Black Iron’s Glory

Chapter 313: Donoby the Merchant

The sky is shady, the clouds are covered in the sky, the cold winds are whistling, the furry snowflakes are dancing in the air, landing, becoming a part of this thick white snow blanket covering the wilderness...

McJackie Zema walked a few steps forward, stopping at Claude's front, hand to hand. The ice cream solidified in his eyebrows and hair, and he wore a thick cold mask on his face, in addition to a military cap and a headcover over his head. Such weather is indeed difficult to communicate in words and can only be expressed in concise gestures.

Claude understands what McJackie is trying to say. What he's trying to say is, sir, it's too snowy for us to keep going. We have to find a place to rest. Otherwise, people can't stand horses, and although time is short, we can't rush to avoid this snowstorm before it's too late to go to the king...

Claude nodded at Mike, meaning he understood, and then he fingered in front of him, compared to a number of seven, and then nodded with his thumb down. This means that about seven miles ahead is a town where you can rest. The three of us hang in there and find a tavern to rest in.

It's January 9th after New Year's Eve, and Claude, Mike and Big Grimes are on their way to Wangdu. Major Skerry, former Battalion Commander of the Rangers Battalion on family leave, has told Claude to report directly to the Royal Caleban Army School after the holidays and to cancel leave there. The holiday date is before January 15 of the New Year, when the Royal Caleban Army School officially opened.

Major Scully did take great care of Claude, and he sent two letters to Claude after the arrival of one of the guerrilla battalions at the King's scheduled cantonment camp, all specially sent. In one case, in August, Claude was informed of the current location of the Claude Ranger Battalion and asked if Claude was well off to visit his relatives. A map and address of the Royal Caleban Army School were also attached to prevent Claude from finding a place when he reported to the King.

Claude wrote back, telling Major Scully that everything was fine and that the family was fine, and hoping Major Scully would have time to come to White Deer City to attend his wedding on September 12. Claude was somewhat disappointed, however, that the letter had not received a reply and a message from Major Skerry since then, and that Major Skerry had not arrived in White Deer City for the wedding on the day of his marriage.

It was not until mid-November that Major Skerry sent a reply, and he apologized for not being able to come to Claude's wedding. However, he had no choice but to be captured by Prince Hansburg, who travelled abroad on a mission before returning to King's Capital at the end of October. While wishing Claude happiness in his newlywed life, he also told Claude that he would be removed from the position of Commander of a Battalion of Rangers, with an appointment.

In addition, for the last time, in the name of the commander of the 1st Battalion of the Rangers, he sent three men to Claude with winter uniforms and the benefits to which they were entitled. Generally speaking, family visits like Claude's, these benefits and clothing are paid out on the basis of the roster. However, owing to the absence of persons from camps, they tend to be the drifting target of officials in the logistics sector. Major Skerry was well aware of the subordination rules in these armies, this time using his battalion commander's position to send people directly to the hands of the three Claudes.

In addition, Major Skerry had brought his wedding present to Claude, a pair of extraordinarily beautiful painted gold and silver vases engraving the tale of the knight's heroic dragon. Claude knew very well that this was a trophy that Major Skerry had assigned to him, from the seizure of the Earl's Estate. I didn't expect Major Skerry to give himself this pair of vases as a wedding gift, which amazes my mother. I'm glad the Fields family has another pair of heirlooms...

It was only thanks to the map sent by Major Skerry that Claude discovered that the Royal Caleban Army School was not in Wangdu, but in the village of Caleban in 56 villages under Wangdu jurisdiction. It can be seen from the map that the village of Kaleben is already on the edge of the Ibnister Plains, and half of the village's cultivation is already between the hilly mountains.

Claude wondered why the Royal Caleban Army School, where he was trained, had been established in such a village, even under the name of the school. But anyway, having been notified, the three of them had to arrive in the village of Calebon by 15 January to report to the military academy and cancel their leave.

If the road from Bai Lu City to Wang Du is smooth, it will take seven or eight days, but it is winter, heavy snow flies, the national highway is covered with ice and snow, and the road is difficult to navigate, so it is estimated that it can arrive in about 10 days. However, the village of Calebon is nearly seventy miles from the king and it will take a day, so Claude starts to prepare for his departure after New Year's Eve.

Claude wanted to take the sea route, from White Deer City to Port Neru, and then the king could cut the trip by two days. But the mother categorically disagreed that there was a greater risk of boating in the ocean in the winter, and in the unlikely event of danger, there was no place to run. Slow New Year's Eve is also a big problem, and White Deer City can't find a boat willing to sail at the start of the New Year unless Claude spends a lot of money on a purse boat, which is not very affordable.

So Claude eventually decided to take the road, which required the three of them to leave on January 3rd. Farewell to her mother, sister and brother, kissed Kevin less than two months pregnant, and Claude rode down the road with Mike and Big Grimes.

The weather was nice at first, Claude and the three of us were running a Mercedes-Benz, day and night, and walking five days saved us a day's journey. But it didn't occur to me that they had just praised the weather and thought that it would take seven days for all three of them to reach the king. One night passed and there was a heavy snowstorm. The three of them traveled hard in the snow for half a day and didn't even make it to the scheduled quarter of the way...

But Claude remembered that the map he had seen before he left marked a town not far ahead, and the three of them walked in the snow for half a day, finally to the town. When they found the tavern and knocked on the door of the tavern, the three of them were paralyzed directly by the table.

This town is called Thorin, much bigger than the old White Deer Town. The name of the tavern is Fangtooth Tavern, and it's said to have been dug out in the basili when the house was built before. The first tavern owner hung this huge tooth on the wall, and the tavern is named for it.

When Claude and the three of them entered the tavern, there were few customers inside, and there were only three tables sitting in the lobby. Except for one table, which was bored by local liquors, who came to the tavern to spend time, the remaining two tables and four drinkers were dressed as traders. Obviously, they were also forced by the blizzard to stay in the tavern to shelter from the snow.

Only an old man and a young man with a slightly crippled foot in the pub took care of the business, as if the crippled young man was the son of the old man in the pub, who was called by the old man to take care of Claude's three rides. The old man poured three hot drinks of rye to the three Claudes, cracking his mouth and laughing: “Drink some warmth first, the weather will be hard for you, it's fine, this is for you to drink. ”

There are four fire basins in the corner of the hall, which is much warmer than outside. With a hot glass of rye, the three Claudes finally slowed down. Standing up to unravel the black sheepskin gown, take off the black leather coat, remove the black leather gloves and reveal the red and black uniform on the kingdom worn by the three of them. The owner of the tavern and the bartenders found out that Claude's three men were members of the Royal Army.

“Boss, give the three of them another rye, I'll treat them.” A coarse-looking merchant raised his glass to three Claudes: “You're welcome, fellas, I was discharged from the army because of injuries, and this glass is to the invincible warriors of our kingdom! ”

The rest of the drinkers also raised their glasses to match: "To our kingdom's invincible army and brave soldiers! ”

The tavern owner poured three glasses of hot rye again, Claude was welcome, took a sip of the glass and poured it down, then touched a silver tower out of his pocket and threw it on the table: “Boss, give everyone here a glass of rye, I'll treat you, just wish this damn snowstorm delayed our journey, let's meet here, it's fate! The rest of us get us some hot food to fill our bellies, and we're all starving. ”

The haughty merchant photographed the table and agreed with Claude: "Well said, this snowstorm is damned or I'll be home by now. Poor my wife will think again whether or not some woman hooked me up. As long as I don't get home on time, she will suspect a seizure. I don't know how much it takes to comfort her when I go back...”

Next to him, his merchant friend laughed. “Who told you to be afraid of your wife, you deserve it...”

The atmosphere in the tavern suddenly buoyed.

The tavern owner grabbed Claude's silver taller with a smile, poured a glass of rye to all the drinkers in the room, and said to Claude, "Wait a minute, you'll have something to eat. ”

After finishing two glasses of rye, Mike and Big Gummy moved their lower body, then opened the cloth roll wrapped in rain cloth and took out the three guns inside and started servicing them. The weather is cold and great importance is attached to the maintenance of the firearm, such as the fire rope grip on the gun, the cartridge cover and the trigger, which are easily frozen and stiff and require constant wiping activities to maintain flexibility.

But the businessman with the big face was a little strange. He stood up and looked at the gun and asked, "What kind of mission are you on? ”

Claude shook his head: "We are returning from family visit. ”

“That's not right! The merchant said:" It seems that soldiers of the Royal Army are not allowed to carry weapons to visit their families. ”

Claude laughed, and the question was asked at home by many: "We are not soldiers of those regiments, we are soldiers of the first battalion, asking that every soldier's gun remain intact in order to cultivate a sense of gunfire. Because we are precisely targeted guns that require soldiers to fire and shoot to hit targets within range, it is essential that every soldier be very familiar with the performance of the guns they use. ”

“So that's it.” The merchant nodded: “I think I've heard of the Ranger Battalion. By the way, aren't you stationed at Castle Christo near Wangdu? I just got the shipment back from there, and I heard they seem to be preparing to form a Ranger Legion..."

Castle Christo is one of the four David cities of Wangdu, and Major Skerry said in his first letter to Claude that the Rangers were stationed there from one to four battalions and that the Rangers were formed at Castle Christo.

Claude nodded: “Where did you come from, too? ”

“Well, I went to deliver, and they placed orders for us in Giant Wood Town at the end of last year, and we drove them out before the deadline. Fortunately, this snowstorm happened on our way back, or we'll lose money before the deadline.” This coarse-looking trader has a very familiar personality.

Good thing the tavern owner brought in a large plate of food at this time, otherwise Claude really suspected that this sophisticated merchant would keep nagging around.

The restaurant's food is not good enough to talk about the delicious, very common white bread, honey fruit wine, potato stewed beef, roasted turkey and fried veal, filling the stomach is enough, Claude deliberately went out to see the sky after the meal, clouds sinking in the sky, indicating that the snow is likely to last for two to three days.

This means that the three of you may not really make it to the military academy, it doesn't matter if you stay in a tavern for two or three days, the problem is that this blizzard will make the road more difficult. Today is the ninth, wait here for two days to reach the eleventh. If the Royal Calebon Army Academy is inside Wangdu, then the remaining three days will be enough for the three of us to reach Wangdu. But Kaleben Village is in the other direction, even Wang still has to keep going, so the time is very tight.

“Are you going to Calebon?” While Claude and the three of them were looking at the map and worried, sometime the haughty merchant snuck up to their table and seemed to listen to them for a while.

“Yeah, we're gonna be there for training.” Claude replied.

“Is that the Royal Caleban Army School?” The dealer asked.

“Well, how do you know?” Claude, wake up.

“Oh, Wangdu's four cities, nine towns, 56 villages, where my dealer Donobi is unfamiliar, this is my business site. Dude, you don't know that our wooden furniture from Giant Wood Village sells all over the Ibnister Plains. All the villages and towns except the aristocratic rich in Wangdu love the wooden equipment from our town...”

The trader who called himself Donobi bragged about the birth of their giant wood town, which only told Claude: “In fact, I just sent a bunch of wooden office equipment to Caleban Village last November, and it was this Royal Caleban Army School that received the shipment. At that time, I wondered why this village had built a military school. It turns out that someone really went there. Now I understand that this academy is for the training of your active grassroots officers. ”

The guy seemed like a man of understanding, and Claude asked hopelessly, "This blizzard delayed our journey, and we were afraid we wouldn't make it to Calebon village to report to the military academy 15 days ago. Mr. Donoby, do you know if there's a shortcut to Caleban in the fastest possible time? ”

Donoby, the merchant, smiled. “Yes, it only takes two days for you to get to Calebon. ”