Old-time musicians

"Ah, my leg!"

Fanning grabbed the guitar in one hand and Luna in the other. As soon as he jumped off the car, he felt his feet slip and heard a shrill howl.

A hired worker was trembling and crawling under the carriage. His shoes stepped firmly on his knees.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!" There was no rules at all for this kind of gunfight between the caravan and the gangsters. The guards took cover on their own and temporarily avoided the sharp edge. Then they drew their guns and shot at each other. There was dust stirred up by bullets all around. In the distance, the voice of Massenegu was still shouting, "The people of the caravan family lie on the car, lie on the car, don't get off!"

The smell of dust and gunpowder lingered on the tip of his nose. Amid the crackling sound of shattering glass, Fanning, who was holding the little girl's arm, stared at two gangsters with mustaches on the side of the road.

The black muzzle of the gun was pointed at the two of them.

"Mr. Scheller, be careful!" Luna was so scared that she covered her face with her hand, and her other hand was trying to pull or push Fanning down.

The gunfight was already in chaos, and the mustache gangster saw someone get off the car, and without saying a word, he fired several shots.

But then he slightly turned the gun and stared at the muzzle with smoke.

He was sure that he was aiming very accurately and the distance was not far, so why did the two opponents seem to be fine?

In fact, after the bullets were four or five meters away from Fanning, they were pushed in the opposite direction by an invisible force, and the speed slowed down greatly, and fell into the gravel on the road in a horizontal trajectory.

While he was stunned, the mustache gangster saw a brown-black smoking tube on the ground from the corner of his eye.

"Fuck! Where did you throw the grenade!?" The man was shocked and fell to the ground.

"Go forward, are you blind?" The young man next to him was loading the magazine, and he lowered his head after hearing his words.

The next moment, he was so frightened that his face turned pale. He howled in fear, and the whole person dropped the gun and the handle, but he didn't have time to react.

"Boom!" The airflow exploded, and flames and thick smoke rose up.

This kind of hand grenade before the 19th century was not as powerful as the modern one, and it was also a smuggled munitions of the gangsters in the southern continent. The quality was uneven, but the distance between the two people was too close.

After the black smoke dissipated, the face of the gangster who threw the gun could no longer be seen. He was directly cut into a bloody mess by the dense shrapnel, and there were two big holes in his neck and chest. He fell to the ground and died on the spot.

And the man who had barely lied down before was now dragging his charred broken legs and bloody lower body, howling heartbreakingly and crawling away.

Fanning slowly passed by the two people with a guitar in his arms, and ignored the man who was not dead yet.

During this period, the sound of gunfire still rang in her ears, and the two horses in the carriage were also hit by stray bullets and fell to the ground.

"Sit here and take a rest." After walking twenty meters away, Fanning pointed to a stump in the grass outside the gravel road.

"Ah! Here?"

Luna's heart was pounding. She walked so ostentatiously just now. Her intuition told her that at least someone had aimed at this side and shot several times, but for some reason she didn't get shot.

She thought the two of them had escaped by luck. At this moment, she felt that the distance was still too short. She wanted to pull Mr. Scheller away from it, but the other party sat down directly. She was a little worried about her family's situation, so she had to clench her fists and look forward.

"Don't worry, it's almost done." Fanning held the piano and lowered his head, playing a series of cadenzas as if nothing had happened, just like sitting in front of the piano and randomly pressing the keys on weekdays.

He probably knew why Massenegu didn't say a word this time and shot the other party who negotiated the price directly.

The strength of the gangsters this time was not strong. They did not have as many guns and manpower as last time. They did not carry military crossbows, and their slogans like "reputation in the world" were probably not loud enough.

Although Fanning thought that this "guide" Masenegu was a joke before, Fanning now found that he was definitely not a peacemaker who would make his employer bleed at every turn.

He was comparing strength and looking for opportunities to deal with people while ensuring the overall safety of the protected.

He was a middle-level knowledgeable person. Compared with Theolian, this way of mixing in the southern continent was not "elegant", but he was definitely not slow in making money, buying land, and buying a title, and his social status in the upper class was definitely not low.

Fanning's judgment was correct. In fact, the gunfight seemed noisy, but it was silent after two or three minutes.

The "Ashes" studied by Massenegu gave him a flexible body and bullet avoidance sensitivity. His shooting skills were extremely accurate. He killed two people on the opposite side in a firefight. Then he threw extraordinary darts that seemed to have tracking and spinning characteristics, cutting the throats of two people, and the guards also broke the legs of one person.

Fanning had originally dealt with two people, and now all the long-range threats were eliminated. Then a group of thugs with shields and machetes who took advantage of the opportunity to sneak up were directly stabbed to death by Massenegu holding a long sword in a few encounters.

After leaving behind more than a dozen human corpses and a similar number of horse corpses, the gangsters began to retreat in disgrace. Some of them fled in the bushes, and some took advantage of the chaos to run away and ride their own horses.

So Fanning reached out to press the strings and calmly signaled Luna that she could go back.

The guards were counting the casualties, and the eldest son Trowa also jumped off the carriage and began to coordinate.

Two hired workers were killed by grenades thrown by another gangster. Two unlucky guards and the driver were hit by stray bullets. Two guards had their backs slashed. The rest were just some bumps and bruises while dodging in a panic. Bruised people.

"It wasn't like this before. The 'guides' at the end of the last century were not so difficult to get along with."

After entering the orderly processing stage, Masenegu walked to Fan Ning and spoke.

His eyes were full of meaning. Just a certain distance away, his attention was mainly on the gun battle, but he somewhat noticed the situation on Scheler's side.

Although he didn't know why the two of them walked so carelessly without being hit by a bullet, and he didn't know why the grenade inexplicably killed the gangster himself, he had already known that the troubadour was also a wise person. The mysterious words that appear in people's conversations actually acquiesce to this point.

These low-ranking intellectuals who understand art may have some light of first knowledge similar to spiritual characteristics, the kind that can make ignorant people with weak inspiration lose their minds.

"How was it before?" Fan Ning watched the people in front of him bandaging the wounded without turning around.

"At that time, when gangs were plundering me, I couldn't care about all the twists and turns. I would go up and chop them for a while. Normally, when gangs came up in large numbers, I and my guards would only stab them to death one by one." We all know that if an extremely powerful gang encounters a low-ranking person by chance, it is not too late to stop and negotiate as little as possible. Caravans and gangs seek wealth rather than life, but no one's money can be blown away by a strong wind. Yes." Masenegu wiped his blood-stained sword.

"Aren't you the same now?" Fan Ning glanced at him, "Or theoretically, you should be stronger than before."

"It is said that swords have no eyes, but bullets do." Massenego patted the ashes on his body, "So I often say that this industrial age is really unfriendly to us knights. Look at the current gangster robberies. What kind of custom is this? ..." He pointed at the corpse on the ground sadly with his revolver, "... When they come up, they point their guns directly at people, even though everyone is equipped with firearms, no one is afraid of anyone. , but if my employer keeps having casualties, how can I get commissions?”

"And to be honest, your and my bodies are still as brittle as paper. When faced with too strong a firepower threat, everyone will feel scared in the bottom of their hearts. Besides, who knows if there is a knowledgeable person in the opposite team? Now even the mysterious side The battle between them is becoming more and more variable.”

Speaking of this, he shrugged helplessly: "This line of work is really difficult. I regret that I didn't study the piano properly before, otherwise I might be able to marry the daughter of a marquis by now."

"..."

Fan Ning originally thought that his complaint had some truth, and was about to nod in agreement, but he almost got a slap in the face at his words.

Massenego strode to a corpse with its throat slit, groped in its pockets, and at the same time waved to several Chretien family guards beside him to disperse and help.

"I lost the first battle, and I am a poor man." Half a minute later, he helplessly spread out his hand, which showed only a few gold coins with a face value of 1 pound. "Mr. Scheler, judging from past experience, I bet you won't be able to get your money back today. "

"Good luck." Fan Ning watched them looking for loot calmly.

Compared to making money from art in Tioline, these amounts are just a drop in the bucket.

But maybe there are similarities in feelings, such as the scene when Turner Art Hall first opened and closed every night, and I and my companions counted the box office revenue with expectant faces.

A total of 8 horses died in the caravan. After making up for it from the spare horses, the 6 horses left behind by the gang were brought into the team.

Then, they seized a total of 140 pounds of gold coins from 12 corpses, as well as rings, earrings, nose rings, bracelets and other jewelry valued at around 300 pounds. Massenegu believed that this was a moderately lucky grade, because jewelry is not as good as cash. , there is always a discount when selling, after all, the last loss is not earned back.

But then, when the knight used his expertise to tame a fierce horse that was not cooperative enough to return to the team, he unexpectedly found a lot of gold coins in the saddle bag!

The total denomination is 500 pounds!

"Now I really believe how easy it is for a troubadour to bring good luck to the journey." Massenego once again admired Scheler. He generously and fairly gave Trois 300 pounds for the casualties. After repairing the medical, pension and caravan facilities, as well as making up for some of the previous losses, he immediately packed another 100 pounds and handed the small bag to Fan Ning.

"I'm not a caravan guard." Fan Ning looked at him in surprise.

Half of the total price of 840 pounds of loot was quickly divided... Although this guy was thinking about getting money to buy knights in order to achieve his "ultimate goal of knighthood", and he shot and killed people whenever he disagreed, but why did he always Does it give people a very "martial arts" feeling?

"If those two people hadn't accidentally blown themselves up, our casualties and losses might have increased a lot." Masenego's smile always had a meaning of "I have seen through everything".

Fan Ning took it, took out the bag of 200 pounds of gold coins in his pocket, and threw it directly towards Luna next to him.

"Mr. Scheele, what are you talking about?" She took it hurriedly.

"It's too heavy. I'm too lazy to pick it up. Please help me put it away."

Luna opened it and took a quick look. The golden light shone like a dream.

Although I meant to keep it for you, I always felt that something was wrong. I was the one who made the invitation. Why did my small treasury triple in size?

Everyone around was watching this scene in amazement and admiration.

This Mr. Scheler is really, his realm is ethereal and extraordinary...

The hired workers and drivers simply repaired some of the damage to the team, and then dug two pits on the spot to bury the dead. The weather was hot and it took a lot of effort. As for the gangsters who came up to seek death, no one would care after dragging their bodies to the side of the grass. In the rainforests and islands of the southern country, there are more than tens of thousands of leaves, berries and animal remains rotting every day.

Fei Li used the lute to sweep out a simple and solemn broken chord, and then a dozen people in the team hummed a short melody with their voices of varying quality. The speed was not fast, and the fourth degree ascending was used as the motive for the development of each section. It had a heavy and even rhythm, and a more solemn and simple interval structure.

Fanning was quite interested in folk music materials, and he grasped the musical image of this melody in an instant.

It should be a common mourning music in the southern continent.

After the interlude of the gunfight with the gangsters, the caravan set off again.

It was still the warm sunshine and the exotic scenery, but there were 14 bodies left beside the gravel road just now.

In the next two days, they encountered several waves of the Hercules gang. Fanning gradually discovered that regardless of whether Marseille Negu's previous "wise eye for talent" was a great wisdom or a great foolishness, at least his style as a "guide" was really unique.

When it was judged that the other side had too many guns and the employer's safety risk was uncontrollable, he would act as a peacemaker and be fully responsible for negotiating the "toll". First, they would announce their families, then negotiate the ratio, and finally inspect the goods and set the price. Each link was a subtle game.

When the other side was weaker and the risk was relatively controllable, they would just shoot him in the face, and then stage a black-eating-black drama.

It can be said that he jumped back and forth between the roles of robbery and being robbed.

Fanning didn't know how much money he received from the Chrétien family for this commission, but after adding up the positive and negative income statistics of several waves, Marseille Negu earned at least an extra 600 to 700 pounds.

The caravan also recovered its losses. After deducting the medical and pension expenses, although there were still some losses, it was really not much. For such long-distance merchants, any employer would be willing to spend some money to buy peace.

But on the third and fourth days of the journey, no more gangs were encountered.

There were few people outside the city-state. The previous Port of Bakrizo was already a small settlement on the outer edge of the city-state of Missin. These overly deep coastlines and rainforests were not suitable for long-term stays for the looting teams pursuing light mobility, and the probability of finding the target was not high. They would only sweep around the city-state as much as possible.

"Boom!!!"

"Hua La La La La——"

The carriage stopped in the rainforest, the sky was dark, thunder was roaring, and there was white mist everywhere.

The weather in midsummer is unpredictable. On the afternoon of the fourth day, there were several rounds of heavy rain. The drivers were obviously very experienced in dealing with such situations. Although the weather changed suddenly, they always took some moisture-proof measures for dry goods and accompanying guests before the downpour came completely.

The heavy rain made the leather covering on the roof crackle. Through a gap in the carriage door, Fanning could see wet grass and flowers and trees swaying in the wind and rain. Later, the mist became bigger and bigger, and it was all white.

Today, his strength has basically recovered.

This round of storm lasted for half an hour and then suddenly dissipated. The drivers jumped down and began to remove the leather curtain.

Fanning just put his hand on the curtain bolt to get some fresh air, and he heard someone shouting below:

"How did we get out of the rain forest?"

Hearing this, he quickly lifted the door curtain, and his pupils shrank slightly.

The setting sun shines on the sea, and before your eyes is a white sandy beach peninsula surrounded by the sea on three sides.