The Mysterious World Under Steampunk

Like other villages and towns around the Black Forest, Rabbitskin Town exists by relying on various special products of the Black Forest, and the people who established Rabbitskin Town in the early days mainly came for a very special kind of fine wool rabbit in the Black Forest. .

The first person who was interested in this kind of rabbit was a biologist named Ben Shaming from the Faran Empire. He spent ten years studying this kind of rabbit in the edge of the Black Forest, and carefully recorded everything about its life. Come down and write a book, this kind of fine wool rabbit only produced in the Black Forest is also called Benshamin rabbit.

Ben Shaming originally researched and recorded this kind of rabbit to let people better protect this unique animal, but he should not have described in detail how soft and delicate the fur of this kind of rabbit is in the book, and he thought that this kind of rabbit more than once Rabbit fur is one of the finest furs in the world.

When the book written by Ben Shaming spread, and he himself became famous because he became a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences of the French Empire, a large number of fur traders and hunters immediately saw a lot of gold coins from this book.

In just one month, a large town has formed around Ben Shamin's temporary house outside the Black Forest, and a large number of hunters and fur traders flock here to catch these rabbits.

Benshamin rabbits have been able to survive and reproduce in such a dangerous place as the Black Forest, so they naturally have their own way of survival. In the past, it was impossible for the hunters in Gaoming to pose a threat to their group, but now Ben Shaming has completely written their living habits in the book. The hunters can easily catch them by setting traps through the contents of the book. These elusive rabbits.

In less than three years, starting from Rabbitskin Town and radiating 170 kilometers into the Black Forest, all the Benshaming rabbits have been caught. If you want to catch them again, you need to go deep To the more dangerous depths of the Black Forest.

Although there is no such a huge benefit as the Benshamin rabbit, but while catching these rabbits, some interested people have also discovered that there are still many special products that can be sold at a high price hidden in the Black Forest.

For example, the purple leaf grass specially used to make hemostatic medicine and other wound medicines, the rainbow bird with great ornamental value, the black forest white leopard cat that every noble child hopes to have, and so on.

Even now, there is still a dedicated individual who collects the rot soil that has accumulated for countless years on the ground of the Black Forest. It is said that this soil can be specially used to cultivate some special and precious plants.

When Rabbit Skin Town was first established, it was all formed spontaneously by some merchants, hunters and mercenaries. After several turmoil caused by interests, several big merchants and powerful forces in the town saw that such management chaos was not an option, so So they united and formed a town council to deal with disputes and profit distribution in the town.

Later, as the benefits created by Rabbit Skin Town and other surrounding villages and towns relying on the Black Forest increased, the French Empire Parliament naturally did not want to see such a large amount of tax revenue being missed, so it sent tax officials and the Imperial Militia Corps Settled in these towns.

It's just that the French Empire Council is very smart. They only take over the taxation and defense of these towns, and do not directly intervene in the administrative management of the villages and towns. The actual management power of the towns is still in the hands of the town council. From a certain point of view , which is also recognized by the council as a legal administrative organization of this spontaneously formed town council.

It is precisely because of this brilliant approach that these towns have also acquiesced in the empire's control over the town's tax revenue, and both sides get what they need, and they have lived in peace until now.

However, recently, the atmosphere in Black Forest villages and towns such as Rabbit Skin Town has been a little tense, because the militia stationed in the town has begun to enforce martial law around the town, and the inspection methods for caravans are also much stricter. Contraband goods at a glance were also searched and seized, even if the goods belonged to some big shots.

The explanation given by the garrison militia for their recent actions is that because the war is nearby, martial law will be imposed on the villages and towns near the battlefield to avoid enemy infiltration.

After the invasion of the Kingdom of England, the Bretui region where the French army fought was not very far from the east side of the Lower Black Forest, and it was only a few mountains away.

From the map, this place is so close to the battlefield, it seems that the flames of war will burn here at any time.

But anyone who knows a little bit about military affairs can easily see that it is impossible for the army of the Kingdom of England to march towards the Black Forest. They will only choose the Great Plains in the Bretui region and go straight north, so they can easily push the army to the Black Forest. The province of Lyon near the imperial capital.

Therefore, the excuse of martial law given by the garrison militia is simply untenable.

When the interests of caravans, hunters, and mercenaries in these towns were seriously damaged by the implementation of martial law, and the garrison militia made a lot of money from selling the seized contraband, everyone thought that the so-called martial law It was the garrison militia who made it themselves, and if they didn't get it, they took this opportunity to loot a fortune from various Black Forest villages and towns.

On the one hand, they insisted that their martial law order was an order issued by the military department, and their actions were reasonable and legal. On the other hand, those whose interests were damaged did not have the slightest trust in these garrison militiamen. Because of these incidents, more than one conflict occurred between the two sides in the past two days, which also made the atmosphere in the villages and towns on the east side of the Lower Black Forest very tense, and Rabbit Skin Town was among them.

It took Leo and the three of them half a day to arrive near Rabbit Skin Town. The reason why they were able to climb over several mountains and drive such a long mountain road in such a short period of time was entirely because Leo could quickly Easily find the easiest path from the details of the surrounding environment, and there is no detour.

If a different person led the way, I am afraid that it would be difficult to reach Rabbit Skin Town, a well-known Black Forest town, from where they started from Xiaohe within two days.

"There's something wrong with the atmosphere!" Nelson, who had been to Rabbitskin Town, saw the closed wooden gate of the town and the hunters, mercenaries and caravans gathered outside the town from a distance, and heard a burst of noise coming from there. Yelling, could not help but say.

"It's up to you to say, I can tell something is wrong." Jason rolled his eyes at Nelson, and grinned back.

Nelson ignored Jason's offense, but looked at Leo, waiting for him to make a decision.

During this journey, Nelson has become used to Jason saying something to himself from time to time, and he also knows that this is just Jason's relief, not any real malice towards him. Kind of low-level rough people care about.

Leo glanced at the crowd in the distance, and then told Jason: "Jason, don't talk later, your English accent is too strong, anyone can hear it. "

"Aren't you the same as me?" Jason said to Leo again.

"I'm different from you." Leo responded, but this time the language he used was not the language of the Kingdom of England, but French, but the language of the Porto region in southern France, and he spoke French with Nelson The accents are very similar.

"You, what are you doing...\u0026amp;" Both Jason and Nelson were very surprised, because they both knew that Leo didn't speak French.

"On the way, didn't I ask you to teach me French?" Leo said with a natural look, "This is the result of learning the language for half a day."

Hearing Leo's words, both Nelson and Jason could only stare blankly at him, not knowing what to say.

For Leo who has a sub-brain, it is not uncommon for him to spend half a day learning a new language, especially when he also knows another branch of this language, the learning difficulty is reduced by at least half.

But for the two people around him, especially Nelson, the learning ability he showed was shocking, even scary and hopeless.

Leo ignored the shock of the two, and continued to order: "Wait a minute, you pretend to be a doctor who came to the Black Forest to collect special herbs, and Jason and I are your guards." He asked again : "Do you have to go to Rabbit Skin Town? What herbs do you need, can't you collect them on the road in the Black Forest? Now Rabbit Skin Town seems to be under martial law, it may be dangerous to go there."

Nelson calmed down his emotions, and then replied: "If you want to pass through the Black Forest more easily, you have to go to the town to buy some of the medicines I need. Those medicines are finished medicines, not herbal medicines."

After hearing Nelson's words, Leo didn't say anything more. He took a step back and stood behind Nelson like a follower, with his hand on the handle of the saber at his waist.

Because the handle of this war knife has obvious characteristics of the craftsmanship of the Kingdom of England, it was tightly bound by him with cloth strips.

In addition, he threw away the scabbard with more obvious features. The saber was inserted in the belt around his waist, and the dirt and dust standing on his body made him look like a poor and down-and-out mercenary of.

As for Jason's appearance, he was no different from Leo. As long as Jason didn't speak, no one would call him a member of the Kingdom of England.

Nelson also sorted out his clothes, put the medicine box on the left side according to the habit of doctors in the French Empire, put on his glasses, and tidied up the small details on his body. After finding nothing wrong, he walked towards the gate of Rabbit Skin Town. Leo and Jason followed behind.

Soon the group of three came to the carriage square in front of the gate. After Nelson glanced at the badge on the carriage light position on the square, he walked towards a carriage with a bull's head badge printed on it.

"Good afternoon, Bodo's bull." Nelson greeted a fat man with a wig who was standing next to the pick-up cart, and greeted him in French with a slight accent.

Hearing the greeting, the fat man looked at Nelson suspiciously. When he saw the medicine box and the knots deliberately tied on it, his original indifferent attitude immediately changed, and he became more respectful. He also saluted Nelson: "Good afternoon, follower of Moka."

Nelson deliberately showed an exaggerated expression, pointed to the closed door, and said, "What's going on? Isn't Rabbit Town planning to do business with outsiders? Why did you close the door and block you big businessmen?" outside?"

"It's not the fault of the recent martial law order!" The fat man said angrily. Although he wasn't targeting Nelson, he could tell from his tone that he was very annoyed at the moment.

Nelson continued to say from the fat man's mouth, "Even if there is martial law, you can't close the door and keep people from going in for business, right?"

"Now the town council is negotiating with the tax officials, demanding that the martial law be lifted and business order restored. The militia in the town worried that outsiders would affect the negotiation process, so they killed all outsiders who did not have the status of Rabbitskin Town, and closed the door." The fat man revealed Frowning, said: "It seems that the situation is not good."

"I don't think so." Leo interrupted the conversation abruptly. When the fat man showed displeasure, he raised his finger and pointed to the small town militiamen patrolling back and forth on the wooden pile wall of the town, and said: " If the situation is not good, there will not be only a few militiamen patrolling the city wall, and it will not be so easy, so the negotiations in the town should go smoothly, and there will be no violent conflicts."

Hearing Leo's analysis, the fat man looked up at the militiamen on the city wall, and quickly figured it out. He nodded in agreement, and his displeasure at being interrupted by the guard, Leo, also dissipated. A buildup of nervous worries.

The fat man who became much more relaxed asked Leo with a smile on his face: "It is really rare to see guards like you. Are you interested in working in the Torun Chamber of Commerce after your guard mission is over? We The Chamber of Commerce’s remuneration is the highest in the industry.”

Leo also imitated the way the Farnese spoke, and said, "It's my honor to join the Torun Chamber of Commerce. It's a pity that my escort mission will take a long time, so I'm sorry, please allow me to refuse."

"What a pity!" The fat man showed regret, and then enviously said to Nelson: "You found a good guard!"

Nelson responded with a smile: "I think so too."

The fat man apologized at this time, saying that he had something to deal with and had to stay with him for a while, then he walked quickly towards the caravan of another large chamber of commerce with his short legs, as if he was going to kill Leo just now. The analysis said to others.

The three of Leo did not stay where they were, but walked to a temporary tavern beside the carriage square, found a small table, ordered a few glasses of beer, and drank while waiting for the negotiations in Rabbit Skin Town to end .

"Why didn't you agree to that caravan director's invitation just now? As far as I know, the Torun Chamber of Commerce's remuneration is really generous." Perhaps because the waiting was a bit boring, Nelson randomly picked up a topic and asked.

Leo took a sip of this world's beer, felt that the taste was not bad, took another sip, and then replied: "He just said casually, and he has no intention of recruiting me at all."

"Why do you say that?" Nelson asked puzzled.

Leo glanced at Nelson indifferently, and said, "He never introduced himself from the beginning to the end."