Chapter 170: Trouble Arrives

“Nonsense!” Lan Fake rolled his eyes at Old Xie, then said proudly, “Our Troll Warrior’s combat power is terrifying. As long as you give them good enough weapons, the number of Magical Beasts they kill can multiply, and casualties will greatly decrease. The combat power increased by these 2000 weapons is enough to equal 10,000 able-bodied men! And they don’t need to eat or drink!”

“Fine, as long as you don’t think it’s a loss.” Old Xie then said, “I’ll instruct them to handle this matter later. You better hurry up and tell me the bad news now!”

“Okay, the bad news is, a few days ago I wanted to go to the human border city to check the situation, but I was blocked halfway by a human troop!” Lan Fake said solemnly, “Among them, at least 1500 are Regular Army of the Griffin Kingdom garrisoning the border. The other few hundred are Mercenaries from various races. The Regular Army here has high combat power because they deal with wandering robbers all year round. Don’t look at how each individual’s strength isn’t great, but the army’s biggest characteristic is acting in unison, advancing and retreating in order, especially when attacking fortifications, they are particularly powerful. And those Mercenaries aren’t pushovers either. They provide protection for merchants passing through here all year round and have fought against robbers from the Beast Race, humans, Dwarves, and Highland Barbarians. Their combat power is very fierce, and there are many Level 5 or 6 Experts among them. With over 2000 of such men killing their way here, even if your Castle has over 30 Cyclops, you might not be able to stop them!”

“Ah!” Hearing this, both Pars and the Cyclops King Saras on the side couldn’t help but be shocked. Clearly, they also didn’t think their few men could defeat over 2000 Regular Army and high-level Mercenaries.

“Ha!” However, after hearing this, Old Xie not only didn’t panic, he immediately laughed loudly, “This isn’t bad news, it’s clearly good news!”

“Good news?” Lan Fake immediately smiled bitterly, “You don’t think they’re easy to deal with, do you? I’m telling you, don’t count on me making a move. My target is too big. If I make a move, others will know it’s me. And if the Griffin Kingdom people know I’m here, your family will be in big trouble! After all, my relationship with your family is obvious. You know, openly annihilating over a thousand of the Kingdom’s Regular Army, even with the Stephen Family’s power, they definitely can’t bear the responsibility.”

“No need for you to make a move, I can handle it myself!” Old Xie immediately laughed, “That’s over 2000 people’s equipment! I was just worrying about where to get 2000 Heavy Swords and Battle Axes for you, and now someone delivered them. Hehe, they can at least help us solve half the problem, right?”

“Hey, most of their equipment is human long spears; only the head is iron. You’re not going to use that garbage to fob us off, are you?” Lan Fake immediately said dissatisfied.

“No, I mean melting down the low-level ironware they brought and then having the Cyclops re-forge them into the giant weapons you need here. That works, right?” Old Xie asked with a smile.

“It works, but the problem is, how are you going to fight?” Lan Fake smiled bitterly, “They are 2000 elite troops. The ordinary soldiers are one thing, but those Mercenaries are people who lick blood on their blades, battle-hardened elites. High-level warriors of the Beast Race account for more than half. Even if we sent out our Troll Race troops, we’d need at least 2000 to barely defeat them. With what you have now, over 30 Cyclops and 200 Imps, you want to fight them head-on? Isn’t that seeking death?”

“No problem, it’s too simple.” Old Xie said nonchalantly, “We still have~”

Just as Old Xie said this, Pars hurriedly shouted from the side, “Respected Master, if you want to use Number Four to take down over 2000 people on the desolate Gobi, please first prepare 100,000 Gold Coins for me, plus several years of time. Otherwise, I can’t make that many Number Fours!”

Old Xie originally intended to use Number Four, after all, he had a great time at the Black Dragon Society headquarters last time. But he didn’t expect to be interrupted by Pars in advance. Only then did Old Xie realize that using this thing on the open Gobi was different from in a closed Castle.

However, Old Xie still wasn’t anxious. He immediately changed his tune and said, “Who said I’m going to use Number Four? Dealing with them requires spending that much money?”

“Then what do you plan to do?” Pars immediately asked curiously.

“Hehe, very simple, raid their camp!” Old Xie laughed evilly.

“Raid their camp?” Lan Fake heard this and immediately rolled his eyes, saying disdainfully, “I say, are you crazy? With this few people, you go raid them? Isn’t that seeking death?”

“You don’t understand. Let me ask you, where are they now?” Old Xie suddenly asked, “How far are they from us?”

“Over 500 li. Normally, it would take at least twelve or thirteen days to arrive.” Lan Fake said.

“Hehe, the reason they’re walking so slow is probably related to them having to carry a large amount of supplies, right?” Old Xie asked with a smile.

“Nonsense, in this vast Gobi, no water, no food, naturally they have to bring it themselves. Just the carts for logistics, there are nearly a hundred!” Lan Fake then couldn’t help shaking his head and smiling bitterly, “Just getting these carts and supplies probably costs several thousand Gold Coins. I really don’t know why they’d go to such lengths to attack you? Is there something here worth more Gold Coins?”

“Hmph, I’m afraid Gold Coins aren’t the main thing; they’re thinking about this location, right?” Old Xie sneered.

In fact, Old Xie guessed correctly this time. It turned out that ever since the Augustus Family people were extorted here last time, they had the same idea. They also wanted to collect tolls easily here like Old Xie. So they found a general from the family in the border city and told him to spare no effort to take this place for the family, or rather, for the Griffin Kingdom.

Of course, war isn’t something to be done casually. Even the Augustus Family didn’t dare to mobilize the border defense army too arrogantly; that would be taboo. After all, they hadn’t reached the point of despising royal power. So the Augustus Family’s second-in-command, Night Owl, initially just had the people here prepare and supported him with a sum of funds. Then he returned to the Imperial Capital and personally lobbied the Kingdom high-level. With the Augustus Family’s full operation, the Kingdom soon issued an order for that Augustus Family general to march against Old Xie’s ‘Wuwei Castle’.

This was also why it took until today for them to arrive after so much time had passed.

Naturally, Lan Fake didn’t care why these people came; he just wanted to know how Old Xie would deal with them. So he hurriedly and impatiently asked Old Xie: “Let’s not care what they want to do, I just want to know how you’ll defeat them!”

“Hehe!” Old Xie laughed sinisterly twice, then said, “In the Great Gobi, the most precious thing is fresh water. They have many people, so they need a lot of water. That’s why they spent heavily to build carts to transport supplies. Now, they’ve walked most of the way, and their fresh water has been consumed by at least half. If we can destroy part of their fresh water before they get here, during the night. Not too much, just enough so it’s not enough for 2000 people to drink. Cough, cough, you tell me, in this situation, what would they do?”

After hearing Old Xie’s words, a black line immediately appeared on the foreheads of Lan Fake and the others. Lan Fake smiled bitterly directly, “You really are sinister enough. If your conspiracy succeeds, one can imagine, to survive, these guys will definitely start fighting among themselves.”

“Yes!” Pars also smiled bitterly, “The army and Mercenaries aren’t a monolithic block; they only came together temporarily for money. As long as they have one intense conflict, it will definitely infinitely magnify the rift between them and eventually lead to a terrible civil war. I’m afraid by then we won’t even need to lift a finger; those people will kill themselves off first.”

“Hehe, that’s exactly the effect I want!” Old Xie said proudly.

“But, this is easier said than done!” Pars said, “Those 2000-plus people are veterans of war after all; they will definitely guard their lifeline strictly. How could it be so easy for you to break it?”

“We have to ask Lan Fake first.” Old Xie then asked, “How many water carts do they have? Are they using individual giant wooden barrels to hold water, or directly using entire extra-large water carts?”

“They use extra-large square water carts, probably newly made. After all, wooden barrels are expensive to make, they can’t afford that money!” Lan Fake said.

“How many water carts in total?” Old Xie asked, “Pulled by livestock?”

“About 60-plus water carts, of course pulled by people, where would they get so many livestock?” Lan Fake smiled bitterly, “You think the army is as rich as a caravan? Their entire army only has over 300 cavalry with Mounts. Among the Mercenaries, there are less than 100 riding beasts.”

“Haha, no wonder they walk so slow!” Old Xie laughed, “Then it’s easy. We just need to smash 40 water carts! Of course, a few more would be better, after all, they might kill their Mounts for blood, we can’t give them that chance.”

“But the problem is, you still haven’t said specifically how to do it?” Pars couldn’t help but ask.

“Want to know how I’ll deal with them?” Old Xie grinned and said, “Too simple. Hurry up and eat. Once we’re full and drunk, I’ll take the three of you to pull a job on them!”

“Ah?” Pars was stunned and hurriedly said, “You mean, tonight? Just the four of us going?”

“That’s right, haha!” Old Xie said, picking up a piece of meat and stuffing it into his mouth, then said, “Less nonsense, eat quickly. 500 li is quite far!”