Running on both sides every day, now the soldiers in the security battalion at the southwest corner of the town are all familiar with Claude. Of course, this is also the reason why Claude is a good person. When he patrolled the forestry in the morning, he found that the mountain was caught in a trap and frozen stiff.
Just throw rabbits and pheasants, one or two, to the soldiers in the garrison camp. Although the soldiers in the garrison camp enforce military control in the town and the food is pretty good, they still welcome these free game.
The person who greeted him was a second lieutenant named Abraham. His small team was responsible for the order of the neighborhood in the southwest of the town. Early in the morning, he saw Claude driving a carriage down the mountain road of the forest farm, so he waved and said hello.
And motioned to Clorod to come to him.
"Second Lieutenant, good morning." Claude drove the carriage over, stopped next to him, and took off the scarf covering his face: "Today is the last day, and tomorrow is the New Year. Why are you still so busy?"
, what are you doing?"
Lieutenant Abraham helplessly shrugged his shoulders: "There is no way. The orders issued from above are that the closer the New Year is, the more vigilant we must be to guard against pirates taking advantage of the New Year to attack Bailu Town, so we have to
Barricades and blocking walls have been set up at the street entrances of the town. But you see, it is too cold to dig today. We have to clear away the snow first and then use torches to warm the ground before we can dig. We may not be able to finish it today.
This is the mission.”
Taking the steaming cup of black tea handed over by Lieutenant Abraham, Claude smiled and said: "Tell me, I know it's not good for you to call me. If there is anything I can do to help, just say it.
I will try my best to help."
Second Lieutenant Abraham gave a thumbs up: "Aren't you the forest farm manager? I would like to ask if you have any felled timber in the forest farm. If so, I would like to ask you to borrow it and use it to build walls and barricades.
We dig through the dirt much faster…”
Claude shook his head regretfully: "If you inquire, you will know that the Norman Forest Farm has not cut down trees or produced timber for more than 20 years. Although there are still a few old logs, the quantity is far away.
It is far from enough to build walls and barricades. Without the Baroness's permission, we cannot go down privately to cut down the trees. I can't help with that."
"Oh, it seems we can't escape digging." Second Lieutenant Abraham was also very disappointed: "Originally we wanted to cut down the woods next to the town, but the town office didn't allow it, saying that it was the property of the town office.
, felling can be done, but we have to spend money to buy wood. We don’t have the budget to buy wood. The soldiers have been complaining about the need to install defense facilities during the Chinese New Year. It would be too much if we are still asked to pay for these materials.
It’s too much…”
Claude looked at the four or five soldiers surrounding him. They were using shovels to dig up the earth that had been warmed by the fire, and then put it into sacks. Then they used these sacks filled with earth to pile up barricades and half-circles.
The wall is as tall as a man. However, so far, there are only a dozen sacks filled with soil. No wonder Lieutenant Abraham is looking sad and wants to borrow wood from the forest farm.
"Are the defensive barricades and walls you have been asked to build permanent?" Claude asked.
Abraham shook his head: "How is it possible? No matter how idiots the bastards above are, they cannot give such an order. Building permanent defense facilities requires engineering design and procurement budget, and it also requires a professional construction team to build it. This is not what we do
Just pile up dozens of sacks of soil. Anyway, our security battalion will be evacuated after your Bailu Town garrison is established. These defense facilities will then be handed over to the garrison. Whether they are good or bad is none of our business.
"
Claude thought for a while and said to Lieutenant Abraham: "In this case, you don't need to ask your brothers to dig the soil. It is winter now, and there will be heavy snow from time to time. You can actually use the snow to
Build barricades and walls, crush the snow into cubes, pour water on it, and freeze it harder than iron. Such barricades and walls are not only faster to build, but also have better defensive properties. If there is a real war, guns will not be able to hit them.
Walk through these frozen blocks."
After drinking up the black tea in the cup in one breath and returning the empty cup to Lieutenant Abraham, Claude said with a smile: "As for the durability of these snowy barricades and walls, I believe they can last until the end of February at least.
It will thaw. By then, Bailu Town’s garrison brigade should have been formed, and your garrison battalion has been withdrawn to the county. Whether these defense facilities exist and are intact is none of your business..."
Second Lieutenant Abraham looked enlightened and surprised. He hugged Claude and said, "Thank you so much, Claude. You are really my good brother. You are so smart. I really don't know."
How did you come up with such a good idea? I immediately told the soldiers to stop digging and do as you say!"
Claude continued to drive the carriage toward home. Lieutenant Abraham's praise and compliments made him feel very happy. However, he also complained in his heart that the quality of the Kingdom's officers was too low. Such a simple solution would not work.
I can't think of it. They are obviously modern armies with muskets, but they have been trained to be wooden-headed. They only know how to obey orders, but don't know how to adapt...
But what he saw after returning home made Claude's good mood disappear. His sister Angelina told Claude the whole story while crying. Albert, this guy, broke into the house early this morning, and...
He took a wooden stick and hit the little snow dog unprepared, knocking the little snow dog to the ground. Then he rushed to the third floor, rummaged through the boxes and cabinets in his parents' bedroom, and snatched away all his mother's jewelry.
When his mother tried to stop him, he pushed her away. She fell to the ground and couldn't get up, and then Albert took the jewelry and ran away without a trace...
Claude was furious. He wanted to immediately turn around and go to the town to find the whereabouts of Albert, but he had no choice. He had to settle the family first. The little snow dog's hind legs were broken by a stick, and his brother hugged Xiao Xue.
Quan cried so hard that he couldn't breathe. His mother fell on the bed and said that her back hurt and she couldn't get up. Although her sister Anna was fine, she didn't know what to do. Fortunately, Claude came back and she finally had something to rely on.
No longer panicked.
While arranging for his sister to make breakfast for everyone, Claude drove the carriage to the pharmacy and invited the wretched old pharmacist to his home.
The little snow dog is fine. Claude is going to give it a bottle of perfect quality primary treatment medicine after being splinted. After swallowing and applying it, it will be able to jump around again in two or three days. The difficulty is the mother. After the old pharmacist diagnosed the mother, he said
The trauma is nothing, just a sprained waist, and it will heal after a few plasters on it in two days. The main reason is that the heart disease and worry are too heavy, and the mind is in a trance all the time, and the body is extremely weak. It takes a period of rest to recover, and it usually takes more
Eat something good to replenish your body or something.
After sending the old pharmacist away, Claude went to the kitchen to steam three egg custards, one for each of his mother, sister and brother. Then he gave the little snow dog the medicine and threw him a cow bone to let him chew more.
Get some calcium so that it won't be so easily beaten down by someone's stick in the future, especially if it was done by a coward like Albert, who would feel embarrassed even if he told it.
Under the pretext of going out to buy some things, Claude drove a carriage around the town looking for the whereabouts of Albert. After asking the soldiers on duty at the streets of the town, they confirmed that Albert had not left the town. So Claude
De went to the jewelry stores and grocery stores again and asked them if Albert had taken the jewelry to pawn in their stores that morning.
There are only three jewelry stores in Bailu Town, but there are about ten grocery stores. It took Claude more than two hours in the afternoon to visit them all, but the news he got was that Albert did not go to these stores.
He pawned the jewelry he had stolen from his mother.
Where did this guy go? Claude thought, Albert dared to break into the house early in the morning and snatch his mother's jewelry. It was clear that he was short of money, otherwise he would not have taken such drastic measures.
You only need to stay at Sir Fox's place to eat and drink. As Sir Fox's personal secretary, there is no problem in getting enough food and clothing.
By the way, after his father was arrested, Albert didn't say anything about his own situation, and he didn't know if he was still working for Sir Fox. Claude drove to Sir Fox's manor in the southeast of the town, and asked when he got there.
, an old butler came out and said that Albert had taken a long leave, saying that he had to work on the matter of his father's arrest. He was now in charge of the Field family, so Sir Fox agreed and approved his request for leave.
Bah! After Claude returned to the carriage, he vomited on the ground bitterly. This guy pretended to be serious outside and gave such a grand excuse for asking for leave, but would he be the master of the house like this?
?He went to work on his father’s arrest. Where did that man go?
Maybe you can use empathy to imagine where this guy will go if he has money? Claude's mind flashed to what he saw on the old street that night, where Albert was bargaining with the street girl on the side of the street.
The sight of being ridiculed.
Well, it is possible that this guy has been fooling around in the old streets since he got money. But the first time, Albert defrauded his mother and took away about fifteen or six silver thalers, which totaled three
He has more money. This money is enough for him to fool around in the romantic place of Lao Cai for a month or two. Flying together four or five times a day is enough for him to have fun for more than half a month. After all, the prices there are very cheap, the most beautiful and the most expensive.
The street girl is just a riaso once...
As a result, after only three or four days, Albert had no money, so he ran home again to cheat his mother out of jewelry. After being exposed by himself and giving him a lesson, he kicked him out of the house. He actually dared to make a big deal.
When he was not at home, he broke into the house with a wooden stick and robbed his mother's jewelry. What gave this coward so much courage to do this?
Eating, drinking, whoring, gambling and drugs, all Claude can think of is the five poisons in life. However, based on his understanding of Albert, he is not very particular about food and drink, and will even go to save money.
He eats food that tastes bad and only fills his stomach, and drinks low-priced bad wine. He can be said to be stingy when it comes to spending money on food and drink.
The rest is prostitution, gambling and drugs. This guy is really lustful, but fifteen or six thalers is enough for him to live happily in the old street for a while. It is impossible to spend all the money in three or four days. I taught him a lesson last night.
I didn't feel that his body was very weak at all, so having so much money shouldn't be the reason.
As for poison, it is even more impossible. This world has not yet developed to the social stage of extremely rich material civilization in the previous life. There are no hallucinogens such as ecstasy and it is impossible to buy them, so this aspect can be ruled out.
.
The only thing left is gambling, and only gambling has the greatest possibility of causing Albert to lose all his money in three or four days, and he has to go home and think of ways to deceive his mother. But Claude doesn't know
Where does Alberto gamble? Is he gambling in an underground casino or gambling with a few gangsters? If it's the latter, then it's impossible for Claude to find Albert. Who knows?
In which corner will they hide at night...
But after thinking about it carefully, Claude felt that the underground casino was the most likely, because the jewelry that Albert snatched from his mother did not go to the jewelry stores and grocery stores in the town to pawn. Their friends
It is impossible to use these jewelry to top up your money when you are gambling. On the contrary, underground casinos have on-site pawning services. It is very likely that Albert took his mother's jewelry to the underground casino to cash out.
Maybe this guy still owed usury from the casino, so he had the courage to break into the house and snatch his mother's jewelry... Claude analyzed this possibility coldly.
But the problem now is that Claude doesn't know if there is an underground casino in White Deer Town, and he has never heard of it. In the Kingdom of Ovelas, setting up an underground casino privately is a serious crime, and anyone caught will be hanged.
So, it was normal for Claude to not know where the underground casino in Bailu Town was. He had to find an insider to find out first...