Sudden Change by the River

Early in the morning, Old Buck and his two sons were sent by the captain to fetch water. He and the children, still half asleep, carried the buckets.

Their entire squad consisted of serfs from the Blacklin family, with only the captain and vice-captain being professional soldiers. Old Buck, a strong man, was the farm's steed, responsible for tending to the farm's large livestock.

When they first arrived in the territory, the captain and vice-captain took a liking to the grain that the territory had given to the serfs. They wanted to take the grain from the serfs and sell it to the merchants accompanying the army. They didn't care at all whether the serfs had food or whether hungry serfs could fight.

They even came up with an excuse to hold arm-wrestling matches with grain as the stakes. The winner would receive a Silver Coin, a real Silver Coin, enough to buy a ewe or five Silver Coin.

Many serfs had never seen so much money before. Coupled with the temptation of these two men, the serfs could not resist the lure and began to arm wrestle with them. Although the serfs, who had worked hard all year round, seemed to have some strength, their technique was no match for these professionally trained soldiers. Naturally, they were all defeated, and their grain was stolen.

Old Buck couldn't stand seeing his fellow villagers being treated this way. Although he didn't want to get involved, he still stepped forward. As a handler of large livestock, Old Buck had developed his own set of strength techniques, and with his good physique, he indeed defeated the two men and got everyone's grain back.

However, because of this, the two men harbored a grudge against Old Buck. They dared not easily harm the serfs who were the property of the lord, but they had to cause trouble, often making Old Buck and his son work.

This morning, Old Buck and the kids were woken up by these two to fetch water for the whole team early in the morning, and they weren't allowed to help anyone else.

"Dad, I'm hungry."

The eldest son Greyhound, said to Old Buck.

"It's alright, child, we can go back for dinner after we get the water."

Old Buck walked in front, not even turning his head, and said to the child that he was also very hungry and sleepy, but that was all he could do to comfort his child at that moment.

They fetched water from a small river outside the camp. To get water, they had to cross the entire camp and walk more than 500 meters away from the camp.

When they arrived at the riverbank, in addition to the three of them, another group had already started fetching water.

The group of men were all carrying weapons, and the leader was wearing leather armor, clearly a regular soldier from the territory. When the leader saw Old Buck coming, he greeted him.

"Old Buck, that Scarface guy has come to fetch water again. How about you join our team? You're so strong, you might be able to kill a few enemies and escape your serf status."

Old Buck knew this man; he would occasionally run into him while fetching water. He was an old soldier who knew their captain, nicknamed Eagle Eye, and didn't get along with their captain, always calling him Scarface.

After meeting Old Buck and hearing that Old Buck had won an arm wrestling match against Scarface, he felt that Old Buck was good material for a soldier and wanted to invite Old Buck to transfer to his unit.

Old Buck was initially tempted, but then he thought about his children and how being in the War Department meant fighting head-on against the enemy, which was very different from being in the Serf Soldiers.

Old Buck ultimately refused, citing his advanced age as the reason. Although Old Buck was only 31 years old, his eldest son was already 15.

However, this guy named Eagle Eye would try to persuade him every time they met, probably because he was happy to see Scarface suffer a setback.

Just as the group was drawing water, the river suddenly began to tremble. Old Buck's two sons saw this and immediately dropped their buckets to look, finding it very interesting.

Old Buck smiled as he saw the happy children.

But soon the veteran named Eagle Eye shouted, "No, this is an enemy attack, and a large-scale Cavalry force at that!"

After saying that, Eagle Eye ran to a big tree by the river and climbed up in no time. He looked north and saw a lot of smoke and dust in the distance, which was moving rapidly in their direction.

Eagle Eye, his face ashen, jumped down from the tree. "Everyone, get to the river and lie down behind the reeds. If you want to live, hurry up!"

Before he could finish speaking, he had already jumped off the bank and crouched behind the largest clump of reeds.

His six soldiers, along with Old Buck and his two sons, also hid in the same way.

One of the soldiers, who was hiding next to Eagle Eye, asked Eagle Eye, "Boss, don't we need to run back to camp to report? And is it alright for us to hide here like this? It's just a small river; a warhorse could easily cross it."

Old Buck also perked up his ears to listen to what they had to say, but Eagle Eye slapped him on the head and said, "Running my ass, do you think your two legs can keep up with their four legs? They'll just stab you in the back and you can meet your grandma sooner."

The soldier scratched his head and said somewhat aggrievedly, "My grandmother is still in the territory. She's in good health, but my grandfather passed away a long time ago."

"Then go see your grandfather. If you say another word, I'll send you to see your grandfather."