Yuri was riding on top of a black warhorse

Originally, he had a white horse, but the horse had broken down in Valankov and was unusable, and it took more than a month to recuperate before returning to the battlefield Yuri knew that on the battlefield, a black horse was better than a white one, and although the white mount could boost morale, it was also easy to make himself a target, and the archers always gave priority to shooting those who were conspicuous

Yesterday evening, the scout reported that Yuri said that there might be an ambush ahead, and the panicked young man reported that there were countless soldiers and horses, and Yuri did not believe that the main enemy force would be encountered in this place, so he thought that the young man was overly frightened

Yuri led two companies, a total of 190 men, tasked with clearing the forest from the northern path to prevent anyone from threatening the flanks of Valan's main force, most of whom were freedmen recruited by the Lucasino family and some hired crossbowmen

Yuri sent his cavalry to disperse and search the forest inside, and he himself led his soldiers to advance slowly, and as soon as there was any movement, those people would stop and watch Yuri know that except for the Valan soldiers, the rest of the freedmen would probably choose to flee if the situation was not right

The forest soon came to an end, and it was here that the scouts appeared in front of Yuri, a ring-shaped camp built on top of the hill, dotted with thatched huts in the distance, and there were two villages nearby, which were fortifications built by the villagers themselves, and there were not many soldiers here at all, and many farmers with their families, driving cattle and sheep, hurried towards the camp

It looked like the people of the village had seen the whereabouts of Yuri's troops more than an hour in advance, and the peasants were afraid of the soldiers, and they didn't care much about who the soldiers were fighting for, the farmers had hired people to build the camp in front of them after the last raid, they had brought hundreds of tons of stone from the nearby quarry, and built a barrier around the round hill, which made the little hill look like a monk's head, and Yuri might have remembered Tom's head, and in order to make himself look like a monk, Tom had shaved the top of his head, Only a lap of head down was left

An elderly farmer sits on a stone and waits for Yuri

The farmer told Yuri to go straight through the village and not to harass the villagers, who had prepared a lot of food and put it in a warehouse at the end of the village

Yuri ordered a company to keep an eye on the people in the camp, and the rest of the company went to inspect the grain, and the village had prepared a hundred bags of wheat and twelve barrels of bacon for Yuri, and a column of goats and pigs, Yuri was satisfied with these things, but he had no intention of leaving, and he demanded that either the village send someone to help him deliver the food, or double the offering

The old farmer quarreled with Yuri, and Yuri's mercenaries began to set fire to the village, and the old farmer compromised, and he persuaded the people in the camp to send out three pairs of bulls and two barrels of high-quality cured meat, Yuri left a note for the people of the village, "The owner of Xiaodonghu City borrowed some grain from the village, and when the war is calmed down in the future, the people of the village can go to Xiaodonghu City to ask for compensation."

Yuri also took twenty-two young men, and Yuri told the villagers that one young man could be exchanged for ten generations of wheat or a bucket of meat, which caused a wave of anger among the villagers, and some villagers were dejected and demanded that the young men be redeemed now

Yuri said, "No, you will come and redeem them in a month, and maybe, it won't take a month for these people to come back on their own."

The twenty-two young men were armed and added to the two companies

First, these people were forcibly requisitioned by Yuri, so that Yuri's enemies might refuse the help of the two villages out of suspicion, although this is not very likely; Secondly, the families of these twenty or so young people will definitely try their best to redeem them, so that when the time comes, they can count on these people to transport food to the front; In the end, although these more than 20 people have no combat effectiveness, they can still strengthen their morale after arming them

Yuri finally left the village, but after a half-day delay, he was already behind

When Yuri left the village, the farmer gave him a meaningful look, Yuri noticed this look, the war horse under his crotch suddenly alarmed at this time, lowered his head and ploughed the earth, this action attracted Yuri's attention, he forgot about the old farmer, and continued to walk forward

The woods were sparse, and in front of it was a meadow with soft soil, and there were no plants in it now, and it looked green from a distance, but when they got closer, it was difficult to see any weeds, horses, and cattle all looking down at the ground, and turning their hooves over anything that could be eaten

Yuri squinted at a dry bush in front of him, and he felt that something was wrong

At this time, dozens of arrows flew into the sky

In the bushes, a large number of soldiers stood up, quickly lined up, and the crossbowmen in front of them were loading their crossbows

At the same time, a clear horn sounded from behind, and the farmers who were hiding in the camp began to rush out

The twenty-odd captives knew that this was the last moment of their escape, so they escaped from the ranks and Yuri drew his sword from his waist, and gradually urged Magadha to call for the soldiers to gather their formation, and ran towards a young man who had fled with his head in his hands

Yuri jerked the weapon down, and the sword pierced the young man's back, but it didn't penetrate him, and the young man fell to the ground with a scream, pulling Yuri's sword away, and Yuri's sword came out of his hand

When Yuri turned back, a Valanist was slashing at the young man's neck with a large axe, and there were murderous enemies in front and behind

"Queue up," Yuri shouted, and the Valan soldiers drew their axes from behind their backs and began to gather in a dense formation

The shield-bearers were on the outermost, while the spearmen and axemen lined up behind them

The other side of the forest

A woman with a white cloth on her head came to Tom and said that her stomach hurt and the woman had a pitiful expression, "Father, I've been in pain all morning"

Tom suggested that he go to the pharmacist, the guy was from the earl's family, called Goth or something, he was originally a musician in the earl's family, but because he could make herbs and make potions, he was brought to the army

The woman wrinkled her nose, "I'm not going, people say he's a heretic"

Tom smiled and said, "Hehe, I promise he didn't walk around with a cross every day and shake hands with him, if he were a heretic, he would have been burned to ashes."

"But," said the woman, "the people say that his ointment is a routine with the Salanders, and that it is possible that the Salanders have learned the same craft from the Salanders as we are?" How can their doctors believe it?"

"The doctor of the Salander may be fine," said Tom, pursing his lips, "you can trust her"

The woman finally had nothing to say, so she jumped into the ox cart and sat down beside Tom, with a coquettish expression, "But only you can cure my illness."

If it were an ordinary priest, he would either be furious or overwhelmed at this time, but Tom was not an ordinary priest, his resistance to women was the highest among all priests, and he could see that this woman was not an ordinary washerwoman, and Tom was the most familiar with this woman's profession

"Okay, what do you want to do?"

The woman said, "Would you like to help me see a doctor?" With that, she used her finger to pick Tom's chin

Tom opened her hand, "Say what do you want me to help you?" ”

The woman glanced at Tom, a little surprised that this pastor's actions had previously been avoided by pastors, so when Tom did not reject her, she was hopeful, but Tom's next move made her wonder again

"Priest, I can't afford to pay for the baby, but I can pay for it with something else," the woman chuckled, pulling down the clothes on her chest, revealing two white rafters

As the march was at the end of the procession, few people noticed what was going on here, except for a few grim-faced washerwomen muttering to the priest that the priest must be a faithless scoundrel

Baby money Tom is aware that because the girl will always kill her own child, or drink herbs to avoid pregnancy, which has caused the wrath of the church, every once in a while, a large amount of baby money will be levied on these women, and for ordinary women who kill the baby, baby money ranging from one to three years will also be charged, it depends on the practice of various places to decide that the implementation of this decree in the past was not very strict, but in the last one or two decades, due to the extreme thirst for the population, This kind of decree, which was originally gently enforced, became severe, and often the girls who failed to pay the baby money in time were kicked out of the city, cut off their heads, and even cut off their houses

As long as the law was enforced to encourage women to have more children, the baby money was mainly used to reward families who had children, and a baby who gave birth to a child would receive his own weight of meat, three times the weight of wheat, two large vats of milk, and a small jar of honey

This is a big temptation for many families

Tom looked at the woman in front of him, "How long has it been since you paid for the baby?" ”

"I pay every month, but last month that damn old woman made the wrong medicine, I was pregnant with a child like this, and if I beat it again, I would have to pay twice as much in the next year, I thought I could hide it, but someone knows the news, Pastor Anthony has already approached me"

Tom smiled sarcastically, "You've got Pastor Anthony ready?" ”

"Of course," the woman smiled triumphantly, "fortunately he still likes women."

Tom felt that this woman's words were meaningful, "I like it too," Tom said, but he immediately changed the subject, "Okay, don't make excuses for me, it's hard for me to believe that an old woman who has been making moon tea all her life would make the wrong medicine, as far as I know, if there is a girl who has this kind of dispute with her, she will have no business for several years in a row because no one trusts her"

The woman looked at Tom suspiciously, and Tom seemed to know a lot

"You wanted this child," Tom speculated, "but after you did have this child, you now that you can't afford him, either the man you are good with suddenly disappears, or you don't have any money for the next year, in short, you don't want this child anymore, right, you are not willing to pay for this kind of regret."

The woman was silent

Tom reminds her, "Pull your clothes up, you should be ashamed not for yourself, but for you to prepare to kill a child"

The woman was embarrassed to do so

"Don't you have anything to say?" Tom asked

"He said I had a problem with my stomach and that the child I had must be a deformity, either a dwarf or some other monster," the woman's eyes began to fill with tears, "he didn't want to raise me anymore"

"You're reversing cause and effect: it's that he doesn't want to raise you, so he doesn't want children, not the other way around," Tom said, "Your baby is going to be healthy, and if you're going to get rid of him, I'm asking you to pay four times as much for the baby, not twice as much."

The woman was shocked, "Why? She hurriedly tightened her clothes, tears welling up again, "You can't do that"

"You know I can"

The woman showed a desperate and ferocious expression, "You're a vampire, I'd rather give birth to the baby than let you get that money"

"Then give birth," said Tom, "you saved a son, and I saved a life for God."

The woman couldn't convince Tom now, so she went limp, "I can't support him, Priest, I can't even afford to kill his baby, I only have myself, no one will help me"

Mu said, "You still have me"

The woman looked at Tom with wide eyes

Tom said, "Every week, if we are all alive, come to me and give birth to the baby with food and money, and then do whatever you want."

"What are you going to do?" the woman asked in horror

"The church will feed him," Tom said, "and I will give him to God"

"My Baby"

"He will become a monk and serve God all his life"

The woman got out of the ox cart and watched Tom Tom sit lazily on the ox cart in the sun, his legs swaying with the ox cart moving forward

Several washerwomen looked at this woman with disdain, they had just seen everything: the priest rejected this shameless woman, these washerwomen were glad that the priest took good care of them, but made this girl touch the nose, this priest must be a good person

The craftsman looked at the woman who was plump because of her pregnancy, ** surged, he put down the tool on his shoulder, walked over, rubbed his hands and pinched the woman's room

"Ignore the donkey, little girl," said the smith, "I'll fix your head, and you'll make me happy, huh?" ”

The woman came back to her senses, she pushed the craftsman away, "I don't have any fun giving you, you are not allowed to scold him for a donkey" The woman covered her stomach and felt a sense of sacredness, "He is God"

At this time, there was a sudden commotion among the soldiers in front

Several heralds on horseback suddenly ran up to the soldiers and ordered them to cross the woods to support the friendly forces on the other side

When the soldiers marched in order, they raised dust that covered the sky, and the sound of people and horses was boiling.

The trumpet lowered its voice and whined through the forests and fields

Varankov

I stood in front of the butler, and behind me were tossed exhausted Joey them

I got angry and scolded Joey and them

Finally, I said, "If I don't see the Count today, I'll have to go back to the forest."

The butler glanced at me, and a smile appeared under his calm expression, "Young Master Victor, if you must leave, then I can only regret to tell you that Lord Earl has already left."

"When" I was taken aback

"Just the day after you return," said the butler

The next day, he was gone, leaving nothing, and the butler then took out a letter from his bosom, "The Count has written a reply, let me give it to you"

"Why didn't you give it to me earlier"

The butler smiled fakely, "The Count has instructed you to give you the Count when you are really leaving, and the Count doesn't know how long you will stay".