Iron Powder and Spellcasters

   Chapter 147 Lottery and Lions

   "South New Village, Bart Xia Ling!"

   "Hexi Village, 'Redface' Philpot!"

  …

  Washika took out a small piece of paper with her name written on it from the iron pan and handed it to Panviche beside her.

  The old butler read out the words on the note aloud while registering on the register.

   One name after another resounded through the town square, the face of the named farmer was ashen, and the farmer who did not hear his name secretly escaped.

   There were more and more small pieces of paper piled beside Pan Weiqie's right hand, and the forty-eight places were about to be filled.

   Someone in the town square counted aloud and had already counted to forty-seven.

  Everyone nervously watched Vashka pull out the last note from the iron pot, and many believers were praying silently.

   Pray that you don't hear your own or your family's name next.

   Panviche took the last paper sign from Vashka and was stunned for a moment.

   "Come on!" Someone in the square couldn't help urging.

   Panweiqie took a deep look at the young man beside him, and read aloud: "Dusa Village, Vashka Sergeynovich Morozov!"

  …

   All candidates for military service have been determined.

   In the eyes of pity, 80 young people walked out of the crowd and stood on the open space of the town square. For the first time, the Wolf Town Centuries gathered together.

   Sergey shouted the order, and several old Dussacks ran in the queue, lining up the young men who were standing in a neat row.

  With the formation of the queue, these peasant boys finally have the appearance of soldiers.

   Father Anthony began to lead the newly recruited militiamen to take the oath. He recited a sentence, and the militiamen followed. Then one by one they went up to Father Anthony and kissed the Book and the Holy Artifact.

After the oath of   , the militiamen re-arranged to listen to the second lieutenant.

"Fugitive service is a felony, relatives are sitting together, don't take risks." Winters opened with a brief statement: "Many of you are still young, and many of you have never taken weapons, but not after taking the oath. Children, no farmers, only soldiers. From this moment on, you are bound by military law. Go home and get ready to kiss your parents, wives, and children."

   Winters glanced at the faces in front of him and concluded: "Now, soldiers, go home. May you all be blessed."

  …

   Winters thought the draw was the end of the draw, but things were not as simple as he thought. The drawing ceremony just announced the end of the first half, and the second half has just begun.

   Before the people at the market had dispersed, the Hoffmans found Lieutenant Montagne. The Hoffman family is the owner of the Golden Spike Manor, and can be regarded as the number one landlord in Wolf Town.

   The piece of paper with Little Hoffman's name written on it was pulled out of the iron pot just now, and Old Hoffman was obviously unwilling to let his son leave home to serve.

   "Mr. Hoffman." Winters politely and resolutely blocked the other party in advance: "The lottery ceremony is absolutely fair. Your son is unlucky to be selected, and I can't help you."

   "Understood, my lord, we understand." Old Hoffman rubbed his hands together and said, "I mean... Still following the way in previous years?"

   "What was the solution in previous years?" Winters raised his eyebrows inadvertently.

  Old Hoffman answered as a matter of course: "My lord, of course, the previous years were the way of the previous years."

   Soon, Winters knew what the old Hoffman was talking about.

   way, is an unexpected person.

   "My lord." Berrian, the young blacksmith, stood before the second lieutenant: "I volunteered to serve in the place of Mr. Hoffman Jr.."

   "Didn't I ask you?" Winters glanced at the blacksmith: "You said you didn't want to."

   As early as when the draft order was issued, Winters asked the blacksmith "Would you like to sign up for the militia?"

   Blacksmiths are always needed in the army, especially those who are skilled.

  Skilled soldiers like Berian not only can avoid heavy manual labor such as digging trenches and building camps, but also receive double their salary.

   At that time, Berion smiled silently and shook his head, rejecting the second lieutenant's proposal. But now he took the initiative to come to serve in place of Little Hoffman.

   Hearing the second lieutenant's question, Berian replied calmly: "I don't want to be here now."

   "So it is." Winters nodded: "How much did you sell yourself for?"

   "Mr. Hoffman gave a very fair price."

   The conscript pays to hire someone to serve in his place, something Winters has also heard of, but he's not sure if it's legal.

After   Berion left, Winters asked Girard to find out: "Substitute" is common sense in Prato.

   As long as they get enough manpower, the new reclamation garrison regiment doesn't care if there are any replacements among them.

   In the past, if the son of the owner of the wolf town manor was selected, he would spend a sum of money to hire someone to replace him, as long as the roster has not been handed over to the station.

   However, if the replacement evades service, the original service member will also sit together, so the candidate must be honest and reliable.

It is not uncommon for tenant farmers and long-term workers to serve for others several times in a row, and it is not uncommon for them to use the money accumulated by their replacement to buy land and become self-cultivators.

   "Berion? Misha's helper? Misha likes him tightly." Girard thought for a while and said, "Didn't he have a brother working at the Hoffmans? I think he came to buy a family for his brother."

   Winters has a hard time hiring substitutes. But this is also a kind of fairness in disguise, and he doesn't want to break the original operating rules.

   So Hoffman Jr.'s name was crossed out on the roster, and "Berryon of South Village" was added.

Before the ink on the roster was dry, Bell ran over happily: "Sir, I volunteered to serve in place of Mr. Wilkes!"

   Winters finally understood what Mr. Mitchell felt when he picked up the stick.

   "What are you doing to make trouble?" He forcibly suppressed the thought of beating up the bear child in front of him: "I haven't figured out what to do with your new pet!"

  …

   Time back five days ago, in the hunter's hut.

   Winters, Bell, and a lion cub—not much bigger than a cat now but sure to grow to several hundred kilograms in the future—are in the same room.

  Bell quickly picked up the lion cub from the ground and protected it in his arms. The little lion let out a dissatisfied whimper and tried hard to climb onto Bell's shoulder.

   "My lord, I beg you not to kill it." Bell pleaded, and he stepped back while holding the lion cub, almost crying.

  Silence, lasting more than ten seconds.

   Winters sighed and asked, "Is it weaned now?"

"not yet."

   "Then what do you feed it?"

   "In the beginning, it was dog milk. Someone in Hedong Village gave birth to a dog. Later, there was not enough dog milk to eat, so I bought goat milk from others."

   "You want money for this?"

  Bell nodded.

   "Speak straight to me?" Winters dragged his chair and sat down. "Put it down. It's so uncomfortable for you to hold the little thing. If I want to kill it, you can't stop it."

  Bell wiped his tears and carefully placed the lion cub on the ground. The free lion cub quickly hid in the corner of the room.

   The pitiful appearance of the little hunter reminded Winters of Elizabeth, who picked up the little general from outside and begged Kesha to adopt it when he was a child—but it was not called the little general at that time, just a cat with his eyes still open.

   The scene in front of him inadvertently touched a soft spot in his heart.

  [Can't be impatient. ] Winters thought, admonishing himself: [Use what Bell understands. ]

   The poor second lieutenant is not married yet, and is already experiencing the trouble of raising children.

   "Male and female?" Winters gestured to the other chair across the table: "Don't stand, sit down and talk."

   "Male." Bell sat obediently on the chair.

   "When it's two months old, it's not enough to drink milk. By that time, it needs to eat meat, you know?"

  Bell shook his head first, then nodded quickly.

   "It's going to eat meat, how are you going to feed it then?" Winters asked sharply.

   Bell hurriedly replied: "I can hunt! I hunt rabbits, deer, and wild boars to feed it!"

"With your ability, you should be able to feed it before it's half a year old. I'll be generous, and you can feed it until it's a year old." Winters tapped the table lightly, staring at the little hunter's eyes: "But do you know how long the lioness will have her cubs?"

   The little hunter stared blankly.

"Two years less." Winters said coldly: "According to Brother Rhett, it is not surprising that a cub follows a lioness for three years. You have also seen the size of its mother, and you still have it after it is one year old. Is it enough to feed it?"

   "At that time, I can put it back in the forest, and it will be able to eat itself when it preys in the forest." Bell still defended himself.

   "Boy, have you ever had a cat?" Winters asked a rambling question.

   The little hunter shook his head.

"Only a kitten brought up by a mother cat will catch a mouse, because the mother cat will teach the kitten how to hunt. A cat that is fed by a human will not catch a mouse even if it is placed in front of you. Are you a lioness? It eats Are you used to what you feed and still go hunting?"

   "I..." Bell was speechless.

"I'll ask you again, why did your father kill its mother so desperately?" Winters asked himself without giving the little hunter a chance to breathe, and asked himself: "Because its mother cannibalize. And why does her mother cannibalize? Isn't it? Because the prey in the forest can't get enough? You send it back to the forest, and it will be full? Isn't it going to repeat the tragedy of its mother?"

   After another long silence, Bell choked and said, "I don't care, I just can't kill it anyway."

  The little lion hiding in the corner of the room was gradually no longer afraid. It couldn't hold back its curiosity and crawled tremblingly towards the unfamiliar and terrifying erect ape by the table.

   Winters felt that something was touching his boots, and when he looked down, he realized that the lion cub had run out at some point, rubbing and gnawing on the toe of his boots.

   He picked up the lion cub. The cub's body was fluffy, soft and warm, and it really felt like a cat's touch.

  Bell was taken aback. Just wanted to come up to grab it, but saw that the second lieutenant just put the little lion on the table to tease casually, and sat back on the chair again.

   "You don't want to kill it, do you?" Bell asked cautiously.

"I didn't say that. If I thought it would be a problem for Wolftown in the future, I wouldn't hesitate. But now there are many possibilities." Winters gently rubbed the cub's round belly. The little lion whimpered in dissatisfaction: "Have you helped it defecate today?"

  Bell was obviously panicked: "What?"

   "Don't you understand? It's probably the dog mother you found for it before." Winters sighed: "Otherwise, this little guy would have died long ago. It's also its tenacious vitality that can hold on to your hands until now."

  Winters took out the handkerchief from his arms, dipped it in warm water and gently wiped the cub's excretion area. After a while, the handkerchief was completely wet with pale yellow liquid.

   After several days of holding back his urine, he finally stopped squeezing his bladder, and the little lion yawned comfortably.

"Boy, don't you realize it yet?" Winters walked to the sink to wash his hands, and said without looking back, "You don't have the ability to take care of this little guy now, put it with you, sooner or later. Killed by you. It's a matter of ability, not will."

   Although Bell was not convinced, he was speechless when he saw the handkerchief on the table that was wet with light yellow liquid.

"And even if you can raise it, you have no idea what to do with it when it grows up." Winters, who had washed his hands, sat back in his seat and pointed to the handkerchief on the table with his chin: "Wash it and it will be fine tomorrow. give me."

   "Then what do you say..." Bell said dejectedly.

"The best fate of this giant beast in the future is probably to live in the cage of a high-ranking official. If you send it to the emperor's court, then it will live very comfortably in the future." Winters said with a wry smile: "Maybe the Veneta governor will be happy to buy a lion back as a mascot."

   "No!" Bell stood up abruptly: "That's an insult to Tengri!"

  The little lion was startled, and he rolled off the table and fled to the corner of the room.

Winters leaned on his chin and said calmly: "But it can't go back to the mountains. I'm the resident officer of Wolf Town, and if there is any possibility of harming the people of Wolf Town, I will not allow it. You If you have to put it back, either I will kill it in the future, or someone from another town will kill it. Do you want to see this scene?"

   "I'll keep it for the rest of my life," Bell said with a growl.

   Winters said with a smile: "Let's not talk about money. When it grows up, I'm afraid there won't be enough pigs and sheep in the whole town to eat."

   The little hunter was silent again.

   "I'm curious, why do you have to protect it?" Winters asked seriously.

   "Because it is the spirit of the wilderness, the darling and mount of Tengri." Bell whispered: "My mother said it."

   "Your mother is from Heard, right?"

"Um."

   "But your father also killed a giant lion before."

"The giant lion wants to kill my father, and my father also wants to kill the giant lion, which is fair." Bell continued to whisper: "But Tengger does not allow the indiscriminate killing of cubs. My family already owes a cub to the gods. I have to pay the lion's debt for my father, otherwise he will not be able to rest in peace and reincarnate."

   "Oops, I'm still a believer, I don't understand now." Winters thought.

  Bell called out softly, and the lion cub ran meekly from the corner of the house, not at all like when he was just frightened.

  It climbed onto Bell's knee, rubbed its head against Bell's chin, and licked Bell's face.

   Seeing the intimacy between one man and one lion, Winters didn't know what to do: "Send it to captivity, you don't want to."

   The little hunter nodded.

   "It may be feasible to send it back to the forest, but I don't agree." Winters said helplessly, viciously, and self-sacrificing: "You bastard, go to the circus later!"

  …

   Time returned to the present, and Bell ran happily: "Sir, I volunteered to serve in place of Mr. Wilkes!"

   "What are you doing here? I haven't figured out what to do with your new pet!"

   "I figured out what to do!" Bell shouted excitedly, with a look of joy in his eyes: "The white lion is a holy relic among the four-legged people, and we can return the white lion to the sweat!"

  Winters is a shudder at the little hunter's head: "I'm going to fight with \'Khan\'!"

  [Note: The tribes of the four-legged people are the self-proclaimed names of the Hed people, which means those who ride horses. ]

   Thanks to the book friends who have voted for recommendation before;

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Thanks to the book friends Wu is Xiao Gao, Jiang Xue Diao Weng, Last Night's Stone, Sputnik No. 1, I don't know what it's called, walking on the road of Yangyang, behere370, The Yellow Rabbit of the Flower Gardener, Calm Gray, Sky Lens , 54 months, Book Friends 20191007064305842, Moon Night Frontier, Book Friends 120325172509365 recommended tickets, thank you all.

   (end of this chapter)