Chapter 79: Lily’s Confusion
After leaving the Marquis’s Estate, under the guidance of a guard arranged by Monica, the group quickly arrived at a camp outside the city.
A unit was already assembled and awaiting orders inside the camp.
However, Monica's previous claim that the unit mainly comprised serfs and militiamen from the Red River Territory was actually a relatively conservative statement.
The entire unit indeed numbered around two hundred people, as could be seen from the formation of the lines.
But in reality, there were only ten veteran soldiers in the entire unit. Militiamen with even relatively formal military training did not exceed thirty people. The rest were all serfs. In fact, to make the unit look somewhat presentable, and also to prevent it from being wiped out immediately upon entering the battlefield, Monica had clearly put in considerable effort.
The serfs were equipped with dragon lances.
These were long spears over five meters in length, requiring the cooperation of three individuals to wield.
The tactics developed around the dragon lances were also very simple: prop the spear up and just don’t let it fall.
If defending a formation, a sufficiently thick and wide shield could also be added.
Usually, three to five people could form a standard combat unit, and three to four such units would make up a standard combat company.
For serfs who were charged with pitchforks, this combat style was undoubtedly the most suitable and the most effective way to utilize their “strength.”
Having served as a militia instructor for so long and having undergone some military theory training, Yam immediately saw through it.
This unit was not expected to achieve any victories, it was simply expected to hold out for as long as possible once the battle began, to buy more time for the reinforcements to arrive, Monica clearly never intended for this unit to earn military merits on the battlefield.
“Brother!” Akar didn’t share Yam’s composed mindset. Just one glance, and he felt Monica was simply brushing them off.
“Miss Monica has no choice either.” Yam let out a light sigh.
“Red River Territory is currently lacking in military strength. Being able to assemble such a unit in such a short time already represents the utmost effort. You might think she’s brushing us off, but the real value of this unit lies in supporting city defense and holding positions.”
“What if she’s just acting?” Akar asked in a low voice.
Yam didn’t respond.
But the look on his face already revealed his thoughts: if Monica really was acting, then it was extremely frightening, because she hadn’t left the slightest trace or flaw for them to see.
From the delivery of the war reinforcement request letter to the assembly of the army, Yam saw it all as part of a meticulously planned operation, whether or not they arrived today, this army would still have set off today and would be the first to enter White Mountain City as reinforcements.
Yam also believed that had they not come to Red River Territory and instead returned directly to White Mountain City from Gem Territory, they would still have seen the courier Monica sent.
It was precisely because of all these arrangements that Yam didn’t want to believe Monica was merely acting.
Because that would mean the Kasein Family had been conspiring with the Senels Family from the very beginning.
But he had observed carefully and found no signs of cooperation between the two.
Otherwise, when they were in Red Soil City earlier, the Senels Family would not have hinted at being wary of the Kasein Family or expressed a desire to have an ally.
Instinctively, Yam felt the Senels Family was very dangerous, even more so than the Kasein Family.
Moreover, from what Atork had said earlier, he began to suspect that the Kasein Family had some kind of scheme against him, or more precisely, against the entire Soderbell Family.
The most explicit and crucial piece of evidence was that combat art book, Flame Stream Strike.
The degree to which Marquis Visen Kasein paid attention to whether he had mastered Flame Stream Strike far exceeded what a marquis should be concerned with.
Previously, Yam hadn’t realized it. But once Atork hinted at it, he immediately became aware.
Moreover, the first thing he thought of was the ability of the Flame Demon Hound bloodline.
Flame Stream.
Originally, he had planned to wait until returning to White Mountain Territory to discuss this with his father, along with the matter of his younger brother Akar wanting that drop of Burton’s True Blood.
He had not expected White Mountain Territory to be drawn into war, and now even his father was missing.
The urgent priority was to bring this sudden war to an end as soon as possible.
“Giggs,” Yam approached Giggs with Akar and spoke, “I plan to return to White Mountain City with Akar ahead of the rest.”
“What? Just the two of you?” Giggs looked astonished. “That won’t do! This is…”
“Lily is still in White Mountain City.” Just one sentence from Yam rendered Giggs speechless. “Knight Commander Ken has most likely already fallen in battle. My father and Baron Ster are both missing. Now, we’ve been out of contact with White Mountain City for over four days. We have no idea what’s happening in White Mountain Territory or whether White Mountain City has already fallen… So what we need most right now is to understand the current situation in White Mountain Territory, only then can we ensure our next actions go smoothly.”
Giggs pursed his lips but didn’t respond immediately.
His face was filled with struggle and hesitation.
He clearly understood Yam’s urgency.
Right now, it wasn’t just Lily still in White Mountain City, Yam’s child was also in White Mountain City.
"I understand." At last, Giggs let out a breath. "Then you and Akar must be careful. If White Mountain City is truly under siege, don’t act rashly. The lords of each territory will soon send reinforcements."
Giggs knew that, by the authority of a liege lord, he could force Yam to stay.
But he wasn’t Akar’s liege lord, so Akar certainly wouldn’t obey his command. In that case, even if Yam stayed behind, Akar would leave on his own.
If that led to Akar’s death, then his relationship with Yam would be completely severed.
So rather than risking the destruction of their relationship, Giggs naturally chose not to stop Yam. Especially since the people they were going to rescue were his own younger sister and his future nieces and nephews.
"I understand."
Yam nodded, then signaled to Akar. The two of them quickly mounted their horses and immediately set off at a gallop.
...
"Miss Lily, the team you sent out has returned."
"Returned?" Lily showed a surprised expression. "It’s only been a few days."
"Not all of them came back, only a few, but they say they have important information to report to you."
"Let them in, quickly!" Lily said urgently.
Previously, when she arranged for Sherry to be escorted out, she also began sending people into the occupied areas to investigate the situation.
Although she had never truly experienced warfare, under the influence of her father’s teachings, she still had a clear understanding of basic military tactics. So before White Mountain City was surrounded, she dispatched people beyond the city to gather intelligence and observe the enemy’s movements.
There was no doubt that this task was essentially a suicide mission.
But under Lily’s promise of a generous reward, some villagers from Fisher Village still took on the task, about a dozen people.
Thus, two days ago, Lily finally organized her first scouting team, this was two days after Sherry had been sent out of the city, and now it was the ninth day since the war broke out.
Estimating quickly in her mind, Lily knew that, subtracting the time spent on travel, this team had at most a day and a half for actual reconnaissance.
Although she didn’t understand the specifics of intelligence gathering, she had heard quite a lot from Yam’s father.
She knew that such work typically required four to seven days in order to gather detailed information from the frontlines.
However, due to the challenges and urgency in relaying such intelligence, often only three or four useful pieces of information could actually be utilized in the end.
This was exactly why Lily felt suspicion and dissatisfaction at the scouts returning so soon.
Yet she also understood that she truly had no capable people left. So no matter how dissatisfied she was now, she had no choice but to focus on encouragement.
"Lady Lily."
Several villagers appeared disheveled and filthy, but Lily didn’t mind, or rather, she controlled her expression very well.
So, receiving a personal audience from Lily, the returning villagers immediately showed expressions of excitement and honor.
"I’ve heard my brave warriors have brought back very important news."
Warriors!
Upon hearing this title, the villagers were filled with a fresh wave of excitement.
Then, they began to report in a chaotic, overlapping manner. The scene became rather disorderly.
But Lily didn’t correct them with any so-called noble etiquette. She displayed great patience, listening with care and attentiveness, and during the process, she continuously organized the information she was hearing.
"So, you're saying that there are no enemies now in Plain Village, Andar Village, or Mountain Ridge Village?"
"No, not all are free of enemies."
"At least there are none in Plain Village."
"Andar Village also has none!"
"Mountain Ridge Village has enemies. I saw figures moving around in the ruins, it had been burned down."
"Yes, but we didn’t dare get too close."
"There were lots of corpses in Andar Village!"
"We didn’t see Knight Commander Ken."
The overlapping voices rang out in chaos again.
But this time, Lily understood them quite clearly.
And precisely because she understood so clearly, she instead fell into silence and confusion.
Andar Village having corpses was something she had already expected.
Knight Commander Ken Andar hadn’t managed to escape with the villagers, so even if he wasn’t dead, he had likely become a prisoner of the enemy.
However, Lily thought the chance of that was very low.
Because nobles rarely captured Bloodline Knights alive during raids for population and slaves. The main reason was that there was no reliable way to restrain a Bloodline Knight.
Conventional force usually resulted in the bloodline slave dying before reaching the destination. And injecting them with certain special agents often turned them into drooling fools.
Of course, not all outcomes were like that.
If someone powerful was willing to pay a high price to capture low-tier bloodline users, it wasn’t impossible: for example, by assigning Fourth-Tier Bloodline Users to escort them; or by underfeeding them and assigning a large number of guards.
However, this war broke out too suddenly. Lily didn’t believe that Knight Commander Ken Andar was still alive.
After all, only by killing him in front of the villagers could they break the villagers’ will to resist more swiftly and effectively, and ensure more Andar villagers were captured alive, population raids needed living people. Corpses had no value whatsoever.
Likewise,
The villagers of Plain Village had mostly already fled to White Mountain City. Even the villagers of Old Mountain Village and Fisher Village were now mostly gathered inside White Mountain City.
Lily was even somewhat grateful to those who had successfully fled, because otherwise she truly wouldn’t have found enough houses to shelter them all.
It wasn’t realistic to provide one house per household, but given the wartime circumstances and the fact that they were all refugees, three to five households squeezing into one house was perfectly reasonable, wasn’t it?
The only thing that puzzled her was Mountain Ridge Village.
What exactly had happened there that the entire village was burned to the ground?
Even the enemy didn’t continue marching south, but instead concentrated around Mountain Ridge Village.
Lily couldn’t help but wonder, if only she had two more people at her side… no, even just one Bloodline User, she could already accomplish so much more.