The news of the Pioneers spread so timely that I was able to learn about the fighting in Eastern Wikia very quickly.

On the way to Kugit, every few days, a pioneer emissary rode along the road on fast horses to deliver a message to Copernicus.

Half a month after we set off, we met Bella, who had been waiting on the road for a long time, she had already been to Kugit once, but had to turn back to the edge of the steppe and wait for our arrival. According to Bella, ahead of us is the Kugit steppe. However, it doesn't look like a steppe, and there are many settlements along the way, and the Vicchians and Salanders are very common, who settle here to farm. But it was true that it was sparsely populated, and there were no more than ten people in each of the villages we entered, and these people were in terrible condition, and everywhere they looked, there was no empty field, not a single sheep, not a single piece of land that had been harvested, and the fields were mostly deserted.

Gradually, the information from the battlefield came more slowly, because each time the battle was "the siege continued, and the lords sympathetic to Valankov raised troops to help, and were defeated"; "The siege continues, nothing special"; "The siege continues".

Now everyone is waiting for a result, and everyone has a result in their hearts, but they don't say it explicitly. How long can the Principality of Varankov hold out?

I remember that when Valankov was first founded, the names of the court attendants and ministers had already been set up, and they were already planning how to rule the country in their tents, so that their rule would be merciful and long-lasting, and now they were prisoners on death row in the besieged city. But Giovanni, who drank milk, was really strong. I have not been asked to wait for news such as "the city of Valankov is broken, and the leader of the traitors Giovanni is hanged". Whenever I think of the Wallans under siege. I can't help but think that Giovanni abandoned me in Creel in the first place. Maybe it's to protect me? I also feel a strange sense of pride in the perseverance of the Valans, the Valans are hard bones, but they are not so easy to defeat, Lord Kalinin, I wish you a good mood.

Copernicus told me about the situation in the western continent, mostly related to Swadia.

At the outset of the civil war, friction arose over the new borders. After that, the border between the two sides gradually stabilized. Instead of fighting for one village and one town, concentrate your forces specifically to capture the other side's key fortresses. The consumption of large numbers of soldiers on the long border has become an unbearable burden for both sides. Overall, the external situation of Haraus was much better, and the Grand Duke of the Rhodok had shown him a lot of goodwill, and the Nords had tried to capture some Nord-majority Swadian cities when the empire had just broken up, but had been defeated. Instead, they signed a non-aggression pact with Haraus. The Wikibians are now preoccupied with their own affairs, and have responded positively to Harlaus's offer to sign a non-aggression pact.

King Vekia even began negotiations with Haraus, and Emperor Haraus officially recognized his title as King of all Wiecchians. Canonization of kings. It is a special honor of the emperor and the source of the emperor's majesty. But the title proposed by King Vekia seems to have some ulterior motives. In Svadia and Nord. Even Burke and Cutgett are inhabited by a large number of Wikibians. If His Majesty Harlaus canonizes the King of Vekia as the 'King of All Wikians'. Then the king clearly had legitimate subjects beyond the borders. This leaves a hidden danger for the future, when King Vecchia becomes extremely powerful. He has a reasonable and legal excuse to protect the Wikibians of other countries, and even to encroach on other people's land. Although Harlaus has been urging King Vecchia to attack Frederick, he has not budged at all on such issues. Moreover, he did not want to see the king of Vekia integrate Eastern Wikia in his name, on the one hand, it would leave a behemoth on the eastern border of the empire, and second, Haraus did not want to lose Burke as a natural ally.

On Frederick's side, his situation was much worse.

The Vecchians are his mortal enemies, and apart from the area around Frost Castle, Swadians are completely unprevalent in other Wikia regions. It is in the Frost Castle, after many years of immigration, the Wikibians still maintain a large population, although these people do not necessarily have to find themselves a compatriot king, but once something happens, these people will always be instigated, in short, it is a hidden danger. The Wikiians and the Nords had formed a pact of mutual defense many years ago in order to deal with the terrible Swadians to the south. When the Wikiians were at their weakest, the Nords were ready to tear up the treaty and get a piece of the pie, but fortunately, the Nords calmed down in time and helped the Wikidians stabilize the border. The Nords were quite liberal when it came to dealing with Frederick, but due to the Wikians, they had to remain cold to Frederick.

The Rhodok wanted to get part of the land of Uxhall, and now two-thirds of Uxhall is occupied by Haraus, and one-third is controlled by Frederick, and Rhodok even hopes to directly send troops to help Harauth fight by obtaining the part of Uxhall controlled by Frederick, only to formally incorporate this part into Rhodoc after the war. Haraus, of course, would not be stupid enough to introduce the Rhodoks into the rich Swadian plains, and he depressedly rejected the Grand Duke of Rhodok. As the man who wanted to become the king of South Swadia grew older, he could not bear the throbbing in his heart, and he hoped to expand his power on the continent at the first opportunity. Haraus always called Garcia a 'stupid military chief' and only saw him as a man to exploit in the siege of Frederick.

The Kugit had a good relationship with Frederick. The Kugits were bloodied after their aggressive assault on Svadia many years earlier. After the Vicians were weakened, it was natural for them to expand in the direction of the Kugit territory. The Wikiians have always maintained a large number of herders, and the Wikiians in the Tiedun River Valley are not much different from the Kujits, who are the vanguard of the Wikibians' attacks on the Kujits. Under such circumstances, the Kujit chose Frederick as their ally. Frederick's precarious frontier finally had a friendly policy towards him.

However, although the external situation of Frederick is very bad, his soldiers are the most elite in the entire continent. Fitre gave almost everything to the army. All soldiers were given land, even if they were annexed by the nobility. Fettred would also regularly provide large amounts of financial support to his soldiers, and repeatedly told the nobles to exercise restraint. Soldiers can enjoy much lower food prices. He usually tried his best to meet the demands of his soldiers, and his preference for the occasional disputes between soldiers and burghers or nobles was also very obvious.

The soldiers often called Frederick the King of Soldiers, and loved him from the bottom of their hearts. In Eastern Svadia, legend has it that an unidentified nobleman appeared on the front lines of the most critical wars, helping to bandage wounded soldiers and helping them build fortresses over the course of several months. Make friendships. When the soldiers asked the nobleman from which family he came from, the nobleman said that he was their emperor. The soldiers were so moved that they immediately tied him up and handed him to the officer, saying that they had caught a demagogue, and asked the officer how much bounty he could get in exchange. When the officers knew the Emperor, they immediately released the bonds for His Majesty, who did not punish the soldiers, but told them to do their duty. and disappeared to the front line.

Such legends are often a template, repeated throughout Eastern Swadia. One will appear on the front lines, one will appear on the frontiers, and one will appear in battles with the Wikibians. One will appear in the fight with the puppet emperor. It seems that Frederick is not in the palace all the year round, and he runs incognito to the front line to fight. But believable or not, soldiers love stories like this. That's enough.

The two Svadias of the Western Continent are now like wrestling fists, exhausted. I don't have the strength to completely defeat the enemy, and I can't change my posture to make myself more comfortable. They are all waiting for the enemy to make a mistake or for a fire in the backyard. in order to be able to change the landscape today. However, after so many years of war, the two Svadias have completely cleaned up the wavering aristocracy internally, and the two sides are still fighting today, both of which are very loyal nobles, and the internal political environment is becoming more and more stable, and only internal disintegration and war weariness can make these two Svadias collapse.

The impact of war on civilians has increased abruptly at the outset. But when the war developed into a battle between fortresses and fortresses, the war became farther and farther away from the inhabitants of the rear. By this time, the enemy's line of attack was decided, and a fearful surprise attack was no longer possible, and it became known on the sides of which fortresses the enemy troops were stationed; On the opposite bank of which river the enemy was ready to cross; On the opposite side of the woods was the enemy's barracks. The aimless war became a repeated tug-of-war on several key points.

How do I get rid of Harlaus? How do you get rid of Wright? How do you get rid of those minions?

As I rode through the Kugit steppes, I kept thinking about it.

Copernicus seemed pleased when he heard that I wanted to go to Vecchia. Could it be that the third way he is referring to is to rely on Kalinin? No way, he didn't know anything about Kalinin, and when I told him about Vecchia, he only knew what I had told Bella. Bella is a strange girl, she was able to see things that others couldn't see when she was a child, which worried her father, and always asked the priest to exorcise the demons for her, but she could still see the dead sitting and chatting in the courtyard, see ghost gatherings in the house, and see other people's past and future. Bella said that when everyone else thought she was crazy, only my father didn't think so and gave her candy bars. For this reason, do you want to repay my father? In my opinion, this is very far-fetched.

I'm always trying to string together Bella, Copernicus, Mistress, Cesar, Elune, and all that others to figure out what their purpose is. At first I thought it was all a trick they had colluded in, but I soon felt an extreme arrogance on the part of these people, who were well-fed and well-fed, whether they were scholars or pioneers, whether they were captains or chiefs' wives, there was no one who was not of higher status than me, so why should they bother for me?

We were running out of food, and Copernicus studied the map and found that we had entered the southern plains of Kugit. Half a month further on the road will lead us to the Elmoche Pass, where we will turn east into the mountains in search of a tribe. To this day, I don't know which Kugit tribe Copernicus was looking for. Copernicus was vague about this, and he could only roughly name the leader of the tribe and his hometown.

Elune's daughter went to the village on our left hand side in the morning, after noon. She and three of her horsemen returned, carrying bags of grain on horseback. Blood was splattered on the saddle.

"Is there anyone still willing to sell grain?" Copernicus asked her innocently.

The chief's daughter said, "No." Never. ”

Copernicus asked no more questions.

My impression of the chief's daughter deteriorated considerably, with her and those black soldiers. It's not that different.

We rested on an abandoned water mill.

The soldiers built a stone stove out of stone slabs, made several breads out of flour brought back by Elune's daughter, and cooked them on a clean stone slab and ate them separately.

While I was eating the bread, Elune's daughter came and sat down in front of me, put her hand in her chest to catch lice, and said to me, "You don't think this flour is clean, do you?" ”

"I didn't say that."

"When I came back, you didn't look at me right."

"We can find something else to eat, we don't have to"

"Come on." Elune's daughter turned her head slightly, spat lightly into the air, and expressed disdain for me, "You can go find it yourself, you can leave your rations for others." ”

Her neck seemed to itch, and she picked at the newly grown hair at the back of her neck with her hand, twisted her head, making the bones rattle, and then she threw me a dagger. "Help me shave my hair here."

She lifted her hair, and the bottom of her neck, though white, had been bitten by bugs and fleas into a small red packet, and in several places there were blood marks from the strips of leather on her clothes. Below her neck, I found scars from the plague, and it was strange that there were no scars on her face.

"What are you looking at?" She pressed her hands to her hair. He turned back to me and asked, "That's the back of the bare light down there." If you want to see something interesting, you should walk up to me and look down. ”

A few Kugit giggled. Elune's daughter glared at them, and they immediately suppressed their smiles.

"You've had the plague."

I pinched her hair, figuring out how long I should give her.

"It's not dead," she said, noticing that I wasn't stabbing but gesturing the length, "what are you doing?" ”

"Leave you an inch of hair, short or not?"

"Stunned like a castrated sheep," she said dissatisfiedly, "my hair will be shorter than yours against my scalp." ”

"I'm a man."

"I didn't see it, I always thought you were squatting and peeing." She said, "Hurry up, or I'll pick out my bread and spit it out." ”

I stopped talking and shaved off her tangled hair, leaving her neck with only a stubble. In other places, she thought I was slow, so she snatched the dagger herself, cutting off the places where she was too long as she went. After picking her hair, she put the dagger in her boots, turned over and jumped on the horse's back, I have to say, her movements were very beautiful, and her back was as tight as a stretched bow. The Kugit soldiers who remained with her, and from what I knew of the Varan soldiers, they genuinely respected the chief's daughter.

We met a herder in the afternoon, and when he saw us, he ran away.

Elune's daughter and the two Kugits swept over like falcons, and the last Kugit grabbed the herdsman on his horse and brought him back like a chicken by the neck.

Copernicus asked the herdsman about the name of a strange tribe, and the man's white eyes rolled several times.

"Are you stupid or stupid, it's a bunch of robbers, not a tribe at all." The herdsman shouted.

"How do you find them?"

"Do you sell armor or grain?" The herdsman asked, "All they need is this." ”

"I ask you how to find them."

"Who will have a fixed nest on the grassland?" The herdsman said, "Let me go, give me some money." I'm going to spread the word that you're selling what they want. After a while, they will find you. ”

"Others will find us, too."

"Then I don't care." "But if you want to find this guy, it's the only way." ”

"Five gold coins."

"Twenty."

"Four gold coins."

"Fifteen."

"Three gold coins."

"My immortal heaven! You thieves! I did," cried the herdsman, "and you found them, and give me three gold coins." ”

"We'll talk about it then."

Half an hour later, the herdsman left us like an arrow from a string.

Elune's daughter walked up to me, "Scarface, your teacher is confused, we will be chased and beaten by various tribes." ”

"I'll only listen to him here."

"When the time comes, we Kugit people will survive, you can choke enough."

"I'm not going to die in this place." I said to her, "What's your name?" ”

"I'm not going to tell a dying person my name." (To be continued.) )