The low-rise housing area where poor people gather in the west of Besançon is the cozy home for the poor citizens who live at the bottom of the city.
In a small hut that had been vacant for a long time, five or six men in shabby clothes and muddy faces gathered around a bonfire cooking vegetables and wheat paste.
A man dressed as a laborer stirred a few times in a copper pot with a wooden stick, fished out a few piles of unsold cabbage leaves, then threw away the wooden stick and lost his appetite, "Why don't you sell bacon and dried fish instead, and eat these every day? Rotten vegetable leaves that cannot be sold. I almost vomited when I smelled the vegetable leaves. Stanley glared at the complainer and said, "How about I get you some honey-white bread with olive tapenade and Bordeaux wine?"
“This is not necessary. This is a slum area. It’s easy to reveal one’s identity with meat and wine. Vegetable and wheat paste is good.” The man heard Stanley’s sharp words and immediately stopped complaining and picked up the wooden stick to continue stirring.
Stanley withdrew his gaze and continued to talk to Oliver: "We can't go on like this. For three days, we can't even step into the side kitchen of the Earl's Mansion."
Oliver was the short hawker selling vegetables opposite the side door of Earl Bernard's Mansion. Their original intention was to approach the kitchen as a vegetable vendor or even become a vegetable supplier to the Earl's Mansion.
However, this time Oliver did not have the same good luck as selling firewood in Thorne City. He led his men to sell firewood outside the mansion for two days. The kitchen servants in the Earl's Mansion did not even look at it. In the end, Oliver spent two copper coins and learned from a slave who went out that Earl Bernard's Mansion would never buy any food from strange traders. There were designated vendors in the back kitchen to purchase "absolutely reliable" supplies for the Earl's Mansion.
· The plan to break into the kitchen under the name of a vegetable vendor and carry out conspiracy was aborted.
"How about we think of other ways to enter the mansion, and if that doesn't work, we can bribe the servants in the kitchen with a lot of money and let them bring things in." Oliver proposed to bribe the servants at the Earl's mansion to implement the conspiracy.
"This is not safe. Not to mention whether the servants can be sold or not, even if they can be bought, can you safely let others do this kind of thing? It's better to have our own people go in." Stanley rejected Oliver's suggestion.
While the two were still discussing, someone knocked on the wooden door.
"What's going on? Why didn't the outer sentry alert?" Stanley took out a crossbow from the inside of his belt, cocked the bow and pointed it at the door. Several other people also spread out and each took out daggers, daggers and other weapons.
"I am a man with a red beard and a bloody battle axe." A soft greeting came from outside the door.
When everyone heard that Red Beard was coming, they lowered their guard. No wonder the sentry didn't alert.
The clerk near the door opened the wooden door, and a man wearing a black hooded cloak, completely covering his face, walked in. He lifted the hood to reveal a fat face covered with red beard.
"Redbeard, why are you here?" Before going out, Art repeatedly emphasized that he should respect this eagle-eyed leader, so Stanley spoke with respect.
This Red Beard is the tavern owner who was beat into a pig's head by Angus for asking for too much of Art's "arrears". However, Angus and Red Beard, who were born in Besancon, have been neighbors since childhood. They know each other well and have a close relationship. If Red Beard hadn't been beating and scolding him while supporting him during Angus's fall, Angus might have died of drunkenness and starvation in the shabby house.
After Art began to form an intelligence network, Angus personally found Besançon and developed this fat red (bearded) man into one of Art's eagle-eyed leaders in the North. He took advantage of the large number of people in the tavern and his unique businessman's ability to climb to provide Art with a lot of information.
Of course, he also gained a lot of money and property.
Hongbeard, who always had a smiling face, lost his usual smile after entering the house. He nodded towards Stanley and sat on a stone next to the bonfire.
"I heard that you are selling vegetables outside Count Bernard's mansion?" Red Beard asked.
Yes.
"Although the secret order your lord gave me did not mention all of your plans, I have already guessed the purpose of your trip. If you plan to sneak into the kitchen to poison or assassinate in the mansion, you should stop it, it is useless." Red Beard said solemnly.
"Mr. Redbeard, why is this?" Stanley asked.
"Count Bernard is an extremely cunning old fox. It is impossible for outsiders to enter their mansion, even the kitchen. Even if you can enter, it will be useless. The guards in the mansion are a hundred times tighter than you think. If you want to assassinate, I guess your weapons The head has already fallen to the ground before it is unsheathed. As for poisoning, that is almost impossible. There are servants in the Earl's mansion who specialize in poison testing. The food Bernard eats will be given to the servants one day in advance, and there are also specialized poison-making doctors who test Bernard..."
Stanley and everyone took a breath of cold air after hearing this. They never expected that Bernard would be so cunning.
"Mr. Redbeard, how do you know this?" Oliver asked.
Redbeard said with a smile on his face, "Early at the beginning of the formation of Besançon Hawkeye, your Excellency gave me a secret order to send people to break into Count Bernard. Although our people were never able to get in, I caught a steward in Count Bernard's mansion. Now we have become "friends". Of course, this information was obtained from his drunken mouth.
Stanley and Oliver’s eyes were dazzled.
"I know what you want to say, it's impossible. Although that guy is addicted to alcohol and greed, he will never do such a thing, and I will not easily put this informant who has spent a lot of money and energy in danger." Red Beard denied the plan that the two of them had not spoken out.
Stanley and Oliver were a little frustrated for a moment. Hidden poisoning and assassination in the mansion would not work. They couldn't go back empty-handed.
Redbeard is not just here to attack Stanley and his party. He coughed softly twice and said: "I do have a plan that may succeed, but I don't know if you have the courage to do it. And I also have a small condition."
"Plan?"
"Condition!"
Stanley and Oliver raised questions.
“Mr. Redbeard, we don’t have much military spending for this operation. If you need a lot of money, don’t count on us.” Oliver said with a pout.
Hongbeard smiled and said, "If I need money, I will naturally ask for it from you, and I won't ask you for it."
"What are your conditions~?"
"I hope you will add my name when you report your merits after the war, so that I can get a share of the credit."
"This, what's the use of this?" Stanley and Oliver could not imagine what effect Redbeard's move would have.
Burgundy is already in a state of turmoil. As the eagle-eyed leader of the North, Redbeard is getting more and more news. This time the task force suddenly went north to perform a mission, which gave him a premonition that the North is about to become a chaotic land.
Redbeard has a wife and children, and he wants to escape from the whirlpool of troubled times, so he needs to be qualified enough to propose to Art that his family should go south to avoid disaster and get Art's protection. In addition, Red Beard is also very interested in Art's increasingly large southern goods trade...
Stanley and Oliver turned their heads and muttered a few words, turned around and replied: "No problem, we promise you."
Got Sir. Stanley and Oliver responded in the affirmative. Red Beard waved over the two of them, and the three heads gathered together...
On the hills next to an exquisite farm estate outside the northern city of Besançon, the tightly wrapped red beard led Stanley and others to lie down in the grass half a person deep and look at a plump lady with heavy makeup who was being helped out of the farm mansion by a servant.
Redbeard pointed at the plump lady at the foot of the hill and said to Stanley: "That woman is Count Bernard's new mistress, a farmer's woman."
The skinny monkey named Locksmith next to Stanley laughed lewdly and said: "This woman's breasts are almost dragged to the ground. I heard that Bernard is already over fifty years old. Don't let the old guy be smothered to death by his mistress's huge breasts."
Stanley slapped the locksmith on the head with his backhand, "Think of useless things."
Redbeard also laughed twice, and continued: "Bernard's old fox's appetite is indeed different. All his mistresses are like this. This woman is the oldest, and Bernard comes here most often."
"Bernard's countess is a thin old woman from a French aristocracy, dry and shriveled. I guess this is why the old guy Bernard has a soft spot for big fat women."
"Can you figure out the time when Bernard comes to meet his mistress? I guess Bernard will not come here with a swagger and an entourage of guards. "
"Bernard comes here twice a month, on the first Friday and the third Saturday respectively. He comes here at noon and leaves in the evening each time."
Stanley turned his head and stared at Redbeard in disbelief, "How do you know so detailedly, can you still follow Bernard?"
Red Beard pointed at another middle-aged man who came out of the peasant-soldier mansion and said: "That man is the farmer. Every time Bernard goes to the farm to have a "secret talk" with his wife, he will go to the city of Besançon to get drunk and find a Yingyan to comfort himself. The wine in my pub may not be the best in the city, but my girl is definitely the most soothing. "
"What a loser! His wife had a secret meeting with others, but he himself hid in the city and bought a drunk girl." Oliver looked down upon the lean farmer at the foot of the hill.
"Deputy Steward, you don't understand this. That guy is not a wimp. He exchanged a fat woman for a lot of benefits from Count Bernard. There is a southern goods shop in the city that was given to him by the Count." Red Beard actually had a hint of envy. Seeing him like that, if his wife was plump enough, he would be willing to exchange a share of the family business from Bernard.
"Since you can find out Bernard's coming and going time, let's start making preparations..."