Iron Powder and Spellcasters

   Chapter 322 Tears

   When someone comes, someone wants to go.

   It has been less than ten days since the destruction of Terdun Khan Court, and the remnants of the enemy have not been completely wiped out, but many civilians who have fled can't wait to set foot on their way home.

   On the large and small roads of Middle Tiefong County and Lower Tiefong County, groups of men, women, old people and children trudged towards home.

   Their houses may have been burned to ashes, their hoards of food may have been looted, and why they are in such a hurry to return home is unclear.

  Maybe there is a faint but clear voice in everyone's heart: "As long as you go home, there is always a way".

   In addition to the returning people, a considerable number of people choose to stay in the town of Sank.

Most of the    left are young and strong, and most of them are "militias", and many of them participated in the previous wars.

  Although the war was over and the militia was officially disbanded, there were still many militiamen stranded in the barracks and unwilling to leave.

   Because as long as you stay for one day, you can eat at least two meals a day.

   But there may well be another reason why the militias stayed.

"Before the Sovereign War, Veneta's large and small commercial city-states relied on mercenaries to fight." Antonio recounted slowly: "There is a common situation in the mercenary regiment - although many veterans curse and fight, they stay in the regiment for the rest of their lives. Some veterans After saving enough money to get rid of the armor and return to the field, I finally returned to the battlefield. The reason for this, no one can tell. "

Antonio went on to explain: "Comradeship is an indescribable thing. People who have faced death side by side, naturally have some kind of bond. I have seen soldiers abandon their wounded companions, and I have seen soldiers save their lives. Comrades in arms. Strong or weak, the bond is real. Many veterans don't want to talk about the brutal battles they went through, but they miss the days of being with their brothers."

"That's why I said that although your troops are poorly trained and equipped, they are in good spirits." Antonio looked at Winters: "It's not a team that hates each other, ends at a dead end, and collapses with a slight push. Weapons can be bought and skills can be practiced, but if an army has no soul, it has none. It would be a pity to disband like this.”

  …

   Not only did some people choose to stay, but more hungry people were gathering from all directions towards the town of Sank.

  Women, children, sick people, disabled people... all kinds of people have only one thing in common, that is, they have nothing in common because of the destruction of war.

  Shenke Town, as the base camp and warehouse of the Iron Peak Army, stores a large amount of food and supplies.

   Driven by starvation, these poor people pitched tents outside the town of Sank and wandered around the barracks and the town every day, scouring the dregs that leaked from the army's fingers to feed their stomachs.

  It was at this time that a short and unremarkable man found the monkey and Doug in the military camp.

   "Why haven't you two gone home yet?" The little man smiled shyly and handed over a luscious paper bag: "Are you eating scones?"

  Doug took the paper bag, didn't open it, just stared at the little man suspiciously.

   "Who the **** are you?" the sleepy-eyed monkey stuck his head out of the tent and asked with a bad expression on his face.

   The short man explained quickly: "I just wanted to ask why you two didn't go home."

   "Can you manage it?!" The monkey took the paper package from Doug's hand, opened it and saw that it was an oil cake, and immediately devoured it: "What's your business?"

   The short man licked his lips and asked boldly, "Are you two homeless? Both parents are dead, there is no house or land, and there is nowhere to go?"

  The sore spot was stabbed, and the monkey's anger rushed up.

   He jumped out of the tent at once, grabbed the short man's collar, and cursed fiercely: "Fuck you!"

   "No, no, no." The short man shook his head desperately: "Everyone with a family has left, so I want to ask you two, do you have nowhere to go?"

  Monkey screamed in anger and raised his arm to swipe at each other's face.

   The short man covered his head subconsciously, shrank his neck, and closed his eyes tightly.

  Doug grabbed his friend's arm and separated the two with his body. He asked the short man, "What's the matter with you?"

  The frightened short man was impressed by the thick-lipped boy who saved him. He stammered and explained, "Roussillon said you two are pretty good, so I'll come to see you."

  Roussillon was previously Sergeant Monkey and Doug.

   Hearing this name, the monkey's attitude softened suddenly, and even became a little timid: "Sergeant Luxi Rong... Who are you?"

   The short man replied embarrassedly, "It's my subordinate."

  The monkey's knees were a little sore in an instant, and his head was buzzing like someone hit him with an iron bone.

  Douglas stopped his friend and asked the short man in a muffled voice, "What's the matter with you coming to see us?"

   "I just wanted to ask the two of you." The short man scratched the back of his head: "Since there is nowhere to go, would you like to join the army? It's not a militia, it's the Tiefeng County Infantry Regiment - the real field soldiers."

  The monkey's body was stiff, his jaw trembled, and he couldn't help swallowing a mouthful of saliva.

  Doug frowned and asked, "Who are you?"

   "Me?" replied the short man, "My name is Peter Bunnier."

   He said with a little pride: "The name Bunir was given to me by Lord Blood Wolf himself."

  The monkey felt a chill rising from his tailbone, and he stood up straight: "One thousand mu?! You are one thousand mu?! The legendary blood wolf champion who won the thousand mu reward?!"

   "No, no, there's no one thousand acres—in fact, there are only more than nine hundred acres." Shorty Peter hurriedly explained, and he sighed helplessly: "This nickname... It's really exaggerated the more it spreads."

  …

  …

  Kaman, wearing a full-coverage black robe and a mask shaped like a beak, stooped out of the tent.

  Others outside the tent also covered their mouths and noses with triangular scarves.

   "How?" Winters looked serious and asked first, "What is it?"

  Kaman glanced at Winters, glanced at the people around him, and said calmly: "The symptoms are a bit like [(Ancient) Aichen Plague], but I can't conclude... I need to go back and check the books."

   In order to avoid panic, Kaman deliberately uses the ancient words.

   The vast majority of people present did not understand what Kaman was saying, and those who could understand did not understand the specific meaning of "Aichen Plague".

   Winters couldn't remember what "Aichen Plague" meant for a while, but he clearly heard the second half of the phrase - the plague.

This is enough.

   "Leave here first." Winters made an immediate decision, leaving two guards to guard the tent, and then returned with the others.

The location where   Winters is located is a [shack] outside the town of Sank.

  People naturally like to get together. A few branches raise a curtain, which is the so-called "shack". Many shacks are gathered together, so-called "shack places".

  If the army in Sank remains undisbanded, the shack will always exist.

The final appearance of    is the "shack street" next to the Shuangqiao barracks - a slum street full of filth and all-encompassing.

   The shack in front of me was just a campground where the hungry people set up tents and huddled together to keep warm.

   Stepping on the narrow, winding muddy path between the tents, Winters led Kaman and Charr out.

  The refugees who gathered here saw that the group was not small, and they hid in the shacks as if they were afraid and ashamed.

  In the iron pot "gudonggudong" was cooking horse meat that was stolen from the battlefield. Through the curtain that was blown open by the wind, Winters saw that someone was doing skin and meat business.

   went all the way outside, where four companies of the 1st Battalion led by Tamas were waiting.

   "Encircle!" Winters summoned the acting battalion commander Tamas and the commanders of each company, and ordered through gritted teeth: "Don't make too much movement, but no one is allowed to let go."

  Tamas raised his hand in salute, turned and left.

   "[Aichen Plague], is there any cure?" Winters asked Kaman.

"Fire." Kaman thought for a moment: "Historical records show that during the plague of Aichen, Hibergrates found that the blacksmiths who accompanied the fire every day rarely got sick, and finally used fire to disperse the great plague of Aichen. The specific method is in Burning spices and wormwood in the streets, burning the clothing and bedding of the sick…”

   Winters listened carefully, but his eyebrows tightened.

  Every precaution, but it finally came. Since ancient times, people have found that plagues always follow wars.

The logic of    is not difficult to understand: if you eat well, dress warmly, and live in a covered house, the risk of getting sick is small; even if you get sick, the chance of surviving is high.

  Not enough to eat, not warm enough to wear, living in crowded and dirty shacks, and good people are tortured to death sooner or later.

   "Why didn't I notice the squatter problem sooner?" Winters couldn't help but ask himself: "Why didn't I give priority to arranging shelter for refugees."

   But now is not the time for self-pity, rotting, filthy, overcrowded shacks are a cauldron of plague. Every additional second of existence increases the risk of a pandemic by one point.

   "There are currently two large shacks around the town of Sank, and a few smaller ones." Winters made up his mind and drew a crude map on the ground: "Unplug them all."

   "How to pull it out?" Kaman asked, raising his eyebrows.

"The old way." Winters continued to draw the map: "Build a new camp near the shack area. It can't be too big, or it won't have the effect of isolation. It can't be too small, or it won't be completed quickly. Everything, everything will be burned, and all will be burned to ashes for me."

   "It's all burned?" Bart Xialing keenly grasped the crux of the question: "Then what do they eat? What do they wear?"

   "Clothes and bedding can be boiled with hot water before use." Father Kaman said: "The water should also be boiled before drinking, but this requires a lot of fuel."

   "The fuel is easy to deal with." Winters' left leg was sore, and he stood with a cane: "Food, we will supply it first."

  Bart Xialing didn't say a word, just saluted silently.

   "Then what shall we eat?" Winters knows this sentence without having to ask his subordinates.

   "Don't worry about the food issue." Winters looked around his subordinates: "I'll solve it."

  Although everyone didn't know what Winters could do, the words of the tribune still made many people feel relieved.

  Some company commanders worried that once the soldiers learned that there was a plague in the shack, they would have to face the plague head on. There will inevitably be large-scale escapes, and even riots or rebellions.

   So the three company commanders, including Bart Shilling, tended to hide it.

   "It's useless." Winters ended the argument with one sentence: "Can't hide it."

   After a while, all the soldiers of the 1st Battalion assembled and lined up. They will be the first to be notified outside of Winters, followed by the entire army, and then the entire Ironpeak County.

   Looking at the soldiers who had just walked off the battlefield, the wounds were still scarred, Winters had mixed feelings.

He tried hard to organize the language: "...In the camp of exiles, in the city of Gervoudan, due to the strict implementation of epidemic prevention discipline, although some people fell ill, they were finally controlled...I don't believe that the plague is a disaster from the gods, if the heavenly Father is merciful Yes, he will only help us, not sow the plague..."

  Speaking of the end, those who have always been eloquent in speeches before the battle did not know what to say.

He was silent for a moment, his eyes swept across the faces: "I remember it. [Aichen Plague], 200,000 Aichen people, the last quarter died. Tiefeng County has just experienced a fierce battle, Can't stand another plague. So... she's counting on the courage of each of you, all of you are counting on the courage of each of you... I need you to fight one more time..."

  …

"Put on the triangle scarf." Shorty Peter's face was covered tightly, and he repeatedly urged: "Don't touch it with your hands, and if you resist, stab him with a spear. If you don't see good things, it's like taking them and dyeing them. Plague is not worth it..."

   The monkeys in the queue were weak in their knees and weak all over, scolding themselves inwardly.

   Without hesitation, Monkey responded to the recruitment of [Chief Sergeant] Peter Bunir on the spot.

   In the previous battle with the Turtletown Department, the Iron Peaks County Infantry Regiment paid the most many lives and suffered the most casualties.

  The soldiers who died and were disabled in battle needed to be replaced, and the infantry regiment urgently needed fresh blood.

   Therefore, without waiting for the official approval from the above, each company began to recruit new recruits on its own. From this point of view, the moment the Iron Peak County Infantry Regiment was born, it has a tendency to self-sustain like a living creature.

  Unexpectedly, Doug, who originally planned to go home to Land Land, saw that his friend chose to join the army, and also accepted the recruitment of Peter Bunir.

   At that time, the monkey was a little moved, but also a little jealous: "You have earned so much land, why are you still a soldier?"

   But now, there is only guilt and a feeling of adversity in the monkey's heart. Because of his decision, Doug will also come to do the "epidemic prevention" that he doesn't know what it is.

  Monkey wants to run away.

   Peter the Shorty thought too.

   He looked calm, only because his face was covered up.

   In fact, the moment he learned that there was a plague in the shack, Peter the dwarf's knees trembled and his forehead began to sweat.

   But dozens of pairs of eyes stared at him, and even if he wanted to escape, there was no way to escape.

   Shorty Peter saw Acting Battalion Commander Tamas wave at him.

   He turned around, tears streaming down all of a sudden.

   However, the soldiers of the 1st Company could only see Sergeant Bunnier's back, not the tearful face of Sergeant Bernier.

   "Go!" Shorty Peter's voice was on the verge of breaking.

  The large and small shacks outside the town of Sank have been surrounded by wooden stakes and ropes by various companies, and some other villagers are stepping up to build new camps.

   But we can't just ignore the shack.

  The soldiers, armed with torches and short spears, led by Sergeant Peter Bunir, known as the "Blood Wolf Champion", walked into the shack without hesitation.

  The shack after being blocked, first fell into a panic, and the chickens were flying. Seeing that they could not leave no matter what, people gradually fell into numbness again.

  Because of hunger, the shack was originally a very cruel place. Knowing that there was a plague, people became more indifferent.

  The corpse of the mother was lying in the shack, and the children were crying and wailing.

  Leaving this situation alone will only lead to further spread of the plague.

   Regardless of whether he died of illness or starvation, Peter the dwarf brought the body out of the shack and burned it, and the tent and property of the deceased were all burned on the spot.

  Monkey heard someone whispering: "See, Sergeant Bunnier seems to be crying."

   "Fuck your mother!" The monkey with bloodshot eyes and tears in his eyes yelled, "That's smoky! It's smoky!"

   [Due two chapters? After breaking my fingers and counting for a long time, the account is a bit unclear]

   [Thanks to book lovers for their collection, reading, subscription, recommendation tickets, monthly tickets, rewards and comments, thank you all]

   (end of this chapter)