Fearing that something might change for a long time, Art went to the quarry to recruit (purchase) soldiers that afternoon.

The quarry stands on the mountain, and most of the hills have been dug out. The slopes of the faults have been cut into multiple steps. On each step, there are miners beating their palms and using drills to extract stones.

The large stones that came down were carried by a group of three or five porters to the open space at the foot of the mountain along the narrow path beside the stairs. A dozen stonemasons in the open space at the foot of the mountain chopped and chiseled the stones into strips. Iron plates were waiting nearby.

Horse-drawn carriages then transport these stones to various construction sites. Sentries are built around the quarry to prevent people from stealing the stones and to prevent miners from escaping.

According to the quarry manager, there are more than 120 miners in the entire quarry. Due to their low status and hard life, even the ugliest widows are unwilling to marry them, so most of the miners are alone.

Under the leadership of the steward, Ate and others led their horses to the work shed of the quarry. Several miners who were resting in the work shed saw the quarry steward coming with a few people and hurriedly stepped forward to greet them.

The steward said to the miners who came up: "These are the people sent by Bishop Olof. They were ordered to temporarily select a group of miners from the quarry to form a caravan and go to the south to purchase the materials needed to rebuild the church for the Bishop.

"

Art smiled and nodded to everyone, while Ron and Kazak unloaded a barrel of light beer from their horses and moved it into the work shed and placed it on the wooden table.

Art pointed at the beer on the wooden table and said, "Thank you for your hard work, all the miners. Consider these beers the consolation I bring to you on behalf of Bishop Olof."

When Art invited the miners to have a drink, the manager of the quarry pulled over a close miner and told him: "Go and gather the miners here for this gentleman to choose from."

The mine manager turned his head and glanced at Art and the others, then leaned into the steward's ear and whispered hesitantly: "Master Steward, most of these miners are slaves given to monasteries and prisoners serving sentences from various places. I'm afraid it's not appropriate to take them away like this.

Bar?"

The steward stared at the mine head with wide eyes, and said impatiently: "I have the final say whether it is appropriate or not. Besides, these are people who are temporarily sent to do labor. Bishop Orlov is watching and can't run away."

If you leave, you will naturally come back when things are done."

"Only a ghost would believe that they can come back. It seems that they have to report their sudden deaths due to illness~" The mine manager muttered a few words in his heart, but he still obeyed the order obediently despite the boss's usual bullying.

After giving instructions to the mine head, the steward turned around and said to Art: "Sir, you have to hurry up and select. I have to seize the time to mine the stone."

Art smiled and nodded in agreement.

The sound of tinkling copper bells rang over the quarry, and the miners gathered in groups of three and five towards the wooden shed. Soon there were seventy or eighty miners standing in the open space in front of the shed.

When the miners were halfway there, the steward made a gesture of invitation to Art.

Art put his right hand on the hilt of the sword at his waist and stood on a small wooden platform in front of the work shed. Ron and Kazak also stood upright behind him. Art's loud voice sounded: "Dear miners, I

On the order of Bishop Olof, I came here to temporarily recruit a group of laborers and guards to accompany my caravan to the south to purchase goods. You all know that Provence and Lombardy are currently at war in the south. It is dangerous to follow me south, but I also

I won’t let you go on adventures with me in vain. Anyone who is willing to follow me will give you food, clothing and clothing along the way, as well as a salary of five pfennigs a week. On weekdays, you only need to drive the carriage and carry the goods for me.

When they arrive, the bandits will carry a stick to help build up their momentum..."

There was a noise from the miners below. Many of them were slaves and prisoners who had been working in the quarry for many years. They were exposed to the wind and sun day after day, pounding and smashing rocks, doing heavy work like cattle and horses, and eating the food of pigs and dogs.

, there is no more difficult life in the world than this. Without Art’s instigation, several miners are already eager to try it.

Art's voice sounded again at the right time, "However, since I am working for the Lord Bishop, I also have to make a selection. The first must be young and strong people, and those who are old and infirm will not be accepted; the second must be single people.

, those with wives, sons and daughters will not be accepted; the third one must be a brave person, and those who are timid and afraid of trouble will not be accepted. If you think you meet the requirements, please come forward. I will only recruit ten people. Once the recruitment is full, I will not accept them."

Before Art could finish speaking, a miner in his mid-twenties, wearing loose linen pants and a topless upper body, had already stood up.

Art nodded to Kazak and Ron, and the two jumped off the wooden platform and walked to the miner. Kazak pinched the miner's tendons like buying an animal and then opened his teeth to take a look. Passed.

Kazak's preliminary selection, the miner came to Ron again.

Ron, who had experienced fighting in the battle, no longer had the shyness he had six months ago. He had an imposing manner in front of this miner who was a head taller than him. He raised his head and asked: "Man, what's your name? Why are you here?"

?”

The miner did not hesitate and replied: "My name is Obote. I was originally a slave and was resold here."

"Have you ever killed anyone?"

"No, but I'm not afraid of killing people."

"Okay, you have been selected, go and register."

Miner Obote left the crowd and walked to the wooden table under the wooden shed. The quarry steward held a quill in his hand and drew a circle with Obote's name on the parchment.

The second miner who came up looked at Ron and boasted, but Ron didn't ask any questions and eliminated him directly, because according to the standards that Art had set for Ron in advance, anyone who was smooth-talking would be successful in the market.

Don't let anyone who is hooligan or too violent and difficult to control.

The third miner who was punished with hard labor for accidentally killing someone in a fight successfully passed the test of Kazak and Ron, and after "registering" with the supervisor, he stood next to Obote.

Then came the fourth and fifth...

The standards set by Art were not too harsh for these miners. A small number of the miners below stood up to accept the selection, but Ron had just selected and eliminated less than thirty miners and had already recruited ten people.

, this is the upper limit that the quarry manager allows Art to take away miners, and it is also the upper limit of the number of people Art intends to recruit, because now there are only eighteen people in the patrol team, and these miners are different from those laborers, most of them are not good people.

Recruiting too many good people will definitely have a negative impact on the overall combat effectiveness and military discipline of the patrol team. Therefore, Art has no intention of recruiting all ten of these people into the patrol team. He will also recruit from these ten people in the future.

Keep choosing...

While waiting for the selected miners to return to their shacks to simply pack up their belongings and prepare to leave, Art and the steward came to a place away from the public eye and placed three large silver marks and six small silver deniers into the hands of the steward.

The steward weighed it, took out a fine silver mark, looked at it, and happily put it into his wallet...

............

In the evening, Art and the other three took ten miners back to stay at a small hotel in the north of Lucerne. Art treated the miners to a hearty meal of broth oatmeal and rye bread.

That night Ron and Kazak planned to take turns guarding the sentry to prevent the miners from escaping, but Art stopped the two of them. These people would not escape. Most of them were slaves and hard labor prisoners in name. Once they were caught running away, they would face even more danger.

It was a cruel punishment; and since Art promised to keep them fed, clothed and given some extra salary, they should not leave voluntarily.

Sure enough, early the next morning, Art opened the door and saw the miner named Obote waiting in front of his door with several others.

"Sir, thank you for giving us abundant food and warm shelter. Please assign us the tasks we have to do today." Obote bent down and said to Art.

Art looked at the group of bowed miners in front of him and said: "I think you have probably guessed that I am not temporarily recruiting you to do business. You have been bought by me from the quarry. As long as you work well for me,

, I will never go back to be a mine slave in the future. Although I bought you, I have no intention of letting you be my slave forever. In the future, I will select suitable people from you to join my patrol team. Once you become

The soldiers in my patrol are no longer slaves or convicts. Even if you are not selected into the patrol, as long as you serve me for two years with peace of mind and diligence, I will restore your status as free citizens."

Several miners were pleasantly surprised. They thought they would only get a slightly better situation than working as slaves in the quarry. They did not expect that they would have the opportunity to regain their status as free citizens~

"May God bless you, my lord." All the miners knelt down and put their heads on the ground.

Art called the miners.

"After breakfast today, I will select a few of you to go to the city to purchase goods. The rest will be taken to the hotel to rest. I will arrange the food and accommodation, but you should not walk around randomly to avoid causing more trouble." After finishing speaking.

Art took the miners downstairs.

Ron had already arranged meals for everyone. The miners' table had a large vat of pea-wheat paste, and Art and Ron Kazak's table had bread soaked in broth with refined salt.

Everyone enjoyed the meal.

On this day, Art took Ron and a few miners to wander around the city of Lucesien for a whole day, and spent two thousand pfennigs to buy a wooden and iron-lined four-wheeled carriage and a strong green-lipped mule.

In addition, a batch of grain, bacon, farm tools, salt, burlap and other materials were purchased, and a pair of coarse cloth shorts were purchased for ten miners in ragged clothes.

Art once again lamented that he didn't have enough money. Three thousand pfennigs were gone at the end of the day.

But surprisingly, the miners who got new coarse cloth clothes were not happy. They thought that the more generous the new owner was, the more dangerous the road ahead would be...

After staying in Lucese for four days, Art took a group of ten people out of the south gate of Lucese and embarked on the road back south. In order to deal with possible dangers on the way, Yat left from Lucese

Ten long sticks for competition were bought from the competition ground in Sien City, and the ten unarmed miners held one long stick for self-defense.
Chapter completed!