The second time we crossed the mountains, we were very few and there were no big cars, so we didn't have to go on the big roads that were flat but detouring.

We chose some off-the-beaten-path trails. Only shepherds come and go, but the Kugit are familiar with it, and they say that in the past there were many caves that served as natural hideouts for smugglers. Because there was no road to quickly pass a large army, there were no soldiers stationed here when the countries at either end of the mountain were eyeing each other. As we climbed over the mountains, we saw several corpses, mostly dead travelers, carrying food bags and simple tools, dead on the side of the road. Some have been rotting for a long time, and appear to have been inhabitants of the area during the first plague. The food on them is gone, probably from the people who came here first.

There was only a bitter wind between the mountains, which blew on the treetops with an ethereal echo, as if all the people of the world had disappeared.

Outside a cave, we met a group of mountain people who had built a wall with branches and mud that extended to the outside of the cave. The walls were only a man high, and the mountain dwellers stood behind them with the rudiest bows and arrows and pitchforks. When we tried to get closer, they fired two arrows at us, and we were going to go in exchange for some food, so we had to give up and leave far away. After we left the cave, one or two mountain people followed us until two days later, when we started walking down the other side of the mountain. There is an abandoned Zen tower on the top of the mountain, and I was shocked that all the Zen people have built a watchtower in this place, and although this watchtower is very small, it can only station more than ten soldiers, but it has a pond and a medicine garden, and even a small stable that doubles as a pig and a horse.

"The Zen people are really inconsiderate," I climbed to the top of the dusty spiral stone staircase as we stayed overnight at the empty watchtower. The sky was surprisingly bright at night, with patches of stars, and a pale blue faint between the stars. When I found Copernicus standing beside me. I said to him, "In such an inaccessible place, such a watchtower can be built." By holding a few fortresses at the bottom of the mountain range, you can control the entire mountain range. ”

"Emperor Chanda once said. ' The west of the mountains is all Zenda'. You can actually think of this mountain range as the huge wall of Chanda. He said, looking at the blurred plains in the distance. The whole world is in the hands of Emperor Chanda, and it is not surprising that he will exchange his endless money for a more secure frontier. ”

"Now Chanda is long gone." I said to Copernicus, "These watchtowers and stone avenues are useless. ”

"yes." Copernicus touched the stone, "Everything has an end, and the Chanda Empire is no exception. However, this stone avenue is still somewhat useful. When your father was fighting in Rhodok, he used to follow the stone path built by the Zen people on the mountains, from behind

Raided the fortress of the Salanders. ”

"Oh? And this kind of thing? "I'm a little surprised." Are there still ruins there? ”

"There should still be abandoned camps, discarded tools, the bones of livestock, arrowheads. Wherever a soldier passes, something is always left behind. ”

"I'm going to go there and have a look. But first tell me about my father's war for the Rhodoks. ”

Copernicus and I sat on the top of the watchtower of the ancient Chandas, and told me about the feud between the Rhodocs and the Salanders many years ago, and he started from the beginning. From the time when Rhodok had just lost the frontier lands and the volunteers from all over Swadia came to help, until many years later, when my father participated in the Rhodok campaign to regain the frontier.

Copernicus said in an emotional tone that at that time, the present Grand Duke of Garcia was only a young man in a fortress that was about to fall.

A few days later. We reached the plain, blocked by the Ryazan River. The Ryazan River is here, not as wide as it was when it emptied into the East Lake, but we still could not find a suitable shoal to cross the river.

The Kugit requisitioned a fisherman's raft.

We spent most of the day, going back and forth on both sides of the river, transporting the horses I needed to the other side of the river.

The fisherman and his three sons watched as we clumsily paddled the raft across the river. A few times in the middle of the river, we almost flipped over.

The Kugit guards have completed their mission, and most of them will return to Kugit to search for their female chief.

"After crossing the Ryazan River, it is the place of the evil ghosts of Vecchia. May the Immortal Heaven bless you, son of a knight. "The Kujit came to say goodbye to me and gave me many small gifts, such as wooden statues of gods, archery wrenches, sacks of iron arrows that had been blessed by sacrifices, and so on. Among them, three Kugit would continue to follow me, and it was Victoria's order that she had made the three Kugit soldiers loyal to me.

"Follow me until when? How do I pay you? ”

"The chief says that there are only three conditions on which our allegiance can be relieved: first, you die like a donkey; second, we ourselves died; Third, your enemies are dead. Regardless of which condition is met, if we are still alive, we are free to choose to stay or go, and no one can interfere. ”

"Why do you want to emphasize the way I died?"

The three Kugit looked at each other, "Son of a knight, these are the chief's exact words, and we have no intention of insulting you. ”

"Can you really follow me? I can't afford to pay you. ”

I'm not convinced.

It is my father who is gracious to their princes, and I have no favor to them. Although I was thrilled by the allegiance of the three hundred soldiers, when I calmed down, I knew that Copernicus was right. Victoria was able to lead them the way Prairie people did, and I didn't have that ability. And after thinking about it carefully, I am even more pessimistic, and I prefer to look at these three people through the eyes of mercenaries. Commissions and loot, these two keys to maintaining mercenaries, I can't get any of them. Mere allegiance? I've seen too many 'allegiances', and I don't think that kind of loyalists are more reliable than the credibility of mercenaries.

I was taken aback by the next words of the Kujits, "The chief has found our family, erased our wanted records, put our family incognito, and placed them in that Kugit town. Our lifelong wish is not to hide in Tibet anymore, and we do not want our families to be affected. Now the wish has been granted. The son who followed the knight had no complaints, nor did he expect a reward. ”

"Finding your family so soon?" I always thought that Victoria was just messing around in town, but I didn't expect her to do things so quickly, "The chief has offended Tallinn a lot. You're not worried about Tallinn torturing your family? ”

"Our family has been following us from afar, and it's not hard to find them. As for Tallinn, you have seen what happened in the town, Tallinn is vulnerable to the chieftain, and the coward's knife is always blunt. There was a hint of pride in the Kujit tone. Didn't he know that the power of the chieftain was actually brought by them?

"Why is it so difficult for you to run away halfway?" I think it's easy to talk to Kujits, you don't need to care about politeness and face, you can just say what is in your heart.

"Of course we can run away." The Kujiit shrugged, "But you have to know. The chieftain probably has more than just our relatives in the town, and her knife is much faster than in Tallinn. When the Kugit said this, he said to me in a somewhat aggrieved tone, "Son of a knight, we have listened to the words of the bachelor. But you are skeptical. Returning gratitude and following, for the grassland people, is not as simple as farting, we follow you, all out of voluntariness. I told you that the chief's methods are just to reassure you, and you don't have to be suspicious in the future. It's going to make us feel very unhappy. ”

"Uh''," I can only say that Giovanni has influenced me too much, or rather, the Varan mercenaries have influenced me too deeply, and when I am exposed to a different way of doing things, it is difficult for me to accept it for a while. "I'm not going to talk about it again. What's your name? ”

"My name is Cruzedel. Kim," said the leading Kugit soldier, "they are Elon. Halt and Iyu. ”

Under the watchful eyes of the Kugit soldiers who saw them off around me, the three steppe men and I finished drinking the same pot of wine, and each of them broke an arrow in front of me. The broken arrows were to be brought back to Victoria by the other Kugit soldiers. After a small allegiance ceremony. The Kugit left the Ryazan on a raft.

"Immortal Heaven protects you, son of a knight!"

"Goodbye, son of the knight!"

"Bless you and your father!"

```

The Kugit said goodbye and all crowded to the side of the raft, which turned on its side. At that time, the Kugit soldiers were still waving at me, and they all fell into the water by surprise. The Kugit soldiers were soaking wet as they swam to the other side. The fisherman's family smiled on a smile that had disappeared for a long time.

We did not tarnish any longer, and when we saw that the Kugit were all right, our squad mounted and left the bank of the river, heading deeper into the forest.

Now I have only Copernicus, two pioneers, and three Kugit soldiers with me. There were three pioneers, but one of them was seriously ill and had diarrhea, so we left him in a village and promised to take care of his villagers and send him some food every once in a while.

Six of us with nine horses, very fast. East Wikia is now more dangerous, and most of the soldiers who used to hunt down thieves and robbers are now concentrated around Vlaankov, and the rest have been transferred back to the cities, where they are almost ownerless in the countryside. The farmers and shepherds who saw us with ill-intentioned eyes, some of them knew at a glance that they were the eyes of some gang of thieves. But if we're fast enough, we'll be able to move to the next area before they can get a word out. There was a lot of weakness on both men and horses, and one horse broke his leg on the rocky beach as we crossed the riverbank. The Kugit slaughtered the horse, skinned it, and cut enough flesh on our body so that we could move on. The other steppe horses reacted almost unresponsive to this sight, and their disregard for their companions was almost surprisingly insignificant. I remember that in Wikibian legend, some horses would get angry when they even smelled small objects made of horse skin.

"Where are we going?" Elon asked me, "Son of a knight?" ”

"I don't know, we're going to walk along the Ryazan River until we find a boat, and then we'll go to Xiaodonghu City." I replied to him, and I noticed that Copernicus shook his head, "Also, can you change the name?" Always called the Knight's Son. I'll feel like I'm so far away from you, so I'll call me by name. ”

"Call you Timmy, the chief will cut out our tongues when he knows."

"She wouldn't know." I said to Elon, "When I was in East Wikia. You must remember that my name is Victor. ”

"What does that mean?"

"That's enough."

A few Kugit were handy, they were very skilled in camping and hunting, and when camping, they would choose one of their own to patrol around, and they could walk silently through the woods even on horseback. It was then that I felt that the reason why Copernicus had concluded that Victoria would grow was that the hundreds of steppe riders were actually the best soldiers.

Victoria got three hundred swords, and I got three. Bitter thoughts came back to my mind again, but I was no longer embarrassed to say it. I know that caring about such a thing would bring me humiliation. It would bring shame on my father.

A few days later, we came across a large settlement, almost the size of a small town.

The settlement had stone walls, and outside the walls, a group of soldiers squatted and rested. On the side of the settlement against the riverbank. A long wooden trestle plunged deep into the river, and underneath the trestle were dense slender pillars, the junction licked by the river, crawling with moss and black stains. A group of residents were under the watchful eye of soldiers, loading the ship with food, presumably a group of soldiers who had come to collect food.

When he saw us riding out of the woods, an officer-like man immediately kicked a sleeping soldier beside him. In a matter of moments, the soldiers were immediately in dense formation. Some of the soldiers were still looking around sleepily, not knowing what was going on, but some of the indifferent archers had skillfully drawn their arrows and put them on top of their bows. The soldiers were well equipped, and the average man wore half-sized armor. Almost everyone had shields and spears, and one or two people put their axes on their shoulders and looked at me suspiciously.

"Close enough!" The officer, seeing that we were still approaching, shouted at us, and he raised his hand. Seven archers immediately raised their hands and aimed at us. "Stop!"

I raised my hands, but the Kugit around me pressed their left hands to their waists, while the two pioneers and Copernicus were a little nervous.

"We need boats."

"You need an arrow from the belly!" The officer was a little angry and scolded at his subordinates, "Who is patrolling the sentry today, this group of idiots is actually the first thing we discovered." ”

The surrounding soldiers replied with a few names.

"Your Excellency, we have no ill will."

The officer was bald, without a helmet, and wore a full body of boyar armor, which made him look very strong. Instead of answering my words, he threw out a question, "Giovanni or Kalinin?" ”

I felt the strings of the seven bows and arrows tighten tighter, and it seemed that as soon as I could give the wrong answer, the bows and arrows would immediately come out of their strings.

It's a cunning trap, and I regret that I rushed here without proper observation.

I glanced at the docks, and there were no flags. Then I immediately withdrew my gaze, knowing that the moment I thought would cause suspicion, and that I had almost only a split second time to think.

Giovanni had been besieged for so long, although many lords of Valan blood who sympathized with him raised troops to respond to him, and there were many people in the council who secretly hoped that he would find fault with Kalinin, but he dared to requisition food so comfortably.

I bit my lip.

"May the Princes of Kalinin live a long life!" I said to him, "I am Viktor of the Romanovs. Romanov. I have an urgent need to go to the city of Xiaodonghu on the orders of the prince of Kalinin. ”

My heart was beating wildly, and I could almost hear the sound of bows and arrows flying towards me.

The soldiers on the other side still had sabre-rattling expressions, and after a few moments, I could tell if it was a group of council soldiers or Valan allies.

Time has almost stood still.

The officer squinted his eyes and spat at the ground in front of him, "That idiot Kalinin can't bite Varankov, I hope he will choke to death tomorrow by a woman." ”

The archers lowered their bows, the soldiers relaxed, and the few soldiers on the city walls, who were already nervous, stopped running and turned back to tell the people in the settlement not to panic and continue their work.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

"I need your ship, Your Excellency. Are you going to Xiaodonghu City? ”

"We only send food to the front-line barracks, and we won't enter East Lake. Let Kalinin send a boat to pick you up, I'm not a boatman. The officer plucked out his ears and waved his hand, and his soldiers returned to the state they had just been, sitting or standing, chatting and resting. There is already too much food on the ship, and if you are alone, we will have one less. Stop dreaming, little Romanov cub! If I find out one day you're an impostor, I'll you in the dirt! ”

"You take one of us," I said to him, "and you'll get one of our horses." ”

Several soldiers were stunned for a moment, then laughed, and the officer raised an eyebrow.

"Actually, the boat is not too far to East Lake," said the officer with a smile, "how many horses are you going to give me?" ”

"Six horses."

Early the next morning, we all sat in a big boat and went down the Ryazan River.