Chapter 206, the Early Morning of the Contest (2)

Kil casually taught these young people some methods of making simple weapons. He estimated that there would be an empty compartment on the carriage side. When the young people setting off had enough rest, they would stand up and move around.

He dug out a bag containing biltong from his carriage, took out one, and broke the extremely hard biltong into small pieces with his hands like steel bars.

After a moment's hesitation, he put a small piece into his mouth and held it in his mouth. A leather pocket on the waist also contained a few, and the rest were put back into the bag and put away.

"That's all you're going to eat? Why don't you eat more food?"

Bloodtusk was sitting in the carriage driver's seat, polishing his sword. When he saw that Kil had only eaten these small things in the past two days, he asked.

Keir waved his hand: "That's enough, secret, don't ask. By the way, this thing is really unpalatable, bah."

As he spoke, he spat out a small grain of salt from his mouth. When grilling the jerky, Knight Crow must have failed to dissolve the salt water properly.

"Keep an eye on this side. I will lead my men to destroy the last bandit's lair and then come back. Watch the sky here and organize people to cut down the trees as soon as it gets light. The bodies must be burned. The pits for the ashes must be dug first."

Kil inspected the weapons and equipment on his body and horse, and Bloodfangster handed over the crossbow and crossbow: "Take this, please?"

"No need, the same goes for hunting bows. Some young people who can fight will also stay here. You let them also be responsible for part of the guard and sentry work."

Bloodfangster nodded and hung the crossbow bag on his belt again.

Kil rode on the blood-licking grass, turned around and walked toward the direction of the carriage outside the clearing.

-

At this time, the place was filled with various wooden boxes and merchandise unloaded from the carriage. The middle-aged businessman Long Barfoot had already directed the manpower to stack the large boxes in one place, and the others were smaller and could be carried on his back. Or the goods carried on the shoulders are being reclassified and packed.

He himself simply divided the goods into two piles, one pile was recorded and processed, and the other pile was in the original unloaded state. The businessman was holding a piece of wood and paper that he found from nowhere, and was carefully recording the name and quantity of the goods with charcoal strips. Next to him, there is a special young man holding a lighting torch to provide businessmen with lighting for writing at night.

"How's it going? Do you have enough manpower? Are there any other troubles?"

Keir came over on horseback and asked.

The businessman made a courtesy. It seemed that when he first met this man in the middle of the night, he had the same depressed mood and expression as other businessmen, but now he had disappeared from him.

It was obviously late at night and many people looked sleepy, but this middle-aged businessman was full of energy and his eyes were frighteningly bright.

"Sir Knight, it's fine. I'm fine, and everyone who assisted is also fine. The only problem is that small items of goods need to be carried, but there are not enough ropes and wooden sticks! This is a problem."

Facing the merchant's request, Kil nodded: "My partner, Bloody Fangster, oh, he is an experienced caravan guard, and he is just over there in my carriage. I have told him that after dawn, he will Take someone to cut wood. When the time comes, you need him to help you get some wooden sticks that can lift things. As for ropes, I still have some on my carriage. In addition, I will help you try to get more ropes in the bandit's lair later. return."

Having said this, Kil sat on his horse and looked at the other rescued people gathered around the fire not far away: "Your companions, why don't they come over to help you? Wouldn't it be faster to do it together?"

The middle-aged businessman smiled bitterly: "Many people's lives are over, and several people are still in debt. They don't have the heart to think too much. I will talk to them later, and I hope some young people can get back on their feet. "

"So best."

After explaining, Keir came to the carriage, where three carriages and twenty young people were ready.

In addition, there is also a surrendered bandit from the Mountain Wolf bandit gang. This person is also there, and he is smiling at Keir with a fawning look on his face.

Even if you laugh, you won't let him go.

Keir waved his hand and everyone set off.

-

According to the guidelines and statements of the surrendered bandits, their gang's lair is somewhere in the woods to the north of the clearing.

If it were daytime, it would be easier to find the location of the nest, because the nest was on a low hill protruding from the woods.

The gentle woods protruded out, making it an easy place to find during the day. Of course, no one would pay attention to what is in the same woods if they don't know that it is the lair of bandits.

"Why did you choose a conspicuous place?"

Keir was confused, and the surrendered bandit responded like this: "There are big trees on the hill, the terrain is high, and we can see far. We don't have to run too far during the day. Just sitting among the branches, we can see a large section of the trade road to the south." Past business conditions.”

"Of course, other investigation methods will still be used. For example, arranging surveillance people in the hotels outside the checkpoints. Where the eastern caravan road leaves the passes of the north and south mountains, we also have acquaintances to help us keep an eye on the passing caravans."

At the end, the bandit shrugged: "But these have disappeared recently! The southern provinces are in chaos, and the number of caravans has been greatly reduced. This is because there are more bandits and fewer traders. Everyone lies in the woods every day and looks at the trade roads. I hope a carriage will pass by and vote for me."

The more the man talked, the more he talked, and he almost said all the complaints he had been having during this period: "Everyone prayed to all kinds of gods, in heaven, on earth, and underground. In the end, they either didn't come, or they came." It’s a big caravan armed to the teeth.”

The surrendered bandit shook his head: "At that time, everyone could still tolerate it for a while, so no one in the other bandit groups listened to our leader's proposal to jointly attack the caravan. Humph, everyone went crazy afterward. Now, the caravans are coming less and less, and those who dare to run away at this time are protected by a large number of mounted guards."

"Where's the hotel along the way? What's going on?"

The surrendered bandit grunted: "Do you know, Lord Knight, that the hotel can be opened in this place?"

"Isn't it just a nest of snakes and rats? I guess the businessmen who come and go understand it in their hearts." Kil said disdainfully.

"Yes, yes, it's a snake-rat relationship. We are snakes, and those hotels are rats. If they can't still be of some use and can provide some goods or other entertainment, how can we let such fat sheep go without taking action? Along the route The hotels on the commercial road are all covered by gangs like ours, and everyone knows it. But a few days ago, someone finally couldn't bear it anymore and attacked the hotels of other gangs. They killed everyone and robbed everyone, including food. Take away all the drinks and valuables in the dark. Leave no trace."

Having said this, the surrendered bandit licked his lips with a weird smile on his face.

"Everyone hasn't opened for a long time, and it was hard to hold back the fat talk. But someone opened his mouth. In less than two days, you attacked the hotel I was covering, and I attacked your hotel. This In the end, not even a bit of meat was left in the last bite of meat.”

Kil rolled his eyes and complained: "You said it's covered, what is it covered with? Is it air?"

"How can it be possible? Others don't know. At least our boss pulled out the people in the hotel we were covering before. Although we didn't have time to save the things, we brought them out. Hehe, right where we are going. That lair.”

Looking at this man's appearance, Keir guessed that the fate of those people would not be good.

Bandits are guys who are worse than beasts. They use violence at will and succumb to their various desires. Either it snowballs and grows bigger, or it falls apart quickly.

Twenty-two of them, stopped and walked along the way, basically walking along the periphery of the woods in the north of the trade road. It was raining at night, and the visibility was very poor. They had to rely on the surrendered bandits to identify the special symbols left on the trees. position.

When the surrendered bandits identified the symbols carved on the tree trunks, Kil was also curious about this thing, so he asked: "What do you mean by this set of symbols? Tell me, and I'll have someone loosen your bonds!"

Originally, the surrendering bandit didn't want to reveal the intelligence knowledge that he could use after surrendering, but the knight offered to let someone untie him, and this condition really moved him.

After all, his arms had been tied up for most of the night. Those bandits were really not good at tying people up. If they were not tied firmly, they would tie them up with ropes to death. It was heavy and painful. He had reacted several times, but every time he reacted, he only got a good beating.

He learned well. Between the pain of being tied up and being beaten, he chose to be tied up.

Because he could judge the degree of damage to the body, but those refugee young people did not do it lightly or severely, which was very dangerous.

Thinking about it, he still hoped to be more relaxed, especially since these people were going to attack their lair for a while, and there would be many opportunities to escape. After his arms were released, his chances of escaping would increase significantly.

"Sir, I will tell you right now."

The bandit walked to the trunk of a big tree at the edge of the forest, barely illuminated by a torch, and pointed with his head at a symbol carved on the tree's burl.

"Sir, you see, because this area is our gang's territory, all the symbols have a special wolf head image!"

Keir sneered: "You call it a wolf head? Why do I look like a dog head?"

"That's a rough idea. The difference in the position of the wolf's head also represents the situation of our territory. The closer to the bottom of the tree trunk, the higher it is to the boundary of our territory. For example, the position of this wolf's head is more than two meters high. On the tree burl. It shows that our current location is in the middle of the gang’s territory.”

Keir knocked on his helmet: "So, at the junction of two bandits' territories, you can see two image marks at once on the roots of a big tree?"

"That's what it is. Lord Knight, you are so wise!"

"Stop flattering. Go on, what other ways are there?"

The trained bandit who surrendered was not afraid. He kicked the roots of the big tree that extended into the soil in several directions at the bottom, and explained to the knight: "Sir, sir. Look at this, several roots. There are also marks.”

He couldn't see clearly while riding on the horse, so Kil jumped off the horse, landed with a thud, and then walked over to watch. The luminous magic pendant seized from his waist provided better lighting conditions.

Keir saw that, indeed, there were things on several of the roots of this big tree with marked burl.

"What does it mean?"

The surrendered bandit used his legs as arms and gave a virtual kick in the direction where the tree roots extended: "This is a direction indicator, indicating that there is something in that direction. Look at this tree root facing the southeast, facing the trade road. It is engraved with a nested box and two number lines. It means that if you walk in this direction, you can find a hotel built on the commercial road in about two hours."

(Note: For the time unit, for the convenience of reading, I directly used modern time units. As long as everyone understands, the people in the story will definitely not express themselves in hours and minutes. The same is true for distance units and length units.)

Keir nodded and pointed to the mark on another tree root: "The vertical bar represents the time of walking and also represents the distance. So what is this? Three hollow dots? What about the three solid dots next to it?"

The surrendered bandit carefully looked at the marks on the roots of the trees, then looked at the direction, and then replied: "The hollow dots represent water sources. If you walk towards the direction facing the inside of the forest, you can find a water source where you can drink water. But we generally don’t go to the water sources in the woods to fetch water.”

The bandit shrugged: "It's too dangerous. Not only ferocious beasts that eat meat, but also some monsters will go there to drink water. It's specially marked so that everyone can go around it."

Kil snorted coldly: "If a person with only a little knowledge really goes in that direction, will he be targeted by wild beasts and monsters? It's quite vicious."

The bandit chuckled: "It was all arranged by the leader. The three solid dots next to it represent a special rock wall in the mountain. There are often large grazing animals there that eat and lick stones, but they cannot go past. dangerous place."

"Why?"

"Large grazing animals can easily attract the most powerful predators, and when grazing animals are in heat, they are more dangerous than fully fed beasts."

Keir nodded and confirmed this statement: "So, which one is the mark pointing to your lair?"

"No."

"What? Nothing?"

The surrendered bandit explained: "For safety, there is no mark specifically pointing to our lair."

The young people around had been listening to what Kiel and the surrendered bandits said. At this time, someone finally couldn't hold it in any longer and interrupted: "Then why did you take us there? Are you kidding us? You want to die!"

This grumpy young man is wearing a simple leather armor and is one of the four young men who are considered small bosses under Kiel.

Kil didn't say anything. He also looked at the surrendered bandit to see how he would answer.

The atmosphere suddenly became dangerous for this man, and the surrendering bandit immediately said with his lips: "I remember the terrain around the lair clearly. As long as I know the two dangerous places I just mentioned, and the area we are in our territory now, I can find the specific place of my nest at night without looking at the sky.”

Gill stretched out his hand to stop the young men who wanted to rush forward and beat the surrendered bandit: "Then lead the way. The time for pleasant conversation has passed. Let's go."

"Lord Knight? Do you see this?"

The robber didn't say anything clearly, but Kil waved his hand, and then a young man went up to untie the tightly wound rope, and added viciously: "We will all keep an eye on you, don't even think about escaping."

The surrendered bandit rubbed his wrist with a smile on his face: "Of course, of course, I remember clearly what happened to those guys who escaped before. They couldn't run far, no, I said I wouldn't run away."

So everyone continued walking towards the east for a while, and soon stopped.

The surrendered bandit approached two big trees that were very close to each other. He pointed at them and said to everyone: "It's right here. Two big trees that are very close to each other. Because it's easy to climb, we often, uh."

"What often? Tell me."

The bandit hesitated a little, but still said: "We often strangle and hang the people we want to kill here."

The surrendered bandit looked up at the upper part of the tree, and then swallowed.

"Gah!"

A crow's cry happened to be heard.

Like messengers demanding life, under the light of torches, one can not only see the red-eyed crow standing high in the tree looking down, but also several dead bodies that have been pecked and only their skeletons and rags are left.

Kil muttered and didn't know what he was cursing, but the young men under him were all startled by the sudden appearance of dead bodies and crows overhead.

"Uhhhhh!"

"Ghost~"

"Is he an enemy?"

Kil jumped off his horse and waved everyone away. Then he drew his long sword and swung it forward and backward dozens of times, cutting down the two hanging corpse trees together to the ground.

"Lord Knight, aren't you afraid that the lair will notice this noise?"

The surrendered bandits asked Kiel loudly amidst the roar of the tree collapse, and Kiel replied: "Just in time, the turtle can only cut off its head when it stretches out its head."