Chapter 113 Captured Miners
"Oh? Stealing food?"
Gervis was a little surprised. Petty theft was understandable, but so many people stealing at once. Could it be that his territory had suffered a disaster? However, he had just walked around the roads outside the three villages that morning and did not find anything unusual.
"Sir, these people are not from our territory. The village chief said he has never seen them. He has questioned them and they seem to be miners who escaped from Lanny's territory!"
Thomas said this in a low voice, took two steps forward, and answered in a voice that only Gervis could hear when he got close to Gervis.
"Miners from Camp Lanny in the buffer zone?"
Gervis was a little confused. Could these people have lost their way? If they were running, they should have gone to Viscount Lanny's territory. Why did they run to his own territory?
"Yes, sir. According to their confession, these people were forced to become miners. They were not paid for their work and had no family. That's why they wanted to come to your Storm Territory to see if they could become serfs."
Thomas nodded to Gervis, confirming the miners' origins.
"I see." Gervis finally understood that these people were not lost, but were running away on purpose. What he didn't know was that the miners who ran to Storm Territory were lucky. Most of them ran back to Lanny's territory, or the miners who waited there were used by Lanny to vent his anger and were all killed without leaving a single one.
Gervis looked at the serfs who were still kneeling in front of him, thinking about something, and then said to everyone:
"Look up."
All the serfs were kneeling on the ground with their heads bowed, including the villagers from Storm Territory who were responsible for escorting them. Seeing those villagers still kneeling on the ground, Gervis said to them, "You guys should stand up first!"
"Yes, my lord."
After those villagers got up, there were only more than 20 miners left on the ground. When Gervis turned his attention back to these miners, he saw that one of them was actually lowering his head and trembling all over.
"kindness?"
"The one with his head down, raise his head!"
Noticing the abnormality, Gervis thought of a possibility, so he gave the order to the man without hesitation.
At this time, several villagers who had just stood up also noticed something was wrong, and the lord had spoken. They were thinking about performing well, so two villagers who were close to them immediately walked into the crowd and lifted the man up. The man who was trembling with his head down knew that he had been discovered, and hurriedly shouted: "Master, spare me, Master, spare me! I don't know anything."
Being carried by two villagers, Gervis finally saw the man's appearance clearly. Wasn't this the leader of the miners that day? The man who was ordered by Gervis to take him to check the mine.
"Thomas, lock these people up in the mining space."
After confirming that some of these people knew him, Gervis no longer considered and gave an order to lock them all up in the ore space. Anyway, there was enough space inside to lock up these people. As long as someone was posted to watch the door, no one could escape.
"Yes, sir."
"Tell them that I won't kill them as long as they behave themselves. By the way, Thomas, there's no need to look for the miners I told you to do yesterday!"
Although the arrival of these people surprised Gervis, it was just right. His territory was very short of people now. Since some of these people recognized him, he could make use of them. As for killing them, he didn't kill them last night, so Gervis would not kill them today. He had better arrangements.
"Reward these villagers later."
"Yes, sir!"
After receiving the order, under the leadership of Thomas, all twenty-one miners were escorted into the castle. The miner who had just begged for mercy knew that he had saved his life for the time being, so he followed the team timidly and did not dare to cause any more trouble.
To be on the safe side, Gervis looked at the two guards following him.
"Go to the city wall and watch. If anyone dares to take even a step out of the space, shoot them directly."
Although the courtyard is surrounded by a wall and there is a guard on duty, the situation inside cannot be seen. In order to prevent anyone from disobeying orders or walking out of the space with ulterior motives, Gervis asked the two guards to monitor on the wall. If any miner really disobeyed orders and ran out of the space, Gervis would not show mercy, and it would be a good opportunity to make an example of him.
After giving all the instructions, Gervis walked alone towards the gentle slope at the foot of the mountain. At the open space at the foot of the slope, all the recruits were resting under the shade of the trees. When Audrey and Laurie saw Gervis, they hurriedly shouted at the guards to stand up and line up. Some recruits who were slow to stand up were even whipped by Laurie and Audrey.
Under the urging of the two men, the thirty guards quickly formed a formation, divided into three rows, and arranged in order of height.
"grown ups!"
When Gervais came closer, Laurie and Audrey took the lead, pounding their chests with their right hands, puffing out their chests and lowering their heads to signal Gervais.
"Very good, it seems you have learned how to salute!"
Although the young lord's soldiers are not very strong in combat, they are very careful about etiquette. They have learned the military salute very well, which is the same as the salute of the guards under Alice. This military salute is unified in the entire principality.
Without asking, Gervis knew that this must have been taught by Audrey and Laurie.
"Listen to my orders, everyone, move forward twenty steps!"
The thirty recruits were in different spirits at the moment. The most energetic among them were Alex and ten others, because they not only had a full meal for lunch, but also got to eat rare pieces of meat. At the moment, they were full of energy and high-spirited.
The ones who were in the worst spirits were of course the five people at the end of the group who hadn't even eaten. Apart from a few bites of food when they came in the morning and just drank a little water to quench their thirst at noon, they looked listless.
But Gervis wouldn't care about them. Only by letting them experience the feeling of hunger would these people train hard in the future.
After Gervis gave the order, all the guards immediately moved and walked forward. Although the formation was not very neat, it was only the first day, so Gervis was not in a hurry.
When the recruits walked out twenty steps, they were all completely exposed to the sun. Gervis walked up to them and said, "Before we start the training, let me tell you something. I plan to select 10 of you to be my personal guards. They will follow me around. So I hope you can perform well. The personal guards not only have the best equipment, but also the best treatment!"
When Gervis said this, the eyes of the recruits below instantly lit up. Even the guards who were listless due to hunger began to cheer up, and all looked at Gervis with eager eyes.
They originally thought that they were lucky to be a guard, but they didn't expect that the lord was going to select the personal guards. Although these serfs didn't know what the personal guards meant, they understood what Gervis said about following him, getting better equipment and better treatment.
As long as one is a human being, there will be a competitive spirit. Everyone wants to live better and be stronger than others. Now that the opportunity is right in front of them, no one will give up, especially after the reward and punishment incident at lunch, they deeply realize that if they want to live a good life, they must be better than others.
(End of this chapter)
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