In August, the height of summer has arrived, and the air is filled with humid heat.

In a large quarry in the province of Jonne, in the eastern part of the Count of Burgundy, hundreds of miners, dressed in shabby coarse linen or simply shirtless and wearing only a pair of covered pants, carry their hands on their shoulders in the mine.

In a wooden hut in the middle of the quarry, Spencer, the army baggage officer under Art, and a few veterans of the baggage team were drinking cool thirst-quenching beer with the quarry stewards and overseers, munching on fragrant barbecue.

The quarry steward picked out the minced meat between his teeth, put it in his mouth and continued to chew it a few times, and said: "Mr. Spencer, don't worry, since it is the order of Baron Art, the military adjutant, and the instruction of Lord Earl Balwin, the miners in the quarry are as you choose, but those miners can't be taken away, they are all private slaves of the mine owner, we can still recruit miners, and we can't replenish the miners."

Spencer drank the remaining half of the beer on the table and replied, "Don't worry, I only want to be a freelance miner, and I'm not interested in those skinny bones who are no longer human."

"Then this~" The quarry steward touched the money bag on his waist and signaled that Spencer should proceed to the next item after eating and drinking.

Spencer laughed a few times, took out a six-hundred-pfennig money bag from his waist and threw it on the table, "Okay, thirty miners, I'll choose." ”

The quarry steward grabbed the money bag and put it in his arms, "Of course, this is Baron Art's order, and I dare not disobey it." ”

The quarry steward turned and left the hut, and the bell rang for the assembly.

In a few moments, the wooden hut in the middle of the quarry was surrounded by miners.

The steward of the quarry came out of the wooden shed, patted his round belly, stood on a large stone plate in front of the wooden shed, and said to the miners who were slowly surrounding him: "Guys, count yourself lucky, Baron Arte, the adjutant of military affairs in the eastern part of the court, who has sent someone here to recruit the legionnaires, and thirty of you will be chosen. Let Baron Art's recruiting officer tell you about it. ”

The quarry steward waved at Spencer, who jumped onto the stone pan and began to repeat the scene when Art had recruited soldiers in the quarries north of Lucesen......

The recruitment turned out to be smooth, of course, the miners were definitely a good source of soldiers, and the hardships they endured to survive were very human, so they didn't think that entering the army and becoming a professional soldier would be worse than staying in the quarry.

What's more, the recruiting conditions promised by the recruiter for recruiting soldiers are really tempting.

This recruitment of soldiers was also played out in the eastern part of the Count of Burgundy and the northern part of the Duchy of Provence.

In the past few months, Art has recruited one hundred and twenty soldiers through two caravans in the north and south, most of them are laborers, bankrupt citizens, unemployed guards, and displaced people who have returned to the valley when the caravan passes through various commercial city market towns.

The apprentice officers of the Officers' Academy were given twenty days of recuperation, as Art ordered all the apprentice officers to go out to recruit soldiers, and they followed the two lieutenants of Otto and Angus to eastern Burgundy and northern Provence respectively.

After arriving in the cities of Jonah and Kitsby, Odogangus divided his officers into several recruitment groups, carried money and assigned recruitment tasks, and went to the surrounding areas to recruit new soldiers.

These officers have all been recruited to a greater or lesser extent, so they are more familiar with the requirements and process of recruiting recruits. Their first recruits are freelancers, mine miners, and bankrupt farmers who are struggling at the bottom, and the secondary recruits are those who are young and strong homeless, unemployed, woodcutters, and fishermen, and finally they will carefully select some professional mercenaries and caravan guards with certain combat experience and are reliable and reliable.

At the time of the mass recruitment of the legionary infantry, there were also two special recruitment teams that were far away from the city fortresses and the places where the population gathered, and went to the scattered steppes and grasslands in the north of Burgundy and the mountains and mountains in the southeast.

Of course, the Lusignan and Sentinel Cavalry of the Sentinel Cavalry who came to the grassland area not only recruited a group of herdsmen from the grassland as cavalry training, but also brought money to buy relatively low-cost high-quality horses from the herdsmen as military horses.

Naturally, it was the Gōng Nǔ team Jason and Smith who broke into the Secret Valley of the Mountains, and they followed the hunters' trail in the dense forest of the mountain streams to find the hidden hunters. These people are professional hunters, and they not only have superb archery skills, but also have the skills of digging pits and burying ropes and setting traps and traps.

While the officers braved the scorching sun to recruit soldiers everywhere, Art was not idle, and he was taking his guards and southern caravans around Provence to acquire weapons and armor.

At the beginning of August, a consignment of weapons and armor worth 150,000 pfennigh, purchased by Baron Galwin from Paris and the surrounding cities, was quietly transported to the Barony of the Valle of Arter by way of Provence through Sapp's caravan, and this batch of armaments consisted of one hundred and sixty long and short spears, seventy broadswords, short swords and single swords, forty battle axes and hammers, twenty infantry bows, five crossbows, and ten thousand arrows of various types; A set of plate chain mail, five pieces of chain mail, twenty sets of leather armor, and sixty sets of cotton armor, shields could be made by the valley weapons workshop, so Art exchanged the money for the shields for eighty simple dome helmets and broad-brimmed saucer helmets.

These weapons and armor can barely equip more than 200 simple light infantry, but it is impossible to guarantee that every soldier is fully equipped with weapons and armor, but Art intends to build a well-equipped elite army, although it is impossible to hope that after the expansion, each soldier can wear armor and hold a shield and a sword and hold a spear, but at least ordinary soldiers must be equipped with a helmet, a cotton armor {homemade in the valley of the number of clothes}, and in addition to a spear, they can also be equipped with a short sword and battle axe.

After thinking about it, Art squeezed out 60,000 pfennigs from the already small military spending, and 30,000 pfennies from the operating funds of the European comptoir, plus 10,000 pfennies from the baron's private treasury, and came to Provence to buy weapons and armor.

It makes sense for Atte to Provence, a country that has been at war for more than two years, lacking food, clothing, everything needed to survive, but nothing but weapons, armor and graves.

After a long journey, we arrived in Vilno, a major town in the south of Provence in mid-August. The Lombard army could no longer withstand the enormous military pressure, so they took the initiative to withdraw their troops from Vilno and stationed them on the border between the two countries to confront each other.

With the withdrawal of the enemy forces in Vilno, all the lost cities and fortresses of the entire southern Provence front were recovered, and the two-year national war was basically over.

Garrisoned in and around Vilno were three court legions of varying sizes from Provence, totaling more than 1,600 men, and Baron Berrion was also stationed in the city with his legions of more than 600 men.

Yat sent caravans to various parts of the Northland to buy weapons and armor from armies and lords, and then he himself rushed to Vilno to visit Viscount Berrion, hoping to find a batch of weapons and armor for himself through Viscount Berion's passage.

One of the largest taverns in the city of Vilno, Viscount Berrion entertained the Ates.

"Art, I am sorry that I was not able to personally come to the Count of Burgundy to congratulate you on your promotion to barony, and when I can take off my armor, I will be a guest in your valley."

Berrion raised his glass and exchanged a few words with Art, and asked in a solemn voice: "Now that the Count of Burgundy is also surging, I have heard that you are a confidant of the faction of the Count of Balwyn, and at this time you will not come to Vilno just to see me, an old fellow?"

In front of Berion, Art didn't pay attention to those false courtesies, he replied directly: "Thank you for sending a congratulatory gift is just a pretense, the real reason why I came to Provence is to buy some weapons and armor through you, as you know, the place where I am is turbulent, I must have enough strength to deal with the next crisis."

As a newly promoted magnate in the Duchy of Provence, Berrion is certainly not completely ignorant of the general trend of the neighboring country, and it is no secret that sooner or later there will be a war between the young prince of the Count of Burgundy and Flender, the Count of Longxia, and of course Arte, who is in the Flanders camp, will not be alone, so Berion is not surprised by Ater's plans.

"How much weapon armor do you need?" Berion had no intention of refusing Art's request.

Art held out two fingers and replied, "At least two hundred sets, and a full set of weapons and armor for light infantry."

For the light infantry directly under the court of Provence, the full set of weapons and armor consisted of a nine-foot spear, a short sword {hand axe}, a bǐ shǒu, an iron round helmet, a set of cotton armor {or leather armor}, a shield, a sash, and a pair of cowhide combat boots, and of course some cuirasses, neck guards, shoulder guards, etc., were added by different soldiers.

According to the calculation of the cheapest full set of light infantry weapons and armor, it will cost at least 2,000 pfennig to equip a light infantry, and 200 sets is 400,000 pfennigs.

Barrion almost choked to death on a sip of wine, "Art, are you kidding?" Two hundred full armor sets? Not to mention whether I can get such a large amount of things for you, these weapons and armor will need at least four or five hundred thousand pfennigh! I don't even dare to say that I can take it out, and you can still take out so much money? ”

Art scratched his head and said, "Lord Berion, isn't this coming to you to find a way~ Two hundred brand-new complete sets of weapons and armor are indeed impossible to find, but two hundred sets of "worn out" weapons and armor should be possible? And now that Provence has won the war, once the war has subsided, it is impossible for the Provençal court to continue to support so many troops. ”

"Those local troops who have been dismissed have a lot of weapons and armor in their hands~" Art whispered a reminder of the direction of Berion's thinking.

Berion stroked his chest a few times, breathed a sigh of relief, lowered his head and thought for a while, and said: "This is a good way, the court has begun to dismiss and dismiss those local troops called up for war in batches, as long as you can buy off the commanders or baggage officers of those armies, it is not difficult to try to get rid of some weapons and armor." Anyway, most of those weapons and armor were allocated to the local armies from the palace arsenal, and those officers could report a battle damage to make those weapons and armor disappear from the treasury. ”

"But don't buy too much from each army, or the palace arsenal won't be able to account for it......"

Now that you have the way, the rest of things are much easier. Berion sent a close knight to lead Art and his party to visit the five or six temporary conscription armies in the eastern theater of operations, and met with the commanders of several armies or the baggage officers who managed the arsenal, accompanied by the cronies of the Viscount of Berion, and there were golden cakes and silver coins knocking on the door, why not take the opportunity to make a fortune for those noble officers who had suffered from the war.

Eventually, Art bought eighty long and short spears, one hundred iron spearheads, one hundred swords of all kinds, sixty battle axes, thirty rifles, and twenty thousand arrows of all kinds from the armies that were about to be dismantled, for less than one-third of the market price; One hundred and sixty sets of cotton armor and sixty sets of single-layer leather armor, more than one hundred iron helmets of various colors, in addition to some fragmentary armaments.

Although these weapons and armor were used by the army, most of them can continue to be used.