In the open space south of Tyniec City, a large clay pot was spitting out white mist. A red-haired guy was working hard to add firewood to the fire. The flames were beating violently, and the aroma of wheat coming from the clay pot was coming in waves. The shack area soon felt like a pot was exploding inside. Hungry refugees rushed out after smelling the fragrance. The bonfire pots were immediately surrounded by water, and groups of adults and children in ragged clothes stared at the pots and drooled. However, Odo, Bass, and Ron were standing at the edge with spears and axes, but no one dared to rush up and grab them.
Matt, who had been standing aside for a long time, nodded to Odo when he saw that many refugees were already around him. Otto turned around and shouted at the crowd around him: "Everyone, be quiet! Everyone, please be quiet! Everybody, please be quiet!!!"
The crowd slowly became quiet.
Otto continued to roar: "This is Mr. Art, the newly appointed security patrol officer of the southern border. My lord wants to recruit a group of refugees to accompany the army to open up wasteland and farm in the south. Your Excellency is kind and will take care of you until food is cultivated in the wasteland. We will provide food and housing. If we apply now, we will give each household ten pounds of shelled barley."
The crowd immediately became commotion. If food and housing were really provided for, the whole family would not have to starve, freeze and wait to die.
After the scene was quiet, Odo continued: "The reclaimed land will be distributed to everyone for rent. There will be no tax in the first year, and only one tax per five in the future. And after five years of farming, the land will be completely yours. The labor tax will definitely be lighter than that of your previous lord. Where can you find such a good thing!"
Everyone listened quietly, but immediately started talking buzzingly after hearing this condition.
A refugee hesitated and asked: "Sir, isn't there a war in the south? We finally escaped to the north, but we dare not go back."
Odo glanced at the skinny refugee, raised his head and said to everyone: "The place we are going to is not the north of Provence, but a flat area southeast of here. There will be no war in a quiet place. "
The refugees were talking a lot, and Art was looking at these people. Most of them were disheveled and skinny, standing in groups. It was obvious that they were in the same place and village. There were one or two leaders in each group, and the rest of them gathered around him to discuss.
One of the large groups of refugees finished deliberation, and a slightly stout leader came out and asked: "Sir, are there any robbers or bandits where we are going? If we encounter bandits and bandits, we will lose our lives." "
‐ The leader asked again: "Then let's all go. Can you give us some food and money first? We will be ready to go with you."
Otto rolled his eyes. This man obviously wanted to take advantage of the opportunity. He gave him the money and food. If he went to find it somewhere, he shook his head and said: "We will make arrangements for those who want to go with us. Besides, given such a good condition, we have to choose not just anyone who wants to go."
The densely packed refugees around him were hesitant. After all, they had managed to escape to the north and wanted to follow them back to the south. They said there was no war or banditry, but no one was sure.
Otto said calmly: "Everyone, think about it. If you are willing to stay here and freeze to death and starve to death, that's up to you. If you are willing to follow the patrol officer and farm the land with the army, maybe you can still live a good life with bread and thick porridge every day."
Audo Seeing that everyone was still hesitant, Duo took a half-step to reveal Art behind him and said, "This is my lord. He is the security patrol officer of the southern border personally appointed by the Palace Minister of Security. You will not suffer any loss if you follow him." Behind Odo, Art, who was wearing leather armor, wearing a leather coat, and carrying a long sword at his waist, was indeed powerful and domineering.
The leader stepped forward and approached Art and asked, "Sir, how many people are you recruiting?"
Matt dislikes this leader very much. He has too few people now and will not recruit too many people in the same group. Otherwise, it will be difficult to manage them if they get together and cause trouble. He has decided not to have this leader.
Yat ignored the leader of the question and shouted to the people around him: "I am Inspector Yate. If you don't want your wife, son and daughter to freeze to death and starve to death here, just follow me. As long as you are chosen by me, you can have porridge right away. There will also be a meal of bread soaked in broth tonight, and we will start in the future." You will not starve if you farm the wasteland. I will only recruit ten households in total. If the selection is full, I will not accept any more. "
I only recruit ten households at a time, but there are two to three hundred refugees here. Those from the north of the city have not arrived yet. If there are more people, the chance of being selected will be much smaller. When some people are anxious, the crowd will be ready to move.
"Sir, do you still remember me? See if I can be chosen." A short, dark-skinned refugee about thirty years old came out and said loudly.
At a closer look, it turned out to be the man he had rescued from the gangsters more than twenty days ago.
As the first person who dared to stand up was an acquaintance, Art breathed a sigh of relief and nodded slightly to Odo. Odo walked out and turned over the homeless man's palm, which was covered with thick calluses. Odo opened his tattered clothes again. There were also scars on his right shoulder. He should be a farmer who had been pulling a plow and digging soil for a long time.
Odo nodded and asked him to stand in front of Art. Art looked up and down. The guy in front of him looked as lean as Scott - with dark skin and a simple appearance, but he was even thinner than the last time he was outside the city.
Matt asked: "Last time I was in a hurry and I didn't even have time to ask your name?"
"Sir, thank you again for your help. My name is Lawrence. I am from Alsburg under the Poge Mountains in the southeast. I fled here with my family this autumn."
"I remember you have a wife and daughter? How old are the children?"
"My daughter is twelve years old."
The surrounding refugees could no longer bear it when they saw the Lawrence family devouring their food, and several more ran around Odo to sign up.
Otto saw more and more people gathered around him, and said quickly: "Okay, let's come one by one. We can only recruit ten households, and they will be gone if it's too late."
A group of homeless people quickly lined up, and Odo looked at them one by one. All the households met the requirements set by Art in advance, so they were asked to come to Art to accept re-selection.
Several refugee families with strong men, no children or children in their teens. They all passed Art's selection and ran to the clay pots to eat...
The surrounding refugees couldn't stop swallowing their saliva when they saw others drinking porridge. They no longer cared about the queue and rushed to Odo's side. Bass and Ron threatened repeatedly with short spears and battle axes, so they barely allowed them to take advantage of the chaos.
These refugees are pitiful. Throughout the winter, they depended on a few bowls of wheat porridge provided by Tyniec County. However, the wheat porridge was almost all water, so when everyone saw the fragrant thick porridge in the clay pots, who could bear it? For a moment, the crowd was excited, and some who arrived late pushed their way forward, and there was a lot of shouting and yelling.
Another refugee selected by Odo came to Art, "What's your name? How old are you?"
"Back to the great master, my name is Lin En, I am twenty-one years old this year."
Do you have any children? ?"
h "Have a son and a daughter."
h "How old are they?"
h The refugee named Lin stood in front of Art for a long time, and became more nervous, and his voice was a little trembling: "One, one is four years old, and the other is six years old."
Att lowered his head and thought about it. He wanted to recruit people to open up wasteland and farm the land. Such a young child couldn't do any work. It was not cost-effective to waste food to raise him, so Att planned to reject this refugee who brought up his family.
Wait! Wait! "
The two children were half-clothed, their hair was as dirty as hemp ropes, knotted together in the shape of strips, and their outstretched hands were like dry wood. A thin woman with a similar appearance was chasing behind them, pulling the two children.
Both children looked up at Art, with two tubes of snot hanging from their dark faces. Art couldn't even tell who was a boy and who was a girl. The two children's eyes had lost their natural innocence, and all that was left was pleading. I don’t know how long they were hungry following their parents who fled.
"You~" Art kept the word "you" on his lips for a long time, but he never said the next words. Ron and Kazak looked at him quietly, waiting for his decision.
"You've been chosen." Art cursed himself in his mind.
The refugee waited anxiously for a long time, and finally got the good news. He, his wife and children all knelt on the ground and kowtowed. Art helped the refugee and the child and asked them to eat porridge as a family.
"Ron, Ron, come here."
Ron ran over.
Matt whispered in Ron's ear: "You will stand in front of me in a moment. Those who Otto has chosen will not be accepted as long as there are elderly people and children under ten years old at home."
Matt still let Ron be the bad guy for him.
Hence the subsequent selection process, there were three procedures. Odo only looked at whether the refugee was strong and honest; Ron asked about the family situation of the person selected by Odo, and Art pretended to be the final decision-maker in the end.
There were several refugee families in the middle who passed Otto's selection but were not selected by Ron. Several families of refugees, old and young, knelt in front of Ron and begged. Ron had long been accustomed to more miserable situations when he fled north with his parents, and was not moved by the pleadings of the refugees on the ground.
Att looked at Ron who was not touched at all, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart: "This world cannot tolerate such false benevolence and righteousness like me..."
In less than one morning, Art and his friends had selected 31 families from 12 households. Most of these thirty-one people came from various places in the north and south of Provence. After careful selection, except for the refugee family that was chartered by Art, the others were hard-working young men and women and children in their teens. They would all be good at farming.
· A group of selected refugees devoured their food beside the clay pot. The surrounding refugees were drooling and looked at the thirty-odd lucky ones with round bellies with envy, and refused to leave for a long time.
"Odo, ask if there are any craftsmen among the refugees, preferably blacksmiths or builders."
After a long time, Otto brought over an old man with a gray beard.
The old man’s name was Bader, and he was a carpenter in the city of Aosta. After his only son died in the war, the old carpenter fled to Tyniec with his wife and young grandson. Lord Pierre recruited all the craftsmen among the refugees into the city, but he was old and frail and still had children with him, so he was never able to enter the city.
In the selection just now, the old man was also directly blasted away by Odo.
"Master, he is just an old carpenter with an old woman and a grandson~" Ron reminded Art.
Matt was also helpless. The craftsman among the refugees had long been selected by Mr. Pierre to settle in the city. He thought for a moment and said, "Take him with you and let him help the Cooper Gang as a deputy. Maybe he can also make some farm tools."
Then he called Odo, Ron, Bas and Kazak and formed a small circle. Art said to them: "Let them gather here in the afternoon, pick out all the strong men, remember their names, and then distribute food to each household."
Snowflakes were falling from the sky, and the ground was covered with white. A horse rider and four armed men were protecting a group of refugees carrying large and small bags on the road to the south...