Mercenaries and Adventurers

It got dark quickly, and there was not much strict discipline among everyone. The young people who had experienced the fighting last night had already understood what this cruel world was like, so after wiping away their tears, whether it was true or false, , everyone showed a smile.

Some particularly lively young people sang songs and danced around the fire.

He looked tired before, but after the dance was revealed, his body seemed to be filled with energy again.

Most of them can only perform simple country dances, stomping their feet, holding the hands of their companions, raising their legs forward and kicking back and forth together, or spinning around in circles with laughter, exchanging dance partners.

There are not many rules in dance, so you can be as free and indulgent as you like.

Some young men who fought bravely last night were especially welcomed by the girls in the team. With warm wheat porridge, everyone ate and drank, and the team members from one village to another started to have fun.

"The blue tail flowers are not as good as your scent."

"Butterflies always fly around you too."

"The bees are also drunk this spring, collecting the sweat and tears of every girl."

"And I am brave enough to get the honey. I just want to taste the sweetness with your taste."

"Please don't be shy, the reddest flowers are not as bright as your cheeks."

"Please don't be shy, the most beautiful flowers are not as beautiful as your cheeks."

"Your cheek."

I don't know when Bloody Fangster also showed off his singing voice beside a fire. Although he couldn't sing well, his singing level was already higher than those around him.

Kil smiled. At this moment, he was sitting by the fire next to his carriage. Relying on the lighting of the fire, he carefully wiped his armor with a wet fine cloth, then used a dry cloth to remove the moisture, and then oiled the armor.

If he came across scratches on the armor caused by the bandits' arrows last night, he would take out a small metal hammer and tap on the slightly damaged areas.

But if the scar is too large, it is beyond his ability to deal with and must be left to a professional blacksmith.

Repairing armor damage does not require a professional armor craftsman like Ganner, an ordinary blacksmith is enough. But ordinary blacksmiths can barely maintain metal armor, and it is difficult for these people to make one from scratch. Many people have not received professional training.

Similar ring mail made of small metal rings does not require the skill of a craftsman. Craftsmen who can make iron nails can generally make this thing.

However, ring mail is time-consuming and laborious. It takes a blacksmith half a year to make a suit of ring mail. This results in the limitation of this kind of defense. The easily damaged lightweight metal armor can only be prepared for rich and idle warriors who do not have the strength of knights. .

Formal knights all use powerful knight armors. The lightest of these armors weigh nearly one hundred kilograms and are impossible for ordinary people to use.

After a while, amid the sound of singing and dancing that was deliberately induced, Priest Batal wiped the sweat from his head and walked over.

Regardless of his appearance, he sat down and sat down with Kiel's narration, panting: "Your method is not bad, everyone is finally in a mood. It has changed the atmosphere of confusion and silence in the afternoon."

"It's not important. It's a small matter. Come on, come and take a look at my plan."

Kil moved his metal breastplate to the ground between the two of them and used it as a low table.

Then he took out a map.

The map was unfolded, with writings and drawings on it, and many marks and text phrases describing it.

Priest Batar quickly found the White Stone City Wall level and their location by following Kil's fingers.

A short distance east from the level, Kir drew a red cross: "This is where the battle took place last night." He explained.

Then Keir went a little further east and clicked here: "This is where we are now."

There are still a few small red dots around them: "This is the place where several bandit lairs were wiped out last night."

Kiel then followed the trade road marked by two dotted lines and headed east: "If we continue at the current speed, of course, it may be a little faster, we will be able to walk out of the gap between the north and south of the mountain range in three more days. Then you can see the first town on the barely open land - the town of Dorne."

"You've been there, right? How was it?"

Faced with Kiir's question, Batal replied directly: "Not very good. It's a smelly, dirty and chaotic little place. It's not a big place, but there are a lot of bastards. When I passed by there, I couldn't stand it. Place. I can only say that all the bad guys who gave up being bandits on this trade road are probably gathered in that place at this time."

Keir rubbed his chin: "Well, I probably understand. What about the others? Who is the ruler? What is the population and how is the local industry?"

Priest Batal rolled his eyes: "Let me think about it, hey, I don't want to recall that kind of bad place. I remember that there is no main ruler in the place. It is nominally managed by a local baron, but the other party also knows about this place. It is special, so they did not directly intervene in the management, but delegated the local management power to several large chambers of commerce. The nobles only want the taxes paid by the other party, and they don't care about anything else."

The priest complained: "The black market is overflowing in that place, and prostitutes and gambling houses are everywhere. Many businessmen are doing both legal and illegal business there. The population is about two thousand people, and there are still some gangs around. For people living in the area, I remember there were also special breeding farms where chickens were raised to produce eggs to supply the town’s meat consumption.”

"Industry? You can imagine it, Kil. You copy the White Stone Wall level, then remove the stationed soldiers, and double the chaos. Dorne Town is almost like that."

Keir nodded: "It looks like a good place with lots of wealth?"

The priest shook his head: "From the perspective of the Church of the God of Wealth, it is a good place. But from the perspective of a priest of the Church of the God of Agriculture, it is a terrible place. The farmers around the town who farm and raise animals, They don’t make a living from this, they are debtors who are forced to work. It’s terrible.”

"Oh, debtors? Then they will probably never be able to pay off their debts. After all, they have just paid off their debts, and if they go to the cannibal gambling table in the town, they will probably owe a lot of money again."

Keir stretched out his hands and raised his left hand: "Desire, all kinds of desires that lead to depravity."

He raised his right hand: "Working in debt, working endlessly almost for free."

Putting his hands together and clenching them: "The combination of the two will only make ordinary people sink deeper and deeper into the world, unable to escape, and they are not willing to be 'rescued' by others."

Priest Batal exhaled: "Who says it's not the case?"

After a moment of silence, Kil continued to point to the location of Dorne Town in the southeast direction. His finger crossed the map, passing several towns and a city along the secondary branch trade route, and there was only one scattered point. represents the village.

Finally, on this map of the western region of the Southern Province, a place near the southeastern border mountains, there is a small red dot with a name next to it - Long Wheat.

That is Changmai Village.

It looks very remote, and in terms of distance, it is not far from the border front where I heard about the defeat of the southern province army last year.

It's just that Changmai Village is located next to a mountain range on the border of the map. It is a broad mountain range oriented from southwest to northeast.

It seems that the straight line distance on the map is very close, but if you don't actually plan to go through the mountains, the actual distance is very far, and even that distance can directly reach the capital of the southern province.

Kiel spoke: "To be honest, considering that after rescuing the people of Changmai Village, it is no longer easy to resettle the burned-down Changmai Village, I plan to take the young refugees around me to find a suitable place again. The villages where no one has fled have settled.”

"Most of the people around are settled there. Let's take a few who can fight, and then go to Changmai Village. From there, we will look for traces of the retreat of the defeated army that robbed the population, find the place, and defeat it. Then we will take the rescued people with us. Return to a safe place to stay. The people in Changmai Village live together with these young refugees."

"In this way, as a priest, you can have a team of people who obey orders. Instead of the so-called 'believers' who are hard to distinguish between true and false today."

Priest Batar pursed his lips, knowing that Kil had seen through that many believers did not really believe in the God of Agriculture. Those people were just relying on his identity to escape danger and gain a false sense of security created by grouping together.

The priest still reminded: "Don't say this everywhere. If you don't say it, everyone will know it but you can still maintain it. If you say it, some people who could really convert into believers will run away. I don't have any people under my command." Human."

Keir smiled and waved his hand: "I won't cause any trouble for you, don't worry. In short, this is roughly the process, how about it? Do you have anything to add?"

After listening, the priest lowered his head and looked at the complicated map carefully. After looking at it for a while, he said: "So, the only problem is a safe settlement that can avoid the chaotic period in the next few years. , where should I choose?”

The priest's finger swept over most of the map: "Even Changmai Village will be attacked, plus many whole villages are fleeing to avoid the chaos. I feel that unless a town or city is willing to accept us, nowhere will be safe. I I know that the village will definitely train some village militiamen who are willing to fight to protect themselves, but the bad guys also have legs on their feet, and they will continue to attack my village, which is not as defensive as the town. And the bad guys also have ears and mouths, They will join forces, just like last night, to discuss how to divide the wealth and lives of these innocent people, and then launch an attack together."

Priest Batal looked downcast, waving his fingers randomly on the map: "I can't find a place that looks safe. There are naturally many bad guys and bandits near cities and towns, and abandoned villages have their own reasons to flee and abandon them. You will always be targeted.”

Keir nodded: "So this is an issue worth discussing. I'm not familiar with your land either. The methods and plans have been proposed. All that's left is to find a suitable place."

Keir scratched the itchy back of his neck: "How about we find some reliable people and discuss it together?"

The priest wondered: "Who are the reliable people?"

Kil stood up and called a young man with nimble legs who was listening to his orders by the nearby fire: "Go, call the four guys under my command, and tell them what I called them."

This young man was about the same age as Kil, only sixteen or seventeen years old, but there was a big difference in height and weight, which probably only reached Kil's chest. He nodded continuously, remembering what the Lord Knight told him.

"Well, let's call Nobi Fentigia, the old businessman who was rescued, over. Lothar, do you want to call Ms. Fenia over?"

The priest quickly waved his hand in refusal: "Forget it, listen to this, she will probably leave in Dorne Town, it is better not to involve this person."

"Well, in this case, you will end up with Long Barfoot, the middle-aged businessman who used to manage and assign everyone to move goods. Do you know this person?"

The young man nodded. He did not remember the name that Kil said, but remembered the characteristics of the person he was looking for. For example, there were old businessmen among the rescued people and middle-aged businessmen assigned to manage the transportation.

"These people, please call Bloody Fangster over and ask him to stop singing idle songs and come over to discuss things. Let's go."

Keir waved his hand, and the young man got the order, turned around and ran away to call someone.

"In this way, I will briefly explain the matter to everyone, and let everyone discuss and find a safe place to come out. These people are either experienced caravan guards who have traveled all over the country, or they are the original villagers in this area, or they are middle-aged backbones Businessman, and an old and experienced businessman. His understanding of the area is definitely better than the two of us."

Keir smiled and pointed at the priest and himself: "After all, one of us is a foreigner and the other is a resident priest in the most remote village in the area."

Priest Batal curled his lips and retorted: "Although Changmai Village is remote, it is not small in size. The village has a large population and is stronger than many fleeing villages. You know, if it hadn't been attacked by the defeated army that suddenly appeared , based on our village’s defense and population, ordinary bandits are no match for us.”

"Yes, yes, yes, that's right." Kil said perfunctorily.

Padal thought Kiir was mocking him, but he had no proof.

-

After a while, the people who were called came over one after another.

They came over one by one, and were arranged to sit together by Kiel. Then Kiel briefly explained the current situation to these people. The plan did not say much about Changmai Village, but the search for a place that could provide long-term safety and stability to avoid the chaotic situation in the southern province was clearly informed to everyone.

Bloodfangster was the first to arrive. After he came over, he observed the map spread out on the metal breastplate for a while. After asking what the marks on the map meant, he pointed to one of the places and said: " How is this place?"

The knights and priests looked over and found that Bloodfangster was pointing to the only place close to this area that could be considered a big city - the city of Burisfa, and a small plain area near it.

As mentioned before, there are large mountain ranges running across the west, south and east sides of the southern province. Generally speaking, there are no large mountain ranges in the province to block and divide the entire region. But there are no big ones, and there are many other small mountains and forests. Not only that, the large and small rivers that rely on the mountains have also divided the originally vast southern province into small plains along the rivers with narrow terrain.

Many towns and villages rely on small and large plain areas to produce food crops to feed the population.

Therefore, if a city has a large population, there must be a plain area around it that can satisfy the urban population.

This is the case for the city of Belisfa. It is surrounded by a relatively broad grain-producing plain that is nourished and divided by multiple rivers.

Logically speaking, not only is there a circle of villages around here where a large number of people live and work on the land, there must be at least a lot of similar villages on the entire plain.

Especially with the protection of city guards in big cities, the security there should be very good?

Just as Kiel and Batal were analyzing the reasons for choosing this option given by Bloodfangster, Long Barford, the middle-aged businessman, walked over quickly. After figuring out what he wanted to do, he carried out the process in a vague way. Disapproval reminder.

"Ahem, around the city of Belisfa, I happened to escape with the caravan from there before being captured by the bandits."

"Escape? What happened there?"

Priest Batal immediately asked with concern that there was a larger local Saturnalia parish in that city, where he had spent nearly twenty years before growing up.

In other words, Priest Lothar Batal, regardless of his bloodline, is a native of Belis France.

However, he always thought that everything was peaceful there. When he set out from Changmai Village, he did not pass by here, so he had not known the news about the city of Belisfa for several years, let alone the recent news.

Long Barford blinked, coughed slightly and said: "Last winter, that is, last quarter, most of the army in Burisfar City was taken away by Viscount Burisfar. And the original one Your Excellency's army has suffered some losses in last year's war. As you know, most of the army was empty, and the city has increased its collection of grain. Well, the collection has more than tripled. Although it is somewhat compensated, And after defeating the enemy, taxes will be reduced or reduced.”

The old businessman also came over, along with the four refugee leaders who were able to command all the young refugees who could fight.

The old businessman shook his head: "I heard, just what I heard, that the neighboring country, the country that is fighting, sent people to spread the news. Viscount Burisfar died in a duel in the provincial capital here. Outside. Oh, the current demand for grain requisition in the city of Paris is all fake, and it is all fabricated by some people to make profits. The grain requisition is real, but it is not necessarily used to supply the army for consumption, and It will be resold to other places in the southern provinces that are short of food due to chaos. After all, food prices are very high now."

A young man wearing a damaged simple leather armor took over: "My village is adjacent to the area where the city of Burisfa is located. I heard that even the compensation and tax exemptions are fake. The local village feels that it has been deceived. The entire city is asking the city’s Viscount family to give an accurate letter as to whether those things have happened.”

The old businessman knocked on his lower back, shook his head and said: "The reason why rumors from enemy countries can incite a large number of farmers to surround the city is because the rumors are not entirely false. Some are true, some are false; half true, half false. ; Mostly true, half false; even all true, but in the process of spreading rumors to each other, only partially true, but it is not good for the situation."

"Actually, these are not problems. The key problem is that there are few armed people in the city's army. It is precisely because there are few people that they dare not send people to refute rumors and contact calm farmers in chaotic situations. Because compared to other places, the aristocratic families in the city Safety is the most important thing.”

"The situation is chaotic and stalemate. We are all waiting for Viscount Borisfar to come back from the provincial capital with his army to explain clearly."

Keir opened his eyes wide: "The viscount is not dead?"

The old businessman smiled: "It's all said to be rumors. Even if he is really dead, there is still a noble heir. The key is that the army is fine. But in this way, some rumors are passed on, which makes everything confusing. . After the assembled army sets off to the place, it has to return. Not to mention the consumption and involvement of the back and forth, it is the front line where your southern army faces off. Without such a few people, what will other nobles think?"

Keir clicked his lips and said: "It's really amazing. No wonder we suffered a disastrous defeat last year."