Chapter 139: Depressed Settlement Along the Trade Route

Jier was right; the merchant caravans following his troop were indeed a nuisance.

It wasn't that Jier's troop needed to deliberately slow down to accommodate these caravans. The caravans weren't slow themselves, and no one needed to wait for anyone else. Rather, every time Jier's troop stopped midway to let the draft horses rest, these merchants would instinctively pull up right next to Jier's group. The Stewards of those merchant groups were far too familiar; they would approach Jier's men holding water bottles filled to the brim, coming over to strike up a conversation.

With smiles on their faces, they held water bottles in their left hands, tucked a few wooden cups under their right arms, and carried two fruits grown in Dorn Town—they were incredibly popular with the Warriors.

These clever fellows would start with a few flattering compliments, then generously share the water and fruit they had on hand. Jier's men soon mingled with them, sitting on the ground, laughing and boasting about their recent battles.

Although many of the Warriors were inarticulate and lacked a large vocabulary, their experiences were exciting enough to provide the visiting caravan Stewards with a wealth of information.

"Tell me, why don't they come looking for me?" Jier said to Mr. Xueya Site, who was also watering his draft horses, while Jier fed his own warhorse.

"Hmm, perhaps they feel the difference in status. After all, they are caravan Stewards of their respective Merchant Guilds, and they might feel inferior, uncomfortable, or lack the confidence to talk to you, fearing they might annoy you. We have only just set out. In my experience, they will first build a rapport with your Warriors to inquire about your preferences and personality. Only after confirming your situation will they approach you in a day or two to discuss what tasks the caravans need to be responsible for while following our troop."

Xueya Site was, after all, a veteran caravan guard—no, he was still a caravan guard now; he was only accompanying Jier this time to repay the debt of Jier saving his life. Once Jier found the Kendall Army, he planned to pick up work while heading back to his hometown.

After hearing Xueya Site's analysis, Jier understood why these unfamiliar caravan Stewards, despite seeing him, did not come to find him—the leader of the troop—but instead mingled with his subordinates.

"Forget it, let them be. In any case, we are still within the controlled territory of Dorn Town, so nothing should happen on the road."

Just like that, Jier's troop of Warriors walked at the very front of the two-hundred-person caravan, followed by the Dwarf troop riding in ox carts, and then the five small-scale merchant caravans.

The smaller caravans had three carriages, all enclosed with sun-shading and rain-proof covers, while the larger caravans had five carriages, including heavy-duty wagons pulled by two horses. Besides the necessary Stewards and Shop Assistants, there were even a few travelers accompanying them.

These travelers were of both genders. In this chaotic situation, they all had compelling reasons to leave, having been stranded in Dorn Town for many days since the spring.

Originally, due to the unrest in various regions, traveling alone or in small groups was already dangerous, and after some Bandit Groups of varying sizes set their sights on Dorn Town, it became very difficult for them to leave. Although travelers with the ability and connections could board the caravans of the Merchant Union in Dorn Town, these few travelers lacked the ability to secure connections or leverage the strength of the large Merchant Guilds.

For instance, the heavy-duty wagon caravan of the Burning Furnace Merchant Guild almost never took in these temporary travelers, all for the sake of the caravan's safety. When these people heard that Jier's troop was heading east from Dorn Town to track down an army from the Northwest Province, they naturally joined in.

The travelers either had connections or had paid the mid-sized merchant caravans, all to seize this opportunity to head toward the eastern regions.

Looking at the map, Jier assessed the situation on the road.

Based on his experience and the movement speed of the entire troop, they could find an inn along the Shanglu to spend the night. Although the troop was large and the inn couldn't accommodate everyone, the troop could still obtain supplies by relying on the inn itself.

The weather was too hot, and the consumption of drinking water exceeded Jier's expectations. Under the scorching sun, even the Warriors who weren't walking had to drink water constantly to stay alert, not to mention the horses. They drank like water pumps; a horse could gulp down a whole bucket of water in one go.

Every time they stopped midway, the horses had to drink, and by the end of the day, several large water buckets were nearly empty.

The inns on the Shanglu near Dorn Town could still operate for now, but after another day of travel, by tomorrow night, the entire troop would have to camp in the wild.

By then, the entire troop would need to determine the locations for mid-way water replenishment in advance. For example, when passing small streams, they would have to stop to fetch water, otherwise, they wouldn't be able to sustain the horses' water usage in the hot weather.

By noon on the third day, they would arrive at the superior county seat under Dorn Town—Suishi Cheng. Dorn Town belonged to Cuikuang County, which was the territory of the Bostafa Baron family. Because they were the first to inherit a complete copper mine abandoned by Dwarves in their territory, both the county name and the county seat had a metallic flavor.

Jier heard all this news from Mr. Scott. The Burning Furnace Merchant Guild, to which Mr. Scott belonged, had its headquarters in Suishi Cheng, and the Merchant Guild had a very good relationship with the Baron family, having always received their support.

Jier suspected that the entire Burning Furnace Merchant Guild was merely an economic white glove for the Baron family of Cuikuang County.

Setting out from Dorn Town, one could see settlements standing in neat fields from time to time. Most of them were filled with debt-ridden fellows who worked in the fields during the day and lived in those fortified settlements, which were no different from prisons, at night.

And on the wide Shanglu leading east out of Dorn Town, one could see wild shops that used to be open along the roadside every few steps.

But these shops might have been open all day in the past; now that the situation was bad, the shops were long since empty, their doors wide open, with nothing inside. The further they got from Dorn Town, the more the surrounding scenery gradually changed.

Finally, after crossing a Wooden Bridge over a north-south creek, there were no more developed fields on the east side of the stream. The Shanglu continued to extend, and this time, there wasn't a single shop along the road that relied on trade for a living.

Large patches of withered yellow grassland appeared on both sides of the Shanglu, and in the distance, one could see rolling hills and dense Shulin. The Southern Province was full of mountains; this Cuikuang County was considered an area with relatively flat terrain, but Jier could see continuous mountain ranges at the edge of his vision no matter which direction he looked.

Except for Dorn Town behind them, which had the best and flattest terrain, one could see towns built against the mountains and blue-black mountain ranges a few dozen kilometers to the north.

To the south, not far from the Shanglu, there were several villages, but when Jier activated his Divine Art ability to look into the distance, he didn't find many people working in the large farmlands outside those villages. The villages themselves had little smoke from cooking fires, their gates were tightly shut, and coming and going seemed very inconvenient.

Clearly, these villages were all on guard against the various Bandit Groups active in the wild.

Jier obviously still remembered that Steward Deripari's caravan, which had invested heavily in trade, was targeted by several Bandit Groups in advance, leading to an ambush and heavy losses.

Thinking of this, Jier became more vigilant. Although he wasn't afraid of those Bandit Groups himself, and even hoped for more enemies to kill because of the ability of the 【Shadow Bird of the Gods】,

However, once the enemy was numerous and the situation became chaotic, it would be difficult for him alone to look after the entire troop.

He sat on his horse and looked back at the merchant carriages following him. If not for these temporary followers, and only his troop of capable Warriors and Dwarves existed, he reckoned they could have made it through this journey quite smoothly, right?

After all, no idiot Bandit Group would come to bite his metal projectile; breaking a few teeth would be a minor matter, but being wiped out by them in turn would be quite amusing.

Jier then became distressed again. If they were targeted by bandits because of the troop, how should he deal with the surrendering bandits after the ensuing slaughter?

Kill them all? Or let them go? Or return to Dorn Town to earn another bounty?

He couldn't just send them to the Security Office in Suishi Cheng ahead and exchange them for a word of praise, could he?

Struggling with these thoughts, the massive caravan of nearly two hundred people and over thirty vehicles arrived just before dark at their overnight stop—a rest point on the Shanglu exactly one day's travel from Dorn Town.

Here, several shops and inns with courtyards had been built along both sides of the Shanglu.

It must have been very lively here in the past, because next to these few larger buildings, there were many temporary small shops built with wooden boards. Unfortunately, with few merchant caravans traveling on the Shanglu now, and the number of small and medium-sized merchant caravans—which made up a larger proportion of the transport scale—having plummeted, these small businesses naturally had no customers, and one by one, they were left unattended and dilapidated.

As soon as Jier saw this scene, he cursed inwardly, because these haphazardly built wooden shacks occupied a large area of flat land near the Shanglu. Jier either had to squeeze the entire troop into the few inns in the middle or camp in the wild next to this settlement.

"Troublesome." Jier spat, looking at the sky. The sun was about to set, and although there was still a fair amount of time left, Jier, who had grown comfortable staying in inns for the past two days, would have to grit his teeth and accept it if he had to move back into a tent. He wasn't someone who couldn't endure this bit of hardship.

But the problem was that there were shops and dedicated inns right in front of him specifically for traveling merchants to rest and resupply; who would want to stay in the wild!

He didn't care if the few limited inns could accommodate so many people and led the entire caravan directly into the settlement.

This settlement was built along both sides of the main Shanglu leading east, and on the left side, there was a side road heading north, which seemed to be a road leading to the northern part of Cuikuang County. The entire settlement for traveling merchants to rest was not designed and built by anyone in particular, but spontaneously built by people who wanted to make money at a place exactly one day's travel by carriage from Dorn Town.

Therefore, the whole place looked messy at a glance, possessing a kind of primitive vitality.

The main inn buildings weren't even aligned with the Shanglu; some had their inns right against the road, as if they wanted the Shanglu to pass through the inside of their inns. Others maintained a small angle with the Shanglu, and the small triangular space left over had a few tall wooden poles erected on it.

Jier had seen it from afar: several people were hanging from the wooden poles. Of course, they were all dead. Some had been dead for quite a while, with empty bone frames held together by some dried tendons that hadn't fallen off yet. On some fresher corpses, a few crows landed, pecking at the fresh meat for a while before they couldn't stand the hot sun and flew off to find water nearby. After they drank water and rested in the shade for a while, they would fly back to enjoy the free buffet provided by humans.

Some inns even had a small square with stone floors specially built in front of them, with enough posts left for travelers to tie their horses, but now there were few horses there, only a child hiding in the shade from time to time, providing fresh water for those horses and using a broom to sweep up the manure the horses excreted at will.

As for the shops open in this settlement, Jier scanned them and saw only two besides the inns. One was a general store, which was specially marked with the logo of the 【Treasure House】 Merchant Guild. In this dump, there was actually a 【Treasure House】 Merchant Guild shop still insisting on operating; it was truly inspiring.

The other shop was the tavern, which was indispensable everywhere. He didn't know if it was because it wasn't dark yet, but there were no people or horses at the tavern entrance. However, the tavern door was open, the floor was clean, and the lights were on inside, so it was clearly still in business.

Jier reckoned that even if bandits were rampant and the several inns along the Shanglu went bust, this tavern would probably still be able to keep running.

After all, bandits also needed to drink and have fun.

Unless a Bandit Group grew large, had a fixed lair, and the entire group could maintain itself for several years without breaking up, small Bandit Groups that usually existed for only a few months couldn't do without a tavern run by a shopkeeper.

The former might store a certain amount of alcohol internally, either robbed or specifically bought with money earned from looting, and didn't need an outsider's tavern within their sphere of influence.

"This place is filled with these broken wooden shacks; everyone will stay in the three inns tonight."

Jier took another look at the three inns, had his subordinates stay at the one with the hanging corpses at the entrance, and then said to the old Dwarf in the middle of the caravan: "You and your people go spend the night at the one closest to the Shanglu."

The old Dwarf sat on the ox cart, squinting his eyes as he looked at the dilapidated, deserted, and desolate scene around him, and nodded.

He then specifically instructed his companions in Dwarven Language that from today on, all internal communication must use Dwarven Language. Only when speaking to Humans should they use Human Common Language.

Furthermore, in order to fit the mistaken impression that the people in Duoen Town previously had of them Dwarves, the old Dwarf had everyone pretend to be professional mercenaries.

Alien mercenaries are the most difficult people to deal with anywhere.

For the Dwarves, maintaining such an image was also conducive to keeping their distance from ill-intentioned Humans.

Being powerful, difficult to provoke, and hard to communicate with could make many guys with sinister motives put away their bad intentions.

"As for you lot, I don't even know which Merchant Guilds you are all from. Forget it, you can just stay at that inn that looks relatively formal."

Jier shouted to the people from the various Caravans passing in front of him and waved his hand.

The Stewards in charge of these Caravans all performed a courtesy when passing by Jier, being polite to an extreme degree.

As for Jier himself, he rode his horse to the front of the general store left here by the Treasure House Merchant Guild, jumped off the horse, and without caring about his horse or the well-maintained weapons and equipment on it, he walked with heavy, thumping steps to the front of the store, pushed the door open, and walked inside.

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