Chapter 2: Ray

The Van Empire, close to the southern border and close to the Qingfeng Plain, belonged to the territory of the Duke of Green, who had a little green on his head. With a population of more than 5 million, the province was the largest producer of grain, timber and furs in the Vatican Empire.

In the southernmost part of the province of Xili, on the edge of the Qingfeng Plain, in the middle of a small mountain range that stretches for more than 100 miles, there is a small village. The population of the village is only more than 300, and because it is not close to the mainland trade highway in the plains, it is deserted and tight, and there is not much contact with the outside world, so the war has been going on for half a month, and they have not heard of it at all.

It had just rained lightly, and the soil on the ground had been turned into black silt without feet, and the heavenly Taishang poked his head out again, causing a trace of steam to rise from the mud, making the lower half of the person's body tingle and uncomfortable. However, the air was so fresh that it seemed that the only trace of dirt in the air had been washed to the ground, and there was nothing but pure gas at the moment.

A dozen teenagers of sixteen or seventeen roared and rushed along the only road in the village, carrying wooden sticks almost the length of infantry spears, and the feet of the **** blew the mud into the air and stained their brown pants. They don't worry about it, anyway, as long as the silt is dry, they can't see any traces if they wipe it at will, as for the upper body, their upper body is ****, and it will be clean by casually tossing into the small river at the edge of the village.

A group of teenagers rushed to a hut at the entrance of the village and shouted: "Thunder, thunder, come out, the weather is getting better, Uncle Sturt is going to teach us marksmanship, hurry up." ”

A young man, who was noticeably stronger than they were, and a little taller, with a dark complexion, a shaved head, and a well-faced, but far from handsome, came out of the hut. However, it is such a young man who is much stronger than his peers, but he has an indescribable weakness in his body, and it can even be said that he has a kind of weakness that he has only lived in seclusion for too long, or who has been forced too much by life.

The young man named Lei shook his head, gestured to the one-and-a-half-meter-long bow in his hand, and said, "Go ahead, I'll go around the mountains, and if I'm lucky enough, maybe I'll be able to get a few deer." ”

The light-haired young man who took the lead in the group shouted dissatisfiedly: "Lei, you always don't go to practice kung fu with Uncle Sturt, what will you do if something happens in the village?"

Ray shrugged his shoulders and said with a smile: "Forget it, what can happen in the village? There is Duke Green's military camp outside the mountain, who dares to come here to make trouble? I still go and fight a few beasts for money as soon as possible, my mother coughed again." ”

The young man stopped talking, they all knew that Lei's father died early, and only one of his sick and weak mothers was supported by him, so naturally he couldn't have the extra kung fu to practice martial arts and frolicking like them. The yellow-haired young man shook his head helplessly and shouted: "Then you move quickly, be careful when you go up the mountain, and when we come back, we will teach you what we learned today." After saying that, he led a group of people to rush to the house of veteran Ster, on the hillside outside the village.

Ray laughed a few times, looked at Sturt's house with infinite longing, grabbed a pot of homemade bamboo arrows, and walked barefoot out of the fence yard towards the hillside behind the village. Naturally, he also wants to practice martial arts, and he can also listen to Lao Sturt brag about how brave he was on the battlefield back then. Lei laughed softly: "Uncle Sturt should be a good soldier, otherwise there will be a war on the mainland every three or five years, how can he come back alive? Although he is lame, at least his life is saved." ”

A strange thought suddenly popped up in Ray's mind: "Maybe Uncle Stert survived because he was especially good at escaping." As soon as he thought of this, he looked behind him with a little weakness, fearing that the bearded Stert would suddenly appear in front of him, and then slam his big fist his head.

Not to mention that Ray went up the mountain with bows and arrows, but said that the group of young men rushed to Ster's hut with wooden sticks and shouted: "Uncle Ster, Uncle Ster, don't steal wine and drink, otherwise we will tell Auntie to go... Haha, hurry up and come out. ”

A bearded man with an abnormally red complexion and a slight smell of alcohol hurriedly ran out of the house and scolded a group of young people: "A bunch of bastards, can't I taste a little wine? How much good has your aunt given you? What a bunch of villains... Alright, Bit, you come up and try it first, haha, and see how well I taught you. ”

The yellow-haired young man cheered, threw away the stick in his hand, rubbed his slap and rushed forward, raising his hand to Sturt's chest for a punch, and while the fist was still halfway, it suddenly turned into an elbow and struck Sturt the chin. Stehaha laughed, stopped with his left hand, put Bit's elbow outside, grabbed Bit's belt with his right hand, and threw him on the dirt floor in the yard in front of the house with a fierce force.

'Bang', mud splashed, and Bit scolded loudly: "Dead old man, you said that you have practiced boxing, why are you working so hard? Ouch, do you want us to compete with you?"

Sturt snickered, gesticulating, and said, "Who told you to threaten me to tell your aunt that I stole wine?" So teach you a little lesson, hehe, okay, now you come up one by one and disassemble it with me." Don't look at this as the most common 'heavy punch' in the army of the Van Empire, but it is a life-saving trick on the battlefield, back then, I used this fist to kill a magician of the Smart Empire, understand? It's a magician, but I received a hundred gold coins from his head. ”

The eyes of the young people lit up, a hundred gold coins, this is true, everyone knows that Sturt is the richest person in the village, and those military exploits of him are not fiction, right?

Bit also got up from the mud and dismantled with Sturt with a wave of his fist. Sturt defused Bit's punch moves, and boasted: "The one I knocked down, but the official magician at the level of the crystal unicorn, the unicorn has three oak leaf branches in its mouth, usually, such a magician can kill ten soldiers like me at a long distance, but once I rush close to him, a few punches will kill it... So, don't look down on the punches I taught you, it's the simplest and most effective way to kill. ”

Bit punched hundreds of punches in a row, and after kicking more than thirty kicks, he finally softened on the ground weakly, and wailed: "Uncle, I don't have any strength, this punch is too exhausting." ”

Sturt taught him a serious lesson: "Phew, of course it costs energy, otherwise how can you kill or injure your opponent? Don't be lazy, you can't lie down when your strength is used up, you have to move faster, otherwise your strength will regress." If you go to the barracks, you will not be as merciful as I am, and the whip of the commander will whip you all over the square. My instructor back then, but he was a two-toothed black iron knight, hehe, he really couldn't run. ”

Seeing that Bit was still lying on the ground with a scoundrel face, St finally sighed: "Alas, you little bastards, you don't know how to work hard." As a man, even if you don't join the army, it's good to be able to have your own strength, at least you have one more skill to eat, is it possible that you don't want to go to the outside world to open your eyes?。。。 Alas, that kid Lei, if you are willing to follow me to practice martial arts seriously, you are much more powerful than you. ”

The other young people shouted: "Ray has to take care of his mother, Aunt Lisa's health is not good, Ray can't take care of the family's fields alone, if it weren't for our help, he wouldn't even have time to sow seeds... What's more, he still has to hunt, Aunt Lisa needs nutrition, and he has to exchange money to buy medicine. ”

Sturt shook his head and sighed, "Alas, I said I would give him a little help, but the little guy didn't want to live or die, alas... What a stubborn little fellow, is my Uncle Sturt going to kidnap him?"

Bit shouted loudly: "Uncle Sturt is a good man and will not abduct us, but his fists are too heavy and will kill us." ”

Stt kicked him angrily, and Bit immediately grabbed his foot on the ground and twisted it fiercely, and Stt's other foot was a little crippled, and he couldn't stand for a while, and he fell into the mud with a roar of rage, splashing a large chunk of mud. The young man next to him cheered: "Haha, show Uncle Sturt the results of our workout, uncle, this is the ninth form of 'heavy punching'." ”

A group of people pounced heavily, crushing Sturt's whole person to the ground, countless mud suddenly pasted on Sturt's clothes, Sturt roared angrily, but he couldn't struggle. In the end, he really didn't have the strength to shout, so he could only laugh helplessly: "******, you bastards, your aunt is going to teach me a lesson again... Okay, you're old, and you're still playing with mud. ”

Everyone laughed, and carefully let go of Sturt, allowing St to climb up with his muddy water in embarrassment.

Sturt shook his head, wiped his face with both hands, and suddenly shouted: "Strange, how can there be an army in the village? Well, seventeen people, and there are still ... Oh my God, it's the Bronze Knight leading the team, and the others are all regular Black Iron Knights, is there something wrong? Oops, is the war breaking out again? It's been quiet for less than two years. ”

Stert looked worriedly at the mountain pass that had entered the village and shook his head, while Bit had already greeted them curiously, and rushed down the hill to meet the small group of knights. Bit shouted loudly, "The Bronze Horseman, it's the Bronze Horseman, I haven't seen the Bronze Horseman yet." ”

A group of young people laughed at him mercilessly: "Bit, you brag, you haven't even seen the Black Iron Knight." Annoyed, Bit kicked them in a flying way, and a group of people ran out in a fight. Ster, limping on one leg, walked down the hill with neat movements, and went up the path.

Bit and the others ran wildly all the way for more than three hundred meters, stopped and stood on the side of the road, looking at the seventeen knights with a slightly frightened, but more admiring look. The seventeen knights on horseback were also watching them, and the bronze knight who took the lead smiled and nodded to them, and asked in harmony, "Is this the village of Kari?"

Bit nodded again and again, and bowed respectfully: "My lord, yes, this is Kari Village, are you looking for our village chief? Uncle Carter is in the village, so he shouldn't have gone out." ”

As he spoke, Stert had already walked over, carefully examined the badge on the bronze knight's left chest, and a wild leopard with five fangs in his mouth couldn't help but stand upright in place, his right hand clenched into a fist across his chest, and shouted: "My lord." ”

The knights were stunned for a moment, jumped off their horses quickly, made a touch-like military salute, and drank in their mouths: "Return the salute." "I was a little surprised in my heart, I didn't expect that there were veterans in this village, so it should be his credit that the group of little guys just now were able to run so fast without panting, right? Come to think of it, after these young people are recruited into the army, they can quickly come in handy, much better than ordinary people.

Sturt looked at the bronze knight a little strangely, and asked a little hesitantly: "My lord, you are a bronze fifth-order knight, at least the identity of the team leader, right?

The Bronze Knight nodded slightly, and replied: "War, I am Klaus, the second team leader of the third division under the Grand Duke of Green, and I was ordered to call up new recruits to enlist, and please take us to meet the village chief of Kari Village... According to the order of the Grand Duke, all men without disabilities, aged from sixteen to thirty-five, were recruited into the team, sorry. ”

Klaus was full of helplessness and embarrassment, he knew that it was spring, the crops had just been sown, and if most of the young and middle-aged men in the territory were conscripted into the army, even if this war was won, the people's harvest this year would be over. Although this is the granary of the empire, it is impossible for the people to have too much food in their homes, and after this battle, it is estimated that the lives of the people in the entire dukedom will become a problem.

Sturt was stunned for a moment, speechless, the team leader personally came down to recruit people, could it be that the situation has been so bad? Thinking of this, his face suddenly gloomy. Seeing Sturt's face, Klaus guessed what he was thinking, and hurriedly said: "Oh, the situation is not too bad, but the military strength in our territory is not enough to fight against the army of the Smart Empire, in order to wait for the reinforcements of the Imperial Army, we have to concentrate all our forces... My team was selected to recruit new recruits in this area, so I was naturally embarrassed to be idle, so I personally led the team to the farthest village. ”

Sturt 'oh', nodded slightly, and laughed in his heart: "No wonder you can talk to us people so easily, and you are so polite when you return the courtesy, and your feelings are that of an uncle who was excluded in the army and sent out to be a coolie... Hehe, I really want to see these high knights unlucky, phew, I made you the worst food tonight, and you were the one who deducted our rations in the first place. ”

With strange thoughts in his heart, St very politely led a group of knights towards the village, while Bit followed them chirping, looking enviously at the shining armor and heavy swords of these knights.

When Ray ran back to the village from the mountains with a few pheasants and a deer on his shoulder, he barely ate a little rubbish breakfast prepared by Ster, and when Knight Klaus stood in the small square in the center of the village with a frown, he spoke loudly: "Villagers, please don't panic, we are recruiting soldiers this time, but as a reserve, Your Excellency the Duke has his own elite private army to go to the front, these people are just to prevent accidents." After all, our Xili Province is the closest province to the border, and it is necessary to recruit soldiers. However, they will definitely not be allowed to go to war with untrained soldiers, so you can rest assured. ”

A badge behind him was the black iron knight of the wolf with three sharp teeth in his mouth and added: "You don't have to worry about the safety of your relatives, they are just going to be local defense troops to maintain law and order in wartime, not to mention that this is the duke's order after all, there is no way to disobey it." ”

The villagers were a little commotion, and talked more, in addition to life safety, that is, production problems.

Klaus frowned and shouted, "Okay, let's be in a hurry, don't delay, please stand up after hearing my roll call." This is a list based on the family registration information of your local tax officer, so you should listen carefully. As for production, rest assured, the war won't last long, and the Duke said that he will compensate everyone. He lifted his internal qi, his eyes flashed with a cold light, and he glanced at the more than 200 villagers present.

Swept away by his gaze, everyone quickly lowered their heads, not daring to say anything more. After all, they are ordinary people, and regular knights who have undergone knight training are a little different in terms of momentum.

One by one, the names were called, and Ray was already seventeen years old, so he naturally met the conditions. Hearing his name, Lei was stunned for a moment, and shouted loudly: "My lord, it doesn't matter if you join the army, but what about my mother? She is sick and can't work on her own." ”

The surrounding villagers hurriedly echoed Lei's words, talking about the misfortune of Lei's family and the difficulties of life, those words were full of the warmest sympathy in the world, so that Lei almost shed tears.

Klaus shook his head and sighed: "Okay, I understand the difficulties of this young man, but the Duke has an order, everyone who joins the army will be compensated with a gold coin, and they can get it on the spot, so there will be no problem, right?

Lei was stunned for a moment, and nodded excitedly, a gold coin? hell, he can only exchange for forty silver coins for three or four months of hunting, and one gold coin is the usual income for almost a year, especially when his mother is home alone, which is enough for her to live no matter what. He would never dare to disobey the duke's conscription order, so as long as he heard that the duke had compensation, he was naturally extra happy.

Klaus looked at the happy Thunder, shook his head, and sighed in his heart, he knew that the compensation standard given by the duke was two gold coins, half of which was deducted by his brother-in-law, and the other half was deducted by the chief in charge of the finances of the territory, but Klaus didn't dare to say anything, those people were all the duke's cronies.

There are more than 300 people in Kari Village, and there are about 50 people who are suitable for the age requirement, basically the strongest people in the village have been taken away, and most of the rest are women and children, and the rest are also middle-aged and elderly people who are over the age, but it is barely enough to maintain the most basic farming.

Klaus distributed the gold coins on the spot, and the money flowed through his hands, but he did not deduct any money, and these recruits would be under his command at that time, and they would first give them the benefits to obey their orders faithfully, but most importantly, if they could cut off a few more heads, the bounty would be more than these gold coins.

Ray took the gold coin and ran to his house, while Klaus looked thoughtfully at the hundred-pound deer he was carrying, and asked Stert beside him in a low voice: "How is this young man named Ray? I see that he has a lot of strength and a very flexible pace... Well, bows and arrows are also very accurate. ”

Sturt sighed, shook his head and said, "He has to take care of his mother, so he has very little time to learn kung fu from me, that is, he has practiced his strength by hunting in the mountains, and if he really does it, he can defeat any of them." ”

Klaus was stunned for a moment, and his interest in Ray disappeared immediately, a soldier who had brute force and did not know how to cooperate would die the fastest on the battlefield, on the contrary, the young people who had undergone initial training and could cooperate with their companions would have much greater combat effectiveness. Klaus pondered for a moment and asked, "Ster, where did you teach them?"

Stern raised his head proudly: "My lord, they have been practicing martial arts with me since they were twelve or thirteen years old, and they have all learned 'heavy punching', and I dare to say that their tricks are not lacking much compared to real soldiers, but they have a little less strength, after all, they are still young; "Sturt is a little embarrassed, who really goes to the battlefield with his fists?

Klaus was already very happy, he had been leading the troops for a long time, and he knew that if a few of the recruits in a group were particularly top-notch, it would have a great effect on the promotion of other recruits, so it would be easy to train. A good soldier can bring out ten good companions, this time he was ordered to gather thousands of people to join his team in the mountains, if these dozen young people can bring out hundreds of well-trained soldiers, the combat effectiveness of his team will not increase a little. What's more, the recruits who have been taken away by their subordinates in other villages are of good quality, all of them have experience in hunting in the mountains, and they can shoot bows and knives.

As soon as Klaus was happy, he touched the money bag and had two gold coins left, and simply rewarded it to Sturt, and said with a smile: "That's great, well, great." Sturt, we're going to leave now, you go and gather them. Hehe, they still have to go to my station to train before they can come in handy, right?"

Stern grabbed the gold coin and ran excitedly towards Ray's house, he hesitated slightly on the way, and then stuffed a gold coin into Bit and his group, the more miserable Keli at home, and then continued to run towards Ray's hut.

Amid the words of admonition to be safe, Klaus and the others set off with a team of recruits gathered from the village of Kari. Klaus said to his subordinates with deep feelings: "Look, look, our people really love their country very much." Random conscription, without any trouble, they are willing to join the army. It is said that on the side of the Smart Empire, the people will try their best to evade military service, no wonder although they have the strongest magician regiment in the continent, their combat troops are the weakest. ”

His lieutenant, a bronze knight with two fangs in a leopard's mouth, nodded and said proudly, "Otherwise, how could our Van Empire's legions be the strongest? Speaking of which, they worship the god of conspiracy, so they only conspire and scheming, and war is not okay. ”

Ray happened to be carrying a wooden stick to follow Klaus's horse, and when he heard the words of Klaus's adjutant, he couldn't help asking: "My lord, the Smart Empire worships the god of conspiracy, the Wright Empire worships the god of light, the Darker Empire worships the god called the god of the night, and several other countries or large tribes also have their own gods, and they all have their own temples, but why doesn't our Van Empire worship gods?"

Klaus was stunned for a moment, thought for a while and couldn't think of the right answer, and couldn't help but drink a little angrily: "Enough, as long as we have a strong army in the Van Empire, it is enough, and we don't need to worship any gods... Well, those countries have no confidence in themselves, and at the same time they have no strength, they are weak and powerless, so they have to rely on the power of the void gods, and we naturally don't need any gods. ”

Ray was taken aback, took a step back a little weakly, and said with a smile: "You have a point, it must be like this." ”

Klaus smiled and looked up, looking ahead, but he was also suspicious: "Strange, I've never heard of a god of war anyway, right? To ask our valiant knights to worship the gods of those who rely on shameless magic? ”

A small group of men developed towards the camp of Klaus's team, and the same team appeared all over the province from Sili. The Duke Green, who was cuckolded by His Majesty Shagru, feared that his territory would be occupied before the arrival of the Imperial Army, so in addition to sending his own private legion, the 25,000-strong 'Green Field Legion', to the border of the province to station, he also summoned all the men of appropriate age in his territory to fill the army.

Xili Province has a population of more than 5 million, and he has recruited more than 500,000 men this time, just in terms of quantity, the scale of this legion has exceeded the direct legion of the entire empire, but in terms of combat, 30,000 imperial knights can completely annihilate their 500,000 people.

Moreover, politically speaking, Duke Green's hasty expansion of the army is a big taboo. However, if Duke Green knew about some of his wife's vast supernatural powers, he didn't care much about this issue. And since the head of the spies sent by the Minister of Security in his domain did not say anything about this, Duke Green knew that his actions had been accepted by the upper echelons of the Empire.

The only problem now is where to find so much armor and weapons for the legions that he has recruited.

Duke Green thought for a long time, and finally scolded angrily in his study: "Damn, aren't the legions of a few of them still gone?

Ray and the others had no idea what was going on in the outside world, and followed Klaus towards the barracks. Bit and they excitedly discussed that if they could go to the battlefield, they would have to work hard to make meritorious contributions. As for Lei, he muttered secretly in his heart: "The gold coin given by Uncle Stert should allow my mother to live a good life for a year." In any case, this war can be stopped for a year ... Ouch, I just planted the seeds, and I forgot to ask the village chief to ask someone to help me shovel the grass. Also, that deer, my mother didn't know that she could tann its skin, and three skins could be exchanged for a silver coin... Four pheasants, my mother can deal with it for a few days, and if you stew soup, it will be good for her body. It's a pity that I was taken away before I could give the order. ”

Ray secretly looked at the majestic Klaus, and then drooped his head and thought to himself: "I heard that the empire's rewards for military merit are very rich, cutting off the head of an enemy has three gold coins, an enemy's squad leader is five gold coins, a low-level magician is a hundred gold coins, if it is the opponent's division commander, there will be a reward of two thousand gold coins, alas, if I can kill an enemy, even if it is a small soldier, I can also send it to my mother... No, Uncle Sturt said that my strength is very good, maybe I can take out one of the enemy's captains, right?"

Ray's heart was happy for a while, and he hesitated for a while: "Perhaps, it is best to meet a low-level magician, there is no risk, and there are rich rewards, this is the best, right? However, I only learned a little bit of martial arts from Uncle Sturt, can I save my life on the battlefield? Inadvertently, Sturt had become an expert at escaping in his mind.

And so, in a belly full of chaotic thoughts, Ray walked out of that little mountain range and towards the first war of his life.