The Last Frontier of Fire and Sword

Along the Danube, Chechen and the others landed on a pier in the territory of the Holy Roman Empire. Since there was a letter from Mahmed Pasha to Chechen in advance, Chechen and the others went unimpeded along the way, and the Ottoman Turkish garrisons everywhere did not embarrass them. The Holy Roman Empire, as an ally of the Republic of Poland, had already sent Father Spasokukotsky to Vienna to greet the Republic’s ambassador to the Holy Roman Empire, and the imperial officials along the way also gave mercenaries. Mission with great convenience. Of course, money also played a huge role.

After that, Chechen and the others stayed in Silesia where King Jan Kazimierz had taken refuge. They will stay here for half a month, making preparations for crossing the Carpathian Mountains. Cheerchen rented a castle nearby. The castle builder was an earl of the Holy Roman Empire a hundred years ago. The earl once followed Charles, Duke of Burgundy, to Spain to inherit the throne and never returned. The castle was abandoned, and only the loyal butler regularly came to clean and repair it, so that it has been preserved to the present.

On the wall of the castle, Chechen also accidentally saw an ancient painting of the earl staying in the castle. In the painting, Charles, Duke of Burgundy, who inherited the Spanish throne and the "legislator" Suleiman The Sultan’s endless fights and fights in the Mediterranean Sea stood on the ship. Behind him was a huge sail. The sail was decorated with intricate emblems representing religion and imperial authority: **** was nailed on the main sail. The image on the cross is flanked by the Virgin Mary and St. John the Apostle. On the periphery of the entire image are the two pillars of Hercules. The king’s motto: “Go further” is written on a scroll between the two giant pillars. All of this constitutes a perfect royal coat of arms. . On the sail of the upper mast, there is a portrait of the Trinity. The sail of the rear mast is painted with a statue of Saint Nicholas. There is a crown of seven stars, and on the top, there is a scene where Saint James, the patron saint of Castile, beheaded the infidels in battle.

All in all, this is a painting with a strong religious connotation. The painter, or the earl, portrayed Charlie as the protector of the Catholic Church. In fact, Charlie's life was indeed spent in the struggle with the Ottomans and Protestants.

Seeing such a painting, Uncle Cheechen from Spain sighed. Although King Charles made great achievements for Catholicism, he continued to consume the gold and silver that Spain shipped from America during his administration. It can be said that the decline of Spain began with Charles.

Chechen still remembers that when he was a child, grandpa once mentioned that grandpa’s grandpa’s meeting, the family was much richer than it is now, but as his grandpa’s grandpa and his brothers were defeated again and again on the other side of the Strait of Gibraltar, To be prisoners time and time again, in order to redeem the males in the family, their family had to sell the land and property again and again, and in the end only that little was left.

Unlike Chechen, Pedro sighed for a while, he began to brag to Yelishei and others about his ancestors under the leadership of King Charles and Algiers (at the time, Algiers Gir is not an ordinary port, but a pirate port. The most popular business of this pirate port is to take the ships and residents of southern and northwestern Europe as slaves.) The story of the infidel warfare. Of course, that was a completely different version from what Cheor Chen knew.

Chechen placed Fatima, Pidro and other relatives in the castle, and half of the officers and soldiers were also placed near the castle. Although they are in the hinterland of the Holy Roman Empire, they are theoretically safe, but they are always afraid that there is a case.

As for the officers and soldiers of the other half of the mercenary regiment and the civilians of Tsarist Russia, Cheerchen scattered them in nearby small towns. During this period, Cheerchen distributed a bonus to all the soldiers and gave the Hessian mercenaries a three-month leave.

During the battle in Crimea, the Hessian mercenaries fought bravely, and also suffered the most casualties, losing more than half of their people. But these tough Hessians worked hard and didn't blame themselves for being a model worker in the mercenary world. Now, it is time for them to relax their tense nerves and enjoy a short peaceful time. Chechen was also extremely generous to them: the Polish soldiers of the mercenary group only received 10 talers per person, while the Hessian mercenaries, their standard was that the infantry would give them 30 talers each and the cavalry 50 per person. Thale, the bonus of 100 Thale for the officers, in recognition of their contributions during their service. For those Hessian mercenaries who died in battle, Chechen gave a pension according to the standard of 100 talers per person, and asked their fellow villagers to take them back to their families.

The money Chechen was distributed by Ingrid. It is said that after receiving this bonus, the Hessian mercenaries cheered.

Can't help but they are not so excited. Cheerchen's shot almost paid them a year's salary.

After receiving the bounty, some Hessian mercenaries tentatively asked Ingrid whether the mercenary group and them would hire them after the contract expired. Because in the eyes of the honest Hessians, Cheerchen is really a good customer. And this happened to be in Cheerchen's arms. One of the reasons why he gave so many bonuses to the Hessian mercenaries is that through their word of mouth, more Hessians, especially infantry who are good at infantry, can join his mercenary group. Among.

"The door of the mercenary group is always open to the Hessians." Cheerchen asked Ingrid to say so.

As soon as these words came out, the smarter Hessian mercenaries immediately understood.

But Cheerchen's current behavior will undoubtedly disrupt the originally harmonious mercenary market.

On the night Cheerchen handed over the bonus to each Hessian mercenary, Viscount Hessian approached Cheerchen.

"Head, I heard from my subordinates, do you want to hire more Hessian mercenaries?" Viscount Hessian asked bluntly. Having been in the mercenary group for so long, he knew that Cheerchen liked this straightforward way of speaking.

"Yes, Hessian. I said that before, is there any problem?" Cheerchen asked strangely.

Viscount Hessian watched Cheechen for a long time. After he was sure that Cheechen was not clear about the key points, Viscount Hessian reminded Cheechen euphemistically: "Commander, you want to hire Hessian mercenaries to continue fighting for you. It's better to go through Lord Earl."

Chechen was not a fool. He immediately realized that his behavior of skipping the Earl of Hessen to hire the Hessians would cause the Earl of Hessen to be dissatisfied.

Cheerchen thought that Earl Hessen would be dissatisfied, but Viscount Hessen told Cheerchen that the earl would be more than dissatisfied, that would be furious.

The fact is true. As mentioned earlier, the Hessian mercenaries were "sold" to Chechen's mercenary group by the Earl of Hessian in a packaged way for a price of hundreds of thousands of talers a year. Most of this money also falls into the pockets of the Earl of Hessian and his relatives (so the Hessian mercenaries will be so happy after receiving the bonus), and ordinary Hessian mercenaries cannot be divided into much. On the contrary, the Earl of Hessen relied on exporting human resources to build countless gorgeous castles and manors for himself and his family. Every mercenary contract signed by the Earl of Hessen was a yin and yang contract. The soldiers who were farmers had no idea that the bulk of their life money had been taken away by the nobles headed by the Earl of Hessen. For example, the Hessian mercenaries that Cheechen took over, one of them Hessian heavy cavalry can bring an annual income of 240 talers to the nobles, and the infantry can bring them an annual income of 60 talers. This over-half drawing method is similar to drinking soldiers' blood.

Similarly, after the death of the Hessen mercenaries, those employers will also give their pensions to relatives sent by the Earl of Hessian, who will receive the pensions before the second distribution of the pensions.

If Chechen skipped over himself in the future and recruited soldiers directly from the Hessians, then the earl and the Hessian family would have no success. "Taking money from someone is equal to killing one's parents", how could the Earl of Hessen not gritted his teeth!

After understanding this, Cheerchen hurriedly wrote a letter to Viscount Hessian to take him back to Hessian. In the letter, Cheerchen stated that he wanted to hire more Hessian mercenaries, and Cheerchen said that he would have a lot of the money that should be given to the Earl of Hessian. I only hope that the earl can facilitate the recruitment of his mercenary group.

Viscount Hessian accepted the letter. He was ready to set off back to Hesse overnight. Because he must put the letter in the earl's hands as soon as possible to resolve the possible misunderstandings.

Viscount Hessian cherishes and does not want to lose his current position in the mercenary group, because in this mercenary group, fighting is indispensable, but the profit after each battle is equally huge. Viscount Hessian couldn't think of where he could earn so much wealth and such a high reputation except here.

Standing at the window of the castle, Cheerchen watched Viscount Hessian disappear into the darkness on his horse.

The small towns scattered around the castle were brightly lit not far away. The influx of thousands of people has brought troubles to the normal life of the residents of the small town, but also brought them endless business opportunities. Not to mention that the thousands of Russians carried by the mercenary group need money to eat and drink Lazarus. Those mercenaries who received the bonus given by Cheechen, the first thing they think of is to spend as much as they want. The Polish soldiers of the two squadrons were more cautious at first. Some mercenaries also wanted to save the money and use it to buy land and repair houses when they returned to their hometowns in the future. But less than a day later, they were taken away by the veterans of the Hessian mercenaries, and they took out all the money in their pockets one by one.

In the past few days, the business of casinos and brothels in nearby towns has been full almost every day. The prostitutes didn't even have time to get up in the bathroom. Countless talers issued by Ingrid flowed from the pockets of the mercenaries into the pockets of the casino owner and the brothel.

And the trophies they gained in the battles in Crimea, in the battles of Ackerman, Kaffa, and Bergzisale also let them squander in gambling and enjoyment in the same way.

In fact, ordinary mercenaries live a life of licking blood and living a life of today and no tomorrow. It is the state of life to have wine and be drunk today. And when it comes to saving money. Some mercenaries did this before. But in the end, when the mercenary died in the battle, the money either made it cheaper for his enemy, or it went into the pockets of his comrades and fellow villagers.

"The saddest thing in life is not that people live and money is gone, but people die and money has not been spent yet."

The veterans made the recruits "degenerate" for this reason.

Cheer Chen couldn't help feeling a little sad when thinking about these mercenaries who took their lives to fight for themselves until they were penniless when they retired. He wondered if there is any way to help these mercenaries who are not good at managing money save and increase the value of their blood and sweat. In this way, even if they die or become disabled in the future, the money can be used as the support for their wives, children and the rest of their lives.

Suddenly, Cheerchen felt something dropped on his shoulder. He turned his head and saw Fatima hanging a cloak on his shoulder~www.wuxiaspot.com~Fatima, are you still asleep? Cheerchen asked with a smile while tightening the cloak on his shoulders.

"Not yet, I just got up and saw that you were not there." Fatima said, leaning her face on Cheerchen's shoulder. Fatima now looks like a little girl like a bird.

Cheerchen enjoyed the feeling of Fatima leaning on his shoulder. A smile appeared at the corner of his mouth, and then he patted Fatima around his hand.

"It's okay, Viscount Hessian came to see me just now. I have solved everything." Chechen said.

Fatima did not speak. Regarding the military affairs of these mercenary regiments, she never interrupted.

After a while, Fatima asked Cheerchen, "Cheerchen, how long will we return to Poland?"

"It won't take a few days. When the supplies are ready, we will go back to Vidava," Chechen said. He thought Fatima wanted to ask about the mercenary group's home in Vidava.

"Uncle Pidro said that Vidava is a good place. The land is fertile, and there are forests and ponds. Before his uncle left, he had asked Bahit and Kiayan to choose a place to build a manor. There. From now on will be our home."

Cheerchen described Vidava vividly, although he had never been there before, and everything was heard from Uncle Pidro.

Fatima just listened so quietly without interrupting or interrupting Cheerchen.

After Cheerchen finished speaking, Fatima said, "Natalie must have been waiting for you on the other side of the mountain."

After finishing speaking, Fatima felt Cheerchen's body tremble.

Hearing Fatima mentioning Natalie, Cheer Chen remembered the sword and the look that Natalie pierced at him that night.

"Will she be waiting for herself on the other side of the mountain?" Cheerchen thought unconsciously.