Mount and Blade System: Start from Pioneer Lords.

Chapter 424 is full of talented people.
Howard's heart skipped a beat, and he suppressed his excitement.

The Persian Gulf Empire certainly had more than just the hundreds of thousands of troops under his command. If you exclude the soldiers who were suppressing the natives in the wilderness, he could amass a million usable soldiers.

Even four legendary experts have not yet arrived.

With only 50,000... no, now only about 300,000 soldiers left, facing the Debe Expeditionary Force with its dragon knights and luxurious lineup, the difference in strength was obviously too great.

Therefore, he kept writing to the capital for help, hoping that the capital would send more troops and stronger warriors.

However, these letters remained unanswered, like stones sinking into the sea.

"I thought they all died on women's bellies." The old man sneered and asked, "What did they reply? If it's telling us to continue holding out alone, then take the letter out and throw it into the latrine."

The failure of the plan not only resulted in the loss of more than 100,000 elite soldiers, but what he didn't expect was that Pahlavi would defect so easily.

The fact that Howard didn't go insane from the double blow shows how strong his will was.

If another blow were to come from the capital, it's hard to say whether he might do something crazy in response.

"My lord, it's good news!" The clerk smiled. "The capital has sent us reinforcements, a full 300,000 elite Persian Gulf warriors, and three legendary lords have also arrived. More reinforcements will follow."

"That's really good news." Howard finally managed a smile.

If before he felt as if his 500,000 soldiers and officers had been abandoned and were fighting alone, then at this moment he finally felt that he had a country providing strong support behind him.

This feeling gave him the confidence to deal with even a dragon knight with a distinguished record.

When will they arrive in Wirtz?

The arrival of reinforcements dissipated some of the old man's anger, and he had a moment of leisure to pick up a green grape from the silver plate and pop it into his mouth.

He was pondering how, with three legends and 300,000 reinforcements, he could possibly slay Debe's dragon knights and that damned black dragon.

If the lord of High Cliff Fort is killed, then Debe's expeditionary force will be utterly vulnerable to the valiant men of the Persian Gulf.

"My lord, based on the distance and speed, it should be about seven days from now," the clerk replied respectfully.

……

As news spread throughout the expeditionary force that the dragon knights had thwarted the enemy's scheme, captured Mist-Covered City, and annihilated nearly 100,000 elite enemy troops, the morale of the entire army reached an unprecedented level.

As a result, in the following few days, the expeditionary force captured three more important military castles in succession.

If a map of the Persian Gulf Empire were placed on a table, it would be clearly visible that five important cities were connected in a straight line, directly dividing the southern province in two.

This means that the southern part of the southern provinces is now completely in the hands of the expeditionary force.

As for the Persian Gulf militia groups or small garrisons in those small villages or towns, they could simply close the door and beat them, dealing with them slowly and patiently.

The expeditionary force's victory in the battle against the Persian Gulf Empire can be described as a resounding triumph, giving them a perfect start.

Even if we do nothing else, as long as we hold onto the five military strongholds, we can completely develop the southern provinces into the rear base of the expeditionary force.

By now, Bernard's strategic intentions have been perfectly achieved.

However, he did not underestimate the Persian Gulf Empire because of this.

Bernard was amazed by the fearlessness displayed by the Persian Gulf forces.

Especially the enemy's Unsullied slave warriors, these specially trained slaves, will only succumb to casualties and flee if their casualties reach nearly 50% or more, or if the Persian Gulf officer in charge of supervising them dies.

In comparison, Debe's expeditionary force seemed rather hastily assembled—any army inevitably has some noble sons who come in to gain prestige, and although Bernard could prevent this from happening in his own troops, he couldn't expect the armies of the other three grand dukes and the Holy Sith army to be free of it.

This resulted in the expeditionary force having quite a few figureheads. Bernard would try to assign these guys some unimportant positions so they could just casually accumulate some military merits.

Sending them to lead soldiers into battle would be utterly irresponsible to the entire expeditionary force.

It is no exaggeration to say that it was fortunate that the Lord of Gaoyabao participated in this war. Not to mention how badly the expeditionary force would have fared in the previous battles, this time they would probably have suffered heavy losses and lost the morale to continue their courageous advance.

A legendary dragon, not to mention how destructive it is to an army of ordinary people, just knowing that they have a dragon to assist them is an unimaginable boost to the morale of lowly soldiers.

Not to mention that the dragon knight's own strength was unparalleled in the world.

The successive victories gave the entire expeditionary force the idea of ​​striking while the iron was hot and annihilating the main force in Wirtz.

To this end, Bernard dispatched nearly three thousand griffin riders, divided into multiple waves, to scout the area within seven or eight hundred miles of Wirtz.

Whether it's setting off with the main force or dealing with the affairs of the cities that have been captured, time is needed, and this period has become a rare and brief time of peace.

……

Wars always benefit a small group of people. Often, these people can simply utter a few words and, without having to pay any price themselves, have countless soldiers and civilians sacrifice their lives, while they enjoy a life of luxury carved out from countless corpses.

The common people of the Persian Gulf Empire generally lived in poverty, and most of them even walked barefoot on the streets.

Here, slavery is extremely common. If you were to sweep the streets, at least four out of five people would be slaves of nobles, bearing unique brand marks.

After returning to Stone Ridge Fortress, the lord often pondered how the leaders of the three kingdoms would deal with the slaves if they conquered the Persian Gulf Empire.

Should they continue to be enslaved, or should they be incorporated into the national population and given the right to freedom?

In fact, it wasn't just the Persian Gulf Empire; all countries had slaves and engaged in the slave trade. It's just that the Persian Gulf Empire was so conspicuous that the other three countries didn't stand out as much.

Li Wei soon got the answer—slaves existed all over the world. Weren't the twelve saints of the past noble enough? Didn't they want to change things? But the limit they could achieve was only to prevent the slave trade from becoming too rampant.

However, some farmers would even voluntarily send their sons or daughters to become slaves of nobles, and they even considered it an honor.

What should we do in this situation?
Li Wei realized that the only way to fundamentally change this situation was to start with ideology, but this involved cultural popularization, which was far beyond his capabilities. It was simply a pipe dream for him to change the existing educational foundation of the entire world by himself.

Soon, the lord found himself in a state he had never imagined before. Since becoming a duke, possessing unimaginable power, and becoming the lord of the wilderness with millions of people, he seemed to have become increasingly concerned about the country and its people.

I don't ask for equality for all, but at least I want this world to be free of slaves, prostitutes, and people who starve to death.

"Damn it, am I so desperate to be king?" Li Wei cursed himself.

But regardless, within his own territory, he holds absolute power and will absolutely act according to his will. As for other places? They are irrelevant.

The lord is someone who dislikes meddlesome people like dogs, cats, and mice.

He walked to the castle balcony and looked down at the city they had just conquered.

On the streets, ragged civilians from the Persian Gulf are cleaning up the rubble and filth left by the war.

Li Wei could see a glimmer of hope in the numb eyes of the common people, though deep down there was still some fear and unease.

They didn't care whether the flags on the city walls were the camel flags of the Persian Gulf or the griffin flags of Debei; they only cared about whether they would have their next meal and whether they would be beaten or even killed by some lord for no reason.

So when a new army offered to exchange labor for food, they looked as if they had seen the dead.

Once accepted, the excitement was naturally overwhelming.

"Li Wei, I'm leaving." A cold voice came from the doorway.

Li Wei turned his head and saw the beautiful snake woman, Eve, who slithered in, her alluring waist swaying.

As early as when the other party set foot on the land of the Persian Gulf Empire, he proposed to return to his tribe and bring his people to join High Cliff Fortress.

The lord, who has only studied postpartum care for sows, still doesn't know how to solve the Medusa clan's fertility problem, but Chief Ifra, the beautiful snake, seems to have unwavering faith in him.

They even decided to relocate all their people to Gaoyabao.

"My dearest Ifra, come back soon." The lord gave his cheap wife a big hug.

The other person had a refreshing fragrance and an extremely soft and supple body.

"Li Wei, your sword is pressed against me."

Suddenly, Eve's beautiful eyes looked at Levi and blinked.

"Ifra, you have to get used to this. Every man must have an incredibly strong sword." The lord wasn't Little Chu Nan, so why would he blush over this? Instead, he spoke nonsense with a straight face.

"What if a man doesn't have a sword?" The beautiful snake clan chief, who had a misconception about this, asked with curiosity.

"Then she's not a man!"

Ifra stood there watching the lord run off in a flash, a puzzled expression gradually appearing on her face.

She couldn't understand why a man without a sword was no longer a man; she could only conclude that the sword symbolized force for men.

……

Li Wei didn't mention sending someone to escort the Medusa clan chief, who was a legendary powerhouse with a petrification technique as powerful as the talents of saints.

He had allowed the other party to use it on him before.

The final conclusion was that the other party's claim of being able to petrify even demigods was no exaggeration.

His "Holy Words Manual" had long been mastered, and with its incredibly high attributes and terrifyingly high magic resistance, he could even take a bath while enduring dragon breath without any problems. However, one of his fingers was petrified by the opponent, and it took a full three pulses to restore it to normal.

Sending someone to escort them would be a burden, as it's uncertain who would be protecting whom.

……

The Knight of Deberon, the Lord of the Wilderness, and the pillar of the expeditionary force walked through the military camp.

"Good day, Your Majesty Li Wei." Soldiers from the Southern Border greeted Li Wei from time to time along the way, and he always received an excited smile in return.

"Your Majesty Li Wei must be working so hard, coming to inspect the military camp right after finishing the battle."

"They must be worried about us. It's such a pity that we couldn't go to Fog City to fight because we got sick."

"The Dragon Knight is so approachable!"

The soldiers guessed with admiration, and their comrades unanimously agreed.

Li Wei arrived at the council hall in the quarantine zone. Looking at the tightly closed door, he instinctively wanted to kick it open, but seeing the admiring looks in the eyes of the soldiers around him, he cleared his throat, looked at the knights guarding the door, and showed an impeccable smile: "Please inform them for me."

People, whenever they go out, will pretend to be refined and elegant, putting on airs.

If those barbarians were here, every single one of them would be furious and turn their noses up at their grandma's house.

Do they not know what kind of people their own boss is? If they are vulgar and despicable bandits, then their own boss is the number one dog warlord.

Li Wei's arrival brought smiles to the faces of the southern officers in the council hall, who quickly and obsequiously ushered him inside.

"You all need to quickly gather all the infected soldiers at the drill ground," the lord said bluntly.

"My lord, this will take a little time." General Pik was pondering what the dragon knight wanted to do by summoning the soldiers.

“I can cure them,” Li Wei said without holding anything back.

Now that the war is over, there's no need to let these soldiers in the southern border continue to suffer.

The Southern Border officers were all taken aback. None of them were fools; otherwise, they wouldn't have been in those positions. They quickly realized what was going on.

His own Dragon Knight could have healed them from the beginning, but he left them alone to mislead the enemy. No wonder one of the soldiers suddenly recovered, causing the doctors to exclaim that they had seen a ghost. They studied it over and over again, but could not figure out what was going on.

"Your Excellency Li Wei, you've worked so hard! You're so considerate of the soldiers, spending day and night searching through ancient texts for magical cures." Pike said with a touched expression, pretending to wipe his eyes. "You've even developed dark circles under your eyes. You're our backbone, so please take care of yourself."

Have it?

The lord touched his face, but quickly realized that with his current constitution, he wouldn't get dark circles under his eyes even if he stayed up for a month.

He looked at the Southern Border Commander in front of him with a complicated expression, as if he were seeing him for the first time.

This guy is a real talent!

(End of this chapter)