Warlords of the witcher world

Chapter 8 Sazarburg

Contrary to expectations, the inside of the Blue Mountain Tunnel was not as dark as Herme thought. In fact, every [-] meters, there were torches embedded in the wall to provide illumination and indicate the way forward.

In the tunnel, Herme and the others also encountered patrols and tunnel strongholds, and they were responsible for replacing and maintaining those torches.

From these people, Herme knew that it would take a day and a half to pass through this tunnel completely, that is to say, he had to stay in the tunnel for at least one day.

Herme thought, this is not a big problem, just a day.

There were no troubles in Herme's team along the way. Although the tunnel was long, there were no messy branches.

There are no monsters in this open road, and there is no room for them to live.

The Sharmas were very attentive and did not change direction when they were digging, which led to this situation, which is undoubtedly very beneficial to humans and so on.

Moreover, there are lights everywhere, and the problem of rest, which was the most worrying, has become the least of the problems.

Finally, Herme and his party came to the exit of the tunnel. Just like the entrance, there were soldiers and checkpoints under construction.

The defense here is more complete, the brick wall has been built, and there are horses and trenches outside the gate.

The soldiers also dug out rooms in the caves as their dormitories, and it seems that they will have to be stationed for a long time.

The guards naturally knew the identities of Herme and the others. After all, when such a large team arrived, everyone remembered the baron who brought the immigrants mentioned in the report.

After a few pleasantries, they were let through the entrance and entered the land.

Then, as Herme and the others walked out of the small forest where the entrance was located, the vast land of Harkland appeared in front of them.

When seeing this land, everyone headed by Herme subconsciously held their breath.

There is no other reason, the world in front of me is too vast.

What appeared at the limit of their field of vision was a vast grassland, and the edge could not be seen as far as their eyes could see, as if connecting the sky and the earth.

There are hills and forests in the vicinity, and the villages are scattered among them. He knows that this is the land he rules.

As Marenga said, the scenery further east will be more magnificent, because there is really a boundless prairie over there.

This made it hard for Herme to imagine. The scenery in front of him was already beyond his imagination, and there were even more magnificent existences farther away.

After all, Herme will go there one day to see him, but for now, the most important thing is to go to his Fort Sazar, which is the center of his territory.

So the northerners went out into the wide world, into the forests and hills, and they marched in battle formation, which Herme had trained many times on the road, for God only knows what to expect.

The trees in this forest are not dense and seem very sparse, but they are still enough for ambushers to lurk.

Armed soldiers and men walked outside, and inside were women and children carrying packages. From time to time, several cavalry rode past to provide a sense of security for the people.

Herme has always been vigilant about the surroundings. As mentioned in the report, this is a land full of "good people".

Although looking at this large team, most of the "good people" with three to five or even a dozen people would not dare to come and rob, but God knows if there are any bold people.

Hackland is an unstable land, and things like looting are common.

Herme felt prying eyes several times during the period, but they disappeared quickly. It seems that those guys finally decided to retreat.

And Heme also quickly met the locals, those so-called Cossack villages, who warmly entertained Heme, the lord who was said to have come to rule.

When they first met, the two sides almost fought, because the locals were armed and they looked like a group of robbers from a distance.

It was Marondo who prevented a possible fight, he had been in Hackland long enough to know what was going on.

The village had agreed to submit to the Kingdom of Aedirn—or, as they said, cooperate.

The Cossacks did not object to the arrival of outsiders. Their ancestors came here from the West.

However, some of them have a lot of resistance to Herme's official status. After all, some of them have ancestors who came to Hackland to escape power, and these things have been passed down as stories.

But generally speaking, the resistance is not high. After all, it should be nearly 100 years since the arrival of the last wave of Western immigrants. These are already old-fashioned things of our ancestors.

Taking this opportunity, Herme was able to take a good look at the social ecology of these Cossacks. It is true that every resident here is armed, and everyone carries a machete at all times.

Many times these Cossacks have to go out and do it if they disagree, but they rarely hurt their lives, and they just bleed and stop.

Most importantly, Hemei observed that the Cossacks were highly organized. When they arranged the banquet, they started to work step by step as soon as the elder ordered them, without any hesitation.

This high degree of obedience may have been developed in a long-term quasi-war state, Herme thought, and it seemed that Hakland's society was more cruel than he expected.

As for the definition of Heme and the relationship between them, the attitude of the Cossacks is very simple. Heme provides asylum and cheap goods from the West, and they provide taxes and soldiers.

The so-called tax is the fur produced by the Cossack land. As for the soldiers, the Cossacks can gain a foothold here by relying on force.

Regarding the value of Western goods here, Herme noticed one small thing, that is, the local people's iron pots.

Although the Cossacks also know how to forge iron, the iron pots they make always break down quickly due to the material and technology, but even such iron pots can be sold at a high price among the Harkland nomads.

So if Aden's handicraft products represented by iron pots are sold here, the profits will be too considerable.

Therefore, Herme understood why those merchants were smiling so happily. The things they sold must have made them a lot of money.

After bidding farewell to the Cossack village, Heme continued to walk towards Saza, and encountered some Cossack villages on the road. Some of them were willing to receive Heme and his party, while others ignored them.

This made Hemei understand that the tasks in his own land still had a long way to go, and these Cossacks respected him only because he represented the kingdom.

And those who disdain the kingdom very much, naturally disdain him even more.

According to the information obtained from the locals, the Cossack villages here are still relatively weak, and they don’t even have war gangs. Even so, they haven’t completely surrendered, let alone those Cossack war gangs.

It wasn't just the Cossacks that Herme met on the road, he also met the Haklans.

As a nomadic tribe, the Haklans migrated everywhere. Due to the independence of the Cossacks, many Haklan tribes that failed in the grassland struggle would retreat here.

The fighting in the land of the Cossacks was still less intense than that of the grasslands, and the Cossacks were careful when they plundered each other, so there would be no major tragedies.

As time went on, they either returned to the grasslands to continue fighting after recuperating, or they got tired of the war and lived down, and then they were assimilated by the locals and became members of the Cossacks-this is how many Cossack villages came about.

These Haklan people also respected him as the master of this land, but they obviously kept a distance from Herme. After all, the Baron of the Kingdom of Aden was still too far away for them.

Herme didn't ask for anything about it. It would take time for these people to succumb. Even for him now, if these people don't make trouble, it's victory.

And after meeting all kinds of people, Herme finally came to his fortress, Fort Sazar.

When seeing Fort Sazar, Herme sighed uncontrollably.

Fort Sazar is located on a raised platform, which is very conspicuously wrapped by a solid wooden wall.

There is a river next to Fort Sazar, this river is called the Zar River, and there is a small port by the river, with only a few small boats on it, probably fishermen's boats.

Through the wooden wall, you can see a tall brick castle behind it.

The wooden walls and the main castle are obviously in the style of dwarves, so they can build such a solid building and complete such a large project within half a year.

This point can also be seen from the pride on the faces of the dwarf artisans accompanying the army, this is obviously the work of their own race.

There are many farmlands around this platform, which were developed by the first immigrants, and the crops are growing well now.

Looking at the scene, many farmers were very moved. This is undoubtedly a piece of land suitable for farming. If there are rivers and rivers, the land is also suitable for development.

There is also wood for building houses, and there is a forest not far from Sazarburg.

The gate of Fort Sazar was opened in front of Herme and his party, and he was able to see the scene covered by the wooden wall. Many houses had already been built on the terrace.

Oddly though, many of the houses looked new, as if no one had ever lived in them.

Herme didn't question it immediately, because he knew that everyone in front of him would explain it to him.

The residents of Fort Sazar were all standing in front of the gate, and Herme noticed that there were not only humans, but also some dwarves among them.

Some Adian people still maintain the typical dress of northern residents, but some decorations start to resemble those of the local Cossacks.

Dozens of dwarves stood in front, dressed as craftsmen, obviously important in this settlement.

"I salute you, Baron Herme."

The chief dwarf took off his hat and bowed to Herme.

"I'm Dunwa Born, and I'm the interim administrator of Fort Sazar entrusted by the king. Currently, Fort Sazar has 330 residents, 22 of whom are dwarves. There are also thirteen Cossack villages expressing their allegiance to Fort Sazar. They will come to see you as soon as they get word of your arrival."

The dwarf spoke like a seasoned warehouse keeper, telling Baron Sazarburg everything he knew.

"We have heard the news that you are about to bring a large number of immigrants to the baron a month ago, so we started to build houses in Sazar Fort. At present, the houses in Sazar Fort can accommodate 300 people, and More homes are just to be completed and will be able to accommodate everyone by then, I hope you will be satisfied."

"Thank you very much for your service, the Kingdom will remember your service, Mr. Dunwa."

Hemei said, "Now settle down the immigrants I brought, Mr. Dunwa, I'm afraid I will have to trouble you."

"Of course, this is my duty, Baron Herme."

The dwarf bowed again, took over the job of the new master, and then greeted the people under the organization of soldiers, asking them to obey orders.

Herme went to the main castle of Fort Sazar to see her own city.

Along the way, the first batch of town residents were all looking at Herme. After all, this was their lord, and Herme accepted their gaze with her head held high, showing the attitude of belonging to the lord.

And the closer to this solid building, the more Herme felt the power of the dwarves' technology, and it was impossible to build such a main castle in a short period of time in other places.

This main castle is much more majestic than Herme's previous tower, and this is the real fortress.

At this time, Herme heard his squire and the sergeant major discuss why the administrator of this colony was a dwarf.

The captain was not at all curious, he had been here several times.

Heme was not surprised that the dwarves served as governors of human towns. Ever since the king helped Mahakam avoid the famine, there had been a rich friendship between the Kingdom of Aedirn and the dwarves.

However, the two sides have a close relationship. Aden even has an autonomous city of dwarves, Vergen. Many dwarves are employed by the Kingdom of Aden, and there are dwarf craftsmen in many workshops. It is strange for a dwarf to be an officer in a colony.

Herme entered the main castle, and he was very satisfied with the scene inside. Everything in front of him was quaint and solid, just the typical dwarf style, exactly what he wanted.

The lord's room is even wider, and the balcony outside can just overlook the entire Fort Sazar.

Standing on the balcony, Hemei saw that Sazar Fort still had a lot of open space waiting to be built, and at the gate of the city, Dunwa was distributing houses to the residents, and there was a lot of people there.

This is something that the immigrants did not expect. They thought that they would have to live and sleep for a period of time after they arrived, and then repair the house. Now it seems that they should focus on land reclamation.

"What a nice place."

Herme raised her head and looked further into the distance, which was the magnificent scenery of Harkland.

This is a land that is just waiting to be developed, full of opportunities and risks, both of which coexist.

It was night when the group settled down. On the square in front of the main castle that night, Fort Sazar held a grand banquet to welcome the arrival of the immigrants.

At the banquet, Herme put on his most luxurious clothes, which was a black coat with his falcon emblem, and around his neck was a gold necklace passed down from generation to generation by the family.

"Everyone, we have come to a brand new land, a brand new world. I hope that our future will be extremely prosperous, that our place of residence will be extremely prosperous in the future, and that each of us will be rich and satisfied."

Hemei raised his wine glass and said, this remark was on the hearts of every immigrant who came here, and everyone responded to Hemei's words with cheers.

This also announced the beginning of the banquet. People stuffed delicious food into their mouths, and poured down glasses of beer desperately.

Herme's eating was naturally much more decent than the following ones. He enjoyed roast suckling pig and lamb, and drank the precious and expensive Toussaint wine.

However, compared to food, he spent more time talking to Dunwa to understand how the dwarf resettled the immigrants.

Dunwa's method is very ingenious. He directly asks everyone to draw lots, and the short ones will live in unbuilt houses, so as to block those gossiping mouths as much as possible.

He also took care of the people Herme brought from his hometown, specially placing them all near the main castle.

This naturally satisfied Herme. For him, the most trustworthy people were fellow villagers. These people must be the first thing that Herme thought of.

In addition, Heme came to learn about the Cossack villages that had come to seek refuge with him.

"Well, let me tell you, I have rarely encountered such a difficult human being."

Speaking of the Cossacks, he sighed,

"A lot of times, they just want to prostitute the kingdom's supplies. These guys are full of all kinds of cunning ideas, and it's hard for you to make them succumb. These Cossacks have their stubborn pride, but at the same time they are very flexible. Yes For them, they can talk about anything and say anything.”

As a person who has been governing Sazaburg for a period of time and has dealt with Cossacks for a long time, Dunvake has too much bitterness to pour out, and he has been overwhelmed by these people.

"However, humans do not discriminate against non-human races. Even dwarves and elves have no resistance to joining their team. I have seen such a situation there. It is probably influenced by the Haklan people. As long as you If you can show your value, you can be respected, which is much better than the deep-rooted discrimination in the northern countries."

The dwarves sighed when they mentioned this. The discrimination against non-human races in northern society is really deep-rooted, even Aedirn who is friendly with the dwarves is no exception.

"You don't know, I've already done it so fair, and there are still people who say bad things about me behind my back, 'that dwarf must have taken someone's money', tsk, that idiot still thinks I can't hear it. Really, If only you humans were like these Cossacks and Haklans."

The dwarves were very frank, and they seldom lied, which caused Herme to show some embarrassment, and he could only speak on the spot.

"Mr. Dunwa, neither the kingdom nor I will forget you."

"Ah, baron, don't pay too much attention to a dwarf's complaint, just take it as a gust of wind, I understand, you should concentrate on enjoying your banquet."

The dwarf still spoke directly, but Herme understood that he meant no malice, so he picked up a glass of wine and drank the liquid in one gulp.

"This thing, tsk, is still not strong enough, I still want to drink our Mahakam beer."

"Then I will try my best to find some for you, sir, and you will be satisfied."

Herme made a promise, and his expression was very serious. This dwarf is an important person in the operation of Fort Sazar, and he must win over this person.

"Then I can thank you."

Dunwa obviously didn't take it seriously, he just smiled, that's all, he continued to look at the crowd in the banquet, thinking about how much time he would have to spend dealing with the mess afterwards.

(End of this chapter)