"As a Polish vassal, doesn't the Duchy give any help?"

"Yes, but as soon as the Duchy soldiers in this place left, the nearby villages were infested by Vikings."

This apprentice knight didn't understand that there were not many places to farm in the nearby northern villages, except for a little mountain forest, some wood and a small piece of land that could barely harvest two harvests a year, there was no other way to feed and clothe.

The northern border is too long, and these borders have always been self-governing by the lords, as long as they can pay taxes, once they are recovered, they will have to invest a sum of money to feed these people in the early stage, and at the same time, the territories bordering the Vikings will become even more.

For the Duke of Wadiff, it was a matter of consolidating the central and southern lands before considering the others.

Poland and its neighboring countries have frequent border changes, and these barren areas of the North are not valued now, except for the legal areas since ancient times.

Leave it to some Vikings to grab it, it's not a big deal, unless they want to capture this place and use it as a springboard, then the principality will intervene and fight back.

But Bran felt strange, when he came, he saw that this village is also connected to the mountains, and there are peaks not far away, and the so-called relying on the mountains to eat the mountains, can't they support one or two hundred people?

"Who's in charge of the mountain?"

"My lord, the mountains here, unless they are really hungry to the extreme, no hunter wants to go, and they all say that there are powerful beasts."

Is it a black dragon?! Bran immediately asked, "What are the real things you've seen?"

"No, but someone has seen a shadow, saying that it is a flying beast, and the priests have also come, saying that it is a demon of hell, and that is a place where even Vikings do not go up."

Spreading out the map, the trainee knight compared to this mountainous area.

Bran calculated, from here to the map, it will only be a day or two, but the mountains are too large and there is no accurate target, and it may not be found for dozens of days.

"So you say that now the village has only seventy-six people left, and the rest have escaped?"

"Yes, sir."

"How much labor can a man make? Over 14 years old and under 50 years old. ”

The probationary knight did the math and said, "Twenty." ”

"And what about the Viking thieves?"

"Forty or so on, the seaway further north, after the early years of development, can accommodate Viking clippers, these Viking thieves, all under the orders of a Viking named 'Blood Axe'."

Speaking of the Blood Axe, the apprentice knight was a little scared, and he even moved his fingers and opened his eyes wide.

It seems like there really is something terrible.

"Blood axe Eric, he is the most cruel Viking, the murder of demons, he uses a magic axe, I heard that the axe is watered with human blood every day, he turns the skulls of his enemies into wine cups, legend has it that his bone wine cups can be stacked up to a hundred meters high."

The Viking heroes, two known to Bran, one is Hunulen, who is supporting the war between Long-legged William and William the Conqueror for the marriage of the Queen of Scots, and the other is Lonnal.

"What country is he a Viking?"

"My father is from Sweden, my mother is from Norway, and strictly speaking, he is more like a pirate, and his pirate group, with a skull flag, is floating in the bay of the North Sea."

"The North Sea Pirates have such a character, but why haven't I heard of it?" Bran's paper trade was also exported to the North Sea, so he knew about the North Sea pirates.

"My lord, you are in the Franks, so you may not have heard of it, but the Blood Axe only goes east, and robs us not only of us, but also of the Rus, that is, by taking the Danish river that connects the interior, or from the Swedish sea from the southeast."

"Why don't you grab somewhere else?"

"He is a half-brother to Nuren of Norway, and I heard that before the death of their mother, the Blood Axe had made an oath to join Nuren on the one hand. And Lonnal is actually related to them by blood, and his grandfather is ......"

Troubles, involved in and around, and involved in other nobles.

Bran motioned for no further ado.

"My lord, what do we do now? The thieves said they would come tomorrow to loot unless they had all the items on this list. ”

The apprentice knight took out a copy of the parchment diagram that the Vikings had thrown over some time ago.

Bran didn't understand the text above, so he asked the apprentice knight to calculate how much it would cost to get enough of these things?

The apprentice knight and the village chief exchanged ears, and finally came up with a number.

"It's about half a year's worth of village taxes."

These Vikings are not stupid, and they still have a little left, so that these villagers will not starve to death, and they will continue to cultivate and continue to farm when they come next time.

However, this year, the climate in the north is colder than before, and the harvest is greatly reduced, which makes these Vikings rob more often, which the villagers can't bear, and the knights who came here before, young and vigorous, pulled the villagers to fight, and many people died.

Most of the food that was overdrawn in advance to equip weapons and horses was spent, and now the barn in the village was empty, and only the rats were left in it.

"My lord, I have seen all your performance in the swordsmanship conference, the last one is particularly exciting, that masked knight is actually about the same as you, but your luck is a little worse, I believe you can take me to fight off this group of thieves!"

After the trainee knight finished speaking, he said a bunch of bird words to the three village chiefs, in exchange for the three of them full of anticipation, but there was really no way to ask them to take out food to form a guard.

Bran took out the money in his arms, and this bag of coins was asked by Tacita to build the village costume.

The bag fell on the table and spread out, there were dukas, rubles, golden nuggets. ”

"Ride fast horses, find a few people, go to the nearest village, use the money to buy some wheat, share it, and the Vikings will rob it, and you will hide where you were originally hiding, and you don't have to go out to resist."

"Ah, my lord!"

"Shut up, the children and the old people eat more, and the adults eat less, and when the thief can't find the oil and water, he will leave." When the thieves pass tomorrow, you will take me to the area below the mountain. ”

"This is too weak, the sheriff said, there are more than a dozen long and short swords, we can organize it, we will definitely be able to ......"

"Get out."

Bran slapped the table and called everyone away.

……

A sword slashed, the Vikings reveled, and the blood flowers swung into the sea.

A smuggling boat happened to be hit and immediately sacrificed with blood.

Due to the climate of the North Sea, turbulent currents blow, and the Vikings who came to receive gifts were a little later than usual.

Stepping out of the Viking dragon ship with its horn spikes in front of them, these northern malevolent stars once again stepped along the river into the northern border of Poland.

Because they were delayed by a day, perfect misses.

Bran asked the apprentice knight to take the villagers and hide in the valley dozens of kilometers away, waiting for them to go.

Bran himself rode on horseback, on a higher ground outside the village, hidden under tree trunks, and watched as the Vikings disembarked from the dragon boat and entered the house.

When they came to Bran's village territory, it was empty.

Not even a dog.

In the past, every time they sent out a letter of demand, these dog-like foreigners would kneel on the ground and beg them to accept it.

But not this time.

Dozens of Vikings, looking and looking, nothing alive and moving.

"These cowards are all running away?"

"Stay?"

"Set on fire?"

"Ask the chief what he means."

Among the several Viking thieves, the one with a high status asked a strong Viking man who was not tall, but wore wolf skin, black boots, and blood-red hair.