Chapter 173 Conflict
Everything went just as Roland had planned. Through the early warning network that Roland had set up at the border of the controlled area, when the first small force quietly entered Roland's territory, Roland discovered their presence.

However, before Roland could mobilize his troops, he discovered another invading force in another direction.

Compared to the former who only sent a small force of less than a hundred people to infiltrate, the latter was very bold and directly sent a force of more than 5,000 soldiers to kill in.

Although more than 4,000 of the 5,000 soldiers were unarmored, thin militiamen, they were no more of a threat than the squad of 100 men.

Roland can defeat them all by himself, but he may not be able to wipe them out completely.

After thinking for a while, Roland made a plan.

The former team of 100 was handled by Hela and her men, while the latter was handled by Roland himself.

Following Roland's order, all the soldiers in the camp moved in response.

A total of 8,000 soldiers, under the leadership of officers at all levels, put on golden armor, picked up weapons, quickly formed into military formations, and poured out of the exit of the military camp in an orderly manner. Under the leadership of Roland, they trampled on the broad bluestone road and marched quickly into the distance.

Since Roland did not hide the signs of mobilizing the army, the workers at the busy construction sites also saw neat and uniform military formations galloping across the bluestone roads they were building.

After hearing the orderly sound of footsteps, a worker stopped his work, wiped the sweat from his face, and looked up at the golden soldiers running on the road nearby.

He looked a little fearful, and whispered to his companion who had also stopped beside him.

"Is this going to be another war? I remember the Green Tide was stopped?"

"I heard from the people who escaped a few days ago that they were indeed stopped. Moreover, they shouldn't be heading in this direction to fight the Green Tide, right?"

His companion wiped the sweat from his face, responded, licked his dry lips, looked at the soldiers who gradually disappeared from his sight, and continued.

"Running so fast."

"Who are you going to fight?"

The worker took a sip of water, then continued working while discussing with him in a low voice.

"Who knows? Maybe they will fight with other knights. Don't worry about it. Today's work is done. Let's quickly exchange all the food coupons for food. If the wizard loses and the new knight is not a good person, we will run away."

A companion nearby looked around, approached the worker, and reminded him in a low voice.

Hearing his companion's words, the worker muttered to himself as he worked skillfully.

"Then let the wizard master win. At least the wizard master is willing to give us a bite of food."

While the workers were whispering to their companions, on the other side of the construction site, a worker who was also working hard looked up at them, with a hint of malice in his eyes.

Not far away, the guards responsible for maintaining order at the construction site were watching him silently.

Although Roland and Hela carried out a major cleanup of Old Qi at the beginning and killed all the evil forces that committed crimes, a lot of refugees also poured in from the outside world in the past few months. Among these refugees, although most of them integrated into the new order of Old Qi very harmoniously, there are always some guys who harbor malicious intentions and produce negative emotions.

Since they were all ordinary people, Roland didn't have the time to check them one by one, but it wouldn't be a good idea to just kill them all. After all, they were just dissatisfied and hadn't started to do evil yet.

Therefore, although it was unclear what their situation was, Roland marked them all and put them on the key monitoring list.

This time, in addition to training the troops, they were also setting traps for them.

Under the surveillance of the guards, as long as they thought that Roland and Hela were gone and no one cared about Jiuqi, they would be killed if they dared to cause trouble. Of course, if they didn't cause trouble, nothing would happen. Although the guards of Jiuqi did not receive high-intensity training in the military camp, they only had some very basic training, but it was more than enough to deal with ordinary people.

In the shade of the woods, a lightly armored officer was loudly directing his men to set up camp.

Under his constant scolding, the forcibly conscripted militia could only move slowly, and in a chaotic mess, they barely completed the camping.

The officer looked at the messy camp with some annoyance, cursed a few words, then whipped an unlucky militiaman a few times before returning to his own camp.

After all, they were just ordinary militiamen who were temporarily recruited. Even if they tried their best to select young and strong men, in Donnar's current situation, even the young and strong men were mostly pale and thin, and looked weak. It was already very good if they could not fall behind.

As for why not attacking immediately?

The officer also wanted to, but given the quality of these militiamen, if they didn't rest, they would probably collapse as soon as a fight broke out.

After cooking on the spot and having a hearty meal, the troops' low morale recovered a little.

However, looking at the scorching sun at noon, even though the servants kept fanning him to cool down, the officer still felt uncomfortable and hot, and the sweat on his forehead never stopped.

Or, should we wait until the afternoon when it’s not so hot before continuing our march?

As if noticing the officer's hesitation, he came over with a trusted aide behind him and spoke quietly beside him.

"Sir, these militiamen have lost their spirits under the scorching sun. If we march now, some of them might die of the sun. In my opinion, why not wait until it's cooler before continuing the march?"

"Um"

The officer glanced at his confidant, then glanced at the militiamen lying together in the barracks.

"Indeed, in order to avoid unnecessary casualties, let's postpone the march."

"Your Excellency is truly kind-hearted."

"Yes, yes, yes, your Excellency really loves his soldiers."

Listening to the flattery from his confidants around him, the officer laughed happily, then turned around without hesitation and returned to his tent.

It was really hard to stand under such a scorching sun.

Not far away, Roland watched the officer return to the tent. Hearing their entire conversation, he was stunned.

No, he is a second-level knight after all, how can he not endure the heat?

Roland had originally planned to set up an ambush on their march, but he didn't expect him to just do it directly.

Roland shook his head speechlessly, then gave the order to mobilize his troops.

In that case, let's take the initiative to attack.

Anyway, except for a second-level knight and a few first-level knights, the rest are just worthless and pose no threat.

(End of this chapter)