Chapter 21: Mara Town
With only a crude map and a couple of vague memories to rely on, Owen gritted his teeth and set off with the caravan.
The only good thing about the Northland border was that there was no need to build roads. The terrain was flat, so all they had to do was find the right direction and keep going. However, it was also easy to get lost. Once they lost their bearings, they wouldn’t even know where they were, because this damned place had no landmarks.
If Owen hadn’t exchanged for a special item from the system, he wouldn’t have dared to leave the castle. He wasn’t even sure if he could find his way back.
Fortunately, this compass-like item worked quite well. It had two sides, yin and yang, which could be separated. After separation, they would always point towards each other’s location. Therefore, as long as one side of the compass remained in the castle, he wouldn’t be afraid of losing his way home.
Along the way, Owen stubbornly tried to improve the simple, line-drawn map, only to find that he had overestimated his abilities.
Although he always overestimated his abilities, this time the blow was even greater because there was no way to start.
As far as the eye could see, there was only grass. Forget about identifiable terrain features like rivers and hills, there weren’t even any large trees or rocks. How could he mark a blank sheet of paper?
Helpless, Owen could only give up on this idea for now. However, he decided that if his territory expanded in the future, he would definitely build a straight road.
They encountered some wild beasts and bandits on the road, but faced with forty professional soldiers, ten of whom were cuirassiers, no one was foolish enough to attack. Even when passing through noble territories, the local lords would offer gifts to express their goodwill, fearing that this group would turn around and wipe them out.
This was not a joke. Northland nobles lacked foundation. There were very few like the Hydra family who could occupy an abandoned ancient castle. Most Northland lords lived in earthen and wooden forts, which became like pigpens when it rained. Coupled with their habit of defecating and urinating everywhere, it was truly a fragrant experience.
As for soldiers, they could only maintain a force of ten to twenty men at most, and they weren’t even professional soldiers. They couldn’t possibly defeat the elite soldiers under Owen’s command.
So, if a fight really broke out, it would be a sure win for Owen. The enemy wouldn’t even have a place to escape.
There was no other way. In this desolate place like the Northland, there was nowhere to flee to if they lost their territory. Otherwise, Owen wouldn’t have only encountered the Ha Rui Trading Company once and a group of starving bandits in the past year.
Fortunately, Owen wasn’t interested in them at all. There was simply no profit to be made. Even if he conquered them, the land would require more manpower and resources to yield returns. The payback period for this investment would be about half a generation. Therefore, without any special output, conquering more territories would only be a burden.
However, with the appearance of noble territories, Owen gradually learned the trick to reading the map. He felt more confident knowing that he wasn’t going in the wrong direction.
Although the map looked crude, it was very precious in the Northland border. If the Hydra family didn’t have the help of the Ha Rui Trading Company, they wouldn’t have been able to possess it.
From the map, it could be seen that the closer they got to the Imperial border, the more lords there were.
Based on the density of the map, they would pass by two or three Northland noble territories within a day’s journey. This was unimaginable in the area where Owen’s territory was located, as it would take two days to reach his nearest neighbor.
This was mainly because the Northland border nobles were like seeds scattered by the Empire. The farther out they were, the greater the distance between them. Only a few ambitious Northland border nobles would choose to go deeper into the Northland to occupy more land. Most Northland border nobles remained rational and chose to gather along the Empire’s border.
With the Imperial border troops behind them and convenient access for Imperial merchants, they naturally developed faster than the lords who went deeper into the Northland.
However, because they were so close to each other and there was competition for profits, conflicts and friction were inevitable. Various overt and covert struggles would consume a lot of energy, and it was difficult to say whether it was good or bad.
But this was precisely what the Empire wanted to see. The fragmented Northland border nobles were easy to control, but if they united, they would become a threat, no matter how small. Therefore, the Empire often instigated conflicts among them.
This didn’t affect Owen much because his territory was too far from the Imperial border. Even if they rode non-stop, it would take several days to reach. Moreover, the surrounding area was all wasteland. The nobles within the Empire wouldn’t think of attacking him unless they were out of their minds.
Owen’s destination for this trip wasn’t the several large towns near the Imperial border, where most of the Northland’s wealth was concentrated and where Imperial nobles reaped the profits of the Northland border. He was only going to buy some serfs, so there was no need to go there.
Besides, based on the many novels he had read, if he, as the protagonist, dared to go near such a place, he would definitely offend the descendant of some Imperial nobleman due to various reasons, and then be targeted and hunted down. Although the opponent would eventually lose to the protagonist’s halo and be countered and humiliated by him, he wasn’t going to look for trouble when he had a perfectly good farm to tend to. Had he finished all the work in the territory? Or was Maya no longer fun to be with?
Therefore, Owen’s destination was Mara Town, located in the middle of the Northland border. It was one of the transit points connecting the north and south, only three to five days’ journey from his territory.
The Northland border was shaped like a fan, and transit points like this were like the ribs of the fan, allowing goods to flow between the north and south.
Because there was more than one such transit point, although they were important, they weren’t that crucial. This resulted in less intense competition for profits and naturally wouldn’t attract big players. The risks were much lower. At least with the strength Owen currently displayed, he only received goodwill. Whether it was the guards in Mara Town who liked to extort money or the bandit scouts who came here looking for prey, they all learned to smile when they saw Owen’s队伍.
Owen was not surprised by this. He looked at this place that had only appeared twice in his memory.
Mara Town wasn’t small, but the permanent population was only about three hundred people. Because most of the people here were herders, they naturally occupied a much larger area.
Mara Town’s location was quite advantageous. Not only was it one of the transit points connecting the north and south, but the water and grass here were also quite good, suitable for grazing. Therefore, Viscount Mara was one of the few lords who could form a sizable cavalry force.
The problem was that there were also differences between cavalry forces. When Owen entered the town, he saw the cavalry of Mara Town. They were mostly herders who had transitioned into soldiers. They had good horsemanship and were skilled with scimitars, but their combat effectiveness was somewhat lacking. They were fine against incompetent bandits or the half-baked soldiers of other lords, but if they faced the cuirassiers under Owen’s command, even if they had twice the number, they would definitely lose.
After all, when a scimitar less than three feet long faced a lance more than two meters long, when crude leather armor faced refined chest armor, when freedom and looseness faced discipline and training, it was obvious who would win and who would lose.
Training, equipment, morale, and coordination – all of these were vastly different. Without sufficient numbers, there was no way to bridge the gap between them.
Moreover, the other troops under Owen’s command were not to be trifled with either. Spearmen, swordsmen, archers – in formation, even a small number of cavalry wouldn’t dare to charge, at least not the light cavalry of Mara Town.
