The Fourteenth Section: Sword Techniques

  Upper Bane Knight stood firm, holding the sword with both hands, and then held the sword horizontally towards the opponent. In a sudden thrust, he let the tip of the sword slide along the axis of the sword to pierce the target. If he wanted to reach further, he would take another step forward with his front foot. Like chopping, the sword moved first, ensuring it was in front, and the body and footsteps followed one by one. Doing so during a thrust not only made it difficult for the opponent to react but also made aiming easier. After several rounds of thrusting, the Lower Bane Knight finally revealed an opening, exposing his sword-holding hand within the opponent's striking range. The Upper Bane Knight crossed over and raised the blade between the opponent's unprotected hands, slicing them and causing damage that would prevent him from continuing to hold his weapon, thus ending the fight cleanly. He then raised his sword high and chopped down towards the opponent's head.

  The final duel to decide the toll on the wooden bridge over the Danube ended with the victory of Count von Bayern, and the war was concluded with a fight between two knights. The defeated knight was struck on the head by a sword, but his helmet saved him from death. However, he would have to pay 50 silver coins as ransom, which would be borne by Count von Bayern. It could be seen that the stout Count von Bayern was extremely annoyed, but had no choice but to bear the loss of defeat.

  Although this duel was unremarkable to Sir Wendel and the others, it was a real eye-opener for Arwade. The knights, especially the German ones, wielded their swords with a perfect blend of medieval swordsmanship's crudeness and finesse.

  "Yifu, can you teach me swordsmanship?" Aruo De said to Yifu as he walked into his tent one evening after several days of marching.

  "What?" Yifu was wiping his sword and looked at Arwade with an incredulous expression.

  "Teach me to use a sword, I will learn with my heart." Arwade said sincerely. Although he disliked Yves, among the people he currently knew, only he could teach him how to wield a sword.

  "Hmph, I once wanted to teach you, but you bound me with your wicked and evil things. I won't try again." Yifu ignored Arwade and continued with his own affairs.

  "Sorry, if you feel unsatisfied, you can tie me up and punish me however you want, just teach me swordsmanship." Arrode knew he had knowledge far beyond this era, but German swordsmanship deeply fascinated him. That boy had no experience with dancing knives or guns, but now he had the chance to play with real ones.

  However, Aruth soon regretted it, the damned Yves actually tied himself to a large tree and kept pouring cold water on him, the cold water almost suffocating Aruth. Neither in the past nor now had he suffered such hardship, but for the sake of learning swordsmanship, he could only grit his teeth and persevere, hoping that his father, Sir Wendel, would rescue him. But he was wrong, Sir Wendel walked among the surrounding peasant soldiers who were watching the commotion, inquired about the reason, and then smiled and walked away, saying that young people should experience more hardships.

  "Hmph, damn you." Yifu threw down the empty wooden bucket and returned to his own tent, ignoring Arwade. This made Arwade feel deceived, and he cursed angrily for a long time. After a while, Qiaodu cut off the rope and put him down, sending him to Arwade's small tent. He lay on the woolen blanket, shivering with cold and drowsy.

  The next morning, while everyone was still asleep, Yifu uncovered Arwade's woolen blanket and dragged him out of the warm blanket. The dew drops were still stuck to the leaves in the early morning, and Arwade shivered all over, not knowing what Yifu wanted to do again.

  "Take this." Eve handed Arud a heavy wooden sword, Arud took the wooden sword that was heavier than a real sword and didn't know what Eve wanted to do, he raised his head and looked at Eve with suspicion.

  "Aren't you supposed to be learning how to use a sword? It's better if you use this wooden one, it will be beneficial for you when you wield a real sword later." Yifu said impatiently, with his hands on his hips and his chest puffed out, speaking to Arwade.

  "So you've agreed." Arod's excitement almost made him jump up, he was finally going to become a swordsman. He even fantasized about whether he would be like some fantasy novels, where with one swing of his sword, holy light or sword energy would appear. But before he could indulge in his fantasies, he was interrupted by Yifu's loud shout.

  "Listen up, rookie. If you want to become a swordsman, you must learn how to use your feet properly. If your footing is unstable, you'll be like a giant with legs of mud and will surely fail."

  "Yes, that's right, it's all about stability in the lower abdomen." Aruo De hastily calmed his mind and listened carefully to Yifu's teachings.

  The basic step of medieval footwork with a sword is the "T-step", where one foot moves forward and the other rotates outward to maintain a 45-degree angle. When attempting to advance, this forms a new T-step, in professional terminology an alternating step. The slightly bent legs lower the swordsman's center of gravity, placing it between both legs, making it easier for him when advancing.

  When Arutha was wholeheartedly learning swordsmanship from Ehlren, he had long forgotten his own invention that transcended the times, and this small invention would bring him great trouble. Abbot Hennis and his party left Wendel's manor, but he did not immediately return to his abbey. Tens of miles away from Wendel's manor, there was a property belonging to the abbey, which also belonged to Abbot Hennis - an iron mine, where a group of miners worked day and night to extract iron ore, which was sold to various lords in Italy, France, England, and other places, bringing great profit to the abbey.

  "Director Hoff, the mining is going smoothly, but we are short-handed. If you permit it, I hope to bring some serfs to help us with the excavation." A bald middle-aged man stood humbly in front of Hoff Hannis, he was the authorized miner who managed this mine, and beside him were many exhausted miners who occasionally cast resentful glances at the bald man.

  "No, the current yield is sufficient. We only reopened this mine to rebuild the monastery's houses that were unfortunately burned down a couple of years ago. Our predecessors left us this mine for use in times of emergency only. Thank you, Mr. Jeff, for your service to the monastery; I will pay you a fair wage once the mining is complete." Hof. Hannes had long known from his own informants about the despicable actions of this contractor: he was embezzling the monastery's property, mistreating and oppressing the miners, but they had to tolerate him because they needed his sales channels to sell the ore, but now their patience had reached its limit.

  "What? Yes, yes?" Jeff's face showed a look of disappointment, but immediately put on a professional smile again. "No problem, it is my honor to serve the noble Abbot, if there is anything else you need in the future, just let me know."

  "Ah, good." Hoff. Hannes nodded, thinking that this contractor was still somewhat sensible, he turned around and led his own retinue of knights into a small chapel on the mine, which was a small stone-built church, so ancient that it could be said to be the main place of activity before the rise of the Abbey of San Fauso, now became a sacred place that every abbot must visit once.

  "Master, this abbot is really too detestable, let me just kill him." Behind Jeff, a one-eyed burly man said with a ferocious expression. He was wearing a gray cloak, with a scar from a knife cut on his left eye, and wore a simple leather armor, with a dagger hanging from the belt at his waist. Anyone who saw him could understand that he was a fugitive thug.

  "Uh, but he's always surrounded by his personal knights, even you can't hurt him." Jeff's face had long since lost its smile. The mine in the San Francisco monastery was a treasure trove, bringing in profits hundreds of times more than before, and now it seemed he would have to hand it over, which was like cutting off his own flesh. But he knew that with his reputation and power, he couldn't possibly resist Hoff. Hannis, if people found out he had killed the abbot, not only would the Roman Emperor's court not let him off, but even those noble lords would crush him. Even if he managed to escape, no one would dare harbor or shelter him. Money was important, but life was precious too.

  "Haha, they say businessmen will do anything for profit, even dare to grab Satan's money, but how come you're so timid." Just then a voice came from behind the two of them. Jeff turned his head nervously, while his one-eyed guard immediately placed his hand on his waist, as if ready to draw his dagger at any moment.

  "Ah, it's you, Lord Robert. You're a real comedian." Jeff saw that the person standing behind him was a monk with a faint red birthmark on his face, and he immediately recognized that it was Brother Robert, who had introduced himself as the contractor of this mine. He immediately put a smile on his face, but sweat involuntarily dripped from his forehead.

  "What, have you forgotten who it was that made you the contractor of this mine in the first place?" Robert didn't bring his own knights, he knew Woodrow was the best knight in the family, but indeed a man of upright character, and his plan required someone more unsavory to carry out.

  "Of course I remember, how could I forget your kindness, haha." Jeff wiped his forehead with his hand and smiled at Robert Meister, he couldn't afford to mess with Hof. Hannes either, nor could he mess with Robert Meister.

  "Now our respected Abbot is about to take back your authority, what are you going to do?" Robert ignored Jeff's courtesy, he just needed a pair of hands to complete his own plan.

  "You, what do you mean?" Jeff had heard about Robert and Hoffmann's disagreement before, but as a cautious businessman he just secretly sized up Robert. Today's Robert seemed somewhat different from the one in the past.

  "There's only one way, just like your friend said, kill him."