Iron Powder and Spellcasters

   Chapter 119 Wolf Calamity

  It was dawn on Sunday, and the blue-grey sky was shimmering with sparse morning stars. The wind blew down from the mountain, creating a damp mist. The breath of the earth was cool and comfortable, and the sun languidly refused to rise beyond the horizon.

  Old Sergey, who lives in the east of Dusak Village, Wolf Town, woke up early in the morning. The old man stared at the old saber hanging on the inner wall for a while. Then he slowly pulled up his trousers, pulled his cloth shoes, and walked out of the house while buttoning his shirt.

Sergey stood at the gate of the courtyard, silently admiring his small courtyard: the newly built barns and cattle sheds were covered with neat tiles, the big animals in the family were peacefully chewing hay, and the grains were filled with grains. , The old woman and children at home are still sleeping...

   Abundance, comfort, ease, these are the days that Sergei Vladiminovich in the past could never have dreamed of.

  The old man looked at it for a while, and walked towards the backyard satisfied. Walking around the wall, he walked outside the window of the younger son's room.

   "Vashya! Son!" The old man tapped on the wooden window: "Come on, follow me up the mountain to see the clip."

  [Note: Vasya is a nickname for Vasika]

   Sergey knocked several times before Vashka got up from the bed sleepily. He pushed open the window and asked in a low voice, "What are you talking about, Dad?"

   "Wow, I went up and down the mountain the day before yesterday, go up the mountain with me and have a look."

   "Today is Sunday!" Vashka complained.

   Sergey urged nonchalantly: "It won't delay you going to church, let's go, let's go, we can come back before the sun comes out."

  The son couldn't beat his father, so he had to grab the clothes and put them on his body.

  At this time, his father led two horses out of the stable.

  Washka helped Sergey put on the harness, and two Dussacks, one old and one small, led the horses out of the fence made of red willows, jumped on the horses, and galloped toward the mountains south of the village.

   If you look down from an altitude of tens of thousands of meters, you can clearly see the two east-west and approximately parallel towering mountains in the north and south of the Senas Bay.

   To the north are the Shady Mountains and to the south are the Golden Summit Mountains. This natural geographical separation will inevitably lead to political fragmentation.

   The saying "two mountains sandwich the land" comes from this.

  Wolf Town is located at the foot of the Jinding Mountains, backed by the northern foothills of the Jinding Mountains. It is a settlement carved out among the bushes and woodlands.

  This town is not only located at the westernmost end of the vast Union territory, but also at the southernmost end, and further south is the uninhabited virgin forest.

   If you continue to go south, the terrain will rise sharply. Primary forests are replaced by alpine meadows, where only weeds can grow up to the snowline.

   On a sunny day, the thousand-year-old snow on the highest part of the mountain shines brightly in the sun, like gold cast.

   "Golden Top Mountains" hence the name.

   Of course Sergey and his son did not want to go that far. Relying on the mountains to eat the mountains, and the water to drink water, the people of the villages in Lang Town usually go to the periphery of the forest.

   Sergey rode his old horse, and the old man felt sorry for his old man, so he did not send it to the village pasture. Vashka, on the other hand, rode a two-and-a-half-year-old pony, a strong animal.

   But the old man is a skilled horseman, and even if he wears cloth shoes and rides an old horse, Vashka can't catch up with him.

   Sergey rode very happily, while waving his whip, he whimpered strangely, filling his stomach with wind.

  Washika chased after him, thinking: "What's the clip, the old man is afraid that he just wants to walk the horse?"

   The two quickly ran to the edge of the forest. Sergey took the reins and said to his son happily: "Vashya! How wonderful! So comfortable! When I get up in the morning and run horses, my whole body is full of energy!"

   But Vashka, who was disturbed by her sweet dreams, just rolled her eyes secretly and urged her father to look at the clip quickly.

   Following the memory, Sergey led his son deeper into the woodland.

   Sergey's luck is very good, the first two clips actually have harvests, a rabbit and a pheasant.

The old man was even happier, and said to his son beamingly, "Bless my Lord! Vasya, maybe there will be a deer today! I dreamed that the antlers smashed the roof a few days ago, maybe it was a beautiful stag. !"

  Washka did not answer, and urged Dad to hurry to find the last clip.

   When they found the last clip, they found that there were already two people squatting next to the clip. And on the clip - only a broken deer leg remained.

  …

   After coming out of the woods, Wasika did not go home directly, but obeyed her father's instructions and rushed straight to Mayor Mitchell's house with the rabbit in her hand.

   After leaving the ridge and stepping on the dirt road between the villages, let the horses run away for a while, and I can already see the roof of the mayor's house.

  Washka walked around a row of neat oak trees, and a large white double-storey house appeared in front of her. Sergey's house is just a small courtyard of a rich peasant, while the beautiful building in front of him is the manor of a big landlord's family.

   Hearing the sound of hooves, the two hounds barked.

  Gillard Mitchell's son and Vashka are playmates, and Vashka is very familiar with Mitchell Manor.

   But this time he saw an unfamiliar face, a young officer he had never seen and Gillard standing in the open space in front of the house, both of them holding sabres, as if they were practicing something.

   "Okay, don't bark!" Girard heard the dog bark, and when he saw the person coming, he yelled at the hound.

  The two hounds also recognized that they were acquaintances, and they ran to the Wahika horses and acted coquettishly, wanting to bite the dead rabbit hanging on the saddle.

"Morning! Sergeinovich!" Girard put his saber on the ground and shouted at Vashka from a distance: "How is your father? Are you here to find Pierre? "

"He's all right! He went to the horse race this morning!" Vashka tied the horse, held the rabbit and said with a smile, "I'm here to give you this! My father asked me to give you this rabbit! "

   "What a fat rabbit! Thank you dad! Wait for me here." Girard took the prey and walked back to the house quickly.

   There were only Vashka and the strange officer left outside the house.

   The unfamiliar officer smiled kindly at Vashka, and at this moment Vashka had time to take a closer look at the man.

  Different from those dignified and unsmiling officers with beards, Vashka found that the strange officer in front of him was very young, even younger than himself, and he didn't look like an officer at all.

   But he was wearing a genuine officer's uniform—although the style was a bit strange, but it was definitely an officer's uniform. As long as he is a Dussack, he will not fail to recognize what the uniform of the officer looks like.

  Gillard strode out of the house, and he stuffed a bag of sugar and tea to Vashka: "Take it back for your maid to cook."

   "You haven't finished eating what you gave last time." Wasika said with a smile: "Why don't you light a cigarette leaf for me."

   "Okay, I'll take it for you." Girard stepped up the steps and entered the house in a hurry.

   Although I grew up listening to my father's stories about wars, although my father repeatedly told me to respect Pleninovich.

   But in the eyes of most Dussac children, Girard was just an amiable and generous little old man.

   In the eyes of the Dussacks in Wolf Town, the Mitchells—except Gillard’s wife—are genuine Dussacs, but they don’t live in the Dussacs’ village.

   "Bring it back for your grandpas to smoke." Gillard ran again and took out a large pack of tobacco leaves for Washika. He laughed and said, "Give me some points, don't smoke it all by yourself."

"That's for sure." Wasika replied with a smile on her face, but he remembered that there was another business, and hurriedly told Girard: "Uncle, when my father and I went into the mountains today, we encountered a strange thing, my father let I tell you."

   "What a strange thing."

  Washika didn't get to the point after talking for a long time: "...Oh, I'm stupid, and I can't tell clearly. My dad just told me to hesitate, and he'll tell you more carefully when I go to church."

After   , Wasika, who was in a hurry to go home for breakfast, said goodbye to Gillard and rode back home.

   Halfway through, he remembered: "I still don't know who that officer is!"

  …

  Sunday is the biggest day of the week in Wolf Town.

  After breakfast, the villagers from the surrounding villages walked close to each other, and drove cars and horses far away, all heading towards the church in the center of the town.

  Everyone wanted to be early, because if you arrive early, you will have a seat, and if you arrive late, you can only stand and watch Mass.

   For the villagers, not the church was built in the center of the town, but the town hall was built beside the church. The history of Langtun Church is earlier than the history of "combining villages and establishing towns" in Wolf Town.

  Sunday Worship is not only a religious activity, but also the main gathering place for the residents of each village.

  Before the ceremony began, Wasika finally knew who the strange officer was—it was said to be the town's new resident officer, Lieutenant Winters Montagne.

   While the villagers of the three villages were all gathered together, Gillard stood on the pulpit and read Winters' commission in public, and introduced the new resident officer to everyone.

   This is the first time Winters has appeared in front of the people of Wolf Town, and his performance is quite satisfactory. After standing on the pulpit to salute everyone, I went down.

   For the common people, although the multiple officers in the town have little to do with them, they are also a rare novelty in the boring life.

  The crowd in the church crowded to the front to see the newly arrived town officer, talking about his uniform, appearance and age.

   There were some unmarried girls who didn't know what they were thinking, blushing secretly looking at the new second lieutenant.

   After all, the uniform is worn on the body, and even an ugly person can add a three-point prestige, not to mention that Winters can be called a dignified appearance.

   After the introduction of the new resident officer, it was the official Sunday service. The two priests of the church slowly walked to the pulpit from outside the church holding the icon.

   Winters was embarrassed to find himself "trapped" in the church.

   As a spellcaster, Winters certainly had no interest in getting involved in religious activities. But he was embarrassed to leave the venue openly during the ceremony. As the only two public officials in Wolf Town, he and Gillard were both in the front row of the church.

   Winters thought: "If I leave now, I am afraid that I will offend all the believers in Wolf Town."

   In the spirit of pragmatism, Winters felt that "more is worse than less". He sat until the end of the sermon, looking at the portrait of Anna in the pendant, fascinated.

  The townspeople who didn't know the truth thought that the newly arrived town officer was praying sincerely.

  After the sermon, Winters quietly avoided the communion part.

  Everything went very smoothly, the dim-eyed priest didn't notice Winters' little gestures at all, and neither did the rest of the church.

   But the young apostle could see it clearly, and Winters' behavior made the apostle very strange. But he didn't stop Winters, just watched the new resident officer leave the church with the crowd.

   In fact, Winters is also quite strange to see the church aide. This kind of small church is obviously not qualified to have two official clergy, but Wolftown Church has two. It's just that Winters wasn't interested in the magic stick, so he didn't inquire.

   Outside the church, the weather was clear and dry, with layers of light-colored clouds floating high in the sky.

  Gillard is leading several people to set up the target and field. The target board was carried out from the backyard of the church and placed on the meadow beside the church.

   Winters saw this and went over to help.

  Gillard wiped his sweat and said to Winters, "Second lieutenant, there used to be no town officer in the town, so I had to be on top. Lieutenant Montagne, I'll leave the archery training on Sundays to you."

   "Archery training on Sunday?" Winters looked strange: "Could it be the 'Bow and Arrow Law'?"

   "That's right! It's the Bow and Arrow Law!" Girard replied with a smile.

The    bow and arrow decree was an imperial law that all men were required to attend archery training after church service.

After Girard explained   , Winters learned that the law had never been repealed in Palato.

  The Great Council of Palatine has never passed a special abolition bill - the suspicion of lazy government is quite large - the bow and arrow law has been retained.

   It’s just that this decree has lost its compulsion, and archery is similar to a recreational activity for civilians. After all, shooting a few arrows on a Sunday morning isn't much of a chore.

   Winters didn't expect to see this kind of "historic relic" weekend activity in this small town. After he and Gillard set up the archery target, the archery training officially began.

  Women and children, old people who couldn't draw a bow, and some men who thought that archery was detrimental to their status stood on the sidelines.

  A dozen young men lined up in a long queue, waiting for their turn to shoot.

  Some people bring their own bows and arrows. Such people are obviously very confident in their archery skills. They stand in the queue like proud roosters, waiting to show their skills in front of the folks.

   As for those who do not have bows and arrows, they use cheap ash wood practice bows provided by the town hall.

   A farmer brought home-brewed sweet beer and pushed the barrels to sell it loudly.

  Some out-of-town runners also come to sell some small things such as needles and threads on Sundays.

  No one cares about the dogma of "no work on Sundays", and the once deserted Wolf Town has become extremely lively.

   Winters has an easy job, just beware of being shot by mistake when someone tries to pull an arrow from the target.

  If the shooter misses the target, the crowd will boo.

  The shooter hits the bullseye, and the crowd cheers loudly.

  Simple happiness is very contagious, and even Winters, who was all thinking about going home, put a smile on the corner of his mouth.

   But at the same time, Winters also keenly noticed that there were some grown men in the crowd who didn't fit in with the festive atmosphere.

  They are unshaven, disheveled, and mostly gloomy. They don't come to shoot arrows or to watch the shooting range.

   Even the people of Wolf Town deliberately avoided these people.

   Only the bootleggers like them because they drink glass after glass around the barrels.

  Although Winters thought about running away countless times and ran back to Veneta. But as long as you are in office for one day, you have to do your due diligence.

   So the town officer in Wolf Town stopped the shooters beside him, pointed at the men and asked, "Who are those people? Are they your locals?"

  The young man who was shooting arrows looked in the direction Winters pointed, shook his head, and replied, "Sir, those guys are from the forest farm. They were hired from outside to chop wood."

   Winters wanted to continue to ask, but was invited by Gillard.

   In addition to Gillard and Sergey, there were two men, one old and one small, in the town hall.

  The old man looks like his physique is about 30 or 40 years old, but the ravines on his face are like spider webs. His skin was tanned, and his lips were pursed tightly. A roll of leather in each hand.

   The little one looked only fifteen or sixteen years old, still childish, and was looking around curiously with two big eyes. In his hand he was holding a single unwound bow, about a meter long, smaller than the bows used by adults.

   Seeing Winters come in, Girard introduced it to several people again: "This is the new resident officer in this town, Lieutenant Montagne."

  Gillard pointed to Sergey and introduced: "This is Sergey Vladiminovich, Dusak of Dussa Village."

   Hearing the name Dussack, old Sergey puffed out his chest proudly.

  Gillard pointed to the old man and the young man and introduced: "These two are the hunters of this town, Ralph and his son Bell. Ralph, you can talk about it if you have something."

   Hunter Ralph first took off his hat and bowed cautiously, then he looked anxious and nervously warned the two civil servants in Wolf Town: "Sir, the wolf disaster is coming!"

Thanks to the book friends who have voted for the recommendation before, thanks to the book friends felixyf0124, the social justice old man, Ami, the yellow rabbit of the flower family, justice and purity is koala, calm gray, sky lens, Jiang Xue Diao Weng, Wu Shi Xiao Gao, Book Friends 20191002101802042, Book Friends 2018101005850390, 54 month recommendation tickets, thank you all.

   (end of this chapter)