Iron Harvest: When Farming Becomes Conquest-Chapter 255 - 24: Can’t Fight Anymore!

In the moment the Judgement Knight charged in,

Kate launched a full-scale offensive.

They only had this one chance.

Kate was gambling!

Gambling that he could win!

Although his military acumen was not as high as Roman’s, he was resolute.

All the Shattered Archers pressed forward!

The Shattered Archers were anxious.

They were searching for Roman’s trace, looking for a chance to strike a fatal blow.

But they were disappointed, for they did not find him.

Because Roman wasn’t on the battlefield.

He certainly wasn’t afraid of a single Shattered Archer.

But with forty of them, even a slight chance was too risky to expose himself to the Shattered Archers’ arrow points.

Now, hearing Kate’s command, the Shattered Archers could only surge forward en masse.

Shattered Archers were a ranged troop, but they were also Conquest Knights.

Qualified Shattered Archers were at least third-tier Knights, cultivated with special resources.

Slaughter!

A fierce slaughter!

The sky and the drizzle bore witness to the carnage in that wilderness.

A bloody scene, rare in the last century, took place.

Bodies kept falling.

Blood pooled into rivers.

The Judgement Knights rolled in the mud, staining their armor black and red.

The Choir’s nuns screamed until they were hoarse and exhausted, eventually fainting.

Blood Salt Knight Flant fought bloodily, desperately pushing forward.

Bishop Merlad led the Believer Army in a bloody battle on the sands, ultimately dying.

Sister Mapple, the head nun, reached out with a pale, cold hand to take the rain-soaked flag of All Gods...

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Those scenes faded and blurred...

Shouts, clashes of arms, the slanting rain, all disappeared like smoke...

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Eventually forming numbers composed of names on that pristine register.

Roman stared at those numbers, seeing only the glaring red.

dead.

wounded.

They won, but it was a Pyrrhic victory.

Roman closed his eyes in deep sorrow, wishing they had never fought this battle.

But war is beyond one’s control.

Not just the beginning of a war.

But also the process of it.

Once a war begins, no one can control it.

War is like unleashing a dangerous beast with one’s own hands.

Who knows what the beast might do?

It is not a tame pet; war devours people, its teeth crammed with fresh, red flesh and stark white bone fragments.

In war, people often can’t help themselves.

Roman thought he could win.

And, indeed, he did, but victory came at the cost of blood.

But he hoped to minimize the losses, so by feigning defeat, he crushed most of the rebel forces and thought he had secured victory.

Roman thought the Judgement Knights and Shattered Archers wouldn’t launch a suicidal attack!

Without the cover of expendable troops!

How could the Conquest Knights dare to take such a risk?

It made no sense!

Why couldn’t everyone just pretend to fight another round, have the Conscript Army lose, and then retreat?

Have you all gone mad?

I’m already throwing a punch right to your face!

After taking this punch, shouldn’t you just scurry away defeated?

Why insist on a suicidal charge?

The result was that Kate thought there was hope to win and chose to gamble everything. But the reality was he couldn’t win at all.

And once all-in, the battlefield became uncontrollable.

In that situation, who could stop? Who would dare to stop?

Roman regretted.

Kate regretted too.

But they both had to swallow the bitter fruit they had brewed themselves.

It took Roman three full days to clean up the battlefield.

During this time, Roman encountered rows and rows of bodies.

He suddenly felt intense regret and fear.

No more fighting!

If they fought any more, there would be no one left!

If that were the case, who would support him in the future?

Farmers?

Farmers wouldn’t do, as they weren’t qualified to support him now.

Craftsmen?

Craftsmen wouldn’t work either, as they also lacked qualification.

Only the army was his foundation!

Only the army was his greatest supporter!

That sentiment was inexplicable yet intense, because he knew it was true.

They really couldn’t keep fighting!

If they were all to die, how would he proceed with his strategic plans?

After much agony, Roman realized his force was still insufficient.

...

This war ended in the first month of spring.

But for the following ten days, half of Origin City was in a standstill.

Because there were too many matters to deal with after the war.

So many that Roman had stopped both schools and military camps,

Letting those children do what they could.

While Nillie and her group assisted him in handling state affairs.

All the surviving soldiers tended to the wounded.

Finally, Roman drew up this list of casualties and all gains.

A total of captives included—

Believer Army: 3634, Mercenary Army: 1243, Beixites: 424, Nuns: 478, Priests: 263, Free Riders: 245, Oath Riders: 131.

war horses seized, other supplies not counted.

This is the basic unit.

Next is the high-ranking unit.

Shattered Archers: 17, Judgement Knights: 11, Blood Salt Knight Flant: 1, Riptide second son Kate: 1.

Broken Longbows: 31, Mountain Copper Plate Armor: 30.

Other military supplies not counted.

...

An army of ten thousand was entirely annihilated, carrying not a few materials, which also fulfilled some of Roman’s needs.

After all, more than six thousand people were captured, including over six hundred war horses.

Most were from the Oath Riders and the Free Riders, who didn’t escape because they were surrounded, and the scene was chaotic.

These people really consumed a tremendous amount of food.

The basic unit captives could only eat two meals a day.

The high-ranking captives, even when shackled, were only provided with one meal a day by Roman, and it was coarse grain.

The rebel army truly brought out Roman’s psychological shadow.

He absolutely couldn’t let them be fed to the full.

Once well-fed, any slight disturbance would be unbearable for him.

In a fury, he would undoubtedly slaughter these bastards!

In fact, when Roman saw the bodies of his own soldiers, he was instantly driven by this thought.

He was always ruthless.

Whether they were Barons of the Kant Territory or the Conquest Knights of the nobility coalition.

After being captured, they were either crippled or killed.

He must slaughter these bastards! freēwēbηovel.c૦m

Especially Kate!

Tearing him to pieces wouldn’t be enough!

But in the end, Seth managed to dissuade Roman.

He couldn’t kill them!

How would he make money if he killed them?

Roman had suffered too much this time.

Ultimately, his foundation was still unstable; he needed to continue developing.

But for development, he couldn’t do without various resources.

This inevitably relied on the rules of the Nobles.

Roman planned to have Gael redeem Kate with one hundred thousand Gold Coins.

Judgement Knights should be redeemed by the Court Church personnel, five thousand Gold Coins each.

Fewer for Shattered Archers, three thousand would suffice, considering it a favor to Alster.

Blood Salt Knight Flant also had to be redeemed by Beixites, priced at ten thousand Gold Coins.

While waiting for responses from Riptide and the Church Court, Roman hastened to recover his strength.

He didn’t care about the influence caused by this battle called "Spring Rain."

In a pyramid made up of nobility classes,

Roman’s territory size was roughly below average.

But his power was considered above average, second only to a Grand Duke.

Otherwise, Roman wouldn’t have confidently claimed to give them a punch before deploying troops.

He truly had that capability.

He just hadn’t expected the war to spiral out of control.

On this land, where Nobles savagely expanded, status was essentially forged through battles.

This "Spring Rain Battle" had proven Roman’s position as the River Valley King.

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PS: Only two Chapters today, a small group was created, entry method detailed in the introduction.