When they arrived at the boulder pile of the wasteland, the sky that had been clear for more than ten days began to snow again, and everyone had to rest in the boulder pile that night, but fortunately they had loaded a lot of firewood on the carriage when they came out of the wooden castle in the valley, otherwise they would have to curl up in a thin blanket to survive the cold night.

As they sat around the fire, Otto handed the wooden bowl containing half a bowl of gruel to Art, who took it and asked, "Why is it so thin?" ”

Otto knocked on the deep brass pot on the fire, and replied to Art, "My lord, we have not brought much food, and we don't know if we can get anything out of this time to raise food, so we must save some food so that we don't go hungry." ”

"Yes, sir, do you think we can collect food this time? Those Jazz lords' money and food are not so easy to get, I remember that once the tax collector of our county came to the village to collect taxes for the palace, and the Jazz Lord took the soldiers to knock out a few front teeth on the spot, and then the tax collector left like a wild dog with his tail between his legs~" Kazak has a deep understanding of the arrogance and unreasonableness of the Jazz lords.

Art ignored the men's words, and he didn't know if he would be able to get food from the lords' barns and money bags this time, but he had to try. And even if he can't collect food, he can buy grain from all over the country, which is much more cost-effective than buying high-priced grain in the city of Tignats. In addition, this time the whole county of Tignats was raised to collect food and wages for patrolling the county, in order to find out the basic situation of the whole county, especially to understand the group of bandits and robbers. If it were only a few Yat, they wouldn't even be able to touch the bandits.

After taking refuge in the boulder pile overnight, and the next day at noon, as soon as the snow had stopped, Art and a few men went east in a carriage, and they first had to go to the easternmost point of Andertburg, the most remote town in the east of Tignats and the southeastern mountain frontier of the Count of Burgundy.

It took another day and a half for the group to drive the four-wheeled carriage to Fort Anderter, the first stop of the trip.

Andermatt Fort was a military fort near the Duchy of Swabia at the foot of the Boge Mountains in southeastern Tignets, where the Baron of the Count of Burgundy, Antayas Berg, guarded the pastoral border. Fort Andermatt is small and dilapidated, having not been expanded or completely renovated since it was built two hundred years ago to defend against mountain barbarians. The fort of Andermatt was enclosed by a round wooden wall of stone foundation, about fifteen feet high and no more than four hundred and fifty feet in circumference, and contained a three-story stone house and twenty thatched wooden houses, as well as a chapel for an elderly priest; Outside the fort walls are a number of low thatched huts, as well as a small market. The total number of inhabitants in the entire fort of Andermatt and the surrounding area of the dependent fort was less than one hundred and fifty, and there were only fifteen standing guards in the fort. The land under Fort Andermatt's jurisdiction consisted of three mining villages and seven or eight scattered manors and other small settlements, and on weekdays, this nearly 30,000 acres of land was guarded by Baron Antayas and one of his knights in the inner palace with fifteen soldiers. In a few villages and settlements, with the exception of a few knights who barely fought the battle, the peasant who was temporarily called up for service was almost negligible, because they were better suited to fight with ploughshares than with iron spears.

When Art and his party appeared a mile west of Fort Andermatt with their wagon, the alarm bells in the fort began to tinkle.

After a long time, a rider with three or four spear-wielding guards in shabby winter clothes came out of the fort and walked towards a few men.

The rider stood on his horse and watched from a distance for a while, and found that the person who came was not obviously malicious, so he led his men to approach the Yates.

The rider raised his spear and pointed it at the Arts, and said, "Your Excellency, please stop, if you take any further step, you will be regarded as an encroachment on the Baron's territory." ”

Yat motioned for a few people around him to relax, and then said loudly to the rider: "I am the security patrol officer of Tignets in the south of the border under the personal order of the minister of security of the palace, and I am ordered by the palace to go to all parts of Tignez to collect food and pay for the patrol. ”

The rider muttered in his heart, he had never heard of the position of the Southern Security Patrol Officer, but looking at the clothing and standard weapons of the few people in front of him, he didn't dare to snub them too much. So he confessed his guilt and ordered one of his men to go back to the fort and call the old priest.

After a while, the old priest faltered and was helped out of the city by the guards.

"God is with you. Excellency, do you have any paperwork? The old priest learned the identity of the person from the guard's mouth, and asked Art very politely.

Art took out two pieces of parchment from his bosom, one was a letter of appointment from the court, and the other was a warrant from Viscount Pierre, in the name of the magistrate of Tinets, allowing Art to collect a security tax in the whole county. However, it is clear that Viscount Pierre did not send these documents to the various parts of the jurisdiction in time, at least not for the time being.

The old priest took the two pieces of parchment, squinted his eyes and looked at them carefully for a long time, then carefully identified the place where the letter had been stamped, and then nodded to the rider.

Confirming the identity of the comer, the rider got out of the way and ushered them into the stone house of the military fort.

The servants in the fort brought some bread and pea soup to the Yaters, and they sat in the dimly lit and dilapidated hall of the lord, devouring all the food on their wooden plates.

The rider who had been patrolling the outside of the fort came in through the door, and while unsheathing his short sword from his belt, he said to the Ates: "Lord Patrolman, I am the Knight Druid of the Inner House of Lord Baron Antaas, and it is unfortunate that Lord Baron went to the southern mountains yesterday. ”

"Thank you for your hospitality, Lord Druid, but I must personally discuss the next matter with Lord Baron, how can I find him?" Art is a commoner without a noble title, and if he wants to be courteous here, he must show enough respect to the knight in front of him.

The Druid Knight also showed his humility and politely said, "Lord Baron should be back tomorrow, you can wait with peace of mind." I'll have a room for you in the evening, but there aren't many rooms in the fort, so your soldiers will have to spend the night in the barn. ”

"Thank you so much."

That night, after two days of starvation and freezing in the wilderness, the Artsians slept peacefully in Fort Andermatt.

…………

It was not until noon the next day that Baron Antayas returned to Fort Andermatt with seven or eight soldiers and a dozen peasants with their families.

When he learned that a guy who claimed to be the security patrol officer of the southern border of the palace came to the castle, Baron Antayas had a puzzle in his heart, in addition to the annual tax season in Tinets County, which would send people to collect taxes over the years, this remote and stable border area had not been a stranger for a long time, and he was still a patrol officer appointed by the palace, could it be that the matter was revealed?

When he first saw the Yates, Baron Antayas still felt that they were very courageous, but after hearing that Yate was just a commoner without a noble title, Baron Antaas's attitude was a lot colder; When Art explained that the purpose of this trip was to collect food, Baron Antaas's face became worse and worse, and his expression almost drew his sword against each other~

After explaining his intention and emphasizing the role of the patrol team, Art still tried to convince the good-faced baron in front of him, "Dear Baron, I know that the territory of Fort Andermatt is mostly barren and mountainous, but isn't the stability of your territory more important than those money and food?" Art said, staring into the baron's eyes.

Antayas still looked contemptuous, and said calmly: "Lord Border Patrolman, I don't think the security of my territory needs a shadowless patrol team to maintain it, right?" ”

"Really? So who did you bring back today? I guess they're all homeless people who have been left homeless by bandits, right? I will in no way deny your courage and prowess, but consider that with only a dozen or so guards in Fort Andermatt and twenty or thirty peasants who have been improvised to drive those bandits back to the mountains of Pore? ”

Without waiting for Antayas to answer, Art looked down at the horned wine glass that was spinning in his hand and said softly: "Also, before autumn, Alsburg in your territory was forcibly occupied by a group of mountain bandits, right?" If you don't get Alsburg back from the bandits and rescue the poor knight as soon as possible, I'm afraid the Marquis and the court will have to send other nobles to Andermatt to guard the pasture's edge. ”

Antayas chuckled in his heart, he did not report the capture of Alsburg to the court, because such a loss of land was enough to cost him his title. In the past six months, he has repeatedly recruited the farmers of the territory to form an army to recover Alsburg, but in addition to a few knights and attendants in his hands and more than a dozen military fort guards in his hands, he barely has some combat strength, and the dozens of farmers he recruited are scattered by the fierce mountain bandits every time they engage in battle.

"The Marquis already knows about Ars?" There was a slight hint of panic in the baron's tone.

Art took a sip of wine and said, "If the Marquis knew, would you still be able to sit here in peace?" But if you don't recover it as soon as possible, the Marquis of Alsburg will know sooner or later, and I guess the court will send troops to help you then. ”

"Well, I'll be able to retake Alsburg by next summer at the latest." Antayas clenched the wine glass in his hand.

Art stood up and paced up to Antayas, saying, "Of course you can take it back, but if you have a friendly and strong army to help you without the court knowing, maybe you can recover Ars sooner." ”

"You mean your patrol team? Just a few of them? The baron turned his head to look at the Otto men sitting at the other end of the long table.

"Including a few of their elites." Yate did not directly answer Antayas' question.

"How many people can you bring?" Baron Antayas asked, staring into Yat's eyes.

"By the end of next spring, I will be able to bring more than ten elite and well-trained soldiers with me to help in the fight; As for how much you can exceed, it's up to you. ”

Antayas understood the meaning of Yat's words and asked, "Oh, tell me what conditions you have?" ”

"My lord, I said that the court asked me to form a patrol team to maintain law and order on the southern border, but the court only gave me a piece of broken parchment and sent me here."

"Why do I believe that after you take my money and food, you will bring elite soldiers to help suppress it?"

"You don't have to trust me, in fact you have no better choice, if you can't reclaim Ars before the Marquis learns of this bad news, the money you save today will only allow the noble lord who succeeds you to live a prosperous life. And if you want to quietly invite other lords around you to help with the suppression, you will have to pay a greater price than me. ”

Baron Antayas tapped his fingers on the wine glass, thought for a moment and replied, "I have to admit that your vicious mouth has touched me, let me think again." ”

In the end, Art collected 1,800 pounds of wheat and 1,200 pfennigs from the domain of Baron Antayas, but he only took a third of what Baron Antaas had promised, and the rest would not be fulfilled until the end of the spring when Art arrived at Fort Andemat with no less than twelve elite soldiers.

In addition, Baron Antayas agreed that if he could retake Alsburg, he would give a quarter of the bandits' money and supplies as a reward for Arte.

After agreeing to send troops to help in the suppression, in the afternoon of the same day, the Artsmen drove the wagon and pulled the collected food and salaries out of Fort Andermatt.

Ron glanced back at Baron Antaas, who was standing at the gate of the military fort and watched a few people leave, and couldn't help the joy in his heart, and said with a smile: "Master, this is not difficult!" We were able to collect so much food at the first stop. ”

Art picked up the water bladder and poured a sip of water, glanced at Ron and said, "Ron, you think it's too simple, do you think Baron Antayas is a fool?" He had long seen that you were not some of the best trained soldiers, and that he had sent us some food just to keep my mouth shut, and that he did not want the court to know prematurely that he had lost Alsburg. ”

Otto leaned over to Art, tilted his head and asked, "But I don't think he was perfunctory when he negotiated terms with you?" ”

"That's because he knows I'm really going to help him clean up the bandits."

"Ah, then we have to hurry up and train, otherwise we won't be able to win with a suit of clothes." Otto listened to Art's plan and said to a few people.

…………

As Arte expected, in the following days, Art's task of collecting grain and wages ran into walls everywhere.

With the exception of Fort Andermatt, there were no other large villages in the county of Tignets that had been overrun by the bandits, and the small settlements which were often disturbed by the robbers either left unattended to its safety, or were destitute serfs who could not extract a grain of grain, and who longed for help in their suppression, but could not afford a grain of money; Ryan Manor, located between Tignets and Woodcastle, Yat did not go at all, because he knew that it was impossible to get anything cheap from Baron Bazel, and Yat did not have any good feelings about the place.

With great difficulty, Art moved out the court minister and even Bishop Orlof Hannes, but in the end he collected less than eight hundred pounds of moldy miscellaneous grain and three hundred pfennigs from the remaining villages.

Seeing that he had been running around the county for seven or eight days, apart from the fact that he had set up some eyes and ears to collect information on the bandits in the villages and forts and had inquired about the general situation of the robbers and bandits in the territory, the task of collecting food and wages had yielded little success. Art had no choice but to take off the tiger skin banner and start doing business with the lord and the squires in peace.

The Tignets county is more mountainous and rugged than the northland, but it has not experienced war in recent years, and the grain harvested in the mountainous flat fields is also abundant. Although the peasants struggled to feed their families year after year, there was no shortage of moldy grain in the barns of the lords and squires. In recent years, due to the war in Provence, the north-south trade route was cut off, and the grain merchants in the south stopped buying grain everywhere, so the barns of the lords and squires accumulated a large amount of grain.

Art and a few men haggled around and bought 8,000 pounds of unhulled wheat for about six pounds of a phenny. This price is more than half the price of grain on the Tignets market now, but it is slightly higher than the price of the old days when the treacherous grain merchants went to various places to buy it.

As a condition for the high-priced purchase, Art demanded that the lords and squires be responsible for delivering the grain to the edge of the dense forest north of the wooden fort, and at this time the robbers also stopped, and Art promised to take soldiers to protect the safety of the grain transportation team and pay a certain amount of payment, so the lord squires readily agreed.

On this trip, Yat and the others traveled all over the towns and villages and manor settlements in the south of Tinets, and only raised 1,400 pounds of various grain and 700 pfennigs. Therefore, he had to spend 1,700 pfennig to buy a large amount of grain and a small amount of salt, cooking utensils and other necessities on his own. This grain must not be enough to last until the harvest in the wasteland, and the remaining Finney of Art can't even buy all the wheat seeds for spring ploughing, so he is worried...... With this in mind, Art felt more and more pressure on his shoulders.

On the thirteenth day of going out to collect food, when the stock of grain in the wooden fort was almost exhausted, the five Artsians and a group of coachmen arrived at the edge of the dense forest north of the wooden fort with seven or eight ox carts and wagons. When Ron rode back and told Cooper to organize the farmers to carry grain to the edge of the forest, Lawrence had already selected seven or eight farmers to accompany him north to buy grain......