In the blink of an eye, winter has begun, and the heavy snow that has fallen for several days has turned the mountains and ravines white.

The sudden cold weather also caused the war to begin to cool down.

As the war between the four countries of the Central and Southern Continents became stalemate, a heavy snowfall came to a halt, and armies from all over the country retreated into castles or camps to raise fires to withstand the cold......

The defenders of Talfort also ushered in a rare leisure time, because the snow outside the house was thick and it was inconvenient to move, and the soldiers' individual combat skills and battle formation cooperation training had to be temporarily suspended.

On the second floor of the inner fort, the flames of firewood burning in the iron basin made the whole room warm like spring, and Art, dressed in thick linen civilian clothes, was teaching several army commanders to read the common language at a wooden table.

Teaching officers to read the common language began at the beginning of the establishment of the patrol team, but the Odoks came from humble backgrounds, not only themselves, but even their parents and ancestors had not come into contact with these luxury goods exclusive to the nobility and the church, so from the beginning of the teaching of the text, several commanders showed varying degrees of resistance, they had a headache when they saw these crooked symbols, and they never thought that learning writing had the slightest connection with marching and fighting. The general language of the officers was also intermittently studied by the officers, and as the fighting continued, Art also paid more attention to teaching the officers how to march and train the soldiers.

However, as the pressure on the defense of Tar Fort decreased, the combat missions of the army also decreased, and the officers did not have much to do except train the soldiers, so Art gathered all the officers above the leader of the battle group and the elite soldiers in the inner fort every other day to teach basic writing.

The things taught are very simple, basically some commonly used combat terms and orders, such as "attack", "retreat", "flank", "cover", "hillside", "dense forest", "enemy" and number symbols and other most basic and practical common words, all officers above the squad leader must learn three words per day, and the leader of the combat team must learn two words per day, if they fail to meet this standard, they will face the punishment of one fennig per word.

At first, the officers were reluctant to accept it, but after Art repeatedly insisted and brought out the military law, the people were forced to reluctantly sit in the room and listen to Art spell by word.

After more than 20 days of writing study, except for Angus, who could read and write a little, the other officers had to pay a fine of one or two fennigs almost every day, which was not too much for the officers with high salaries, but it was quite a shame for them, so after being punished several times, everyone also began to work learning and writing.

Surprisingly, Andrew, who has just become the leader of the first squad of recruits, is actually one of the fastest people to learn and write, and of course the second one is Ron, the captain of the Sentinel Cavalry. Ron was often by Art's side and often watched Art write, so he was more proficient in learning words. Andrew, on the other hand, was more familiar with the common language than others because he often haunted the village church when he was a child, and when the church priests wrote notices in the common language, Andrew would look at them curiously.

The time slowly came to the end of December in the leisurely garrison of the people in Thalburg.

…………

Heavy snow closed the road, and there was no worry inside and outside, and Yat, who had not hunted quietly for more than a year, resumed his identity as a hunter.

Wearing a rabbitskin felt hat, a sheepskin coat, deerskin boots, a horned bow, a short iron sword on his left and a sheepskin quiver on his right, and a sturdy traveling horse under him, Art instantly regained the sense of leisure he had spent hunting and seeking food in the dense forests of the valley.

Since the first time he walked out of the valley and headed north to Lucesen, Art has almost forgotten the days of wandering through the dense forest like a wild wolf foraging for food, and now that he has more people under his command, he has more things to face, and he thinks every day about how to make as few mistakes as possible in every step he takes, so the opportunity to really calm down and enjoy a moment of leisure is even more precious.

However, he was destined to not be able to enjoy this leisurely hunting life today.

In order to track down an elk, Art ran a little further today, riding along the hunter's trail southeast of Talburg, through the snow-covered hills, and before he knew it, Art had run to the southern edge close to Birten.

Standing at the top of a hillside, Art looked down the hill, a manor mansion with white walls and red tiles stood out in the desolate pale and a dozen scattered thatched houses.

Art knew the manor because he had personally written a ransom letter to the owner of the manor a few months ago that was "worth" 100,000 pfennig.

Atlli watched motionless under a pine on the top of the hill for a long time, and only one or two sheepskin-clad guards kept moving back and forth on the walls of the manor, and smoke rising from the roof of the manor......

After observing for a long time, Art rubbed his frozen fingers, glanced up at the gorgeous manor mansion at the bottom of the mountain, raised the corners of his mouth and laughed softly: "Master Challis, it seems that you have to fulfill the promise of 100,000 pfennies in the letter~"

With that, he turned back and retreated down the hill, took the reins tied to the tree, stepped on horseback, and ran in the direction of Talburg in the northwest......

………………

Two hours later, Arte's figure appeared at the gate of Tarburg Fort, and Angus, who was in charge of guarding the fort gate, saw that Arte came back almost empty-handed, and took the reins from Art's hand with a smile, while playing with the two hares on the saddle and teasing: "I said Lord Art, you went for most of the day and caught two "big mice"~ How many bites can you chew this thing?" I told you to take me with you, but you have to go alone, and if you take me, you may bring back a bison! ”

Art jumped off his horse, took the hare down and threw it to Angus, saying, "If you don't have enough meat for a while, don't eat the honey rabbit meat I roasted."

"Sergeant Major, go and call all of them to the second floor of the Inner Fort!" Art slapped the snow off his body as he walked towards the inner fort.

Angus thought Art was joking, and said, "Lord Art, you are still planning to hold a banquet with these two mice!"

Art stopped, turned back and said to Angus with a smile: "I'm serious, you go and call them, tomorrow we will go to the Duchy of Swabia for a banquet!!"

Angus listened to Yate's words, ran up to Yat and asked, "You mean we're going to do it again tomorrow?"

The sub-head is called yes.

"I can finally go out and move my muscles and bones, and my bones are almost stiff when I am locked up in the military fort." With that, Angus threw the two hares to the soldiers behind the fort gate, and ran towards the house where Odo's men were staying......

…………

"We'll go to the enemy territory tomorrow to do the last vote!" Art excitedly said to the Odoji who had not yet sat down.

"One more vote at the end???" Odo was confused.

"Yes, today I was hunting and stumbled upon the edge of the mountains south of Biltenberg, and on a hillside there I saw a manor house that we designed to deceive Jeffrey's army." Art said.

Ron pondered for a moment and replied, "Well, I remember, it was the richest manor in the south of Bilten, and we sent a letter in the name of the mountain bandits threatening to ask the lord of the manor, Lord Challis, to pay 100,000 pfennigs, or we would lead the army of the mountains to besiege his manor."

Art looked around at the table and said, "We were just trying to lure out the enemy forces in Biltenberg. But today I was on the hillside thinking for a long time, why don't we take advantage of the laxity of the fellows, and I have observed, there are only five or six guards at most in that manor, and they are very lax now. ”

"You mean we're raiding the Southern Manor now? But now that the snow is closed, we can't take anything with us, and although we don't have to worry about the enemy on the road at the edge of the mountain, we can't let the wagon move forward in the snow! Bass asked.

"We don't need horse-drawn carriages, and we don't have to loot everything this time, we only take away the most valuable and portable valuables in the manor, first gold and silver goods, then armor and weapons, and the last valuable goods, as soon as this heavy snow stops, the court will send another army to garrison Tal Fort, why don't we go to Swabia to hunt before leaving, it will be a gift from Swabian to send us home." Art rubbed his hands together, a slight excitement in his tone.

Everyone at the table couldn't hold back in the Tar Fort for a long time, and even the training of the soldiers was suspended after the heavy snow, and everyone was very bored except to learn the words in the inner fort or to gag in the barracks, so Yat's decision was unanimously approved by everyone.

"Okay, then let's think about how to take this rich manor now......"

A few people in the inner fort began to discuss how to take the manor at the lowest cost.

After an hour of discussion, a yin trick came out again.

…………

The next morning, the sky was still a dull gray.

In the southern manor of Bilten, one fat and one thin, two manor guards wrapped in thick winter coats and leather jackets curled up in the aisle battle station behind the battlements of the manor wall, napping.

The crowing of a rooster in the manor woke up a thin guard who was sleeping lightly, he stretched, shook off the thick snow from the leather jacket of his winter coat, and then looked up at the heat rising from the roof of the manor, and scolded the captain of the manor guard who had arranged his vigil.

The thin guard, who woke up, found that his legs and feet were stiff, and slowly struggled to stand up against the battlement wall, he wanted to move his muscles and bones, but was startled by the two black shadows under the wall.

"Fatty, wake up. There is an enemy! There is an enemy! The skinny guard screamed as he kicked the fat man who was still asleep beside him.

The fat man woke up in a trembling sense, quickly touched the short spear that fell to the side, and asked in horror, "Where is the enemy?" Where is the enemy? ”

"There!" The thin guard pointed to the two dark shadows at the gate.

The fat man looked at the trembling hands of the thin guard, and it turned out to be two "backward corpses" in shabby linen and coarse clothes.

This kind of homeless people who have frozen to death and starved to death are not uncommon recently, and wars have broken out on the northern and southern continents, and a large number of civilian homes and fields in the warring areas have been destroyed, and civilians in the war zone have to wander around begging with their families in order to survive. It was freezing cold, and these two guys must have wanted to climb to the gate of the manor and wait for the owner to open the door and ask for a bowl of life-sustaining clear soup and wheat paste, but they never thought that they would freeze to death outside the gate before the owner opened the door.

"Thin man, go, drag these two poor ghosts aside and bury them, otherwise the master will get up and see us in a while, and he will have to scold us." The fat man pushed the thin man and told him to drag the corpse outside the gate away and bury it.

"I'm going again, why don't you go, I've delayed it twice this month, I won't do it, you have to go this time." The thin man doesn't want to do this unfortunate and thankless work.

The fat man glanced at the "corpses" outside the gate of the village, then looked back at the manor mansion, and said to the thin guard: "Master, they will get up in a while, if they see these two "corpses of the road", neither of us will want to eat today." ”

Seeing that the thin man still didn't move, the fat man gave up, "Yes, one by one, after burying it, hurry back to change the guard and drink hot soup." After speaking, the fat man turned around along the wall, looked at the wall to see if there was anything abnormal, and then stepped on his feet to look into the distance, and after making sure that there were only two "fallen corpses" and there was no danger, he returned to the thin man and made a gesture of please.

The thin man was attracted by the word "hot soup", and couldn't help but be moved, nodded and followed the fat man down the wall......