"Huh!" Simon put on the wolfskin cloak given by Baron Wolfe, let out a breath, and walked out of the tower with the priest and the fat man.
The goose-feather heavy snow has turned into dots of light snow, and the roaring wind has temporarily left the small land of Verde Village. Even if you don't wear a scarf, people won't feel so cold.
Now the village is surrounded by a wall. Although it is made of wood, it is better than the previous one without any shelter. This undoubtedly makes the villagers feel at ease a lot.
"Good day, sir!"
Simon saw Gabriel leaning idly at the door of the accounting room from a distance, and he said hello after Simon approached.
"Morning, Gabriel, how did you sleep last night?"
"That's great, sir. I never thought I would be able to sleep next to the fireplace one day without having to worry about someone attacking me while I'm sleeping. I have to say, this is a great place!" Gabrielle laughed. He smiled, revealing a mouth of yellow teeth that were not so straight.
"That's good. Ahem, now let's get down to business. From today on, you will start training the young men in our village. I will select a few smart guys and send them over to learn horse riding with you. They will serve as messengers, scouts and cavalry in the future. .”
"Don't worry, I'll take care of it, sir," Gabriel patted his chest confidently, "Even if they are ignorant monkeys, I can train them to skillfully use a lance on a horse!"
"Ha, it's not that exaggerated," Simon smiled and waved his hand, "Anyway, I'll leave this job to you!"
After Simon finished speaking, he took the priest and the fat man and continued walking forward.
The priest followed Simon and hesitated to speak, but finally he mustered up the courage to open his mouth.
"Sir Simon, how many cavalry do you plan to train in our village?" The priest looked at Simon doubtfully.
"I think with the current food in our granary, we can afford four additional cavalry." Simon thought for a while and nodded with certainty.
Maintaining cavalry is a big expense.
Generally, it would be difficult for an ordinary knight leader to raise a knight, but it would be great for a wealthy one to be able to afford the horses and equipment for the knight himself and his attendants.
As for Simon's territory, due to the last great harvest and victory in the defensive battle, it currently seems that it can afford five or six cavalry, including Simon himself.
To raise cavalry, you have to raise horses, and raising horses will consume a lot of food. The grain reserves in many territories are not even enough for people to eat, so where will the surplus grain come from for the horses to eat?
In addition, when it comes to the standards for a cavalryman, the regulations during the time of the late Emperor Charlemagne were - to have a horse and a sword.
However, Simon did not intend to equip the cavalry he had worked so hard to train so crudely. He planned to equip each of them with a Norman helmet with a mail turban, a piece of chain mail, a set of iron elbow pads, and a An iron-lined leather vest, a set of soft-armor greaves, and a pair of hard leather boots.
As for weapons, Simon decided to purchase a batch of lances from the armorer of Dorstenberg and asked Gabriel to teach them how to use the lances.
"Wise decision, Your Excellency, we have more people who can ride horses in the village, which will be of great use to us in the future." Father James saw that Simon was very confident and sure, so he stopped asking and nodded approvingly.
The militia team did not gather for training today because the number of prey hunted has decreased in winter.
In order to fulfill the promise that the militiamen would have meat every day during training, it was impossible for the village chief to take out the lightly salted bacon and smoked sausages reserved for Simon in the granary.
Therefore, the current situation is that when the archery team, or hunting team led by Bill, has harvested a lot and has more meat, it will organize a group training in the ice and snow. This is something Simon did not consider in the summer.
But the unexpected surprise is that, according to the priest, Simon's archers are now generally good at archery and hunting skills because they follow Bill every day to hunt in the woods around Feld Village and even Hinkser Village.
"Sir Simon, you are so kind to your soldiers. In other places, the lords would not care about their life and death at all, let alone organize them into a militia. Where can there be people like you who give meat to every training? and viscera, and giving them some oatmeal and wheat bran is enough to make them happy." Pedi didn't know when he appeared next to Simon, but he didn't expect that he had just arrived this day, and he had already joined the militia. I know so much from my mouth.
"It's easy to go from frugality to luxury, but it's hard to go back from luxury to frugality. Since the rules have been established a long time ago, if you change them, it will be easy to lose people's hearts. Previously, I faced the threat of bandits and Norman pirates. I urgently need to make these skinny people The farmer at the head becomes strong and becomes a soldier, so no matter the cost." Simon opened the lid of the kettle, took a sip of wine to moisten his throat, and then continued.
"In addition, I think there is no harm in letting my soldiers get more nutrition and make them stronger. In this year of war and chaos, it is definitely not just bandits and Normans who are lurking in the dark and watching."
"Hey, why couldn't I meet such a good lord before?" Peidi sighed.
But this reminded Simon not to be too nice to his subjects.
A generous lord will be despised and reviled if he is stingy once in a while, while a stingy lord will be generous and generous once in a while, which is enough to make his subjects full of praise. This is human nature and no one can avoid it.
"By the way, Sir Simon, recently everyone seems to want to go to the market in Dorstenberg." After greeting several villagers, Father James suddenly turned his head and said to Simon.
"oh?"
"Recently, a group of traveling merchants gathered in Dorstenburg and opened a small market. It is said that they sell all kinds of novelties." Father James added.
"Ha, I wonder if there is a stone for sale that was created by God himself and cannot even be lifted by himself." For some reason, Simon remembered this joke and thought of teasing the priest.
"Oh, Sir, what kind of stone is this!" Father James had obviously never heard of this statement before, and his logic was confused for a moment.
"Hahaha, it's nothing. If the villagers want to go, they can just inform the village chief. But speaking of it, I think life in our territory is too boring. Maybe we can build a tavern?" Simon said, thinking of it. I remember the lively Dorstenberg market and pubs in winter.
On that lively day, villagers from every village in the entire barony would bring their own agricultural products and sell them to merchants or residents of Dorstenburg.
They would use the money they earned to buy some trinkets in the market to take back, perhaps food, or perhaps the so-called rare treasures that charlatans boasted about that they had never seen before. They foolishly believed that these treasures would be given to people. They bring endless good luck.
At that time, the taverns in Dorstenburg were crowded almost every day. Everyone caroused in front of the big wooden tables, drank and danced, played dice games, wrist-wrestled, and boasted.
Little Simon's favorite thing was to put on an inconspicuous robe, go to the tavern, order a glass of strong wine that his father would not let him drink, eat roast chicken with crispy skin, and join the carnival.
"It would be great if there was a tavern in Verde Village." Simon's thoughts returned to the present, and he looked in the direction of the brewery with interest.
In fact, the current brewery can actually be regarded as a small pub.
Simon learned from the priest that villagers and militiamen would often buy wine from the old brewer and Alice in the workshop, and then a few of them would squat on the ground together, drink heavily, punch each other and brag.
Later, in order to facilitate them, the old brewer simply asked the villagers who were building houses at that time to get some wood and put it together into a simple table.
"Sir Simon, if we want to build a new tavern, there will be no problem with the labor force. We can mobilize the militia and newly moved villagers. But what you need to know is that our wood reserves are very low now." Father James reminded Simon .
"As for the wood, first cut down some of the trees around the village's wooden wall to ensure that the view of the archers on the village wall will not be blocked when the enemy attacks. If the wood is not enough, I can also cut down the wood under the name of my brother Lange. Buy a batch from the market." Simon was not too worried, but the conversation was immediately picked up by the enthusiastic Father James.
"Sir, as for the source of wine, I think the old brewer and Alice are enough. Of course, we also need to get a cook who can cook, a dishwasher, a wine waiter, and a strong thug to look after the tavern. , to prevent those drunken drinkers from going crazy and causing damage..." Speaking of preparing the pub, Father James talked to Simon endlessly as if he had planned this kind of thing countless times before.
After walking for a while, Simon and others arrived at the wall on the west side of the village.
Simon immediately saw the house of old Claude, a former free farmer. He scratched his head and recalled what the village chief said, and now this place is provided for Matilda and his wife to live.
This is a wooden house with an exterior wall surrounded by dead ivy, and a dark yellow thatched roof filled with snow. In the open space next to the house, or the original private land of Old Claude's family, there was a Hornet parked at this time. The bee cart was covered with a large quilt. Simon estimated that this was to keep the bee cart warm during the winter.
"The strange couple the village chief talked about lived here, right?" Simon looked at Father James with questioning eyes, and the latter nodded without thinking.
"Dong dong dong."
The fat man walked to the door and knocked on the mottled wooden door. After a while, footsteps came from the house.
The door suddenly opened with a "squeak", and the outward-opening door suddenly hit the fat man's nose, who had not yet reacted, causing him to scream "oh" in pain as he stepped back.
"Oh, I'm so sorry. Please forgive my recklessness. Anyway, you will get used to it gradually in the future! In addition, I have to say that your reaction is really slow. If you were on the battlefield, you would already be a corpse. It’s, uh, a fat corpse!”
A low and rough female voice came. The fat man rubbed his nose and eyes dizzily, and saw clearly the true face of the woman in front of him.
"Hahaha!" Pedi and the priest next to him were amused and laughed.
"It's really well-deserved." Simon said with emotion. The description of the bard in the tavern in Wiesbaden was absolutely correct.
"So, you are Simon, the lord here? My name is Matilda, and my husband Erclay and I would like to extend our sincere greetings to you." Matilda's eyes quickly locked on the crowd. Simon, then turned to the room and shouted, "Elcle, get up, Lord Simon is here!"
Matilda was not wearing armor, just a clean red aristocratic dress with yellow patterns, and a thick and warm orange fur cloak.
Just like the bard said, she was so beautiful that people couldn't help but like her when they saw her.
Her short, bright brown hair is brighter than the waterfalls in the Palatinate forest. A pair of eye-catching eyes, deeper than the emerald-green Lake Bled. The small nose is simply a reappearance of classical beauty in ancient Greek sculptures. Those charming lips are as red as fresh cherries.
But unfortunately, due to years of living in the open air, her skin was very rough, like flesh-colored burlap fabric. In addition, due to wearing armor and wielding swords all year round, she has a very strong figure, and the muscles under her dress are strong and obvious.
"I'm Simon. I've heard stories about you and your husband in Mainz, but to my surprise you ended up in my territory. What an incredible coincidence!"
"Really? It seems that this is all the work of the bard from the Principality of Aquitaine. My story was actually spread from the port of Toulon to Mainz!" Matilda also looked shocked.
"The bard I met said that you finally embarked on a pilgrimage, but what puzzles me is that my place is not a holy place. How did you end up in Folde Village?"
"Ha, actually we were going to Cologne, but we heard in Cologne that there was God's blessing and the appearance of holy miracles in the village of Verde not far to the north, so we decided to come and have a look. Unfortunately, it was already winter at that time The miracle of increased crop production will not appear again until next year, but we have plenty of time, so we decided to stay here for the time being." Matilda held her elbows and rubbed her temples.
"It's the same as my guess." Simon smiled and nodded.
"Of course, the cost of accommodation, providing nourishment to the hive and the cost of feed consumed by my horses will be paid with sweet honey in the coming year. Look, that bee cart belongs to my husband." Matilda said , nuzzling playfully towards the open space where the bee cart was parked next to.
Honey is a luxury product in this era when sweet condiments are scarce. Simon had heard more than once that lords were fighting over the ownership of hives at the borders of their territories.
As for beet, although it is native to Western and Southern Europe, no one has discovered that it can be used to make sugar. They only treat it as a vegetable and eat the roots and leaves of beet.
"Your Excellency, if you don't mind, I can help you brew the honey they paid you into precious mead in the coming year. I have read books about brewing mead in the library of Cologne Church." Father James rubbed his hands. hand, with an excited look on his face.
"Father, Father, if the tavern in our village opens, let me let you take charge of it! Why do you know a little bit of everything? I want you to understand everything, right?" Simon rolled his eyes and complained silently in his heart. .
