Time has entered winter in a blink of an eye, and the heavy snow that has fallen for several days has turned the mountains and ravines into a vast expanse of white.
The sudden cold weather also began to cool down the war.
The increasingly stalemate war between the four countries of the Central and Southern Continents was temporarily stalled by a heavy snowfall from the sky. Troops from all over the country retreated into castles or hid in camps to raise fires to resist the cold...
The defenders of Tal Fort also ushered in a rare free time. Due to the thick snow outside, which made it inconvenient to move, the soldiers' personal combat skills and battle formation training had to be temporarily suspended.
On the second floor of the inner castle, the flames rising from the burning firewood in the iron basin made the whole house warm as spring. Art, dressed in thick linen casual clothes, was teaching several army commanders how to read common Chinese at a wooden table.
Teaching officers how to read common literature has already started since the establishment of the patrol. However, the Odos came from humble backgrounds. Not only themselves, but even their fathers and grandfathers had not been exposed to these luxuries that were exclusive to the nobility and the church. Therefore, from the very beginning, several commanders showed varying degrees of resistance during the teaching of Chinese characters. When they saw The sight of these crooked symbols gave them a headache. Moreover, they never thought that learning written characters had any connection with marching and fighting. In addition, because they were busy training soldiers and suppressing bandits everywhere, the officers' learning of common literature was also intermittent. As the battle continued, Art also focused more on teaching the officers how to march and fight and train soldiers.
However, as the defense pressure of Tal Fort decreased, the army's combat tasks also decreased, and the officers did not have much to do except train the soldiers. Therefore, Art gathered all the officers above the combat team leader and the elite soldiers in the inner fort every other day to teach basic writing.
The things taught are very simple, basically some commonly used combat terms and commands, such as "attack", "retreat", "flank", "cover", "hillside", "dense forest", "enemy" and numerical symbols, etc. The most basic and practical common words. All officers above the squad leader must learn three words per day, and the combat team leader must learn two words per day. If you fail to meet this standard, you will face a penalty of one pfenni for each word.
At first several officers were unwilling to accept it, but after Art repeatedly insisted and brought up the military law, everyone was forced to sit in the room and listen to Art's spelling and writing word by word.
After twenty days of studying writing, except for Angus, who was somewhat literate, the other officers had to pay a fine of one or two pfennigs almost every day. This amount of money was not too much for officers with high military salaries, but it was quite humiliating for them, so after being fined several times, everyone began to put some effort into learning writing.
What is surprising is that Andrew, who has just become the captain of the first team of recruits, is actually one of the fastest people in learning and writing. Of course, the second one is Art's personal follower and captain of the Sentry Team, Ron. Ron often followed Art around and often watched Art write, so he became more proficient in learning words under the influence of his ears and eyes. As for Andrew, he often visited the small church in the village when he was a child. When the church priests wrote announcements in Common Chinese, Andrew would look at them curiously, so he was more familiar with Common Chinese than others.
Time slowly came to the end of December while everyone was stationed leisurely in Talburg.
……………
The roads were blocked by heavy snow, and there were no worries inside or outside. Art, who had not hunted quietly for more than a year, resumed his identity as a hunter.
He wears a rabbit-skin felt hat, a sheepskin coat, deerskin boots, a horn-riding bow on his back, an iron dagger on his left, a sheepskin quiver on his right, and a short traveling horse astride his body. This outfit instantly brings back the leisurely feeling of hunting for food in the dense forests of the valley over the years.
Since the first time he walked out of the valley and headed north to Lucesien, Art had almost forgotten the days of wandering through the dense forest like a wild wolf looking for food. Now he had more people and faced more things. Every day he was thinking about how to make as few mistakes as possible in every step he took, so the opportunity to really calm down and enjoy a moment of leisure was even more precious.
However, he was destined to be unable to enjoy this leisurely hunting life today.
In order to track an elk, Art ran a little far today. Along the hunter's trail southeast of Tarburg, he rode horseback among the snow-covered dense forest hills. Unknowingly, Art had reached the southern edge of Bilten.
Standing on the top of a hillside, Art looked down the mountain. A manor house with white walls and red tiles looked so unique among the desolate pale color and a dozen scattered and dilapidated thatched houses.
Matt knew the manor because a few months ago he personally wrote a blackmail letter to the owner of the manor "worth" one hundred thousand pfennigs.
At the top of the mountain stood under a red pine tree and observed motionlessly for a long time. There were only one or two guards in sheepskin coats walking back and forth on the wall of the manor house. Smoke was rising from the roof of the manor house...
After observing for a long time, Art rubbed his frozen fingers, glanced up at the gorgeous manor house at the bottom of the mountain, raised the corner of his mouth and chuckled: "Master Charis, it seems you have to fulfill the promise of one hundred thousand pfennigs in the letter~" After that, he turned back and retreated down the hillside, took the reins tied to the tree, got on the horse and ran towards the northwest direction of Talburg...
………………
Two hours later, Art's figure appeared at the gate of Talburg. Angus, who was in charge of guarding the gate, saw that Art had returned almost empty-handed. He took the reins from Art's hand with a smile, and fiddled with the two hares on the saddle and joked: "Sir Art, you went there for a long time and ended up catching two "big rats"~ How many mouthfuls can you chew on this thing?" I told you to take me with you, but you have to go alone. If you take me with you, you may bring back a bison! "
Matt jumped off the horse, took off the hare and threw it to Angus, saying: "If you don't like the meat, don't eat the rabbit meat that I roasted with honey."
Angus thought Art was joking and said: "Master Art, you still plan to hold a banquet with just two mice!"
At stopped, turned around and said to Angus with a smile. : "I'm serious. Go and call them. We will hold a banquet in the Principality of Swabia tomorrow!!!"
Angus listened to Art's words, ran up to Art and asked: "You mean we are going to take action again tomorrow?"
Yate nodded and said yes.
My bones are almost stiff if I am locked up in the military fort After that, Angus threw the two hares to the soldiers behind the fort gate, and ran towards the room where the O'do's and others were staying...
“One last vote???” Otto was confused after hearing this.
"Yes, today when I was hunting, I accidentally broke into the edge of the mountainous area south of Biltenberg. I saw a manor on a hillside there. It was the manor we designed to deceive Jeffrey's army." Art said.
Ron thought carefully for a while and replied: "Yeah, I remembered it. It was the richest manor in the south of Bielten. We sent a letter in the name of the bandits in the mountains and threatened to ask the owner of the manor, Mr. Charles, to pay a military fee of 100,000 pfennigs, otherwise we would lead the mountain army to besiege his manor."
Art looked around at the people around the table and said: "We were just trying to lure out the enemy troops in Biltenburg. But today I thought for a long time on the hillside, why don't we take advantage of those guys' lax defenses to do another attack. I have observed that there are only five or six guards in the manor at most, and the defenses are also very lax now."
"You mean we are raiding the southern manor now? But now the road is blocked by heavy snow, and we can't take away more things no matter how much we grab. Although we are not worried about enemy troops appearing on the road at the edge of the mountain, we can't let the carriage move forward in the snow!" Bass asked.
"We don't use carriages, and we don't need to plunder all supplies this time. We only take away the most valuable and easy-to-carry valuables in the manor, first of all gold and silver goods, secondly armor and weapons, and lastly expensive items. Heavy cargo, the palace will send another army to garrison Talburg as soon as the heavy snow stops. Why don't we go hunting in Swabia before leaving, as a gift from Swabia to send us home?" Art rubbed his hands with a hint of excitement in his tone.
Everyone at the table could no longer hold back in the Tal Fort. Even the training of soldiers was suspended after the heavy snowfall. Apart from studying writing in the inner fort, they also made jokes in the barracks. It was very boring, so Art's decision was unanimously approved by everyone.
"Okay, let's now think about how to capture this rich manor..."
Several people in the inner castle began to discuss how to capture the manor at the minimum cost.
After an hour of discussion, another destructive trick came out.
………
In the early morning of the second day, the sky was still dark gray.
In the southern manor of Bielten, two manor guards, one fat and one thin, wrapped in thick winter clothes and fur coats, huddled in the fighting position in the aisle behind the crenellation of the manor wall, taking a nap.
The sound of roosters crowing in the manor woke up a skinny guard who was sleeping lightly. He stretched out and shook off the thick snow on his winter coat. Then he looked up at the heat rising from the roof of the manor house, and in his heart he cursed the captain of the manor guard who had arranged for him to keep watch.
The thin guard who woke up found that his legs and feet were stiff, and he slowly struggled to stand up against the wall. He wanted to stretch his muscles, but was startled by two black figures under the wall.
"Fat man, wake up quickly. There is an enemy situation! There is an enemy situation!" The thin guard screamed while kicking the fat man who was still sleeping beside him.
The fat man woke up with a shiver, and quickly picked up the short spear that fell aside and asked in horror: "Where is the enemy? Where is the enemy?"
"Over there!" The thin guard pointed at the two black figures at the gate of the village.
The fat man looked over at the trembling hands of the thin guard. It turned out to be two "legged corpses" wearing shabby linen clothes.
Refugees who freeze to death and starve to death are not uncommon these days. War is raging in both the northern and southern continents. A large number of civilians' homes and fields in the warring areas have been destroyed. In order to survive, civilians in the war zone have to wander around begging with their families and families. It was freezing cold, and these two guys must have wanted to crawl to the gate of the manor and wait for the master to open the door to beg for a bowl of clear soup and wheat paste to save their lives. However, they never expected that they would freeze to death outside the village gate before the master could open the door.
"Skinny man, go and drag these two poor guys aside and bury them, otherwise the master will get up and see them later and scold us again." The fat man pushed the thin man and asked him to drag the bodies outside the village gate farther away and bury them.
"I'm going again, why don't you go? I've put it off twice this month. I won't do it. You have to go this time." The thin man didn't want to do this unlucky and thankless laborious job.
The fat man glanced at the "corpse" outside the village gate, then looked back at the manor house, and said to the thin guard: "Master, they will get up soon. If they see these two "legged corpses", neither of us will be able to eat today. "
Seeing that the thin man was still motionless, the fat man gave up, "Okay, one for each person. After burying, hurry up and change the guard and go back to have a hot soup." After saying that, the fat man walked around the village wall to see if there was anything abnormal under the wall. Then he stepped up and looked into the distance. After making sure that there were only two "legged corpses" and there was no danger, he returned to the thin man and made a gesture of invitation.
The thin man was attracted by the word "hot soup" and couldn't help but feel excited. He nodded and followed the fat man down the wall of the village...