Covert War

  It's been several days again, and it just so happens to be the time when a large group of merchants and travelers pass through this small town.

  On this trade route, the mountain bandits of Xiron are more feared by merchants than the sea pirates of Duanxinghai.

  In the past, lone merchants who passed through here were robbed by mountain bandits with a probability of one hundred percent.

  As time passed, there was a default rule here.

  At the beginning of each month, a large number of merchants gather in Sartok in the north and Suratin in the south, passing through this section together on a designated day.

  But this was not without cost; the mountain bandits only provided them with a safe road, and when they passed through Hiren town, they also collected a large amount of tolls.

  And those responsible for collecting fees are naturally the town's agents, of course, on the surface they call it a toll.

  The town was bustling with activity, and the merchants who came and went left large sums of gold coins in the pockets of several gentlemen. By the end of the day, their income had reached over a thousand gold coins, leaving the gentlemen grinning from ear to ear.

  They were smiling and talking about today's harvest, but the appearance of a group of fully armed gray dwarves made their smiles stop quickly. They looked at the leader, Sir Sel, with puzzled expressions: "Sir, is there something?"

  "If I'm not mistaken, this is the territory of the great Earl Sel." Knight Ditch gazed coldly at several rural old men: "It seems that our few big men have not yet ordered to collect passage tax from merchants."

  "This...this is certainly not the same." Langtore's forehead dripped with sweat, sensing that these people were up to no good. He wondered why his informants hadn't revealed any information beforehand, but he didn't dare to be rude to these well-dressed men now. He took out a small pouch containing over 100 gold coins and handed it to Knight Dichi, his eyes flickering with an implied meaning: "We're just collecting on behalf of someone else."

  "Who are you collecting for? Who allowed you to collect on their behalf?" Dichi didn't take the money bag, but stared at the old man: "Civilian, it seems you don't understand the situation. This is illegal income, we're taking it all!"

  The last sentence was a loud order to the grey dwarves, and those grey dwarves responded by moving forward, snatching away all the tolls left behind by the merchants.

  Langert's old face suddenly turned gloomy, but he still tried to use a kind smile to say to Dichi: "Sir, sir, the thieves on the mountain will come down to rob us. At that time, we'll have to use this money to fool them."

  All he heard was a crisp sound of brief physical contact, and Langtuo's smile had not yet disappeared when his face was heavily slapped with a clear five-fingered palm print. The old wrinkles were also scratched by the protruding sharp edges of the chain armor, leaving several blood marks, half of his face was stained red with blood, and he fell to one side, with a deafening roar in his head like the surging tide.

  Several country gentlemen saw the knight's ferocity and their hands and feet gradually became cold, their minds a complete blank.

  Although most of the townspeople were timid and fearful, the lively scene still attracted some onlookers. Ditch sneered, looking down at the old man struggling on the ground:

  "A lowly commoner, how dare you obstruct the government's confiscation of ill-gotten gains. Were your previous words a threat to the noble Knights of Sel?"

  "The old man has gone senile!" Several elderly villagers finally somewhat understood the situation and came forward to plead.

  "Never mind, the generous Sir Sel will temporarily overlook your transgressions," Ditch said as he looked around at the townspeople and ordered a group of grey dwarves: "Divide these ill-gotten gains evenly among the town's residents."

  "Yes." A group of grey dwarves began to carry out the order, and those rural old masters' expressions changed unpredictably.

  Not far away, three mages were using magic to spy on what was happening in this area.

  "Guess what's going to happen next?" Lijita yawned and sat back in her chair: "One thing is for sure, your attempt to buy people's hearts will not have any effect."

  "I'm sure of that too." Pannie nodded in agreement: "These local residents have never really experienced Sel's rule, and they don't have any good feelings towards us, so it's impossible to win them over with a few small favors."

  "Why are you still issuing such orders." Hughes furrowed his brow: "Obviously knowing it's useless..."

  "Who says it's useless doing this?" Pan raised an eyebrow.

  "Huh...?" Hughes was stunned: "You just said..."

  "Think about it, these villagers got the money, what will they do next?" Penny tapped on the table.

  Ligita and Hughes' eyebrows furrowed at the same time, but soon, the woman in red's expression relaxed again, then let out a breath: "Huh~ Xien, I have to change my evaluation of you. You're not kind-hearted, but rather sinister."

  "Yin damage? This term is too unpleasant." Panni's expression was strange: "I just thought a bit more, that's all."

  "How can I feel that my intelligence is compared with yours, it seems a bit inadequate..." Hughes said suddenly with a worried tone.

  "It's not a matter of intelligence, but rather that you don't often think about these things, so you're a bit dull." Penny's expression returned to calm: "That money can't stay in the hands of the townspeople. Under the threat of the mountain bandits and those rural tyrants, the townspeople will definitely return the money they got to them."

  "So this damaged their good relationship?" Hughes somewhat understood.

  "Their relationship was already not good." Lijit added, "After Ser's purge, most of the remaining residents were timid and afraid of trouble. The original thieves' gang that controlled this place was eliminated, and the new thieves' gang and their agents had no good impression in the eyes of the townspeople. We are just more detestable to them."

  "So, this can disturb the tendencies of these townspeople to a certain extent, at least remind them psychologically that the people they rely on are not things. A cold smile appeared on Penny's mouth: 'And what we pay is just some gold coins.'"

  More than a thousand gold coins is not a small amount, Lijitata let out a snort of laughter, it's unknown whether she was in agreement or disagreement, however, Hughes thought of the super large denomination divine favor that Penny took out in Sanofen and chose to shut his mouth.

  ……

  "These detestable Red Robe Mages!" In the manor, Langtore slammed his fist on the table, with blood still trickling from the corner of his mouth: "They're even more greedy than their predecessors."

  "Alright, alright, Langtou, it's clear they're not content with just being ornaments. Look at this group of naive guys, still thinking they can buy people's hearts with their fake benevolent faces. Ha ha, do they think they can deceive many people?" An old rural man laughed and patted the money bag in his hand: "This money will still end up in our hands, won't it?"

  "Not bad, not bad, but this kind of thing can't happen again." Langtore rubbed his swollen face and recalled the reluctant expressions on the villagers' faces when they returned the money - after all, although each villager only received a few gold coins, it was equivalent to one or two months of their labor. He felt a bit uneasy in his heart: "Must take some measures?"

  "What measures? Scare them again?" a middle-aged man sneered.

  "This time we must give them a bit of actual blow." said another gentleman.

  The door creaked again, and a middle-aged gentleman walked in. Langtol cleared his throat: "Salento, the informants you sent didn't seem to be of much use."

  "How can we monitor this?" Sarento spread his hands: "Who knows when they suddenly go crazy, and besides, the eyes I sent over have only been working for a few days."

  "In short, Saronto, you are responsible for this sudden accident." Langtuo said with a frown.

  "Alright, alright." Saranto nodded reluctantly: "I admit to my dereliction of duty, but is a group of Red Robe mages really that easy to monitor?"

  "In any case, I'd like to trouble you to go up the mountain and deliver a letter to that gentleman." Langtore hesitated for a moment, pulled out a letter and handed it to Salento, then continued speaking.

  "Me?" Salento hesitated for a moment, but still nodded and took the letter out of the room.

  "Should we still let the adults on the mountain scare those kids?" A middle-aged man frowned.

  "I suggest the people on the mountain hold their fire." Langthor twirled his mustache.

  "What?!" Several country gentlemen exclaimed in surprise.

  "Don't be surprised, friends, if the big shots from the mountain really come down, things will get complicated. Actually, as long as we can maintain the status quo, once the big shots on the mountain truly control the surrounding areas of Hiren, those red-robed bastards will either roll over or become vases - it's just a matter of time." A resolute smile appeared on the old man's face full of wrinkles: "They try to buy people's hearts, hmm, I'm not even sure if their methods are effective, but I have a simple way to make all their efforts go down the drain."

  "Really?" A group of rural old men looked surprised and uncertain, but as the old man bowed his head to explain, they gradually began to nod, with a knowing smile on their faces.

  ……

  "This old man is really cunning."

  In the underground bunker, Pan received a letter from a secret agent who had infiltrated through the tunnel and handed it to Lijit: "You can handle it, right?"

  "Hmm, this is the first time I've done something like this, but I have learned it." Lijita nodded and began to forge a new letter by comparing the handwriting on the original letter: "This old man's handwriting is really poor."

  "You have to understand, in a rural place like this, the level of education is such that if there are a few people who can read and write, it's already not bad. Do you expect them to be able to write in cursive?" Pan Ni shrugged.

  The quill pen scratched out the forged handwriting on the poor-quality sheepskin paper, and after discarding several sheets, a qualified letter of appeal was finally produced. For the law master, it was not difficult to disguise the opened letter as new, so this freshly baked letter was taken out of the underground fortress by Salento.

  "Next is the real show, right?" Lijitara put down her feather pen, rubbed her wrist, and flexed her fingers.

  "Thanks for your hard work." Panni nodded and took a wooden cup from the shelf beside her, pouring out a cup of clear water to hand to the woman in red. Lijitara was taken aback for a moment before taking it with some confusion.

  "Hmm... thank you." She held the cup with both hands, but didn't drink immediately, instead revealing a hesitant expression.

  "Don't be polite." The law master didn't notice anything unusual about Lijit and just walked to the stairs, yawning: "You've been doing a lot these past few days, don't get too tense on yourself, look at Hughes sleeping so well?"

  "He? He doesn't have to worry about anything..." Lijita said with a slightly sarcastic tone, flashing a smile as she spoke.

  ……

  To the north of Xilei, a certain red-robed Taoist who was busy defending against pirates did not have much leisure to recall the humiliation he suffered in the provincial capital, until one day his subordinate brought him a message, and only then did he have the energy to savor the humiliation he had suffered at the hands of his southern neighbor.

  "What? A defensive team heading to Shiron? Stop them and find an excuse to lock them up." The red-robed mage, Malchi, gritted his teeth as he gave the order upon hearing the report from his subordinate.

  "Yes, sir." The intelligence officer bowed and turned to leave when Marci's gaze suddenly swept over the report sheet, noticing a name, his movements froze for an instant:

  "Wait!!"

  The intelligence officer was startled by the loud shout, turned around with a frightened heart, and just wanted to ask "What are your orders, sir?" when he saw his superior's face turn iron-green, looking extremely unpleasant.

  "Is the leader of this guard... Lannie Rue Ferrandlin? That woman from Dar Amos?" Marich asked, his voice shaking slightly.

  "Yes, sir..." The intelligence officer hesitated for a moment before deciding to report the truth.

  "Countermand the previous order, notify all checkpoints within the border to let no one stop him at the fastest speed." Marci wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, and his eyelids twitched nervously: "Also inform those bandits in the mountains that a big fat sheep is going to pass through!"

  "Yes!" The intelligence officer nodded and accepted the order.

  "Be careful not to show yourself in person, spread rumors, the fewer people who know, the better." The intelligence officer had just stepped out of the door when he heard Marci's supplement, and he was a bit puzzled.

  Isn't she just a woman? How can she make our master lose his composure like this?

  But since it was his superior's orders, he thought it would be better to complete it carefully.

  Of course, he had just mixed up with a bureaucrat and was transferred to this place for a short time...