Mount and Blade System: Start from Pioneer Lords.

Chapter 499 Intelligence from the Northern Provinces

The Jade Continent, where the Persian Gulf Empire is located, has a long and narrow shape, just like the Cherry Blossom Kingdom in the previous life, and is therefore divided into only two provinces, north and south.

The vanguard of the expeditionary force traveled another hundred miles north before officially entering the northern province. The troops continued to advance northward, their banners waving, their formation winding like a dragon.

The northern provinces have more plains compared to the southern provinces, making the Golden Plains, the granary that enabled the Persian Gulf Empire to rise rapidly, located in the northern provinces.

Therefore, here you can see more farmland and prosperous villages, where farming is their livelihood.

It must be said that although the Persian Gulf Empire was a slave-owning state, it still had commoners and farmers. However, these farmers and commoners, just like slave owners, would buy slaves to plow the fields and pick cotton for them.

The social structure of the entire Persian Gulf Empire consisted of nobles and lords who were the major slave owners, while their vassals and followers were slave traders. These slave traders, in turn, had commoners who supported slaves.

It can be said that people throughout the Persian Gulf Empire would buy some black slaves or some ancient people as slaves.

But now, all that can be seen along the way are charred village ruins and scattered pale skeletons, silently telling the story of the cruelty they endured.

A few days ago, the scouts were able to spot some remaining villages, but a few days later, they found that these villages had been destroyed by demons that appeared out of nowhere.

This means that although the entire northern province, as Bernard said, has not been completely taken over by demons, it is certainly being eroded by demons at a very rapid pace.

After marching for several days, the first demons they encountered were a group of wandering berserker demons and a few scattered cowards.

These low-ranking demons smelled the presence of humans and charged forward with a roar, their formation scattered and without any order.

"Archers, fire a volley! Cavalry, flank from both sides, don't let a single one escape!" Bernard's command was concise and powerful.

Arrows rained down, their steel arrowheads easily piercing the unarmored berserker's body.

Cavalrymen clad in plate armor charged out from the flanks, their multicolored battle aura transforming into sharp crescents from their longswords from dozens of paces away, easily slicing the limp, muddy demon into chunks of charred flesh.

The battle began suddenly and ended even faster, leaving the already devastated ground with even more severed limbs.

The group didn't even stop; they simply silently retrieved their arrows, poured pine oil on them, lit them, and continued northward.

The continuous battles with demons have allowed the warriors to understand the characteristics of each type of demon.

The bodies of inferior demons are like a puddle of mud; simple arrows and swords have little effect on them, but aura magic or fire attacks are extremely effective.

The Berserker Demons possess claws capable of easily piercing through iron armor, making close combat an unwise move. On the contrary, these creatures have virtually no protective measures, making a hail of arrows absolutely devastating to them.

Two days later, the griffin riders who were scouting ahead issued a warning signal.

A group of about a thousand Persian Gulf people were trapped in a narrow valley by a far larger number of ape demons and several demon-hunting spiders.

The Persians, with their backs against the rock face, formed a circular formation, brandishing their scimitars and fighting back fiercely. However, warriors were constantly being dragged out of formation by the sticky webs shot by the Demon Spiders, or being knocked down by the heavy clubs of the Ape Demons, and the defensive line was on the verge of collapse.

"Three hundred pulses to finish these guys off." Li Wei stood on a small slope and looked out. With his current eyesight, he no longer needed binoculars and directly ordered the only Tier 7 troops in High Cliff Fortress.

Fifty Dragon Vein Berserkers stepped forward, taking a deep breath. The pair of dragon wings they had once despised as ugly suddenly unfurled from their backs, and with a powerful swing, their heavy bodies soared into the air with agility, carrying a suffocating wind pressure, like a swarm of black bees, rushing towards the most densely packed left wing of the demons.

The earth trembled the moment it landed.

Before the demons could even react, the sound of bones shattering exploded like popping beans.

The barbarians didn't even need to use weapons; their scale-covered fists and heels were the most terrifying weapons. Each swing was accompanied by a dragon-like roar, shattering the ape demon's tough body into pieces.

The demon-hunting spiders clinging to the mountainside spit out silk to entangle the barbarians' fists, attempting to drag them away using the same trick as before. However, this was exactly what the barbarians wanted. They grinned, pulled their muscular arms, and dragged the spiders in front of them, punching them. The spiders' fate was not much better than that of watermelons falling to the ground.

Perhaps finding fists and kicks too difficult to kill, these guys directly took off the giant axes on their backs and jumped into the demon horde. In an instant, blood-red blades flew in all directions, and the battlefield was shrouded in red light. The blades they condensed with blood energy could easily cut through gold and jade. These demons couldn't stop them at all and fell down in swathes like wheat being harvested.

The battle was a foregone conclusion.

The barbarians had not yet gone berserk; they had only relied on their strength and blood energy to slaughter 70% of the army of several thousand demons in less than a hundred pulses.

By the time the demons realized what was happening and tried to escape, they were smashed to pieces by several spells cast by the outer Tyrsey mages.

The surviving Persian warriors leaned against the rock wall, panting heavily, their faces a mixture of relief at surviving the ordeal and indescribable shock. They stared at the giant, yellow-skinned men with dragon horns, standing like war gods amidst the pile of demon corpses, their dragon wings folded, and they simply couldn't recognize who these creatures were.

Soon the lord arrived with his troops.

The Persians looked at the well-organized, diverse, yet perfectly coordinated army of the High Cliff Fortress, and finally their gaze settled on the young lord who was surrounded by his men and looked relaxed.

A middle-aged man with curly hair, who appeared to be the leader, leaned on a scimitar with a worn edge and stepped forward with difficulty. He placed his right hand on his chest and bowed deeply in Common, which had a heavy Persian accent: "In the name of the Eternal Heaven, I thank you for your help, Your Excellency Dar. I am Earl Enpe, a vassal of Marquis Kasha, and I am willing to serve you to repay your kindness."

In fact, Enpe's heart had already sunk into the stormy sea. He naturally noticed the flags these teams were carrying, as well as the young man in front of him, whose appearance even he envied.

Since the Persian Gulf Empire and De Beah have been at war for so long, the portrait of that De Beah Dragon Knight has long been circulated among the military and nobility.

I've heard that quite a few wealthy ladies have even commissioned artists to create replicas of this dragon knight's portrait and keep them in their bedrooms.

So how could he not recognize that the people in front of him were Debe's soldiers, and that this young man was the culprit who had once caused Commander Howard to suffer repeated defeats—Levy Targaryen.

The fact that the enemy could appear here now proved that the Southern Commander-in-Chief Howard had been defeated, and his body might still be on the gallows. The Southern Province had also become the territory of Debe, Taylor, and the Holy Sith. He felt a sense of despair. These demons had appeared out of nowhere, attacking his territory and villages. The entire Northern Province seemed to be infested with demons, and the royal family seemed to be collectively dead, doing nothing at all.

Originally, they went south with a last glimmer of hope, pinning their hopes on General Howard, who was still fighting De Beers in the south. But unexpectedly, De Beers also occupied the south.

“You know me.” Li Wei, riding on the back of the magnificent three-headed dog, Beifeng, lowered his head slightly to look down at the other.

Count Enpe's back stiffened slightly, and his right hand, which was placed in front of his chest, clenched unconsciously.

He raised his head, meeting those calm yet seemingly all-seeing eyes, and gave a bitter smile: "Lividal... your fame and appearance have already spread throughout the Persian Gulf with the battle reports. Besides you, I can't think of another young and powerful person who would defeat Commander-in-Chief Howard and take over the Southern Province, leading such a peculiar allied army to appear on this land ravaged by demons."

The Persian warriors behind him stirred slightly, their eyes instantly becoming incredibly complex, a mixture of hostility, vigilance, fear, and a hint of bewilderment.

They had just been rescued from the clutches of demons, only to discover that the ones who came to their aid were the Empire's mortal enemies.

How can we prevent them from becoming hostile and confused?
Li Wei gently patted the middle head of the Sorrowful Wind, which snorted and spat out a few sparks. The three heads, each with their own thoughts, reached an unprecedented consensus, impatiently scanning the tense Persians in front of them.

“It’s good that we know each other; it saves the trouble of introductions.” Li Wei’s tone was unreadable: “What’s the situation in the Northern Provinces now? Where did the demons come from? What are the royal family and Marquis Kasha doing? What about your army?”

He asked the most crucial question, his gaze falling on Count Enpe's bloodstained armor and exhausted face.

Count Enpei took a deep breath. Logically, these were military secrets; how could he possibly tell these enemies? But…

He struggled to keep his voice steady: "Lividal, the North... is almost finished. Demons are everywhere, like they crawled out of the ground, and their numbers are staggering. At first, it was just small groups of inferior demons and berserker demons harassing the border villages, but in less than half a month, ape demons, demon-hunting spiders, and even some high-ranking demons appeared. They systematically besieged towns, while small groups roamed the North, destroying villages and slaughtering any living thing they encountered."

His voice trembled uncontrollably: "Marquis Kasha's army initially organized several mopping-up operations, but suffered heavy losses. Later, the Marquis ordered the defensive line to be contracted, and a few major cities to be held, while abandoning most of the outer territories. Our requests for help from the lords of the outskirts went unanswered, and we could only fight on our own."

Every Persian warrior is the bravest warrior, the proudest eagle of the Eternal Heaven. Even when fighting enemies, cutting off their heads and gutting them, they can still laugh and talk about dancers. But when faced with demons, they ultimately feel fear just like ordinary people.

"What about the royal family?" Li Wei pressed.

A hint of humiliation and anger flashed across Enpei's face: "The only order from the capital was to hold firm and await reinforcements! But where are the reinforcements? We've been holding out for over a month, and we haven't even seen a single camel hair."

How absurd this all is! It is a matter of life and death for the empire, yet the entire north seems to have been forgotten by the empire, and the important figures in the capital seem to have all died.

The southern provinces were occupied by Debey, General Howard was defeated, and the northern provinces became a paradise for demons.

But there was still no news, nothing at all.

Enpei was forced to consider how to survive between the demons and the Debes. In the end, he came to a near-unsolvable answer: either fight the other side for the so-called imperial honor and die here, or surrender like a dog, wagging its tail and begging for mercy.

But the empire has abandoned them, so what honor do they have left?
"Where were you originally planning to go?" Li Wei asked.

“We originally intended to head south to seek the protection of Commander Howard…” Count Empe’s voice trailed off, for that path was no longer viable.

“Howard is history,” Li Wei stated calmly. “I’m now in charge of the Southern provinces.”

The scene fell silent for a moment, with only the sound of the wind sweeping across the bloody battlefield and the low gurgling of the mournful wind.

Count Empe and his warriors looked ashen-faced; with demons before them and no way to retreat, it seemed that only death awaited them.

"I'll give you two choices: surrender your weapons and become prisoners. If you behave yourself, you might have a chance to live. If you choose to resist, then you'll go to the underworld with these demons!" the lord said bluntly.

He never liked the Persian soldiers, and he only accepted the group of Persians earlier because they were followers of the Khmeish.

Even if these Persians surrendered, their only fate would be to spend the rest of their lives in the fields or mines.

Enpe remained silent for a long while before putting down his weapon, kneeling on one knee, and bowing his head: "Lividal, we Persians are willing to offer our loyalty, just asking for a way to live!"

The Persian warriors behind him looked at each other, and eventually laid down their weapons and knelt on one knee.

The empire's pride appears pale and powerless in the face of survival.

Li Wei nodded slightly, signaling Bernard to arrange for the reception of these exhausted warriors: "Hand over your weapons, follow my rules, and you will survive."

Similar scenes occurred several more times during the rest of the journey.

The expeditionary force was like a giant beast patrolling the northern provinces, constantly devouring small groups of demons along the way, and pulling back from the brink of death one after another of the Persian Gulf defeated soldiers and even civilian groups that had fallen into dire straits.

The rescued individuals reacted in much the same way: first disbelief, then confusion and hostility, and finally, under Li Wei's overwhelming force, they chose to submit.

The team grew slowly, like a snowball rolling downhill.

Zart looked at the increasingly large ragtag army behind him, clicked his tongue, and muttered to Mil beside him, "Is the boss going to take all the people from the Persian Gulf Empire back with him? We're turning into a refugee camp."

Layton, watching Levi's retreating figure, looked down at the book in his hand again: "These guys are pretty good at martial arts. If they encounter the main force of the demons, we can send them to test them out. It would be even better if they died..."

It didn't continue speaking, but glanced subtly at the Lich King, who remained shrouded in a cloak.

Knowing his lord as he did, if Layton truly wanted these Persian warriors to live, he wouldn't have kept them with him; he would have sent them back to the rear long ago.

(End of this chapter)