Iron Powder and Spellcasters Chapter 85

   Chapter 85 Enslaved Freeman

   Raid on Red Pine Manor was a decision made by the three warrant officers after discussion, not only because Lieutenant Colonel Contel, who had a lead in his abdomen, needed a doctor, but also because they urgently needed a channel to obtain information from the outside world.

  's biggest problem is that they don't know anything about the battle situation. Did the Third Army launch a second attack? Where is the attack going?

   Especially Winters and Andre, both of whom thought it was impossible to hide in the Tanirian vacuum all the time. Even if you want to hide, it should be "active" hiding, that is, to get information as much as possible and then move flexibly, instead of burying your head in the sand like an ostrich and praying that the Tanirians won't bump into you.

  Because of this, Red Pine Manor became the most suitable target. The plantation owner was of high social status and well-informed; the Red Pine Manor was remote and not easily exposed; and most importantly, Kalman was a doctor—although it was said that he mainly relied on bloodletting to cure diseases.

   Before Winters and Kalman could say anything, a ten commander hurriedly walked in and reported to him: "Something happened, and three of our people were broken."

   Winters quietly left Calman to Andre and strode out the door.

   "What happened?" Winters spoke only after he left the house, his attitude was very calm.

   But his ten commander was a little panicked: "One person went to check the house on the west side, but he didn't come out after he went in. The other two went in to find him, the same thing."

   This ten commander is a veteran of more than ten years, a senior sergeant, and the right-hand man of Winters. He has won the trust of several warrant officers, but even he is sweating profusely and looks panicked.

   "Let me go." Winters frowned.

   Outside the wooden townhouse on the west side of the house, the remaining soldiers stood a few meters away from the door and stretched their necks to watch the inside, but they did not dare to approach.

   The interior of the house was pitch-dark, and in the darkness there seemed to be a beast lurking in it, swallowing up all the particles of light.

  The soldiers saluted when they saw Warrant Officer Montavie approaching. Seeing that the raid team had succeeded, Budd also led the two musketeers to this place.

   "What's going on?" Bud asked softly.

   "I don't know either, I only know that three of us went in." Winters looked at the ten commander: "Did you light a torch when you went in?"

   "The second batch of people went in and were beaten." The ten centurion explained anxiously: "But after we entered, our people called out, and then it went dark again. The centurion, there must be something evil in here."

   "Is there a back door?"

   "No, just this one door. One door in and one out."

   "Torches!"

   A torch was handed over to Winters, he drew out his saber, and took the other two soldiers into the dark wooden house.

  The fire was reflected in the near distance, and the wooden house was separated by two curtains by the door.

   Winters raised the curtain with his saber, and behind it was another curtain, and no one was there.

   He cut off the rope that hung the curtain, and led the soldiers to continue exploring the depths of the room. The entire wooden house is divided into smaller spaces by curtains.

  Suddenly, Winters heard the crunch of wood under pressure from overhead. He knew something was wrong, and immediately took a step back.

   But the thing that attacked him moved very fast, jumping off the beam and overturning him. Only then did Winters realize that it was not something evil, but a person.

   The two soldiers who came in with him shouted twice and then went silent, and the torches were extinguished.

   Winters fell to the ground, his torch extinguished by a hand reaching out from behind the curtain. The man who jumped down and attacked him pressed down on Winters and scuffled with him, twisting Winters' right wrist almost one hundred and eighty degrees.

   But the scimitar was still firmly held in Winters' hands, and suddenly he entered the darkness. His eyes did not adapt, and he could see nothing. More people came out behind the curtain, trying to hold Winters' limbs.

   Winters, who was in a desperate situation, gave the raider a headbutt. His forehead hit a hard object, making his skull ache.

   But apparently he hit the right place and gave the opponent a hard blow, and the attacker let go of his right hand with a scream.

   "Attack!" Winters shouted a secret signal, and his free right hand held a machete and stabbed the enemy in the dark.

   However, without the feeling of piercing the human body, the other side swiftly distanced himself from Wentesla.

   "[A language that Winters does not understand]" A hoarse and old voice came from the depths of the house: "[It is a language that Winters does not understand]"

   The others tried to hold Winters's hand away, and Winters, who was completely free, stood up.

   At this time, Bud had also led the remaining soldiers to the wooden house.

   Under the light of the fire, Winters finally saw who was in the room.

   A group of people with chains on their hands gathered in the corner of the wooden house. The woman and some children were in the innermost corner, and the other men stood outside protecting the women and children.

   The group was vaguely headed by an old man with a gully face, leaning on a long stick of dead wood, the old man stood trembling in the crowd, as if a gust of wind could blow him down.

   Yet his eyes were bright.

   "We don't want to bleed." The old man looked at Winters, his voice hoarse like glass **** being squeezed and rubbed, and he said in blunt, strangely accented common language: "Uninvited guest."

   "Where are my soldiers?" Winters asked in a deep voice.

  The old man spit out something that Winters couldn't understand, and a few thin black men responded, and from the back of the other corner carried out the subordinate Winters who had just disappeared after entering the room.

  Bud immediately possessed himself to check, and put his hand on the soldier's neck.

   After checking, Bud nodded to Winters, indicating that he was just knocked out and had a pulse.

   A half-eldest boy who looked only fifteen or sixteen years old was supporting the old man. Winters knew this half-eldest boy with a wound on his chin and blood on the corner of his mouth.

   Almost fell into the hands of such a brat. Winters was in a very complicated mood. He pointed at the half-eldest boy with a machete and asked, "You attacked me just now, right?"

   "If I were to use a knife too." The half-sized boy with the chain on his hand spat a mouthful of blood, and replied in blunt common language: "Is it your turn to ask me now?"

   Seeing the chains and residences on these people, Winters has roughly guessed what these people are. He put the knife in its sheath and asked tepidly, "You are the slaves of this plantation?"

   The black and thin half-eldest man was furious when he heard the words, and was about to have a seizure, but was stopped by the old man beside him.

"We are not slaves, we are free people who have been Who is it?"

   "We are free people who are not enslaved." Winters didn't seem to reveal too much to the other party.

   "You...are you from Veneta?" The old man squinted his eyes and exposed the identity of the other party: "By the sea, a free man enslaved by gold."

   Winters laughed dryly.

   "So it looks like your republic has captured Red Iwo Island?"

   Winters' eyelids twitched. The old slave man's news was quite well-informed. He smiled and said calmly, "You'll know."

"Oh..." Hearing Winters' answer, the old man sighed slightly, his expression darkened, and he regained his spirits quickly: "I understand, don't worry, we will work as usual tomorrow. Now, please Let's go, we're going to rest."

  The old man said a few words to the other slaves in an unfamiliar language, and the men, women and children in the corner of the room moved. Ignoring the presence of Winters and his party, they began to re-tie the cut curtains and lay mats on the ground on their own, and they were about to go to sleep.

  The Veneta people were stunned, and were "pushed out" of the wooden house where the slaves lived in confusion.

   "By the way, there is a wooden house in the north, and some people live there." The old man added another sentence when he brought it to the door.

  Inexplicably went in and out inexplicably, and the Veneta people couldn't figure out what was going on.

   Budd said nothing since entering the house, and didn't say a word to Winters until he came out: "Judging from their physical characteristics, these people seem to be Herdese."

The soldiers next to    were even more confused when they heard the word 'Hed', but the ten commander was thoughtful.

"The Hurds? How did the Hurds become slaves on the archipelago?" Recalling the knowledge in the book, Winters was also surprised: "Aren't the Hurds in the Great West? It's further west than the Republic of Palato. "

"It is precisely because they are next to Palatu that the Hurds will be taken as slaves in Taniria. The Palatu people have a tradition of selling their captives as slaves, and even specialize in looting and selling them." Bard is concise and to the point explained.

   Winters and the other soldiers suddenly realized.

   "These platoons can really do anything." A soldier snorted softly and said disdainfully, "If you take followers as slaves, you are not afraid of going to hell!"

"The Hurds don't believe in our gods, they are infidels." Bud corrected the soldier, he frowned after thinking for a while and said, "But we are really not easy to deal with. Using pagans as slaves can penetrate the laws of the province. but Veneta's laws prohibit slavery of any kind. So technically we're breaking the law by continuing to keep them.”

"Let them go, we can wait to die. This is an island, surrounded by the sea, where can they run?" Winters said sullenly: "Hmph, this old man, shrewd, we put the chain They won't run even if they are smashed, and he has seen through us."

"Then we... a manor of nearly 100 acres has at least thirty or forty slave laborers, and we have killed all the guards in charge of them..." Bud embarrassed and said: "Then do we still need a few people to replace them? The life of the guard?"

   Winters took a deep breath: "Be a pirate first, then a bandit. This is a good time. Being a guard for the slave owner is a duty... Watch it with five people, don't let them run away."

  The soldiers laughed.

   "The old man said there are some slaves in other places?" Winters said to Bud reluctantly: "You bring a few people over to see.

  Bud nodded and led a few soldiers to the north.

   But after a while,

   Another soldier trotted all the way to report to Winters: "Centurion, Warrant Officer Budd called you to come over again."

   In a shack further north, the slaves who lived in it looked very different from the Heards, and were obviously more like Winters and Bard.

  The slaves here are all from the Gulf of Cenas.

   Here, two warrant officers accidentally ran into an acquaintance.

When    Winters arrived, he saw a man hugging Bud's thigh and crying with snot and tears.

   "You...you are..." Winters recognized the man at a glance, but couldn't name him: "You are...you are the fat...the captain of the Skua?"

  —cut—

   The next day.

   Morning, breeze.

   Today's Red Sulphur Port is no longer as busy as it used to be. The piers that were full of people are now deserted, and there is not a single big ship in the bay.

   Only a few seagulls remained on the trestle, staring at the undulating water in a daze.

  Kalman, the owner of the Red Pine Manor, came to the "Lao Jun" in the Red Sulphur Port with a truckload of meat, vegetables, wine, and his nephew.

   Said to be Lao Jun, but he actually came to see his own long-term workers. In a small and medium-sized plantation like the Red Pine Manor, there are fewer than fifty slaves working in the fields, and there are only seven armed guards.

   Outsiders think that the guards are private soldiers, but in fact the guards of the small plantation are essentially long-term workers. Unlike slaves, they were paid and armed. Catching escaped slaves is a part-time job. The guards usually have to do some light work, and they have to work in the fields when the farming is busy.

   After all, small plantations cannot afford full-time soldiers. Fortunately, this is an island, and there is nowhere to escape, so it is rare for slaves to escape, and occasionally people who escape can't get far.

The    Iwo Jima Council is of course aware of the situation on a small plantation like Red Pine Manor. Therefore, the apportionment of Hongsong Manor is mainly money and food, not manpower.

But even so, Red Pine Manor would need to provide the council with two men between the ages of 20 and 40 who had their own weapons and ammunition, skilled with a musket, and were also responsible for their salaries and possible pensions .

   In the noisy tavern, two long-term workers who were unfortunately drawn for a bad sign were drinking and complaining with the owner. Kalman is a kind of consolation, but also a promise.

  Kalman's nephew sat beside his uncle, never interrupting, but humbly listening. Whoever's wine glass is empty, he will immediately pick up the wine bottle to help fill it up.

Both guards found this humble and gentle young man very pleasing to the eye, and the older guard said straight in his heart: "Master's nephew was a little villain when he was a child. It's done."

  The carriage was driving on the flagstone road, heading towards the direction of leaving the Red Sulphur Port.

  Kalman showed his pass, which was stamped with the lacquer of the council, and passed the checkpoint smoothly as he had come. The port of Red Sulphur is now under strict martial law, and civilians must hold a pass to enter and exit.

   On the edge of the town, hundreds of conscripted migrant workers are working in full swing, widening and deepening the original moat, and then using the excavated soil to build an earthen fortress around the red sulfur port.

  Winters took all of this in his eyes and kept it in his heart.

   Of course he saw more than that.

   From the main road of Chisulfur Port, a wooden stake stands every ten meters, and a human head is nailed to the top of each stake. The weather was hot and humid, and the heads had already begun to rot, giving off a stench that attracted crows to peck at them.

  These heads were taken from the corpses of the Veneta.

In this way, the   Red Sulphur Harbor Council declared victory to everyone on the island.

   They are also terrorizing the islanders, because there are not only stakes for "enemies" but also stakes for "traitors".

   Winters looked at the stakes, no words could describe his extreme anger at the moment, he was trembling all over, almost gnashing his teeth.

"I have done everything you asked me to do, and the council will never let me go." Calman asked in a low voice: "Please let my wife and daughter go, and let them go to my father-in-law's house. They Nothing will be leaked out, and I can stay as a guarantee."

   Through constant clichés, Winters has learned the situation of the battle. After leaving the ambush circle, the Veneta fleet immediately blocked the port of Red Sulphur. Winters and his team were surrounded by the Tanirians, and now the Tanirians were being surrounded by the Veneta fleet.

The    Iwo Jima Council established camps at several possible landing sites, and the 3rd Corps launched several tentative attacks from the northern beaches without success.

   Winters judged that the Third Army suffered little loss, because although the Red Sulphur Port Council claimed a great victory, it has not erected any new head posts in recent days, nor has it produced any other evidence that can boast of martial arts.

   This proves that the Third Army took away the bodies of the fallen soldiers, and even if the attack failed, they retreated in an orderly manner.

   The main force in the last few battles with the Third Army was the militia and the guards of the Tanilla Union. The council had realized that the pirates were unusable, and most of the pirate troops were sent to the unimportant defensive section.

   "As long as you don't do anything that threatens our safety, your family's safety can be completely guaranteed. We're not gangsters, we're stuck here."

   "This..." Kalman thought for a while before he made up his mind. He hesitantly said, "Maybe I have a way to... send you out."

   I wrote half last night and half this morning. I found that just like when I was studying, I found many low-level mistakes in the paper I did after ten o'clock in the evening, but I didn't notice it at night, and my thinking was slow. So I found that "the later I write, the worse I write" (covering face)

   Thanks to the book friends who have voted for the recommendation before, thank the book friends writersblock, justice and purity is Koala and Yuan Hongjian for their recommendation votes.

   (end of this chapter)

Chapter end