After the cowardly businessman asked his clerk to tie the horses he used to carry goods and pull carts in a simple stable outside the tavern, he drank mead in the tavern and waited for Simon and his party to be ready.
"Miller, we're leaving tomorrow morning." Simon said, looking at Miller who was eating boiled brown bread and minced meat. The latter raised his head, wiped the soup that overflowed from his mouth, and nodded.
Miller's injury was not serious, it was just like being hit hard on the stomach with a stone, but the force point was smaller and the pain was more intense.
"We go south and pass through Trier and then Mainz. When we get to Mainz, we go east through several counts and then we reach Dresden." Gabriel twirled his beard in thought. said.
"This journey has not been smooth." Simon pouted and shook his head. God knows how many greenwood bandits and bandits there will be along the way on such a long journey.
"Oh, sir, you don't have to worry at all," Gabrielle, who was drinking wine, suddenly became energetic. "As long as you have God in your heart and pray sincerely, there will be no danger. This is how I have safely survived every crisis. Fighting.”
Simon nodded, but he sneered at this in his heart. These medieval Western Europeans were very much influenced by religion, and they could not speak without God. This is not just reflected in their words. They firmly believe in many things that Simon thinks are ridiculous. For example, they firmly believe that seriously ill people can be cured by going to the Holy Sepulcher to get a handful of soil. For example, they firmly believe in bloodletting and enema therapy. Can be applied to all diseases and so on.
At the same time, during the two days in the tavern, Simon also saw how unhygienic these ignorant people were.
The temperature has dropped these days, and many townspeople and passing mercenary traders have snot hanging from their noses. When their noses feel uncomfortable or blocked by snot, they will blow them randomly. On the big oak table in the tavern that was full of food residues and oil stains, polite businessmen would blow their noses with their sleeves, but those rude mercenaries and farmers would not say so much. They would blow their noses at will. Blowing it on the table.
Even once, Simon saw with his own eyes an old farmer with a pockmarked face in a tavern who suddenly felt uncomfortable in his nose and blew a large lump of green and yellow snot next to the plate of a bald waiter, who seemed to have already He took it for granted and continued to enjoy the soup on his plate without raising his head.
The most terrible thing is that the maid in the tavern also caught a cold. When she serves food these two days, she always leaves some sticky snot on the wooden plates and cups. Just now, Simon saw the tavern maid giving wine to the table next to her. When she placed the wine glass on the table and took off her hands, she actually brought out a stream of crystal clear mucus, which immediately made Simon feel nauseous.
After that, if Simon wants to drink again, he will ignore the surprised looks of the tavern owner and tavern maid, go to the bar and pick up a relatively clean wine glass, and then scoop wine into the barrel.
What also bothered Simon was that everyone had lots of lice and fleas. Even if you take a shower and wash yourself cleanly, unless you dress more tightly than a leper and keep a certain distance from other people, you will find that those fleas with amazing jumping ability will still stick to you like brown candy and come to you. Makes you crazy.
"Get your guys ready, we'll set off tomorrow morning." Simon, holding a large glass of red wine, stopped and said to the timid businessman as he passed by him.
The businessman nodded, drank all the mead in the glass, stood up, and pushed the door open. The merchant's two watchmen sleep next to the cowshed. They will take turns keeping watch tonight to prevent the damn horse thieves from doing anything sneaky in the dead of night.
……………
The next day, a ray of early sunshine shone on the faces of two young men who were sleeping leaning against each other next to the stable. The thick dark circles around their eyes told everyone who saw them that they had not had a good rest last night.
Before the morning temperature had risen, the gentle breeze from the Rhine River brought a shivering chill into the sleeves of a waiter, making him shiver and stand up.
"Damn, damn, damn, why did I fall asleep? If I lose the horse, dear Mr. Aubrey will break my legs and throw me into the forest to feed the bears!" The young man was extremely frightened. , using both hands to apply two handfuls of cold water on his face in the livestock watering trough next to the stable, trying to make himself more awake. But fortunately, he breathed a long sigh of relief after checking the stable again - at least he didn't have to have his legs broken to feed the bears.
"Cheer up, boys, it's time for us to go." The timid businessman Aubrey walked out of the tavern, rubbed his eyes, wiped away the eye droppings from his eyes, and walked to the stable.
In the early morning, there were already many townspeople on the streets of Cologne carrying farm tools and walking towards the city gate, rubbing their sleepy eyes. Most of them were whipped by the vicious butler.
Simon rode on his horse, but touched his somewhat shriveled belly - the tavern did not provide food in the morning. In fact, before the fifteenth century, Western Europeans basically did not have the habit of eating breakfast.
Gabriel straightened his armor and mounted his own brown horse. Simon saw that the brown horse's saddle bag contained two large kettles of ale and high-strength mead.
Speaking of which, Simon also discovered an interesting thing during the two days in the tavern. Some businessmen who seemed to be more sophisticated would ask the tavern owner to cook his food with wine. It turns out that Western Europeans in the Middle Ages did not regard water as a formal drinking product, and some people even refused to add water to the pot when cooking. They believe that wine is warm and suitable for drinking, while water is cold and drinking it may make people sick.
However, Simon still prefers not drinking water, only drinking. After all, Simon had seen that most of the drinking water here looked unclean, and he doubted whether he would get roundworms in his stomach after drinking it. But wine is different. The alcohol contained in wine itself can inhibit bacteria and kill viruses. Although sometimes you may drink wine that tastes like vinegar, but at least it is safe and feels reassuring to drink.
Simon and his party left the city through the south gate of Cologne. Fortunately, they did not encounter the obnoxious little tax collector again.
The air outside the city is so fresh, the autumn wind dyes the earth golden, and the fallen leaves dance happily as they fall.
Simon saw a group of farmers with cheerful smiles on their faces picking delicious apples in an apple orchard not far outside the city, and then moved the boxes of apples to the back of a carriage at the entrance of the apple orchard. A coachman wearing a straw hat and holding a dog's tail grass in his mouth squatted on the carriage and scratched his head, staring intently at the tax collector in a red robe next to him who was writing something on the parchment with a quill pen.
"Hey, country bumpkin, can you read? You don't think the tax collector is drawing earthworms on paper, do you!?" A young boy in the merchant cavalry following Simon and his group said with a wicked smile on his face. The rickshaw driver wearing a straw hat shouted. Suddenly, the businessmen's men looked at the rickshaw driver who was already blushing with anger and burst into laughter.
"Bah, get out of here, you are not welcome here!" The coachman stood up and wanted to yell back, but he noticed that the tax collector raised his eyes and glanced at him with some dissatisfaction. He instantly lost his confidence and just glared at those people. Cheerful businessmen tell them to get lost.
A long journey is always boring, and it is undoubtedly lucky to have a talkative person as a companion. The young man who made fun of the coachman seemed to be a treasure in the merchant's horse team, and he could make everyone laugh from time to time.
"Master, there is a village ahead!" Gabriel, who was riding at the front to open the road, turned back and shouted to Simon.
"Oh?" Simon looked at the smoke rising in the distance and couldn't help but tighten his grip on the horse's belly and speed up. After passing through a section of extremely muddy uphill road, Simon suddenly saw the light in front of him.
There is a small river down the slope not far away, and next to the small river, it is more like a few simple huts built together than a village. Behind the small village and the river, the vast forest stretches to the end of the horizon, like a piece of golden silk covered with uneven ground.
"Let's do some repairs in that village at noon." Simon opened the kettle and took a sip of cool red wine. Suddenly he felt something tingling in his mouth.
"Poof!" Simon carefully pushed the thing out of his lips with his tongue, pulled it out with his hand and saw that it was a wooden thorn stained red by red wine.
"What the hell, it seems I have to do it myself next time I drink!" Simon cursed in a low voice. You know how painful it is to have a wooden thorn stuck in your throat.
As for where the wood thorns in the wine came from, Simon had seen a rude man in Cologne before. He used an ax to open the lid of a large wooden wine barrel. Perhaps this barrel of wine was also damaged by such violence. It was opened in an inelegant way, resulting in many wood thorns and wood residue floating in the wine.
"Hello, sir, what can I do for you?" A woman sitting at the door of the wooden house opened her eyes wide and looked at the four fully armed strangers on horseback. She calmly said to her that she was sitting there. The children playing beside the house rushed inside, as if this would make her feel more at ease.
"We are just passing by here and want to rest in the village for a while at noon." While the fat man was negotiating with the woman, the merchants behind him also entered the small village one after another.
"My dear lord, I heard that there is a historic church in Trier not far to the south, a bridge built in the ancient Roman era, a bathhouse, and a theater." The talkative young man seemed to understand. He was young and had been to many places. Simon also raised his chin with interest and looked at this talkative young man with many freckles on his face.
