On the first Sunday of December, the free market in the north of the city of Saône is a little deserted, partly because many believers go to worship in several churches outside the city on Sundays, and secondly, because the weather is getting colder, and the small traders who are active in the free market have to hide in their houses to spend a warm winter.

It's not as lively as it usually is, but it's definitely not short of people, as there are still many vendors and shopkeepers who live in the city.

There is a large-scale mansion in the downtown area of the downtown area more than 500 steps to the south of the water gate of the north city, this mansion is different from the open layout of most houses in the city, but with a circle of eight-foot high stone fence to enclose the mansion impermeable, there is a courtyard in the mansion, through the courtyard and then walk more than ten steps is the three-storey main house of the mansion, on each side of the main house there are several low single-storey wooden houses, which is obviously the residence of the servants and the place where the horses and livestock and food materials are kept and stored.....

This pattern is usually only found in monasteries or the mansions of lords and nobles, so it is enough to indicate that the owner of the house either has a special status or a high price.

When winter came, many farmers on the outskirts of the city drove mules and donkeys or ox carts into the city to sell firewood for the winter.

On the street at the main entrance of the mansion, there is a man who looks like a farmer, leading a ploughing ox and pulling a two-wheeled broken wooden cart, carrying a cart full of firewood chopped and bundled with yards, coming from east to west.

However, it was already a little late today, and it was obvious that most of the nearby houses and shops had already bought firewood, so the farmer's firewood had not been reduced much.

"Master, do you want to buy firewood? It's all chopped and sun-dried pine. ”

"Let's go, my family has already bought enough."

"Madam, do you need firewood, as long as three subels and a large bundle ~~~ two subels."

"One Subi!"

"You see that it is not easy for us, it took half a month of hard work to make this bit of firewood, you have a good heart, can you do it for two subels?"

"One Su is better than me to buy two bundles, if you don't sell it, get out, don't block in front of my store and affect my business."

The farmer hesitated for a long time, walked to the ox cart and took a large bundle of firewood, carried it to the back kitchen of the cloth shop and put it under the stove, and then went out to take a bundle of firewood and send it to the back kitchen.

The shopkeeper threw the two missing subi to the firewood farmer, and then sat down on the chair behind the counter and ignored them.

"Madam, this~ this small copper coin is damaged~" The farmer said weakly, wanting the female shopkeeper to exchange for a few intact copper coins.

"That's it, if you want to take it, if you don't want to give it back to me, a lowly farmer will also pick and choose." The fat shopkeeper yelled at the farmer in disgust with her eyes squinted into a thread.

Where had the farmer seen such a shrew, and when he saw that the other party had a tough attitude, he had to put the small copper coin into the rag money bag and bow slightly.

In this way, it was sold all the way, and when it arrived in front of the mansion, there was still a large amount of firewood piled up on the ox cart behind the farmer.

The farmer pulled the ox cart and walked slowly to the mansion, let go of the ox rope and touched the wooden door, hesitated for a moment, raised his hand and knocked on the wooden door.

Boom~

Boom~

Knock knock~

The farmer knocked on the door very lightly, for fear that the knock would be too heavy and upset the owner, and he obviously suffered a loss.

"Sir, do you want firewood? It's all chopped and sun-dried pine. The farmer shouted at the gate and knocked on the wooden door a few more times.

After a long time, there was no response except for a few barks, and the farmer had to turn around and prepare to leave.

Just as the farmer was walking a few steps with the ox cart, a gap opened in the gate of the mansion, and a man who looked like a cook stretched out half of his head, "Firewood seller, come back for a while." ”

The anxious and disappointed look on the farmer's face immediately disappeared, and he replaced it with a surprised smile, and pulled the ploughing ox towards the wooden door......

Diagonally opposite the mansion, the window of the guest room on the second floor of the hotel opened slightly, and two men dressed in squire costumes stood behind the gap and looked at the situation at the gate of the mansion opposite, and another young man who looked like a retinue also looked around through the gap in the wooden frame of the window.

The man in the squire's costume turned to the guy who looked like a retinue and asked, "Stanley, have you observed anything, are there any abnormalities in those dark sentinels just now?" ”

Stanley stepped back from the window and replied; "Master, the secret sentry on the second floor of the corner tavern is not here today, I don't know if the sentry post has been canceled; The beggars at the apple stall in the free market and at the gate of the mansion had just moved, and they were visibly nervous when Oliver knocked on the door and approached the gate of the mansion, and I saw them pull their crossbows and daggers out of their clothes; However, the grocery vendor fumbled around Oliver's bullock cart and handed letters to the two outposts, and the two men did not move. ”

Angus watched through the gap in the window for a while, and asked Art softly, "My lord, how are you training these soldiers, you are so good at acting." If he hadn't known that he was a task force soldier, he would have been regarded as a farmer with a weak personality. ”

"Oliver was originally a woodcutter, and he didn't have to act at all when he went into the city to buy firewood."

"No wonder."

This is the scene of the operation of the sentry team, the farmer pulling the ox cart to sell firewood is the soldier of the task force, the sentry team has secretly observed this mansion for four days, they roughly estimated the number of people hidden in the mansion according to the number of cooks in the mansion who went out to buy food and vegetables, and after excluding the servants in the mansion, the Assasin killers should be about twenty-four or five, which is generally consistent with the traitor's confession, but the traitor did not say that there are two vicious dogs guarding the house and keeping vigil.

After four or five days of reconnaissance by the sentinels, the contingent has basically figured out the traces of Assasin and the pattern of the outposts' movements.

The weather is getting colder and colder, and the mansion has not bought enough firewood to survive the winter in recent times, so Art asked the soldiers of the sentry team to disguise themselves as firewood farmers to approach the mansion, firstly to test whether the enemy's reaction is sensitive, and secondly, to try to see the details of the layout in the mansion as much as possible, after all, the opponent is a fierce killer, and the confession of a traitor alone is not reliable.

"Sir, Oliver didn't make it to the mansion." Stanley said to Art.

Art leaned over the window and looked at the door of the mansion, only to see two men who looked like young servants coming out of the mansion, and under the command of the cook, two ox carts of firewood were carried into the mansion, and Oliver was driven aside and waited obediently.

Seeing that the firewood was almost finished, Oliver didn't have a chance to peek inside the mansion, and at this moment, a servant who had just walked to the door broke the rattan tied to the firewood, and the firewood was scattered all over the ground.

Oliver seized the opportunity and hurried a few steps forward to help the servant pick up the firewood scattered all over the ground.

"I don't need your help, get out of here and wait!" The servant yelled at Oliver.

Oliver got up in horror and put a few pieces of firewood in his arms into the servant's hand, and as he got up, Oliver glanced quickly into the mansion.

"Master~I~ You have to hurry, I still have to go out of the city and go home before the gates close~" Oliver whispered to the servant, and immediately retreated to the ox cart.

The servant glared at Oliver fiercely and walked towards the mansion.

After moving the firewood, the man who looked like a cook took out five copper fennil and threw them to Oliver, who was a little restrained, and without even giving change, he turned around and entered the mansion, and closed the door of the mansion with a "clang......

Oliver, who had sold the firewood and received the copper coins, was very happy, and he led the ox cart to return to the city, and when he passed by the apple stall next to the mansion, he spent a whole copper fennil to buy a large number of apples, saying that he wanted to bring them to the children of the family, and then dragged the empty cart out of the city before the northern city closed......

"Sir, Oliver is out of town." Stanley returned to the second floor of the hotel breathlessly.

"Is the tail with you out of town?"

"No, Tail followed him to the city gate, and when he saw Oliver out of the city, he returned. Oliver should not have been exposed. ”

"Good! Let's also withdraw, I and the sergeant major will go first, and you follow closely to avoid tails. ”

Several people left the hotel one after another, and walked around the circle towards the house in the northwest of the city.

............

The abandoned abbey in the dense forest, two miles outside the city of Thorne, was pitch black.

A dozen or so men dressed in black robes walked around the monastery, their boots wrapped in a piece of cotton cloth wrapped in the soles of their boots, so that their steps were very light.

The two dozen or so people were divided into three groups, relying on the dilapidated walls and broken walls of the monastery to practice climbing the wall at night and touching the whistle and melee combat drills, and the gōng nǔ crossbow in their hands made a few "boom" string sounds from time to time, and occasionally the sound of the scabbard hitting the body......

This is the raid group stationed outside the city is conducting night raid training, according to the secret letter sent by Art, the situation in the city has been basically figured out, and the last day or two is the day to do it, so the raid group soldiers are stepping up the training in the dark.

Can the soldiers see clearly in the dark? The answer is yes, because since two years ago, Art was chased and killed by a group of bandits in the birch forest for an afternoon and lost in the evening due to night blindness, Art began to add animal liver such as pork liver and fresh fruits and vegetables such as apples to the army's food, and these foods did give many soldiers a certain night vision "eagle eye" ability.

While the soldiers of the raid group were training in the dark, an empty ox cart from the east side of the monastery was rushing towards it.

"Stand !!" Two dark whistles holding gōng nǔ suddenly stood up from the grass.

"Apple stew!" The man driving the ox cart yelled at the two black shadows holding crossbows in front of him.

"Wheat beer." The two soldiers with crossbows replied, put down the gōng nǔ that had been wound in their hands, and walked towards the ox cart.

"Oliver? Why are you out of town at this time? A dark shadow could see the driver through the faint moonlight of the dark clouds.

"We've figured out the target in the past few days, and today we approached that mansion again. According to the arrangement of the adults, I will come to give an order to Lord Ron after I get out of the city and shake off my tail, and the raid team will enter the city in batches early tomorrow morning, and the city has already arranged to answer the ......"