At the edge of the vast forest
The gentle breeze blew through the trees, making a rustling sound, and there were also creaking sounds coming from the depths of the forest, sounding distant.
The treetops gently swayed in the direction of the wind, as if they were waving to welcome their arrival.
A small farming and pastoral village came into view. There were low wooden fences made of branches surrounding the village.
Only when they got closer did they notice that there were about twenty buildings built with various materials such as stones, wood, and mud, arranged in a scattered way.
This was the village "Attila" of the bandit leader Vigoro and his group.
Outside the village, there were irregular patches of fields. The crops in the fields didn't look very healthy. In the fields in the distance, there were also several farmers working.
People went in and out of the buildings from time to time. They were busy. Some were milking the sheep in the sheep pen next to the buildings.
Some were feeding the chickens, but most of the people doing the work were women. It was not difficult to see from their skinny figures that they were all somewhat malnourished.
There were also many children whistling and running around the village, with innocent smiles on their faces. There were patches of mud on their faces, making them look like a group of dirty little kittens.
"Why are there so few men in your village? It's mostly the old, the young, women and children?" Cong Wuyang turned to ask Vigoro.
"Because of the war, Viscount Charles conscripted peasant soldiers. All the relatively strong young men in our village were forcefully conscripted and sent north. Only a few of us who are thin and weak and some old men were left. So..." Vigoro replied in a dull voice, with a somewhat numb expression on his face.
At this point, the atmosphere seemed a bit oppressive. Cong Wuyang turned his head and looked at Ergou and the others beside him. They all had similar expressions.
It seemed that in this era, they had already gotten used to it and become numb.
It was just like the old saying goes: In times of prosperity, the common people suffer; in times of decline, the common people suffer even more!
Moreover, in this era similar to the Middle Ages, the lords didn't care about the common people in their hearts. At most, the common people were their private property, just slaves. After all, during the Western Middle Ages on Blue Star, even the perverted "jus primae noctis" could come into existence.
When they entered the village, an old man came towards them. He had wrinkles on his face, a receding hairline with two tufts of white hair on the sides fluttering freely. He had curly hair and looked quite fashionable, comparable to Einstein.
Judging from his clothes, he should be the village head. Seeing Vigoro and the others like this, he asked:
"Vigoro, didn't you take people out to gather wild fruits? Why are you all injured?"
Before he could finish speaking, Vigoro explained:
"Father, we saw a huge wild pear tree. The fruits on it were very big. But it was growing by the edge of a cliff. We all went up and were picking the fruits. Who knew that the tree trunk suddenly broke, and we all fell and got injured like this. Fortunately, this sir passed by and helped us."
It turned out that this was Vigoro's father, the village head named Gohn. It made sense. If it weren't for having a village head father, with Vigoro's mediocre physique, he would surely have been conscripted to be cannon fodder. As for the excuse, he had already thought of it on the way.
Hearing Vigoro's explanation, Gohn didn't inquire further. After all, in this turbulent era of war, it was already quite good for people to be alive.
Then Gohn turned to Cong Wuyang and expressed his gratitude, saying things like thanking him for helping their villagers and that he was the benefactor of their village and so on.
He also heard that Cong Wuyang came from the Manya Kingdom and had endured a lot of hardships. He insisted on inviting him to stay at his home and then asked Vigoro to send the injured villagers home.
The lunch was cooked by Vigoro's sister, named "Vina". She was said to be 13 years old, but judging from her figure, if one didn't know, they would think she was a child of 9 or 10 years old. Her body was also skinny, but her face was quite clean.
In front of him was a bowl of what seemed to be a soup made from some wild vegetables and some plant stems. Let's just call it soup for now. Anyway, it was a bowl of paste.
There was also a piece of black bread made from chaff, wheat bran, and a little wheat flour. It was so hard that it could be used as a hammer. Especially in the hands of Cong Wuyang, who had 300 points in one-handed weapon skills, the power it could exert was surely no less than that of a hammer. Alliances: In EDG, Leading UZI to Win the Championship, Cultivation of the Five Elements, The Evil God Chapter, Forbidden Pure Love, Piercing Through This Sky, Siheyuan: Reincarnated as a Family Member of a Martyr, Full of Positive Energy
Although it was hard to swallow, he thought that since he was here, he might as well make the best of it. Besides, in this poor little village, he couldn't expect too much.
This might already be the most sumptuous food they could offer. After all, when he was outside the village head's house just now, he saw a child happily feasting on a burnt unknown plant stem.
Following Vigoro's example, he used a small knife to cut the black bread into small pieces, put them into the soup bowl to soak, and when they softened, he scooped them up with a spoon and ate them.
It was quite satisfying to slurp it down. Apart from not tasting good and being a bit scratchy in the throat, there was nothing else wrong with it. Just eat it. He didn't know how they usually swallowed it.
After finishing lunch, thinking that it was still early, he asked Vigoro to show him around the village to learn about the situation and see if he could find something to improve the dinner.
Walking behind Vigoro on the dirt road in the village, he asked as he walked, "You are so close to the forest. There should be a lot of wild beasts in the forest. Why don't you go in and hunt?"
Vigoro looked at him with some confusion.
"These forests all belong to the lord. That includes the wild beasts in them. If we hunt privately, it's poaching. If we are reported or caught, we will be hanged."
Although he didn't know why Cong Wuyang didn't even have such simple common sense, out of fear of his power, he still took the initiative to explain.
Uh..., indeed. Cong Wuyang then realized that there were indeed such strange and strict laws in the Middle Ages.
It was said that except for those specially permitted by the king, no one, including priests and nobles, was allowed to hunt in the royal forest.
The forest warden could share the prey obtained by the king, but they couldn't hunt privately. Commoners were also not allowed to hunt or take anything from the lord's forest. Although this was a different world, he guessed that there were still such laws that could enhance the status of the lord.
It seemed that the idea of improving the dinner couldn't be realized in this way. After all, he didn't have any soldiers yet, and he couldn't eat the dinars he had.
So he asked again, "Are the nearby villages close? How are they compared to yours? How far is it from here to the lord's castle 'Dehar'?"
"Dehar Castle is the lord's castle here. I've only been there a few times. There are taverns and grocery stores. It's much better than our village. If you ride a horse along this path in the northwest direction of our village for more than a day and cross a big river, you can get there. And if you take the path in the west, it leads directly to another small village 'Arda'. It takes about 8 or 9 hours to get there. Their village is similar to ours. Due to the lord's war tax and conscription, they are also as poor as we are."
Vigoro let out a sigh and said.
After walking around the village for a big circle, Cong Wuyang thought to himself, "Attila is in the southeast of the Yavier Duchy, and it is surrounded by forests.
The nearest village in the west is more than 8 hours' walk away. In the east, there is another village in the Manya Kingdom, which is three days' journey away.
In the north, it takes more than a day's ride to reach the lord's castle. In the south, there is a large open area. At the edge is a cliff, and below the cliff is the sea, but there is no path to get down. Otherwise, we could also go fishing."
The road to the west would pass through a mountain pass between two mountains. The road going north to the castle would pass by a big river with a large stone bridge on it. The road to the Manya Kingdom in the east was still a mountain path, which was not suitable for a large army to march.
The open area in the south of Attila is quite large. If it is properly planted, it can feed several thousand people.
Now there are only about a hundred people in the village, and most of them are the elderly and children. There probably weren't so many labor forces to reclaim the land before.
Because most of the fields are around the village. There is no deep plowing, no composting. They just sprinkle some plant ash on the fields. No wonder the harvest is not good.
If I take this place as a base point, go to the surrounding towns to buy supplies, and then go to the surrounding villages and towns to recruit soldiers. If I can also get to know a slave merchant and buy slaves from him to serve as labor forces and expand the army, for me who has just arrived here, Attila is the perfect foundation for developing a farming base and starting my career!
There were slave merchants in this era. The continuous wars over the years had caused many people to lose their families and homes. When they couldn't make a living, they would sell themselves as slaves. The wars between the lords would also try to capture the enemy's farmers as slaves as much as possible.
On the one hand, it could deplete the enemy's war potential. On the other hand, it could seize wealth and labor forces to strengthen their own strength.
Highway Robbers