Baron Antayas also learned about the Swabian Principality’s shocking conspiracy against the County of Burgundy from the bandit captives and rescued villagers.
In order to ensure the stability of Alsburg, all the troops who recovered the lost territory were stationed here by Baron Antayas. Baron Antayas also kept Art's patrol team at a salary of fifty pfennigs per day to assist in the defense. Every day, he took Ron on horseback and accompanied the cavalry led by Sir Druid to scout around Alsburg to prevent surprise attacks by the Swabian army.
While stationed in Alsburg, Baron Antayas sent cavalry to Besancon in the north with an urgent report to the palace. At the same time, Art also wrote a letter to the Palace Minister of Security, reporting on the situation since he took up the post of patrol officer. According to Baron Antayas's wishes, in their letter The cause of the war became that Baron Antayas led his troops to rescue and resist the bandits in the Poge Mountains who came to attack Alsburg. He learned from the captured bandits that the Swabian Principality was instigated by the Lombardy Principality to invade the border, and requested the palace to send troops to guard the eastern border as soon as possible.
There was no movement around Alsburg for the next seven or eight days. Baron Antayas also brought some doctors, priests and priests from all over the territory to Alsburg to treat the officers and soldiers injured in the battle. Although a medical doctor was assigned to the patrol team, Art refused the help of the medical doctor who was always operating and bleeding. Instead, he insisted on cleaning the wounds of the wounded soldiers and changing bandages every day. At night, he quietly applied mashed herbal mud to the injured soldiers. Although Art tried his best to treat the injured soldiers in the patrol, the soldier who was scalded by the boiling excrement water had ulcerated skin and ultimately did not survive.
So far, three soldiers from the border patrol have been killed. The weather was getting warmer and the bodies of the soldiers who died in the battle could not be preserved and transported back to the valley for burial. Art had to find a flat piece of land outside Alsburg and simply bury the three soldiers who died in the battle.
The patrol suffered too many casualties. Although Odo tried his best to provide the soldiers with sumptuous food, tried every means to improve their morale, and even occasionally added light beer to the soldiers' dinner, the patrol soldiers could not avoid the depression caused by the death and injury of their comrades and the broken heartstrings after being extremely nervous.
There is nothing Art can do about this. After all, many of the patrol soldiers were ordinary farmers, herdsmen, and laborers a few months ago...
On the fifteenth day of being stationed in Alsburg, there was still no movement in the surrounding area. Baron Antayas was somewhat unable to support the huge daily consumption of an army of nearly a hundred people. The peasant soldiers who were about to end their service felt that the spring wheat had just been sown and needed to be hoeed and irrigated, so they all clamored to go home. Baron Antayas had no choice but to leave the inner knight Druid and ten city guards to garrison Alsburg, where there were only about 20 households of villagers left, and then dismissed all the troops that had been recruited...
The night before the troops were dismissed, A dinner was held in Alsberg. Everyone received pork, mutton and light beer purchased from various places from the baron. The lord's cabin was even more lively. In addition to the leaders of each team, some soldiers who had made great contributions in the battle to regain Als were also invited to the banquet.
After three rounds of drinking, Baron Antayas came to Art with a cup and drank a glass of beer with him, and said: "Art, do you really want to leave? If you can stay and help me garrison for another month, I am willing to provide you with food and drink. In addition, I will pay you a one-time payment of 1,800 pfennigs. Just one month, you can leave after I go back to recruit enough troops and farmers to garrison Alsburg."
Art stood up and gave him a message. The baron filled the cup with wine, then raised his glass in return, and replied: "My Lord Baron, it will be a great honor for me to defeat the demons of hell with a great warrior like you, and I will always praise your bravery. As for your invitation, Please forgive me for not agreeing to our garrison, because the duty assigned to me by the palace is to patrol the Southern Territory to maintain public security. The war here is over and the war in the Southern Territory has not only caused refugees and bandits, but I must return to the Southern Territory to fulfill my duties."
Att saw the disappointment in Baron Antayas's eyes. Swabia is very likely to have a large army invade the territory, but the baron currently has no available troops. His small number of city guards need to guard Andermatt Castle, a fortress in the southeastern mountainous area of the county. It will take a long time for other armies in the territory to recover after the battle to regain Als. He would need at least a month to recruit troops and peasants to garrison the frontier fortress before the palace could respond.
Yat lowered his head and thought for a long time, then raised his head and said to Baron Antayas: "Sir, I have a way to alleviate your current predicament. I wonder if you are willing to listen."
"Tell me and listen."
"Since last year, a large number of refugees have poured in from various parts of southern Tinets, and I will patrol the southern areas in the future. If you trust me, you can give me a batch of money and food, and I will recruit refugees and troops from various places in southern Tinets for you..."
A hint of joy flashed in Baron Antayas's eyes, and he dragged a piece of wood beside Art. He sat down and asked: "Can you tell me specifically how to recruit refugees and troops?"
...
At noon the next day, on the road back to Andermatt Castle from Alsburg, several armies led oxen and horses and hurried back to Andermatt Castle with money, food, supplies and seriously injured soldiers, and then each returned to their respective territories, villages and settlements.
Seeing that there were no outsiders around, Odo couldn't suppress his excitement. He drove his horse to Art, who was at the head of the team, and reported softly and excitedly the gold and silver treasures dug up in the stable next to the lord's cabin when he left Alsburg, "Sir, we made a profit this time!!"
At the war, Art only told Odo and Ron about the secrets about his private treasures that he interrogated from the bandit leaders, and asked them to keep the secret. When he was stationed in Alsburg, there were many people, and Art never took out the secret treasures hidden by the bandit leaders in the stables. But one night before departure, Art took the rare initiative to take on the task of keeping watch. While everyone was sleeping, Art took the opportunity to send Odo and Ron to quietly go into the stable and take out the belongings.
The bandit leader did not deceive Art. There was much more gold, silver and jewelry hidden in the stable than what was plundered from Alsburg. After preliminary counting, there were five gold cakes, 45 silver marks, and 63 deniers, equivalent to thirteen thousand pfennigs. In addition, there is an ivory gold-plated gold cross with a silver hanging chain, two gold-cast small wine glasses, three silver dinner plates, an emerald bead, an agate necklace and a fine porcelain vial. Even Art, who has seen the world, cannot estimate the value of these exquisite and gorgeous treasures, but their value should not be less than those coins.
Along the way, at a fork in the road leading to the west near Andermatt Castle, Knight Chloe rode a war horse to find Art in the patrol and said: "Art, I will not follow the group back to Andermatt. I will go directly west from here to Park Ning Ken in a day and a half. I have already said goodbye to the Baron. I will say goodbye to you again. If you visit Park Ning in the future, Ken, I will welcome you with the highest courtesy." The middle-aged knight Chloe is one of the few people among the lords who is willing to be friends with the civilian Art. Chloe himself is a person who is good at fighting, so he is also very optimistic about the powerful Art and the patrol team he leads. In addition, Art said good things to Chloe when distributing the war rewards. The two also had frequent contacts during the garrison, and they had a good personal relationship.
Matt jumped off the horse and respectfully saluted Sir Chloe to say goodbye, "Dear Sir Chloe, I will always remember the friendship of fighting side by side with you and sharing life and death. May God bless you." In addition, Art was paid a thousand pfennigs in advance to recruit refugees and troops. Art also promised to recruit thirty refugees and fifteen soldiers for Baron Antayas within twenty days. In return, Art would receive a salary of five hundred pfennigs or the equivalent in food.
In the early morning of the next day, Yat packed up some supplies and started to return with the patrol team.
The twenty-one people, one carriage, two horses and two mules who arrived turned into eighteen soldiers standing or lying down, fifteen captives serving as coolies, four carriages loaded with goods, four horses, two mules and one cow, as well as grain cargo carried on everyone's shoulders.
The price paid was high, and the harvest was also a lot...
After one day's march, Art ordered Odo and Bass to take the livestock and carriage supplies as well as patrol soldiers to escort the prisoners back to the valley wooden castle for repairs. One was to continue to treat the injuries and restore morale, and the other was to bring the tightly guarded prisoners back to the valley wooden castle and hand them over to the old butler Cooper, so that the prisoners could do hard work to atone for their sins. Art has told these redeemable captives that as long as they remain slaves and work hard, they can regain their free status in the future.
And Art himself led Ron and Kazak, who were better horsemen, and ran towards the north carrying some money, jewelry and a few heads of bandit leaders. After the war, the soldiers could rest for a while, but Art himself could not rest yet. There were still many things waiting for him to do...
………
The three of them galloped and arrived in Tyniec in less than two days. At this time, Tinets began to have a large influx of refugees from the south, and the security here became even more chaotic. Refugees who stole, robbed and made trouble were arrested by the soldiers guarding the city every day. The prison in Tinets was already overcrowded.
A few months later, the sequelae of the "loot" of Wincheston Manor began to appear. When Art and others came to the Tyniec Town Hall, Viscount Pierre refused to meet Art, and ordered the newly appointed Sheriff to inform Art of the palace's decision to order Art to return all the property of Wincheston Manor and not to enter the territory of Winston Manor.
It is of course impossible for Art to carry out this weak punishment decision, but the heads he brought could not be exchanged for a single copper coin. Moreover, Viscount Pierre sent someone to clearly tell Art not to get any more weapons and material support from the city of Tyniec, because the deputy minister of the palace had privately ordered Pierre to isolate the patrol officer personally ordered by the minister of security. In order not to offend the deputy minister, Pierre had to obey.
The head of the bandit leader in his hand was of no use, and the patrol team was no longer welcome in Tynets County. Art had no choice but to give the bandit's head to the new Tynets County Sheriff and then left Tynets City and slept in the wilds north of the city overnight.
After a disastrous encounter in Tyniec, the Ates and the others continued their journey north to Lucerne...