"No, Uncle Locke, I made a mistake last time, start over..." This is Bodfinger's daughter Alyssa, who is playing Warcraft chess with Lorist.
Warcraft Chess is a monopoly-like board game played in Galintia. The board is an irregular maze-like map with nearly a hundred pieces in the shape of Warcraft placed on it. The boss is a red stone in the center of the maze. Dragon chess pieces. Players in the game are chess pieces in the shape of knights, and they use dice to throw points from the entrance to determine how many steps to take.
The difference from the Monopoly game is that Warcraft Chess requires good computing power, because all Warcraft pieces have points. For example, if the score of a knight is ten, then there is a magic sheep in the grid where he takes two steps. The score engraved on the bottom is five, which means that the knight killed the magic sheep without damage, and then the knight's score becomes fifteen. If it is a magic wolf, its score is nine, which means that the combat power is similar, and the knight's score after victory It's not nineteen, it's eleven. Only when the difference between the scores is doubled can they be added, otherwise they can only be added by subtracting the scores of the two.
There are many crossroads in the land maze, guarding all kinds of monsters, and calculating the most suitable way to increase combat power at every step, in order to reach the center of the maze and kill the red dragon to win, so this game of Warcraft is also called the dragon slaying game.
Just now, the little girl made a wrong calculation and went in the wrong direction. She met a devil tiger. Her knight's combat power was only thirty-seven, but the devil tiger's score was forty-two. This means that the little girl's knight has become the devil tiger's canned food. For food, the little girl's knights have to retreat to the entrance of the maze to start again, and all the killed Warcraft chess pieces must return to the chessboard. Now that the little girl quit, she pretended to regret the game.
Lorist pinched the little girl's face dotingly, and generously agreed to let the little girl choose a new direction to move forward.
On the armchair next to the window of the room, sitting upright is the little girl's elder brother Shi Huade, who is currently concentrating on a book he found on a bookshelf. On the floor in the middle of the room, the two five or six-year-old twin brothers of Farea, the golden mercenary, were lying on their stomachs, eating snacks and playing with a pair of building blocks. They were trying to build a small castle...
During this time, Lorist was entangled by the little girl Alyssa, and it had been more than half a year since Lorist left the convoy and returned to the family territory. Alyssa missed this uncle who loved her very much. Secondly, they are all in Maodong in Kebo City, and it is snowing and raining outside, making it impossible to go out to play. In addition, Lorist lives on the highest floor of the castle, and the room is spacious, so the little girl brought her two little servants, Farea's twin brothers came to play every day.
Both Bodfinger and Farea were worried that the children would disturb Lorist, and wanted to stop them from coming, but Lorist stopped them. The long winter is boring, and there are a few children to accompany it to make it more lively. As the lord of the convoy and the affairs of the refugees, there are people taking care of it. Lorist only needs to go on inspections occasionally to show a friendly attitude to the people. There is no need to do everything by himself.
By the way, I also took advantage of this time to test whether my second disciple, Shi Huade, had missed his homework on the way north. In order to keep the children from getting bored, Lorist also took great pains to design some children's toys in his previous life and told the craftsmen Make it for children to play, and directly turn your own room into a children's playground.
There was another knock on the door, and it was Pat who entered this time.
"My lord, Knight Yuri has returned. Lord Shredder invites you to discuss matters in the hall." Pat said.
"Uncle, you have business to do, so let's stop playing." Before Lorist could speak, the little girl Alisa stood up very sensiblely, and threw all the chess pieces in her hand, the scoreboard and so on onto the chessboard.
Lorist was tongue-tied: "Little girl, uncle will win in just two more steps. You're cheating again this time."
The little girl ignored him, cheered and ran to the twin brothers, shaking her head and commenting that the castle they built was ugly.
"Let's build a garden." He began to dismantle the castle.
The two brothers were unhappy, and the three argued again.
"What did Yuri say?" After shutting the children's quarrel into the room, Lorist asked Pat as they walked downstairs.
"Yuri said that the road is not easy to walk. The wet road is full of mud, and when you step on it, your ankle is sunken. Now, one is thawing, and the other is spring rain. The road is really muddy, and it is impossible for large vehicles to pass. No one The road will not be dry after ten days of sun exposure." Pat replied: "By the way, Yuri also said that he had been to the riverside and asked the old boatman at the transition point. The old boatman said that it was not until February 20th. On the fifth day, there was no way to cross the river here, and a lot of icicles washed down from the upper reaches accumulated on this section of the river, and we could not cross the river until late February after the drift was clean."
"Oh, it's going to be another month, and I'm going to get moldy if I stay here again. Since I can't start the journey yet, why should Knight Shredder ask me to go over and discuss something?" Lorist sighed.
"I don't know about this. He only said that he has something important to discuss with you."
…
Compared with Lorist's leisure, Fatty Shi was very busy. The northbound convoy of more than 70,000 people and the burden of life and management of 100,000 refugees are all on his shoulders. The trivial matters and small disputes that happen every day just annoy him to death, even during the long journey northward. Fatty Shi promoted more than 50 civilian management personnel from the convoy and refugees to assist him in managing all the affairs of the convoy and refugees, but he was still overwhelmed by the endless trivial matters, and his heart was very angry.
"If you don't pay, why should he? Take the patrol guards, don't care if he is the old mayor, give me ten lashes, so what, if you violate our regulations, you will be punished, and you deserve it! Who sympathizes? Let him get out with him, we don’t need to raise such a clingy guy! Go, take ten lashes, this is an order!”
When Lorist and Pat were still on the third floor of the stairs, they heard Fatty Shi's roar, and they didn't know what made him furious.
When we arrived at the lobby, we saw one of Fatty Shi's civilian administrators running out. Fatty Shi was still furious.
"What happened?" Lorist asked.
"It's nothing, an old man in his seventies, relying on his former mayor, not only selected two women from the previous town's refugees as maids, but also collected the supplies we distributed from those townspeople. One-tenth is his own commission. Didn’t he pack up and check the tents in the camp these two days? Only then did he find out that he had accumulated a large amount of supplies. We want to confiscate them, but he still yelled and cursed because of his age, so I I ordered him to be given ten lashes to remind him of this lesson. It is unreasonable to want to be a tyrant even if you are already a refugee," said Fatty Shi.
"It's so easy to just hang him. Anyway, such an old age is also a burden, and it will only consume our family's supplies and food waste. Don't you think so, sir?" Yuri, who was sitting beside him drinking hot tea, interjected.
Lorist thought for a while and said: "Forget it, Shredder has already made a punishment, so there is no need to change it. But remember, when the convoy leaves, I will pick out all the slippery, treacherous, and lazy ones. In order not to get the family territory and spoil the atmosphere, it is better to throw them here and let them fend for themselves."
What Fatty Shi discussed with Lorist was also about departure. Unlike Lorist who wanted to return to the family territory as soon as possible, Fatty Shi was relieved when he heard Yuri's report that he would have to wait another month before he could go north. By the end of January, even if you want to go north, you have to prepare. All the vehicles have to be overhauled, and the horses have to be driven out to relax. It takes time to arrange the clothes and dry food of hundreds of thousands of people, as well as the itinerary. Walk.
The most important thing is that Fatty Shi wants to pack the remaining 170 million catties of grain in Kebo City and transport it back to the family territory. In this way, a large number of carriages that originally carried people would have to be freed up to transport grain. will slow down the convoy.
Lorist was very troubled. He wanted to return to the family territory as soon as possible without these grains. But Fatty Shi convinced him by citing a single number.
Fatty Shi said that in the past two and a half months and more than 80 days, 170,000 to 80,000 people lived in Kebo City and consumed more than 30 million catties of food. If you don’t want the food and just bring people back to the family territory, there will be famine within three months. He wouldn't believe that there were hundreds of millions of catties of grain stored in the family territory, waiting for these hundreds of thousands of people to eat.
Lorist had to admit that what Fatty Shi said was very reasonable. He remembered that Steward Speer had reported to him that the family's storage and the grain seized in Beiye Town added up to about 50 to 60 million catties. The consumption of labor and family arms. This year, Beiye Town has been deserted, and the food reserves of Fenglin Manor are usually more than seven to eight million catties per year. If the food from Kebo City is not brought back, the convoys and refugees will really have to pay for it in the second half of this year. Hungry.
"Take it." Lorist could only agree, and then remembered something else: "Don't forget the trouble of crossing the river, while there is still a month left, let the artisan camp prepare the boats and rafts first, and then they can be transported first." Things go to build a pontoon bridge, and then come back to deliver supplies."
"Is that the Locke boat you designed?"
"Uh... well, but this time we have to pass a freight carriage. The pontoon bridge is five meters wide. Let those craftsmen make the boat longer. The surface of the river is different from the surface of the lake. It has to withstand wind and waves, so the green clay should be painted twice. Yes. Yes, the river is about 300 meters wide, and the number of boats to be built should be arranged according to this length." Lorist ordered.
…
On February 10th, His Royal Highness Jian Cong rushed to Kebo City again in a light car and braved the drizzle. He had two purposes this time, one was to borrow food again, and the other was to hope that Lorist could postpone the trip and stay in Kebo City. After harvesting winter wheat in April and May, we set off northward.
The reason for His Royal Highness was to ask Lorist to sit in Kebo City and lead the army to suppress the territorial nobles of Dremke Province not to cause trouble for him when he and the Duke of Madras are in a decisive battle. His Highness the Second Highness is confident that he will be able to sweep West Degrad province in only three months, and make the Grand Duke of Madras bow his head before his horse.
Lorist shook his head, and directly rejected the request of the Second Highness. He said that since he left in September last year, he has not received any news from the family, and he is really worried. , wishing to return to the family territory tomorrow, so I can't agree to the request of the Second Highness, I am really sorry.
However, Lorist believes that after the convoy departs, he can hand over Kebo City to the Second Highness. As long as the Second Highness sends more than 10,000 soldiers from the Royal Legion to guard Kebo City, I believe that the nobles in the territory of Dremke Province will not dare to act rashly. . There is no need to mention the borrowing of grain, I am willing to hand over 20 million catties of grain to the Second Highness as a congratulatory gift to celebrate the Second Highness's defeat of the Duke of Madras in advance.
However, if Lorist said so, His Highness the Second Highness still frowned. He said that if the 10,000 soldiers were dispatched, they would not be able to concentrate on dealing with the Grand Duke of Madras' Seamount Legion. The best way is Loris. Te left behind half of the convoy in Kebo City, and took the refugees and supplies northward to return to the family territory.
Lorist still refused. He said that he said he would take all the team members home and would not leave anyone behind. He must do what he said, not to mention that there was no reason for him to keep the team here. It's not his family fief, why stay here
In the end, Lorist and the Second Highness broke up unhappy.
Seeing the figure of His Highness and his entourage going away, Lorist poked Fatty Shi next to him with his arm: "Now you understand, he will never say anything about bestowing Kebo City to our family, and agree to other conditions." No matter how good he is, it’s not enough for him to try to find a reason to persuade us to stay.”
Fatty Shi smiled wryly: "I think we need to speed up the preparations for the itinerary and leave here as soon as possible. I suspect that the real reason why the Second Highness asked our convoy to stay behind armed is because he received the news that the Second Prince was going to attack Dremke Province , so he hopes that we stand here to block the second prince's attack, buy him time to prepare for the battle, or wait for us to fight the second prince and hurt him so that he can benefit from it."
"You are very correct." Lorist nodded, "I suspect this is also the reason why he is unwilling to send his Royal Legion here. I don't believe that the loss of 10,000 soldiers will affect him and the horses. The decisive battle of the Grand Duke of Deras. Didn't you read the news that El wrote to us
Our Second Highness has not been idle this winter. With the 100 million catties of food, he not only replenished the 56,000-strong Stormwind Legion, but also expanded the Royal Legion into a 83,000-strong army. In addition, the reconstruction of the Liechtana Fortress Castle was completed, and a garrison regiment of 20,000 people was formed. He said that no one would believe it if he had no troops. Even if he couldn't send out the Royal Legion, wouldn't he be able to send out the Garrison Corps? Really think we are fools! "
"I have to admit that His Highness the Second Highness is indeed a hero. We have done so many things for him and helped him so much, but he can sell us mercilessly in a blink of an eye. He thought we really didn't know His intentions?" Fatty Shi said with great emotion: "Compared with him, your heart is too soft, Locke. Sometimes I really don't understand why you are so kind, like a good person. You must know that you are now But a lord, you are no longer a teacher of Dawn Academy, you have to have the dignity of a lord."
Lorist laughed, and recited a poem that made Fatty Shi feel very strange: "Being ruthless is not necessarily a hero, how can Lianzi not be a husband..."
"Then do you think it's better to follow a lord like me or a hero like His Highness?" Lorist turned back to the castle.
"Hey, what book did you read that poem just now? It's interesting." Fatty Shi turned around and hurriedly followed: "Nonsense, of course I'm with you, you are my little brother, I have to see you don't do it." Wrong thing, being a lord is always a joke. Also, I will not fight with the Second Highness if I am killed, or I will have to count the money for him when I am sold, so it is not a loss."
"I just feel sorry for those old students and Silver Knights who defected to His Royal Highness. They have been traveling north with our convoy for half a year. They died in less than ten days after defecting to him. It's not worth it. By the way, Locke , you have to remind your cousin Chrisya, I don't think she will ever want to become a queen with the temperament of the Second Highness..." Fatty Shi kept nagging behind.
Lorist sighed and replied: "Fatty, you talk a lot of nonsense. Forget it, everyone has his own destiny, and it is very difficult for us to change their persistence. I will remind my cousin, whether you listen or not depends on She herself."
…