Mercenaries and Adventurers

When Keel woke up in the morning, he felt weak for a while.

The whole body was covered with hard cowhide armor, which seemed to be nothing on the body before, but now it feels as heavy as iron armor. He fell asleep in such a daze last night, and when he woke up in the morning, he felt uncomfortable besides being weak.

But the whole camp had already risen, and it was impossible for him to stay in the tent and not come out.

There's no reason to leave him here alone.

Kiel had no choice but to take off the armor he was wearing, and simply wore a linen shirt with a long sword hanging around his waist. He stuffed everything else into the carriage, and then endured the discomfort to eat.

You have to eat, especially when you are uncomfortable, all actions of the body need sufficient material and energy supplements.

Therefore, eating is a must, and there is no delay.

Slowly pouring the viscous soup into his stomach, Keel asked for a small piece of dry wheat cake and ate it.

After returning, he rested on his two horses for a while, and then he took down his tent, rolled it up, and stuffed it under the hood of the carriage.

Knight Crowe's personal guards had already cleaned up and fed the two horses for him, so Keel was spared this trouble.

Knight Crowe happened to be wearing a steel armor and walked over from the direction of the baron's tent. Looking at Kiel's tired face, he laughed and asked about Kiel's physical condition at this time.

"As you can see, I feel weak and weak."

"This is a normal situation, don't worry, it will be over in a day or two. When you feel better, come to me, the training must continue, but you can't stop contacting your life just because you don't like a weak body Sensation of energy."

"Hmph, no one else wants this opportunity. Some of the Kendall guards are guys who want to become knights. Don't look reluctant. If you can work harder with dolls to communicate more often, learn to communicate with them earlier. By controlling and communicating with your own life energy, you can avoid this training earlier."

"Do you understand?"

Keir lazily replied yes, and Knight Crowe left satisfied.

He didn't care about Kiel's weakness. He also came here in the same way at the beginning, but when he was in the army, this training was done together with nourishing monster meat and drinking the tempered monster flesh potion.

Part of the life energy lost by the body can be replenished immediately from the small amount of monster meat that he ate that day, so he did not have this weak state for a long time.

In particular, a weak physical state will be reflected in the human spirit and will, which will delay the progress of the person concerned in mastering the control of life energy.

But Knight Crowe knew that he knew, and he had nothing to do. After all, this was a march in the field, and he himself did not have the support of the entire training system of the Kingdom Army.

There is no monster meat, and there is no magic beast flesh potion carefully crafted by the pharmacist. Keel's situation is a bit bitter, but it is simple and cheap.

Back in his camp, Knight Crowe considered, should he find something to supplement Kiel these days?

But the march of the entire army must not be delayed.

-

In this way, Kiel dragged his lazy body every day, sat unsteadily on his horse, and walked with the logistics team.

Crow Knight didn't let him go with the striker. After all, Kiel's physical condition at this time, he can't help much.

Both Knight Rumi and Baron Kendall knew what was going on with Kiel at this time, so they didn't give Kiel any work, but simply let him follow.

Knight Rumi, who also became a knight in the army, criticized the insufficient training of Knight Crowe a lot. He and Knight Crowe often quarreled in front of Baron Kendall at night. He felt that he was not prepared enough to conduct knight training under such conditions, and he was simply embarrassing that young man Keir.

But Crow Knight did not admit this statement.

"Well, you think my method is not good, I will give you Keir, and you will train him for me, how about it?"

After asking this question, the Rumi knight died down instead. He himself is just an ordinary knight, and he is far inferior to Knight Crowe, who can walk far and wide on the road of knighthood.

At this time, he has no preparation or intention to train a knight himself.

Knights like him and Knight Crowe who were born in the kingdom's army are not good at this point. Their family is not a knight family and has no long-term inheritance. Although they are knights, they do not have the knowledge and experience to train their heirs to become the same knights. .

However, Knight Crow is stronger than ordinary knights and has a wide range of knowledge, so he has the ability to confidently train Kiel to become a new knight.

Aristocrats like Baron Kendall are different.

The basis of their rule is not to become knights themselves. Although knights are needed to maintain them in rule, there are many ways.

For example, recruiting retired army knights as subordinates, or taking homeless knights for their own use, or looking for superior nobles to arrange knights to come over, or even finding the noble council and the **** of nobles, and paying some resources to allow themselves or their family members to be trained by the council For the strong knight.

Although the baron was a little curious about this matter, he didn't really care about it. Apart from reading some books he carried every day, he mainly chatted with the priests of the army and talked about the church behind those priests. Or slow down and chat with the merchants who followed the army, and learn some knowledge of the places where the merchants have been from the chat. And befriend some of the larger merchants in those caravans, laying the foundation for future development.

In the evening, he would discuss with the two knights and the logistics clerks about the marching affairs of the army, mostly the loss of weapons and equipment of the militiamen, the stock of hay for horses and donkeys, as well as food and drinking water.

When the soldiers were sick, he had to properly arrange for the priests accompanying the army to use magic to get rid of the soldiers' diseases. You have to choose multiple roads on the map of the kingdom, and discuss with the knights which road is the fastest to choose, which road can supply the most villages, which road is in good condition, and will it affect the speed of the team.

This map was specially made by him because he was in charge of the province's hydrological affairs. At this time, this extraordinarily detailed map came in handy.

The situation of some bandits that we inquired about when passing by the village also had to be taken into consideration. Should we destroy them at the same time as we advance? Ignore them and go directly to the road with bandits, or send someone to discuss the situation, explain the situation, not conflict with the bandits, and show that your army has nothing to do with exterminating them, but it is not something to be provoked.

These days, after the army passed through the territory of the Gurov knights, these things gradually increased.

Knight Gurov naturally belonged to another baron, but the baron's county territory was much smaller than that of Kendall County, and the terrain became strange because of the obstruction of the mountain collar. Noble lords are very different.

In the border area, counties like Baron Kendall have very large lands, and the territory covered far exceeds that of ordinary barons or even viscount nobles. But this is simply because most of the land in their territories are dangerous mountains and forests, or wastelands that lack water and are difficult to settle in. They are far inferior to the more densely populated noble territories in other places.

The closer the kingdom was to the east, the smaller the nobles' territory, but the population living in the territory was actually more.

And the closer it is to the empire, because in terms of the difficulty of migration when the country was founded, the closer it is to the land of the empire, the longer the development time will be for the land developed by the migrants.

Roads, bridges, checkpoints, castles, finely divided fields, evenly distributed villages, concentrated towns, and cities where rulers live. Everything is much better than the western border of the kingdom.

-

After nearly ten days of marching at a constant speed, the entire army came to the border between the northwestern province and the western province of the kingdom.

The border between the two provinces is a natural dividing line, the Angry River.

This river flows eastward from a high mountain on the western border. The water flow is large and fast, and the place where it flows directly erodes a winding and long water-eroded small canyon.

Although it is only a small canyon, it also naturally firmly separates the Northwest Province and the West Province.

It has been difficult to cross over the years, which made the migrants who first arrived here very angry, so this river is called the River of Anger. Before the construction of a stone bridge across the Angry River, the connection between the two adjacent provinces was not even comparable to the central province to the east of the two.

But more than ten years ago, through the efforts of many people, a wide and solid huge stone bridge was built at the place where they are now.

The commercial route from the northwest province to the south must pass through here, and it has naturally become a key area connecting the two provinces.

At both ends of the stone bridge, the earls, the rulers of the two provinces, built a checkpoint managed by their own side next to the stone bridge.

On the north side of the stone bridge, on the land belonging to the Northwest Province, the flimsy checkpoint made of rock and wood is called the Angry North Pass. The southern part belongs to the western province, and the checkpoint made of huge mounds and wood is called Angry South Pass.

The commercial road connecting the two western provinces passes through here, and there are caravans coming here along the busy road every moment. One export tariff and one import tariff.

If it is a caravan belonging to the northwest province, the export tariff will be reduced or exempted, but the import tariff on the south side will be slightly higher.

If it is a caravan belonging to the western provinces, there will be a lot of export duties, but the export duties on the south side will be reduced.

And if the caravan is neither the caravan of the Northwest Province nor the caravan of the Western Province, it will have to pay a lot of taxes to cross the Angry River from this stone bridge.

But if you don’t go here, if you want to save the customs clearance tax, you have to spend nearly a month going east along the Angry River to find the water of the Angry River in the central province. You can only cross the river by boat at the ferry in a flat place.

Kiel was riding on the horse, looking at the two checkpoints built on a bridge, and the chaotic villages and market towns formed spontaneously by caravans outside the checkpoints, similar to gatherings.

It is said to be a village market town, but there are basically no fields here and no one is farming. There are only some large poultry pens surrounded by tall fences, and there are also valuable livestock pens. From domestic pigs to strong cattle, from howling donkeys to strong horses wagging their heads and tails.

Not only that, but from a distance, there is actually a huge biped walking bird with a height of three or four meters that is also raised separately.

In addition, there is a wet mud pond that comes out alone away from the river bank. The sound of frogs in it is loud, and a kind of earthy yellow and earthy green frogs that are bigger than people are raised in it.

Kiel was dumbfounded, not knowing what to say.

At this time, Kiel was in the militia, following Knight Rumi. Because of his knight training, his physical strength continued to be weak these days, and he was unable to keep up with the various tasks of the striker team in charge of Knight Crowe, so he was assigned to Knight Rumi.

He doesn't need to do anything, he just needs to hold the wooden doll sent by Knight Crowe every day, and carefully feel the life energy of the aggressive knight himself on the wooden doll.

Knight Rumi saw Kiel and many militiamen around them surprised by the huge walking birds and frogs bigger than people. Some people were emotionally cowed and scared. He opened his mouth and explained to everyone that this kind of Kendall had never seen anything.

"Some people may have heard of it from the bard's story, but I don't think everyone has seen these things much? The tall bird that was kept in captivity, the correct name is the giant foot bird, was originally a It is a rare bird on the eastern island of the empire, but after it was discovered a long time ago, it was brought out by people and specially raised and bred."

"This kind of giant foot bird has a unique personality. It is docile to its breeders, but it is extremely fierce to other strangers. Therefore, it is especially popular with large caravans. It can usually be used to pull carts, and it can also be used when it is in danger. Unleash the reins to fight."

"Look, it has such a huge beak on its head, if you bite it, its bones can be smashed to pieces."

Knight Rumi pointed at the giant-footed birds that were kept in captivity from a distance, and those giant-footed birds were no strangers to this large army of Kendalls. They have seen countless caravans coming and going every day, and these little human beings are no longer unusual for them.

Then Knight Rumi pointed to the gigantic frog that croaked in the quagmire in the distance: "I heard that this is a special kind of monster in the central province of the kingdom. It lives in the huge swamp there. As long as it can be swallowed by the mouth, They eat everything."

Seeing the panic of the militiamen around him, with ugly faces, he laughed loudly: "But they are wild. These huge frogs that have been raised are called swamp walkers. Now I heard that they are specially used for sailing boats in rivers. Beasts. Although they are not much bigger than us humans, in fact, in the water, kicking your legs is far stronger than a dozen strong men shaking the oars."

He chatted and laughed with Baron Kendall not far away: "I heard that many places are asking for this kind of stretching beast, which can save a lot of manpower and the cabin space of inland ships."

Baron Kendall stopped the paintbrush in his hand, nodded and admitted: "Yes, in the inland river boats, if only swamp walkers are used to go upstream along the river, how much manpower and water space can be saved? And the structure of the boat will also change. , save the original rowing warehouse under the deck, and change it to a small pool for raising swamp walkers and more warehouses, how much more money can merchants make in one trip?"

The baron is drawing a small book about the level buildings on the north and south banks of the Angry River, as well as the surrounding scenery. After he finished speaking, he continued to carefully draw the picture while riding on the horse. The attendants around him carefully provided their master with paints and brushes of various sizes.

Keel was amused and drove the horses closer to the stables where the animals were kept.

But before he got close, a few dirty half-sized boys held up whips without a whip, and waved their hands to block Kiel from approaching.

"Great, my lord. Don't go near our master's animals, they are dangerous!"

The teenagers looked at Kiel nervously on horseback with dirty little faces.

Although he was a little regretful, Keir nodded at them, took out a few iron coins from the money bag on his waist, and threw them out.

"Thanks, I just haven't seen these animals. Here's the money for you."

After speaking, Kiel turned around and returned to the army.

But those boys judged that after Kiel really left, he was not playing tricks on them, so they immediately rushed to the few iron coins in the soft mud on the ground.

"Mine, mine."

"I was the one who spoke to the master just now, and he gave it to me. Don't **** it."

"I don't care, whoever finds it belongs to him!"

A few teenagers were making a mess, and the giant-footed birds in the animal pen next to them stuck their heads out of the fence, watching curiously as the humans who usually fed them scrambled for a few shiny little things.

"Whoa whoa!"

They also want those shiny little pieces of iron held in the dirty hands of humans. But it's not for the value it represents, but if you swallow this thing, maybe it can be easily digested?

That's what they instinctively told them.

What no one knows is that in the remote hometown of these giant foot birds, wild giant foot birds will come to the coast of the island, peck hard shells of suitable size on the beach, and rely on these things to assist digestion.

-

Annoyed Beiguan is the direct stronghold of the earl to which Baron Kendall belongs, so although the baron does not have a good relationship with the earl who is much higher than him, he still faces two knights, and hundreds of well-equipped soldiers and convoys make way for the checkpoint the way.

In the market towns and villages that rely on the checkpoints, the merchants and fellows traveling north and south all gave way to the main road, not daring to collide with this army.

They looked curiously at this well-armed army and the triumphant caravan following behind the army.

They didn't dare to talk to the army, but they were very courageous as they were also in the caravan. They immediately approached them, gave some cheap gifts, and immediately started talking.

The forward of the team was talking to the soldiers and knights stationed there at the checkpoint. Baron Kendall asked the Rumi knights to tighten up the team, hoping that no one would get lost, and then he rode over with people on horseback.

"My lord, why are you here?"

Knight Crowe wondered how the Baron had come.

"This place will be ready soon. This is Knight Bota. He has been in charge of the management of the Angry North Gate for the past two years. He needs to record and register the situation of our team, and then he will notify the South Gate on the other side of the bridge. The business travel has been stopped, and a period of time has been specially set aside for our army to pass through."

Baron Kendall looked at the Porta Knight opposite him.

This is a young knight with an obvious aristocratic style~www.readwn.com~ riding a giant foot bird, wearing a set of thinner steel reflective armor. There are some decorations made of colored cloth on the armor, and together with the brightly colored giant foot birds that are also dressed, it looks very conspicuous.

Knight Porta and Baron Kendall obviously knew each other. The knight first made a salute to the baron, and then rode a giant bird and leaned over.

"Your Excellency Kendall, it's been several years since we left Organ Castle, right? Hey, I didn't expect that after I was arranged in this remote place, I would be able to meet my former friends before returning to Organ Castle."

Baron Kendall immediately put on a commercial smirk on his face: "Ah, my friend, who told you that you are extraordinary? This is so annoying that the status of Beiguan is so important. It is impossible for the Earl not to arrange a reliable and powerful How about a knight acting in authority instead of him? Besides you, who else in the Organ Castle can securely hold this position?"

The two were just acquaintances at the Organ Castle before, but this time they hadn't seen each other for many years, they first flattered each other.

Knight Porta looked at the army behind Baron Kendall waiting for orders, and the envy in his eyes was unstoppable.

"I haven't seen you for many years. I didn't expect you to have such elite soldiers. It's really good. Look at my men, what kind of goods are they?"

He didn't avoid the checkpoint soldiers who were watching the scene, obviously he didn't regard these big soldiers as important things.

"They are all the old, weak, sick and disabled left by the previous term. The young and strong soldiers who were willing to work were all taken away by the previous term before I came. Well, the past two years have been really difficult."

The two of them were chatting here, while the clerk and steward of the checkpoint smiled flatteringly at the Crow Knight who was guarding them, and then carefully recorded the situation of the Kendall army waiting to cross the bridge.