Iron Harvest: When Farming Becomes Conquest
Chapter 182 - 19: Worse than Bandits

Chapter 182: Chapter 19: Worse than Bandits

Ten days had passed.

Roman knew that those Nobles and the Kant Earl were conscripting merchant ships upstream.

Two armies had appeared in the Kant Territory, the Vilechka family and the Simon family.

They had gathered most of their forces in a short period.

This indicated a long-standing conspiracy.

Garrisoning in the Kant Territory was the only choice.

To attack Sige Town, they needed a proper foothold.

Thus, merchant ships became increasingly rare at Sige Town.

Previously, you could see a merchant ship drifting downstream every two to three days.

Now, you might not even see one dock at Sige Town’s pier after five or six days.

Merchants have a keen sense of smell; sensing the shadow of war over this barren land, they dared not come, scared to death.

Many had witnessed the sight of two armies facing each other—

The sky gloomy and chaotic, snowflakes drifting, under the protection of huge iron shields in the front, the stoic Soldiers in the back like a chilling wind facing an army of thousands, preventing them from advancing a single step, while the slaves boarded the ships one by one.

The two parties no longer had the possibility of coexistence, and bloody events were set to occur in the future.

Merchants are like grass on the wall, not daring to bet on the victor being downstream, nor wishing for upstream to win; they could only wait until the dust had settled.

Whoever wins, they would do business with them.

...

Steve Gailande.

The Gailande Family made their fortune from the salt flats.

Nobles’ demand for resources is never satisfied.

They found out about the salt production here last autumn, but didn’t act until this year, due to many internal reasons—

First off, declaring war on a Lord needed a reason.

Nobles typically have a complicated network of relationships backing them.

Simply put, who doesn’t have family or close ties?

Attacking another Lord without cause, just out of jealousy over their land’s output, would be ugly to the extreme— yet it’s not impossible, as long as you’re strong enough, you could just do it, regardless of taboos.

The problem is, the opposition isn’t to be trifled with.

Anyone who hears the name Riptide weighs their chances carefully.

Everyone on Black Iron Land knows that Grand Duke Riptide dotes on his children; would you dare wage an unprovoked war to plunder Riptide’s offspring?

You wouldn’t dare. You really wouldn’t.

Second, Sige Town is too remote, with hazardous roads and mountains all around, inconvenient for attacking.

But from last year to now, many things have happened that made them reconsider the issue.

...

First, the situation in Black Iron Land was unpredictable, and even Grand Duke Riptide struggled to manage.

Second, Earl Kant’s humiliating defeat became the biggest topic in this region.

Crashed!

It crashed upon you!

Even a rabbit knows not to eat the grass by its own burrow!

Six hundred men!

And it happened right in front of Earl Kant’s eyes, for all to witness!

Ugh!

Disgusting!

If you’re short on labor, you could have just spent some money!

Spend a little!

You could have brought in some farmers from other Nobles to your territory.

Or even bought slaves!

It wouldn’t have cost much, even sneaking around with a covered face and plundering some people, you could have framed robbers for it.

But no, you robbed boldly, like a bandit!

Worse than a bandit!

You might as well have been a bandit kidnapping people!

"You dare to kill nobles?!"

"To not offer a chance for redemption, to just kill outright? That’s tantamount to killing yourself!"

"Since you didn’t play by the rules first and killed another family’s baron, don’t blame everyone for not being polite to you!"

"Even Grand Duke Riptide would have nothing to say."

The Gailande and Vilechka families, who had been closely following the matter, immediately made a decision and contacted the Bexites family.

Officially, it was to help Earl Kant obtain justice.

But the problem was, Carter and Simon forcefully got involved as well.

They came not just to catch a windfall, but were thoroughly prepared.

The Simon family dispatched 1,500 qualified conscripted soldiers.

Some were clad in Lock Armor, others protected by leather armor; their weapons were mostly iron, truly an assembly of strong and elite forces.

The Carter family was slightly inferior, with only 800 men, but they claimed to have 1,600 on the outside, reasoning that the Carter family’s beast warriors could take on two men each.

This claim drew sneers from the Vilechka family at the conference table.

Following that, he could not laugh anymore.

People from the Carter family were watching him, fierce like beasts, with eyes like vultures, exuding a brutal air.

Foucault Vilechka instinctively stepped back, creating distance, then became angry from embarrassment, staring back fiercely.

"Only beasts bare their teeth!"

"Then you must know who’s bluffing!" Carter was bald with a sharp head, his skull slightly deformed and his face crisscrossed with scars.

"Gentlemen, the important thing now is how to attack Sige Town."

Earl Kant, the host, timely intervened to stop the dispute and prevent the conflict from escalating.

"People from the Bexites family haven’t arrived yet," said Steve Gailande of the Gailande family.

He didn’t like Carter either. This family came from the west, had dealings with forest barbarians, then expanded eastward and, by using cruel and bloody tactics, gained a large territory that deterred other nobles.

Some said they had the blood of those barbarians in their veins.

Many shameful incidents occurred in their lands, being called ’Robber Nobles’, and their family motto was ’The Beast Within Never Dies.’

But now they were collaborators, an alliance.

The young lord of Sige Town had shut out all the nobles.

This clearly indicated an intent to monopolize the salt field, much to everyone’s surprise as they initially thought it was a suicidal act.

But after seeing the terrain here, they changed their minds.

An army, no matter how large, is helpless without a proper battlefield; the Conquest Knights are creatures of the land.

Because of this, they needed to prepare a fleet of ships.

Earl Kant offered assistance so he could claim a share, and now only the Bexites family was missing.

"Can’t six thousand people flatten a small town? According to Lord Carter, we have over ten thousand men," Vilechka confidently stated, mocking one of their partners.

Having Earl Kant take a share was enough.

He was a force to be reckoned with; to attack Sige Town, they could not bypass Earl Kant.

There was no choice, as those involved get a share.

But both Carter and Simon were rising stars with strong aggression.

Vilechka would rather pay a sum of money to send them away than to have them meddle with the salt mine.

By comparison, the arrival of the Bexites was a welcomed event for him.

Bexites, Gailande, and Vilechka controlled three-quarters of the salt production of the Black Iron Land, able to sell salt to surrounding lands.

They were bona fide great nobles.

But Bexites was the farthest from Sige Town, hundreds of kilometers away, lacking the power to influence the place and had to rely on others to operate, at most collecting a portion of the harvest periodically.

"Gentlemen! I must remind you that the young lord is not meat on our chopping board," said Earl Kant.

He spread the news of Roman slaughtering the priest.

But the Church Court could not trouble him in a short time, and the news had not yet reached Divine Mysterious.

Right now, the main force was the army of the nobles.

"Earl, I understand your concern—you’ve suffered a great loss, so you need to be cautious—but we have our own methods," said Vilechka.

There was a hint of pride, detectable by the Earl and Gailande, but no one pointed it out.

Because this knight was the legitimate heir of Lord Vilechka, the future earl, who would soon be on par with... or rather, rank above Kant.

For Vilechka’s lands were many times more rich and fertile than those of Kant.

This young, strong, handsome Conquest Knight wore a suit of green Magic Steel armor, finely crafted and luxurious, engraved with the golden treasure chest emblem belonging to Vilechka.

"His army is well-equipped and well-trained!" The Earl repeated with a troubled face.