At noon on the second day, Art took Ron's Sentinel Cavalry and a group of five people out of the valley and ran north.

Instead of rushing directly to Tignets, Yat turned around the boulder pile and headed south to see the outpost on the northern border of Provence.

The mounds by the brook had been enclosed by a circle of logs about sixty feet long and wide, ten feet high, with sharpened tops, and in the wooden walls was a wooden hut for eight people, a simple shed, a small stone storehouse, and a stable; At the top of the mound was a 30-foot-high wooden tower supported by four giant logs, on which was built a thatched-roof platform that could accommodate four people, and a wooden ladder connected the upper and lower levels, and the wooden tower was both a watchtower and an arrow tower. The gate of the checkpoint wall was open to the trade road, and a small shed was built outside the gate to shelter from the rain, so that the tax collectors could use the small shed as official housing.

By the time Art arrived at the border checkpoint, it was already near noon the next day, and the construction of the checkpoint was nearing completion, and Bard was directing several prisoners of war to assemble the trimmed timber into two rejection horses, and only two rejection horses were needed to block or open the north-south trade route.

Bard was directing a few prisoners of war to assemble the trimmed timber into two horses and place them horizontally in the middle of the trade route, and the two movable horses would be the "gates" to control the north-south trade route.

One of the peasants of the fort on the wooden tower spotted the cavalry galloping from the north and immediately alerted the busy people around the outpost, so the busy people around the outpost immediately threw down their work, picked up their tools and retracted into the outpost, and closed the door......

……………………

"Simon, I'll give you a credit, I didn't expect you to be able to build this outpost in such a short time." Accompanied by Simon, Art entered the gate of the outpost, which was different from the military station, so it could only accommodate seven or eight sentinels, and all the buildings in the outpost were relatively small and simple, but they could ensure the normal life of the sentinels stationed here.

Simon is a veteran who has been seriously injured and quits the patrol team, and he thought that he would be abandoned by the patrol team or even expelled from the valley to fend for himself, but he didn't expect that Art would give him a heavy responsibility after he recovered from his injury, so he worked extra hard to prove his worth.

"My lord, since we began to build the outpost, we have been working almost day and night, and at night we have been working with torches; During this time, I also learned your method and recruited a group of displaced people with two meals of wheat porridge to help cut down timber and collect stones to dig the footing. ”

"Are there any enemies who are harassing you during this time?"

"There was no enemy harassment, but a week ago a few horsemen came from the south, supposedly the guardians of the northern borders of Provence, and they asked us across the bridge about our identity and the purpose of the outpost. I told them that we were the Southern Border Patrol of the Count of Burgundy, and that the outpost was built to maintain security at the border, and that customs duties were collected by the way. The men watched for a while and then left. ”

"Well, as long as those people don't openly attack the outpost, don't pay attention to them."

"My lord, I see that you brought four sentry horses, do you want to?"

Without waiting for Art to answer, Ron couldn't wait to take over the conversation: "The lord is going to Tignaz to be appointed as a trainee knight this time, and the lord is concerned about the progress of the construction of the outpost, so he came around to see you." ”

Simon's face was full of excitement: "Is it true?" Your Excellency, are you about to receive the title of Knight? ”

Art looked calm, "It's a trainee knight, no title, no fief, and no hereditary, but if you can make war achievements, maybe you can also remove the "trainee" and become an official knight." ”

"Congratulations, sir, now you have an official name." Simon still had a smile on his face, he was all prosperous, and Art's status was improved, and the people behind him were naturally rising.

Art tells Simon in detail about Viscount Pierre's letter and his own plans.

"Simon, I don't know when I'll be able to come back from this outing, I now appoint you as the commander of the border outpost, and enjoy the squad leader's salary; Benjamin (Soldier with Broken Eyes) stays behind as your deputy and enjoys the Combat Team Leader salary. The outpost will be staffed with four more soldiers in addition to the two of you, and two of the most reliable prisoners of war will be selected from the prisoners who built the outpost to restore their free status, and the fort will temporarily leave two peasants to assist you. All four soldiers were paid the same salary as the soldiers of the Patrol Team. In a few days, Odo will send you six soldiers in full armor and a military horse, and by the way, bring the men who built the outpost back to the valley. In the future, your food will be brought regularly by others. If necessary, you can temporarily recruit displaced people to replenish your staff, but you have to check it carefully and report it to me afterwards. ”

"Yes, thank you, sir." Simon answered.

Art tells Ron to call the one-eyed Benjamin to the cabin.

"Simon, Benjamin, you two remember that there are three things that need to be done on the outpost side in the coming period, one of which is to let the outpost gain a foothold on the border and beware of possible enemy attacks. The second is to try to collect some commercial tax on entering the mirror, the amount collected for the time being is small, only the merchant tax for caravans with horse-drawn carriages, and the merchant tax of ten fennig for a carriage, so that business travelers can slowly get used to paying commercial tax here. The third is to recruit homeless people and soldiers through the outposts, and there are all kinds of craftsmen, especially blacksmiths and weaponsmiths, and when they recruit a group, they will notify the wooden fort to come and pick up a group. ”

"You two are people from my patrol team, both brothers who have followed me and bled desperately, so I will hand over the outpost to you two." Art said to the two people in the room that he didn't have any extra manpower to draw now, and that these two soldiers who had fought for him were what he could trust at the moment.

At noon, everyone had lunch at the outpost, and Art gave rewards ranging from 10 to 50 pfennigs to everyone involved in the construction of the outpost, and everyone was naturally in high spirits.

After lunch, the five of Yate rode on their warhorses full of water and grass and galloped towards the north.

…………

On the afternoon of the second day after leaving the outpost, the group of five horsemen arrived in the city of Tignac, where Viscount Pierre received Yat in the official quarters.

Pierre invited Yat to take a seat, and the attendant poured a glass of wine for the two, and Pierre took the glass and said to Art: "You finally came, I heard that you have four cavalrymen, amazing!" ”

"Yes, Lord Pierre, I have gathered a few cavalry on the fly, didn't your letter make it clear? You must bring thirty soldiers or five cavalrymen to be an alternate knight. ”

"Alternative? Art, that's for everyone else, in fact, as long as you can come, I will canonize you. ”

Pierre paused and said, "When the court asked me to recruit soldiers again, I thought of you first. I'm impressed by the black-clad soldiers under your command, but why didn't your patrol team come along? ”

"My lord, they're training at the station."

Pierre took a sip of his wine and said, "Speaking of the station, the messenger came back to tell me that they didn't find out where your so-called station was?" Are your patrol party stationed underground? ”

Art knew that Pierre wasn't going to fight the Patrol's station, but he wasn't going to let anyone know about the Valley Wooden Fort, at least not yet.

"My lord, the place where the messenger has arrived is where we are stationed, only slightly off."

Pierre didn't continue to ask, "Okay, Art, since you're here, let's go to the Tignets church tomorrow and join the other four people in the canonization." ”

"The other four?"

"Yes, the title of Cadet Knight, though small, is not commonplace, and if it weren't for the court's eagerness to gather troops, how could it be so generously canonized? So of course there are quite a few people who come to stand, and I have already selected four of them the other day, and I guess you will definitely come, so I left a separate spot for you. ”

"Thank you, sir."

"Alright Art, go to my clerk, and he will take you to prepare for tomorrow's canonization. Although everything was simplified this time, and the requirements for knights' equipment were also reduced, the basic rituals could not be omitted. ”

Art went out of Pierre's office to find the clerk, and the clerk took Art to a room in the lord's hall to bathe, wrote down Art's name, the proverbs he had been given, took his knight's sword, and then took Art, who was holding his armor, to a small closed room in the church of Tignez to pray for the night with four other people waiting to be canonized.

The other four people had been waiting for Tignaz for two days, and the guy named Yat had not arrived, and everyone was a little annoyed, but they were going to be canonized tomorrow, and they didn't plan to trouble Yat at this juncture.

The five of them spent a boring night in the hut guarding their armor.

At noon on the second day, the knighthood ceremony began in earnest in the sanctuary of the church of Tignets, presided over by Viscount Pierre, representing the Marquis Ivrea Raymond, ruler of the Count of Burgundy, and attended by the two barons and five knights summoned by Viscount Pierre to witness the city of Tignets, as well as some idle nobles and family members of the recipients of Tignets.

The other people kneeling in the church were the second sons of the noble lords of Tignats who had no right of inheritance, or the sons of wealthy merchants who had the means to recruit soldiers to buy weapons and equipment, and most of them came from wealthy families, so the weapons and armor of their canonization ceremonies were more luxurious.

And Art didn't make much preparations for this apprentice knight's canonization ceremony, he just wore a full-body chain mail left by his father, covered with a black cape, and a cowhide belt around his waist. This armor is a little shabby compared to the shiny iron scale armor and plate chain armor of the four people around him.

The bishop of the church himself celebrated mass for the five people kneeling before the icon, anointing holy oil on their heads.

When all the preparations were made, Viscount Pierre stood in front of the five men, and after saying a word to the five of them about the honor of knights, the beliefs of knights, and the duties of knights, he led the five men who were kneeling on the ground to take an oath—

I will be friendly to the weak

I will be brave in the face of the strong

I'm going to fight those who do the wrong thing

I will fight for those who cannot fight

I will help those who ask me for help

I will regard my comrades-in-arms as brothers

I will be faithful to the Lord

……………………

"I declare that from now on you will officially become a probationary knight of the Count of Burgundy. You will have your own heraldic banner, and you will take your army with you to fulfill the innate combat mission of a knight. Viscount Pierre patted the five men on the shoulders with their knightly swords, gave them a knight's sword and a word of gift, and officially announced that the five men had become apprentice knights loyal to the Marquis of Burgundy.

The simple ceremony was over, and Art officially became a midshipman in the Count of Burgundy.