The father received an order: to return to the fleet.

The father didn't say much, and handed over to General Garcia the personal guard he led to the snowy mountains on the same day.

It has been dozens of days since he led the soldiers to land at Garmicch Bay, and now it is a kind of rest to return to the ship. Before leaving, his father handed over the more than 2,000 dinars that had been given to him by the troops during the plundering of the fortress of Gamic. He didn't want to keep the money, so he gave it to Garcia's squires and put him in charge of distributing it to the guards.

The soldiers had received their own rewards at the end of the battle, and they had thought that they would only receive new bonuses when they returned home, so they were surprised by their father's gifts. Although the commander of the army often rewarded his soldiers, in that case either a major victory or the general was relatively wealthy, and it was clear that this time my father's army was not among them. The soldiers of the Guard, who were accustomed to fighting tough battles, did not feel that they were qualified to take the money this time, and it seemed that the young general was shabby.

The father packed the package and let a little boy from Garmic Fort carry it to the city gate. The father gave the boy twelve copper plates. The child's father was a native of Salander, and he ran away without a trace after the war; His mother was a Rhodok, and since the Salanders lost power, this woman did not dare to go out at will, and the family who had been cut off from food only relied on this little child to run to the barracks to help work to earn money to support the family.

The father went to Garcia to say goodbye, and he waited for the general's summons in front of Garcia's official residence, but after a long time a servant came out to say that the general was receiving a group of Aaron's messengers, and that he could only spare time before dinner. The father shook his head and said, "Please tell the general that I will go first, and I will visit him when the war is over." If there is any rudeness, I hope to forgive you. ”

No one came to see off the humble naval officer that afternoon. The father followed the little boy all the way through the alleys of the fortress of Garmici to the square in the city. There are soldiers checking on farmers bringing vegetables and grain into the city, and there are also service vehicles waiting to take people to the docks by the sea. Here the father gave the boy a few more copper plates and sent him away. The little boy saluted like the Salander and went away with a thousand thanks. The father was left alone and climbed into a carriage with his luggage on his back.

Soon a wounded ensign and two of his guards and two clerks also boarded the carriage. One of the guards kicked my father's luggage aside, but the father didn't speak, just put it away. When the second lieutenant saw that the young man was a bully, he put down the necessary politeness, put his foot on the beam in front of his father, and stretched his waist and squinted his eyes.

The carriage drove out.

Although the secret operations in the past few tens of days can not be described as a life-and-death battle, they can also be called extremely arduous. When he was on the hill overlooking the Garmici Plains, my father probably did not expect that he would leave Garmici empty-handed in a few dozen days. Now the fortress of Gamic is full of confident young people, these people are full of spirit, they feel that they can conquer the world with the iron sword and shield in their hands, and no one will notice the efforts of a young officer for dozens of days.

Since entering the fortress of Garmic, the problem of discipline has become a problem for my father to repeatedly report to General Garcia. Many of the Rhodoks were angry at the Salanders after the war was over, because of the death and wounding of the robes. In the previous week, there was even an incident of Salandergaff being whipped to death by a drunken Rhodoc soldier. The father's demand that the soldier be brought to justice was suppressed by the soldier's commander. A few days later, my father saw the soldier in the tavern, and was bragging to his companion about how he had killed a Salander. The father immediately arrested the soldier with Garcia's personal guards and chained him to the square in front of the Garmic crowd.

At that time, the soldiers of Rhodok and the residents of Salander saw this spectacle. The people were silent, thinking about it. The father lashed the soldier, then read out his guilt and left. As he walked through the crowd, his father saw respect in the eyes of the Salanders, and resentment and confusion in the eyes of the Rhodok soldiers.

As my father left the crowd, the tied Rhodok soldier shouted and shouted, "See! Swadians are Swadians! Even if he served the principality, he was still a Swadian at heart! One day, he'll tie you all like he tied me! ”

Many of the grievances were sent to Garcia, and Garcia tried to quell some of them as much as he could, but many others went directly to the military judges. The judges considered that the father's punishment, though unreasonable, was a lynching, and that only the military court had the right to deal with a soldier. After consulting with each other, the civilian officers decided to apply for the father's return to the fleet to be subject to the temperance of his own unit.

Those people knew that my father had an affair with General Garcia, and that under Garcia's protection, the supervision and sentencing of my father might be blocked, so they simply sent my father away.

Soon, the father received an order, "Return to the fleet."

The father also accused Jucisa that he had sailed the ship to Garmici Bay, where craftsmen were repairing the hull of the ship with oak and gum that had been damaged by the previous war.

Father sat in the carriage, pondering General Garcia's words. He knew that General Garcia would not be too busy to see him, and the general must be dissatisfied with what he had done. Father is thinking about this time very ambivalently, maybe Garcia is right, many things are too demanding, it is difficult to get satisfactory consequences, although father also thinks so, but he still can't suppress the disgust of conspiracy.

At that time, the eyes of early summer were already dazzling, and the afternoon seemed lazy and long, and my father sat in a rickety carriage ready to go out of the city. Everything looks like it's going to get back on track: be an ordinary admiral, write a daily logbook, wait for the war to end, and then go about the work of sweeping up the pirates, and maybe even run into Lily Marlene at sea.

The wounded captain was pushed to the ground by the crowd of soldiers after entering the city, and his arm was twisted. But now the story from the second lieutenant's mouth is that before Garcia broke the city, he led 300 warriors to infiltrate the fortress of Gamic, and then waited for the opportunity to set fire to the city gates, contributing to the soldiers' capture of the fortress.

Hearing this, everyone else in the car was in awe. Father frowned, staring at the braggart guy.

"Look at what, boy?" The lieutenant asked, raising an eyebrow. He saw the word 'impossible' in my father's eyes.

"Nothing," the father shrugged, "but only one hundred and twenty-seven soldiers in the city participated in the attack on the city gates, not the three hundred warriors you said."

"Are you suspicious of me?" The second lieutenant was a little weak at his father's affirmative tone.

The second lieutenant shouted in displeasure and motioned for his two guards to testify for him. Just as the two guards opened their mouths to speak, the carriage suddenly stopped, and the people in the carriage staggered. The occupants of the car turned their heads to look out, wondering what was going on.

When I looked at it, I realized that there were people outside.

But his father knew who these men were--- and he saw Bruno.

My father straightened up and stepped out of the narrow carriage in his armor.

More than a hundred Garcia's guards stood aside, and when they saw my father get out of the car, the soldiers lifted their helmets and shields, and then, led by a captain, a hundred and ten people saluted my father together, as if a swing of reeds had been bent by the wind.

Bruno was a little reluctant to learn that my father was leaving, so he consulted with the captain and came to see my father off. Bruno and the guards around him were different from the other Rhodok soldiers, they had spent many days with my father, and they knew that the young officer was not strict enough, but they respected and loved their soldiers. That kind of intimate feeling, except for General Garcia, these soldiers have not felt from anyone else. These days, after hearing about my father's controversial reward and punishment at the Kamić Fortress, some of the guards were less impressed, but many of the soldiers respected my father more.

They inquired about the time of their father's departure and quietly waited at the city gates.

The father briefly said a few words to them, and finally said, "We are brothers on the snowy mountains; In the cave we are brothers; When there was a night battle in the city, we were brothers. From now on, I hope you can work hard in your respective positions, and I hope to see you again. I will always cherish my days with you".

These words touched some of the soldiers: no nobleman would reveal his views on the equality of soldiers in this way.

The father got into the car again, and there was silence in the car, and the second lieutenant was already sitting upright, his face full of embarrassment; The father's luggage was carefully taken out and placed on the top layer of the partition; The two clerks were full of disdain for the second lieutenant.

"Let's go," the father commanded the groom. The groom whipped his whip, and the carriage creaked again.

Outside the car, more than a hundred soldiers cheered, and there was a slight commotion at the city gate. People inquired about what important people had left in the carriage and how they could get Garcia's personal guards to say goodbye.

The plains of Garmic have begun to return to their former tranquility, with the only occasional swarms of Salander refugees appearing. The Salanders here were ordered to leave Kamic on the day the city of Kamage was broken. They were only allowed to carry food, and they were not allowed to take anything else. My father watched from the carriage at the refugees, who were just ordinary farmers or peddlers who had come to Gamici to make a living, and now they had to leave Garmici, where they had lived for more than ten years, and had nothing left. What will these people do? Father didn't know.

At about seven o'clock in the evening, my father arrived at the harbor and saw the White Dove Valley, which he was familiar with.

Cesar greeted his father on the dock.

The father found Cesar wounded, with a white bandage on his head, but he was in good spirits. Cesara still haunts the victory of a few dozen days ago, and he can't wait to tell how the Duchy's navy pushed back the staggering number of Salander's navy. In fact, my father knew that the Salander navy was ordered to avoid all friction with the Rhodoks as much as possible, otherwise it would be impossible for the Salanders to fight with the will to fight and be defeated in one battle. Salander's army was too busy with a civil war to think about a naval battle with the Rhodocs.

"I envy you", my father smiled at Cesar with excitement on his face, "I wish I could be with the soldiers during the battle".

"It's all right," said Cesar, "and the opportunity is coming soon."

"What's wrong?"

"Oh, the order I just received. The Duchy decided to help the Salanders restore stability to the country, and soon the Duchy soldiers would cross the Garmici Pass and enter Salander. The Navy was ordered to carry out the cover mission, and we can teach the Salanders a lesson again".

"Ahh

Isn't there a covenant with the Salanders? Such a blatant betrayal of the Covenant?

Standing on the dark harbor, my father watched the White Pigeon Valley not far away quietly moored in the purple-black sea with the help of a few burning torches.

Gentle undulations.