Stone Bone was the first village Sonny saw after crossing the North Bridge back to Sumer, and Uncle Selsey said that his father had won a famous victory in the Stone Grove, not far from here.

"Back then, I was the infantry commander of the Ox Army, and your father and Alan tried to persuade me to join the Confederate Army," he told Sonny as he entered the village, "and it was the Confederate Army, but it was actually the two of them who were bare-bones, aha." Still, I took a gamble, because in your father's eyes, I saw something special. As I expected, he did love his people like a son, and when the city of the Scourge was still known as Nippur, it prospered for a while, surpassing Uruk, your, and the ice fields, and even Elidu, and was about to become a land of abundance after Sun and Assyria, but alas...... Hehe. ”

Horn looked in the direction of Scourge City, and his father's tall figure came to mind. At the same time, dozens of men riding dwarf mules, dressed in rusty armor and dressed as soldiers, appeared in front and met them head-on.

"I'm Sersi, and everyone in your village should have seen me. When the two men who had returned home saw who they were, Sersi opened his mouth.

"No, Sercy-sama, I've seen you, but you're still young!" the young man in the lead smiled, revealing a neat row of teeth. He dismounted from the strongest mule in the ranks, his armor patched together but shiny with oil, as did his longsword.

"What are you doing?" Sersi looked at the broken sword in the visitor's hand and dismounted from the stolen tall horse.

"We are the guardian of the village, and everyone calls me Earl, because my grandfather's grandfather was the Earl of Nippur, and he was later arrested for embezzlement, ha!" The man showed a row of conspicuous teeth again, "Lord Selsi, where are you coming from, who is this?"

"Convoy?" Selsi turned to look at the young man on the horse, "Who organized it, you?"

"Yes, I'm their captain!" said the young man who called himself the Earl, "and I'll tell you the truth, Lord Kenny passed through Nipur during his expedition to the south, and encircled and suppressed the bandits in his territory for half a month. They want food, money, chicks, and they want to exterminate the Union Army, what a fool's dream!"

"Good boy, good job!Maybe Kenny should restore your ancestral title!" Selsey patted the young man's armarmor and looked around, "Why, there are only a few of you left in this village?

"Where, I'm just shy!" the Count pointed to the two archers on the roof, and a few boys huddled in the ruins with black and gray faces, "Come out! It's Sersi! The famous Sumerian captain Seisi! It's not a joke! You heard it right! Come out, everyone!"

In a moment, the doors of the muddy huts were opened, and people continued to emerge from the houses, rushing towards the Count and Sersi. Noise and discussion appeared one after another, most of the people had smiles on their faces, women with children in their arms, old people with staggering steps, and children jumping around Sersi one after another, and the stone bone village seemed to be instantly rejuvenated. "I'm sorry, guys, I didn't bring anything with me this time, I just came back from another continent!" Seeing this, Sersi hurriedly explained.

"Hey, you just want to see you!" said the Count's shrill voice in the crowd.

"That's right, we're self-sufficient, and if we hadn't been harassed by bandits for many years, we'd still be able to pay taxes and food to Lord Kenny!" said an old man on crutches, "It stands to reason that North City also belongs to our Nippur!"

Horn had dismounted, and when the villagers heard Uncle Selcey's name, no one cared who he was. Soon, he was pushed to the periphery of the crowd by the swarm. "Alright, don't surround me anymore!" he heard the crowd shout, "I just want to get some supplies, feed the horses, and have urgent business to get back to the North City!"

"Go to my house, Sir Seci, my house is in front, just turn a corner!" said the Count's shrill voice that drowned out the noise again.

"Fart, my lord, he's lying! His house is in the northernmost part of the village, a ruined inn! It's far from here!"

As soon as these words came out, the crowd burst into laughter, which made the earl red-faced, and vowed to strangle the man who answered the call.

"Selsi-sama, my mother's creamy tenderloin is delicious!" "No, Selcy-sama must come to my house!" "My father, my father has followed you in your allegiance to Lord Kenny! Please give me this honor and have my wife cook you a hearty lunch!"

Not only Sonny, but even Sersi himself didn't expect that he would receive such a crazy "courtesy" in this remote village, so he had to smile bitterly and said: "Okay, everyone don't surround me anymore, I have something important to do, and this task is related to the life and death of the Sumers!"

The villagers remained unrelenting, and as Sersi followed, the Earl eventually had to mobilize an escort to "rescue" Sersi from the crowd and send him to the inn far north.

They rounded the square of the village's central market, and the people followed from a distance, chanting "Long live Sercy", and Sonny followed closely with the convoy for fear of being squeezed out of the crowd again.

The Earl's inn was actually just a mud hut with five rooms side by side, including a stable. The man who had just answered the question really didn't lie, and there was no other house after the inn.

Dismounting, Sonny saw three iron cages hanging from creaking stakes beyond the stables. Crow punishment, he knew this kind of punishment - the crow was outside the cage, slapping the railing, pecking at the flesh, and the man was inside, until he died.

"What's going on?" said Sersi had apparently seen the cages as well.

"Righteous sanctions!" said the Count with a smile.

"Oh, you don't even have enough hemp rope?"

"Hanging is too cheap for them, my lord!" said the Count, as he helped Sersi to tie his horse.

Sonny had only seen it in books. The space in the cage was so small that the captives could neither sit down nor turn around, but could only stand naked, exposed to sunlight and rain. The first three cages were dead, the crows had eaten the eyes of the bandits, and there were a few flies flying around the rotting bodies, which would have been infested with maggots if it had been summer.

"Water ......" A faint voice came from the other cage, and everyone turned their heads to look. As the man spoke, the flies scattered and swirled around his head. "Water," said a hoarse voice, "please...... Give me water...... Water ......"