167 – Eastern Franchi Expedition (2)

Duke Architel, no… I, Marcel, a serf from the village of Poitiers, one of the estates of the lord, now Countess of Aquitel, was taken to the square with the rest of the village.

We didn’t actively resist, so unless the commanders and soldiers were insane, they wouldn’t stage a massacre.

That’s also the case, because the chief said that even if the high-ranking lords in the military share the land after winning the war, if there are no lowly people like us to cultivate the land, they won’t receive taxes…

So unless the high-ranking people and soldiers don’t have a hobby of killing lowly people like us… I’m sure there won’t be any murders. please i wish…

If I die, my family’s right to farm land will be taken away, and Sophia and her rabbit-like children will all sit on the street in a difficult situation.

Then the wife will go to sell herself in the city, and the rest of the children will starve to death or become bandits…

As I was trembling like that, Marco, who was standing next to me, spoke in a voice so loud that the soldiers watching us couldn’t hear.

“Damn, if you knew it would be like this, you should have followed Rins from the next town when he ran away? damn… You might die if you look at these things… ”

“Don’t say anything stupid. And if the high-ranking people kill us, what’s the use? Also, the village chief sent the women to a cave in the corner of the mountain in preparation for an emergency… ? Without a doubt, the hidden barley for sowing in the spring, food, or things that could be used as weapons would end up being robbed. Even if you are killed because you are unlucky, you can save your wife and children.”

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Marco heard me and sighed.

“Well, if you run away from here, you have to run to the Marquis of Rhine next door, but Riku, who got a job at the top, said that the situation there was worse than here. And even if we run away, we might be able to get some land to cultivate… ”

“Because banditry isn’t for everyone… ”

As we chatted like that, the soldiers who were watching us turned around in front of the town square and shouted.

“Lieutenant Javor has come to deliver your disposition! Everyone listen!”

After a while, a knight appeared in a colorful cloak and armor, unlike the soldiers wearing shabby clothes, in the narrow alley leading to the town square.

And that knight was wearing the armor with the crest of the Kreutel family, which he had seen during the battle in the plains of Waine the other day.

Damn, to think that the soldiers under the gray reaper, who were as scary as demons in the last war, are here…

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My legs began to tremble as I remembered the horrors that had taken place on the plains of Waine.

No, I think I’ll get tired if I’m a little careless.

After a while, the knight took out a leather scroll from his bosom and began reading.

“Listen to the serfs of Marcel Village! He is the duke of the great Eline Empire and the commander of the Eastern Expeditionary Force.

His Highness Joseph von Orléans took pity on you and personally forbade all cowardly acts such as pillaging the village, rape, murder and theft. Also, after hearing that the situation of the serfs was difficult… Originally, all food should be supplied in exchange for preserving life and being accepted as a subject of our empire, but after hearing that the situation was not good, he decided to buy it with money if there was surplus food in the village. So all the serfs cooperate with us.”

After the reading of the article that offered generous conditions that we hadn’t even thought of, no one opened their mouths as if the villagers couldn’t believe it.

We’re just staring blankly at each other and making faces wondering if we’ve heard it wrong.

“Do the Zacri dare not believe the words of the noble duke? Are you saying you won’t trust me, a vassal of the Marquis of Creutel? Like these lowly serfs!”

At the urging of the knight, the chief was the first to come to his senses, knelt down, and then spoke.

“No, no. We lowly ones were astonished by the generous words… I just couldn’t thank you. Please forgive me.”

“Because I lived only among nobles who did not know the honor of Count Architel and the Marquis of Rhine in Romania next to him… It must have been difficult to accept such a merciful measure… Okay, forgive me this time.”

“Oh my, oh my… thank you Knight… Then, in return for saving us, we will treat you to food, even if it is modest.”

We are now barely hiding barley seeds to be sown and harvested in the spring after they go away.

Nevertheless, to treat them with the seeds we have is a promise not to go against the soldiers who have the right to live and die.

It was miserable to have to survive even by doing so, but on the other hand, a sense of relief that I could still live and see my wife and children came flooding in.

However, the knight called the lieutenant said with an annoyed face.

“There are many other villages to visit besides this village! And I am well aware of the difficult circumstances of you future serfs of the empire. Accordingly, they were instructed not to accept any banquets or entertainments. damn… ”

And the knight left us, commanding in a voice full of annoyance.

“Plot boss! Let’s find out if this village has any food we can buy.”

“Yes, Lieutenant Yavor. Everyone scatter and buy food from the serfs at a fair price! If you are caught taking back money or threatening, you will be beheaded according to the military law!! Also, don’t touch the grain that will be sown in the spring! If you get caught, you die!”

A few hours later, the soldiers formed a team of two and went to every house in the village looking for food to spare, then told the driver.

“Occasionally barley and some wheat were found secretly hidden for sowing in the spring… Seeing that all of them have not been milled, it seems that they are barely left to be used as seeds for the next farming.”

“I’m going crazy and freaking out. However, the command is absolute.”

“Yes, I understand. Then, I will prepare to return to the main base with the soldiers.”

“Let it be. ah… Until we return to the main base, we leave the biscuits here except for the food we need. It’s going to get moldy soon anyway.”

They hid it because they would all die if the grain to be sown was taken away anyway, but even after finding it, they passed it off as seeds to be sown…

If it were a normal army, I wouldn’t have killed the guys hiding the grain, but I would have tortured them and even stolen all the seeds hidden under the warehouse…

Who the hell is commanding this army, no, what kind of person is the Duke of Orléans to show such mercy…

What’s more surprising than that is that the soldiers of the Marquis who led the invincible army that slaughtered us so easily were such generous people?

I couldn’t understand them, who showed a completely different look from the lords I’ve experienced in my life.

That’s how they said they were going to throw away the bread that looks like a hard lump of earth called biscuits because it’s rotten.

Hungry, we brought knives for slicing bread to share even that… The knife didn’t work at all, so I ended up breaking it with an ax and hammer.

The inside didn’t rot as a result of the crushing, but instead small brown weevils, like beans, were crawling madly through it.

It looked like an army of bugs clad in brown rags.

Also, they quickly got out of the biscuits as if they were embarrassed, but we couldn’t hide our surprise when we saw them.

“This bread is right… ? And considering that it was rotten and thrown away, the outside and the inside are fine… Aww!! It’s a weevil!!”

“If you boil it, everything will die, you crazy bastard! I can live by eating this… ”

“Right, anyway, that Creutel gave it to us, but even barley or wheat porridge sometimes contains bugs!! Bring some water!”

And we soon boiled water, put the bread that Creutel’s army had given us into it, and made it like porridge and ate it.

Fortunately, instead of the weevil taste, the porridge only tasted like pure wheat flour.

That’s how we were able to make porridge using the bread left by the soldiers we had just stopped by, and solve our hunger.

As an aside, when I heard the story of another village a few days later…

They didn’t show tyranny where other nobles’ troops came and went, but I heard that no unit left anything to eat like ours…

If you save the amount of leftover biscuits in the future, it will be enough to survive until the barley harvest… The worry of starvation was alleviated.

That’s how the villagers and I ate the porridge that ran down our throats and swallowed the enmity towards the Creutel bastard who had been massacring in the plains of Waine, gradually filling our hungry stomachs.

Because the dead family and friends don’t come back, what we needed now was food to last until the barley harvest without dying.

So instead of hostility, gratitude to the benefactor who saved us from starvation gradually built up.

**

The Marquis of Creutel’s family camp, the deputy commander’s barracks.

“Yes, it was hard. In my family, none of them plundered as they were taught, and in other families, some of the small units did plunder… All beheaded or severely punished by the duke who wanted bloodless entry… Of course, the duke must have gathered all the people from the surrounding villages to execute it, right?”

“Yes, Your Excellency. Thanks to that, the reputations of His Highness the Duke of Orléans and the rest of the nobles rose a lot, and the serfs began to cooperate actively.”

“Very nice, Captain Short. Yes, at about the current momentum, in about 15 days, we will be able to safely occupy the Architel Countries.”

Of course, as the Duke and I know, this is a ploy to allow them to enter a deeper place by giving away the Earl of Architel, which is difficult for them to defend anyway.

The problem is that the goal of this expedition is to occupy even the Marquis of Simon, so we have no choice but to fall for their tricks even knowing that…

“Also, intelligence has come in that His Highness, the Duke of Orléans, is angry with us for providing unconsensual relief. It sounds like you’re going to protest against us for leaving a large quantity of biscuits in the county. What should we do?”

“In preparation for a case like this, didn’t we appoint one of our logistics managers as ‘the guy who was caught trying to embezzle a lot of military supplies a few months ago, but I told him to acquiesce’? Even for the crimes before that, he was scheduled to be executed on a wheel after confiscation of property, so he has nothing to be wrong with if he is falsely accused of supplying rotten biscuits by mistake. There is a false charge, so after being beheaded for ruining supplies, the family will not be held accountable. Because his son is sincere and competent, the exact opposite of his father.”

“This is a wise idea. And sir… A month later, when our expeditionary force entered the Iris county, I gave Margherita an order to transport food to the starving serfs in the county of Aquitel.”

If you do this, unless the Duke of Orléans really miraculously succeeds in completely capturing Simon…

All the basic paving stones that I could safely absorb, even the Countess of Iris, were laid.

Now, after I roll this war however I want, my son Irina gave birth to… I’m going to bring a county to give as a gift to Luke…

Anyway, when I retire, my son will inherit all the territories I have occupied.

I just took my toes, and the cute guy who sees me and calls me daddy will soon grow up and become an adult.

Since I got Windheim at the age of 15, I need to let him gain experience governing the county at the age of 15 so that he can develop the ability to safely maintain and develop the territory after he retires.