Chapter XXXV: The Messenger

Many orchard villagers ran out one after another

One of the knights beside Alexei, who had a pitchfork or a sickle or a hammer, looked at the peasants with contempt, and crossed over with his horse, brandishing the short sword in his hand, and circled around his head The peasants retreated in a hurry, and several of them fell, but when the knight came back in a circle, the peasants rushed again, and it seemed that they were very concerned about the safety of their master

"Calm down Wikibians," the Burke leader shouted, and he continued to yell something I didn't understand, and the farmers looked at each other and slowly dispersed "Wikibians, my people are out of the way"

"But my people are still tied to the tree," Alexei pushed back the words, "I need an explanation: how dare foreigners tie our people to trees in the land of the Vychians, under the protection of the king"

Alexei spoke a little quickly, the leader didn't seem to react, he turned his head, and a person muttered something in his ear, and he immediately understood that the leader had already revealed that he could speak Wiki when talking to me just now, maybe he was just not very proficient

The leader of "Vikia" frowned, although facing a group of knights, but this person did not seem to be in a hurry at all, "Listen, I am your king's honored guest, I am the guest of honor of the king of Vikia, and this is the manor of the Berkes, the land bought from the king of Vicchia, we are not barbarians, these two boys came to steal, we tied them to the tree, that's it"

"Does their stealing have anything to do with our conversation?" Alexey stared at the collar, "I don't think you understood my words, I didn't accuse you of why you punished the two thieves, I'm angry, how dare you tie up the Vikyans on the land of Vikchia Even if your Grand Duke comes, he doesn't have the right to Kinov, loosen the people for me"

"Young man," the collar said, with an angry expression, "do you know what you're doing?" You are blatantly trampling on the authority of the emissary, you are insulting the kingdoms of Berke and Vekia"

"I know," Alexei said without hesitation, and Kinov and a soldier untied Jack and Hyde and brought them to the horse, and Alexei pointed at the men with a whip, "take them all"

The leader was shocked, "How dare you do this? We are the king's messengers, and I come from the Pilsudski family in the Kingdom of Burke"

"There are many liars in the world, but there are very few members of the Pilsudski family" Alexei openly declared, "take them down"

Last time, the knight who threw me into the water rushed over, grabbed the reins of the horse in front of the leader, and made the horse stand up, and the leader stepped back sharply, spreading his legs and making a defensive gesture, a Vecchian knight suddenly jumped out from behind the fence next to him, he held a meteor hammer in his hand, he waved the handle, the hammer hit the back of the nobleman's head, he stiffened, and then fell straight to the ground, fainted

Several Burke soldiers rushed up one after another, but they were as weak as a flock of goats under the charge of the fierce Vecchian knights, and before long, these people were stripped of their armor and tied back to back, and they kept cursing us for words we didn't understand, and Jack rushed over and stuffed soil into their mouths, took off their shoes and punched them in the face

The farmers dispersed, but the Vicchians, who had heard the news, crossed the woods and immediately cut off the entrances and exits around the orchard

The riders scattered into the surrounding land, ropes on their backs, searching for the escaped farmers

Ninety hastily armed Vecchian farmers and thirty infantry and horsemen were involved in the operation, and we spent an hour thoroughly searching the orchard in a central wooden hut, and we also found more than a dozen Burks resting, and when the soldiers rushed in, these people were taken aback, they did not expect to be attacked, and a fat Burke man was ghosting with two women, all three of whom were tied up naked

I was amazed, I didn't expect Alexei to send so many people to help me get Jack and Herman back

Actually, I should have thought that such an order was definitely not given by Alexei, the count commanded all this

Of course, there is also an element of misunderstanding here, at first Yuri knew about this, thinking that it was just a conflict with a small lord, so he asked Alexei to take a few knights and a dozen riders to visit, but soon after the news came back that the person he met was a Burke, and it was possible that someone from the mission was told to the earl

When the Earl heard of the Burkes, he immediately ordered that these people should be kept no matter what, by all means

I don't know if the people around me misunderstood the Earl's meaning or if the Count did it on purpose, the soldiers immediately organized the sturdy men, armed them, and hurried across the woods to the orchard Vicchia The team panicked, everyone formed a big circle, piled the carts and boxes on the outermost When we all came back, there was still a mess inside to fortify the camp, the women were frightened, trembling and crowded in the middle, everyone thought that the bandits had come to rob, and later, When the men brought back the wounded captives with ropes, the people breathed a sigh of relief

There were not many prisoners: seventeen members of the mission, twenty-one orchard farmers, and after a brief interrogation, they said that two or three of the farmers were missing, and by examining the documents of the members of the mission, one of the count's clerks had escaped

The Count sent six horsemen back to hunt down the officer, suggesting that the cavalry could be disposed of at will

And in the woods, the captives were separated, and six servants and orchard farmers were taken to one side and kept to the side alone, and among the remaining eleven members were a regimental commander and his lieutenants, a clerk, three knights, and five servants

The men sat on the ground with their heads downcast, surrounded by some cold Vykia soldiers, wearing plush fur hats, their hands pressed against their long knives, and their eyes looked at them with heavy eyes

The Count had not gone to see the members until he was sure that the news would not leak out, and if the Count had known that I had reported the name of the family, he would have killed me, and the Count sat quietly beside his carriage, and they prepared a horse for him, on which he sat and listened to the reports

In the small conflict, the Wikibians won a complete victory, because the Burks did not expect the attack at all, so the siege came very smoothly, and the peasant soldiers trained by the earl's generals also showed great power this time, they skillfully cut off the passage, searched the corners of the building with each other, and tied up the prisoners with ropes in an orderly manner, without any ambiguity

Before the sun set, the six knights sent out returned

The Count stood up, "Did anyone find it?" ”

A knight's shirt was stained with blood, "That soul egg actually rebelled against him"

"Did anyone find it?" The Count asked again

The knights looked at each other and threw over a round cloth bag, a ball wrapped in the cloak of the Pilsudski family, and the cloth bag was oozing blood

"My lord," the knight pulled open his leather armor, revealing a gap in his waist, "I can't bring this old man back, he's beaten so hard he's a brave Burke, I'll have to take his head back"

"Very good" the Earl nodded, his brow furrowed slightly, and it seemed that he was not very satisfied, "Has it been dealt with?" ”

"Everything is taken away, the body is thrown in the field, you know, there is a wolf here, in a few days, he is a pile of bones"

"Okay," the Count motioned to one of the servants to drape his robes over himself, "it looks like the clerk is missing, huh?" ”

The knights didn't speak, and the wounded knight's urn sank and said angrily, "I guess I can't find it."

The Count paid no attention to them and walked straight towards the woods

One of the knights gave the servants a pair of blood-stained armor and a sword, and asked them to wash the blood from them, and the knight brought back an extra horse, and let the little brother of the stable, and Hyde and Herman were frightened, and the two of them cowered on the side of the cart, and they were so frightened that they broke out in a cold sweat, and Jack got a firewood knife, and shouted that he was going to kill people, and he was very angry, and felt that he had been greatly insulted this afternoon

The stableman couldn't count on it, and the knight made it happen

"Wash the horse, have a knife on the horse's back, unsaddle the horse, and get a veterinarian to take a look"

I looked at this knight who had just killed someone, and felt that he was so strange, and these knights used to be drunk, and although they looked arrogant, they were also quite friendly, but just today, I knew that they had killed a mission clerk, as if they had gone out to hunt a hare, and I looked at him, and his face was full of bewilderment, was it just because our people stole someone else's fruit?

"Victor?" The knight looked at me and now I was looking at his blood-stained sleeves, "Haha, Victor is very beautiful, isn't he?" Burke, you'll see you more later," he added his lips, "Damn, that guy is very good at fighting, and the long sword makes a good one, but it's a pity that it's an old stubborn Victor, I gave him one last blow, and now my hands are shaking, and if I don't lie to you, I'll have to find a woman," he muttered, "I heard that two prostitutes were caught?" Good luck," he struck

I rode on iron feet, leading the Berk horse, toward a stream

Are we robbers?

The Messiah saw me from afar, she waved to me, she seemed to cry, I gave the horse to the Kujits by the hay cart, and asked him to help me look at it, and ran to find Messira

"What's wrong?" Misella asked in a trembling voice, "Where are Daddy and Grandpa?" They won't let me leave the carriage, I can't find you? You're all right."

"It's okay, we're in a bit of trouble," I said in a hesitant voice

"I know," Messila put her hands in her mouth, "they said that we met bandits, and I was so worried that more than a hundred of you had left at once, and went into the woods, and there was no one for more than an hour, and I was frightened, and my sisters were frightened, and the carriage did not dare to come out, and you were bleeding."

She pointed to my kù legs, I looked down, the long kù of white sè coarse cloth was really wet with blood, I looked back at the Burke warhorse, its two eyes stared at me, I felt that the look was very sad: "What about my master?" ”

"It's all right, fool," I touched my legs, "it's the horse," I pointed to the Burke horse behind me, "the horse of the Bo bandits"

"Have the bandits been arrested?"

"Yes," I tried to make myself look lighter, "grabbed it"

Messira looked around weakly, "I'm so afraid something will happen to you, Victor, don't get hurt."

"It's not going to hurt," I was a little moved, and my heart warmed, "You're okay, Kaja?" She's not worried? ”

Messella's face sank, "She? Misella pouted, "She won't worry about you, she's so good."

"Mi?"

"Victor, you idiot" she pushed me away, her eyes red and she walked away

I stood there for a long time, shook my head, turned and went to the Kugit to fetch my horse, and walked towards the edge of the camp

At the edge of the brook, I washed the horse with the water of the stream, and the horse was very well-behaved, and when Iron Feet went to smell it, it hurriedly avoided it, but when I washed its wounds, it just stared at me as if it did not understand what was happening

At this time, there was a child's cry behind me, I looked back and saw Tom holding Amy's hand and coming over Amy was crying with tears on her face, snot and tears flowing, Tom squatted on the ground, picked up water in his hand and washed Amy's face

Amy's 'Tom' was lost in the run-and-run just now, and when she found it, 'Tom' had been torn apart, and Amy was very sad

"Victor," Tom said, taking Amy in his arms and walking up to me, "I heard it's a Burke?" ”

Amy turned to me in Tom's arms and said, "They're all badasses, they killed Tom"

Tom patted her on the head, "Not yet, Tom is fine."

"Yes," I scooped up my kùzi, "who did you listen to?" Few people know that those people are members of the Mission? ”

"The knights around Alexei understood it, they told Yuri that I was in Yuri-sama's carriage, of course I knew"

"Well," I felt that the stream was a little cold, and I was going to go back and change the kùzi, and I would come back to wash it later, "I don't understand, just because of some fruits, I will arrest these people and let them go, but they are Burkes, I didn't expect to go to the other side of the mountain yet, so we started fighting"

"Heh," Tom smiled meaningfully, "do you think these Burkes will be let go?" I bet they won't survive tomorrow."

"What?" I was taken aback, "You are, why did the Count kill them?" ”

"Lord Leo will take their lives, it's the Pilsudski family, I guess Old Man Leo and your little Kaja will ask for their meat"

"But they are the king's messengers, kill them"

"Victor," Tom's smile became clearer, his eyes shining brightly and with a sparkle of wisdom, "and it is because they are the King's messengers that they must die."

I shook my head blankly

Tom told me about the events of the past few days, and that the Count had come into contact with some of the inhabitants of the frontier as he approached the snowy mountains

The Earl learned of a situation, the Kingdom of Berke was very dissatisfied with the Kingdom of Vekia's 'Eastward Order', but due to the tense war, they had to send envoys to Vekia, hoping to ease relations between the two countries, the current attitude of the King of Vekia is not clear, he has not allowed the army to cross the mountains, and the Berks understand this to mean that the King of Vekia does not have the belief that he must attack the East

Although the Berks now have the upper hand on the eastern side of the mountains, if the Wikibians continue to cross the mountains, the Berks will also be exhausted, and the Berks believe that as long as they promise to share the fruits of the East with the King of Vekia, the King of Vekia can benefit through diplomacy, so why should he go to such a thankless position to support the Eastern Regions

The Count knew that just around the mountain pass, there was a Burke mission that had arrived for about a week, and if this mission later arrived at Kudan to meet the King of Vicchia, then once the two countries reached an understanding, the 'Eastward Advance Order' would be canceled, and the Romanovs might fall into a situation without backup, and the situation in the entire Eastern Regions would also become unfavorable to the Romanovs

Therefore, this mission must not reach Kudan and the peace talks must be destroyed

When Herman fled back in a panic, shouting at foreign soldiers, the count reacted, and one of Alexei's knights immediately rushed back as soon as he confirmed that the other party was a Burke, and the count did not hesitate to give the order to round up

"Is the Count crazy?" I looked at Tom and said, "You don't have to execute the members of the mission to disrupt the peace talks?" ”

"It's no use to sabotage peace talks, but if you want to create hatred, you have to have blood, now as long as the Count executes the members of the mission, then the Berks will settle the account on the heads of the Vykians, and the Vykia King will lose the possibility of swaying from side to side, because even if the Vykia King wants to make concessions one day, the Pilsudski family around the Burke King will strongly oppose it, and only if the war continues, the Romanovs will have a chance"

"What if King Vekia puts the blame on the Romanovs?"

"I hit you with my fist, and then I said that my fist hit you, not me, will you believe it?" Tom went on to say, "To King Vecchia, the Romanovs only need to guarantee that he will continue to allow immigrants to go east; For the Vycchians on the east side of the mountain, the Romanovs handed in a covenant written in blood; For the Burks, the Romanovs could pretend not to know anything"

"In this case, some of the tribes who were afraid of the Berks might not dare to support the Romanovs, who lost them"

"When did the Romanovs get them? People can't afford to lose what they don't have" Tom shook his head, "Victor, you are right, but the Count is not a forward-looking saint, he is a cold warrior and a determined lord"

After saying that, he left, and Amy snorted and didn't speak

I've never felt so cold in autumn