Chapter 52: March

After crossing a large birch forest, we entered the Ryazan beach

The land was damp and loose, black mud was everywhere, wild dogs wagged and frolicked in the mud, all of which dispersed as soon as they saw us coming, and there were few settlements to be seen along the way, and in front of some abandoned shacks, the occasional dull-eyed fisherman drying fish at the door, peddling birch bark and other oddities

We were going to go east along the Ryazan River and cross it at a workshop, but as the river meandered, the beach had become a swamp, making it difficult for us to walk, so we had to turn north to the heights, where we found our way and headed east, and we met a traveling merchant who realized that we were too far east, so we had to make corrections to the southwest as we went south, which delayed us a lot

Vladimir was a little angry, he complained about why the Valans did not know the way, but the Valans said that when they went to Ivangorod, the river had not yet flooded, and they had followed the beach all the way to Ivangorod

Soon after, the river beach turned from mud to gravel and became a little drier, we decided to stop and rest, although the autumn was cool, but the horse still made me sweat after a morning of riding, the sun rose extremely high, and the bright came to us, the wind dried the sweat, leaving a powdery salt stain on my face, I scooped water by the river and washed my face

Inside the water is a group of jellyfish that open and close, they look like blood drops when they close, but when they open, they become almost transparent between one and a slight, these things are pink, I look at these things very curious, and when I reach out to grab them, these things suddenly open their bodies, so I can't do anything, and when I see them again, they have floated away for several meters

"Interesting, huh?" Tom walked over, kicked his boots off, and put his foot in the water, "Peach Blossom Fish, these things are called Peach Blossom Fish," he pointed to the jellyfish in the water

"," I wiped my neck, my body was dirty, and a lot of mud pills came out, "This thing is obviously called jellyfish, I've seen people sell these things in Ivangorod"

"Hehe, I'll call it a peach blossom fish for any crepe jellyfish," Tom looked at the things moving around under the water, "I'd rather never know these things for the rest of my life, you know?" The moon tea that girls drink is made from these things, ground into powder, and drunk with herbs."

"What is Moon Tea?"

Tom rubbed his feet, "Drink it when the girl is pregnant, and then the baby is gone"

"Isn't this thing harmful?" I was a little scary, "Who's going to use this?" ”

"There are a lot of people who use this thing," Tom said with a disdainful look, "a cup of tea can save a lot of trouble, girls can go to bed for two more days at most, and drink some thick soup to get through it, I won't tell you, Victor, I have personally fed many girls this kind of thing, a cup of moon tea is a matter of a few copper coins, and then in the next ten months or so, girls can earn thousands of cups of moon tea to make a suitable deal, right?" ”

He looked at the peach blossom fish in the water like blood droplets, and said as if talking to himself

"I don't think it's appropriate, if your mother was pregnant with you, someone poured this moon tea, you wouldn't be able to be born" I took off my leather coat, moistened it with a linen waist rope, and then wiped my back with both hands

Tom didn't get angry after hearing this, and he didn't tease him for washing his feet and putting on his leather boots, "It's a pity that no one fed her a cup of moon tea, otherwise she wouldn't have died, and I wouldn't have been born" He stood up sullenly, "Victor, sometimes I wonder, which one is worse"

"Which two?" I asked, puzzled

"It's nothing," Tom walked away without saying a word, he was used to having a hippie smile, and I was a little unaccustomed to pretending to be deep like this

We bought a few bags of fish from the fisherman's house and spent a few Burke coins which were made ugly, with nothing on one side and a letter 'p' on the other, I don't know if this letter represented 'Burke Kingdom' or 'Pilsudski', but the two didn't make much difference

The fisherman's wife cooked the fish while we were resting, and a Valan man added a handful of salt to the pot, and after cooking we drained the water, and ate the fish separately, and each person could have a few, and it tasted very fresh, and had a faint salty taste, and it felt very good, and the fisherman began to add firewood to cook the fish soup we left behind, and he had to boil out the salt in the pot, and this precious thing could not be wasted

The fisherman pointed us to a shoal where we could cross the Ryazan River, and from there he caught his fish: he made a stake and formed a circle, and sprinkled some fragrant forage in it, and when the water rose, the fish were attracted into it, and when the water level fell, the fish were stopped by the stake

From the middle of the large wooden stakes left by the fishermen, we crossed the Ryazan River to the opposite side of the beach, and then we turned one last east to spend the night in a woodcutter's settlement, and the next morning we went out early the next morning and arrived at Valankov before noon

The stones on the river beach were shining, the sun was extremely strong, as if we were back in summer, and the whole person was drowsy from the sun, but fortunately, after a while, we walked into the birch forest again, and the land of Vikia was full of birch forests, which is rare elsewhere

Smar tells us that when the Berks attacked the Riverlands, a group of scouts invaded the Ryazan River valley along the East Lake, and the Burks burned down a centuries-old mill along the way, and that mill was the only brothel and inn near and far, and the Berks took the prettiest girls and hung them in trees, and it was inferred that the Burke soldiers were not from the Lech brothers, and that these two men would not hang others, but would only cut off people's heads; People say that those people are not hussars, but a group of guys in bearskin hats, their equipment is not very good, but they are brave in battle, people say that those people are heretics recruited by the Burks in the forest, and those heretics and the Vecchians of the Riverlands have been at peace for hundreds of years, but the Burks have made those barbarians join their side through heavy money and beautiful women, and those barbarians love gold and beautiful women, In the past, they had to be canonized by the King of Vikia before they could officially exercise their rights, but now, Archduke Pilsudski and King Burke have replaced the royal family of Vekia as the suzerains of the pagans

These pagans believe in natural religion, their elders will recite tens of thousands of lines of epics, use almost all herbs, and it is said that as long as they do not die, those elders can save people through their gods, they seem to have some kinship with the Nords, but they claim to be the sons of the forest since ancient times, and the Vicchians are contemptuously called barbarians by the westerners, so these people are the barbarians of the barbarians

From the words, Smar had a lot of respect for these infidels, he said that those people were real warriors, if it weren't for the repeated invasion of their forests by the king of Vicchia and the insults to their chiefs, these people would not have been involved in the war outside the mountains, in fact, those barbarians should have memories, many years ago it was the Berks who recruited the knights to massacre the barbarians, and now the knights still have some castles in the northern foothills, and those castles are now free towns under the protection of Burke, but in the past, The once-powerful Knights nearly destroyed the Burkes

The Western Church has always been quick to kill the heathen, and the Eastern Church is much more tolerant, but now, ironically, these heretics have been mixed with the Burkes, and Smar sighs when he talks about it, and I feel that he fantasizes that one day he will be able to convince the barbarians to fight side by side with us

"What about you?" I asked Smar, "Will the Varans stop being with the Wikibians one day and go elsewhere to help others attack the Wikibians?" ”

"I don't know," my question was a bit sharp, I thought Smar wouldn't like it, but he came back to me seriously, "the Valans are free, and we feel good to live with the Wikibians now, and we'll live with you; You fight, and we will join you; The lord you sent, we will also respect him, and the patriarch of our family will also receive a title from your king, but if you change in the future, then we will go elsewhere, and the free Varans will be gone."

"How do you say the same as the Kujits," I replied to him, "isn't it good to get tired of living in one place and run somewhere else to stay and run a place?" ”

Smar laughed, "We are indeed Kujits, Kujits, who drive cattle and sheep, we drive the crops, and after their cattle and sheep eat the grass bald, they will walk along the river and the grass will go to the place where the grass is green, and after our crops have absorbed the earth, we will also walk along the river to the land to the fertile place, if the gods, oh, no, God sends a messenger to restore the vitality of the earth, we will go back, there is nothing bad about this, we are the Kujits"

"How can you accumulate wealth without intensive cultivation?" I was a little curious, and I was a little disgusted by his complacency, "I heard that in Vicchia, people divide the land into two pieces, one grows grain for people to eat, and one grows alfalfa and radish to feed horses, and the grain consumes a lot of land, and alfalfa can grow the soil after harvesting, and the next year two plots of land are exchanged for crops year after year, and a little bit of land can supply a village, feeding a large group of Mavicchians who never migrate, they use the extra crops to build towns, build castles, and countless people can feed themselves without farming, They produce goods in the city in exchange for gold coins, hundreds of years ago, the Vykyans and the Valans were on the same starting line, the Valans were still close associates of Emperor Chanda, but now, the Vycians have established their own kingdom, what about the Valans? ”

I felt like I was a little too much when I said it myself, but I was annoyed by the thought of Smar's attitude at the banquet a few days ago

Smar listened to me a lot, "Oh, oh, I see what you mean" He glanced at me, "but I don't think it's good to farm all my life, Wikibians are brave warriors, in the past, even your women could draw bows and fight, but now they are beaten all over the ground by sissy Burkes, it's because you live too comfortably, the Wikicorns of the Iron Shield River look like Wikibians, but you say that they are bandits and hooligans, the world is really upside down"

"The world will turn upside down," I said with a snort, clearly not believing what I said

I myself feel a lack of confidence, although I hear a lot of people always sigh like this, but I really don't know how the world will change at all, I'm like most people, only after the world has completely changed can it be considered an afterthought, which is really a pity, I heard that the reason why those ancient emperors succeeded was because they could predict the times, and then prepare in advance

We arrived at the camp before dark, and there were not enough houses, and most of the people had to gather around the fire, and the woodcutters sold us sour wheat cakes and dregs of wine at high prices, and were beaten by the Valans, and the axes were snatched away, and the woodcutters ran away and cursed in the woods, and the Wallans threatened that if they scolded again, they would burn the house, so the woodcutters shut up, and sat in the woods and wept aggrievedly, and howled for half the night, and the Varans were tired of hearing this, so they took the woodcutter's axe, The sickles were thrown on the roof, and their ladders were chopped into firewood and burned, and the next day when we were gone, the woodcutters who had not slept all night peeked out of the woods, ready for the day to begin

The weather was noticeably colder, and we picked up the pace of the trip

The slender banner was tugging in the wind, the mantle of the knight in front of me was blown up to almost my nose, and the horse's hooves were like crisp thunder

Towards noon, we rushed out of the birch forest, and the whole land spread out infinitely before my eyes, the Ryazan River meandered like a silver ribbon over the picturesque fields, the shrubs and meadows were like a tapestry, and several tall sentinel trees grew in the middle of the way, and the wooden fence wall of Valankov stood on the golden field, full of majestic momentum

As we rushed out of the woods, we heard the trumpets blowing from the towers of Valankov, the low whining echoing melancholy in the four fields, some neatly draped soldiers shouting from above the towers, and the wooden drawbridge slowly lowered

We rushed over, and I felt my heart beat violently, as if we were charging in battle, and as we approached the tower, I was now fenced higher than I looked at in the distance, and as soon as the bridge was lowered at our feet, we rushed into Varynkov

My peripheral vision caught a glimpse of a myriad of unfamiliar faces looking up around us