"Is there going to be a war?"

"Who knows, all of a sudden, so many soldiers came."

"The southern front hasn't spread yet~"

"Alright, don't be verbose, run for your life, you won't be able to enter the castle after a while."

The farmer, who was hoeing the fields outside the fort, hurriedly threw down his farm tools and ran towards Sap Castle with a puff of smoke.

A mile outside Fort Sap, a group of black-clad soldiers escorted a procession of five or six empty four-wheeled wagons toward the group.

The lord of Sapp was an old baron named Galvin Hugue, and the use of the surname "Hugue" of course indicates that he was a branch of the family of Ivrea, the royal family of the Count of Burgundy.

In the twenty years since he inherited the fertile territory of Lord Barony and Sapph from his father, Baron Galvin, except for a few large-scale bandit suppressions with the county governor, has never participated in major battles, and every time his superiors and lords asked him to serve in the army, he would pay a large amount of exemption to deal with it, and because he focused almost all his energy on commercial matters, the army of Barony Galvin's county was low. Except for a few soldiers who were used to guard the fort, most of them became caravan guards who traveled for a long time; The only three knights in the realm were as good at trade as their lords, and were more of a merchant on horseback than knights.

In a land rarely disturbed by the outside world, it is difficult to train warriors and heroes.

Baron Galvin, who had not been in battle, did not have the honor and courage of a military nobleman, but he had a unique talent for running his territory.

Sapp is located in the west of the village of Lane thirty miles a valley surrounded by mountains on three sides, is the most fertile land in the west of Tignets County, from Sapp through the south stretching for dozens of miles of hilly area is the northern border of Provence, over the years Baron Galvin has made full use of Sapp's position advantages and Provence to trade goods, Sapp has become the richest town in Tignets County, Baron Galvin is also nicknamed "Merchant Honor" by the nobles because of his talent in commerce.

But this year, Baron Galvin's face did not have the smile he used to have.

When war began between Provence and Lombardy in the south the summer of the previous year, Galvin was keenly aware of the great business opportunity, and he concluded that Provence would need a greater amount of food imports. So in the past year and a half, he has sown nearly twice as much grain in his territory as in previous years, and he has indeed made a lot of money as a result. But last summer in the southern hills there were bands of bandits, mostly ruffians who had fled north from Provence, and some deserters took over the hills, plundering the surrounding villages and ambushing passing caravans.

The small trade route that traversed the hills for dozens of miles was the main route for the southward transportation of Galvin's grain, and as the hill trade route was occupied by bandits, Galwin's neck was choked fiercely, and hundreds of thousands of pounds of grain were piled up in the barns of Sapbourg and molded. In this troubled world, it is definitely not a good thing to have a large amount of grain in his hands, and since the harvest last autumn, Baron Galwin has received numerous letters of "borrowing grain", both from the lords of various places and from Tinets County, but more often from the swarming mountain bandits. Although Baron Galwin strengthened the walls of the fort and recruited more than two dozen peasants from the territory to join the castle guard, he was still worried every day.

These days did not improve until a strange caravan arrived from the east.

Art and his patrol party were now employed as Baron Baron's food escort. After seeing two dozen of Art's able-bodied soldiers, Baron Berrion reversed his decision to buy grain sporadically in various parts of Tignac, and instead led twenty or thirty men with an empty cart over the rugged mountains into Sapbourg, where he knew that there was a huge backlog of grain, and the local lords could not afford to transport it out.

After the group arrived at Sap Castle, the pot-bellied lord Baron Galwin personally went out to greet everyone, "Lord Berion, I didn't expect you to come back again. ”

"Yes, Lord Galvin, didn't you say that there was no one to escort the food, so I brought my own troops to escort the food. Now you can sell me the grain. ”

Lord Galvin smiled and led the crowd into the castle.

Although the walls of Fort Sapp are also made of wood, compared to the dilapidated of the poor Fort Andermatt, it is "high and deep". Baron Galwin knew that his wealth had been spied on by countless bad people for a long time, so he spent a lot of money to build the wooden walls of the fort. The fort wall is about 30 feet high, and the town with more than 100 households is firmly enclosed, and the four corners of the fort wall are built with wooden arrow towers and watchtowers, and there are about 40 guards and peasant soldiers on all sides of the fort wall, and there are about 20 standing soldiers in the fort, if you want to attack hard, it is estimated that you will pay hundreds of casualties. The fort has a three-story square tower made of stone, with battlements and perforations on the top, and an iron-armed crossbow installed on the roof, and behind the square tower is a large mansion of the lord's house, which is also the most majestic place in the whole of Sapu Castle. Most of the more than 100 dwellings in the fort are wooden or stone, and the villagers are also ruddy and healthy, and they are a rich scene.

"Lord Galvin, I can see that you are a shrewd lord." Art walked on the hard dirt road of the town fort and said to Baron Galwin, who was leading the way.

Baron Galvin turned to look at Art, who was armed with a sword, and asked, "Your Excellency?"

Baron Berrion introduced: "This is the southern border patrol officer of the Tiniez court, and this time he is the one who will help me escort the grain with his soldiers."

"Southern Border Patrolman? Could it be that you're Art Wood Wells? Galvin remembered a letter he had received last month from Tignatz.

"I remember, last month there was a letter from the county, which mentioned the palace southern border patrol officer."

"Border Patrolman, the letter says that you are responsible for hunting down the mountain bandits and maintaining law and order, and now that the area around Sapu Fort is very chaotic, should you fulfill your duty and wipe out the mountain bandits that are rampant in the southern hills?"

For Tiniecs, Sapu was a relatively closed town due to the blocking of the mountains, and the information from the outside world was relatively slow, so Yat did not cross the mountains to enter Sapu Fort when collecting food.

"Lord Galvin, now that you have seen Tinietz's letter, you must have also known the news that various places need to pay security taxes and provide materials and salaries for the patrol team, right?" Since he came, Art had to find Galvin to collect the security tax, and at this time he didn't care how high the other party's lord was, after all, he was a "court official".

As long as someone came to clear the mountain bandits in the southern hilly region and dredge the trade route from Sapin to Provence, Galvin was willing to pay a sum of money for this, "Art, all those men in black outside the castle are your soldiers?" ”

"Yes, they're all soldiers of the Border Patrol."

Galvin stopped, turned around and touched his fat chin and asked, "How much do you think is enough for you to reopen the southern hills for me?" ”

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

............................... Dividing line ..............................

"I don't want any amount of money!"

"I knew I had to go back to Provence, and I wouldn't join this patrol team. How many dead and injured did you say we went out in the past six months? I escaped from Provence just to avoid the scourge of war, I endured it like an animal on weekdays, and from time to time I faced the danger of my life, but I didn't expect that now I would have to go to Aosta, which is fighting hotly, can I come back if I go to Aosta? ”

In the temporary camp of the patrol team outside Fort Sap, two patrol soldiers were arguing in a quiet place in a whisper. The soldier who was reluctant to follow Yat south was called Benson, one of the homeless people that Art recruited in Tignets last year, and was originally placed in the team of cultivating wasteland, but was lured to join the patrol team by the generous treatment of the patrol soldiers. He fled from southern Provence to Burgundy alone, just to escape the war, but he didn't expect that a small life saved in Ars would return to the war-torn Aosta, he had already decided that there was no return this time, so he wanted to take a good friend of the patrol team to escape into the mountains after dark.

"If you want to go, I don't want to go, I am now the leader of the combat team, I can eat and drink enough every day, and I can also have a full salary. Why should I run away, it's dangerous here, it's safe to get out? You escape and try, there are many mountain bandits and rogues outside, polishing their swords and waiting for you. The other soldier flatly refused Benson's prodding.

Benson got up and shouted in a low voice of indignation, "Okay, you just go south with you, and don't regret today's stupid decision when you die in battle."

Benson pointed to a dense forest near the camp and said, "I'll find a chance to slip away after dinner, and if you want to escape with me, I'll wait for you in that woods for a while." ”

"Go by yourself, don't wait for me, you'd better escape before everyone finds you, or it won't be a few sticks waiting for you."

While arguing intently in a secluded place, the two didn't notice a-haired guy squatting in the grass not far away.

…………

"What? This dog mongrel!! I said I always felt that something was wrong with him for the past two days. Do adults know about this? Otto, who was trying to write his name in the common language in the military tent, listened to Spencer's report, and his heart was filled with anger.

Ever since Art announced that the patrol party would be escorted south with a baron from Provence, the soldier named Benson had become a little restless, and he had always left the team under various pretexts on the march, and it turned out that he was holding back his stomach.

Otto whispered in Spencer's ear: "Don't make a noise about this matter for now, let's do this......"

As night fell, the enticing aroma of minced meat porridge wafted from the camp of the patrol team, and Spencer, the newly appointed "steward" of the house, was breaking pieces of rye bread in his hand in front of a deep copper pot and throwing it into the pot.

Several veterans of the patrol team sat around the campfire in front of Spencer and laughed loudly, "I said Spencer, why did you want to be a fellow in the first place?" ”

Spencer didn't feel the slightest shame about the cynicism of these veterans, licking his face and saying, "Why? Afraid of death and tiredness, training like an animal every day, and facing the danger of dying in battle all the time, we didn't have a few brothers who died in battle when we went out~ I just couldn't stand the danger of training and life before I was willing to be this guy. If you want me to say, I don't know how many people will be able to return to the valley wooden fort alive this time......"

Just as a few people were talking loudly in front of the campfire, Odo, the deputy captain of the patrol team and the military judge, walked up to the campfire and shouted: "Spencer, you bastard, you dare to disturb people's hearts in the army, do you want to die?"

Several veterans in front of the campfire were so frightened that they quickly dispersed, and Spencer was also dragged from the campfire to the open space of the camp by Otto, and Otto asked sharply: "Spencer, you have been punished by the adults for being a fellow because you are afraid of the hardships of training, do you still want the adults to cut off your head themselves?" ”

Spencer lay on the ground and replied indignantly: "Sir Odo, if I had known that I would eventually return to Provence if I joined the patrol team, I would not have done anything." I was just an apprentice to a grocer's trader, who fled to a foreign land to escape the scourge of war, and since joining the patrol team, I have either practiced like an animal on weekdays or risked my life to patrol the border with adults every day. I almost lost my life last time in Alsburg, but I didn't expect that now I would have to fight the hot Aosta, which has become hell, and countless people die every day, who is not afraid! ”

Otto drew a piece of wood from the campfire and struck Spencer on him, and the half-burned firewood was swept away by Otto's sparks, and the soldiers in the camp who were preparing to eat dinner gathered around. Spencer on the ground had been beaten and rolled all over the ground, and the firewood in Otto's hand had broken into several pieces.

The onlookers were also frightened by Otto.

It wasn't until Spencer on the ground stopped moving that Odo threw away the sticks in his hand, turned to the onlookers and shouted: "Listen, I will give you another chance now, if anyone still feels that the training is hard or is afraid of death and wounded, stand up immediately, I can ask the lord for your life, let you take off your armor and weapons, leave the patrol team, leave the valley wooden fort, and leave you to fend for yourself."

There was silence all around.

A soldier in the crowd was about to speak, but the man next to him immediately stopped him.

"Let me ask you again, does anyone want to leave the patrol?" Otto's roar rang out again.

For a long time, there was still no sound.

"No one, right? Well, since no one wants to leave, then let me stay in the army with peace of mind. It is true that our patrol team trains hard and faces the danger of life all the time, but think about it, in this troubled world, which place is the real place of stability? And the lord who is willing to give the soldiers who work for him enough food and a good salary every day? Many of you were displaced people on the verge of death six months ago, or slave laborers in the mines who were enslaved every day, but now? You are fed all day long, and your purse has never been so bulging in your pocket, so why do you enjoy such a good treatment? That's because you can endure hard training that ordinary people can't bear, because you fight with your lives......"

…………

"Odo, you have done it right, and it should have some effect, but it will not cure the resentment and fear in the hearts of the soldiers. But we don't have the energy to deal with these things for the time being. Keep an eye on that soldier and enforce military law as soon as he defects. When necessary, we can kill a chicken and show it to the monkeys, so that they know that the patrol team is not a place where they can come and go whenever they want. Art's eyes were filled with murderous intent.

"How's the other guy who got beaten?"

"My lord, he's fine, we're just showing it to the soldiers, so it's actually useless to watch the sky split."

"Well, Otto, tomorrow we will repair here for the day, and the day after tomorrow morning we will escort the grain to Provence......"