At the busy wooden fort construction site, soldiers were building arrow towers and large wooden doors under the command of Ryan.
"Master Simon, are you interested in trying my design?" Ryan licked his lips and looked at Simon expectantly. "I swear to you, even if those damn Vikings suffered a lot, There is no way to break through your walls!"
With that said, Ryan walked into a simple small tent. After a while, he squatted down and spread out several rolls of parchment that he had painstakingly designed on the green grass.
"Actually, I think the protruding wall corridor I showed you when I first hired you is quite good. Of course, you have to remove all the miscellaneous decorations on it. It would be better to spend this time on decoration. Then build the city wall stronger." Simon fell in love with the corridor at a glance, took the drawing and looked at it repeatedly, holding his chin and nodded.
"Of course, sir, these decorations are just the ones I added because I was really bored!" Stonemason Ryan smiled bitterly.
"If we build this corridor where the two arrow towers connect the city gate, will our working hours and building materials be greatly increased?" Simon suddenly realized this problem. Ideals are always plump, reality is always skinny.
"Don't worry, sir, you may need to use more wood, but you can harvest a section of the most difficult to break through the city wall in the lower reaches of the Rhine! Let's build the most basic arrow tower and the large wooden castle gate first, so that the wooden castle has the most basic defense capabilities Later, we will consider the protruding corridor." Seeing that someone was finally willing to accept his design plan, Ryan, the stonemason, was so excited that he spoke as fast as a cannon.
"Master, master! The village chief asked me to tell you that the bard is awake!" At this time, a serf covered in soil came up from the foot of the hill.
"Really?" Simon's eyes lit up, and he threw the roll of drawings into the arms of the mason Ryan, and followed the serf quickly towards the village under the scorching sun of midsummer.
………
"Mr. Simon, we haven't seen each other for a while." Ludwig saw Simon entering the door and struggled to sit up from the hay bed full of fleas and dust.
"Lie down first, you are too weak now," Simon quickly stepped forward and pushed Ludwig back onto the bed. "God bless you, what terrible thing did you experience that almost killed you?"
"Ah ha, it's a long story," Ludwig shook his head slightly and smiled bitterly, his slightly green lips trembling slightly, "After Baron Iser's banquet, I went to travel to various villages in the barony. I even went to the territory of Baron Arnhem. Later, I returned to Isselburg and prepared to follow the caravan going south from the north to the village of Verde."
Long-distance travel in the Middle Ages was always full of dangers. You might have been robbed completely by various robbers before you even walked three or four kilometers along the way. Furthermore, if you encounter wolves or other large carnivores in the wild while traveling alone, the possibility of survival is very small. So some bards will pay a small fee to a well-prepared caravan leader to travel with a caravan protected by caravan guards.
"However, I waited for several days in Isselburg, but no caravan going south passed by. I asked a tavern clerk, and it turned out that during the few days I visited the village, a large caravan had already passed by Isselburg. Selborg. So I took a chance, dressed up as a poor pilgrim, and set foot on the dirt road to Feld Village alone." Ludwig said, raising his hand to pull the dirty and smelly Worn pilgrim clothes.
"My dear friend, you are really risking your life!" Simon sighed.
"Ha, but, isn't it? I just like this tense and exciting feeling that makes me full of passion." Ludwig closed his eyes and smiled, "But I still underestimated those hungry robbers. They They even had to plunder a pilgrim beggar who seemed to be so poor that he only had one life left. Sure enough, after careful searching, they quickly discovered something fishy."
…
Back to a few days ago, there was a path leading from the Principality of Friesland in the Black Forest in the northwest of Hattuaria County to the Earl of Berg.
"Who is that person in front of you!?" A short-haired robber wearing a tattered armed uniform with holes and cuts everywhere walked out from behind a big beech, holding an armed ax full of dirt and dried blood in his hand. He looked at the pilgrims walking on the dirt road to the north with an unfriendly expression.
"Sir, don't, don't get excited," said Ludwig, who was worthy of being a bard, and his acting skills were superb. "I am just a free farmer from Upper Lorraine who lost everything because of the war, and I want to go to the Holy Land to atone for my sins. If If you are willing, for the sake of being a Christian, could you give me a small piece of bread? I, I haven't eaten for two days."
"Really?" The long-haired, slovenly and fierce bandit leader and a few minions walked out of the grass beside the road. A pair of vicious eyes kept looking at Ludwig, who was dirty and smelly and looked extremely weak. .
"Boss, this is a very poor guy, why don't we forget about it." The robber and the gangsters smelled the strong odor of sweat emitting from Ludwig's body several meters away. He looked at this "broken beggar" with disgust and impatience.
"Okay...wait a minute," the sloppy long-haired gangster who was just about to turn around and give up suddenly noticed something and turned back to stare at Ludwig's face with squinted eyes. Ludwig was made uncomfortable by that sharp gaze.
"Um, sir, do you have anything else?" Although Ludwig's expression and voice remained unchanged, his heart was already in a mess. "If nothing else, I have to leave first. A village begging to fill my shriveled belly.”
The slovenly long-haired gangster did not speak, but slowly walked towards Ludwig. Ludwig was already a little dazed, his heart beating rapidly.
"There's something wrong with you," the slovenly long-haired gangster didn't care about the stench emanating from Ludwig's body. He stepped forward and took off the wide hood on Ludwig's head, revealing a painted picture. With a earthy but slightly rich rosy face, he said, "Ha, do you think I can't tell with my head bowed in a big hat?"
"It seems that our friend needs a lesson before he knows that it is wrong to deceive others." The short-haired robber felt that he was being played like a fool. He was full of anger and moved forward slowly with fists and hands.
"Oh, you still have so much money on you, I guess you want us brothers to help you share some of it." The sloppy long-haired gangster violently untied Ludwig's loose beggar's pilgrim uniform and said instantly There was a crisp and sweet sound of coin collision.
Ludwig was just about to draw his sword and stab the long-haired gangster in front of him in the waist, but he received a hard punch in the face. Suddenly, he felt like the sky was dark, there were stars in his eyes, and he couldn't stand still.
"I knew what you were going to fart as soon as you stuck your butt out. Do you think I'm blind and can't see your sneaky little moves? Even I, a green forest hero, chose to rob you openly and openly. Could it be that you are now Shouldn't you feel guilty for your despicable thoughts?" The long-haired, sloppy gangster sneered and said contemptuously to Ludwig, who was lying on the ground, covering his face and moaning in pain.
However, there was something indescribably weird about these seemingly righteous words coming from the mouth of this hateful robber.
"Hit me and show this cunning guy who knows nothing about heaven and earth!" The long-haired and slovenly gangster gave the order. The short-haired robber and a few minions stepped forward and faced Ludwig who fell to the ground. Hope a beating.
………
"That's it." Ludwig half-opened his eyes, and his beautiful sapphire blue pupils were now a little dull. "They imprisoned me in their camp. I remember that night they went out in full force. I attacked a convoy, but no one came back until the next morning. I used the weak campfire in the center of the camp to burn the ropes that tied me and escaped. Alas, I will never have the chance to travel alone again. .”
As he spoke, Ludwig weakly raised his hand, which indeed had burn marks.
"But thankfully, I have wiped out all those gangsters. You can pretend to be a leper next time, and I'm sure the highway robbers won't even want to talk to you." Simon smiled.
"Aha, why didn't I think of this? This is such a good idea! But having said that, since all those bandits have gone to hell, you can send someone to bring a carriage to transport all the loot from their camp back." Ludwig laughed heartily, and then told Simon the approximate location of the bandit camp.
…
In the high mountains of Scandinavia, in a high fjord near the Norwegian Sea, a village is like a precious gem embedded in this inaccessible and cold place.
A small merchant ship sailed from the fjord and slowly docked at the small wooden pier in front of the village.
"Rolf and the others are back!" Some women who were working in the village and some children who were playing rushed to the dock to greet their relatives.
Stout Viking crew members with braids, beards and rolled-sleeved linen tunics happily carried supplies off the ship. In addition to being famous for their raids, the Vikings were also famous for their commerce.
A tall, thin, blond and blue-eyed man stepped off the boat, completely ignoring the joy of returning to his hometown. He walked quickly through the bustling and noisy crowd and walked directly to the large wooden house of the tribal leader.
"What are you going to do, Arvid?" Two Viking warriors standing guard at the door wearing Viking war helmets and chainmail stopped the tall and thin man.
"I have important news to report to the leader!" The tall and thin man named Arvid looked very anxious.
"Okay." The two soldiers also knew that Arvid usually collected intelligence while doing business, so they stopped blocking and opened the wooden door of the leader's big wooden house.
