Mercenaries and Adventurers

The team of hundreds of people slowly moved to the open space on the roadside that Kiel had been optimistic about before.

As soon as they arrived at the place, the young refugees gathered together familiarly, and then sat on the ground to breathe.

Priest Batar heard from Xueyasite that he would repair here for a while, so he took dozens of Saturn believers who barely listened to him, and ran to the creek next to the open space to fill everyone with water. drink.

The believers of Saturn drank to their fullness by the stream first, then filled the small wooden bowls they carried with clean water, and returned to the open space for familiar people to drink.

Kilda rode over, jumped off the horse with a bang, and then led the horse for a while in the open space, pretending to look at the exhausted appearance of many people.

"I can't do this, I'm exhausted, and I can't walk anymore."

While pretending to observe, Keir deliberately made a sound so that everyone around him could hear it.

Then he came to the center of the crowd and clapped his hands vigorously: "Everyone pay attention, listen carefully."

After attracting the attention of the crowd, Keir said loudly: "Look at your appearance, each of your buttocks is sticking to the ground. I think so, anyway, you can't walk because of your weakness."

Kiel looked around at the tall mountains in the north and south directions: "It's getting dark early in this mountain, let's spend the night here today!"

No one objected to this decision. After all, many people were really tired. Their bodies were weak, so that every healthy boy and girl in the past became so tired not long after they came out of the Baishi City Wall checkpoint.

It's not at all like the early ten-year-old in the rural areas who went to work with the parents of farmers and women.

Many people breathed a sigh of relief, and after hearing this decision, they completely sat down on the horrible gravel ground, regardless of the unevenness of the ground, which made their backs and butts uncomfortable.

"However." Keel only spoke half of what he said, and the next words were not pleasant: "Can't you just lie there and do nothing! Is this what it looks like to camp overnight in the wild? I'll count twenty people, and I went to the nearby forest to cut wood for burning firewood, and I couldn’t refuse. Priest Batar, you and Bloodyaster will organize the staff and roughly tidy up this open space so that it can be used overnight.”

After finishing speaking, Keir added: "What does this mess look like! Take action. You, you, and you are strong enough, come with me."

He first ordered the young people around and looked at the three stronger people, then he rode on the horse, and then ordered the rest of the people in the crowd. Mostly strong men, but there are also two tall and strong women from the gangsters.

The people who were hit all had bad faces, and they didn't want to go to work before they had a long rest.

But after experiencing the previous small conflict, many people knew that they were not strong enough, so they didn't dare to resist Kiel's order, so they had to get up slowly, gather, and follow behind Kiel who was riding a horse.

Keel doesn't blame them for their dawdling, it's the slow dawdling that's what they want. He came to the carriage first, got into the carriage to pretend for a while, and brought his two-handed ax with him from the dream, and then took out a strong rope and a few machetes and small axes from the supplies in the carriage.

He threw something to the twenty young men waiting outside, asked them to take it, and then took it with him to cut wood.

-

Logging is not on the side of the river, because there is a small stream blocking it, and it is not easy to cross.

So they crossed the road to the woods on the opposite side, where they looked for suitable trees to cut.

Keir rode at the front, the tall lick blood forcibly squeezed the lush roadside weeds and bushes away, and then the two young men who followed waved the machetes in their hands, and completely cut the bushes that blocked the road to barely enough space. Pedestrian access.

They don't have much physical strength, and often swing the machete more than a dozen times for no reason, and the whole person loses strength. Then he could only hand the machete to the hands of the other people behind him to take over their work.

Except for a few people who were carrying a logging single-handed ax and carrying bundles of strong ropes, the other young people who came out all took turns to open the way with machetes.

Everyone was so tired that they didn't even have the energy to curse softly.

These people were not chosen randomly by Keir. He deliberately picked out the leaders and the strongest people from various village groups and gang groups, so that these young people who were the backbone would be missing. Even if he was not present in the open space, Batar priests, who are surrounded by dozens of followers of Saturn, can control the overall situation.

Don't let the scene get out of control.

Kiel actually thought too much. The weak, hungry and exhausted young man was reluctant to get up and walk. How could he object to the words of the Batar priest who could provide everyone with the food given by God.

It's too late to welcome the fawning.

-

Leaving aside the logging in Kiel, here in the clearing, priest Batar organized some other people, and the believers were repeatedly going to the creek to fetch water for everyone to drink. The priest asked some young people who had some energy after drinking water to go to the edge of the open space and dig some long shallow pits with the stone chips they picked up.

This is the simplicity of Bloodfang Stiti, who often guards caravans outside and has seen how the Kendall army camps. To establish a camp, first prepare the place for eating and drinking.

Otherwise, people defecate everywhere, not to mention the issue of cleanliness, and people are attacked at night because they ran outside the camp for convenience, but it is repeated every day among caravans who don't pay attention to this.

Attackers include but are not limited to bandits, wild wolves, forest owls, all kinds of monsters, unexplainable weird things, and so on.

In the dark and desolate wilderness where the camp fire does not shine, anything can happen.

This is neither a bedtime story to scare children to sleep, nor is it bragging by a drunkard in a tavern, but what Bloodyaster has seen and heard from other caravan guards in his ten years of experience as a caravan guard various personal experiences.

Young lads who have just been recruited from rural areas are most likely to suffer inexplicable casualties in camps in the wild during the first few times of doing business with caravans.

The reason most of them leave the place where the fire shines is the convenience of going out.

After a scream from outside the camp, they often found only the body or the remains of the young chap who had been attacked.

The scariest thing is that you can only find a trace of blood next to the excrement, or you can't find anything.

Bloody Gist instructed the young people who were digging the long urinals to work. He specially took out two small metal shovels from Keel from the carriage for the young people to use in rotation.

While instructing them how to work, he told these people the above things.

"No wonder, no wonder! Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo—"

A young man suddenly squatted down, covered his face and began to cry bitterly.

A young man from the same village who I knew saw other people staring at him, and immediately explained: "His mother was also in the escape team before, but on the way to the Baishi city wall checkpoint, it was just a few nights after leaving the village. It was convenient to go out, so he squeezed out from the crowded villagers and ran to the woods by the pond where he had spent the night, but no one came back. His father went to look for it angrily, but the village elders refused to let him go, but his father still went But they didn’t come back. The two of them just disappeared. They didn’t come back all night, and everyone gathered together to look for it during the day, and only found some signs of struggle on the edge of the forest, but nothing else.”

When this person said this, young people from other villages who were also working also talked about some villagers who were killed, injured and missing because they stayed overnight on the way to their village.

I don't know if I don't communicate with each other. It turns out that in each village, on average, more than half a month and as long as a month, more than a dozen people were killed, injured or missing during the journey from the departure to the Baishi City Wall Checkpoint.

Most of them were casualties and missing when they stayed overnight, and half of them were killed or injured when they resisted or bullied when they were robbed by a small number of bandits on the road during the day.

Because they were fleeing from the whole village, the bandits, who were far smaller in number than them, didn't dare to do anything to them other than passing by to beg for some wealth and food.

It is often at the beginning to kill one or two people fiercely to frighten the fleeing villagers, and then leave after getting what they want.

It really **** off hundreds of villagers who had fled for a refugee once. When one person was punched and kicked, the iron-clad bandits were turned into meatloaf.

-

Xueyasite is digging a hole to communicate the difficulty of the journey. Priest Batar is instructing everyone to level the ground, and relying on the experience gained from observation, people will hold large stones together to form several stones. Circle, ready to make preparations for the camp fire later.

At the same time, let people level the uneven ground outside the fire around the stone circle, so that people can rest overnight.

The young people did not carry much luggage, because the weather was not very cold and it was getting warmer, so the young people who came out this time did not have a few quilts that could be used. When the priest asked, their answers made people laugh and cry.

"Everyone huddled together at night to keep warm."

They all answered like this.

"It's not a sheep in the pen." To complain, Priest Batar had to prepare more small fires outside the big fire.

There were too many preparations for the fire pile and stone circle, and he was worried that the firewood felled by Kiel might not be enough.

Don't worry about worrying, things still need to be done.

When some young people set off, the old people in the village specially asked them to bring the clay pots they used when they came here. At this time, these pottery pots, which were easy to bump, were placed on stone supports, and water was added bit by bit with wooden bowls, waiting for the burning materials and the god-given food provided by the Batar priest.

After a while, Xueyasite came over with a serious face, and whispered to Priest Batar, "Master Priest, just now I noticed movement in several woods across the creek."

"What movement?"

Blood Fang stunned his eyes: "It may be a group of beasts, but more likely, I think it is the bandits nearby. It is still daytime, but I am worried that tonight-"

The two looked at each other, and they both thought that Keir specially asked the team to rest here, and after the rest, he deliberately decided to spend the night here. Is the refugee team really unable to move?

Of course not, there are still two or three hours before dark, so it seems too early to camp for the night now?

"How about this, you go to the roof of the newly reinforced carriage to stand sentry. There is a good view, and pay more attention to the situation in the distant forest. When the Kiel warrior comes back with someone from logging, tell him about the situation. He probably knows it well. I don't know what the plan is."

Priest Batar said so.

Seeing Xueyasite nodded and ran towards the carriage, the priest felt uneasy. It was not because he was afraid of the unknown number of bandits. After all, there were more than 800 bandits on their side, so they could defeat the bandits who were estimated to be small in number no matter what. , but what about losses?

There must be a lot of losses. As long as the bandits attack at night, the chaos alone will cause many people to be injured and die.

But he was more worried about why Keir would do this.

What is his plan?

Could it be that it is troublesome to despise these young people who have been squeezed out, and specifically induce bandits to attack and reduce staff in this way?

-

"It's just this big tree! The height and volume and weight are suitable, and it can be pulled back by a horse after felling it."

Kiel led people to the edge of a small forest at the foot of the mountain range, pointing to a big tree that was ten meters high and about the size of a person's waist.

For a big tree of this height, the top and branches of the tree can be removed after felling, and the remaining body can just be pulled away, and the volume of the wood is estimated to be enough for burning and lighting for one night.

"Come on, get out of the way and watch me!"

There was no logging for a while, and Keir was very excited. He jumped off the horse, slapped the blood licks the buttocks, let it run aside by itself, and then waved to drive the twenty young refugees following him to the direction of the horse.

"You all gather in one direction, don't scatter everywhere, and after a while the big tree falls, be careful to be crushed to death."

Even if you don't get crushed to death, you can easily scratch your face if you get shaved by a branch, which is uncomfortable enough.

Stepping on the soft ground, Kiel took out the Yueshui head two-handed ax that was stuck before from behind.

The blue ax immediately attracted the attention of all the refugees. They talked a lot, wondering why there was blue metal and it was made into a big axe.

Regardless of those comments, Kiel flicked the metal image of the Dryad on the surface of the ax with his finger, and whispered to it: "I want to cut down a tree, wait a while, don't **** the big tree to me like a vine while cutting the tree!" Done, don't be like this. Give me some help and don't make trouble."

The ax immediately glowed blue.

There was another discussion behind him.

When he came to the big tree, Keel walked around the tree first to make sure that there were no bird's nests on the top of the big tree, and then judged the direction in which the big tree fell.

The big tree has to fall outside the forest, so that it can be easily pulled out when it is dealt with later, without the trouble of turning the direction of the big tree on the ground after it falls.

He had heard these skills from others, and he had never cut down a tree of this size before.

After finding the right direction, Kiel came to the side of the direction where he was going to fall, and then he gripped the handle of the two-handed axe, twisted his waist and chopped it down.

null!

The dryad on the ax really worked, and Keir didn't use much force, and the ax swung down at the right angle, cutting down on the trunk of the big tree obliquely from above.

With a pull of both hands, the ax head of the ax was not caught by the big tree, and it was pulled out silkily.

Swing the ax again and chop down, this time the ax adjusted itself, and fell another section, obliquely following the trace of the axe to form an included angle.

null!

After two swings, the part of the tree tissue in the middle of the angle fell off when the ax was drawn.

Kiel swung the ax close to the gap, and then slanted the ax again, empty!

Slant down the ax again, empty!

The slack gap widened.

The six axes went down, leaving a neat gap in the direction of a small half circle.

Keel came to the opposite direction where the big tree was about to collapse, followed the same pattern, and cut a gap here.

He came to the front that was about to collapse again, and cut deeper through the gap.

It's easy, because the unknown effect of the dryad on Yueshui's head, the dense trunk tissue of the big tree did not cause much trouble.

After repeating this several times, when the trunk of the big tree made a crunching sound, Keel knew that the tree was about to fall.

"The tree-falls-!"

Keir yelled, telling everyone around him to avoid him.

Young people are hiding far away, so there is no danger of being smashed.

Rumble! There was a sound, and the dead branches and leaves on the soft ground were stirred up by the force of the falling tree. The sound of crackling is the sound of the branches of big trees colliding with the branches of other trees, being pulled and broken.

The huge sound disturbed all kinds of birds in the deep forest, and all kinds of calls sounded in an instant, sweeping away the tranquility and depth of the forest just now.

In the direction where the big tree fell, the dead branches and leaves on the ground were smashed open, revealing the rotten layer underneath, and the pupae and fat beetle larvae hiding inside were crawling randomly.

Keel patted his shoulder and fanned off the fat white beetle larva writhing on his shoulder. He didn't know if this thing was poisonous or not, and whether it could be eaten.

"Come here, come here! Start working!" Keel yelled, telling everyone who was hiding to come over.

As a result, not only the man came, but also his horse.

Stretching out the tongue, the blood licking grass swallowed the fat white larva writhing among the dead branches and leaves into its mouth.

"You still eat bugs? Don't be poisoned to death!"

Kiel patted the blood-licking grass on the head, but was disgusted by it, as if he was underestimated by Kiel~www.readwn.com~ Young people have seen how the villagers log, so there is no need for Kiel Er commanded that the young man with a one-handed logging ax came up and began to cut off the branches of the trunk of the big tree one by one from the junction of the trunk.

Every time a branch is cut off, other people will drag it away and drag it out of the forest. These branches are also important to burn, especially many young people do not even have a stick in their hands. These branches are easy to dispose of. It can be used as a wooden stick for temporary use.

It can be used for self-defense or trekking on foot.

Even a group of two people can be used to lift some heavy objects.

Keel also helped cut off part of the top of the tree and had it hauled away. Then he also started to help, let the two young people start from the top of the tree, and handed over the thicker and more troublesome branches at the bottom of the trunk to him.

Unlike the young refugees who had to alternately use one-handed logging axes, Keir chopped off the roots of the branches with one axe, and then grabbed them with his hands and threw them in front of other people waiting nearby.

Even though they were branches, they were not light, but Keel threw the branches like twisting a flower.

Soon, the tree trunk was cleaned up, leaving only a bare waist-thick trunk.

Its length is about seven meters, which is the length of the part near the tree root and the thinner treetop part.

Keir reckoned that it should weigh several hundred kilograms, and it seemed that it was not impossible to carry it by himself. But he turned his attention to the horse, it was there, why did he go to such trouble.

The blood licking grass shuddered, and stopped licking the larvae exposed by the tree trunk. It raised its head, set up a pair of dexterous ears, and subconsciously stared at its human master who was looking at it maliciously.