Mercenaries and Adventurers

Kil squinted his eyes and looked at the real person in charge of the caravan arriving at this moment.

The other party was a fat man with a big belly. The leather armor he put on hastily was stretched out of shape by his big belly. What was put inside the leather armor was not only the exaggerated big belly, but also the luxurious suit that was originally draped on him. Trader's cloak.

The poor cloak was sandwiched between fat flesh and tight leather armor, and the bright blue color was wrinkled and distorted.

"My lord, my lord, my lord knight. Of course, there are also the priests of the Church of Saturn. Good afternoon, both of you. May the God of Wealth protect us so that we can meet friendly friends in this deserted and dangerous place."

More than ten meters away, still slowing down the horse, the caravan steward acted as if he had known him for a long time, and greeted the strangers Kiel and Priest Batal like this.

Priest Batal frowned. Generally speaking, in front of a church priest, no one would mention Tatarism, but this middle-aged fat man who was obviously not a young businessman still said so. .

Not only did he seem not to care about him as a little shepherd priest, but he also didn't care about things that offended him.

However, the priest soon saw a gem badge hanging from the opponent's neck, and it was a gem badge that was specially taken out from close to the body.

When Kil was talking to the other party, the young priest looked carefully and recognized that it was the fifth-level prosperity badge issued by the Church of the God of Wealth to contribute to the prosperity of the region among the knowledge he had learned.

That thing has the effect of protection and shelter, but its more important function is to highlight the wearer's backbone status in the church of the God of Wealth.

Any businessman who can own this thing is no longer an ordinary businessman. It not only represents the support and protection of the Church of the God of Wealth behind it, but also represents its strong strength and background.

"Joe Kil, a knight from Kendall County. As you can see, the hundreds of people behind are the people who took refuge under the leadership of me and Priest Lothar Batal of the Church of Saturn."

When being introduced by the Kiel warriors, Priest Batal also raised the amber metal staff in his left hand to signal to the two people in front of him.

The middle-aged obese businessman had a smile on his face. He didn't even look at Priest Batar. Instead, he complimented Kil and said, "Where did I think this heroic knight came from? It turned out to be a brave Ken from the northern border area." Young knight of Del County! Sure enough, the people in the north of the kingdom are particularly brave. The elite army I saw from a distance in the town a few days ago seems to come from the same place."

Keir raised his eyebrows, but with his visor on, no one could see his expression: "Yes, I was appointed from that army. Town? The army led by Lord Kendall has already crossed the town of Dorne. ?"

"I've passed it. The army I saw just outside the town of Dorne was really neat and brave. Humph, it's much better than those trash pies in the south. I really don't know how those people defeated the battle. How could they? We lost so miserably last year and the situation in the region is so bad now. I used to be able to sit in the Chamber of Commerce, but now I have to lead the team myself."

He suddenly slapped his forehead, and also pushed back a little the luxurious hat he was wearing. Everyone could see that the exposed part of his head was not lush, and the grasslands in the Western Province were not that barren even in the driest time.

"Look at me, I haven't introduced myself yet. It's really rude. You two, I am the vice-president of the nearby famous 'Burning Furnace' Chamber of Commerce, Nobby Norris, who has to eat something every day. Only good food can satisfy the sleeping little gluttonous merchant. Although I am greedy, my trade has always been reliably and accurately spread throughout the world."

Kil waved his hand, not wanting to have any more contact with the other party: "Put the introduction aside and get back to business. Now there are only one trade route between the two waves of people, so whoever gets out of the way will go first?"

The two people across from each other looked at each other, and the middle-aged fat businessman named Nobby immediately put on a smile and said: "Looking at what you said, you are a knight, and you are doing good deeds to take care of the refugees who have escaped from farming. I am doing this to you." People with high moral character will of course be given priority. This is the way the world should be!"

Next to him, 'Blue Dog' Nus secretly tugged on the exposed corner of the caravan manager's cloak, and reminded him in a low voice: "Our carriages have already turned around, and on this wild trade road, if the heavily loaded carriages leave the road, they will get stuck. It’s in the wild.”

But the middle-aged businessman ignored the whispers of his guard captain and continued to say with a smile on his face: "I will order the carriage to pull over immediately. You and the people who are seeking refuge under you will go first."

Kil chuckled, and his sensitive ears heard the other party's private words clearly, but he didn't say anything, just verbally thanked him, and then turned back towards the team with Priest Batal.

After the two men on the other side waited for Kiel and the other two to ride away, they immediately returned to the carriage team with twenty escorting riders.

Afterwards, the young refugees who were resting on the ground were urged by shouts and shouts one after another. They got up from the ground one after another, carried their supplies again, carried the wooden sticks tied to the heavy objects on their shoulders, and lined up in a loose formation, waiting to gather into a group. The group of people once again formed a long team and went on the road.

"Batar, please go to the back of the team and watch and command the team there. Haha, aren't you still angry that the other party doesn't pay much attention to you?"

Kil said with a smile.

Priest Batal smiled apologetically, but then a worried expression appeared on his face: "This is not right. It's not like I haven't dealt with high-level businessmen from some local chambers of commerce before. They shouldn't be like this. Although the Church of the God of Saturn and There are not many contacts with caravans and merchants, but not too few. Many villages have special outputs that can be purchased by small traveling merchants and sold in distant big cities, and villages everywhere also rely on small caravans that sell various sundries. There is actually a lot of support and connections. Behind these small businessmen and caravans are the support of large chambers of commerce in various places."

He pursed his lips: "But this obviously slick and experienced businessman shouldn't be so obvious about not talking to me or contacting me. There must be something wrong!"

But he didn't know exactly what was wrong, and he couldn't make a guess, so he could only mutter and ride towards the back of the team.

Kiir shook his head and walked in front of the armed people in the front row, asking them to form a long and slender queue, trying to make the queue as thin and elongated as possible, and then quickly pass through the trade route that the caravans and carriages gave way to.

-

On the other side, the middle-aged caravan steward led the caravan guards back to the heavy-loaded freight carriages parked on the trade road.

At this time, he put away the professional smile he had specially performed, and passed by the carriages waiting for orders with an expressionless face. He issued unusual orders to the drivers of each carriage: "Turn the direction of the carriage again, and drive the carriage to the road at the same time." In the wild fields on both sides! Hurry! Don't argue! I don't want to hear how troublesome it is to leave the wheel ruts. I know how troublesome it is. You don't need to complain, just start moving now! Those who are digging in the ground will come over soon, and they will move quickly. Be a little more tidy, don’t let those guys who don’t even dare to farm and just run away from the whole village look down on you.”

The caravan drivers include his own drivers from the chamber of commerce, as well as hired professional caravan drivers. His own drivers, who are in charge of the same chamber of commerce, dare to say a few words to him, but the hired drivers don't even dare to talk back. They will do whatever the stewards say.

No matter how outrageous the order is, it's troublesome.

The long whip was waved, and the sturdy carriage pulled by two strong horses immediately turned the direction of the carriage with great effort, and then drove out of the commercial road with two grooves and ruts, driving the long carriage to the soft roadside. In the wild.

The car sank immediately as soon as it came in. Thanks to the heavy-duty carriage of the Burning Furnace Chamber of Commerce, many fragile carriage parts were reinforced with metal parts, so the sudden sinking of the car was only a little. After a slight shake, the thick iron-clad wheels stepped steadily into the soft soil.

The middle-aged steward and the man checked it back and forth, confirming that none of the loaded iron ingots had swayed, and that the reinforced ropes held the cargo boxes tightly. He nodded with satisfaction and personally led the people to the trade road. On the side, there were smiling faces again.

Because the knight was at the front, the refugee procession came.

-

Kiel, with dozens of armed civilians at the front of the team, approached the caravan that gave way to the trade road.

Seeing that the other party quickly got out of the way without hesitation, the carriage was obviously heavy and huge, and those who got out of the way were usually people on foot, but the other party did it in such a polite way, Keir also showed a smile.

He lifted up his steel visor, revealing his young face, and showed his smiling face to the middle-aged fat businessman.

Keir waved his hand, and the other party immediately rode on his horse and bowed to salute.

The other party intentionally looked at the team led by Keir, and Keir also carefully looked at the other party's carriage parked outside the road.

The carriages of the Burning Furnace Chamber of Commerce are all rare heavy-duty freight carriages with wide wheels, which can reduce the ground pressure on the road when carrying heavy objects, thus bringing better passability.

At the same time, painted metal reinforced parts can be seen everywhere in this carriage, and it is not an ordinary carriage made entirely of wood and nails.

The cart was not pulled by one horse, but by two strong, low and sturdy professional draft horses.

These poor guys all wear blindfolds. Except for the horses in the front carriage who can see the road, the other horses wear blindfolds and only listen to the small metal bell hanging at the rear of the carriage in front as instructions.

This relieves a lot of the driver's workload, as they don't need to use a long driving whip to direct the two horses at all times. Only when turning, do the drivers need to flick their whips to make a sound of instructions, or when accelerating, tap the horse's buttocks lightly to indicate acceleration.

At the same time, the middle-aged obese businessman also smiled and carefully looked at the hundreds of young refugees passing in front of him.

"They are all young people, and they are a knight and a shepherd of the Church of Saturn. Their purpose is a mystery, interesting, very interesting. It is not that the Church of Saturn in the Parish Parish in the stalemate is doing nothing."

He whispered to himself, and the 'Blue Dog' Nusi next to him asked doubtfully: "Master Steward, what did you say?"

"It's nothing, Nusi, it's nothing. I hope we can still catch the show when we come back this time. Have your men dismount, take out the ropes, connect the horses to the carriage, and help pull it. Look. , the wheels sank into the soft soil.”

The armed people behind the refugee team also quickly passed through the area of ​​the caravan, and the people in the caravan immediately began to complain and try to redirect the carriage to the trade road with solid ground.

-

Kiel's team continued to travel without incident for two more days.

Everyone relied on the full grains "given by God" by Priest Batar to fill their stomachs every day. The vegetables seized from the bandits were used as additional ingredients in the wheat porridge, and were added in limited quantities as condiments.

The stinky salted fish that Kiel particularly disliked was unexpectedly liked by the refugee youth. Because the southern province is mountainous and watery, most of the villages are settled along the river, so they have never eaten less river fish, but they are used to eating it.

However, food preservation has always been a big problem in inland mountainous areas. Fortunately, there is no shortage of coarse salt and enough salt tubes. Villages all over the country invariably pickled the excess plump river fish with salt and used it as extra 'delicious' food in winter when food was scarce. It was mixed with dried bean powder, dried wild vegetables and a large number of root plants and eaten together.

Different from trying to chop and cook all the fresh wild animals obtained in spring, summer and autumn to ensure food safety, there is no need to worry about the existence of parasites in animal meat when using salted salted fish.

Therefore, when everyone eats, they can fully enjoy the texture of the firm meat, even if the taste of the salted fish is better than nothing.

Keir didn't like this stuff. It was salty and hard, and it also had a bitter smell from the internal organs that were not cleaned during production. Therefore, in addition to eating monster jerky that was hard enough to sharpen steel swords, he drank more wheat porridge with wild honey added.

He doesn't eat much honey. Apart from enjoying a little bit with his two companions every day, he gives it as a reward to the refugee youth who work hard, or to the middle-aged businessman Long Barfoot who is busy every day.

In addition, the most skilled woodcutter will also receive a large jar of honey water sweetened with honey.

Kiel also personally baked many honey-eating bee pupae. Although these sweet bee pupae looked weird, they were especially loved by the Batal priests.

On his face that was always worried these past two days, it was rare to see him eating happily. He was always muttering that he wanted to promote this new delicacy in the church and add more food to the church’s exclusive beekeepers. A means of making money and getting rich.

"Those rich and powerful people will like this thing. Although it is a bit strange, I think those ladies will probably like this sweet taste?"

Keir always shrugged, thinking that his companion was wishful thinking, and no one would take the initiative to eat this food. The first bite of roasted bee pupae that the priest ate was when Kiel forced it into his mouth and asked him to taste it before he accepted it.

In the past two days, Keir had discovered more than once secret peeping glances from the shadows of the woods under the mountains on the north and south sides of the trade road.

For some thieves with excellent hiding skills, Kiel could only vaguely feel that something was wrong. However, for some thieves who had not been working for a few years, Kiel used the reflection of metal objects on his body to catch him from a long distance away. Found the hiding place accurately.

Then he quickly approached on horseback, so that the opponent would be killed by throwing captured spears or shooting bows and arrows before he could run away.

Of course, the dead people were taken back, and the weapons and equipment were removed and replaced by their own people. The corpses of the bandits were dragged behind the carriage. When they set up camp in the evening, they arranged to burn the corpses in a separate fire far away from the camp.

It is estimated that hundreds of people in the refugee team have been initially armed. Therefore, even if many snooping detective bandits were found and killed by Kiel, the bandit gangs hiding in the deep woods did not come out to avenge their own people.

Of course, it is also possible that the bandit teams here are small teams of more than ten people, and there are no bandit gangs with dozens of people just out of the White Stone City Wall level. Therefore, the leaders of these bandits also lack the fame and courage to unite other teams.

Not everyone can be like Barney the Mountain Wolf, who can convince other brutal bandits who are also leaders of the bandit gang, and unite a team of hundreds of people to attack Kiel and the others.

Therefore, the team led by Priests Kiir and Batal finally passed through the trade routes between the north and south mountains, which took several days to walk, and officially arrived at the ruling territory of the southern province.

The first stop was the town of Dorne, which was built on a small plain where the line of sight suddenly opened up.

Kiel and the others, who had just walked out of the bandits-infested trade road, raised their heads slightly and could see a place less than a kilometer away, where black and gray smoke was rising, with no protection from tall and solid walls, or a collection of shabby or gorgeous buildings. , there are agricultural plots of various sizes and shapes around the town, and there is no organized organization to plan and manage them - Dorn Town.

"What was my first impression of the southern province, Lothar, guess what?"

Kil joked to Priest Batal who was riding beside him.

The priest looked helpless: "I don't think this place is a huge shame to the entire province, especially if it is placed in the first place when the province is just launched. If it can be moved to another remote place, I think the level of chaos in the land beneath our feet may be permanently reduced to a level."

Bloodyost, who was sitting in the carriage and driving the carriage, smiled: "Priest Batar, you may think so, but I believe that no one in that town thinks so. Kiel, there are people nearby in this town. The best food and wine! I can’t wait for a feast tonight, how about you?”

Keir's eyes lit up and he didn't say anything. He had been talking a lot in the past two days. He needed the thick beer with the aroma of grain to fill his entire stomach. Although Knight Crow once reminded him that a real knight needs to drink as little as possible.

But Kil had forgotten all about it at this time, and Knight Crow said so, taught him so, the Lord Knight himself usually drinks a lot, at least every night at dinner, Baron Kendall, Cro The three of them, Knight Lao and Knight Rumi, would always drink up a bottle of high-end wine that the baron brought with him when he went on an expedition.

Occasionally a bottle of golden cider.

Although most of them were killed by the baron and his close attendants, the two knights also had limited drinking.

Kil rubbed his hands and immediately announced loudly: "Go forward and find a place to camp outside the town of Dorne tonight! Merchant Barfoot! Are you ready with the list of goods for sale that I asked you to prepare?"

The middle-aged businessman quickly ran to the front of the team, raised his hands high, and held a prepared sales receipt above his head, and immediately ran over to deliver it to Knight Kiel.

-

At the same time, in the afternoon in Dorne Town, it was still a peaceful and chaotic afternoon.

Although there are fewer large and small caravans here than when the situation was good before, and it seems to be a little less popular, but aspiring gray and black businessmen know that the recent period of Dorne Town is not as depressed as it seems on the surface. On the contrary, the black market Trade volumes surged.

Because with the decrease in the number of transit caravans, the bandit gangs who plundered the caravans to make a living were gradually unable to survive in the mountains. They had to let all the bandits carry various large and small packages of materials and goods in the gang, and the bad things in the past were They took action, or were reluctant to take action, to bring the looted goods out of their lair, and exchange them for the last sum of money they could get at a low price in Dorne Town, a stinking puddle full of blood-stained wealth.

Then find your own way out.

Some bandit leaders are evil-minded and rely on their words and past trust to trick their bandits into waiting outside the trading place while they negotiate to package and sell the goods. After receiving a large amount of money, they just go out and take the money and disappear. A bunch of confused bandits, covered in nothing but smelly, dirty animal skin clothing and a handful or two, were left standing stupidly on the streets of Dorne.

Most of these guys will wait for a long time before finally confirming that they have been tricked by the leader, so they will make a scene with murderous intentions.

But there weren't many other people in Dorne, but there were the most strong men who had an iron sword in their hands and knew nothing but the ability to kill.

Which store doesn't have twenty or thirty thugs guarding the store?

Which store doesn't have a thick wall door to prevent robbery?

Once the thick store door is closed like a city gate, you can't escape if you are inside, and you can't break in if you are on the outside.

Therefore, the stupid bandits who are full of enthusiasm have no choice but to retreat into the stinking ditch in despair, and choose to sell the only valuable weapon in their hands in exchange for a piece of money to leave, or choose to do the same as others, for the first time Think of yourself as a commodity that is chosen to be purchased, waiting to be accepted by which chamber of commerce to become a new thug, and then die in a dispute between chambers of commerce competing for trade opportunities one day.

Or, he may be spotted by the leader of a bandit gang who comes to recruit people from other places, escape somewhere else, and start over with a new bandit gang.

At this time, on top of a striking wooden slender tower to the west of the town, a man smelling of alcohol was waking up from his sleep under the warm spring sunshine. He staggered from the thick waterproof cloth hanging on the wooden pillar. From the cloak, he took out a dirty gray lady's handkerchief, dipped it into the foamless ale in the wine glass next to him, and then used the wet handkerchief to wipe his chin and cheeks covered with stubby beard.

The cool wine made him slightly more conscious, which reminded him of some of his job responsibilities. Then, the slovenly man placed his swollen eyes on an expensive wooden glass telescope standing on the top of the tower. .

The long wooden tube is swung by the arm, and the enlarged view of the sky is pulled towards the ground with lush plants.

Then, the man was stunned for a moment, and murmured: "Isn't it right? An army from the north just passed by a few days ago, and it's coming again today? Those noble gentlemen in the provincial capital are really, really, well, well-connected. !”

Then, he came to his senses and hurriedly rang the copper alarm bell on another wooden pillar.

Ding ding ding! Ding ding ding! Ding ding ding!

The bell rang three times in a row throughout the town.

Then again.

Again.