This young master truly has the ambition of a hero.

When the bandit leader Jamie was dragged in front of Dick, the guy's first words almost made everyone laugh.

"Why are you here so early!?"

"It is indeed our fault for not giving prior notice."

Dick apologized to the guy with a smile, then waved his hand, telling him to drag the guy to an open space and chop off his head in front of his henchmen who had already laid down their weapons and surrendered.

The rolling heads and spurting blood gave the bandits a sense of déjà vu.

When they stormed into the village, burning, killing, and looting, the villagers were just as afraid.

The first battle was a small test of strength, and the good start greatly boosted the morale of the soldiers. Even the conscripted laborers were given a good beating and had their eyes opened!

So these bandits were really that easy to defeat?

While they were cleaning up the battlefield, three other groups also sent news of their victory via swift eagles.

Thanks to their well-prepared surprise attack, the four armies suffered only three minor injuries and captured over two hundred prisoners. The other three groups would arrive with spoils and prisoners after clearing the battlefield to join Dick. Jamie's gang's stronghold was the "advance base" they had chosen in their pre-planned strategy.

Over the next few days, the private army launched attacks from its forward base, targeting various bandit groups in the surrounding mountains. Dick named this operation "Operation Snow Rats."

Snow mice are a local wild mouse species that is slightly smaller than a rabbit and hibernates in snowdrifts during the winter.

Locals tame a small foxhound, which is very good at finding hibernating snow mice in the snow and catching them while they are half asleep to add to their meals.

These bandits are currently in a state similar to hibernating snow rats. In previous years, the governors either lacked the courage to suppress the bandits or merely used the pretext of bandit suppression to amass wealth.

They haven't met someone like Dick, who dares to speak his mind and act on his convictions, in decades.

Moreover, Dick not only dares to speak and act, he also doesn't play by the rules!

He used the annual meeting to spread false information to the local gentry, using those ambivalent individuals to mislead the bandits, and then launched a surprise attack, choosing this most unexpected time to strike.

Soon, the "prisoner-of-war camp" at the outpost was already overcrowded. In five days, they wiped out more than forty bandit gangs and captured thousands of prisoners.

Many gangs of ten or twenty men offered no resistance whatsoever when private armies came knocking on their door; they simply dropped their weapons and knelt down.

Dick also tried to kill only the leaders and capture as many prisoners as possible to enrich the collective farm, which was still in the planning stage.

Thus, Dick's "first phase of operations" to suppress the bandits was a complete success. The eastern mountainous area near the plains had been basically cleared out. Because of its proximity to the plains, the villages in this mountainous area were relatively dense, and therefore the number of bandits in the area was the highest.

The few remaining bandits who escaped the encirclement were fleeing into the deep mountains. Dick had no intention of pursuing them for the time being, because there were "something even more dangerous" waiting for these stray dogs in the deep forests, and most of them would never return.

Next, Dick will have to deal with the western and northern sections. Because of the hilly terrain, the mountainous terrain is more complex, with bandits, bandit villages, savage settlements, and even monster lairs. Among them are some tough nuts to crack.

Therefore, Dick had other tactics to deal with the bandit activity in these two directions.

Chapter 038: Triumphant Return

Even before the operation began, the staff had a debate about which of the three bandit threats—east, west, and north—should be dealt with first.

The bandits in the eastern mountainous area are theoretically the easiest to fight. Although they are the most numerous, with more than forty large and small bandit gangs and more than a thousand "professional bandits," the terrain here is relatively flat, and the scattered small hills and mounds are not considered dangerous places.

The situation is much more complicated in the northwest and northwestern directions.

To the west are towering mountains, and three of the four large bandit gangs, each with more than two hundred members, have set up camp in these mountains. The Vulture Gang, which was previously captured using poison gas, is located in this direction.

The situation here is almost the opposite of that in the east. Three large bandit gangs have taken over the mountains, leaving no room for small and medium-sized bandits to survive. However, the local conditions here are the most complex.

The villages and settlements in the east were frequently harassed by small bandit gangs of ten or twenty people. Although they were extremely troubled, they still had a certain ability to resist. Therefore, although the villagers were not necessarily inclined to side with the governor's government, they would not side with the bandits either.

However, the large bandit gangs to the west had long since become "lords".

The fact that these guys were able to grow so powerful shows that the bandit leader was a capable leader with a much stronger vision than those small, precarious groups. As a result, they adopted a strategy of control rather than plunder for the villages in their "territory," causing these villages to degenerate into bandit villages and become accomplices of the bandits, sharing the benefits with the bandits they depended on.

In addition, there are some wild villages in the mountainous areas that have hidden in the deep forests because they do not want to pay taxes. To some extent, they are similar to bandit villages and are also controlled by bandits.

Finally, there's the north side, where the situation is even more complicated, because there's a huge fjord there.

Yes, it's a fjord, not a single fjord. The waterways are densely packed and intricate, like the veins on a leaf, crisscrossing each other, and many of them extend eastward to the sea.

Therefore, most of the bandit groups here are Viking-style amphibious operations, capable of committing crimes on land and also having their own ships to go out to sea as pirates.

Their strongholds are usually hidden deep in a remote fjord, almost inaccessible from land. Therefore, without naval combat capabilities, Dick has no way to deal with them for the time being.

It's worth mentioning that Dick had previously planned to launch an offensive against the northern river bandits while the rivers were frozen in winter, but this year's exceptionally cold winter prevented him from doing so. Winter God no longer had nightmares because the extreme cold was gone, which led to an unexpected situation... the northern fjords didn't freeze over!

Moreover, according to the intelligence Dick possessed, although there were countless bandits in the north, a bandit alliance had been formed, headed by the large bandit group "Sea Tiger Gang".

These guys know how cold the Laguge region is in winter, and how the fjords freeze over, so they migrate south like migratory birds, forming large pirate fleets of dozens of ships and thousands of men to plunder the small coastal countries to the south.

Therefore, if Dick leads his troops north, he will most likely find nothing.

Ultimately, it was Dick who made the decision: to attack the bandits in the eastern mountains first.

There are three advantages.

Firstly, the bandits here are easy to deal with, providing a good warm-up exercise for the private army that has been training all winter.

Secondly, the eastern plains are the main agricultural planting area of ​​Laguge. Solving the bandit situation here as soon as possible can ensure that spring planting is not affected.

Thirdly, the bandits here are numerous but weak, and they are close to the edge of the territory. If we attack the west first, and the news leaks to the bandits in the east, those bastards will definitely run away.

If they cross the border and run to Earl Levin's territory on the other side, Dick will be in a dilemma: whether to chase them or not.

Fortunately, the bandit suppression operation in the east went smoothly. Before the operation began, Dick sent a messenger to the governor of the Earl of Levin's territory (the Earl of Levin was also a nobleman of the capital), explaining the situation in the letter. However, because Dick did not trust the governor, he played a trick on him.

He instructed his messenger to go to Earl Levin's territory as soon as possible, but not to rush to send a letter to the governor, but to wait until the morning of the day his bandit suppression began before requesting an audience.

The letter was delivered in the morning, and the bandit suppression operation began close to noon. This prevented any possible leaks of information, and he had also "informed" his neighbors beforehand, so no one could blame him.

In fact, on the fifth day of the eastern bandit suppression operation, when Dick's side had already finished, the governor of Earl Levin's territory hurriedly led his troops to the border between the two fiefdoms.

Dick thought to himself that his anti-bandit operation had revealed the true extent of his neighbor's military mobilization efficiency... He wondered when he might need to use it in the future.

After the Eastern campaign ended, Dick led his troops back to the city in triumph, with a large number of prisoners and spoils of war, as well as hostages they had rescued from bandits.

They deliberately took several detours along the way to send the local hostages home, so that the villagers in the eastern plains could see the vast procession of prisoners.

This action evokes the feeling of a fisherman who has caught a giant fish and then gets lost on his way home.

Dick: How do you know I captured 1377 bandits? (smugly)

Dick's display of this achievement did indeed cause quite a stir.

The locals had long been accustomed to the incompetence of previous governors and never expected them to be capable of dealing with the bandits. However, this governor, who had only taken office last year, quietly stirred up a huge wave of trouble!

This is not just a formality, nor is it about killing innocent people to claim credit.

The eastern villages had been fighting bandits for so many years and were considered "old neighbors." They recognized the faces of some of the bandits, and with the villagers who had been rescued, they had no choice but to believe it.

Thus, thanks to the "kindness" he had shown in treating patients suffering from cold-related illnesses during the winter, and the "prestige" he now displayed in his sweeping victory over the bandits in the east, Dick successfully established his authority among the people. Many villagers, upon seeing him ride through the village, would unconsciously bow, or even perform the kneeling ceremony reserved only for lords.

When Dick finally returned to town, the townspeople, who had already received the news, spontaneously organized a grand welcoming ceremony, applauding and cheering for the triumphant team while watching the excitement.

The thousands of prisoners were driven to a wasteland in the southwest of the town. Urged by the guards, they set about building their own prisoner-of-war camp with materials they had prepared beforehand, which attracted a lot of townspeople to watch.

Back at the castle, Dick needed to allow his private army to rest and recuperate, while also arranging for people to inventory the spoils of war.

The army fought well in this battle. The first thing Dick did upon returning was to have the soldiers line up for inspection in the town's central square, and then he began to reward them in front of everyone.

Some of the brave soldiers were commended and promoted, and went up on stage to be awarded medals, bonuses, and the plume of a decimal's helmet by Dick himself.

Dick then opened several boxes filled with gold coins on the platform. These were spoils of war obtained from suppressing bandits, and the soldiers lined up to receive their rewards.

When soldiers receive money, they must shout "Here!" and state their names.

It's unclear which clever kid started it, but after receiving their money, the soldiers would salute Dick, who sat upright on the platform. Dick didn't stop them; he simply smiled and nodded in response.

Without a doubt! Dick's stunt was indeed intended as a publicity stunt.

In addition to winning over the people and enhancing their own prestige, it is also to inspire the public's enthusiasm for joining the army.

The maximum size of a private army in the fiefdom of Lagug is one thousand men. Dick currently only has five hundred. The second round of expansion plans is to recruit another three hundred men, with a focus on expanding the force by one hundred light cavalry.

Intelligence indicated that the several bandit gangs operating across the country were highly likely to enter Laguge territory during the summer to carry out raids, and Dick needed a mobile force capable of dealing with them.

"Cavalry, you need horses to be effective."

Inside the governor's office, Dick looked at the private army expansion plan in his hand with some worry.

He is not short of money at the moment, and the results of this bandit suppression operation have been quite substantial.

The only problem is that the "achievements" may not be able to be hidden.

Dick was certain that the Duke had spies in town, so he decided to take the initiative and wrote a slightly exaggerated report to curry favor.

They underreported the amount of treasure captured and the number of prisoners, while overreporting the number of casualties among their private army.

The Duke could naturally see through the trickery, but such cover-ups and false reports were commonplace practices in the Empire. After all, Dick's was not a "warp victory"!

Therefore, even if he had to hand over some of the spoils, the portion that Dick kept was enough for him to strengthen his military.

The key question is, where will he buy these warhorses?

The empire is vast and has no shortage of high-quality horse farms, but the three horse farms in the royal domain are exclusively for the Imperial Guard cavalry regiments. The remaining horse farms can be bought and sold, but whether you can buy good horses or whether the other party will raise the price is hard to say.

Incidentally, the Best family's fiefdom also includes a horse ranch, but the fiefdom is located in the eastern part of the empire, which is far away from Lagug.

By the time the warhorses arrived, the bandits had already vanished without a trace!

After thinking for a long time, Dick suddenly slapped his thigh; he had suddenly remembered someone.

"Rita, that idiot we rescued when we fought the Vulture Gang, didn't he claim to be the eldest son of the Earl of Dobermann? And his name was Tarn!"

"Yes, that's his name. Weren't you quite annoyed by him? You even sent someone back to the interior of China in early February when it was just getting warmer. Why did you suddenly remember him?"

“Count Dobermann owns a horse ranch, and it's not too far from here. If I buy warhorses from them, they shouldn't rip me off, right?”

When it comes to this "Tahn Dublin," Dick has a bad impression of him for some reason, otherwise he wouldn't have called him "that idiot" so casually.

When they stormed the Vulture Gang's hideout, Dick rescued this unfortunate kid from the dungeon.

At first, Dick was very curious about this guy's experience of being held hostage in a bandit's den for two and a half years. He learned that he was attacked by bandits while traveling in his hometown and was kidnapped to Laguge.

As for why the Vultures kept him, the reason wasn't complicated. The Vultures had kidnapped Tarn at someone else's request, and the mastermind behind the hired killer was none other than Tarn's own brother.

Dick confirmed this with the Vulture gang members he interrogated.

They did initially accept a "job" to kill someone, but the bandit leader, Infidel, felt something was amiss with the deal, so he took matters into his own hands. After capturing Tarn, he could tell from the boy's attire that he was either rich or powerful, so after a brief interrogation, he learned his identity and, based on his years of experience in the underworld, guessed who the employer who had hired them to kill was.

So, in a moment of whimsy, Infidel, lacking any sense of contract, changed the murder to a kidnapping, took Infidel back to his lair in Lagugue, and then wrote a threatening letter to the second son of the Count of Dubin.

First, they congratulated him on becoming the first in line to inherit the family business, then demanded that he regularly pay a "deposit fee" for his older brother. If he didn't pay, he would soon see his brother come home alive.

The bandits were also incredibly despicable. Every time they brought food to Tarn, they would tell him that it was food prepared for him by his own brother, deliberately provoking Tarn and taking pleasure in his powerless rage in the cage.

Dick felt deep sympathy for Tarn's plight, but he was also unsurprised by it. Such things were not uncommon among the nobility; in the struggle for the right to inherit a title, even the most disgusting things were possible.

But what made Dick start to dislike Tarn was something else.

After being taken back to the castle and receiving treatment at the clinic, this guy fell into a coma. When he opened his eyes, he saw Shizuka-sensei demonstrating to the intern nurse how to give injections to people with unclear veins. He was immediately amazed by the blonde beauty in front of him and then, on a whim, reached out to touch her.

A cleaning lady passing by mistook the boy for someone trying to attack a doctor and swung her broom at him, knocking him unconscious again. The boy fell into a deep sleep and didn't wake up until the next morning.

After regaining his senses, Tarn apologized to Shizuka Marikawa for his irrational behavior, but it was clear that the kid had ulterior motives.

Upon learning of this, Dick immediately rushed to the hospital to "comfort" Tarn, promising to give him the noble treatment befitting his status, a more comfortable small single room, and a dedicated nurse (an older woman) to accompany him. He also took the opportunity to embrace Shizuka Marikawa and declare his ownership to her in person.

After that, Tarn did behave much better and seemed to have given up his improper thoughts, but the petty Dick was not at ease. Once the guy had recovered enough, he arranged for someone to send him back to his hometown before the winter was over.

Tarn solemnly thanked Dick for saving his life, and then without hesitation, he got on the sleigh and went back to his hometown to settle accounts with his second brother!

Just recently, Dick received a letter from the other party, informing him that he had successfully returned home, exposed his younger brother's heinous crimes, and reclaimed his rightful place as the eldest son. Enclosed with the letter was a sincere gift of gratitude—ten high-grade magic stones.

Dick thought for a moment and decided to reply with congratulations, while also mentioning his intention to buy warhorses.

Chapter 039: Go and kill the Governor.jpg

The next morning, Dick woke up in Shizuka Marikawa's warm embrace.

Since establishing a more than friendly relationship with Dick on New Year's Eve, the naive and innocent female doctor has gradually become more open and would often take the initiative to have in-depth discussions with Dick about the subject of physiological health.

However, to Dick's slight dismay, Shizuka didn't seem to see him as her boyfriend, or even as an adult male, which hurt Dick's pride as someone who had lived two lives.

When the two are alone, Shizuka always likes to call him "Dick-kun," her tone and actions conveying the affectionate feeling of an older sister doting on a younger brother. To be honest, this feeling of being pampered like a baby by an older woman isn't bad, and even has a subtly immoral sense of "sibling rivalry."

With great effort and reluctance, Dick broke free from the majestic embrace and got out of bed to cover Ms. Shizuka with the blanket again.