In the open space outside the south of the city of Tignats, a large clay pot was spitting white mist, a red-haired guy was working hard to add firewood to the fire, the flames were beating violently, and the fragrance of wheat wafting out of the clay pot was transmitted into the shack area for a while, and soon it was like a fried pot, and the hungry homeless people poured out of the smell of the fragrance, and the area around the bonfire clay pot was immediately surrounded by water, and groups of ragged adults and children stared at the clay pot and drooled. However, Otto, Bath, and Ron stood on the side with spears and axes, but no one dared to rush up and grab them openly.

Art, who had been standing for a long time, saw that there were already a lot of homeless people around him, so he nodded to Odo, who turned to the crowd around him and shouted, "Everyone is quiet! Everyone give me peace!! TM give me a quiet !! ”

The crowd slowly fell silent.

Otto continued, "This is the newly appointed Southern Patrol Officer, Lord Art. My family wants to recruit a group of displaced people to go with the army to the south to open up wasteland and farm. The adults were merciful, and before they opened up the wasteland to grow food, they took care of the food and shelter, and now they have come to recruit and give each household ten pounds of hulled barley. ”

The crowd immediately stirred, if it was really food and shelter, the whole family would not have to starve and freeze here and wait to die.

After the scene was quiet, Otto continued: "The reclaimed land will be distributed to everyone for rent, and there will be no tax for the first year, and only five taxes and one tax in the future, and after five years of cultivation, the land will be completely yours, and the labor tax will definitely be lighter than your previous lord, where can you find such a good thing!" ”

The crowd had been listening quietly, but when they heard this condition, they immediately began to buzz and discuss.

A homeless man hesitated for a moment and asked, "This lord, isn't there a war in the south?" We managed to flee to the north, but we didn't dare to go back. ”

Otto glanced at the emaciated outcast, looked up and said to everyone: "The place we are going to is not north of Provence, but a quiet place southeast of here, where there will be no war. ”

The outcasts were talking, and Art watched as they watched, most of them in disheveled and emaciated figures, standing in groups, apparently in the same place and village, with one or two leaders in each group, and the rest gathered around him to discuss.

After one of the large groups of homeless people finished deliberating, a slightly stronger leader came out and asked, "This lord, are there robbers and bandits in the place where we are going?" If you encounter robbers and bandits, you will have to lose your life. ”

"Don't worry, our adults are border patrol officers, specializing in arresting robbers and killing mountain bandits, and robbers and mountain bandits dare not come to rob everyone."

The leader asked, "Then let's go, can we give us some food and money first, and we are ready to go with you." ”

Odo's eyes rolled, this person obviously wanted to take advantage of the opportunity, the money and food were given to him, if he ran to find it, he shook his head and said: "If you want to go with us, we will arrange it, besides, given such good conditions, we also have to choose, not whoever wants to go can go." ”

The surrounding dense homeless people hesitated, after all, they finally fled to the north, and they had to follow back to the south, saying that there were no war bandits, but no one had a bottom in their hearts.

Odo said unhurriedly: "You can think about it, if you are willing to stay here and freeze to death and starve to death, you will be with you, if you are willing to follow the Border Inspector and farm with the army, maybe you can live a good life with a meal of bread and porridge every day." ”

Seeing that everyone was still a little hesitant, Odo took half a step sideways to reveal Arte behind him, and said: "This is my lord, he is the southern security patrol officer personally appointed by the Minister of Security of the Palace, and you will not suffer if you follow him." "Otto is dressed in leather armor behind him, and Arte, who is covered with a leather shirt and carries a long sword at his waist, does have a mighty and domineering spirit.

The leader stepped forward to Yate and asked, "How many people are you recruiting?" ”

Art doesn't like this leader very much, he is too few people now, and he won't recruit too many people in the same group, otherwise these people will be huddled together and make a fuss, how to manage it, he has already decided not to want this leader.

Yate ignored the leader who asked the question, and said to the people around him: "I'm the patrol officer Yate, if you don't want your wife, son, and daughter to freeze to death here, follow me, as long as you are selected by me, you can drink porridge immediately, and there will be a meal of meat soup and bread tonight, and you will not be hungry in the future to open up the wasteland and farm, I will recruit a total of ten households, and if the election is full, you don't want it." ”

I heard that only ten households were recruited, but there were two or three hundred displaced people here, and those in the north of the city had not yet arrived, and if there were more people, the chances of being selected would be much smaller, and some people were in a hurry, and the crowd was ready to move.

"My lord, do you remember me? See if I can pick it. A small, dark-skinned homeless man of about thirty years of age came out and said loudly.

Art took a closer look, and it turned out to be the man he had saved from the hooligans more than twenty days ago.

With the first one who dared to stand up, it was still an acquaintance, Art breathed a sigh of relief, nodded slightly to Odo, Odo came out, turned over the palm of the homeless man, and his hands were full of thick calluses, Odo pulled his tattered clothes again, and there was also a scar on his right shoulder, which should be a farmer who had been plowing and digging for a long time.

Otto nodded, and asked him to stand in front of Art, who looked up and down, and the guy in front of him was as thin as Scott - dark-skinned and thick-skinned, but even thinner than the last time he was outside the city.

Art asked, "I didn't have time to ask your name last time I was in a hurry?" ”

"Thank you again for saving your life, my name is Lawrence, a native of Alsburg at the foot of the southeastern Pore Mountains, and I fled here with my family this autumn."

"I remember you have a wife and daughter, right? How old is the child? ”

"Back to adulthood, my daughter is twelve years old"

"Okay, you've been chosen, you can go and drink porridge."

Hearing this, Lawrence hurriedly returned to the crowd to take out his wife and daughter, came to Art and bowed heavily before going straight to the clay pot, Kazak had already packed several large bowls of wheat paste and waited for them, and the Lawrence family didn't care about burning their mouths, and drank it while holding the wooden bowl.

The surrounding homeless people couldn't hold back anymore when they saw the Lawrence family gobbling up, and ran out a few more to surround Otto to sign up.

Odo saw more and more people surrounding him, and hurriedly said, "Okay, everyone come one by one." Only recruit ten households, and if it's too late, it will be gone. ”

A group of homeless people hurriedly lined up, and Otto looked at them one by one, and several households met the requirements set by Art in advance, so they let them go to Art and accept the selection again.

A few homeless families with strong men, no children, or children in their teens, all passed Yate's selection and ran to the clay pot to eat......

The surrounding homeless people couldn't stop swallowing their saliva when they saw others drinking porridge, and they no longer cared about the queue and rushed to Odo's side, Buzz and Ron took short spears and battle axes and threatened them repeatedly, so they barely let them take advantage of the chaos.

These homeless people are also pitiful, and they have been hanging for their lives all winter on a few bowls of wheat porridge provided by the county town of Tiniez, but the wheat porridge is almost all clear water, so who can bear to see the thick porridge with aroma bubbling in the clay pot? For a while, the crowd was boiling, and some who came late desperately squeezed to the front, tearing and scolding.

Another outcast, chosen by Otto, came to Art, "What's your name?" How old is it? ”

"Back ~ Back to the eldest master, my name is Lynn, and I am twenty-one years old this year."

"Do you have any children?"

"I have a son and a daughter."

"How old are they?"

The outcast, Lynn, stood in front of Art for a long time, became even more nervous, and his voice trembled a little: "One, one is four years old, one is six years old. ”

Art lowered his head and thought that he was going to recruit people to open up the wasteland and farm, such a young child couldn't do any work, and it was not cost-effective for him to waste food to feed him, so Art planned to refuse this homeless person who dragged his family with his mouth.

"You~"

Before Art's refusal could be spoken, the two children had already stumbled over, ready to go to the clay pot to drink porridge, but the homeless man hurriedly stopped the two children and said in a loud voice: "The master hasn't agreed yet, wait!" Wait a minute! ”

The two children were poorly dressed, their hair was as dirty as a mud-stained hemp rope, knotted together in the shape of strips, and their outstretched hands were like dry firewood, and a thin woman of similar appearance came after them, pulling the two children.

Both children looked up at Art, with two tubes of snot on their dark faces, and Art didn't even tell who was a boy and who was a girl, and both children lost their innocence in their eyes, and all that was left was pleading. I don't know how long they starved with their fleeing parents.

"You~" Yat's word "you" hung on his lips for a long time, and the following words were never spoken. Ron and Kazak watched him silently, waiting for him to decide.

"You~ were chosen." Art scolded himself in his heart.

The homeless man waited anxiously for a long time, and finally got the good news, he and his wife and children all knelt on the ground and kowtowed together, and Art helped the homeless man and the child, and told the family to hurry to drink porridge.

"Ron, Ron, come here."

Ron ran over.

Art whispered in Ron's ear, "You will stand in front of me in a moment, and what Otto has chosen, as long as there are elderly people and children under the age of ten in the family, they will not be accepted." ”

Art still asked Ron to be the bad guy for him.

So there are three procedures for the selection in the back, Otto only depends on whether the homeless person is strong and whether his face is honest; Ron asks about the home of the chosen by Otto, and Art pretends at the end that he is the one who makes the final decision.

In the middle, there were several homeless families who passed Otto's selection but were not selected by Ron, and several homeless families knelt in front of Ron and pleaded, Ron followed his parents all the way north to see a more miserable situation, and was not moved by the pleading of the homeless people on the ground.

Art looked at Ron, who was not touched at all, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart: "This world can't tolerate me so hypocritically......"

In less than a morning, the Yate people had selected 12 families and 31 displaced people, most of whom came from all over the north and south of Provence.

A group of selected homeless people gobbled up by the clay pot, and the surrounding homeless people were drooling, looking enviously at the lucky ones who had eaten more than thirty round bellies, and refused to disperse for a long time.

"Otto, ask if there are any craftsmen among the homeless, preferably blacksmiths and builders."

It took a long time for Otto to bring a gray-bearded old man.

The old man's name was Bad, and he was a carpenter in the city of Aosta, and after the death of his only son, the old carpenter fled to Tignets with his wife and young grandson.

In the selection just now, the old man was also directly blasted away by Otto.

"Master, he's just an old carpenter, and he still has an old wife and little grandson~" Ron reminded Art.

Art was also helpless, the craftsman among the homeless people had already been selected by Master Pierre to settle in the city, and he thought silently for a moment: "Bring it, let him help Kuber as a deputy, maybe he can also make some farm tools." ”

Then Otto, Ron, Bass, and Kazak were called in a small circle, and Art said to them, "Let them meet here in the afternoon, and pick out all the men in the prime of life, and remember their names, and then distribute food from house to house." ”

......……

Early in the morning of the second day.

Snowflakes fell in the sky, the ground was paved white, and a straddle rider led four armed men to escort a group of homeless people with large bags and small bags of goods on their backs......