Mercenaries and Adventurers

The sound of crisp bells rang from the height of the wooden tower on the west side of the town, and a large number of 'townspeople' wandering in the complicated and chaotic streets below were stunned for a moment, and then they all thought of something bad, and then cursed Quickly ran up.

What are you doing?

Go home and hide!

On both sides of the narrow, dirty and smelly street, after hearing the ringing of the bell, the store clerks hurriedly persuaded the customers to leave the store, then closed the thick door tightly, and then pressed heavy objects against the back of the door.

The thugs and guys in the shop were all under the command of the shop owner or the manager, and hurriedly found the swords and weapons that had been prepared in the shop.

But they didn't go out to do anything, so they stayed in their own shops, pricked up each ear, and listened to the movement on the street outside.

The shop owners set up wooden ladders that they bought not long ago in the backyard of the shop, climbed up to the roof of the shop with both hands and feet, stepped on the wooden tiles or the ceiling made of straw, and stretched their bodies to the west of the town. Looking into the distance.

There are no trees planted on the main roads around Dorn Town, so when you look around from a high place in the town, you can see the movement in the distance.

If a large number of bandits or troops come, they will have a certain amount of time to prepare and gather strength.

A few days ago, everyone hadn't paid attention to the plan that had been discussed since the establishment of the town. As a result, an elite army of 600 to 700 people came out of the mountain from the west commercial road and quickly approached the town that day, but scared the entire town to death.

They waited for a long time in chaos and no one entered the town. Only then did someone go out to communicate with each other.

It turned out to be a supporting army from the north to support the war on the southern border. The merchants in the town thought it was some great noble who led the army and wanted to clear Dorne town and raise military supplies and logistics items under the current uneasy situation.

At this time, the warning bell rang again, and everyone remembered the countermeasures that people who have lived in the town for a long time should know.

Then those who go home go home, those who close the shop close the shop.

At this time, the armed thugs of each family don't need to gather together to fight to defend all the wealth in the town. After the previous experience, we all know that when faced with an unknown number of foreign forces approaching, the several large chambers of commerce in the town will always send people to inquire and investigate the intention of the other party.

It should be the same this time.

Sure enough, within a short while after the bell rang, several riders surrounded a gorgeously dressed businessman and rode towards the west together.

On the roofs of many shops, there are businessmen who are watching away. Everyone's eyes are complicated, and no one knows what everyone is thinking.

Maybe they are cursing the laziness of the Great Chamber of Commerce, maybe they are praying for safety and peace to a certain god, or they are planning some evil money-making activities.

-

After coming out of the business road between the mountains, not only the view is wide, but the business road under the feet is more than twice as wide. The people under Kiel’s footsteps are brisk, and everyone is eager to return to human civilization. The world, even if the town in front of it is a place that can't be any worse.

But even such a dilapidated town is much better than an empty barren mountain.

When spending the night in the wild every day, there are often nocturnal raptors that make strange noises circling back and forth in the night sky. These nocturnal raptors that make a terrifying sound of flapping wings, as long as they find someone alone, they will try to descend and attack them with their sharp claws. person's head.

Someone was injured in the head when he got up at night. After being rescued by the priest, the whole person became confused and stupid because of the head injury.

Keel then told everyone who was active at night to keep an eye on the top of their heads, and no one was hurt.

Along the wide commercial road approaching Dorne Town, the fields on both sides of the road are more complicated than the patterns on the jigsaw puzzle. Not only are the crops planted in the adjacent fields inconsistent, but there is also no irrigation water supply project.

Many skinny men and women in rags spent the afternoon carrying buckets back and forth between the water intake along the river and the fields they were in charge of. They often need to do this for a whole day in order to provide sufficient water for some expensive vegetables or crops.

Every day, on the ridges of the fields there would be guards patrolling back and forth. As soon as these guys with whips saw anyone put down buckets or farm tools, they would rush over to ‘snap’ the whip, and if they dared to resist, they would get another whip.

The vicious whip is not smooth, and some hard things are deliberately added to it. When it hits people, the skin is ripped off. clothing.

It's often just that bad.

But today is different. When a group of hundreds of people who couldn’t see their purpose walked out from the gap in the continuous mountains to the west, those caretakers with whips in their hands ran faster than anyone else. They turned over and jumped off the ridge. Drill into the less dense and tall crops.

And the unattended debtors could finally breathe a sigh of relief, they all stopped, put the buckets on their heads or carried them on the ground, and rested on the spot.

They didn't dare to run away. After all, running away before paying off their debts was a felony in Dorne Town, and their fingers would be cut off. Run once, cut a finger.

When the thumb of the palm is cut off, that hand is useless, and a person loses the value of workmanship.

What is left to these people will be a more tragic result, but no one cares about it.

Therefore, they didn't dare to run, so they stood in place one after another, looking fearlessly at the team of hundreds of people gradually approaching along the commercial road.

When they looked at the reflective sword, they realized that they should be afraid, so they picked up the buckets and jumped off the ridge.

But they still looked at the pedestrian team passing along the trade road.

They always look at every passing team like this.

It's just that no one in the previous caravans cared about these hard-working debtors, and they didn't think there was anything wrong with these people working to pay off their debts.

-

Keel was at the head of the team, and of course he noticed the ragged people in the messy fields on both sides of the road staring at them blankly.

Ms. Feneya is very familiar with this place, and many of the rescued merchants have also been here. So Kiel knows where these guys come from.

It looks pitiful, but also hateful enough.

Dorne has its own rules, and these people are the debtors who owe their debts at the casino.

Although there are not many debts, all of these guys are floating in the casino. Guys who don't have a single iron coin, regardless of gender, no matter how little money they owe, they have to work in the fields for the gang in charge of lending money in the casino. .

Of course, those villains have a way to get money faster, but such people will disappear or become disabled and die soon, which is not a long-term way to maintain them. So around Dorne Town, there are several large chambers of commerce that maintain the management here, as well as gangs, shops, and workshops, and there are more or less large and small messy fields outside the town.

In these fields, the most valuable crops on the market are planted. Gangs with oil mills worked hard to grow oil crops in the fields owned by the gangs.

The chamber of commerce has a group of female spinning and weaving workers who work hard to grow cotton or hemp plants in the fields, regardless of whether the climate or soil is suitable for planting.

Taverns try their best to grow hops in their fields, and plant vegetables or root plants in their spare time, using almost free labor to obtain food raw materials that have to be bought with money.

Behind all of this is the black market of debtors' debt transactions. The town has its own calculation method for daily labor in exchange for debt reduction. According to the amount of debts, debtors with small debts may have to work for half a month, and debtors with more may get Years of hard work.

These IOUs marking the debtors are traded back and forth by people, providing the distribution of labor at the bottom of the town.

Even if it is so close to slavery.

Even if the Kingdom of St. Holes followed the imperial order, the slave trade had been abolished since the founding of the country.

But all of this happened so clearly in Dorne Town. The men and women who came and went, the nobles and big businessmen, everyone knew about it, but everyone pretended not to see it.

-

Priest Batar had naturally been here, and he looked back with regret at the countless numb eyes that had looked over. He didn't know there was such a place before. When he borrowed from here to go to Montoka City a few days ago, he was shocked by how barbaric and backward it is.

Although the days when debtors are forced to work are only related to how much they owe, it seems that they all blame themselves for gambling debts, right?

But at that time, Priest Batar just went into the field here to talk with a dozen debtors for a while, and he realized that in Dorne Town, when a person's wealth limit is approaching zero, if there is no one who is responsible for food and housing. , then that person is particularly prone to fall into the casino and try to turn around by gambling.

But borrowing money is easy and difficult to repay, and betting out of ten loses nine times. There are too few people relying on gambling to turn around and leave here, and more people often fall into the trap of casino dealers. Even the borrowed money can't be warmed up, and then it will be tied around the neck with a rope, like a livestock, and taken to the black market for trading IOUs, where it will be bought by various buyers to work.

The entire town has designed a set of falling paths for people on the verge of bankruptcy. Want to turn around?

Too hard too hard.

So at the time he quickly gave up.

Now that he came to Dorne Town again, the priest didn't even dare to carefully look back at those eyes that looked at him.

Keir didn't care, he didn't comment on it after hearing what his companions said about the Dorne town. Because let go of the mentality of helping others and respect the fate of others, this sentence is too appropriate to be used here.

It can only be said that Dorne Town's set of small local management methods is suitable for peaceful and stable times. Usually, it can be maintained, and it depends on external resources and human blood transfusion.

But now the law and order in the entire southern province is rapidly declining. The small and medium-sized caravans that occupy the majority of merchants dare not conduct long-distance trade. Only a small number of large chambers of commerce can arm armed caravans that can run unimpeded everywhere, but this is just a drop in the bucket.

A large number of trade bases—villages all over the country were abandoned one after another, and a large number of people took refuge in big cities or other places. The foundation of trade was dug up, and what was revealed was that the town of Dorne was gradually declining.

What Keir didn't know was that at this time, due to the disbandment of various bandit gangs in Dorne Town, the cheap black goods, blood, goods and dirt in the hands of the bandits were frenzied, but this was just the last splendor.

Once this wave of upsurge is over, Dorne Town will be completely deprived of material and wealth supplements, and this method will be completely irrelevant.

Because the whole town, even the food it eats, is supplied by foreign merchants.

Regardless of the size of the scattered fields outside the town, there are also many debtors working in them, but those fields are planted with too many miscellaneous crops, and a small amount of decent farmland simply cannot support the luxurious and lustful chambers of commerce in the town.

-

Da da da, da da da, a team of five riders ran quickly along the road from the exit on the west side of the town, Keel waved the team to stop.

With the shouting and commanding of the subordinates, the whole team gradually stopped.

Whether it was the armed people with swords in their hands, or the people with only the supplies in their hands, everyone stretched their heads, wanting to see what happened ahead, and to stop so close to the town.

Of course, Kiel knew why the other party came, just like the armed caravan he encountered on the trade road before, so many armed teams with swords approached, and everyone would get nervous.

"Should have sent someone out ahead of time. Just like what I did in Kendall's army."

Keir muttered, he lifted his steel mask and rode forward to meet these people who came out of the town.

The five people who swept over from a distance could tell at a glance that the four Kongwu powerful guys outside were just the guards of the middlemen. The middle-aged guy dressed as a gorgeous businessman is the right one.

The other party approached, and Keir raised his chin, but did not speak.

After the opponent approached, he roughly confirmed the composition of Kiel's team with the naked eye.

Although most of the seven or eight hundred people are ordinary people with shoulders and shoulders, there are only a hundred or so rude guys with swords in their hands or waists and hips in the front and back of the long line. . But it is still a force that Dorn Town is not easy to provoke.

Especially the one in front of him, riding a tall and mighty prairie horse, wearing mottled metal armor, with all kinds of weapons and equipment on his horse and body, he looks like a knight.

In particular, the cold and hard atmosphere on the other party gave him the same feeling as the northern Kendall knight he met a few days ago.

"Welcome, welcome, welcome to the prosperous town of Dorne. I am a senior steward of 'Fortune Fruit', one of the chambers of commerce in the town responsible for managing the local order. Dundall Olilga Deripari, everyone likes it Call me my alias: 'Olier the Dry'. I don't know how to call this one?"

The steward didn't see any knight or noble family crests or emblems on Kiel's horses and armor, but Kiel was obviously the leader of this group of people, so he cautiously asked questions first, and then made up for what might be owed. The next etiquette.

Keir hit his left chest with his right fist, and said casually, "Joe Keir, from Kendall, is a knight."

'Dry Flat Olier' immediately narrowed his eyes when he heard that, and said with a smile: "Ah, so it is our friend, the most loyal and noble knight of Kendall! I just met Kendall a few days ago The two knights accompanying the army, do you know who they are?"

Kiel chuckled, and replied casually: "Knight Doddle-Crow is my teacher, the mentor who led me to the road of knighthood. The other is Knight Punk-Rumi, and I and Both are great friends and have fought together more than once. How?"

"Welcome, welcome. The town of Dorne welcomes the knights from Kendall. May I ask who are these 'folks' who look like bandits?"

Kiel straightforwardly explained the general situation of the Baishi City Wall checkpoint to the other party, so that the other party could understand that these people were originally rural people fleeing disaster in the southern provinces.

"It's disgusting. I'm sorry. I'm not talking about the nobles of Montoka City. It's just that if you do it this way, there must be people under the Whitestone City Wall who are making trouble and doing evil. After all, everyone knows that those adults seldom care about it. These are trivial things. Recently, very few people who have taken refuge have gone west to the western provinces, and the White Rock City Wall checkpoint might as well let the remaining poor people pass through, and it can also reduce local conflicts."

The two were talking side by side, and Kiel just smiled and didn't take it seriously when faced with the words of the "dry Olier".

Because Kiel knew that this thin, talkative middle-aged businessman, one of the several major chambers of commerce that could be in charge of the management of Dorne Town, must actually be a bad guy who is not stupid.

A fool can't be a senior manager of a large chamber of commerce, and a good person can't survive in Dorne Town, let alone be sent out to contact a large-scale unknown team from outside.

Therefore, Kiel just listened to what this man said, and didn't believe a single word.

Kiel noticed that since he got closer to see the composition of Kiel's team, the businessman in charge signaled a rider to report back to the town ahead of time, and after asking about Kiel's identity, the other party secretly signaled his men to let another rider run ahead of time Go back to town to report.

Once you think about it, you can understand that this is to pass the message. The previous person must have conveyed a message similar to 'the arrival is safe', because it was confirmed that the people who came were fleeing refugees. Although hundreds of them were armed and difficult to deal with, these people could handle it in the town within the number of .

The message passed by the latter person must be the information "related to the Kendall army a few days ago". Deal with the people led by Kiel again~www.readwn.com~ At this time, the team behind Kiel continued to move forward. While talking all the way, the other party greeted Kiel to a huge walled open space on the south side of the town.

"Knight Kiel, this was originally a field that had not been owned for many years. Just a few days ago, your Kendall army came to Yizhen for supplies, so we chose this place for the army to camp overnight. After the army has been resting comfortably here for a day , and headed east towards the main road leading directly to the provincial capital."

After hearing this, Keir looked at the road extending to the east in the northeast direction, then nodded and said, "I'm not going east, but south. Are there still measures for drinking water and excretion in this open space? "

The other party quickly said: "Yes, yes. For drinking water, there is a well near the town. The water is very clean and can be drunk directly. If many people excrete, we can send people to collect the accumulated excrement every day. A river, just dump it in."

So, Keir rode his horse and ran twice on the soft ground with a wall, and then came to the gate of the open space, and waved to the men waiting here: "Go in and set up camp!"

Then Keel asked Mr. "Dry Flat Olier": "So, how do you prepare the firewood for the fire?"

The other party was stunned for a moment, and then quickly replied: "Oh, firewood, firewood, the Kendall army brings its own firewood, but if your team needs it, there are shops selling these goods in the town. Please settle your people, Come with me to the town. Dorne Town is an important distribution center for goods and goods. It is a shining gold necklace in the west of the southern province! There are all kinds of goods and services here! You can find what you want All the things!"

Keir squinted his eyes: "Commodity? Store? You mean, I have to spend money to buy it?"