The terrain is indeed good and highly concealed. These bandits even have their own fields and reservoirs. At first glance, the mountain stronghold looks like a hidden small village.
But there is no doubt that the Jamie Gang is a group of bandits, and they are the kind that have murders on their hands.
Thanks to the fact that the scouts had taken care of the sentries in advance, the private army only needed one frontal charge and broke into the bandits' stronghold before many of them could react.
On one side are the soldiers who are strong and fierce like wolves and tigers.
On one side were the lazy and defenseless bandits.
The two sides fought fiercely, and any soldier who failed to defeat the opponent within three moves would be unworthy of the full meals Dick gave them.
When the bandit leader Jamie was dragged in front of Dick, the old man almost made everyone laugh when he opened his mouth.
"Why are you here so early!?"
"It was indeed impolite of us not to inform you in advance."
Dick apologized to the guy with a smile, then waved his hand and asked him to drag the guy to an open space, and chopped off his head in front of his brothers who had already laid down their weapons and surrendered.
The falling heads and spurting blood made the faces of these bandits all look familiar.
The villagers were also scared when they rushed into the village and burned, killed and looted.
The first battle was just a trial run, and the good start boosted the morale of the soldiers involved in the battle, and even the conscripted civilians were hit on the buttocks by the knives, which opened their eyes!
Are these bandits so vulnerable?
While we were cleaning up the battlefield, three other groups of troops also brought in good news on swift eagles.
Thanks to the well-prepared surprise attack, only three people from the four armies were slightly injured, and more than 200 prisoners were captured in total. The other three armies will rush over with spoils and prisoners to reunite with Dick after cleaning up the battlefield. The stronghold of Jamie's gang is the "forward base" they had selected in the plan.
In the next few days, the private army attacked from all directions using the forward base as a node, launching an offensive against the large and small bandit groups in the surrounding mountainous areas. Dick named this combat plan "Operation Snow Rat Digging".
Snow mice are a local wild mouse that is slightly smaller than a rabbit and hibernates in snowdrifts in the winter.
The locals would train a small fox terrier that was very good at finding hibernating snow mice in the snow. When the mice were half asleep, they would catch them and bring them home as a snack.
The current state of these bandits is very similar to that of hibernating snow mice. In previous years, the governors either did not have the courage to suppress the bandits, or just used the name of suppressing the bandits to make money.
They haven't met someone as outspoken and courageous as Dick in decades.
Not only does Dick dare to speak and act, he even doesn't play by the rules!
He used the annual meeting to give false information to local gentry and used those double-faced people to confuse the bandits. Then he launched a surprise attack, choosing the most unexpected time to act.
Soon, the "prisoner-of-war camp" at the outpost was already overcrowded. In five days, they wiped out more than forty gangs and captured thousands of prisoners.
Many gangs of a dozen or twenty people did not put up any resistance when private armies came to their doorsteps. They simply dropped their weapons and knelt down.
Dick also tried his best to kill only the leaders and capture more prisoners to enrich the collective farms that were still in the planning stage.
At this point, Dick's "first phase of operations" to suppress bandits was a complete success. The eastern mountainous area close to the plains was basically cleared by them. Because this mountainous area is close to the plains and the villages are relatively dense, the number of bandits in the mountainous area is also the largest.
The few remaining bandits who escaped the encirclement were fleeing to the mountains. Dick had no plans to pursue them for the time being, because there were "more powerful things" waiting for these stray dogs in the deep mountains and old forests, and most of them would never come back.
The next section Dick has to deal with is the western and northern sections. Because of the hilly terrain and the mountainous area, the terrain is more complicated. There are bandit gangs, bandit villages, savage settlements, and even monster nests. There are all kinds of them, some of which should be hard nuts to crack.
Therefore, Dick had other tactics to deal with the banditry in these two directions.
038. Return in triumph
Long before the operation began, the staff had actually had a debate about which of the three directions of banditry, east, west, and north, should be attacked first.
The bandits in the eastern mountainous area were theoretically the easiest to fight. Although they were the largest in number, with more than 40 gangs of varying sizes and more than a thousand "professional bandits", the terrain here was relatively flat, with some scattered hills and mounds, which were not considered to be dangerous places.
But the situation in the two northwest directions is much more troublesome.
To the west are towering mountains. Three of the four large gangs with more than 200 members have set up camp in the mountains here. For example, the Vulture Gang, which was previously captured by poison gas, is in this direction.
The situation here is the exact opposite of that in the east. Three large bandit gangs rule the mountain, leaving no room for survival for small and medium-sized counterparts. However, the "public sentiment" here is the most complicated.
The villages and settlements in the east were often harassed by small gangs of bandits of a dozen or twenty people. Although they could not bear the annoyance, they had a certain ability to resist. Therefore, although the villagers might not necessarily favor the Governor's Office, they would not side with the bandits either.
But the large gangs in the west have long been "lordized".
The fact that this group of guys could grow big and strong shows that the bandit leader is a capable leader with a much stronger sense of the overall situation than those small groups that are on the verge of collapse. Therefore, they adopt 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 from the dependent bandits.
In addition, there are some wild villages in the mountainous areas here that hide in the deep mountains and forests because they do not want to pay taxes. To a certain extent, they are similar to bandit villages and are also controlled by bandits.
Finally, to the north, the situation is even more complicated because there is a huge fjord here.
Yes, it is a fjord, not just one fjord. The densely packed waterways are as complex and intricate as the veins on a leaf, crisscrossing each other, and many of the rivers extend eastwards into the sea.
Therefore, most of the bandit gangs here are amphibious operations like Viking pirates. They can commit crimes on the shore and also have their own ships to go out to sea as pirates.
Their strongholds are usually hidden deep in some rarely visited fjord, almost inaccessible from land. Therefore, in the absence of surface combat forces, Dick can't do anything to them for the time being.
It is worth mentioning that Dick had previously thought about launching an offensive against the bandits in the north when the rivers were frozen in winter, but this year's extremely cold winter stopped Dick himself. The God of Winter no longer had nightmares because there was no more severe cold, but this led to an unexpected situation... The northern fjord was not frozen!
Moreover, according to the intelligence Dick had, although there were numerous pirates in the north, a pirate alliance headed by a large pirate group called the "Sea Tiger Gang" had been formed.
These guys knew how cold the Lagu region was in winter and that the fjords would be frozen, so they would migrate south en masse like migratory birds, forming a large pirate army with dozens of ships and thousands of people to plunder the small coastal countries in the south.
So if Dick leads his troops north, there is a high probability that he will come up empty-handed.
In the end, it was Dick who made the final decision to attack the gangs in the eastern mountains first.
There are three benefits.
First, the gangs here are easy to deal with, and they can provide a warm-up for the private army that has been training for a whole winter.
Second, the eastern plains are the main agricultural planting area of Laguge. Resolving the banditry here as soon as possible can ensure that spring ploughing is not affected.
Thirdly, the gangs here are numerous and weak, and are close to the edge of the territory. If we attack the west first and the news leaks out to the gangs in the east, these bastards will definitely run away.
If they crossed the border and ran to the Earl of Levin's territory across the border, Dick would be in a dilemma whether to cross the border and chase them or not.
Fortunately, the anti-bandit campaign in the east went smoothly. Before the anti-bandit campaign began, Dick sent someone to deliver a letter to the governor of Count Levin's territory (Count Levin was also a nobleman in the imperial capital) to explain the situation to him. But Dick didn't trust the other party, so he played a trick.
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, and to wait until the morning of the day when he started the bandit suppression campaign before asking for a meeting.
By that time, the letter was handed in in the morning, and the anti-bandit operation started around noon. This not only prevented the possibility of information leaking, but also informed the neighbors "in advance", so no one could blame him for anything.
In fact, on the fifth day of the anti-bandit campaign in the east, when Dick had finished his work, the governor of Earl Levin's territory led his troops to the border between the two fiefdoms in a hurry.
Dick thought at the time that his anti-bandit campaign had actually revealed the efficiency of his neighbor's military mobilization... He didn't know when it would be useful in the future.
After the battle in the east was over, Dick led his troops back to the city in triumph with a large number of prisoners and spoils, as well as hostages they had rescued from the bandits.
They deliberately took several detours along the way to send the local hostages back home so that the residents of the villages in the eastern plains could see the huge queue of prisoners.
This action is somewhat like a fisherman who catches a giant fish and then gets lost on the way home.
Dick: How do you know I caught 1377 bandits (proud).
Dick's display of victory indeed caused quite a stir.
The locals had long been accustomed to the previous governors who had been doing nothing and never expected that they would be able to really deal with the bandits. However, they did not expect that this governor, who had only taken office last year, had quietly caused such a big stir!
This is not just a formality, nor is it killing innocent people to gain credit.
The eastern villages have been fighting bandits for so many years that they can be considered "old neighbors". They recognized the faces of some of the bandits, and coupled with the villagers who were rescued, they had no choice but to believe it.
Thus, relying on the "favor" of curing patients with colds in the previous winter and the "power" of sweeping away the bandits in the east like a whirlwind, Dick successfully established his prestige in the hearts of the people. Many villagers would unconsciously bow to him when they saw him riding through the village, or even kneel down to pay homage to the lord.
When Dick finally returned to the 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. At the urging of the guarding soldiers, they used the materials prepared in advance to build their own prisoner-of-war camp, which attracted a lot of onlookers from the townspeople.
Back in the castle, Dick needed to let his private army rest and arrange for people to count the spoils.
The army fought well in this battle. The first thing Dick did when he came back was to line up the soldiers in the central square of the town for inspection, and then he began to reward them according to their merits in public.
Some soldiers who fought bravely were rewarded and promoted, and Dick personally presented them with medals, bonuses and helmet feathers representing centurions on the stage.
Then Dick opened several boxes filled with gold coins on the podium. These were the spoils of war from suppressing bandits. He asked the soldiers to line up and come forward to claim their rewards.
When soldiers took the money, they would shout "here" loudly and say their names.
I don't know who started it, but after receiving the money, the soldiers would take the initiative to salute Dick who was sitting on the rostrum. Dick didn't stop them, but just smiled and nodded to them.
There is no doubt that Dick did this for show.
In addition to winning over the hearts of the people and enhancing their own prestige, it is also to stimulate people's enthusiasm for joining the army.
The size of the private army in the fiefdom of Laguge is capped at one thousand men, but Dick currently has only five hundred. The second round of military expansion plan is to recruit another three hundred men, with the focus on expanding the army by one hundred light cavalry.
Because intelligence showed that the roaming horse bandit gangs were very likely to enter Laguge in the summer to carry out looting, Dick needed a mobile force to deal with them.
"For cavalry, you need horses."
In the Governor's office, Dick looked at the private army expansion plan at hand and felt a little worried.
He is not short of money for the time being, as he gained a lot from this bandit suppression campaign.
The only problem is that the "merit" may no longer be hidden.
Dick was certain that the old duke had spies in the town, so he took the initiative and wrote a slightly "watered-down" report to seek credit.
The seized treasure and the number of prisoners were underreported, and the number of casualties among the private army was overreported.
The old duke could naturally see some tricks, but this kind of concealment and false reporting is a common routine operation in the empire. At least Dick's is not a "great victory in the subspace"!
Therefore, even if he had to hand over part of the spoils, the part left by Dick would be enough for him to strengthen his armaments.
The key is this batch of war horses, where can he buy them from?
The empire is vast and has no shortage of high-quality horse farms, but the three horse farms in the royal jurisdiction are all specially supplied to the Royal Guards Cavalry Corps. The remaining horse farms can be bought and sold, but it is hard to say whether you can get good goods or whether the other party will raise the price.
By the way, there is actually a horse farm in the fiefdom under the name of the Best family, but the fiefdom is located in the eastern part of the empire, which is too far away from Laguge.
By the time the war horses were delivered, the horse bandits had already run away!
After thinking for a long time, Dick slapped his thigh suddenly. He suddenly thought of someone.
"Rita, the idiot we rescued when we fought the Vulture Gang, did he claim to be the eldest son of Count Dubin? His name was Tarn!"
"Yes, that's his name. Aren't you disgusted by him? As soon as the weather got warmer in early February, you sent someone to send him back to the interior of the country. Why did you suddenly think of him?"
"Count Dubin owns a horse farm, and it's not too far from here. If I buy a warhorse from him, he won't cheat me...right?"
Speaking of this "Tahn Doberman", Dick had a bad impression of him for some reason, otherwise he wouldn't have called him "that idiot".
When they captured the Vulture Gang's lair, Dick rescued this unfortunate child in the dungeon.
At first, Dick was very curious about this guy's experience of being a 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 abducted to Laguge.
As for why the Vulture Gang kept him, the reason was not complicated. The Vulture Gang kidnapped Tarn on someone's behalf, and the mastermind behind the murder was Tarn's younger brother.
Dick confirmed this from the Vulture Gang members he interrogated.
They did receive a "order" to kill people at the beginning, but the bandit leader Fidel felt that the deal was a bit strange, so he personally went to the scene. After capturing Tarn alive, he knew that the boy was either rich or noble by looking at his clothes, so he knew his identity after a brief interrogation, and with his many years of experience, he guessed who the employer who ordered them to kill was.
So, Infidel, who had no sense of contract, suddenly decided to change the murder into kidnapping, took Infidel back to his old nest in Lagug, and then wrote a threatening letter to the second son of Count Dupin.
First, he was "congratulated" on becoming the first heir to the family, and then he was asked to pay a "deposit fee" for his brother regularly. If he didn't pay, he would soon see his brother return home alive.
The bandits were also very wicked. Every time they brought food to Tarn, they would tell him that this was the food prepared for him by his own brother. They did this to deliberately anger Tarn and enjoyed watching him helpless and furious in the cage.
Dick expressed deep sympathy for Tarn's experience but was not surprised at all. This was not an uncommon thing in the aristocracy. In the fight for the right to inherit the title, even the most disgusting things could happen.
But what made Dick start to dislike Tarn was another matter.
After being taken back to the castle, this guy fell into a coma while receiving treatment in the clinic. As a result, when he opened his eyes, he saw Teacher Shizuka, who was using his arm to demonstrate to the trainee nurse how to give an injection to a person with unclear blood vessels. He was immediately stunned by the blonde beauty in front of him, and he wanted to reach out his hand.
A cleaning lady passing by mistook the child for an attack on the doctor, so she swung her broom and knocked the unfortunate child unconscious again. The child fell into a baby-like sleep on the spot and did not wake up until the next morning.
After regaining consciousness, Tarn apologized to Shizuka Marikawa for his irrational behavior, but it was obvious that this guy had evil intentions.
After Dick learned about this, he immediately rushed to the hospital to "comfort" Tarn, saying that he would give him aristocratic treatment commensurate with his status, allowing him to live in a more comfortable small single room and have a special nurse (aunt) to accompany him. He also hugged Shizuka Marikawa and declared his sovereignty to her in person.
After that, Tarn did behave himself a lot better, and seemed to have given up his extravagant ambitions. But the narrow-minded Dick was worried, so as soon as this guy's body almost recovered, he arranged for someone to send him back home before the end of winter.
Tarn solemnly thanked Dick for saving his life, then got on the sled without hesitation and went back to his hometown to settle accounts with his second brother!
Not long ago, Dick received a letter from the other party, saying that he had returned home successfully and exposed the ugly crimes of his second brother, and regained the position of the eldest son that originally belonged to him. Attached with the letter was a sincere thank-you gift - ten high-level magic stones.
Dick thought about it and decided to write back to congratulate the other party and also express his intention to buy a war horse.
