Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 493 Slave Transport
After reaching a simple agreement with the church priests, the devout believers gathered in the cathedral quickly gave up their confrontation with the soldiers one after another under the persuasion of the priests and pastors.

This also made most of the Northern officers breathe a sigh of relief. Although the soldiers could obey orders absolutely, once the order to shoot civilians was given, it would always damage the morale of the army. For an army originally composed of civilians, it would easily lay the groundwork for subtle ideological risks.

Vaughan led the team into the church first and quickly drove out all the clergy, completely emptying the huge church.

Next came the time for harvest. According to the mission requirements... Like the church and the Duke's Palace, all books, antiques, weapons and valuable materials were confiscated and shipped out of the city in boxes.

In the church's basement, the soldiers used alchemical bombs made of dragon flame powder to directly blow open the heavy stone door of the church's basement, exposing a small room full of boxes to everyone.

The soldier drew his bayonet and opened a box, revealing a pile of golden coins inside. Everyone present gasped... The church is richer than Duke Carlo!
Just from a preliminary visual inspection, the number of gold pounds piled up in the church basement is probably more than 100,000... It seems that after the Principality of Barclay began to expel and purge the church forces, they transferred all the church wealth in other parts of the country to Lanjing City. They haven't had time to transport it back to the Holy City of Goris yet, which means that the Northern Army intercepted it halfway.

Pierce pinched his brows and ordered, "Immediately notify the two flanking troops, bring the alchemical camel beasts and quickly come to Lanjing City to reunite with the main force..."

Judging from the spoils captured so far, they took over Lanjing City effortlessly this time. It is probably difficult to transport all the money and materials they gained back in one round trip, not to mention the large amount of wheat that filled the granary... These are materials that are urgently needed at the moment, and should be shipped back to the country as a priority compared to the golden coins.

After all, although Duke Carlo abandoned the city and fled, he took away most of the elite knights, and he still had many military nobles with fiefs elsewhere to rely on, so he was not seriously injured... If he arrived at the vassal territory and regrouped his forces to return to Bluethorn City, it would definitely cause great trouble to the Northern Army's supply transportation work.

Quick victory, quick grab and run... this was the core policy of their "debt collection operation" this time.

……

On the third day, the Northern Border Army spent a considerable amount of time organizing the supplies confiscated in Lanjing City and transporting them in batches to the garrison outside the city... At the latest, they must set off to return home early tomorrow morning.

But even if all the alchemical vehicles were deployed, there was still nearly one-third of the supplies that could not be transported. Pierce began to regret not recruiting more alchemical beasts to participate in this operation before setting out.

Just as Pierce was worried about transporting supplies, the flank troops led by Duff and Wayne marched overnight, using the super high mobility of the alchemical vehicle to quickly rush to Bluethorn City to meet up.

"Commander, we passed by the Valley Silver Mine not far from Bluethorn City on our way and discovered that quite a few people were living there, with a small cavalry unit of the Duke stationed there. However, the mining town has no walls, so we easily stormed in." Dave rubbed his hands happily. "We found dozens of boxes of silver ingots in the mine. Are they also very valuable? You can hurry to join us. If you can't bring them back directly, we'll have people guarding there and can return at any time to assist."

The city of Bluethorn has a population of less than 10,000. Most of the miners and laborers engaged in silver mining do not live in the city, but are scattered in various mines of different sizes in the valley outside the city. As a result, the population in the city seems a little sparse, even worse than a border earl's city like Grizzly Castle.

Pierce nodded and said in a deep voice, "Don't worry about the silver mine. We can't transport all the supplies from Bluethorn City right now. Don't set your sights on those heavy silver ores."

Wayne came over and added, "Then...what about the slaves in the mines? These people are not native to the Duchy of Barclay. Most of them were captured from all over the place by Duke Carlo through slave traders and slave-hunting teams. Among them are people from our Duchy of Saint Valen." The Duchy of Barclay is different from Saint Valen. It is one of the few secular kingdoms in the central South that allows legal slave trade. Essentially, it is because the country is rich in mineral resources. The noble lords of each fiefdom need a large amount of cheap labor to mine minerals for themselves, which makes the slave trade extremely prosperous.

"After you defeat the knights guarding the mining area, won't they just run away in a swarm?"

Wayne shook his head, his tone a little low. "The nobles didn't even shackle the slaves to prevent them from escaping... Because no matter if they were men or women, old or young, their faces were branded with extremely obvious slave marks. If they escaped and were discovered and reported, they would be hanged."

Pierce narrowed his eyes and continued to ask, "How many slaves are there in the valley mining area?"

"The largest mine we currently control holds over a thousand slaves. We haven't had time to count the other smaller mines around us, but we estimate the total number to be no less than three thousand."

The biggest disadvantage is the lack of river transportation near Bluethorn City. If you want to transport a large amount of food and supplies back to Saint Valen by land, you can only choose to walk hundreds of miles through the hilly wilderness. With the help of alchemical vehicles, it takes nearly a week to cross the border and reach Silverpine City, the nearest city to Saint Valen.

Their current carrying capacity is not enough to take away all the supplies. If they take these slaves with them... not only will it slow down their return speed, but they will also be very likely to be attacked by Duke Carlo who is regrouping his army because they are too conspicuous.

No matter how powerful the firepower of the Northern Army is, its ammunition and supplies will eventually be exhausted. After all, it is a cross-border battle far away from its homeland. Once there is a problem with logistical reinforcement, even a group of well-equipped and well-trained professional soldiers can easily be trapped by the enemy's frequent harassment tactics and eventually be dragged into the point of running out of ammunition and food.

After thinking it over, Pierce still felt that he could not act on his own, so he honestly reported the current situation through the magic brain.

This report received a reply very quickly, which immediately cheered up the irritable Pierce. However, the content of the reply order made him a little confused.

After hearing the news, the city lord actually ordered him to bring back all the slaves stranded in the valley mining area. At the same time, the food and supplies that the alchemical vehicles could not fully carry could be carried by the rescued slaves through manual transportation. In this way, they could ensure that all the food was taken away, and the money looted by Duke Carlo and the church would not be spared.

What a greedy order that wants both...

But the city lord obviously anticipated the consequences of doing so. The combat troops would be severely slowed down by the heavy supplies and large numbers of slaves in their return, and would also have to endure sudden cavalry attacks from Duke Carlo. By then, the situation would probably be no different from marching in a swamp.

So at the end of the order that was sent back, Harvey left Pierce with a puzzling message - although he should slow down the march and ensure the safety of supplies and rescued slaves, he had already arranged reinforcements in advance and there was no need to worry about pursuers from Duke Carlo.

(End of this chapter)