The caravan, which was supposed to have returned to the valley three days ago, did not rush back to the valley until the sixth day of Art's return to the valley, and this time the caravan not only did not bring back much goods and profits, but also suffered several casualties.

It all started a month earlier, when the caravan was hired by the lord of Galvin in Sapbourg to transport a batch of general goods (not southern) from the north of Provence to Lusesen from Brigshire, the county of Tiniez.

Twenty days ago, the caravan stewards Salter and Lawrence had purchased a shipment of grain in Lucesin with the intention of transporting it back to the south to earn a high price difference, and recruited a number of young warriors and thirteen and a half orphans along the way to return to the valley at Art's request.

Everything was fine until he returned to the county town of Tignats ten days ago, but after entering the county town of Tinets, the caravan with a black background and white deer-headed flag was entangled by a group of hooligans, they said that the caravan's food was stolen from several villages in the north of Tinets, and they were pestering the caravan to return the looted grain, Salter and Lawrence did not talk nonsense with these guys at all, and directly let the caravan guards chase these hooligans and beat them down on the spot, and then more than 20 city hooligan thugs with sticks appeared to surround the caravan, In desperation, it was Viscount Pierre's chief of guard, Sir Jerry, who led the soldiers to drive those guys away.

What happened next was even more strange, several grain stores in the city of Tignac, which had been short of grain, refused to buy the caravan's grain at the market price, and lowered the price one after another, and the bid was even lower than the price of grain in peacetime, and he stayed in Tinetz City for two days and failed to sell the grain, and finally Salter could only find Viscount Pierre in the name of Yat, but Viscount Pierre's public warehouse in the city was not short of grain, and could not resist Sarter's request, so Viscount Pierre bought more than a dozen carts of grain at a slightly higher purchase price.

Salter already knew from Viscount Pierre's vague hint who was stumbling the caravan behind his back, but Salter remembered what Art had said about patience for the time being, so he just thought that the caravan was returning with an empty cart and didn't care.

But then, the stumbling block under his feet turned into a knife in his back.

Despite the caution along the way, when the caravan dragged the empty cart through a birch forest south of the village of Lane, the caravan was unsurprisingly attacked by a group of robbers, who did not mean to kill them all, they did not intercept the caravan's path, but rushed out from behind the caravan and attacked several of the palace guards......

"My lord, that gang of robbers must have been bribed by Dean, and he probably wanted to teach us a lesson, so that we would never dare to trade on this trade route again, but they didn't expect that we would be followed by a few warriors with extraordinary combat strength in this caravan escort, this time thanks to Lord Lusignan, Klaus, and Smith, if they hadn't taken the initiative to stay behind the palace to resist the pursuit of the bandits, I'm afraid that more than three guards would have died in the caravan......" Salter reported to Art in horror about the encounter in the birch forest.

In that ambush, Lawrence, the caravan steward in charge of the broken tail, was wounded by a sword, and the wound was cut from the left shoulder to the right chest, but fortunately he was protected by a layer of leather armor and did not die on the spot, but because of excessive blood loss, he fainted on the carriage before the caravan could rush back to the wooden castle. There were also three caravan guards at the end of the caravan, who left their lives forever in the birch forest to ward off the bandits. However, after three dead and one seriously wounded, the battle was reversed, as the three newly recruited warriors who accompanied Salter at the head of the team turned back to the rear of the group to stabilize the situation and cover the caravan from the bandits.

"Salter, you go down and rest first, Lawrence and those injured guards I have arranged for Thomas to be treated, and I will take care of this matter. You give the orphans to Cooper to settle in, and then you call the three warriors here. Art reassured Salter and told him to go down and rest.

After a while, three newly recruited warriors followed Ron into Art's cabin.

The leader has long hair and a short beard, a cotton robe, half chain mail, a chain mail hood hanging from the back of his neck, a bloodstained gray-black cape, on which the wolf heraldic pattern can be faintly seen, a long sword is carried around his waist, a short sword is inserted in the cowhide belt, and a pair of spurs are attached to the long leather boots on his feet.

He was followed by a shabby one-layered patchwork of animal skins, a rag belt around his waist, and a pair of rabbitskin winter boots underneath his tight trousers, who were dressed in a humble way but carrying a fine horn bow and delicate deerskin quivers; The other man was in his thirties, stout, with two long scars on his face, wearing a leather armor that had been sewn countless times, carrying a broad-bladed heavy sword at his waist, and a diamond-headed page hammer and a small round shield covered with arrow holes.

The three of them were different in shape and dressed differently, but there was a trace of evil in their eyes that could not be concealed, and this evil aura only belonged to the survivors who had experienced the battle.

Art got up and walked over to the long-haired and short-bearded guy, stared at the heraldic pattern on his blood-stained cloak and asked, "Are you a nobleman?" ”

"Sir Sir, my father was a knight, but I am only the most inconspicuous of his sons."

"What's your name?"

"Lusignan Felscher."

"You're a sergeant of the Order?" Art noticed the Holy Cross on the hilt of the sword at Lusignan's waist.

"I went to the Holy Land with the church three years ago, but I was beaten back in less than a year." Lusignnan replied bluntly, he had indeed gone to the Holy Land with the ambition of getting ahead in the face of the clergy years earlier, but he had been wounded and sent home less than a year later.

"Why joined my army?"

"I just ended a contract of employment from the Swabian border, and when I returned to Lucesinn, I heard that someone was recruiting soldiers, so I went to try my luck, and I also knew from them about your record and background, anyway, you are begging for food with your head, you have a good reputation and a good record and can give a good salary, I have no reason to refuse."

"Very good, I know you are a good mercenary, but I don't know if you are a qualified soldier, I will send someone to test your strength another day."

After saying that, Art came to Lusignan's side and carried the bow guy, looked up and down, and asked, "Are you an archer?" ”

This guy is obviously a little bad at words, and it took a while for Zhiwu to reply: "Old ~ master, my ~ name is Smith ~ is a ~ bow ......"

Seeing that the guy beside him couldn't speak a word for a long time, Lusignan took over and replied: "My lord, this fellow's name is Smith, an archer, and he is a stammer, because he owes me a lot of money to come here, and he will pay me in the future." ”

The guy named Smith swallowed a mouthful of saliva and said, "I'm ~not~ stammering, or I'm ~ unhappy." ”

"Whatever you want, I'll call you a stutter anyway." Lusignnan glanced at the archer.

Art patted the archer on the shoulder and said, "You owe him money, so you have to work hard to make money and pay off the debt as soon as possible." ”

The archer chuckled.

Art then walked over to the last guy, the two horrific scars on his face that proved his bravery and promisingness.

"You're Klaus, aren't you?"

"Yes, sir."

"It's full of scars and wounds, right?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Why did you leave the army? You don't look like a deserter. "Art had already guessed that this guy named Klaus must be from the army.

"I was originally a heavy infantry in the mercenary corps, and I have been fighting with them all these years in some unknown battles, fighting the enemy today and the employer tomorrow, I feel bored and want to find a good home." Klaus had left the mercenary army and followed the caravan to join Arter after hearing about Art's remarkable exploits against the Schwaben on the southeastern frontier.

"Well, okay, let's stay." Art didn't say much to the hard man.

Art looked at the three people standing in the room for a moment, then turned to Ron and ordered, "Ron, go and call the sergeant major in." ”

Ron was given the order to go out, and in a few moments Angus was running to the hut.

"My lord, are you looking for me?"

"Sergeant Major, these three are new warriors who have joined the army, you take them to participate in the ten-day basic training of recruits with those new young men, the three of them are different from ordinary recruits, so you and Otto have to take special care of the three of them." Art said the word "care" very seriously, and Angus, who had been in the army for many years, could certainly understand what Art meant.

"My lord, recruit training? Do we still need to participate in recruit training? Lusignan couldn't believe that he, as a sergeant who had participated in the Holy War, had come to join a newly canonized knight and still be used as a recruit for basic training.

"Lusignan, if you don't want to participate in the basic training of recruits, then you can leave here immediately with the bounty to help me defend against the bandits." Art said coldly, he knew that this guy named Lusignan was a very rare and excellent warrior, but an arrogant young master with noble blood was not what he wanted, if he couldn't return to his rule with peace of mind, he would rather lose an excellent warrior with a different heart.

Before Lusignnan could reply, Klaus turned and walked out of the hut towards the training ground outside the castle.

"Hey I said~" Lusignan looked at the back of Klaus leaving, cursed in his heart, turned his head to Art and smiled and said: "My lord, I didn't say that I wouldn't go to training, but you don't treat us as recruits~" With that, Lusignan pulled Smith and followed Klaus to the training ground.

Angus looked at the three backs, turned to Art and said, "My lord, I just heard Salter tell me about the records of these three guys when the caravan was attacked by the enemy, they are the sharpest blades, we have to use them well." ”

"Sergeant Major, don't forget that the long sword at your waist has two edges, and the sharper the blade, the easier it is to hurt yourself."

Angus nodded, "So you let me and Otto sharpen their blades?" ”

"Well, our army is still very short of warriors like them, these people will become the backbone of the army in the future, I don't want them to bring the vices of those noble armies to my army, I want to ensure that every one of our soldiers is with me."

"Okay, then I understand, I'll focus on taking care of the three of them!"

Angus left the cabin to take care of the three new Warriors on the training ground, and Art sat back in his chair to think about the next few things......