British hegemon

Chapter 130 Intelligence Squad

In a dilapidated hotel near Glasgow Cathedral, two weary men, their faces covered in dust, sat around a wooden table with a missing corner.

The henchman rummaged through the linen money pouch. "Master Earl, our money pouch is almost empty again."

The man known as Lord Earl was none other than Earl the Ponytail, a soldier from the Milk House Manor. He had a bruise on his forehead, a result of a fight with some bandits a few days ago.

"I told you not to call me Master Earl. I'm not some kind of master. Just call me Ponytail Earl."

"How much money do you have left?" Earl, with his ponytail, rubbed his thin cheeks, his ponytail at the back of his head turning into a mess.

"We have less than two shillings left, barely enough for our fare back to Arun Island. Should we send Gray Rat to steal some more from the city?"

Earl with the ponytail shook his head. "This isn't the east side. Gray Rats used to steal things here all the time, so they were easy to catch."

""

"When we left, the adults told us that they would send Blackie in a small boat to meet us in Solt village in early March, and we didn't need to save any money for the return trip."

"Take the rest of the money with you and come with me to Glasgow Cathedral. Let's see if we can find out what the Earl of Carrick said to the Bishop of Glasgow."

The henchman nodded. "Okay, I'll go downstairs and buy some bread first. It's a long walk from here to Salt."

Earl, with her ponytail, nodded, tilted her head back, and let out a long sigh of relief. "Finally, I can go home."

Over the past month, Earl the Ponytail's "intelligence squad" has suffered a lot.

Was the intelligence-gathering skill that Roger temporarily taught him useful? It was useful, but not very practical.

With Roger's limited instruction, Earl and his group, focusing on towns and fortresses and using taverns, inns, and churches as entry points, did indeed manage to track down the whereabouts and major events of Earl Robert Bruce of Carrick.

But the biggest challenge of this intelligence mission was not gathering intelligence, but dealing with the constant obstacles along the way.

Since arriving in this era, Roger has been blessed with the aura of a privileged nobleman, and he will not be exploited or hindered wherever he goes. However, he never thought that the group of Earl with the ponytail who were engaged in espionage were just commoners. In this era, commoners are just lambs to the slaughter for the nobles. And Earl with the ponytail and his companions were slaughtered too badly this time, it was too horrible to watch.

After leaving Arron Island, Earl and his companions spent one and a half pounds in County Ayre to buy a dilapidated carriage and a nag, as well as a cartload of cheap dried salted fish, which served to conceal their identities and provide them with a means of transportation.

At first, things went smoothly, and the group arrived at Lochmeben Castle, the ancestral home of the Bruce family. They learned from a merchant that the newly enthroned Earl Carrick spent most of his time at the castle.

But as soon as they arrived at the castle, the restless Earl Carrick had already gone to Dumfries in Galloway.

The group had no choice but to hurry south in their horse-drawn carriage.

The ordeal began here. Before the young men, disguised as merchants, even reached Dumfries Castle, they were caught by a local knight who insisted that they had stolen his manor's carriage. Faced with the local tyrant who held the law, the men had no choice but to obediently pay a fine of one pound, and then leave the carriage and half a cart of salted fish behind, slinking away from the knight's territory, suffering a direct loss of two and a half pounds.

Because the lawsuit had delayed them for a day, by the time they arrived in Dumfries looking disheveled, Earl Carrick had already left.

However, here they learned a shocking piece of news—the Earl of Carrick had assassinated John Cumming, an earl in northern Scotland and one of the most powerful contenders for the King of Scotland.

The news was sensational enough to spread throughout the Galloway region in just a few days.

Earl the Ponytail was unaware of the significance of the event, but he meticulously noted down the details he had gleaned from a bartender at a Dumfries inn for five pennies, and then continued his pursuit of the Earl of Carrick.

Over the next ten days or so, Earl Carrick traveled along the west coast—Dumfries, Dal'swinton, Tibbes, Ayr, Lake Dorn, Kella Walker, Dunavitty, and a half-finished castle in Tollybosville.

Fortunately, Earl Carrick's lion-sign was conspicuous enough. The group spent money to inquire about the Earl's whereabouts from hotel and castle stewards and church monks. They also noted the constant recruitment of soldiers and preparations for war by several major castles and fortresses.

Of course, they could not escape the miserable fate of being exploited along the way, to the point that when they finally reached Lake Duen, they could no longer afford a hotel.

During the trip, the group did manage to kill a few bandits who tried to rob them on the road, but those guys who blocked the road with sticks and farm tools were so poor that they didn't even have pants.

Helpless, Earl with the ponytail had no choice but to send the gray rat back to its old ways, stealing two pounds from a country gentleman's estate in Lake Durne, and then disguising itself as a few vagrants and beggars, which allowed it to follow the rat all the way to Glasgow.

Here, the Earl of Carrick secretly visited Robert Wissaud, the Bishop of Glasgow and a senior figure in the Patriotic Resistance.

When the henchman returned to the inn carrying several hard rye breads, Gray Rat, who had gone out to gather information, also followed him back.

Stepping into the room, Gray Mouse was beaming with excitement. "Hey Earl the Ponytail, guess who I saw in town?"

Before leaving the island, Roger had instructed Earl, who wore a ponytail, that the most important aspect of intelligence work was covert operations, so he immediately tensed up, "Have our identities been exposed?"

"No, no, I saw Bald Neil and Horse Face in the port town. Those two guys were swearing in the street."

"Did they see you?"

"No, you told me not to attract attention, so I didn't go up to say hello."

"6

"It's alright if he sees me; he knows why I came out here."

"But this bastard should be getting beaten up in the training grounds at Milk House Manor right now, what's he doing in Glasgow?"

Earl, with his ponytail, muttered a few words to himself before immediately getting back to the point, "So, did you find out where Earl Carrick is?"

"The merchants in the city are so ruthless. It took ten pence to pry open the stinking mouth of the innkeeper where the Earl is staying." When Gray Rat said ten pence, he secretly glanced at Earl with the ponytail, his eyes flashing clearly.

Earl, with his ponytail, paid no attention to the gray rat's petty thoughts and pressed, "Where did it go?"

Gray Mouse quickly replied, "The shopkeeper heard the Earl's attendant mention a place called Perth."

"Perth? Have you been there?" Earl with the ponytail asked.

Gray Mouse recalled carefully, "I think I've heard of this place before, it's in the east. Hmm~ I think I heard the name when I was in Edinburgh, but I've never been there."

Earl, with his ponytail, had a headache. Count Carrick and his entourage had been running around aimlessly lately, and now they were heading to the East Coast, a place he knew absolutely nothing about.

"Should we continue?" The underling was certainly hardworking.

"We're not going anymore. The adults told us to go back in early March. Blackie should be waiting to pick us up. We've gathered a lot of information on this trip. It's time to go home." Earl with the ponytail looked at the two people opposite her, their clothes tattered, and then glanced at her own worn-out shoes and toes. "If we don't go back soon, we'll really have to become beggars."

"That bald guy?"

"Never mind that bastard. Eat something quickly, then you'll come with me to Glasgow Cathedral to get some information, and then we'll head home immediately..."

""

Produce............