Simon's men continued north.
Not long after walking, there was a rumble of horse hooves from far to near.
The leader was a knight holding a heraldic flag and a lance, wearing full body mail and a fully enclosed battle helmet.
The five cavalrymen following him were all wearing simple linen shirts and holding curved spears and notched wooden shields in their hands. The horses they rode were all traveling horses and pack horses.
These people should be the cavalry who came to chase Baron Arnhem's food collection team.
"Stop, who are you?" The leading knight reined in his horse, and a roaring sound came from the closed helmet.
"I am Sir Simon from the Dorsten family in the south. I was just passing through here to pay a visit to Baron Iser!" Simon said calmly.
"Hello, this respected Sir Simon, I am eager to pursue the enemy. Please forgive me for being rude just now." Seeing that Simon was a nobleman of the same rank who had nothing to do with the war, the knight changed his tone. Have you ever seen a group of soldiers dragging two carts of grain and grass?"
"Yes, they ran into the woods at a fork in the road ahead." Simon determined that they were the cavalry sent by Baron Iser to pursue them, and directly pointed them in the direction.
"Thank you very much for your help," the leading knight finished and said loudly to his subordinates, "Those damn bastards escaped on the path to the Barony of Arnhem. We will go directly to the border to intercept them!"
The leading knight fell silent, then rode his war horse and led the light cavalry behind him directly off the road, running wildly towards the west on the large grassland.
"Are the people behind the knight just now free peasants from the Barony of Iser?" Simon couldn't help but ask a guard soldier who had been to Sticht County several times.
"That's right, sir. The previous king issued a decree stipulating that all free men who own horses or can afford horses should ride horses as cavalry in military service. This tradition has been preserved to this day." The soldier told Simon explained.
"That's it." Simon also searched for past memories. Whenever Baron Dorsten issued a decree to recruit soldiers, there would always be a few wealthy free peasants on horseback with slightly better equipment than ordinary peasant soldiers who would rush to Dorstenburg from villages across the barony to assemble.
Unknowingly, Simon and his party were getting closer and closer to the village that was emitting thick black smoke. There is already a faint smell of blood and a mixed smell of various burning items in the air.
"Oh, my God!" exclaimed a soldier.
"Oh my god, it's so tragic." Simon couldn't help but feel cold in his heart.
There were burnt black and collapsed houses everywhere, with little sparks and green smoke rising. There were endless screams of weakness and despair and the sound of women crying.
Blood, corpses, and mutilated human body parts were everywhere. Beside a charred ruined wall, there were even several pieces of human internal organs in a large mass of blood.
Even these guard soldiers who had seen blood were resisting the urge to vomit at this time.
"What a bunch of beasts!" Simon couldn't help but cursed as he looked at this scene that was like purgatory on earth.
"Daddy, daddy!" A dirty little boy knelt down and cried bitterly next to the corpse of a man who had a broken spear inserted into his chest. He seemed to be the village militia.
"Hey." Simon was helpless and just sighed sympathetically. In this day and age, death is as common as a daily occurrence.
A minor disease, a war, or a plague can harvest the lives of large numbers of poor people like wheat, leaving widows and orphans in agony.
Under the setting sun, Simon and his party were shrouded in shadow as they continued to move forward through the looted village, and they were unwilling to say any more nonsense.
"Sir, the Issel Castle is ahead." A soldier broke the silence.
Simon looked over, and saw a simple and low wooden tower on a slightly higher mound on the plain in the distance. A not-so-high wooden fortress wall surrounded an area less than half the size of the village of Verde from the top to the bottom of the hill. size of land. The dirt road forked at the foot of the hill, and a path led to the large wooden gate of the wooden castle on the hill.
This is so different from the majestic castle in Simon's impression.
He also thought that economically developed places like the north might have tall stone walls different from the backward areas in the south, with majestic stone castles like those in fairy tales.
But Simon got one thing wrong. Castles in this era had just been born not long ago. Most of the castles were like Isselburg and Dorstenberg. They just built a large wooden tower on a mound, and then surrounded it. There was a low wooden wall surrounding the stables, warehouses, wells, and residences of some of the people who served the lord.
The majestic stone castle fortress in Simon's impression generally appeared in the high and late Middle Ages. Even large and beautiful castles like Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria were renovated and built during the Industrial Revolution.
At the foot of the Isselburg hill, a small village is built along a dirt road. Facing the sunset, smoke drifts from the village.
"Stop, who are you!?" There is a small river in front of Isselburg Village. The wooden bridge has been put up with sharp timbers and horses, and a group of soldiers guarding the bridge are looking at Simon nervously.
Simon asked little Klein to explain his identity and purpose of coming, and the soldiers by the river struggled to move the horses on the bridge.
An Yssel soldier shouted towards the fort wall not far away, and then, the heavy wooden door of Yssel Fort slowly opened.
At this time, a soldier by the wooden bridge waved to a straw hut not far from the river. The castle messenger who was sitting and resting in a straw hut immediately ran over, listened to the soldier's instructions, and then ran quickly towards the castle. .
"Oh my god, I'm afraid I've never smelled such a bad smell!" After riding into the castle, Simon subconsciously covered his nose with his hands. The strong smell of feces and urine that hit his face almost made Simon vomit.
Since Simon advocated making "God's fertilizer" in Verde Village, there has been a lot less excrement and odor.
However, the guards and servants who kept coming and going in Issel Castle seemed to be used to it, as if they didn't smell the smell at all.
Simon saw stale or fresh feces on the walls of the houses in the castle, under the city walls, and even near the wells. I saw an old man shoveling manure in the distance slowly shoveling a shovel of manure into a small cart.
"Is there only one dung shovel in this castle?" Simon frowned and asked the guard in front.
"Master, maybe they are already used to it, so it doesn't matter. One more dung shovel will cost the lord more." The guard soldiers quickly adapted to the smell.
"Hello, dear lord! My hospitable master invites you to have dinner with him." At this time, an old man wearing brightly dyed clothes walked out of the wooden tower. He seemed to be the steward of the castle.
Simon rode the horse to the stable under the city wall, stepped on the stirrup and dismounted.
"I'll do it, Sir." A stable boy took the reins of the chestnut horse.
"This way, please!" The butler led Simon and little Klein into the tower. The other soldiers followed a servant into a side room next to the wooden tower.
"Sir Simon from the Dorsten family in the earldom of Berg, the legal lord of the village of Verde, is here to visit!" The castle herald stood at the tower gate and shouted loudly.
Unlike some great nobles who have so many titles that they can make the messenger shout dry, Simon is now just a little-known knight with no fancy titles or titles.
As soon as he entered the tower gate, what immediately caught Simon's eye was a bright tapestry hanging on the wall opposite the gate.
"Sir, this is a tapestry that my master bought at a high price from a businessman from Constantinople." The butler introduced it to Simon with some pride.
Under the bright and luxurious tapestry is a large oak table with simple decorations. The table is scattered with opened heraldic sealing wax and documents and letters.
There is also an all-silver lampstand with three burning candles on the corner of the big wooden table. Simon noticed that there was a faintly glowing candle in each of the four corners of the hall.
"It's really rich." Simon couldn't help but think.
In this backward era of poverty and shortage of materials, candles are also considered a precious consumable, generally only consumed by the rich and nobles. Let alone the poor, many people have never even heard of this thing.
In a dialogue between a bard and a poor serf, when talking about the bright candles in the noble house, the serf actually said angrily that God has given people the light of day, why would some people not cherish and use it, but rest when they should? It's a waste of money to use this precious thing to light up the dark night.
Therefore, lighting a large number of precious candles has become a way for most lords to show off their wealth.
The first floor of the wooden tower is just the hall where the lord works and the side room where the housekeeper and servants live.
Simon and little Klein followed the housekeeper up the creaking wooden stairs to the second floor of the wooden tower.
"Hello, Sir Simon who has come from afar." A middle-aged man in a bright red robe turned around and looked at Simon behind the old butler with a pair of burning eyes.
"Hello, distinguished Lord Baron Iser!" Simon stepped forward, knelt down on one knee in front of Baron Iser, and kissed the gold ring on his finger.
Simon is actually very resistant in his heart. God knows how many people have kissed this ring and how many people have drooled on it.
"This is my wife, Caroline."
"Hello, noble lady."
At this time, Simon looked at a middle-aged woman next to the baron. Wearing an expensive patterned skirt and a clean muslin headscarf, she bent down and raised her skirt to give Simon a slight salute.
"This is my little girl, Eve."
Behind the lord's wife, Caroline, a little blond girl with a ponytail looked timidly at the strong Simon.
"My son is on his way back to Isselburg from the Duke of Friesland's court." The Baron smiled, then pointed to the seat on one side of the long dining table, "Sit down first, young warrior, the sumptuous meal will be served soon. Will come up."
