Chapter 351: Chaos in the Territory

"With more people filling the territory, maintaining public order has indeed become a challenge."

Along the main road, Ronin rode his warhorse, arriving at Tri-Union Town under Wilson's escort.

This settlement, formed by the merger of the original Green Bamboo, Purple Fruit, and Grey Soil villages, now boasted a population of over twelve thousand people.

Among them, migrants accounted for nearly ninety-two percent.

"Knight Horhn was originally fully absorbed in the sericulture affairs, but faced with one conflict after another, he had no choice but to lead men to handle them. Later, when Mage Elrond found out, he ordered Knight Rigg to station his men in Grey Soil Village."

Ronin's brow furrowed slightly.

In the face of a skyrocketing population, the territory's guards had not kept pace in numbers, making a temporary period of chaos quite normal.

However, these disturbances were confined entirely to the lower rungs; to say nothing of a noble like Ronin, even ordinary professional knights like Juwitt were hardly affected.

"What are they clashing over?"

Ronin asked, "Fighting for food? Or squabbling over lodging?"

"Many of the minor skirmishes are just that."

Wilson explained, "But there was a massive clash involving over a hundred people, and that was because two factions were forming gangs to fight over territory."

Ronin found it somewhat difficult to comprehend.

The entire Northern Wu Territory belonged to him, so what territory were these people fighting over?

Furthermore, to organize a grand conflict of over a hundred people meant that blood must have been spilled.

His interest was piqued. "Give me a detailed account of this conflict."

Following Wilson's briefing, Ronin came to understand the full sequence of events.

To begin with, these people all belonged to Wiggins' batch, and upon interrogation, it was revealed that the ringleaders of the unrest were convicts serving prison sentences.

Upon arriving in the Northern Wu Territory, seeing that the officials here were easygoing and left them alone as long as their work was done, they began to "recruit underlings."

As their numbers grew, they used threats and intimidation to secure more comfortable and spacious quarters, and there were even instances of them forcefully taking women.

Ultimately, the two factions could no longer tolerate each other and a conflict erupted, which finally alerted Horhn and the others.

Although the matter was swiftly suppressed, Elrond did not execute the ringleaders; instead, after a public flogging, he broke them up, distributed them to other towns, and placed them under strict surveillance.

"Truly worthy of a grand physician of the Light attribute."

Ronin sighed, "Elrond is still far too merciful."

"During the time you were away, Mage Elrond saved many lives. There were those on the brink of death from injuries while clearing land, and women enduring difficult labors; everyone holds him in high esteem."

"Saving people is a virtue, but mercy to the wicked is cruelty to the ordinary people who keep to the laws."

As they spoke, they arrived at the square of Grey Soil Village, where a group of men could be seen training in the distance.

As the site of the kaolin clay vein, this place gathered the largest labor force in Tri-Union Town, and consequently, its defense requirements were the heaviest.

"My Lord, that man over there is Knight Rigg Hodge. He and Sim are training the guard forces of Grey Soil Village together."

Wilson pointed toward a tall, heavily-built middle-aged man with short brown hair and a face marked by the weathering of time.

It was said that his ancestors were once anointed honorary knights, but the family had since fallen into ruin.

Ronin dismounted and walked over; as one of the few Bronze Knights in the territory, he had made a point to come and meet him.

"Rigg Hodge."

The sudden shout interrupted the men's training.

The weathered middle-aged knight turned around, wondering who was calling his name, but when his eyes fell upon Ronin, he did not recognize the face.

Just then, Sim called out excitedly, "My Lord, you have returned!"

Only then did Rigg notice Ronin's hair color. Feeling a surge of excitement mixed with deep constraint, he stepped forward to greet him, "My Lord, please give your command."

He had come to the Northern Wu Territory precisely because he heard it lacked manpower, believing there was an opportunity here to restore his family's honor.

Yet, having fallen into poverty by middle age, he lacked the composure of men like Rhys or Yusef when facing nobility.

Ronin glanced over at the thirty or forty guards nearby. "How is the training going?"

"Following Sim's suggestion, we are using the methods you once employed to train the discipline of these guards. The progress is quite good so far."

Sim added, "We practice discipline in the morning, and close-quarters combat and swordsmanship sparring in the afternoon."

Ronin nodded, gesturing for the two of them to lead the squad in a demonstration.

Subjected to a surprise inspection by the Lord himself, not only Rigg and Sim, but everyone grew nervous, and with nervousness came mistakes—a completely natural occurrence.

Ronin did not press the matter, offering only words of encouragement.

Afterward, he tested Rigg's strength.

Truth be told, despite being a Bronze Knight, the man's combat proficiency was not particularly high, at least far weaker than Galier's.

"While training others, do not let your own cultivation fall behind," Ronin reminded him.

Rigg felt a tinge of bitterness in his heart. In the bout just now, he had not fully unleashed himself, partly due to the constraining psychological pressure of facing his lord, and partly because he feared harming him.

What he had not expected, however, was that Ronin would crush him so effortlessly. It turned out the rumors in the outside world were true, without the slightest exaggeration.

Ronin unaware of these thoughts, offered a few more encouraging words before adding, "I heard from Wilson that the ringleaders of the last riot are still being monitored by you here in Grey Soil Village."

"Yes, My Lord. They are currently assigned to mine in the quarry, and we monitor them daily. If there is any further movement, we will absolutely detect it immediately."

"Let's go, take me to see them."

Led by Rigg and Sim, Ronin arrived at the kaolin clay quarry.

Today, a vast number of people were toiling here; after all, porcelain production involved numerous steps, and the first two processes of extraction and refining were highly time-consuming and labor-intensive.

At this moment in the quarry, most of the workers were laboring away, while only a small faction sat resting.

Ronin did not exploit the workers like the Borand bandits did; he believed in sustainability and refused to drain the pond to catch the fish.

Provided these workers guaranteed their daily quota of work, appropriate rest was permitted.

Perhaps arriving at an inopportune moment, or perhaps at the perfect time, two groups resting in clusters of three to five were pushing and shoving one another, drawing a crowd of onlookers.

However, having more or less heard of the troublemakers' reputations and backgrounds, no one stepped forward to intervene.

Arriving on the scene, Rigg and Sim saw this display, and their faces turned pale with rage.

Just moments ago they had guaranteed that nothing would go wrong, never expecting trouble to brew so quickly, and to be caught red-handed by the Lord himself.

"Jerome, Moore!"

Rigg bellowed, unleashing a shockwave of battle qi that instantly dispersed the two brawling crowds.

"What do you think you are doing?"

The scattered men scrambled to their feet in panic, trembling all over, completely stripped of their arrogant and domineering postures.

They wore one face for ordinary folk and entirely another when facing the territory's knights or officials.

"My Lord!"

Rigg and Sim turned to look at Ronin with great difficulty, yet they failed to detect much anger upon his face.

Ronin let out a cold laugh. "A dog really cannot change its habit of eating filth, it seems. Elrond gave you an opportunity to reform, but unfortunately, you failed to grasp it."

Jerome and Moor quietly lifted their eyes to regard the young man before them.

They did not know Rongning, but from those words and from Reg’s demeanor, they understood this young man held an extraordinary status.

Beside them, Wilson had already caught Rongning’s meaning. “My Lord, are you going to kill them?”

“Organizing and inciting brawls resulting in multiple deaths shall be prosecuted as intentional homicide. For such grave offenses, the organizers and principal participants shall be sentenced to death.”

Rongning spoke calmly, then shook his head slightly, departing the mine with a trace of regret.

Too many people—always harder to handle.

“Mr. Wilson, what did His Lordship mean?”

Reg stared at Rongning’s retreating back. Since joining the Ubei domain, he had never taken a life himself, and such matters still stirred unease within him.

“The Lord made it perfectly clear: these two ringleaders, responsible for multiple deaths, must be executed.”

He glanced at Jerome and Moor. The Magus Lord had offered them a chance—they had failed to seize it.

“Understood.”

Reg drew a deep breath.

Now he understood: this seemingly gentle young lord was a man who could order death without a flicker of expression.

He drew his longsword and stepped toward Jerome and Moor. Only then did they realize death was upon them; they fell to their knees, begging for mercy, just as they had before.

But this time, the punishment had been decreed by the Lord himself—no plea, no intercession, would avail. (End of Chapter)