers that had just been recalled to the city, and put together a patchwork army of 4,000 people. Their combat effectiveness was certainly not as good as that of the city defense army that had received long-term full-time training, but at least it was stronger than the auxiliary troops that were made up of civilian laborers.
As the city gates were preparing for battle in full swing, outside the city, with the temporary teleportation (summoning) array completed, Yang Qiu issued pre-battlefield tasks to the online players as planned.
The pre-battlefield mission is not the official start of the war. Among the online players, those who are grouped together to kill monsters or those who are squatting and killing monsters alone just glanced at the information bar and continued to do their own things, but there are also many players who have nothing to do or have not found a team and teleported here.
In the Westerm camp, which was set up in the open space west of the mule and horse market, exclamations rang out one after another:
"What an awesome wall!"
"This battlefield setting is awesome!"
"Is the city wall a real model or a texture? Can I climb up and take a screenshot?"
"I don't know, go check it out?"
A group of players who saw a big city (city wall) for the first time looked around curiously. Someone found an NPC wearing a helmet quietly peeking out from the city wall, jumping excitedly and greeting: "Hey! Over here! Look over here!"
The soldiers at the city gate shrank back in fear.
“It’s not a sticker, it’s a real city wall!”
Except for a small number of players who were still thinking about the pre-battlefield tasks and honestly doing the chores of setting up camp, most of the players instantly forgot that they were teleported here to do the tasks, and ran towards the city wall cheering; some fumbled around the city gate that had a unique "magic movie" feel, and some actually tried to climb the smooth outer wall of the city wall... but failed.
In the camp, Wagner and Kane, who were waiting for the mission, watched the undead making a fuss with expressionless faces.
Just get used to it... Once they realize there is nothing to do except completing "tasks", they will behave themselves.
“Hey! There are people here! There are living NPCs! And there are new scenes!”
The players who discovered the new continent ran back quickly and shouted in surprise to the large group of players.
The group of people surrounding the city gate quickly rushed over...
Wagner & Kane looked at the backs of the undead running towards the east, and turned back to look at Yang Qiu who was as steady as a rock in the tent.
"They'll come back when they get tired of being crazy." Yang Qiu waved his hand indifferently.
Wagner wanted to say that that was a slum with a complicated environment... but then he thought of the unlimited resurrection vitality of the undead, which was more terrifying than cockroaches, and wisely shut his mouth.
John, a slum resident, has not been looking for odd jobs in the city these past two days.
During a conversation, John learned from those who called themselves "mobile mills" that they would stay here for at least a week. The quick-witted John then called up his friends, borrowed two hand-pulled flatbed carts, and started grinding flour for others. He went to the workers' residential areas in the northern part of the city to find those worker families who had to work during the day and had no time to go out of the city to grind flour themselves. He would bring wheat and corn out of the city, grind them, and then send them back to earn money for running errands.
Today, before daybreak, John woke up all his friends and dragged a human-powered flatbed cart into the city to collect the wheat and corn to be ground. After loading two flatbed carts, they pulled them out of the city. It was already past three in the afternoon.
"Luckily, we heard that the West City Gate was closed at noon, so we didn't go that way, otherwise we would have to take a long detour."
Several young men worked together to pull a flatbed cart loaded with various bags through the narrow alleys of the slum. John looked at the sky and said to his companions with lingering fear: "If we can't send all the ground flour back before dark, it will be difficult for us to get business tomorrow."
"Yeah, we might have to stay in the city overnight. It's very cold at night." Tommy, a workshop apprentice who took leave specifically to earn extra money, said fearfully.
They certainly wouldn't want to spend money on a hotel, and if they couldn't get out of town in time, they would have to spend the night on the street.
They could receive a copper coin as errand fee for grinding ten kilograms of flour, and they could earn hundreds of copper coins for filling two handcarts with several thousand kilograms of goods. This money gave the four young men unlimited strength. Even though they had not eaten anything the whole day, they still tried their best to pull the flatbed carts as fast as possible.
As they struggled to pull the flatbed cart out of the alley, John and his good friend Tommy, who were walking in front, both froze in place.
The western platform of the slums that they were very familiar with was filled with - the undead!
