After cleaning the battlefield, the team continued their journey to the city of Munich.
This time, with Todd and hundreds of Lulian cavalry escorting them, the journey was calm. Bandits of all sizes stayed far away, and not even a single person was sent to step on the plate.
Roy rode a living treasure and walked among several dwarves.
Through previous observations, Roy found that most of the goods on the freight carriage were dried seafood, pickled meats and grains. There were only a small number of magic pattern equipment used for smelting and forging, such as the wind plates of stoves.
Cooling snow buckets and stuff like that.
These supplies were originally transported by caravans to the dwarf's dungeons for trading every month.
The specialty of dwarves is finding and digging mineral veins and forging steel products. Although they also grow food, the quantity is very small. Most of their daily necessities rely on transactions with humans and other races.
The trade routes leading to the dwarf dungeons have to go through the Gobi Desert and over mountains and ridges. Along the way, there are not only attacks by bandits, goblins and orc tribes, but also rampant monsters, which are very dangerous. But because of this, every dungeon trade route is
All have huge profits.
As long as ordinary food and other living materials are transported to the underground city, the profit will be ten times. If it is fine wine, the profit will be even greater. Dwarves who are addicted to alcohol have never been stingy with money in this regard.
In addition, dwarves are world-famous blacksmith masters, and the weapons and armors they make are in short supply. Therefore, merchants are eager to do business with dwarves.
In the past, in order to compete for business routes and exclusive trading rights with the dwarves, the major business groups and chaebols tried their best, and the overt and covert fights between them were extremely fierce, even to the point of resorting to all possible means. As for the dwarves,
No effort was spared in making good friends and winning over.
Logically speaking, dwarves don't need to buy these things in person. Don't they?
With a thought in his mind, Roy rode up to Tie Xiaoshan and walked side by side with his bighorn blue sheep: "Tie Xiaoshan, are these the things you are transporting?"
"Yes." Tie Xiaoshan nodded matter-of-factly, looking at the goods with an unusually precious look.
Roy thought thoughtfully and asked: "But I heard, don't caravans go to your underground city every month? Why this time?"
Hearing Roy's words, Tie Xiaoshan's face suddenly became filled with indignation, as if the emotions he had been holding back for a long time had finally found a place to pour out. He said angrily: "Forget about those damn humans. Oh, I'm not talking about you. He
Damn, I mean those bastards. We’ve suffered a lot from them.”
The dwarf always spoke confusingly, but Roy was already used to it. He didn't interrupt and just listened to what he said with a smile.
"You know, when it comes to blacksmith work, we dwarves" boasted for half a prayer, Tie Xiaoshan finally got to the point. "In the past, those business groups were rushing to do business with us. But since the invasion of the demon clan, hey,
None of them are coming."
"Oh?" Roy frowned slightly.
He is familiar with the operation of business groups and knows how difficult it is to open up a profitable business route. Therefore, no caravan will give up a well-established business route easily.
Especially customers like dwarves are like a gold mine to any caravan. Countless caravans are eyeing it and trying to get a piece of it.
Therefore, if one or two caravans did not do business with the dwarves, Roy could also attribute it to the bankruptcy of the business group and encountering bandits on the road. But to say that no one came, it was definitely weird.
Could it be that food is so scarce that it is no longer possible to purchase and trade it?
This speculation was quickly denied by Roy himself.
After all, this is Lullian. Although it has also been affected by the war, in terms of food, it is far from being unable to afford food. Moreover, businessmen pursue profit. They understand better than anyone that in war, a well-equipped dwarf
What is the value of the armor and weapons you create?
It can be said that due to scarcity, the price of dwarf weapons and equipment may rise faster than food.
In addition, the dwarves are not unreasonable. Under such circumstances, they will be more generous than before when purchasing food and other daily necessities. Therefore, the income from the caravan's trip may not be different if it is followed by Baoshan. Such a business
, who will give up?
"Damn it, we also know that food is precious now," Tie Xiaoshan complained, "but it's not like we don't pay for nothing..."
"Wait a minute..." Roy interrupted Tie Xiaoshan and asked, "None of the businessmen who used to come to the underground city are missing now?"
"Yes," Tie Xiaoshan nodded, suddenly remembered something, and said, "It's not like they all stopped coming. Some time ago, one came, but he didn't bring a caravan, but was escorted by a group of human knights.
He came to see the clan leader. I don’t know what he said, but the second clan leader drove him away.”
Tie Lao Er. Hearing this name, a smile appeared on Roy's lips involuntarily, and another square face with a big rosy nose seemed to appear in front of his eyes.
When they were in the dungeon, he often made mischief with the iron old patriarch. What if one day, the dwarves didn't see the fuming patriarch chasing a little human boy on his short legs, chasing away the chickens and dogs?
Jumping, everyone thought it was a little abnormal.
"So, why don't you just buy the food yourself?" Roy asked.
Tie Xiaoshan nodded, grabbed the reins with his stubby hands and pulled back to prevent the bighorn blue sheep from nibbling the grass on the roadside, and said: "For us dwarves, the demons are also our enemies. Clan leader
We all told the elders that since the demons have broken through the Broken Sky Mountain Range, we can only fight with them desperately, there is no place to escape..."
During the conversation, the blue sheep was stubborn, and Tie Xiaoshan was so angry that he simply stood on the sheep's back, grabbed the pair of big curved horns of the blue sheep with his hands, and twisted them hard.
Returning to Roy's side again, Tie Xiaoshan clapped his hands, sat down with his legs crossed, and said: "Anyway, we must fight together with humans. This time, the patriarch simply led us out to discuss with humans.
The second thing about fighting is to buy food and go back."
"Then..." Roy turned his head and looked at the carriages. He frowned and said, "Did your food purchase go smoothly?"
The underground city of the Iron Tribe of the Dwarves is located to the north of Lulian. If you want to buy food, where is a more convenient place than Munich City?
However, Xiaoshan and the others arrived at Gaolong Port in the south. Moreover, for an underground city with thousands of people, such a small amount of food is really not much. This means...
"It's not easy to buy." Tie Xiaoshan looked depressed, "Now those profiteers have hoarded the grain. The lords of the grain-producing areas have stopped selling grain. Especially for foreigners like us, we can't afford it at all without paying a high price.
Just can’t buy it. We only bought this small amount of food after trying many ways to find a human middleman..."
Roy nodded.
Through Xiaoshan's words, he could almost outline the outline of Lulian's undercurrent.
However, what Roy didn't expect was that Tie Xiaoshan was depressed for a while and suddenly said: "Not only our dwarves, I heard that this is also the case for several other races. The elves are okay, the dwarves and the barbarians
Life is not easy for people. Well, you will know it when you get to Munich."
In the evening, the convoy stationed itself in the lee of a river beach.
After setting up the tent, Todd and a group of Lulian cavalrymen buried pots and cooked rice according to the rules of the army. They made pancakes from the flour they brought with them, boiled the dried meat into minced meat soup, and formed a group in small groups.
A group, eating silently.
Roy was familiar with the marching rules in the army, so he didn't think there was anything strange at first. However, after watching for a while, Roy felt something was wrong. He discovered that Todd and the knights in the team were eating the same food as ordinary soldiers.
It's the same, and the portion size isn't much different.
This is not like the treatment of a knight.
In this hierarchical world, knights are vastly different from ordinary soldiers in terms of status, wealth, and status.
Even in the military, knights are treated much better. Especially when a commander like Todd and his fellow officers have a separate table in a tent, drinking wine and eating meat, no one thinks there is anything wrong.
But now….
Looking at the knights holding a bowl of broth and wolfing down pancakes, looking like they were taking it for granted, Roy was secretly wondering. He didn't think this was a way for these knights to express that they shared the joys and sorrows with the soldiers. This is not a war period.
, the journey is not far, there is absolutely no need for them to do this.
Turning around, he saw that the mercenaries and dwarves in the convoy were also preparing dinner.
On a table made from the fenders of a cargo carriage, there were some fruits, a large piece of pickled lamb shank, a few pieces of black bread and a basin of pea soup. However, everyone was not in a hurry to eat.
As he was busy, he turned his head from time to time to look at the mountains and forests not far away, as if he was waiting for something.
After a while, a depressed looking Trek walked out of the forest. Seeing that his hands were empty, everyone couldn't help but feel a trace of disappointment on their faces. Especially a few dwarves, they looked at each other, held their chins in their hands, and sighed at the same time.
tone.
"Damn it," Trek came over and complained in frustration, "I can't even see a pheasant in the woods. I went around a lot and couldn't find any prey."
"It's okay," Alder smiled and comforted, "there are too many people going into the mountains and forests to hunt during this period, and it's close to villages and towns, so it's normal to not be able to find prey. We have plenty of food today, and we'll be on the road tomorrow.
, otherwise you won’t follow the convoy on the main road.”
"Well," Trek nodded and said, "I walked into the nearby forest and hunted while walking. I don't believe that I still couldn't catch a few pheasants and hares by night."
Roy stood aside and listened to the conversation between the two. He turned to look at Todd and the other knights, and at the same time, he felt a little worried: "I didn't expect that in less than two months, it would be...
It has become like this. This is still in Lulian, if it is in the north..."
"Leo!" Alder greeted enthusiastically, "Come and eat with us. Today we have marinated lamb legs."
Roy shook off the worries in his mind, nodded with a smile, and picked up the longbow.