Steel, gunpowder, and spellcasters

Chapter 224 Encirclement and Annihilation
"Get it!"

Winters gave each of Vahika, Samukin, and another veteran, Tamas, an arrow.

The arrows were engraved with numbers.

These three men were the deputies he had chosen.

Winters originally wanted to organize personnel according to their place of origin, but he realized that doing so would be counterproductive.

So he broke up all the soldiers into different units and appointed veterans as squad leaders.

The other three people he trusted most: Pierre stayed by his side as his adjutant; Anglou and Charles also stayed by his side as messengers and gendarmes, respectively.

"The arrow is your token; it must not be broken. If it is broken, everyone will be flogged." Winters sternly admonished the deputies: "And you must not stray. If one soldier strays, all the others will be punished! Including you!"

The three newly appointed deputies nodded emphatically.

At this moment, Winters' face no longer showed his usual gentle expression; instead, it was filled with murderous intent.
"No noise is allowed during the march! Anyone who makes a sound will be whipped! Anyone who disturbs the enemy will be beheaded!"

"If any enemy breaks through your encirclement, do not pursue them. Just continue to close the gap and drive the remaining enemy to the designated location."

"Try to keep them alive! Don't let them die!"

After explaining the rules, Winters took out four maps, three small and one large.

The small map was given to the centurion, and the large map was spread out in front of everyone.

Winters then took out three more horse-head chess pieces and, with the help of the map, began to explain the marching route to the centurions.

Just like Lieutenant Colonel Jessica once explained the terrain to him.

Vashika, Samukin, and Tamas listened with blank stares, completely bewildered, nodding frantically.

Winters suddenly noticed something. He stared at the three of them and asked coldly, "Can any of you... read a map?"

Vahika continued to nod habitually.

Winters kicked him: "You know nothing! You're holding the map upside down!"

Vahika dared not dodge and took a solid hit from the boot, hurriedly flipping the map back over.

Seeing his companion get beaten up, Anglu covered his mouth and chuckled.

“The grammar and spelling rules that Brother Reed taught you,” Winters said, then looked at Anglu. “How much of it do you remember?”

“Ah… ah?” Anglu stammered, “I’ve forgotten most of it.”

Winters let out a sigh from the deepest part of his chest; he was in great pain, as the pain of Ned Smith forty years ago traveled through time and space to reach him.

He slapped his forehead and then his thigh: "After dinner, everyone come over here!"

"What...do you want?" Pierre asked cautiously.

"Attend class!"

……

At dawn, the sun is about to rise.

Vahika led his eleven soldiers through the forest, forming a loose line.

Everyone carried a boar-hunting spear, and as they walked, they struck the tree trunk with the spear shaft.

The boar-hunting spear is less than two meters long and does not require a formation for use. The spearhead has two side forks to prevent it from being stuck too deep in one go.

The wild animals in the forest heard their noise from afar and scattered in all directions.

In the distance, the same pounding sound could be faintly heard.

Winters, along with Pierre and a few others, stood guard at the perimeter, practically raging: "Where are Samukin and his men? Where the hell are they?!"

Pierre, Charles, and Anglou were also unaware of the situation, and they waited anxiously.

Winters's forces are visibly degenerating from an agricultural militia to a hunting and fishing tribe.

The main problem was the lack of food. Ellen Mitchell helped him collect some food, but it was far from enough.

Winters couldn't just sit around and do nothing; his troops had to participate in production as well.

Given the natural conditions of the newly reclaimed land, the most effective way to produce anything was hunting and gathering.

So it's not that Winters wanted to return to a primitive society, it's just that he had no other choice.

His three months living in the various tribes of Hart gave him a deeper understanding of different social models.

As a branch of the Hed tribes, the Parat people gradually chose to make a living by farming. Not because farming was easy; on the contrary, farming was much more difficult than herding sheep.

Winters now has no choice but to take the easier path.

It's July now, the height of summer, not a particularly good hunting season.

Moreover, most of Winters' subordinates were farmers and had never engaged in hunting.

Fortunately, Winters and the veterans had some experience: during the Battle of the Styx, Winters had led his troops to hunt wild animals in the Bridge Forest.

If the little hunter were here, it would save him a lot of trouble.

But Winters thought again that if Bell came back, he would definitely bring the little guy back with him.

He struggles to feed forty mouths now, but the little guy's enormous mouth could easily bankrupt him.

He only has forty men now, so he can't organize a large-scale hunt. He'll organize a small-scale hunt instead.

Therefore, Winters was very careful when choosing his target, aiming at a small herd of elk in the forest northeast of Wolf Town.

An hour before sunrise, the three groups entered the forest separately, gathering and frightening the herd from three directions, driving the deer herd toward Winters' location.

The pit had been dug in advance, and it was personally overseen by Paratu's most "ruthless" spellcaster officer.

As long as the herd arrives, everything will be foolproof.

Unexpectedly, something went wrong – Samukin and his gang disappeared.

Winters was furious and, disregarding his need to hide, roared, "Anglu!"

"Yes!" the young stable boy answered reflexively.

"Go find Samukin! Tell him! He let the deer escape, and I'll tie his entire team to a tree and beat him!"

"Yes!" Anglu leaped onto his horse and galloped off in the direction Samukin was supposed to be.

The once peaceful forest is now in complete chaos.

Regardless of whether they were deer, roe deer, rabbits, or foxes, wild animals fled in panic, their mournful cries echoing throughout the land.

Anglu felt a pang of pity. He suddenly realized that these animals had likely lived in this forest for hundreds or thousands of years before humans appeared.

Like these elk, their history of settling here predates that of humans by a considerable margin.

They once freely foraged, courted, and reproduced.

But now that humans—including the Anglus—have arrived, the deer herds are facing annihilation.

A wave of sadness washed over Anglu.

"Is this the right thing to do?" he wondered.

……

……

"Yes!" Anglu devoured the roasted venison ribs, his mind filled with only one thought: "So delicious!"

The soldiers ate the less desirable parts of the deer, such as offal.

Good cuts of meat, such as deer legs and belly, were used to barter for grain with villagers in various villages.

The villagers didn't want the spare ribs; they thought there wasn't enough meat, which benefited Anglu.

Samukin's group looked on with envy at the others, who only received half the amount of meat as the other two groups, and it was all the worst kind of meat.

Because they failed to arrive at the designated location on time, nearly half of the deer escaped through the gap in the enclosure.

Samukin was also incredibly unlucky—they encountered a black bear on the way.

So not only did they only receive half a portion of meat, but each of them also received five lashes.

A small campfire was burning, and a pot of meat soup was simmering. Winters and Pierre were doing their "post-war" debriefing.

"What about the deerskin?" Pierre asked, taking out his notebook and acting as a temporary scribe.

In this unit, only Pierre and Winters are literate.

“Take it and exchange it for grain.” Winters took a sip of venison soup.

"What about the horn?" "Let's keep it for now and see if we can take it to Theovodan to sell."

"Where's the deer blood?"

"Feeding the dogs?" Winters suddenly remembered something and asked Pierre, "Didn't your father have four excellent terriers? Where are they?"

"I've been running wild and only come home occasionally."

"Let's try to tie it back up; it might come in handy."

"it is good."

Adhering to the philosophy of not wasting anything, even the deer bones of Winters found a place to go:

In Nanxin Village, there is an old man who can make glue from bones. He is willing to exchange two "malt" rye for all the deer bones. Malt is an old system, and two malt weighs about 13.2 kilograms.

Winters happily agreed, and the old man was also very pleased.

Did the people of Wolf Town have any food? The answer is "yes".

The people of Wolf Town, who had run out of food, had long since nailed up their doors and windows and fled.

However, they cannot collect the taxes, or the cost of collection is too high.

Winters learned a story in his military academy history class: during the War of Sovereignty, the Mad King Richard IV once ordered that farmers were strictly forbidden from feeding pigs with oats.

Mad Richard may have thought that this method would help stabilize oat prices and allow him to acquire more supplementary grains.

But the farmers still fed the pigs with oats, secretly.

They would rather feed the grain to pigs than let the emperor's tax collectors take it away.

The history teacher believes that this event shows the empire's economy was on the verge of collapse, and that the madman Richard was destined to fail.

After being enlightened by the old charlatan, Winters had a different perspective on the matter—the empire's economy hadn't collapsed; what had collapsed was the mad emperor's treasury.

The farmers had grain, but the emperor couldn't collect it. Forced collection was too costly and not worthwhile.

Farmers hid their grain under pigsties and woodpiles, and the land acquisition team searched high and low for it. This was the current state of the newly reclaimed land.

The farmers weren't lacking food, nor were they unwilling to provide it. What they wanted was exchange, an exchange of equal value.

Perhaps it's not just farmers, it's everyone—Winters thought.

"I remember Mrs. Mitchell made sausages?" Winters asked Pierre, sipping his venison soup.

Pierre, engrossed in keeping accounts, said, "Yes, my mother does it."

"Can deer intestines be made into sausages?" Winters asked curiously. "If so, then all the deer offal will have a place to go. Sausages are worth more than pure meat, right? One pound of sausages can surely be exchanged for four pounds of wheat, can't it?"

“Um… I don’t know.” Pierre scratched his head. “I’ll go back and ask my mom.”

"it is good."

Pierre then asked, "What about the six remaining living deer?"

"Should we raise it first? Is it even possible to raise it?" This was a blind spot for Winters.

"I don't know." Pierre was also puzzled. He thought for a moment and asked, "If they can be kept as pets, why didn't anyone keep them before?"

Winters pondered, "The Hed people said that further west there is the Hed Savage tribe, who live by herding deer. They should be able to raise them, right? It's such a waste to kill and eat livestock after finally catching them. It would be even better if they could be kept in captivity."

"Should I try to find someone?"

"it is good."

Winters was drinking venison soup when he suddenly smelled a delicious aroma.

He jumped up abruptly and shouted at the other three campfires, "Who's roasting meat?"

“I…” Anglu stood up, bewildered, still holding the roasted deer rib in his hand.

"No grilling! Boil it all!" Winters exclaimed in anguish. "A pound of meat, grilled, will leave you with at most seven ounces! Boiled, every drop of broth will be used! I eat boiled offal, and you dare to be so extravagant as to eat grilled meat! You've gone too far!"

The soldiers burst into laughter.

Anglu slunk over, carrying two roasted deer ribs: "You should try some too, they're delicious with a little salt."

……

When Winters once again gave three arrows to the centurion, everyone knew it was time to attack.

This has become an unwritten rule: before a battle, arrows are given to the centurion as tokens, and after the battle, the arrows are taken away.

“Centurion, ‘a bunch of people,’ ‘a pot of people’ sounds awful.” Vahika took the arrow and asked with a grin, “How about something nicer?”

Winters took out the map board, raising an eyebrow slightly: "What do you want to change it to?"

"How about calling him One-Arrow Man?"

Winters looked at Vahika seriously: "Arrowman, hmm, that's a good name."

"Really?" Vashika beamed, his joy evident on his face.

“That’s a good idea!” Pierre slapped Vasya on the back of the head and suggested, “How about we call it ‘One Arrow’? ‘A Group’ or ‘A Pot of People’ doesn’t sound good.”

Winters thought for a moment, and since an arrow didn't sound bad, he nodded.

“We’ve got a name for ourselves now!” Seeing that his suggestion had been adopted, Vasika wanted to press on: “Shouldn’t we come up with a catchy name? Something that would intimidate people?”

The group looked at each other, realizing they didn't actually have a title yet.

Strictly speaking, they are still called the "New Reclamation Area Langtun Town Militia Team".

Wahika paused for a moment, then triumphantly revealed the answer: "I suggest we call it the Blood Wolf Gang! Oh, no, the Blood Wolf Army! Isn't that amazing?"

"You son of a bitch!" Winters and Big Smart were always at odds. He kicked Vasya hard in the backside with his boot: "You're hoping that Ghevodan will send troops to attack us, aren't you?"

It's fine if no one brings it up, but Winters gets furious when he hears this nickname.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Winters explained to his men, "We've raided the grain requisition team, and Zhevodan won't let it go easily. Otherwise, why would we have disguised ourselves as bandits? Right now, the last thing we need is a false reputation. The less Zhevodan notices us, the better. Besides, we're originally the Wolf Village militia, why would we change our name?"

Pierre nodded thoughtfully, while the others were still somewhat confused.

“Alright, let’s look at the map.” Winters spread the map on the table and reiterated the rules:
"No noise is allowed during the march! Violators will be whipped! Anyone who disturbs the enemy will be beheaded!"
If any enemy breaks through your encirclement, do not pursue them. Continue to close the gap and surround the remaining enemy.

"Live! Not dead!"

Finally, he warned the three deputies in the sternest tone: "If anyone fails to arrive on time again this time, they will not be spared!"

……

At the same time—dawn—the sun peeked out just beginning to shine.

Vahika, accompanied by eleven soldiers carrying boar spears, formed a loose straight line through the forest.

This time, however, they did not knock on the tree trunks, but moved forward silently.

They walked all the way to the designated location and lay in ambush.

Wahika waited patiently.

Suddenly, the mournful sound of a bugle call ripped through the night.

The birds in the forest took flight into the sky with a whoosh, and the wild beasts scattered in terror.

The order to attack has been issued.

"Kill!" Vahikati leaped up, roaring hoarsely, "Follow me!"

Three arrows flew from all directions toward the bandit camp in the forest.

Vahika charged ahead, tearing over a tent with a single spear thrust.

The three bandits inside the tent were still half asleep and unaware of what had happened.

Vahika raised his spear to thrust downwards, but then he suddenly remembered the centurion's order: "Live, not dead."

"You guys are lucky," Vahika thought to himself.

A gang of more than twenty bandits was captured while they were still asleep.

Those bandits who dared to resist were stabbed to death with spears, while the surviving bandits were tied up and gathered together like sheep.

Not a single bandit escaped.

"Centurion!" Anglu excitedly reported to Winters, "This is much easier than hunting!"

That's right, it's an incredible bonus chapter! What's a stockpile of chapters? It doesn't exist!

(A total of 4 extra chapters have been added, currently 3/4 complete).
[Thank you to all the readers for your collections, reading, subscriptions, recommendations, monthly tickets, donations, and comments. Thank you everyone!]
[Nowadays, only small-scale hunting activities are possible; large-scale hunts have disappeared. We can only glimpse what large-scale hunts looked like through historical documents. The following is from the "Old Manchu Archives": If a wild animal is seen emerging, do not enter the hunting area to chase it. No matter who it runs towards, you must intercept and shoot it from your own position. Once the animal leaves the hunting area, then chase, intercept, and shoot it. If you enter the hunting area to intercept it, then all the hunters will come out of their homes wanting to kill wild animals; otherwise, why would they come here? Who wouldn't want to hunt? If everyone does not do their duty and recklessly enters the hunting area to intercept and shoot, then the fastest horsemen will intercept and capture the wild animals, while the slower horsesmen and those who are content with their lot will have nothing to hunt. Therefore, they are made to compensate with the meat of the animals they have killed.]
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(End of this chapter)