We moved forward slowly, riding horses and deliberately descending from the mountain beams that the other side could see.

Soon, the sound of a horn was faintly heard from the opposite side. One of the boyars of Little East Lake City, whom Yuri had sent to follow me, immediately blew the horn.

The walls of the monastery look rudimentary, with no horseshoe-shaped protrusions extending out, no battlements and no towers, as if the width of the walls could only accommodate two people standing side by side, and only part of the walls were built of stone, and the rest were made of wooden fences, which were covered with a layer of mud. But it was the walls that protected the monastery. Many villages in Vekia have small towers built on top of hills, which are narrow and dirty inside, and some of the towers are half built underground, cold and damp. These small settlements were abandoned after peace came, but now they have been re-chosen by the inhabitants to live in, and the old buildings are being renovated in various places so that the inhabitants can survive the war-torn years.

As they could make out the faces of the guardians on the wall, they blew a shrill horn, very harsh. The trumpet is extremely elongated, almost as long as an iron sword. It seems to be a musical instrument in the monastery, and it is used exclusively during ceremonies.

I don't know what that voice meant, but the boyar's face turned a little ugly.

"The people of the monastery ordered us to take a detour." He said, "The sound of the trumpet means that any closer is considered an attack." ”

"What do you mean?" I was a little confused, "Isn't this the territory of the Kalinin princes?" ”

"After the passage of the Princes of Denia, many settlements and small castles have been broken. Outsiders are not accepted. But we are obviously flying the banner of Xiaodonghu City. He looked at the monastery with some annoyance, "Hell, who is this abbot?" I'll have to skin him. ”

I looked around at the burned-out workshops and estates. Looking at the immovable wall again, "Don't talk big, the prince of Denia has not been able to skin him. Let's find a way to get in first, and then we will make a detour, anyway, we are going to Varankov. ”

"I'm going to see who's so bold." Boyar and his retinue drove their horses forward, and their hooves kicked out a cloud of smoke.

Some of the farmers who had been stranded outside the settlement, who were picking up things among the burned houses, immediately began to shout. When they heard the trumpet. They had already stood up straight and looked at us vigilantly, and at this time, they gathered together. Holding the pitchfork and the scythe upright, they shouted something to each other.

The boyar retinue carried a triangular banner embroidered with the emblem of the city of Little East Lake, and the two of them soon arrived at the city.

Then. The unexpected happened. A flurry of arrows shot from the tower, and they all landed on the ground where the two knights were about to tread. Boyar also seemed surprised, and reined in with his own retinue, shouting and cursing at the wall. He thought that the warning horn was just a pretense of momentum, but he didn't expect the other party to really dare to release the arrow. The group of peasants quickly joined the other group of smaller peasants, more than forty in total, and they approached the two knights. I wondered a little in my heart, how could the abbot of this monastery really dare to do something to the envoy of Xiaodonghu City?

The farmer quickly approached the two knights. I saw from afar that boyard tried to whip two approaching peasants with his horsewhip, but the dense pitchforks caused his mount to retreat. Finally both knights were caught in the reins of their horses, and then they were pulled off their horses.

I had a bad feeling in my heart that this boyar was going to take me to Kalinin, and if he was detained, my purpose would not be accomplished. I twisted my horse's head and returned to a cart behind us, and picked up a spear, which the Kugit next to me immediately drew their scimitars, as did the only pioneer who was still with us. The five of us left Copernicus where we were, and then began to slowly accelerate towards the farmers. Crusedale rushed to the front, and on the outermost were his two companions, me and the Pioneer in the middle. When the five of us started running, the peasants did not try to escape, but stood together in a dense group, aiming their pitchforks at us, and they were dead in the middle of the road.

When we rushed to the front, the peasants did not flee out of fear, except for shouting. I flattened my spear and aimed it at the peasants, who did not dodge, looking at the pointed grass forks, and at the last moment I gave up, and hurriedly stopped the horses, and the hooves of the horses trampled on the ground, splashing a few pieces of mud, and when the peasants rushed towards me, I actually felt a sense of fear in my heart. I was about to go around behind them to find an opportunity, but the peasants immediately turned around and protected the flanks and rear. The five of us rode around the peasants, but we couldn't find a gap, and the peasants started throwing rocks at us, pushing us far away. Seeing that he could not disperse the peasants, Iyu simply took out his short bow and nimbly rode his mount around the small positions of the peasants, looking for an opportunity to shoot.

A short trumpet sounded, and a troop of cavalry slowly came out of the settlement.

There are cavalry in this settlement?

"Iyu!" I shouted to the Kugit who were about to shoot, "Put your bow down." ”

There were more than thirty cavalrymen, could it be that some count or Grand boyard was stationed here? A thought also flashed through my mind, that is, whether this place had been in collusion with the Decian Maharaja, and if their garrison was all Denia's soldiers, it would be easy to explain. If this was true, then Gary would rather have a headache, and there was already a small fortress occupied by the unscrupulous prince on his back.

When the peasants came around me, I threw my spear. The pioneers around him also lost their spears. The Kugit put away their bows and knives and came behind me.

When they saw the cavalry coming, the peasants led two horses and two captives and slowly retreated towards the city gate, and some of them were still turning back and throwing stones at us.

The cavalrymen carried odd banners with an oak tree embroidered on them. Their armor was clad with oak coats of arms. The most bizarre thing is that these knights were not wearing the scale armor of the boyars, nor did they wear standard covered helmets. Most of them wore saucer-shaped helmets, chain mail and iron armor, and some wore tight-fitting leather jackets, and they looked like "a group of western knights."

When the cavalry saw that we had laid down their weapons, they no longer maintained their formation, but spread out at the command of an old knight and slowly approached us.

"Timmy." When Copernicus saw this, he rushed over, "What's going on?" ”

"I don't know more than you do."

These knights were after approaching us. The old knight stopped, and the cavalry on his left and right continued to advance, almost half-surrounding us.

The old knight was dressed very strangely, and he was dressed as a knight of the West all over his body. The armor on the chest was covered with oak coats of arms. But the helmet was a boyar-style helmet, covering half of his face, revealing only two eyes.

"Now that a warning has been given," a young knight on the other side came up to reprimand us, "why do you want to behave in a hostile manner?" ”

"This is the territory of Xiaodonghu City, and we are the messengers of Xiaodonghu City. Why are you disrespectful to the boyars? ”

"Little East Lake City?" The young man spat on the ground, "When the prince of Denia looted here, where was Yuri, the wreck of Little East Lake City?" After the Maharaja of Denia left. When the Fourier beast came here to forcibly levy supplies, where were the guards of Little East Lake City? ”

"We have no ill will." I said to him. "We're just going to support the grain convoy in the siege of Valankov. There were more than 100 people in the grain team, and it was just more than ten miles behind us, and we came to check it. ”

"Then get out of the way and go back to the grain team!" This young cavalryman obviously misunderstood what I meant, thinking that I was the grain collector who came to collect grain, "We don't need the protection of Xiaodonghu City, and we won't give you a grain to fight, you go to fight your own battles." ”

"Who are you?" I glared at him, "Kalinin can't control you at the moment. But after the war, Kalinin will definitely ask you what you say. You'll be out of luck then. ”

"You're going to be out of luck right now." He drew an iron mallet and walked towards me.

"Ivan." The old knight, "Come back." I know this man, and so does the dean. ”

Ivan looked back suspiciously, "Lord Dean said that anyone'''"

"He's a friend of the Dean."

The old knight lifted the iron armor that covered his face, and it was actually Rhodok's Tavi Knight.

"Tavi Knight?" I looked at him puzzled. "Aren't you serving the Romanovs? How did you get here? ”

"Hah, that's a long story. The Romanovs did not like the old man, and felt that he could only eat white rice, but he could not fight. Tevi asked one of his cavalrymen to go back to relieve the siege of the boyars, who were with us, and he walked up, "I almost went back to Rhodoc, but the dean here wants me to serve him for a few years and help him train a group of young men." I thought the dean's proposal was good, so I decided to stay here. ”

"This dean is'''"

"Dean Innocent the Chaste," Tevi said with a resounding title, and when he noticed that my face was twitching, he added, "it's that Tom. Brown. ”

"How can he support a cavalry squad?" I wondered, "Where did he get the money?" ”

"Cavalry squad?" Tevi motioned for me to follow him into the city, "You're underestimating the Dean. ”

We followed the cavalry towards the city.

When I walked into the city, I was immediately startled by the crowd. The inhabitants of this place are almost as crowded as Ivangorod when I first met!

On the edge of the walls sat a number of idle men with their legs crossed, as if waiting to get to work, and every once in a while some artisans would come and bargain with them, and in exchange for pickled radish sticks or bread, they would be hired to mend the roof or unload their goods at the docks. Several Salanders were fighting in the streets because a drunken Salander was insulting the Prophet. A Wikibian baker was moving baskets of bread out of the oven and throwing them on top of the wagon, when a beggar-looking child was caught by the groom and hit him several times in the butt when he reached out to steal the bread. The street was covered with a layer of planks, but it had been trampled and crumbled, and in some places you could still see stone bricks. Or did he occupy a granary full of grain? How can you be so generous, and you can still use stone bricks to pave the floor. A couple of prostitutes grabbed a furrier with a hippie smile. He followed them into the alley, where a priest stood beside them and accused them of depravity, when a prostitute lifted her skirt in front of the priest. When his smooth thighs and something between them were exposed, the priest fled in fright. A Creelian carries more than a dozen large plates of scones on his head, peddling them to everyone he meets along the way. The little buildings all look new, and the wooden houses are not moldy and moss, but they are sticky with mud and look dirty. In the middle of this small wooden house, there is a tavern. It has a strange name written on it, and it seems to be the Big Three or something. The tavern is the most beautiful building in the area, and its lower half is almost entirely made of fine stone. The top half is made of wood and white canvas, and the inside is full of people, and a half-naked woman dances on a table full of men.

"This is the Abbey?" Puzzled, I asked Tavi, "Does Tom worship Satan?" ”

"The dean may be some distance from the main way." Tevi said with some embarrassment. But not to be a disciple of Satan. I'll show you somewhere else. ”

We walked through the liveliest places and came to a relatively quiet place. As we passed through a wooden gate, it seemed that the noise had immediately disappeared, and I was so shocked by what I saw almost as if I was back in the desert at Sim the Great Monastery, where there were many refugees living in haphazard huts or small holes barely heaped out of rags and branches. There was no cheerful expression on the faces of these people. They sat numbly on the ground, while some of them gathered in a group at a distance. In the middle, a chubby man is there handing out free soup, cooked beans, and a kind of crepes mixed with grass leaves.

"There are too many people here." I said to Tevi, "I have seen the Sim of the Salanders, and it is much bigger than this, but it does not feed many more refugees than here. Raising so many people, do you eat mud? ”

"Fortunately, we have a dock where we can get cheap food."

"Docks?"

"When the dean was repairing the dock, many people were tired to death, and it seems that many people thought the dean was an idiot at that time, but now, we have to rely on this dock to survive."

"Who's bringing the food?"

"The Nords, the free city-states, and the pioneers."

"Your farmer just almost killed a pioneer." I pointed to the man behind me. The pioneer grinned.

"It's inevitable," Tyvi's voice was as quiet as a stone, "Fourier came here after the Princes of Denia burned down the workshops and manors outside, saying that he was here to protect us. At that time, the dean was reluctant to open the door, but the inhabitants wanted a team of soldiers to come and protect them. As a result, as soon as Fourier entered the city, he occupied the warehouses and forcibly recruited the inhabitants to help him carry all the grain and cloth. He coerced more than 200 residents to follow him away, and only a hundred were able to return. Before leaving, Fourier also searched for serfs and artisans who had escaped from his domain, and all of them had their ears cut off and their faces burned with the marks of fugitive slaves. He threatened to go to the slave market to auction off these people, and when the dean offered to buy them back, Fourier immediately killed one of the serfs, and said to the dean, 'Tom, dog, my people will not sell them to you when they die.' Now the residents here are generally resentful of outsiders. ”

"Tom didn't do anything?"

"He's getting ready to do something, and it's just getting started." Tevi looked at a small square in the distance, "It's a coincidence that you're here, we're mostly burning heretics these days. ”

"He himself is not so orthodox, and he dares to burn heresy?"

"Because these people are hateful." "A dervishes wandered here and incited the refugees to say that the abbot was demonically possessed, which ended up causing a riot in which more than twenty residents were killed in a brawl. There are also two Adepts, who say they are from another continent and can perform magic, only to be found to be just two Creelians who are good at playing with fire. ”

"All burned?"

"It's they who claim to be able to escape the flames. The dean said that he was sincerely prepared to submit to them, but first he had to test their truth. ”

"What about the men?"

"Burned to ashes."

"Who to burn today?"

"I don't know," said Tevi, a little confused, "a guy who says he's from twenty years later. I thought about it for a long time and didn't think it through. He said that he knew all the calamities that were coming, and that as long as people made him Dean and executed Tom, the powerless Dean, he would be able to take everyone out of danger or something. ”

"It doesn't sound any different from those false prophets."

"No," said Tevi, "the man did not say he was a prophet. He just said that he had experienced a world that we were experiencing, in other words, he knew who of us would die first and who would die later, who would be a warrior and who would be a coward, who would betray and who would hold on, which king would rise and which would fall, which emperor would conquer the world and which would die in the pigsty. ”

"Then he's simply'''"

"Terrible?" "yes, almost like a god." Think about it, if what he said is true, he will know all the stupid and wrong things we will do in the future, and he can even spread rumors about things that do not exist, as long as people believe in him, they will be instigated by him. He's going to say that you and I will slaughter everyone here? What happens to us once someone believes in him? ”

"It's scary."

"So that's where he belongs." Tevi raised the handle of his horsewhip and pointed ahead.

People are surrounding a pile of firewood, and the flames are rising.

A man screamed in despair.

The flames set his clothes on fire, his hair on fire, his eyes burned into a white slurry that flowed out slowly, and his skin turned into black folds.

Black smoke with a foul smell.

Another heretic died in the flames of Lord Innocent. (To be continued.) )