Chapter 148: I Want to Save Him!

Fortunately, the five hundred refugees under Knight Solovi’s command had been provided with abundant food during this period, which fostered a sense of contentment and kept them from being influenced by the chaotic outsiders. As the refugee tide approached, they instead raised their tools and participated in the defense, protecting the hard-won stability of their lives.

The refugees driven by Rigolav beyond the western watchtower were also a relatively docile group, still holding onto hopes for the future, and did not recklessly charge into Knight Solovi’s territory in the short term. However, regardless of the circumstances, once they came to their senses and their food supplies were exhausted, hunger would inevitably turn them into beasts.

The Riverbend was even more peaceful, appearing entirely detached from the world's conflicts. Anyone who sneaked into the refugee camp to instigate a riot was handed over to Ulyan by the refugees themselves on that very day, and then publicly hanged outside the camp's main gates.

Through prolonged management and filtration, any refugee leaders harboring ulterior motives had long since been purged. Those who remained were either clan elders genuinely striving to secure a safe haven for their kin or clever individuals who recognized reality. These truly clever people were exerting themselves to integrate into the Riverbend and attain legitimate standing. The outside instigators were, quite frankly, gifts of merit served on a silver platter.

Yet, in the face of such societal upheaval, the Riverbend domain could evade the crisis temporarily, but not forever. Situated only thirty miles away from the western watchtower—neither too close nor too far—the Riverbend would inevitably be discovered by the refugees. Guided by malicious actors, that discovery would come even sooner. Refugees driven to the depths of starvation possessed no trace of rationality and would severely disrupt the order of the Riverbend.

During this period, Leo recalled all the soldiers from the Driver Wolf Plain, establishing guard posts and stepping up patrols between the Riverbend and the western watchtower to prevent large-scale refugee raids.

While the population of the Riverbend grew, its military strength also continuously increased. Currently, the forces boasted one hundred Riverbend infantrymen, one hundred wildfolk longbowmen, and one hundred crossbowmen. All of these were regular troops tempered through long-term training and actual combat, fully equipped with qualified armaments, constituting the field army that the Riverbend could deploy for battle.

Following the battle against the alien coalition, Ulyan modeled the equipment of the Riverbend crossbowmen after the Empire’s crossbow legions, outfitting them with massive tower shields and single-handed swords.

Compared to longbowmen, who required training from childhood and a rich meat-heavy diet to cultivate, crossbowmen were undoubtedly much easier to mass-produce. Theoretically, anyone capable of winding a military crossbow could be trained into a crossbowman in a short period.

Seven hundred years ago, before the Northern Lands joined the Orlantis Empire, the Southern Lands did not even possess a single standardized longbow regiment, yet they boasted crossbow legions whose numbers exceeded the total military strength of the North. Whenever major battles broke out, the vast, sea-like formations of crossbowmen unleashed a volume of ranged firepower that was by no means inferior to the Northern longbow legions.

Over the centuries, the simple and practical imperial crossbow was adopted by the Northern people, and crossbowmen became a common fixture in many garrison and lordly armies. The two greatest characteristics of imperial crossbowmen were the crossbow and the tower shield.

The rectangular tower shield stood four feet high, two feet wide, and ranged from half an inch to an inch in thickness, resembling a solid door panel. Higher-quality shields were covered with a layer of iron or animal hide on the exterior, or painted with vibrant colors. Sturdy frames and shoulder straps were affixed to the back, and crossbowmen routinely trained while carrying these fifteen-kilogram tower shields.

In combat, they lowered the shield’s support frame, erected it in front of them, formed a protective wall with their comrades, and rested their crossbows atop the tower shields to fire. Elite imperial crossbowmen could even raise the tower shields for close-quarters melee combat, matching the prowess of imperial infantry.

Naturally, the refugee crossbowmen of the Riverbend could not achieve this feat. To reduce their load, the thickness and weight of their tower shields had been substantially reduced. However, having a massive shield planted in front of them to fend off stray projectiles provided the crossbowmen with an immense sense of security, allowing them to aim with greater composure.

Both Ulyan and Leo would have preferred to train all the men, women, and children of the Riverbend into warriors as formidable as the wildfolk hunters, but that was clearly impossible. Rather than expecting villagers to draw heavy yew longbows or charge forward with blades in hand, it was far more pragmatic to have them raise crossbows and deliver suppressive firepower from behind cover.

In addition, the Riverbend domain maintained a militia force equal in number to the lordly army. These men also regularly participated in training and patrols, serving as reserve soldiers ready to be integrated into the lordly army at a moment's notice. While a lack of actual combat experience meant they were fully capable of defending their homes, deploying them for open-field warfare still carried risks.

Leo divided the Riverbend lordly army into two detachments, commanded separately by himself and Vichy, patrolling the periphery of the Riverbend while maintaining constant communication.

Increasing numbers of refugee bands were gathered by Rigolav and driven beyond the western watchtower. Many of these groups pitched tents along both sides of the World Tree Avenue outside the western watchtower, forming a patchwork of temporary villages.

Human beings possessed an inherent tendency to gravitate toward strength and huddle together for warmth, and the vulnerable were especially prone to this. Within any group of refugees, anyone with even a sliver of capability—even if it was merely the ability to boast—would gradually attract supporters and form a faction around themselves.

Certain clan leaders, akin to Ulyan, originally commanded dozens of able-bodied kinsmen and absorbed additional refugees along the journey, eventually evolving into leaders of several hundred souls. Others were bandit chieftains who seized the opportunity to expand rapidly, using smooth words to dupe honest and dutiful farmers into following them.

Whether these individuals pursued private gains or genuinely sought to feed their kin, they all inevitably stepped onto the path of banditry in the end.

Facing the fully armed elite troops of the Riverbend, most refugee groups appeared honest and submissive, but there were still foolish individuals who coveted the equipment worn by the Riverbend soldiers.

Watching the sallow, emaciated young refugees being coerced by ferocious bandit gangs into charging forward with hoes and pitchforks, Leo felt a heavy knot in his chest. Among the members of those bandit gangs, quite a few were new recruits who copied their peers by smearing colored clay or blood across their faces, or wearing fresh sheep-bone masks, screaming in terror as they brandished their weapons. While this acted as a thin veneer to mask their own fear, they delusionally hoped to intimidate the Riverbend forces.

Unfortunately, such intimidation might have worked on ordinary villagers, but the seasoned veterans of the Riverbend merely sat composedly behind their shields, expressionless and almost amused.

Just a few months prior, these young refugees and fresh bandits had been honest, law-abiding farmers; a few months later, they had been reduced to expendable cannon fodder in battle or transformed into feral plunderers.

With a trace of pity, Leo issued the command: "Fire!"

Lacking armor and shields, the bandit groups were decimated by the devastating ranged firepower of the longbowmen and crossbowmen before they could even reach the shields of the Riverbend infantry, turning tail and fleeing in utter disarray into the wilderness.

Having lived through two thoroughly one-sided skirmishes, unlike the unscathed and high-spirited Riverbend troops, Leo felt deeply disheartened.

Leading his forces back to the Riverbend, he turned to Ulyan and said, "I don't want to kill people anymore."

"What kind of nonsense are you spouting now? If you don't want to kill people, go ahead and let the enemy kill you instead?"

Ulyan couldn't be bothered to humor him; a seasoned warlord of this native plane could never comprehend the sentimental humanitarianism of an otherworldly visitor.

Switching tactics, Leo argued, "These are human lives! Isn't population what the Northern Lands lack the most? If you kill a single person, it takes eighteen years to grow another one!"

"Therefore, I am going to save people!"