Outside the window, the clouds are dense, the wind is piercing, the sky is full of heavy snow like goose feathers, the mountains, rivers and plains are covered with thick white fur, and another year of winter is coming.
Maybe I'm getting old, but Baron Abbott still feels chills all over despite the fire burning brightly in the fireplace. Tightening the leather jacket on his body, he drank the fruit wine in the golden cup in one gulp, silently watching the wind and snow outside the window, and couldn't help but recall the happy days when he and his friends from the mercenary group gathered in the tavern to celebrate...
The good old days are gone forever, and there is no longer the vigorous and hard-working Goshawk mercenary group. I remember when the boss got drunk and declared in the tavern that he wanted to build the mercenary group into one of the top ten mercenary groups in the business alliance. Everyone happily vowed to help the boss realize his wish.
I remember that the one-eyed Murd, the tavern owner, was standing behind the wine cabinet with a good-natured smile, and the drinkers also booed and applauded. No one laughed at those young mercenaries for having such a good wish. Back then in Morente City, where mercenaries gathered, almost all the mercenaries hoped that their mercenary regiment would become one of the top ten, which represented the highest honor of the mercenary regiment...
Nearly 20 years of life-and-death mercenary career, through the efforts of the boss, himself, the third child, and all the elite mercenaries in the regiment, the Goshawk Mercenary Group finally made it from the top 100 in the ranking of more than 100 mercenary groups in the business alliance. Kai Wai rose to about 20. At that time, there was only a short distance from the realization of the original wish, but no one thought that this short distance would become a natural barrier.
All the changes happened at the moment when the Commercial Alliance was preparing to implement the Lordship system, plus the glass war between the Commercial Alliance and the Kingdom of Trimble. The boss decided to lead the mercenaries of the entire mercenary group to the Trimble Kingdom, and use the sword in his hand to find a road to knighthood and a bright future for the mercenary group...
Before departure, all the comrades in the mercenary regiment were so high-spirited. The Goshawk mercenary regiment is not an unknown person in the mercenary world. It ranks twenty-first. An elite squad of mercenaries. When he first entered the Trimble Kingdom, everything went smoothly. He robbed three noble manors and gained a lot of money. Everyone thought that this trip was the right one, and he also held three noble ladies who could only see from a distance under his body. …
The nightmare came so suddenly, within ten days, the boss who led the team out to loot was given the head of a sword master by the great swordsman who coveted the reward announcement issued by Trimble VII, accompanied by more than forty elite silver men Only three of the mercenaries escaped back, and the Goshawk mercenary group's spine was suddenly broken, and their vitality was severely injured.
Then there was an internal strife. In order to compete for the dominance and inheritance of the mercenary group, he and the third child had a fight. He left the mercenary group with more than forty cronies.
It's just that I don't have the great talent and strategy of the boss, and I can't let the mercenary group continue to develop. More and more people leave. The deputy manager of the chamber of commerce gave him a hand and introduced himself to a vice president of the double-headed dragon chamber of commerce. Then he bribed the vice-chairman with the provident fund of the Goshawk Mercenary Corps for many years, so that he could help him obtain the title of baron.
The heavy wooden door was pushed open, and a gust of cold wind rushed into the warm room. Baron Abt woke up from his memories, tightened his leather jacket again, and turned to look at the burly man and the thin middle-aged man who entered the room. . The burly man was Adrian, the chief knight under Baron Abbott, an elite mercenary of the former Goshawk Mercenary Group with three silver stars. The thin, middle-aged man is called Grigal. He was the logistics director of the mercenary group back then, but now he is the head of the baron's territory. The two of them are the right-hand men of Baron Abbott.
"My lord, I just came back from inspecting the ranch. The snow outside was so thick that it was knee-high. Everything in the ranch was normal, except that an old sheep froze to death. I asked someone to whip the shepherd who was in charge of it 20 times." Whip..." Knight Adrian reported.
"Didn't you kill someone?" asked Baron Abbott.
"No." Knight Adrian shook his head: "Don't worry, my lord, I have my own discretion. And these bastards are not obedient, their lives are very hard, and they can survive this winter."
Baron Abbott was silent for a while, then nodded: "You did a good job, proper punishment is a must, otherwise these **** will be lazy. But you have to understand, these **** are all spent by us If you buy it back, if you act too hard, you will lose our gold coins in vain. And I heard that the war is coming to an end, and our business alliance can no longer take captives from the central and southern countries. These **** will become more and more valuable in the future .”
"I see, my lord," said Knight Adrian.
More than four years of war between the commercial alliance and the coalition forces of the Central South Kingdom, as the victor, the Commercial Alliance captured nearly 100,000 prisoners while plundering the various kingdoms in the Central South. If you want to feed so many captives, you need a lot of food, which consumes a lot of garrison forces and funds. So a shrewd member of the chamber of commerce proposed to sell these captives and got the approval of the parliament. This decision was very much approved and welcomed by the lords who lacked manpower in their territories.
It's just that the business alliance has always been known as democracy and freedom, and it is by no means a hateful slavery country. So what they sold was the labor rights of these captives. The civilians who were captured were given three years of hard labor, and the soldiers who were prisoners of war were given five years of hard labor. In theory, these captives bought by the lords will be automatically freed as long as they finish their labor service, but in fact, no one pays attention to the rights and interests of these auctioned captives.
On the contrary, the parliament of the business alliance talked about it, thinking that this move not only saved the cost of taking care of the captives, but also raised a lot of war funds through auctioning these captives, and at the same time provided sufficient labor for those territories lacking human resources. It is one of the most effective policies of the business alliance.
Andover Province can also be regarded as a newly occupied territory of the Commercial Alliance. After the annexation of Andover Province, the Commercial Alliance canonized more than 80 new territorial nobles in Andover Province. Baron Abbott was one of them. It's just that when the Second Highness of the Second Highness destroyed the Ridleys Kingdom, the province of Andover and the coalition forces of the nobles fought and plundered each other here.
After Baron Abbott came to his entrusted territory in the province of Andover seven years ago, the number of people he gathered was less than a thousand, and they were all old and weak. After several years of unscrupulous gathering and gathering, and more than a dozen fights with nearby lords, the population of Baron Abt's territory finally exceeded 10,000, which is second to none among Zhoubian's territories. However, most of them are still old and weak. For this reason, Baron Abt bought more than 300 young and strong captives from the auction of the Commercial Alliance, and they became the main labor force in the territory.
"My lord, I also inspected the manor just now, and nothing happened." Chief Gregal reported his duties to Baron Abbott.
Baron Abbott nodded in satisfaction: "You are all doing a good job, come on, sit down and drink a glass of wine, and warm up by the fire. Adrian, there is still a calf leg hanging over there, you go and bring it to us Barbecue."
In private, Baron Abt still has no airs, and he doesn't pay attention to superiority and inferiority. Although he was named a baron, his temper is still like that of the bold deputy head of mercenaries back then. As a result, he was often criticized by the nobles in the surrounding territories, who secretly nicknamed him the mercenary lord and laughed at him for being a lowly mercenary.
He took a piece of roast meat handed over by Knight Adrian, dipped it in the salt plate, then stuffed it into his mouth and began to chew. Steward Gregor handed over the newly poured gold cup full of ale at the right time, and Baron Abt took it and drank it in one gulp, and let out a long breath: "Refreshing."
Putting down the gold cup, Baron Abt said: "Next year we must build a castle."
Baron Abt didn't mind being ridiculed as a mercenary lord by the surrounding lords, but it was very embarrassing for Baron Abt that there was still no decent castle built in the territory in the past seven years. Everyone knows that it is a matter of course for a lord to live in a castle, instead of living in a wooden house built of logs like now, and even the manor is just surrounded by branches.
"My lord, next year our family will not need to guard the border, but we will have manpower, but do we have the funds to build the castle?" Knight Adrian asked.
Four years ago, Ogesello I, the king of the Kingdom of Antinak, went to the four principalities in the middle of the country, and it took only one year to reach the Principality of Handra. The messengers of Grand Duke Handra rushed to Vicia one after another. King Federica, the territory of the chamber of commerce, and the nobles in the entire province of Anderwolf were shocked overnight, for fear that it would be their turn after the Dukedom of Handra fell. Pack your bags and prepare to run back to Moriente if you are attacked.
At a critical moment, a vice president of the Vicia Chamber of Commerce came to inspect Andover Province, giving the nobles a reassurance. The vice president reminded all the nobles in the territory, don’t forget that the Commercial Alliance is now the largest and most powerful country in the Galintia continent. Although it is currently at war with the coalition forces of the Central South Kingdom, the tension in the troops does not care about the situation in the north, but It's not that they have the power to fight. Don't forget that the business alliance just won over a Storm Swordsman Zhen Guo. As long as the king of the Antinac Kingdom still has brains, he will definitely not dare to offend the majesty of the business alliance.
The vice-chairman's inspection finally calmed down the territorial nobles in Andover, and the follow-up development was as expected by the vice-chairman. After the surrender of Grand Duke Handra, the army of the Andinac Kingdom did not continue to attack, but instead Stopped at the border of the province of Andover. Immediately afterwards, the kingdom's famous White Lion Army was called in, and they assumed a posture of defending and counterattacking at the border. Now all the nobles in the territory let go of their nervous hearts.
It's just that what happened next made all the nobles in the territory of Andover feel embarrassed. In order to prevent the invasion of the Andeanak Kingdom, the nobles organized a coalition army with a total of more than 10,000 people, and they were going to fight in Andina. When the army of the Kingdom of Croatia attacked Anderwolf Province, it resisted, and it was also to buy time for the nobles to evacuate. But now the army of the Kingdom of Antinac did not launch an attack, but put on a defensive posture, so should this coalition be disbanded
Facing a powerful enemy at a critical moment of life and death, for the sake of wealth and life, everyone can help each other in the same boat, and the nobles of all territories have worked hard to support the coalition forces. But now that there is no threat from foreign enemies, is it necessary for this coalition to exist? You must know that the military expenditure to support the existence of a standing army of nearly 10,000 people is an extremely painful expense for these territorial nobles in Andover Province.
But the border had to be on guard, in case the army of the Andinak Kingdom suddenly launched an attack. The aristocrats in the province of Andover discussed a very genius idea, draw lots, and whoever is drawn will send troops to undertake the border guard task. It takes three years. The requirement for how many troops to send is based on the population of the territory. Draw one out of ten, that is to say, one of the twenty leaders will be sent as a soldier. As for the cost, everyone shared it. It was much cheaper to maintain a border guard of 3,000 people than a standing army of 10,000.
So Baron Abbott won the lottery gloriously. Although he always suspected that someone was playing tricks, he couldn't find any evidence, so he had to swallow this dumb loss, and drew 500 young men from the territory to be led by Adrian Knights. The wind has been blowing on the border for three years, so that the lack of labor in the territory not only cannot develop or even build its own castle, it has to buy those captives back.
Baron Abbott laughed easily: "You don't know, Ogesello I of the Antinac Kingdom has already assembled a large army to prepare for war with the Commercial Alliance, but instead of launching an attack from us, he transferred the large army to Going to the two southwestern provinces, I guess I think they are closer to Morente City..."
"It's no wonder that the White Lion Army deployed in Majik Province also moved out. An army of 10,000 people was replaced on the border. I don't know if it is newly formed. The defense is very strict. The scouts we sent were all driven back. , and a few were killed or injured..." Knight Adrian said.
"So we are safe and sound here. Next year we will be able to see the business alliance and the Kingdom of Antinac fighting in Campona province. It is winter, and the sky is snowing. We don't have to worry about being attacked by the enemy. Wait. As soon as the fight starts in Campona province next year, we will take this opportunity to deal with those guys around Zhou Bian first. I have always suspected that it was Viscount Weems who caused us to draw that unlucky lottery for nothing. Three years wasted.
When spring starts, we will use the water source to stir up disputes. Anyway, Wilms can only use his mouth and twist his mind in the old guy. He only has a defense team of about 200 people under him, and the three Silver Knights are not our opponents at all. Although the business alliance forbids the lords to kill each other, then we did not move his family and looted his town of 3,000 people and his broken castle. Wait for the parliament to send someone over to argue with them, maybe the business alliance will only pay attention to the war with the Antinak Kingdom, and will not take care of our trivial matters... "
"If we don't have enough funds to build a castle, let's take this opportunity to search the lords all over the place. Hehe, it's not in vain to blow the wind on the border for three years. I am very grateful to Adrian, you put us The garrison of the family has been trained to become a powerful armed force." Baron Abt said his deliberate decision,
The manager, Greger, was very happy: "It's time to clean up that old guy. The last time we met on the road, he laughed at us as lowly mercenaries. Didn't their chamber of commerce also start by selling linen, how much nobler than us..."
Baron Abbott laughed loudly, then suddenly stopped talking, and listened attentively: "There seems to be movement outside?"
Indeed, there seemed to be some noise in the wind.
Adrian Knight stood up: "I'll see what's going on..."
As soon as the voice fell, there was a "bang", and several soldiers in white cloaks and one-piece brown leather jackets rushed into the warm room, the swords and spears in their hands gleamed pale and cold under the light of the fire : "Don't move, raise your hands, throw away your weapons and surrender, kneel down and spare your life!"
…