Black Iron’s Glory

Chapter 236: Black Wolf

McJackie walked Claude and Big Gummy up the hill and saw the old man's wife leaving the hill. But McJackie was not in a hurry, and he said softly: "Sir, I saw her go up the hill with a basket, and now she goes down the hill empty-handed, that basket must be in the woods...”

“Go see what's in her basket. I'm interested.” Claude nodded, "What secrets are these villagers hiding?

The basket was easy to find, and the last time McJackie noticed it was under a big cherry tree, the most obvious spot in the small woods, there was also a big blue stone under the tree, and the wife of the village elder put the basket on the blue stone.

Three people walked quietly into the woods and, indeed, found a hand-held basket on the big turquoise under the cherry tree, which was covered with a linen. Claude listened, and without noticing any unusual movement around the woods, he pointed to the finger basket: “Ignite it. Look at what's in the basket. ”

Big Gummy lit the torch in his hand and Mike lifted the linen over the basket. It's just that what's in the basket disappoints all three of us a little bit, a wooden plate of roasted wheat cake, a small piece of black bread, a roasted sausage, and a small sachet of salt.

“Sir, this black bread, roasted salami and salt looks like the old man bought it from our cafeteria. The copper money you paid them for the rattan basket they all took to the cafeteria to buy the food, and you agreed to buy it.” Mike carefully weighed the food in the basket and identified it as rations from their squadron.

There's plenty of food anyway, followed by the rainy season, and a lot of things don't hold up easily to mold. Moreover, after the March rainy season, the battalion brings in some heavy supplies, and the enemy will not attack during the rainy season. Claude suddenly discovered that his premature stockpiling of food and ammunition was not a visionary thing, but rather a much smarter thing to do. So he decided to sell some excess grain reserves to villagers in Squirrel Village to make the relationship closer and friendlier. Besides, these villagers don't have much money, so don't worry about them buying too much to reduce their food reserves.

Big Gummy looked at the basket and said, "Sir, I think it's someone hiding in the mountain forest, so the old village chief's wife only gave him food once every three days. Look, there's enough food in this basket for a regular person to eat for three days. ”

True enough for a regular person to eat for three days, and for a big grizzly, this is exactly what he eats for a meal. Claude was also disappointed that he was presumably a young widow in the village or something, afraid to be taken to the barracks to serve these exotic aggressors, so he fled to the mountains. It took two or three days for food to be sent up. No wonder the village elders and the villagers were afraid to let themselves wander up the mountain and fear the trail of those who had been found hiding.

“Let's go, put out the torch and don't let the villagers see us climbing the mountain. It's not funny. I thought they were hiding something.” Claude turned around and left, and he had little interest in any young widow. It was just a little while before Claude stopped again and felt something was wrong.

First of all, the villagers of Squirrel Village don't have a national concept. All they know is that their lord is Novi Rick. Baron W. Fringsland, they are the baron's people, and everything in Squirrel Village belongs to the baron's lord, including their lives. And Claude, while they were exotic aggressors, came to liberate them and change their tragic fate as inhabitants.

When Claude told the villagers that there would be no more baron lords to squeeze them, they didn't have to pay so much more for the baron lords when taxes were paid, they were heartily happy and genuinely attached to Claude. Moreover, Claude and his squadron are stationed in Squirrel Village. It is also very friendly and fair to treat these villagers. They also found a joyful job. The relationship between the two is really like a military-military fish. There are no secrets that would allow these villagers to hide and taboo him so much...

Secondly, there will never be any young widows hiding in the mountains, and the virginity of widows in this era is not so much appreciated, as Markci said, if there were any young widows, they would welcome the presence of troops, because they would not only find a way to earn money, but might also leave themselves with a son to support them.

“Let's go back and hide and see who takes that basket.” Claude made the decision softly.

The three men went back to the woods and found a hidden spot on the rock, 40 to 50 meters from the basket, staring at the basket on the bluestone under the cherry tree in the distance.

After some time, a shadow in the woods quickly passed under the tree and quickly approached the basket on the bluestone.

McJackie pulled Claude's clothes nervously, and Claude and Gemmy all stared at each other, and they never dreamed they'd see what it was like.

A black wolf the size of a pony appeared next to the blue stone beneath the cherry tree, and the eyes of the two shadows of blue and dark shined apart, but oddly enough, the black wolf's mouth bit the handle of another basket. Only this black wolf bit the basket under the blue stone. He was about to bite the handle of the basket on the blue stone, but suddenly lowered his head and sniffed something next to the blue stone. After sniffing around, he didn't bite the basket containing the food. Instead, some of them roared at Claude's hidden mountain rock.

Obviously, the black wolf discovered Claude's scent and implicitly perceived them hiding in the rocks.

The black wolf rushed a few steps towards Claude's hidden mountain rock, looked back at the basket on the blue stone, and retreated. He kept spinning in the same place, whispering in a grumpy whisper, seemed eager to jump at Claude and remember the basket with the food on it. He never stopped looking.

After a while, the black wolf stood still and raised his head in the direction of Claude et al., stroking his nose carefully, seemingly trying to remember the smell of Claude et al. Finally, he roared low, jumped onto the blue stone, lowered his head and bit the handles of the basket, his figure flashed and swept to the depths of the woods...

The black wolf walked a long time before the three Claudes woke up from shock. They never dreamed that coming to get the basket would be a big black wolf.

“Well, isn't this black wolf a sperm? I heard the old man say there used to be warcraft, some of them could even learn to speak, very smart...” McJackie muttered.

“The beast is a giant dragon. The only beast in the book that speaks humans is a giant dragon, not a black wolf. This black wolf is obviously trained, so he can restrain the wild. If it were a wolf, I would have smelled our scent a long time ago, but I wouldn't have remembered that basket of skepticism. Besides, the basket was filled with food for people, not blood for wolves.” Claude tapped McJackie's head and said to Big Gummy, "Light the torch, let's go see what's in the basket that black wolf brought in. ”

In the basket there are two tiny, wide-mouthed cans made of green clay, about the size of Claude's fist, with a large pine plug on top. Pull out the pine plug and pop the nose with the bright, sweet smell of the torch.

“This is wild honey.” Claude stretched his tongue, and it was honey.

Mike unplugged the pine plug in the other can: "Whoa, that smells bad. What kind of medicine is that? ”

Claude, take a look. Isn't that the dark green rice paste in the villagers' hands? Indications headache fever pediatric colds. The last time several soldiers had a cold, they drank a large bowl with a few spoonfuls of this ointment. They slept confused all night and got sweaty. The cure was comparable to those of the cold cures.

Claude also deliberately asked the village elder how to dispense and prepare the soil bias, prepared to buy it for a large price, and paid five gold crowns for it. As a result, the village elder didn't say, and Claude thought the village elder was treasuring the ancestral formula, so he didn't have to. Now I know that this is how they swapped this ointment...

Looking at the black-painted mountain forest, Claude thought about it and said, "Pack it up and put it back, we're going down. ”

“Sir, don't you want to know who's hiding in this mountain forest?” Mike asked.

“Not from the village," Claude replied. "It should be someone who's hiding in the mountains and doesn't want to come out and show up. I don't want you to risk it, although I want to know who he is. Someone who can drive such a big black wolf must have something different to what normal people can do. Just leave him alone as long as it doesn't interfere with us. To be able to trade fairly with the poor villagers of Squirrel Village should not be a vicious person. ”

“Sir, even if he could drive such a big black wolf, he wouldn't be able to stop our guns. I don't believe anyone can hide from our search until we recruit our brothers tomorrow and turn the mountain forest behind the village into the sky.” Big Gummy said in disgust.

Claude shook his head with a smile: "It's not necessary. The mountains are so big that we want to avoid our search. There are places to hide. Besides, we have no grief, and for what reason are we going to turn this guy out hiding in the mountains? We have to stay here for a long time, but for the villagers of Squirrel Village we are only visitors. Let them and this man who hides in the mountains keep their secrets, so long as they do not hinder us, let us not know. ”

“All right, sir, we'll follow your orders.” McJackie and Big Gummy went back.

“Go home and get some rest, and don't talk to the soldiers about it, lest they get curious about going to the mountain forest to find this man. Sometimes it's not very safe to even have a gun in your hand, that black wolf is very sensitive, and it's hard to watch out if it wants to sneak up on someone in the middle of the mountains. I don't want our brothers to get hurt by curiosity, remember?” Claude warned McJackie and Gemmy positively.

Perhaps it was Claude's strict warning that Mike and Big Gummy had to take into account the consequences of their bragging about it among soldiers, who were anxious to swear that it would rot in their hearts and would never tell another soldier what they saw tonight.

“Come on, I trust you. Claude thought about it and said to two people:" Tomorrow morning, you two go back to the battalion and ask Major Ledfank for some medicine and powder to fight poisonous insects in the mountain forest. The weather is warming up, a lot of the poisonous bugs are coming out, and we have to be prepared for the poisonous bugs in this camp. And I'll give you some money to buy some good ingredients and more rye and fruit wine in the town where the battalion is located. If I can't get another bottle of wine, the two bottles of good wine I have left in my room won't hold up, and this guy, Markie, has been working on these two bottles of good wine. ”

McJackie and Big Gummy both laughed. During this time, Marky, an old alcoholic, lost his liquor at the camp, so there were two bottles left in Claude's room. He always wanted to get these bottles from Claude and untie himself. Unfortunately, there was no way to get wine from Claude or even bet Claude that he had lost all the money around him. So he couldn't, he sued for a fake the previous two days, went to Muried in Black Stone Village behind and cheated on a drink before stopping his addiction.

“Sir, you bought the wine for Sergeant Markzi, didn't you?” McJackie asked with a smile.

Claude laughed, too: "This guy lost all his money to me. There's no place else to buy wine. This time, buy more and let this guy drink enough. I tried to persuade him last time. It would be better to quit drinking or it would be difficult to go up again. This guy says he can't help it. It's a habit he left behind after he went to war. Every time he was lucky enough to survive the battlefield, he couldn't sleep without getting drunk. He was also pathetic, by the way. ”

“By the way, sir, what if the mountain roads are so bad that we can't get a wagon in?” Big Gummy asked.

“It's all right, I can afford to hire a squad of horses.” Claude said.