Chapter 462: Baron Abt

Outside the window, the clouds are thick, the wind is bone-chilling, the sky is fluttering with goose feather-like snow, the mountains and rivers are covered with a thick white coat, and another year of winter has arrived. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

Perhaps I am old, and even though the fire in the fireplace is blazing, Baron Abt still feels chills all over his body. tightened the leather jacket on his body, drank the fruit wine in the golden cup in one gulp, silently stared at the wind and snow outside the window, and couldn't help but recall the happy days when he and his friends from the mercenary group gathered in the tavern to celebrate......

The good old days are gone, and there is no more of the vigorous and hard-working Goshawk mercenary group. I remember that when the boss got drunk and declared in the tavern that he wanted to build the mercenary group into one of the top ten mercenary groups of the business alliance, everyone happily vowed to help the boss realize this wish.

I remember that the tavernkeeper One-Eyed Merd was standing at the back of the wine cabinet and laughing kindly, and the drinkers cheered and cheered, and no one laughed at the young mercenaries for having this good wish. In the city of Moriente, where mercenaries gathered back then, almost all the mercenaries hoped that their mercenary group could be one of the top ten, which represented the highest honor of the mercenary group......

After nearly twenty years of mercenary career, after the efforts of the boss, himself and the third child, and all the elite mercenaries in the group, the Goshawk Mercenary Group finally rose from more than 100 to about 20 in the ranking of more than 100 mercenary groups in the Business Alliance.

All the changes occurred at the moment when the Business Alliance was preparing to implement the Lord System, plus the Glass War between the Business Alliance and the Kingdom of Trimber. The boss decided to lead the mercenaries of the entire mercenary group to the kingdom of Trimber, and use the sword in his hand to find a path to knighthood and a bright future for the mercenary group......

Before leaving, all the comrades of the mercenary group were so high-spirited, the goshawk mercenary group was not an unknown person in the mercenary world, ranking twenty-first, the three leaders were all golden mercenaries, and they also had an elite team composed of a hundred silver mercenaries. When he first entered the kingdom of Trimber, it was smooth sailing, robbing three noble manors, and reaping a lot of gains, everyone thought that this trip was the right one, and he also pressed three noble ladies who could only watch from a distance......

The nightmare came so suddenly, it was not ten days, and the boss who led the team out to loot was given a sword stalk by the great swordsman who coveted the bounty announcement issued by Trimber VII, and only three of the more than forty elite silver mercenaries who went with him escaped back, and the goshawk mercenary group was broken at once, and its vitality was greatly damaged.

Then there was an internal strife, in order to compete for the dominance and inheritance of the mercenary group, he and the third child had a fight, and his left rib was stabbed, but the third child was not comfortable, he was broken by himself, and finally left the mercenary group with more than 40 cronies.

It's just that he doesn't have the boss's great talent and strategy, and he can't let the mercenary group continue to develop at all, and more and more people are leaving, and when he sees that the goshawk mercenary group is about to be unable to sustain itself, fortunately, the deputy steward of the Two-Headed Dragon Chamber of Commerce that he knows pulled him and introduced himself to a vice president of the Two-Headed Dragon Chamber of Commerce. Then he bribed the vice president with the provident fund of the Goshawk Mercenary Group for many years, so that he could help him seek this baronial title.

The heavy wooden door was pushed open, and a cold wind rushed into the warm room, and Baron Abt woke up from his memories, tightened his leather jacket again, and turned to look at the burly man and the thin middle-aged man who entered the room. The burly man is Adrien, the chief knight under Baron Abt, an elite mercenary of a silver-three-star former goshawk mercenary group. The skinny middle-aged man was Grigell, the head of logistics of the mercenary group back then, but now he was the chief of the barony's domain. The two of them were Baron Abt's right-hand men.

"My lord, I have just returned from a tour of the pasture, and the snow outside is so thick that it is knee-high. Everything was fine on the pasture, except that an old sheep froze to death, and I had the slave in charge of it be whipped twenty lashes......" Knight Adrien reported.

"Didn't you smoke people to death?" asked Baron Abt.

"Nope. Knight Adrien shook his head: "Don't worry, my lord, I have my own measure. And these cheap bones are not beaten and disobedient, their lives are very hard, and they can survive this winter. ”

Baron Abt was silent for a moment and nodded: "You have done a good job, proper punishment is a must, otherwise these cheap slaves will be lazy." But you have to understand that these cheap slaves are all bought back by us with money, and if we do it too hard, we will lose our gold coins for nothing. And I've heard that the war is coming to an end, and that our business alliance will no longer be able to take prisoners from the countries of Central and South China, and that these cheap slaves will become more and more valuable in the future. ”

"I see, sir. Knight Adrien said.

After more than four years of war between the commercial alliance and the alliance of the Central and Southern Kingdoms, the commercial alliance as the victor captured nearly 100,000 captives while plundering the kingdoms of Central and Southern China. If you want to feed so many captives, you need a lot of food, and you need a lot of garrison strength and money. A shrewd chamber member proposed that the captives be sold, which was approved by the council, a decision that was very much appreciated by the lords whose territories lacked manpower.

It's just that the business alliance has always claimed to be democracy and freedom, and it is by no means a hateful slave state. So all they sold was the right to labor for these captives. Civilian captives were subject to three years of hard labor, and prisoners of war were subjected to five years' hard labor. Theoretically, these captives bought by the lords would automatically be freed as long as they served their servitude, but in practice no one cared about the rights and interests of the auctioned captives.

On the contrary, the councils of the Merchant Alliance relished it, believing that it was one of the most effective policies of the Merchant Alliance, not only saving the cost of guarding the captives, but also raising a large amount of war money through the auction of these captives, while at the same time providing sufficient labor for those territories that lacked human resources.

The province of Andlviv is also considered a newly occupied territory of the Merchant League, and after the annexation of Anderwolf Province, the Merchant League canonized more than 80 new territorial nobles in Anderwolf Province. Baron Abt is one of them. It's just that when the Second Highness of Andrif Province destroyed the Kingdom of Ridleys, the alliance with those nobles fought here repeatedly, looting each other, and the ten rooms were empty, and they were already dilapidated.

When Baron Abt came to his fiefdom in Anderwolf seven years ago, he had gathered less than a thousand people, all of whom were old and weak. After several years of unscrupulous gathering and gathering, and fighting with nearby lords more than a dozen times, the population of the lords of Barony Abt's domain finally exceeded 10,000, which was second to none in the surrounding territory. However, there are still many old and weak, so Baron Abt bought more than 300 young captives from the auction of the Commercial Alliance, and became the main labor force in the territory.

"My lord, I also visited the manor just now, and it is safe and sound. "Chief Grigel reported his duties to Baron Abt.

Baron Abt nodded with satisfaction: "You have all done a good job, come, sit down and have a glass of wine, and warm up by the fire." Adrian, there's a veal leg hanging over there, you go and bring it and we'll barbecue it. ”

In private, Baron Abt still has no arrogance, and he does not pay attention to the superiority and inferiority, although he was named a baron, his temper is still like the bold mercenary deputy commander back then. So much so that he was often criticized by the nobles of the territory, and secretly nicknamed him the mercenary lord, ridiculing him for being a lowly mercenary.

He took a piece of roast meat from Knight Adrien, dipped it in a salted plate, and then stuffed it into his mouth and chewed it. The chief steward of Grigel duly handed over the freshly poured golden cup filled with ale, and Baron Abt took it and drank it all, and let out a long breath: "Refreshed." ”

Putting down the golden cup, Baron Abt said, "Next year we must build a castle." ”

Baron Abt didn't mind being ridiculed as a mercenary lord by the lords around him, but Baron Abt felt very embarrassed that he hadn't built a decent castle in his territory for seven years. Everyone knew that it was a matter of course to live in a castle as a lord, not in a wooden house made of logs, as is the case now, and even the manor was only surrounded by branches.

"My lord, next year our clan will no longer have to guard the border, and we will have manpower, but do we have the funds to build a castle?" asked Knight Adrien.

Four years ago, the king of the Kingdom of Antinac, Ogseiro I, set out to conquer the four central principalities, and it took only one year to hit the Duchy of Handla, and the messengers of the Grand Duke of Handra for help rushed to the royal city of Federiga in the territory of the Vicia Chamber of Commerce one after another, and the nobles of the entire Andwerv province were shocked overnight, for fear that it would be their turn after the destruction of the Duchy of Handla, some nobles asked to spare no effort to support the Grand Duke of Handla, and some nobles packed their belongings and packed their bags, ready to run back to the city of Moriente once attacked.

At the critical moment, a vice president of the Vesia Chamber of Commerce came to inspect the province of Andróv and gave the nobles a reassurance. The vice president reminded all the nobles of the territory, don't forget that the business alliance is now the number one country and power in the Galinthia continent, although it is now at war with the alliance of the Central and Southern Kingdoms, and the strength of the army is indeed not enough to take care of the situation in the north, but it is not without the strength of a battle, don't forget that the business alliance has just won over a storm sword saint Zhenguo. As long as the king of the Kingdom of Antinac still has brains, he will not dare to offend the majesty of the commercial alliance.

The vice-president's inspection finally calmed down the territorial nobles of the Andwerv province, and the subsequent development was as the vice-president expected, after the surrender of the Grand Duke of Handla, the army of the Andinac kingdom did not continue to attack, but stopped at the border of the Andwerv province. Immediately afterwards, the kingdom's famous White Lion Legion was brought in, and a posture of a steady counterattack was put on the border. At this time, all the nobles of the territory let go of their nervous hearts.

In order to prevent the invasion of the Kingdom of Antinac, the nobles organized a coalition of more than 10,000 people, ready to resist when the army of the Kingdom of Andinac attacked the province of Andrów, and also to buy time for the nobles to evacuate. But now that the army of the Kingdom of Antinac has not attacked, but has put on a defensive posture, should this coalition be disbanded?

In the face of the life and death of a strong enemy, for the sake of their own lives, everyone can still help each other in the same boat, and the nobles of each territory are doing their best to support the coalition army. But now that there is no threat from a foreign enemy, is there still a need for this coalition army to exist? You must know that supporting the existence of a standing army of nearly 10,000 men is a very painful expense for the nobles of these territories in the province of Swiv.

However, the border could not be left unguarded, in case the army of the Kingdom of Andinac suddenly attacked. The nobles of the territory of the province of Andlviv have come up with an extremely genius idea, draw lots, and whoever draws will have to take on the task of guarding the border, every three years, the number of troops is based on the population of the territory, twenty draws one, that is, twenty people must send one soldier. As for the cost, everyone will share it together, and it is much cheaper to raise a border garrison of 3,000 people than a standing army of 10,000 people.

So Baron Abt won the lottery with honor, although he always suspected that someone was playing tricks, but he could not find any evidence, so he had to swallow his anger and eat this dumb loss, and took out five hundred young men from the territory, led by the knight Adrien, and blew the wind on the border for three years, so that the lack of labor in the territory not only could not be developed, but even his own castle could not be built, and he had to buy those prisoners back.

Baron Abt smiled lightly: "You don't know, that Ogoseiro I of the Antinac Kingdom has already gathered a large army to prepare for war with the commercial alliance, but instead of attacking from us, he will transfer the army to the two southwestern provinces, I guess it should be closer to the city of Morente......"

"No wonder the White Lion Legion deployed in Majik Province has also been opened, and there is only a 10,000-strong army on the border, I don't know if it is newly formed, the defense is very tight, and the scouts we sent have been driven back in the past, and a few ...... have been killed and wounded," said the knight Adrian.

"So we're safe here, and next year we'll be able to see the Business Alliance and the Kingdom of Andinac fight each other in the province of Cambona. It's winter, it's snowy, and we don't have to worry about being attacked by the enemy. When the fight starts in Cambona next year, we will take this opportunity to clean up the guys who have been around first. I've always suspected that Viscount Weems was the devil who made us draw that unlucky lottery, wasting three years in vain.

When the spring begins, we will use the water source to stir up strife, anyway, Weems can only use his mouth and crooked brains in the old guy, and there is only a garrison of about 200 people under his command, and three silver knights, which is not our opponent at all. Although the Merchant Alliance forbade cannibalism among the lords, we left him alone and sacked his town of three thousand men and his ruined castle. Wait for the council to send someone over and have a good fight with them, maybe the business alliance will only focus on the war with the Kingdom of Andinac and will not deal with our small matters......"

"If we don't have enough money to build a castle, take this opportunity to scavenge from those lords all over the world, hehe, the wind has not been blowing for three years on the border, I am grateful to Adrien, you have trained this garrison of our family into a powerful armed force. "Baron Abt spoke of his deliberate decision,

Grighel, the manager, was very happy: "It's long overdue to clean up that old fellow, the last time we met on the road, they laughed at us for being lowly mercenaries, didn't their chamber of commerce also start by selling linen, how much more noble than us......"

Baron Abt laughed, suddenly stopped, and listened: "There seems to be movement outside?"

Indeed, there seems to be some murmur coming from the wind.

Knight Adrien stood up: "I'll see what's going on......"

As soon as the words fell, a "bang" was heard, and several soldiers in white cloaks and one-piece brown leather jackets rushed into the warm room, the swords and spears in their hands flashed in the light of the fire: "Don't move, raise your hands, abandon your weapons and surrender, kneel down and spare your life!"

......