Chapter 49: Valankov

Some say that the ancestors of the Nords once went south on a large scale

Some of the Nords settled on the North Sea line, forming a settled civilization with the help of the Chanda and later the Swadians, while others went deep into the southern Wekia steppes, where they merged into the Wecchian community and disappeared into the land, and although they had become a member of the Wecchians, these people still bore a strong Nord imprint: they were good at foot warfare; He likes to wear leather clothes and iron helmets; make a round shield out of pine wood; He is good at fighting with javelins and axes, and is also good at using longbows; They also love spirits, women, hunting, and everything else that a man likes

Due to their high organization and military might, these people gradually became the leaders of the Wikibians, and became the military aristocracy of the Wikibians, and the most glorious era of these people was when they attacked the main city of the Zendars in the south, Djerkhala

Along the way, these men pushed straight forward, and only when they were blocked under the walls of Djerkhala, did they stop the pace of attack, and at that time, these soldiers looked at the tall walls of the Chanda people as if they were looking at the miracles, and their leaders thought that they would never be able to defeat these huge stones, so they signed a contract with the Chanda Emperor under the city

What made Emperor Chanda curious was that these soldiers were not a complete collective, they were a loose tribal alliance, some tribes only went south together out of coercion or pursuit of profits, after the contract was signed, the various tribes loaded with booty, began to slowly return to their hometowns north, while some tribes chose to stay, they even took the initiative to contact Emperor Chanda, willing to serve the emperor as mercenaries

From then on, these soldiers began to appear in the army of Emperor Chanda, and people called them the Valans

Since then, the Valans' offensive can no longer threaten the Emperor's rule, the Emperor's soldiers may not be as good as these people, but the Emperor's strategy has been thousands of years ahead of these tribes, and through provocation and bribery, the Emperor has these Valan tribes fighting each other for the next few decades, and exhausted, and finally the Emperor's soldiers have cleared these out of the empire's borders in one fell swoop

The Emperor even captured the King of the Valans, who saved his life by swearing allegiance to the Emperor, and at the same time, the King of Valan made a promise that whenever the Emperor's soldiers were in battle, the Valans would be present with the Emperor's soldiers

The emperor released the king, but soon after, the emperor, fearing that the king would repeat himself, gave him death, and divided his people into three parts, and let his son and brother succeed the king and died, but his promise was fixed in the tradition that every year the emperor of Chanda would receive a large number of cheap mercenaries, whom the people called the Valan Guard

The Valan Guard is one of the most powerful footnotes of the Chanda army, when the regime is stacked and the army has failed several times, the Chanda Emperor is now standing faithfully by his side, there are always batches of Valan people in the later period of the Chanda Empire, the emperors even refused to sleep in tents without the protection of the Valan Guard, people know that when the last emperor of Chanda, who was slandered as a half-ox and half-man, ascended the throne, he was in the dilapidated capital, escorted by a group of Valan soldiers to sit on the throne, but no one knew, when the emperor died in battle, Is there still a Valan by his side?

After the death of Emperor Chanda, Emperor Swadia wanted to continue to employ the Valans, but by that time purebred Valands were hard to find, and the descendants of the Valands claimed that Emperor Chanda was dead and their oath had been fulfilled, and this mysterious guard gradually came out of the stage of history

The Valans were once the masters of the entire Vykia steppe, and the leader of the Valan Guard once boasted to a Chanda Emperor, "We have 10,000 villages ready to serve you"

But now, pure Varans are hard to find

Varankov is one of the few places where the Valans live, and that, like Barrier of Saland, is mainly a mercenary force, but the number of Valans is so small that many children are booked by wealthy nobles before they reach adulthood, and as soon as they reach adulthood, they are sent to serve in the noble guard, and the Valans keep countless fortunes for various masters, but the Valans themselves are pitifully poor

In contrast to the Nords, they do not know how to fish; In contrast to the Wikibians, they do not plow; In contrast to the Zen people, they don't do business

Despite their unrivalled blacksmithing skills, and though their women were able to weave extremely strong and elaborate chain mail, the Valans always gave the impression of a downcast, and the most common sight in the village of the Valans was topless men drunk to death in haystacks, and ragged women nursed their babies while collecting acorns, mushrooms, and tubers in the woods

Although the Vygianons are afraid of fighting with the Valans, they always despise them in private, calling them wine sacs, and if you know how impressive the Wikians themselves are drinking, you can understand that the title of Valans is absolutely devoid of water

Moreover, the Valans have developed an unruly xìng character since ancient times, they obey the strong, so they can obediently serve the ruler of the mainland, Emperor Chanda, and the Svadia Emperor is only a 'timber merchant' in the mouth of the Valans, this attitude makes the Valans suffer a lot, and the Valans who are in distress have to passively integrate into various ethnic groups: Swadiaans, Nords, Vecchians, and even Salanders

But where the Valans arose, the Valans still clinged to their traditions, despising the strangers with poverty and pride

The nightmare of Lord Valankov

There was a priest who was attracted by the town's scenery when passing by Varankov, and after he got lost more than ten times, he decided that only God could recognize the right way in Valankov, and the priest said that Valankov was a large pile of wood, and the Valans lived in the cracks of the wood, and covered the ventilated places with mud and cow dung, and spread straw on the seepaged ground, and because of the excessive number of mosquitoes, the Valans often burned straw bundles in the summer to smoke away mosquitoes, so that people were often killed by mistake

In ancient times, the ancestors of the Vicchian people used to invite the ancestors of the Nords: "Our land is fertile and rich, our women are delicate and healthy, but our life is bad, come and rule us"

Now, the Varankovs are arrogantly asking the same thing to the Wikibians, "Give us a lord, the one from last time was a fool"

Valankov has a glorious tradition of expelling seventeen lords in the last hundred years, and they still call their city lords princes as they did during the Chanda Empire, which was allowed by the Chanda Emperor when he rewarded the Valans, but now it has long lost its meaning, and both King Vikia and King Burke hate this title, because even in these two countries, the princes are only a privilege enjoyed by a few noble families, but the Valans still go their own way, they are naturally close to the Vikyans, Despise the Berkes, and it may be that the elegance of the Berkes makes these Valan sacs dissatisfied

At the time of the river, the eastern council of Vekia tacitly passed a proposal to stop the increase of troops, and it was against the mobilization for the war, but Valankov actively participated in the battle, and when the news of the Berks attacked, Valankov boiled, and the men found all kinds of armor from under the bed, on the beams, and in the barn, and put all kinds of armor on their bodies, and put spearheads on spears, and added chains and counterweights to the handles of axes, and iron edges on shields, and oiled horsewhips and leather coats. Then he ran to the lord in a noisy and asked for battle

The lord's family was preparing to go to Ivangelod to escape the war, but unfortunately they were stopped by angry subordinates and the Valan leader took the lord's family hostage to the battlefield, and successfully left the lord's family in the war-torn riverland forever

The Valankov became a regiment, the merchants who supplied the wheat could not communicate with the soldiers, and the workshop owners who ordered the chain mail were now all paid by the Valans to drink, the Valankov lords used to maintain several pools for fire prevention, and the lords also hired a Berks to manage the pools, but after the war began, the Valans drove the Berk, leaving only his wife, as for his wife, uh, let's not talk about his wife, now the pools are dry, there are fires everywhere in Valankov, and the smoke is billowing out, Throughout the summer, the people of Varankoff did not worry about mosquitoes

There are large areas of land and settlements around Valankov, there is a wharf along the river, there is a mill next to the wharf plus the town of Valankov, there are more than 3,000 inhabitants in the Vrankov area, and the number of women is slightly more than that of men If you add the surrounding free settlers and hunters, the number will be around 4,000 Although the number of people is large, but the tax revenue contributed by Valankov every year is not as good as that of other towns with thousands of people

The farmers of the Valans always sowed the seeds in a terrible way, and after a year or two of the land had declined, they would have set up their huts elsewhere, and the land that had been reclaimed for cultivation could have supported a large population, but the Valans were hungry all year round, and the women would complain that the men had added to the burden on the family when they became pregnant

But almost all of the men of Valankov were warriors, and when the Riverlands were in turmoil, this area actually supplied six hundred soldiers for the war zone, and almost every family had men on the battlefield Although the equipment was bad, and the logistics basically relied on robbery, but these people made the nobles of the Riverlands greatly moved, although they failed in the end, but countless exiled nobles proved the bravery and reliability of the Valans in various places

The nobles loved the Valans for their courage in war, but none of them were willing to go to the Valans to rule them, and who knows if the barbarians would one day push themselves into battle?

But the Valans still made their call: "Although our land is not féiwo, our women are indeed healthy, and life has been bad, send some people"

Now the Parliament of Vikja is very troubled by Valankov, and there was a proposal to disperse Valankov and emigrate elsewhere, but this proposal was regarded as a great shame by the Valans, who beat the messenger who read the resolution, tied him to a donkey, and sent him back to Ivangorod, and some suggested that they should emigrate to Valankov and let their good neighbors influence them, but the Valankovs drove out most of the 'sissies' they disliked, and the people who remained were similar to the Valans, not to mention changing customs

In the end, the parliament proposed to allow the Valans to govern themselves, and the Valans did govern for five or six years, but during that time, a large number of Valans joined in the raiding activities, and the whole land was full of Valans robbers, and the Berks even suspected that this was a deliberate rebellion and sabotage by the Vikyans, so they protested against Vikia Finally, the Ivangelodes Council had to obey the orders of the Great Council and pitifully took back the autonomy of the Valans

In the past, the Valans had only expelled the lords repeatedly, but now, the Valans have begun to threaten the lives of the lord's family, which makes all the lords have to think more about it before going to Valankov, even if it is a landless and down-and-out lord, when they hear Valankov, they shake their heads again and again

This is the land that the council gave to the count with a smile

The Earl knew about the Valan Guard, but knew very little about the descendants of this guard

After the council had made a proposal, the count asked him to think about it for a few more days, and the Duma council agreed, and adjourned the meeting, allowing the count to inform them if needed before the council could be convened

He found the people of the White Dove Exchange, consulted with them, and also visited a lord who had ruled Valankov for a short time, while Vladimir was sent to Valakov to investigate the land, and Tom was sent to all corners of the town to collect reviews of Valakov, and the more information we knew, the more we learned about Valakov, and finally this information was collected into one word: the fire pit

Admittedly, on the map, this land is mouth-watering: its proximity to East Lake and the proximity of a river make it very easy to transport; The land on which it sits belongs to the edge of the most féiwo inter-river land; And its population is almost a medium-sized town, and if it is used properly, it will be a great fortune, and the most important point is that Valankov is beyond the Great Eastern Lake, which is the land between the rivers, and near that is the land of the Lepnin family, which is an excellent springboard if the Romanovs are interested in taking possession of that land one day

At the same time, it has only one drawback: that is, all the previous rulers of Valankov have failed, and other than that, Valankov is quite good

I walked around the streets of Ivangelrod and bought some boiled chestnuts and a jar of candied fruit for Messira, which cost me all my money, and I met Kaja when I went to deliver these things to Messira, and Kaja saw what I had in my hand and a look of displeasure flashed in her eyes, but I walked straight past her and went to meet Messira

But the Messiah still didn't want to see me, and Yuri's words echoed in my heart intermittently, so I had to leave these things at the door of the Messiah, and walked out in disappointment

Kaja glanced at me, intentionally or not, and when she saw me come out empty-handed, she rode away angrily

While I was wandering aimlessly, the Count was discussing the future of the family with the rest of his family, and it is said that the widow of the former lord had a conversation with the Count of Kalinin, which finally made the Count of Kalinin make up his mind

The Romanov family can choose another place, slowly recuperate, lay a solid foundation for the next few generations, and wait for the next chance to rise, of course, it can also try its luck, whether it can digest the hard bone of the Valans, but the price is that once it fails, the Romanov family will fall into an extremely miserable situation

There is only one chance to choose, and the Romanovs are always making this fateful choice, so what do we have to lose?

A few days later, the Duma meeting was held as scheduled

Count Kalinin walked to the round table, took the bishop's hand and kissed it, asked for a blessing, and then he turned around: "I'll go to Valankov"