"No, Uncle Locke, I made the wrong move. Let's start again …" This was Bofinger's daughter, Alisa. She was playing Warcraft Chess with Loriste.
Warcraft Chess was a board game in Galinthea that was similar to Monopoly. The board was an irregular maze-like map with nearly a hundred chess pieces in the shape of magical beasts placed on it. The boss was a red dragon chess piece in the center of the maze. The player was a knight chess piece, and the number of moves to be taken was determined by throwing a die at the entrance.
Unlike Monopoly, Warcraft Chess required good calculation skills, as all the magical beast chess pieces had a score. For example, if a knight's score was ten, then there would be a demon goat in his next two moves. The demon goat's score would be five, meaning that the knight killed the goat without any damage, and the knight's score would become fifteen. If it was a demon wolf, its score would be nine, meaning that their combat power was similar. The knight's score would not be nineteen, but eleven. Only when there was a difference of one's score could they be added together. Otherwise, the knight's score would be subtracted.
There were many crossroads in the maze, guarded by all kinds of magical beasts. Every step had to be calculated in order to reach the center of the maze and kill the red dragon. That was why Warcraft Chess was also known as the Dragon Slaying Game.
Alisa had miscalculated and walked in the wrong direction, encountering a demon tiger. Her knight's combat power was only thirty-seven, but the demon tiger's score was forty-two. This meant that her knight had become canned food for the demon tiger. Her knight had to retreat to the entrance of the maze and start over. All the killed magical beast chess pieces had to be returned to the chessboard. This time, the little girl refused to accept it and wanted to go back on her move.
Loriste pinched her cheeks dotingly and generously agreed to let her choose a new direction.
Sitting on a chair next to the window was the little girl's brother, Shi Huade. At this moment, he was concentrating on a book he found on the bookshelf. Freya's two five-year-old twin brothers were sprawled on the floor in the middle of the room. They were eating snacks while playing with a set of building blocks. They were trying to build a small castle …
During this period of time, Lollister had been pestered by Alisa. Firstly, it had been half a year since Lollister had left the caravan to return to his family's territory, and Alisa missed this uncle who loved her dearly. Secondly, they were all hiding in Kebo City for the winter. It was snowing heavily and drizzling outside, so they couldn't go out to play. Furthermore, Lollister lived on the highest floor of the castle and had a spacious room. The little girl brought her two lackeys, Freya's twin brothers, over to play every day.
Boddinger and Freya were worried that the children would disturb Laurist and wanted to stop them from coming, but Laurist stopped them. Winter was long and boring, and it would be more lively with a few children around. As the Lord, there were people taking care of the matters of the carriages and the refugees. Laurist only needed to occasionally patrol the area and show that he was close to the people. There was no need for him to do everything himself.
He could also use this time to test his second disciple, Shiwald, to see if he had missed his lessons on the way north. To prevent the children from getting bored, Laurist even put in a lot of effort to design some toys for the children from his past life. He ordered the craftsmen to make them for the children, and turned his room into a playground for the children.
There was another knock on the door, and this time it was Padt.
"My Lord, Knight Yuri has returned. Lord Shredder invites you to the great hall to discuss matters," Padt said.
"Uncle, you have business to attend to. Let's not play." Before Laurist could say anything, the little girl, Alisa, stood up sensibly and threw the chess pieces and the scoreboard onto the chessboard.
Laurist was tongue-tied, "Little girl, uncle would've won in two more moves. You're being shameless again."
The little girl ignored him and ran over to the twins with a cheer, shaking her head and commenting on how ugly the castle was.
"Let's build a garden." She began to dismantle the castle.
The two brothers were unhappy, and the three started arguing again.
"What did Yuri say?" Laurist asked Padt as he and Padt walked down the stairs after shutting off the children's argument in the room.
"Yuri said the road is not easy to walk on. It's wet and muddy, and when you step on it, you'll sink up to your ankles. Now that the weather has thawed, and the spring rain is endless, the road is really muddy, and there's no way for large carriages to pass through. The road won't dry without at least ten days of sun exposure, "Padt replied," Right, Yuri also said he went to the riverside and asked the old boatman at the ferry. The old boatman said there's no way to cross the river until the 25th of February. A lot of icicles washed down from upstream, and they're all piled up on this part of the river. We can only cross the river after the ice is completely washed away by the end of February. "
"Sigh, there's still another month? My body is going to rot if I stay here any longer. Since we can't leave yet, what does Knight Shredder want me to discuss with him? "Laurist sighed.
"I'm not sure about that. He only said there's something he wants to discuss with you."
…
Compared to Laurist's leisurely life, Fatty Shi was extremely busy. The burden of managing and managing a convoy of more than seventy thousand people northbound, and the lives of a hundred thousand refugees were all on his shoulders. Just the trivial matters and small disputes that happened every day were enough to annoy him to death. Even though Fatty Shi had promoted more than fifty civilian managers from the convoy and refugees to help him manage all the affairs of the convoy and refugees, he was still annoyed by the endless trivial matters that kept popping up one after another.
"No, what right does he have? Bring the patrolling guards to him. Don't care if he's the old mayor or not, give him ten lashes. So what if he's seventy or eighty years old? If he violates our rules, he'll be punished. He deserves to be whipped to death! Whoever sympathizes with him, get out of here with him. We don't need this kind of guy who takes advantage of his seniority! Quick, give him ten lashes, this is an order! "
Laurist and Padt heard Fatty Shi's roar when they were still on the third flight of stairs. They didn't know what had angered him this time.
When they arrived at the hall, they saw one of Fatty Shi's subordinates running out. Fatty Shi was still angry.
"What's wrong?" Laurist asked.
"It's nothing. An old man in his seventies, relying on the fact that he used to be the mayor of a town, not only chose two women from the previous town's refugees to be his maids, but he also took one-tenth of the resources we distributed from the hands of the townspeople as his own commission. Weren't you packing and inspecting the tents in the camp these two days? Only now did we realize that he had accumulated a large amount of resources. We wanted to confiscate them, but he still took advantage of his age and threw a tantrum, so I ordered him to remember this lesson by giving him ten lashes. He's already a refugee, yet he still wants to act like a tyrant. How dare he? "Fatty Shi said.
"It's better to just hang him to death. He's just a burden at his old age anyway, a waste of our family's resources and food. Don't you think so, sir? "Yuri, who was sitting at the side drinking hot tea, interrupted.
Laurist thought for a moment and said, "Forget it, Shredder has already punished him, so there's no need to change it. But remember, when the caravan departs, get rid of these slippery, greedy, and lazy people to prevent them from becoming a bad influence in the family's territory. When the time comes, we'll just leave them here to fend for themselves. "
Fatty Shi's discussion with Laurist was also about the departure. Unlike Laurist, who wanted to return to the family's territory as soon as possible, Fatty Shi heaved a sigh of relief when he heard Yuri's report that they had to wait for another month before they could go north. It was only late January, and even if they wanted to go north, they still had to make some preparations. All the carriages had to be inspected, and the horses had to be driven out to relax. More than a hundred thousand people's food and clothing needed time, so they couldn't leave immediately.
Most importantly, Fatty Shi wanted to pack up the remaining 170 million jin of food in Kebo City and transport it back to the family's territory. This way, the carriages that were originally used to transport people would have to be freed up, and the people on foot would obviously slow down the caravan's speed.
Laurist was very vexed. He wanted to give up on the food and return to the family's territory as soon as possible. But Fatty Shi managed to convince him with a number.
Fatty Shi said that in the past two and a half months and eighty days, the 170,000 people in Kebo City had consumed more than 30 million jin of food. If they just brought the people back to the family's territory without the food, there would definitely be a famine in less than three months. He didn't believe that there were hundreds of millions of jin of food stored in the family's territory just waiting for these 100,000 people to go over and eat.
Laurist had to admit that Fatty Shi's words made sense. He remembered that Steward Spear had reported to him that the family's storage and the food seized from Beiye Town added up to about 50 to 60 million jin, and they still had to provide labor for the construction of Monolith Castle and the consumption of the family's armed forces. This year, Beiye Town had been abandoned, and the Maple Forest Manor's annual food reserves were usually seven to eight million jin. If they didn't bring back the food from Kebo City, once the caravan and the refugees arrived, they would probably starve for the second half of the year.
"Bring it." Laurist could only agree, and then he remembered something. "Don't forget about the trouble of crossing the river. Since there's still a month, let the craftsman camp make the boats and rafts first. We can transport these things to the pontoon bridge first, and then come back to transport the supplies."
"Is this the Locke's boat you designed?"
"Uh … sort of. But this time, we need to cross the freight carriages, and the pontoon bridge has to be five meters wide. Let the craftsmen make the boats longer. The surface of the river is different from the surface of the lake, and there will be wind and waves. Add two more layers of green cement. Right, the width of the river is about 300 meters. Make as many boats as you want, according to this length, "Laurist ordered.
…
On the 10th of February, the second prince once again rushed to Kebo City in a light carriage in the drizzle. He had two purposes this time. The first was to borrow food again, and the second was to hope that Laurist could delay his journey and stay in Kebo City until April or May. After harvesting the winter wheat, he would leave for the north.
The second prince's reason was to ask Laurist to stay in Kebo City and lead the armed forces to suppress the nobles in the Delimek province, so that they wouldn't cause trouble for him during the decisive battle between him and the Madras Grand Duke. The second prince was confident that it would only take three months to sweep through the Delimek province and make the Madras Grand Duke bow before him.
Laurist shook his head and directly rejected the second prince's request. He said that he hadn't received any news from his family since he left last September, and he was really worried. Now that the cold winter was over and the spring rain was coming, he was eager to return home. He couldn't wait to return to his family's territory tomorrow, so he couldn't agree to the second prince's request. He was really sorry.
However, Laurist thought that after the convoy set off, he could hand Kebo City over to the second prince. As long as the second prince sent more than ten thousand soldiers from the royal army to guard Kebo City, he believed that the nobles in the Delimek province wouldn't dare to act rashly. As for borrowing food, there was no need to mention it. He was willing to give the second prince twenty million kilograms of food as a congratulatory gift for the second prince's victory over the Madras Grand Duke.
However, even with Laurist's words, the second prince still frowned. He said that if he transferred these ten thousand soldiers, he wouldn't be able to concentrate on dealing with the Madras Grand Duke's Seamount Legion. The best way was for Laurist to leave half of the convoy armed in Kebo City and bring the refugees and supplies north to his family's territory.
Laurist still refused. He said that he would bring all the people in the convoy home, and that he wouldn't leave anyone behind. Moreover, there was no reason for him to leave his people here. This wasn't his family's territory, so why would they stay here?
In the end, Laurist and the second prince parted on bad terms.
Looking at the silhouettes of the second prince and his entourage leaving, Leurist poked Fatty Shi beside him with his elbow. "Do you understand now? He would rather die than say that he would bestow Kebo City to our family. No matter how good the other conditions were, they were all empty promises. It was hard enough for him to rack his brain to find a reason to persuade us to stay."
Fatty Shi smiled bitterly. "I think we need to speed up our preparations and leave this place as soon as possible. I suspect that the real reason why the second prince asked us to stay here is because he received news that the second prince is preparing to attack the Delimuk province. So, he hopes that we will stay here to block the second prince's attack and buy him time to prepare for war. Otherwise, he will wait for us and the second prince to suffer heavy losses so that he can reap the benefits. "
"You're very right." Laurist nodded. "I suspect this is also the reason. That's why he isn't willing to send his royal army here. I don't believe that losing ten thousand soldiers will affect the decisive battle between him and the Madras Grand Duke. Didn't you see the news that El wrote us?
Our second prince hasn't been idle this winter. With the one hundred million kilograms of food, he not only replenished the 56,000 soldiers in Gale Legion, but also expanded the royal army to 83,000 soldiers. In addition, he completed the reconstruction of Lejidana Fortress and formed two garrisons of ten thousand men each. No one would believe him if he says that he doesn't have any troops. Even if he can't send out the royal army, can he not send out the garrisons? Does he really think that we're idiots? "
"I have to admit that the second prince is indeed an ambitious man. We have done so many things for him and helped him so much, but in the blink of an eye, he can sell us out without mercy. Does he really think that we really don't know his intentions?" Fatty Shi said emotionally, "Compared to him, your heart is too soft, Locke. Sometimes, I really don't understand why you're so kind. You're like a good person. You're a lord now, not an instructor of Dawn Academy. You have to have the dignity of a lord. "
Laurist laughed and recited a poem that Fatty Shi found strange. "A heartless man is not necessarily a true hero. How can a pitiful son not be a good man …"
"Then, do you think it's better to follow a lord like me or a hero like the second prince?" Laurist turned and returned to the castle.
"Hey, where did you read that poem from? It's interesting." Fatty Shi turned and hurried to catch up. "Nonsense. Of course I'll follow you. You're my little brother. I have to make sure that you don't do anything wrong. Being a lord is always a joke. Also, I'd rather die than follow the second prince. Otherwise, I'd have to count the money for him if I were to be sold one day. That would be a loss. "
"I just feel sorry for those old students and Silver Knights who joined the second prince. They followed us north for half a year and nothing happened to them. Two of them died in less than ten days. It's not worth it. Oh right, Loke, you have to remind your cousin Christie. I think with the second prince's personality, she won't be able to become the queen … "Fatty Shi kept nagging.
Laurist sighed and replied, "Fatty, you talk too much. Forget it. Everyone has their own destiny. It's hard for us to change their minds. I'll remind my cousin. Whether she listens or not is up to her. "
…
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
