The mayor's speech

Joyce walked out of the room, and by this time the old man had already made up his mind. He spoke in the loudest voice he could.

"Citizens of Valuno, I have sad news for you, and I hope you will be prepared to be prepared, and my profession will tell you that if I don't make things clear now, then I am committing a crime!"

Every time Joyce discussed something in the town, he used this method to yell a few times, and the town was already small, and as soon as Joyce opened his mouth, he had already attracted the attention of several townspeople. Joyce's status as mayor of the town is not based on the appointment of the local lord, or from the blood of the tribe, but by his own solid contribution to the town, it can be said that it was Joyce's efforts first, and then the town. Although he put in more sweat and effort, it also earned him the respect of the townspeople who were far higher than the average mayor.

"Whatever happens, Mayor, just say it, and whatever happens, we're willing to follow your arrangement!" replied a young man from a small town in a loud voice, his answer echoing the voices of some citizens. As for why he supported Joyce's decision so unconditionally, there was no other reason, just because, since he was born, Joyce has been the mayor of the town, and under his leadership, the town's prosperity has been better every year. For him, trusting the mayor has become a habit.

Seeing the enthusiasm of the citizens, Joyce cut down a little bit of what she had come up with in her mind and decided to get straight to the point. He paused and continued in a mournful voice:

"I don't know if you've heard anything about it, but just now, the lord of our town, the José Knight, our "Lord Sheriff", has reported to me that a group of Wiegand people is gathering, and according to José Knight's intelligence, they may have united several nearby tribes this time. ”

Hearing the mayor mention the Wiegand people, the townspeople's faces changed their faces. Some looked dazed, others angry, but most of the citizens showed a look of horror.

There are many people in the town, many of whom are bold, but even if they are bold, they will inevitably be shaken when they hear the word "Wiegand people". The Northland is a land of opportunity, sparsely populated and fertile, and since the founding of the Empire, countless adventurers have come to the Northland and settled here to live a prosperous life. But even newcomers to the Northland have heard of the legend of the "Three Don't Mess with the Northland": the Snowwolf, the Great Snow Falls, and the Weegand people, and the Weegand people are more famous than the first two combined.

"Maybe some of you have dealt with Wiggan, or maybe some of you haven't. But whatever the genre, you're all pretty lucky. Looking at the frightened townspeople, Joyce didn't stop, he wanted to cheer up the townspeople.

"We Great Prus have come from the south to this barren land and have built our own homes on this land, while these Wiegand people have come to raid us. Maybe they've stopped a little bit in the last few years, but you just have to ask those who have lived in the Northland for more than ten years, and ask them if those damned swamp people have their blood debts, and the pain of losing their loved ones is up to us?"

"The Wiegand are a sword in the hearts of our Northland Pruss, and how many nights when the north wind is howling and we will be unable to sleep because of these people? Shall we continue to live in the shadow of these people? I have heard that the Knight José has told him about his encounter in the South, that the Amarkians are ten times stronger than the Weegands, but the Southerners have driven them back to their homeland, and if they can do it, I think we can do the same. ”

Joyce's words undoubtedly aroused a lot of fire in the hearts of the people in the town, especially some of the young people in the town, they were strong-blooded, and they had never seen what the Wiegand invasion army looked like, but they had heard the elders of the family mention the murderous name. And some middle-aged people in the town seemed to be more hesitant and a little embarrassed.

"Actually, I didn't think about running away like I did at first. Joyce suddenly changed her words, "I don't know if you've heard my story. About twenty or thirty years ago, it was just an ordinary tribe, and I was just a passerby who happened to come here from afar. Here, I met the love of my life, a kind peasant girl, and my heart was tied here, and since then, I have regarded this place as my second home. ”

"But when I dream back at midnight, I can't help but think of my past, my hometown, which used to be a good place to thrive, with plenty of sunshine, always seems to be in the summer. ”

By the time Joyce had spoken, the memories of the townspeople below had been opened. It was the famous Sunshine Valley tragedy, but I didn't know that there were still people alive under that tragedy. Without warning, a Weegand army that seemed to have suddenly emerged from the ground attacked the unprepared village, and both adults and children were dismembered in the most brutal way by the Wiegand people, and the corpses that were randomly abandoned in the river clogged the river, and it is said that the grass that has grown in that place until now has a smell of blood.

"Those Wiegand people ruined it all, my parents, my brothers, and my fellow tribesmen......" At this, the townsfolk were surprised to find that the eyes of the old man, who had barely shed a tear for twenty years, had become moist.

"I've had nightmares more than once, fearing that this growing town will suffer the same fate as my hometown, even to the point of being a little frightened. I even wondered at the beginning that we might hand over some of our belongings to keep the town safe. When the mayor said this, he was already choking up a little.

At this time, Mender interjected in a timely sentence: "Satin will not be attached to the souls who do not know how to protect themselves, but he will reward the heroic spirits of the warriors." ”

Joyce glanced at Mender with a grateful look, although he had avoided Mende when discussing with the José Knights, it was obvious that he had no burden in his heart, and still chose to support his decision at such a critical moment. Some of the town's priests looked at Mende in surprise, while more of the townspeople looked thoughtful.

"So, if any of you have any thoughts about leaving, I won't blame you, after all, everyone has their own aspirations, but I still hope that you can stay, because this time we are not the same as before, and I am sure that I will stand here and explain to you. The mayor wiped the tears from his face and replaced them with his usual look of determination.

"As you can see, in the process of building the town, we have built an earthen wall around the town with foresight, and with the protection of this wall, and the information that the warriors brought back in advance, it seems that the last tragedy is impossible to repeat. ”

"In addition, our Knight José has lobbied the vassals of the Empire to send troops to help us in order to ensure our safety, according to the Knight José, he has friendships with several lords from the south, and as long as we can achieve a stalemate with these Wiegand people for a while, the Knight José will bring a military of our to repel these invaders. ”

On a white horse galloping through the wilderness, Knight Jose suddenly sneezed coldly.

"Now the time and place are on our side, and our enemies are bound to go on expeditions. Warriors of Great Pruth, there is no better time for us to take revenge! I am not speaking today to tie your fate to this town, I only hope that many years from now, when your grandson tells you about this legendary war by the fire, you can proudly tell him that you cut off the head of a Wiegand man in the town of Valuno, as a warrior guarding his homeland, instead of embarrassingly telling him that you shoveled manure for his stables in the castle of some great lord in the Northlands. ”

There was a burst of laughter from the citizens standing around, and under the mayor's strong and soft speech, the citizens clearly had confidence in the war. Looking at the smiling faces on the faces of the citizens, Joyce felt a little unburdened in his heart, if according to José Knight, the chance of winning this war was thirty percent.

Thinking of this, Joyce shouted to the townspeople, "Alright, don't be too happy, the Wiegand people are not stupid enough to stretch their necks for you to cut down! ”

The men of the town were soon organized into several combat units by the mercenaries trained by the Knight José, and these mercenaries had a wealth of experience in suppressing bandits, even in the regular army of the Empire, they could be regarded as veterans, and they were the most suitable for serving as a sergeant major for citizens.

Some of the adventurers who have been living in the town for many years are mostly good at using swords, and most of them are also armed, and although they have no intention of giving anything to the town, they quickly change their minds after Joyce promises them a large bounty. An adventurer who was escorting caravans near the town shouted at the mayor, "You are insulting us with money, and even without this money, we are willing to contribute to the town, and of course, if you can pay half of it first, I can also give myself an extra shield with a covered skin." ”

As for the townspeople, there are quite a few of them who are originally from the hunters who sell furs, and although they may have little organizational ability and discipline, most of them can shoot a bow and arrow, which is also a proof of their livelihood.

For another group of townsfolk who were honest farmers, the mercenary Frerick managed to find some sharpened wood from the town's warehouses - wood from a merchant who was going to sell it to the Abbasquia shipyard. When the merchant heard that his timber might be useful, he immediately donated it without hesitation, "I don't want any of them, my lord." I earned my first pot of gold in this city. Not to mention that once the town is breached, all my goods in this warehouse will be nothing more than a bargain for the Wiegand people. The merchant said.

Frérick picked up a sharpened piece of wood and shouted to the farmers, "When you are on the battlefield, you stick to your brother like your wife in the bed, and then stand bent over as you usually do when you plow the land, and when you see the Wiggans coming, you will stab their dick without underwear with the wooden stick in your hand!"

Looking at Freicri's appearance, the farmers first felt that their crotch was cold, then looked at each other's appearances, and laughed innocently.

The town's blacksmiths and leather workshops were more popular than ever, and the craftsmen and their apprentices worked almost non-stop for the next few days, and the Knight José left a famous quote from the Red Lion Emperor in the town: The best way to make your soldiers brave on the battlefield is not to talk to them a lot, but to have each and every one of your soldiers wear armor.

Mountains of fur were processed into simple leather armor and then applied to farmers and hunters, and the tools used to plough the fields were simply processed in the blacksmith shop into sharp daggers and spearheads, the former hanging from the hunters' waists, and the latter being inlaid on the tips of the villagers' spears as much as possible.

Outside the town, some of the townsfolk who did not participate in the training, mostly women and children, and some who were completely ineffective, such as frail priests and old men. They dug a shallow trench outside the town, at the behest of the mercenary Hope, and inserted some stakes into it.

"These stakes can do wonders when it matters most. Hope said.

From the day the mayor finished speaking, the townspeople were organized to take turns standing guard on the town's walls, or patrolling the town and nearby villages, keeping an eye on the Wiegand people.

The mayor's wife baked bread after oven from her stove, the town's priests baptized the townsfolk who came to pray, providing them with "a potion that energizes them on the battlefield" for free—onion-flavored water mixed with coarse salt and honey, and the town's clinic grinds some of its long-cherished herbs for hemostasis and anti-inflammatory herbs into powder to treat the wounded from time to time.

Before the Wigand arrived, the entire town was "nervous and excited" under Joyce's command, with one resident praising that "it was more lively than the harvest festival."