Iron Harvest: When Farming Becomes Conquest
Chapter 188 - 25: Iron Chains Across the River

Chapter 188: Chapter 25: Iron Chains Across the River

"But I observed his movements; there are no traces from horseback," the knight said. "He is a foot soldier."

"Only a foot soldier can match another foot soldier," Bald Carter spoke politely to Flant.

They both possessed profound insights.

"So," Simon whispered,

"Back then, we just needed to deploy a team composed of Conquest Knights to tear open a breach."

In the suddenly quiet surroundings, his voice seemed somewhat noisy.

A moment later,

Sir Foucault said, "Knight Simon, stop joking. How could a knight from the Vilechka Family fall by the riverside? That’s an insult to them."

Conquest Knights are not meant to fill a line.

"Even if we really did that, it might not succeed," Flant also said, "I feel we should hold off on an attack until we understand the situation there better."

Steve bluntly asked, "Lord Flant, have you noticed something?"

"Let’s call it my intuition, that army is special. I think Lord Carter should have some understanding, as their family tradition is precisely this." The old knight turned his gaze towards another.

"Our family’s warriors are adept at fighting, capable of taking on two at once," Bald Carter nodded.

"Don’t look at me like that, little imp from the Vilechka Family, I’ll spare you out of ignorance. But I must say, an ordinary army can’t withstand our fierce assault, you should see it clearly—they’ve never broken formation! That is not an easy feat."

Steve said, "Are you suggesting Roman Riptide has raised a professional army?"

"Exactly! Not meant for farming, but for killing—just like the beastly warriors of our family! Only, most of them are neither savage nor strong, and we can guess the reason. After all, the beloved count’s subjects were only taken away recently; it will take some time before they become qualified warriors. We should be grateful we didn’t arrive a month later, or we would have lost even more men."

Count Kant’s face was gloomy, full of loathing, "It must be that boy feeding them magic potions, or perhaps it’s the wizards of Cangyue cursing them!"

Knight Simon muttered, "But such strategies are not typical of a minor noble."

"He is of the Riptide lineage! Grand Duke Riptide is wealthy enough to rival nations!" Carter clamored, "Damn it! I bet that kid is the Grand Duke’s own flesh and blood, not everyone can have a Crack Armor Great Bow!"

Vilechka interjected, "With that kind of capability, I mean such outstanding capability—if he were legitimate, he wouldn’t be banished to this backwater."

Carter glared at him, "You call a place that produces salt a backwater?"

Vilechka paused; his family also produced salt, the comeback stung him.

Immediately annoyed, "If Grand Duke Riptide knew about the salt mine here, there wouldn’t be any left for us!"

"Count, I think you should know something."

Count Kant appeared innocent, spreading his hands, "When Grand Duke Riptide conquered that place, I wasn’t even born."

Nobody laughed at that statement.

Count Kant was over fifty, well-preserved, and seemed to be one of the eldest here.

Knight Flant never disclosed his age, but his life in the military certainly made him look older.

Count Kant previously deemed that river valley barren and never gave it much thought; even raiding never crossed his mind. Who would bother robbing a neighbor poorer than themselves, especially when such a neighbor is backed by a giant?

Count Kant continued, "You’re asking the wrong person about it, maybe you don’t know this land’s past, let me tell you. If you recall the Conqueror, then you should know his era had a pioneering phase.

"This land was initially pioneered. Certainly, that pioneer lord wasn’t my ancestor; who he was doesn’t matter, what matters is, this land has belonged to my ancestors since then—he was a noble’s younger son with no inheritance to claim and had to make his own way.

"Back then, this land had only two or three thousand people, a few thousand acres. Today, these riches have been cultivated step by step by my forebears over decades and centuries; do you think we had the capacity to concern ourselves with an even more remote riverside town several tens of miles away, which required traveling by boat?"

Vilechka impatiently said, "All this prattle, our count knows nothing?"

The count was irate, but Vilechka was correct.

"Last year, I traded with them; they exchanged salt for food, that’s when I learned that the valley produced salt."

"And then what? You just watched? Knew nothing?"

Count Kant looked distressed, what reasons did he have to meddle in that land?

Roman was not a count nor a baron; he was a lord under Grand Duke Riptide in that territory.

He came to Kant Territory, he had to call himself an Earl.

And when he went to Sige Town, he had to address Roman as Lord.

Their status and position were equivalent.

He once had plans, but deploying troops wasn’t easy; he needed a suitable reason.

Otherwise, the Grand Duke could crush the Kant Family with his little finger.

His indecisiveness resulted in others taking the initiative.

When he learned that downstream there appeared six hundred soldiers and four hundred military servants, he was completely dumbfounded.

Everyone! Who understands this!

Where did you get so many high-quality troops and equipment?

Everyone stared at Kant. The Earl said, "Would you believe it if I said that when Roman Riptide inherited that territory, it was in worse condition than when my ancestors acquired this place?"

Vilechka honestly said, "Lord Earl, we are actually not interested in the history of your family’s struggle."

Their development speed was clearly dozens of times faster than your ancestors.

Plus, had your ancestors been a bit more ambitious, they wouldn’t have had to dig in this poor land for a hundred years.

They managed to have salt within less than a year.

Think more about your own problems, whether you have made efforts to develop over the years.

To maintain their friendship, Vilechka made great efforts not to say these hurtful words and silently praised his own patience.

"I have nothing more to say!" the Earl of Kant said with an ashen face. "That place is more mysterious than you think, even if you torture the merchants who have been to Sige Town, they probably know nothing. His commercial taxes are very low, and the trades can be completed on the docks. A great merchant’s child led caravans there several times, yet only met him once, and then never appeared again."

They could only know that last year, through the salt trade, Sige Town obtained a large amount of supplies.

Food was the priority, followed by iron ingots and slaves.

However, those iron ingots were not enough to equip an army of over a thousand people.

And slaves could tentatively explain the origin of those troops.

But being aristocrats familiar with arms, they knew well the difficulty of training slaves into qualified soldiers.

Frankly speaking, slaves didn’t even qualify to be conscripted soldiers!

If you dare let them fight, they’d turn and run, becoming a fleeing army, only to disrupt your own formations.

More likely to cause harm than success.

Still, an army composed of freemen was more suitable for the battlefield.

After all, freemen generally have vulnerabilities; if they desert, their entire families suffer.

The people present felt a strong confusion, finding it extremely paradoxical.

"Could Lord Riptide have had a hand in this?"

The Earl of Kant said firmly, "No! Knight Simon! That’s the one thing I can be sure of!"

Just as the Fruit Party, breaking their heads, couldn’t understand why those Earth Party lowly ones had such strong combat effectiveness, getting fiercer the more they fought, and growing in numbers the more they were suppressed.

This did not match the local conditions of this land at all.

"Well, perhaps there are always a few big fools among the lowly ones... I mean those naturally strong but brainless types."

"So, what should we do now? Our knights can’t walk on water like the Sea Knights."

"Blockade the river, from upstream to downstream, starve them!" Earl Kant said.

"Hmph! With so many soldiers... Last year, he still depended on buying food to maintain his rule, and this year, he has even more people to feed. Once he runs out of food supply, we won’t need to lift a finger; his soldiers will tie him up and deliver him to us!"

A blockade would need to be effective over a long period.

It was a desperate measure, as war always was.

When besieging certain castles, it often took half a year or even several years to succeed.