Olan liked the morning sunshine very much. Every time he woke up, he would stand at the window and look into the distance.
Behind him stood Karin and Mi'er, both of whom were now the lord's lovers. Oran had just ordered to confirm their identities.
Due to her seniority and status, Karin is Oran's first lover, and she also works part-time as the head maid of the castle.
Mi'er served as the second maid until there was no new mistress in the castle.
Each of them was given a whitewashed single room on the lower floor of Olan's bedroom. If Olan did not let them sleep with him, they would stay in their own rooms to rest alone at night.
"Sir, you can prepare your meal."
The servant reminded that when we came to the hall, the staple food for breakfast today was fish.
Oran only ate a little, he had no appetite.
In the afternoon, he came to the top of the stone castle and watched the citizens practicing swordsmanship at the training ground below.
The sun was about to set, and Olan felt an uncontrollable feeling of disgust in his heart.
After clearing out Soge and his son, the ten days of life gain brought to him by taking control of the village have long passed.
I came here on January 1st, 865 AD, and now it is February 6th. After gaining my life, I will die on January 10th, 866 AD.
He is always accompanied by a maid, and this time it was Mi'er who was beside him.
Oran saw Nanding holding a knight's sword below and scolding the new recruits, "Have you not eaten? You are like a woman, your hands and feet are limp. I will give you a skirt, put it on."
The soldiers who were beaten and scolded could only stand up. They knew that if they didn't practice more diligently now, they might never be able to get up next time the Vikings came again.
This stone castle built around the river is Oran's base camp.
There are several wells and a diversion water storage tank, making it easy to obtain water in the territory.
There is a forest at the back, which is specially used to make fuel for fires and tools. There are many small animals in the forest for the lord to hunt, play or eat. Loggers and hunters without the lord's permission are not allowed to enter.
Counting myself, there are thirty people living in the castle (mostly servants), and around the castle walls, there are more than seventy people living. These are craftsmen with special skills in the territory or priests, merchants with status, and particularly strong people. Soldier.
These hundred or so people are basically the high-ranking citizens who will move with the lord after the city is broken.
The castle doesn't have that much space to cram all the people in it.
When you open the city gate, you will find rows of irregular thatched huts along the river in the left and right directions outside the city. Those who are a little richer will build wooden huts and stone huts. They are built in an orderly manner and look uneven. There are nearly a thousand people in total. .
This is considered the outer area of the city, with arrow towers, outposts, and store strongholds all located here.
Every morning, the city gates open.
The lord was with God, so the chapel was located in the inner part of the city.
The sword guards the owner, so the blacksmith shop is also there.
The delicacies exclusive to the nobility and the sweet bakery are still here.
After the city gate is opened, those from the outer areas of the city who come in to worship, want to get some iron tools to cut things, or celebrate certain things, or exchange flour for a piece or two of small bread, will come in.
The areas outside the city are not the lowest point of life. There are also homeless people, criminals, and people without status.
These remote residents who were far away from their lords were often bullied and looked down upon once they got close to the "bustling urban areas", so they had no choice but to hide behind their backs.
The expressions on the faces of most of the people in the territory are empty and numb. For them, life is about finding today's food.
The air in the settlements farther away from the lord is filled with a sense of depression.
The world of these people extends as far as a few nearby villages and towns.
"Eating, reproducing, and waiting to die" are three things that run through life.
Oran wants to make life better for his subjects.
Raise livestock, compost, clear land, dig a well, or invent something?
These can slowly increase strength, but too slow, too slow!
Oran watched the soldiers training in the inner city area and occasionally dropped a few coins.
This was a gift from the lord. These soldiers shouted the surname "Vijay" and quickly found and picked it up regardless of the dirty burial mixed with dirt on the ground.
They will not let go of anything related to money or food, and they have to work hard to earn money.
Feeling that the weather was getting colder, Mi'er reminded, "Sir, the weather has changed."
Olan would cough up blood at any time, and she had to stay close.
"It's okay. The Vikings also trained naked on the muddy ground in this kind of weather. I just watched, not that fragile."
Kunsang also came to Olan's side. Olan saw his hands always close to his waist and said, "Relax, it's safe here, no one can hurt us."
"Sir, I'm used to it. There (in the Viking area), a person's life is not much different from that of an ant on the ground. In his sleep, his enemy will often touch him and cut off his head with a sword."
Kunsang raised his neck and gestured with his fingers. Under the sunlight, a small scar was faintly visible.
"There was an enemy who wanted to kill me but he was slow to strike. When I felt danger, I instinctively drew the knife from my waist. I bumped my body and lost control. I swung forward and chopped him off with my backhand, leaving this scar. "
Kunsang's description was so profound that Mi'er even subconsciously wanted to protect her neck.
"Don't the Vikings value honor? Do they also use this despicable method?"
"They were captured slaves from the Franks. The Vikings said they would accept us, but they also made us hostile to each other for fun. We quarreled over a female slave, so we took action."
While the two were talking, the kitchen below the castle came back with a cart of dried pickled fish and flour.
Oran has begun to store food. Since expanding his territory can keep him alive, he will fight until the day he dies. Before fighting, he needs to feed his soldiers.
"What news is coming back from the port?" Olan said in a low voice because he was not feeling well, and then Kunsang shouted down with his big voice, "My lord, I ask you, what news is coming from the port?"
"No, I heard from the sailors who returned to port that it was calm this time and they didn't see a single Viking boat."
When Caimai replied, Kunsang said to Oran after hearing this, "It's too much to let these peasants with sickles hold swords. If we let them face off against the 'Viking Berserkers', their bones will be separated and they will die in less than one round." .”
Oran often heard the term "berserker" recently and asked, "I heard they are a group of very fierce soldiers?"
Kunsang began to explain, "The Viking King Ragnar created a new method the year before last. He selected a small number of elite soldiers who had been on the battlefield and divided them into three groups. Each group used the totem of a powerful beast. They are:
There are three kinds of wild boars, wolves, and fierce dogs, which are commanded by his sons respectively. "
"He goes around grabbing women to give birth to children. With so many sons, he established three departments?"
"So when the distribution is uneven, it also causes unrest. The Vikings believe in the strong, and his sons who are not born from the same mother will align with each other. We can use this to increase our chances of winning against the Vikings."
After getting along with each other these days, Kunsang discovered one thing. Although Master Oran hates Vikings as much as he does, he is not completely unable to talk about it.
After decades of Viking invasions, compared to the Viking islands, those barren lands where even sand cannot grow.
Many Viking barbarians coveted England's warm climate and did not want to rob it anymore, so they stayed and formed some settlements.
Three days ago, a Viking settlement sent people to request passage. Oran did not embarrass them and just asked them to pay some protection money and left.
Normal English lords would attack if faced with such a situation.
Because these Viking settlements left on the island of England have become disconnected from the Viking island, some individual radical Viking forces even regard them as traitors.
You don't have to worry about retaliation when fighting this kind of Vikings, and you have a great chance of victory.
But Olan knows that manpower is valuable, and he is still weak now, so he doesn't want to cause unnecessary casualties.
At this time, the people sent out to investigate the whereabouts of "Adisha" just returned. Olan got the approximate location from Sogg's "last words", and coupled with the past few days of inquiring, he got the exact location.
