After the horse thieves were dismissed by Joseph, the remaining horses naturally belonged to Joseph and the dozen or so guys he had adopted. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Joseph first asked each of the men to pick two slightly better horses, and then ordered them to cross the river and catch them along the route of the caravan's escape. After all, he had also lived in this caravan for more than a month, and it seemed too unkind to watch them being looted and indifferent to it.

However, when the fat man Gould heard José's decision, his face immediately changed, and he asked cautiously: "My lord, aren't you going to Moxi, I know the route, why do you need to cross the river to catch up with that caravan, right......?" Are you also a mage who works for the Werther family behind this caravan?"

José clearly felt the tentative meaning in the fat man's tone, and Gould seemed to look at him very nervously, and there was even a little vigilance in his eyes!

Jose was a little strange, but he looked at the dozen or so people behind Gould looking at him suspiciously, and he suddenly understood what the problem was.

Obviously, Gould thought of himself as a magician who protected the caravan, and they robbed the caravan, naturally offended the Werther family of Moxi, and if he was working for that family, it would be a bit of a problem to recruit them by himself.

Maybe they thought they were deliberately deceiving them, after all, who would offend a big family for a few newly recruited horse thieves, and if they thought further, or they were already deceiving them, in case they turned their faces in Moxi, and they might even hand them over to the family behind the caravan in exchange for benefits.

After all, although he has intimidated these people with the strength he has shown, it does not mean that they are willing to obey his orders, especially in this situation. When you think about it, it's no wonder that Gould is suspicious.

Jose figured this out, and his heart was a little clearer, he shook his head and looked at Gould, looking at him in a somewhat playful tone: "Gould, are you worried that if I were the magician of that caravan, I would trick you into Moxi, and then hand you over to the Werther family, or send you to prison?"

"This ......" Gould was seen through his thoughts, but he didn't have any embarrassed look on his face, but laughed dryly, looked at Jose Zhengse and said: "Of course not, I just put forward my opinion to you, of course, you are now my boss, we are all subject to your arrangement!"

Joseph looked at the cunning fat man with some amusement: "I can tell you, well, I am not a magician recruited by a certain family in Moxi, I went to Moxi to find a friend...... I hired you only because I needed someone who was familiar with the terrain and the distance, and as for your concerns......"

When Joseph said this, he snorted coldly, and a wind blade cut through his hand, and immediately cut deeply into a stone on the side, stirring up a little broken stone.

"If I want to kill you, I don't have to bother at all, although you guys are samurai, if you move your hands, hum ......"

Although he was glared at by Joseph with an unkind face, hearing him say this, the last doubt in Gould's heart finally dissipated, and he couldn't help but look at Jose with a smile on his face and said, "You think too much, respected magician, of course we will obey your orders...... After all, following a magician is much better than being a horse thief. ”

When Jose heard him say this, he became a little more interested in his heart, and squinted at this guy: "It's you guy, bold and thick-skinned, but you talk and do things on the road, cunning and smart, you are indeed a strange guy...... These horse thieves are very eye-catching, I'm afraid they are not ordinary outcasts or bandits, right?"

Gould didn't look surprised when he heard Joseph say this, as if he had expected Joseph to ask this, but he restrained the smile on his face, and laughed twice before saying: "Hehe, that, Lord Joseph, your guess is really good, our brothers are not from horse thieves......"

When Gould said this, his tone was unexpectedly hesitant. However, this fat man is also a smart man, and since he has decided to follow the magician in front of him, I am afraid that he can't be fooled casually. And although this magician is young, his mind is by no means simple. So he could only grit his teeth, looked at Qiao Se Zhengse and said: "Actually, we people only came to the grassland half a year ago, and as for before, we were actually a local garrison army belonging to Moxi Province......

The local garrison of Moxi?

José looked at the fat man with some surprise, Gould shook his head, and since the words had already been spoken, he simply had no worries, and told José about his own affairs.

It turned out that this Gould was indeed not an ordinary horse thief, he and these dozen subordinates were all soldiers, and the reason why he appeared here as a horse thief was because in a war more than half a year ago, Gould's army was defeated by the enemy, and the troops were almost completely annihilated, only a few people escaped by luck, and after wandering for half a month, they fled to the border to become horse thieves.

Because these people were all Gould's subordinates in the army, they were naturally willing to follow his arrangement. With Gould's mind and courage, these people slowly swallowed up other small horse thief gangs, and absorbed some outcasts and rebels, and the scale also grew. Moreover, as the scale of the war expanded, the trade routes were almost cut off, and the power of these rebel deserters grew considerably.

Now in the area of the river valley corridor outside Moxi Pass, bandits and gangs are almost everywhere, and they are very rampant. However, because this is the intersection of the two imperial forces, it was originally a state of "three regardless", and after the outbreak of war, no empire was willing to draw troops into it.

The nest of the horse thief group where Gould is located here, as a new horse thief force that emerged because of the war, it is naturally impossible to gain a firm foothold in this environment. Not to mention the several veteran horse thieves in the valley corridor, they are all huge forces with thousands of people all year round, and even some of the larger horse thieves often break out into fights and fights. In this case, Gould had to try his luck along the valley corridor all the way west to the southern frontier of Geerqin.

When Joseph heard this, he couldn't help but ask Gould in confusion: "Since you have lost the battle, and returning to the army is nothing more than a punishment, why do you need to run here to be a horse thief? This is a business with a lost head, with your temperament, you can't even understand this little thing, right?"

Gould smiled, "I didn't expect you, a magician, to know a little about the military. Of course, I know this reason, but the situation here is more complicated......"

Although the fat man had a smile on his face, Joseph could clearly hear the lack of confidence in his tone. Gould glanced at Joseph with some weakness: "According to the regulations of the Imperial Military Justice Department, whether it is a defeat in a battle or a loss of defense and a city, unless there are special circumstances, ordinary soldiers or low-level non-commissioned officers will not be punished under normal circumstances, but if it is a higher-level officer...... It is ironclad that those who will be held accountable, let alone deserters. ”

When Jose heard him say this, his heart moved, and he suddenly understood: "So, your guy's official position in the army is not low, you must be held responsible, and your crime is probably at least similar to that of a deserter, so you will simply take your soldiers to become a horse thief, right?"

Gould nodded helplessly, then pointed to his nose and said, "According to the imperial military law, deserters are punishable by death under any circumstances. If Lao Tzu hadn't been forced to do nothing, he really wouldn't have come to this point. ”

"I'm a little curious now. Joseph looked the fat man up and down, and looked at the deserter with interest: "Hey, tell me, what kind of official position did you hold in the army before?"

Hearing Jose's question, Gould immediately straightened his back, and his eyes showed a bit of brilliance: "I, Gould, joined the army at the age of twenty-two, and I am Chinese New Year's Eve five years old today, and the highest military rank has served as the deputy commander of the county garrison of Sadrand County in the Desert West Province of the Empire!"

Deputy Commander-in-Chief?

Joseph had also heard Su Ya mention the military system of the Empire of Light, and he had some impressions of each rank. The rank of commander should be very high, second only to the position below the general.

In general, with the exception of a few Praetorian Guards in the center and the army of the garrison of the royal city. The local military posts are divided into nine grades, and the general is naturally the highest military post in the locality, which is somewhat similar to the deputy commander of the local military district. The administrative units under the province are counties, for example, Moxi Province has six counties, and the number of garrisons in the counties ranges from thousands to tens of thousands, with one commander at the county level and several deputy commanders, and other towns of all sizes under the county.

According to Gould, this fat man turned out to be the deputy commander of the garrison of a county, and it was indeed a not low official position. José remembered that the iceberg man Perry was the commander of a cavalry regiment of the Central Army, and there were thousands of cavalry under him. Of course, the real power and status of a flag regiment commander like Perry are much higher than that of local commanders at the same level, and even more prominent than ordinary generals, after all, they are a team directly under the jurisdiction of the Central Military Department. The so-called third-level Jingguan University is naturally said to be this truth.

As for the deputy commander of a local county like Gould, although he is not a high-ranking officer, his rank is definitely not low.

(Ask for recommendations, roll all over the ground)