Warlords of the witcher world

Chapter 59 Dwarven Autonomous City
The moment he saw the gunpowder, Herme knew what the Scoia'tael was up to.

Damn, with so many truckloads of gunpowder, they are planning to blow up the Blue Mountain Tunnel. It seems that the Scoia'tael has figured out the twists and turns of their territory and seized their own fate.

The importance of the Blue Mountain Tunnel to Herme is too great, because this tunnel is the lifeline for him to maintain his rule in Fort Sazar.

If this tunnel is destroyed, he will be trapped in Harkland for the rest of his life, and his rule will collapse.

After all, Heme's power is plainly based on being a second-rate dealer. He peddled various handicraft products in the north in Hackland, which was less productive, and used the goods to pour the goods to Hackland, which was even less productive, to win over the Cossacks. power.

When the huge profits brought by this middleman allowed Herme to continue to make troubles, continue to show his generosity, pull out such a huge army, and guarantee his rule over Fort Sazar.

That's why, he rode his horse forward directly, joined the battle in person, and did things that he wouldn't do easily now.

Because the elves are touching his lifeline, and if they succeed, he is really going to die.

However, the Cossack cavalry who opened the way were already numerous, and they had already suppressed these elves, so when Herme rushed up, the battle had already come to an end.

The elves here are obviously not those skilled in battle, certainly not the kind of experienced Scoia'tael guerrillas, otherwise they wouldn't have been so easily driven aside by Herme's cavalry before.

Most of these elves had courage but no skills. They showed that they were not afraid of death, but they were so weak in front of the swords of Cossack veterans.

Homer came into the fray and killed two Scoia'tael with the scimitar from the Elven Court, but that was the end of his fight, for the other Scoia'tael were either killed or taken prisoner.

"This, this is incredible."

The tone of Marondo who hurried to catch up was full of surprise,

"How could such a thing happen? Are all the guards in the front section eating dry food? They actually let such a Scoia'tael convoy full of gunpowder enter the Blue Mountain Tunnel."

"I think those people are probably dead."

Herme said coldly.

With so many elves and gunpowder entering the Blue Mountain Tunnel, the problem here is that no matter how irresponsible the captain can see it.

And since they still came in, it meant that most of the defenders were dead.

Marondo was surprised by this statement, but he did not speak to refute it. The current situation is indeed the only way to explain it.

While Herme was discussing with Marondo what was going on with all this, a captured elf was looking at Herme with hatred.

This Scoia'tael had met Herme once. His name was Gain, and he had once acted with El Dann's Scoia'tael commando.

In that brutal battle, Gain survived by feigning death, and also escaped the inspection of the Aden Special Forces, not allowing his head to become part of that Jingguan.

But he never forgot his hatred. He has been organizing the Scoia'tael all the time, but unfortunately none of them have the ability of Al Dann, and his commando can only be said to be lingering.

The commando team was wiped out several times, and he escaped alone almost every time, and then reorganized the commando team. He was also lucky, so many times he was wiped out, but nothing happened.

As for the person he hated the most, it was naturally Herme.

This human being caused their originally thriving Scoia'tael cause to be destroyed suddenly, and after that, they still wiped out the Scoia'tael in various places. Naturally, this hatred became more and more intense.

Therefore, when he knew that the Nilfgaardians had such a dangerous task, he took it without hesitation.

Then, using his reputation as an old guerrilla fighter and the news that Nilfgaard was about to invade on a large scale, he recruited a large number of newcomers and pulled up a large team.

Then he armed his subordinates with the supplies provided by Nilfgaard. When receiving the supplies, Gain was very surprised by Nilfgaard's action power, because even if they were in the territory of the enemy country, they could mobilize a large number of troops. Considerable supplies.

Therefore, he became more and more convinced of the concept of Nilfgaard's victory. As long as he followed Nilfgaard, victory would definitely come.

And the next thing is this attack.

At first, all went well, and through poisoning and surprise raids, they took down the front of the Blue Mountain Tunnel, which had been slackened by the long defense mission.

But even with all the preparations, their casualties were still high. After all, there were quite a lot of new recruits in his commando team, but it didn't affect their continued mission.

Next, they planned to transport the gunpowder to the middle of the tunnel and detonate it to collapse the entire tunnel. In order to prevent conflicts with other caravans or teams on the road, they made some camouflages for themselves—although this camouflage seemed very obvious to people with a discerning eye. It's taking off your pants and farting.

However, just as the cargo was taking a break, a group of Cossack cavalry suddenly rushed out, mobilizing the still bewildered Scoia'tael rookie brigade.

Gain and the veterans around him who were lucky to have lived for such a long time had reacted immediately, but there were too many newcomers, which hindered their actions.

Next, the development of the plot is now, the elves attacked the Cossacks under the leadership of Gain, and then they were defeated by the Cossacks, and then the survivors were held here.

Gain, who was being suppressed, looked at Hemei with eyes full of hatred.

O, may you all be infected with the plague, may you all die!Why!Why do you want to do this!

He wanted to scold Herme, no matter what, at least he could scold him to his heart's content, but unfortunately, his mouth was directly sealed.

In order to prevent the captives from making trouble, the Cossacks directly blocked the captives' mouths with the cloth on the body of the dead, so that they could only "wow" there.

But Gain was really too noisy, that kind of hatred was very conspicuous among the prisoners, and Herme naturally noticed this prisoner.

"Commander, do you need to pull that elf here?"

Marendo immediately noticed where Herme was looking. For a long time, he had acted beside Herme as a person who watched the leader's winking activities, so he asked.

"Forget it, execute them on the spot, I don't want to listen to the nonsense of freedom fighters."

Herme knew with her ass that the elf, who was full of such hatred, must want to spit on him, after all, he didn't kill Scoia'tael.

But Herme's choice is not to give them this chance, ha, just not to give it.

Ha, who do you think you guys are? He won't be like the idiot villain in those movies, and he specially asks the person he wants to kill to scold him once. That's too stupid, and it's also shameful.

So the fate of these elf captives was decided, and in their "whoops" of fear or hatred, they were all equally decapitated by the scimitar.

Gain's hatred grew stronger. He was not afraid of death, but of dying worthless like this.

Seeing that his death was fixed, he now only hoped that he could turn into a demon spirit after death.

However, Herme would not give him this chance.

The corpses of these elves must not be placed here. Herme asked the Cossack to carry all the corpses into the carriage that was intended to transport the wounded, and wait for them to be transported outside to be burned.

Burn the corpse, basically don't want to die and come out to be a demon.

The Lanshan Tunnel is too closed, and it is absolutely impossible to burn it inside. It is easy to cause problems if it is left there, so it must be taken out and disposed of.

Next, Hemei called the gunpowder master in the army, that is, Bo Ning, to deal with these gunpowder carts.

And Bo Ning's answer made Herme feel that her previous feelings were in vain, and she was simply putting on a show for monkeys.

When he heard the news of "the gunpowder that can blow up the Blue Mountain Tunnel", the dwarf master came very quickly, and then only disdain remained after seeing the "gunpowder that can blow up the Blue Mountain Tunnel".

"Those elves don't know what gunpowder is at all. Gunpowder of this quality can't reach the military level at all. It's the kind of folk self-entertainment. It can only be used to set off fireworks, and the quantity is seriously insufficient. This point Gunpowder is like blowing up a tunnel? Even if their loads of gunpowder blow up, they won’t be able to blow up the tunnel, ha, that’s how ignorant laymen are.”

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With the gunpowder problem dealt with, Herme's army moved on, and they were soon out of the tunnel.

At the exit, they also saw that the local defenders had indeed been dealt with by the Scoia'tael, and the original camp was full of corpses.

However, other defenders of Aedirn nearby also came here, and the local chief apologized in a hurry.

Fear was written all over his face, he had greatly neglected his duty this time, it was too dereliction of duty, Wengerburg would not let him go.

And Herme just patted him on the shoulder, telling him not to panic too much, and it is true to guard the Blue Mountain Tunnel right now.

Then Hemei left five hundred Cossacks to guard the tunnel. This incident really scared him a little. If something happened to the Blue Mountain Tunnel, it would be the end of his game.

But even so, he was still a little scared.

This can certainly defend against some physical means, but what about magic?What if some warlocks destroy the tunnel with a large magic?
And Di Erban, who followed the army to observe the artillery, directly said that he, the senior, was thinking too much.

That kind of highly destructive large-scale magic cannot be done without the cooperation of seven or eight senior warlocks, and such a spell has an extremely long swing, and there is a possibility of something going wrong in the middle, so there is no need to worry at all, this is an extremely small probability event.

And the essence of large-scale magic is to gather a large amount of magic power in a short period of time. You can't find that much magic power in the tunnel, and Herme specially placed magic resistance gold in the tunnel, so it can only be outside.

And if it is successful outside, it will blow up the hole at most. This amount of work can still be solved by digging.

The most important thing is, can the mages of the Ni people still come here?

Not to mention that Niguo mages are essentially a group of soldiers throwing fireballs. Do they have that ability?They don't have that ability at all.

As for the northern warlocks, they are still caught in the aftermath of the coup on Shaned Island, and they have no ability to make a living. Dirban can't figure out why they want to make a living, everyone is their own.

After being educated about magic knowledge by his junior, Herme led his army to move on.

Following the stone-paved roads of the kingdom, Herme soon left the range of the Blue Mountains, and he came to the Vale of Pontal, part of Upper Aedirn.

It can be said that Herme disobeyed the king's order, but he came in a justifiable way. The reason for him to go to Upper Aedirn is very simple, that is, he received the news of the Kaedwen invasion, so it is completely justified for him to go to Upper Aedirn.

Of course, Hemei also knew that if the king wanted to, he could use this to attack him, but... Hemei knew what would happen on the southern front, so he was not afraid.

For him, securing Upper Aden was the first priority.

The Pontar Valley is a wealthy part of Upper Aedirn, with coal and silver mines, the only marble quarry on this side of the Yaruga River, and many workshops, along with the Pontar River, the main east-west trade route to the north.

As for the rest of Upper Aedirn, that's the vast swampy lowlands, disputed territory between Aedirn and Kaedwen.

However, Kaedwin will often include this disputed territory to the entire Pontar Valley...

It was actually the first time for Herme to come here. He used to drive to Lower Aedirn or Posada to suppress the Scoia'tael. There are more elves there, and the main non-human residents of Upper Aedirn are dwarves. They are more secure.

What he saw this time was a scene of mountains and hills that was completely different from the rich plains of Aden. The local residents still welcomed Herme, but he did not see the nobles here.

This made Herme very strange, but she didn't care too much. The important thing now was to go to Vergen.

Walking on such hills, Herme soon came to the center of this area, the dwarven autonomous city of Vergen.

Vergen was one of the earliest mining colonies established by Mahakam. The dwarves established such colonies all over the world 500 years ago, but except for Vergen, most of them were in ruins due to the exhaustion of mine veins or human activities.

Now Vergen has successfully transformed from a mining town to a trade center in Aedirn, where people of many different races trade and live. At the same time, there are also forging and handicraft industries that dwarves are good at.

Vergen is a city built in imitation of Mahakam's Charcoal Mountain, where dwarves who are dissatisfied with Mahakam's highly centralized control gather here, and it is also the most important town in Upper Aedirn.

The dwarf craftsmen here produced a large number of ironware and other handicraft products for the kingdom, which increased the competitiveness of Aedirn's products in the international market.

This can be said to be the unique advantage of Aedirn. There are no such non-human ethnic autonomous cities in other northern countries.

From a distance, Vergen is built on the mountain as a whole. The houses and buildings are carved out of the rock, or cut directly into the rock, which gives Vergen a unique style.

The news that Herme's army was coming had already been known to Verjian, so the local dwarves had already opened the gate of this city of rocks to welcome the arrival of Herme's army outside.

From a long distance, Herme saw the figures of the dwarves. Against the background of the huge gate, the height of the dwarves was particularly prominent.

The head dwarf is a dwarf wearing a dark green hat, dark green clothes, and a long beard.

Herme knew his identity, the mayor of Vergen, Cecil Borden, and he had a lot of dealings with this person when he was ordering everywhere in Aden.

This is a shrewd mayor. He can say that he has given everything for Vergen. He has lived to this day, and almost all his years have been spent running for Vergen.

"Mayor Cecil, we meet again, nice to meet you."

After stopping his huge army in front of Vergen and shaking hands with the green-clothed dwarf, Herme said this.

"I'm also glad to meet you, Commander Herme."

The dwarves called out the title that Herme prefers to be called. It is natural for a businessman to figure out what the customer likes,
"I didn't expect you to lead such a large army here. There are almost 4000 people here."

Herme raised her brows at these words, did this clarify the number of troops under her command?The speed is really fast enough, are the dwarves showing their strength?
Thinking of this in her heart, Herme continued to communicate without changing her expression,
"Any news from the south?"

"It's all kinds of bad news. Livia has surrendered, the Nilfgaardians are attacking our borders, and there is news from the floating port that King Vizimir of Redania is dead. But Now His Majesty the King is personally visiting the front line in Edelsberg, and it is said that he has 3 to 4 people under him, the front line should not collapse as quickly as Livia."

For this, Herme could only smile wryly in his heart, he knew that the Aedirn army would also collapse under the attack speed and division of the Nilfgaardian army...

But it has nothing to do with them now, and it's not something he should talk about. Speaking out is defeatism. They have more problems that need to be dealt with now.

"Cecil, we are old acquaintances too, you are direct, I don't like going around in circles, come on, tell me about Kaedwen's troubles."

"Ha, Commander Herme, your news is really well-informed, but don't talk about this kind of thing in such a crowded place, come on, let's go into the city."

Led by Mayor Cecil, Herme walked into this dwarven autonomous city.

The army he led continued to camp on the spot. Only part of such a huge army could enter the city, because it could only accommodate so many people, and the rest still had to camp outside the city.

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"So, the Brown Banners have crossed the Pontar and they've started planting unicorn banners in villages and declaring Upper Aedirn Kaedwenian territory? And there's more Kaedweni troops on the other side of the river May cross the river at any time?"

In the ancient meeting hall of Vergen, Herme, who was sitting on a stone chair, asked this question.

"Yes, yes, these Kaedwenian cavalry are simply unscrupulous. I think they are the pawns of Henselt's temptation. If the greedy king sees that there is no hindrance in doing so, he will definitely march in a large scale next. It is even more infuriating What's more, none of those nobles were willing to stand up to defend the kingdom's territory at this time. They either pretended to be dead or used the excuse that they had already sent someone to respond to the king's obligation. Going south personally, I even suspect that some people here have taken money from Kaedwenians, or Nilfgaardians... Fuck it, it doesn't matter whose money it is, the ones who take the money are all stinky dogs Shit. Ah, sorry for the foul language. Under such circumstances, we Vergen can't move, but our loyalty to the Kingdom of Aedirn is absolute."

As a dwarf, Cecil has the self-cultivation that a mayor should have. However, he still has the dwarf's bad mouth problem, and he has a bad mouth before looking at it.

Herme also knows why Cecil has such an attitude. As the mayor of Vergen, he is very clear that King Henselt of Kaedwin doesn't like non-human races. Under his rule, Vergen is definitely not doing well. day.

Although King Demavi didn't like non-human races either, his disgust was only aimed at elves, and the essence of this hatred came about because of the rise of Scoia'tael.

Naturally, King Demavi would not do anything to his good subjects, the dwarves, who have always been law-abiding and honest. He will also guarantee their rights and interests so that they can develop better and bring more benefits to the country.

So the dwarves (plus their friends the gnomes) live in Aedirn as the most fertile in all the north.

King Henselt discriminates against all non-human races equally. No matter what kind of dwarf you are, you can't trust Scoia'tael.

"I see, Mayor Cecil, the situation in Upper Aedirn is grim right now, and I must take decisive action. Kaedwen's problem is now easy to solve. Since only part of the Brown Banner battalion crosses the river, it means that Henselt is still only It's just a test. Since it's a test, the problem is easy to solve. In comparison, the problem of the nobles is more troublesome. This problem must be solved thoroughly to avoid recurrence, so as to ensure the safety of the northern border of the kingdom, so the solution I want , requires the close cooperation of your team."

Speaking of this, Cecil was actually quite puzzled, what is Herme planning to do?

It’s enough to scare the king of Kaedwen, and these fools will fall back, what is this for.

And Herme is quite excited now, because he knows that he is about to take a very important step.

Once this step is passed, something will start, and he will not be able to turn back.

Coming to Mayor Cecil, Herme spoke out her thoughts in a voice that only the two of them could hear.

And hearing Herme's plan, Cecil was really taken aback, and looked at him with incomparably surprised eyes. This is really an adventure.

Subconsciously, Cecil wanted to refuse. It's not appropriate for him, an inhuman race, to get involved in such a thing, but Herme's next sentence made him dispel this idea.

"I will take full responsibility from the king. Mayor Cecil, why don't you give it a try? Anyway, if you fail, you can just say that I forced you. I can provide you with evidence for this right away. In the end, you will be punished by the king at most." The last sum of money. And if it succeeds, the future of Vergen will definitely become better. Without those exorbitant taxes and the malicious restrictions on Vergen by the nobles, the future of this city will take off. Of course , if you really don’t want to, I won’t force you, even without your help, I will do it.”

Herme tempted the mayor like a demon, and the mayor was indeed getting more and more tempted. If he succeeded, Vergen's future would definitely be better...

"Okay, but you have to give me the evidence to clear the blame first."

Finally, the mayor agreed to Herme's request for cooperation.

And Hemei smiled and agreed to his words, as long as he boarded the boat, everything would be easy to handle.

As for the king, His Majesty the King should deal with the huge offensive of Nilfgaard first. Demawi is full of confidence in his army, but the Nilfgaard army is another kind of existence.

At that point, he could only admit what he had done.

(End of this chapter)