When Lorist went upstairs, he found that his little maid Elina was leaning on the window sill and staring into the distance...
Lorist walked softly behind her, looked in the direction she was looking, hey, he couldn't help but let out a soft breath in surprise, but saw a rounded hill in the distance under the silver moonlight, the hill On the green grass swaying, a few white elk are jumping and playing in the moonlight, like a group of white elves.
Elina realized that Lorist had come behind her, and she shivered violently, her petite body began to tremble again involuntarily...
Lorist circled his hands, hugged the shivering little maid, and said with a soft smile, "Am I so scary? I won't eat you. Why are you trembling? By the way, what happened on that hill?" It's strange to have a white deer."
The little maid, Elina, trembled in Lorist's arms for a while before she calmed down. She leaned against Lorist's chest resignedly, and when she heard Lorist's question, she replied expectantly, "Well, that's White Deer Hill. Whenever the silver moon hangs high in the sky, there will always be white deer. In the past, there were people in the family who wanted to capture these white deer, but they lay in ambush on the hill for several days without seeing a single one. There are only white deer, and the white deer will appear after they leave. So people in the family say that these white deer are the pets of the silver moon goddess Daphne, and we mortals cannot catch them. Big luck."
Lorist lowered his head and kissed Elina's face lightly: "Irina, you did a good job this afternoon, and you will continue to work hard tomorrow. Tonight, you go to bed first, and I have to go to the study to do some things."
…
Lorist was woken up again by the monotonous and piercing sound of sawing wood. He stretched out his hand to touch it, but the side was empty. The maid Elina got up at some point, and presumably ran downstairs. Lorist got up, moved to the window and looked down while he was getting dressed, and sure enough, Ed Walker, the illegitimate son of his father and the cook, was sawing wood again, but what surprised Lorist was that yesterday he was still holding A piece of wood is being sawed, why is a tree stump being sawed today
Lorist went to visit Berunek first, saw that he was looking good and was relieved, took his pulse and chatted a few words, told the tall and frivolous maid to take good care of him, then took his leave and went downstairs with his sword. In the courtyard downstairs, there are already four guards practicing in the morning, and the corporal leader named Mo Si on the black iron steps is instructing his three bronze guards to practice sword and shield combat skills.
Lorist nodded at them, walked to the well next to him, took a bucket of water, washed his face and mouth, and was about to start his morning exercises, when he saw that Ed Walker was sawing wood while watching Moth and his training with envious eyes...
Lorist walked over, pointed at Mosi and the others and asked, "Do you want to be like them too?"
Ed Walker glanced at Lorist, and remained silent, but ruthlessly accelerated the rhythm of sawing wood...
"By the way, you saw wood every day, what do you want to do?" Lorist asked again.
"It's not about doing something," Ed Walker said in a buzzing voice, "I need these sawdust."
"Sawdust? What is it for?" Lorist asked curiously.
"Eat it, mix it with flour, make bread," said Ed Walker.
"Mix flour to make bread?" Lorist was dizzy when he heard it. What do you mean? Can this sawdust be eaten? Who came up with the idea? Also, why didn't I find sawdust in the bread I ate
"Wait, stop sawing, who told you to saw him, come and tell me." Lorist stopped Ed Walker from continuing to saw wood.
The warehouse steward, Spell, soon appeared in front of Lorist: "My lord, this is a family tradition. More than a hundred years ago, the family's manor castle was besieged by the army of mountain barbarians for half a year. There was not enough food, so the baron, the patriarch at the time, ordered to add sawdust to the flour to make bread and distribute it to the guards to fill their stomachs. Finally, when the barbarian army ran out of food and had to withdraw, the baron took the opportunity to lead the guards to launch a counterattack. The mountain barbarian army was defeated and a great victory was achieved. Since then, the mountain barbarians have never been able to organize an army of more than a thousand people to fight against our Norton family. To commemorate that siege battle, the baron at that time The adults ordered that one-tenth of the sawdust should be added to the bread making in the future, firstly to save food, and secondly to let future generations remember that victory."
"So, from then on, the family created this position as a sawmill to provide sawdust for breadmaking," said Steward Speer.
"Why is there no sawdust in the bread I ate?" Lorist asked.
"My lord, of course the bread you eat doesn't have sawdust. The bread with sawdust is given to the guards, and the servants eat it." Steward Speer replied.
"Yeah, at that time it was because of the lack of food, and it was a helpless move to mix sawdust. Now the family's food is so much that it is moldy, and it is purely mental to mix sawdust into the flour. Speer is in charge, pass me an order, From today onwards, sawdust and other messy things are not allowed in the flour. Make bread well, and let the guards and servants of the family eat well to do better. By the way, Edward Walker, you Sawyer job abolished
You don't have to sawdust anymore. "Lorist made a decision.
"My lord, this, this is unconventional..." Manager Speer questioned.
Lorist stared at him coldly: "You know, Speer is in charge. The decision I make now will become a tradition in my grandchildren's generation. Do you have any questions?"
"No, no, my lord, I have no problem, I will definitely follow your orders." Steward Speer bowed his head respectfully.
Lorist rubbed his chin: "However, as younger generations, we must not forget the glory of our ancestors. How about this, Chief Speer, go and find out when the siege battle was won, and we will eat it every year on that day from now on." A bread mixed with sawdust as a memorial, so that the great glory of the ancestors will not be forgotten, do you think this will work?"
"My lord, your decision is very wise." Steward Speer bowed deeply.
"What about me? What should I do?" The unemployed Edward Walker was at a loss.
"Go to the guards to report. You have a good figure. It's a pity not to be a family soldier. I will guide you in the guards to awaken your fighting spirit. Edward Walker, when you awaken your fighting spirit and advance to the silver rank, I will allow you to continue to fight." What do you think about taking Norton's surname and adding it to your family tree as a side branch?" Lorist said.
Ed Walker scratched his head, thought for a while and said, "Then, well, I will work hard."
…
In the afternoon, Lorist went to the assembly camp of the two newly formed guard teams. It was on a square next to the vineyard behind the manor castle. Steward Hansk was already waiting there. He selected twelve former family soldiers, A simple queue training is being conducted for two guard squads.
Pachico came over and saluted Lorist: "My lord, the slave camp has been cleaned up and we can leave at any time."
Lorist nodded: "Knight Pachico, tell me about the situation in the slave camp."
"My lord, there are 382 young and strong people in the slave camp. Among them, 67 people have awakened fighting spirit and 244 family members. Their luggage is ready. Where does your lord want us to go?" Chico said.
"There's no rush, we have to wait two days before leaving." Lorist said, "By the way, Hansk is in charge. I remember that our family has no habit of using slaves. Where did these slaves come from?"
Manager Hansk smiled wryly and said: "My lord, in fact, they are not treated as slaves here. These slaves were actually obtained when the young master went out to fight a few years ago. If you ask Knight Pachico, he was also treated by the young master. After being captured, come to our manor castle with these slaves."
Pachico nodded and said: "Yes, these slaves and I are almost all prisoners of the civil war. When I was captured, the young master told me that he wanted to get these slaves back and rebuild a town in the territory. At that time, these slaves were released and made them the subjects of the territory. Therefore, the young master paid great attention to those captives with their families, many of whom were exchanged with other nobles. The young master said that with their families, these captives could settle in the territory. Originally, the young master He planned to start building the town with about 3,000 people, but he didn't expect him to leave so early... "
Steward Hanske said: "My lord, we don't know what to do with these slaves after the young master is gone. In recent years, these slaves have been free in our manor castle except for farming, picking grapes and doing some farm work. , as long as they stay in their own camp and don’t make trouble in the manor castle, we basically don’t care about them. Instead, we have to provide them with food and clothing. Later, the boss of Kress felt that it would not do to let them go too much, so he entrusted them to Pa Chico Knight Management."
"Since that's the case, don't call them slave camps from now on, but treat them as our subjects and improve their board and lodging treatment." Lorist said.
"Also, I found out that there were some mistakes when assigning tasks to you yesterday. I was too impatient. I just wanted to rearm the family's armed forces, but I neglected that the manor castle also needs labor to carry out daily labor. This is my fault. In this way Come on, Manager Hansk, please do a new statistic, first calculate how much labor is needed to maintain the family’s manor and castle for daily labor, this time including those managed by Pachico Knights, and then calculate the number of people who can participate in the new How many young and strong members of the formed guards and their families are there. In this way, we can know how many redundant people there are in the manor castle. It will be an important stronghold for the family in the future.”
"Knight Pachico, you assist Hansk in managing affairs, and merge those of your awakened fighting spirit with the original guard of more than forty people, plus the awakened fighting spirit from the two newly formed guard teams over there, Re-form a guard team of 120 people, led by you. In addition, the original guard team of more than 40 people and veterans over 40 years old have been pulled out to serve as instructors and be responsible for the training of the two guard teams .From tomorrow, I will teach the two guard teams to awaken their fighting spirit. Even if those who did not join the guard team want to learn fighting spirit awakening, please don’t stop them. After I finish training them, I will select suitable people to join the guards Team. Got it?"
"Yes, obey the order." Pachiko stood at attention.
But Hanske Guan thought about it before nodding in agreement.
For the next two days, Lorist was extremely busy. He took the pulse of all the young and strong people in the manor castle who were willing and hopeful to awaken their fighting spirit, and then divided the four hundred people into more than twenty small teams and entrusted them to More than 20 veterans were training. Lorist also specially formulated different training plans and dietary regulations according to the physical condition of each team member, and asked Pachico Knight to strictly supervise them. Afterwards, the convoy escorted by Josk and Pat also arrived at the manor castle.
Josk brought Lorist a white twenty-four four-wheeled carriages and sixty-seven surrendered mercenary captives this time, in addition to 20,000 imperial silver coins, 100 barrels of gum juice, and more than 700 items. All kinds of leather armor, 170 sets of iron chain armor and more than 1,000 weapons.
After Lorist and Josk warmly embraced and asked about the construction site of the Morgan Hill castle, Josk said that everything was fine, and Miss Teresty had already arranged for those slave laborers to dig the moat and build the city wall, so don’t worry about things over there. .
Josk asked Lorist what he should do when he came back to the manor castle? Lorist said to take a rest first, and then escort a group of personnel and food back to the construction site of Morgan Castle in two days. Lorist will also go back with Josk at that time. But before going back, we have to arrange things here. Now let's go and see those mercenaries who surrendered.