Mercenaries and Adventurers

The next day, when Keir woke up early in the morning, he was awakened by the noise outside the camp.

"What are you doing? It's so noisy."

As soon as Kiel yelled in the camp, the armed people in charge of guarding outside the camp explained to him: "Master Knight, those alien races who call themselves Mao Mao, uh, and the female people in the team, everyone come early in the morning to see Strange. Many people are seeing real aliens for the first time."

"Really? There is no conflict, right?"

Keel asked while getting dressed.

The outside of the camp continued to answer: "No, no, Mr. Ster is watching, although it is noisy, but no one approaches, those alien races look soft and cute, but they are quite fierce."

Keir snorted, poured some water into the wooden basin with a kettle, scrubbed his face, and then rinsed his mouth with saliva, and then opened the tent and walked out refreshed.

Sure enough, as Kiel had expected, the campfire where the foreigners were arranged to rest last night was already surrounded by three layers of curious people.

Because the appearance of the furs is not aggressive enough, and they are covered with fluffy hair, even if the people know that they are aliens, they are not afraid of them, and they are curiously watching.

Kiel stood on tiptoe and looked inside. Seeing that Bloodfang was in control of the situation, he left the place alone. He hung his long sword around his waist, put on his new cloak, and looked towards the nearby place not far away. Go to the place where the livestock are kept.

As soon as he passed, he saw that the blood lick was bullying the new donkey again, and the huge horse's head swung from side to side, hitting the poor donkey twice its size.

But these newly bought stubborn donkeys were also stubborn, they were not convinced at all, and kept trying to fight back by biting the blood licking grass with their teeth.

This completely annoyed Kiel's mount, the blood licking grass opened its mouth, bit the erect ear of the donkey with its teeth, and pulled it hard, making the donkey howling and begging for mercy.

The people in charge of taking care of the animals couldn't control Kiel's war horses at all, so they just watched the fun around and waited for the blood licking grass to clean up the newcomers before taking care of the new animals.

"My lord, you are here, and your war horse is bullying our livestock again!"

When they saw Kiel approaching, they immediately pointed at the blood licking grass and shouted.

The blood licking grass shook its ears, as if it heard Kiel's steady and powerful steps, and seemed to understand that someone was making a small report to its owner, 'wronging' its model war horse. So, it immediately let go, stayed away from the yelling donkey, and walked around the wooden stakes that bound the animals freely.

Yes, blood licks are never tied to the hitching stakes in the party, as Kiel ordered. The wise prairie horse doesn't run away either, but just rushes to his master's side with all his might and joins the fight when Keir whistles.

Even if it's not saddled and reined all the time.

Hearing such complaints, Kiel just laughed, and waved at the blood lick that was pretending to be 'innocent', letting it come over, then took the harness brought by the people, and put it on the blood lick that Xiaobu came over with his own hands body.

"It doesn't matter, it is a war horse. To establish its position in the group, just like me, it is very suitable for a knight to ride a war horse. Of course, if you see it going to hurt other animals, remember to separate them."

"Yes, my lord. But the blood lick is so fierce, it won't bite us, will it?"

"Stupid, I want some beans and lure them to eat, isn't that all right?"

After finishing speaking, Kiel jumped on the horse's back on the spot, flicked the rein, and the knowing blood licking grass proudly raised its head at the people who took care of the livestock, and walked away at a brisk pace.

Only the donkeys were left groaning beside them, and the other horses snorted and hooted like mocking.

-

Coming to Dorne Town early in the morning, Keel pricked up his ears on horseback, paying attention to the passing drunks and the chatter of the early folk.

Contrary to his expectations, the conversations among the people were quite related to the news that he arranged for yesterday. Some old drunkards who were sitting and drinking along the street early in the morning were still arguing about whether to deal with the proud hunter.

Is this treatment the one he understands?

And when he heard that some people had added some things and content that he hadn't explained in the news about the hunter, the corners of Kiel's mouth had to curl up.

He secretly said to the black wooden bird sculpture hanging on his chest: "Listen to what people say! Surprised or not?"

Immediately, a voice came to Keir's ears: "Irreverent boy, what do you mean? Huh?"

But Keir didn't say much, he just curled up his mouth and rode to the [Burning Furnace] Chamber of Commerce.

-

At the same time, in the lobby of a remote hotel in the civilian area of ​​Dorn Town, two backbow hunters were eating bean soup in silence.

The two hunters, who were still wearing large brown-green cloaks indoors, were in their forties and the other in their twenties, both were tall and strong men. On their cloaks, among the mottled camouflage patches, patterns of beasts and monsters of various styles were intricately sewn.

Originally sitting in the corner, they should not attract the attention of others, but at this time, other people in the hotel lobby all pointed at them in a low voice. They all had displeased faces, including the innkeeper who was wiping the table.

"Did you get into trouble yesterday?"

The older hunter was still eating bean soup in silence, but he finally couldn't help it and asked his younger companion.

The young man looked unlucky and stubborn: "No. It's just..."

"That's causing trouble. How did you explain it before you came out? Just follow it secretly, just keep an eye on it, and we don't take care of the rest. The new thing that exists has other young hunters who need to be challenged to take over."

"no."

The young man explained: "Yesterday was fine. I just patrolled around the town to investigate at night, and someone I didn't know stopped me and asked me to apologize to them."

"Apologize? Did you do something unnecessary?"

The young man was speechless for a while: "I'm not a novice, and I didn't do anything superfluous. Those people really found fault suddenly. I wanted to throw a few coins to attract attention and go away, but those people didn't pick up the money and insisted on rushing up to fight." I."

"Fighted back? How many locals were killed?"

The young man rolled his eyes, smashed the wooden spoon in his hand heavily into his bowl of bean soup, and retorted in a low voice: "I repeat, I am not a novice. Judging from hunting skills and previous achievements, you and I The two are of the same level. Put away your attitude, old man."

His last words were muttered under his throat.

But the old hunter probably guessed that it was not a good word, but he didn't care: "Then, why are the people in the hotel so hostile to us today? If we can't stay, we can only settle outside the town. Dorne Town Unlike other places, the management and surveillance outside the town are stricter, and those who are on guard against debtors escaping and being lazy are far more troublesome than the occasional thieves in the town."

"I know, hmph." The young man was still angry, not only angry at his companion's blame, but also at the unreasonable hostility and comments from the people around him.

As hunters, their ears are far better than ordinary people's. Therefore, the seemingly lowered voices of some people and the content of the discussion were generally heard by him.

Why did the two of them say that they can shoot eagles, and that the whole town is weak? Although it's not like he hasn't said similar things, how do these people know? And it was spread?

"You said, could it be the thieves in the town? Could we have underestimated them? Is this a stumbling block for us, or a warning?"

The young man said with speculation.

The old hunter finished his food ahead of time, put down the wooden bowl and replied: "It is possible, whether it is or not, we can't stay in the town anymore. I will go back to the house to pack my things now, and we will go outside the town after eating. Outside the town You can also monitor that knight and that existence."

"Hey, that's it."

The young man picked up the wooden spoon and stirred his bean soup in a rather melancholy way. This town is quite interesting, especially the various entertainment and low-level gambling facilities. In the past two days, every time he went out to patrol and monitor, he would go around the casino and 'play' a few times.

With the perception far beyond ordinary people and the intuition from the hunter, his purse has been inflated these days.

-

When Kiel came to the [Burning Furnace] Chamber of Commerce, he first entered through the main entrance and found the deputy of the businessman he met yesterday. Then, under the leadership of the other party, he rode blood licking grass to the stable of the Chamber of Commerce he met yesterday.

The work here is in full swing, several craftsmen take turns to work, while the apprentices have been working all the time, tired and sleepy, they casually rummaged through some dry straw in the stable, went inside, and rested at any time.

Through everyone's hard work, in just one day, the horse armor tailored for the blood licking grass has begun to take shape.

At this time, in the middle of the open space of the stable complex, a crude wooden model made one-to-one with blood licks already has a leather armor as the basis, and on top of it, a large piece of leather armor that has been cut, sewn and bound Multiple layers of protective cloth, already draped over the wooden model with metal hangers.

Except for the frontal impact of the wooden horse's body, the protective armor in other places has been completed.

Kiel took the blood licking grass and walked around the wooden model. He not only carefully examined the newly made armor, but also flipped it over with his hands.

Except for the head, neck, and chest of the wooden model, other parts, including the tail, are protected by two layers of armor half a fist thick.

Except for the connecting buckle on the back and the side of the body, there is no gap at all. At the same time, the lowest part of the armor is only a horseshoe height from the ground, so it is almost impossible to injure the body of the horse inside the armor before breaking the armor.

Seeing Knight Kiel coming over, the old craftsman in Kent who was in charge of this set of horse armor personally stepped forward to explain to Knight Kiel the disassembly, cleaning, and maintenance procedures of this set of armor.

While listening, Keir curiously asked where the other three craftsmen were.

"They are each in charge of one, rushing to manufacture the most important metal parts of this armor. They are the anti-arrow shield on the horse's head, the anti-slash movable plate armor on the horse's neck, and the horse's chest A metal-composite breastplate that protects against the impact of long spears."

The old craftsman pointed to three areas on the front of the horses on the wooden model that did not have multiple layers of protective cloth.

These are the places where horses are most likely to be attacked in battle. For the army, knights on horseback are not easy to defeat, so it is a matter of course for ordinary soldiers to target knight war horses that are bulky, less flexible and less protective than knights.

Archers and crossbowmen shoot horses' heads, heavily armored warriors chop horses' necks with heavy axes and swords, spearmen form formations with spears several meters long, and reversely use the impact of knights to deal with horses. These are all top-notch needs Protect the place.

Of course, most of the knights and cavalry will not attack the army head-on, but mostly use their mobility to attack the weakly protected logistics team, or use battlefield mobility to attack the side and weak points of the army on the battlefield.

These protective requirements are also the basis of tactics. You can fight like this without it, but with better armor for horses, knights and cavalry will be more effective in fighting.

There is no doubt about this.

Keel and the old Kent craftsman stood aside and talked, while Bloodlicker tilted his head and looked at the wooden fake horse as tall as it in front of him.

"Lu Lulu?"

First he sniffed the head of the wooden horse with his nose, but found nothing but a smell of wood.

Then it stretched out its neck and rubbed the side of the dummy horse's neck, hoping to make friends with this dummy horse as tall as it.

But the other party didn't respond in a daze.

This disappointed Bloodlicking Grass, and with a flick of the thick horse's neck, it knocked the stupid fake horse to the ground.

"Law, law!!"

There was a triumphant cry.

Keir laughed, and the Kent craftsman muttered: "It's a very aggressive war horse." Then he called the apprentice, and tried to straighten the fallen wooden model with a rope.

This thing is quite heavy, and it is not easy for ordinary people to lift it.

But for Keir, it was no problem. He waved his hand to stop the busy work of the apprentices, went up and stretched out his hand, and then used his strength to straighten the fallen wooden horse model. In order to prevent the blood licking grass from causing further trouble, Kiel sent it to the stable next to it, letting it bully the horses of the [Burning Furnace] Chamber of Commerce.

At noon, Mr. Scott came over, and he also came with the metal composite breastplate for horses, one of the three important protective parts.

This thing is said to be a breastplate, but there is actually more than one piece. It includes the front body of the breastplate, the extended movable protective parts on the front of the front legs, and the most important connecting fixed buckle and belt.

This thing is the heaviest of the three metal parts, so it also has the most locks and straps to fix it, and it needs to be fixed on the basic leather armor as the base in the correct order.

This basic leather armor, similar to the inner armor of Kiel's metal armor, not only provides the most basic protection, but also provides additional fixing points for metal parts and connection load-bearing points for buckle belts.

Without this thing, the horse breastplate can also be installed on the horse, but in this way, the horse will definitely feel uncomfortable. Wearing the armor for a long time during the battle will also cause the hair and skin on the horse to be damaged due to friction.

Seriously, it will also cause wound ulceration caused by wear and tear. If there is no treatment method, then no matter how strong the war horse is, it will be useless.

And these are what Keir heard for the first time from the old craftsman of Kent.

The breeding and breeding of horses, training and equipment, and even further strengthening of knights and horses are all knowledge and skills.

Unlike human beings, the knowledge and skills of horses, many of the basics, are controlled by the God of Animal Husbandry in the hands of the church, and the spread of horse equipment has been mastered by craftsmen everywhere. , has become an important technology for various forces and organizations.

These skills are an important part of mastering the power of knights. After all, there is a huge difference in strength between knights with beasts and knights without beasts.

Putting it on the battlefield is an important part of distinguishing whether the knight has become the dominant battlefield situation.

For many knights, without the high mobility, protection, and load capacity of weapons and equipment provided by the beast mount, the knight is just a stronger fighter.

At most, it would be consumed by confronting dozens of elite heavy soldiers in partial battles.

But with a powerful beast mount, the knight has the ability to truly dominate the battlefield.

High mobility and endurance make it impossible for even a large number of cavalry to catch up with knights in mobile combat. Not to mention the heavy armored knights and horses, which can completely penetrate the battle formation composed of infantry and directly attack the noble commanders who lead the troops.

And the beast-riding beast with amazing load capacity can allow the knight to carry a variety of different heavy weapons at a time, or hundreds of long and heavy arrows, to shoot and kill soldiers one by one from a long distance.

If an army does not have knights of the same level to lead the guards, it may even take several knights to spend a whole day to completely defeat an ordinary army of two to three thousand people.

When the time came to the afternoon, the last two metal parts were also finished by several other craftsmen. After the final polishing and assembly, they were delivered from the blacksmith shop of the [Burning Furnace] Chamber of Commerce.

"Come on, blood licking grass, let us arm you!"

Kiel greeted ~www.readwn.com~ Although Bloodlicking Grass didn't understand, she snorted and answered, jumped out of the stable and came to the owner's side.

First take off the saddle, stirrup, rein, bit, and other harness on Bloodlicking Grass, and then the apprentices quickly disassembled the armor on the wooden model, removed the leather armor that was no more than a finger thick, and put it on the Bloodlicking on the grass.

Since it was the first time to wear so many and heavy things on the blood licking grass, Kiel also personally tried to calm the horse's emotions, let it adapt, and get used to this new 'fur'.

Then there are three freshly baked horse armors for the head, neck, and chest, which completely protect the front of the tall blood lick.

The armor on the chest and neck was okay. Although the blood licking grass was uncomfortable, it still accepted it calmly. When the face's handsome horse face was also covered by these hard things, it was not happy.

"Lulu, Lulu! Lu Lulu!"

The tall and heavy war horse kept bouncing and bumping on the spot. Kiel first let the apprentices around retreat away, and then he did it himself, 'replaying' how he tamed this guy.

All the people present, including Mr. Scott who rushed over, opened their mouths wide and looked in surprise at how the little knight, who was taller than the horse, overturned the horse and then lifted it horizontally .

"Is it too exaggerated?"

"Is this something humans can do?"

"No, are the knights so strong? Can they lift the house in one go?"

"Maybe, but the castle certainly won't lift."

Mr. Scott also glanced suspiciously at the main building of the chamber of commerce where he usually lived and worked, wondering whether the knights could directly lift that building up.