It's June and the weather is getting hotter.

After receiving two batches of food supplies worth half a million pfennigs successively shipped from the palace of Besancon, the Burgundy Kingdom's support for the Mountain Confederation entered the implementation stage.

Three hundred thousand pfennigs can only buy more than one million pounds of wheat, but if it is replaced with oats and rye, it can become nearly two million pounds.

Including the old grains and miscellaneous grains purchased by European commercial banks from France, Provence and other places, the grain stockpiled at various material transfer points such as Andermatt has exceeded 8 million pounds.

The Continental Trading Company and the Welsh Army's Baggage Department jointly formed a caravan specifically to travel between Wales and the Mountain Confederacy. This caravan consisted of nearly two hundred packhorses, green mules and donkeys, and more than two hundred laborers.

Of course, it is impossible for the European trading houses and the legion's baggage department to mobilize so many laborers and livestock. They still have to maintain the normal operation of the European trading houses and the legion.

Almost all of these livestock and laborers came from the Mountain Confederation. The livestock were rented from the Mountain Confederation at low prices, and most of the laborers were newly recruited from the mountains. They could find a job just after they left the mountains and joined the Province of Wales.

A job where you can eat well and drink well will put you in a high mood, so you have to work extra hard.

In the past two months, this caravan has hardly rested and has transported nearly one million pounds of food supplies to Yver City. The European Trading Company has set up a special stronghold here to be responsible for trade with various parts of the Mountain Confederation.

According to the agreement, the Continental Commercial Bank basically bought to the states based on the average market price of the Burgundy Kingdom. Excluding the cost of grain, it made no money at all. Even for every 10,000 pounds of grain sold, the Continental Commercial Bank had to subsidize hundreds of pfennigs.

Freight costs.

The friendly states allied with the Mountain Confederation and the Province of Wells then sent people to Iver City to buy these grains at low prices and send them to various places, selling them to their hungry people who were about to starve to death at the most "reasonable" price possible.

As the connection point between the Province of Wales and the Mountain Confederation, Manuel, the Lord of Iver City, has been in a state of affairs in just a few months. Every day, the heads of states send people to carry them into his mansion, in the hope that he can help.

Talk to the stewards of the Continental Trading Company and sell them more grain...

Of course, the huge efforts also brought huge rewards.

While a huge caravan was continuously transporting food from the Province of Wales to the Mountain Confederacy, another recruiting team for the Territorial Citizens and an elite recruitment team formed by the Ministry of Military Affairs of the Province of Wales were

We are also constantly bringing carefully selected mountain people and mountain soldiers to Wales...

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

In a relatively luxurious hotel in the capital city of Uri State, Mountain Land, a recruiting team wearing black armor and carrying a wolf-head heraldic flag has been staying here for three days.

Leading this team was a red-haired knight of the square banner.

"Lord Kazak, today they sent seventeen more soldiers. Andrew took the people sent by the inspector to test them one by one. Twelve of them passed the test. But the officer who sent them asked what would happen to these elite soldiers in the future.

We will not return it to them." Bangada, captain of the first branch of the Wells Corps and deputy commander of the Southern Xinjiang Garrison Corps, is one of the members who selected elite mountain soldiers this time. He can send them, middle- and high-level officers, to personally form the team.

The inspection team is enough to show that Art attaches great importance to these elite mountain soldiers.

Kazak is no longer the "red-haired ghost" who lived in the flea shack outside Lucerne. As a knight of the square banner, he is the deputy commander of the first branch of the Welsh Army and the director of operations of the Military Affairs Office.

Became a senior officer in the Welsh Regiment.

In the Mountain Confederation, where weapons and armor are still very crude, the sophisticated weapons and armor of this black armored army are already dazzling enough, but Kazzak's body is engraved with the wolf head emblem, slightly roasted blue chain mail and the armor hanging on his belt.

The stainless steel long sword in the leather scabbard of various colors attracts more attention.

If it were not for the difficulty of traveling on the mountain road, Kazak would also have planned to bring his full-body plate armor customized by his weapons workshop for high-ranking officers.

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Fortunately, this is a high mountain area. Although this thick armor is a bit cumbersome, it will not make them covered in scabies.

Facts have proven that when it comes to military recruitment, a well-made armor is worth a thousand words of bragging.

At first, those elite soldiers who were "transferred" by the various states to the Wells Army were somewhat resistant. After all, as elites, their status in the Confederate armies was indeed not low. They enjoyed sufficient food, and they were also on the battlefield.

Can get most of the loot.

However, being sent to this elite team with emotions, the "pride" in their hearts was instantly annihilated. In front of these well-armored and powerful Wells Legions, the hard armor on their bodies was even more...

Like a beggar's clothes, the dagger at his waist has become a sickle in the hands of a farmer.

After learning that the Welsh Legion had to carefully select among them, those mountain elites felt even more inferior. Except for a few who left angrily out of pride, the rest tried their best to express themselves.

Especially after learning from the red-haired knight that the soldiers of the Welsh Legion were treated inhumanely.

"Bangorda, sometimes I have to admire the superhuman imagination of these mountain allies. How can it be possible for the Province of Wales to let these soldiers come back after investing so much money and effort."

"Besides, I'm afraid these soldiers won't want to go back after three to five months in the Welsh Army."

Kazak picked up the bottle of high-quality alpine wine sent by the city lord and poured a glass for Bangda. "There are still five places left for Uri State to be recruited. I will take Matthew to the city hall later.

, let the city lord urge those tribal communities that have not sent people to come over for selection."

Bangada took the wine glass and drank it down, "I said you can just take away five of the iron guards from the city lord's mansion. I've seen that those guys are pretty good. They can be directly qualified as grassroots officers in the Wells Army."

.”

Kazak waved his hand, "There is no shortage of officers in the Wells Army. Besides, those Iron Guards are the treasures of the leaders of the Confederacy. I have asked, the Mountain Confederacy is very poor, but the treatment of those Iron Guards is very high. Sir

I have said that the most taboo thing about recruiting elites is recruiting "old soldiers", these guys are difficult to manage."

"Also, in the afternoon you take people to visit the surrounding tribes to see if there are any hunters with excellent shooting skills nearby. The crossbow team lost a lot of archers some time ago, and they need to supplement...

"

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

Wales, county town of Tyniec.

The rising heat wave in June made everyone standing in the church square sweat dripping down their faces.

Bishop Hamish of Tynets wiped his sweaty head while introducing the soon-to-be-completed Tynets Cathedral to the Earl of Wales and Bishop Robert of the Diocese of Wales.

Due to the special institutional system of the Province of the Earl of Wales and the "religious activities" of the Kingdom of France last year, the power of the church has always been ranked third after military affairs and government affairs in the Province of Wales.

However, on the surface, it is impossible for Art to put secular power above religion, so the Province of Wales has a complete religious system.

Robert had followed Art for many years and was often by his side. His original nominal identity was Bishop of Tyniec and chaplain of the Welsh Legion, but his real position was Art's personal general advisor and religious spokesperson.

Not only did Robert fight with the army for many years, providing "faith support" for the army's combat effectiveness, but he also participated in many of Art's "conspiracies." Therefore, after Art became the Earl of Wales, under Art's operation, Robert

Archbishop Olof of the Kingdom of Gendy appointed Robert as Bishop of the Diocese of Wales.

An unknown military priest six years ago now sits in the high position of provincial diocesan bishop, although he does not even have a church of his own.

This is also wrong. There is a church in Wellsburg that can accommodate a hundred people for prayer in the soon-to-be-built Wellsburg. It is theoretically the residence of Bishop Robert of the provincial diocese.

And the "drunkard" priest Hamish, who was the first to follow Art south, has now become the Bishop of Tyniec.

Hamish is a difficult person to judge. In terms of qualifications, he is obviously older than Robert, but he is too alcoholic. Although he is very good at church affairs, in Wales, this ability is obviously not good enough.

Not of much use.

However, Robert always followed Art around, and someone had to be specifically responsible for the religious affairs of the entire territory, so Hamish became the actual religious person in charge.

Except for the time when he is drunk and sleeping, Hamish is really a busy man. In the past, Art's territory only had a wooden castle in the barren valley, and he only had to be responsible for the wooden castle church and the parish school; however, as Art's territory and titles increased little by little,

With the expansion, his tasks became more and more. At first, he only added a few small churches in the villages. He taught a few villagers who had some understanding of how to deal with it, and occasionally went to give guidance; slowly, the parish

The school must offer specialized theology courses to cultivate enough theological talents to help him manage the academic affairs of tens of thousands of people and more than a dozen villages.

To this day, he is responsible for all religious affairs from the lakeland at the southern end of the valley to the city of Beaune in the north.

He was very fortunate that the School of Government Affairs doubled as a seminary, and he could draw out a few unintelligent apprentices from there every year to enrich his religious team.

Of course, there were originally some clergy in Tyniec and other territories outside the valley, but for some reason most of these people were transferred to other provincial dioceses by the Bishop of Besançon...

"Our province of Wales will finally have a decent cathedral." Art sighed as he looked at the Tyniec Cathedral, which has been expanded more than three times.

Robert and Hamish behind him looked at each other and smiled. They knew Art's attitude towards religion, but they didn't seem to care much.

"The more powerful a mortal is, the more he longs for the blessings of the Holy Lord." Art simply started.

"The Holy Lord will definitely bless you, my pious Earl." Hamish wiped the sweat that kept rolling down his fat neck.

"Of course that's great." Art turned back and glanced at the two bishops beside him.

"My ancestors are Lombards, I believe you all know that."

Robert had already guessed what Art was going to say next, "Sir, I also know that your great-great-grandfather was the religious guard of Pope Innocent III. Your great-grandfather was awarded the title of knight for his military exploits in the Eastern Expedition. When your grandfather was

The Wells family became the Barons of Lombardy, and your father's castle is located in the northern plains of Lombardy. He also sacrificed his life for the Eastern Crusade."

Art turned around and stared at the half-old man wearing a white bishop's holy robe in front of him, and said nothing for a while.

"It seems I don't need to say more next time." Art smiled.

"Sir, since you raised the army, I'm afraid you have been praying for this day to come sooner." Robert said softly.
Chapter completed!