"What's going on? This time, the entire grain collection team was wiped out, not a single one escaped?"
Inside the fortress of Bulgar City, Anwar Faris Nur spoke with an incredulous tone, "The war has been over for almost half a month, how can something like this still happen? Are these bandits too strong, or are you all just freeloaders?"
Anwar was specifically transferred from Moscow by Rostislav to be responsible for maintaining order in the Bulgar region and helping Adam stabilize his government.
The Prince believed that this Christian from Persia had excellent experience in governing islam regions, and entrusting him with this responsibility would certainly not be a problem.
Anwar indeed demonstrated his skill and capability. The various regions of Bulgar, which were initially forced to submit due to the Ross Army, gradually began to accept the Adam government's authority. The Adam government was finally able to gather supplies from various places to Bulgar City.
However, the countryside remained chaotic, with various rogue armies running rampant everywhere: bandits, resistors, and government forces intertwined.
But chaos is chaos. Neither Ross nor Bulgar had ever truly controlled the countryside anyway. As long as they could collect supplies, they didn't care whether the peasants lived or died.
The Ross people were very careful in their methods when collecting supplies. After being trained by Rostislav, there would certainly be no malicious massacres. They would ensure they only took things and didn't kill people.
As for women, the war in Bulgar produced so many widows. If these people wanted to live, didn't they only have the option of becoming prostitutes? Since you all have money, why don't you use that money to frequent them?
It was also for this reason that the Winter Army had a very comfortable time during this period. Besides going out daily to collect grain, they had food every day while staying in the barracks, and finding women was incredibly cheap. It was just a pity there wasn't much alcohol.
The general manager was very displeased about the news of the attack. Rostislav had just thought about leaving Bulgar, and then something like this happened. What was this? Was it meant to slap the Prince's face?
Everyone was accustomed to daily occurrences such as grain collection teams being attacked or officials being assassinated, but this time, the entire unit was annihilated, which was beyond everyone's imagination.
These resistances were all within an acceptable range, and it was for this reason that Rostislav believed Adam's strength was sufficient to take over the suppression and maintain high pressure on the Bulgar resistance forces.
But when this incident happened, it was completely different. Annihilating a grain collection team was a big deal. Each grain collection team had a scale of five hundred people, and there were dozens of personal guards holding the line, yet they were completely wiped out.
"These people call themselves the 'Sword of Justice,' Lord Anwar. They say their leader is Akad Khan, and they have always been causing us trouble, but we never thought these people would develop to this extent…"
The accused officer said with a hint of grievance. They really didn't expect such an organization to rise. It was truly beyond their expectations.
There were resistance organizations against the Ross people everywhere, but no one expected one to actually succeed and even annihilate a Ross grain collection team.
"What? What did you say? Akad? I remember didn't I receive three reports last week about eliminating this Khan? How did another Akad pop up."
Anwar got a headache whenever Akad was mentioned. He no longer remembered how many Akads he had eliminated. When he first took over the situation, there were rogue armies everywhere recruiting under the name of this missing Khan. He spent a lot of time suppressing these Akads, so how could there still be Akads now?
"Forget it, that's enough for now. I need to go see Lord Rostislav. Today is the day to convert the Great Mosque of Bulgar into a church, and I cannot be absent."
After speaking, Anwar picked up his overcoat and put it on, then walked out of the fortress and onto the streets of Bulgar.
Although the war had ended half a month ago, traces of the war could still be seen on the streets, such as women in black robes, unattended children, and Ross soldiers looking for fun in the city.
The streets of Bulgar were relatively calm, with no one starving to death, and no agitators. Everything seemed so peaceful.
But Anwar knew the situation outside the city walls was completely different. Even officials of the Adam government couldn't exercise their power without a large number of escorts.
This chaos was not due to the existence of some powerful resistance force, but because of disorder. Adam, relying on the power of the Ross people, carried out brutal purges in many areas of Bulgar, eliminating local lords and islam forces. However, eliminating these forces also led to a lack of grassroots control, and so various groups of people ran rampant everywhere.
In some areas, locals were secretly supporting those groups that attacked the Adam government and the Ross people. Under the cover of the locals, even the Ross Army couldn't catch anyone, and this kind of thing could only be resolved with time.
At the same time, this situation also led to Bulgar City's severe lack of understanding of the rural situation. In some respects, this was also a reason for the current chaos.
Anwar didn't pay much attention to these things, only heading to Bulgar's landmark building, the Great Mosque, escorted by guards.
When Anwar arrived there, he found that many people were already present.
Among them were not a few Bulgars, who were converts. The strict management of islam in the city for several years had completely disgusted these people, so why not convert? What's the harm in trying?
Adam and Rostislav stood together, watching Bishop Tiberius direct workers and believers to remove the islam symbols from the temple. Anwar then quietly moved to his designated position while everyone was watching that scene, silently witnessing it all.
As the cross was placed on the temple's great dome, a cheer erupted from the crowd. They were all excited by this, and Bishop Tiberius even more so, because he had completed his mission of bringing Bulgar under the authority of Christianity.
As for those Bulgar citizens who had not converted, they watched with cold eyes. Although they had not converted, it was only out of fear of the divine. They had no opinion on the transformation of these temples, which had once acted recklessly in the name of the divine, and some even applauded.
Of course, the Christians did not abolish all the mosques in the city. Everyone understood the principle of gradual progress. Taking too big a step could lead to problems, and nothing should be too extreme.
As the ceremony concluded, the crowd dispersed. It was at this moment that Anwar quietly approached Rostislav and told him what had happened outside the city, the news of the grain collection team being completely wiped out.
This news made Rostislav's face twitch, looking somewhat unpleasant, but then he quickly returned to normal, as if the previous scene was false. This made Anwar sigh, marveling at how much better the Prince had become at hiding his emotions.
Then Rostislav asked him to withdraw. For the Moscow Prince, this news really came at the wrong time. He had judged the situation in Bulgar to be increasingly stable and decided to begin the process of the entire army leaving Bulgar. But then, a day later, something like this happened again. This was clearly a slap in his face.
However, despite the embarrassment, the matter still needed to be resolved. Rostislav planned to discuss this with Adam afterward. Retreating the troops was a must, but it seemed there were more things to discuss regarding Bulgar before leaving.
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