Riding and Slashing

The old tribune obviously disliked the Levius and his son, and had already called them bastards.

"Hiding in the mountains? Does Levius even want his own manor?"

Wendy expressed her incomprehension, she and Lisa Dilan looked at each other, and they shook their heads together.

"There are a lot of minerals in the mountains, all of which belong to the Levius family... The bastard father and son probably think that those minerals are more important than the manor..."

The tribune didn't appear to be old-fashioned, but that was all he knew, since he was too old to go out and investigate.

But the lord can understand that Levius and his son have offended everyone around them. They obviously feel that they are not very safe in their own manor.

Since Levius gave up his manor, the lord led the team to settle directly, so as not to waste time setting up camp.

The governor's family estate is very large, and dozens of houses are connected together on the mountainside.

This is a typical high-walled compound of the old Bacchus. It is a large courtyard, with many tall arches and huge stone pillars, but it does not build towering castles like the high-ranking nobles of the Pendor Continent.

In fact, if a castle was built here, the village of Fidner should probably be called Fidnerburg—this place is actually far beyond the average village in terms of scale.

The location and view of the manor are very good. At the foot of the mountain is the valley road leading to the entrance of the village. In the manor, you can basically see the whole picture of the whole village directly across the valley of about [-] meters.

Probably the only bad thing is that this manor is isolated on the mountain. Once the foot of the mountain is surrounded, there is nowhere to run.

"Is this already the narrowest place around?"

The lord stood on the highest terrace of the manor and looked around, pointing to the entrance of the village and asking.

"Yes, this was originally a road opened in the canyon for transporting ore. After that, there were more people, and it continued to widen. It is so wide now."

Seeing that Li Ang occupied the Levius family's manor and began to survey the terrain, the old tribune's eyes lit up: "This... my lord, are you going to deal with that bastard father and son?"

"To be honest, I'm here mainly to deal with the Snake Worship Cult. I have to fight an ambush near here... But I don't have enough manpower. It's not easy to seal the enemy in this valley hundreds of meters wide..."

The lord did not lie to the tribune. He must seek help from locals who are familiar with the terrain when fighting outside.

"Snake Worship Cult? I really want Snake Worship Cult to kill these two bastards, Levius and Fabius! They killed a lot of people a few days ago on the grounds of dealing with Snake Worship Cult...Actually We all know that more than half of them are innocent!"

The tribune gritted his teeth and said, the skin and flesh drooping on his face due to wrinkles were trembling: "If you need help, maybe you should rescue the people in the village."

"How many people are left in the village now? Does anyone know the exact locations of the Levius family's properties in the mountains?"

The lord took a few glances into the village, and could see some people who were hiding and looking this way, probably there were still a few old people surviving.

"Of course the people in the village know that there are many old people in the village who have worked in those mines...Every year there will always be some people who can't pay the tax to serve in the mines..."

The tribune sighed: "But I don't know where the father and son are hiding. There are a lot of minerals in the mountains."

The so-called miners are actually looking for some excuses to force civilians to mine. It is actually the same thing as the prayer tax and excrement tax created by some noble territories in Sarleon.

This tribune was obviously a minor nobleman, and the mining service could not be assigned to him, so he might not be very familiar with mines.

But obviously, he must know the people in the village very well.

"It seems that the villagers must be brought back... go and gather all the people who are still alive in the village, and I will get you some food..."

After sending the tribunes back to gather the villagers, the lord began to arrange scouts everywhere.

Hearing that the lord was willing to distribute food to them, in less than an hour, all the survivors in the village gathered outside the manor.

When there is no food to eat, the old man, no matter how handicapped his legs and feet are, becomes quite efficient.

In fact, there are only about two hundred surviving elderly people, and they can't consume much food.

Distributing food to these people is not to invite people to buy. The people in this place have already been defeated by Fabius, so there is no need to deliberately invite people to buy.

The main thing is to use these people.

It will take at least a day for the infantry walking behind to arrive here. It is unknown whether they can arrive in time for the Snake Worship Cult army.

With only 800 cavalry troops, no matter how successful the ambush is, it is impossible to wipe out the Snake Cult army.

When facing the Snake Worship Cult, the lord did not consider how to defeat the enemy.

But how to annihilate the enemy.

To annihilate the enemy, every resource and manpower available should be used.

Therefore, even the two hundred ragged old men in front of him, the lord felt that they could be used.

Originally, Li Ang considered using the locust-like habit of the Snake Worship Cult army to set up an ambush, and after the infantry arrived, they would try to encircle them on both sides, blocking the Snake Worship Cult army in the valley.

But the valley was [-] meters wide, and Li Ang had too few people in his hands, so it was not easy to arrange.

And the Snake Cultists are different from the general mob—they are not afraid of death.

This means that even if the ambush is successful, in order to block the enemy in the valley, the loss of oneself will definitely be quite large.

Those Noldor elves and Amy's female warriors are all baby bumps, and it would be too bad to lose too much.

Now that he knew that the Levius and his son had done all the shit, Li Ang would of course consider bringing back those forced villagers to solve his current manpower shortage.

Looking at the old people who were queuing up at the entrance of the manor to receive food, the lord got up and went to a room in the manor and knocked on the door: "Alyssa, are you ready to be a priestess again?"

"Hiss... I never thought that I would still have to do these jobs after leaving the divine religion... Hiss..."

Alisa who was inside opened the door.

She has changed back to her priestess attire, the low-cut serpentine armor reveals her fair neck and shoulders, and the deep ravines look quite alluring.

……

In the afternoon, a 'Snake Worship Priestess' brought two hundred ragged 'followers' to a rather large mining area in the mountains.

This place is actually an open-pit mine. The whole mountain looks like it has been cut out in section. The mountain is divided into several layers, and many people are busy on each layer.

The soil layer of the mountain section is very new, and it is obvious that this mine has just been excavated on a large scale.

Most of the people in the mine are chained and look like slaves.

There are a lot of people, and the number of people directly accessible from the mine will not be less than 2000.

No matter how powerful the Livius family is, it is impossible to have so many slaves—obviously, most of them are civilians who were forced to be treated like slaves.

"What is that... the people from the Snake Cult? The people from the Snake Cult are here!"

There were obviously people standing guard around the mine. As soon as Alisa and the old people appeared nearby, someone yelled.

Then there was the bell of 'clang, clang, clang', obviously the sentry in the mine sounded the alarm.

"Hiss...is there such a big reaction?"

Alisa pouted.

The people in the mine had already started to make noise, and soon afterward, a force of about 200 people appeared on the top of the mine.

At this time, Alisa had already retreated down the mountain with this group of 'followers', and directly returned to the estate of the Levius family.

It took only a few hours for the lord to find the whereabouts of Levius and his son—or not to find them, but to let them reveal their whereabouts.

In fact, the method used by Li Ang is very simple.

As long as Alisa, the real priestess of the Snake Cult, appears in the largest mining areas with her 'followers', the Levius and his son will definitely panic, and they will definitely organize their real troops—or Transfer, or fight.

They killed 3000 people in the name of dealing with the Snake Cult. Now that the priestess of the Snake Worship Cult appeared here, they would of course think that the Snake Worship Cult came to seek revenge from them.

Even if they weren't here for revenge, they were definitely here to rob people. The Levius father and son naturally had to find a way to solve it.

If they didn't show up, Alisa might have really recruited those villagers as a priestess of the Snake Worship Cult...

And the 'followers' brought by Alisa, that is, those old people who are familiar with the geographical environment and responsible for leading the way, the number is just about two hundred...

This was an embarrassing amount for Levius and his son. They were able to kill three thousand unresisting people in batches within a month.

But they don't dare to directly attack the Snake Worshipers with more than 200 people...

After all, the Snake Cult has a reputation for not fearing death. If it is not necessary, no one wants to fight with a considerable number of outlaws. If you lose, you will die. If you win, it is no good...

If the loss is too great, so that they can't suppress the villagers who came by force, maybe the civil uprising will kill them.

Because there are only 200 soldiers with real combat effectiveness in their hands, and besides that, there are only more than 300 slaves raised by the family who are still obedient.

But those domestic slaves can only stare at the villagers in the mine—these domestic slaves who used to dig mines every day have now turned into foremen, and they are quite motivated to wield their whips.

In other words, only those two hundred private soldiers could be used for fighting.

So Fabius carefully tracked the position of the 'Snake Cult Priestess', neither approaching nor far away.

But after seeing this 'Snake Cult troop' entering his family's manor, Fabius became a little restless.

Although their father and son did not live in the manor, but hid in the mining area in the mountains, this does not mean that they plan to give up their property...

Moreover, these two hundred soldiers are also family private soldiers who have always guarded the house in the manor, so it can be said that they know the entire manor environment like the back of their hands.

Being in a familiar environment will naturally boost a lot of confidence, coupled with the mentality of 'protecting the family business', Fabius decided to take a little risk.

He led a team to sneak into the manor from an unknown secret passage.

To be honest, the lord really didn't realize that there was such a secret passage in this manor - the exit was under the bed in the inner room, and the lord hadn't had time to check the bed yet.

This secret road probably hollowed out the mountain and led directly to the other side of the mountain.

This is also a common risk protection measure in the manors of the great nobles in this era-you can escape for your life in case of an emergency.

However, although Li Ang didn't know that there was this secret passage in the manor, Fabius obviously didn't know that there were so many people in the manor...

After he led the soldiers out of the secret passage, he gathered twenty or thirty soldiers in that bedroom, preparing to launch a surprise attack on the 'Snake Cult Priestess'.As a result, as soon as he went out, he found himself surrounded by a large group of people holding bows and crossbows...

This kind of scene seemed familiar to him—half a year ago in White Hart Castle, he also faced such a scene, and then he was surrounded by a large group of bows and crossbows.

Fortunately, he had enough experience this time, so he reacted quickly—he fell to his knees with a plop, raised the sword in his hand above his head, and surrendered at an incredible speed.

"Oh, there is still a road here?"

The lord rushed to the manor house in a hurry, and was a little surprised to see Fabius on the ground and the soldiers kneeling beside him in a row.

"Febius, quickly lead the way and release the villagers captured by you..."

……

"My lord, there is news. The scouts found some Snake Worshipers in the valley thirty miles to the southeast. They are probably the forerunners of the Snake Cult army."

In the evening, Wendy Erff came to report back.

"It seems that at noon tomorrow at the latest, the army of the Snake Cult will pass by here. I don't know if the Silver Hand will arrive by then."

Li Ang looked at the map in front of him and stood up: "Is the layout in the valley ready?"

"The guards are all ready... But my lord, this manor won't last long. Although the villagers have been rescued, they can only help us build fortifications. They have no training and can't fight... We still have no Enough manpower, but not enough arrows."

Wendy reminded with some hesitation.

The Noldor fought back and forth during this period, and from the village of Bullin to Serendil, the arrows shot from everywhere were basically unable to be recovered. At present, each Noldor has only about seven or eight arrows on average.

The territory of the Bacchus Empire is no different than that of Sarleon or Ravencrow. It is difficult to replenish the arrows of bows and arrows. Even if you want to use human arrows, you can't find a place to get them.

"It's okay, at least now, even if we are surrounded... we still have a way to leave."

Li Ang shook his head: "Wendy, although those villagers have not received training, in fact most of the Snake Worshipers have not received training, so it is the best choice for them to block the entrance of the village... If the resistance of this village seems too strong , the main force of the Snake Worship Cult might not be fooled..."

In fact, the safety of the villagers is quite guaranteed, because wooden piles have already begun to be laid at the entrance of the village.

The entrance of Feidner Village is actually the most dangerous place in the entire valley. Because it has been continuously widened, both sides of the village entrance have been dug into steep vertical cliffs.

Although the width of this place has now reached about [-] meters, it is still the most suitable terrain for ambushes.

Wooden stakes more than three meters high are being nailed to the entrance of the village in a dense manner. They are nailed in several layers. There is basically no room for people or horses to pass between the wooden stakes.

With the help of thousands of villagers who are familiar with the environment, it is actually not that difficult to control the [-]-meter-wide valley.