Chapter 5 chapter Five

Below my cell is the Abbey kitchen.As I write, I listen to the tinkling of aluminum and tin pans, and the cleaning nuns are rinsing down the dishes in our modest canteen.The dean gave me a very different task: to write this story.But all the work in the monastery had always been for one purpose: the salvation of souls, which seemed to be the only thing to be done.Yesterday I wrote about the war, and in the sound of the dishes in the sink I seemed to hear the sound of spears poking at shields and armor, the sound of swords hacking at helmets, and from the courtyard came nuns weaving on their looms The rattling sound I think is the sound of a galloping horse's hooves.I close my eyes and visualize everything I hear in my ears.My lips don't move, there are no words, and the words jump to the white paper, and the pen is pressing.

Perhaps the air is hotter today, the smell of cabbage wafts over more often than usual, and my brain is duller, unable to dispel the sight of the Frankish army at dinner from the noise of the dishes.I saw soldiers queuing up in front of the steamy military cauldron, beating the lunch boxes and knocking the rice spoons. pot bottom.The sight and the smell of cabbage were the same in every company, whether it was in Normandy, Anjou, or Burgundy. If the strength of an army is measured by the sound it makes, then it is time for the Frankish army to show its prestige when the meal is served.The sound shook the valley and plain, and spread far away, until it joined the same sound from the heathen's army cauldron.At the same time, the enemies were also devouring a pot of cabbage soup with extremely bad taste.There was very little fighting yesterday, and the smell of corpses is not too strong today.

So I had to imagine gathering the heroes of my story in the kitchen.I saw Agilulfo emerge from the steam, leaning over a cauldron, and was reprimanding the cook of the Auvergne company.Then Rambaldo appeared, running this way. "Knight!" he said, still panting, "I've found you! It's me, do you remember? The man who wanted to be the emperor's guard! I got my revenge in yesterday's battle . . . in In the melee...then I was alone against the...ambush of two enemies...that's when...anyway, now I know what it's like to fight. I really want to put me in a more dangerous position during the war To go up...or to be sent to do something great...for our sacred faith...to save women, children, old and weak...you can tell me..."

Atilulfo kept his back turned to him for a long moment before turning around, as if to express his annoyance at being interrupted in his official duties.Then he began to talk to Rambaldo, and it was evident that he was able to deal with any topic that was improvised, and analyzed it with great proficiency. "From what you have said, young knight, I get the feeling that you think that the way to be a guard is simply to build great exploits. You want to be in the vanguard of war. You want to do something earth-shattering. That is to say, defending our sacred beliefs, Helping women, children, old and weak, protecting civilians and other great causes. Am I right?"

"right." "You're right. Those you mentioned are indeed special missions of outstanding soldiers, but..." At this point, Agilulfo smiled lightly. The laughter that came out was a mocking yet polite laugh, "...but not only that. If you want, I can easily list the responsibilities that belong to all levels of guards one by one. Ordinary guards, First-class guard, staff guard." Rambaldo interrupts him: "Cavalier, I just have to follow your example and do what you do." :( a6 So you put experience above dogma, that's allowed. You happened to see me on duty today , like every Wednesday, today I am the Inspector of the Army Logistics Department. In this capacity, I will inspect the kitchens of the Auvergne and Boisdou companies. In addition, I will be responsible for burying the dead. If you come with me , you will slowly become familiar with these tricky official duties."

Rambal was disappointed and a little unhappy.But he didn't give up, pretending to be interested in Agilulfo's dealings and conversations with cooks, brewers, and dishwashers, thinking that this was just a routine preparatory activity before committing himself to some spectacular feat. Ajilulf repeatedly counted the food quota, weighed the amount of each soup, counted the number of lunch boxes, and checked the capacity of the rice cooker. "You know, the biggest headache for an army command," he explained to Rambaldo, "is estimating how many lunch boxes can be filled with soup in an army pot.The numbers were wrong in either company.Either there are too many extra meals, which you don't know what to do with and how to account for on the roster, or - if you reduce the quota - there's not enough to eat, and there's immediate complaints.The actual situation is that every kitchen has a group of beggars, disabled people, and poor people who come to collect leftovers.However, everyone knows that this is a muddled account.In order to clear things up, I asked each company to submit a list of its personnel, and also registered the names of those poor people who often came to the company's kitchen to eat.In this way, you can accurately know the whereabouts of each box of rice.Well, in order to practice the duties of a guard, now you can take the roster and go around the kitchens of each company to check whether the situation is normal.Then come back and report to me. "

What should Rambaldo do? Reject, seek another job, or do nothing? Do as he tells you, or you risk losing more than you deserve.he went. He came back disgruntled, and he didn't understand anything. "Well, I think it's the only way to keep things going," he said to Atilulfo. "It's a mess of course. Besides, are these poor people who come to beg for food brothers?" "Why brothers?" "Well, they're so much alike to each other... they're so alike that you can't tell them apart, and every company has this distinctive figure. At first I thought it was the same guy, who came between the company's kitchens Turn around. But I checked all the registers, and there were different names written on them: Boamoruz, Carlo Dunn, Balingaciu, Beltra... So I asked the sergeants in the various kitchens about this man, Then check with the list: Yes, people and names always match. However, it is absolutely true that they have the same appearance..."

"I'll go and see for myself." They walked towards Lorraine's camp. "There, that's the man." Rambaldo pointed to a place where someone seemed to be there.Actually there was, but at first glance the vision would confuse the man's dirty chartreuse rags and freckled, unshaven face with dirt and leaves. "That's Gulduru!" "Gurduru? Another name? Do you know him?" "He is a man who has no name and could have had countless names. Thank you, young knight. You exposed an unusual incident in our logistics affairs." Ajilulfo and Rambaldo walked up to Guldulu.

"Put him to a real job, that's the only way to make him understand," said Atilulfo, and then to Gulduru, "You are my groom, and this is Charles the Holy Emperor, King of the Franks. From now on, you must obey me in everything. I have been entrusted by the funeral service to complete the good deed of burying yesterday's war dead. Take your shovel and pick, and we will go to the battlefield and replace the baptized bodies of our brothers. Cover them with loess, and God will bless them to ascend to heaven." He also invited Rambaldo to accompany him, because he considered this another important mission of the guard.

The three walked to the battlefield together.Agilulfo deliberately made his steps seem light and quick, and as a result he walked with a twist as if he were wearing high heels; Rambaldo looked around with his eyes wide open, eager to recognize the people who had been there yesterday. The place he once walked under the rain of guns and arrows; Gurdulu carried a shovel and pickaxe, whistled and sang folk songs along the way, completely ignorant of the solemnity of what he was about to do. They boarded a high ground, and the plain where the fierce battle took place yesterday unfolded in front of them, with corpses strewn all over the field.Some vultures use their claws to hook the back or face of the corpse, and stretch their long beaks into the cracked abdominal cavity to fiddle with and peck at the internal organs.

The behavior of the vulture did not go so smoothly in the beginning.They had visited right after the battle ended, but the dead on the battlefield had iron armor to protect them. No matter how many times the sharp beaks of these raptors pecked at them, there were no cracks on the armor.Just after dawn, a few corpse snatchers quietly climbed up from the opposite side of the position.The vultures took to the sky and circled in the air, waiting for their plunder to finish.A few streaks of morning light illuminated the battlefield, and the naked corpses were covered in white flowers.The vultures landed again, and the feast began.But they must hasten to eat, for the gravediggers are coming soon, who would rather feed the corpses to the reptiles of the ground than to the birds of the air. Ajilulfo and Rambaldo wield their swords, Gurduru wields their pickaxes, and drive these black visitors away, sending them flying away.Then they started a frightening procedure: Each person picked a dead body, dragged it up the hill by two feet, and dragged it to a suitable place for digging. Dragging a dead body, Ajilulfo thought: "Dead man, you have something that I never had and never will have: this body. Or rather, you don't have a body. You are this body. Because of it , sometimes, when I'm down, I'm suddenly envious of people who exist. Beautiful thing! I'm so blessed, I can do without it, and I can do anything. Omnipotent - understandable ——This is what I think is the most important ability; I can do many things better than existing people, without their common shortcomings such as vulgarity, sloppy, unsustainable, and smelly. It's true that I can't get it out of the way of putting it on, showing a particular look, but if their secret is here, in this bag of guts, thank God I don't want it. After seeing these mutilated and naked corpses all over the mountains and fields, I will not feel sick when I see the flesh of living people again." Gulduru dragged a dead man and thought, "Corpse, your farts smell worse than mine. I don't understand why everyone mourns for you. What have you lost? You used to run and jump, now your farts Movement has shifted to your breeding reptiles, you grew nails and hair, and now you will ooze sewage, making the grass on the ground grow taller in the sun. You will become the grass, and then the milk of the grass-grazing cows , the blood of a child who drank milk, and so on. Corpse, you see, you live far better than I do?" Rambaldo, dragging a corpse, thought: "Damn man, I ran and ran, just to come here and be dragged away by the heels like you. Now you are dying before your eyes, you knocked on the stones. With my head turned to the sky, what do you think is this madness that has driven me here? What is this madness of war and love? I will think about it. Dead man, you make me think about these things But what can change? Nothing will change. We have no time but these days before the grave, for us the living, and for you dead. I can't waste time, can't waste The life I have and the life I may have. It should be used to do great deeds to the Frankish army, to embrace the proud Bradamante. Dead man, I hope you have not wasted your time. At any rate, Your dice have shown their numbers. Mine are still jumping in the box. Dead man, I love my pursuit. I do not like your peace." Gulduru sang and prepared to dig a grave.In order to measure the size of the grave, he straightened the dead man on the ground, drew a line with a shovel, removed the corpse, and dug with great vigor. "Dead man, maybe you feel bored waiting for you like this." He turned the corpse sideways to face the grave, letting it watch him work, "Dead man, you can also dig a few shovels of soil." He stood the dead body upright, It has a shovel in its hand.The corpse fell down, "Forget it. You can't. I was the one who dug the hole, but you were the one who filled it." The grave was dug, but due to Gurduru's random digging, the shape was very irregular, and the bottom of the pit was narrow, like a pitcher.Then Gurduru wanted to try it, and he went into the pit and lay down. "Oh, it's so comfortable, it's so nice to rest under here! What a soft ground! How beautiful it is to turn over here! Come down, dead man, and see what a fine hole I've dug for you!" Then he continued After thinking about it, "But since you and I both understand that you should fill the hole, I'm lying down, wouldn't it be better for you to scatter the soil on me with a shovel!" He waited for a while, "Do it! Ah! What are you waiting for? Do this!" Lying on the bottom of the pit, he raised the pickaxe in his hand and began to scrape the soil down.A heap of earth collapsed on top of him. Agilulfo and Rambaldo heard a faint cry, and they saw Gulduru buried himself well, not knowing whether his cry was frightened or happy.When they pulled the dirt-covered Guldulu to his feet, it was discovered that he had almost died of suffocation. The knight saw that Guldurou had done a poor job, and that Rambaldo had not dug deep enough.But he built a complete small cemetery, the grave was rectangular, and two parallel paths were built on both sides of the pit. In the evening they walked back and passed a clearing in the woods.The carpenters of the Frankish army once felled logs here, the trunks were used to build chariots, and the branches were used as firewood. "Gurduru, it's time for you to collect firewood now." However, Gulduru, after a rough hack with the axe, bundled together dry branches, wet lumber, ferns, shrubs, and mossy bark. The knight went over the work of the carpenters, inspected the tools, inspected the piles of wood, and explained to Rambaldo the duties of a guard in the supply of wood.Lombardo did not listen to him, for a question was burning in his throat, and he had not yet asked him at the end of his walk with Agilulfo. "Knight Ajilulf!" he interrupted the knight. "What do you want to say?" Ajilulfo asked while stroking the axe. A young man does not know where to start, and he does not find a false excuse in order to detour back to the only topic that is on his mind.Then he blushed and said, "Do you know Bradamante?" Gulduru was coming towards them with a bundle of firewood he had cut himself, and at the name he jumped up, and the sticks flew away, and there were sweet honeysuckle branches with flowers, and thorns with fruit hanging from them. Cypress, privet with leaves. Ajilulf held an extremely sharp double-edged ax in his hand.He made a running run, then slashed at the trunk of an oak tree with the axe.The double-edged ax went in from one side of the tree and came out from the other, so cleanly and neatly, with such precision that the trunk severed without leaving the stump and falling. "What's the matter? Chevalier Agilulfo!" Rambaldo took a startled step. "What offended you?" At this moment, Ajilulf folded his arms and walked around the tree trunk while looking at it. "Did you see it?" he said to the young man. "It was cut in two, and nothing was moved. Look at how clean the cut is."