Warhammer Throne

One day in late winter, the cold wind howled.

This is another very normal winter in the Principality of Lyonasse. The outside is dark and cold. At night, no one will dare to leave the village. The town wall made up of fences is the only line of defense for the serfs. When the darkness falls, Robbers, bandits, blood-sucking creatures, and beasts will appear in the wild, looking for their prey.

The fire in the house was not extinguished, hot water was burning inside, the floor was swept very clean, and an elderly mother was working hard to mending clothes and doing needlework.

She looked at the child lying on the yellow linen bed with worried and reproaching eyes from time to time. The child knew that he had made a mistake, so he slumped his head and said nothing.

This is her youngest son. Her husband died in the Chivalry War five years ago.

The house is not far from the fence, and the old mother can hear the horrifying roar of beasts from time to time. While sewing her clothes, she prays silently: "Ms. Saria, my Ms. Saria, please bless Raymond. Come back safely."

Raymond is her eldest son. Now the only adult labor force in the family. During the slack time, he worked for the knight master early in the morning. The youngest son was only eight years old. In autumn, she and Raymond worked extremely hard from morning to night. They never dared to slacken for a moment, and they just barely survived. Lunch was a porridge with flour mixed with vegetables and bran, and it was dark at night. Bread to eat.

But just today, her youngest son got into trouble. The old mother took out a piece of black bread for dinner and cut out one-eighth for herself to eat. She planned to leave the rest to her two sons, but the youngest son I ate all the remaining brown bread, and I was hungry.

The old mother wanted to scold her little son, but she saw the skinny appearance of her little son—the ribs were directly contoured on the child's body, and the small arms and legs were as thin as a reed rod. The old mother said when she wanted to scold her. Not export.

The younger son’s belly was so round that it was swollen due to year-round hunger. If he lacked nutrition for a long time, his belly would swell up. After pressing it down with his fingers, it would dent and it would take a long time to recover.

There is not much food in the family, and the daily ration must be halved before it will last until the next food harvest. During this time, is it more than the youngest son starving? After eating for a while, she could hear the "gurgling" sound in her stomach.

The old mother forced herself to turn her attention back to the needlework in her hands. As the sky got darker and darker, she became more and more anxious.

"Hey, I ate too much today. When Raymond came back, he would definitely scold me. If you want to scold me, you can scold me. Thomas is so hungry that he can't bear it. If the child is ignorant, scold me if he wants to scold him." Reached out and stroked the face of her youngest son Thomas. She was only in her early forties this year, but she was already wrinkled and gray hair: "It's okay, Thomas, don't blame you, don't blame you..."

"Mother...Mother," the youngest son said timidly, with tears in his eyes: "Yes... I'm sorry."

"Oh~ I blame this bad age! And that **** tax collector!" The old mother shook her head, wrapped her long yellow hair in a headscarf, and carefully checked how much grain there was still in the house.

There are more than a dozen brown bread and a bag of semolina. If you reduce the daily food by 20%, you should be able to boil it until the winter wheat is harvested.

Some people in the village started to eat bark. The old mother reluctantly cut a small half of black bread with a knife. To serve the knight master, she had to provide her own food, and this kind of labor has always been high-intensity labor, and Raymond must eat it. Something, otherwise he won't be able to hold it.

"Boom~" There was a sudden noise from the door, and the old mother jumped up subconsciously. She looked at the door nervously.

An icy night breeze blew into the house, making people shiver.

The figure of the eldest son Raymond gradually appeared from the night breeze. He looked tired, carrying tools, and wearing only a single coat in cold weather. The animal skin cloak outside was covered with a lot of thatch: "Hey, mom, I I'm back, I'm exhausted."

"Oh, Raymond, you are back." The old mother felt very nervous, just like a child who had made a mistake. She said unnaturally: "Well, I cut the bread. You can eat it quickly. There is heat in the stove. water."

Although his mother's movements were unnatural, Raymond didn't realize that he was too tired. He washed his hands with the water in the wooden bucket in the corner of the room, prayed insincerely, and delivered the cut bread in. Soak in the hot water for a while, ready to eat dinner.

"Raymond...what did you do today?" the old mother asked worriedly.

She saw the wound and the worn skin on her son's hand, and the blood had just crusted.

"What else can you do, cut down trees, dig trenches, tie up fences, and chop firewood. Each item must be ten percent. Some must be overweight, otherwise it will be a severe beating." Leimen sighed: "Knight The master is said to have left because of something, and his housekeeper is even more fierce... Thank you Madam, thank Madam Salia, I finally came back alive, Mom, what are you doing at home?"

"Me? I'm sewing and mending... boiling water and cooking." The old mother's eyes moved away unnaturally.

"Where is Thomas?"

"Thomas is already asleep." The old mother said quickly.

"...I've finished eating, do you have any more?" Half of the brown bread was eaten into the stomach by Raymond at an extremely fast speed. Even so, the serf still felt a strong sense of hunger in his belly.

"Go and rest, it will be better if you fall asleep." The old mother shook her head silently.

Can't eat anymore, really can't eat more.

Raymond didn't say more, he will be in labor tomorrow, and the family put out the fire and rest early.

...

The old mother was lying on the bed, unable to sleep for a long time.

Since their husband died in the Chivalry War five years ago, their family's life has been getting worse and worse. They could barely have enough food and clothing before, but now they are hungry and full. Every time between harvests, the family often runs out of food. .

The worse is yet to come.

The Knights War five years ago was said to be a complete victory, but none of the knights and soldiers of the Principality of Lyonasse returned. The law and order became worse, bandits and bandits appeared everywhere, and occasionally a small number of orc tribes came out to search for it. Food for the winter,

Robbers, bandits, and wild beasts gradually left the forest and harassed the villages near the forest. Due to poor harvests, the shaky peace was hit hard. The dwindling garrison troops were transferred to the vicinity of the city and noble manor to ensure the safety of the lord’s property. The poor and impoverished serfs were thrown at them.

Robbers and bandits always rush into the village, looking for anything valuable. Their favorite places are the houses where the village elders live and the taverns in the villages. There are shiny coins in the houses of the village elders and the taverns. Grain and ale.

Serfs would be killed if they resisted. If they chose to flee, most of them would starve to death or be hunted in the wild. If they waited to die... they would lose their rations, and in the end they would die.

Several villages have suffered a tragic fate.

The income source of the noble lords has decreased, but their income cannot be reduced. Their luxurious banquets, high expenses and family children all need a lot of expenses. They will certainly not pay the money by themselves, and they will eventually have to pay. On the heads of serfs.

So in addition to ten taxes and nine taxes, the serfs were also deprived of their rations. The tax collectors taught the serfs the principle of "This will make the kingdom better", and then they took most of their rations mercilessly. .

Has the kingdom really gotten better? The old mother didn't know, she only knew that life had gotten worse. The tax collectors came more and more diligent each time, and they asked for more than once. Perhaps they had already thought of seed food.

At this moment, there was a slight noise in the quiet room.

The cold wind blew the wooden windows and made the snoring sound, which greatly affected the old mother's hearing, but she had lived in this house for decades, and no noise could be hidden from her.

Raymond got up secretly, the serf dragged his tired body, he got up secretly in the dark, the eldest son swallowed hard, his stomach was groaning.

He is too hungry.

The old mother didn't say a word, her eyes were tearful, and she tried to cover her mouth to prevent herself from making any noise.

"Cracking~" She heard the sound of Raymond turning the bread basket, and the sound of the knife used to cut the bread being taken off the wall.

Then there was the sound of soft chewing. This sound should have been covered by the wind, but I don't know why, the old mother felt that she heard very clearly.

"Raymond, what's the matter? What happened?" The old mother finally decided to speak out, and she choked up and said, "Why are you up?"

"Ding!" The knife fell to the ground.

"I...I heard some wind...check...whether the windows are closed tightly." Raymond heard his mother's voice and was obviously taken aback, with a lot of panic in his voice: "In the village recently...the food is running out. I am worried that someone will steal...stealing food."

When his son lied, Raymond lied to himself, just as he lied to Raymond.

"If it's okay, take a rest early, and you will have to do hard labor tomorrow." The old mother's voice was crying, and tears flowed down her wrinkled face.

"Mom!" Leimen didn't know that his mother had discovered his stealing of bread. The serf sobbed: "Sorry, mother, I'm so hungry."

"I know, I know all." The old mother also cried: "How are you going to live this day? Your brother is still hungry when the food is about to run out."

"We farm, but theirs owns the food, we hunt, but theirs owns the prey. We catch their fish and shrimps. Mom, when he was in labor today, Aran’s father was killed by a log because he was hungry. I have no strength anymore, we can't make it through these days!"

"Ah! Alang's father is dead? He is only thirty-five years old. Alang died of his mother early, how will he live the next day, he..."

Raymond thought over and over again, and finally made up his mind: "Mom, let's run away, with Thomas, our family of three escaped and escaped far away. If we don't run away, we will starve to death if we continue. I overheard the knight. The lord butler ordered that this year's winter wheat will have to increase taxes!"

"Ah? A tax increase?" The sudden bad news made the old mother almost unable to breathe. When most of the rations were to be collected, the lord master would have to increase taxes? !

"Yes, this year's grain harvest has failed, and the lord may lose a lot of income, so the butler and tax officer plan to continue to increase taxes because the tasks left by the lord must be completed." Raymond hesitated and said to his mother. "Mom, there is no hope that these days, even if the winter wheat can be harvested, those things are not ours, not only ours, we don't know where to get more food from, so that the greedy tax officials will be satisfied. "

The dark room is like a **** hand, holding the necks of the poor, pressing them out of breath.

In the past, even if there was no food at home, the serfs could still go to the forest to gather berries and try to hunt. The lord had expressly stipulated that rabbits and fowl serfs could hunt on their own. In principle, the berries were also the lord’s, but most lords kept a blind eye on this. With one eye closed, you can still live this life.

But now that the security is so bad, how dare the serfs enter the forest? Good luck means getting a day or two to eat. If you are lucky, you will never be able to come back.

"Escape? If you escape, you will die if you are caught! You will be hanged by the knight master!" The old mother hesitated and said, "It's too dangerous, Raymond, how are we going to escape?"

"...Everyone is very hungry, many people are very hungry, many young men like me, powerful young men who know how to use dung forks and hoes, mother." Raymond hesitated for a while, but decided to say: "Many young men have nothing. …Master Cavaliers have food at home, there is a lot of food, many people want to eat a full meal, we smelled the smell of bacon and butter, can eat a full meal, they don’t care anymore, mom, you know what I’m talking about NS?"

"You mean, they plan to..." The old mother opened her mouth wide in surprise.

"Yes, so this is an opportunity. We can run away. The butler’s energy will be placed on those lads. No one will care about us. We can run away. No matter where we go, it’s better than starving to death. Make an appointment with us. Tomorrow evening, those lads will rush into Master Knight’s house together to find food, and we can take the opportunity to escape." Raymond gasped, "Mom, I have you and my brother, I can’t follow. Those lads go to riot, you will be troubled by me, we can't do nothing, let's run away, mother!"

"Be a fugitive slave...be a fugitive slave." The old mother murmured to herself.

"Mom! We will starve to death if we do nothing! I can't lose you and my brother. Tomorrow night, we will run in the opposite direction and we will succeed. Tomorrow you will pack things up, boil water and cook, and the whole family will eat. If we are full, we will run away!"

"Okay... OK."

...

In the evening of the next day, a long-simmering riot finally ignited the village. I want to talk about "" with more like-minded people, follow "Excellent Reading Literature" on WeChat, chat about life, and find friends~