Mercenaries and Adventurers

Sars County is remote and located on the outskirts of the southern province, so its area is not small.

A portion of the territory due south is the national border of the Kingdom of St. Holes. The west and north are blocked by narrow and towering mountains. The east, including the northeast and southeast, are stretched by deep mountains.

This territory, the actual area controlled by humans, is less than one-tenth of the area shown on the map.

The effective control area is only the plain where Yemei Town is located, as well as the various villages and residential areas on the plain. As for some remote villages in the southern part of the county, including Changmai Village, they are actually mostly autonomous villages. The local lord baron has very little control over these villages, and the power in his hands is only to collect harvests in autumn and winter every year. The last time it was just a symbolic food tax.

This spring, due to the local barons and knights leading troops to the war, a series of incidents led to the emergence of bandits and monsters. The autonomous villages in the southern part of the county did not receive news of the evacuation of the population. At this time, the people in the town did not know this. What happened to the autonomous villages?

Whether they will continue to live as usual, or whether they will be oppressed by the gangs of bandits that have moved in, or worse, the entire village will be wiped out by monsters that can parasitize humans, no one can say for sure.

"Take people to evacuate..."

The young heir to the baron who was sitting on the baron's chair murmured to himself.

He shook his head and said to the two elders in the family who could participate in the discussion: "Who knows how long this situation will last before the war with neighboring countries ends? And there is a foreign knight."

He pondered for a moment and frowned.

To be honest, as local lords with knights in their families, they knew very well what the presence of a knight's force meant. Of course, after questioning the cavalry messenger who came to report the news, the three of them discussed and generally felt that a young knight would not illegally and boldly take over the rule of Yemei Town.

Unless the opponent can escape in time after illegally taking Ye Mei Town one day in the future, that is, before the Baron of Sars County returns with his troops, they will definitely be dead or alive.

You must know that several of their knights are skilled in combat.

Many against one, there is no possibility of losing.

Moreover, in order to maintain law and order and rule stability in the town, the young man's father left a group of elite soldiers to the family before leading the troops away, including a group of dozens of elite armored infantry and a dozen well-trained soldiers. of cavalry.

These people don't seem to be many in number, but they are all elites who are often taken out by territorial knights to kill bandits. If priests from various churches in the town are added to assist in the battle, these elite soldiers of less than fifty people can fight on the front of the battlefield. Defeat about ten times as many ordinary army soldiers.

For this reason, the young man's father, the Baron of Sars County, took only a large number of ordinary soldiers from the county and a militia group to set off, accepting the request of the Southern Provincial Nobles' Council to support this mission. The expanding war for large mineral deposits.

Among the three people discussing, the old man finally said: "After all that, we still have to meet this knight. Only by meeting can we confirm what this man's true purpose is."

He waved his hand and continued: "Of course, those elites who dispersed before must be taken back before the meeting, reunited and prepare for the worst."

His words made the other two nod.

So the young man sitting on the main seat, the heir to the local baron and the de facto manager of Yemei Town at this time, immediately issued an order to include the elite soldiers patrolling the town and the few waiting on the town wall. All the cavalrymen came back immediately.

The family's waiter immediately ran out of the baron's mansion carrying the order letter sent.

At the same time, the elder of the baron's heir, the baron's sister, and the young man's aunt, a middle-aged lady fiddled with her nails and the fan in her hand and suggested: "The church in the town must also notify them to prepare. "

The young man asked doubtfully: "Didn't they ask them to send out manpower a few days ago? There are already several priests from various churches in the mansion. To be honest, I don't like them very much. My housekeeper told me that these people are here These days, they are preaching their gods and teachings to the servants in the mansion."

The young man shook his head with an unpleasant expression on his face.

His aunt shook the small fan in her hand and looked at her nephew dissatisfied: "Special times, special circumstances, under the attack and siege of monsters and bandits, and under the prying eyes of unknown foreign knights, this matter is just We can endure it for the time being. Anyway, we invite people here first to increase the power in our hands, so that no matter what the foreign knight who comes here means, he will be honest after seeing the power in our hands. "

The young man thought about it for a moment, and kept tapping the fingers of his left hand on the armrest of the main seat, and finally said: "I still don't trust those church people. These people only need to absorb a certain servant in the mansion as their believer , it is equivalent to extending one's hand into the family."

"Hey, are you worried about this? It's not difficult. The people invited will find a separate building in the mansion for them to stay in. Just try to limit their movement as much as possible." The lady suggested.

The young man quickly asked: "What about contacting the servants of those priests? To be honest, let alone attracting people to believe in religion, I can't accept it even if these people secretly use money to bribe their servants."

As soon as he said this, the second housekeeper standing next to him pursed his lips, slightly dissatisfied, feeling that his young master underestimated the loyalty of their servants.

But the butler said nothing. At this moment, there was no room for him to speak.

The young man's aunt slapped the closed small fan with her palms and chuckled: "This is not easy. If you are worried about it, just select one or two servants who usually look unhappy and let them Responsible for receiving the priests who come during this period, and when the incident is over, no matter what, just fire these servants."

Hearing this, the young man shouted for a good idea, but the second housekeeper beside him gave the baron's sister a dissatisfied and cryptic look, thinking that this was a completely crooked idea and an insult to their servants.

It seems that in the future, we need to contact the servants of this family more and create some obstacles.

"Then you have to do this quickly, aunt, I'll leave it to you!"

Facing her nephew's request, this middle-aged woman in her thirties who was still well-maintained nodded and accepted the task.

She set off quickly to try to get the priests back from the various churches in the town before the foreign knights were invited to the mansion.

-

Kil waited outside the town for a long time, which made him feel a little strange. When he was in Dorne Town, as soon as he arrived at the edge of the town, the ruler of the town responded immediately.

There may be some factors here, but it took a long time to wait for a reply from the ruler of the town.

It was so long that someone in his team asked him if he would set up camp here today?

Kil asked everyone to wait. There were so many people in the team, and the specific place to camp for the night still depended on the arrangements of the local manager. Of course, he also knew that the situation in Yemei Town was definitely not as good as that in Dorne Town. He was also prepared for the possibility of being rejected when passing by to set up camp for supplies.

There is a Church of Saturn in the town that is familiar to Priest Batal. If communication with the local aristocratic rulers is not smooth, he can borrow this line.

Anyway, now he is working for the God of Saturn. What’s wrong with using the local connections of the God of Saturn Church? It is so normal to eat some food from the church and spend some money from the church.

He was in no hurry anyway.

After appeasing the long-awaited team, it was almost noon.

Although Priest Batal has not yet entered the town, he has already met many Saturn believers in the temporary residences of the surrounding villagers outside the town, communicated with these people, and learned about recent events in the town.

Although the story has been heard from Ranu and Joey who Kil met, the news cannot always come from one side. Listening to the words and opinions of various people, even if they are similar, can ensure the safety and reliability of the news.

Just when Keir loudly asked again how the guards on the town wall were doing and when he would be allowed to meet the manager of Yemei Town, the door in the northwest of the town that was originally connected to the trade road was closed last night and closed this morning. The door that never opened.

With a clanging sound, the guards opened it from the inside.

There were already some villagers waiting outside the gate clamoring to go into the town to buy some things, but as soon as they approached, they were pushed away by the guards guarding the walled gate with horizontal spears. They were scolded and scolded, and then the gate was maintained. , and opened a passage to let out more than a dozen officials from the town government office who quickly ran out of the town.

As soon as these people came out, they walked towards Kiel's team. They were accompanied by many guards in the town, constantly driving away the villagers who were watching from both sides, so as to prevent the gentlemen from the government office from being delayed by the crowd of onlookers.

Kil's eyesight was good, and he could see people coming out of the northwest gate of the town while riding a horse over the ravine wall in front of him.

At the same time, a fast messenger came to the earth wall ahead of the people from the government office, and first said to Keir: "Sir Knight, due to the congestion of the streets in the town and the transmission of messages back and forth, you have been kept waiting for a long time. Yes. My master, the heir to the Baron of Sars County, Your Excellency Little Sars invites you to meet at the Baron's mansion."

Then the messenger looked awkwardly at the earth walls under his feet and the continuous earth pits several meters deep in front of the earth walls. He rubbed his hands and was at a loss: "But these **** farmers' self-warranty of these things is really troublesome. If you can wait a moment, I will ask these farmers to dig a hole for you."

Kil had been waiting for a long time. Hearing this, he jumped off his horse, patted the blood grass and asked him to return to the team. Then he shouted to his team: "I'm going to the town. Everyone should prepare for defense outside the town." Get ready and wait for my news."

Seeing the Bloody Fangster on his carriage waving to him, Kil took up the life energy in his legs, stood on the edge of the pit and half-crouched to accumulate energy, then jumped forward with a bang, and flew over From a distance of seven or eight meters, it landed directly beside the messenger with a loud bang.

The boots made a thud as Kiel's figure landed on the mound. With the ground shaking and dust flying up, the surrounding farmers retreated in all directions.

Xin covered his head and face with his palms to avoid taking a bite of the stirred up dirt.

After landing, Kil grabbed a corner of his black-red cloak and shook it vigorously. The aroused wind blew away the dust, and then he pulled out his feet that were stuck in the soil from the softer mound.

The messenger coughed twice and looked at Kil in surprise, not knowing what to say.

Kiel lifted the visor of his helmet and said to the messenger: "What are you doing standing still? Let's go. I've been waiting for half a morning and I don't want to wait any longer."

"Uh, yes, yes, sir. In this case, you follow me. The adults from the government office are in front."

Kil walked away, shouting to another place where farmers and women gathered not far away: "Your Excellency, Priest Batal, go see the local manager, do you want to come with us?"

"No, I'll go to the church church later. I'll trouble you here, Kiel Warrior."

Priest Batal walked out of the crowd and said to Kil.

The messenger and the people from the government office who came over saw Priest Batal, but they didn't care about it. Apart from taking a few more glances at Priest Batal, who was wearing clothes and holding hands that were somewhat different from the local Saturn priests, they just Not paying much attention anymore.

None of them expected, or were not particularly familiar with church affairs, so they did not know that Priest Batal was actually a resident priest of the Saturnalia Church in Sars County. For many years, he has been working as a resident priest in Changmai Village, a remote autonomous village in the southern part of the county.

However, the place was too remote, and only a certain marginalized grain tax officer from the government office in the town went there every year and met Priest Batal a few times.

Accompanied by a messenger, Keir soon met a group of people approaching. These government office officials, all of whom were at least forty years old, were all experienced veterans. After exchanging pleasantries, they asked for information from Kiel on the way to town.

Including but not limited to his own information, information about the team outside the town, and valuable information from the outside world after bandits cut off the trade routes in Sars County.

Keir had nothing to hide, so he basically told everything he could except the things about Changmai Village, that is, his fundamental purpose of coming.

The officials of these government offices were surprised to hear that Kiel was a young knight from the northwest province of the kingdom. They were even more surprised when they learned that Kiel came with the expeditionary army that came to support the war in the southern province. .

These people did not expect that the war in this province would even alert the nobles on the other side of the kingdom. They were also surprised when Keir said that the teams outside the town were people fleeing from various places who gathered to seek shelter. to the chaotic situation outside.

"Actually, it's not bad. Towns and larger villages in various places have the ability to protect themselves. And in villages that feel that their village defense capabilities are not good enough, the villagers there also spontaneously flee to various places. Those who seek refuge with relatives, those who seek refuge with relatives, Naturally, the search for opportunities in big cities has passed. Although everything seems to be in chaos, the actual loss of population and wealth is not necessarily that great."

Kil was talking nonsense. He hadn't mentioned the chaos in the main city of Boris Law, the main city of the Viscount of Boris Law, which belonged to Sars County. He might really scare these people if he said it.

These more unfavorable news will obviously have a harmful impact on the people of Yemei Town. Therefore, he discussed it with some people in the team last night and did not say this news out loud. The people in the team tried to spread as little as possible to the town.

Although Priest Batal said he would not go with Kil to meet with the administrator of Yemei Town, he quickly followed the people from the Government Office in order to prevent the town from closing the door after inviting Kil to the town.

The welcoming team quickly passed through the four-meter-high and two-carriage-wide northwest gate of the town and entered Yemei Town.

As soon as the guards maintaining order saw that the matter was resolved, they followed the team and retreated into the gate. With a bang, they locked out the villagers who wanted to enter the town.

It seems that the door will not be opened until local managers make a judgment.

They were probably afraid that people from the outside team would mix in with the villagers going in and out of the town, and come to the town to cooperate with the outside knights gathering to cause trouble. Therefore, all the gates in the town were closed as a precaution in advance.

To be honest, Keir didn't care about this matter, because he came here with no ill intentions. Therefore, although these precautions in the town were in vain, they were not wrong.

-

Upon entering the town, Keir found that there were really many people in the town, and although the overall situation was normal, tension could be seen in every aspect.

Except for the road in the middle of the street, the rest of the street is just like the illegal parking in the previous life. The street is crowded with villagers from all over the town who have taken refuge in the town from outside the town.

These villagers carried their own belongings, and the old wooden furniture was also carried by the young men from each family. At this time, they simply built simple 'shacks' on the streets that could keep out the rain.

And these villagers, who were grouped into groups from each village, gathered together and sat on the ground with their knees in their arms. Pairs of soulless eyes were mostly looking at the few open shops on the street.

Most of these shops are shops selling food.

This scene seemed a bit familiar to Kil, it was too similar to the one in the White Stone Wall level.

The difference is that the refugees who were able to escape to the White Stone City Wall Checkpoint had almost no more luggage except for some personal belongings. The villagers who took refuge in Yemei Town may be because it is located in a plain and there are roads nearby. Therefore, when the villagers took refuge, UU Kanshu www.uukanshu.com brought almost everything at home to the town. .

Just like what he saw on the earthen wall outside the town, in order to increase the height and defense of the earthen wall, the villagers outside the town put the large pieces of furniture they brought on the earthen wall as a defense against 'robbers' Rudimentary defense measures.

The officials from the government office were talking with Keir while complaining about the chaos these outside villagers had brought to the town.

But they can't be driven away. After all, the villagers who can enter the various villages in the town are basically related to the townspeople in the town. Not to mention other people, they are the officials of these government affairs offices. Some of my remote relatives took refuge in the town.

After all, the inside of the town is much safer than the outside.

This is what most people think.

Even though some 'bandits' broke through the defense of the southern wall of the town a few days ago, they went to the southern part of the town to kill people and set fire to it.

Since the northwest direction of the town is closely connected to the main trade roads leading to other places, the streets entering the town from the northwest direction can lead directly to the baron's mansion in the center of the town through the stone streets.

Kiel walked in the center of the team, surrounded by about a dozen middle-aged or elderly officials from government offices, and around him, there were a larger number of guards maintaining order and cleaning the streets.

But in fact, whether it is the pairs of eyes belonging to the local townspeople peering out from the shops and houses on the street, or the families sitting together and looking at the villagers from both sides of the street, everyone, everyone, is curious, but I have been exhausted by everything these days.

Everyone just watched, watching as Keir walked across the street to the baron's mansion in the center of the town.