When the black-clothed wizard Wang Gang quietly stepped on Tang Zhangwei's icebreaker with a polar bear, Tang Zhangwei himself was roasting seaweed egg tarts.

Although the white-clothed wizard was gone, Tang Zhangwei saw the flies on the boat swaying around the place where the black-clothed wizard Wang Gang came.

Tang Zhangwei threw out a red-burning fire chopstick, and the fire chopsticks hit the head of the black-clothed wizard Wang Gang.

The black-clothed wizard Wang Gang screamed, and he fell into the ocean.

At this time, Tang Zhangwei woke up to the fact that someone might want to assassinate him.

Tang Zhangwei hurriedly took someone to see if there was anyone.

As a result, only the polar bear that woke up from the puppet state was seen roaring.

Tang Zhangwei said to his warrior Pang Xiao: "Kill that polar bear." ”

"But where are we going to find evidence?" Father said worriedly.

"We'll have to find a way to get around Bartholomew's castle," said the mother, frowning, "it's not easy. If we go for a polite visit, no one will trust us—who doesn't know that we hate them. ”

William suddenly thought of a trick. "I can go," he said.

His parents were a little surprised. The mother said, "I suppose that you are not as suspicious as your father, but what excuse do you have?" ”

William had already thought it through. "I can go see Alena," he said, his pulse racing with the thought, "and I can ask her to reconsider her decision." After all, she doesn't know me. When we met, she misjudged me. I can be a good husband to her, maybe she just needs a more urgent proposal. He smiled skeptically at his hopes so that his parents wouldn't believe that his every word was true.

"A perfectly credible excuse," the mother said. She stared at William hard, "Oh my god, I don't know if this kid has some of his mother's minds. ”

On the day after Epiphany, William set off for the Earl's Castle, and for the first time in months, he was less depressed. That morning, the weather was sunny and the temperature was low. The north wind pierced his ears, and the frosty winter grass rattled under the hooves of his warhorse. He wears a scarlet tunic with a gray Flemish cloak trimmed with rabbit skin.

William was accompanied by his squire, Walter. When William was twelve years old, Walter became his martial arts teacher, teaching him horseback riding, hunting, fencing and wrestling. Now, Walter is his servant, retinue and bodyguard. He was as tall as William, but stronger than him, and a formidable man with round waists. He was not more than ten years older than William, an age that was not too old in terms of drinking and chasing women, but it was not too young in terms of helping him out of trouble when necessary. He was William's closest friend.

Even though William knew he would face rejection and humiliation again, he was thrilled to see Alena again. The moment he caught a glimpse of her pitch-black eyes in the King's Bridge Cathedral, he once again reminded her of **. He couldn't wait to talk to her, to get close to her, to watch her curly hair tremble and shake as she spoke, and to stare at the movement of her body beneath her dress.

At the same time, the opportunity for revenge fueled William's hatred. He nervous with excitement at the thought that he could now wash away the humiliation he had suffered from and his family.

He wished he had a clearer idea of what he was searching for. He was quite sure that he would find out whether Wallen's words were true or false, for there must have been signs of war preparations in the castle—horses were gathered, weapons were being wiped, dry rations were being stockpiled—though such actions naturally had to be disguised as something else, perhaps to make a patrol, etc., to deceive those who oversaw it. However, proving that there is a conspiracy is not the same as finding evidence. William couldn't think of anything that could be counted as evidence for a moment. He was going to keep his eyes open, hoping that something would hint at something. However, this was not really a plan, and he was worried that the opportunity for revenge would slip through his fingers.

The closer he got, the more nervous he became. He was terrified at not knowing if he would be turned away from the castle, but it came to his senses that the castle was a place where everyone could come and go freely, and that if the Count refused to allow a local squire to enter, it would be tantamount to declaring that a rebellion was being prepared.

The Count of Bartholomew lived a few miles from the town of Charling. The castle of the Charling itself was guarded by the county guard, so the count had his own castle outside the town. The small village that sprang up around the castle was called the Count's Castle. William had been there before, but now he saw it through the eyes of an attacker.

Outside the city wall, there is a wide and deep trench in the shape of a figure-8, with a small upper circle and a large lower circle. The mound of earth excavated during the trench formation forms an earthen wall on the inside of the two circles of the figure eight.

At the bottom of the figure-8 there is a bridge added to the moat, which is connected to a gap in the earthen wall, and the lower circle of the figure-eight is entered. This is the only import. There is no road to the outside of the upper circle of the figure 8, and the only way to enter it is through the intersection of the ditch that separates the upper and lower circles, and there is also a bridge there, which is the only entrance through the lower circle into the upper circle. The upper circle is the inner house.

As William and Walter trotted through the fields that surrounded the castle, they saw people bustling with people. Two soldiers came out of the castle on fast horses, crossed the bridge, and then galloped in two directions, a group of four horsemen crossing the bridge before William and Walter as they entered the city.

William noticed that the last part of the bridge could be pulled up and into the huge stone gatehouse that formed the entrance to the castle. Along the earthen wall, there were stone watchtowers at intervals, so that every area around the wall could be shot by the archers of the defenders. Capturing the castle by attacking from the front would require protracted bloodshed, and the Hamleys could not muster enough men to succeed, William concluded gloomily.

Today, of course, the castle is open for business. William informed the sentries in the tower of his name, and was allowed to enter the city without further ado. In the lower circle of the figure eight, separated from the outside world by the earthen walls, are the usual rows of domestic houses: stables, kitchens, workshops, prison towers, and a prayer church. There was a sense of excitement in the air. Squires, servants, servants, and handmaidens all hurried and talked loudly, greeting each other and joking. To an undoubting mind, this agitation and the coming and going might have been seen as a normal reaction to the master's recent return, but for William it was a big deal.

He left Walter in the stable to watch the horses, and walked himself through the yard to another bridge at the end of the gate house, ready to cross the trench and enter the upper circle. As soon as he crossed the bridge, he was stopped by a guard in another gatehouse.

(End of chapter)