It turned out to be exactly what I expected, and it was much easier.

After we left, Jensen had already ordered his men to kill the few knights left behind, and the mercenaries, who regarded money as their life, did not care about the outcome of the war, as long as someone paid for the strength they sold after the battle, they would not continue to work for the captured employer, and fulfill that ridiculous agreement.

"The previous employer is the previous employer, this employer is this employer, you must know that business is business, and God cannot make irresponsible comments!"

The leader of the mercenaries, dressed in a colorful and funny smock, said to me reverently, and the mouse's eyes sparkled: "Do you need to serve, Lord Earl?" ”

Like a woman in the alley, full of big brother doing health care without painting her eyebrows, I was almost frightened and incontinent, and hurriedly ran away.

"Accept my allegiance, Lord Count, your enemy is my enemy, let me be your sharpest sword, destroy every enemy who dares to challenge the authority of Count Nijmegen, an oath borne by God and forever protected by a sacred covenant."

The pouring rain slowly stopped, a rainbow stretched across the sky, the air was moist and fresh, the Maas River became manic because of the heavy rain, the grass was still hanging on the green leaves, and there were still crystal droplets of water, like little dolls who had just taken a bath, and the soldiers were busy tying the captured peasant soldiers to a rope, and Jensen found me at this time in the commotion, and regardless of the damp mud on the ground, he knelt down in front of me at once, and firmly said the oath of allegiance.

"I have been waiting for you for a long time, since I first met you, I hoped that the brave knights of the forest would join me and fight together for the glory of God and the protection of the rights of Christians, but at that time I was still a small sapling, and could not accommodate the perch of an eagle."

I feel that I am very much like Song Jiang in "Water Margin" at the moment, pretending to untie his shackles and selling righteousness, so I almost reprimanded the left and right and said that the strong man should hurry up, it really tormented me.

Tingsen lowered his head and replied to me in a somewhat heavy tone: "Lord Earl, it is to blame that I was blind and did not realize what a devout and brave Christian warrior you were, please accept my allegiance again, and my men and I are willing to shed the last drop of blood in your chest for you." ”

I smiled with satisfaction, took a long sword handed by the bull, and symbolically slapped Jensen twice on the shoulder and back: "In the name of the Holy Pope and the Emperor of the German Empire, I accept your allegiance and canonize you as a knight, hoping that you will fulfill your promise and hold the sword in your hand to defend the glory of God!" ”

After a brief canonization, I took off the small dagger hanging from my belt and handed it to him as a token, and then motioned for me to stand up, "Don't worry, I promise to bring your family here safely, God has mercifully opened a door for you, the days of living under the fence of no one are gone, the rest of your fate will be in your own hands, fight for the glory of the Lord!" ”

Tingsen's eyes were full of tears of excitement when he met the master, his lips trembled and he couldn't speak, he turned to his subordinates who were anxiously waiting on the side and raised his right arm, they all cheered excitedly, to be able to become the lord's personal arm, although it is also to exchange his life for money, but at least he can ensure the food and clothing of himself and his family, it is much better than the life of wandering around the street rats and hiding in Tibet.

"You're ready to go, sir."

The bull walked up to me, put his ear close to his ear and said, this great victory has made a lot of money, and the captured war horse armor alone is enough to recruit another thirty cavalry, so he is naturally happy to keep his mouth shut.

"The enemy does not have a lot of food and grass with his army, and they all rely on the supply of the lords along the way, or the looting of some villages to maintain, but these captured peasants, with hundreds of mouths that cannot be fed, I am afraid that it will cause some pressure on the castle's grain stockpile."

"So that's what you're worried about?"

I smiled and looked at the bull who was so worried that he wrinkled his eyebrows, and I was glad that he had finally learned to think with his head, in addition to showing off his strength.

"Why do you only see hundreds of unfed mouths and ignore their hands and feet? In my opinion, they are all laborers who don't need money, and they can provide us with land development that they can't buy with much money, but you must know that the biggest problem that plagues us now is not the scarcity of the population in the territory? ”

"But what a cumbersome project it must be to resettle so many people, and besides, they all have families in their hometowns, and they will definitely try to escape by all means." The bull continued to ask, rarely so patient with the consequences of things other than killing.

"It's good that you see the crux of the matter, and that's very valuable, remember that being a nobleman requires more than just loyalty and bravery, and flexible thinking is essential."

I nodded with satisfaction, with a relieved expression of being teachable: "Don't be so passive when you think about the problem, take the initiative to find a proper solution, you see, we have unified these peasants into groups and distributions, and asked them to use their labor to atone for their crimes, and told them that as long as ten leagues of barren land are developed, then one-third of this land will belong to me, and the property above will not pay any fees except for the tithes of the Holy See." ”

"I think that through such a benevolent and relaxed policy, as long as it is not a bad head, people will choose to stay, and their worried families will also flee from the territory in every possible way to defect, you must know that owning a property of their own is the lifelong dream of every hard-working farmer, since God heard their prayers night after night to make their dreams come true, who would refuse this kind of good thing?"

The bull's eyes widened suddenly, and he was about to open his mouth to speak, when he was interrupted by the herald who hurried over, and saw that the latter was covered with splashes of mud, but his rapidly heaving chest indicated that the matter to be reported was urgent.

"My lord, the castle is under siege, and the number of enemies is unknown!"

How do you describe how it felt? It's as if the small flame here is burning very strongly, turning around and being extinguished by a soak of urine, the taste of falling from the clouds to the bottom is not pleasant, and the stimulation to the heart is not a little bit, but I still maintain the calmness of my facial expression, as if I had long expected such a thing to happen, calm and peaceful, and slowly asked in the admiring eyes of everyone:

"Don't be in a hurry, take your time, who is the one who attacked the castle? How's the battle going over there now? ”

The herald, also deceived by my unfazed mentality, swallowed with difficulty and spitted at the mouth, calmed his chest that was wheezing violently, and then said what he saw:

"I was in charge of liaising with the castle and Baron Booth's army, and before the rainstorm I led the army to change the original plan, and returned to the castle to recover from the latest information on the enemy, but then it rained heavily, and I had to choose a better mountain road to take a detour back to the castle, God forbid! This is just the right way to avoid the enemies who are attacking the castle outside the castle. ”

"They didn't raise a banner that could be used to identify them, there were a lot of them, but most of them were light infantry, especially pikemen as the main force, and there were nearly thirty crossbowmen, but they didn't carry siege equipment, and when I came to report, the enemy was fighting with the defenders for the city gate, and I watched the gate of the castle that had fallen being opened from the inside, and there must be an enemy in the castle!"

"What?"

When the bull heard this, he asked loudly with some gaffes, because most of the young men of the New Guard were left in the castle and were under the command of Hans and Wangcai to guard them, and these people were the descendants he had worked so hard to train from the still snotty dolls, and the loss in vain in battle would make people feel a little heartache.

"Are you sure there's a Nei Ying in the castle? Didn't the enemy use some other means to break through the city gates? ”

I am concerned about the loss of personnel and materials in the castle, if there is really an internal ghost to help the enemy conquer the castle, then the other party must know the location of the granary and the vault, where all the family wealth of Nijmegen is hoarded, once the enemy finds and divides it, then I will work hard for decades, once I return to the pre-liberation!

The herald knew the importance of the matter, lowered his head and thought about the details seriously, nodded to me very affirmatively and said: "The city gate was closed at the beginning when the enemy appeared, and the defending troops were organizing resistance, but suddenly there was a loud noise at the city gate, and the city gate that had been closed slowly rose after a while, and the enemy guarding outside the city rushed in at the right time, and started a close hand-to-hand fight with the guards defending the city gate. However, the door is narrow, and the enemy will not be able to spread his strength for a while, and the new guards in the city are in a stalemate with the ruthlessness of the newborn calf who is not afraid of tigers. ”

I nodded with a heavy expression, calculating the time, in the case of the internal traitor and the outside, I am afraid that the castle has fallen, and now I am rushing back to seize the weakness of the enemy who is waiting for work, and start a war of attrition with the fortified city.

This group of enemies of unknown origin can know the information of our attack so accurately, grasp the time difference and arrange the internal response in advance, which shows that they really know us very thoroughly, and there must be a big man standing behind us who is inconvenient to show his face, and it is really difficult for them to calculate the deep organs of the city government.

"It is my dereliction of duty to be known to the enemy about our battle plan, like a tiger with blind eyes, even if the minions are sharp, it will not help in the face of a completely unknown enemy, sir, I'm sorry......" Kohler bowed his head and admitted that he had made a mistake in intelligence, and the only mistake became a fatal blow.

"When you arrive, you will only see young heads on the city wall that have been cut off and blurred with flesh, and we will not be able to catch up with anything if we delay this moment."

I waved my hand for the herald to go down first, he had been by our side for so long, and it had attracted the attention of the soldiers who did not yet understand the situation, and with so many prisoners, if there was any fluctuation in morale, it was very likely that something would happen.

"Solution, let's think slowly on the road, first send the order, just say that the intelligence shows that there is a group of enemies hiding in the forest in the north, let's not return to the castle today, and go directly to the territory of the knights of Modiunas to spend the night, so that we can launch an attack nearby tomorrow and stabilize the morale of the army."

(End of chapter)