Chapter 57 Letter for Help
Since a series of agricultural laws were announced, Paul Greiman has lived a busy and fulfilling life every day. In addition to reviewing the peasant association construction reports sent by local affairs officers every day , and from time to time he would ride on horseback to inspect the villages near Huxin Town.
A letter broke his life. This letter came from Myron Garnard, Lord of Bailding, his "little boy".
The letter was written on a new type of paper produced by Alda. Paul touched the letter and was secretly proud that the paper he "invented" has gradually entered people's lives.
At first, the content seemed to be nothing. It was nothing more than greetings and talking about some interesting things that happened in his territory recently. However, some of the sentences did not read very smoothly, which gave Paul a toothache.
"Really, if I didn't know it, I would have thought it was written by a child who had just started learning."
The Earl shook his head and complained mercilessly about this childhood friend.
Wait a minute, Paul thought for a moment. In his memory, the two of them had written letters before. It seemed that the guy's writing ability was not that bad.
Unless that's the case...
He ran back to his bedroom and started rummaging through the cabinets. After a while of busy work, he finally found what he remembered. This was a box. After opening it There are several thin wood chips placed inside. What is special is that these wood chips are hollowed out with irregularly arranged rectangular holes.
This is the "secret word" agreed between him and Mellon before, used to hide some little secrets in letters that can only be shared between the two of them.
For example, "I got a slap in the butt again last night, my father is a big bad guy", "I secretly poured out the butler's wine, it was so funny to see the ghostly expression on his face", "Today I saw my father sneaking around The maid's butt is wet," and other such things will lead to very bad consequences if parents see them.
Every time you write a secret letter, first spread the wood pieces on the paper, fill in the words you want to write in the hollows, then remove the wood pieces, fill in other words in the remaining blank spaces to form a sentence An ordinary letter.
However, because of this, the combined sentences are not smooth, or sometimes the context does not say the same thing, and others seem a bit confused.
In order to prevent others from seeing through writing in the same position too many times, the two made many such thin wood slices. In the same set of wood slices, the hollow holes on each are arranged differently.
The person writing the letter randomly selects a piece of paper to use, and the person receiving the letter has to cover it piece by piece on the letter paper and read it until a smooth sentence is read.
"The candlestick... flew up... into the river..., it doesn't look like this one."
"The steward... the knight fell... caught fire..., it doesn't look like this one either. "
"Delicious food...the mouse... fell into the ditch..., let's try something else."
Paul took out the wood chips from the box and put them on the letter paper one by one. I tried to decipher the cipher text, but I couldn’t see it the first 9 times. Finally, when I covered the 10th piece of wood, the first half of a very smooth sentence was revealed:
"I overheard the conversation between the housekeeper and them. My father was killed. Now they are going to attack me. Help,..." The words in the second half of the sentence are messy.
The terrible information revealed in the cipher text shocked Paul. In order to prevent a misunderstanding, he tried putting the remaining wood pieces on the letter paper one by one, but the combination of the words he read out was not the same as before. The sentences flow smoothly.
Paul's heart suddenly sank. It seemed that his friend had been caught in a conspiracy that could endanger his life.
“My father was killed”, isn’t that what Hansel used to warn him about “Old Canard slipped and fell into the water”? At that time, I suspected that this was a conspiracy, because Old Canard's reforms had touched the interests of the vassals, and it was very likely that they would join forces to get rid of their lords.
Now that Old Canard's son overheard the conspirators' conversation, this matter is confirmed.
So now the question comes. The other party has sent a letter asking for help. Should he save him or not? The earl is in a dilemma.
On the one hand, after recovering the memory of another world, although he has become a little indifferent to the interpersonal relationships before regaining his memory, he is not so indifferent that he turns a deaf ear to his friends' difficulties. Thinking of his childhood, The scene of the two playing together was quite touching.
On the other hand, his territory is now at the beginning of reform and industry, and he really doesn't want to get involved in outside affairs.
Another reason is that Garnad is not a guilty family like Grayman. The Bairding under his rule is a genuine earldom, with five vassals: two viscounts and Three barons, if these guys were all involved in the conspiracy and he recklessly went to save people, would they be able to defeat him if they teamed up to fight him?
Let's figure out the situation first. Paul walked out of the bedroom, called a servant and said: "Let Hansel, the steward, come to see me, and hurry up!"
...
In Butua, the capital of Bailding, a man slowly walked into a tavern, sat down in front of the bar, and shouted: "Boss, a glass of malt wine."
The tavern owner took a clean cup, went to the wine barrel and filled a full cup, placed it in front of the guest and said, "Please use it slowly." After the guest drank a few sips of wine, he chatted with the boss. From the beginning of the day, there has been talk of pirate invasions in the west to rebellions in the south.
When it came to the second cup, he asked casually: "It seems that no pirates have been here. Why are there so many soldiers on the street?"
The tavern owner replied casually: "Are you from out of town? Several barons and viscounts from Bairding are gathered here, and their private soldiers are on the street."
"Is there something big going on? ?”
“The soldiers of the little Earl of Canard were dragged to the south by people sent by the royal family to fight against the rebels. His vassals said that they were coming to protect the safety of the lord and maintain Butua. Public security. Humph!"
The last sentence "hum" piqued his interest. It seemed that the matter was not simple, so he asked the tavern owner in a low voice: "Looking at your tone, is there something hidden? ?”
The tavern owner glanced at him and did not answer.
The guest put his hand into his pocket, patted it on the table, and said loudly: "Check out!"
When he took his hand away, there was a coin left on the table. If it was a copper coin, it was It's far from enough money for two glasses of ale, but the point is - it's a silver coin.
The boss looked around. At this time, there were only two other guests in the tavern sitting in a corner drinking. They would not notice it. He put away the silver coins very quickly.
The customer sitting in front of the bar stood up to leave, but heard the tavern owner say: "I also have my own special beer here. Why don't you try a few more glasses?"
Guest The corner of his mouth raised slightly, and he sat down again, "Then I'll try your special beer again! If it tastes good, I'll come back next time." He patted his right hand lightly on the bar table. From between his fingers, he could see another beer below. A silver coin.
The tavern owner went to double the beer and brought it over. The guest continued to press his right hand on the table, picked up the cup with his left hand and drank.
I heard the boss lower his voice and say in a low voice: "Have you heard about the old Earl of Canard a few years ago? He wanted to confiscate the vassal's territory and offend a lot of his subordinates."< br>
He nodded to show that he knew.
"Then the earl fell into the water and drowned, but his death was too strange. At least I knew that the earl had excellent water skills since he was a child."
The guest was surprised and asked in a low voice: "So his vassals killed him?"
The boss immediately shook his head: "You guessed it yourself, I didn't say anything."
The guest asked again: "Then what? What does this have to do with the private soldiers on the street?"
The tavern owner once again checked to see if anyone was paying attention.
“After the death of the old earl, his son, Master Myron, inherited the title. But since then, the young earl has not gone out much. He used to be such an outgoing child, and he often went to Alda to look for him. The young master of the Graiman family has become reclusive for no reason."
The guest sipped his wine while listening to the tavern owner continue: "The few vassals gathered in Butua are all Ghanaians. He is a relative of the De family, and the old earl only has a son, and none of his soldiers are around." Then he didn't go on.
The guest put down his cup and asked: "If something happens to little Canard, will the title fall into the hands of a certain vassal?"
The tavern owner smiled and said: "This is your own guess. , that’s all I know.”
After picking up the cup and drinking the rest of the wine, the guest withdrew his right hand and left the shining silver coin underneath on the bar table.
"The beer you have here is delicious, I will come again next time!"
As he said this, he walked out of the pub leisurely.
I had a half-day meeting outside today, so I can only update one chapter, everyone.
(End of this chapter)