"I'm glad that all of you brave lords can come to Golden Peak City, I am Covins, the lord of Golden Peak City. "Covance volunteered.

Zhang Jingxu nodded and said with a smile: "I didn't expect you, Marquis of Covens, to come to greet us in person, we are really flattered now." ”

Zhang Jingxu exchanged a few more words with Cowens, and the relationship between the two sides became more intimate.

At least on the surface.

"Ladies and gentlemen, do you want to go to the castle to rest first, or do you want to go with me to the barracks outside the city?" Covance asked with a smile.

Zhang Jingxu didn't think about it, and said directly: "I have received the latest order from the emperor of our country, so our brave team will also participate in the battle of your country's counterinsurgency and the conquest of the plague clan, so since Marquis Covens said so, then we must be more willing to go to the barracks to have a look, after all, we should fight side by side in the future." ”

Covance nodded, and took Liu Xing and the others to the barracks not far away.

Liu Xing could see at a glance that this barracks should have just been established, because there was not even a fence on the perimeter of this barracks, and there was not even a soldier responsible for guarding the perimeter.

It seems that the military quality of the soldiers in Jinfeng City is a little worrying.

Covance looked at his barracks and said with some embarrassment: "This barracks has just been established in the last two days, and it is specially provided for those recruits who have been conscripted to live, and the original soldiers of our Jinfeng City are all staying in the castle." ”

Zhang Jingxu nodded and asked, "I see, but Marquis Covins, can you tell me how many recruits are recruited in Jinfeng City now?" ”

After being silent for a moment, Covance said with some embarrassment: "Hey, I'll tell you the truth to Lord Brave, now we have only recruited more than three hundred recruits in Jinfeng City, plus the original two hundred standing army, which is still more than half of the 1,800 soldiers that the king ordered for me; And most importantly, I have to lead the army to the capital for regrouping in three days, and I think I'll be thankful that I'll be able to gather a thousand soldiers by then. ”

At this time, Ding Kun on the side suddenly asked: "Marquis Covens, I heard before that the recruitment efficiency of your Skaven Kingdom is very high, why can't even half of the recruits be recruited now?" ”

Covens sighed and said seriously: "The answer to this question is actually very simple, that is, the current Skaven Kingdom is no longer the previous Skaven Kingdom, because the Skaven Kingdom has just been founded, so it has experienced a lot of large-scale wars, so there are a large number of veterans, and these veterans are very willing to return to the battlefield when necessary; And the current Skaven Kingdom is different, because the continent has become relatively peaceful today, and the Skaven Kingdom is next to a powerful empire, so the Skaven Kingdom has not experienced other wars except for the Ruszia siege back then, so after those veterans have died, those who have not experienced the war are no longer willing to be soldiers. ”

"In addition, it is the location of my territory, because my territory is located on the border between the Skaven Kingdom and the Empire, so after the empire announced that it would no longer take the initiative to start a war, successive kings began to continuously reduce the military assistance provided to my territory, and they are also constantly cutting the military establishment of Jinfeng City, and now there is a city guard of two hundred people left specifically responsible for exterminating the bandits in the territory, you must know that there were nearly two thousand garrisons in the heyday of Jinfeng City, but I didn't expect it to be more than twenty years, I could only watch my subordinates leave the army one by one. ”

Sure enough, Covance is out of the army.

"Marquis Covens, this is actually a good thing, after all, the war is too cruel, and it would be better if you could avoid the sword confrontation." Zhang Wenbing said.

Covance nodded, pointed to the two Cowen brothers and said, "You're right, if it's the same as before, I'm afraid these two boys would have died on the battlefield a long time ago." ”

The two Cowen brothers smiled a little awkwardly.

At this time, a heavily armed veteran walked out of the camp and said with some complaints: "General Cowens, the quality of this batch of recruits is really poor in all aspects, and there is no way to complete even the most basic training. ”

Now it was Cowens' turn to be embarrassed again, "Monroe, you are my most trusted deputy right now, so I hope you can make these recruits have the most basic combat ability within these three days... Of course, if that doesn't work, Monroe you'll at least have to teach these guys how to maintain the most basic formation, because I've heard that our king is going to have a military parade in the capital, and I don't want to be embarrassed in front of the other lords. ”

Monroe sighed and said weakly, "Then I can only try my best." ”

With that, Monroe returned to the barracks.

"Monroe was my former lieutenant in the army, and he once helped me block a fatal arrow on the battlefield." "It seems that the recruits haven't adapted to their military life yet, so we won't go in and disturb them for now," Covance said. ”

Zhang Jingxu nodded and said with a smile: "I think so too, and I feel a little hungry now, after all, we set off early in the morning to rush to Jinfeng City, and we didn't eat anything halfway." ”

Seeing Zhang Jingxu giving himself face like this, Cowens decisively borrowed the slope to get off the donkey and said, "Oh, then the brave man, you have to taste the special food of our Jinfeng City and look up to the starry sky pie." ”

The commercial smirk on the faces of Liu Xing and the others disappeared in an instant, and their hearts became uneasy.

Soon, Liu Xing and the others returned to Jinfeng City and went to Covens Castle in the center of Jinfeng City.

As Liu Xing and the others expected, the taste of Jinfeng City was stronger than that of Blacksmith Village, and it was more layered, because Jinfeng City was full of all kinds of livestock and poultry.

I hate this continent ...

Liu Xing said silently in his heart.

But fortunately, because Covens Castle is built on the highest point of Golden Peak City, the air inside Covens Castle is not bad... It is equivalent to Jinfeng City.

Sitting at the dining table, Zhang Jingxu and Covance had a good conversation.

As for Liu Xing and the others, looking at the Demon Revision in front of them and looking up at the Starry Sky Sect, they already had no way to speak.

Because the Skaven Kingdom is a landlocked country, the fishery resources of the Skaven Kingdom are very scarce, and the Demon Modified Stargazing Party naturally changed the fish in the pie to an ingredient.

The exchange of mountain delicacies for seafood is also theoretically reasonable.

However, Liu Xing looked at the black snakes that were still moving in the starry sky, and he didn't have the courage to move the knife at all...

Is this thing really edible?

Liu Xing couldn't help but step back a little in his chair, because Liu Xing suspected that these black snakes that were still alive would run out of the pie if they twisted and twisted.

As an aside, Liu Xing once encountered a cauliflower snake at the corner when he was a child, and the distance between him and a cauliflower snake was less than twenty centimeters, so from then on, the snake left a deep shadow in the young Liu Xing's heart, and now Liu Xing's most feared creature is still a snake.

At this time, Yin En, who was sitting next to Liu Xing, said in a low voice: "Xie Te, this Demon Change's Starry Sky Sect is too terrifying, I feel that my SAN value is about to go to zero." ”

At this time, Liu Xing and the others saw that Covance picked up the fork and directly finished off a black snake, and then mixed the pie and ate it together.

Liu Xing felt that he had lost 1 SAN point in an instant.

Because of the "tiring journey", Liu Xing and the others, who "had no appetite", only drank a few glasses of wine at the table, and then left the restaurant and went back to their rooms to rest.

Of course, Liu Xing and the others didn't rest for long, so they wandered around Covance Castle and inquired about various newspapers from the attendants and servants in Covance Castle.

After a few successful speech decisions, Liu Xing and Yin Eun got a lot of reports about Cowens.

Covance is an inspirational example of the kingdom of Skaven, because Covance was originally just the son of an ordinary blacksmith, and secretly joined the army after building a weapon and equipment for himself at the age of sixteen, and performed well in the following battles, so Covance became a general step by step, and the title changed from baron to earl.

In the siege of Ruszia that year, Covance, as the vanguard, took the lead in climbing the walls of Ruszia with his own troops, and then because he wanted to clean up the Plague Clan defenders on the city wall and ensure that the city wall would not be recaptured by the Plague Clan, Covance did not participate in the next street battle, so Covance's troops did not suffer too many casualties.

Again, because this continent is set in medieval Europe, "my vassals, not my vassals" still applies on this continent.

To put it simply, although Covance's troops nominally belong to the Kingdom of Skaven, in reality Covance's troops are Covance's personal troops and only accept Covens' command.

Therefore, after the siege of Ruszia, Covens, who had 2,000 soldiers and horses, could be regarded as self-respecting, so the king of Skaven at that time rose to the rank of marquis and deployed Covens from the hinterland of the kingdom to the border with the empire, the significance of which is self-evident, and Covens has never been reused by successive kings since then, and has constantly suffered from all kinds of suppression.

If it weren't for the fact that the new king would have been able to defeat the rebels and the plague clan this time, Covens would have had a chance to be drafted.

However, according to some unknown sources of grapevine, according to the conscription standards issued by the king to other lords, Covance only needed to recruit 800 soldiers in theory, but the king added a conscription requirement of 1,000 soldiers to Covance in order to give Covance a dismount in the military parade a week later, and if Covance did not complete this conscription goal, then Covance was likely to be demoted to an earl or even a viscount.

It is clear that Covens is now under repression in the Skaven Kingdom.

Hearing this, Liu Xing finally understood why Cowens was willing to let go of Duan to make friends when facing his group.

Obviously, judging from the current situation, unless Covance catches the strong man and forcibly recruits a group of recruits to complete his recruitment goal, Covance will definitely not be able to gather 1,800 soldiers in three days, and if Covance really dares to catch the strong man, then Covance may be directly deprived of his title at that time.

So at present, the only way for Covance to break the game is to fake the fox and hug Jing Xu's thighs.

Although Zhang Jingxu will not be of any substantial help to Covins, Zhang Jingxu is a brave man recognized by the empire after all, so if Zhang Jingxu is willing to stand on Covens's side, then King Skaven will have to consider Zhang Jingxu's position, and then he can only choose to "forgive" Cowens for doing things unfavorably.

Because the mercenaries of the empire will definitely choose to support Zhang Jingxu.

So if Covance can have a good relationship with Zhang Jingxu and let Zhang Jingxu come forward for him, then Covance can get through this difficulty, and then Covance can also take his team of recruits with a combat strength of five to join the mercenaries of the empire, so that he will not be used as cannon fodder to die.

"It seems that this Cowens is not a reckless man who can only fight." Yin En said with some sighs: "But it's always a little unpleasant to be used as a gun, but I didn't expect us to become Cowens's shield." ”

Liu Xing shrugged his shoulders and said: "Actually, this is also a good thing for us, after all, our initial purpose was to make Covance our spokesperson, so we can achieve our goals more conveniently, of course, it is better, and from the current situation, we may be able to indirectly control Covance's soldiers and horses, although the combat effectiveness of these recruits is extremely poor, but it is always a large army, which can help us solve some problems." ”

Yin En nodded, touched his chin and said: "Actually, if we had known that the empire would send mercenaries to participate in the war, we could have gone to the leader of that mercenary team to cooperate, after all, Zhang Jingxu's title of brave is more useful on the empire's side, and the strength of the empire's mercenaries will definitely not be too bad." ”

"You can't say anything, you must know that mercenaries have no say on the battlefield, they can only obey the arrangements of their employers to fight, so if we join the mercenaries of the Empire, then we will be subject to a lot of restrictions, and we cannot guarantee that we can convince the leader of the mercenaries to cooperate with us, and then we may be assigned all kinds of messy tasks, which is not a good thing for us; Therefore, although the strength of Covance's side is a little worse, Covance should choose to follow our advice and become a qualified spokesperson. ”

PS: Thank you very much for your tips.