Iron Powder and Spellcasters

   Chapter 226 Thinking hard

Winters was not surprised that the    militia team took down the gang with little effort.

   He has three arrows and nearly forty people. If he can't get rid of more than twenty bandits, then he is really busy.

  Angelo was right on one point—“It’s easier to fight bandits than to hunt.”

   For the "fishing and hunting tribe", hunting is equivalent to military training.

   Arranging the route, planning the time, dividing and attacking, this is a typical military operation.

When   Winters migrated with the Chihe Department, he found that the Hurds camped and pulled out every day during the migration process, which was actually no different from marching.

   "March, march, marshals lead us to win battles by marching!" Battles are boring marches, camping, and camping, but there is actually very little time to fight.

  …

The    militia team arrested the gangsters and ransacked their home by the way.

"Twenty-two were captured alive, and the other two wanted to resist, but they were all resolved." Pierre could not say he was happy or angry, he said blankly: "There are a few broken swords and spears, and only a few grains. Bags of wheat and rye."

   Winters also sighed: "Why are they so poor?"

   "If you are not poor, you will not come out to be a robber." Pierre asked in a low voice: "Let it go? Still?"

   He made a gesture of wiping his neck.

   Winters thought about it and said, "If you let it go, they will still be bandits."

   Pierre turned away without saying a word.

   "Don't worry." Winters stopped Pierre.

  Pierre waited quietly for Winters' order.

   Winters frowned: "It's not okay to kill them indiscriminately. These are all peasants who can't survive until they run out."

   "I'll do it, you don't have to worry." Pierre said softly.

   "That's not what I meant." Winters patted Pierre's arm: "Take out the habitual bandit and bury it. Everyone else is escorted back to Wolftown."

  Pierre's eyes widened: "You want to include them?"

   "Of course not." Winters shook his head and smiled bitterly: "Where do I get so much food? If I really want to collect it, I have to choose a good collection."

"That…"

   Winters made up his mind: "Give them something to eat, find something to do for them, let them settle down first, and take one step at a time. If there is not enough food, we will find a way to buy and replace it. We will wait until the autumn food comes down."

   "Then... in what name are they bound?" Pierre thought quickly: "If they are not militiamen."

"How about the prisoners?" Winters asked back: "According to the new land law, they should all be hanged. We won't kill them, let them serve labor to atone for their sins. Make it clear to them that it is not a lifetime of labor, and if you have the conditions, let them go. They go home."

   "I think so." Pierre nodded heavily: "I'll arrange it."

After   , he raised his hand to salute and turned to leave.

   Winters looked at Pierre's back, not knowing what to think.

  Pierre was a good young man, smart, dependable and able to do things.

   Winters could entrust his life to Pierre, and Pierre would not hesitate to entrust his life to him.

   But Pierre has changed, he is no longer the carefree little Dussack he used to be.

   Maybe the world has changed, and Pierre chose to respond with a cold heart.

   Winters has a brotherly affection for Pierre, and he hopes to protect Pierre from going astray.

   But what will happen in the future, he is not sure.

   Winters sighed, what right does he have to worry about Pierre? He himself has changed.

   "Prisoners? Slaves?" Winters shook his head with a wry smile: "Isn't this the Heard tribe?"

  …

   Early August.

sunny.

   Outside Sengeis Valley Village, Blackwater Township.

  A simple two-story circular wooden village stands alone by the forest.

   The stockade is very small, less than twenty meters in diameter.

  This wooden village was originally a place for the villagers of the Sanghis Valley in Heishui Town to hide from the bandits, but it was occupied by a group of bandits instead.

  Pierre held a door as a shield and approached the wooden village with three steps and two steps.

   "Listen to the bandits inside! Quickly surrender! Or we'll set fire to it!"

When   Pierre went to convince people, Winters was leading three arrows to build a simple battering ram outside the range of the bow and crossbow.

   In just one week, the militia team swept away several bandits near Wolf Town.

   As Winters said, militia and bandits are inherently antagonistic.

  The bandits are causing harm to the common people, not much less than the food collection team.

   In addition to the above-mentioned reasons, Winters also has a more obscure idea: he wants to get some food from the bandits.

   How can you eat enough just by hunting? Moreover, the best part of the prey is also exchanged for grain, and the rest is offal.

   Twice a day of wild vegetable and large intestine soup, Winters felt nauseous just thinking about it.

   But at present, this plan has failed, because there is no surplus food in the hands of the bandits.

   But the bandits still have to be suppressed, there is no reason to do so, and there is a reason to do so even more.

  Sangis Valley gave Winters a very good reason: two big carts of wheat.

  Not barley, not rye, not oats.

   is wheat, the best grain.

  Winters, like the militiamen, ate black bread every day, and his stomach was aching vaguely.

   Even this kind of rough bread is only two pieces per meal. Winters even started to miss three dairy meals a day in Chihebe.

The news of the   wolf town resident's return spread to nearby villages and towns, and the news that the wolf town resident was leading troops to suppress bandits also spread like wildfire.

  The villagers of the Senghis Valley, who were cornered by a group of bandits who committed no evil, learned the news, and it was like seeing a life-saving straw.

  The village chief of Sanghis Valley rode a donkey and drove all day and night to Wolf Town, asking Winters to enforce the law across the border.

   And he promised that everything the bandits had, Winters could take away as trophies.

   Except for the women—the women of the Sengeis Valley.

   These gangsters not only robbed food and money, but also harmed women.

   A dozen women in the Senge's Valley were snatched into the stockade by bandits and never came out. Five of them were not even married, and the youngest girl was not even fourteen years old.

   Winters' anger goes without saying, the militiamen itch to the bone when they hear such a thing.

   Stuff like that, and Winters would pick them up for no pay.

  There is no need to boost morale at all, everyone rushed to the St. Geis Valley with weapons overnight.

   Winters originally wanted to lure out the bandits and ambushed in the wild.

   But the bandits were very alert and immediately retreated into the wooden village when they found that the sentry had been removed.

  The battle was deadlocked for a while.

   Not long after, Pierre ran back.

   "How?" Winters asked.

The    militia was extremely lacking in siege capability, and Winters had no muskets, no artillery, and very little gunpowder.

  The enemy is willing to surrender, and Winters does not want to see his warriors climb ladders and attack the city with their lives.

  Pierre's face was a little weird. He scratched his hair and said, "That bandit leader made a condition."

   "What conditions?"

   "He...he's going to duel you."

  …

   The leader of the bandit is a burly and strong man, nearly two meters tall, looking as fierce as a bison.

   He was wearing a suit of plate armor, not an ordinary infantry plate breastplate with skirt armor, but a set of three-quarter heavy plate armor of an officer.

   He didn't know where to get a pair of cavalry leg armor and a boat-shaped helmet.

   Although the combination of this armor is a bit nondescript, it is luxurious.

  Because even his opponent, the young sergeant, didn't have plate armor.

   However, the bandit chief is currently lying on his back with a pig hunting spear stuck in his face. He should be dead.

   The stockade, which had been cheering and cheering just now, became silent in an instant.

   Winters took a deep breath. He hadn't encountered such a request for a duel in front of him for a long time.

   This feeling...it's a little nostalgic.

   "Who else?" A thunderous sound swept across Lin Hai.

   Winters drew his hog spear, lifted the bandit chief's helmet, and asked again: "Who else wants to come?"

  The gate of the village first revealed a small crack, and then slammed open.

  …

   Control the gangsters, and the next step is screening.

   Find out the habitual bandits, keep the simple peasant children, and keep those who haven't been infected with the lawless bandit habit.

   For this process, the wolf town militiamen are already familiar with it.

   The village chief of the Sengeis Valley promised two carts of grain, but Winters brought four carts—he was counting on the spoils to go.

  Everyone performs their duties without Winters intervening.

   He stayed beside the corpse of the bandit chief, checking the plate armor on his body.

   After checking, Winters raised his eyebrows slightly: "Oh, this is really an officer armor."

   "It should be stolen or robbed." Ciel reassured.

  Pierre came out of the stockade and walked quickly back to Winters.

   His lips trembled and he whispered, "You... come and see..."

  Pierre led Winters into the stockade. In the second-story building of the Muzhai, Winters saw more than a dozen women who were tortured to the point of being inhuman.

   Some are still alive, some are dead.

   The bandits are not **** them, the bandits are killing them.

   The bandit leader uses this way of venting animal desires to force all bandits to "join".

   A very young girl, younger than Ella and Scarlett, was sitting in the corner of the room with her hands tied to the wheels and her head lowered.

   The blood under his body stained the wooden floor red.

The    militias used their clothes to cover the naked body of the girl, stained with blood and mud, and she was dead.

   A woman was alive and seemed to be greatly stimulated when the militiamen tried to clothe her.

   She ducked back desperately, slapped her arms indiscriminately, and let out a horrific scream.

   She has gone mad.

   Pride, complacency, the excitement of a duel, the joy of victory... All these emotions of Winters disappeared in an instant.

   In his heart there is only sadness, powerlessness, and anger, the anger that can burn the world.

  The militiamen also stood silently, clenching their fists tightly and clenching their teeth.

   "Bring them here!" Winters said, breathing heavily, "Untie her."

   The bruised gangsters were brought before the girl.

Before Winters could speak, a thin bandit suddenly knelt down and begged for mercy: "My lord! Hammerhead and his accomplices forced us to do it! If we don't do it, they will kill us! Hammerhead killed! The body was buried in the stockade!"

   Winters drew out Vashka's saber.

"Really! We are really being forced!" The thin gangster snotted and burst into tears. He rushed at another rosacea gangster and shouted: "It's him! It's him! He's Hammerhead's accomplice! And him with him!"

   Winters grabbed the rosacea gangster by the hair, dragged him to the girl's body, and made him kneel.

  The rosacea gangster was so frightened that he was paralyzed and incontinent, he begged desperately: "Sir! Forgive me! Be merciful!"

   Winters put his saber around the rosacea gangster's neck.

   The militiamen were all waiting for that moment.

   Winters stopped, he let go of the rosacea gangster and threw the saber back to Vashka.

   "Thank you! Thank you sir!" The rosacea gangster didn't care whether there was any excrement or urine on the ground, and tried his best to kiss Winters' boots: "I'll be a cow and a horse for you! I..."

   Winters kicked hard, and the toe of the iron plate smashed the jaw of the rosacea gangster.

  …

  The threshing ground in the Sengeis Valley became a makeshift execution ground.

  The villagers all came.

   No distinction is made between men and women, and everyone has grief on their faces.

   Fathers and mothers who lost their daughters wept and cursed, they longed for justice.

  In special times, everything is simple.

   After the accusation, the trial, the execution.

  The rosacea gangster was tied to a stone platter.

   Winters was a judge and an executioner. He executed it himself—a job no one else could do.

   He raised the iron-clad wheel high and smashed it **** the left arm of the rosacea gangster.

   With the sound of bones breaking, the rosacea gangster's left arm was bent at an unnatural angle, and the stubble was exposed.

  Blood splattered on Winters' hands and cheeks, and he lifted the wheel expressionlessly and slammed it down again.

   After the left arm, followed by the right arm, right leg, and left leg.

   The gangsters who watched the execution were so frightened that they lost their control, and a few gangsters knelt on the ground and retched.

   The rosacea gangster was still breathing, and Charles and Pierre freed him from the stone platter.

   Accompanied by screams and muffled noises, the bandits were nailed to the wheels alive.

   An innocent girl once died on this wheel, and now one of her murderers is tied to the same wheel.

  The rosacea gangster would be hung up for public display until they die.

   will continue to be displayed to the public after his death, until the vultures and crows have eaten up his carrion, until he is only left with white bones.

   This is round punishment, one of the most severe punishments.

   This kind of punishment is not even a professional executioner, because it is too cruel.

  According to the new land reclamation law, people gather to block the road and loot, the first offender will be sentenced by round, and the accomplice will be hanged.

   After rounds of execution, there is hanging.

   Six habitual bandits were hanged from a tree at the entrance of the village, and they twitched a few times before moving.

   Thirty-three accomplices were whipped.

   The militiamen who executed the executions did not hold back any strength. After twenty lashes, some of the accomplices were directly whipped to death.

   As for the dead bandit leader "Hammer", his bones were smashed to ashes.

   He will always suffer in the fires of hell, and even if the angels sound the trumpet of the end of the world, he will not be able to get up from the grave.

   For the accomplices who survived, what awaits them will be hard labor.

   This public trial and execution soon ended.

  When the militia team of Langtun Town left, the village chief of St. Ghis Valley held Winters' hand tightly and burst into tears: "Thank you...Thank you..."

   The original agreement was to give only two truckloads of wheat, but the villagers in the Sanghis Valley packed two truckloads of oats and rye, and tried to pack more, hoping that the militia team would take more.

  "I..." Winters hesitated. He couldn't receive the food emotionally, but he needed it.

   He held the old village chief's hand and said firmly: "If there is such a thing in the future, you come to me, and you don't need to give anything."

  …

  Winters headed back home with a heavy heart.

   After reuniting with Pierre and other old men, everything went well for him.

  Life is hard.

   Half wheat, two rye, and one oatmeal loaf—even on the Great Wilderness, Winters had never experienced such hardships.

   And there are endless fires with his subordinates every day - except Pierre, everyone else is blind, and he has to teach everything.

   But Winters was happy.

   His body is tired, his spirit is happy.

   In the Chihe Department, in the castles, in the Mitchell Manor, he has a sense of being out of place.

   He had woken up from a dream more than once, and he had more than once felt that there was an ambush in an unseen corner.

   Winters, who returned to the army, was like a duck to water, he slept soundly, he breathed comfortably, and he no longer subconsciously suppressed his emotions.

   He laughs out loud, and when he gets angry, he can be mad to the death. Whoever he wants to teach a lesson will definitely have a boot print on his trousers.

   His subordinates were not surprised by this, and even more respected and loved him because of his temperament.

   But I didn't see that Washka was kicked the most and the hardest, and she still smirked every day and leaned in front of Winters.

   Winters is not only happy, he even has some pride and self-confidence, and he is happy with what he does.

  He fulfilled his duty as the resident officer, he was rebuilding Wolf Town bit by bit, and he protected the peace of Wolf Town - even if only temporarily.

   "Why should I stay here?" he asked himself more than once.

  There is only one answer: "I am injustice, I want to protect some things, I want to change some things."

   But to what extent and how wide the change was, Winters couldn't figure it out.

   Is it difficult to change Plato? A man against a country?

   "This is arrogant." Winters' reason told him that it would not work.

   So he set the goal as small and practical as possible: "I can't do a lot, but I can at least keep Wolf Town safe."

   But what the Senghis Valley saw bloodily told Winters: "Not enough."

   Brother Reid warned him when he was dying: "Those who do not plan for the world are not enough for a moment; those who do not plan for the overall situation are not enough for a domain."

  Wolf Town, not enough.

  The world is broken, and honest peasants can become the most murderous thugs in the blink of an eye.

  If Revodan and even the entire new land is burning, how can the small town of Langtun survive by itself?

   Winters realized that he had to take a longer view.

   He was thinking.

   (A total of 4 chapters have been added, currently 4/4).

   I wonder if book lovers have noticed.

   Prior to this, Winters' attitude towards habitual bandits was "buried". There was no trial and no public announcement.

   This is the easiest and most straightforward way to deal with it from his point of view.

   The Valley of Senge is his first "Ming Canon" execution of a bandit.

   His mentality actually changed a bit, so he didn't kill the rosacea directly.

   Killed, he could enjoy himself, but he couldn't kill like this. Because he has gradually become a "public power", he must take on more responsibilities and can no longer take care of himself and be comfortable.

   [Thanks to book lovers for their collection, reading, subscription, recommendation tickets, monthly tickets, rewards and comments, thank you all]

   (end of this chapter)