With the whiteness of the fish's belly on the horizon, the backs of the displaced people disappeared at the foot of the hill on the north side of the trade route, and the border mound, which had been bustling for days, finally cleared away, leaving only stacks of neatly stacked wood and stones and a few piles of steaming bonfire embers......

…………

When the sun rose, on the south side of the border, three riders on war horses, swords and iron armor, and holding the heraldic flag of Pegasus with a brown background galloped from the southern trade route towards the border mound.

When he got to the bottom of the mound, the rider dismounted and reached out into the embers of the campfire beside the road, touched his hands, got up and said to Baron Berrion, who was riding on the horse behind, "My lord, the charcoal ash is still warm, and it must not have been gone for long. ”

Another rider jumped down from the mound and said, "Sir, those stacks are wood and stones, and nothing else. ”

Berion looked around and said to himself, "Who would pile up wood and stones in this place?" Planning to build a castle here? This bit of wood and stone is not enough~ inexplicable! ”

Then he turned his horse's head, looked around, and shouted to his two riders: "All right, no matter what, let's continue our journey and try to reach Tignets tomorrow." ”

Three horses neighed and ran north along the trade road......

Baron Berrion had a hard time recruiting troops and buying food this time, and Kitsby gathered a large number of fleeing refugees, but no one was willing to go back to Kalkburg, which had been in the midst of war, to die; As for raising food and wages, it is even more difficult, Kitsby, who was already short of food reserves, was forced by the strict orders of the palace to strand a large number of refugees who fled north, and if they wanted to prevent the refugees from continuing to flee north, they had to take out food to meet their daily clear soup and wheat paste, which were not enough to eat, and could only wait for death with one life.

Baron Berrion, who had no choice but to leave two guards to continue recruiting troops in Kitsby, and then crossed the border with two of his men and most of his money to the south of the Count of Burgundy in search of food......

In a boulder pile a few miles east of the trade route, Simon left the eastbound party and rode back to Woodcast, where Art ordered him to hurry back to Woodfort as soon as possible to negotiate with Cooper about building a border tax card.

On the other side of the boulder, Ron and Jason were handing out sharpened sticks to the ten men who had been selected as soldiers and the three farmers who were slightly more able. These sticks had been cut by the homeless people from the dense forest at the foot of Mount Lamel two days before, and Ron had taken them to make fifteen improvised wooden spears about seven feet long last night, the tips of which had been baked over a campfire and were very hard.

The men who had been assigned the wooden spears were gathered in the clearing, and Art intended to teach them how to appear as capable as possible.

"Guys, I have no secret of the dangers we may encounter in the next two days, although this road will not attract the attention of the rogue robbers as easily as the trade road leading to the county town of Tignats, but it is close to the dense forests of the mountains, and there may be scattered bandits, so I will give you wooden spears to defend yourself. Of course, if you really fight with the mountain bandits, I don't expect you to die in vain, I just need you to try to make a quite powerful appearance, our group of dozens of people, there are more than a dozen "soldiers" and three cavalry, ordinary mountain bandits have already fled for their lives when they saw us. ”

The thirteen young men nodded yes one after another, they were still a little scared before, but now that each person has a weapon, plus there are three cavalry guards, it is naturally safer.

Art continued: "Until we arrive at Fort Andermatt, the thirteen of you are temporarily divided into two teams, led by Ron and Jason respectively, regardless of their age, but they are all warriors who have fought hard battles and killed bandits, and you must obey their orders. ”

"Besides, since you want to act like soldiers, you must not leave your weapons unwillingly when you walk, and you must be in a neat formation. In a moment, Ron and Jason will teach you how to carry a spear and maintain a marching formation. ”

Ron and Jason gave a brief "training" to the two improvised squads in the open space next to the boulder pile, and the group continued on their journey.

…………

Three days later, in the city of Tignac, Baron Berrion had just come out of the office of the Viscount of Pierre. The plan to buy food for the north did not go as smoothly as he expected, and the city of Tignets had become a concentration of Provençal refugees, and in the year and a half since the outbreak of the war in the south, nearly a thousand refugees had gathered here. Tinets's food could only sustain the supply of the castle and several surrounding estates, and thousands of people poured in at once, and these thousands of extra mouths had already hollowed out Tignets. Viscount Pierre had already sent three urgent letters to Besançon, but the four counties on the southern border had an influx of refugees, and Besançon was tired of coping, but only allocated 30,000 pounds of miscellaneous grain to Tignets before the winter of last year, saying that Tignets would raise the rest himself. Raise your own! ~ The lords, who usually do not even want to pay their taxes on time, all choose to protect themselves at this time, and the grain they harvest is hoarded in the barn, waiting for the hordes of grain merchants to come and buy it after the trade resumes. They either ignored the magistrate's order to collect grain, or handed over one or two carts of old grains to deal with the matter.

"My lord, what should I do? Since Viscount Pierre is unwilling to help, shall we continue to the north to Lucesin or Besançon? Back at the inn south of the city, the attendant asked the baron Baron Berrion with a gloomy face.

"It takes three days to ride from here to Lucesen, and if you get food when you come back, you will have to take more time to return, and Fort Kalk will not last so long, so we must go back with food and soldiers as soon as possible."

Baron Berrion stood up and clenched the hilt of his sword at his waist, looked at the sky through the lattice window on the second floor of the inn, thought for a long time, and said, "We will go to all parts of the county of Tignets to buy grain ourselves. ”

As soon as the words fell, the news came downstairs that the soldiers of the Duchy of Swabia wanted to invade the eastern border of the Count of Burgundy, and the palace conscription orders had been sent to all counties, and the flames of war were about to be ignited.

"My lord, it seems that the north is about to be in chaos......"

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

"The Count of Burgundy is about to be drawn into war?"

In Fort Andermatt, Art was surprised by the news provided by Baron Antayas. News has already come from the palace that some time ago, the bandits and rogues who rushed out of the eastern border of the country to capture the outpost of the village fort were the pawns hired by the Duchy of Swabia to test the reaction of Burgundy.

At the beginning of the month, the Duchy of Swabia mobilized more than 2,000 soldiers from the central region to begin to defend the border, and the fortresses on the eastern front line of the Count of Burgundy were on guard and ready to defend against the enemy's attack.

"Art, the court is already aware of the fall of Alsburg, but I will not be held accountable because I have recovered it in time. Now that the border is in an emergency, the palace has strictly ordered me to step up the collection of food and train the soldiers to do a good job of defense. We are close to the mountains, and it is unlikely that the enemy will invade the territory on a large scale, but we will have to prepare for the worst......"

In order to deal with the possible outbreak of border war, Baron Antayas has given Alsburg, who has lost his heir, to his Inner Knight Druid, and the Druid Knight is fully responsible for guarding Alsburg, and Baron Antayas has also issued a conscription order to the villages and manor settlements in the territory, in the next few months, he will gather more than forty standing soldiers and more than sixty conscripted peasants, plus the soldiers stationed in Alsburg and the conscripted labor farmers, Baron Antayas will forcibly recruit nearly two hundred soldiers and peasants, It had consumed almost all the people and goods in his domain.

Baron Antayas stood on the top of the stone house, turned his head to stare at Yat who was standing behind him, and said, "Yat, I extend an invitation to you again, now I lack elite soldiers here, and even more so commanders like you. If you are willing to fight under my banner, I promise you the rank of knight within three years. Even though you've always insisted that you're just a commoner, I can see that you have the glory of a certain family. ”

Yate had a momentary heartbeat.

In the past six months after awakening, he buried the cowardly soul in his previous life, picked up everything from the original owner of this body, and kept killing and fighting, in order to be able to gain a place in this era, in order to live a different life in this strange era.

Such a God-given opportunity was in front of him, and he should have accepted it. But after a year of running around and fighting, Art has carved out a "territory" under his actual control and nearly a hundred "subjects" in the Borderlands of the Valley, and although he is still only a temporarily appointed civilian officer, he has a hunch that he can struggle out of this chaotic world. If he falls under the command of Baron Antayas, he will have to give up everything he has now, and he will be limited in the future......

"Your Excellency, forgive me for not being aware of the times. I assure you that if one day you need my humble strength, I will fight side by side under your banner. ”

Baron Antayas was disappointed, but he did not do much to keep it, and paid Ath 500 pfennig as agreed to help recruit the outcasts.

After a simple lunch in the fort, Art rode out of Andermatt with Ron and Jason.

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

"Ron, today you also heard Baron Antaas's words, do you think I shouldn't refuse his offer." On the way back from Andermatt, Art asked Ron, who was with him.

Without any thought, Ron replied directly, "Sir, I think you are wise."

Atler grabbed the reins, looked into Ron's eyes and said, "Why?" Do you know what it means for a commoner to be canonized? That's the lifelong dream of many people. ”

"Master, if it were an ordinary civilian, he would definitely not refuse this great glory, but you are not an ordinary civilian. The old butler once said that from the time you recruited a large number of homeless people to reclaim the valleys, you were no longer destined to be an ordinary forest hunter. You're not just looking for a knighthood for life, are you? ”

"Oh? Can you tell? ”

"Sir, not only me, but even Odo and others have discussed this matter in private, the "territory" and "people" you own are already all that of a knight, and you just lack an official name now. ”

"Since following you north last year, we have experienced four battles in just seven or eight months, and four familiar brothers have left forever, and I am sometimes afraid that I will never be able to stand up in the next battle. But I always feel that it is worth risking my life with you, because you are a rising upstart, and I will be the warrior who will protect you. Ron said excitedly, his voice shaking.

Art listened to Ron's words for a long time without replying, "Ron, how old are you this year?" ”

Ron was distracted by Art's sudden words, and it took him a long time to react, "Master, I~I~ am almost eighteen years old this year." ”

"I thought you were twenty-eight years old."

"Huh? I don't understand what you mean, sir. ”

"Alright Warrior Ron, let's move on."