Claude opened the pillow and took a look. The dozen or so copper coins he had thrown under it in the morning were all quite large. These copper coins added up to four or five riaso. Claude deliberately threw this under the pillow for three days in a row. It seems that this thief doesn't like money, but likes food...
It has been nearly a week since the advanced seminar started. During this time, Claude has gone to the confidential archives to get a lot of examples of battles, some of which are really shocking. For example, if you capture a hilltop defensive position guarded by an enemy squadron, the attacking Kingdom's second-line army will often have to pay the casualties of a large group of troops to win. When some officers in advanced seminars read these summary of battle cases, they often couldn't help but curse the officers who commanded them at that time for being stupid. They were literally forcing their soldiers to die.
Claude always went to the military school in the morning and returned to Aunt Natalie's house in the evening. But soon he discovered that he had been robbed. What was stolen was not money, but a large bag of snacks, egg rolls, biscuits, dried meat, dried fruits, etc. that Claude bought from the royal capital. Claude bought these because he was afraid that he would be hungry at night and fill them up. Secondly, his mouth was very light, and he didn't like drinking very much. He thought it would be good to put something in his mouth to chew while reading at night...
But these snacks were a lot less. At first, it was hard to tell that they were less. But as time went by, when Claude wanted to eat snacks, he picked up the bag and took a look. Why were there so many less? Needless to say, there is no one else but Aunt Natalie's youngest daughter Halbena. Because only she can enter Claude's room to clean, pack the clothes, help Claude make the bed, fold the quilt or take the quilt out to dry...
The dozen or so copper coins under the pillow were deliberately thrown there by Claude. He wanted to see if Halbena would steal money again. However, in the past three days, not a single copper coin has been lost. It seems that Halbena is just greedy and stole Claude's snacks, not greedy. Forget it, Claude doesn't want to argue with her. Sneaking some snacks or something is not a big deal to Claude.
Claude was quite comfortable in the advanced seminar and lived very comfortably. The school-level officers also respected him and did not treat him as a subordinate. Even when analyzing battle cases, Claude was often asked to comment. After being called by General Michelci to the podium to talk about the two battles in which he participated in the capture of Wilf's Hill and the victory of Squirrel Village, he smoothly integrated into these two battles. Among the school-level officers, they regarded Claude as one of their own kind.
I have to admit that these school-level officers who participated in the advanced seminar are all talented people. They often divide into two groups to debate because of the results of a battle case. Claude felt that many of the opinions he had never thought of, but after listening But it feels very practical and reasonable. During this period, Claude felt that his military level had improved very quickly...
The rainy season in March arrived soon. Claude packed up some of the war case files he had copied and brought them to Aunt Natalie's house, preparing to write his own summary report during the rainy season. The files and documents he brought were all about the personnel and material consumption list after the formation of the Ranger Battalion. Only now did he know that when that damn Lieutenant Colonel Roessler was in charge of the Ranger Battalion, the Ranger Battalion sacrificed a total of its lives and disappeared in order to ambush the enemy's reconnaissance cavalry. With so many soldiers, two more ranger battalions can be formed.
Unorganized and undisciplined, they recruited soldiers with good marksmanship, gave them an Obash Type III standard matchlock gun, and forced them to ambush the enemy. Later, because there were too many soldiers who sacrificed their lives and they could not recruit volunteers, they escorted those soldiers who violated military discipline, and also used methods of increasing bounties to attract desperadoes in the army, turning the ranger camp into a mercenary camp...
If Claude had not cast a long-range arrow protection spell on Lieutenant Colonel Rosler during the battle to capture Wilf Hill, making him the target of enemy fire on the hill and killing him, Then there might be no more Ranger Camps. Because all the soldiers in the Ranger Battalion were forced by him to line up and march towards the enemy's position. If he had not died, all the soldiers in the Ranger Battalion would have died on the battlefield.
That is to say, after Lieutenant Colonel Rosler was killed, Claude gained the command of the Ranger Battalion on the front line. He ordered the soldiers to lie down and suppressed them with precise aiming and shooting from the Obash Type III standard matchlock guns in their hands. The defensive firepower on the enemy's position covered the following soldiers who rushed up the hill and captured the enemy's defensive position. That battle was the beginning of the glory of the Ranger Battalion. It was also the beginning when the Grand Prince and the Kingdom's army began to pay attention to the role of the Obas III standard matchlock gun in offensive warfare in suppressing enemy defensive firepower with its precise aiming and shooting performance.
The combat case summary report that Claude is going to write this time is about the Ranger Battalion. From the time when Lieutenant Colonel Rosler was the commander-in-chief to the later role of the Fourth Ranger Battalion in the war, the main content is about the combat cases of ambushing enemy reconnaissance cavalry, and Not just a soldier equipped with an Obash III standard matchlock gun can deal with the enemy's scout cavalry. Claude used his own combat experience to analyze how to cooperate, how to deal with the enemy's reconnaissance cavalry's group reconnaissance and response, and how to ambush. Not alerting the enemy on the battlefield, etc...
In fact, Claude has already made a draft in the seminar room of the military academy. When he comes back, he only needs to find time to copy and revise it again. So when I woke up early in the morning, I heard the sound of rain outside. I was too lazy to get up, so I just leaned on the bed in a daze. From today on, I don’t need to go to the military academy. Of course, I can go, but it’s not necessary to eat in such a heavy rain. Three trips a day.
By the way, I haven’t told Aunt Natalie yet that I won’t go to the military academy during the next rainy season, so I will make do with eating at her house. Of course I have to pay for the food, but it started to rain last night, so I will be busy when I get back. I took a shower and changed clothes, but I forgot to discuss it with her.
Just when Claude was mentally struggling with whether to get up or not, he heard a "squeak" sound, the door was pushed open, and a figure jumped in.
Claude was a little confused. Did I not lock the door last night? I remember the door was closed, was it not bolted...
It was Aunt Natalie's daughter Halbe who came in. After she came in, she went straight to the table in front of the window. On the table was placed the big bag of snacks that Claude had brought from the royal capital. More than twenty days have passed, and the originally bulging bag has become empty. Claude himself ate very little, and most of it went into the snack thief's belly.
Now the only thing left in the big bag is a small, flat iron box. Inside the small iron box is pear candy, which is a famous sweet specialty in the royal capital. It is a kind of candy made from pears and honey. In a world lacking sweets, this is already an expensive luxury sweet. Claude remembered that he had spent a silver thaler to buy this small iron box of pear candy.
Halbena skillfully reached into the big bag and pulled out the small iron box. Open the lid of the tin box, carefully take out a small piece of pear candy with two fingers, put it in your mouth, then close your eyes happily and reminisce...
After a while, Halbena finally opened her eyes, smacked her mouth, and reluctantly looked at the remaining pear candy in the small iron box. She slowly closed the lid, gritted her teeth and took the small iron box. The box is stuffed back into the big bag.
Claude wanted to laugh. He bought a total of four boxes of pear candy in small iron boxes. Three of them were given as gifts to his three children when Lieutenant Colonel Manrich held a family dinner. The three children were very happy. The youngest daughter even opened the lid and gave Claude a piece of pear candy, saying thank you uncle, which made everyone laugh and praise her for being good.
At that time, Claude saw that there were only about ten pieces of pear candy in this small iron box. Now it seems that there should not be much pear candy left in the only small iron box in this big bag. No wonder Halbena So reluctant to part with just one slice.
Halbena turned around and was about to start cleaning the room, and then she saw Claude lying on the bed staring at her with a half-smile. What Claude didn't expect was that Halbena screamed "Ah!", which startled him.
I have to say that Halbena's voice is really loud, comparable to a soprano. Claude only felt his ears buzzing, and then he vaguely heard voices coming from outside, as if "What's wrong?" "What happened?"...
Immediately afterwards, old man Zacilak, Aunt Natalie, and Doris broke into Claude's room, and everyone stared at Claude lying on the bed.
"What did you do to Beina?" Old man Zasirak's face turned red, and he roared like a crazy old dog, waving his fists.
"Bena, what happened?" Aunt Natalie asked her daughter. She didn't know that Halbena's face was red at this moment because Claude discovered her stealing behavior, not because of it. Claude did something to her.
Doris first looked at Halbena's clothes, and then at Claude's body wrapped in a quilt on the bed. She curled her lips disdainfully, as if she felt that Claude had taken advantage of Halbena, who was not as good as her in figure or appearance. I really don’t have much vision...
Claude finally recovered from the ringing in his ears. Hearing the menacing shouts of old man Zasilak, he couldn't help but feel furious and said coldly: "What did I do? Ask your precious daughter, she did it What! I was lying here, and she suddenly came in... She screamed when she saw me, and she almost made me deaf... Ask her what her name is!"
Claude originally wanted to say that Halbena stole his food, but after thinking about it, he concealed it for her. It is normal for girls to be greedy. Besides, the way she looked at eating pear candy just now was ridiculous and cute. .
Halbena finally calmed down, and when she heard that Claude didn't say anything about her stealing food, she couldn't help but look grateful. When her mother asked her why she screamed, she pointed to Claude on the bed: "You, why haven't you gone to the military academy yet? I was shocked..."
It was obvious that this was a misunderstanding. Halbena came in to clean up. Claude had already gone to the military academy at this time. But today he was still in bed. Unknown to Halbena, when she came in, she suddenly found someone on the bed. She was so frightened. I screamed, it's that simple...
Claude said helplessly: "Sister, how can I go to the military school when it rains so heavily outside? The rainy season is coming, and the military school asked me to write reports at home and wait until the rainy season is over before I can go to class... "
The misunderstanding was clarified, and Halbena could only be blamed for being too timid and speaking too loudly. Old man Zashilak turned around and walked out without saying anything with a cold face. Claude wanted to curse. What did this old man mean by being so mean just now? Who did he take me for? Now that things are clear, should he apologize to me? Don't blame labor and management for being rude to you if you leave without making a sound!
Claude's eyes turned cold, but Aunt Natalie kept saying sorry and blaming Halbena for being a little girl who made a fuss about everything and made the whole family restless. At the same time, he said that if Claude is not going to the military school now, he must not have had breakfast yet, and asked Doris to go to the kitchen to make breakfast for Claude.
Claude took the opportunity to step down and discuss with Aunt Natalie the issue of having a meal at their house during the rainy season. Regarding the cost and specifications of the food, they finally reached an agreement after talking for a long time. Claude's only request was that he didn't want to eat at the same table with their family. The first was that Claude didn't want to look at the face of that dead old man Zashirak. The second was for the sake of purity, so he needed to eat at every meal. Bring it to the room.
Aunt Natalie happily took Halbena to pack up the clothes that Claude had changed yesterday and left the room. Claude was very generous and gave him a silver thaler for food, which lasted for twenty days during the rainy season. , I estimate that Aunt Natalie can earn half by saving a little. Except that Claude needed a meat dish for lunch and dinner, he didn't have any other requirements. Anyway, Claude didn't have any high expectations for their family's food.
However, the breakfast that Doris brought over surprised Claude because she actually cooked two poached eggs for him. The other items were black bread slices, salt, butter and a bowl of oatmeal. Claude was about to say thank you to Doris and ask if there were any sausages or something to put in the bread, but he saw old man Zasirak wandering under the eaves outside the door, looking only toward the room. Liliu, as if watching himself and Doris.
Claude suddenly felt like he had no appetite at all. This old man was too disgusting. He nodded to Doris, said thank you, then sat down and picked up the poached eggs with his fork. Doris didn't say anything, turned around and walked out.
After a while, Doris came to clear the plates and found that Claude only ate poached eggs and oatmeal. Claude said that he should put the black bread here first and eat it when he is hungry. After Doris left, Claude heard the unpleasant sound of sawing wood coming from outside. When he went over, he saw that old man Zasilak was sawing wood under the eaves, as if he was doing something. He didn't expect this old man to do carpentry. . Claude didn't intend to see what was going on, so he closed the door and started reading and writing.
After eating at noon, Claude wanted to take a nap, but there was a lot of noise coming from outside. Claude got up and was about to go to the kitchen to get a pot of hot water to make black tea. When he went out, he saw the old man Zasirak doing something on the stairs to the second floor. Such a loud sound can be heard in a stone room with such good soundproofing.
Doris was the only one in the kitchen again. She was sitting in front of the stove, her eyes blurred and she didn't know what she was thinking. She was rubbing a wooden stick as thick as a cucumber in her hand. One end of the stick was rubbed round and smooth. , I don’t know what it is used for.
Claude yelled twice before she came back to her senses. When she saw it was Claude, her face turned red and she didn't know where to move the wooden stick in her hand. After finally calming down, he asked Claude what happened.
Claude said he would make a pot of hot water, and asked what the old man Zasila was doing.
Doris looked at Claude and said that the old man decided to install another wooden door on the stairs going upstairs so that the upstairs and downstairs could be isolated. He said that this would prevent accidents. As people get older, they sleep harder at night, so they won't be able to hear if someone touches the stairs. With this door, they can rest assured.
Damn it, this damn old man, how could he be so unreasonable!
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