Chapter 613 Chapter 573: Another Courtyard

This is a small remote place tens of kilometers away from the empire, a small town with only a few hundred families and a population of just over a thousand. The name of this town is: Yuema Town.And there is a strangely shaped hillside next to the town, with a narrow valley in the middle that cuts the original hillside in half—and in the local area, this hillside has a name that once made Du Wei vomit blood: Brokeback Mountain. This is a very remote place. If you look at the official map of the empire, you have to be very careful and careful to find the marking of this place.There are no valuable minerals produced here, and the geographical location is far away from commercial routes.

The only road outside the town, as long as you walk along this road for about an hour, you can come to the official road leading to the imperial capital, and then if you gallop on horseback, you may be able to reach the imperial capital in a day. If you walk... I'm afraid it will take more than two days. Even history does not seem to have produced any famous big men.Naturally, few people know about such a town.The status of Yuema Town is like that inconspicuous point on the map... Of course, no one knows that this obscure town is the hometown of Gandolf, the greatest magician in the Roland Continent for two hundred years, and the mainland magister.

The folk customs of the town are very simple, and even many people have lived together as neighbors for several generations.There is only one tavern, two tailors, and two grocery stores in the whole town. Such an inconspicuous little place doesn't even have its own religious place, and the believers in the town often even have to drive a carriage together and walk for several hours to the nearest religious place in the Acropolis of the imperial capital to pray. Most of the residents in the town are farmers, but every year during the slack season, there will be some young and vigorous villagers who will go to the imperial capital or a prosperous acropolis around the imperial capital to find a part-time job for a carriage and horse dealer. Earn some extra money to subsidize the family.

It can be said that if it were not for Du Wei's accidental intervention, this town would be an unremarkable backcountry. But just about half a year ago, a nobleman who was said to be from the imperial capital, dressed in fine clothes, came here in a beautiful carriage.The old man paid a polite visit to the mayor and talked with him for a whole afternoon. Finally, the mayor called a meeting of all the residents in the town, and announced an exciting thing in public: The most prominent dignitary in the empire, the Duke of Tulip, decided to "invest" in this remote town—although most of the villagers didn't know what "investment" meant, even the mayor of the town didn't understand.But it doesn't matter, because the noble master from the imperial capital claims to be a subordinate of Duke Tulip, and his name is Mr. Zack Jr.

He announced that on behalf of the Tulip family, he would pay to buy the entire "Brokeback Mountain"!The official land purchase and sale procedures of the empire have been completed. As for the money to buy the entire Brokeback Mountain, part of it will be used to share equally among all the residents of Yuema Town, and each person can get two silver coins. The event was immediately warmly welcomed by all the residents. Although everyone does not know, what is it about the Brokeback Mountain behind the town that attracts the attention of Duke Tulip and his old man-it is simply a hillside without any minerals. Stones, nothing else of value.

On behalf of the Tulip family, Zack announced publicly that after purchasing the entire Brokeback Mountain, from this moment on, Brokeback Mountain is the private territory of the Tulip family, and no one is allowed to enter Brokeback Mountain at will! Every plant and tree on the mountain, even an inch of land, is the sacred and inviolable property of the Tulip family. Well... no one disagrees, because this order has little effect on everyone: except for some woodcutters who go into the mountains to cut firewood for a living.But there are other woods around, so it's a big deal to take a detour in the future.There is only one family of hunters in this town, and they will not be able to go hunting in the mountains anymore—it’s okay, because the mountain is not big, and at most you can find small things like hares or pheasants in the mountains, let alone wolves. None of the foxes!

Moreover, the Duke of Tulip was very gracious. He also opened a workshop in this town to buy grain from farmers in the town nearby and use it to brew wine.This workshop also recruited many people from the town and provided them with jobs. This is indeed a good thing. For a long time, the residents of Prancing Horse Town lived very well, and everyone praised Lord Tulip for his kindness and kindness. In the next few months, three hundred cavalry in full armor came to town in no time! Most of these villagers, who have never seen the world, were shocked to see those majestic cavalry, riding horses, wearing bright armor, and mighty cavalry.And these cavalry soon drove to the back mountain of Brokeback Mountain.

Later, in less than a month, a new manor appeared in the back mountain. The manor was built on the hillside, with a very good geographical location, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the back of the mountain was very large, so there was no problem in running horses, but if you want to enter, you have to go through the valley in the middle of Brokeback Mountain. During that time, there were often some strangers in the town, and those people belonged to the Tulip family.More than 500 private troops of the Tulip family came here one after another. According to external news, it is said that the Duke of Tulip took a fancy to the scenery here, and he built a courtyard behind Brokeback Mountain for the purpose of coming here for vacation in his spare time.

Well, most of the villagers couldn't guess the mind of a big man like Duke Tulip.No matter what, I got enough benefits in my pocket, and who cares about the rest? Besides, with so many people from outside, the people from the Tulip family live in the back mountain. They always want to eat and drink. On weekdays, they bring a lot of consumption to the town, making the town more and more prosperous. However, the rules of the Tulip family seem to be a bit bigger. From that time on, on Brokeback Mountain behind the town, warriors from the Tulip family have been patrolling back and forth, and no one is allowed to approach this hillside.

There was a woodcutter in the town who tried to get close to him, but he was politely chased away the first time. The second time, this greedy person also tried to go into the mountains to cut firewood quietly—because it took a longer walk to go to other places to cut firewood. road.As a result, he was unceremoniously tied up by the soldiers of the Tulip family patrolling the mountain, and thrown into the town. No one in the town sympathized with the woodcutter, because he got two silver coins when he sold the mountain!Now that you have taken the money, of course you can no longer just go to other people's territory.

In this regard, the vast majority of people in the town are still very simple. The other courtyard of the Tulip family in the back mountain is surrounded by a high fence wall, which is built against the mountain. In addition to the soldiers patrolling the mountain, there are cavalry patrol teams who take turns patrolling every day—— This level of defense seems to be a bit of an overkill, because the Duke of Tulip has never come here for vacation. It seems that there is no need to go to great lengths to guard an empty courtyard.As a result, people in the village often secretly speculated whether the Lord Duke had some kind of mistress here... Isn't this kind of thing very common among nobles? ... In the other courtyard, there is a flat grass field inside the tall courtyard wall, and the simple wooden buildings in the middle were repaired in a short period of one month, and every day, in those wooden sheds, still There will be a sound like the howling of a baby animal. In order to cover up this sound, outside the manor, Zack Jr. built a row of stables for horses. In the evening of this day, the manor finally ushered in its real owner. Du Wei didn't make much fanfare, but came to the manor in a very simple carriage with a small team of guards. When the carriage drove into the manor, Du Wei was very satisfied with the vigilance of the defenses around here. When entering the valley, secret sentries have been arranged on the hillsides on both sides. If the enemy breaks in forcefully, the secret sentries on the hillsides on both sides will fire crossbows!A dozen crossbows arranged on both sides can blow a carriage into pieces in a very short time!And there are also guarding archers, even if hundreds of people try to break in, they will definitely be set as hedgehogs! And below, there are a hundred elite cavalry of the Tulip family patrolling. These cavalry were all mobilized by Du Wei from the northwest. They are all the real elites of the Tulip family. Loyal descendants. Even, even these guarding teams can only be stationed on the periphery of the manor and are not allowed to enter inside! Therefore, even these soldiers don't know what secrets there are in this manor. When the carriage entered the manor and finally stopped beside a small building made of stones, little Zack got off the horse immediately, came to the carriage, and opened the carriage door with his own hands. Afterwards, Du Wei's bodyguard Elder Yan personally carried Du Wei out of the carriage and put him in the prepared wheelchair. In winter, Du Wei was wrapped in a thick fur robe and wore a mink scarf, covering half of his face. He was sitting in a wheelchair with a thick blanket covering his legs . It seems that he really fits the appearance of a "seriously ill" person. But only he himself knows how ridiculous this dress is. It is true that he is seriously ill, but his body is not so weak at all - on the contrary, his physical condition has probably never been so good!Every muscle in his body is full of elasticity and strength.Even in winter, even if he was only wearing a close-fitting jacket, he would not feel the slightest bit of cold.His complexion is rosy, and if he looks at it purely from the surface, he is simply insanely healthy! But he had to wrap himself in a blanket and pretend to be seriously ill. Because he was "paralyzed". In order not to cause more verbal troubles - it is difficult for you to explain to others why you can't move your body even though your face is rosy and shiny.Obviously the muscles are full of vitality and elasticity, but they can't even lift their arms. In the palace, Prince Chen has summoned him twice recently, but Du Wei avoided them both under the pretext of being seriously ill—so he had to "pretend to be sick". "Like coming. Therefore, when Du Wei met guests on weekdays, he had to dye his cheeks sallow. Lao Yan personally pushed the wheelchair and entered the small building. Then, in this small building, Du Wei met Hussein. ... Hussein looked at Du Wei's sluggish appearance in the wheelchair, and his brows were tightly knit together. "Don't look at me like that, it's temporary. I'll be alive and kicking in front of you soon." Du Wei laughed. Hussein was wearing a white cotton robe. When Du Wei came in, he was gently wiping the edge of the sword in his hand with a whetstone. Lao Yan walked out of the room smartly, and closed the door behind him. "How has it been recently?" Du Wei sighed: "You have lived here for a few months, are you still used to it?" "It's okay." Hussein has never had the habit of talking nonsense, and he directly entered the topic: "Since last month, someone has been spying on us from the outside. The patrolling soldiers had two frictions with those guys and drove them away." Run away, we didn't have any casualties. But judging from the soldiers' report, I think it's probably the people from the church who did it."