Southern Europe is a beautiful place in April, the land is unusually fertile with the Mediterranean climate all year round, the tan land is decorated with a variety of purple and red flowers, and the green vegetation of the dense forest spreads among the mountains of the Balkans, making the originally rugged and majestic mountains look much more gentle.

A rugged mountain road stretches out from among the towering dense trees, because the perennial barren and overgrown road surface is difficult to distinguish, if it were not for the fact that there is a statue on the side of the road that has been eroded by wind and rain for an unknown period of time, it can be used as a reference from afar, and the team through the woods may have to grope for a little more to find a way out of this wood.

However, the road was very busy in the early years, especially in the early days when Bucharest City was in its infancy, and there were travelers coming and going almost every day.

From Constanta on the Black Sea to Bucharest, the road that runs through the entire Desert of Clarasia became the main artery connecting the two places, and in those days it not only became the link between the two places that became more and more prosperous, but even the originally remote Desert of Clarasia became lively because of the thriving trade.

However, the booming trade also brought new problems to the land, perhaps because the bands of traders were too frequent, and the trade link that carried eastern Wallachia attracted a large number of bandits.

Wallachian bandits were very Tatar-like, and like the Tatars, they were good at riding horses, and they came and went like the wind, from the lone traders who robbed the way to the large caravans that traveled in groups, and when the Wallachian robbers were at their peak, they even gathered an army of nearly 10,000 men, and among these robbers who lived by robbery, there were some nobles who were once prominent and now in the middle of the road.

Some of them, apparently well-trained and experienced in combat, quickly became the best of these Wallachian bandits.

These bandits, apparently more terrible and efficient than ordinary bandits, plundered along the long eastern trade route, and in their most rampant years they had captured and entrenched themselves in castles and villages along the Creracian moor, while the local nobles had nothing to do with the sudden appearance of the bandits.

This scenario continued until the Ottomans stormed the Black Sea.

As the Ottoman fleet first completely swept away the remnants of the Eastern Roman fleet in the Bosphorus, and then invaded the Black Sea, the trade of the port of Constanta plummeted, and then the original road connecting Central Asia through Constanta through the Black Sea gradually became abandoned, and the caravans on this road became fewer and fewer, and finally this once very prosperous trade route was gradually forgotten, and the bandits who once entrenched in this area gradually became difficult because of the lack of business.

Later, some of the descendants of the early robbers who had settled here could only live in peace here, and many of them no longer had the fierceness of their ancestors, but were just ordinary local residents.

However, perhaps the brutality in the blood of the ancestors in the early years has not completely disappeared, or that the years of raiding and the dangers experienced earlier have penetrated deeply into the marrow of their ancestors, and although all these years have passed, the people in this area still maintain the unruly temperament of the earlier ones, even more ferocious than the mountain people in the Balkans.

So even if there is no longer the large number of robbers that it used to be, but the road is still not smooth, from time to time there are some roadblocks and robberies for money and murder, especially when there are now rare large caravans sent to the door, those who have become the local people, do not mind returning to the old business of their ancestors, and do such a vote.

Now there is such a rare opportunity in front of a few locals.

The men were riding on unsaddled horses, the reins were just a random straw rope hanging from the horse's lips, they were wearing the clothes they usually wore when they were doing farm work, and some of them were holding farm tools stained with wet mud.

The men looked at the caravan in the distance on a meadow outside the woods, the dense bushes blocked their tracks, and looked at the procession, and several people talked with some excitement.

"It looks like a piece of fat, look at the traces of the wheels of the carriage pressing on the ground, there should be a lot of things." A short man with a small head rubbed his hands together and said to his companion next to him, "Speaking of which, it has been a long time since a caravan like this has passed. ”

"But I don't know how many escorts there are," the companion next to him was obviously more stable, and looked at the team a little worried, "Most of these caravans have armed escorts, I don't know if our people can bite it." ”

"It won't be difficult, look at how long their line is, and our horses are fast, as long as they rush forward, they will probably be scattered before they understand what is happening."

The short man kept moving around the people next to him, and when he saw that the others had clearly been moved, he sent one of his companions back to report the news, and then ordered the others to keep an eye on the caravan.

"This is our territory, and it's best to do it before they leave, otherwise it won't be easy to let people from other villages target us."

"People in other villages may not want to do this anymore." The villager, who had seemed hesitant before, whispered, "We have really become a bunch of robbers and farmers now, which our predecessors probably never imagined. ”

"It's useless to say this," said the short man, who jumped down from his horse and sat on the ground, grabbed a piece of grass and chewed it in his mouth, "We are now a group of peasants, just like our ancestors were peasants, and I don't think there's anything wrong with being robbers, because our ancestors wouldn't have survived if they hadn't been robbers." ”

As he spoke, the short man got up and stood on tiptoe to look at the caravan in the distance, and then sat down again and said, "But it's a little strange, it's been a long time since I've seen such a big caravan, I don't know what they're carrying, but I hope it's something valuable, so it's worth grabbing once." ”

After listening to the short man's words, his companion straightened up and looked into the distance, and he seemed to be moved by the short man's words and no longer objected, but he felt a little uneasy when he looked at the team.

What was even more terrible was the invasion of the infidels, and from the direction from which the party had come seemed to be from Constanta in the east or beyond, which made the man wonder where the party came from.

Suddenly, he let out a "huh", which caught the attention of the short man, who immediately got up and stood on tiptoe to look into the distance, and then simply climbed on the horse's back to take a closer look.

"Did they stop?" The short man said strangely, "Did you find something?" ”

"No, they seem to be camping," replied his companion after looking at it, "but it seems a bit of a hassle." ”

"It's a bit of a problem, why haven't they come yet." The short man looked back in the direction of the village and complained.

It is much easier to attack a moving convoy than a campsite, especially since the opposing convoy seems to be moving rather slowly due to the large amount of goods it is carrying, which makes it very convenient for the robbers. If the other party forms a camp, it will not be so easy to fight.

The short man was a little anxious, he looked back in the direction of the village again, and just as he wondered whether to send someone back to report the news, a group of figures dressed in scattered armor and holding various weapons in their hands appeared on the edge of the forest in the distance.

"Here we are." The short man whispered excitedly, and he immediately waved his arms to greet them, and when they came near, he immediately said to them, "Hurry up, those big fish are going to camp." ”

"Do you know where it came from?" A middle-aged man with gray hair asked, his face was also tanned, and his years as a farmer had made him almost forget the bravery of his ancestors, and only when he put down his farming tools and took up arms could he remember that their ancestors had been the most feared robbers in the wasteland.

"I don't know, but I think it's some rich people." The short man laughed, "Those carriages look sturdy and heavy, and they should sell for some money even if they weren't the stuff they used to have." ”

"Be careful," the middle-aged man who was obviously the leader looked at the convoy from a high place, and then nodded, "It looks like they're going to camp, we have to hurry up," said the middle-aged man and looked at the short man, "Remember that as long as we have goods, it's best not to kill people, there are fewer and fewer merchants on this road, if you kill too many people and scare other merchants away, our life will be even more difficult in the future." ”

"Why don't we leave here," muttered the short man, as he put on his armor with the help of his companions later, "I've had enough of dealing with these fields here all day, we can organize our own army, we have a lot of people, even if it's enough to be mercenaries." ”

"Shut up, I know you are not willing to stay here forever, but this is the best life we can live now, don't think that being a mercenary is such a glamorous thing, and you must know that even after so many years, if others know about our past, can they let us go?"

The middle-aged man sternly warned the short man and some of his companions, his gaze swept over the men, taking in the expressions on their faces, and then his tone softened: "It's the best thing to stay here now, don't forget that there are wars everywhere now, and our ancestors swore that they would never fight again for the church and any nobleman after coming here." ”

The middle-aged man's words immediately aroused the echo of many people, apparently no one thought he was right in this matter, even the short man kept his mouth shut.

"Their campsite looks a little weird."

The short companion who had been observing the convoy suddenly spoke, which attracted people's attention, and the middle-aged man immediately looked into the distance, and then let out a soft "huh" from his mouth.

Because the world is not peaceful, most of the merchants who go out will hire some armed soldiers to protect their safety, and in order to protect themselves when the convoy is camping, they will use horse-drawn carriages to form a circle to protect themselves, so that even if they encounter accidents, they can resist for a while.

This formation is almost always circular, so that it can withstand unforeseen attacks from all directions.

But now the convoy looked very strange, as the front team gradually stopped, the back convoy increased its speed, and then formed two slides side by side, and the people in the convoy began to jump out of the car, as if they were going to camp.

"They look a little weird," the middle-aged man whispered, but he didn't pay much attention to it, although this kind of long campsite made people feel a little inexplicable, but he felt that it saved him a lot of trouble, "Listen, prepare to rush forward, remember my words, only grab things and don't kill people." ”

"What if there is a woman?" The short man laughed and asked, "All of our women are too ugly." ”

"Don't let them hear that," the middle-aged man laughed, "don't think about it, how can there be women in this kind of caravan, and even if there are, they are just prostitutes." If that's the only one you're interested in, feel free to do it. ”

"Oh~" The short man immediately let out a wolf howl, and his companions also shouted.

"Okay, grab things and women, don't kill!" The short man shouted, and then added, "As long as they're obedient, they'll be fine." ”

As he spoke, he clamped the belly of the horse, which had been saddled, and with a neighing sound, a group of bandits who had turned from peasants into robbers surged towards the convoy in the distance.

"We went around to the side," said the middle-aged man to the others, "I always thought this convoy was a little strange." ”

With that, the middle-aged man pulled out a broad-edged sword from the saddle that was already a little rusty, but it looked very heavy, and after swinging it forward vigorously, he rushed towards the convoy with the rest of the people.

The short man pushed his mount hard, and since the two sides were not very far away, they almost quickly rushed to a short distance from the convoy.

Their presence immediately caused panic in the convoy, and people kept running back and forth, and to the surprise of the short man, he saw several women.

"There are women!"

The short man let out a roar of excitement, and the saber in his hand swung more merrily, and to his disbelief, as they rushed close to the convoy, he saw a beautiful face that he had probably never seen in his life.

It was a young girl with hair shiny as gold, and she stood in the gap between the two carriages in the cross-carriage, and her long and well-fitting dress, which was rare in such a poor country, even in the big cities, set off her slender and straight figure, and her eyes like a lake could be seen so clearly at such a close distance, that the short man felt that he might be about to rush into her eyes, drowning in the intoxicating colors.

The short man purred with excitement in his throat, and his saber was pointed at the girl, a gesture that he didn't know if he was warning her to get out of the way or announcing his possession of her to his companions.

It was just strange to the short man that the girl not only did not mean to hide, but there was no fear on her face.

Instead, as his horse continued to gallop forward, the girl had a smile on her face.

Then the short man saw the girl raise a strangely shaped musket in both hands, and as the muzzle of the black hole appeared before him, the last thing the short man heard was a word that he would never understand: "La sparatoria!" ”