Vikings: Lords of the Ice Sea

Chapter 231 Refugees and Bandits

Upon receiving the King's order, Gwen raised the investigation of the silver mine to the highest priority. He summoned several inspectors from the investigation department and asked them to recommend suitable candidates.

Ultimately, Gwen selected an agent nicknamed "Blackfish" and sent him to the Derby Silver Mine in Nottingham to gather intelligence.

"Remember not to reveal your identity. The department will be expanding its staff in a while, so work hard and you might get promoted to detective."

After leaving the office, Blackfish went to the logistics department to collect his mission funds. Since the mission was located in a directly controlled territory, which was close and low in danger, Blackfish only received eight silver pence.

“That’s too little.”

Muttering a few words, Blackfish signed his name, put away the silver coins, and left.

The journey from Rendineum to Nottingham takes seven days on foot and three days on horseback. As the lowest-ranking agent in the investigation department, Blackfish couldn't afford a horse, nor did he intend to rent one. Instead, he followed a woolen caravan on a slow journey.

Along the way, the traces of war still linger. The wheat fields, which should be turning green, are now overgrown with nettles and thistles. Occasionally, charred farmhouses can be seen by the roadside, with a few ravens building nests on the blackened beams, making them their new homes.

Two days later, the caravan entered Cambridgeshire, a place that had suffered the worst disaster after London. Although Cambridge had once been Gunnar's fiefdom, he showed no mercy and demanded large amounts of grain and livestock from the local residents. As the war progressed, the French army's discipline deteriorated further, and extortion and looting became commonplace.

"They were worse than Vikings"—that's how the locals described the French army.

When they camped for the night, Blackfish took out the hard bread he had brought, broke it into pieces, and soaked it in a bowl until it softened. Suddenly, more than twenty ragged refugees, young and old, emerged from the darkness. They silently approached the campfire, their eyes fixed on the food in the hands of the caravan members.

The caravan leader, unwilling to cause trouble, took five long, black loaves of bread from the wagon and handed them to the group of refugees, saying, "Hurry up and go, don't make things difficult for our small business."

After receiving the bread, most of the refugees got up to leave, while a few remained seated, staring at a vendor's smoked sausage. The vendor was so frightened that he stuffed the remaining half of the sausage into his mouth, puffed out his cheeks, and chewed frantically, almost suffocating.

“Hey, this isn’t how honest people behave.” Noticing the vagrants’ overstepping boundaries, the caravan leader reached for his short axe at his waist. The remaining thirty men, merchants, and travelers grabbed their weapons; some pulled out daggers, while others picked up stones.

Unable to gain any further advantage, the refugees staggered away, remaining silent throughout, as if speaking would consume their already dwindling strength.

Having weathered the crisis, the caravan leader sat back down by the campfire. This was the fourth group of refugees he had encountered, and he was already used to it.

In most cases, the refugees who received food would leave on their own, but some groups evolved into bandits, openly extorting and even robbing passing merchants. The largest bandit group called itself the Black Flag Brotherhood, committing more than a dozen robberies and even breaching two villages.

With their numbers swelling to two hundred, the Black Flag Brotherhood became increasingly brazen, even going so far as to rob a passing noble family. The noble, named Yoren, was traveling with his family and confidants to Winchester for a fiefdom. Yoren was no pushover; he immediately led a dozen or so cavalrymen in a charge, scattering the Black Flag Brotherhood in a single frenzy.
With the Black Flag Brotherhood destroyed, the bandits in the surrounding area degenerated into vagrants, which greatly benefited the merchants and slightly improved Count Yoren's reputation among the people.

Thinking of this, the caravan leader couldn't help but complain, "Why doesn't His Majesty send more people to suppress the bandits?"

Blackfish chimed in, "After the war, more than two-thirds of the officers took leave to go to their fiefdoms with their families. It will take at least two or three months for them to settle their family affairs. During this time, the standing army will not have the capacity for large-scale bandit suppression." "How do you know that? You're making it up, aren't you?"

At this moment, Blackfish realized he had misspoke and forced an awkward smile. "Yes, I made it up. Maybe His Majesty will send the standing army and the royal guard out of the city in a few days to completely wipe out the bandits in Rendynewum and Cambridge."

Leaving Cambridgeshire, the caravan encountered fewer and fewer refugees. The winter wheat in the fields was growing well, and occasionally, two villages would play a football match in a lively and enthusiastic atmosphere, making one feel as if they had returned to the years before the war.

Upon arriving in Nottingham, Blackfish bid farewell to the caravan and found a tavern near the market, where he inquired about the silver mine from the bartender.

"What do you want?" The bartender frowned, spilling some beer on the bar counter.

"It's nothing. I just heard some locals talking about silver mines. They say the workers there are paid very well, and I was thinking of finding a job there."

As he spoke, Blackfish rolled up his sleeves, showing off his strong and powerful arms. "I used to work in an iron mine, so I should meet the standards."

“You’d better think about it,” the bartender said, bringing out a plate of sliced ​​smoked sausages. “The pay in the mines is indeed good, but the mine managers only hire people from their villages. You have no chance.”

After spending the night in a tavern, Blackfish left Nottingham and headed northwest along winding roads into the hills, using the tracks left by wagons to find the location of the silver mine.

Just as the bartender had predicted, the mining area had no shortage of manpower and never hired strangers from other places. Left with no other choice, Blackfish took odd jobs in the village at the foot of the mountain, occasionally helping villagers transport river fish and fresh vegetables to the mining area, and taking the opportunity to observe the mining area's production status.

At first glance, the mining process of silver mines is similar to that of iron mines. Workers use picks to extract ore, crush it, remove impurities, and then smelt it in a small furnace to obtain some coarse silver ingots with a high silver content.

The next steps were a bit strange. The workers put the coarse silver ingots into a shallow, porous clay disc and heated it again in a furnace to obtain silver ingots of extremely high purity.

"What kind of operation is this?" Blackfish muttered to himself, scratching the back of his head. However, the mine employees were too lazy to pay attention to this outsider and sent him away.

In the following days, Blackfish continued to wander around the foot of the mountain as usual, and even hooked up with a shepherdess. During their conversation, the shepherdess casually mentioned a strange thing.

“Last month, I went into the mountains to look for sheep and saw several figures carrying cloth bags walking down a small path. I was probably seeing things. After all, who would abandon the main road and take these rugged mountain paths?”

Blackfish keenly sensed something was amiss and instructed the widow to carefully recall the scene. The next day, they were to find an excuse to leave the village. Just before they were about to leave, the civil servants sent by the prime minister arrived, prompting him to inwardly rage.

"They set off earlier than me, but arrived later. How can we accomplish anything with this bunch of insects? Fortunately, His Majesty has our intelligence network."

(End of this chapter)