open sea

Chapter 1290 Invasion
The atmosphere in Leitou Township at dusk was oppressive. Many villagers gathered in the square next to the well in the center of the village. They were afraid to speak. Guards stood on both sides of the road leading to the outside. Almost everyone looked at the people on horseback beside the well.

The baron is on the horse, and Leitou Township is only one of his more than 30 territories. The most important property in this area is not the unfree people in these villages, but the large castle estate in the far north and the land that allows them to Taxed corvée manors, self-employed and farm lands.

The baron usually came to the village only on tour, three or four times a year.

The tax collector or steward of the village, or he is called the village head. In short, the village head of Leitou Township is a hereditary manager. On the one hand, he has his own mill and farm as a freeman, and on the other hand, he is also an intermediary between the lord and the people. , when the lord is absent, he is given the responsibility of the lord to manage the land.

There is only one reason why the baron is here instead of the castle at this moment. The village head is a clever ghost who adapts to the wind. When Yingming and his Beiyang cavalry armed to the teeth came here, he immediately cooperated with Yingming and ordered the villagers to cooperate. The Ming army, the one who grinds the noodles, the one who sieves the flour, in short, does everything that the Ming army requires, so that they don't let them get angry and anger the village.

When Ying Ming left, he went door to door and registered the things that the Ming army left here. He explained that it was for the benefit of the villagers, so that the invaders from Daming would kill people when they came back and found that there were less things; people speculated The village chief wanted to hand over this record to the lord, but he didn't take the initiative to report it to the lord who stationed Plymouth.

Until the baron's cavalry appeared around the village with documents, telling them to prepare supplies for the army, the village chief gave the list to the cavalry at this time and forwarded it to the baron.

No one knows what the head of the village head is thinking. The feudal system has developed to the present period. While most nobles value pleasure, they are also aware of the great urgency brought about by the changes of the times. They pay more attention to commercial prosperity than shields and long swords. In fact, feudal aristocrats and business leaders not only do not conflict, but also have extremely high support.

In the process of transforming the nobles into business tycoons, part of the power of the territory will inevitably be decentralized, and the actual managers of the village are gradually becoming the new actual rulers. The village chief has unprecedented power in the village, and interests and power When one party backs down on certain matters, the other party must advance to make up for the gap.

Especially for a hereditary village head who has served the lord and managed the village for generations, the lord is not willing to bear the loss of replacing the village head unless there is a big problem. Of course, they have such power, just like the emperor can replace the chieftain, The county magistrate can imprison the patriarch.

It just depends on whether you are willing to bear the price.

In any case, the baron had no intention of punishing the village chief. He just asked the people to take out all the food, weapons, supplies, and sundries left by the Ming army, and pile them up in the center of the village according to the list. A little surprise—there were three villagers. I don’t know if they were too stupid to forget that the village chief had recorded the list, or they were greedy, and they didn’t hand over the supplies in full.

The things they buckled were honey, horseshoes, sifted flour, and leather belts.

No one knows whether Yingming's booty was too shocking for the baron, or whether the village chief's own actions offended the baron and angered the citizens. Now the lord is not even willing to make a wooden frame, but has already used the territorial court The authority ordered the three leaders to be hanged immediately.

In fact, no matter which of these two reasons is enough to annoy the baron, let alone the latter, the managers of the subordinate villages privately reached an agreement with the invading enemy to make food for the enemy and store the stolen goods looted by the enemy in their own territory. If other nobles know about this matter, it will greatly affect the reputation of the lord.

The former would be exasperating, barrel after barrel of old flour, new flour, refined flour, suet, grease, soap, mead, blackberry wine, mulled wine, old wine.

Leather gloves, leather boots, hundreds of burqas bearing six family crests, dozens of sets of riveted and unriveted mail jackets and helmets; The part that belongs to the elite troops is capable of arming nearly a thousand troops.

There are even flocks of chickens, geese, hitched horses and a dozen pigs.

The villagers repeatedly said that these supplies were transported back and forth by the invasion team many times. They said with certainty that the team only had hundreds of people, and the baron only felt that he urgently needed to kill a few people.

Only by killing a few people can his stupid leader tell the truth, how can an army of hundreds of people kill so many people?The burqas of the six families mean that all the troops that can come from the west have been intercepted by this invader team. What are they?Everyone is holding Chen Mu's pipe organ?

"My lord, what is... Chen Mu's pipe organ?"

"Chen Mu's pipe organ, I don't know, the French call it that."

The baron doesn't want to talk too much to the village chief at this time, he wants to maintain his majesty in front of the people, in fact, he also wants to know what is "Chen Mu's organ", the information sent by the fast horse from London, said the queen French intelligence adviser Francis Walsingheim intercepted a letter sent to the Pope by the bishop of Paris in France that mentioned the word and a battle that took place at Angoulême.

In that battle, the Ming army used a long-distance artillery to send a large number of shells into the front line in a short time, followed by an earth-shattering explosion. No one knew what happened, and the strongest Swiss phalanx was destroyed.

The nobles of France tried to find it, but found nothing where the gunfire rose.

After that, people called a kind of cannon in Ming Dynasty Chen Mu's pipe organ. Except for the lethality, all parameters were guesses and unknowns. The Bishop of Paris was about to write this news to the Pope, hoping The pope announced it to the whole Christian world—unfortunately, before the letter was written and sent, the bishop of Paris was kidnapped by French pirates hired by England.

Three greedy villagers were hanged alive, and their loved ones were holding back their crying under the intense fear. The Baron was about to lecture the silent villagers when suddenly everyone heard the sound of distant muskets firing from outside the village. .

Suddenly everyone is in chaos, and the villagers are running around in panic, trying to find a place to hide from the coming battle.

The trained guards didn't know what to do with themselves, they all looked at their lord, waiting for the next order.

Before the order to send someone to investigate the situation was issued, there was a heavy sound of hooves at the entrance of the village. The knight walked slowly across the long village road with a long sword in his hand. The guards he passed by looked at him and let out a suppressed look. Exclaimed, when he walked to the well in the center of the village and wanted to get off his horse, the iron shoes just left the stirrups, and his whole body slipped like a boulder tied to the horse's back, and fell heavily to the ground.

The lord finally saw that on the back of the knight's plate armor, there were at least four dents hit by muskets. Some lead bullets were inlaid on the plate armor, and some pierced the plate armor and left small holes. The blood from those wounds came from the plate armor. The buttocks at the lower edge flowed red, soaking the trousers on the back thighs under the knight's leggings.

Throughout, the Cavaliers failed to utter a single word, but his message was delivered.

People heard the sound of horseshoes rushing past from all directions in the village, the excited military music, and the whistle from far and near. Everyone knew that the Ming army was coming.

　Good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)