Soon after, a group of people gathered in the square in front of the Empress Temple.
In addition to the ten Gray Knights sent by the Grand Lama Wang and several prosecutors to assist in investigating the case, many priests also came. There are more than a dozen Father Ross who are going to join in the fun, but they are not the protected ones who are holding back, and they do not need to be specially watched - in fact, these people all have rich "experience in the world" and are skilled in putting on armor. Grab your weapons and get ready to go.
In addition, Captain Lucas, who is responsible for training new recruits, was also called over urgently and was currently wiping his long sword nearby. Seeing Guo Kang coming over, he immediately expressed his bitterness, saying how difficult these recruits were, but luckily he used some tricks to suppress them for the time being.
Guo Kang was not too surprised by this. After all, the family helped find the talent. With Guo's prestige in the military, he must have some abilities. It's not a surprise to be able to deal with the recruits from all kinds of backgrounds this time.
A military judge sent by his adoptive father also arrived. He carried a cane, several guards, and a scribe carrying a book box. At this point, everyone Guo Kang was waiting for has arrived.
However, Father Mikhail, who was preparing to lead the way, was not here. Father Andre, who had been with him before, said that he wanted to set off first to find his companions so that he could arrange support there. Guo Kang nodded and asked everyone to pack up and prepare to set off.
There are not many people here. The leading knight captain suggested that more people should be called, or the Guo family's servants should also be called. However, Guo Kang felt that instead of waiting slowly, it would be better to act quickly. Anyway, no matter how they gather together, there won't be many people, and it's impossible to form a numerical advantage. Timing and accuracy are more important than numbers.
After convincing everyone, everyone began to make final preparations. Guo Kang also took out several guns that he had been tinkering with and loaded them with gunpowder and projectiles.
The most excited person was Guo Ponu. Nothing happened to her this time, but she didn't know why she was happy. She was cheerful all the way and kept introducing her experience to Guo Kang. He also asked him if he was used to wearing armor, if the weapon was comfortable, and if the belt on his waist was tight.
Guo Kang thought that she should care about herself first, but Guo Ponu said that she had already been prepared. Every day when she goes out, she wears the mail armor given by her mother under her outer robe, and hangs a sword. She looks like she is ready to cut with others at any time, so there is no need to worry at all.
The Gray Knights knew Guo Ponu and didn't take it seriously. The priests were a little surprised by her performance, but seeing how well prepared she was, she was probably a veteran, so they didn't say anything.
Of course, just because she's bouncing around doesn't mean everyone has the extra energy. As usual, in order to save energy, they boarded several church carriages. Guo Kang was carrying a box and was dragged up by Guo Ponu, and set off with everyone.
The carriage driving out of the Empress Temple is actually very conspicuous, and anyone who cares will probably notice it. Of course, this kind of car with only the church logo on it actually has other information clearly written on it. Even local snakes who know something about it will not come out to stop it.
The carriage came to the other end of the city, next to a dilapidated neighborhood, and stopped.
"We've arrived at Zhulinfang, get ready to get off the bus," someone reminded.
"There aren't many bamboo groves here." A new priest muttered.
"New urban planning is generally not good." Guo Kang explained: "Otherwise, we wouldn't have to go here specifically."
Although it looks much shabbier than the previous city center, this is actually the "new city" of Dadu. At the time of Guo Gai, it was still farmland; later Guo Di reorganized the city and cleared up a large number of blocks that had been built haphazardly in the previous years. However, more people continued to flow into the city, and they quickly gathered in the remaining open spaces, and it didn't take long for new slums to form.
In Guo Di's plan, this place should be a bamboo forest. On the one hand, it beautifies the environment, and on the other hand, it directly provides materials to the city for use. However, not long after this place was planned, it became a gathering place for all kinds of people. Later, the management gradually weakened, and most of the bamboo forests that were brought in from the east were cut down and became the materials for simple shacks.
"There seems to be no bamboo in this place." Another Father Ross commented: "No wonder I haven't heard from Brother Mikhail in the past few days."
They were very interested in this exotic plant and were curious along the way. Unfortunately, if it weren't for the sparse withered yellow bamboo poles on the roadside, which still proves that some bamboos are still surviving tenaciously, no one would be able to find any connection between this name and this place.
Therefore, Guo Kang hesitated and still did not answer them. After all, although this place is called "New City Bamboo Forest Square", it has neither a district plan nor a large bamboo forest, and it doesn't look like a new city. The name is like "Holy Roman Empire", and even those with thin skin don't know how to explain it...
Fortunately, no one paid much attention, because Father Mikhail had already come to greet him.
Next to him was a tall and thin young man, wearing tattered sack-like clothes and also no shoes. Seeing everyone coming, Father Mikhail introduced that this was his new student Alexander, and this time he would lead everyone to find someone.
Alexander greeted everyone timidly. Guo Kang reached out to shake hands with him. He hurriedly wiped it on his clothes and lowered his head to hold his fingers.
In fact, although his clothes were shabby, his face and hands were very clean, and there were no stains on his clothes, except for some mud spots on his trouser legs. The copper cross hanging on the chest is also polished brightly. It can be seen that they have tried their best to keep it clean. However, seeing these "big people" will inevitably make you feel inferior and frightened.
However, this kind of mentality cannot be reversed by Guo Kang in just one sentence. There will be places that will open his eyes in the future. Therefore, he just encouraged the other party and went to ask Father Mikhail.
Next to them, there was a more conspicuous presence - a bear lying on the ground, lazily basking in the sun.
"Is this your partner too?" Guo Kang asked with a smile.
"It's called Misha." Father Mikhail patted the bear's head and said with a smile: "It is indeed a reliable partner. With it around, I have never been like Andre, and I have never been fooled by an idle person. I’ve been entangled with it.”
Guo Kang looked at the size of the bear and thought it made sense.
Before, he had only seen Nikita raised by old Ivan. Comparing it, he felt that Misha was a bit bigger than it. I just don’t know if Misha also loves speaking...
After everyone and the bear got to know each other, Alexander led everyone along an alley and walked in.
"We came at the right time today." Father Mikhail said to Guo Kang on the way: "Yesterday Sasha and I went to visit believers and found that Sergei's men went to Vladimir's house to rob people again. Look at In Misha's name, they have restrained themselves a little, but they will definitely bring more people back today. If we hurry up, we can probably catch them."
"Robbing someone?" Guo Kang didn't react at all.
"The things have been robbed long ago, and only the ones left are still valuable." Father Mikhail said: "If someone can no longer get a price they are satisfied with, they will sell that person. Vladimir My son and daughter have been snatched away by them for a few days, so now we are targeting the couple."
"When I was a child, my grandfather often scared me, saying that bandits were coming from the grassland and wanted to capture us as slaves, so we were not allowed to run around." A younger priest lamented: "Unexpectedly, now the bandits have come to the city. …”
"Wherever there are bandits, everyone is a Christian." Father Andrei also learned to be yin and yang.
"He said yes?" The knight captain was a little unhappy.
"That's really the case." Father Mikhail said: "The church's regulations prohibit the sale of church members as slaves, but in practice, everyone knows. When they can control it, they will hire pagans to help resell them; When they were living there, they simply didn’t act, and they even argued the other way around - they would say that because they were church members, they would definitely not be involved in such a thing, thereby forcibly excusing themselves.”
Everyone was silent for a moment.
Although this statement has no logic at all, the lack of logic shows that there must be logic behind it. Everyone can guess what's going on when they look at the situation here.
Everyone moved forward in silence. Along the way, this team with bright uniforms attracted the attention of many people. Guo Kang simply asked people to raise flags and gather more onlookers.
Vladimir's shed was not far from here, and Alexander quickly led everyone there. However, there was also a group of people over there muttering and watching.
Father Mikhail walked over. Everyone seemed to recognize him and gave way. He asked a few questions in dialect and sighed again.
"Let's go directly to Sergey's warehouse." He shook his head and said, "The person has been kidnapped."
The knights looked at each other, and Captain Lucas and several guards nearby also sighed. The military judge remained stern and impassive. Guo Ponu was still following Guo Kang. Hearing this, he shrugged, smiled bitterly, and patted Guo Kang again.
"What?" Guo Kang turned around and asked.
"When you get there, if someone bothers you, don't talk nonsense and just kill the leader." Guo Ponu whispered in Chinese: "You have to do it yourself."
"Ah?" Guo Kang didn't react for a moment and didn't know what she meant, but the team had already begun to turn around. Guo Ponu also took two steps back to find what Lucas had ordered, so he didn't ask in detail. .
The people who were watching Vladimir's shack also followed him.
They didn't take the opportunity to rob the unguarded shack - Father Andrei told everyone that this was actually because the contents inside had been robbed by Sergei's men long ago, and not even a rag was left. .
If the rescuers invited by Father Mikhail can rescue Vladimir, everyone will continue to be neighbors; if they cannot be rescued, others will move in, replace Vladimir's family, and continue to work hard to survive. , pay a meager protection fee to Sergey's gang - or be sold by them one day, and then continue this cycle of despair.
Even though most of the team were veterans and traveling priests who had seen the scene, they could not help but sigh with emotion, which made the atmosphere a little low.
There are no planned "roads" except for one avenue that runs through the district. All they could walk was a small path squeezed between shacks and debris due to the coming and going of people. Moreover, because of too many people stepping on it, the road surface of the trail has turned into mud.
There is no reliable drainage facility here, so even though it is flat land, you can always see rancid stagnant water everywhere. All kinds of garbage are also piled up randomly, making the environment look even dirtier. Lucas complained that it made him feel like he was back in Cologne.
It's still winter, and there's already a smell. I don't know what it will be like when the weather gets hotter. But the only good thing is probably that there is no urine or feces on the streets here. According to Father Mikhail, this is because the local water sources and excrement are controlled by the Sergei gang.
Residents can only fetch water from the only two water sources and use the toilet in a few fixed places, otherwise they will be beaten and robbed by gangs - because after the introduction of composting technology in the Purple Horde Khanate, human feces and urine can be used , so gangs also rely on this to make money. Therefore, the newly moved Slavs were often beaten for this.
A few years ago, there was new news that technology had improved and urine could be used to make nitrate. This thing is military supplies, and the profits are bigger and more stable. Therefore, the gang intensifies and sends minions everywhere to patrol. If there is feces and urine on the ground, they will beat up the surrounding residents.
Some gangsters simply create trouble out of thin air, slandering residents for deliberately pooping outside, blatantly not giving face to the gang boss, and extorting more money. By now, it has developed to the point where everyone has to poop for Big Brother every day. If they can't poop, they are disloyal to the gang and will be beaten. Therefore, the people here are miserable, saying that there is no one who is evil and will not fight well and insists on playing shit.
Unfortunately, it was Guo Kang who was promoting the saltpeter issue, so he was too embarrassed to interrupt...
The warehouse of Sergei's gang is not far away, in a house near the road. This is one of the few serious houses in the neighborhood, and there are a few people moving things at the door. The windows on the second floor had iron bars on them, and someone could be seen looking out from inside. Obviously, there are more than just ordinary goods in this warehouse.
Guo Kang asked everyone to stop in the open space at the entrance of the warehouse, walked forward with Father Mikhail, and asked loudly: "Where is your leader!"
A man who looked like a small boss poked his head out from behind the door. When he saw Father Mikhail, he immediately showed an angry expression.
"You old guy, you're not willing to give in, are you? Who are you looking for?" he asked.
"Don't worry about him. I am the leader." Guo Kang said in a deep voice: "Your leader Sergey and two of his men are still engaged in kidnapping and illegal slave trading after joining the army. We need to investigate."
However, the little boss looked completely unconvinced.
"I don't care who you are, I think you are just here to cause trouble!" He quickly glanced at the team brought by Guo Kang, and then shouted to the side: "Ivan Ivanovich, call all the brothers Come! I want to see how brave this old man is to go against us!"
A guy in the corner stood up immediately after hearing this.
"You want to resist military law?!" the military judge immediately shouted loudly: "Harboring prisoners in the army, regardless of soldiers and civilians, is the same crime; joining a group to resist military law will be an additional crime. You'd better think about the consequences!"
To be honest, his words were much more intimidating than Guo Kang. The minions hesitated for a moment, and even the one who was about to call someone staggered to a stop. Hearing this, the little leader gritted his teeth and replied, "Okay, then I'll go and invite the elder brother."
After that, he turned around and left.
"Don't let him go!" Guo Ponu immediately whispered to Guo Kang: "It's your turn, hurry up, kill him!"
Guo Kang actually didn't know what to do now. Seeing that she had an idea, he subconsciously listened to her instructions, drew his sword, stepped forward and chased after her.
"Hey? What are you doing?" The little boss was a little scared and quickly plucked up the courage to drink.
"You think we have few people, so you want to call your gang members to attack us!" Guo Kang actually had no determination to kill, so he stopped and raised his sword to scare him.
"You have arrested all the civilians here and are still pretending to be innocent? Release the people upstairs quickly and let us check. You are not allowed to leave either. We will take you to find your leader."
"What?" After listening to his words, the little boss became bolder: "Those are all people who owe us debts, why should we let them go?"
"The others will talk about it later. There is a family where the priest personally acted as guarantee. We must ask the matter clearly." Guo Kang explained: "Did you just arrest a family of four? They don't have any debt issues, right?" .”
"'One-Eyed Dragon' Vladimir?" The little boss thought of this person: "That's because the big shots from above have taken a fancy to his son, and he doesn't know what to do. It's just a matter of a few brothers teaching him a lesson."
"I'm telling you, forget about everything else. Don't worry about this person's affairs." He gradually regained his courage, and instead rebuked Guo Kang and others.
"You poor monks," he pointed at Father Mikhail and others, "you think you are great just because you have brought a few soldiers, right? Do you know who is asking for people this time? I advise you to be less careful. It’s nosy business, otherwise your broken flag will be useless.”
Guo Kang originally had no temper, but what he said made him angry. It's just that he was careless and didn't notice that the other party had taken the opportunity to speak and backed away slightly. Before he could retort, the little boss jumped back and retreated out of the reach of the tip of the sword.
"I thought you were some kind of person, but I didn't expect you didn't even know about this. Since you were coaxed to die by this old man, don't blame the brothers for being rude. Let's all come together!"
He pulled out the short sword from his waist and made a throwing gesture. His feet had already turned half a circle, preparing to take the opportunity to escape.
However, in just such a moment, Guo Ponu had already pulled out a slender iron thorn and threw it out. As soon as the little boss raised his hand to his ear, he was stabbed in the arm. He screamed in pain and dropped his sword.
Guo Kang was not ready to take action at first, but when he saw him suddenly pulling out his weapon, he was startled and instinctively stepped forward to strike. Before the little boss could recover, he was slashed twice with his sword and screamed repeatedly.
This was indeed the first time for Guo Kang to do this. The more he screamed, the more panicked he became. Seeing that he was lying on the ground but still moving, I was worried that he was going to do some trick that would be detrimental to me, so I quickly continued without thinking.
He even forgot the moves taught by his foster father and just subconsciously stabbed and slashed. Fortunately, when the man took action, Father Mikhail and others, who were afraid of an accident, had already caught up. Seeing that the little boss had been chopped to death, they quickly reminded him that he could stop.
The other minions also tried to resist, but they were finished faster. Guo Kang looked around and saw a priest swinging a hammer. The iron rope turned around the knife that the opponent was trying to block, smashing a piece of the man's jaw.
"Stay alive! Stay alive!" the military judge quickly reminded the overly excited priests.
Guo Ponu also walked over and looked up and down at the panting Guo Kang.
"I told you to do it earlier, but you are debating scriptures with this guy." She teased, took out a piece of cloth and said, "Wipe your face quickly."
Guo Kang took it and wiped it a few times, then he was surprised to find there was blood on his face. After feeling it carefully, I found that there was no pain anywhere, and then I realized that it was blood spattered by the little boss.
"Clean the sword too!" Guo Ponu reminded again.
Guo Kang quickly went to clean the sword again, and then put it back.
"Hey, you are still afraid of me coming." Guo Ponu curled his lips: "Okay, have you recovered? The next thing is your business."
After giving up the deceptive character limit, the chapter division is much more comfortable...
(End of chapter)
