Before he could finish his words of thanks, Balian invited him into the castle and asked Mark to arrange for broth and bread to be prepared for Lal's men. As for Lal, Balian invited him to the Lord's Hall to eat with him.
The cook heated up the remaining barbecue from last night, made an apple pie, and served it together with broth, fish steaks, etc. Balian and Grover ate with Lar, chatting while eating.
After chatting for a while, Balian began to ask him some questions, "Lal, you can make a lot of money selling ale from Yangweixuo to Alpine Castle, right?"
Lal took a sip of the broth, thought for a while and said: "Lord Balian, actually you can't earn much, but it's too cold now and no one wants to work, so you can earn more than in other seasons. If it weren't for the cold weather,
The ground is freezing and I don’t want to come out.”
"How much does a barrel of Yang Weixuo's ale cost? If it's not expensive, you can bring us some next time." Balian continued to ask.
Lal looked flustered for a moment, but quickly calmed down. However, the change in his expression was also seen by Balian and Grove.
Lal thought for a moment and replied: "Almost one dinar per barrel, Lord Balian."
"Hehehe, then there is no way that this ale can be sold to Alpine Castle for less than three dinars per barrel. Otherwise, how can the cost be enough?" Balian looked at Lal and said with a smile.
"Yes, yes, some taverns sell five dinars a barrel." Lal responded while chewing the food in his mouth.
At this time, Balian gave Grove a wink, and Grove stood up and told Lal that he had a barrel of good ale here, and he would bring it over for Lal to taste later.
It didn't take long for Grove to come in. He didn't bring the ale. He said with a smile: "It turns out that the barrel of ale was finished last night. Chief Lal, you won't be able to enjoy it anymore."
Lal smiled and said: "I asked the man to open a barrel of our ale and give it to Lord Balian and everyone to taste."
As he said that, he was about to go out, but Grover pulled out his sword and pointed it at his neck, preventing him from going out. Lal was a little panicked, but still said with a smile: "My brother Grover, are you kidding?"
What a joke, I'm going out to get wine for Lord Balian now." As he said that, he turned to look at Balian.
Balian sat there with a smile on his face, "Lal, Grove is not kidding you."
At this time, sweat broke out on Lal's nervous forehead. He continued to say with a flattering smile: "My Lord Balian, if you want money, you can tell me a price. As long as I can afford it, I will give it to you."
You, otherwise my goods can be handed over to you, but you must not harm my life, I am just a small businessman."
"Hahaha, small businessman? As a businessman, why don't you even know the price of ale?" Balian asked.
"I don't understand what you mean, Lord Balian. The prices I mentioned are all true. I am really a businessman." Lal replied anxiously.
"Hmph!" Balian snorted, and then said: "Okay, then I will tell you how many of your flaws I used to discover that you are not a businessman.
First of all, your small caravan is very suspicious. It's freezing cold. Except for the big caravans, almost no small traders are willing to come out at this time. It's easy to be attacked by wild animals and frostbite. It's not worth the gain.
Furthermore, you are only seven or eight people, and there are no guards. You actually came out of Yangweixuo City safely and marched along the southern foot of Buck Forest. This is incredible! You know, there are so many green forest bandits in Buck Forest, and even
You dare to attack a medium to large caravan protected by multiple caravan guards, how could you let your small caravan go so easily?
Also, as a grocer, and a small businessman at that, how could you go all the way in the cold just to sell some cheap ale? All the merchants I met on the way from Valombre were small and large.
The teams were all carrying all kinds of goods, and the cars were packed to the brim, just asking for more money;
Finally, the thing that made me conclude that you are definitely not a businessman is that you actually bought a barrel of ale from Yang Weixuo for one dinar and sold it to Alpine Castle, saying that you could sell it for five dinars per barrel. Yang Weixuo was
In coastal port cities, ale is shipped from other places, and a lot of it is shipped from Amundine. The mountain fort is surrounded by plains and is the largest grain-producing area in the north. There is no shortage of wheat, and the ale is not valuable at all.
!
The Grove in front of you was in Gaoshan Castle three days ago. When we drank together yesterday, he told me personally that Gaoshan Castle Wine
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You can buy three barrels of ale in the restaurant for one dinar.
Tell me, should I doubt you?"
After hearing what Balian said, Lal lowered his head and sighed, "Hey! I knew this was not a good idea."
"Then can you tell me what kind of idea this is?" Balian asked him.
Lal continued to lower his head and did not answer Balian's questions.
At this time, there were shouts and fighting outside. Lal looked up and saw Bess coming in with two soldiers. After they glanced at Lal, they said to Balian: "Sir, we have already concluded the business transaction."
The rest of the team were captured, but they didn’t want to be captured without mercy, so they fought with us for a while, and after we killed two of them, the others surrendered, but our men were not injured.”
Balian nodded, "Okay, lock them all up first and guard them closely so that no one can escape."
Later, two soldiers tied up Lal and took him to the wood shed. During this period, a lot of wood was used to make longbows. There was an open space inside, and Lal was tied to a chair.
Above, Bess and Grove and two soldiers are accompanying Balian here.
After Lal was brought here, he didn't say a word. Seeing that he didn't speak, Balian said: "If you take the initiative to speak out, I will spare your life. If you don't take the initiative to speak out, I'm afraid I will use some means to come.
You still have to say something when the time comes."
Hearing this, Lal's expression changed, but he quickly returned to his previous appearance and continued to lower his head and remain silent. Seeing him like this, Balian knew that he had to resort to some means, so he asked the soldiers to get a bucket of water and
As soon as a dozen pieces of gray straw paper came over, Balian asked the soldiers to hold down Lal. Then Balian wetted the gray grass paper and came to Lal. "I estimate that you can hold up to ten pieces of paper." After saying this, Balian began to hold down Lal.
Wet gray straw paper was covered on his face, and he slowly kept adding more. As a result, when he reached the sixth sheet, Lal couldn't hold on any longer. He wanted to draw everything out. As a man,
A senior scout, Balian had learned many simple and effective techniques for interrogating prisoners in the army in his previous life, so he was not afraid that he would not tell them.
Based on Lal's confession, Balian and the others knew that the people in this caravan were all from one of the two largest bandit groups in the southern foothills of Stag Forest, a bandit group called the Blood Wolf. They came this time
The purpose was to win the trust of Balian, and then get the castle guards drunk with ale, so as to welcome their large army in so that they could sack the castle. There were about a hundred bandits who attacked at night, and only twenty of them were wearing armor.
, the weapons are also relatively sophisticated, others only have a single sword or an ax as a weapon, and no armor.
Afterwards, he interrogated several bandits separately, and their answers were basically consistent with what Lal said, and they learned the signaling method they agreed on. Balian confirmed that there was a sneak attack by bandits tonight, and then Balian reported the main people in the castle to
The officers all gathered together to discuss countermeasures. After some discussion, everyone felt that it was appropriate to stick to the castle. After all, the castle had been reinforced, the soldiers had been trained for more than half a month, and there were so many bows and arrows, so there was no problem in sticking to it.
After hearing everyone's opinions, Balian smiled and said, "It's right to stick to it. After all, we don't have the advantage in terms of military strength, but we have come all the way to this place, can we only hide in this turtle shell and get beaten?"
After hearing this, Bess and Grove looked at each other, and then said: "Lord Balian, do you want to eat this group of robbers?"
"Yes, destroy them completely so that there will be one less threatening force in our territory." Balian replied decisively.
"Master, this, this is too risky." Hearing that Balian wanted to win more with less, butler Mark was surprised.
Balian stood up, walked to the center of the hall, and said to everyone: "I think we have the advantage in this battle, let me tell you.
First, in terms of military strength, including me, there are forty people who can fight, and thirty mercenaries from the Free Company will also arrive today. We have seventy people, all wearing armor and helmets, and the weapons are relatively sophisticated.
Soldiers, while the enemy only has a hundred people and only twenty elites, we still have a great advantage;
Second, now the enemy doesn’t know that we have discovered their trick. In this case, why don’t we use the trick to bring the enemy in and attack them secretly;
Third, the weather is freezing, and they will come and attack us on winter nights. We will be cold, freezing, hungry, and thirsty, but we are waiting for work, just waiting for them to take the bait.
When I say this, everyone feels that we have a good chance of winning."
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As soon as Balian finished speaking, Eomer slapped the table, stood up and laughed: "Hahaha, sir, I support you! No matter how many enemies there are, no matter how many enemies there are, I will listen to you!"
After Eomer expressed his stance, Bess, Balin and others also expressed their support for Balian, but Grover did not speak.
Balian asked: "Grove, my friend, what do you propose?"
Upon hearing this, Grove quickly stood up and replied: "Lord Balian, of course I support you. Besides, there are thirty soldiers of the Free Company here to defeat these bandits who only attack caravans."
It's still very simple. However, we are only responsible for defending the city. If we go to war, we will need to pay extra. The team is not my own, so I must explain the cost to you clearly. I am confused about how to tell you."
"Hahaha!" Bellion laughed a few times, "Tell me your price."
Grove calculated silently and said: "To participate in the war, everyone's weekly salary will be doubled. If it is less than a week, it will be calculated on a daily basis, and we will also need one-fifth of what was captured on the battlefield. That is to say, today
Later you will pay us thirty dinars as salary, plus one-fifth of the capture from the battlefield."
After hearing this, Balian said without thinking: "I will give you fifty dinars, plus one-fifth of what was captured on the battlefield of Fort Noland tonight. I have only one request. You must go all out to help.
I win."
When Grover heard this, he was very happy. He quickly bent down and saluted, "Thank you, generous Lord Balian. The Free Company will fight bloody battles for you to the end!"
Balian motioned for Grove to get up and said: "Now, there is a very important thing, that is, you must quickly pick up your mercenary team and inform them of the situation. In order to prevent the enemy from discovering it, you must hide first
, wait until it gets dark before entering the castle, so that we can be surprised."
Grove nodded and turned to leave. Balian stopped him and asked Tur to go with him. After all, Grove was not familiar with the terrain near Fort Nolandenburg.
After Grove and the others left, Balian and everyone else also planned closely, and asked Mark to gather the women and children, and load all important supplies into the truck, preparing to move them out after dark. After all, there was a war in the castle.
No one could say what accident might happen. For the safety of these people and the goods, Balian sent five soldiers to protect them.
Everything was arranged well, and after dark, Grove, Tull and the mercenaries of the Free Company also quietly entered the city. After everyone set up an ambush, they waited for the arrival of the robbers.
It was close to midnight. Balian and Éomer were on the city wall when they suddenly heard a wolf howl. Balian and Éomer looked at each other and smiled. This was the enemy coming. According to Lar's confession, such a wolf howl was the blood wolf.
The signal for the arrival of the troops. Balian grabbed the torch on the wall and threw it under the city. This was also the agreed signal, which meant that Lal and the others had taken care of the people in the city, and the large troops could enter with confidence.
Sure enough, after seeing the torches thrown down, a large group of people came out of the forest. Taking advantage of the moonlight, you could see that there were more than a dozen people wearing leather armor and leather helmets, and five or six well-equipped people wearing helmets.
Wearing nose helmets, chain mail shirts or iron leather armor. Others were dressed in tatters, many of them wrapped in animal skins, wearing torn hoods, carrying spears with curved shafts.
The ax used to chop wood trembled as he moved forward under the moonlight and in the cold wind.
Balian asked Bess to tell Grove and others who were ambushing inside to prepare for battle. On his side, he also arranged for people to wear the clothes of Lal's men and open the city gate.
At this time, Quaid, the leader of the Blood Wolf Gang, felt that his clever plan had succeeded and was very proud. He rode swaggeringly on a mule horse and said to his subordinate leader: "Listen, after entering the city, not only are you going to rob money, but also
Kill men and rob women, no matter nobles or commoners, all men will be killed and all women will be taken back!"
"Don't worry, Boss Quaid, the brothers have been holding back for a long time. They must go on a killing spree!"
"Yes, yes, I want to grab a beautiful girl for the leader, hahaha!"
"Our boss is really smart. Even if that stupid knight dies, he will feel honored that he fell into such an ingenious plan."
…
A group of small leaders chirped and responded with laughter. The compliments and responses from his men made Quaid even more elated. After seeing the city gate open, he pulled out his sword and waved it, "Brothers, charge me! Grab the money."