Imperial Crown

A country road in the west of the Iron Birch Region.

The sky was gloomy, and the drizzle kept falling.

For tourists strolling in the garden, this might be a wonderful sight.

You can hear the crisp sound of the drizzle hitting the leaves, the sound of frogs faintly heard in the silent rain, and the clear bird calls that occasionally sounded and echoed in the valley.

But for the soldiers escorting logistical supplies for the front-line troops, it was a completely different story.

David was one of them.

As a child of a serf in an unknown village in the South Gordon River Region, it was the first time for him to walk such a long distance.

The leather boots on his feet had been soaked by rain, covered with mud on the outside and filled with rainwater inside, making a puffing sound with every step.

He had to spend much more effort than usual to pull the boots out of the mud instead of leaving them in.

David hated this situation and hated the man-eating devil named Raven.

If he hadn't started the war, he wouldn't have to leave his hometown and walk in such a rotten land.

"Be energetic! Speed ​​up, there is a village ahead, let's go there to rest!"

The knight in front shouted loudly, and the sound made David's heart rise with a flame of desire.

Village!

A hot stove, a soft bed, and a pot of freshly cooked soup and bread.

The road under his feet didn't seem so difficult to walk.

However, as a farmer's son, the closer he got to the village, the more strange he felt.

Why haven't the farmlands on both sides of the road been harvested yet?

The golden ears of wheat are about to bury their heads in the ground.

The rain at this time is the most annoying. If you don't harvest it early, more than half of the food will rot in the ground.

He didn't dwell on this issue for too long, because the village he had been thinking about was finally here.

The knight went to the two-story wooden building of the village chief's house, and the soldiers were assigned to the homes of the villagers in the village.

The 10-man team was received by a kind old woman wearing a yellowed linen dress and a headscarf.

"Poor you, come in and sit down." The old woman smiled and let them in: "Wait a moment, I'll make soup for you."

David and his comrades walked into the house.

As Eivor people, the layout here reminded him of home.

The same empty house, loess ground, and black stove.

The firewood was a little wet, and smoke came out when it was put into the stove, but fortunately the heat also rose.

David took off his leather armor, put his leather boots on the side of the stove to roast, stretched out his wrinkled feet to the front of the stove, and enjoyed the warm feeling.

Ten pairs of stinky feet were roasted in front of the stove, and the smell was really enough to make people cover their noses, but David didn't care about it at the moment.

It was so comfortable!

The cold and wet feet were gradually dried, and the coldness in the bones was dispelled. The sour feeling made people want to moan.

"Ah..."

David adjusted his posture to make himself more comfortable, and was about to fall asleep in a daze.

At this moment, the comrades around him suddenly became chaotic. David straightened up and looked up, and his eyes were suddenly straight.

Someone brought a big pot of stew.

But the focus is not on the food, but on the person who brought the food.

The person who just received them was obviously an old woman, but now it came out to be a very plump woman.

Her skin was a little rough and a little dark, but in the eyes of David, who was born a serf, it was not a shortcoming, but a symbol of vitality.

On that oval face, the features were regular and generous, the eyelashes were long, the eyes seemed to be able to speak, the plump lips were open, and the voice was full of energy:

"Everyone come and have something to eat."

The slender fingers put the big pot of stew on the table, and then served it out in bowls. When she lowered her head, the fullness of her chest was almost ready to burst out, and the body fragrance emanating from her body made David's heart beat faster.

The young woman delivered the stew to the soldiers one by one. If someone was brave enough to touch her hand, she would not be angry, but just giggled, and her dimples were exposed.

David was even bolder and directly grabbed her palm and kneaded it carefully.

It was so soft and hot, even hotter than the bowl of stew.

The young woman pulled her hand out without a trace.

David stared at her while putting his mouth to the edge of the bowl and sucked it.

It was hot and there was a hint of burnt smell, but on such a rainy day, in a country house, what else could you pursue?

"I say, why are there only women here? Where are the men?" David asked.

"The men, including my husband, have been conscripted." The young woman did not hide it.

"No wonder no one is picking up the crops in your fields." David lowered his voice: "If we take the food from your fields for your family..."

The young woman smiled slightly: "Then I can let you take over my husband's duties."

This sentence immediately aroused David's heart.

They are logistics troops and it is impossible for them to stay here, but it is still possible to say some cheap words and cheat some benefits.

Suddenly, a sound of knocking on the table was heard along with the call.

"Then, can I advance a little?" David continued: "I heard that the women in Tiehua District are particularly good at dancing."

"Then you have to beat the rhythm for me." The young woman did not refuse.

The soldiers began to knock on the table rhythmically.

The young woman began to dance.

Her dress was flying, and the buttons on her chest seemed to be loose. She jumped and jumped with the movements, ready to come out.

David slapped the table with his left hand, while holding a bowl in his right hand and slurping stew into his mouth, his eyes fell on the young woman's chest, waist and buttocks from time to time.

Gradually indulge in it.

Maybe my eyes were moving too fast and my head was a little dizzy.

Boom.

The head of a man next to him fell on the table.

"Hey, you're not drinking, why are you pretending to be dizzy?" David teased, but suddenly found that his tongue was numb.

While he was speaking, two more people fell down. One person rolled under the table and knocked over the wooden bowl with his arm, spilling the hot stew all over.

This is so wrong.

"No!" David held the table and tried to stand up:

"The food... is poisonous!!!"

But he still slipped under the table.

With a clang, the bowl in David's hand fell to the ground. He felt that his breathing began to be a little difficult, and the scene in front of him began to blur.

"Why……"

The young woman still had a smile on her face: "Ask my husband."

Those were the last words David heard before he passed out.

The 10-person team all fainted in the room. The old woman at the beginning came out, and together with the young woman, they pulled the legs of these people and carried them outside.

Every household is doing the same thing.

The logistics team of 500 people disappeared silently. Even the leading knight had his armor stripped off and was pulled out of the village chief's house.

The skinny village chief cut off the knight's head with his own hands.

Even in the rain, the scarlet blood was still conspicuous.

The young woman followed the example of the village chief and placed David's head on the wooden pier used for cutting firewood, then picked up the sharpened ax in the corner.

This was her first time doing this kind of work.

The village chief came over: "Do you need help?"

"No, someone has to do this." The young woman rolled up her sleeves, which still had scars burned by the fire.

That was the memorial left to her by Faraday's army.

The young woman swung the ax high and struck down hard.

With a thud, the ax blade fell on the wooden pillar, and David's head flew out with a cloud of blood.

The light rain is getting heavier.

In the heavy rain, there was a constant thumping sound.

…

Five days later, it rained heavily.

Sighing Under the high wall, Marquis Faraday was in his tent, staring blankly at a pile of documents.

His fat face was taut, and the blue bags under his eyes looked like two fat worms.

It has been 10 days since Raven arrived.

From the moment he arrived, Marquis Faraday seemed to be under some kind of curse, with bad news coming one after another.

The first is the rain.

From the second day after Raven arrived, it rained continuously.

The soil mountain was poured into mud, and the attack on the Sighing Wall had to be suspended.

Faraday couldn't organize a large-scale attack in this weather.

He could only watch helplessly as Raven slowly erected camps and reinforced fortifications, and he had to always be on guard against harassment from the Wind King Raiven's troops.

The second point is the loss of human life.

I don’t know what happened, but the teams sent out to collect grain and serfs have suffered a lot recently, and many people were never heard from again after they were sent out.

So far, more than 2,000 soldiers have been lost, including 6 knights.

The third point is similar to the second point, that is...

"Sir!" A knight pushed open the curtain of the big tent and brought in the moist and cool air:

"We know the whereabouts of those missing. They did suffer misfortune, but we also caught the murderer!"

"Oh?" Marquis Faraday raised his head, a trace of relief flashed in his eyes.

The third problem he faced was poor logistics.

The road from the South Gordon River Region to the Tiehua Region is difficult to travel, so the logistics supply is basically a slow-flow model.

There are a total of about 20,000 people and 43 logistics teams, continuously delivering supplies here.

In the past half month, nine logistics teams have disappeared, with a total of more than 4,000 people.

The original article can be found in Liu#9@书/吧!

No one can be seen alive, and no body can be seen dead.

The personnel were still second, those guys who couldn't go to the battlefield in the first place, but the material losses gave Faraday a headache.

100,000 crossbow arrows, 12,000 sets of cotton-padded clothes for the winter, and a full 3 million pounds of grain.

"Tell me more about it," Faraday said.

"Yes!" The knight saluted and said, "We were ordered to investigate the news along the road. When we passed a village, we went inside to rest. They actually poisoned us!"

"Fortunately, we were alert enough at the time and noticed it. We killed the resisters on the spot and captured a few tongues."

"One of the girls is pretty good. Do you want to interrogate her personally?"

Faraday immediately said: "Bring it up!"

The knight was already ready to show off his merits. He clapped his hands and someone escorted a young woman in immediately.

The young woman was still wearing peasant clothes. Although she had been given a bath in advance to please Faraday, her slightly rough and dark skin could not be faked.

The clothes were somewhat torn, half-covering and half-exposing her plump body, and there were still traces of flames on her tied arms.

She was the young woman who chopped off David's head.

Of course, Faraday didn't know this.

He licked his lips, a hint of lust rising in his eyes.

The girls he usually plays with are very delicate, and this style is rare; and he hasn’t touched a woman in the military camp for a long time.

Waving his hand to let others go out, Faraday walked up to the young woman, pinched her chin, and asked casually:

"You are the one who killed my soldiers?"

He thought the young woman would tremble and beg for mercy, but unexpectedly, the young woman was not afraid at all, staring at him with her big watery eyes:

"I didn't kill your soldiers, I just slaughtered a group of animals!"

"Watch your attitude, woman." Faraday's fingers exerted a little force: "Although I am kind-hearted, I am not a weak nobleman who can be bullied."

"Why did you kill my soldiers?"

"I have already told those beasts under your command." The young woman's forehead was soaked with sweat because of the pain, but her tone was still very tough:

"Since they don't understand, then I will tell you again."

"Because we hate you!"

"You came to our hometown, robbed our food, captured our fathers, husbands and sons, plundered our property, and humiliated our women! I am just tit for tat!"

Faraday frowned, he didn't like to hear these arguments.

Serfs were originally the property of the nobles, so it was only natural for them to help the soldiers vent their anger.

He decided to teach this village woman a lesson:

"But you have to remember that you are from Eivor, and we are also Eivor's army."

"We are fighting against the devil Raven for Eivor!"

"Raven's army has also collected food and serfs. Why don't you hate him, but hate us?"

"Fuck you, Eivor people!" The young woman struggled hard, bleeding from her wrist, but she couldn't struggle:

"Raven's army is a thousand times, ten thousand times better than yours!"

"They did collect serfs, but my husband, as the only son in the family, was not taken away; the men in our village who served in Raven's army did not If one person dies, they will even send money home!"

"You took away my husband, other men in our village, and even boys of 13 or 14. In just 8 days, we received more than a dozen deaths, but we couldn't even see their bodies! ! "

"Moreover, Raven's army did not break into our homes and rob our remaining copper coins; they did not press a woman like me on the bed and roast my hands with oil lamps for fun! ! "

"And they didn't give my 9-year-old daughter alive, give..."

Speaking of this, the young woman was like a mad lioness, her eyes full of anger and hatred, and her eye sockets were almost torn apart.

At this point, Faraday no longer had the slightest thought of playing.

He couldn't accept that his team's reputation in the land of Eivor was even worse than Raven's.

"No, you're lying!"

"With just one village like yours, if it were all ordinary people, it would be impossible to kill so many people!"

"You are Raven's spies, spies who have been lurking for a long time, right?!"

The young woman seemed to have heard the most ridiculous thing in the world, and began to laugh, laughing so hard that she was out of breath.

She used her knife-like eyes to cut into Marquis Faraday:

"Do you think we are the only ones doing this?"

"Baron Raven has already issued a bounty. Every head of you dirty pigs can be exchanged for 5 gold coins, pure gold, without any discount!"

"A lot of your men have died recently, right? Don't worry, there will be more later!"

"Just because of the evil things you have done before, the entire Iron Birch District is full of hunters who are eyeing you to hunt!"

"Don't think you are great just because you have weapons in your hands. People are destined to sleep and eat!"

Marquis Faraday shuddered violently.

5 gold coins per head, this is an astronomical figure for serfs, and it is totally worth their lives.

Even for many nobles, it is not a small amount.

20 heads are 100 gold coins, which is more than a knight's annual income; 100 heads are 500 gold coins, which is the annual income of the baron's family.

What's more, the armor and weapons on the soldiers are not counted.

No wonder there are so many manpower losses during this period!

Wait, now I have lost 6,000 people, Earl Palmer has not communicated yet, but I am afraid that he has also lost a lot, a total of more than 10,000 people.

50,000 gold coins reward, where did Raven's army get so many gold coins?

By the way, the Bolan Gold Mine!

Raven occupied the Bolan Gold Mine.

Damn Raven, he actually used Eivor's gold coins to bribe the Eivor people, turning the Iron Birch District belonging to the Principality of Eivor into a nightmare quagmire for their Eivor army!

It's ridiculous!

No wonder he was late for so long, probably just to wait for the team from the Bolan Gold Mine to join him!

"You lowly people!" Faraday pointed at the young woman, the fat on his face trembling:

"For just 5 gold coins, you disregarded the righteousness of the principality and destroyed the overall situation of the empire. You deserve such a tragic fate and deserve to die!"

"I'll give you a choice now." Faraday panted: "Now, kowtow to me and confess your guilt, I can spare your life, otherwise..."

"Otherwise? Kill me?" The young woman smiled miserably:

"Anyway, my family is dead, I just want to reunite with them."

"Or do you want those men to torture me? Do you think I still care about this now?"

"Besides, let me tell you, honorable Marquis, our village killed 272 of your soldiers, and all the gold coins we got in exchange were handed over to the Mercenary Guild, and a bounty was placed on your heads!"

"Shut up!!!!" Marquis Faraday roared, and slapped the young woman to the ground.

The young woman's cheeks were red and swollen, but she stared at Marquis Faraday with an unyielding look, and then spat a mouthful of blood foam on his face.

Marquis Faraday wiped the blood foam on his face and roared:

"Come on, drag her out, I want to cut her into pieces, cut her into pieces!!!!"

Soon a soldier dragged the young woman out.

There was a faint sound of swords entering flesh, but Faraday did not hear the screams.

In the wind, the curtains fluttered and rolled, pouring in the cold wind.

"Raven... Raven..." Marquis Faraday clenched his fists:

"I must kill you...Kill you!!!!"

"A-choo--" In the camp, Raven sneezed violently:

"Huh, someone scolded me again?"

He shook his head and was about to have someone draw the curtain, when Vesdon ran in excitedly:

"Brother, good news!"

"Baron Pochi has sent another 300 heads of Eivor soldiers, including 2 extraordinary ones! They are clamoring to show their merits to you in person!"

One extraordinary head is 250 gold coins.

"Then give him 2,000 gold coins." Raven smiled and said, "I'm going to disappear, I still have official business to deal with here."

"Okay, then you go ahead." Vesdon raised his foot to leave, but he couldn't help his curiosity.

"Brother, is gold so powerful? If it is so simple, why have I never heard of a war that can be won in this way?"

Raven stopped what he was doing and looked at Weisdong and said, "Gold is useful, but not that big."

"In fact, I didn't expect that a little gold could bring such a harvest."

Wesdong was getting more and more confused: "What is going on?"

"People's hearts are like water, and people's movements are like smoke." Raven sighed:

"People's hearts are invisible and intangible, but they are real."

"To have the current situation, I can only say...

You will suffer for your own mistakes!"

...