In the early summer afternoon, the strong sunlight scorches this red and green grassland.
Many injured soldiers sat back to back in the grove on one side, groaning in pain. In addition to some of their relatives and friends who were not seriously injured taking care of them, priests and barbers were also constantly shuttling back and forth.
"Master, there is an old forest ranger in that forest, and he won't let me collect firewood at all! He insists on showing me the wood-cutting certificate issued by Baron Iser." Little Klein returned to Simon's side at some point. , said slightly aggrievedly.
"Oh! I forgot that this is not my territory!" Simon smiled and touched little Klein's hair, "It doesn't matter, we can use the campfire in the castle when we return to Isselburg."
At this time, Baron Iser walked towards Simon, escorted by his attendants.
"Go and buy a barrel of strong liquor and a few rolls of clean linen." As he spoke, Simon put four copper coins into little Klein's hand, patted him on the shoulder, and walked up to the baron.
"Sir Simon, you are indeed a brave warrior, haha!" The Baron laughed heartily, his eyes almost narrowed to a slit, "Don't worry, I, Baron Iser, will do what I say, and the trophies captured on the battlefield will One-tenth of it belongs to you!"
"Thank you, sir!" Simon was also in a good mood. In addition to the nearly ten Denier silver coins that I have earned in the past few days, I can also get an additional trophy income.
"You are not bad either. As I said before the war, you can go to my tax collector later and receive the reward for killing the enemy." The Baron took the wine handed by the attendant, took a sip carefully, and looked at Towards the guarding soldiers behind Simon.
"What are you doing standing there, why don't you quickly thank the Baron for your generosity?" Simon saw that these guys did not react to the great joy for a moment, and he laughed and kicked the soldier next to him on the butt.
While Simon was talking to Baron Iser, Sir Thorger returned with the light and heavy cavalry. Each of them held a long rope in their hands, and on it were tied one by one deserters from the previous Arnhem army.
"Father, what should we do with these guys who are not even citizens of the Barony of Arnhem?" Sir Solger raised the rope in his hand.
Simon saw this group of peasants and soldiers with their hands tied by ropes and wearing tattered clothes shivering, waiting for their final fate.
Baron Iser frowned, looking at the nearly thirty guys who were at least verbally told by Baron Arnhem to be expelled from the territory on the battlefield, and held his chin in thought.
"Sir, I just made a calculation and found that only one-third of the nearly one hundred prisoners of war can afford their ransom." At this time, Tax Collector Iser walked away with a quill and parchment in his hand. He came up and said in the Baron's ear.
"What, so few? As expected of the poor Barony of Arnhem." Baron Iser opened his eyes wide and stroked his well-groomed beard.
"Yes, sir, this means that you now have nearly sixty or seventy more slaves at your disposal." The tax collector looked down at the numbers recorded on the parchment.
Ordinary soldiers captured on the battlefield would become slaves if they could not afford their own ransom. Either they will be sent to the farm as serfs by the lord who captured them, or they will be sold to the slave market, or they may even be killed directly.
"Those more than sixty prisoners of war can just be sent to the destroyed Hadern village to rebuild the village and serve as serfs. As for these thirty people," Baron Iser glanced at these thin and disheveled prisoners of war who were strung together. , "To be honest, the sixty serfs allocated to Harden Village are already a little too much, and it is impossible to stuff more people into them. Even if I send these thirty guys to the slave market in Abeldoorn Port, It can’t be sold for much money, and it may not be as much as the food expenses and transportation expenses I have provided them these days.”
"So, my lord, what do you mean?" The tax collector raised his head and looked at Baron Iser.
"We won't do business at a loss. Let's kill these people on the spot. It's useless to keep them. Letting Luo Cao Wei go will endanger the security of my territory." Baron Iser said coldly.
"Dear Baron, please give me a chance! I am a good farmer and I can definitely take good care of your fields!" An old peasant soldier strung on a rope heard his final verdict and said, He knelt down to Baron Iser with a mournful face and kept begging for mercy.
"Master, I still have a pair of bedridden parents and a newly born son who need my care. Please let me live. I am willing to do anything for you, anything!" A middle-aged man with thick eyebrows said The peasants and soldiers burst into tears.
Among the peasants and soldiers wailing and begging for mercy, a young man with an expressionless face seemed very different.
He is little Fanny, the young peasant soldier who was spared by Dann, the Arnhem private soldier. Little Fanny was also strung on the rope at this time, with dried tears on his face, but he just stared blankly at Baron Iser in front of him with eyes full of despair and numbness. This sentence would destroy his youth. The nobility of life.
"I didn't expect that I wouldn't be able to escape death in the end," little Fanny suddenly laughed at herself. Seeing that the neighbor next to her was sobbing in grief, she couldn't help but rub him with her shoulder. "Hey, brother, is it your first time to face death?"
"Let's drag them to the open space over there and execute them now. These guys are crying like widows in front of me on this day worth celebrating. It's really disappointing." Baron Iser said impatiently He waved his hand, turned around, and drank the wine as red as blood in one gulp.
"Lord Baron," Simon handed the wooden cup filled with wine to Little Klein and walked forward, "I happen to be short of manpower in my territory, and I want to buy these prisoners of war from you. .”
Just now, Simon looked at the miserable begging for mercy of these prisoners of war, but he was constantly calculating in his mind.
The abundant summer crops in his own territory can definitely feed the thirty extra serfs.
If two-thirds of these people are incorporated into the Verde village army, and the remaining people open up new farmland on the newly opened land after logging, their own territory can not only expand production, but also replenish soldiers. Be better prepared for the next Viking raids.
"What? Sir Simon, are you kidding?" Baron Iser looked stunned. "You should understand what the sudden addition of thirty serfs means to your village's granary."
"Thank you, Lord Baron, for your concern. I have a solution of my own," Simon smiled lightly, "Please give me a price."
"Well, since you insist so much," Baron Iser squinted his eyes and stroked his beard, "for the sake of our friendship, for one Denier silver coin, all of them will belong to you."
"Deal, Lord Baron." Simon grinned, took out a Denier silver coin from the purse he carried, and threw it to the tax collector next to the Baron.
…
In the evening, the sun has set in the west, and darkness swallows up the last sunset and sweeps towards the earth.
At this time, in a side room in Issel Castle that was temporarily used to house Simon's guard soldiers, Simon's soldiers were sitting on the floor around a bonfire in the center of the room, each eating dry and chewy black bread.
"Almost." Seeing that the water in the iron pot on the campfire had begun to bubble continuously, Simon took a wooden bowl filled with water from outside the door and sprinkled some of the water into the boiling water in the pot. .
"Master, what are you doing?" A guard soldier raised his head in confusion.
"This is the holy water I got from the church next to Iserburg," Simon said, throwing the gauze into the boiling pot. "I once heard the monk who witnessed the miracle said that using boiling water mixed with holy water Boiled gauze is used to bandage wounds, which can give the injured person God's blessing and help him recover quickly."
"Oh! Is that so?" These soldiers were a little doubtful of Simon's deception, but after thinking about it with their not very bright minds, it seemed that this made sense. When I think about the fat crops that grew in Verde Village relying on the gospel spread by that monk, most of the doubts in my heart have gone away.
"Then Master, what are you doing?" The soldier saw Simon pour strong wine into a bowl, and then poured some holy water into it.
"I have sprinkled holy water and exorcism salt into this wine. Use this to cleanse your wounds before bandaging them. Just like the priest said, it will definitely drive out demons and keep you safe." Simon's face was calm and his ears were calm. Chi Di is full of nonsense. The salt was definitely not added, but I said this to appease these superstitious soldiers.
Just when Klein used strong liquor to clean the wound of the injured soldier on his right arm and picked up high-temperature sterilized gauze to bandage it, the door opened with a creak. A gust of wind rushed into the house, causing the originally calm flames to jump left and right.
Everyone looked at the door and saw an old man wearing a black hood and black robe walking in with a tool box in his hand.
"It's the priest of Iser Church!" exclaimed a soldier who had seen the old man during the day.
"It's a false alarm." In the dim light, Simon's hand let go of the hilt of the sword, and several other guard soldiers who responded quickly also calmly put the armed axes and daggers they drew back to their waists.
"God bless, dear Sir Simon, the Baron knew that your men were injured but had not treated them until now, so he sent me over to take a look." The priest said, walked forward, put down the tool box, and happened to use the light of the bonfire. The firelight saw the cleaned wound on the soldier's right arm, as well as the gauze in little Klein's hand.
"This..." The priest opened his mouth wide and immediately looked at Simon, who was leaning on the pillar next to him. "Have you already bled him? My God, you must not bleed the muscles of your right arm for such a hacking injury. , you are just kidding! Only professionals like us know where to bleed him and how much blood to bleed after comprehensive judgment based on multiple factors. This is all very sophisticated!"
"Father, this is not a wound after bleeding. This is the wound I suffered in the battle." The soldier said calmly.
"What?" The priest was a little confused. He smelled the strong smell of strong alcohol in the air and saw the wooden bowl with wine in the soldier's hand and his wet right arm. He seemed to understand something in an instant and opened his eyes angrily. The soldiers seemed to have seen a group of blasphemous devils, "God in heaven, you, are you using some kind of pagan method of treatment!?"
"There is absolutely no such thing," Simon finally couldn't stand it anymore and said with a frown, "Father, I swear on my honor that this is a new treatment method under the blessing of God."
"What? Why haven't I heard of it? Who told you? Satan!?" The priest felt that his authority was being questioned and challenged, and he immediately became anxious.
"Please calm down first, it's a long story." Simon sighed, and could only tell the story about the monk who had been deceived in front of the priest and villagers in Verde Village.
"That's it. The monk who met God not only told me the secret of increasing grain production, but also told me a new way of treatment. Now, in my territory, God's miracle of increasing production has appeared, and the fields are full of things we started from. The rich wheat seedlings we have never seen before. Therefore, we have no reason not to believe that what the monk saw and heard is completely true." Simon said that his mouth was dry, he picked up the wooden bowl and scooped out a large bowl of strong wine, moistening it. Moisten your throat.
"Is there such a thing?" The priest's reaction at this time was exactly the same as that of the priest of Xinkser Village at that time, with a look of disbelief.
"Yes, respected priest, all of us can testify!" The guard soldiers spoke one after another to support Simon.
"That's right, my dear priest, seeing is better than hearing. If you don't believe it, you can go to Verde Village in the Barony of Dorsten in the south to see it for yourself. I will arrive from the port of Abeldoorn in a while We will also pass by Isselburg once on our way back, and then you can follow me to the village of Verde."
