Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters-Chapter 858 - 93 Weapons_2

Chapter 858: Chapter 93: Weapons_2 Chapter 858: Chapter 93: Weapons_2 Perhaps it was psychological, but Mason always felt that the cold air was tinged with the odor of fresh blood.

The battlefield had already been shrouded in darkness, with the sporadic lights of fires moving about. Those were the stretcher teams organized by Bard, searching for the wounded.

“Lightly wounded remain at the temporary camp, severely wounded are sent back to Kennel Village, and later sent on to Saint Town.” Bard explained his arrangements to his senior, “Father Kaman is on his way, I’ve asked him to set up a medical post here. The sooner treatment starts, the greater the chances the wounded have of survival…”

Mason listened intently.

Compared to the battle itself, the clean-up work afterward was truly torturous. Just dealing with the wounded alone was enough to overwhelm anyone.

At the end of a day’s bloody battle, both the victors and the defeated gasped for breath in the darkness; those unable to move were left on the battlefield along with corpses, while lawless thieves took advantage of the night to rob the dead—these were all too common scenes.

The wounded of the Iron Peak County Military were unfortunate, yet fortunate.

...

Because at least someone cared about their lives and tried desperately to keep them alive.

From treating the wounded, Bard moved on to discuss the prisoners of the Terdon Tribe.

“Senior, you might not know yet,” Bard said softly. “South of the Panto River, there are more than two thousand prisoners from the Terdon Tribe waiting for us to deal with.”

Mason was shocked, “Two thousand prisoners? From the battle at the Panto River?”

“Yes, from the battle at the Panto River. It might even be more than two thousand, because only Tie Chi surrendered earlier, and there remain quite a few scattered soldiers from the Terdon Tribe in lower Iron Peak County.”

Mason was speechless.

Bard continued, “Moreover, whether Tie Chi really counts as prisoners is still up for debate. Because we haven’t effectively taken control of them. We left them on the south bank of the Panto River and then rushed to deal with the arsonists. Now that the arsonists are dealt with, what to do with Tie Chi has become the primary issue.”

Mason sighed deeply.

Bard then dropped another piece of significant news, “Earlier communication with Revodan was cut off, I couldn’t inform you in time—this battle, the New Reclamation Legion provided reinforcement troops.”

Mason felt dizzy and asked blankly, “Those Piaoqi Troops? Were they people from the New Reclamation Legion?”

Bard pondered and said, “As I see it, they don’t represent the official stance of the New Reclamation Legion.”

“What’s going on then?” Mason’s hair on his back stood up.

“Those people are…” Bard furrowed his brows slightly, “volunteers brought in by Colonel Bod. What exactly is going on, we’ll have to wait for Colonel Bod to come back. Whether those people have other demands, it’s still unknown.”

Mason thought it over and sighed deeply again.

“Then there’s the ‘Decapitation Order.'” Bard gazed at the battlefield and looked at Mason, “It’s the matter you saw just now.”

“Compared to that,” Mason said bitterly, “lightly punishing two thieves is trivial indeed.”

Bard shook his head, “I, on the other hand, think… that this last matter is the most important.”

“Why do you say that?” Mason was puzzled.

“The New Reclamation Legion, the prisoners of the Terdon Tribe… they are external forces, and external forces can’t break us. But the ‘Stolen Decapitations’ reflect something buried within us like a grenade, powerful enough to shatter us to pieces.”

Mason mulled over his junior’s words and fell silent again.

“I’ve already dealt with over thirty cases of ‘Stolen Decapitations.’ Executed seven people—not for stealing Terdon people’s heads but for taking heads from our own and falsifying achievements.”

Bard calmly stated the facts: “Lower Iron Peak County was destroyed by the Terdon people. What about Middle Iron Peak County? It was also severely damaged. This is the most severe issue. Not punishing those two farmers more harshly is because enough people have died already. Iron Peak County needs many things now, but fear is definitely not one of them.”

“We won,” Mason said somewhat sorrowfully, “but we also lost, we lost terribly.”

“No!” Bard’s tone grew serious, “You are mistaken.”

Mason looked up, puzzled.

“We did win,” Bard declared firmly. “We won the right to survive, and that’s the most critical thing.”

For a moment, Mason was stunned, then he broke into a smile.

He took a long breath, “Yes! We’ve won the right to live past tonight, we’ll deal with everything else tomorrow!”

“By the way,” Mason suddenly remembered someone, “where is Winters? He dumped this mess on us, where did he go?”

This time, it was Bard’s turn to sigh, “I don’t know.”

…

In the early morning, Colonel Gaisa returned to the temporary camp and immediately asked to see Winters.

He received the same answer, “We also don’t know where Captain Montaigne is.”

Where Winters was, probably only the arsonists knew.

…

Dawn, somewhere in Middle Iron Peak County.

“Herde Language Big Khan, there’s a river ahead!” an archer tub soldier reported breathlessly. “Herde Language It seems we’ve reached the river.”

The arsonist, equally out of breath, asked viciously, “Herde Language Pup… is that pup still behind us?”

The big archer tub soldier listened for a moment, swallowed, “Herde Language Seems like he didn’t catch up.”

Updat𝓮d fr𝙤m ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com.

“Herde Language Good, good, let’s rest for a moment.”

Four archer tub soldiers plus the arsonist, a total of five people, hid in the woods by the riverside to rest their horses.

One archer tub soldier, unable to bear his thirst, ran to the riverbank and started drinking fiercely. The big archer tub soldier—the guard leader scooped some water in his helmet and offered it to the arsonist.