In a farmland haystack outside Wincheston Manor, two people who had burrowed their bodies into the haystack stretched out their heads covered with grass seeds and stared in the direction of the gate of the manor.
Stanley stretched his hand out of the haystack and rubbed it gently, and asked the man next to him who was very thin and covered with black mud: "Nicola, are you sure Dean and his son are still in the manor?"
This man named Nicola is a veteran of the first company. The task force has not been disbanded since it completed its mission in Thorne City. This Nicola has been following Stanley as a task force leader.
"Sir Stanley, last night I sneaked into the manor through the dog hole and heard old Dean's voice, but the inner house was too tightly guarded and I was not able to see Dean and his son with my own eyes."
Stanley nodded, put a straw in his mouth and chewed a few mouthfuls, "As long as Old Dean's fox is here. You can go in again tonight to investigate, and if possible, write down the defensive arrangements in the manor. It will definitely be used when the legion attacks."
"Yes." Nicola responded softly.
Stanley backed away slowly and climbed out of the haystack from behind, "You keep an eye here, I will go to a few other sentry posts first."
Stanley moved a little bit as he spoke, retreated behind a ridge, bowed under the cover of the ridge and moved towards another hidden sentry post outside the manor...
…
In the village of Bura in the southeastern part of Tyniec County, twenty-five or six patrolmen wearing black robes and capes, holding short spears and daggers at their waists, walked towards the village under the leadership of three horse-riding officers. The leader was the patrol captain Obote, followed closely by two riders carrying the heraldic flag of the Blood-Eyed Howling Wolf.
The lord of Bra Village is a middle-aged knight. He is thin and has a sallow complexion. He does not have the spirit of a knight at all. It's no wonder that although he swore an oath in front of his lord like his ancestors, the heroic and fighting blood of his fathers and grandfathers has flowed to him as thin as water. He has become accustomed to being a country squire who lives by collecting land rent and taxes, and only has three private soldiers in his hands.
However, a sudden outbreak of banditry a few days ago caused him heavy losses, so after the banditry, he recruited residents in the village to form a guard team of twenty people.
It can be seen that the knight Bulla has also put a lot of effort into these twenty or so people. Although they are not well-armed and well-dressed, they can still do it with a short spear. However, in front of this group of black-robed patrolmen who entered the village, the village guard seemed unbearable to look at.
Obot led the team into Brayi in order to appease people's hearts and give peace of mind to the people in the county who were intruded by bandits. In addition, he wanted to convey the order of Lord Att, the baron patrol officer of the palace. In recent days, bandits have been wiped out in the county. The troops from all over the country are guarding the territory and are not allowed to go out without orders. Otherwise, they will be charged with banditry.
Lord Bra has always had contacts with the Dean family, so he became one of the targets of focus. Obote specially brought people into the village to show off his power...
At the southern border outpost, an armed caravan was intercepted at the other end of the stone bridge.
There are very few caravans passing by this season, but those powerful caravans still take advantage of the occasional melting snow weather in the cold winter to seize the time to carry goods and hoard them, waiting to sell them at high prices in the next spring when the goods are most scarce.
· The caravan in front of the border post had this purpose to do business in the snow. They hoped to take advantage of the snow melting and roads to reopen in the past few days to quickly send a batch of southern goods to the north to stock up.
However, the garrison at the border refused to let them pass anyway. The helpless caravan manager even offered to pay Gaowu three times the usual tax, but was still not allowed.
The reason is very simple. Banditry is breaking out on a large scale in the northern counties. The border barons are leading their troops to suppress bandits everywhere, and the public security is very chaotic.
However, in order to prevent the caravan from returning in vain, the garrison commander was willing to purchase all the goods at the price of the southern goods arriving in Tyniec. This price would indeed be a high price on normal days, but this caravan is obviously not satisfied with the high price, they want to earn a huge price difference.
The garrison commander saw that the caravan was unwilling to sell the goods and said no more. He bombarded the caravan to the south of the stone bridge and warned them not to cross the border even half a step, otherwise they would be severely punished as bandits. Then he sent soldiers to guard the sentries and ignored them.
The caravan thought that this was another way for Yate to suppress his trading rivals and control this trade route, so they planned to station the caravan in the wilderness at the south end of the stone bridge and raise prices.
But a whole day passed, and he sent three waves of people to negotiate the price, but the other party had only one answer - to stop advancing or turn around and send back. Don't mention the acquisition at all.
Seeing that it was going to snow again that day, the caravan manager had no choice but to plead for mercy in person, lowering the price by one percent and buying eight cartloads of goods to the outpost, and then led the caravan back to Provence in the south to spend the winter in despair...
This cavalry team has a total of twenty horses and fifteen people, five of which are horses carrying grain, grass and baggage, and the remaining fifteen are all war horses used in battle.
A strong Andalusian horse walked at the front of the team. It was covered in black cotton armor, and the horse's head was covered with a warhorse mask. The saddle of the warhorse was hung with bows and arrows and long swords and hammers, and spears and axes were thrown from the back.
Riding on the back of this horse is Lusignan, the cavalry captain of the Welsh Legion, a trainee knight in full armor.
Lusignan looked at the flat land ahead, pulled the reins in his hands, and the horse stopped moving forward. Behind him, the two cavalry deputy captains, the wandering knight Reyek and the knight squire Jafar, also followed.
Lusignan raised his hand and pointed at a "hand"-sized pond in the flat ground in front, and said to the two deputy captains behind him: "We will camp here, let the guys camp around the pond, and let the horses drink water."
Reyek stepped on his feet and raised his eyebrows, and took a look at the surrounding terrain. The place near the road has a wide view, which is convenient for observing the road and the surroundings, and it is also convenient for the cavalry to block and shield and fight and escape. It is really good.
“Lusignan, do you think the north will really send troops to rescue the Dean family?” Although Reyek is only the deputy captain, his title is higher than that of Lusignan, so he is called by his first name.
Lusignan also feels pretty good about this big knight. Although his ability to command operations is a bit poor, his personal bravery cannot be underestimated. "Sir Reyek, at the war meeting, it was not sure whether the north would definitely send troops to rescue the Dean family, but Dean The family has been operating in the country for many years and has many powerful backers, so we have to take precautions. The cavalry will not play a big role in this siege, so we have to shield the battlefield with all our strength so that the infantry can attack the enemy with peace of mind. We cannot show our achievements to the infantry, and the cavalry will be criticized for spending such a high military expenditure. "
"Yes, the cavalry team is set at twenty-five people. With all your efforts, you can only gather eighteen cavalry. In the final analysis, the cavalry is too expensive." Reyek was also a knight, and he was very clear about the waste of military expenses required to support the cavalry.
While the cavalry was camping by the pond, two cavalry outposts galloped over and approached the Lusignan trio. They reported: "Captain, two deputies, the legionary infantry has arrived at the birch forest north of Boulder Town, and is expected to arrive south of Wincheston Manor at noon tomorrow.一日路程，军团指挥营帐命令骑兵队全力侦稽屏蔽北方，同时注意防备从温切斯顿逃匿的人......」
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温切斯顿庄园内，众人已经乱成了一锅。
errors.
The army in the south has been making a lot of noise in the past two days. Even the blind people of the Dean family should have heard the noise.
Dean and his son are not blind, so they have long known the movements of the army in the south. A sense of crisis hit them, and Dean and his son responded quickly.
The first thought of Dean and his son was to escape. They felt that the disaster was over and they were unable to deal with it. What they thought of was to take their belongings and hide in the north to temporarily avoid the limelight. But now the situation has deteriorated very much. Earl Bernard has detained the members of the Dean family and strictly ordered Dean and his son not to escape from the territory. Even if Dean and his son want to run away, they have to consider the consequences. Moreover, there is a western border army monitoring the Wincheston Manor.
Escape was impossible, so Dean and his son had no choice but to carry on. On the one hand, they sent a message to all the remaining guards of the caravan belonging to the Dean family to rush back to support Wincheston Manor, and sent people to fly to the county and the Northland for help. While rectifying the soldier guards at Wincheston Manor and Southwest Farm, he distributed the purchased weapons and armor to the soldier guards, and spent a large sum of money to pay the private soldiers (peasants and soldiers) their long-overdue wages, in an attempt to use money to ignite the bloody bravery of the private soldiers, but Many private soldiers were originally refugees and had no courage at all. On weekdays, it was okay to walk in line and show off while being beaten by officers. But when they heard that they were going to fight hundreds of professional soldiers from the legion, many of them abandoned their weapons and armor and fled overnight.
Dean and his son had no choice but to raise their salaries again and again and forcibly recruited a large number of farmers and serfs from the two territories to guard the two territories. However, there were still peasants and soldiers with sharp noses and quick minds who took advantage of the officer leader's inattention to go out on patrol and sentry, never to return.
The Dean and his sons had to capture and behead a few deserters, and no longer dared to send ordinary peasant soldiers out for sentry patrols. The peasants and soldiers were locked in the outer wall of the manor all day and became even more anxious. The Dean and his sons could only provide food and wine every day to appease them and promised to give them money and land after the war.
While the Dean family was struggling with their plans, the Western Frontier Army stationed at Wincheston Manor began to make trouble again.
"Lord Connor, you agreed to help the Dean family garrison Wincheston Manor and defend the army in the south. Now that army has changed, how can you leave at this time?" Old Dean held on to the arm of Baron Connor, the commander of the Western Border Army.
Connor pushed Old Dean's hand away with his backhand and replied kindly: "Mr. Dean, you misunderstood. We have no intention of leaving at all."
Connor pointed at the Western Border Army troops outside the mansion who were packing their tents and loading their vehicles, and said, "Then why are you packing?"
"Well, we feel that staying in Wincheston Manor is too intrusive. I have found a better garrison camp in a village ten miles west of Wincheston Manor. It would be better for us to move there."
This guy just wants to run away, and he says it so shamelessly.
"Lord Connor, how do you leave Wincheston Manor at this time? Earl Bernard's order..."
"Old Dean! Don't you dare put Count Bernard's pressure on me! The Earl only asked me to guard against the southern army, but he didn't say that I must defend the land for your Dean family!"
"This~this~your army has been supported by my Dean family during this time, you can't do this Accept it? "
"So what? I'm still training the army for you! I heard that the army from the south came out to quell the banditry, and they didn't say they must attack your Dean family. Besides, there are recent rumors that your Dean family is secretly manipulating bandits to plunder everywhere. Who knows if it's true~"
Connor stopped this unpleasant topic, "Master Dean, my army is stationed ten miles away, very close. If there is anything unusual on your side, I will arrive in time. Don't worry." Connor said and turned to leave.
Old Dean didn't know that Connor was a bastard who wanted to take advantage of the situation. He gritted his teeth and stamped his feet, and said loudly to Connor's back: "One hundred thousand pfennigs! As long as you can defend Wincheston Manor, I will give you a military expenditure of one hundred thousand pfennigs afterwards."
Connor paused as he left, "This is I dare not let the Earl's army be destroyed at Wincheston Manor~"
Connor paused for a moment and raised two fingers behind Old Dean's back, "Two hundred thousand pfennigs~"
Viscount Pierre is wearing a military uniform and carrying a sword. He rarely wears this armor since he became the county magistrate of Tyniec. The cold stainless steel armed sword on his waist may not have been unsheathed for a long time.
· Jerry, the captain of the guard, was adjusting Pierre's clothes and said softly with a worried face: "My lord, do we have to be like this?"
Pierre sighed, "Jerry, if it's just a dispute between two small lords, I'm sure We will not sit idly by, but this time the situation is definitely not that simple. Now that the Marquis is in his twilight, I am afraid that a storm is coming. Since we have chosen to be calm bystanders, it is best not to get involved. "
"Have the county soldiers been assembled?" Pierre didn't want to continue to explain.
Jerry replied: "Except for the thirty or so men left to guard the county city, the other one hundred and eighty county soldiers have been assembled in place and can go out with you at any time to quell the banditry. Which place do you think is suitable for us to go to first?"
Pierre looked up at the southeast and blurted out: "Go to Andermatt Castle first. Als was captured by the Swabians two years ago. It's time for me to inspect the southeastern border."
"Als is the farthest, so wouldn't it take a long time to go out?"
"Of course, how can things calm down in the south soon?"
So, shortly before the people sent for help from Wincheston Manor arrived in the county town, the county soldiers, who had almost never left the county town, were mobilized in full force and went to Andermatt Castle, which had no warning of banditry, to quell the banditry and inspect the border...
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