Chapter 54: Celebration (Part III)

"You said we are going to be squires?" Cesar asked in a low voice.

"I will become a novice knight, and you will be a squire, but we both have to follow our master, that is, my father Amalric I." Baldwin said in a low voice, worried that Cesar would be a little unhappy, after all, he had personally admitted before that Cesar was his brother.

It is not that there are no cases of attendants or even pages skipping the squire stage and directly becoming novice knights. Sometimes it is for the sake of marriage. In any case, a knight marrying a noble lady sounds much better than a squire marrying a noble lady, but a fourteen-year-old boy can marry, but cannot directly become a knight...

There are also those involving the ownership of fiefs. We all know that the king enfeoffs nobles, and nobles enfeoff knights. In this period, there are fiefs, even if it is just a bridge or a mill, and knights must serve their lords, such as how many days a year they have to fight for him.

If a knight passes away suddenly, and his liege lord is about to fight or wants to take back the fief, his eldest son must put on armor, ride a horse, and raise a flag to work even if he is not fourteen years old.

However, to do this, you must first have a horse, armor, and weapons.

Count Etienne and the Templar Geoffrey were both giving Cesar money, just to prevent him from being jealous of villains and being held hostage and made difficult in such a place.

Amalric I was not so despicable as to not allow Baldwin to prepare a set of armor for his little friend. The problem is that if so, people would feel that Cesar was either too ignorant or too greedy. They would say: The prince has given him enough things, but he even reached out to the prince for a set of chain mail...

Although many squires were unable to become knights for life because they could not afford a set of armor.

But Amalric I still had some thoughts and managed to let Baldwin become a novice knight first, "Isn't this bad? At the beginning, the King promised me that if you become a knight, I will be your squire," Cesar said in a low voice: "He fulfilled his promise, and I am very grateful."

Baldwin nodded: "You will also be promoted soon, as long as you fight—there is always war here."

And then they sat up straight. This might be the last time in the next few years that they sat at the dining table and ate in such a grand banquet. Once they became squires and novice knights, sorry, they had to start performing their duties, that is, serving their master Amalric I.

Not to mention sitting down and enjoying the performances of poets and dwarves while eating, they had to stand behind Amalric I and the new mistress Maria throughout the banquet, cutting meat, serving soup, and pouring wine for them. They could only run to the kitchen with other attendants and squires after the banquet ended, and fill their empty intestines with dry bread and stew.

There were also attendants and squires willing to pick up the leftovers from the master's plate, but Baldwin and Cesar would not do this.

In fact, Cesar was even luckier than Baldwin. Baldwin had really fed pigs, although this was more like a game.

As for Cesar, ever since he came here, he only served Baldwin alone. Baldwin was such a gentle and good child, treating him like a friend and brother. Others had no right, or were unwilling to dispatch him—with Wei Te's intimidation in front, they were also afraid that being too close to Cesar would catch leprosy.

But after receiving the blessing, this possibility became very slim, which means that the next is the real test for Cesar—Cesar remembered that squires seemed to sleep in a room together, sleeping directly on a big bed covered with rushes, rolling up sheepskin or bed sheets, and several people accepting the round-robin attacks of bedbugs, fleas, and lice.

Originally, this situation was not so miserable, but who told Baldwin to move to the left tower after he got sick? There were not many people who had the guts to live with him, or Amalric I did not allow it, so the original residents of the left tower all moved to the right tower...

People with identities like David and Abigail might still have a small room, but Cesar definitely didn't.

It seems that cleaning the room needs to be put on the schedule, Cesar thought.

When the banquet began, Princess Maria had already changed out of her previous clothes. It wasn't because the clothes were covered with the blood of bears and people—she changed into Frankish attire. This statement made everyone present feel satisfied, including the Byzantines. After all, at a Byzantine wedding, the foreign bride also had to change into Byzantine attire. It was the same when Manuel I married Mary of Antioch before.

When everyone was happy, Princess Maria returned to her room. Their wedding would be held in June. During this period, King Amalric I would hold several different types of martial arts tournaments, and there would be banquets after the tournaments. He himself would also participate in one or two of them.

"Take advantage of this time," Heraclius also said: "Have fun, you will be busy after June."

Cesar really wanted to ask him to stop talking. He was even a little angry at his little friend—although Baldwin told him this as good news, he couldn't appreciate those fierce and wonderful battles at all—his attention was all attracted by those squires running around.

They had to put on armor, helmets, and pointed iron boots for the knights, lead horses for the knights, hold spears and carry swords, and had to hang a hammer on their waists. As soon as the knight reached out, they had to understand what weapon to serve.

Generally speaking, for one-on-one horse spear competitions, there is only one answer. First is the spear. If both sides fall off the horse, or one side falls off the horse but the other side is willing to continue fighting with him, then it is ground sword fighting... If ground sword fighting still doesn't distinguish between victory and defeat, or one side insists on pestering, it directly becomes hand-to-hand combat...

But if it is a chaotic melee, it is no different from a real battlefield. Squires not only have to observe their master's thoughts, but also estimate the strength of the enemy, and see whether to serve a hammer, a battle axe, or a mace.

When the battle begins, they have to follow their master closely. Many knights are knocked off their horses as soon as they meet the enemy. Squires have to find the right opportunity, or use brute force to clear the surroundings, pull the dizzy master out of the battlefield, lead his horse away, drag the person and the horse to the edge of the field, take off his helmet, wipe his face, and observe his injuries.

If the knight can still fight, then the squire gives him some wine and repeats the above series of steps.

Such a melee will last all day, and then the King will judge the victory or defeat of both sides.

If the knight loses, the squire has to take on the work of the original horse—the loser will lose his armor, horse, and weapons, and have to pay his own ransom. The squire has to carry the bruised, perhaps injured master back to the tent. Sometimes the irritable knight will blame his frustration on the squire and beat them until they howl.

Fortunately, the number of such knights is small.

In addition, Cesar also discovered an interesting thing. In melee combat, if a squire performs exceptionally well, he will be poached... Sometimes the knight will directly contact the squire he likes and try to persuade him; sometimes the knight will discuss with the squire's master. If the requester is a person with a higher status than the requester, or is willing to pay a sum of money, the knight will mostly agree.

In his spare time—oh, they still have spare time now, Cesar would go to the knights' camp quietly with Baldwin—because the martial arts tournament will last for a whole month, Amalric I divided a piece of land in the area where the Isaac people live, let them eat, rest, polish armor, etc.

"The Isaac people wanted a large sum of money."

"Did the King give it?"

"My father said that those who fight for God will not owe the Isaac people money." Baldwin said.

This is a hell joke. The First Crusade was in 1097. Because knights' equipment and supplies needed to be prepared by themselves, in addition to scraping their own people, they also carried out extremely wanton looting and massacres of the local Isaac people. Although Henry IV was shocked and thought this was not what Christ's warriors should do.

But they answered him: "We fight for God, how can we owe the Isaac people?"

"They should have thought of it from the beginning," Cesar couldn't help but sigh: "The blood of those Byzantines is still seeping into the cracks of the stones, and it hasn't been washed away by the rain."

Are these Isaac people crazy for money? The Crusader knights had a bad impression of them from the beginning. They didn't know how many Isaac people they killed when they recaptured the Holy City, and even now they think they are dogs who might betray Christ at any time.

Amalric I didn't take away their property, just asked them to leave the residential area temporarily, and didn't forbid them from doing business with the knights. They actually still wanted the King's rent?

"The Isaac people are like this. You have to be careful when dealing with them in the future," Baldwin hesitated: "If you have no money, you can borrow from me. If you need to buy anything, you can also tell the castle steward. Those Isaac people can even peel a layer of skin off the devil."

A knight saw them and quickly turned his head back. Although Baldwin and Cesar were dressed simply when they walked out of the castle, wearing only white robes, plus a black-gray wool sleeveless cloak, and tied with a leather belt, they looked like two ordinary boys, but as soon as they walked into the camp, Baldwin took out his gold cross and also let Cesar do the same.

As soon as those people saw the gold cross, they knew they were not people who could be called around by them at will. However, the gaze gathered on them was still a lot. Some people knew them, some didn't, just looking at Cesar.

Cesar was looking at the squires.

Almost all those busy outside the tent were squires. Only a few poor knights were helping each other or taking care of themselves alone. They obviously didn't win in the martial arts war, otherwise they could at least sell the spoils to merchants to exchange for some money and hire someone.

Fighting is always very refreshing, but the matters after the battle are simply so trivial that they are almost maddening.

Knights don't wear armor directly on their bodies. Inside the helmet is a cotton cap, which is shaped very much like a nightcap, and there are straps on both sides that can be tightened. If the knight has long hair, he also needs to wear a hairnet.

Inside the chain mail is the face armor, which is a quilted cotton short robe, with the collar standing high, which can prevent the chain mail from wearing the skin and also reduce the damage caused by heavy blows; outside is the surcoat, and there is a coat of arms on the surcoat to show his identity.

Once it gets wet, whether it is sweating profusely on the battlefield or unfortunately sinking a ship, it must be taken off immediately, so as not to be blown by the devil, people will have a fever, and the chain mail will rust.

Of course, there are always knights who don't care about armor, but if it is obtained by capture, except for a part that can only be sent to the blacksmith shop for recasting, most of them will be repaired and cleaned—of course, chain mail cannot be washed with water. Squires use cleaning wooden barrels.

As the name suggests, a cleaning wooden barrel is an oak barrel placed on a grill, which can be rotated by a curved rocker like a roast chicken. There is a lid on the wooden barrel that can be opened. Put the rusty chain mail and sand into it. After the squire covers the lid, he starts to shake the wooden barrel hard. This is of course a strenuous job. Chain mail is generally about fifty pounds, and sand is also ten or so pounds. Baldwin watched the squire shake until his face was ferocious and gritted his teeth, and his face changed.

"They won't..."

"I really haven't done it," Baldwin hadn't experienced the squire stage either: "So even if I was directly promoted to a novice knight, my father would definitely still let me do these things."

Cesar coughed.

This squire was still polishing the chain mail, and that squire started polishing the helmet.

He spread his legs, sat on a small stool, fixed the helmet on a piece of wood, first polished it with a rough stone, then polished it with a ball of coarse hemp rope, and finally wiped it with a wool ball, wiping that piece as clean as new, shining and almost able to be used as a mirror. After wiping, he looked at himself in it, not knowing whether he was satisfied with his appearance or satisfied with his craftsmanship, he spat on the helmet and wiped it with his sleeve...

Cesar couldn't help but look into the closed tent, hoping his master wouldn't be so coincidental as to walk out.

Not far from them, another squire was clanging and knocking on another helmet with a small hammer. This helmet seemed to have been knocked hard by some blunt object. I don't know if the head of its original owner was safe—this is said because there were several helmets placed at the squire's feet, with different sizes and coats of arms. His master must be extremely brave.

The squire knocked for a while, looked at it, and sighed. He tried his best, but no matter what, he couldn't restore the helmet to its previous state, "Sir!" he shouted at the crack of the tent, "Pay attention to the measure next time, even for the sake of the ransom!"

A person walked out of the tent. His youth made Baldwin and Cesar feel surprised.

"Oh," he discovered the two earlier than the careless squire, "Where did these two little lords come from?"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 55 =====