(The chapter content pays tribute to the masterpiece "Late Ming"!)

In the open space south of the city of Tyniec, a large clay pot was spitting white mist. A red-haired guy was working hard to add firewood to the fire. The flames were beating violently, and the aroma of wheat wafted from the clay pot.

The array entered the shack area, and soon it was like a pot was exploding inside. Hungry refugees rushed out after smelling the fragrance. The bonfire pots were immediately surrounded by water, and groups of adults and children in ragged clothes stared at the pots with tears streaming down their faces.

Drool. But Odo, Bass, and Ron were standing at the edge with spears and axes, and no one dared to rush up and grab them.

Art, who had been standing aside for a long time, saw that there were already many refugees around him and nodded to Odo. Odo turned around and shouted to the crowd around him: "Quiet, everyone! Quiet, everyone!! Give me all the f*cks."

Quiet!!!"

The crowd slowly became quiet.

Odo continued to yell: "This is Mr. Art, the newly appointed security patrol officer of the southern border. My lord wants to recruit a group of refugees to accompany the army to open up wasteland and farm in the south. Your Excellency is kind and will take care of food until food is grown in the wasteland.

Come and apply now and we will give each household ten pounds of hulled barley."

The crowd immediately became commotion. If food and housing were really taken care of, the whole family would not have to starve, freeze and wait to die here.

After the scene became quiet, Odo continued: "The reclaimed land will be distributed to everyone for rent. There will be no tax in the first year, and in the future it will only be taxed one out of five. And after five years of farming, the land will be completely handed over to you for cultivation. There will be no labor tax."

It must be lighter than your previous lord, where can you find such a good thing!"

Everyone was listening quietly, but when they heard this condition, they immediately started talking buzzingly.

A refugee hesitated and asked: "Sir, isn't there a war in the south? We finally escaped to the north, but we don't dare to go back again."

Otto glanced at the skinny refugee, raised his head and said to everyone: "The place we are going to is not the north of Provence, but a peaceful place southeast of here. There will be no war there."

The refugees were talking a lot. Art looked at these people on the side. Most of them were disheveled and skinny. They stood in groups. It was obvious that they were in the same place and village. There were one or two in each group.

The leader, the rest of the people gathered around him to discuss.

After a large group of refugees finished their discussion, a slightly stout leader came out and asked: "Master, are there any robbers and bandits where we are going? If we encounter bandits and bandits, we will lose our lives."

Take your life."

"Don't worry, we adults are patrol officers who specialize in hunting down bandits and killing bandits. Bandits and bandits don't dare to come and rob you."

The leader asked again: "Let's all go, can you give us some food and money first, so that we can be ready to follow you?"

Otto rolled his eyes. This man clearly wanted to take advantage of the opportunity. He gave him money and food. If he ran away to look for it, he shook his head and said: "If you want to go with us, we will make arrangements for you. Besides, give it to me."

With such good conditions, we also have to choose a place not just for anyone who wants to go.”

The densely packed refugees around him were hesitant. After all, they had finally escaped to the north and wanted to follow them back to the south. They said that there was no war and banditry, but no one knew for sure.

Otto said calmly: "Everyone, think about it. If you are willing to stay here and freeze to death and starve to death, that's up to you. If you are willing to follow the patrol officer and farm the land with the army, maybe you can still live a daily bread."

, a good day to have thick porridge every day.”

Seeing that everyone was still hesitant, Otto took a half-step to reveal Art behind him, and said: "This is my lord. He is the Southern Border Security Patrol Officer personally appointed by the Palace Minister of Security. You will not suffer any loss if you follow him.

." Behind Odo, Art, who is wearing leather armor, a leather cloak, and a long sword at his waist, does have a mighty and domineering look.

The leader took a step forward and approached Art and asked, "Sir, how many people do you want to recruit?"

Art dislikes this leader very much. He has too few people now and will not recruit too many people in the same group. Otherwise, if these people stick together and make a fuss, it will be difficult to control them. He has decided not to have this leader.

Art ignored the leader of the question and shouted to the people around him: "I am Inspector Art. If you don't want your wife, children and children to freeze to death and starve to death here, just follow me. As long as you are chosen by me,

, you can have porridge right away, and there will be a meal of bread with broth tonight, and you won’t be hungry when we open up wasteland for farming in the future. I will only recruit ten households in total, and I won’t let you go if you fill up.”

It was said that only ten households were recruited, but there were two to three hundred refugees here. Those from the north of the city had not arrived yet. If there were more people, the chance of being selected would be much smaller. When some people became anxious, the crowd was ready to move.

"Sir, do you still remember me? See if I can be chosen." A short, dark-skinned refugee about thirty years old came out and said loudly.

Art took a closer look and saw that it was the man he had rescued from the gangsters more than twenty days ago.

The first person who dared to stand up was an acquaintance. Art breathed a sigh of relief and nodded slightly to Odo. Odo walked out and turned over the refugee's hand. His hands were covered with thick calluses.

Pulling open his tattered clothes, there are also scars on his right shoulder. He must be a farmer who has been digging the soil with a plow for a long time.

Otto nodded and asked him to stand in front of Art. Art looked up and down. The guy in front of him looked as lean as Scott - with dark skin and a simple and honest appearance, but compared to the last time outside the city.

became even thinner.

Art asked: "Last time I was in a hurry and I didn't have time to ask you what your name was?"

"Sir, thank you again for your life-saving grace. My name is Lawrence. I am from Alsburg under the Poge Mountains in the southeast. I fled here with my family this autumn."

"I remember you have a wife and daughter, right? How old are your children?"

"Sir, my daughter is twelve years old."

"Okay, you have been selected, you can go and have porridge."

After hearing this, Lawrence quickly returned to the crowd and took out his wife and daughter. He came to Art and knelt down before walking directly to the clay pot. Kazak had filled several large bowls of wheat paste and was waiting for them. The Lawrence family

People didn't care about burning their mouths, and started drinking from the wooden bowl.

Seeing the Lawrence family devouring the food, the surrounding refugees could no longer bear it any longer, and several more ran around Odo to sign up.

Otto saw more and more people gathering around him and said quickly: "Okay, let's come one by one. We can only recruit ten households. If it's too late, they'll all be gone."

A group of refugees quickly lined up, and Otto looked at them one by one. All the households met the requirements set by Art in advance, so they were allowed to walk to Art for re-selection.

There are several refugee families in a row with strong men and no children or whose children are in their teens. They all passed Yate's selection and went to the clay pot to eat...

The surrounding refugees couldn't help but swallow their saliva when they saw others eating porridge. They no longer cared about the queue and rushed to Odo's side. Bass and Ron threatened them repeatedly with short spears and battle axes, so they barely allowed them to take advantage of the chaos.

These refugees are pitiful to say the least. Throughout the winter, they depended on a few bowls of wheat porridge provided by Tyniec County. However, the wheat porridge was almost all water, so everyone saw the fragrant thick porridge coming from the clay pots.

, who can still bear it? The crowd was boiling for a while, and some who came late squeezed forward with all their strength, and there was a lot of tearing and yelling.

Another refugee selected by Odo came to Art, "What's your name? How old are you?"

"Hey, sir, my name is Lin En, I am twenty-one years old."

"Do you have any children?"

"I have a son and a daughter."

"How old are you?"

The refugee named Lin En stood in front of Art for a long time. He became more nervous and his voice was a little trembling: "One, one is four years old, and the other is six years old."

Art lowered his head and thought. He wanted to recruit people to open up wasteland and farm the land. Such a young child couldn't do any work. It was not cost-effective to waste food to raise him, so Art planned to reject this refugee who brought up his family.

.

"You~"

Before Art could even say his words of rejection, two children had already stumbled towards him, preparing to drink porridge at the clay pot. The refugee stopped the two children and said repeatedly: "The eldest master hasn't agreed yet, wait! Wait!

!”

Both children were half-clothed, their hair was as dirty as hemp ropes stained with mud, knotted together into strips, and their outstretched hands were like dry firewood. A thin woman with a similar appearance was chasing after them.

With two children in tow.

The two children looked up at Art, with two tubes of snot hanging from their dark faces. Art couldn't even tell who was a boy and who was a girl. The two children's eyes had lost their natural innocence.

All they could do was beg. I don’t know how long they had been hungry with their parents who were fleeing.

"You~" Art kept the word "you" on his lips for a long time, but the rest of the words were never spoken. Ron and Kazak looked at him quietly, waiting for him to make a decision.

"You~ were chosen." Art cursed himself in his mind.

The refugee waited anxiously for a long time, and finally got the good news. He, his wife and children all knelt on the ground and kowtowed. Art helped the refugee and the child and asked them to eat porridge as a family.

"Ron, Ron, come here."

Ron ran over.

Art whispered in Ron's ear: "You will stand in front of me in a moment. Anything Otto has chosen will not be accepted as long as there are elderly people and children under ten years old at home."

A "good guy" shouldn't be here, so Art asked Ron to be the bad guy for him.

So there were three procedures for the subsequent selection. Otto only looked at whether the refugee was strong and honest; Ron asked about the family situation of the person selected by Otto, and Art pretended to be the final choice in the end.

decision maker.

There were several refugee families in the middle who passed Otto's selection but were not selected by Ron. Several families of refugees, old and young, knelt in front of Ron and begged. Ron fled north with his parents and was already used to more miserable scenes.

, unmoved by the pleas of the refugees on the ground.

Art looked at Ron who was not touched at all, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart: "This world cannot tolerate such false benevolence and righteousness from me..."

In less than a morning, Ate and the others had selected 31 refugees from twelve households. Most of these thirty-one people came from all over the north and south of Provence. After many selections, except for the refugee household authorized by Ate, the others were all

Hard-working young men and women and children in their teens will all be good at cultivating the fields.

A group of selected refugees devoured their food beside the clay pots. The surrounding refugees were all drooling and looked at the thirty or so lucky ones with round bellies with envy, and refused to leave for a long time.

"Odo, go and ask the refugees if there are any craftsmen, preferably blacksmiths or builders."

After a long time, Otto brought over an old man with a gray beard.

The old man's name was Bader, who was originally a carpenter in the city of Aosta. After his only son died in the war, the old carpenter fled to Tyniec with his wife and young grandson. Master Pierre recruited all the craftsmen among the refugees.

In the city, but he was old and frail and had children with him, so he was never able to enter the city of Tyniec.

In the selection just now, the old man was directly kicked away by Odo.

"Master, he is just an old carpenter with an old wife and a grandson~" Ron reminded Art.

Art was also helpless. The craftsman among the refugees had long been settled in the city by Mr. Pierre. He thought for a moment and said, "Take him with you and let him work as a deputy for the Cooper Gang. Maybe he can also make some farm tools."

.”

Then he called Odo, Ron, Bass and Kazak, and formed a small circle. Art said to them: "Let them gather here in the afternoon, pick out all the mature men, and remember their

Name, and then distribute food to each household."

.........

Early morning of the second day.

Snowflakes were falling from the sky, and the ground was covered with white. A horse rider and four armed men were protecting a group of refugees carrying large and small bags on the road to the south...
Chapter completed!