"I see. The princess nodded, "But what are the 'apprentices' and 'servants' you just mentioned?"

"This is the hierarchy of mercenary groups. Mu explained, "The rookies who have just passed the selection are the 'apprentices', they will carry out basic training here, and after the training is completed, and after passing the assessment, they will be assigned to various cavalry teams and become 'Hu Cong' to officially start their mercenary career." After completing a certain number of tasks at the 'Servant' rank, the person whose strength stands out from his peers and can gain the approval of his peers and seniors can be promoted to 'Apprentice', which means that he already has the strength to become a knight. After becoming a 'trainee', the conditions for promoting to knighthood are even more stringent, requiring not only the number of tasks to be completed, but also the number of enemies killed. This is relatively easy to do, but the hardest part is that you have to save enough dinars to buy yourself a full set of equipment. ”

"Buy it yourself?" Aisona was stunned for a moment, "I don't think the 'Bloodstained Blade' is so poor?"

"Of course not," Mu shook his head, "This is actually an exam, which is to determine whether the candidate has the ability to support himself on his own." The old knights were in a difficult situation after being discharged from the army, but they didn't want their successors to do the same, so they used this way to let the members of the regiment have a few items of money that could support themselves. Even if you really can't support yourself, you can sell your armor and weapons in exchange for some considerable living expenses. Of course, as their boss, you have to do a little favor, and if they buy equipment at the blacksmith shop in Roden-Ross, they can get a 10% discount. ”

"I see," Her Royal Highness the princess directly ignored the second half of the sentence and nodded with satisfaction, "It is worthy of a mercenary group organized by the knights." She looked around for a moment, and continued to ask, "Isn't the recruitment of your new recruits ideal?"

"Huh?" Mu was stunned for a moment, but he didn't expect Aisona to ask this, but he still thought for a while, and then replied, "Probably not, if the recruitment situation is really not ideal, Fatis will definitely ask me for help." ”

"That means there are other training camps in Bloodfront?"

"That's true. Mu nodded, "But why do you care about this?"

"Here... There are too few people, and this is not like the situation of a mercenary group of this size. Azona's gaze swept over the entire camp, and there were no people in the camp except for the soldiers stationed on the wooden walls and watchtowers, and the rookies who trained in the valley.

"I see," Mu smiled, "but your worries are a bit unnecessary." ”

Ai Sona frowned and looked at Mu in confusion. The merchant, with a gesture of following me, led Isona down the valley. They reached the end of the valley, skirted a large rock, and squeezed through a narrow gap, and before them was a black cavern, but with a wooden wall and trapdoor in the opening, and the light of the torch faintly shone through.

"We were lucky. Mu smiled and pushed open the trapdoor and asked Aisona to go down, and then continued, "We originally planned to make the valley wider so that we could build a training ground, but after we chiseled the stone, we found that there was a hole in it. ”

They went down the narrow cave, and after a while, it suddenly became clear that there was a wide karst cave, and there was a small pond in the middle of the cave, and the faint sunlight slowly sprinkled from the stone cracks at the top of the cave, splashing a sparkling wave. Listening carefully, there is also a faint sound of flowing water in the murmuring ground, indicating that this pond is a piece of living water, a high-quality water source. In the spacious cave, the stalagmites on the ground have been eradicated and opened up into training grounds, and a large number of 'apprentices' with "broken sword" armbands on their arms are practicing in various ways.

Aisona couldn't help but praise, "This environment is really unique." ”

"So, we're lucky. The cave also has several passages connected to a few smaller caves, which we use as barracks and warehouses. Mu said easily, "Next, please go this way, and I'll introduce you to the equipment of the Blood Blade Knight." "A platoon of 'apprentices' who were training javelins saw Mu walking towards them with Aisona, and immediately put down what they were doing, stood upright, and gave Mu a chest-beating salute.

"Hello Deputy Commander!"

"Hello boss!"

The last discordant voice came from the end of the line, Mu Xun was a middle-aged man with black hair. So he smiled and said, "Long time no see, Knight Abdul." ”

"yes, boss, long time no see. The middle-aged man stepped forward, shook hands with Mu, and then looked at Aisona behind Mu and asked, "Who is this?"

"This is Princess Esona of Suno," Mu said with a smile, "our great patron." ”

"She's not... Thinking of this, Abdul suddenly gasped, "Boss, your business is too big!"

"But the reward is enough for us to take a second risk, isn't it? Mu shrugged, then looked at Asona and introduced, "This is Knight Abdula, who is now the javelin instructor for the recruits. ”

"Hello, Knight Abdul. The princess smiled and nodded, showing the demeanor of the superior, "You are... Salanders?"

"Your Highness the Princess," Abdul affirmed, "the training camp in Swadia is reluctant to accept me because of my birth, but that doesn't stop me from yearning for and worshipping knights. ”

"I'm glad to hear that the holy chivalry has spread to the land on the other side of the mountain," said Asona, a little agitated in her tone, but solemnly replied, "I would like to bless you." ”

"Thank you, Your Highness. Abdul stroked his chest and bowed, "So, what is the matter with you deigning to come?"

"Naturally, I want to get to know her knights. Mu Jian, who was standing on the side, replied first, "Could you please introduce the knight's equipment to Her Royal Highness the Princess?"

"That's fine," Knight Abdul took a step back, "though, please allow me to dress for a moment." ”

"Please. ”

After a while, Abdul, who was fully armed, appeared in front of the two of them again, this time wearing a sleeveless plate armor suit, but on his head was a Salander covered helmet. With a knight's shield in his left hand and a mace in his right hand, and behind his back is a heavy cavalry gun and a short javelin, almost the same equipment as the Swadia Knight.

"As you can see, most of the equipment is the same as that of the Swadia Knights," Mu explained to the princess as he spoke to the heavily armed Abdul, "but we have eliminated the half-sword or two-handed sword and replaced it with a javelin. ”

"That's right," Abdul continued, "I'm not used to using this kind of weapon. ”

"But," Asona thought for, "is it a good word among knights?"

"That's because the knights of Swadia basically only use cavalry," Mu replied, "The hand-half-sword is a balanced weapon, longer in length than a one-handed straight sword, shorter than a two-handed sword, and can be used both with both hands and with one hand, and can be used more flexibly. Coupled with the fact that the longer blade allows the knight to slash and kill infantry units without bending too much, traditional knights prefer to use a half-sword in their hand. ”

"But," Mu said, "the Blood Blade Knight is a mercenary and must adapt to battles in various environments. When it comes to indoor battles and city wall battles, the length of the half-sword in the hand becomes a burden, and it often leads to situations such as bulleting knives due to walls or narrow fields, and this situation can be fatal when fighting. Therefore, the half-hand sword was simply canceled to strengthen the knight's mid-range combat ability. ”

"It seems to make sense," continued Axona, "but this plan was discussed by my father and his generals, and it was rejected because it was too difficult to train to throw javelins at once." ”

"It's really hard to train to throw javelins right away, so we started training as apprentices. "Besides, the boss's requirements are not high, as long as he can cause a certain amount of damage when throwing intensively, and he doesn't want to shoot one at a time like those Nayan of Kujit." ”

"Actually, my purpose in equipping the Bloodblade Knight with a cavalry spear is the same as the one that Harlaus gave him with a crossbow for the Red Shirt Knight," Mu shrugged, "It's just that they don't get bullied too badly by the archers." ”

Aisona nodded in understanding.

Well, that's the basics, Your Highness the Princess. Mu looked at Aisona and asked, "Is there anything else you want to know?"

"The rest, let's talk as we go. ”

"Okay. Mu turned to the Salander again, "Then the Abdul knight, please." ”

"Don't worry. ”

Back under the wall, in a small wooden house prepared for Mu He, the two sat down at a round table piled with all kinds of letterheads.

"So, Mu, do you have a few people in your hands. "The princess gets straight to the point.

"Well, it's certain that Bloodblade will join the war, after all, there is a deep blood feud between Fatis and Harlaus. The merchant secretly lost, "Count it up, I'll see... There were more than one hundred and twenty knights, more than two hundred apprentices, more than four hundred attendants, and as for the apprentices, I can't remember. The rest has to see how many caravans can come back in time, although the caravan guards and men are not as strong as the mercenaries, they can still be cannon fodder. ”

There were more than 700 soldiers available!This made Aisona excited at once, but the two years of wandering made her feel more embarrassed, so she asked, "Why are you so frank, is it appropriate to expose your trump card to me like this?"

"You've got to know anyway. Mu didn't care, "Instead of making some wrong judgments because you don't understand the strength of your soldiers, it's better to talk about the meeting directly." ”

Ai Sona saw that Mu's tone was so relaxed, and it didn't seem to be fake, so she secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

"So, Mu, what are you going to do next?"

And so on. ”

"What are you waiting for?

"No, I'm waiting for an opportunity," the corners of Mu's mouth curled slightly, "a best time to intervene in the war." ”

Azona's mental head darkened slightly, but she still asked, "And when will this time come?"

"God knows. Mu rolled his eyes, "However, I have already sent someone to investigate." ”

The first week of winter is definitely a festival for the commoners of Svadia. During the week, the cities and villages finished harvesting and paid a portion of it as a tax. Speaking of which, we have to mention the tax system in Swadia. Unlike Virginia's tax in kind, Swadia has a tax system that combines taxes in kind and money taxes, which simply means that only dinars and a small number of strategic goods can be used to deduct taxes. Of course, grain is naturally one of those few strategic materials. However, agriculture in Swadia is quite developed, and every year after the autumn harvest, it is inevitable that there will be a burst of grain stocks. At this time, the lords everywhere will clear the old grain from the granary from a few years ago, and then sell it at a low price to make room for this year's new grain. These old grains will inevitably be a little moldy, but most of them can still be eaten, so at this time, the commoners in the territory will happily purchase these cheap grains, pick out the bad grains, and use the rest as their own food for the next few months or even half a year. Some poor peasants even sold the part of the new grain they kept at home and replaced it with old grain, making a little money by the way.

Of course, most businessmen don't like this business. If you buy these old grains and sell them in Svadia, you won't make a lot of money at all, and if you dare to use them as shoddy, then wait to be squeezed out by others. As for selling it to Viggia, it is not impossible, but the customs duties and new grain of old grain are the same price, and after selling them, they will only make a small profit, so there are not many caravans willing to do this business.

And this year, the situation is even more serious. Despite the loss of Dehrim in last year's war, Swadia itself did not experience a military disaster, except that several villages on the border were looted. And this year, all countries are recuperating, there is almost no war, and the climate is relatively stable this year, and there are no droughts and floods. While the commoners were overjoyed, the nobles were sad, and there was no place to put the food, and they could not sell it abroad.

That's why Jamila took a large fleet of trucks, taking advantage of the fact that the war between Romania and Sri Lanka had not yet begun, and entered the territory of Svadia, brandishing the dinar according to Mu's orders, and buying these old grains on a large scale. Of course, she was not stupid enough to use the banner of Roden-Roth, but instead gathered some caravans friendly with Roden-Roth and scattered them to various places to carry out the acquisition work. And she herself, with other purposes, came to Suno.

She walked into a gorgeous clubhouse, and the opulence of the sight made her a little dazed, and then she quickly came back to her senses. Now, as a noble lady dressed in gorgeous brocade, she must also have a corresponding reserve and elegance. The clubhouse was a place where the nobles of Swadia gathered for entertainment. Here, the aristocracy could play cards, drink heavily, talk, and even do things that were forbidden by law. Because clubs generally have a relatively solid backstage, as long as nothing major happens, the government generally turns a blind eye.