Volume Two: The Iron-Blooded Baron Chapter 124: There Are Thieves Coming from the Sea (10)
However, Sir Rudy did not let Balian watch here for long, and quickly urged Balian to change into baronet clothes so that he could go out to attend the banquet.
With no choice, Balian took off his chain mail and put on his clothes with the help of his uncle. This baronial dress was made by the royal craftsman of Brick Palace. There was nothing special about the clothes and the materials were not.
Particularly particular is the green velvet jacket.
The most important thing is the hat. This hat is made of fine gray fox fur, with two mink tails hanging on it. There are four silver balls on the edge of the hat, which means that the two parts of the day are not forgotten, day and night.
I vow to always keep my responsibilities in mind during the four seasons of the year.
The baron's costume is the same as that of the baron, except that there are two more silver balls on the hat; the viscount's costume is the same as that of the baron and the baron, the most obvious one is that there is a gold leaf on the hat, and the number of silver balls is five.
The mink's tail also became two and a half.
When it comes to the earl and marquis levels, it is different. They all wear a red fox fur hat and a red velvet jacket. The earl's hat has three and a half mink tails, four gold leaves and four silver balls; the marquis' hat has four.
Half mink tail, six gold leaves, no silver balls.
The attire of a Duke at this level is mainly blue, with a blue velvet jacket, a gold-threaded blue velvet hat, six mink tails, and eight gold leaves, which look luxurious enough at first glance.
The titles and costumes of the four countries in Verinland follow the division method of the empire a hundred years ago, except that everyone is a principality, no one calls the king, the monarch is a duke, and the following marquis can only be owned by the monarch's heir.
In addition, he will not be canonized as a marquis.
However, now that the Valenti people have become king, they have restored the title of marquis, and a small number of dukes have also been conferred, which makes the monarchs of the other three countries very unhappy.
We are just dukes. It would be better for you to confer dukes on all your men. Isn’t this an obvious insult to us? However, the Valenti people are so powerful that they have already made the Orians in the north complain incessantly and lost half the county.
Territory, or land adjacent to the capital of neighboring countries.
The Duke of Carolingian, the monarch of the Principality of Brick, also wants to be king, but he has to wait until his army defeats the Valenti people before becoming king. At that time, his coronation crown will not be used by the nobles on the continent of Verin.
They criticized it.
Balian put on his clothes and thought about it, and then he was pushed out of the door by Sir Rudy, dragging him to go to the banquet. The banquet had already begun. As the protagonist today, Balian must not keep everyone waiting for too long.
Otherwise, these small-minded nobles of the direct county would definitely speak ill of Balian behind his back.
After arriving at the banquet hall, Balian was arranged to sit next to Earl David. He and Viscount Merry sat on either side of Earl David, giving him the feeling of being his right-hand man. This is what Earl David wanted everyone to see.
of.
At the beginning of the banquet, Earl David made a speech, mainly saying that he was very happy to meet everyone, that the county directly under him was very beautiful, that he looked forward to visiting more in the future, and asked everyone to take good care of his old subordinate, Baron Balian.
After him, Viscount Merritt also made a speech. The content was almost the same. It was all nonsense and nothing substantial. However, he still won warm applause from everyone.
After the two of them, Balian, the protagonist of tonight's banquet, also gave a passionate speech, thanking everyone from the monarch to Sir Pippin and others, and received false applause and cheers from everyone.
Voice.
At noon the next day, Balian woke up after being extremely drunk at the banquet. There were too many people at the banquet, and it was difficult for him to escape from drinking. Although he tried to drink less, he still drank too much.
The next day I woke up with a splitting headache and body aches.
Under the care of Bran and Harker, it was not until night that he finally recovered. Balian decided to quit drinking again this time. However, he knew that he would not be able to quit for long, but he really had to drink less in the future.
It's really a shame to make yourself feel so uncomfortable.
After that night, Balian said goodbye to Earl David, Viscount Merry, and his uncle Sir Rudy's family, and then left the city of Amundine and returned to Norlandenburg.
On the first day they arrived at the castle, Balian held a knighthood ceremony. Mark, the leader on the civil service side, and Bess, the leader on the military attache side, were awarded knighthoods and became Balian's inner palace knights.
Balian's friend Eomer, who was also the first to follow Balian, was only awarded the title of apprentice knight, which was considered to be restored to his previous role in the palace guard. This is what Balian promised him a year ago. In addition,
The two titles of apprentice knights were awarded to Barrett, the captain of the militia, and Rothier, the captain of the cavalry.
The five people, including Eomer, were very excited, especially Mark and Bess. They were the second sons of a lord and a mercenary. They had never thought that they could become nobles with titles in this life.
, this was such a surprise to them.
Mark even cried on the spot. He was the second son of a commoner who could not inherit the family property. He originally thought that he would have a happy life as a butler for Balian, but he never thought that he could become a knight. If only his old father
He would definitely be happy to know, but if his brother knew about it, he would definitely be extremely angry.
Bess, Barrett, and Rothschild were also overjoyed. They all came from civilian families for generations, and they never thought that their family could enter the aristocratic circle in their own generation. Especially Rothschild, who
He was very surprised that Balian awarded himself the apprentice knight, because he had just arrived at Nolandenburg and had not done any merit, yet he could still receive such a reward.
At the meeting, Rochiel stated that he would always be loyal to Balian, but he also asked him to reward the apprentice knight title to other meritorious people. After all, he had just arrived at Norlandenburg and had not yet established any meritorious deeds.
Balian knew the important role that the cavalry played on the battlefield in the Middle Ages. It was precisely for this reason that he did not hesitate to risk the dismay of Bahrain, Gamlin, Hama, Liano and others.
This title of apprentice knight was awarded to Rohirrim.
He originally thought that Rohirr would accept it gladly. After all, this was a good opportunity for commoners to enter the aristocratic class. However, Rohirr actually refused on the spot and said so sincerely, which surprised Balian.
Balian secretly glanced at the people standing below, thought for a moment, and said: "Okay, in that case, I will take back the title of this trainee knight first, but after we drive away the Toba pirates, I will grant it again.
This time, it all depends on the performance of the warriors here. Whoever’s team makes the greatest contributions and kills or captures the most pirates will be awarded the title of trainee knight. Do you agree?”
"agree!"
"This is a good idea! Your Majesty is wise."
…
Everyone said that this method is acceptable. Looking at everyone's looks, Balian thought to himself, it seems that Rochiel's refusal is correct. I am really too impatient. When this battle is over, we will see how big the cavalry can stand.
Credit, if they really don't perform as well as others, then they can only consider promoting Rochiel later.
After the promotion of titles and the conferring of titles to his subordinates came to an end, the entire Nolandenburg entered an intense preparation stage. In the past few days when Balian went to Amundine City, many refugees had appeared on the Knights Avenue.
They all fled their homes and took refuge due to the invasion of Toba pirates.
Moreover, on the way back, Balian personally asked some of the people who were fleeing, and they said that the Toba pirates' vanguard had crossed the Coolum County and was attacking the direct county along the Carr River, and there were quite a few of them, there should be thousands.
More than one person.
After receiving the news, Balian sent people to the city of Amundine to report the enemy's situation to Viscount Merry. At the same time, he sent people to set up secret outposts along the Karl River to the west, asking them to keep an eye on the river. Once traces of the Toba pirates were discovered,
Come back and report immediately.
Because Fort Norlandenburg was the first stop for Toba pirates to invade the directly-administered county. In addition, the pirates came from Yangweixuo County, so they must have heard about the reputation of Balian and the news about Fort Norlandenburg from the people they plundered.
, and in the past two months, the bards in the north did not sing long poems taking the credit of Balian's recovery of Maple Leaf Manor.
In order to avenge their fallen outpost brethren, and also to frighten the Brick-led knights in the direct county, these drag pirates will definitely attack Fort Noland first. If there are really more than a thousand pirates attacking,
Balian was about to be ready to abandon Fort Norland and let Mark take the people to escape to the safer Alpine Province.
He, Bess, Eomer, Rohirrim and other elite troops went into the stag forest and hid, waiting for opportunities to kill the invading pirates.
In the history of Balian's previous life, the great man who never appeared once said, "If you save the land and lose the people, everyone and the land will be lost; if you save the people and lose the land, both the people and the land will survive." It is indeed true. Castles and houses have collapsed, but they can be rebuilt, and the land can be cultivated.
The crops there have been burned and can be replanted next year, but if there are no people left, everything will be lost.
In the past few days, Balian didn't sleep well every day. After all, it was the first time he faced such a big dilemma, the first time he shouldered the fate of thousands of people, and the first time he had to command more than 600 people to participate in a battle. He was not nervous.
It's impossible.
This is not playing chess or playing computer games in previous lives. Any of your judgments and decisions are related to the lives of multiple people. Every mistake you make will be recorded with blood and life. You said, you face this kind of
When this happens, will your palms not get sweaty?
Of course, Balian was anxious inside, but he still looked calm in front of everyone. He couldn't let the soldiers see his commander panic before the enemy came. Then there would be no need to fight this battle, and it hadn't even started yet.
, morale is lost.
Although people like Mark, Bess, and Eomer tried their best to restrain themselves, they were also restless. This is also a normal reaction for people when facing uncertain things. If these slutty pirates had come over, everyone would not
I'm nervous. After all, I'm ready to fight, so just go ahead and do it.
But wait and wait, it has been half a month since Balian returned to Fort Norland. These pirates haven't come yet, but they are definitely coming, but I don't know what has delayed them. The final outcome is certain.
, but there is an uncertain time, which is really annoying.
The pirates were not in big trouble, but they were really stuck by many "things" and couldn't move forward immediately.
Count Escalade, who was a provocateur of pirates, led his team and plundered all the way along the Carr River. Basically, he encountered no decent resistance. The lords sealed the castle tightly and hid inside without caring about the people under their rule.
The life and death of the people.
Count Elade's three wolf masters each led five to six hundred people to kill and loot as much as they could, as if they were in an uninhabited land. In the past half month, they had robbed a large amount of money, food, cloth, furs, etc.
Many young Brick girls were sent to the pirates' ships and allowed to be bullied and ravaged by them.
The current situation is that there are too many women in the looted goods, and their ships cannot accommodate them, but everyone is reluctant to throw them away. Count Escalade has no choice but to line up a hundred people to build a stronghold near the dock of Yangweixuo Bay to let everyone
Send all the good things you robbed, then go into battle lightly and go to the county directly under your jurisdiction to kill and plunder wildly.
Although the lords of Yang Weixuo Province usually do their best to obtain goods from the people, and have repeatedly promised to protect these people, at the critical moment, no one came out to fight against the ferocious Toba pirates.
No, on the contrary, some farmers who spontaneously resisted and bandits who witnessed the inhuman atrocities of the Toba pirates caused some casualties to the pirates under Count Escalade.
However, after sending away all the goods and women, Earl Escalade's men boarded the ship again. This time their destinations were the city of Amundine in the direct county and Fort Nolandon in Balian.
This morning, before Balian woke up after having a meeting with his subordinates until midnight last night, Bess shouted: "Sir, the pirates are here!" and broke in to wake Balian up.