"It's raining well. ”

Victor leaned back in his chair and took a sip of coffee from the round table. A few days ago, he was still troubled by the plight of the territory, but now he sat comfortably on his balcony and watched the rain.

As Victor had expected, Count Chebman came to his aid. The first batch of supplies has successfully fallen into Victor's hands, and with the support of these materials, his pressure is suddenly much less. Therefore, Victor can enjoy the rain scenery while sorting out the gains and losses of this homeless turmoil.

This time, the incident was planned by the princes, who wanted to use the tide of exiles to drag down Victor's territory. Victor did not wonder why the Princes would do this, and from the beginning of the compromise with the House of York, Victor expected that the Princes would retaliate against him. Victor is strange that the princes actually dragged on for so long before they started to attack.

However, Victor had to admit that the prince's party hit his seven inches directly this time. They grasped two key points, one was that their territory was very immature, and the second was that they took advantage of the psychology of the free people. This trick can be described as ruthless and vicious, and it is impossible for the princes not to know that many people will die in this turmoil, but they want to use the lives of freedmen to prove that Victor is not a qualified lord. It's a pity that the princes didn't expect that Victor would be infested with ferocious wolves, and no free people would be willing to migrate to a territory infested with monsters, as long as the news spreads, this time the turmoil can be calmed down.

Now, with the support of the Chebman family, Victor is beginning to figure out how to profit from the incident.

Victor was going to follow the example of the Yorkist family's method of employing and converting freemen, and when the paladins left, he would let Benson take control of the freemen's camp. While using the fierce mountain people to deter those who disobey, he handed over the right to distribute food to Benson, and at the same time asked Nelson to endorse Benson, so that the free people felt that Benson had a lot to do with the real power in the territory.

With a three-pronged approach, Victor believes that these freedmen will be firmly in his hands. After that, you can hire the freedmen in the camp to work for the territory through Bensen, and those who perform well can also be absorbed as the territory, so that the manpower problem of the territory is solved.

In order to ensure that Benson could take over the camp smoothly, Victor specially ordered Nelson to lead fifty guards to help the paladins stabilize order, move the population, and support Benson. On top of that, Balor and his students have infiltrated the Free Folk with his students, which is an internship for the little agents.

"Victor, I just received a message from the Dust Falcon. Under the cover of my brother, Benson had led the mountain people into the camp. Lilia pushed the door open and walked over, sitting lightly across from Victor.

"Oh, did the letter say when the paladins will lead the group out of the camp?" Victor laughed.

The recklessness of the Claude Paladin caused Victor a huge loss, and the little money he had saved was almost wiped out by that camp. Once the plague god is gone, Victor will take control of the camp.

"There are more than 600 people who are willing to go back to Blackcastle with the paladins, but these days it is raining heavily, and the paladins have been in the camp to provide relief, and when the rain is light, they will lead the team to set off. Lilia pouted, and the thought of preparing another large amount of food for the paladin made her unhappy.

Victor shook his head and smiled, Lilia had told him that in the past, mercenaries liked to walk with the clergy when they were on missions, but now it's the opposite, I'm afraid it's the ass that decides the head.

"By the way, another group of freedmen joined the camp, almost 300 people, and now there are more than 3,000 people in that camp. Lilia said worriedly.

Victor frowned and said, "It's better for the holy knight to leave early, without the holy knight presiding over the camp, the homeless people will not be so active in approaching it." ”

Originally, Victor had planned for the Paladin to preside over the camp so that the church could help him share the pressure. But when he had an exchange with Father Conley, his attitude immediately changed 180°.

In the eyes of the freedmen, the Church is undoubtedly glorious and righteous, but in the eyes of the Church, the freedmen are their herding flock. Now that the shepherd dog had taken part of the flock to Victor's collar, the two shepherds chose to stand by and watch, for they wished that the more sheep they were attracted to, the better. The more wool they harvest, the higher their status in the church, and maybe even the episcopal position. Father Conley's abacus is fine, but Victor is about to blow up, except for Blackcastle Town, there is no church in the pioneer territory!

"Fortunately, with the help of the Chebman family this time, we didn't expect the York family to support us, but the neighbors who stole our resources reached out to us. Lilia sighed, as the person in charge of the territory's finances, the territory's daily expenses made her heart tremble, and the eating and drinking of thousands of people was no joke, even if it had been compressed to a minimum.

"Count Chebman is not doing this to continue stealing our resources. Victor scoffed. "The House of York is not without support for us, and the fact that the freedfolk of Blackcastle have not continued to pour in shows that they have taken measures, and that they are still open to us for food. ”

Most of the new freedmen came from Buryatia, which is why Fr. Conley was happy to see it, although the Buryat priest was also a sibling of the Church, but nothing made the shepherd happier than someone else's sheep running into their own sheepfold. The thought that Father Conley was going to arrange a priest in his own territory gave Victor a headache.

After a moment of silence, Victor continued: "The York family is secretly afraid that they have prepared other means, I suspect that they have already sent people to infiltrate that camp, just wait for the paladins to leave, it is estimated that they will control that camp." ”

"Why are they doing this? Aren't we allies with the Yorks?" Lilia was surprised.

"Allies? Victor smiled bitterly: "In the eyes of the Yorks, even if we are their vassals, we are being promoted." In fact, the Yorks wanted to make me bow to them when I was at the end of my rope. ”

Victor knew that Sylvia had taken great care of her during this incident, and that she had not provided her with food because she had installed a tyrant in Blackcastle. In Sylvia's opinion: You have tens of thousands of kinsols and I want me to give you food for free? But how can Victor explain this kind of thing? What's more, the free people's private land has become their own key point, if the princes' people control it, as long as they organize the free people to rush into the territory, their own people and those free people will inevitably have a fierce conflict, and then everything will be over! So, no matter what Sylvia thinks, that camp must be controlled in her own hands!

Lilia hesitated for a moment and said, "Victor, I have an idea. ”

"Say it. Looking at the girl's speechless appearance, Victor said.

"My lord, I don't think the princely party will let us go even if this turmoil passes. So ........" Lilia gritted her teeth and continued, "So, I think we should accept the Yorks' terms and become their vassals. As you said, our biggest weakness is that we don't have family support. Why don't we choose to join the House of York?"

"Slap" "Slap" Victor applauded and laughed: "Lilia, you are beginning to learn to think from the perspective of the territory. That's good!"

Lilia breathed a sigh of relief from Victor's appreciation, and before she spoke out, she was a little worried that Victor would be angry, but Victor had always been against being a vassal of others.

"We can't take the House of York, and if the House of York clashes with other forces, we will be the first to be knocked down. It's like a wrestling between hyena leaders, always cutting off each other's minions first. ”

In addition to this reason, the secret of the Alchemy Tower is also the reason why Victor must choose to be independent. Victor thought for a moment and continued: "The Princes are indeed a threat, but we have our advantage, that is, we are far more flexible and harmless than the big family. ”

"Therefore, I plan to establish a chamber of commerce, and use the products produced in the professional village to win over some lords and let them join our chamber of commerce, so that a new force will be formed. When the time comes, even if the princely party wants to deal with us, we will have to weigh it. ”

"Let the other families join our Chamber of Commerce?, can this Chamber of Commerce still get out?" asked Lilia eatingly.

Victor was silent, any earthling is familiar with the joint-stock system, the joint-stock system is a diplomatic strategy he thought of when he planned the professional village, but the military groups in this world are hindering each other, and Victor is not sure whether the joint-stock system will work.

If it had been a few months ago, Victor would have been full of confidence. But the division of work system caused such a big turmoil, which made Victor understand a truth, the development of things has its own laws, and it is not possible to change it as much as you want. Victor vaguely remembered that there was an emperor in ancient China who was known as the emperor who was most like a time-traveler, and he implemented many advanced systems, but in just a few years, he hiccuped! Reality told Victor that the time-traveler was not easy to mix in the new world, and he had already fallen several times.

"It's a bit hard. But we have to try! If we don't break through, if we don't take a walk, how can we know that this is a dead end? If we don't even have the courage to try, the biggest failure is that. Victor walked over to the railing and stared at the hills shrouded in rain and mist, his gaze deep and distant.

Lilia looked at Victor in a daze, she only felt that her man was particularly attractive at this time, and couldn't help but blurt out: "Well, Victor, I support you!"

"The Chamber of Commerce is still a long way off. It is imperative to control the freedmen settlement as soon as possible, only in this way can the number of freedmen be controlled, otherwise the more and more people gather, the Chebman family will not dare to continue to support us. "Victor is colorful. "We ......"

Before Victor could finish speaking, an alchemy crow flew crookedly in the drizzle, croaking and interrupting Victor's conversation with Lilia.

Victor's face changed drastically, this alchemy crow was in charge of monitoring the swamp, and it was warning itself. The alchemy crow can express different reconnaissance content through its movements and calls, and now this alchemy crow is constantly expressing a message: unknown monsters, southwest direction, and a large number of people.

"What happened to Victor?" Lilia asked in shock as Victor's face changed.

"Monsters have invaded our territory! lots and lots of them!" Victor said solemnly.

"How many?!"

"The Dust Falcon can't see the edge!"

Lilia's face suddenly turned pale, and Victor couldn't comfort her, so he whistled, and several alchemy crows in the camp immediately flew over. Victor made a gesture, and the alchemy crows flew into the sky, circled and flew southwest.

"Let's go, let's go down. ”

Victor took Lilia's hand and rushed towards the lower camp.

Gru, the captain of the guard who was in charge of guarding the hill camp today, saw Victor and Lilia coming down, and was about to say hello, when he heard Victor shouting to him, "Gru, send someone to see if the second guard has lit a beacon fire at once!"

Gru did not dare to slack off, and was about to send someone to investigate, when one of the guards came up to Victor out of breath and shouted, "My lord! There is smoke at the second sentry! ”

Victor's heart sank straight down, the entrance to the swamp was more than 70 kilometers away from the camp in a straight line, and the terrain took a day and a night to reach on horseback. The second post is only 35 kilometers away, and you can see the hill camp after half a day's walk. That is, the monster is still ten hours away from the camp at most.

"My lord, is it an ogre attacking?" Gru asked, fearful.

Victor shook his head: "It's not an ogre, it's an unknown monster, there are a lot of them. Ring the alarm! Send cavalry to inform the villages, take refuge in the hill camp immediately, and inform Nelson to lead the team back. ”

"Wait!" Victor grabbed Gru, who was about to leave, "Tell the people of the two farms, the carpenter village and the flax village, to take refuge in the hill camp, and the people from the brick kiln village to meet Nelson and inform Nelson of the situation here, so that he can make his own decisions!"

The farm, flax village, and carpenter's village are only 10 kilometers away from the hill camp, and the brick kiln village is even closer to Nelson, and as for Nelson with 50 guards in the farthest freeman settlement, it will take a whole day to rush back, and if Nelson leads the team back, I am afraid that I will encounter monsters on the way.

Victor's order was quickly carried out, several horsemen rushed from the camp into the rain, the alarm bell in the camp was sounded, the people ran out of their homes, all the men converged on the square, where they were to be armed, and the women and children took refuge in the barracks. Tension spread through the camp in an instant.

An hour later, the villagers of the farmstead closest to the hill camp were led by Chief George, followed by Chief Morin and his villagers, then Ferro from Carpenter's Village, and three hours later, the Kent village chief of Flax Village also successfully brought all his men into the camp.

"My lord, there are a total of 743 people in the camp, a total of 527 young and strong people who can fight, and the rest are women and children, but our actual combat strength is only 200 people, because our weapons are not enough, only 40 crossbows, 100 hunting bows, 20,000 arrows, 100 pieces of leather armor, spears are enough, heavy crossbows。。。。。 Barrett glanced at Victor, who had always kept the crossbow in his possession.

The old mercenary Barrett was the camp guard instructor, and in fact all the young men had received Barret's military training as a militiaman, and could at least be proficient in the use of hunting bows and spears.

"There are four of them!, and they're even better than the military ones!" said Victor in a deep voice.

At this time, there was no need to hide and tuck, any force had to be used, and four militiamen, including Renault, stood behind Victor, and the king also began to produce three barberry militias under Victor's orders.

Victor propped his hands on the table and said in a deep voice: "Just now, the reconnaissance results of the dust falcon show that the number of monsters is very large, and it is spreading throughout the territory, and the nearest one is less than 10 kilometers away from us. I have sent a Dust Falcon to summon Nelson to send for help from the Governor, Lord Earl of York. ”

"We're going to hold on to this camp until reinforcements arrive. Barit, I appoint you as commander and be in charge of the defense of the entire camp, and anyone who disobeys your orders, you can execute him on the spot!"

"Yes, sir. Barrett saluted Victor, and even in the case of life and death, the old mercenary was calm and calm, which was an important trait for a battlefield commander.

"Lilia, you are in charge of the logistics, especially to reassure the women and children, who are the families of the soldiers, and there must be no riots. From now on, you're going to have to control the food in the camp, and we're going to have to hold it for at least 20 days!" Victor said to Lilia.

"My lord, I am also an excellent marksman, I can participate in the battle. Lilia shouted to Victor in leather armor, saying that she was reluctant to leave Victor's side in a moment of danger.

"Men are not dead yet!When is it the turn of women to go to the battlefield!" Victor glared at Lilia dissatisfied, but saw the girl stubbornly raising her head, he had to say: "Lilia, don't forget your current identity! Logistics work is more important! I don't worry about anyone else except you!"

"Well, I'll listen to you. ”

In the end, Lilia nodded obediently, knowing that Victor was right, and that internal stability was paramount when trapped. As the legal companion of the lord, she had the duty to pacify the populace.

Victor turned to Barrett and asked, "Barrett, how are you going to deploy defenses?"

"My lord, our camp is not a fortified castle, but it is easy to defend and difficult to attack. The hill camp is steep on three sides and narrow on the front. According to your requirements, in order to defend against ogres, we have widened the trench to ten meters and seven meters deep, and a two-meter-thick brick wall has been erected behind the iron oak fence, on which the soldiers can use their crossbows to shoot freely. ”

"Besides, I don't know what kind of monster it is, but as long as it's not a monster as strong as an ogre, they won't be able to breach our camp. As far as I know, the more monsters there are, the weaker they become, such as goblins and kobolds. No matter how many of them are, they are limited by the terrain, and they have no advantage. ”

"Therefore, I am ready to divide the guards and militia into three groups and take turns to go up to defend, as long as our supplies can support it, it will definitely be no problem to hold out for 20 days. Barrett said confidently.

Victor breathed a sigh of relief, fortunately, the supplies supported by the Chebman family were still in the hill camp, and the 20-day supply was completely sufficient.

"They're coming, sir!" a guard shouted as he panicked in.

Victor climbed the brick wall, looked down, and suddenly gasped, only to see a large group of black monsters, rushing along the ravine towards the camp.