The overall quality of the northern refugees who came to Isenpol was slightly higher, and artisans and young and strong laborers were continuously absorbed by town workshops and surrounding territories. Moreover, under the call of Rigolav and another square-flag knight, many lords began to try their best to absorb refugees and share the pressure. The world is not always stable. Large-scale wars break out every thirty years on average, and small-scale wars occur every three to five years. Invasion by foreign tribes in the wilderness, fighting between lords, and looting by bandits are things that happen every year and cannot even be considered wars. Therefore, not every noble is a fool, especially the border lords who have experienced natural disasters and man-made tragedies, they all have a sense of crisis. The gathering of refugees could not threaten Isenbol, a sturdy town with stone walls, but for the knights' territory surrounded by only wooden walls and militia, it was a bomb that could explode at any time. But as long as the orcs' invasion continues, the influx of refugees will not stop. Isenpol is located at the southernmost tip of the Earldom of Fruilov, and the situation there is relatively good. Even with the World Tree Avenue highway, most of the refugees who do not have horse-drawn carriages or animal power still cannot walk so far. In the important military town of Varanger further north, and near the Earldom's main city, Frovald, there were at least 50,000 refugees who could not be accommodated. Rigolav's efforts were not in vain, at least the total number of refugees did not increase further.
But until now, there are still nearly 10,000 refugees gathered in the northern suburbs of Isenpol. The presence of these refugees has seriously affected the public security, commerce and sanitary environment of Isenbol. The tents in the refugee camp almost blocked the road leading to the north bridge. The docks were full of coolies looking for work and the elderly and weak begging for money. Theft, robbery and murder were increasing day by day. To this end, Tariq Fruilov made a decision to expel these refugees outside the western outpost. That's right, not heading north, nor heading east to the lower reaches of the Anzeno River, but to the wilderness outside the western watchtower. Because driving them northward would not only block the Isenbol Bridge, but the refugees would also slowly return after a while. The lower reaches of the Anzeno River are the largest agricultural area in the entire Earldom of Fruilov. There are tens of thousands of hectares of fertile arable land on both sides of the river, as well as developed fisheries and river transportation. The influx of refugees will cause great damage to the production and trade here, and even affect the food supply of Isenpol. Outside the western watchtower, there are only deep mountains and wilderness, with almost no human habitation. On one side is the cliff of a magnificent barrier, on the other side is the steep Borokbak Mountains, and two hundred miles away is the Bak Pass, which is like a huge canyon with a severed head. There is no need to worry about the refugees running away. Lord Tariq's intentions were obvious. He drove these refugees into the wilderness and waited for them to starve to death or turn into rebels. Not only did he solve the refugee problem in Isenbol, but he also earned a lot of military merit. Simply perfect. Only traditional nobles like Rigolav would stand up and sing a different tune, hypocritically promoting chivalrous ethics. But in the blink of an eye, he took the lead in gathering troops and became a pioneer in driving out refugees, and for a time he became a laughing stock in the aristocratic circle of Isenpol. The four knight territories of the Petukhov family are all at the foot of the mountain south of Isenbol, but the other three are not close to the World Tree Avenue, and there are several knight territories in front of them to block them, so there is no worry about invasion by refugees. Rigolav assembled the armed forces of the three old knight territories of his family and recruited the knights of the corner flags who were willing to obey him. He formed a total force of one thousand people and took the lead in participating in the expulsion of the refugees. There were three other bannermen nearby, as well as some small knight lords who were wandering around, similar to him. Even some proletarian knights, mercenary groups and slave traders brought their own troops to get a piece of the pie.
Along the way, Rigolav tried his best to maintain order in the army, prepared a large amount of food, set up disaster relief points along the way, distributed food, and comforted the refugees. His idea was very simple. If he couldn't stop Lord Tariq's decision, he would try his best to complete it. From a human perspective, Lord Tariq's decision was too cruel, but from a feudal ruler's perspective, Lord Tariq's decision was indisputable. The tide of refugees is like a cancer growing on the body. If it is not dealt with, it will only grow bigger and bigger, and eventually endanger lives. If it can't heal on its own, then you have to reluctantly have it removed. At the lords' meeting held in Isenpol, Tariq's rebuttal left Rigolav, who strongly opposed the decision, speechless. "Do you have any better idea?" Of course there are better ways. The food stored in Isenbol is more than enough to feed these ten thousand people. If his proposal is followed and each knight territory absorbs hundreds of people, the refugees will disappear in an instant. But this is pure empty talk. Only one-third of the entire Isenbol support his lord, and even fewer are willing to take actual action. Besides, not all the refugees were young and strong laborers, there were also many old and weak people, why would they take these burdens back? Even Rigolav himself didn't want them. He simply couldn't handle this problem on his own. Therefore, he could only respond positively to this decision and try his best to use his influence to send the refugees into the wilderness to fend for themselves instead of causing disaster. He can only choose one side between the lives of the refugees and the lives of his subjects. Unfortunately, some people were secretly creating panic and planning riots among the refugee groups. On the surface, the other troops did not treat the refugees as human beings at all, just like they were driving away a group of rats. There were even some impatient lords who led their troops to attack the refugee groups and rained arrows on them. The large group of refugees ultimately failed to get out of the Western Watchtower as they had hoped. A riot broke out within a short distance of sixty miles, and the group eventually split into several groups, which attacked the villages on both sides of the World Tree Avenue. For a moment, the entire western part of Isenpol fell into a quagmire of chaos! Rigolav could only try his best to successfully drive one group of refugees out of the western sentry tower, and then he personally stationed at the western sentry tower to gather and subdue the refugees who were running around as much as possible. In this 500 square kilometer land, every village, every forest, and every valley has become a paradise for the army and mobs, and a hell for the weak. The unarmed mobs could not defeat the fully armed lord's army, nor did they dare to attack the heavily guarded knight's territory, so they could only vent their anger on the small refugee camps and natural villages. Some bandit gangs took the opportunity to grow in power, or simply joined the lord's army. Transform yourself into a guardian of order and join this killing spree. This is the way the world works, almost no different from the rules of the wilderness. Big fish eat small fish, small fish eat shrimps. The weak are bullied by the powerful. It is rare for the weak to truly resist the powerful, but there are countless people who hold resentment and inflict their anger on the weaker ones. The construction of the manor in the Solovy Knight Territory had to be suspended, and instead, the construction of village defense facilities was started to prepare for an attack.