At the foot of the hill, Kabeamia, who was riding at the front, was astonished to see that in front of the tree-lined village where the emigrants were located, many peasants were holding farm tools and surrounding the big tree where the widow had been resting, and there was a constant quarrel in German and Greek. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Frightened, Kabeamiya hurriedly sent more than a dozen believers in front of her horse who were carrying quivers on their backs to guard them, and hurriedly stepped forward, holding bows in their hands, and loudly expelled the group of lawless peasants away.

When the peasants saw the Paulineans who had hurried to the black-robed devotees, they were so stupid that they thought it was the widow's companion nobles who had come to look for bad luck, so they went bare-chested (in fact, strictly speaking, the lower body), with only a leather bag covering the crotch, exaggeratedly bulging, holding all kinds of farm tools, and shouting insults at Kabeamia on horseback.

"Shoot the arrows!" The female consul pulling the reins was unceremonious.

A few arrows, immediately swept over the peasants' heads or shoulders, whistling past, poofing through the trunks of trees behind them, and the group of hooligans realized that the bows and arrows in the hands of these black-robed fellows were real guys, and after shouting a few words of German, they shook their flesh-colored buttocks and turned and fled.

When Gawain hurriedly arrived, the widow was still hiding in the tree behind the widow with an umbrella on her shoulder, and Madame Chiser and several guards were also nervously holding short swords and daggers, surrounded by the four sides of the shoulder, it seemed that she had been really frightened by this group of menacing German peasants just now, but the widow stood proudly on the seat cushion of the shoulder with a bulging belly, and actually held a naked child in her hand, and was there with her hands and feet moving, crying and crying!

"My blonde heroine!" Gawain cried out in his heart, so he jumped off his horse nervously, walked quickly to the widow's side, and stretched out his hand, "You and your sister and father are in the land of Varyag, and it is enough to do this business." There's no need to steal a farmer's child and sell it while you're resting, right? Go back, Ingrana. ”

"I'm not stealing children to sell, and besides, my father used to sell slaves on a boat, and he wouldn't sell such a small baby." The widow angrily took the child in her arms, and then kept curling her lips to soothe the child.

"I understand, you see that this child is cute and want to hug it, so you will return it when you are well exercised, you are a pregnant person, you can't be too tired."

Unexpectedly, the widow's temper was even greater, and even Gawain didn't see that she had such a big fire, and even brought up dirty words, in short, she was unwilling to return the child.

When Gawain had not come, and the widow was not clear about his explanation, Chiser came up to the Grand Duke and said clearly, "Ingrid will not let it go back, for she had just been resting in the woods and by the stream, and had seen the group of peasants, who, after a brief prayer of repentance to the Lord and St. Nicholas, were about to drown the child." ”

"What?" Gawain was immediately a little stunned.

"They're going to drown this child because she's a girl." "Ingrida snatched the child and annoyed the villagers, which is why the situation just now happened. ”

At this time, Anna, who had just arrived here, heard Mrs. Qise's words, and raised her hand to block the little sunfish's request, "Send my guards over to prevent the villagers from hurting people." ”

As it was, Gawain had only come back to his senses, having spent most of his previous time in Asia Minor, where for the Byzantine Empire there were only endless wars and disasters on the plateau - the rebellion of the nobility, the looting and massacre of the Turks, and the permanent lack of population here, so the drowning of female babies was relatively rare. But the Germans who migrated from there were different, many of them were tortured by "cursed ghosts", unable to support themselves and their families, so they set off for the far east, for this group of peasants, the daughters could not plough the fields, could not serve the nobles, could only do some odd work such as gleaning ears of wheat, making bark shoes, and weaving, and had to open their mouths to eat, and when they grew up, they had to pay dowries to give birth to more and more babies, resulting in more and more mouths to eat, and soon there would be no enough food. Men will no longer be able to feed women and children, and if a slight natural disaster strikes, everyone will be wiped out and die in large numbers.

Therefore, they drown most of the female babies they are born, which has nothing to do with cruelty or morality, it is just a pitiful way for helpless and ignorant peasants to control their own population and feed themselves.

Gawain was also embarrassed to learn the truth, and the widow paid no attention to him, and when she heard the baby girl crying hungrily, she turned around, untied her burqa, and let the child smack, and the shrewd child found that the widow's breasts, though full, had no milk, and she could not help but struggle and weep even more bitterly.

"What's the use of feeding like that? A stupid woman is a stupid woman, and her brain has grown to her chest. Anna said aloud and sarcastically, and then she turned her head and whispered to Hertomia, "Go to Seleucia and find a woman who is breastfeeding, and gather all the villagers together, I have a decree to announce." ”

The ten warriors of the Guards brought by Anna were all dressed in full-length armor, carrying embroidered quivers, and sharp, single-edged sabers; Gawain's samurai, dressed as bearded pirates, carrying long axes and round shields—the whole village was surrounded by the Grand Duke and the Purple Princess, and the peasants were dejected, and all came out, about dozens of people, young and old, men and women, kneeling before their shoulders.

"My new decree begins with your villages, that it is your old custom of drowning female babies in your homeland, and that it will never be allowed again in Seleucia. Any baby, whether a boy or a girl, is the most beautiful gift that Our Lady has given to the world. Anna sat behind the curtain over her shoulders and said aloud, "Then the Grand Duke will have the members of the Brotherhood of the Brocade and the Reformist Order form a circuit court to patrol the towns and villages at regular intervals. If you find a baby drowning from any person, or from a canal or pond in any village, the whole village will pay a fine of ten gold coins, and the punishment will be severe. ”

Gawain stood beside Anna's shoulder with a solemn face, and he let the little girl speak, without hindering it, but in his heart he knew as well as the female archon: just like this, it is difficult to eradicate the phenomenon of drowning female babies, and the big deal is that they will use more horrific and simple means to dispose of the baby's body, such as throwing it into the stove for incineration, or burying it deep in the woods, so the female consul kept muttering there, "Babies are demons."

"This is also our sin, and if everyone in the Seleucian realm is rich and happy, where would there be the terrible scene we see today?" After the new decree was read out, Anna spoke to Gawain. (To be continued.) )