Alexander did not consider himself a benevolent man, as evidenced by his treatment of the Bohemians, when the first attempt to mutiny among the Bohemians was made, Alexander put down the unsuccessful rebellion by the fastest means, although he had promised land to all those who remained loyal, but after the rebellion was quelled, he still paid more to the Bohemians who chose to side with him, including Florin, who made Ulliu feel so painful that he almost hit the wall, And all the loot from the rebels.

Alexander showed no mercy or forgiveness to those who betrayed, and he ordered them to be hanged in the open space in front of the farmstead, all under the watchful eye of the Bohemians and the Agri.

This gave the first glimpse of Alexander's iron side, and his action undoubtedly suppressed the proud bohemians.

At least in front of Alexander, they no longer dared to cause trouble.

This result made Uriu proud for a while, and whenever he followed his master, and saw the faint fear of the bohemians in their respect, Ullius seemed to return to the glory of his time with the Grand Vizier, and he even felt that Alexander was the embodiment of the Grand Vizier, and the Bohemians were those lowly slaves. And he is the noble manager around the lord and flattered by everyone.

It's just that Uliu is very afraid of Nashan, maybe it was because he was too impressed by the decisive and ruthless appearance when he saw Nashan killing people in Cosenza, every time he saw Nashan's figure, the Moors would be frightened and tremble slightly, even if Nashan smiled at him, Uliu's little black face would immediately turn into a little white face, and later, as long as the gypsy's voice came from afar, Uliuu would immediately run away.

It was not for nothing that Ulliu was so afraid of Nashan.

On the first day after the party departed, Nashan found an excuse to hang a Bohemian who had just returned from the party on the high wheels of the wagon, and while the man's lips trembled and his skin turned blue from the cold wind, Nashan sat in another car and drank the freshly hot mixed fruit wine, and he did not say a word until the man was finally put down.

But just when everyone thought that the matter was over, Nashan drew his saber without slowness, and in front of hundreds of people, he stabbed that person in the chest.

And throughout the process, he always held the ceramic wine jug in his hand and kept pouring wine into his mouth.

Alexander had watched all of this happen, he had already had Sophia taken far away, but he didn't expect Nashan to take that man's life after he tortured him half to death.

"Don't let your people think you're just terrible," Nashan whispered as he handed Alexander the bloodied knife to wipe it down, "and make them think you're their master." ”

Alexander took Nashan's knife and wiped it slowly with a cloth, he knew that Nashan was right, in this era, it is often necessary to shock the enemy in the most brutal way, and at the same time to deter his own people.

It's just that he knows he won't do what Nashan did, at least not like him and kill a man just because the man had an extra piece of meat.

"I'm going to let the fuckers know who's in charge here," said Nathan, smiling as he watched Sophia go back and forth between him and Alexander, preparing their drinks, and the gypsies were a completely kind father at this time, "Don't think I'm killing people indiscriminately, each of those guys out there won't atone for their sins if they're hanged ten times." ”

Alexander nodded silently, knowing that Nashan was telling the truth.

The Bohemians were brave and warlike, and this bravery was accompanied by their almost savage cruelty, whether it was a war with a foreign race or a civil war between the Bohemians, and often they cared not so much about how many captives they took but how many enemies they killed, and how much loot they took from the dead.

This makes wars in which the Bohemians are often involved more brutal than any other, and one of the ways in which they kill an enemy is that they cut off one of their arms and carry it with them to show off to others, so even the Bohemians themselves tell each other: "If you see a guy who always has a few bloody arms hanging on his head, you'd better stay away from him, or your arms will probably become his trophy soon." ”

Because of this, Alexander did not approve of Nathan's actions, but he understood that he did need to do so.

Sure enough, after the events of the first day, the bohemians became much more honest, and when they learned that Sophia was Nashan's daughter, no one dared to whistle at her anymore.

"You should do it," said Nathan, riding on his horse, to Alexander, "and you are Sophia's husband, so you should have slaughtered the boy with your own hands, so that they would know who they should really be afraid of." ”

Nashan said and pursed his chin slightly, as if he was very satisfied with his conclusion, and then he looked at Alexander with a little disgust: "You really should be a cavalryman, and then you will know that your soft means of lying on your stomach will not work, hanging a bastard who has made a mistake is not the same as being able to hang any of them at will, only if they feel that you can decide the life and death of each of them at will, they will be truly afraid of you." ”

"Aren't you afraid that they will mutiny?" Alexander took a sip of the hot fruit wine handed over by Nashan, and the spicy and sour smell of wine rushed to his head, causing him to cough.

"As long as you can feed them at all times, they will not rebel against you," said the gypsy in a low voice, "give the wolf cubs a good meal but not let them be fed, and only then you can whip them in the direction you want." ”

Alexander didn't expect this gypsy with extraordinary skills to have such scheming, or maybe this was also the experience honed over the years, but he couldn't help but admit that Nashan was right, at least the bohemians were much more honest now.

"Where are you going to send the food?" Nashan asked suddenly, he looked at the back of the convoy with some curiosity, and when he saw the peasants and mercenaries in the team carrying spears and muskets of different lengths, Nashan frowned, "What are you doing with these people, they will only delay your time, if you are completely escorted by Bohemians, it will be much faster than now, look at the whole day, but we have not yet stepped out of the edge of this river." ”

The river that Nashan is talking about is the Agri River, which flows through the entire plain.

Although the Agri River is the source of the formation of this plain, few people travel along it.

This is because the Agri River is so complicated that if you want to go up and down the river, you will not only have to take a lot of wrong paths, but also make the trip much more difficult because of the complicated road conditions.

However, Alexander did not seem to care that the road was so difficult, and he insisted that the party cross the river on the bridge that had been crossed by the team before and then proceed slowly and unhurriedly along the south bank of the river, so that after a day's time, his army of grain still only bypassed Naples from a little farther away and embarked on the road to the north.

In fact, if one of them had the time to run to the top of a hill in the distance and look down, they would see the top of the Cathedral of Naples after a whole day's walk.

"Nashan, a lot may happen to us when we go to the north this time," Alexander decided to tell Nashan something in advance, although he couldn't say it completely, but thinking of Sophia's safety, he decided to remind Nashan in advance, "The grain that Count Mordilo asked me to send is nominally to be sold in the north, but in fact there will be other people who will get this batch of grain, but for some reasons that cannot be said, we will definitely not be very peaceful on this way, so if there is any danger, I hope you can protect Sophia, I'm sure you can do that. ”

Sophia, who was sitting on the side and was nibbling on a piece of barbecue, stopped, she first looked at Alexander strangely, and then suddenly angrily threw the barbecue in her hand at him.

At the same time, a series of "ahh~" accusations came out of her mouth, although it was a single voice, but full of emotion, as if she was angry that Alexander was going to abandon her in danger.

Alexander stretched out his hand and grabbed Sophia's hands tightly, but he was obviously feeling a little struggling, which made him wonder again how such a little girl could have so much strength, just looking at Nashan next to him, who was rubbing his hand full of lard on his curvy beard, he felt that it was really not a big problem.

It was dark early in late autumn, and by the time the team could still see the last rays of light left by the dark red remnant sun in front of them, the darkness had already shrouded the sky like a black veil that was overwhelming.

As darkness fell, the pace of the procession became slower.

"Tell the mercenaries to keep them in formation and not fall behind," Alexander instructed Ulliu, who had now taken the Moors as heralds, while his attention was also focused on the infantry he had recruited from the peasants, "to tell the infantry that if they don't want to go hungry at night, they should hurry up and keep up, and it's late autumn, and I think they know better than us what it would be like if they were left alone, and the beasts of the plains would be glad to have a good meal." ”

Uliu nodded excitedly and turned to jump on horseback, he really enjoyed his job as a herald, so the Moors ran quickly down the line with the spirit that most people who were already exhausted.

"What are you doing, you didn't go so anxious before, and now you are forcing those peasants to keep hurrying," Nashan asked strangely, "Although it is a little early to camp now, it is already dark, and even if you start to hurry now, how far can you go." ”

"I'm not in a hurry."

Alexander looked at Sophia next to her, maybe she had eaten too much barbecue, and then exercised for a while, Sophia seemed to be a little tired, she was curling up and leaning on the car and sleeping soundly, even if the body kept shaking, but this not only did not affect her, on the contrary, Sophia also had a sweet smile on her face, as if she had returned to her familiar gypsy caravan in her sleep.

"I want to let those soldiers know that they are no longer in their own homes, and that they no longer have farming tools but weapons to kill," Alexander's gaze looked into the dark distance, "I don't know what will happen ahead of this trip, and I don't have time to train these soldiers, so I must do everything I can on the way to turn them into an army, at least look like an army." ”

Nashan looked at Alexander in surprise, he didn't understand at first, and then he suddenly thought of something, and leaned up, looking towards the back of the group.

In the hazy darkness of the night, the whole grain convoy moved forward unhurriedly, the bad road made the line drag on for a long time, and the infantry who had been assigned to various places gathered in twos and threes around the convoy and slowly advanced.

And in the darkness of the field, there was a faint howl of wild beasts that came out to forage for food at night.

"Someone will be left behind if you go this way," Nashan muttered to himself, and then he sat down slowly, looking at Alexander with a strange gaze, "Young man, I must say that I looked away from you before, I always thought you were like a, and now it seems that you are a man-eating wolf." ”

Alexander looked at Sophia again, and after making sure she was still asleep, he took a big sip of the jug with the fruit wine.

"I have no other way," Alexander smiled bitterly, "I don't have time to train those peasants into soldiers, only by this method I must force them to do their best, and in such a place everyone knows what will happen if they fall behind, and it is up to them to keep up." ”

"But what's the use of you, do you expect the peasants to turn into useful soldiers?" Nashan shook his head disapprovingly, "Even those mercenaries you found I don't think well of them, even if you train them, can they be more useful than the Bohemian cavalry?" ”

"It's not impossible, sometimes miracles happen."

Alexander looked back at the group behind him, and he knew that there would be people left behind, and most of them would be lucky enough to catch up or simply run home, but there would still be some who would be unlucky and would encounter wild beasts or perhaps lose their lives by getting lost and falling into the swamp.

But Alexander did not feel guilty about this.

He didn't know if it was a bit of a contradiction, he couldn't accept Nashan killing a random person for the sake of prestige, but in this way he put more people in danger, at least he knew that after this night, one of these soldiers would definitely never show up again.

But he really didn't have any other way.

He didn't have time to train an army step by step, let alone let this army temper their will with battles again and again, he had to take such a group of almost rabble troops to the north to face either the local aristocratic army, or the French army that was about to lose the red eye, or even the coalition of the Holy Alliance led by Gonzalo!

No matter who they encounter, with a team like this, not only does it not have the slightest chance of victory, but it is difficult to even resist a little.

Because of this, when Modillo offered to hire more mercenaries at his expense and bring his precious Bohemian cavalry, he did not object.

Since he was going to take Sophia to the north, he had to keep her safe.

Alexander could not accept the blow of losing Sophia again, and did not want her to be in any danger.

Even though Nashan unexpectedly brought another group of Bohemians, Alexander decided to take advantage of this opportunity to go north and arm the peasants who had just put down their hoes and pitchforks and picked up their spears, but he had a new idea.

"I'm going to train them to be at least able to confront the enemy, not to run away at the sight of the enemy's banner," Alexander explained to Nathan, "and I believe that as long as they don't collapse immediately when they encounter the enemy at the first time, I'll be able to get through the rest of the day." ”

"I hope you won't be disappointed," Nashan shook his head disapprovingly, "remember not to count on me, I will protect my daughter first in case of danger." ”

"That's what I want, as long as you protect Sophia." Alexander smiled unimpassively at Nashan's words.

As the night deepened, and when the ranks began to get a little messy, Alexander finally gave the order to stop.

Almost all of them, with the exception of the Bohists, stopped immediately at the sound of the trumpet, followed by a moan of pain from unusually exhausted.

"Let your men pick up those who have straggled," Alexander said to Nashan, who was walking slowly through the camp with a leaf of hay in his mouth, "and that would be enough to scare them all." ”

"You're a bad boy." Nashan spat out blades of grass and whistled, and immediately several bohemians ran over.

Alexander walked towards the camp where Sophia was being set up, and when he saw that a fire had been lit, he walked over, only to his surprise that two boys who looked to be about Sophia's age were busy working next to the fire.

"Sir, sit down here." Seeing Alexander and them, a boy immediately greeted him in a little panic, "Let my brother take care of you, I have to pick up my father." ”

Seeing that Alexander was slightly stunned, the boy explained: "My father is lagging behind, I have to go and see." ”

The boy was about to leave, but Alexander grabbed him by the arm.

"Sit down and wait." Alexander's heart sank, he didn't want to see the anxious look in the boy's eyes, he just hugged Sophia and made her lie more comfortable in his arms.

The boy's lips moved, but he still sat obediently by the fire, and for a moment there was only the crackling sound of the burning wood in the fire, except for the sound of the crowd in the distance.

I don't know how long later, the sound of horses' hooves from far and near alarmed the people in the camp, and with the characteristic whistle of the Bohemians, the first soldiers who had fallen behind were brought back.

Watching the two boys run towards the crowd, Alexander pulled Sophia slowly towards the darkness on the edge of the camp.

Time passed slowly, and batch after batch of stragglers were brought back.

But as fewer people returned, there seemed to be a riot in the camp.

Alexander took Sophia in his arms, gently covered her ears with his hands, and looking at the girl's clear gaze that was faintly visible in the night, Alexander lowered his head and kissed her lightly on the forehead.

"Sophia, I want you to be so pure forever, even if you don't grow up, I will never be able to have you." Alexander's hand strained slightly, blocking Sophia from the noise that was resounding in the camp and the faintly audible cry of Nashan's murderous intent.