It's been three days since I left the monastery.

Yesterday a group of hungry residents robbed us at dusk, a grain cart and two mules were snatched, and the groom with the cart was stoned in the head. The flour drums and wheat bags in the two trucks were torn apart, and grain was scattered on the ground. In the second half of the night, we had been on the lookout for someone to come and rob, so we didn't sleep well. Fortunately, we will be able to reach the siege of Valankov the next afternoon, and we can go to the camp to rest.

In the early morning, we hastily buried the groom, and scattered all the flour and wheat that we could not take with us on the side of his grave, which was what he was desperately defending.

For the past few days, I've been thinking about Tom's gloomy face before leaving.

Amid the frenzied cheers of the inhabitants, he took the opportunity to propose a plan to form the Oak Knights. The priests of the monastery and most of the soldiers immediately responded, but the inhabitants ran to ask what the knights of Tavi thought. The Tavi Knight said that it was right to establish the Knights, but the angel hadn't told him in his mind whether it was right to do so, so he had to wait a while for the angel's support.

In the end, Tom's Knights recruited only about forty refugees and six inhabitants, which was far from what he had in mind. None of Tavi's boys had joined the Order, and the Oak Knights now had only a few horsemen on horseback. It seems that the army that Tom spoke of without pay and food was the Knights. However, the Order could not have done so without the voluntary and enthusiastic participation of its inhabitants. Now that Tom's plan has fallen through, a knight of unprecedented prestige has appeared in the abbey, and it is not known how Tom is going to end up.

But then again, Tom's plan wasn't useless, and he must have been preparing for it for a long time. In the days since we left, the news of the angel's arrival on the sword in the stone has spread across the vast plains around the monastery, and almost all the settlements and monasteries have residents who cannot hold back, and go to the monastery alone or with their families and possessions to join Abbot Innocent. In a large monastery, the bishop stationed there sent all the priests to cry out at the junction. The news that said that the sword in the stone is not reliable. Suppressed rumors often mean the truth, and the inhabitants went to the monastery in groups. It has long been heard that Abbot Innocent's monastery received food aided by God, and that crystal clear food was spread all over the ground every night. You can only eat two meals and disappear into thin air, and there will be another one the next day. These rumors have been around for a long time, and it's hard to say that they weren't Tom's handiwork.

Even when we get so close to Varykov, we encounter cloaked travelers, one at the head holding a wooden cross, followed by many ragged but fanatical-eyed civilians. If you count the time, this rumor has spread even before the performance of the sword in the stone has begun. Tom's only regret may be that he wasn't 'chosen' to draw the sword in the stone. I wonder if Tom's plan succeeds. What name will he give himself? 'Angel Sword Innocent'? 'Innocent, Lord of the Sword in the Stone'? "God's Blade Innocent"? Of course, people now talk about 'Angel Knight Tyvi'.

As we were leaving, we saw Tevi washing the sword in the pool, and he said it smelled strange and couldn't say anything was wrong.

Elon said, grabbing the stubble on his chin. "Actually, it's okay, how can it smell so bad."

After we had been plundered by the inhabitants, we quickened our pace, and by noon we could see the foggy siege of Valankov in the distance.

One of the horsemen who came to meet him said that Kalinin had recently built a tower to observe the movements in the city. Giovanni began to periodically burn water fodder in the city of Varykov. It made Varankov a miasma of smoke above him, and he couldn't see anything from the tower. The nearest barracks to us was separated only by a pontoon bridge, which was built on the edge of a shoal, and was so flat and wide that two carts could cross the river side by side. We saw a group of horsemen on the riverbank, about seventy men. Now they were lying down by the river with their robes open, and their horses were tethered to one side in a burnt grove, where only the trunks of the burned trees remained, and the darkness reached to the sky. It is said that Giovanni had arrived here during his last breakout. The battle broke out on the banks of the river, and Giovanni's infantry relied on the dense forest, making it completely impossible for the cavalry of the Council to deploy, and the Valans nearly routed the pursuing soldiers. Kalinin then ordered the people to light a fire upwind and set the woods on fire. The battle lasted two hours, and most of Giovanni's troops crossed the river, leaving only the troops holding the banks of the pontoon bridge still fighting desperately. At this time, after defeating a cavalry from Fort Ryazan, Giovanni was forced to retreat to the other side of the river to relieve the almost encircled bridgehead army.

After this battle, Kalinin ordered the burning of all the dense forests within a dozen miles of the siege, even the woods on this side of the river. At first, Kalinin had such a plan, but the princes felt that it was impossible for Giovanni to force his way across the river under their noses, and it was not until their armed farmer was beaten all over the ground by Giovanni that they realized that a guy like Giovanni really could do anything.

After the battle, Giovanni lost some of his soldiers, but retreated to the city relatively intact. In the army outside the city, where people are not evenly matched, the contradictions that already existed have once again emerged. The people were hostile to Kalinin, and also to the Berk mercenaries hired by Kalinin. Among the soldiers, everyone generally felt that the Valans were half Wikibians, and no matter how fierce they were, it was also a game between the princes, but when they joined the Burkes, the soldiers felt very angry. A few years ago, the Burks had stuck the Wikibians on top of pointed stakes in the river. However, this Berk mercenary army did not make this contradiction more aggravated, they were just soldiers who fought with money, even if Kalinin ordered them to go to the Riverland to attack the Berk fortress at this time, as long as the money and food were sufficient, they would not hesitate to launch an attack on their compatriots.

I imagined that the fierce battle between the two sides did not take place, and I was in front of a large lifeless besieged camp.

The place where Kalinin was responsible for defending was far from here, on the other side of Varankov. There was a battalion of infantry from Fort Ryazan stationed here, and these soldiers, who seemed to have just finished eating, sat silently in front of the piles of bonfires, propped up their shelves with three sticks, and hung their helmets to boil water to drink. Fort Ryazan was now a marital alliance of the Romanovs, who were arranged to guard the pontoon bridge. It is also a sign of Kalinin's trust in them.

After we informed that the food had arrived, the soldiers of Fort Ryazan began to remove the wooden fences at both ends of the pontoon bridge.

After the fence had left, the horsemen, who had been resting, suddenly stood up and asked their squires to untie their horses. War horses and cavalry made a mess of the river beach. The crowd was noisy and crowded, making it impossible for our bulky grain carts to get close. This cavalry, which was under the direct command of the Ivangelod Council, demanded to cross the river first. Their captain quarreled with the boyar, and after arguing for a while, he ignored our boyar, and blew the trumpet. The cavalrymen had finished lining up on the river beach, and when they heard the sound of the trumpets, they went silently towards the pontoon, and the roar of the countless horses' hooves trampling the ground made our boyar give up, and he pulled open his trousers, spilled a soak of urine, and yelled. So he walked back, sulking as he sat down.

It took a while for the cavalry to cross the river, and their screes pushed their booty slowly. During this time, the soldiers of Ryazan Fort did not say a word, and all of them were watching the excitement. Let the Romanovs suffer. It is the pleasure of all parliamentary soldiers.

The camp was littered with black tents, which were barely visible to have been made of white or yellow cloth in the past, but now stained with blood, soup, and mud, and looked as dirty as the brushes of horses. Some soldiers slept in tents, others gambled together. A group of shirtless soldiers are jogging their wrists. A group of men gathered around the two strongest soldiers, two soldiers half-kneeling, elbows propped up on a stump, their faces almost purple, and a crowd of onlookers said that they had been in a stalemate for half an hour, and still did not decide the winner. Passing by the camp of the soldiers of the Ryazan Fort. We said goodbye to the grain wagons and went to the quartermaster's camp, while we rounded the siege of Vlaankov to Kalinin's garrison. When I got to the army, the boyars beside me looked at me more closely. As if afraid that I would slip into another camp.

Next to the soldiers of the Ryazan fort was the garrison of the soldiers of the former city of Denia. It was now manned by a patchwork of soldiers, either assembled hunters, armed farmers, or squires from the various city guards, all of whom were unevenly equipped, some with only sharpened wooden sticks, and even a group of women in the camp. These women have a feminine and lascivious look in their eyes, and it's hard to believe that they're just a bunch of washerwomen. A half-blind old man was gambling on a bunch of dumbfounded soldiers, his fingers nimble as he repeatedly moved a small pebble through three empty cups, and finally slammed the table so that the soldiers could guess which one had a pebble underneath. A soldier who had lost seven times in a row finally couldn't help but wonder, and after guessing wrong again, he immediately opened the other two cups, only to have them empty underneath. The soldier broke the bridge of the old man's nose with a direct punch and snatched back his lost pants and shoes, and in this space, the surrounding soldiers immediately accused the old man of going out of thousands and rushed into his tent and looted it. The old man was knocked unconscious to the ground, his head was trampled into the mud, and he remained motionless for a long time.

Varykov is already at hand.

I could even faintly see a figure shaking above the walls--- it was the Valan soldiers!

This is an excellent soldier in East Vekia and in the world!

I tried to hide my excitement and rode my horse and stared coldly at Valankov's scarred walls. Many of the people around me were digging ditches, sticking stakes into the ground and aiming them at the walls. Beneath the walls, there were very few pointed stakes left of the Valans, and in the midst of countless repeated charges, the Kalinin men had almost dismantled these defenses. Kalinin burned the gates of the Valans twice, once into the outer city of Valankov, sent soldiers to climb the walls of Valankov countless times, and deliberately lit the powder keg for many nights so that the Valankov soldiers could not sleep, but he still did not take Valankov! I felt a strong sense of pride that after all this siege, Valankov was still standing.

Passing through the old camp of Denia, there was an abandoned stone quarry, where no one was stationed, because it was a gentle slope, and if the Valan soldiers had broken through here, they would have to crawl for more than an hour. to reach the highest point, where they are awaited by three towers facing each other. The Valans either chose to attack the tower with blood, or they passed through it quickly, and the hundreds of crossbowmen inside the tower could shoot at every corner with ease.

We were a little closer to the walls of Valankov for a while. A Valan soldier suddenly threw a short spear that stabbed like a powerful dagger into the ground less than six yards next to my mount. The attack almost scared me into rolling off my horse from the other side. We had to distance ourselves from the walls. Here there were traces of blackened flames, and several dead men were tied to the wall, with a huge wooden nail stuck behind their backs, and one of the soldiers who accompanied us said that it was the Valanites who had fallen down with ropes at night and nailed the captives to it.

Almost every soldier I met would try not to look at the walls of Varankov. They've already had too many setbacks there and don't want to look at that again.

After passing through the camp of Dadonghu City and a group of archers from the demoralized Chude City. We arrived at the camp in Little East Lake City.

The camp of Xiaodonghu City was divided into two parts, one part was the recruited citizens of Xiaodonghu City and the troops of the subordinate boyars, and the number was very large, and they directly blocked the main gate of Valankov. On the edge of Little East Lake City is the Burke mercenaries. Kalinin seems to have felt that it would be better to put mercenaries in a place that he could directly control.

Boyar and I, who accompanied me, were briefed. Walked into the camp.

Here he said goodbye to me, saying that his mission was complete and that I could go to his manor in the northern part of Little East Lake City to find him, or go directly to the monastery and find her at his cousin's residence. He went to Kalinin's tent first and handed Kalinin a handwritten letter written by Yuri.

After Copernicus and I dismounted. Someone brought us water and boiled beef, which smelled of blood. The Kugit and I had no difficulty eating it, but the Copernicus and the Pioneers had a little difficulty eating it.

"Where does the river at the gate of Valankov lead?" Copernicus asked me.

"That's a tributary of the Ryazan River." I replied, "The Valankovs used this to blockade the Ryazan River and extort passing merchant ships. ”

"Oh." Copernicus said. "Can big ships enter this tributary?"

"Can't get in." I replied, "Don't even think about it." If the big ship had come in, Giovanni would have run away. ”

Copernicus nodded and said no more. When Iyu saw that Copernicus had no meat, he took it away. He used a dagger to cut strips of meat into strands and chewed them so hard that his hands and lips were covered with reddish gravy.

We waited an hour before a messenger came and let us in.

Passing past a group of Valan veterans guarding Kalinin, I arrived in front of Kalinin's tent, for whom I did not know why I had an instinctive disgust.

When the Varan soldiers saw me, no one came up to greet me, they just sat silent, watching the movements of the surrounding barracks, occasionally glancing blankly at the besieged Valankov.

When entering Kalinin's tent, Alexei walked out. The happy and kind expression had disappeared from his face, and he did not say a word, his face was thin and sunken, his beard was not very clean, and his pale skin made the stubble look very piercing.

If I could talk about Kalinin without feelings, I can only be grateful to Alexei.

"Alexey." I greeted him.

He only looked at me, nodded coldly, without a smile, and then he left Kalinin's tent. Kalinin has already told him everything? Otherwise, why doesn't he seem to know me?

I walked into Kalinin's tent.

Kalinin sat behind a simple desk and looked at me like a traitor.

There is only contempt and contempt in the eyes.

"Who do you think you are?" He asked, "Victor." ”

"I'm Timmy, Lord Kalinin."

"You want me to let Giovanni live?"

"It's also to give yourself a way out." I said to him, "The day Giovanni dies, you will be the next Giovanni." ”

"Who told you that?"

"It's obvious. And you, unlike Giovanni, he only wants to possess Varankov, your target is much bigger than his, and there will only be more people who hate you. ”

Kalinin looked at the letter again.

"You go down first." He waved his hand and asked the attendant to take us away, "I will summon you when I want to look for you." ”

"Yes, sir. But please do so as soon as possible. ”

"What are you anxious about?" Kalinin looked at me with that kind of gaze that saw through the soul of a person, "Didn't you tell Yuri that it was impossible for me to storm Valankov?" ”

"I mean, you can't storm it. Occupying Valankov, naturally, is not difficult, and I estimate that Giovanni will not be able to survive either. I said to him, "But if you don't want to hear the news of the siege of Little East Lake after you have captured it, and you have only one or two thousand disabled soldiers at hand." I think you'll take my opinion into account: send me to Giovanni. ”

Kalinin no longer answered me.

His attendants politely sent me away.