() We walked into the valley and gradually walked out of the mountains, and the flat terrain let us know that our destination was near.

The number of huts made of wood gradually dwindled in favor of yurts, and these Kugit and Creelian mixed places have not yet shed their nomadic color. Some cunning-looking shepherds watched us from afar, and by the time we got closer, they had disappeared with the sheep on the gravel path. On the side of the road we met a couple of women selling nǎi cheese, so ugly that they didn't need to be protected, and the Valans exchanged a dead man's boots for a round of nǎi cheese, and by the way, they asked how to get to the assembly point that Giovanni said "".

It was a neutral bazaar, protected by several Mamluk officers from Salander, who nominally accepted Creelian rule, but in reality owed direct allegiance to the Salanders. It was originally a private bazaar for Creel Pasha, but the Salander Mamluks came over more than a decade ago and killed the Pasha's servants and began their rule. Private fights are not allowed here, and offenders will be fined and their property will be confiscated. The Kugit herdsmen used it as a resting place, and secretly observed the various sè people who came to the place, and if it was a strong mercenary officer, they would introduce the warriors; If it was a slave trader, they would lead them to the black market to buy and sell human beings; If it was a merchant from a foreign land, they would secretly spread the news to the robbers on the steppe, so that they could get a piece of the pie when the looting was successful.

In the past few days, a large number of Valan soldiers have poured in, which makes this small bazaar of several hundred people seem overcrowded, and there are more than a hundred Valan soldiers, and they are still gathering. This is a danger signal, so many strangers gathered in a small bazaar, it is easy to endanger the safety of this place.

Giovanni's banner flutters on top of a wooden tower and is easily visible. The Valans were scattered around the streets, drinking and whispering, nodding at the sight of the new Valans, but not saying too much.

"I say, what is Giovanni doing?" Kruzkar said.

"Gather the soldiers. Then recruit mercenaries. Go fight the trading post for revenge. ”

"." Kruzkar said, "Whoever believes this kind of nonsense is an idiot." Have you ever seen a rally point set up so far away after the troops have been scattered? ”

The most nervous people in the town are the Salander Mamluks, who enjoy the benefits of the power of the Salanders, and live like sultans in a small world. But now, the sudden arrival of the Valans has made everything look a little sour. At first the Valans just said 'stay', then it became 'rest', and finally. At first, every day the Salanders would bring Giovanni food and wine, horses and bed slaves, hoping that Giovanni would leave sooner, but Giovanni didn't seem to care at all, and had no intention of leaving. After Valan's soldiers exceeded a hundred. Giovanni simply drove away one of the towers where the market guards were stationed and moved in decently himself.

The slightly wiser inhabitants of the bazaar had already left with their livestock and goods, and only the rich and poor who could not leave remained in the place, waiting for further developments.

There was a beggar standing in the very center of the bazaar, with a sign around his neck, and he was dirty. He said aloud that the end was coming, that the earth would be obscured by the wings of crows, and that death would fill the earth like air. Fragile people will die in cough and pus. The strong will survive and usher in a bright century.

Several times the Mamluk officers of Salander tried to get rid of this unruly communicator. But it's always stopped. Everyone knows that the only one who dares to openly disobey the will of the Salanders is Giovanni. As for why Giovanni created the atmosphere of panic, it is unknown. Some of the local Creel lords and wealthy men seemed calm, reassuring their panicked subordinates, who seemed to have no worries about Giovanni and presumably had a lot of confidence in the Salanders. Everyone around here knows that Giovanni took the Rhodoc trading post, but he did a bad job at the Salander trading post, which was still on the Valan's own territory. If Giovanni dares to mess around, it is estimated that the Creelians will mobilize countless tribal warriors to protect the dignity of the suzerain.

After communication failed, the Salanders simply stopped supplying the Valans and sent envoys to the surrounding Creel towns to ask for protection. Giovanni, on the other hand, let the helpers leave in the middle of the night, as if he didn't even know it.

"Did you say Giovanni wanted to blackmail something before leaving?" Kruzkal asked one of his comrades-in-arms who was receiving him, "What's the news during this time?" ”

The person who picked us up was a strong Rhodok man with an upper body **, who didn't care about the cold weather on the chūn day. The guy glanced at me, and Kruzkal motioned for him to say it was okay.

"What's the news?'' If Giovanni doesn't move his ass quickly, it will probably be a bit of a problem. The eunuchs summoned a Kugit cavalry and rushed towards our place. ”

"When?"

"There were rumors last night."

"Rumors?" Kruzkal said, "If the eunuchs really want to fight, will they be stupid enough to spread their army dispatches?" ”

"Scared people, bluffing people, castrated people, you won't know what these people are thinking." The strong man said indifferently, "If the conflict is really unavoidable, at least you can use the term foreign aid to scare off the enemy for a while, so as to buy yourself a little time." ”

It was only then that I realized that the eunuchs he was talking about were those Mamluk officers. It seems that this rumor has spread very widely, and the claim that the Mamluk officers are eunuchs seems to fascinate people, and this rumor is still biased and ignorant. Eunuchs may be docile and disciplined, and there is no shortage of legions of eunuchs with brilliant achievements in history. But it is impossible to say that the eunuch group established a country from the desert, reclaimed the wilderness, pulled up the battle flag that covered the sky, and lived fiercely on the battlefield.

Hearing this Rhodok mercenary, the Salander officers in the bazaar had panicked and deigned to ask their 'subordinates' Creelians to help them. Here the Kugit people have declined, and the entire tribe has been reduced to the minions of other people's mercenaries, but the Creelians are growing like the sun. Years of civil strife among the Salanders eased its repression in the north, which gave the Creelians a good chance. However, the Creelians patiently accepted their fate as vassals: its warriors appeared in every expedition of the Saran's people, and its beauties filled the palace of the Maharaja of Saland. Its food feeds the countless city dwellers of the Salander people. And this time. The Creelians seem to have been prepared to help the Salander officers deal with the foreign invaders: the Kugit cavalry unit had been recruited entirely at the expense of the native Creelians.

"Really?" Kruska said thoughtfully, "How many of them are there and when will they arrive?" ”

"Two hundred," said the strong man of Rhodok, who walked side by side with us, took a sword from a blacksmith, and tried the blade with his fingers. Then with a bang, the sword was tucked away in its scabbard, "From the Western Mountains." ”

"Western Mountains?" Kruzkal was a little curious, "Is it the 'exile'?" ”

Exiles.

Many years ago, the self-defeating King Kugit invaded the Svadians, but suffered a humiliating defeat. It is said that they were dragged by a small fortress for a whole year, which is not surprising. Nomads are not good at attacking cities. The defeat of the Kugit Khanate was accompanied by the fact that the Kugit Khanate's power was strengthened, and he had to rely more on the citydwellers he had conquered, becoming more of a moderate king than a steppe overlord who took pleasure in horses. The Kugit tribes who were expelled during or after the war became orphans in exile throughout the world. These people are called 'exiles'. Now they are more than just a group of Kugits, who attract peasants, samurai, musicians, prostitutes, jì women, and fugitive slaves along the way. When the water and grass are abundant, they stop and sing and spend the whole summer, and when the wealth is exhausted, they go to work as mercenaries for a small commission, or sell their wives and daughters to the city for a small ration.

"Yes," said the strong man of Rhodok, "these people are not warriors, but their survival skills are top-notch, and you know that they have been wandering since the end of the war. ”

"Wandering for more than ten years?"

"Yes, they went to Nord and were driven out; He went to Vicchia again, only to get involved in the war and was routed by Emperor Frederick; For a time they reached Rhodoc, but all the passes refused to allow them to pass; So they went along the mountains to Salander, and were driven to the desert; In the desert they walked through oasis after oasis before being hired by the Creelians. There are less than a thousand of them now, and it is estimated that half of the two hundred people sent this time are children, just like this kid in front of them. ”

I finally found an opportunity to interject, "More than a thousand people who have been wandering for more than ten years? Who are their chiefs? ”

I know what it's like to lead a huge army: a thousand things will come to you every day, and if you don't deal with it, two thousand things will pile up the next day; If you deal with it, more things will come out to trouble you.

"Who cares?" "But this guy went to Svadia when he was young, and I saw this guy at the Battle of Frost Castle, but I didn't expect him to be alive." ”

"He didn't find a way to settle down?" I wondered, "After the war, it was easy to get land, and the kings welcomed the cultivators." ”

"For the unorganized farmers, the kings naturally like it very much, but the whole tribe, the kings have to think about it. Now this tribe is very weak, one day when their tribe grows stronger, will they still be so obedient? Who wants to get themselves in trouble. ”

Cruzcard parked the ox cart beside a few tents and went with me to meet Giovanni.

I kind of didn't want him to go with me, because I felt that this mercenary would most likely bypass me and pledge his allegiance to Giovanni, after all, why would he be a deputy if he could be a mercenary captain? What's more, it's still a child's deputy? However, I couldn't find a reason to refuse him to come with me, and I didn't have enough deterrence to force him to stay and wait for me, so I had to take him to Giovanni's tower and ask Giovanni what he was going to do.