"Ah, Verde Village, this is the land blessed by God, this is the land that Christians defend to the death, this is the land that pagans can never conquer! We have witnessed the holy miracles here and repelled the blasphemers; We enjoy delicious food here and fly freely in the world created by God..."
Ludwig sat on the grass by the river and sang passionately, while the lute in his hand emitted elegant and moving notes.
The militiamen and serfs who were carrying trophies back and forth from the riverside boat to the village silently enjoyed this beautiful music, and quickly piled the trophies into the small open space in the center of the village.
"How's it going, village chief, are the statistics ready?" Simon couldn't help but ask as he looked at the village chief who was walking towards him with a smile on his face, holding parchment in his hand.
"Ah, Mr. Simon, Mr. Hoffman, Mr. Lange, and Mr. Baron Cooser," the village chief saluted respectfully. "With the help of this smart young man next to me, we can quickly sort out the statistics." Here’s a list of the spoils we got from this battle.”
The village chief looked at the slightly shy stonemason Ryan next to him, who bowed to Simon and the others with a nervous blush.
"Yes, at least I can't do such troublesome things as statistics and literacy." Old Baron Keother clapped his hands, "So without further ado, I'm curious about how many good things these damn Vikings plundered in the north. thing."
"Okay, Lord Baron, let's talk about food first," the village chief spread out the parchment densely written in Latin, cleared his throat and said, "We found fifteen large bags full of fresh food on one of the boats. Barley, nine bags of oats, six bags of flour, seven bags of reasonably fresh fruits and vegetables, two jars of honey, four bags of salt, three large blocks of cheese, one large block of butter, three jars of olive oil, two bags of spices, three fans of dried sheep Ribs, two whole dried venison legs, and two buckets full of dried fish.”
"Excellent, young master, now you don't have to worry about storing food in your territory for the winter." The fat man looked at Simon with a smile, and suddenly seemed to remember something, and hurriedly asked the village chief, "By the way, village chief , is there any wine?”
"Yes, of course! We found two barrels of fresh wine, two barrels of beer, one barrel of fruit wine, and half a barrel of wine I can't name. It might be a mead bar." The village chief held his chin, recalling the time on the ship. The rich aroma and unique taste of the unknown wine I tasted while counting the loot.
"This is enough for Master Simon to hold a grand banquet!" Jonas raised the corners of his mouth and smiled harmlessly.
"You bitch, since I can't let the Vikings kill you, I'll let you hold an extravagant banquet this time, consume more supplies, and eat until you can't survive the winter." Jonas thought to himself. However, he was so despicable that he didn’t know that even if he held a few more banquets, Simon’s granary would not be depleted to the point where the villagers would starve to death in winter.
"Yes Simon," Sir Langer looked at Simon expressionlessly and said lightly, "This is a great victory. According to tradition, you have to entertain everyone in your territory to thank our Lord and the forest. God will give you the fruits of victory."
"No problem. When I bring the crenel opening license back from the kingdom's palace, I will hold a sumptuous banquet here." Simon nodded. He had always been obsessed with the legality of the little wooden castle that had consumed him so much.
You should know that without a crenellation license issued by the king, the castle will always be illegal, and the royal family has the right to ban Simon from owning the castle at any time.
"Oh, sir, where did I stop? Let's start with supplies." The village chief touched his head and looked at the parchment carefully. "Some time ago, we heard a passing caravan mention this. A group of damn robbers robbed the Lier Abbey in Oldenburg. In addition to nearly two large boxes of about a thousand deniers silver coins, the loot also included a large cross inlaid with precious stones, made of gold and silver. The chalice and plate, three large silver-patterned candlesticks and nearly a hundred candles.”
"It's unbelievable, my God!" The pious old Baron Cooser made the sign of the cross on his chest.
"Other supplies seized were quite miscellaneous, including four clay pots, five large bags of wool, three large bags of cotton, one roll of velvet cloth, five rolls of dyed linen cloth, twelve perfect hides and furs, two baskets of clay, and Twenty-two chickens, ducks and live birds." The village chief was very proud and read aloud according to the words on the parchment.
"Sir Simon, don't you want to go to the king to sign the creneling permit?" Ryan, the stonemason, walked next to Simon. "Perhaps you can sell these materials at a good price in Dresden."
"Going to Dresden to sell? My friend, it's really unsafe to drag so many valuables over such a long distance." Ludwig came over at some point. "I think Simon might as well go first." It will be more convenient and safer to go to Cologne in the south, sell the goods and then go to Dresden.”
"I will consider it." Simon nodded in agreement.
"Village Chief, tell me how many weapons we have seized." The fat man looked at the village chief expectantly. Apart from beautiful women and good wine, nothing attracts nobles more than weapons and armor.
"Okay, okay, maybe these barbarians won the battle in the north. In addition to capturing their weapons, we also captured many armors, weapons and shields with the coat of arms of the nobles of the northern principality," the village chief took out the gun from his waist. He took a sip from the kettle to moisten his hoarse throat, "As for the specifics, we seized five two-handed swords of different styles, twenty-three one-handed short swords and half-handed swords, and forty-six short axes of various types. , eight large two-handed axes, fifty-three long and short spears with varying degrees of damage, sixty-one shields, two Anglo-Saxon longbows, a heavy iron-clad crossbow, and two large barrels of bow and arrow crossbows.”
"Oh, these barbarians actually have longbows and heavy crossbows," the stonemason Ryan said with some surprise, "I'm curious why they didn't use these bows and crossbows in the siege just now."
"Ryan, the longbow is not an easy weapon to control," said the knowledgeable Ludwig, holding his chin. "Without day after day practice and long-term experience accumulation, let alone shooting with a longbow. There are defenders on the city wall, and even going to the woods to kill a wild boar would be difficult. As for why they didn’t use the heavy crossbow that is easy to control, I don’t know.”
"When we found the crossbow, it was specially wrapped in a beautiful large wooden box and placed at the bottom of the pile of valuables," the village chief took over and said, "Maybe those barbaric guys Want to take it back as a perfect gift to their leader?”
"Anyway, we don't know what those damn Yankees were thinking. They are all now mutilated and cold corpses." Simon waved his hand and glanced at the Vikings piled up in the distance. The red and white corpse, "More than these, I want to know how much armor we captured in this battle."
"Of course, my lord," the village chief pinched his big, red nose and focused his eyes on the parchment again, "We seized thirty-four pieces of chainmail with varying degrees of damage this time. Twenty-two pieces of leather armor, six pieces of scale armor, twenty-nine pieces of padded cotton armor, twelve pieces of shoulder armor of various kinds, nineteen pieces of soft armor greaves, five pieces of mail greaves, twelve pieces of mail turbans, Thirty-seven leather turbans and stuffed turbans, twenty-eight Norman helmets and pot helmets, two full-face helmets, twenty pairs of leather gloves and nine pairs of brass bracers.”
"This can form a new and excellent private army!" Old Baron Cooser couldn't help but sigh.
"But where do I have to find so many soldiers to fill the army? Even if every surviving soldier is equipped with an iron helmet, cotton armor lined with mail, copper wrist guards and leather gloves, as well as an ax, a spear and a shield, There will still be a lot of equipment left to eat dust in the warehouse." Simon thought to himself with a headache and rubbed his sore temples.
"My Lord, except for these armors, we took off all the armbands, clothes, pants and shoes of those Yankee pirates." Captain Miller seemed to have just finished his work, wiping the sweat from his forehead and picking up the trophies from the pile. direction coming.
Don't look at the fact that Simon took all the money from these invading Vikings, even stripping off clothes, pants and shoes as trophies. What you need to know is that many poor serfs and villagers in Verde Village can't even afford shoes and pants. , many people only have a tattered linen robe that has been passed down for countless generations, and a pair of underwear stained with urine and feces.
"Very good, let's go down and recuperate." Simon knew that Miller was injured in the battle. In order to prevent him from being injured again due to overwork, Simon quickly sent him to rest.
"My little Simon, I'm very happy that you can achieve such a glorious victory in this battle," the old Baron Keother looked at his young son with a smile, "I thought I would seal this barren village to you. When I need to recruit you to fulfill your military service obligations, the most you can do is recruit a few emaciated peasant soldiers holding pitchforks to go with me."
The people around burst into laughter. Almost everyone was genuinely happy for Simon's achievements and victory in the battle.
"Maybe God made a joke with me. With the blessing of the Lord, you can harvest abundant food in this miraculous land and quickly build a small wooden fort to resist the crazy attack of the pagans. To be honest, all of this Everything sounds like a story in the Bible, which is shocking." Old Baron Cooser's words made many people nod in agreement, "If I didn't have something else to do, I would really want to stay here for a while. , take a good look at how our Lord cares for this lucky land."
"Yes Simon, we will stay overnight tonight and have to return to Dorstenberg tomorrow to prepare to visit Count Berg in a few days." Lange's voice was still so calm and cold, "So tonight you can You have to entertain us well!”
"That's for sure, Lange." Simon began to get used to Lange's cold tone. He looked through his past memories and found that Lange had been such a serious person since he was a child. It made people feel that no matter who he talked to or what he said, he always looked like a cold bird.
………
"Simon, what are you going to do with the trophies that originally belonged to Lyle Abbey? You know, the news of your victory over the group of pirates who robbed Lyle Abbey will soon spread everywhere, and by then, the pirates who secretly robbed Lyle Abbey will covet it. People will pop up like mushrooms after rain." Walking on the path leading to the river, Ludwig asked Simon slightly worriedly.
"Instead of doing this, it is better for a small part to stay and build the church by myself, a small part to be given as a gift to my friend Baron Iser, who is a strong soldier, and a small part to be given to my lord, my father Keother, Bring all the rest to the Bishop of Cologne and establish good relations with the church." Simon knew that when his wooden castle was damaged and in urgent need of repair, and he lost a lot of troops and could not be replenished in time, any attack by an army of more than fifty people would It is enough to destroy your own territory and steal all your food, armor and treasures.
As for why the old Baron Coose led troops to support Simon this time but did not receive any reward, it was because Simon was counted as his vassal, and he was obliged to lead troops to support when his vassal was attacked.
"By the way, the war is over, what are your plans?" Simon looked at Ludwig, who had lost weight after living a hard life these days.
"Continue my wandering life and spread the stories and battles of Verde Village far and wide." Ludwig showed his heart-warming smile as always.
