Mercenaries and Adventurers

Although Kiel and the others were disturbed by two strange winds that hindered their progress in the afternoon, they still saw the villages and towns where they settled before dark.

It was a rather weird village, especially looking at it from a distance. If it wasn't for the reminder from Blood Fang, Keel would not have noticed that there was a village there.

It turned out that this local village was all built semi-underground, and the part of the building that protruded from the ground was only about one or two meters low.

The spacious, round and gentle roof was covered with thick soil, and a flower with a well-developed root system was planted on it.

It is spring at this time, even if there is a strong wind blowing at any time, this kind of local flowers and plants still rely on their tenacious stems and roots to bloom stubborn flowers.

Different from the villages along the commercial roads of the western provinces that I have seen along the way, the villages on the Strange Wind Grassland occupy quite a large area, and each semi-underground house seems to be able to accommodate hundreds of people.

Therefore, how many people this village of more than a dozen semi-underground houses can accommodate at one time, Keel did not understand until he left the local area.

-

As the vanguard of the leading vanguard, Kirsen's army and caravan arrived before the village.

In order to resist wild wolves and other beasts on the ground, the people of this village built a low earthen wall around the village which occupies a large area.

The earth wall is no more than two meters high, and the flowers with well-developed roots are planted on it like the houses in the village.

Therefore, looking closer to the wall, the low wall looks like a huge grass snake lying softly on the ground, wrapping its tail around the entire village.

Interestingly, the entrance and exit of the wall surrounding the entire village is not on the ground, but an underground entrance that is obviously marked to remind.

I don't know how long it took the local residents to hollow out a large piece of ground soil in front of the wall, and dig out an open and semi-underground passage that can completely allow carriages to enter.

At the end of the passage is a huge wooden gate that has been reinforced with stones on both sides and the top wall. There are also many sharp wooden thorns fixed on the gate. It seems that it is a measure to resist wild animals.

It is estimated that there is very little wood on the local grassland for residents to use, so they have to use the least amount of wood to build the village gate for such an important village gate.

"An eye-opener, an eye-opener."

After jumping off the horse, Keel said in admiration to Blood Fangst beside him.

Before, he wondered how ordinary people could survive in the face of such a powerful harpy in the local area.

Looking at it now, these people paid more to live in this area, which is obviously different from other places. Whether it was the crisis when they first came here, or the wisdom to find a way to deal with it, or to raise the resources to build these village buildings, and to spend time and life to complete the construction of this semi-underground building amidst the harassment of monsters.

These must have paid too much.

Bloodyaster didn't say anything, but yelled loudly at the unguarded wooden gate of the village: "The 'Stinger' on duty in Thor Village! Is there any 'Stinger' on duty? Open your gate! !There will be a large number of people living among you tonight!"

He added loudly: "The opportunity to make money is coming soon!"

When Kiel was wondering what the 'sting' was, several 'human beings' in strange clothes walked out of the semi-subterranean wooden gate directly below the village wall.

Kiel put his hand on the hilt nervously, but he relaxed again as the other party spoke.

Several of the visitors had elongated wooden thorns extending outwards all over their bodies. Not only were the tops of their heads covered with wooden thorns like a hedgehog, but their backs and sides of their arms were also covered with long wooden thorns. The outward legs are shorter, presumably so as not to interfere with walking, and the front of the body is a set of leather armor reinforced with unknown materials.

In short, if it weren't for talking, Kiel would even kill this thing as a monster at night.

"Is the person here a businessman?"

"It doesn't look like it. It's a caravan guard talking, and there's an armor-piercing warrior behind."

"Good news! This means that a large caravan is coming. No wonder the merchants who haven't passed by in the past two days have all gathered together. Our village will definitely make a fortune in the past two days. I should let the family members Get food and drink ready, and all the beds have to be made."

There were only two people outside the wooden fence, and these strangely dressed villagers talked happily.

As soon as Kiel thought about it, he understood that caravans of average size would move forward together, and no one would leave the team too far. In addition, only large-scale caravan aggregates will send front-standers ahead of the team.

Most of the villages living on the commercial road depend on the caravans to make a living, and the more people come, the more they welcome them.

Therefore, several villagers quickly pulled the winch inside the gate, and connected the winch with a leather rope made of strong animal skin to pull the wooden fence gate from the vertical to the inside and upward gradually.

After the gate was opened, Bloodyaster immediately walked over, raised his fist and knocked on the chest of one of the leading villagers: "Idiots in Thor Village, it's me, Bloodyaster. Go tell the people in the village , pack up and get ready, and soon a large team of nearly a thousand people will come over and spend the night in your village."

"Thousands of people? This is a big business. Sorry, the underground line of sight is not good here, so I didn't recognize you, a hard-fated guy."

The villagers who led the team seemed to know Bloodyaster very well, so they spoke very casually.

Probably so, as Xue Yaster said, he has to travel this trade route several times a year, and the villages and towns along the road are probably very familiar.

"However, there is a problem. In this team, there is a northern army with more than half of the number. They also want to cross the border and go to the south to fight."

Xueyasite pointed to Kiel next to him. When he said this, the faces of several local villagers changed.

"Army? This is not allowed, the army cannot come in. Merchants can, but the army cannot!"

The villagers were firm and shook their hands to say no.

Keir stood up and said at this time: "Please believe us, we are an army from Kendall County in the Northwest Province, led by Baron Kendall. This trip is to support the war on the southern border, and we have never done anything grandiose along the way. The killing thing. Well, at least there has never been an illegal killing without the consent of the local lord."

But Keir said it was useless, and the villagers shook their heads. The spikes on their heads made it difficult for Ster next to him to get close, so he took two steps back.

"The army can cross the border, but they can only stay outside the village tonight. As for the caravan, they can enter the village to repair!"

The villagers are determined.

He even lowered the wooden gate, blocking Bloodfang and Kiel from the outside.

"Please go back. Merchants can come in later, but the army should rely on bravery and spend the night outside."

The villagers continued to say the same thing through the wooden gate, even though Kiel patted his chest and said it would not work.

"There are so many harpy monsters outside, and they will attack those who stay outside at night. Think about your situation when there was no village today?"

Xueyasite was still persuading, and even brought up the plight of the local villagers, but the village with a population of several hundred did not dare to allow half a thousand troops to enter the village.

If the army came in, their village without a lord would be wiped out by malicious massacres, and no one would avenge them.

Seeing his companion spread his hands, Kiel also scratched his head speechlessly. He was worried about spending the night on this strange wind grassland before. At that time, Bloodfang said that he could find a way to live in a village that could resist the harpies.

Now that it's over, I can only pass the news back and let the knights make up their minds.

-

"Hmph! This is beyond their control."

Beside Baron Kendall's carriage, Knight Rumi and Knight Crowe were all there. After listening to Kiel's report on the village, although they were satisfied with the size and size of the village's safe overnight houses, they were ignorant of the villagers in these remote places. Both knights dismissed it.

Baron Kendall leaned against the window of the carriage, leaned out half of his body and said, "According to the news from the local caravan, we'd better not have a direct confrontation with those harpies."

The baron shook his head: "A bunch of stupid things. They even figured out a way to feed the monsters to pass this trade route. Although it seemed safe and peaceful to pass through, but after a long time, they didn't know it and kept Contributing food will change the size of the monster."

He nodded to the two knights: "How long do you think it will take before those harpies can no longer hold back and kill all the villages and towns in this area?"

Knight Rumi said without even thinking about it: "It has been at least thirty years since the trade road under our feet was opened. If the harpies have no other monster natural enemies, their scale is hard to imagine, and massacres are possible at any time. "

However, Knight Crowe had a different opinion: "But this kind of monster is generally human-like. According to my experience, maybe the leader of the monster should have some wisdom."

He nodded his head: "If this is the case, the intelligent leader of the settlement, if there is one, must know the size and power of the human race. For the development of the entire monster race, they may not be so reckless. Kill all humans. It's not in their interest."

As soon as Knight Crowe's words came out, the baron and Knight Rumi were silent for a moment. Obviously, the two were limited by their knowledge and experience and did not think of this.

"If, as you said, there is a leader among the harpies that must be numerous, what will he do?" the baron asked curiously.

The baron himself is not a local aristocratic lord, he doesn't really care about the life and death of the local people, he is just curious. And similar intelligence information may also be useful elsewhere.

Knight Crowe asked the baron's attendants for the most detailed map of the western provinces they had at this time.

At least half of the credit for this map still belongs to Kiel.

Knight Crowe pointed to where they are now.

The Strange Wind Grassland is actually not very big, and the trade route under their feet also found the shortest place to pass through it.

The knight pointed to the depths of the Strange Wind Grasslands that were not on the trade route, extending all the way to the northeast, and then pointed to the areas on the edge of the Western Province and the Central Province.

"There is a wet and vast forest here, which naturally separates the two provinces. At the same time, there are few people here, and the forest has a lot of products, which is more suitable for the survival of harpies."

"And the place we came to, where there is a lot of rain, is obviously not a good habitat for this kind of monster. And the part further to the southeast is another densely populated area in the western province. Although monsters can also attack here, but The consequences are unpredictable. If they have any wisdom, they should know that there are no local strange winds and strong winds, and if they really want to fight us humans, it is hard to say who will win and who will lose."

Both the baron and the Rumi knight felt that these words made sense.

However, Keir on the side stretched out his hand at this time, expressing that he had a different opinion.

"Oh Keel, what do you want to say?"

Putting away the map, Crow Knight asked.

Kiel coughed lightly. He knew that if he waited a while, he might be refuting the judgment of Lord Knight, but he knew that Knight Crowe was a man, and if he wanted to be recognized by Knight Crowe, he had to show it.

"Adults, you may be a bit biased about the local situation. When you get to the village ahead, you may have a different opinion after seeing the local people's buildings and the way they deal with this monster."

The three looked at each other, and Knight Crowe said, "Then, as you said, let's see what the locals have done to resist the harpies."

-

An hour later, the army escorted a large number of logistics carriages and a large group of caravans wrapped in the center of the team, and arrived at the place where they would stay on the first night on the strange wind grassland.

Sure enough, as Keir said, the Kendal people from afar were amazed when they saw the local residents' measures to deal with the harpies for the first time.

Especially Baron Kendall, the lord jumped onto the roof of the carriage with a look of joy, and took out a far-sighted monocular eyepiece from his body to carefully observe the large and low round houses in the village wall.

"It's very interesting. Such a wide roof was covered with soil and planted with the moonflowers with well-developed roots. How did they deal with the heavy weight of the roof? Are the stone pillars reinforced inside? But there are no large stones along the way around. Or use rough wood as pillars? Complicated beam structure? Impossible, the rarest thing on the grasslands is tall trees, where can there be such materials. Well, you have to take a closer look."

Most of the people around couldn't understand what the baron was saying.

He waved his hand and said loudly to the two nearby knights: "Didn't Kiel report that they refused to let our army enter the village overnight? Huh, I'm afraid that I won't be able to restrain the army and bring them danger. "

"However, what qualifications do they have to say no to me, the nobleman of the kingdom, the two knights, and so many of us Kendals? Although for the sake of the local caravan, it won't make it too ugly later. But you two, please come here, let these arrogant people who think they can say no by hiding behind low walls, know their true status and strength in human society."

"Remember, don't kill."

The Baron had a final word of caution.

Ever since they saw the local harpy in the morning, they have been discussing how to deal with the monster's attack at night.

But after much deliberation, there is no good way.

If there is no such strong wind during the day at night, they still have some troublesome and complicated ways to deal with the monster's attack. But after sending someone to ask the local businessman, they found out that the extremely fierce wind blowing here does not distinguish between day and night, and deafening winds will blow anytime and anywhere.

And flying monsters, of course, will take advantage of the wind to attack humans living in the wild.

Things like tents simply cannot resist the sharp claws on the monster's feet. And in the fierce wind, how can they stand up all kinds of tents that are easy to eat?

Simply blow it and it will fly into the sky.

So the baron and the two knights had to let their troops spend the night in the village.

This point, and the resulting contradictions, are bound to be unavoidable.

Since it cannot be avoided, then just deal with it frankly.

Fortunately, according to the information obtained, since all the knights and lords in charge died in the battle against the harpies, the human villages and towns on this grassland have not paid taxes effectively.

what does that mean?

It means that although the local residents nominally belong to the largest noble nearby, since they have not paid taxes, the nobles naturally have no obligation to maintain the safety and property of these people.

Everything of the people in this area can only be protected by themselves.

There are no laws and decrees of the kingdom, only social rules established by human society.

Generally speaking, this kind of lack of management is the easiest place to gather strong men and bandits, but fortunately, there are extremely dangerous monsters in the wild, such as horse bandits and bandits, there is no soil for survival here. UU reading www.uukanshu.com

People who live in the wild, rather than gathering and relying on villages, often disappear into the strong wind without a sound.

In addition, because it is located on a commercial route, and it is the most important commercial route in the western province, the scale and number of caravans coming and going are very large. These caravans will bring a large number of guards, and the villages and towns along the road will be maintained in traditional human society by force.

After all, even if any village became vicious and wanted to rely on plundering and trading for a living, they would not be able to defeat the large caravans with a large number of guards.

-

Lord Kendal gave the order, and the two knights sprang into action.

They first let the military caravan and local caravan in the center of the team enter the village normally, pretending to be living outside the village tonight.

But this appearance only confuses the local villagers.

They really think that if they refuse, they will really succeed if they refuse.

The caravans who were more familiar with Kendall's army saw something, so the stewards of each caravan strictly ordered their buddies and guards to keep their mouths shut and not to speak.

After all, they could vaguely see that the Kendalls' carriages hadn't unhooked the horses, the cooks who should have appeared hadn't manipulated the dinner the soldiers wanted to eat, and the strict barracks for the night hadn't been built as usual.

Soldiers armed with spears lined up in strict order, facing the village wall.

There were guards on horseback walking through the ranks, yelling something.

The two knights rode side by side on horses, passing through rows of soldiers, chatting and laughing, and Shi Shiran rode slowly towards the gate of the village.

The two knights were waiting for the accompanying caravan to enter the village, so as to avoid the confusion caused by waiting to affect these merchants.