Chapter Ninety-Five: White Deer Hills, Bread and Slave Camps

Lorist went upstairs and found her little maid, Irina, leaning on the windowsill and looking into the distance......

Lorist walked lightly behind her, looked in the direction she was looking, hey, couldn't help but exhale softly in surprise, but saw that under the silver moonlight, there was a domed hill in the distance, the grass on the hill was swaying, and several white elk were jumping and playing in the moonlight, like a group of white elves.

Irina found that Lorist had come behind her, and shivered violently, and her petite body involuntarily began to tremble again......

Lorist wrapped his hands around, hugged the trembling little maid in his arms, and laughed softly: "Am I so terrible, and I won't eat you, what are you trembling about? By the way, how can there be a white deer on that hill, it's really strange." ”

The little maid Elina was held in Lorlist's arms and trembled for a while before she calmed down, leaning on Lorlist's chest as if resigned to her fate, listening to Lorlist's question, she replied expectantly: "Then, that is the White Deer Gang, whenever the silver moon hangs high in the sky, there will always be a white deer." In the past, there were still people in the family who wanted to hunt these white deer, but they had been ambushed on the hill for several days but did not see a single white deer, and when they left, the white deer appeared. Therefore, the people in the family say that these white deer are the pets of the silver moon goddess Daphrin, and we mortals can't catch them, and it is already a great luck to see them. ”

Lorist bowed his head and kissed Elina's face gently: "Irina, you did a good job this afternoon, and you will continue to work hard tomorrow." You go to bed at night, and I'll go to the study to do something. ”

......

Lorist was woken up by the monotonous and harsh sound of sawing again, and reached out to touch it, but it was empty, and the maid Irina had gotten up at some point, thinking that she should have run downstairs. Lorist turned over and got up, and moved to the window to look down while getting dressed, and sure enough, Edward Walker, the illegitimate son of his father and the cook, was sawing wood again, but what made Lorist feel strange was that yesterday he was sawing with a plank, why did he change a stump to saw?

Lorist first went to visit Béruñek, and when he saw that he looked good, he relieved his heart, took the pulse and chatted a few words, and told the tall maid to take good care of him, and then he took his leave and went downstairs with his sword. There were already four guards in the courtyard downstairs who were practicing in the morning, and the black iron rank captain named Mos was instructing his three bronze guards to practice sword and shield combat skills.

Lorist nodded at them, walked to the well next to him, fetched a bucket of water, washed his face and rinsed his mouth, and was about to start his morning workout, when he saw that Edwalker sawing wood and watching Moss and their training with envy......

Lorist walked over, pointed at Moss and asked, "Do you want to be like them?"

Edwok glanced at Lorliste and remained silent, only to speed up the pace of sawing wood......

"By the way, you are sawing wood every day, what do you want to do?" asked Lorist again.

"It's not about anything," Edwalker said with a hum, "but about the sawdust." ”

"What are sawdust for?" asked Lorlist, curious.

"Eat it, mix it in flour, and make bread. Ed Walker said.

"Flour for bread?" Lorist was stunned, what do you mean, can you eat sawdust? Whose idea? Also, why didn't I find sawdust in the bread I ate?

"Wait, stop sawing, who told you to see him and bring him to talk to me. Lorist stopped Edwalker from continuing to saw.

Speer, the treasurer, soon appeared in front of Lorist: "My lord, this is a family tradition. More than a hundred years ago, the family's manor castle was besieged by the mountain barbarian army for half a year, the castle was not enough food, the then head of the family, the baron, ordered to add sawdust to flour to make bread and distribute it to the guards to fill their stomachs, and finally survived to the siege of the mountain barbarian army had to withdraw the army, the baron took the opportunity to lead the guards to launch a counterattack, defeated the mountain barbarian army, and achieved a great victory, since that time, the mountain barbarians can no longer organize an army of more than 1,000 people to fight against our Norton family. To commemorate the siege, the baron at the time ordered that a tenth of sawdust be added to the bread in the future, firstly to save food, and secondly, to let future generations remember that victory. ”

So, from then on, the family set up this sawmill position to provide sawdust for bread. Steward Speer said.

"Why don't I have sawdust in the bread?" asked Lorlist.

"My lord, of course the bread you eat has no sawdust, and the bread with sawdust is given to the guards and servants. Steward Speer replied.

"At that time, it was because of the lack of food, and sawdust was a helpless move. Now the family has so much grain that it is moldy, and mixing sawdust into flour is purely a brain disease. Steward Speer, I have ordered that from this day forward the flour shall not be mixed with sawdust or other messy things. It is good to make bread, and let the guards and servants of the family eat well to do things better. By the way, Edwalk, your position as a sawmill has been revoked

You don't have to saw sawdust anymore. Lorist made a decision.

"My lord, this, this is unconventional," Speer questioned.

Lorist stared at him coldly: "You know, Speer, the decision I make now will become a tradition in my grandson's generation, do you still have any questions?"

"No, no, my lord, I have no problem, I will do what you tell me. Steward Speer bowed his head respectfully.

Lorist touched his chin: "But the glory of our ancestors cannot be forgotten by our descendants, so let's do it, Chief Speer, you go and find out when the victory of that siege was won, and every year in the future, we will eat a bread mixed with sawdust as a commemoration, so that we will not forget the great glory achieved by our ancestors, do you think this is okay?"

"Your Excellency, your decision was very wise. Steward Speer bent deeply.

"What about me? What should I do?" said the unemployed Ed Walker, at a loss.

"Go to the guard team to report, you have a good body, it's a pity not to be a family soldier, I will guide you in the guard team to awaken your fighting spirit. Edwalk, what do you think of it when you awaken your vindictive spirit and move up to the Silver Rank, I'll allow you to take Norton's last name and make you a side branch in the family tree?" Lorist said.

Edward scratched his head, thought for a moment and said, "Well, well, I'll try." ”

......

In the afternoon, Lorist went to the assembly camp of the two newly formed guard squads, which was in a square next to the vineyard behind the manor castle, where the Steward Hansk was already waiting, and he had selected twelve former family soldiers to conduct a simple queue training for the two guard squads.

Pachko walked over and saluted Lorlist: "My lord, the slave camp has been cleaned up, and it is ready to leave at any time. ”

Lorist nodded: "Knight Pachiko, tell me about the slave camp." ”

"My lord, there are 382 young and strong people in the slave camp, of whom 67 have awakened their fighting spirit, and 244 have their families. Their packs are all set. Where do you want us to go?" said Pachko.

"There's no hurry, I'll have to wait two days before leaving. Lorist said, "By the way, Steward Hansk, I remember that our family did not have the habit of using slaves, where did these slaves come from?"

Steward Hansk smiled bitterly, "My lord, in fact, they are not treated as slaves here. These slaves were actually brought by the eldest young master a few years ago when he went out to war, you ask the knight of Packo, he was also captured by the eldest young master and came to our manor castle with these slaves. ”

Pachko nodded and said, "Yes, these slaves and I are almost all prisoners of the Civil War, and when I was captured, the eldest young master also told me that he wanted to get these slaves back and rebuild a town in the territory, and then release these slaves to make them lords." Therefore, the eldest young master paid close attention to those captives with their families, many of whom were exchanged with other nobles. The eldest young master said that with their families, these captives can settle down in the territory. Originally, the eldest young master was going to get about 3,000 people to start building the town, but I didn't expect him to leave so early......"

Steward Hansk said, "My lord, we don't know what to do with these slaves when the eldest young master is gone. In the past few years, these slaves have been free in our manor castle except for planting fields, picking grapes and doing some farm work, as long as they stay in their own camp and do not mess around in the manor castle, we basically do not care about them, but on the contrary provide them with food and clothing. Later, the old steward of Kress felt that they were too laissez-faire, so he entrusted the management to the knight of Pachco. ”

"In that case, let's not call them slave camps from now on, treat them as our subjects, and improve their accommodation and food. Lorist said.

"Also, I found out that there was something wrong in assigning the task to you yesterday, and I was too anxious to rearm the family, but I neglected to let the manor castle also need labor for daily work, which is my fault. In this case, Steward Hansk, please do a new count, first calculate how much labor is needed to maintain the daily labor of the family's manor castle, this time even those managed by the Pachko knights, and then count how many young men and their families can join the newly formed guard. In this way, I will know how much surplus population there is in the manor castle, and I am going to move all this surplus population to the castle site in the Morgen hills, which will be an important stronghold for the family in the future. ”

"Knight Pachko, you assist Steward Hansk in merging your awakened guards with the original guard of more than forty people, plus those who have awakened their fighting spirit from the two newly formed guard teams over there, and re-form a guard team of one hundred and twenty people, led by you. In addition, the veterans of the original team of more than 40 guards over the age of 40 were all pulled out to be instructors and responsible for the training of the two guard teams. Starting tomorrow, I will teach those two guard teams to awaken their fighting spirits, even if those who have not joined the guard teams want to come and learn to awaken their fighting spirits, you should not stop them. After I finish training, they will choose the right people to join the guard team. Got it?"

"Yes, as ordered. "Pachko is upright.

However, Hansk Guan thought about it in advance, and then nodded in agreement.

The next two days Lorist was very busy, he took the pulse of all the young men in the manor castle who were willing and wanted to awaken their fighting spirit, and then divided the more than 400 people into more than 20 small teams and entrusted them to more than 20 veterans for training, Lorist also specially formulated different training plans and dietary rules according to the physical condition of each team member, and asked the Pachco knights to strictly supervise them, and after Lorist was busy, the convoy escorted by Josk and Pat also arrived at the manor castle.

Josk brought to Lorist a white twenty-four wagons and sixty-seven captives of mercenaries who had surrendered, in addition to twenty-ten imperial silver coins, one hundred barrels of rattan juice, more than seven hundred pieces of leather armor of various kinds, one hundred and seventy sets of chain mail, and more than a thousand weapons.

After a warm hug, Lorist and Joske asked about the construction site of Morgenhill Castle, and Joske said that everything was fine, and that Miss Theresti had arranged for the slave laborers to start digging the moat and building the walls, and that there was no need to worry about what happened over there.

Joske asked Lorist what he should do when he returned to Manor Castle? Lorist said to rest first, and then escort a group of men and food back to the Morgen Castle construction site in two days, and then Lorist would go back with Josk. But before you go back, you have to arrange things here, and now let's go and see the mercenaries who have surrendered.