N-M #496 - Wherever the Knights of the Order go
#496 - Wherever the Knights of the Order go
“Ibamino! Ibamino!”
The anxious shouts came from behind, and Ibamino stopped his long strides.
“What's wrong?”
A young man with a garlic nose, wearing a linen robe, supported himself on his knees, panting heavily: “Someone's fallen behind, someone's fallen behind.”
“Who, who fell behind?”
“From the Skevin family.”
“Damn it.” Pushing through the crowded refugee crowd, Ibamino walked towards the end of the line.
If the lancer team catches them, it's all over.
In early October, the rain was not as frequent as before.
The rain in September completely took away the heat.
The sky was shining with the cold sun, but there was not much warmth. Instead, the thin linen clothes were blown by the cool wind, making people shiver.
The muddy puddles reflected the cloudless clear sky, and only the raindrops falling on the green leaves could show that a lot of rain had fallen some time ago.
On the dirt road full of puddles, it was not the desolate scene of the past.
In the past, the farmers in tight-fitting short tops must have been working in the farmland on both sides.
But at this time, there was no one in the farmland. Instead, the road was full of panicked and numb civilians migrating.
They packed their luggage in sacks, put the full luggage and livestock on donkey carts, and slowly moved forward along the dirt road.
Objectively speaking, they were just moving forward slowly, but subjectively speaking, these migrating civilians couldn't wait to fly right now.
There were occasional houses and huts on both sides of the road, and there were not many people. Everyone was heading towards the non-knight area.
The so-called knight area is the 210,000 hectares of land that Prince Condé requested to manage.
After Prince Condé's land distribution conference was over, the religious and secular nobles confirmed the planting and met Prince Condé's requirements.
Each family cut meat and shed blood, piece by piece, and actually gathered 200,000 hectares of land.
Because Prince Condé had no money, could not afford such a large army, and could not find anyone to borrow money from, he could only let them make money themselves.
Although he repeatedly ordered not to loot and extort arbitrarily, these knights did not have those statements. Isn't this just tax farming?
It's just that the tax is their own.
Moreover, Prince Condé said it was a lease, so there was no need to cherish it even more. It was not really their territory.
It is the top priority to make enough money before withdrawing to ensure the military pay for the next three to five months.
In this case, it is conceivable what means the Edict Company will use.
This is the turn of the lancer teams in the Edict Company. They are smart. First, they win over a group of local knights to fill the incomplete Edict Company, and then start action.
The lancers did a very simple thing, which was to patrol and demand supplies.
They scattered along the road, found a village and demanded military pay from it.
If there is no military pay, they can use things to offset it. There is no shortage of porcelain, and there is no shortage of ceramics.
If you don't have money or things, then sign a deed of sale and an IOU. The knight masters are very kind, and it doesn't matter if you owe it first.
Don't think that these knights will do anything to determine income based on expenditure, first calculate how much is needed, and then collect how much.
The behavior of the lancers is to make as much money as possible, and then find a place to spend it all.
In less than a month, wherever the lancers went, the people became phantoms.
As long as the farmers who are classified under the knight area, as long as they hear that the masters of the lancers have arrived, they will take their families and carry their luggage to places near the knights where they cannot plunder.
After all, the so-called "knight area" is a piece of enclave, and it is not difficult to leave the scope of the territory.
For these runaway slaves, the lancers have the "Runaway Slave Law" but they do not have the power to pursue them. Once they escape the scope of the knight area, they can only stare blankly.
Because they only temporarily borrow the land, and do not have the ownership. The real ownership is in the hands of the original lord.
If the original lord does not care, they will not be able to pursue them.
The original knights in the knight area regarded this escape behavior as if they did not see it.
Except for their own serfs, if other people's tenants run away, they run away. Anyway, the fields are still there. If they are not allowed to enter the towns, they will have to come back sooner or later.
During this period, his tenants must lose a lot, but a lose-lose situation is better than the opposite side winning alone.
Only the 500,000 acres of land where the lord died can barely collect taxes, and the other knight areas are in chaos.
“Don't watch the excitement, keep walking, walk faster.” While walking, Ibamino was still telling them to walk faster.
Ibamino was one of the fleeing tenants, and also the leader of this group of refugees.
But he has a special identity, he is a follower of Huanno.
He had confronted the lord and the manor steward several times, and had a high reputation among the tenants.
Especially this year, with the existence of the Holy Sun Volunteer Army, in the confrontation between the two sides, he can even summon the Holy Sun Volunteer Army to carry out assassinations and attacks.
Although it is useless for knights, it is very useful for the servants of the knight castle.
In view of the Holy Sun Volunteer Army and the Savior Army's military strength, the lord finally took a step back and exempted this year's tribute.
Before Ibamino could celebrate, there was another bad news - the lancers were coming.
Without stopping, Ibamino once again led the people in the manor to escape. The destination was not far away, just in the stone wall town a dozen miles away.
“Where did it go?”
“Did he go to the roadside to shit and didn't keep up?”
“Let's go find it, you guys keep walking.”
Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Ibamino took a few strong men and left the team, searching along the road they came from.
The cool breeze was blowing on the surface of the body, both cool and cold, but it could not suppress the anxiety and anger in his heart.
“Where did it go?” After searching for nearly twenty minutes, they found nothing, just cursing in their mouths.
Suddenly there was a sound in the distance. Ibamino subconsciously looked over, but only saw a group of wild birds flying from the forest.
The strong men following Ibamino stopped one after another, looking in that direction, while he immediately ignored the dirt on the ground and put his head on the ground.
The sound of horseshoes? Ibamino couldn't believe it and listened for a while, confirming that it was the sound of horseshoes.
“Go, let's go back!” Ibamino turned his head, rolled and crawled, not even having time to clean the dirt on his clothes, and ran wildly towards the refugee team.
A group of wild birds flew from the forest, and Ibamino and others holding wooden sticks ran frantically on the muddy road in panic.
The pants were cut with a big hole by the thistle grass, the straw sandals were shaken to pieces, and the mud invaded and turned it into a chaotic mass of weeds.
But Ibamino didn't stop for a moment. He felt his heart beating, and his lungs were about to squeeze out of his throat.
The sound of horseshoes in the distance gradually became clear, and the refugee team in front of him also gradually became clear.
“The lancers are here, run away.” Ibamino shouted hoarsely.
“The lancers are here, run away!” The other strong men beside him shouted together.
Before he finished speaking, he felt a chill behind him, and a warm feeling flowed from his chest to his navel.
Looking down, the tip of a javelin was sticking out of his chest, and bright red blood was flowing out in streams.
He ran a few more steps with inertia, and then completely lost his strength, uncontrollably fell to the ground.
“Ah——”
“Runaway slave! Die!”
“You betrayed the prince's trust!”
The Leia language with a heavy windmill accent sounded, and a dozen horseshoes stepped over the face, crushing Ibamino's spine and arms.
The black-armored knight of the Edict Company, holding a knight's sword high, broke into the chaotic crowd.
The long sword slashed, and the former fellow villagers fell down stiffly.
The horseshoes crushed the child's head, and even knocked a pregnant woman into the air. Blood like mist fell on the flowers on the roadside like rain.
“Don't care about the luggage, don't care, run into the forest, run into the mountains, don't run on the road.” With wide eyes, Ibamino shouted desperately at the backs of the refugees.
But the refugees' ears were filled with fear and screams, and they couldn't hear a single sound.
They ran wildly on the road subconsciously, until they were pierced by the long sword.
“No——no——” Ibamino watched helplessly as the corpses fell in the pool of blood.
Some knights even amused themselves by throwing the girl's head around.
It won't take long for these hundreds of refugees to be strangled by the lancer team of less than ten people.
The attendant knights who followed could not say a word as they looked at the civilians who used to respectfully salute him on the territory.
He did look down on the civilians, and even hated Ibamino, but he never thought of massacring them like this.
“Oh, there's another one here.” An Edict Knight discovered Ibamino, who was only left with one breath in the trampling, “Can you still talk?”
“Fuck your mother! I fuck your mother!” Ibamino roared like crazy. He was already half crazy. “You will be punished one day. The Holy Father will manifest, and the Holy Sun will descend to burn all the sins of this world. You…”
Lifting the horseshoe from Ibamino's neck, the war horse elegantly raised its head and left towards the way it came with the loot.
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