Mercenaries and Adventurers

While Keir and the others were talking, the trunk of the big tree brought back by his horse and the young refugees was being split open by two young men with small axes.

But the one-handed axes in their hands were not big enough, and the two of them hurriedly worked for a while before chopping off a small section of wood on the side of the thin-headed tree trunk.

The sky in the mountains changes quickly. At four or five o'clock in the afternoon, the sky begins to darken slightly, and even more covered by floating clouds, the time of dusk is actually very short.

The young refugees who felled the wood couldn't get the firewood to burn quickly, so they ran around in a hurry.

All the people who went out to log were gathered there, and the two who were mercilessly complaining about their work were soft-handed. They couldn't even do this little thing, and it delayed everyone's meal.

Now let the two people who were busy stop doing it, cut the one-handed ax in their hands on the trunk, fixed it, and then yelled: "We can't do it, well, well, don't just look around, who If you think you can do it, do it yourself!"

As soon as the ax fell, they folded their arms and stood aside.

Immediately someone was strong enough to take a few steps forward and grabbed the one-handed axe, without saying a word, just started chopping down the tree trunk.

However, the weight of a one-handed ax is still limited, and it is okay to cut some small trees. The trunk of this kind of big tree is not only dense and strong, but also bulky. If you want to cut a gap with a small axe blade, you have to bury it completely, and you can only use it by bowing left and right. OK.

In fact, such a work of sawing off the trunk of a big tree actually requires a two-person saw that two people pull back and forth. This kind of one-handed ax is not impossible, but if it is forced to do so, the efficiency will definitely not increase. At least, before dark, there will be no enough firewood for everyone to raise the entire fire.

People who think they can do it end up like this, and others don't say anything anymore.

The young refugees who were idle around and waiting for dinner also gathered around, covered their stomachs with their hands and asked when they could get things done, everyone was hungry.

At this time, Kiel, who saw the situation in the distance, patted the arm of the Batar priest who wanted to say something: "Okay, be careful tonight, protect yourself first, and then protect those young people who are religious under you .As for the others, try to arrange them on the periphery of the open space."

Kilton added after a while: "Those young people who will provoke gangsters just by looking at them, don't they think they are very powerful, so they should be placed at the outermost edge of the open space. If there is no attack, just stay overnight like this. , let them be the first to confront the enemy."

Priest Batar frowned, and looked at Kiel with an incredulous expression: "How could you do this? If someone attacks, the people outside must suffer heavy casualties!"

Shrugging his shoulders, Kiel reminded Priest Batar: "It's as if I killed the people. Since you don't want to, then arrange the young people who believe in religion outside the open space and put them in the innermost part of the open space. "

These words made the priest speechless. After thinking about it, he said helplessly: "Is there no other way? And you did it on purpose today, right?"

Kiel's face changed: "What do you mean I did this on purpose? Let me explain to you. Even if I didn't decide to stay here just now, and let everyone walk for a few more hours, how far can you go? You Anyway, riding a horse is not tiring, but they are walking on a pair of feet. After all, if you spend the night here or there, you will not be able to escape the attack of those bad species that may exist nearby. You are right. wrong?"

Dazed by Kiel's words, Priest Batar had no choice but to say yes.

"So, the knife is hanging on the top of the head, and it will fall down at any time. Stretching the head and retracting the head is also a knife. They can't escape. It's better to let them have a rest earlier, warm up, and eat something. The best use In this way, it is many times better than being exhausted after walking for a day without a warm meal, and then being suddenly attacked by the enemy. In short, the probability of an attack is inevitable, and those who have some combat power, And the gang members who dare to fight are placed on the periphery of the open space, which is also the best move in this situation."

"Since these people are coming out with us, this test is inevitable, you understand? Especially since they are still unarmed."

Priest Batar looked helpless: "Then why do you insist on accepting the things proposed by those old people in the morning and bringing so many people out, if they are still in the checkpoint, they may still be alive."

Kiel looked at Priest Batar who wanted to get rid of his responsibility with a sarcasm: "Can you survive in the checkpoint? Let me tell you the truth: I can't live! Even these young people are alive, and other old people, children, and pregnant women who escaped into the checkpoint together Waiting for the refugees in the same village, they must all die miserably. The Baishi City Wall Checkpoint is an iron cage that traps many voles. A large group of voles are crowded together and locked up, but only a small amount of food is fed to some of them every day. Come in, you can only feed some of the voles. Tell me, what is the end of this iron cage?"

The priest couldn't speak. He hadn't thought about what it was like to lock a group of field mice together. He had never seen such a crazy thing in his life.

Keir gave the silent priest an answer: "Without enough food, those voles will kill each other and even eat each other. The first to die are the young rats who can't do anything, and then some old and frail ones. Voles, perhaps the social morality of voles drives them to give up their lives, and then the mother mice pregnant with mice protected by strong voles, in the face of their own survival, their partners and offspring will also be abandoned. Finally, they are fighting A young field mouse who was injured and weak during the food grab. Huh, by the way, you understand that I am not talking about field mice, right?"

The priest nodded heavily: "I understand that the voles are these poor refugees, but if such a cruel thing happens, won't the soldiers in the checkpoint ignore it? And the church, not only the Saturnalia Church, but also other churches, They won't sit idly by!"

But this last hope, Keir also broke him: "Who do you think those small amounts of food gave to the voles? There is no church that needs to win the faith of some people, and there is no such small amount of food. Soldiers, to be honest, refugees They are not from the western provinces, and the soldiers in the checkpoint are all from the western provinces. I don’t need to say more about the rest, I guess you understand what I mean.”

The priest was discouraged all of a sudden, squatting in the shadow of the backlight of the carriage, a little decadent and depressed.

Kiel saw the thick tree trunks that the refugees seemed to be unable to pull back because of the lack of tools not far away, so he raised his feet to help.

The priest raised his head and finally asked, "Does anyone have to die tonight?"

Keir said without turning his head: "Did you kill the people? Huh? Or, did I kill those people? Nope. Then, whoever killed them will be responsible for you. Accusations, criticisms, beatings, Punishment is up to you, after all, the foundation of all relationships in this world comes from the comparison of strength between the two parties."

Xueyaster, who was sitting on the roof of the carriage, heard the argument between the two clearly, and was finally amused by Kiel's words: "That's right, whoever killed it is responsible. My lord priest, Please don't be sentimental. Human life is like this sometimes. Sometimes it is extremely precious. Those who kill people will die, and those who hurt others will be punished. But sometimes they are lower than weeds, falling down in batches, drying up, and dying .”

"Why? Why on earth is this happening?"

Priest Batar raised his head and asked the former caravan guard on the roof of the carriage.

"Uh, maybe, maybe, maybe. It has something to do with the disruption of law and order? Well, no, the original order of a place has been disrupted? Yes, I think so. Hey, Mr. Priest, don't ask me, hurry up Go get busy. Time waits for no one, it’s getting dark, show your hand, give these young people food, use food to drive them, they must be obedient.”

Blood Yaster scratched his head and scratched his head before choking out the above sentence. After he finished speaking, he felt that answering questions was indeed more difficult than making money.

He is really not this material.

"I understand, let everyone have a full meal first."

Priest Batar rubbed his face vigorously with his hands, then stood up and remained silent for a while, before striding towards the place where the Saturn believers gathered.

He decided to distribute the food produced by the "Blessed Bread" to the believers first, and then let the believers pass it on to others, using this method to organize and control everyone.

-

Keel didn't have to push anyone out of the way, the crowd made way for him, leading to the trunk of the tree.

"Is that okay? Get out of the way and watch me."

Keel shook his head, tossing his blond hair out of his eyes. Then he took off Yueshui's head hanging from behind and grabbed it with both hands. He came to the place where the others let go, followed the traces of their chopping before, raised the ax high, and then slashed down heavily.

null!

With a crackling sound, a large piece of sawdust broke and splashed out.

This kind of heavy chopping with an ax is far more powerful than when cutting down trees before. At least a quarter of the thickness of the trunk was split.

Afterwards, Keel went around to the opposite side, and made another heavy slash, empty, squeaking again, and this time half of the tree trunk was split.

Kiel stretched out his foot and kicked hard, causing the round tree trunk to roll forward half a circle. When the ax slashed, Kiel lifted his foot and kicked, snap! A half-meter-thick trunk was cut off from the trunk of the big tree.

"Come here, put this aside and chop it into firewood with a small axe."

After Kiel finished speaking, someone immediately stepped forward and dragged a heavy tree trunk to the side. The young refugee, who had been unable to hold the tree trunk before, held a one-handed axe, and started to split the logs bit by bit from the bark of the trunk, and pulled them into long strips. shaped firewood.

It only takes four or five logs of this length to start a fire, so when the young refugees leave here with freshly cut firewood and twigs, the fire quickly rises.

Kiel was busy chopping firewood, while Batar priests on the other side gathered among the religious believers, raised their hands high, and dropped the full grain seeds that kept falling from their hands onto a piece of strong sackcloth specially laid on the ground.

Some cloth bags and leather bags taken out of the carriage were in the hands of the believers waiting nearby. When the food piled up on the linen to form a hill, these young people followed the instructions of the priest Batar, and each time they put about twenty The rations needed for a meal are drawn by hand into the pockets issued to them.

When it was almost ready, the young religious believers walked away with the heavy grain on their backs, followed by a few acquainted friends or brothers and sisters, and together they delivered the grain to the bonfire that had already been lit.

Facing the villagers from other villages who were eagerly watching them distribute food, the young man with the food bag on his back said unceremoniously: "This is the ration given to you by the priest, don't save it, the lord has said, follow them from now on." If you complete the mission, you can eat these plump wheat grains every day! Take it. For twenty people, one pot for one fire, eat food for twenty people. The extra people gather in front of the next fire and wait. Distributing food. The order is that the one who starts the fire first gets the food to eat, go and light the fire."

This was specifically instructed by the priest to disperse everyone, twenty people per fire, not all gathered together.

Moreover, the location of the fire was also specially explained. The members of the gang should build the fire in a relatively outer place, while their group of religious believers can arrange the fire in the center.

The young refugees from the gang were slightly dissatisfied, but everyone was hungry, and dissatisfaction was dissatisfaction. They still held firewood and set up a fire in the open space facing the outside, and the fire was lit.

-

"Those guys, think that this will show their status? It's ridiculous. They're just being dogs for the priest. If you really put on dog skins, you're really someone else's dog. Why don't you want to use them?"

Beside a fire near the periphery of the open space, more than a dozen men and women with self-defense weapons on their waists were sitting together, a small iron pot snatched from the checkpoint was propped on a stone, emitting the aroma of cooked food. .

More than a dozen men and women listened to the leader's complaints, while holding their wooden bowls and wooden spoons tightly, waiting for the boiled wheat grains in the iron pot to be ready.

They are all the best plump wheat grains. When they were in the village, they were reluctant to eat them by themselves. Often, the elders would pick out these plump grains and wait until the next time they planted them as grain seeds. Where can it enter the mouths of young people.

While arranging the domineering religious people, the leader stirred the food in the pot with a wooden spoon.

He sniffed the aroma, scooped some out with a wooden spoon, blew on it, and put it into his mouth to taste. Chewing his teeth, he was a little surprised by the plump wheat grains: "Really, those aristocratic lords must be able to eat these things every day. They all watch what I do, they are cooked, and eat."

As soon as the leader spoke, people around immediately rushed forward, scooping thick boiled wheat grains into their wooden bowls with their own wooden spoons.

Everyone didn't care about the hotness, and sent it directly to their mouths.

While breathing hot air, he kept chewing the plump and elastic wheat grains in his mouth with his teeth.

Everyone had a satisfied look on their faces as they ate.

-

On the other side, a young man who had plucked some wild vegetables by the stream before put a small handful of rotten wild vegetables into a pottery pot on the fire, and the wheat grains inside were tumbling up and down in the boiling water, which was very tempting.

The young people were a little cautious. They only used part of the rations for twenty people. Apart from the rations for tomorrow morning, they only put in part of the rations for tonight's dinner.

The remaining missing food will be supplemented with the wild vegetables picked up.

-

Priest Batar sat with his Saturnians and ate a freshly prepared supper.

"Master Priest, don't your companions need something to eat?"

A true Saturnian was the closest to the priest and asked what they cared about.

Priest Batar shook his head: "There is some dry food in the carriage, and they will find a way to fill their stomachs. Don't worry about them, come on, everyone eat more. Don't lie down when you are full, before it is dark. , pick up some stones and rocks by the stream. I have a use for it.”

"Hey, okay."

The people sitting around the fire spread the order to pick up stones, and soon some people finished their meals, stuffed the licked wooden bowls into their clothes, and went to the stream to pick up stones together.

-

Keel, for his part, sat by the fire nearest his wagon, stuffing a finger-length black-brown stick into his mouth and grinding his teeth.

The circle of people around the fire were young refugees whose food was doubled by him at noon. At this time, these people gathered around him and listened to the young 'knight' telling them something about the Kendal people marching. s story.

"It rains a lot in that area, it rains every day, and it doesn't even stop. Fortunately, my teacher and Rumi Knight have prepared rain gear for the soldiers in advance~www.readwn.com~ This is very good Walking through the place where it rains every day."

"When you step on it, the ground is so soft that you can sink the entire sole of your foot. It's so deep." Kilby marked the depth.

"Fortunately, the ground is not mud, but grass. The grass in that area has a particularly well-developed root system. Only grass can be seen on the ground, and no soil is exposed."

Kiel's words caused some young people who had never seen the grassland to exclaim.

Just when Keir was about to tell them about the magic ring that the Lord Baron can emit a phantom of suspended flames, Blood Fangster on the roof of the carriage next to him shouted to him: "Keil, you'd better come and have a look."

As soon as Keel heard it, he knew that things had changed.

It was already dusk at this time, and the place covered by the mountains and forests had gradually turned dark, only the sky on the east and west sides could still see some orange sunset glow.

Of course, in the due west direction, you can still see a round of white light rising from the ground and spreading towards the sky.

It was an ancient wall of white stone built by the dwarves.

It was emitting a constant radiance day and night, and they could still see that bright light after walking for half a day.

Keir sat up from a small wooden box brought from a carriage, and as he walked towards the carriage, he said to these people by the fire: "Take the sticks I prepared for you, tonight may not be peaceful."

The stick is before eating. After cutting the trunk of the log, Keel cut down a dwarf tree on the wasteland on the other side of the open road, and picked out the thick and strong branches to make wooden sticks that can be used for swinging and beating. In the hands of these young refugees who obeyed his orders.

Since these people listened to him, they had to arm themselves first. Even if it's just such an armament that is better than nothing.