Chapter 53 Inspection

Probably due to low expectations, I feel that Varankoff is not as bad as I thought

It is very similar to Ivangelodes, there is also a large bell in the center of the town, and the council and the church are facing each other above the square, but the church here is wooden, not the expensive white stone of Ivangelode, which shows that the church is deliberately imitating Ivangorod, and its domes are also numerous, and the paint of the dome has peeled off, which looks a little dilapidated

The lord's residence was located behind a low wooden house not far from here, but it was actually only three two-story wooden houses, surrounded by a large number of shacks, which were used by the lord's subordinates, and the most valuable thing to see in Vrankov was probably the town square and its walls

It's more of a fortress than a town

But there are still some great municipal buildings, for example, it has an elevated aqueduct like Ivangorod, but this is a clumsy imitation of the Zenda people by the Wikibians: the Wikibians use pottery pipes, and half of the water is lost on the road, and walking under the canal is like raining all year round, and the ground here is also paved with planks like Ivangelode, but it seems that the planks here are not at all regular, It's just a matter of stacking the processed planks on the ground at random, and Ivangorod's planks are neatly stacked on the ground, so that no matter how heavy the vehicle is, it can easily move around, but in Varykov, even the wheelbarrow is often blocked by the potholes

There were a few lifeless poplars in the city, and they grew sickly on the edge of the house, and next to it was a blacksmith's workshop, and in the workshop were some sturdy men, all dressed in dirty leather aprons, and their skin seemed to be smeared with a layer of oil, and as we walked by, a man was sticking his red-hot hook sickle into the cold water, and the water vapor was coming out, and the poplars were fumigated, and I knew at once why these poor things were not strong

Some women spilled on the streets, pigs and dogs poured out of the alleys to fight for food, the debris and the naked children rolled in the mud on the streets, chasing us, piling piles of garbage on the street corners, no one cleaned up, all kinds of bugs huddled into piles, crashing into my leather coat, rattling, my iron feet' eyes widened, curious about everything here, I bet that in the heart of iron feet, Valankov must be an amazingly big stable, in addition to being a little bigger, this place is also full of shitniao, Pile of grass and trees

The smoky smell forced us to speed up our pace towards the residence

Some women sat in the doorway picking wild vegetables, these women had sallow faces, and they all looked puzzled when we arrived, their children were in the street, they undressed them, sucking shriveled nipples, some children were sitting on the door frame, eating wheat cakes or white turnips, dogs were rubbing at their feet, a man was spitting niao into the corner, and he turned his head to talk to a woman, who didn't seem to be strange at all, she looked as usual, only when we looked at her, she lowered her head, and it felt as if we were anomalous, And the man of the Sannuao was like a priest of duty

After a short encounter, my mind changed again: Valankov was indeed a rather miserable place, although it seemed quite vibrant

The only places of entertainment in the city are a training ground and a tavern

The training ground is the place where the city trains mercenaries, in the south of the city, there is a large shack and two oval-shaped arenas, the three largest Valan families share that field, and the three families each train their own mercenary warriors, they call their training camps called the fighting school, which is the name of the inheritance of the ancient Chanda athletic school

Every day, there will be fighting practices in the three houses, citizens can visit casually, if you like, you can also bet on selling or losing those who are training mercenaries and slaves, they are the same as the Mamluks, from the beginning of training and when the Salander fought the civil war, many Salander exiled soldiers fled to Vekia, and some Mamluk instructors also came here to conduct a certain family in the athletic school, and hired several Mamluk sword instructors and equestrian instructors, It is said that the mercenaries who have trained to the end need to fight on horseback without a saddle with two weapons in their hands, and take the opponent's belt when they win the standard of fighting

Many of the trained mercenaries are not Varan, but they are trained according to the methods of the Valans, and every year the athletic school will buy a large number of orphans, and then send them to the city for training, before the training of these orphans will be beaten, so that they can completely learn to obey, even so, every year there are still many children who escape, most of them are captured, these children will be cut off in public A hand or foot is then thrown into the street to die, and whoever dares to help those dying children is the enemy of the three families

The ancient Varan Guards were treated as a gimmick, and Varankov's martial arts school convinced their guests that the ancient guards who protected Emperor Chanda had been trained in this way

When the townspeople have finished watching the fights, they can go to the other side of town for a drink

In addition to the popular ale, the proprietor could often get some wine, shochu and mare's milk, and the tavern did not even have a sign, but a wooden hole was built next to the tavern, and a dung pit was built next to the tavern, where drinkers could go at any time, for fear that drunks would drown in the dung pit, and the dung pit there was the only one with a fence built by Valankov

There were two long tables and a large pile of wooden stakes in the tavern, and the tables were crooked, and the wine glasses could not be put on, so the Valans developed a good habit of holding the wine glasses in their hands to drink, and those wooden stakes were not for everyone to sit on, and generally those who bought fried beans or roast lamb could sit on them, and those who did not have stools either sat on the grass blankets on the ground, or leaned against the wall, anyway, just for drinking, and did not care so much, every night, it would be crowded with trained mercenaries and blacksmiths, who were the most tired and loved to drink

At the same time, this tavern also has three of the best rooms in town, which are elegantly decorated, carefully laid with fresh straw of this year, and smell the smell of the sun next to the three rooms, is a longhouse, in fact, it is just a corridor, a Nord man controls four women here, and if any woman has a business, that man will come over and use a few large clips to set up a few rags and temporarily separate them, It is said that a woman receives dozens of people a day, and these women are busy until late at night every night, Then the Nords would take them to the tavern and pay them for the last bit of wine

There were six women here before, when the Riverlands were in turmoil, the Varan sent troops to participate in the battle, two women were taken captive to be military prostitutes in the war, and they were killed by the Burkes, and some people say that it was because the soldiers were jealous of the two women, so it was nothing for the Nords to be slaughtered by the Vecchians' own generals, and there were fewer women, but the business still had to be done, but each woman was tired

Tom's expression changed when he heard the news, saying that he wanted to try Smar and immediately understood, and even said, "No problem"

When I arrived at the residence, I smelled a foul smell, it turned out to be next to the lord's house, there was an open-air manure tank, which was originally designed to be convenient for the lord, but this convenience was really unbearable: in the compartment on the second floor, a hole was made in the wall, which was supposed to be a toilet, and when you wanted to spread niao at night, you could go directly to the hole

When the earl saw this posture, his face suddenly turned pale

A few dirty men and women crowded at the door, saying that they were servants here, and they were here to greet the master, the Count nodded, took a few servants, and told Vladimir to settle them, not so much to settle them, but to settle us, and they introduced the 'lord's mansion', and' I don't know who came up with these names, but I feel that there is no need to settle in this kind of town, if I think about it, living in the woods, although the night is breezy and cool, but the air is refreshing, the ground is clean and resting on the dead leaves and hay, and there is a warm bonfire burning next to it, is there anything better than this environment?

I thought, if the count was remorseful, it was probably at this time that the whole house was full of foul smell, and I immediately decided to run away, and I searched for a long time before I found a shack in the farthest part of the manure pit, no, it was from the house that there was almost no smell of it, but the walls of the house were broken on three sides, but it was not difficult to repair it, and we brought a carpenter

I occupied there and left my luggage aside

As soon as I settled down, I saw Alexei and Vladimir coming over with pale faces, and they also looked around with sinister eyes, looking at the surrounding houses Alexei saw my house, and immediately ran over as if saved, and he suggested with fiery eyes that this place should sleep two people, and I nodded yes for a minute, and he also threw his luggage into the house

Vladimir later squeezed into a room with Tom, but Tom said he was going to wander around at night and wouldn't come back to sleep

When he was in Ivangorod, Tom entertained Smar, and now Smar turned around and was ready to repay Tom Smar was going to report to the Valan nobles in the town first, saying that the lord had arrived, and then he led Tom to the tavern Merry Tom went with Smar with a smile, leaving behind a family who covered their noses and cursed

It is estimated that Alexei must have hated Yuri who stayed in Ivangelod at this time, and I am also afraid in my heart, if Kaja and Messira come here, my God, I don't know if they will secretly burn this place

The Count held out in his mansion with astonishing perseverance for two hours, but gave up quickly, and the Count's servants set up a tent in the backyard, which was neither windproof nor rainy, but had the advantage of keeping it away from the manure pit, which was better than anything else in the present view

The Count called the Valans and told them to do their part to empty the damned dunghill within two days, and then fill it with clean earth, and the Valans were astonished, and they asked how easy it would be for the lord if there were no manure pits

The earl's face turned pale, "I'll find a way to let you do it now, you can do it, this is my first lord's order"

The Valans stuck out their tongues, and went stupidly, I guess they would think that the Earl was too eccentric, and they were completely asking for trouble, the actions of the Valans were very blocky, and that afternoon there was an ox cart, and the cart was loaded with four large barrels, and a Valans began to clean up the manure with a special large wooden scoop, it was a disaster, and the people of the entire mansion were all distracted, and they fled one after another, but they could still smell it from a long distance, and in desperation, we could only flee towards the edge of the city, and the Valans of the whole city were shocked, They saw the people of the Earl's house wandering through the streets as if they had seen ghosts

We followed the guidance of our noses, and then we did not know who appeared, but there was a wind on the top of the wall, and the smell was not bad, so the count led everyone up to the wooden wall

The soldiers of Valan on the city wall saw that the lord had just arrived in the town to visit him, and they were very moved by the earl to receive the officers and soldiers of the defenders cordially, and they were reluctant to leave for a long time, and that night, the earl stayed on the city wall and talked to the soldiers for a long time, and we all stayed around, while eating the dry food in our hands, while nervously looking at the direction of the lord's residence, everyone was faintly looking forward to something, what was afraid of something, fortunately it was autumn now, if summer came

The next day, Tom, who had returned from the tavern, had become a little weak and seemed to have been busy all night

He went back to the mansion with dark eyes, but now there was no one inside, only the two big Varan silly men who were still busy carrying earth and filling the manure pit, and when he heard that we were all hiding on the city wall, he covered his nose all the way to find him

Tom Brown told us that the Earl's family now had a very good reputation in the city, and that it was very touching that the leaders who came to the city were close to the military and civilians, and that as soon as they arrived, they went out of their way to inspect the defenders

Then he told the Count that the Valan nobles of the town were ready to visit the Count this afternoon, and that if the Count had seen enough, he could now go back and prepare

The Count asked him, "Is that damned pit filled?" ”

"Soon," said Tom, "I'll at least come back alive from there."