flstandardbreds Chapter 279 Weird Movement
Chapter 279 Weird Movement
The rising and setting of the sun does not change with human activities. When the sun rises from the horizon again and the sunlight shines on the outskirts of Bernas, it has become a garrison for various armies.
Countless flags fluttered in the wind, standing on the ground where snow still remained, while all kinds of noisy sounds came from below.
The idle soldiers either gathered to gamble or drank and had fun in broad daylight, while the nobles boredly watched which army the approaching army belonged to.
"Oh, the white irises are the army of the Count of Loire, and the one with the trident in the back should be the army of his vassal."
"And over there, that should be the army of the Count of Brittany. It looks like there are no less than a thousand people."
"What you said, which army that came here does not exceed a thousand people? I don't know what benefits Governor John promised. My Lord Earl alone sent more than 500 elite followers, and the remaining 500 to 600 soldiers are from the armies of various vassals."
"Hey, look, the mercenaries from Blackwatch are here."
As the nobles looked, the snow in the distance was slowly being covered by black. It was the fully armed Black Watch mercenary army. Among the black-armored heavy cavalry at the head, John's black eagle flag with a white background was flying in the sky, indicating that this army was carrying out the orders given by John.
Seeing this army, many nobles looked at it with envy. Their own earls and lords had at most one or two thousand full-time and fully armed soldiers, but John could easily send out an army of thousands of people to take on missions everywhere. Moreover, it was only a mercenary army. The number of mercenaries from other places and the soldiers in John's territory was still a mystery.
If John were their neighbor, those nobles would certainly regard him as a formidable enemy, but John's territory was far away in the east of the kingdom and had nothing to do with them, so those nobles could temporarily regard John as a potential ally.
What's more, John's mercenary group is really useful. Not only are their quantity and quality far superior to other mercenaries, but they also have no bad habits of mercenaries at all. Every day they either purchase supplies or go out to perform tasks in other people's territories. They don't have much interaction with local people, and they won't cause trouble everywhere, adding to the management burden of the noble lords. Sometimes they will even improve the security near the garrison.
It can be said that the mere presence of the Black Watch in their own territory can deter the bandits and keep them away, thereby allowing the noble lords to reduce security costs. Their purchase of supplies from the local people also provides a stable sales market for the farmers. The money collected by the farmers will return to the hands of the lords in the form of taxes, and continue to serve as commission for hiring the Black Watch.
"Oh, by the way, where did those mercenaries go? I remember I seemed to have seen a mercenary group passing by just now." asked a noble.
"Why, you want to live with those stinky guys? They look like they came out of a dung heap, just like the farmers who raise pigs, cattle and sheep in my territory. The City Council of Bernas granted them a place far away from here, otherwise it would have been stinking by now."
A large area of land to the east of the noble army's camp is the temporary camp allocated by the city council to the mercenaries. Unlike the plains where the nobles and the army are located, it is closer to the mountains and thus there are not many suitable places for garrison.
Even if there were any, they would have been occupied by those large mercenary groups long ago. Of course, the Black Watch Mercenary Group did not compete with them for space. This was because they had signed a suburban security contract with Bernas for several years. The Bernas City Council therefore granted the Black Watch Mercenary Group a piece of land for building a base. In addition, the Simon Chamber of Commerce acquired the land around the base bit by bit. Now this base can accommodate about 5,000 soldiers.
"How dare this bastard cheat? Brothers, fuck him!"
Inside the camp, a mercenary discovered that his opponent was cheating at cards, so he immediately threw away the cards in his hand and punched the opponent in the face with his gloved fist.
The situation soon turned into a fight between two mercenary groups. Some mercenaries with quick reactions drew their weapons and fought with the other side. In their opinion, only force could resolve the conflict.
After the fight, more than a dozen mercenaries were injured to varying degrees, and several bodies were lying on the ground. Both sides could only pull back their own bodies, and the remaining mercenaries quickly dispersed when they saw that there was nothing exciting to watch, leaving only blood all over the ground and tables, chairs and benches overturned in the fight.
This kind of fight is only a part of mercenary life. A mercenary group consists not only of the mercenary leader and his mercenaries, but also the mercenaries' relatives, that is, a group of old, weak, women and children. These people usually only help the mercenaries with washing clothes and cooking in the mercenary camp, while the children will learn the use of weapons and survival skills in the wild under the guidance of the mercenaries, and thus become a qualified mercenary after a few years.
Generally speaking, unless the leader of the mercenary group deliberately makes things difficult for them, most of them still have deep feelings for the mercenary group. In other words, they are more loyal and not likely to desert. This type of second-generation mercenaries are also the first choice of the mercenary group leader as a confidant.
"Ping!"
The sound of swords clashing continued to echo in a mercenary group's camp. In an open space inside the camp, the mercenaries watched a fight during their rare free time.
In the open space in the center, two figures, one big and one small, were engaging in a swordplay duel. The adult was about thirty or forty years old, with a sturdy build, and the scars on his muscles proved that he had fought in many dangerous battles; the boy was about five or six years old, with a childish face but firm eyes. Although he was not as tall as the adult's waist, he still tried his best to resist the adult's attack.
However, in such an unfair duel, the weapons chosen by both men were long swords used by normal mercenaries. For the children, this made the victory that was originally tilted towards the adults tilt even more towards the adults.
As expected, not long after, the boy had several more wounds on his body from the adults' attacks. Even the mercenaries couldn't stand this scene anymore, so one of them warned him.
"Gambino! Teaching a six-year-old a sword is ridiculous no matter how you look at it."
Gambino in the open space dusted himself off and said nonchalantly, holding his sword:
"We can't always keep him fed and clothed for free. We are mercenaries, mercenaries. This kid has to earn his own living."
It seemed to him that the person in front of him was not a child, but a dog that ate and drank for free but was completely useless.
"Having said that, shouldn't we ask Guts to change to a sword or dagger that better suits him?" a bearded mercenary asked, holding his face.
"I do not want!"
Guts supported himself on the ground with his arms, gasping for air while enduring the pain. Then he raised the sword, which was almost as tall as himself, and swung it towards Gambino.
Seeing Guts struggling, the mercenary beside him couldn't help but sigh:
"This kid is quite stubborn."
After dodging Guts' attack, Gambino responded to the mercenary:
"There isn't even a single sword for children in my mercenary group!"
At the same time, he kicked Guts, who was exhausted, to the ground.
However, in this unequal battle, Guts was aroused. When Gambino was not paying attention, Guts raised his sword and stabbed at Gambino's sword at an extremely fast speed.
Gambino did not expect that Guts still had strength. Faced with the sudden attack, he could not dodge at all. In a flash, Guts' sword cut a scar on Gambino's right cheek.
"You little brat."
Touching the blood on his face, Gambino was furious. While Guts was stunned, he immediately held Guts' head and swung his sword, but fortunately only Guts' nose was injured.
"Hey, hey, hey, this is too much."
Seeing that Gambino was determined to kill, several mercenaries rushed forward to stop Gambino, and a mercenary helped Guts up.
"The bones are already broken, Gambino, you're too harsh!"
Facing the mercenaries' condemnation, Gambino could only smile awkwardly and said:
"I didn't catch it."
But the mercenaries could tell from Gambino's expression that this man did not have much regret about this.
Just as the mercenaries were discussing finding a doctor for Gus, a woman from the mercenary group shouted at them:
"The mercenaries from Blackwatch are here. They said they want to discuss something with the mercenary group."
"Blackwatch, what are they doing here?" The mercenaries looked at each other, not understanding what the connection was between them and these unknown mercenaries of their own.
To them, Blackwatch was an outlier among the mercenaries. Apart from the fact that Blackwatch had John as their backer, their missions outside were also different from other mercenaries. Other mercenaries hardly ever interacted with Blackwatch mercenaries.
In their eyes, Blackwatch is just an idle noble lord who brings a group of capable soldiers with nowhere to use to do low-paying tasks everywhere to steal jobs from their mercenaries who have no food to eat.
Having said that, the mercenaries did not dare to underestimate Blackwatch. If a mercenary leader learned that there was a Blackwatch base in the area where he was staying, he would definitely take his mercenaries and leave.
This was because he knew that his mercenaries would definitely come into conflict with the Blackwatch mercenaries who were maintaining law and order here due to various illegal acts, and he would definitely not be able to defeat them.
"Why do those guys want to see me?" Gambino was very curious. His own mercenary group was a nobody in Midland. Why did these guys who didn't even care about the nobles want to see him?
Soon, a Black Watch officer in black armor rode up to Gambino on a warhorse wearing a black horse helmet.
"I am Gambino, the leader of this mercenary group. I wonder what brings you here to me?" Gambino said to the officer with a little respect. Although he dared to say bad things in private, he didn't dare to be presumptuous in public. What if someone killed him with a knife? Who would he go to for justice then?
"I am a centurion of the Black Watch Mercenary Company stationed in Bernas. Under the order of Lord John, I am here to find talented children from all over the world to join Black Watch." The centurion briefly introduced himself and said:
"I saw the fight between you and that boy on the hillside just now. It is rare for a boy of his age to be able to use adult weapons. Although his swordsmanship is not very good, after systematic training, I am sure he can become a mercenary with superb swordsmanship. By then, he only needs to complete the two-year mercenary contract to serve Sir John. At the very least, he can become a centurion, or directly join Sir John's Knights and become a knight."
"Knight! Is this true?"
The mercenaries around were all shocked by the centurion's words. The official position was not important. The most important thing was to be a knight, which was a goal that an ordinary family could not achieve for several generations.
"Excuse me, I can't hand Gus over to you." However, Gambino rejected Centurion's suggestion.
"There's no way I'm letting him go with someone he doesn't know."
"That's true." The Centurion took out ten gold coins from his pocket and spread them on his hand. He threw the coins in his palm towards Gambino and said:
"If you are willing to let the boy named Gus follow me, I can give you some compensation. After Gus completes the contract, you can also enter Lord John's territory as a family member."
Looking at the golden coins in front of them, the mercenaries gathered together, and even Gambino couldn't help but swallow his saliva.
At this moment, Guts broke free from the mercenary who was supporting him, and placed himself between the Centurion and Gambino, shouting stubbornly:
"I don't need anything from you and I'm not leaving Gambino!"
"Really?" After hearing this, the centurion took back the gold coin, turned his horse and said:
"When you have made up your mind, you can come to find me at the foot of the mountain."
After saying this, the centurion left the camp. To him, this was just a failed recruitment. The boy did have the potential to become a swordsmanship master, but at this moment, he was only worth 10 gold coins in the centurion's eyes. Perhaps when the boy grew up and became disabled in a battle and could not fight, he would regret his decision now.