Unknown Knight

The next day, after thinking all night, Axe had a rough idea of ​​how to deal with the situation. After breakfast, he went straight to old John's room.

"At present, it is impossible for us to receive olive oil from Suno City. I heard that the olive oil produced by Rebollet Castle on the way to Tiha City accounts for 30% of our total purchase volume. Its lord, Count Prais, has no connection with Suno City. Instead of waiting in Suno City, it is better to take the initiative.

It will be less than a week before the olives are harvested and the oil is pressed. If we set out now, we can buy all the olive oil produced in Repolite Village and minimize the loss. Moreover, since we arrive in the Nord Kingdom before Grans, we will definitely be able to sell the olive oil at a good price. "

After listening to Aix's analysis, Old John thought for a moment and realized that this might be the best solution at the moment. He nodded in agreement:

"That's the only way. Let's not delay any further. When do you think we can set off?"

"It's best to do it in the next two days, and we also need to provide a good cover. It's best not to let the other party know that we are going to Repolite Village to collect olive oil, so as to avoid unnecessary changes."

After hearing Aix's reminder, Old John agreed with it. After thinking for a while, he suddenly thought of a way and said hurriedly:

"We can put the pottery jars containing olive oil into the empty beer barrels, and then set out from the east gate and go to Uxhall City to buy the extra beer from last time. After leaving the city, we can go around to Tiha City. In this way, it will take at least a week for Grans to collect the newly squeezed olive oil and rush to Repolit Village."

"We can also clear out the olive oil in our hands in the Nord Kingdom in advance and push down the price of olive oil, thereby reducing their profits. At the same time, we can also purchase as many goods produced in the cities of Tiha and Sagos as possible and raise the prices, so that they will not be able to purchase the lower-priced return goods and will have to empty them out and return to the city of Suno." Aix added.

After hearing what Axe said, Old John's eyes lit up. He thought to himself that he had made the right choice. This future son-in-law was indeed wise. His mood suddenly improved a lot, and he put aside the gloom of the past few days and showed a relieved smile on his face.

Old John immediately asked Bandak to call the cooper in the city and secretly modified the empty beer barrel in the backyard. When Aix saw the dismantled barrel bottom, he thought of a game he had played, in which there was an equipment called the Poor Man's Shield, which was said to be made of the barrel bottom, so he asked the cooper:

"Is this sturdy? How much does one cost?"

"Of course I have, sir. I heard that Nord pirates use this when they have no money to buy shields. It is as useful as the shields that cost a few hundred copper coins each in the weapon shop. And the cost is only two or three copper coins." The cooper said confidently.

After hearing his words, Aix immediately became interested and said:

"Can it be made stronger?"

"The oak one won't work. You have to use iron birch. It's more expensive, 5 copper coins each, but it's worth it. I guarantee you'll use it for more than ten years without breaking."

"Can it block knife attacks and crossbow shooting?" Aix asked again.

The cooper was stunned, and seemed to know what Aix was thinking, and said confidently:

"Don't worry about that. Iron birch is very strong. A sword or knife will only leave a small mark on it, just like when you chop an iron shield, it will make a metallic sound."

"I need you to put a circle of wood around the edge to reinforce it, and make a handle inside." said Axe.

"Well, that will take time. I'm afraid five copper coins..."

"I can give you 10 copper coins each, but you need to make it bigger and 1.5 times thicker."

After hearing this, the cooper's eyes lit up and he said hurriedly:

"No problem, how many do you want?"

"Let's make 15 first. If they work well, I'll place another order later. But I want it tomorrow."

When the cooper heard this, he patted his chest and said:

"No problem sir, I'll finish it tonight." The cooper was very happy to have earned a week's income in one go, and he immediately accepted the business.

Early the next morning, the cooper brought 15 barrel bottom shields made of ironwood. Aix tried the weight and hardness and found they were ok. He put the shield on the beer barrel. It looked like a large lid on the barrel. You couldn't tell its purpose without opening it. He was very satisfied and paid for it happily.

After breakfast, Bandak gathered all the young and strong men in the caravan in the backyard, including five boys aged 5 or 15, a total of 6 people. This time, except for old John who was injured and Yamila who stayed to take care of him, Catherine, as the cook, followed the caravan. After old John gave some instructions to everyone with the help of Aix, everyone moved the goods and loaded the barrels, and the warehouse became busy all of a sudden.

Old John was worried, so he called Axe and Bandak into the house to explain things to them. At about nine o'clock, four carts full of beer barrels set out from the warehouse.

Bandak, who is familiar with the area, greets everyone he knows and naturally "leaks" the itinerary.

"Boss, where are we going this time? We're almost out of gas."

"Oh, forget it. I don't want to think about it anymore. Look, I bought a lot of beer from Dehrim at a much lower price last time. I have to sell it to Uxhall before it goes bad..."

The caravan left the east gate of Sunuo City and passed through Luluns Village before turning north in an uninhabited place. It was completely dark when they arrived at Repolit Village under the jurisdiction of Repolit Castle.

Bandak introduced Aix to the village chief, saying that he was the leader of the caravan. After some greetings, Aix learned a very important piece of information. Like Repolite and Suno, this year the olives in Ripollite rained when they were in bloom, resulting in a reduction of at least a quarter in yield.

Fortunately, the village chief was an honest man and had an old relationship with the caravan. He still sold beer to the caravan at the price of 235 copper coins per can as in previous years. This made Aix very happy. He asked someone to bring out a barrel of beer and distribute it to the villagers. Everyone drank and danced around the campfire, and both hosts and guests had a great time.

As the new leader of the caravan, Aix received special care. Several prominent figures in the village toasted him. The village chief went even further and asked a young widow to accompany him in drinking. Fortunately, he knew the importance of the matter. In addition, although the young widow was very charming, her mouth full of rotten yellow teeth made him uninterested in appreciating her. After drinking seven or eight cups, he said he was drunk and went back to his room to rest.

Not long after lying down, Bandak led everyone back to the room. Axel, who was pretending to be asleep, got up and saw that everyone was sober and not drunk. It seemed that everyone knew what was going on.

That night, perhaps because of everyone's snoring, Axe tossed and turned and couldn't fall asleep, feeling vaguely uneasy.

Unconsciously, he felt the urge to urinate, so he stood up and went out to urinate. Perhaps the darkness of the unfamiliar place frightened him, and he unconsciously grabbed the Nord sword beside him. When he passed the backyard where the caravan parked its trucks, he suddenly saw a dark shadow flash by, which frightened him so much that his hair stood on end. He immediately drew out his sword and shouted:

"Who? Come out!"

The other person was startled and turned his head to look, then turned around and ran away. When he turned his head, Axe saw the person clearly in the moonlight. This was a young man from the village. He was there when they were drinking around the campfire that night. He would sneak glances at him from time to time in the dark. It felt like a wolf spying before pouncing on its prey. Now Axe finally understood why he felt vaguely uneasy. This was the root of the problem.

While he was hesitating whether to chase after them, Lao Ben and Harvey had already rushed out of the house with their weapons. The three of them led the chase for a while, but they were unfamiliar with the area and the other party quickly disappeared into the darkness. Worried that the caravan's goods might be lost, Bandak called everyone back to the village chief's house where they were staying.

The village chief and his family were also awakened. After some negotiations, the village chief sighed helplessly:

"Alas, this damn Joey, his parents died early and he is an orphan with no one to discipline him. This bad guy probably wants to steal things from the car and sell them for money. I'm so sorry to have caused you trouble..."

The village chief kept apologizing, and the caravan couldn't make trouble or blame him. After all, merchants valued frequent visits. Aix had to step forward to comfort them, and after a long time everyone dispersed and went back to their houses to rest.

But Axe always felt that this matter was not simple, so he discussed with Bandak and decided to temporarily form a night shift. Considering everyone's hard journey, Axe, Bandak and Harvey would take turns to be on night duty.

Aix was on the last shift, and at the darkest moment of the day, he sat in front of the campfire and kept feeling the rustling sound in the darkness around him, as if someone was spying on him. He was not sure what was going on, and he couldn't wake everyone up, so he had no choice but to draw his sword and practice chopping around the campfire, hoping that the whizzing sound would scare off the bad guys.

After daybreak, Aix and Bandak patrolled around the village chief's house again. Bandak, who was a hunter, really saw the situation. There were obvious traces of scratching on a wall. Bandak said that it was very likely that someone was lying here and spying on the truck in the yard last night.

This made Axe tense up. Thinking about how the other party had dared to spy on him when he was on duty last night, it was definitely not just a petty theft. So he pulled Bandak to a corner and the two of them discussed it.

The village chief's wife put a lot of diced meat in the porridge for breakfast. Apparently, this was specially instructed by the village chief. They apologized in this way. After breakfast, the caravan did not hold a simple wild market as usual to exchange some daily necessities with the villagers. After paying for the olive oil, the caravan set off in a hurry.

As soon as they left the village of Ripolet, Aix followed the plan and asked Bandak and Harvey to pretend to be hunters and explore the way about two kilometers ahead of the caravan.

This was done by Aix with reference to the ancient marching knowledge. He heard from Bandak that there were several gangs of bandits roaming around in this forest. This kind of exploration would be unavoidable if they really encountered bandits planning to attack the caravan, but at least it could serve as an early warning, allowing the caravan's chariot formation to be deployed in advance. Coupled with the good crossbow skills of the team members, Aix was confident that he could withstand a siege of less than 50 people.

Sure enough, before noon, Aix, who was sitting in the first car, saw Bandak and his partner running back, with Harvey shot in the shoulder. There were about 6 people chasing them 70 to 30 meters behind.

Without waiting for the two to get close, Aix ordered everyone to form a formation for the carriages, and asked Catherine and a young boy to drive the horses pulling the carriages towards Ripollite.

Aix had heard Bandak's detailed introduction to the outlaw bandit before. In fact, they were not particularly professional bandits, but just a group of escaped slaves living on the edge of the forest. They were previously subordinate serfs in the nearby lord's village.

Serfs in the Middle Ages can be simply understood as agricultural slaves. They did not have much personal freedom, owned very few means of production, and had to rely on the nobles of the territory. Their situation was not much better than that of slaves in slave society.

Originally, the serfs near the city of Suno lived a pretty good life, because there was a large area of ​​unowned Black Forest around Suno. During the slack season, the serfs could go into the Black Forest to hunt, cut wood, and collect mountain products to supplement their family income, and they lived a pretty good life. However, the situation changed after King Harlaus came to power more than ten years ago.

In order to hit the economy of the Marquisate of Cleggs, he promulgated the infamous "Forest Law", which stipulated that all unowned forests in the kingdom belonged to the king, and civilians were not allowed to hunt and cut wood in the forest. Those who violated the law would have their feet cut off for the first time, and would be hanged for the second time. In order to enforce the law, King Harlaus also formed several cavalry teams to patrol the nearby forests, cutting off the feet of many people and hanging them.

The serfs, who were used to a comfortable life, were not accustomed to the hard life of having to dig in the soil for food, especially those hunters with good hunting skills. So they decided to take drastic measures and fled into the forest to become bandits, and were called bandits by the outside world.

They wore leather armor made of wild animal skins, were good at using hunting bows, and everyone carried a logging axe which was both a tool and a weapon. They usually made a living by hunting, gathering mountain products, and illegally cutting wood. When there was an opportunity, they would also rob passing caravans.

Their organization and discipline were extremely poor. They usually went out in groups of three or five as a family unit, and they posed no threat to the caravan. It was very rare for more than 30 people to go out like today. Thinking of what happened last night, Aix couldn't help but wonder, "Could they have planned this?"

When Bandak and the other man jumped into the convoy, the caravan had just finished getting ready and the crossbow had not yet been loaded. Axe checked the wound on Harvey's shoulder. Fortunately, the wound was not deep in the flesh and it was not serious, but the guy was groaning in pain and sweating.

Then he looked up at the bandits outside and shouted, "Oh no!" The bandits, who were already fifty meters away, were running and shooting arrows. This sudden rush of arrows made Aix confused and he didn't know what to do. Fortunately, the experienced Bandak shouted:

"Shield, shield! His shield!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a rain of arrows arrived, and one could hear a continuous sound of arrows. Fortunately, the 150 copper coins were not wasted, as none of the dozens of arrows could penetrate the shield made of iron wood. Only one person was unlucky, as the person next to him raised the shield too slowly and was cut on his calf by an arrow that slipped through the gap.

A caravan man had almost loaded the crossbow and was about to stand up and shoot, but was held down by Aix and Bandak at the same time.

"When they get close together..."

Before Aix could utter the word "shoot", another round of arrows rained down, and after the sound of arrows, no one was injured. Everyone was lucky in their hearts, thinking that it was fortunate that Aix had the foresight to equip everyone with a barrel bottom, otherwise these two rounds of shooting would have wiped out at least half of the caravan's combat power.