Chapter 282: Chapter 281: Spoils of War

The son of Feng Si, the artisan, wasn’t suffering from some incurable disease. His life was in danger simply because he had been beaten to a pulp by the supervisors. His wounds couldn’t heal on their own, and over time, they began to rot.

After Elron arrived, he cleaned the rotten flesh from the boy’s body. Combined with medicinal herbs and a Strong Healing Skill, he managed to save his life.

According to Feng Si, although sixteen-year-old Paul had not yet awakened his Fighting Qi Spirit Seed, his forging skills were excellent. He had a very good chance of becoming a Master Level Blacksmith before he turned twenty.

Ronin was thrilled at the prospect of having two Master Level Blacksmiths in his territory.

He also hoped to leverage Feng Si’s connections to invite more blacksmiths, and even artisans from other trades, to join Wubei Territory.

The development of the territory, and especially the future construction of a port, would be impossible without a group of skilled workers.

Besides, he now had an extra Twenty Thousand Gold Coins in his pocket, so recruiting more people was not a problem at all.

…

The war continued without any hitches.

The Noble Alliance Army smoothly retook Sari Town, Quicksand Town, and Shore City.

Since the war was being fought in Wushan Territory, the Alliance Army didn’t overly harass uninvolved civilians. Their targets were mostly the castles and mansions of the Polante Knight Order members.

Gold Coins, jewelry, warhorses, luxurious formal wear, Weapons, and Armor—all were objects of their plunder.

With no resistance, the rest of the war became more like a carnival of fighting for spoils.

Half a month later, Ronin received a message delivered by a cavalryman.

Joffrey and his Knight Squad were already on their way back to Chishan Town.

On this expedition, they had met resistance from a few small enemy groups, but they had defeated them without issue. Along the way, they captured many surrendering soldiers and servants from the Thief Gang, who were then conveniently used as labor to transport the spoils of war.

On August 15th, the leaders of the Noble Alliance Army gathered at Chishan Castle to discuss the division of spoils.

Since Ronin had already taken Casier Town and Chishan Town for himself, and Joffrey and Rogner had seized a considerable amount of resources, he didn’t take a large share of the remaining spoils.

After a final tally, aside from immovable resources and Gold Coins, Ronin had acquired fifteen warhorses—two of which were of fine quality—as well as fifty-two riding horses and twenty-eight packhorses from the war.

For the time being, Wubei Territory would not have to worry about its supply of horses.

Additionally, there were various other supplies like Knight’s Swords, Armor, Long Spears, Shields, Bows, and arrows—enough to fill more than a dozen large and small carts.

Ronin was beginning to understand that for the victors, war meant getting rich.

With every house having earned a fortune and feeling fully satisfied, they all decided to set off and return to their respective territories.

As for how to manage places like Giant Stone City and Shore City, that was a matter for Wushan Castle to consider.

Although Ronin was highly regarded and favored by Lurans, he did not overstep his authority to manage these locations.

However, he still had Toru and the Knight Order temporarily maintain public order in those areas to prevent the situation in the three locations from deteriorating and causing a loss of population.

Casier Town and Chishan Town, on the other hand, had stabilized under Ronin’s management, attracting many people from the surrounding areas to seek refuge.

He was happy to point these people toward a bright future—”Go to Wubei Territory. There’s land, there are fields, and there’s a benevolent Lord. It’s a good place for you to settle down and build a life.”

And it worked. The recent propaganda, combined with Paul’s personal experience, had a real effect. Many people were willing to move their entire families and follow Ronin’s contingent back to Wubei Territory to live.

“Ridder, I’m leaving Casier Town and Chishan Town to you for now.”

In the great hall of Chishan Castle, Ronin was giving follow-up instructions to his subordinates.

To maintain control of these two territories, he had to leave a contingent of men behind.

As the territory’s only Golden Knight, and having been the Commander-in-Chief of the Flame Expedition Army in his past life, there was no problem leaving Ridder to manage two towns.

Besides Ridder, Ronin also had Joffrey, Babulin, Grado, and Tomasz stay behind with fifteen Cavalry, thirty Infantry, and ten Archers to assist him.

After returning this time, he would need to recruit new soldiers and also consider recruiting more Knights from the outside world.

’I don’t have enough Knights.’

The other Knights looked at Ridder with envy. They all knew that, if nothing unexpected happened, Ridder would become Wubei Territory’s first vassal noble.

“Rest assured, my Lord. I will take good care of this place for you.”

Ridder’s tone then shifted. “However, the grain reserves in Chishan Town and Casier Town are not very substantial. The autumn harvest was also damaged, so we will probably need to purchase grain later on.”

“You don’t need to worry about that. The autumn harvest in Wubei Territory should be decent. I will allocate supplies as needed in a timely manner. Just have Rogner be in charge of transporting it over.”

Casier Town and Chishan Town now had many more people, and with their already limited farmland, their grain supply was naturally insufficient.

It was also thanks to Ronin apportioning a large batch of grain from Giant Stone Castle to serve as rations for the Wubei Knight Squad; otherwise, a food shortage would have occurred very quickly.

“Macken, take the remaining men and make preparations. We set out for Wubei Territory tomorrow morning.”

“Yes, my Lord!”

The war on the Southwest Line ended with a complete victory for Wushan Territory. The Thief Gang, led by Amicus, which had been a scourge for many years, was utterly wiped out.

Ronin’s performance in this battle was astonishing. News of his outstanding command would soon spread to every town in Wushan Territory as the members of the Noble Alliance Army returned home.

In the Southeast, the Black Gold Brotherhood was also being pushed back steadily, intimidated by another Noble Alliance Army. They had lost two Baron’s Domains in succession, leaving them with only the Baron’s Domain of Distant Light Town and a Viscount’s Domain near the Villa Duchy.

“Barrington, if we continue this attack, we’re going to wipe out the Black Gold Brotherhood.”

Inside the main tent in Black Python City, Taini Baron of Purple Thunder Territory couldn’t help but say, “My suggestion is that we’ve gone far enough. We need to create a situation for withdrawal as soon as possible.”

“I know,” Barrington said, his face grim.

The Black Gold Brotherhood’s operation this time was meant to support the Polante Thief Gang. He just hadn’t expected the latter to be defeated so quickly, so suddenly, and so completely.

And over here, he could have originally suppressed Kabil, but then Melonika, whom he hadn’t seen in years, had to show up.

That guy, relying on pure strength, had forcefully slain two of the Brotherhood’s Golden Level leaders, turning the tide of the battle.

Barrington wanted to pull some strings and cause some ’accidental’ harm to the group of Knights and squads from Wushan Castle, but he never found a suitable opportunity.

Not only could he not act forcefully, he even had to cooperate with Melonika to some extent.

’Jesus is such a useless fool. He couldn’t even pick a proxy with half a brain. To think he lost to a mere kid… No wonder he’s only a Count despite being the King’s brother.’

Cursing inwardly, Barrington stood up. “I’ll go tell Melonika right now that Haid’s County is suffering from a disaster, the autumn harvest is poor, and we can’t sustain the costs of a prolonged war. The Black Gold Brotherhood has already been severely weakened, so I’ll suggest they consider a withdrawal.”

The excuse seemed to be chosen at random, but there had indeed been a locust plague for a while, though it was very limited in scope.

Watching Barrington leave, Taini sighed, his heart filled with resentment toward Ronin.

Last time, Ronin had caused him a great deal of trouble by eliminating Reisen, forcing him to spend a large sum of money and pull many strings to sort things out.

This time, it was this young man again who had led the force that annihilated the Polante Thief Gang, derailing their plans.

’If I had known back when Reisen asked me to arrange for an assassin, I should have just sent a Golden Level assassin.’

He felt a pang of regret, wondering if it was too late to send someone now.

With Barrington speaking out to persuade a withdrawal, the advance in the Southeast slowed. After a two-day stalemate, Melonika and Kabil received a letter from Wushan Castle and agreed to pull back their troops.

However, they still assigned men to guard the two newly reclaimed towns.

Having been severely weakened for two consecutive years, even if the Black Gold Brotherhood had the resources to rebuild their strength, it would take a considerable amount of time. Things would certainly be quiet for the next year or two.

It seemed Wushan Territory had ushered in a brief period of peace.

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