Mount and Blade System: Start from Pioneer Lords.

Chapter 418 Wind God
Inside Shiling Fort, soldiers scurried about like ants among the low-lying houses.

This is not a military residence, but a temporary conscription quarantine area.

In an inconspicuous two-story building, General Pike, the commander of the Southern Border, and a group of officers were anxiously pacing around a long table, while messengers came and went in a constant stream, bringing bad news.

Pique never imagined that this morning, when he was sleeping soundly in a slave owner's house, experiencing a beautiful dream, the dream would so quickly turn into a nightmare.

"General, what should we do? More and more soldiers are getting sick." An impatient officer said through gritted teeth, "This must be a trick by those Persians! I really didn't expect them to use such vicious methods."

They did not expect that in just two days, thousands of soldiers would be infected with an unknown disease. Although these soldiers only had redness and itching in their genitals and did not have any serious symptoms for the time being, this level of symptoms was enough to affect their mobility, not to mention that they had no idea how it would develop.

It's not hard to guess where this disease came from.

Even Debe had brothels, let alone the Persian Gulf Empire. As a slave-owning state, brothels were one of the most profitable industries there. There were so many brothels in Stone Ridge Fortress that they seemed to be able to accommodate all the strong men in the country.

Thanks to the dragon knight's orders, the soldiers were not allowed to harass civilians, but no one cared if they spent money to go to brothels. As a result, a large number of soldiers went out to have fun during the two peaceful days, and it all came to a head today.

At this moment, Pique couldn't help but feel glad that he hadn't gone to a brothel, but instead had gone to see someone else's wife.

"Sir, arrest all those prostitutes! Those damned sluts should all be beheaded!" an officer said viciously.

Allowing thousands of soldiers to contract the disease is undoubtedly a major dereliction of duty, and in severe cases, it could even lead to the stripping of their positions and titles, and the efforts of their previous lives could be wasted. Therefore, the officers are now extremely angry.

In their eyes, these Persian Gulf women were all spies for the enemy!
"Don't you think we've lost enough face? If you really kill these unarmed women, you'll be on the gallows the next day!" Pike gave the officer a cold look.

As an ancient kingdom, Debe adheres to ancient chivalric codes. Although it is now difficult to find a true knight, indiscriminate slaughter is still forbidden, especially of a group of unarmed prostitutes.

This is why Debe made money by capturing prisoners and charging ransom.

"Have you figured out what the illness is?"

Just then, a lithe figure walked in from outside the door.

"Your Majesty Li Wei!"

The officers and soldiers quickly saluted.

“We’ve already extracted the information.” Pike looked bitterly at the allied commander who had entered: “This is ‘Red Itch’, a disease unique to the Persian Gulf Empire. The only effect of this disease is to cause unbearable itching, but it is highly contagious. It can be transmitted through saliva, and the symptoms will break out in just two days.”

This is why he requisitioned these houses—to isolate the infected soldiers.

Because Duke Leah was present, he refrained from saying anything inappropriate.

"Leyton, have any of our High Cliff Fortress members been infected?" Levi asked the goblin beside him who was acting as a military advisor.

“My lord, the soldiers at High Cliff Fort have been training at their garrison and haven’t gone out, so none of them have been infected,” Layton said. “Upon learning this news, I have instructed Lord Zart to completely restrict their movement.”

Upon hearing this news, the faces of the officers in the Southern Border turned as red as a monkey's bottom.

We are not afraid of comparing goods, but we are afraid of comparing ourselves to others.

Compared to this, those who often boast that the Southern Border Legion is a first-class legion feel like a rural militia when compared to High Cliff Fortress.

"What did the army doctor say? Did they go to find a local doctor? Were the mages' healing spells effective?" Leah asked one question after another.

She had just received the news and immediately went to find Li Wei.

"The army doctors couldn't do anything about it either. The mages' healing spells were useless against the disease. However, the local Persian Gulf doctors said that the disease was not life-threatening, but it would take a long time to cure it."

Piqué wasn't brainless; otherwise, he wouldn't have been entrusted with the important task of being the commander of the Southern Legion by Leah. He would have already sent people to do the things he could think of.

"How long will it take to cure him?" Li Wei tapped the table lightly with his knuckles, producing a crisp sound that inexplicably reassured the officers. As long as this Dragon Knight was present, it seemed that nothing was a problem.

“It will take a month or even two months of treatment.” Pik gave a wry smile. “Although this disease does not affect the soldiers’ daily lives, it will obviously leave them with almost no combat effectiveness.”

"The enemy's purpose is not hard to guess. The conditions for the spread of deadly diseases are often too harsh, and they can easily affect our own army. These Persians are obviously trying to pin our Gaoyabao allied forces down in Shilingbao and make them unable to move."

“That’s what I think too.” Li Wei nodded.

According to the enemy's strategy of breaking up into smaller units, when they attacked Shiling Fort, the enemy's hidden troops would have launched a surprise attack from behind, but that didn't happen.

Shiling Fort was taken too easily, it was almost as if the other side deliberately gave it away.

Li Wei had been wondering why back then, but now everything is clear.

Clearly, they wanted to use some underhanded tactics to prevent the Gaoyabao allied forces from moving at Shilingbao.

It must be said that if Gaoyabao hadn't been so disciplined, the enemy's plan might have succeeded.

Just treating this disease would take several months to finish in Shiling Fort, which would inevitably prevent them from participating in other battles.

"Let's increase vigilance during this period to prevent the enemy from using other methods. We need to isolate all the infected soldiers to prevent widespread transmission." This was the only arrangement Li Wei could make.

"Lia, let's go back first." Levi got up and left the room.

Those infected soldiers were actually no different from normal people, except that they would often scratch because of itching, and they didn't care even if they were covered in blood.

You should know that tickling was one of the ten most cruel tortures in my past life, which shows how severe it was.

Fortunately, the locals are familiar with this disease and only need to apply special herbs to relieve the itching. The condition will improve after one or two months.

Li Wei walked around inside, during which he subtly used the divine spell "Remipusia's Blessing," which has the effect of removing curses and providing some healing.

To his surprise, it actually worked; the soldier who had been experimented on recovered instantly. However, the lord made no announcement, leaving the bewildered soldier behind, and left as if nothing had happened.

Since the other side wants to pin down the Gaoyabao allied forces at Shilingbao, then so be it. Anyway, this disease isn't fatal and can be treated in a certain amount of time.

In the following days, martial law was imposed on the entire Shilingbao. The streets were filled with a tense atmosphere, causing the civilians to be fearful and uneasy, thinking that something major had happened again.

On the third day, a message from the military broke the tension somewhat.

Besides Gaoyabao, four other allied forces attacked other military nodes from different directions, but the results were completely different from those of the Gaoyabao allied forces.

They all encountered strong resistance from the enemy, and their progress was quite slow. The most brutal siege battles are still ongoing to this day.

Both sides have poured a great deal of life into it, except for their respective trump cards which have not yet been played, such as the Holy Sith Kingdom's Zai Dai Golem and other powerful sacrificial artifacts of the Persian Gulf Empire.

One can imagine that once these war machines are deployed to the battlefield, the land will be littered with bones and corpses.

According to the military, Bernard hoped that the High Cliff Fort coalition would continue northward to put pressure on the enemy and force the Persian Gulf forces to divert their attention. Afterward, they would send enough soldiers to garrison Stone Ridge Fort.

Li Wei refused the military order, citing the army's inability to march due to illness. The message that came from the military headquarters afterwards was simply to continue garrisoning Shiling Fort, without mentioning anything else.

Even if it were not because they had fallen into the enemy's trap, even if the lord openly refused military orders, the high-ranking officers of the expeditionary force would still wonder if this dragon knight had another plan, and then think that there must be a reason for him to do so.

No one would doubt the dragon knight's keen sense of smell in war.

Thus, while the war on the front lines was at its most intense, Shilingbao was "attacked".

It was a bright and sunny morning. Li Wei was cutting steak in the restaurant of Stone Ridge Castle, with a dozen exotic Persian Gulf beauties behind him, fanning him and pouring him drinks.

A group of exotic dancers were gracefully performing in front of the dining table, a truly delightful sight.

Suddenly, the white curtains began to flutter violently, and a howling sound came from afar. The gale from the north first blew the pine needles through the forest, and then made the flag of Gaoyabao in Shilingbao flutter continuously.

It was as if a giant dragon was approaching with a fierce wind, but Li Wei did not sense the aura of a powerful being.

Everyone in the restaurant looked up, and the dancers quickly covered their fluttering skirts and tried to look out the window, but there was nothing outside except for the blue sky and white clouds.

Li Wei sensed something strange about the wind; this was a response from the powerful intuition of the legend.

The griffins outside the castle had already noticed the situation, but after circling over Stone Ridge Castle, they found nothing amiss.

"My lord, the soldiers say there are no enemy troops and nothing unusual." Skye, the commander of the Griffin Knights, returned from outside, his brows furrowed.

He also felt that the wind was strange, but the griffin riders did not find anything unusual.

But the wind was getting stronger and stronger. If the curtains were just fluttering a little while ago, they were now flying wildly.

"Could it be a sandstorm?" Li Wei thought to himself, but that didn't make sense either. Although Shiling Fort didn't have many mountains, the surrounding plains were filled with low forests and rocks, not sandy areas. How could there be a sandstorm?

"Wait, Li Wei, look, what's that?!" Suddenly, Leah's surprised voice rang out as she pointed to a group of small black dots that were constantly approaching outside the window.

"Holy crap!" The lord was stunned for a moment.

Everyone stopped eating and rushed to the castle balcony to watch.

Far above Shiling Fortress, a group of enormous creatures cleaved through the clouds and rapidly approached the fortress. These suddenly appearing creatures resembled both birds and manta rays, with flat bodies, bat-like wings, and extremely long, thin tails that drew a thin line across the sky.

The largest of these colossal creatures has a wingspan of thirty-five meters, blotting out the sun in the sky. Every flap of its wings brings a gust of wind, and at a glance, there are at least a hundred of them.

"Someone tell me, what the hell is this thing?" the lord exclaimed in astonishment.

He could easily sense that these creatures were filled with abundant magical power, and the strongest one had reached the level of a high-level magical beast. It was likely that its enormous size and ability to soar through the sky were closely related to the magical power it possessed.

"My lord, these are Wind God Rays, a group of magical beasts that control the wind element." Kemish appeared out of nowhere and gave an explanation, but he looked puzzled.

"But that shouldn't be the case. There are still several months before this group of wind elemental monsters migrates, and usually there aren't this many migrating."

"Tell me in detail?" The lord watched as these giant beasts swept across the sky above Stone Ridge Fortress. They did not stop at all and headed south with a clear goal.

"Mou~"

However, as they passed over Shilingbao, they collectively let out a deafening roar, as if telling the world something.

“Our Persian Gulf Empire worships the Eternal Heaven, and these flying rays are the wind gods of the Eternal Heaven, controlling the wind element. They are gregarious magical beasts, living on the peaks of the Kameso Mountains in the northern province. They only migrate to the warmer southern regions when the climate gets cold each year.” Kemish, the local, clearly knew more than the group of Debe people present: “They are among the few magical beasts that are benevolent towards humans. It is said that some warriors from the Persian Gulf have even won their favor and become Wind God Knights.”

"But the climate is still so warm now, why do they need to migrate?"

"Could it be that your commander-in-chief, Howard, is behind this?" Li Wei continued to ask.

“Impossible. Even the king of the Persian Gulf Empire wouldn’t dare to disturb the Wind God of the Eternal Heaven. Howard would never do such a thing, nor does he have the ability to do so.” Kemish shook his head.

He couldn't understand why the wind god was migrating at this time.

The group of people stared at each other, wide-eyed, as these giant objects swept across the sky above Shiling Fortress until they disappeared from sight.

“Darling, hasn’t the wilderness been unusually cold these past few years? Maybe this cold has even reached the northern provinces of the Persian Gulf Empire?” Heather put her arms around the lord’s shoulders and said with a grin.

"I've never seen so many colossal creatures migrate before; it's a truly magnificent sight," Leah exclaimed, still marveling at the spectacular scene.

(End of this chapter)