Mercenaries and Adventurers

The team of hundreds of people moved slowly to the open space on the roadside that Kiel had previously favored.

As soon as they arrived, the young refugees gathered together familiar to each other, and then sat on the ground to catch their breath.

Priest Batal heard from Bloodfangster that repairs were going to be done here for a while, so he took dozens of Saturn believers who barely listened to him and ran to the creek next to the open space to fill everyone with water. drink.

The followers of the God of Saturn first drank to their fill by the stream, and then filled the small wooden bowls they carried with clean water and returned to the open space for familiar people to drink.

Gil rode over with a clatter, jumped off the horse with a bang, and then led the horse for a while in the open space, pretending to look at the exhausted looks of many people.

"This won't work. I'm exhausted. I can't walk anymore."

While Kil pretended to observe, he deliberately made a sound in his mouth so that everyone around him could hear it.

Then he came to the center of the crowd and clapped his hands vigorously: "Everyone, listen carefully. Everyone, listen carefully."

After attracting the attention of the crowd, Kiel said loudly: "Look at how you look, your butts are all stuck to the ground. I guess this is it, you can't walk because you are weak anyway."

Kil looked left and right at the tall mountains in the north and south directions: "It gets dark early in this mountain. Let's spend the night here today!"

No one objected to this decision. After all, many people were really tired. Their physical weakness made all the strong boys and girls in the past become so tired not long after they came out of the White Stone City Wall level.

It’s completely different from working in the fields with the parents of farmers and women in rural areas when they were in their early tenth year.

Many people breathed a sigh of relief. After hearing this decision, they completely collapsed on the gravel ground, regardless of the uneven ground that made their backs and butts uncomfortable.

"However." Kil only said half of what he said, and the next words were unpleasant: "We can't just sit there and do nothing! Is this what it's like to camp in the wild for the night? I'll order twenty people and follow I'm going to cut down trees in the nearby forest to make firewood, so I can't refuse. Priest Batar, you and Bloodfangster will organize the manpower to roughly tidy up this open space and make it suitable for the night."

After finishing speaking, Keir added: "What does this mess look like! Let's all take action. You, you, and you are all strong enough, come with me."

He first ordered three of the stronger ones among the young people around him, then he got on his horse, and then ordered the remaining people in the crowd. Most of them are strong men, but there are also two tall and strong women from the gang.

The people who were selected all had a bad look on their face, and they didn't want to go back to work without taking a long rest.

But after experiencing the previous small conflicts, many people knew that their strength was insufficient, so they did not dare to resist Kiel's orders. They had to stand up slowly, gather, and follow Kiel on horseback.

Keir didn't blame them for their dillydallying, what he wanted was the slow grinding. He first came to the carriage, entered the carriage and pretended for a while, taking his two-handed ax with him from the dream, and then took out strong ropes, several machetes and small wood-cutting axes from the carriage's supplies.

He threw the things to the twenty young men waiting outside, asked them to pick them up, and then took them to cut wood.

-

Logging is not done on the side of the river because there is a creek blocking it and it is difficult to cross.

So they crossed the road and reached the woods on the opposite side, where they looked for suitable trees to cut down.

Keir rode in the front, and the tall blood-licking grass forced the lush roadside weeds and shrubs away. The two young men who followed him waved their machetes and chopped down the shrubs blocking the road. Pedestrian passage.

They don't have much physical strength, and they often swing the machete more than ten times without any sense, and the whole person has no strength. Then he could only hand the machete to the other people behind him and take over their work.

Except for the few people carrying one-handed wood-cutting axes and those carrying bundles of strong ropes who did not do this work, the other young people who came out all took turns to open the road with machetes.

All of them were so tired that they no longer had the energy to curse under their breath.

These people were not randomly selected by Keir. He specially selected the leaders and strongest people in each village group and gang group. In this way, without these young people as the backbone, even if he was not present in the open space, Priest Batar, who is surrounded by dozens of Saturn believers, can control the overall situation.

The situation will not get out of control.

In fact, Kil was overthinking. The weak, hungry and exhausted young man was reluctant to even get up and move around. How could he object to the words of Priest Batal who could provide everyone with God-given food.

It’s not too late to welcome the flattery.

-

Let’s not talk about the logging in Kiel. Here in the open space, Priest Batal organized some other people, and the believers were repeatedly going to the creek to get water for everyone to drink. The priest asked some young people who had some energy after drinking water to go to the edge of the open space and dig some long shallow pits with the stones they picked up.

This was a simple method for Bloodfang Steti, who often guarded caravans and had seen how Kendall's army camped. When setting up the camp, he first prepared a place for eating, drinking, and defecating.

Otherwise, everyone would defecate everywhere, not to mention whether it was clean or not. Some people would be attacked at night because they went outside the camp for convenience, but this happened repeatedly every day among the caravans who did not pay attention to this.

Attackers include but are not limited to bandits, wild wolves, forest owls, various monsters, inexplicable weird things, etc.

Where the campfire cannot shine, anything can happen in the dark and desolate wilderness.

This is not a bedtime story to scare children to sleep, nor is it a bragging by a drunkard in a tavern, but Bloodfangster has seen it himself and heard from other caravan guards in his more than ten years of experience as a caravan guard. various personal experiences.

Young men recruited from rural areas are most likely to suffer unexplained casualties during their first few business trips with caravans and spend the night in wild camps.

Most of the reasons for leaving the place where the fire shines are convenience.

After a scream came from outside the camp, they often could only find the body or mutilated body of the young man who was attacked.

The most terrifying thing is that you can only find a trace of blood next to the excrement, or you can't find anything at all.

Bloodfangster guided the young people who were digging long toilet pits. He specially took out two small metal shovels from Kiel from the carriage and gave them to the young people to use in turn.

While instructing them how to work, he told these people the above things.

"No wonder, no wonder! Wuwuwuwu——"

After a young man listened, he suddenly squatted down, covered his face and cried bitterly.

When the young man from the same village whom he knew was watching, he immediately explained: "His mother was also in the previous escape team, but on the way to the White Stone City Wall Checkpoint, it was one night a few days after setting off from the village. To It was convenient to go out, so he squeezed out from the crowd of villagers and ran to the woods by the pond where he spent the night, but no one came back. His father went to look for him angrily, but the village elders refused to let him go, but his father went anyway. But they didn't come back. The two of them just disappeared. They didn't come back all night. Everyone gathered together to look for them during the day. They only found some signs of struggle at the edge of the forest, but nothing else."

After this man said this, other young people from other villages who were also working also talked about some villagers who were killed, injured and missing because they stayed overnight on the way from their own villages.

If you don’t communicate with each other, you wouldn’t know. It turns out that on average, on average, more than ten people were killed, injured or missing in each village on the way from the departure point to the Baishi City Wall Checkpoint, which lasted for at least half a month and as long as a month.

Most of them were killed, injured or missing while staying overnight, and the least half were killed or injured when they were robbed by a small number of bandits on the road during the day and resisted or were bullied.

Because they were fleeing the whole village, the bandits who were far smaller in number than them did not dare to do anything to them other than passing by to beg for some wealth and food.

They usually start by brutally killing one or two people to shock the fleeing villagers, and then leave after getting what they want.

He really angered hundreds of villagers who were fleeing at one time. One of them was punched and kicked, and the thieves were reduced to meat.

-

Bloody Fangster was digging a hole to communicate that the journey had not been easy. Priest Batal was directing everyone to level the ground, and based on the experience he gained from observation, he asked people to hold large rocks together and form several stones. Circle and prepare for the camp fire later.

At the same time, people were asked to smooth out the uneven ground around the outside of the stone circle fire so that people could rest overnight.

The young people each carried not much luggage, because the weather was not very cold and was getting warmer, so the young people who came out this time did not have many beddings that could be used. When the priest asked, their answers made people laugh and cry.

"Everyone will stay warm if we huddle together at night."

That’s all the answers.

"It's not like a sheep in a pen." After complaining, Priest Batal had to prepare more small fires outside the big fire.

There were many preparations for the fire and stone circle, but he was worried about whether the firewood Keel had cut was enough.

Worry is worry, things still need to be done.

When some young people set out, the old people in the village specially asked them to bring the clay pots they used when they came. At this time, these easily knocked pottery pots were placed on stone supports, and water was added little by little with wooden bowls, waiting for the subsequent burning and the God-given food provided by Priest Batal.

After a while, Bloody Fangster came over with a serious face and whispered to Priest Batal: "Priest, I just noticed movement in several woods across the creek."

"What's the noise?"

Bloody Fangster narrowed his eyes: "It may be a group of wild beasts, but more likely, I think it is the bandits nearby. It is still daytime, but I am worried that tonight-"

The two of them looked at each other, and both thought that Kil had specifically asked the team to rest here, and then specifically decided to spend the night here after the rest. Is it true that the refugee team can’t move any further?

Of course not. There are still two or three hours before dark. Isn’t it too early to set up camp for the night?

"Let's do this. You go and stand sentry on the roof of the newly reinforced carriage. There is a good view there. Pay more attention to the situation in the forest in the distance. When the Kiel warriors come back with their men to cut down the trees, tell him about the situation. He probably knows what's going on. That's it. I don’t know what the plan is.”

Priest Batal said so.

Seeing Bloodfangster nodding and running in the direction of the carriage, the priest felt uneasy. It was not that he was afraid of the unknown number of bandits. After all, there were more than 800 people on their side. How could they defeat the bandits who were probably not that many in number? , but what about losses?

There must be a lot of damage. As long as the bandits attack at night, many people will be injured and killed just from the chaos.

But he was more worried about why Kiir did this.

What's his plan?

Could it be that they dislike these excluded young people as a trouble and specifically induce bandits to attack and reduce their numbers?

-

"It's just this big tree! It's the right height, volume and weight, and it can be pulled back by horses once it's felled."

Keir led people to the edge of a small forest at the foot of the mountain range and pointed to a large tree ten meters high and about the thickness of a human waist.

For a big tree of this height, after cutting down the top and branches, the remaining main body can just be pulled away, and the volume of wood is estimated to be enough for burning and lighting for one night.

"Come on, get out of the way first and look at me!"

There was no logging for a while, and Kil was very excited. He jumped off the horse, slapped the blood-licking grass's butt, and let it run to the side. Then he waved to drive the twenty young refugees who followed him to the direction of the horse.

"You all gather in one direction, don't scatter everywhere. When the big tree falls down, be careful and you will be killed."

Even if you don't get smashed to death, your face can easily be scratched by a branch, which is uncomfortable enough.

Stepping on the soft ground, Kil took out the two-handed ax that was stuck on the water-crossing head from behind.

The blue ax suddenly attracted the attention of all the refugees. They talked a lot and didn't understand why there was blue metal and it was made into a big ax.

Ignoring those comments, Kil flicked the metal image of the tree spirit on the ax with his finger and whispered to it: "I want to chop down the tree, wait a minute, don't let me suck the big tree like a vine when you chop it down." Come on, don't do this. Give me some help and don't cause trouble."

The ax immediately glowed with blue fluorescence.

There was another discussion behind him.

When he came to the big tree, Keir first circled the tree to make sure there were no bird's nests on the top of the tree, and then judged the direction in which the big tree would fall.

The big tree needs to be fallen outside the forest, so that it can be easily pulled out when it is processed later, and there is no need to change the direction of the big tree on the ground after it falls.

He had heard these techniques from others, and he had never cut down a tree of this size before.

After finding the right direction, Kil came to the side of the direction where he was about to fall, then grasped the handle of the two-handed axe, twisted his waist and chopped it down.

null!

The tree spirit on the ax really worked. Without much effort, the ax swung down at the right angle, slashing diagonally towards the trunk of the big tree from above.

With both hands pumped, the ax was pulled out smoothly without being caught by the tree.

He swung the ax again, and this time the ax adjusted itself and dropped another section, diagonally following the mark of the previous axe.

null!

After two slashes, the part of the tree tissue in the middle of the angle fell off when the ax was drawn.

Keir pressed close to the gap and swung the ax again, and then made another diagonal move, nothing!

Another slanted axe, nothing!

The gap that fell off was even bigger.

Six axes went down, leaving a neat gap in the direction of a small half circle.

Gere came to the opposite direction where the big tree was about to collapse, and followed the same method, cutting a gap on this side.

He then came to the facade that was about to collapse and cut deeper through the gap.

It was easy, because of the unknown effect of the dryad on Yue Shui's head and the dense trunk tissue of the big tree, which did not cause much trouble.

This was repeated several times, and when the trunk of the big tree made an overwhelming sound, Keer knew that the tree was going to fall.

"The tree - fell -!"

Kil shouted, telling everyone around him to avoid him.

The young people hid far away, so there was no danger of being hit.

Boom! There was a sound, and the dead branches and leaves on the soft ground were stirred up by the force of the falling tree. The crackling sound is the sound of branches of big trees colliding with branches of other trees, pulling and breaking.

The huge sound disturbed various birds in the depths of the mountain forest, and various different calls suddenly sounded, sweeping away the tranquility and depth of the mountain forest just now.

In the direction where the big tree fell, dead branches and leaves on the ground were smashed open, revealing the rotten layer underneath, with insect pupae and plump beetle larvae hiding inside crawling around randomly.

Kil patted his shoulder and slapped away the fat white beetle larvae twisting on his shoulder. He didn't know whether this thing was poisonous or whether he could eat it.

"Come on, come on, come on! Let's start working!" Kil shouted, asking those who were avoiding to come over.

As a result, not only the people came over, but his horses also followed.

With a flick of his tongue, the blood-licking grass swallowed the fat white larvae twisting among the dead branches and leaves on the ground into his mouth.

"Are you still eating bugs? Don't get poisoned to death!"

Kil patted the head of the blood-licking grass, but he was disgusted by it and felt that he was looked down upon by Kil.

Some of the young people had seen how people in the village cut down trees, so there was no need for Kiel to direct them. The young man with a one-handed logging ax came up and started to cut off the branches on the trunk of the big tree one by one from the joints of the trunk.

Every time a branch is cut, there will be other people nearby dragging the cut branch away and dragging it outside the forest. These branches are also important burning materials, especially many young people who don’t even have a stick in their hands. These branches can be easily disposed of. Once used, it can be used as a temporary wooden stick.

It can be used for self-defense or trekking on foot.

It can even be used by a team of two people to lift heavy objects.

Gere also helped cut off the treetops and had them towed away. Then he also helped, asking the two young men to start from the top of the tree, leaving the thicker and more troublesome branches at the bottom of the trunk to him.

Unlike the young refugees who had to take turns using one-handed logging axes, Kiel cut off the roots of the branches with one stroke of the axe, then grabbed it with his hand and threw it in front of others waiting nearby.

Although they were branches, they were not light in weight, but Kil threw them away as if he were twisting a flower.

Soon, the tree trunk was cleaned up, leaving only a bare trunk as thick as a human waist.

Its length is about seven meters, which is the length excluding the part near the root of the tree and the thinner part of the treetop.

Kil estimated that it weighed several hundred kilograms, and it seemed that it was not impossible for him to carry it alone. But he turned his attention to the horse. Why did he bother to do it?

The blood-licking grass trembled and stopped licking the larvae exposed by the tree trunk on the ground. It raised its head, propped up a pair of dexterous ears, and subconsciously stared at the human master who was looking at it with evil intentions.