The sun climbed at a height that could not go up or down, and the light was blocked by the top of the mountain, casting a shadow that was half yin and half yang.

I passed through the passage where the soldiers had pushed through the crowd, and I saw Baron Otto, who had his hands and feet tied, trying to stand up with his face arched in embarrassment, and the ugly scolding was incessant, and the onlookers were looking indifferently at the once high lord.

No one stepped forward to help him, and no one dared to speak, like many stone statues of Easter Island standing sluggishly, facing the turbulent sea for thousands of years of silence until the earth was desolate.

"Silence! The Duke is here! The soldiers who maintained order pushed away the bewildered peasants, and shouted a little harshly.

"Oh my God, Lord Duke!"

"Shut up, if you don't want your tongue pulled out!"

"The killer is here, hurry home!"

I listened to the chaotic conversation of the crowd, and suddenly felt that Otto was struggling in the center of the field was pitiful, although he was still in the center, but the role had been reversed, and life was probably like this, growth, vigor, peak, twilight, and destruction......

From the front of the stage to behind the scenes, from the attention to the unnoticed, Otto only in just two days, experienced the cold world that others could not understand in their lifetime, the stage of power is never short of protagonists, no one is a star, we are just a momentary beauty, and the winner is an eternal time.

"It's a pity that you overestimated yourself, you are only worthy of being a chess piece, and you have to become a popular star, I'm sorry, I'm not qualified to pity you, because sympathy is not the quality that we masked people should have."

I smiled sourly, my eyes became firm, and I couldn't help but raise my voice: "Come on, go and help him up." ”

Otto's cheeks were slightly bruised, his features were twisted with excessive rage, and the utter desolation of a knight's spiritual pillar was enough to destroy the strongest of flesh.

He woke up and spat out bloody phlegm with contempt as before, and for a moment it gave me the illusion that I was looking at death.

"God will punish you, Randy the Despicable, it will!" The voice always lingered in his throat, but it was far better than any hysterical rant.

"Yes, I will humbly await God's punishment, but you can't see it, Baron." I walked slowly towards him with my hands behind my back, and I could vaguely hear the people present collectively holding their breath.

"Whether you go to heaven or hell, I'll wait for you, haha!" Otto laughed maniacally, it was the only way he could fight back now.

Poor, I shook my head and ignored him, turned to scan the silent crowd, as my gaze moved, they shrank their heads and dodged, in the face of authority, people always subconsciously choose to obey.

"It's nerve-wracking...... Wait a minute! ”

There was finally a man with a straight waist in the crowd who bowed his head in turn, and my eyes stayed on the man, who had no intention of dodging, making him look much taller than the soft-backed minions around him.

"You, come out." I tried to be as approachable as possible, cautiously like a biology experiment in middle school, for fear of scaring the guinea pig in the cage.

It was a scrawny young man, at least his eyes flashed with the vitality that a middle-aged man who had been sluggish by the weight of life for many years did not have, with a slightly deformed head, black and white messy hair, a frightening collarbone, and a rickety back, all of which were the sequelae of malnutrition since childhood.

"Is your name me, sir?" His eyes moved cloudily, and he asked hesitantly, his knees still bent involuntarily.

Otherwise, this is basically similar to the Chinese who always want to kneel down and shake the sky-high price when they see the officials.

"What's your name, young man?"

"I don't have a name, that's what only noble lords deserve, I'm a lowly peasant, because I run fast, everyone calls me a rabbit."

As soon as he finished speaking, he immediately changed his words in fear: "This name is too dirty to enter your respect." ”

"Rabbits? I'm afraid the wild wolf will have to cry when he sees you, there is not much meat in the skin, not enough to stuff his teeth! ”

"Hehe...... someone covered their mouths and snickered, and the atmosphere became a little lively.

The unlucky baron's chatter was so annoying that I frowned, and Codename IV immediately understood and motioned for his men to stuff a handful of horse manure into Otto's mouth.

"Answer me, Rabbit, are you Martini's peasant?"

"Our family has worked for the lord of Martini for generations, dad, grandpa, grandpa's father, grandpa's grandfather......"

He counted forward with his fingers, and when he didn't find a few, he was confused, and he fell straight to the scum: "I was born here, grew up here, and will die here in the future, this is our life, the pastor said that it was God's arrangement." ”

"God's arrangement is sacred and immutable, some are born noble, some are born lowly, and if they do what they are destined to do, they will ascend to heaven after death." Be patient, O brethren, until the Lord comes, and behold, the farmer waits patiently for the precious fruit of the field, until he gets the spring rain. ”

There are not many passages in the Bible that can be remembered, but there is a sentence that is appropriate, I brought in the tiger skin of God as a banner, and succeeded in bluffing the peasants who lived only within a radius of 50 miles from the place of birth for the rest of their lives.

"Where's your family, Bunny?" The words suddenly turned and cut sharply.

The skinny, meatless rabbit was silent, his skinny face couldn't hide any thoughts at all, and my question poked at the sore spot, and he was about to cry.

"Dead, all dead."

The trembling voice choked up: "Dad answered the call of the lord for my grandfather the year before last, and I fought with Baron Bacheno and never came back, my grandfather was on the battlefield last year, because the lord refused to pay the ransom of the captives and lost his head, my sister was unwilling to go to the castle to be a servant, and eloped with a merchant who ran away, and the housekeeper took my mother to make up the number, and later I heard that he was sold to human traffickers to repay the usury borrowed by the lord, my brother ...... He starved to death in the first two days, the steward took the only food left in the house, the fierce Normans wanted to fight with us, the castle must be stocked with sufficient supplies, my brother was only two years old, his arms were so thin, he had not even eaten since he came out of his mother's womb, I begged the steward to show mercy, but he thought I was too talkative, and let people hang me up and beat me hard, the priest said, this is God's arrangement, this is our life. ”

Crying and hatred is exactly what I am looking for, although the surviving conscience groans faintly in the chest, but the matter has come to this, the puppet and the lamb must be sacrificed, and the power is like a monster with sharp teeth and salivation, constantly craving fresh sacrifices.

"Tell me the truth, Rabbit, did you ever hate your lord?"

"What!"

"Oh my God!"

"My God!"

This sentence had the desired effect, and the crowd roared into discussions, like a shockwave of an explosion.

"You...... I ......"

The rabbit's eyes widened incoherently: "How dare I hate my lord!" His authority is recognized by the Holy Church! ”

"He should have taken up his responsibility to protect the people of this territory on behalf of God and the Church, and instead of a hellish life without food and poverty, he fell into the devil and betrayed the teachings of the Bible, and he will no longer be your lord!"

I waved my arms excitedly, like the host of the TV station selling fake drugs: "As long as you are there, there are still ...... you"

Everyone woke up in horror and looked at the nervous Duke in amazement: "I, Randy Adrian/Nijmegen Reggio Calabria-Hoffmann, a devout defender and loyal knight of the Empire, a wise banner-bearer, a heretic nightmare, the master of the coastline between Friesland and Denmark, the Duke of Nijmegen, who was canonized by His Majesty the Emperor and His Majesty the Pope, has the right to deal with apostate traitors and derelict lords on behalf of the Vatican, as long as you ask me to express your true demands!" ”

The crows were silent, and Otto was laughing with horse manure in his mouth.

"If I ask you, he will die, and I will pay for my life, but all this will not be cursed and punished by God, will it?" The rabbit became the first to eat the crab.

"No, he's going to die, and you're going to live well, consider my advice."

His resolute and gray face shone again: "You can get land, hope and a new life in Nijmegen, and leave all the miserable past behind, just follow my party back to the north." ”

"Land, Hope, New Life...... Salvation! "Many people pricked up their ears in the repetition of the rabbit, and I could clearly see that Otto was already a corpse.

The rest of the journey was smooth sailing, and the Leyman region was no longer able to compete with us, and the size of the army finally exceeded six hundred after several unselected expansions, but it was a nerve-wracking question of how much combat strength the barefoot and ragged peasants had.

"There is no need for the enemy to attack, as long as you see the glowing chain mail and tall war horses on the knight's body from afar, these mud-legged men are so frightened that they kneel on the ground and hold their heads and wait for death."

Owen complained to me more than once, expressing concern about the growing heterogeneity of the ranks: "My lord, war is not a group fight, and it is useless to push untrained peasants into battle except to contribute to the enemy's lethality. ”

He rolled his eyes as obvious as he could: "Wait, I was wrong, they can also blunt the opponent's sword and indirectly consume the enemy." ”

I smiled and ignored it, what he said was indeed the truth, even if all these mud legs that were reorganized along the way were replaced by relatively high-quality Nijmegen peasants, I could not guarantee that I would be absolutely sure to defeat the enemy who might appear, let alone be subject to objective factors such as fighting away from home and living on both man and land.

"If you have the kung fu to complain, it's better to supervise and urge the whetstone in your mouth not to fall behind, and it's okay to scare and scare the enemy when there are many people."

The war horse under my crotch is Baron Otto's mount, and the little guy is stubborn, often kicking and kicking the rider on his back, which is very difficult to control, but seeing the funny appearance of other people riding donkeys in embarrassment, I am instantly relieved.

Walking along the path in the mountains can easily make people dizzy, and the apprehensive people have no intention of enjoying the charming scenery on both sides, but only hurry to the road.

Half a day's work away from Martini, we miraculously passed through the rugged path between the peaks and reached our intended destination, a village called Sion, about forty miles from the baron de lémans' lockdown of Vevey.

The village had been carefully screened by the soldiers and Enides as usual, and after confirming that there was no danger, several large houses in relatively good condition were requisitioned, and I was guided by the attendants to the front of the houses, and before I could dismount, I was attracted by the magnificent scenery of the surrounding lakes and mountains.

It is no wonder that the mountain country of Switzerland was known as a small paradise on earth in later generations, and the happiness index has always been among the best, and the natural landscape here is simply indescribable in words, which makes people have to doubt the small eccentricity of God when he created things, and the big house requisitioned by Nijmegen was originally the residence of the village elders, backed by white snow-capped peaks, and occupies a sunny hillside covered with green grass, and when the weather is good, you can vaguely see the blue surface of Lake Léman.

"If you don't come to Switzerland, you don't know that you're living in a dirty pigsty."

I couldn't help but read the words I had seen in travel magazines, and suddenly felt that the author's vocabulary was so lacking, how could a simple sentence of paradise fully describe the beauty of this place.

"If God really exists, He will come to Switzerland often to rest......"

Just as I was talking about Switzerland and Switzerland in the face of the beautiful scenery, Code Four came over with the elder of Sion, whose gray beard hung down from his chest and looked a little older than his actual age.

"May God bless you, noble duke."

The old fellows were sleek and sophisticated, and the Elder of Sion was no exception, and he knelt humbly on the ground, kissing the dirt under my feet hand and foot, like a pug welcoming his master home.

"I am the elder of this village, ready for you to send."

"Excuse me, stand and talk."

I especially couldn't stand the flattery of a man older than myself, goosebumps got up early, but the duke's shelf still had to be held, and the other party got up tremblingly, and his shriveled lips were about to fall out of his teeth and grinned strangely, and he couldn't tell whether his expression was crying or laughing.

"Don't be afraid, we're just passing by."

The little ninety-nine in the elder's eyes was clearly worried about whether the noble lord who fell from the sky would toss their small village upside down.

"If you are new to the city and are not familiar with the place, I will come to you to understand the situation."

The old man's tense facial muscles collapsed, and I don't know if it was the words that had dispelled his doubts, or if my approachable way of talking had lifted his guard.

"Although my old man is useless, his brain is not confused, and everything is full of everything, and it is the glory of Sion to be able to serve you."

He spoke in a broken Frankish dialect with a mountain dweller's accent at the end of his words, and with a leaky mouth, he spoke with joy.

"My question, I hope you can tell the truth, besides, it's best not to let others know the content of our conversation, understand?" I said, intentionally or unintentionally, as I left the heavily armed soldiers standing guard in the distance.

(End of chapter)