On the eighth day of the journey north, the conscripted army led by Viscount Pierre marched to Lucesne.
For many conscripted soldiers, Lucesien is an unimaginably large city. In order to alleviate the grievances of the soldiers for many days, Viscount Pierre granted all conscripted soldiers a day of rest outside the city of Lucesien.
Hate's patrol team was stationed in the open space outside the northern city of Lucesien, next to Dean's military camp. Instead of allowing the soldiers to enter the city to relax, he asked Spencer to organize a few soldiers to go to the city to buy a batch of fresh meat, fruits, vegetables and beer and return to the station with the intention of holding a simple dinner for the soldiers.
And Art himself took Ron to Serenkov Monastery to visit Bishop Olof Hannis.
In the abbot's office of the monastery, Art met Bishop Olof.
After kissing the ring, Bishop Olof gently lifted Art up and said with a kind smile: "My child, congratulations. When I learned at the court that your name was among the twenty-one apprentice knights canonized this time, I was really happy for you. I believe that your father is far away in heaven. I will also be gratified by your glory. "
At bowed his head and drew the Holy Cross, and replied devoutly: "Thank God, it is the glory of the Holy Lord and the heroic spirit of my father who have illuminated me." At the same time, Art missed his "cheap" father.
Bishop Olof asked his servant to take a box, opened it with his own hands and handed it to Art, saying: "Child, I know you will definitely come to Lucesien to see me, so I have prepared a gift for you to celebrate your promotion to a trainee knight." The bishop took out a silver cross necklace from the box, and Art bowed his head and let the bishop put it on.
Bishop Olof patted Art on the head and said: "My child, I originally planned to send a priest to follow your army and let him protect you and your soldiers on behalf of God. However, this time the palace recruited a large number of troops, and even many monks in the monastery were transferred to the army. The Hwov Cathedral has been completed, and I am in urgent need of a large number of clergy, so I have to give you this cross necklace. It protects you. "
Att was secretly glad that Bishop Olof did not have a priest to send with him. Otherwise, he would not have known how to place this priest, because the patrol carried many herbs that had not been approved by the church, and the use of these herbs would most likely be understood by the church as the use of evil medicine and witchcraft. Moreover, what Art would do next might not be approved by the church.
"Dear Bishop, thank you for your love. I heard that you have been promoted to the Bishop of the Diocese of Lucerne. I am sincerely happy for you. This time I brought you a set of Eastern porcelain from the south as a gift for your promotion." As he said this, he motioned to Ron to bring up a set of porcelain wine glasses.
Matt admired this kind old man very much, not only because the old man in front of him had brought him a lot of benefits, but also because this old man was his father's loyal master and friend during his lifetime.
Bishop Olof opened the brocade box and touched the set of valuable porcelain, then closed the brocade box and pushed it back. "Child, take the gift back. The set of porcelain you gave me last time is already very precious. Now that the Hwov Cathedral has been basically completed, I don't need to raise money from everywhere. You can keep these things for yourself. You need these things even more now. In addition, Earl Baldwin has already He has been promoted from the Minister of Public Security to the Deputy Minister of the Palace and Deputy Military Minister. He is the commander of your conscripted troops. Count Baldwin also mentioned in a private message to me that he wants to meet you, so when you arrive in Besançon, don’t forget to visit the Count. He likes these exquisite things the most. It would be best if you can find a temporary job with the Count..."
Bishop Olof finally rejected Art's gift. Now that he is the bishop of the diocese of Lucesien and has passed the time when he is most short of money, he will no longer accept Art's gifts. Moreover, he helped Art largely because Art's father was his friend during his lifetime, and Bishop Olof cherished him very much. Xi and Art's father's pure friendship back then...
When Bishop Olof said goodbye and left the monastery and returned to the station outside the city, many people gathered around the station of the patrol team. Seeing that something was wrong, Art quickly led Ron to move away from the crowd. He saw Odo arguing with someone, and all the soldiers from the patrol team came out of the military tent in armor and weapons to confront each other.
“My soldiers clearly saw that one of you stole a barrel of beer from us, and you must return it to me.” A rude voice sounded near the patrol camp.
The person who was yelling at the top of his lungs was a little leader of the caravan guard of the Dean family. This little leader was usually quite domineering in his own army, and would often beat and scold ordinary soldiers who were on the march. Today, Sir Dean and his entourage went into the city for recreation, leaving this guy to take care of the camp. He was probably dissatisfied with the patrol team these days, and felt that they were too pushy, or maybe they were a little erratic after drinking too much, and now he dared to take the initiative to go to the patrol team's camp to stir up trouble.
"Bastard, I obviously bought this barrel of beer from the city, but you have the gall to say it's yours!" Spencer rolled up his cuffs and was about to step forward to fight with the little guard leader.
Otto grabbed Spencer, whose eyes were bleeding, and scolded: "Are you a pig? Don't you see that the bastard just wants to stir up trouble? Viscount Pierre just banned private fighting in the army yesterday, do you want to violate the military order?"
"You bunch of bastards, you stole our wine and you still don't admit it, you really think you are warriors in black robes, bastards..." The little leader was arrogant, his ugly face was drunk and his ears were red with curses.
In the past few days of marching north, the little leader was quite jealous of the black-robed patrol team. These black-robed soldiers always looked arrogant, which made several caravan guards under the leader lose their luster.
The little leader drank some wine today, but he was still unsatisfied. He originally planned to ask the patrol soldiers for a few glasses of beer, but was met with sarcastic remarks by Spencer. In addition, the owner Dean was also quite disgusted with the patrol team, so the little leader used the wine to embolden him to argue with him.
The little leader was in the wrong, and after a few quarrels he planned to settle the matter, but more and more people gathered behind him to watch the excitement. The soldiers who were about to hold back their resentment finally found an outlet to vent their anger, and started to complain about the little leader. The little leader was carried up the steps by the people behind him and could not save his face, so he had no choice but to continue messing around with Spencer under the influence of alcohol.
Seeing that Odo stopped Spencer from coming forward to fight with the little leader, and the good show was about to cool down, the busybody in the crowd shouted angrily: "Aren't you black-robed soldiers usually very capable? Why are you so weak and weak today?" There was a burst of laughter and ridicule from the crowd.
They were all beaten down, but as he was also a military judge, he could not take the lead in doing something that was obviously against military orders...
At the time of the dilemma, Art's figure appeared.
Att walked out of the crowd, pulled out the knight's sword from his waist and slowly walked towards the arguing people. He put the sword on the neck of the little leader and scolded: "Trespassing into the military camp with weapons without permission, beheading! Didn't your family tell you this?" You? "
In all conscience, no one has really told the little leader about the rule of "breaking into the military camp with weapons and beheading people". Moreover, they are friendly soldiers and the little leader has never thought of unsheathing the weapons on his waist.
But the person standing in front of the little leader was the opponent's supreme commander, and he was also a trainee knight. Naturally, the little leader did not dare to refute what he said.
With the sound of Willy's Blade, the little leader instantly dwarfed himself by half, and muttered in a low voice: "Sir, your soldiers stole my wine, I just came to get my things back~"
“Yes, the black-robed soldier stole the wine.” Everyone behind him also agreed, but the momentum was much lower than before.
At put down the sword from the neck of the little leader, holding the knight's sword, he looked around at the crowd of people outside the camp who were cheering and watching the excitement, and then turned to look at Odo, who shook his head firmly in denial.
"Guys, this brother said that my soldier stole his beer, and my soldier denied it. I guess one of them is lying!" Everyone didn't understand what the adult in front of them wanted to say, but Art understood that everyone just wanted to set up a rice seedling to watch the fun and threw stones to vent their anger.
"Guys, I guess you don't care which one of them lied. What you want is for them to fight, right? Then maybe you can take the opportunity to throw two stones and spit."
Matt looked at the crowd that was slowly quieting down and continued: "Many of you have been pointing at my middle finger all day long. Are you already impatient with us?"
There was some commotion in the crowd.
"You guys just want to fight with us, whether you are stealing alcohol or not, and you are worried about violating the Viscount's military order prohibiting private fights, so you found such a lame excuse to cause trouble!"
Everyone's thoughts were seen through, and they were all a little embarrassed, and some of the most troublesome guys in the crowd were ready to leave angrily.
· When Art saw someone trying to slip away, he quickly stopped him: "Those brothers, don't leave. Yes, that's the guy with the big beard and the small eyes. Don't run away in a hurry, there is still a lot of fun here!"
· Several people who wanted to slip away were targeted by the crowd, and they had to stay out of face.
"Since some of you want to fight with my soldiers, then I will help you. You can vent your anger and don't have to worry about disobeying the Viscount's military orders."
A piece of bacon; if you lose, apologize to my soldiers, and all my soldiers will stay away when they see me in the future."
"This is not a private fight but a martial arts training, and it does not count as a violation of military orders. Do you dare?"
Yatti Sword looked around at the crowd and shouted loudly: "Do you dare?"
Seeing that the situation was under control, the armored and armed patrol soldiers took back their weapons one after another. If there was no martial arts training bound by military discipline, they were confident of knocking down all the trash outside the camp.
"Why don't you dare! Let's compete in martial arts." A guy wearing soft armor, full-body plate chain mail, and a patterned belt around his waist walked out from the crowd and said to Art.
The person who came was none other than the little leader’s master—the trainee knight Dean.
"Sir Dean, you came just in time, so as not to say that I bullied you while you were away." Art sheathed his sword and walked up to Dean.
Dean has lived in a wealthy businessman's family since he was a child. He is always competitive in everything. Recently, he marched and camped with Art's patrol team. The black-robed soldiers looked capable and mighty in every aspect, but in comparison, his own soldiers looked like a group of bandits. He was naturally angry. Moreover, Dean discovered that Art's caravan actually carried southern goods, which made Dean wary. Today, he was having fun in a tavern in the city. Just when he was having fun, his soldiers urgently reported that one of his people was being oppressed by the border patrol. Dean returned to the military camp full of anger and caught up with this scene.
"Master Art, why ten against six? Do you look down on my soldiers? I want a fair fight! And since there should be more spoils in the competition, why use some bad wine and rotten meat to fool my people, who are bigger than us~" As he said, Dean took out a cowhide wallet from his arms, grabbed a handful of large silver marks and threw it on the ground in front of Art. Twenty large silver coins worth nearly three thousand pfennigs were scattered on the ground.
At glanced down at the silver coins scattered on the ground, raised his head and replied: "Okay, then I will thank Lord Dean for your generosity on behalf of my soldiers. Ron, go and get my set of iron armor for bets."
.........
A "tournament" is about to be held in the open space outside Lucesien City.
Not only the hundred or so soldiers who had been recruited to go north came to watch, but also the vendors, citizens and idle gangsters outside the city gathered around the open space to watch the fun.
Viscount Pierre is not in the camp today, but even if he were there, he would not prevent a fair and orderly combat training.
One side of the competition is six soldiers from the fourth team of Tuba, Art's patrol team, and four prisoners of war, and the other side is ten strong guards and followers from Dean's army.
Yat's six soldiers in black robes and cloaks are neat and majestic. The four prisoners of war are robbers and bandits who are accustomed to fighting, and they are full of blood. The seven guards on Dean's side have been running around fighting all year round, and their brutality is overwhelming. The three followers are skilled in training and have high combat power.
The crowd of onlookers was not idle either. Those who had money and property handed over their bets one after another, and those who had no money and nothing also cheered at the top of their lungs.
"Sir Odo, this happened because of me, I want to participate in this contest!" Spencer, who usually doesn't like fighting, was aroused today and took the initiative to apply to Odo to participate in the contest.
Odo glanced at Spencer from top to bottom, then turned to look at Art, who nodded in agreement.
"You go up and direct the labor of the prisoners of war. If you get down first, I will make you eat shit!" Odo said harshly to Spencer.
Spencer walked into the open space, took the short wooden stick from a prisoner of war and asked him to leave. Then he whispered to the remaining three prisoners of war: "The other people have soldiers to deal with it. Don't worry about it. If there is a fight later, you can keep an eye on the little leader. We will deal with him together. As long as we can't kill him, I'll beat him to death, and whoever knocks him out first will be treated to beer and bacon at night."
Several prisoner-of-war laborers were considered to be in danger because they were still angry, so they were unlucky enough to be taken by Art to do labor this time. They suffered all the way, and they didn't dare to vent their grievances.
They usually dare not provoke those soldiers who kill without batting an eyelid, but today they are not afraid of the soldiers who come to cause trouble and fight. They used to deal with these soldiers when they were bandits, so they naturally know his true and false qualities.
「START!!!」
The combat training began with the orders of another trainee knight who was watching the excitement.
Six soldiers from Art's patrol team stood in a neat row, holding shields and sticks and shouting loudly.
The ten soldiers on the opposite side were startled by the sudden shout, and they quickly raised their shields of different standards in a blocking gesture.
However, after a while, the black-robed soldiers on the opposite side did not attack. Several guards put their heads out of the shields and immediately retracted them. Their obscene appearance caused a burst of laughter from the onlookers.
Dean, who was watching the battle on the sidelines, saw that his men had lost momentum, clenched his fists and shouted: "Come up and kill them!!!"
Dean's ten soldiers raised their sticks and rushed towards the patrol soldiers ~
On the patrol team's side, Tuba's small group of soldiers moved their right legs backwards, raised their shields, and leaned forward to form a shield formation to meet the brutal impact from the opposite side. Spencer, who did not carry a shield, and three stick-wielding laborers stood behind the shield formation to defend the two wings.
"Bang~! Bang~dong~dong" The Dean soldiers who rushed over violently hit the shield formation of Tuba's team or hit the shield with their sticks.
While Tuba's team withstood the brutal attack of the opposing soldiers, Spencer and three laborers rushed out from the right wing of the shield formation with wooden sticks raised. Spencer kicked over an "enemy soldier" who was trying to bypass the shield formation and attack the rear. He led the three people around behind the "enemy soldier" who was "breaking the formation" in front of the shield formation. He ignored the waving sticks and touched the back of the small leader after being hit with two sticks.
The little leader has been guarding the caravan for many years and has experienced battles. When he found someone behind him, he did not panic. Instead, he held the wooden stick in his hand and stabbed him behind him. Spencer, who was caught off guard, did not expect that the weapon arrived first before the little leader turned around. He was hit hard by the wooden stick in the abdomen and took a few steps back with pain.
"Fuck me!!" Spencer rubbed his belly and shouted at the three prisoners of war who had just escaped from the entanglement of the "enemy soldiers".
The little leader turned his head and glanced at the guy who was stabbed away, and continued to deal with the shield formation in front of him that was difficult to break through. Seeing that the shield array in front of him was somewhat loosened by his heavy blows, the little leader was about to deliver a fatal blow. Unexpectedly, at the command of "three-man battle formation", the shield array that was dense just now suddenly split into two independent shield arrays. The little leader in the center had nothing in front of him, and then six sticks roared from both sides at the same time. The little leader was hit by at least two sticks before he could react. When he remembered to organize the soldiers to attack separately, there was a muffled sound behind him, and his body staggered - the guy who had just been stabbed rushed up with three more people...
This time, the four Spencers ignored the sticks coming from the surroundings and concentrated on surrounding the little leader in the middle. The five-foot-long wooden sticks greeted the little leader from all directions. The little leader raised his shield to block the left side, and a stick fell on the right. He lifted the stick to block the front, and another stick came from behind...
……………………
Odo, who was standing behind the clearing to watch the battle, saw the four Spencers constantly beating up the little leader. The unlucky guy had been beaten to the point where he was unable to parry, while the other "enemy soldiers" were dragged tightly by two closely coordinated combat groups and were unable to rescue the trapped little leader.
Odo was a little worried about heavy casualties, and said to Art: "Sir, the soldiers are not heavy-handed. If we continue to fight like this, I am afraid that some of Dean's soldiers will be disabled?"
Matt glanced at Dean who was staring at him with hatred, and replied casually: "Odo, have you ever been bitten by a dog? To deal with those dogs that bite, you must beat them until they are painful and frightened until they see you and run away with their tails between their legs. Otherwise, these vicious dogs will jump out and bite you from time to time."
Otto said no more.
On the field, while Spencer was beating the little leader with prisoners of war, Tuba was directing his combat team to push back the four "enemy soldiers" step by step. They bypassed the "enemy soldiers" who were hit in the head and fainted on the ground, and rushed towards the four retreating guys...
Dean did not expect that these guys who usually put on airs could be so brave. These soldiers may not be able to defeat their own soldiers alone, but these guys are not easily separated at all. They always hide behind the shield. The three of them hold up the shield to defend in all directions, like a moving shield that cannot be broken or chewed. When the besieged soldiers have a slight flaw, a long stick or a short stick will be called out from behind the shield~
Tuba, who was in the three-person battle formation, could see that the "enemy soldiers" no longer had the courage they had at the beginning, so he decisively ordered: "Spread out and kill!"
The two battle formations were instantly divided into six individual soldiers holding shields and sticks, and they rushed towards the "enemy soldiers"...
The red-eyed Spencer almost beat the little leader to death, and the audience outside the venue also gasped at the muffled sound of the stick hitting the flesh. The furious Lord Dean even pulled out the knight's sword from his waist and prepared to rush into the field to kill the patrol soldiers. Of course, he did not dare to go up in the end because the three lines of soldiers in the patrol camp who were ready to go had already raised their wooden shields and weapons. .....
"Stop it!!"
In the end, this martial arts training, which was more like a grudge fight, came to an end amidst the scolding of Viscount Pierre who came back from the city.