King's Landing in France

An Ning raised her eyebrows, and she only performed a block and counterattack in front of this young master to get her reputation to Adoration?

Is it because this young master is indifferent to the world?

No matter, in this era, there should be no great revolution in France. It is a good thing that a noble young master worships himself.

An Ning is the hope now. After returning to the army, this little young master should not run to the front line again. He doesn't want to go through this kind of hell again.

At this time, Crotz asked An Ning again: "Mr. Frost, why did you go to the battlefield?"

An Ning didn't frown, but the young master's question seemed very unearthly.

"Why else?" An Ning asked the young master, "Aside from being unable to afford military service exemption, what other reasons can there be?"

While answering this, An Ning recalled the scene when she joined the army in her mind. At that time, her mother and sister were in tears, and her father, who was a cobbler, had a sullen face and kept chewing tobacco.

According to the king's order, each family must send a male to join the war, otherwise they will have to pay high immunity taxes, so An Ning had no choice but to join the king's army and became a military musician.

Crotz was a little embarrassed: "Uh... sorry..."

An Ning shook her head lightly.

Afterwards, the two of them continued on their way in silence until the horizon was slightly pale.

At this time, An Ning saw a farmhouse in front of him, and a farmer was opening the door of the farmhouse to let the cows out to graze.

An Ning: "Little Master, are you thirsty?"

"A little..."

"Where's the stomach?"

Klotz's belly croaked out of anger.

An Ning: "Okay, let's go to that farmhouse to see if we can buy some food and water."

"Okay, I have a few kroner silver coins." Croz said, taking out the krona from his pocket and handing it to An Ning, "I'll give it to you, I don't speak German."

An Ning originally wanted to buy it with the money he plundered yesterday, but of course he has no objection if the young master is willing to pay.

However, Crotz's concept of money is obviously different from that of a commoner.In An Ning's cognition, the unit of currency is mainly "sou", and currency units such as krona and livre are not used at all, and the coins on An Ning are also united in sou.

This young master took out a silver coin and it was a crown.

Just to buy some supplies, where can I use silver coins like krona...

An Ning took the silver coins while muttering, then helped the young master to sit down on the side of the road, and then walked towards the farmhouse with big strides.

Chapter 004 The ex-serfs who have nothing to do with them

An Ning originally thought that she would be looked down upon by German-speaking commoners for water when she was wearing a French military uniform.

But unexpectedly, the common people did not show even the slightest bit of hostility when they saw An Ning.

When An Ning was approaching the farmhouse, an old farmer came out of the house carrying a hoe. The old man stopped when he saw An Ning, put the hoe on the ground, looked at An Ning with a dull face, and waited quietly.

Although the French army fought a big battle with the German-speaking army just one night away from here yesterday, the old farmer still just looked at An Ning dumbly, without showing any hatred at all.

An Ning was a little confused for a moment, because the memory in his mind showed that the French army drove straight into the German-speaking area, and then was beaten up by Frederick the Great's Prussian army.

It should be like this. For the people in the German-speaking area, the French army should be an invading army.

Could it be that it is really because it is the 18th century and the modern nation-state has not yet been established, so the people do not have national consciousness?

But An Ning vaguely remembered a saying that since the Hussite War, Europe has begun to awaken national consciousness.

The Hussite war was a matter of the 15th century, and it is now the [-]th century.

It stands to reason that An Ning should be facing the nationally awakened Prussian peasants at this moment, but this is not the case.

In any case, the old German farmer saw the silver coins that An Ning brought out, and immediately agreed to sell bread and water. He even asked An Ning if he needed an ox cart and a driver—probably himself.

After a while, the old farmer took out the black bread from his room according to An Ning's request, then pointed to the well in the yard and said, "I want to fetch the water myself."

At this time, a woman with patches all over her body came out of the house, hurried to the well, fetched a bucket of water, and then took a ladle and handed it to An Ning.

An Ning took the water ladle, took the bread and went back to the bushes at the door.

"Come on, let's eat."

"I'm starving. I only ate breakfast yesterday. I thought I'd have a celebration banquet in the evening after winning the battle." The young master sighed, took a big sip from the water ladle, and then spit the water on the ground. , "This water is bitter!"

An Ning took a sip from the water ladle, it was indeed bitter and tasted like earth.

The young master picked up the bread again, broke off a piece, stuffed it into his mouth, and immediately spat it out: "Damn! There are sawdust! They purposely gave us bad things to eat!"

An Ning shook her head: "Master, I don't think so. They don't care who wins the battle between us and Frederick, at least I think so. They are just a group of farmers, and they don't care who their king is against."

I don't know why, but An Ning has such confidence, probably because of the extraordinary indifference shown by the old farmer during the conversation just now.

In addition, An Ning now remembered that she also ate this kind of bread with sawdust when she was at home.

Maybe the common people in this era eat this stuff.

As for An Ning himself, he ran away with the young master all night, and he was almost starving, so he couldn't care less about it.

Eating the bread with sawdust, An Ning couldn't help but think of the famous scene in Ji Xiaolan's "Iron Teeth and Bronze Teeth": He Shen and the adults said to Ji Xiaolan: Have you ever seen the hungry people? The hungry people are not human anymore. Bran is a good thing. It is enough to eat them.

An Ning is not yet at the point of competing with the animals for feed, but it is almost the same. The hard bread with sawdust still tastes quite delicious in his mouth.

Of course, it is also possible that An Ning's body has become accustomed to this coarse grain.

However, Klotz, the young master of the Tollestel family, was not so lucky. He tried to take another bite of bread, but vomited it all out again.

"This bread has a strange smell..." Crotz complained, "How do you eat this kind of thing..."

An Ning: "Actually, the bread supplied by the military is not much better than this. It tastes like wood. If you want it to be easier to swallow, you can only throw it into vegetable soup and soak it."

An Ning recalled the memories of serving in the army that belonged to others, and then advised: "You should eat a little. If there is nothing in your stomach, you will have no strength to walk. If you are overtaken by the Prussians, you can only be a prisoner honestly." .”

In fact, An Ning felt that it was okay for the nobles to be captives. After all, they were nobles, and the Prussian side would treat them kindly if they captured them. At most, they would just ask the Duke of Orleans for a ransom.

However, Crotz shook his head: "I can't be a prisoner, and everyone in the club will look down on me!"

"Club?" An Ning couldn't help frowning, this was a very unfamiliar vocabulary for Andy Frost, the son of a cobbler.

After all, Andy Frost only had the little knowledge he had learned in church Sunday school when he was a child, and he could only recognize the little words on his order.The profound vocabulary of the club has nothing to do with the big boss of the cobbler's family.

But An Ning is different now. Not only does he know the word club, but he also knows that it is something that has become popular in France recently.

With the spread of Enlightenment ideas in France, France is now in a state of contention among a hundred schools of thought, and the emerging intellectual class has formed various clubs around different trends of thought in Paris.

When the Great Revolution broke out, these clubs were the embryonic form of various factions.

For example, the Jacobins were originally a "Breton Club" composed of a group of Brittany intellectuals, and later gradually evolved into the Jacobins Society of Friends of Liberty and Equality.

It seemed that Klotz had also joined a certain club, and being captured on the battlefield would embarrass him in front of his fellow club members.

Damn it, An Ning thought, I risked my life to save you, only to save your reputation in the club.

You people who don't have to worry about being abused can just bear it honestly, you bastards.

Of course, An Ning didn't say that.

He had already eaten the half loaf of bread he had been assigned, but his still empty stomach made him think about the half loaf of bread in Crotz's hand.

An Ning: "My little master, if you can't eat the food of the vulgar, give it to me, so that I can carry you on my back when I run away."

Crotz glanced at the bread in his hand, with a determined expression: "No, I want to eat, I must return home alive. I have troubled you too much."

With a determined face, he tore off a piece of bread and stuffed it into his mouth.

As he chewed the bread, Crotz's face was like that of a fakir on a pilgrimage.

At this moment, An Ning suddenly heard the sound of horseshoes.

He immediately stood up, gripped the saber he borrowed from Crotz, and stared warily at the direction from which the sound came.

The horse team arrived in a blink of an eye.

From a modern perspective, this group of cavalry seems to be poorly dressed, wearing half of their jackets and the other half as cloaks.

But An Ning knew that this was the standard attire of hussars.

The hussars originated in Hungary, and the first hussars in various countries were basically Hungarians, so they inherited the traditional costumes of Hungary.

The jacket that is half-drawn and half-drawn as a cloak is called pelisse, which is generally translated as "leather jacket", but when this word appears together with dolman, it refers to the traditional outfit of the Hungarians.

Because the hussars of all countries have this set of outfits, the hussars of different countries are generally distinguished by the color of their uniforms.

Through the colors, An Ning recognized this group as the hussars of the French army.

But An Ning didn't let up.

Because he knew that hussars generally had poor military discipline, and they might have killed An Ning as a deserter in order to plunder money.

Chapter 005 Encounters with Hussars

In this era, the military's combat desire-or "subjective initiative" is very low.

Most conscripts do not have the concept of a nation-state, nor do they want to get ahead through military exploits. They are just sent to the battlefield forcibly by noble lords, and they are cannon fodder in the true sense.

One of the reasons why it is necessary to line up in a dense formation to shoot in this era is that once the conscripts with low desire and low morale disband the dense formation, or even if they are a little farther away from the officer, they will immediately collapse.

Skirmishers and hussars, which require relatively high subjective initiative, either have poor military discipline, eat, drink, prostitute, and gamble, or they are simply conscripted robbers who go to the battlefield to rob and make a fortune.

So even though he could clearly see that it was the French hussars, An Ning did not dare to neglect him at all.

I am carrying the booty from the bandit leader I killed last night, and I may be a fat sheep in the eyes of other hussars.

As for the young master, the hussars might not dare to openly kill the aristocrats on their side, but what if they want to take the credit for An Ning for themselves?

As the hussars approached, An Ning saw the half-moon dog tag on the leader's neck, which meant that he was an officer, possibly a nobleman.

This made An Ning feel a little relieved.

The young master of the Tollestel family obviously didn't think so much. Seeing his own hussars approaching, he stood up and waved beamingly.

The cavalry soon arrived.

The leading officer stopped in front of Crotz beckoning, without looking at An Ning, and said directly, "The 20th Hussar Regiment, ordered by General Carnegie to conduct reconnaissance, how is the situation?"

An Ning had no impression of this General Carnegie at all, but of the French generals he only knew the marshals after Napoleon.

Klotz shook his head: "Too bad, we were defeated by Frederick in Rossbach, he was the one who marched in person, damn it."

An Ning couldn't help frowning. He vaguely remembered that Frederick II died of old age in 1786. In 1780, Frederick II should be an old man too old to move.

Could it be that Frederick the Great of this time and space was born a few years later?

So the history of this world is roughly the same as the original history, but the specific details are misplaced?

However, An Ning was not the kind of person who specialized in history. He only knew the famous generals, marshals, and those who had taken history textbooks in this era.

So the dislocation of historical details doesn't make much difference to An Ning.

At this time the hussar officer asked again: "Where are the Prussians? We searched all the way here from the village of Koloba this morning, and we didn't see a single Prussian."

Crotz looked at An Ning and cast a look for help.

An Ning pointed to the direction she came from and said, "Go in this direction, about 20 miles away, you can see the Prussian camp."

In fact, An Ning didn't know how far he ran last night, so he just made up a number. Anyway, the cavalry ran fast, and if he ran along the road he came from last night, he would probably meet the Prussian scout cavalry soon.

The officer glanced at the direction An Ning was pointing at, nodded slightly, then pointed to the direction they came from and said, "Go in this direction and you will meet General Carnegie's Third Army at noon. He is gathering the troops that broke up yesterday. Organize your defense."

After saying that the officer was about to lead the team to leave, An Ning hurriedly took a step forward and grabbed his rein and said, "Wait a minute! My young master has a leg injury and he can't go that far. Could you send two people to take us there on horseback?" To the barracks?"

In fact, the young master didn't have any injuries on his legs, but after running away all night, his feet probably had a few blisters or something worn out, so he was limping when he walked, and he probably wouldn't tell if he was injured.

As long as the young master doesn't expose An Ning's lies, it will be fine.

——He wouldn't be so dazed, would he?

An Ning looked at the young master while muttering in his heart, but he hesitated for a while, and finally lowered his head, as if he had tacitly agreed to An Ning's statement.

It seems that he also wants to ride a horse to be lazy, and he doesn't want to go by himself.

However, the cavalry officer shook his head: "We still have to do reconnaissance. We may encounter Prussian cavalry on the road and fight. I need every soldier to carry out missions with me. If you can speak German, you can find farmers to hire ox carts! So, good luck to you."

The cavalry officer saluted An Ning and the two, and then led his men to gallop in the direction An Ning just pointed out.

An Ning looked at Crotz and said, "Shall I rent an ox cart?"

"Please." Crotz sighed.