Chapter 40

“I come from Shangbi Village, which is 25 miles from here. We discovered gold ores while mining. Our village chief has prohibited us from disclosing this matter to outsiders, but a gang of horse thieves attacked our village. Our village is now colonized by the thieves, and our chief has fled to Langya City…”

A miner was brought over by Elder Li to the feudal lord’s office to clarify the location of the gold ores.

Special resources were very important in Feudal Lords, and as the popular saying went, rely upon the mountains if you live by the mountains, and rely upon the water if you live by the water. Special resources could be categorized into pastures, mountains of gold, mountains of silver, mountains of copper, mountains of iron, hot springs, sulphur, fisheries, and so forth.

The mining lands of Xia Town depended upon a Level 1 mountain of iron, whereas mountains of copper, silver, and gold were countless times rarer than mountains of iron.

Upon being informed about the trails of gold ores, Chu Tian had the miner meet him at the very moment.

Then he learnt that Shangbi Village, where the gold ores were found, was colonized by the horse thieves. Apparently, it wouldn’t be so easy to obtain the gold ores after all.

The chief of Shangbi Village was a feudal lord, but he was totally powerless in resisting against the horse thieves.

“The people are innocent, but the crime lies in the treasure you carry. How many horse thieves are there?”

“There are about forty or fifty horse thieves, and every one of them has a warhorse. Our village chief had put together 200 local soldiers, but they were defeated by the horse thieves.”

“Elder Li, prepare a dwelling for this brother. We’ll need him to take us to Shangbi Village in the future.”

After Chu Tian got briefed on the situation with the gold ores, he asked Elder Li to take the miner away.

Xia Town should be able to exterminate a gang of forty to fifty horse thieves with the capacity of a Level 1 town.

“I didn’t expect a small gold quarry to be present nearby. I wonder what grade the gold ores are?”

Chu Tian could wait no longer.

The grading of special resources consisted of ten grades. The higher the grade, the more opulent the resource.

Hua Mulan only returned to Xia Town after three days of carrying out an expedition in the vicinity with her light cavalry.

Based on information gathered before and recently by Hua Mulan during the past three days, Chu Tian drew a map of Xia Town’s vicinity.

“So far, 7 Level 3 villages and 19 Level 2 villages have been discovered near our town. Shangbi Village is one of the Level 2 villages.”

Chu Tian had originally planned to merge with Level 3 villages, but the appearance of the gold ores had made him change his plan.

A Level 2 village with gold ores was deemed more attractive than an ordinary Level 3 village.

“Gather all the members of the light cavalry and infantry!”

The second batch of light infantrymen and Xu archers were still in the midst of training. Chu Tian thought that these 30 light cavalrymen and 70 elite infantrymen, combined with the few commanders, including Hua Mulan, Liu Sandao, and Wu Shang, should be able to defeat the horse thieves.

On the drill ground of Xia Town, three rows of light cavalrymen and seven rows of infantrymen had congregated, looking impressive and capable.

Most of the bows and arrows had been sent to the Xu archers for training, so less than thirty infantrymen had bows and arrows in hand. The rest of the infantrymen were equipped with iron spears and wooden shields.

“Set off! Our target is Shangbi Village 25 miles from here!”

Chu Tian left Xia Town with a hundred of his professional soldiers. Relentlessly, they marched in the direction of Shangbi Village.

The miner from Shangbi Village was leading the way, and he seemed a little flustered. “Lord mayor, our opponents are very ferocious horse thieves. Can you really evict them?”

“Trust us.”

In order to save their energy throughout the 25-mile journey, it took the troops from Xia Town three hours to arrive at Shangbi Village.

“Chief, a team of officers have come to besiege us!”

The sentry of the horse thieves who occupied Shangbi Village immediately reported the change in scene to his chief when he saw the troop from Xia Town blocking the entrance of the village.

“How did the officers come so fast? The people who escaped must have spread the word!”

“Chief, what do we do?”

“It’s an emergency. Retreat!”

“But the officers have blocked the way out.”

The chief of the horse thieves was dumbfounded. Shangbi Village only had one gate, which was surrounded by wooden fences. They could throw themselves over the wooden fences to get away from the place, but their warhorses could not do the same.

How would they carry on being horse thieves without their warhorses?

The gang of horse thieves went to the entrance and saw approximately a hundred soldiers blocking their path out.

“These people are not officers from Langya City, they are just soldiers of some little feudal lords around here. Destroy them!”

When the chief of the horse thieves thought of the gold ores of Shangbi Village, his greed overcame his fear.

A gang of forty or fifty thieves weren’t necessarily incapable of killing a hundred soldiers. After all, these soldiers simply belonged to a little feudal lord.

“My brothers, kill the enemies and everyone gets a reward!”

The chief led his 46 horse thieves and charged toward the squad outside the village!

“Kill them all!”

The horse thieves brandished their knives, their spirits ignited by the promise of rewards.

As far as they were concerned, the soldiers of those little feudal lords would crumble upon the first strike.

However, reality taught them the enormous difference between professional soldiers and ordinary local soldiers.

Forty infantrymen formed a longspear formation with their longspears and shields. At the back were thirty infantrymen with bows and arrows, while the two wings were each made up of fifteen cavalrymen.

“Release the arrows!”

Dozens of arrows were sent flying forth, and around ten horse thieves got struck, one after another!

Hua Mulan went straight for the chief of the horse thieves.

The chief relied upon his intuition and leaned to his right side. He felt pain in his shoulder, and the impact from the arrow nearly tossed him off the back of the horse!

The newly recruited golden-level commander Liu Sandao was also an expert in archery, managing to hit the throat of a thief with his first arrow. Ordinary horse thieves were obviously not as powerful as their chief, the thief now dead and gone after being hit in the vital spot.

Horse thieves were also considered a type of cavalry. In an outburst of power, their speed was extremely fast, and they dashed to the front of the Xia Town’s troop after just two rounds of arrow-shooting.

The thieves were greeted by two rows of longspears that resembled hedgehogs, piercing right through the thieves on their warhorses!

The first row of infantrymen were directly faced with the impact from the warhorses. Several infantrymen were killed by the horse thieves with their knives. Fortunately, the second row of infantrymen managed to block the attack in time.

Hua Mulan, Liu Sandao, and the infantrymen in the hind rows changed their weapons into close-quarters combat weapons, killing a dozen horse thieves.

The chief of the horse thieves was thrown onto the ground with a longspear by Hua Mulan. As he drew his last breath, he realized that the person he had provoked was no ordinary feudal lord.

The horse thieves at the back sensed that the odds were no longer in their favor. Maneuvering their horses to the side, they turned and fled.

“Detain them!”

Chu Tian coveted the warhorses ridden by the horse thieves, so he had the light cavalry hunt the thieves down.

Without the presence of the light cavalry, Chu Tian would only watch helplessly as the horse thieves ran away. However, now that he had the light cavalry, he could hunt down the fleeing enemies at his own will, maximizing the outcomes of the battle.

The small-scale battle in Shangbi Village quickly drew to a close. The grades of the horse thieves were quite high, but Xia Town had defeated them with their large numbers. 9 infantrymen had been lost in the battle, while 16 horse thieves had been killed and 5 other thieves had been killed by the cavalry of Xia Town during the hunt. The remaining horse thieves fled helter-skelter.

“The charging force of the cavalry is powerful indeed.”

Chu Tian’s heart ached for the infantrymen who had been sacrificed, but people died in battle. With the success of a general came ten thousand withered skeletons. War profits made a total of 14 units of gold, and there was even a mid-grade skill book. Most importantly, they had captured 12 warhorses.

“Take me to your quarry.”

After getting rid of the horse thieves, Chu Tian had the miner take him to the quarry of Shangbi Village.

“Ding! Player, congratulations on discovering a Level 3 gold quarry. The reserves remain unclear. The mining difficulty also remains unclear.”

Once Chu Tian arrived at the quarry, notifications rang. It turned out to be a Level 3 gold quarry!

A Level 1 iron quarry was enough to support the town’s usual annual demand of iron ores, so he supposed the production of a Level 3 gold quarry would be amazing.

Shangbi Village was situated about 12.5 kilometers from Xia Town. If he wished to mine for gold ores here in the long term, he would have to station his workforce here.