No matter how raging the war is, time passes as usual.
In early August, the weather entered its hottest moment, but Korien, the leading knight of the Eastern Frontier, was shivering while lying in a carriage. He was not cold, but he had been tortured by being a prisoner for more than ten days. I believe that after this time, he would ask more about the origin of the other party before looting again.
On the east gate wall of St. Lyon City, Odo, Angus and Ron accompanied Art to "gift" the guests out of the city. Seeing the carriage carrying Corian leaving, Angus turned to Art and said, "Sir, will you embarrass Baron Charis by doing this? After all, this guy is a knight under Baron Charis. Are we asking too high a price?"
Matt waved his hand, "I offered 200,000 pfennig, but in the end I only got 150,000 pfennig. This is enough to give Charis face. This guy is not his son. There is no need for him to quarrel with me for such a bastard." Look at the long term. Why do I have to bite this bastard Corian to set a mark for others and let others know that we are not to be messed with at will? Otherwise, if people or dogs dare to bite us, how can we stand in the future? And Corian is a good target, and he can swallow it without grinding his teeth. Besides, he is here, who will I eat?"
Odo also knew that Art was killing people to establish his authority, but he was worried that it would not be good to offend Baron Charis too much. After all, Charis was the most trusted person around Count Baldwin, and Charis now controls several infantry regiments of the Jonah Army of the Eastern Army, which is far more powerful than Art. "Sir, after all, we are fighting in the Eastern Army, and Baron Charis has strong troops. Maybe we will need the help of Baron Charis that day. It is always bad to make too many enemies."
Att used his hands to build a tent and looked at the getting smaller and smaller shadow of the carriage in the distance. He nodded and said: "Odo, you are right. So I have sent Father Robert and Ideological Officer Dennis with 20,000 pfennig military pay and two large carts of bacon, fruits and vegetables donated by religious consecration." It was sent to the Chinese army command camp in the name of Charis. Charis knew that I didn't keep the ransom money, so he wouldn't blame me too much. What's more, Corian must have given him a large sum of money, otherwise why would he write that autographed letter? Anyway, everyone benefited."
The carriage had disappeared from sight. Art turned around and looked at the entire city of St. Lyon. He said earnestly to his two trusted lieutenants, Odo and Angus: "You two, no matter how much money you have, you have to have the strength to hold on to it. The Wells Army suffered serious battle losses in Vaal City, especially the gap between elite soldiers and low-level officers. You two need to train quickly before the war begins. We don't know what kind of powerful opponents we will encounter in the next battle."
"Sart sent a message saying that they will arrive in St. Rayon in two days at most with a large amount of strategic supplies. You negotiate with the caravan and transfer a group of more capable guys from the caravan into the army to train as combat soldiers and low-level officers to fill our gaps as soon as possible. In addition, let the caravan bring military orders to Bass and ask him to send the trained recruits to the north as soon as possible. We will definitely need to constantly replenish the battle losses."
"In addition, you must train the infantry and chariot formations as soon as possible. Recently, there has been military news from the Eastern Army's command camp. The Western Army has begun to secretly assemble cavalry troops near Besançon. We are about to raise our troops to march westward. I am worried that they will launch a cavalry battle against the Eastern Army infantry marching in the field. The Eastern Army has always been short of cavalry. I am afraid that the Eastern Army's cavalry alone cannot defeat the Western Army's cavalry. We must prepare early."
Otto and Angus nodded in agreement, and they discussed in detail the training plan for the infantry and chariot formations for a while...
"Odo, please personally supervise the baggage team to reinforce and transform the carriages we carry with the army. The iron side panels for defense against arrows must be added, and remember to make square holes in the side panels for shooting crossbows. "
"If there is a shortage of iron, let them try to buy it while the caravan is coming. Don't be afraid to spend money. The one who survives to the end is the winner."
"Yes, sir." Odo replied firmly.
At the end of his instructions, he turned around and leaned against the wall, looking at the wooden cages hanging on the top of the city. He sighed softly, "The more preparation we have, the less we will lose a head."
The heads in the wooden cages were grinning and rolling their eyes. They were spinning and swaying in the breeze...
Human heads with twisted and ferocious faces in a row of wooden cages were spinning and swaying in the breeze. Under the cages, people and carriages were constantly coming and going in the Xicheng Gate.
This is the city of Besançon, which is not only the headquarters of the Western Army of the Count of Burgundy, but also the center of the Western Territory faction headed by the heir to the Marquis, "Crown Son" Robert, and the "Prime Minister" of the Court of the Count of Burgundy, Count Bernard.
In a thatched wooden shack on one side of the West City Gate, three soldiers in Western Army uniforms were chewing and swallowing several plates of half-cooked beef, horse, pig, sheep, heart, tripe, and lungs over a barrel of inferior beer. Outside the thatched wooden shack, squatting was a large group of homeless beggars in disheveled clothes, looking at the wine and meat on the table for three people.
Hands, liver, intestines, belly, and lungs, which are usually thrown away to feed dogs, were stewed in a pot by the shopkeeper with onions and spices, and became expensive delicacies during the war.
The homeless beggars outside the wooden shack have green eyes. If they weren't afraid of the weapons on their waists and the single knife that the shopkeeper was always on guard, these hungry guys would have rushed up and tore the meat and plates together and swallowed them.
A soldier finished eating the stewed offal on the plate and was still not satisfied. He stood up, grabbed the wooden plate and walked to the shopkeeper who was guarding the deep pot with a sharp knife. He took out three copper coins and threw them to the shopkeeper. He used a long-handled wooden spoon to scoop a few spoons of thick soup with oily meat from the boiling pot beside the shopkeeper. He turned around and prepared to return to the wooden table to continue.
"Sir, please give us a bite to eat. My children are starving to death." A middle-aged woman who was as skinny as a stick and couldn't see clearly held a dying child in her arms and knelt down in front of the soldiers.
The soldier kicked the woman away, and the woman came back to haunt him.
The soldier raised the wooden plate high, glared at the woman on the ground, and shouted: "Get out of here, do you hear me? If you don't, I will cut up your child and make it into soup. Do you believe it?"
The woman was frightened and backed away, and quickly protected the child in her arms.
"I said to the shopkeeper, if you don't drive these rats out, we won't pay for your drinks. Why is it so difficult to eat quietly~" The soldier complained to the shopkeeper on the side.
It is not an ordinary person who can have spare money to drink and eat meat during the war period when people are starving every day. Only the mercenaries who work hard for money have such wealth. The shop owner did not dare to offend this group of fierce mercenaries. He sheathed his single sword and hit the woman with a firewood stick with sparks from the fire under the pot, with insulting words in his mouth.
The woman was beaten so hard that sparks flew up, she screamed and crawled back outside the wooden shed.
Don't just eat, keep an eye on the soldiers and carriages going in and out. Today, another thirty carts of military rations have arrived. Counting the eighty carts of grain supplies that have been shipped in the past few days, I'm afraid the Western Army will soon take action. "On the wooden table, a man who looked like a junior officer pushed the soldier next to him who was just eating.
This young officer, wearing the standard uniform of the Western Army and wearing his own half-mail, is Oliver, the deputy captain of the task force of the Welsh Army. He led three soldiers to sneak into the outpost of Besançon to inspect the food and baggage of the Western Army. The two mercenaries eating in the wooden shed were also disguised as members of the task force, and another one was guarding the hotel in the city.
Seeing the soldier who bought the food sit back on the wooden table with a bad smile on his face, Oliver cursed softly: "If you don't give someone something, you won't give it to someone else. Why do you want the shopkeeper to beat someone up?"
"Captain, there are too many homeless and beggars these days. "We must not be soft-hearted at all. Otherwise, the commission we exchanged for our lives would not be enough to save them. If we were not worried about military law, I would have sent them to rest in heaven. At least no one would starve to death there." The soldiers were very conscious. It would be better to simply send them to death if they couldn't be saved.
"Have you seen the row of heads hanging on the top of the city? Those are the refugees who have stolen military supplies these days. After the defenders caught them, they beheaded them in public, as if there was a row hanging on every city gate." The soldier held a short wooden spoon and pointed at the row of heads in wooden cages diagonally above his head, and then continued to chew the internal organs.
Another soldier who was eating meat sighed and put down his wooden spoon. The scene outside the wooden shed reminded him of his parents and brothers who died of cold and starvation. "We are both lords, and we fight every year. I really don't know how my family managed to prevent anyone in the valley from starving to death."
"Yes, if you want me to say that Lord Art should sit on the palace iron seat, maybe then everyone won't have to worry about going hungry." The "cruel" soldier just now also expressed emotion.
The young officer threw the wooden spoon and said softly: "Do you want to become a human head in a cage at the top of the city? Where are we now? Do you still want to go back alive!"
The other two people quickly silenced their voices, lowered their heads and continued to deal with the mushy broth in the wooden plate.
The young officer lowered his tone, "The task assigned to us by the steward is to find out the food, grass and baggage reserves in the city of Besançon. Today is the last day. We must go to the north to gather with others tomorrow."
Another soldier asked: "Deputy stewards, are they evacuating with us?" The deputy stewards in the soldier's mouth refer to the deputy captain of the task force, Dawson, who led five people to lurk in the city of Besançon to find out the deployment of the Western Army's troops.
"We just mind our own business and don't let other people interfere." Oliver replied.
"Then how do we evacuate? Except for the roads to the west, the roads in other directions are very tightly blocked."
Oliver smiled and said, "Tomorrow, a team will be sent to clean up the war zone near the castle east of Besançon. They want to turn the places where the Eastern Army may be stationed into no-man's land. All civilian supplies in those places will be forcibly moved to Besançon. We are also on the list of troops sent."
"Cleaning up the war zone? That's it. A piece of fat is basically a task that only the elite of the Western Army and the cronies of the officers can get. How do we get such a good thing?" The soldier asked, the so-called cleaning up the war zone is just to drive the farmers and civilians in the war zone to flee their homes. Not everyone can get a mission, and the looting of property during the mission is absolutely inevitable.
Oliver looked proud, "This morning I went to the account clerk of the Chinese Army Command Camp who was responsible for the dispatch mission, and bought the quota from the clerk at a price of one hundred pfennigs per person. Fortunately, the steward allocated enough money to us in advance, and the amount of money is really not a small amount."
"After a while. After I returned to the hotel, I quickly wrote down the information collected today while I still remember it clearly, and then sorted out the military information collected during this period. If we arrive one day earlier, the Eastern Army will have one more day to prepare. "
"Okay!" The soldier who was "somewhat good at writing" started to eat again.
"Can you eat slower? We have to stay for a while. There should be a convoy coming from behind..."