I built a manor in the Middle Ages

Chapter 109 First Trade (25)

Three days later, at the end of May.

In the early morning, sunlight shines through the gaps in the leaves, and the chirping of unknown insects and birds fills the forest.

Luke mounted the warhorse, sat firmly on the horse's back, adjusted his sitting posture, and took the lance handed to him by Ryan.

Signaling Ryan to step back, Luke took a deep breath and began to move forward.

With its legs clamped around the horse's belly, the docile Percheron sensed its master's intention. Having experienced countless charges, it immediately quickened its pace, and countless green grasses were broken by its hooves.

The increasingly fast speed made the mountain wind form an invisible wall. Luc's hair and beard were blown up, and he couldn't help but squint his eyes, staring at the thatched pile in the distance.

The scene of Henry's charge emerged in his mind. Luc lowered his body slightly, tucked the back end of his seven-foot-long lance under his armpit, gripped his wrist backwards, and pointed the lance to the left.

Fifty steps, twenty steps, ten steps.
The thatch pile grew bigger and bigger inside the pupil.

The sound of horse hooves was swift.

boom!
Suddenly, a huge crash sounded!

Then there was a crackling sound!

Ryan quickly looked up, and in his sight, he saw Luc riding his horse and stabbing the thatched stake on the left side exactly!

The tip of the spear hit the wooden stake, and the huge force instantly broke the lance.

The horse's hooves continued to move forward. Luc pulled the reins with a sigh and threw away half of his lance.

"Master! You hit the stake with one strike!"

Ryan trotted over, waving and shouting excitedly.

Luc, sitting on his horse, also had a smile on his face, feeling proud of the charge he had just made.

Because a lance charge requires a larger space, the venue was deliberately moved to a grassland in the wild. Before the formal charge, Luc had actually practiced the use of the lance for a while, but it was not the so-called clamped lance charge, but lance movements such as stabbing.

The key to wielding a lance is to keep the lance steady and motionless, while stabbing means manually extending the lance and stabbing the enemy when approaching the enemy.

The two are worlds apart.

"Well, although there are still some problems, it's really great to be able to hit the target for the first time."

Luc is generous in praising himself, but he also knows that he still has many shortcomings.

For example, because of the impact just now, he deliberately chose a lighter tree as the spear shaft, and imitated Henry, holding the lance in his right arm but crossing the tip of the spear on the left side. Even so, the layers of force injected into the spear body still made his arm numb despite his amazing arm strength.

Looking at the half-broken lance on the ground, no wonder it is so valuable to knights. The wood consumed in practicing lance alone is enough to make an ordinary person suffer.

Following the excited Ryan, we returned to the manor. Luc had spent a long time on lance training today, and everyone had been working for half a day.

But Jill did not go to work, but stood at the gate of the yard, as if waiting for Luc.

"Good day, my lord!"

Seeing him from a distance, Jill immediately greeted him loudly.

Riding his horse unsteadily to the fenced yard, Luc glanced at the energetic Jill and couldn't help but smile: "You're full of energy. It seems that you're in a good mood after being with Amy?"

Jill's face flushed immediately. Although they weren't married, he already lived with Amy. He opened his mouth to answer, but Ryan interrupted him and joked, "Of course, sir, you don't know, but Hans has been nagging me lately, saying that he can hear birds singing at night and it keeps him awake."

Looking at the two people's teasing eyes, Jill's face almost turned into a monkey's butt.

Luc was just joking casually and of course didn't care about his personal affairs. He turned serious and said, "Jill, how is the charcoal I asked you to prepare?" When talking about charcoal, Gil also lost his shyness. He was waiting for Luc here for this matter.

He raised his arm and said, "Sir, it's ready, a whole cart!"

Looking in the direction of the arm, I saw a cart of charcoal quietly placed in the woods, and a mule was tied not far away, eating grass with its head down.

The wooden cart was originally from Ward Village. It had a built-in guardrail on the body and had not been used since it was seized from the Wild Boar Cave. Now it has been pieced together again and turned into a tool for transporting charcoal.

Looking at the fully loaded mule cart, Luc nodded with satisfaction. This would be the first step in his business venture!
The Hoffman Caravan is coming!

"Lian, go to the cabin and bring the prepared dry food, and call Old Eike over by the way."

Luc led the warhorse to the trough. After a while, old Eike arrived after hearing the news, bowed slightly and waited for instructions.

"Did you remember what I told you before?" Luke wiped the sweat off the warhorse himself and asked softly.

"Of course!"

"The wheat harvest is in June, so don't grind it yet until you return. Repairs to the wooden fort continue, and the goats need to be sheared again. Also, we need to build a thatched hut that can accommodate at least ten people."

Seeing that Old Eike knew everything, Luc nodded slightly. "Very good. The forest is now in your hands. With Hans and Robert helping you, even if you happen to encounter bandits in the next few days, as long as you hide in the fenced yard, they won't be able to do anything to you."

"Yes, sir. However, with your family crest here, I believe no bandits would dare to attack."

Bandits who dare to attack villages usually do so after scouting out villages without lords in advance, otherwise a well-equipped and well-trained knight would be their nightmare.

Luc is already an official Knight of Burgundy and can openly hang the family coat of arms in the manor.

Old Eike said worriedly, "But sir, shouldn't you take Hans with you? The war isn't over yet."

Baron Berry once said that the rebellion had not been completely eradicated, and that he would go to war again this year. Based on old Eck's many years of military experience, he knew that the time of the expedition would most likely be after the autumn harvest. The weather in autumn is cool, neither too cold nor too hot, there is plenty of food, and the labor force is liberated. It is a good time to go to war, as long as the enemy is completely eliminated before the cold winter.

"Hans has a grudge against the Hoffman caravan, so we can't take him with us. Don't worry, I'll take George with me. Little Charlie is a full-time sheepherder now, and his ability to identify paths is exactly what I need."

After more than half a year of adjustment, George, who was not a bad person, gradually integrated into the manor collective, especially after witnessing the spring harvest with his own eyes.

Telf Bridge is located in the east of Cooper Castle, just west of the manor. Luc had noticed it last time. If you cross the Agate River and go straight from the opposite bank, Telf Bridge will not be too far away. It will at least be half the distance than going through Ward Village and then to the bridge.

So, as a new path, George's ability naturally became the key.

Seeing that there was nothing else to do, Luke called out Ryan and George, and armed them all. He now had a lot of weapons in his hands:

Steel knight's sword, dagger, common knight's sword (a gift from Beric), short sword, dagger, hilt blade, flail, mattock, two kite-shaped shields, five Viking round shields, five Germanic round shields, a sheaf of sharp stone javelins, and two butcher knives.

These are just professional weapons. If necessary, axe and hoe can be used to arm a group of farmers in an instant.

The short sword was returned to its original owner, along with a small round shield.

Luc gave the extra knight's sword directly to Ryan, and the dagger was left at home for old Eike to use in case of emergency.

Equipped with leather armor and a stag kite-shaped shield, Ryan almost looks like a wandering knight, except that he has no mount.

Jill led the mule cart, George acted as a human hound to find the way, and Ryan brought up the rear. It only took the four of them two and a half days to wade through a new mountain road.

In the afternoon, standing at the Telf Bridge, Luc looked into the distance and saw a team of mule carts slowly coming from the opposite direction on the distant horizon.

Luc raised the stag emblem openly and squarely. He laughed at Hoffman, who was initially suspicious and wary, but was surprised when he saw Luc's face clearly as the distance got closer.
"Hoffman, pay the toll!"

(End of this chapter)