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'Chapter 113

Winter was almost over, but the weather changed suddenly, and a sudden heavy snow fell on the northern borders of the Byzantine Empire, and the heavy snow lasted for three days, blocking the roads and crushing the bridges in many places. The inability to circulate goods has caused prices to soar in some areas, and in this cold winter season, the soaring price of grain has greatly increased the pressure on many poor families.

But these problems seem to be too far away from the nobles. When a heavy snow comes, the nobles are busy holding various open-air banquets, riding horses and hunting in the snow, and enjoying the beautiful snow scenes, while those noble ladies and noble ladies are happily taking the opportunity to display their latest rare fur clothes.

Char, along with the caravan of fellow Gallens Chamber of Commerce, was plagued by road blockages and was stranded in Merika, the capital of Armenian County.

The Armenian county was already close to the imperial capital, Osgilia, and administratively, it was not under the jurisdiction of the imperial zhōngyāng, but a Tema military district. The military district consists of the county capital, Merika City, and six surrounding small cities, as well as dozens of villages and towns, with a population of more than half a million. Moreover, geographically, the Armenian Military District is the closest to the imperial capital Osgiria, and the city of Merika is also the third largest city in the empire, and in terms of the strength ranking of the forty-six Tema military districts of the empire, the Armenian military district is also firmly in the top three.

The Armenian Military Region is also the first batch of military districts since the establishment of the imperial Tema Military Region system, and the current Armenian Governor-General, General Hughes, is the real power of the imperial side, the Armenian Military Region fell into the hands of his family more than 70 years ago, and has never been handed over since then, and has been passed down for three generations.

After seventy years of operation, Armenia, like most of the other military districts of the empire, clearly looked more like a state within a state, and the Governor-General, General Hughes, not only had in his hands more than 50,000 peasant soldiers under the imperial tema system, but more importantly, had developed a standing army of its own, a corps of 20,000 men - of course, this corps did not exist in the roster of the imperial military headquarters, and still retained the name of "peasant soldiers of a certain military district" - This is also the case with most military districts.

It can be said that if you want to talk about the territory of the empire, among so many military districts, which military region worries the emperor the most, then the Armenian military district can definitely be ranked first!

It's too close to the capital territory of the capital city of Osgiria!!

The capital territory of the empire was centered on Dìdū Osgilia, plus the six Acropolis of Dìdū and the surrounding area of about 1,000 square kilometers of land. And from the city of Merica, at the speed of the rapid march of the army, if everything goes well, it will only take a maximum of three days to form an army under the city of Osgilia!!

Coupled with the fact that under the Tema Military Region system, these warlords and the empire zhōngyāngzhèngfǔ were at odds with each other, so how did the emperors of the past dynasties feel at ease?

The Armenian Military District has an iron ore area of extremely high mineral quality, and this iron ore was discovered 60 years ago, and as a result, this discovery directly led to the prosperity of the family of Governor Hughes! The possession of land, population, and rich iron ore have almost tripled the strength of the Armenian Military District! There is even a saying that the infantry of the Armenian Military District wears better armor than the standing corps of the Empire.

The best armor and weaponry in all of Byzantium is produced here! and the production is staggering. Because of such an advantage, the family of the governor of the Armenian Military Region is considered to be the core figure of the military warlord party in the entire empire, and various armor weapons produced in Armenia are often sold to other military districts and become the core force of this warlord party.

※※※The current Governor Hughes, even if he is in the top ten in the imperial side, such a character will naturally not come to meet a small person like Char.

Although Char arrived in Merika City the day after he arrived, the Hughes family's all-pervasive surveillance network of three generations of Merika City had already discovered the arrival of the empire's new and most influential figures. When entering the city, Char's access document revealed his identity.

However, after the news was reported to the Governor's Palace, Governor Hughes did not have any intention of meeting this "imperial hero". Only then did the agents of the Doge's Palace in Merika get an order: don't provoke that guy and let him cross the border smoothly.

It's a pity that because of the heavy snow blocking the road, Char and the others lived in Merika City for a few years.

The snowy scenery in the suburbs flocked to the aristocrats, but the city was a different story.

The snow on the road turned into black mud after being trampled by the carriages and horses, and it looked dirty, and everywhere the snow melted and turned into mud puddles, and occasionally the carriages passed by, and the dirty water splashed by the wheels would be sprinkled on the bodies of passers-by.

The price of grain had risen considerably, and although the Governor had ordered the release of the grain reserves and the prohibition of the hoarding of goods by the grain merchants, the price of bread had risen by forty per cent, and the price of meat had doubled, and although Armenia was rich in iron ore, it was not the main grain producing area of the empire in itself, and animal husbandry was not well developed. In peacetime, some of the grain in the military region has to be trafficked from other places.

In general, the Governor's family has been successful for three generations of Merika City, at least there are not many beggars in the city who have frozen to death and starved to death.

However, because of the heavy snow blocking the road, Char and others were not the only people who were trapped in the Armenian city, and many other caravans from the north and south were trapped here - that's all. After all, people who go out to do business are often quite peaceful.

But this time, in Merika City, there are also many mercenaries and samurai teams.

Because just after the opening of the chūn, in dìdū osgilia, there will be an annual competitive competition, and throughout the Byzantine Empire, as long as you are from the Byzantine Empire and have an official samurai rank title, you can sign up for such a grand event.

This is an ancient tradition of the Byzantine Empire for thousands of years, legend has it that at the beginning of the empire, such a grand event was held, just to promote the martial style of the empire, the earliest competition event, just let the warriors sign up for the competition, and finally there will be a group of winners with outstanding records, you can get the reception of His Majesty the Emperor himself and get some honorary badges, as well as a rich reward, and there have even been examples of becoming famous for participating in such a grand event, becoming a court warrior hired by the imperial palace.

And after thousands of years of imperial history, the tradition of this grand event has been preserved, but the tricks have been renovated a hundred times.

In the arena, the original original samurai individual competition was retained, and at the same time, team battles were developed, and the two sides of the competition were no longer individual samurai, but groups were allowed to participate! In the arena, in front of the eyes of tens of thousands of spectators, and in the cheers and shouts of tens of thousands of people, the two groups faced each other, and all kinds of warriors of different professions appeared, including melee samurai, swordsmen, axemen, and even archers and assassins...... And so on, such a competition is no longer a simple contest of individual martial arts, but also must test the cooperation of the group and the skills of collective combat.

Often, in a competition, the losing side will suffer heavy casualties and even be slaughtered on the spot! But the reward for the victorious side is also extremely amazing!

And in addition to the confrontation between people, there is also a confrontation between humans and beasts that are even more bloody!

Crazy bulls, lions, tigers, leopards, hungry wolves...... Later, it even developed to the point that the captured monsters were directly thrown into the arena to fight against the samurai who signed up for the competition!

And the rules of the game are becoming more and more cruel and bloody! Before the start of the competition, all applicants must sign a life and death contract, and once they walk on the arena, after the game starts, when the floodgates of the arena fall, it is a situation of endless death! Only the surviving victor can ask to open the gate and end the game!!

In recent years, the bloodiness of the game has even reached a heinous level.

Some convicted prisoners can also be allowed to participate in such competitions, and once you have won enough games, you can receive an amnesty signed by the Chief Administrator of the Empire for any serious crime!

And there are some slaves who, if they can become victors in such a grand competition, will also receive the body of zìyóu!

By now, there have been many professional samurai teams in the empire who make a living from competitions, these teams recruit brave samurai, organize in the city, train hard in Pingrìli, and flock to dìdū every year to participate in such competitions, once they win, they will gain fame and fortune, and once they fail...... It's just a corpse in the arena, dragged down by the soldiers.

There were also slave traders who sold in able-bodied slaves from all over the country, hired samurai to train, and then signed up for competitions, and if they won, the slave traders could receive a large prize money, and the slaves could receive zìyóu bodies.

At the same time, the industry of gambling triggered by this ancient competition has also become a source of evil...... At this time, it is less than a month before the annual Osgilia Athletic Competition, and many of the warrior teams that have crossed the border have been trapped in Merika City because of the heavy snow.

There are also some famous samurai groups that participate in the competition all year round, and in previous years, they have formed a life-and-death hatred at the competition, which has accumulated more and more...... There are also some who have no hatred in the first place, but after hearing about the fame of the opposing samurai team, it is inevitable that some people will be ruthless and take the opportunity to kill potential competitors first...... Therefore, in the past few days, the law and order situation in Merika City has been almost chaotic, and the soldiers patrolling the city have been busy running back and forth, fighting, and even picking for revenge.

Although the patrolling soldiers have tried their best to suppress it, these samurai teams and mercenary groups that lick blood on the blades live by playing with their lives, and in the face of these soldiers, the deterrent power is inevitably very small, and there are even a few particularly strong samurai regiments, and they also fought hard with the soldiers who maintain order, and then left Merika City in chaos.

Anyway, the suburbs are cold and snowy, and the pursuers in the city will not chase too fiercely, so they will find a small village to hide and leave when the weather improves.

In the evening, they were eating and drinking in the hall downstairs of the hotel, and after eating and drinking for less than a moment, they heard a shouting and shouting from the side, and then there was the sound of breaking the table and plates, and after a few words of scolding and scolding each other across the table, the two groups of people who were obviously samurai sitting in the distance shouted and cursed each other across the table, and soon stood up with a hula, and rushed to pull out their swords and weapons and pounced.

"Alas, it's the third time today. Char sighed, picked up the bottle and poured two sips, and sat there watching the battle.

The boss and his fellows in the inn had already been so frightened that they got behind the counter, and the boss was lying under the table, his face was full of fat and trembling, and he heard the sound of the table and chairs smashing, and the sound of the dishes smashing, and his flesh hurt even more, but he could only lie behind the counter and pray in his heart.

The Landis had already quickly gathered together, surrounding Gu Luo and the others in the middle, and they didn't know how many times they had seen this kind of scene in the past few days, but everyone was not alarmed, but just kept a distance to watch.

The first time he encountered this kind of scene a few days ago, Char was still very curious to watch, but after watching it for three days, he lost his initial interest, but there was another reason to attract him to watch the battle:

In these samurai teams, there are really hidden dragons and crouching tigers, and there are quite a few guys with strong martial arts and unique characteristics!

Char himself knows his own skills very well, his biggest ability now is the crimson murderous aura and the dragon thorn, the crimson murderous aura can also be used as a regular combat power, but the dragon thorn is used once, that is, it is basically exhausted at one time, and if you can't kill the other party, you will be finished.

As for the tricks, the only thing he knows is a set of "Breaking and Killing a Thousand Troops" passed down by the old man! This set of martial arts is naturally an extremely powerful skill, but Dora in the pendant told Char that although this set of Breaking and Killing Thousand Armies is powerful, it is obviously a group combat technique! That is to say, this set of martial arts is very suitable for group killing on the battlefield. But if it is a one-on-one battle, it is enough to encounter ordinary enemies, but when encountering some strong enemies, this kind of group combat martial arts is inevitably a little insufficient.

In the Thousand Armies of Destruction, the most common move is the group kill technique, that is, a combo that is swung out and the attack area covers a piece, but if you encounter a one-on-one situation, such a move is lacking in speed, attack power and defense.

Originally, Char didn't care, but Dora's words convinced Char.

"If you have learned a powerful martial art seriously, then if you meet Hastings again, you will be able to support him for at least a few rounds! Even if you cast a dragon thorn, it will only hurt him, and you yourself will definitely die. ”

Martial arts ...... Where did you learn it?

When encountering enemies before, he relied on Char's physical strength, and used his body's instinctive quick reaction, strength, and speed to contend with it, and when he encountered ordinary enemies, he naturally had the upper hand - Dora's evaluation of this was very mean: "You don't talk about routines at all, and you just have a lot of power and a small power." If you really meet a master, people will see your weakness, and a sword can make you lie down!"

But there is no place to learn serious martial arts...... Although Dora seems to be very knowledgeable and knows a lot, she is a dragon after all, and she can't do human martial arts.

As for other people I know, Sharpa and other friends, their martial arts skills are not as good as Char's...... Hastings is one, but could Hastings come to take him as an apprentice?

General Adric's martial arts skills should be quite good, but it may not be feasible for him to teach himself, after all, people have to lead troops to fight. Seeing these samurai groups fighting indiscriminately, Char suddenly had a little bit of a desire to steal learning.

In the past, I have seen a lot of mercenaries fighting in Wildfire Town, but most of the mercenaries are also from wild roads! But these samurai groups in front of them are all serious samurai! They have been practicing martial arts for many years, and then their biggest goal is to compete! Among these people, most of them are skilled in martial arts, and after a few days, there are actually quite a few masters!

Putting aside the actual combat, if you simply look at the skills, I'm afraid that if you pull out any one, you will be much better than yourself.

At this moment, seeing that the two groups of people were fighting together, he suddenly heard an angry roar, and saw a samurai wearing black sè leather armor jumping up, flipped his hand, and a sword light shè went out, and immediately the enemy in front of him covered his throat and blood gushed out from the gap between his fingers and fell.

The blade of this black-armored warrior shines with a fighting light, obviously reaching the level of a middle-level warrior, but the sword skills are ruthless and poisonous, the sword shadow is repeated, as long as the wrist is slightly shaken, it can shake out a ball of sword flowers, making people unable to see the real and false, every sword stabbed out, can always illuminate the enemy's vital points and weaknesses, and the tip of the sword can always pierce through the gap in the opponent's armor, and in less than a moment, five or six opponents fell in front of him.

Such ingenious sword skills made Char look excited, he couldn't help but pick up a dinner fork in front of him and gesture back and forth, but obviously the ability to shake out the sword shadow is a wrist skill, where can he learn it for a while, just staring at the person with wide eyes.

Seeing an enemy with an axe swing his axe and slash down, the black-armored warrior used a sword blade to block the opponent's slash, and the blade slid down against the side of the axe blade, and after a bloody light, it cut off the opponent's three fingers!

Seeing this, Char couldn't help but blurt out: "Good !!"

This shout is broken. Originally, the black-armored warrior group had already won a steady victory, and the more than ten people of the opponent had already been beaten down, as soon as he heard this applause, the black-armored warrior Huo Ran turned his head and stared at Char with a face full of hostility.

Char's behavior at the moment is really a little unusual. Others were fighting to the death, but Char was surrounded by a group of Rantis warriors with bows and arrows on their backs, and his uncle sat upright, steady, with a wine bottle in his hand...... The black-armored warrior snorted heavily, and walked over slowly with his sword, and there was blood slowly dripping from the tip of the sword, and he came to Xia Ya's front about seven or eight steps before he stopped, and at this moment his companions also gathered over, glaring at Char angrily, and some of them were ready to continue the fight without saying a word.

"This Excellency seems to be a samurai as well. The black-armored samurai sneered, his eyes swept over those Lantis: "It's just that I haven't heard that samurai from other countries are allowed to participate in this year's competition, right? ”

Char put down the wine bottle in his hand, sighed, and said with a smile: "I've been watching it for three days, and this fight today is the best!

The black-armored warrior's face sank, and he shouted angrily: "Jīng Cai, it turns out that we fought to the death, and in the eyes of Your Excellency, we were like watching a play?!"

Char scratched his head: "This ...... I'm going to eat well, and you're going to fight by yourself, can't I take a look at it from the side? Can't you just let Lao Tzu blindfold yourself as soon as you fight? It's not a woman's bare ass, what's so unsightly?"

As soon as he said this, the other party was immediately speechless, although the turtle's words were rude, but it made people unable to answer: In the public, you are going to fight, are you not allowed to be watched?

The black-armored samurai was obviously not a person who was good at words, so he simply slashed the sword in his hand and said coldly: "My name is Alfrecat, the leader of the Wolf Tooth Warrior Regiment! I look like you are also a samurai, and I want to go to dìdū to participate in the competition, if you haven't heard my name, then I don't mind making a good impression on you today! Tell me your name, Samurai! Let me see if you have the ability to match your arrogant face!"

Before Char could speak, Dotara next to him had already jumped up -- this was the time to show loyalty, how could Dotara let go of such an opportunity? And although the other party was fierce, the magician knew what his master was capable of! With no fear, no danger, this kind of moment, as a competent dog, it is really a godsend!

"Blind your dog's eyes!" The magician stood up, but shrank beside Char and did not dare to move forward, pointing at the black-armored warrior Alfrecat and shouting: "How can we adults have the same identity as you! Joke! We are fierce generals of the army, where are you warriors who are qualified to challenge? Hmph! Challenge our family? I think you are impatient! Do you know who our family adults are? Do you think you can fight with both hands and no one in your eyes? How is your swordsmanship better than that of Oodin Hasting! Hmph, Hastings were seriously injured in front of our family and fled! Are you more powerful than Hasting? You dare to challenge our family!!"