Unknown Knight

The lord of Sajchi Fort, Ulusamainayan, was a shrewd and capable man. He was highly regarded by Saiga Khan and was his close confidant.

Since he was appointed as the lord of Sageche Fort eight years ago, he has experienced several raids by the Kudan army led by Voldratboye, as well as the two failed attacks of the Khugit Khanate on Kudan City. However, he was still able to keep a firm control over the fort and managed it well, which shows his ability.

Eight years ago, the former lord of Sagechi Castle died in the war between the Khanate and Sarand, and had no offspring. In order to become the lord of this place, Ulusamai sold most of the tribe's livestock and all the slaves to bribe Saiga Khan, and finally became the lord of Sagechi Castle.

This fort is an important military and commercial location, guarding the Great Snow Mountain. To the west, it overlooks the entire Kudan city, and to the east, it is a flat grassland to Achemol and even the royal city of Turga. It is of great strategic significance.

At the same time, this place is also an important route for East-West trade. High-value and high-profit commodities such as mineral salt, spices, furs, woolen cloth, and iron materials all circulate through here. It is a famous trading center on the mainland.

Although Lelag Fort, which also guards the Great Snow Mountain, can allow caravans to pass through, Lelag Fort is located in a remote area. If caravans want to pass through here, they often need to take a detour for three or four days. In addition, this road is blocked by heavy snow for half a year every year.

In addition, there is one more important point. On the Turbuk grassland outside Lelag Fort, there is a ferocious group of grassland bandits.

Speaking of this group of grassland bandits, it can be said to be the masterpiece of this Ulu Samainayan. Yes, this group of grassland bandits with a size of nearly 200 people was supported by this guy.

Back then, Urushamai had to use up almost all of his clan's property before he was able to obtain the territory of Sachiche Fort. This place was different from the original tribe. It was located in the steep mountains. Even if the grass on the entire hillside was removed, there would not be enough space to graze a few sheep. If one wanted to manage this place well, there was no other way but to set up checkpoints and collect fees.

To this end, Wurushamai put a lot of effort into this. He first blocked every narrow path leading up the mountain, sent more patrol cavalry, and set up two checkpoints on both sides of the fortress to ensure that every caravan coming here would pass through his checkpoint and would not slip through the net.

Then, the impoverished Urushamai was eager to recoup his investment, so he directly doubled the tax rate for passing caravans. As a result, this practice of exhausting the resources led to a sharp drop in the number of caravans passing through here, which was only 20% to 30% of the original amount, and many of them were duty-free caravans from Danayan in China.

After some investigation, he found out that many caravans could not bear the exploitation here and would rather take a detour of three or four days to trade through Lerag Fort than pass through here.

Seeing that his entire tribe was about to starve to death with him, this fellow came up with a sinister idea. He asked the idle young and strong men of the tribe to dress up as bandits who killed people and robbed caravans on the Turbuk grassland outside Lelag Fort. This not only blocked the trade route of Lelag Fort, but also found a way for the tribe members to eat, killing two birds with one stone.

Through this strategy, the trade route of Fort Sajiche slowly returned to its former prosperity. For this reason, Urushamai learned a lesson and set the tax rate only 30% higher than the original one. He had studied this tax rate carefully. The extra 30% could increase revenue without letting the caravans take the risk of taking a detour through Fort Lerag.

Not only that, but later on this fellow became more and more daring, and in the name of protecting merchants, he gave a flag with his family crest to every caravan that paid taxes, calling it "flag-raising". He claimed that any caravan with a flag would be protected, and at least the trade route from Sageche Fort to Achemol City would not be robbed by grassland bandits.

This forced many domestic merchant caravans under Na Yan's name to buy flags from him after several robberies, which was a disguised form of paying commercial taxes.

From then on, Wulusamainayan became rich and earned a lot of money by collecting money, and the whole tribe became more and more prosperous.

The key is that this guy knows how to be prepared for danger in times of peace, and understands that huge wealth needs matching military force to protect it. He did not squander or enjoy all the wealth he obtained with great effort, but used a considerable part of it to strengthen city defense and expand the army.

Thanks to his hard work, the walls of Sajiche Fort were raised and thickened, arrow towers were built at key locations, and he also set up two checkpoints with walled posts at the exits on the east and west sides.

Moreover, in addition to the more than 200 grassland bandits in secret, he also had more than 300 Kugit soldiers in public.

The combined strength of these troops is already very powerful for a fortress commander, and he is not short of money. His men are also well-equipped, and even many of the grassland bandits are wearing armor. With so many subordinates, Ulusamainayan became the most powerful Nayan except for Saiga Khan and several city lords in the country.

Especially in the past year or so, Ulusamainayan responded to the call of Saiga Khan and imposed heavy taxes on the caravans from the Territory of Aix, taking the opportunity to make a lot of money.

As a neighbor, he knew the strength of Aix-Land and always felt that the extra money was too hot to handle. In order to make up for the uneasiness in his heart, he focused on strengthening the defense of Kudan City on the one hand, and ordered an increase in the number of scout patrols in this direction from two to four times a day, one of which was a night patrol. Such a high frequency of patrols is unique among all the countries.

But it was of no use. Ulu Sanayan, who thought he was well prepared, believed that the only factors that would determine the outcome of a battle between two armies were the army, city defense, and weapons and equipment. However, he was unaware that there were also planning, cognition, intelligence, and even systems. It can only be said that the limitations of history blinded him and prevented him from seeing the impending failure.

The elite troops he had worked hard to train were, in Aix's eyes, just a group of feudal lords' armies with lax military discipline. It would not be an exaggeration to say that they were guerrillas. Except for the militia and some mercenary groups, all of Aix's troops were full-time professional troops.

These professional armies have strict military discipline, rigorous training, neat appearance, and close coordination. Except for their weapons and equipment which are not much more advanced than those of their contemporaries, in other aspects they are just like a modern professional army. This alone is enough to crush most of the so-called elite forces of this era.

Long before this operation, Aix had learned the pattern of the night patrols and reconnaissance cavalry of Fort Sageche through spies mixed in with the passing caravans, and then formulated a combat plan for night marches. They easily avoided the night patrols of Urushamai and secretly ambushed an elite force of 200 people near the first checkpoint.

At daybreak, this elite force suddenly blocked the gate of the outpost, and then used the narrow terrain to defend themselves, making it impossible for the troops in the outpost to break out despite several charges.

This suddenness completely confused Urushamai. In the morning, when Aix's large army pushed the assembled catapults up, he could not come up with any effective countermeasures except to send a large number of soldiers to the checkpoint.