Blue Sword

"Where are you going?"

"Hessingen."

"Oh, I'm going to Constance." The chubby businessman pressed his hat. "In this damn war, the ticket price from Mingxing City to Constance has actually increased so much."

"Are you okay?" Ask smiled and said, "Safety is important after all. If it didn't have connections in Swabia and Bavaria, this team wouldn't dare to do cross-border passenger transportation, right?"

"I hope we don't suffer a military disaster, otherwise I'm really sorry for the high fare I paid." The businessman naturally understood what he meant. Recently, the empire has been in chaos, and the soldiers he encountered were all unreasonable.

It's okay to collect some tolls, but you're afraid that the other party will suspect that you are rich and kill people and steal money. That's not worth the loss.

Since he was going to the Principality of Swabia this time, Aske found a well-connected private team.

Due to the narrow carriage and the large number of people, living space was very inconvenient, so the girls could only stay in the fire island while he carried the ancient books outside.

The convoy was swaying and bumping along the way. This land originally belonged to the Norik Province of the Western Solomon Empire. The empire fell only a few hundred years ago, and the inter-provincial roads have been badly damaged, with potholes and gravel everywhere.

The tremor finally reached the city of Stuttgart, and the convoy was stopped by a group of soldiers.

The people in the car looked outside in fear and noticed that the soldiers' cloth armor had fish bone emblems on it.

They were the family private soldiers of Count Eberhard of Württemberg.

Eberhard I, nicknamed Count Fishbone, is currently competing with the Sauron family for a large territory in the Principality of Swabia.

Nominally, the current lords of these two families are Duke Conrad, the lord of the Principality of Swabia + Franconia.

However, with the development of the Griffin family so far, only Duke Conrad's lineage remains, and the other branches have become extinct.

Conrad, an old gryphon, is also unable to have children and currently has only one daughter, who is married to Earl Frederick, the current head of the Sauron family.

So the Sauron family began to make preparations, waiting for the day when the old griffin passed away unfortunately, and they would inherit the griffin family's political legacy and principality territory.

They even changed the family flag from a hunting dog to a falcon, put on the wings of the Griffin family, and from then on called themselves the Falcon family and the heirs of the Griffin family.

Unexpectedly, the old griffin actually got involved with the Holy See. Not only did he try to create an heir through in vitro fertilization technology, but he also openly rebelled against His Majesty Emperor Otto.

As a result, other lords within the Principality of Swabia also began to become restless. Among them, Earl Fishbone is the one who dances most happily among the lords. His reason is also very simple:

The current Principality of Swabia is nominally owned by Duke Conrad of the Griffin family.

As a result Duke Conrad rebelled.

His Majesty the Emperor will definitely deprive him of his fief.

As the son-in-law family of the old Griffin, your Falcon family is definitely not qualified to inherit.

Wouldn’t the large amount of land in the Principality of Swabia be inhabited by virtuous people? As long as I take advantage of the quagmire of the war in Franconia, I can quickly conquer and occupy the surrounding territories.

Then he publicly declared that he would join His Majesty the Emperor's camp.

Your Majesty will definitely recognize my de facto occupation of the current territory and grant me its de jure right to rule in exchange for me continuing to cause trouble behind the old gryphon.

There is no big problem with this logic. This is the political way of feudal countries. In peacetime, legal principles are emphasized, while in wartime, interests come first. Mature nobles can usually jump back and forth between the two to seize the maximum benefits for their own family.

The only problem is that the Falcon family, which has also been preparing for this for many years, of course cannot just sit still and wait for death.

So Count Fishbone directly led his troops to the Stuttgart Castle, which was about 64 kilometers away from the Saueren Castle in Hechingen. Both sides unanimously strengthened their walls and cleared the country, and they were ready to rush to the opposite side to grab land and people.

It was under such circumstances that the soldiers sent out by Earl Fishbone to patrol met the convoy in which Ask was a member.

"Sir." The leader of the convoy also recognized these people as Count Fishbone's people, and quickly came out to establish connections and said, "We were ordered by Sir Ulrich to go to the nearby principality to purchase supplies. These people are using the surplus of the convoy. The transportation capacity and the passengers brought back by the way, Sir Ulrich also knows this."

Ulrich, Count Fishbone's younger brother, naturally all these private soldiers recognized him. The captain just said with a smile:

"Logically speaking, since it is Sir Ulrich's business, we can't be embarrassed. However, the Earl has recently issued a death order of martial law. He is afraid that these travelers may be mixed with the spies of the Falcon family, so routine searches are still required."

The leader of the convoy was still trying to say something, but the captain of the private soldier had already pushed him away and sent his men into each carriage to have people come out to check.

"What is your name?"

"Brooks."

"Where to go and what to do?"

"Going to Ulm to visit relatives."

Similar interrogations continued in front of each carriage. Some slick passengers stuffed their money after being interrogated, and the soldiers let them go.

Those who don't stuff money will look like they are poor, so they will be pushed and shoved a few times by the soldiers, and they will be able to endure it.

Finally, it was Ask's turn. The leading soldier was about to question him, but when he saw clearly what he was wearing, he was a little frightened.

This guy... was armed to the teeth with spears, shields, swords, battle axes, pistols and throwing knives. At first glance, he was not a good guy.

"You..." The soldier turned around to see where his comrades were, and suddenly summoned the courage to shout, "What are you doing!"

"A person who sells weapons." Ask replied.

"A person who sells weapons? Why do you carry so many weapons with you!?"

"Sell it," Ask said.

Soldier:………………

He didn't hear the other party's answer clearly, so he subconsciously asked the questions he had prepared.

The soldier next to him laughed loudly: "Bayer, people say they are selling weapons. Are you stupid to ask them what they are doing with these weapons?"

"I, I suspect that he is a spy of the Falcon family!" The soldier named Bayer felt a little embarrassed and could only forcefully defend himself.

"In that case, then you should 'question' him carefully. If he can't provide 'evidence', then arrest him."

Under the gaze of everyone, Asker sighed, took out a few banknotes from his bag, which were small-denomination banknotes "Copper Dollar Geseta" issued by Venis, and silently handed them to the other party.

Unexpectedly, the other party refused to accept it: "Are these Venis's banknotes? We only accept imperial coins."

Ask:………………

God only accepts imperial coins! Don’t you have a bank here? Are precious metal coins not heavy to carry around?

He was silent for a while, showed a harmless smile, and asked the soldier who was obviously alert:

"I don't have imperial coins with me. I wonder if you can accept another kind of coin?"

"What coin?"

"Nether Coin."

Thanks to Time and Space Messenger for his 200 coins, thank you to Sun and Moon Cloud Ghost for his 1,000 coins, thank you to CHI_1698 for his 10,000 coins, and thank you to Hai Sheng Mingyue for his 100 coins~