Claude arrived at White Deer City on the afternoon of the next day. The arrival of their group almost caused a sensation in the entire White Deer City.
Without him, the gangsters like One-Eyed Longback, who had been wreaking havoc on the Winding Mountain Road and the Black Forest in the past few years, were wiped out by Claude and the three of them, and even their lair was ransacked. Not only were the bodies of all the slain gangsters brought back, they also brought back eight prisoners, rescued three women and two hostages who had been kidnapped to be used as sex products, and transported back the stolen goods from three large carriages. .
Claude and others were lucky. The three of them had not been able to get back so many things that had been confiscated from the gangster's lair, but the next morning they happened to encounter a caravan setting off from White Deer City to Ambriz County. When the caravan director heard that the one-eyed Langback gang had been wiped out by three people, he asked about the eight prisoners, the rescued woman and the two hostages. He heard that there were still more than 20 corpses of the gangsters and a large amount of goods that had not been transported. After returning, it was decided that the caravan would return to Bailu City first, and four freight carriages were freed up to help Claude.
In fact, Claude and the other two people did not expect that this group of gangsters would be so careless. When Claude held a discharged shotgun on the horse and shouted that he would put down his weapons and kneel down and surrender without killing those who surrendered, even he himself did not expect that The remaining seven gangsters actually dropped their swords, guns and wooden spears and knelt on the ground. Perhaps these seven surviving gangsters also knew very well that running on two legs would never be able to outrun Claude and his four-legged pursuit, so they might as well save their energy. Another point is that the three Claudes were frightened to death by their killing methods.
Originally, Claude and the others just wanted to collect the corpses of the gangsters and then take the seven prisoners back to White Deer City. He just made two tree rows and tied the bodies of the killed gangsters to them. When he was preparing to use horse horses to go back, McGick heard the whispers of several gangsters, to the effect that they would not come out to rob in the afternoon if they had known earlier. It was better now. , everything in the lair is cheaper than Pique and the others...
He put the musket on their heads and asked, and the gangsters immediately explained everything very clearly. It turns out that their lair is only half a day's journey away from here, in a cave on the edge of a mountain forest. There are three gangsters looking after the house, three kidnapped women and two hostages. There is also a large amount of looted goods stored in it. goods.
When Claude heard this, he decided to turn around and raid the gangster's lair to eliminate evil. So the three of them drove a carriage, escorted the prisoners, and set off dragging the raft containing the corpses. What's funny is that the three gangsters guarding the gangster's lair saw the team from a distance and thought they had successfully carried out the robbery and brought back a lot of supplies, so they happily came towards them. Then two of them were knocked down by two shots. The remaining one was so frightened that he wet his pants and joined the captives.
In fact, most of the goods accumulated in the gangster's den were not very valuable, such as pottery and small commodities sold by merchants. Most of the more valuable cloth and fur were destroyed by these gangsters. They used them to keep out the cold and spread them on the ground as beds. As for the food, there was not much food, but there were two donkeys, which must have been snatched back from some unlucky merchant.
There was also extra money, a money bag made of deerskin, which contained gold and silver coins worth more than 170 gold crowns. This was the result of the hard work of the one-eyed Langback, the leader of the gang who had been killed, in the past few years. As for the copper coins they robbed, they were generously rewarded by One-Eyed Longback to his subordinates. There was nothing to spend here anyway. Most of the gangsters used the copper coins as capital for gambling. McJack collected less than half of the coins from the gangsters and caves. Sack of copper coins.
It was getting late, and Claude and the three could only make do in this gangster's den for one night. The next day, they could only set out with the three rescued women, two hostages, and the eight prisoners. Fortunately, when we arrived at the mountain road, we happened to meet a caravan departing from Bailu City. As a result, the caravan director was very enthusiastic when he heard that the One-Eyed Langback gang had been destroyed, and volunteered to free up four large carriages to transport the corpses and goods to the gangster's lair.
It took until the afternoon to arrive at White Deer City. After hearing the news, the residents of White Deer City flocked to the city gate to watch the excitement. Claude and the three were regarded as heroes. From time to time, young and beautiful women threw garlands to the three of them. Perhaps in their eyes, the three young soldiers wearing military uniforms who are extraordinary and heroic are in line with their fantasy of the best lovers.
But for Claude, the current White Deer City is completely different from the hometown he remembered. The changes have been huge. Even the caravan that helped him a lot is very strange in his mind. He had never heard of the name of this caravan or trading house. During a casual conversation on the road, he learned that this chamber of commerce was only established four years ago and had a very strong background. The bosses behind the scenes are a few nobles from the royal capital, and they are still engaged in trade between the two continents.
No wonder the caravan director has no feeling for Claude's name. None of the people in the caravan are old residents of White Deer City. They don't know Claude and haven't even heard of his name. They just treat him like this. It was curious to become an official captain officer of the kingdom at a young age. However, the caravan director recognized the knight's badge worn on Claude's chest, and his attitude became more attentive in his conversation.
Under the leadership of the caravan director, Claude and his group arrived at the new Bailu City Patrol Headquarters. The handover of prisoners and the identification of the gangsters' bodies were the responsibility of the patrol headquarters. There was a huge crowd of spectators, and when the patrol officer who came to identify the bodies announced that One-Eyed Longback and the other gang leaders were indeed dead, the crowd of spectators cheered excitedly.
For the residents of Bailu City, the gangsters entrenched on Panshan Road are indeed a major worry and scourge for small businessmen and ordinary residents. It is not that Bailu City has not sent out police forces to clear them up, but this group of gangsters never confront anyone, they will escape. He went to the black forest area to hide and seek with the clean-up teams. After the clean-up teams returned without success, he intensified his efforts to harass ordinary farmers and residents all over Bailu City, just like a disgusting and disgusting fly surrounding White Deer City.
Claude will also take notes at the patrol headquarters and talk about how he annihilated this gang of gangsters. Goods seized from gangsters' dens must also be handed over to the patrol department. Those with a crime report record must be returned to the owner. Unregistered goods will be auctioned at a later date. Two-thirds of the auction proceeds will go to Claude and one-third will go to the patrol department. The handling fee is a unified processing method. As for how those cargo owners who got their goods back would thank Claude, that had nothing to do with the patrol department.
The rescued women and hostages were treated in the same way. Those who had families to return to were taken back by their families, while those who were homeless were arranged by the public administration department of Bailu City. However, the bounty for Claude and the three of them will have to wait a few days before being distributed. The amount this time is a bit large, adding up to nearly four hundred gold crowns. It is just the bounty for One-Eyed Langbach and several other famous bandit leaders. That's more than half of them.
What confused Claude was that there were very few old people who looked familiar to him in this patrol headquarters. He remembered that he knew most of the members of the previous Bailu Town patrol team, but now everyone in this patrol headquarters was unfamiliar. After asking the patrol officer who received him, the patrol officer replied that the people in the previous patrol team were basically incorporated into the Bailu City Guard Battalion and were sent to the front line but have not yet returned. Now, most of the people in the patrol headquarters are transferred from the royal capital and other places. As a local city directly under the jurisdiction of the royal capital, the management and executive civil servants of its authority agencies are in this situation...
It wasn't until Claude completed all the formalities and left the patrol headquarters that he was stopped by a very familiar person. After thinking for a long time, he remembered that the man in front of him was the manager of the Bock'al family's business. He was Bock'ar's father and a trusted assistant of the big businessman Ruby Will.
"Master Claude, our master has been waiting for you in the carriage over there. He wants to treat you to a meal." The manager of the business bank bowed respectfully.
Claude motioned to Michael Jack and the big man Gemi to drive the carriage and lead the horse to follow him. Accompanied by the steward of the trading house, he headed to the carriage where Bok'ar's father was.
"Uncle Lubiwell, I didn't expect you to be the first relative I saw after I came back." Claude gave a formal military salute before getting on the carriage.
Bockaar's father laughed, obviously very satisfied with Claude's title and relatives. He reached out and patted Claude on the shoulder: "Good boy, you are so promising. Not only have you become an official captain officer of the kingdom, you have come back to visit relatives and annihilated the one-eyed Longback gangster who has left White Deer City helpless for a long time. I believe this In two days, your name will spread throughout Bailu City, and everyone who knows you will be proud of you. My uncle will treat you tonight, and we won’t come home until we get drunk."
"I'm sorry, Uncle Lubiwell, it's been five years since I joined the army, and I haven't even stepped foot into the house yet. I appreciate your kindness, and I still want to go home first." Claude said sincerely.
Bok'ar's father slapped himself on the forehead: "Yes, you should indeed go home first. I was just so happy to hear the news of your return that I forgot about that. Then I'd better send you home first, I’ll treat you to dinner in a few days.”
send me home? My home is in a forest farm. It would be embarrassing for you to go all the way to see me off... Claude quickly declined: "No need, Uncle Lubiwell. My home is in a forest farm, and you still have to go out of town to see me off." You’re too polite to go to the mountain. I’d better go there by myself. You see, I also have a carriage and a mount... "
Boker's father was stunned: "The forest farm? Claude, didn't your mother and your sister write to tell you? They no longer live in the forest farm, and they moved back to the red house left by your father three years ago. In the big brick house…”
Moving back to the big red brick house? What do you mean, you don’t live in the forest farm, what happened? Claude was confused: "No, I haven't received a letter from home for more than a year. The letter I received in the first half of last year was sent the year before last. Because the troops have been mobilized, we are very busy on the front line. I rarely receive letters from my family. The efficiency of the military postal service has never been very good, and I have always been hated by the officers and soldiers on the front line. But the military postal department always shirks it. They say that they have too few people to handle it. There are nearly one million officers and soldiers on the front line, and their family members only write letters. One letter can paralyze the entire military postal department, and there is also a so-called sorting system... "
This is true, all letters and replies must be checked by officials of the military postal department. During peacetime, this task can be left to the disciplinary inspection officers of each independent combat unit, such as the military police or the Military Disciplinary Office. However, during the war, the military discipline departments of independent combat units did not have such free time. Letters were piled up in the military postal department. Sometimes there were nearly 10,000 letters a day. Relying on the inspection and sorting of a dozen letter inspection officers, it is natural for the entire department to be paralyzed.
Therefore, countless letters from family members were stamped with the seal of not finding this person. This is no wonder the military postal department. Many combat troops accept tasks in a confidential nature, and the officer in charge of the military postal department does not know where they will be transferred. And the family members also know that the stamp on the returned envelope that no one has been found does not mean that something has happened to their loved ones, but that they cannot be contacted temporarily. This is much better than sending a notice of war dead...
Bokhar's father nodded in understanding and poked the coachman in front of him with his stick. The coachman turned around and asked, "Master, what are your orders?"
"To Mrs. Field's," said Bockaar's father.
"As you command, sir." The coachman shook the reins and the carriage began to turn.
Claude also poked his head out of the carriage and waved his hand to signal the big men behind him, Germi and Mike, to follow him.
"By the way, Uncle Lubiwell, how is Boa doing?" Claude asked.
Bokoal's father smiled: "He's not bad, and he has become a second lieutenant now. The Bunjilia Security Battalion is currently stationed in the port city of Kamontole in the Principality of Rimodra. Last year, their security battalion retreated. A pirate fleet plundered the port of Camontole. It is said that this boy performed outstandingly and was promoted to second lieutenant due to his merits. Last month, he wrote to me telling me that their battalion will probably set off to return by the end of the year."
Claude was a little envious: "Boa has done a good job. After becoming a second lieutenant, he can go home five years early to help you manage the business."
It takes fifteen years of service in a local garrison battalion to obtain national status, but Boker's promotion to a second lieutenant in the garrison battalion can reduce his service time by five years, which is equivalent to the ten years of military service he has already served. After five years, he will be eligible for national status. You can take off your military uniform and go home to do business.
Compared to Claude, Boquear, a second lieutenant in the security battalion, was indeed inconspicuous, but he became free after obtaining national identity. As for Claude, the official second lieutenant of the kingdom, although he was prominent, he had no choice but to do so. He did not have the freedom to retire and had to obey the arrangements from above.
The big red brick house arrived soon. What Claude was not used to was that a three-meter-high wall was now built outside the big red brick house, enclosing the previously wide front door, the back of the house, and the open spaces on the left and right sides. It stood up, leaving only a three-meter-wide gate. From the looks of it, there is a concierge built next to the gate.
Boker's father's carriage stopped at the gate without entering.
Just as Claude was about to say goodbye and get out of the car, Bockaar's father said with a serious face: "Claude, your sister Anna is in charge of your home now. Your mother, your sister and your brother still live in the house on the left. Originally, your sister Anna is in charge. I have a lot to talk to you about today, but now I think it’s good for you to go home and understand the situation first. Bailu City has changed a lot in the past few years, and your mother and your sister also had no choice but to make the choices they made. It’s also very helpless. But the situation is like this, and we old people in Bailu Town can’t help. If your father was still here, maybe the situation wouldn’t be so bad... "
There seemed to be something in his words, but Mr. Lubiwell was no longer ready to continue. He waved his hand and said goodbye to Claude and left. Although Claude was a little confused, he couldn't restrain his joy of going home. He motioned for Mike and the big man to follow him and walked towards the door.
"Hey, who are you looking for? Sir." A familiar voice at the door stopped Claude.
Claude looked back and saw that this person was very familiar to him: "Huh? Uncle Peg, why are you here?"
This is the lame Uncle Pegg who guarded Erikson's private dock back then. He also helped Erikson build and refit a small fishing boat. That small fishing boat was filled with the innocent friendship of four friends. It was only later that Erikson blamed Claude's family for his missing father and turned against Claude. Soon I heard that his family's private dock had been acquired by others. Claude didn't hear about Uncle Peg's whereabouts, and soon Claude went out to serve as a soldier.
Unexpectedly, I saw Uncle Peg at the door of my house now. I haven't seen him for five years. Uncle Peg is getting older and his hair is mostly white. But he still recognized Claude: "You, you are Claude, great, you are finally back..."