A free farmer standing guard on a simple wooden watchtower in the village of Verde was leaning on a pillar and falling asleep.
"What's the sound?" Half asleep and half awake, the free farmer heard the faint sound of human voices and the sound of equipment colliding. He opened his hazy sleepy eyes, wiped the sticky eye droppings around his eyes, and raised his eyes on the railing to look around as hard as he could.
"Is that Miller?" The free farmer on sentry duty was startled when he saw a well-equipped convoy heading towards the village, but he found that the soldier walking at the front looked more and more like Miller.
"That's the master," the free farmer saw Simon behind him, wearing a heraldic robe and riding a war horse, and shouted excitedly towards the village, "The master is back, the master is back!"
"What?" Several women who were working listlessly in the weaving workshop stopped their work, stood up from the small wooden chairs, and ran out of the house excitedly.
"Master," the fat man ran quickly towards the convoy that had reached the entrance of the village, completely ignoring the fat swaying on his body, "You are finally back, are you not injured?"
"I'm fine, but they still need to be raised," Simon stepped off the horse, took off his deerskin gloves, and wiped the sweat from his head, "Is everything in the village okay while I'm away? "
"Everything is normal, young master. Some of the thirty slaves sent by Baron Iser from the north have served as serfs, and some have completed recruit training and are now building wooden forts on the hills!" The fat man patted proudly. He patted his round belly and pointed to the wooden castle on the hill.
Simon looked along the fat man's fingers. At present, the outer wall of the wooden castle is still empty except for the originally planned fort gate and arrow tower. The other walls have been erected. Simon could also see through the empty part of the wall that the soldiers inside the wooden fort were erecting the scaffolding behind the wooden wall.
"Well done," Simon nodded with satisfaction, "The remaining complex engineering projects will be completed by Mr. Ryan, the mason, under your command."
"Welcome to Feld Village. This is a land where God manifests his holiness. You will definitely fall in love with it." The fat man grinned and stepped forward to pat Ryan on the shoulder.
"Village Chief," Simon saw the panting village chief squeezed out from the crowd, "It's really troublesome for you to supervise the work of the serfs and supervise the construction of the project during this period!"
"No, sir, this is what a village chief should do!" The village chief smiled and stroked his beard.
"There is one more thing you need to do now," Simon waved to little Klein, who was holding the pack horse from behind. "Check in all the weapons and equipment brought back this time into the warehouse, and then arrange for manpower to take care of these injured soldiers."
"No problem, my master." The village chief took the reins, pulled over a serf who was watching the fun, and gave instructions in his ear.
…
"Everyone gather!" Fatty shouted loudly to the soldiers who were building the wooden fort. All the soldiers immediately put down the tools and lumber in their hands and hurried to the small open space in front of the wooden wall to form two rows.
"Look at these new faces and new blood. There should be almost forty people in the militia now!" Simon thought to himself. The dozen or so soldiers in the first row are all veterans who survived the war against bandits, while some of the recruits in the second row are original free farmers in the village, and some are deserter slaves who were captured in the Battle of Isselburg territory. .
"Quiet," Simon shouted, and the queue that was slightly noisy just now fell silent for an instant, "Although I have not witnessed your hard work these days, the solid wall that has been built behind you is the best proof. Later, I will ask Mr. Hoffman to select the five soldiers who have worked most actively and invested the most these days to reward them."
Under the expectant eyes of the soldiers, the fat man weighed the money bag at his waist, and the crisp sound of coins colliding was heard.
"The militia has welcomed new members some time ago, and I hope you can adapt and integrate into the militia as soon as possible. Some of you should know exactly what would have happened to you without my mercy that afternoon. I still remember that many of you were so scared that you pooped your pants that day." Just after Simon finished speaking, some veterans in the front row burst into laughter, while a few recruits in the back blushed and lowered their heads.
"The ugly thing to say earlier, you have already betrayed Baron Arnhem once on the battlefield, so I doubt that in the next battle you fight for me, you will betray us as shamelessly as that time, abandoning your teammates and running away. ." Simon narrowed his eyes and his tone suddenly turned cold.
"No, sir," a recruit in the back row said timidly, "We will never do something like this again, absolutely not."
"I hope so. If any of you dare to be deserters, you will be executed directly and your property will be confiscated." Simon's gloomy eyes scanned the former Arnhem deserter recruits in the back row. "On the contrary, if you can fight bravely on the battlefield, , fight hard to kill the enemy, and I swear I will not treat you badly. Did you all hear that?"
"Yes, my lord!"
………
In the evening, after everything had settled down, Simon was having dinner with Fatty and little Klein. Suddenly, anxious shouts came from outside the house, and they got closer and closer.
"Master, master, master!" A soldier hurriedly ran to the front of the hunting house.
"What's the matter?" Simon put down the wooden bowl and wooden spoon, stood up, opened the wooden door, and looked at the soldier who was running out of breath. "Little Klein, give him a bowl of water."
"Thank you." The soldier raised his head and drank a whole bowl of water, wiping his mouth with his sleeve filled with all kinds of filth. "A seriously injured guy came at the gate of the village, muttering your name, sir. Our people When I just stepped forward and asked him who he was, he immediately passed out!"
"Take me to have a look." Simon walked out of the house without saying anything. However, he didn't take two steps and seemed to remember something again. He returned to the room and put the long sword on his waist by the bed.
When Simon and the leading soldier arrived at the entrance of the village, they saw curious villagers gathered in a circle and talking.
"Everyone give way, the master is here!" The soldier pushed aside the crowd and squeezed into the circle with Simon. Only then did Simon see clearly that lying on the ground was a man wearing a tattered pilgrim's beggar's uniform and a large hood.
"This back looks familiar," Simon said strangely. With the help of a villager, he turned the stranger over and exclaimed, "Oh my God, Ludwig!?"
"Sir, do you know him?" The surrounding villagers were very surprised, but they quickly stepped forward to help lift up the unconscious and bruised Ludwig and walked towards the village.
"What the hell is this old boy doing?" Simon smelled the strong smell of sweat from Ludwig's body, looked at the bruises on his forehead, and frowned, "He is my friend, you should put him first Take him down and ask the village chief to arrange for someone to take good care of him!"
"Okay, my lord." The two young serfs holding Ludwig nodded and walked toward the village chief's house.
After the crowd of onlookers gradually dispersed, two familiar figures were still standing there.
"Master, long time no see!" The old brewer smiled kindly at Simon, and Alice, the wine girl behind him, also slightly saluted Simon.
"Yeah, long time no see. How have you been doing lately? Are you still used to it?" Simon smiled and walked forward.
"Very good, my lord. With the help of your soldiers, Alice and I temporarily have a simple residence and a simple temporary brewery. Now, we are brewing sweet and sour wine with berries and wild fruits in the forest. Here’s the fruit wine!”
"Really? Maybe a tavern can be opened in the village in the future, and you can be the supplier of the tavern and bring everyone a variety of fine wines!"
"Haha, of course, sir, if there really is a tavern by then." The old brewer laughed heartily. Simon could tell that he was very optimistic and full of hope for life.
"After the last commendation, the soldiers have some spare money. Maybe they can wait for the storage room and granary of the wooden castle to be built and turn the original storage tent into a tavern." Simon calculated in his mind and walked towards the hunting house. .
"Things are just endless one after another. I have to select eight more people to learn archery, train new recruits in shield formation, build an arrow tower wooden door, a brewery, a granary, a storage room... By the way, there is also a small church. !" Simon shook his head helplessly, opened the door of the hunting house and collapsed on the hard bed.
