In a haystack outside Wincheston Manor, two men who had burrowed their bodies into the haystack stuck out their heads stained with grass seeds and stared in the direction of the manor gate.

Stanley stretched his hand out of the haystack and rubbed it gently, and asked the person next to him who was covered in black mud and emaciated, "Nikola, are you sure that the Dean and his son are still in the manor?"

This man named Nicholas is a veteran of the First Company, and the task force has not been disbanded since the completion of the mission in Thorne City, and this Nichola has been with Stanley as a task force leader.

"Lord Stanley, I sneaked into the manor from the dog hole last night and heard the voice of old Dean, but the inner house was too tightly guarded, and I couldn't see Dean and his son with my own eyes."

Stanley nodded, put a straw in his mouth and chewed a few bites, "As long as old Dean is there." You'll go in again tonight, and if you can, make a note of the defenses in the manor, and you'll be able to use them when the Legion attacks. ”

"Yes." Nikola replied softly.

Stanley slowly stepped back and crawled out of the haystack from behind, "You keep an eye here, I'll go to a few other sentry posts first." ”

As he spoke, he moved a little, retreated to a ridge, and bowed under the cover of the ridge towards another hidden outpost outside the manor......

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

In the village of Bura, in the southeastern part of Tignats, twenty-five or six rangers dressed in black robes and cloaks, armed with short spears and short swords, walked towards the village led by three mounted officers, led by the leader of the patrol Obot, followed by two riders carrying the blood-eyed wolf heraldic flag.

The lord of the village of Bra was a middle-aged knight, he was thin and sallow, and he did not have the temperament of a knight. It is no wonder that although he swore an oath in front of the lord like his ancestors, the blood of his father's and grandfather's heroic and warlike warriors has flowed into him as light as thin water, and he has become accustomed to being a squire who lives by collecting land rent and taxes, and there are only three private soldiers in his hands.

However, a sudden outbreak of bandits a few days ago caused him heavy losses, so after the banditry, he recruited the people in the village to form a twenty-man escort team.

It can be seen that the knight of Bula has also put a lot of effort into these two dozen people, although it is not well-armed and well-armed, but a short spear can still be done by each person. However, in front of this group of black-robed border patrols who entered the village, this village escort team couldn't bear to look at it directly.

Obote led the team into Bra I to appease the people and reassure the people of the county who were harassed by bandits, and the other was to convey the order of Lord Art, the border baron of the palace - the county has been cleared of bandits recently, and the troops everywhere are not allowed to go out without an order, otherwise they will be punished as bandits.

And Lord Bra has always had dealings with the Dean family, so he has become one of the objects of attention, and Obote specially brought people into the village to show off his might......

At the southern border outpost, an armed caravan was intercepted at the other end of the stone bridge.

Caravans are rarely present this season, but the mighty ones still take advantage of the occasional melting snow in the cold winter to stock up on goods and sell them at high prices in the spring of the following year, when they are most scarce.

The caravan in front of the border post was traveling in the snow with this purpose, hoping to take advantage of the snow melt in the past few days to reappear on the road and quickly send a batch of goods from the south to the north to stockpile.

However, the garrison on the border refused to let them pass anyway, and the helpless caravan steward even offered to pay a tax three times the usual of the high house, but it was still not allowed.

The reason is very simple, there is a large-scale outbreak of bandits in the northern counties, and the baron of the frontier is leading his army to suppress bandits, and the law and order is very chaotic.

However, in order to prevent the caravan from returning in vain, the commander of the garrison was willing to buy all the goods at the price of the southern goods arriving in Tinetz. This price would indeed be high on a normal day, but this caravan was obviously not satisfied with the high price, they wanted to make a huge difference.

Seeing that the caravan was unwilling to sell its goods, the commander of the garrison did not say much, but bombarded the caravan to the south of the stone bridge, warned them not to cross the border for half a step, otherwise they would all be severely punished as bandits, and then sent soldiers to keep an eye on the sentry and ignore it.

The caravan thought that this was another way for Art to suppress its trade rivals and control this trade route, so they planned to station the caravan in the wasteland at the southern end of the stone bridge and sit on the ground.

However, a whole day passed, and he sent three waves of people to negotiate the price, but the other party had only one answer - stop moving forward or turn around and repatriate. There is no mention of acquisitions at all.

Seeing that it was snowing again, the steward of the caravan had to intercede in person, and bought eight carts full of goods to the outpost at a lower price, and then returned to southern Provence with the caravan for the winter......

.........

To the north of Wincheston Manor, in the plains near the county town of Tiniez, a cavalry detachment patrolled.

This cavalry team consisted of twenty horses and fifteen men, of which five horses were horses carrying grain and grass and baggage, and the remaining fifteen horses were all war horses and military horses used in battle.

A sturdy Andalusian horse paced at the front of the line, dressed in black cotton armor and covered with a war horse face armor on its head, with a bow and arrows and a sword and a war hammer hanging from its saddle, and a spear and axe hanging from its back.

Riding on this steed was none other than the captain of the cavalry of the Wells Legion, the full-armored, apprentice knight Lusignan.

Lusignan looked at the flat ground in front of him, pulled the reins in his hand, and the horse stopped advancing, followed by the wandering knight Rejek and the knight's squire Jafar.

Lusignnan raised his hand and pointed to a "slap" large pond in the flat ground in front of him, and said to the two deputy captains behind him: "We will be stationed here, let the guys camp around the pond, and let the horses drink."

Rejek raised his hand and raised his eyebrows, and glanced at the surrounding terrain, which was close to the road with a wide field of vision, which was convenient for observing the road and the surroundings, and it was also convenient for the cavalry to block and shield and flee in battle, which was indeed good.

"Lusignan, you said that the north side will really send troops to rescue the Dean family?" Although Rejek was only the vice-captain, his title was higher than that of Lusignan, so he was called by his first name.

Lusignan also feels good about this big knight, although his ability to command the battle is a little worse, but his personal bravery should not be underestimated, "Sir Reyek, the battle meeting is not sure whether the north will definitely send troops to rescue the Dean family, but the Dean family has been operating in the country for many years, and there are many powerful backers, so we have to be on guard." The cavalry in this siege battle did not play much role, so we had to do our best to shield the battlefield and let the infantry attack with peace of mind. ”

"Yes, the cavalry team is set at twenty-five people, and the adults can only gather eighteen cavalry with all their might, and in the final analysis, the cavalry is too expensive." Rejek was also a knight and had a good idea of the cost of military expenses to support the cavalry.

While the cavalry was camping by the pond, two cavalry outposts galloped over and approached the three Lusignans, and reported: "Captain, two lieutenants, and the legionary infantry have arrived at the birch grove north of Boulder Town, and it is expected that they will be able to reach the south of Wincheston Manor tomorrow at noon......

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

In Wincheston Manor, everyone was in chaos.

The recent occurrence of such a large dòng luàn in the county all points to the Dean family.

In the past two days, there has been a lot of movement in the army in the south, and even the Dean family should have heard the movement, even if they were blind.

Dean and his son were not blind, so they had long known about the movements of the army to the south. A sense of crisis came to the face, and Dean and his son responded quickly.

The first thought of Dean and his son was to escape, and they felt that they were unable to deal with the end of the disaster, so they thought of hiding in the north with their goods to temporarily avoid the limelight. However, now the situation has deteriorated, the Earl of Bernard has detained the relatives of the Dean family, and strictly ordered the Dean and his son not to escape the territory, even if the Dean and his son want to run, they have to consider the consequences, and there is also a Western Frontier Army at Wincheston Manor to monitor from the side.

There was no way to escape, so Dean and his son had no choice but to carry it hard. They sent a messenger to order the rest of the caravan belonging to the Dean family to rush back to Wincheston Manor, and sent people to the county and the north to ask for help. While rectifying the soldier guards at Wincheston Manor and the Southwestern Farm, distributing the purchased weapons and armor to the soldiers' guards, and taking out a large amount of money to pay the private soldiers {peasant soldiers} salaries that were in arrears for many days, in an attempt to use money to ignite the blood and courage of the private guards, but many of the private soldiers were originally outcasts, and there was no courage at all, and it was okay to walk in the queue under the beating of the officers on weekdays, but when they heard that they were going to fight hundreds of professional soldiers of the legion, many of them abandoned their weapons and armor and absconded overnight.

Dean and his son had no choice but to raise their salaries again and again, and forcibly recruited a large number of farmers and serfs from the two territories to guard the two territories, but there were still peasant soldiers with sharp noses and lively minds, who took advantage of the fact that the officer leaders were not paying attention to the patrols and sentry posts, and never returned.

Dean and his son had to catch a few deserters and cut off their heads, and they no longer dared to send ordinary peasant soldiers out to scout and patrol, and the peasant soldiers were locked up in the outer wall of the manor all day long, and the mood became even more agitated.

The Dean family was struggling with their plans, but the Western Frontier army stationed at Wincheston Manor began to make trouble again.

"Lord Connor, you said you wanted to help the Dean family garrison Wincheston Manor and guard against the southern army, and now that the army has moved, how can you leave at this time?" Old Di Ān Lā held on to the arm of Baron Connor, the commander of the Western Frontier Army.

Connor pushed away Old Dean's hand with his backhand, and replied with a kind face: "Master Dean, you misunderstood, we don't plan to leave at all." ”

Old Dean pointed to the Western Frontier Army outside the mansion who were packing up their tents and loading their cars, and said, "Then why are you packing up?" ”

"Well, we find it too much of a disturbance to stay in Wincheston Manor, I've found a better garrison camp in a village ten miles west of Wincheston Manor, and we'd better move there."

This TM is just going to run away, and he is so shameless.

"Lord Connor, how did you leave Wincheston Manor at this time? Order of the Count of Bernard......"

"Old Dean! You tm less to take the Count of Bernard to press me! Lord Earl only asked me to guard against the southern army, but he didn't say that I must defend the territory for your Dean family! ”

"This~this~ Your army has been supported by my Dean family all this time, you can't deny this?"

"So what? I'll train the army for you!" I've heard that the southern army came out to quell the bandits, and I didn't say that I must attack your Dean. Besides, it has been rumored recently that it is the bandits secretly manipulated by your Dean family to loot everywhere, who knows if it's true~"

Connor stopped the unpleasant topic, "Master Dean, my army is stationed ten miles away, very close, if there is anything unusual on your side, I will definitely arrive in time, don't worry." Connor said as he turned to leave.

Old Dean didn't know Connor's mongrel mind to rob while the fire was burning, so he gritted his teeth and stomped his feet, and said loudly to Connor's back: "One hundred thousand Fennig!" As long as you hold Winchester Manor, I will give you 100,000 Fennig for military expenses afterwards. ”

Connor paused as he left, "This is the Earl's army, I don't dare to let them perish at Wincheston Manor~"

After a moment's pause, Connor raised two fingers behind Old Dean's back, "Two hundred thousand Fenni~"

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

County town of Tiniecs, Hall of Lords.

Viscount Pierre wore a sword in military uniform, a suit he had rarely worn since he became the magistrate of Tignets, and the cold steel sword at his waist may not have been unsheathed for a long time.

Jerry, the head of the guard, straightened Pierre's armor and whispered with a worried face, "My lord, do we have to do this?" ”

Pierre sighed, "Jerry, if it was just a dispute between two minor lords, I would definitely not sit idly by, but this time the situation is definitely not that simple. Now that the Marquis is dying, I am afraid that the storm is coming, and since we have chosen to be calm bystanders, it is best not to be involved. ”

"Have the county soldiers been assembled?" Pierre didn't want to continue explaining.

Jerry replied: "In addition to the thirty or so people left to guard the county town, the remaining 180 county soldiers are all assembled in place, and they can go out of the city with you at any time to quell the bandits." Where do you think we should go first? ”

Pierre glanced up at the southeast and blurted out: "First go to Fort Andermatt, Ars was captured by the Swabians two years ago, and I should also go and inspect the southeast border." ”

"Als is the farthest, so wouldn't it be a long time to go out?"

"Of course, it won't be long before things in the south can settle down."

So, shortly before the arrival of the men sent by Wincheston Manor for help to the county seat, the county soldiers, who had hardly ever left the county town, made a rare effort to go to Fort Andermatt, where there was no warning of the bandits, to quell the bandits and patrol the border......

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