Mercenaries and Adventurers

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

It was a rather weird village, especially when looking at it from a distance. If Bloodfang hadn't reminded him, Keir wouldn't have even noticed that there was a village there.

It turns out that this local village is all built semi-underground, and the building parts protruding from the ground are only about one or two meters low.

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

It happens to be spring at this time, and even if strong winds blow at any time, this local flower and plant still blooms stubborn flowers relying on its tenacious stems and roots.

Different from the villages along the Western Provincial Trade Road that we had seen before, the villages on Qifeng Prairie occupy a large area, and each semi-underground house seems to be able to accommodate hundreds of people.

Therefore, how many people could this village of more than a dozen semi-underground houses accommodate at one time was something that Kiel could not figure out until he left the area.

-

As the vanguard of the leading vanguard, Kir preceded the army and caravans before they reached the village.

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

The earth wall is only two meters high, and the same kind of flower seeds with well-rooted roots are planted on it like the houses in the village.

So when you get closer to the fence, you can see that the low fence is like a giant grass snake lying softly on the ground, circling the entire village with its tail.

Interestingly, the entrance to the wall that surrounds the entire village is not on the ground, but an underground opening that is obviously marked as a reminder.

I don’t know how long it took the local residents to hollow out a large area of ​​ground soil in front of the fence, and dig out an open-air semi-underground passage sloping downwards that could allow carriages to enter.

At the end of the passage is a huge wooden door with stone reinforcements on both sides and the top wall. There are also many sharp wooden thorns fixed on the door. It seems that it is a measure to resist wild beasts.

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

“Eye-opening, eye-opening.”

Jumping off the horse, Kil said in admiration to the Bloody Fangster beside him.

He had previously wondered how ordinary people could survive in the face of such a powerful harpy monster in the local area.

At this time, it is obvious that these people have paid more to live in this area than in other places. Whether it was the crisis when we first came here, the wisdom to figure out a way to deal with it, or the raising of resources to build these village buildings, or the time and life spent to complete the construction of this semi-underground building amidst the harassment of monsters.

These must have cost too much.

Bloody Fangster didn't say anything, but shouted loudly at the unguarded wooden gate of the village: "There are spikes on duty in Thor Village! Are there any spikes on duty? Open your gate. ! There will be a large number of people living here tonight!"

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

When Kil was wondering what the 'spikes' were, several strangely dressed 'human beings' walked out of the semi-underground wooden gate directly under the village wall.

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

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

In short, if it hadn't been able to talk, Kil would have even killed this thing as a monster at night.

"Is the person here a businessman?"

"It doesn't look like it. The person speaking is a caravan guard, and there is an armor-piercing warrior behind."

"Good news! This means that a large caravan is coming. No wonder the merchants who have not passed by in the past two days have gathered together. Our village will definitely make a fortune in these two days. I should let my family Prepare food and drink, and make all the beds.”

Seeing that there were only two people outside the wooden fence, these strangely dressed villagers started talking happily.

As soon as he thought about it, Keir understood that caravans of a normal size would move together, and no one would leave the team too far. In addition, only larger caravan groups will send out front-line personnel in front of the team.

Most of the villages living on the trade routes relied on the passing caravans to make a living. The more people came, the more they welcomed them.

So, several villagers quickly pulled the winch inside the gate, and connected the winch with a leather rope made of strong animal skin to gradually pull the wooden gate upwards from the upright position.

After the gate opened, Bloody Fangster immediately walked over, raised his fist and knocked on the chest of the leading villager: "Idiots from Thor Village, it's me, Bloody Fangster. Go and tell the people in the village. , please pack up and prepare, a large team of nearly a thousand people will come over and spend the night in your village soon."

"Thousands of people? This is a big business. Sorry, the underground visibility here is not good, so I didn't recognize you, a tough guy."

The villagers leading the team seemed to be very familiar with Bloody Fangster, so they spoke very casually.

That's probably true. According to what Xueyangster said, he has to travel this trade route several times a year, and the villages and towns along the road are probably very familiar to him.

"However, there is a problem. There is more than half of the northern army in this team. They also have to cross the border to fight in the south."

Bloody Fangster pointed to Kil next to him. As soon as he said this, the expressions of several local villagers changed.

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

The villagers were resolute and waved their hands to show no.

Keir stood up at this time and said: "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 big along the way. The killing thing. Well, at least I have never done any illegal killing without the consent of the local lord."

But Kil said it was useless. The villagers all shook their heads. The spikes on their heads made it difficult for Ste next to them to get close and he took two steps back.

"The army can transit, but they can only stay outside the village tonight. As for the caravan, they can only enter the village for repairs!"

The villagers were resolute.

They even lowered the wooden gate to keep out Bloody Fangster and Kil.

"Please go back. Merchants can come in later, but the army must rely on bravery and stay out for the night."

The villagers still said the same thing across the wooden gate, no matter how much Keir patted his chest and expressed his disapproval.

"There are so many harpies outside, and they will take advantage of the darkness to attack those who stay outside. Think about your situation when there was no current village."

Bloody Fangster was still trying to persuade them, and even explained the original predicament of the local villagers. However, a village with a population of only a few hundred people did not dare to allow half a thousand troops to enter the village.

If the army came in and their village without a lord was viciously massacred and wiped out, no one would come to avenge them.

Looking at his companion spreading his hands, Kil also scratched his head speechlessly. He had been worried about spending the night on this strange wind grassland. At that time, Bloodfangster said that he could find a way to live in a village where there was a way to resist the harpies.

Now Kailai can only send the news back first and let the knights make decisions.

-

"Humph! It's not up to them."

Beside Baron Kendall's carriage, Knight Rumi and Knight Crow were all present. After listening to Kiel's report on the situation in the village, although they were satisfied with the village's safe houses and size, they were concerned about the ignorant villagers in these remote places. Both knights shrugged this off.

Baron Kendall leaned against the window of the carriage, leaned out half of his body and said, "According to the news we got from the local caravan, it would be best for us not to have a head-on conflict with those harpies."

The Baron shook his head: "A bunch of stupid people. They actually figured out a way to feed monsters to pass this trade route. Although it seemed that they passed through safely and peacefully, as time went by, they didn't know it, and they kept Contributing food will change the size of the monster."

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

Knight Rumi said without thinking: "It has been at least thirty years since the trade route under our feet was opened. If the harpies have no natural enemies of other monsters, then it is hard to imagine their scale, and they may start a massacre at any time. "

However, Knight Crow had a different opinion: "But this kind of monster looks like a human being. According to my experience, I'm not sure the leader of the monster should be somewhat intelligent."

He nodded his head: "If this is the case, the smart settlement leader, if there is one, must know the scale and power of human beings. For the development of the entire monster race, they may not be so reckless as to destroy the people in this area." Kill them all. 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. It was obvious that they were limited by their knowledge and experience and did not think of this.

"If, as you said, there is a leader of this inevitably large group of harpies, what will it do?" the baron asked curiously.

The baron himself is not a local noble lord. He actually doesn't care about the life and death of the locals, he is just curious. And similar intelligence information may be useful elsewhere.

Knight Crow asked the baron's attendants for the most detailed map of the Western Province they had at this time.

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

Knight Crow pointed to where they were 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 Grassland 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 moist and vast forest here, which naturally separates the two provinces. At the same time, there are few people here and the forest has many products, which is more suitable for the survival of harpies."

"The place we came to has a lot of rainfall, which is obviously not a good habitat for this kind of monster. And the next part 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 are smart, they should know that there are no local strange winds. If we really have to compete with us humans, it is hard to say who will win."

Both the Baron and Knight Rumi thought these words made sense.

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

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

Putting away the map, Knight Crow asked.

Kil coughed lightly. He knew that if he waited a moment, he might be refuting the Lord Knight's judgment, but he knew that Knight Crowe was a person, and if he wanted to be recognized by Knight Crowe, he had to show it.

"Adults, your view of the local situation may be a little biased. When you get to the village ahead, you may have different views after seeing the local people's buildings and methods of dealing with this monster."

The three of them looked at each other, and then Knight Crow 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 number of caravans wrapped in the center of the team, and arrived at the place where they would stay for the first night on the Strange Wind Grassland.

Sure enough, as Keir said, it was the first time that the Kendal people from afar were amazed when they saw the measures taken by local residents to deal with the harpies.

Especially Baron Kendall, this gentleman jumped on the top of the carriage with a look of joy, took out a telescope from his body and carefully observed the large and low round houses in the village wall.

"It's very interesting. Such a wide ceiling is also covered with soil and planted with moonflowers with well-developed root systems. How do they deal with such a heavy weight of the ceiling? Are the stone pillars reinforced internally? But there are no large stones around it. Or use thick wood as pillars? A complicated beam structure? Impossible. The rarest thing on the grassland is tall trees. Where can I find such materials? Well, I have to go and take a closer look."

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

He waved and said loudly to the two knights nearby: "Didn't Kiel report before that they refused to allow our army to enter the village to spend the night? Well, it's not because they are afraid that I will not be able to restrain the army and bring danger to them. "

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

"Remember, don't kill."

The baron gave a final reminder.

Since they saw the local Harpy monster in the morning, they have been discussing how to deal with this monster's attack at night.

But after much deliberation, there is no good solution.

If the wind didn't blow as strong as during the day at night, they would still have some troublesome and complicated ways to deal with monster attacks. But after asking local businessmen, they found out that the particularly fierce wind here blows day and night, and deafening winds can blow at any time and at any time.

Of course, flying monsters will also ride on the wind to attack humans living in the wild.

Things like tents can't resist the sharp claws on the monster's feet. Moreover, in strong winds, how could they stand up various tents that were easily exposed to the wind?

Just 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, just deal with it openly.

Fortunately, judging from the information received, because the knight lords who managed them all died in the battle against the harpies, the human villages and towns on this grassland have not paid taxes effectively.

what does that mean?

This 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.

The people in this area can only protect themselves.

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

Generally speaking, this kind of lack of management is the easiest place to gather strongmen and bandits, but fortunately there are extremely dangerous monsters in the wild, such as horse bandits and bandits, there is no way to survive here.

People who live in the wild instead of gathering in villages often disappear silently in the strong wind.

In addition, because this place is located on a trade route, and it is the most important trade 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 armed forces will maintain the villages and towns along the way in traditional human society.

After all, even if any village becomes vicious and wants to make a living by robbing and trading, they can't defeat a large caravan with a large number of guards.

-

Baron Kendall gave the order, and the two knights sprang into action.

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

But this appearance only confused the local villagers.

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

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

After all, they could vaguely see that the Kendal carriages had not taken off the reins and harnesses of the horses, the cooks who were supposed to be there did not prepare the dinner for the soldiers, and the neat military camp where they stayed overnight was not built as usual.

The soldiers, armed with spears, lined up in strict formation, facing the village wall.

There were guards on horses walking among the ranks, shouting something.

The two knights, riding horses side by side, passed through the rows of soldiers, laughing and talking about something, while Shi Shiran rode slowly towards the village gate.

The two knights are waiting for all the accompanying caravans to enter the village, so as to avoid the chaos caused by waiting to affect these merchants.