Chapter 140: The [Meiqian Chakou] and the [Siren Ganzi], [Zihonghua], [Wangu Canzhuo]

Because it was not a shop within a town, this grocery store built beside the trade route was quite large. Pushing open the heavy wooden door and walking inside, Jier saw the sparsely arranged shelves and the meager variety of goods upon them, while several shop thugs sat leaning against the wall on chairs, dozing off.

The shop owner, who was sitting behind the counter weighing coins, saw the newcomer and immediately called for the thugs to get up; he himself scrutinized Jier carefully, then let out a sigh of relief.

Jier was not wearing his church Divine Knight tabard while traveling on horseback, fearing that the road dust would soil it. However, he was clad in metal armor plates, with a glowing sword slung at his waist, a gem-encrusted dagger, and a primitive stone short staff; on his back, he carried a massive heavy crossbow and a two-handed axe.

Although this equipment looked quite terrifying, it also indicated that Jier could not possibly be some hopeless bandit.

Not even the leader of a bandit group could be; someone with this equipment clearly was not short on money, so why would they engage in the business of robbery?

Unable to gauge Jier's identity, the shop owner, who was over forty, spoke cautiously to the young man: "This young master, do you have any needs coming to us here?"

The street-facing side of the grocery store had no wooden windows, only a sturdy wooden door, and the building was constructed quite solidly, so after Jier's caravan entered, the people in the grocery store had not even heard any commotion.

"Nothing much. I'm passing through here today with my men and will spend the night at the inn next door. I came to this grocery store under the Treasure House Merchant Guild to look around and ask about the situation here," Jier said casually.

He picked up a few items from the shelves, which were limited in both variety and quantity, and looked at them, not very satisfied.

"Ahem, please forgive me. There have been too few travelers passing through these days, and even when people do come, they are caravans from large merchant guilds. However, the Wealth Fruit Merchant Guild's caravan was robbed a few days ago, so the situation recently has been even worse." The shop owner waved his hand, letting a shop thug push open the door to check the situation outside, while he himself walked around the counter to Jier's side and began introducing the items Jier had picked up.

Although Jier did not look like someone who needed these hemp ropes, cloth bags, oil-soaked torches, or flints—items needed for traveling—it was his duty, so he still skillfully introduced them.

One of the shop's thugs pushed open the door, took a look outside, and returned in surprise.

"Boss, this person is riding a warhorse with shiny metal armor!! The street outside is also full of a newly arrived caravan; it's a large scale, over a hundred people." The thug reported as quietly as he could, but Jier's hearing was excellent, and even though the other party spoke in a low volume, he heard it clearly.

Rolling his eyes, the shop owner changed his form of address: "This young Knight, you said you came to ask about the situation nearby, right? That's true, such a big thing happened nearby just recently. If you know anyone from our Treasure House Merchant Guild, please tell me. Please believe me, everyone here is reliable."

Jier put down the small sealed bucket of cheese in his hand and said casually: "I am Qiao Jier, from the Northwest Province. I know your guild's Senior Steward Lipuerde. My caravan set off from Duoen Town this morning; you know how caravans travel, they will all stay here tonight for supplies. Tell me about the situation on your end."

Hearing that Jier knew the mysterious and high-ranking young Senior Steward within the guild, the grocery store owner immediately became much more respectful. He first waved for the thugs to stand against the wall and stay out of the way, then personally led Jier to open the shop door and introduced the surrounding situation.

He glanced at the armored warhorse, which was dazzling as it reflected the sunlight, and thought to himself that he finally understood why his subordinate had been so surprised just now.

"Knight, let's talk about this place first. We didn't have a name here before; the Baron's Tax Officer who came to collect taxes jokingly called this place Meiqian Chakou."

"Meiqian Chakou? What kind of ghost name is that?"

Jier quipped, and the shop owner immediately explained: "Because every time they come to collect taxes, those of us with fixed properties pay honestly, but those around us—you've seen them—those more numerous, randomly built houses made of messy wooden planks, they all run away whenever the tax collectors bring soldiers. Since they can't collect the large amount of taxes due, they call our intersection Meiqian Chakou."

"You know, in many places, the tax officers buy their official positions with money; they rely on collecting extra taxes to make a profit. Here, we've already scared away several tax officers who ended up at a loss!" He laughed twice, seemingly not very satisfied with paying taxes properly, even though he himself was a small steward under a large merchant guild.

But then he sighed again: "Although no one comes to collect taxes now because times are bad, because the roads are unsafe, travelers and passing caravans are also decreasing, and the people in these small shops have long since run away. Compared to the income after paying taxes, now there isn't a single person, and the income is losing money every day."

Jier didn't care much about these merchants' love and hate for taxes and pointed to the three local inns he was most concerned about: "Introduce them. You see, my caravan is entering the three inns separately to spend the night. Fortunately, there are three decent-sized inns here, otherwise most of us would have to camp in the wild."

When the shop owner saw Jier letting his men check into the three inns separately, he immediately stopped him: "Knight, don't let your men stay at the Siren Ganzi inn with the dead bodies hanging in front of the door. The original owner of that shop has an unknown background, and in the last few months, he has gathered a group of people to charge exorbitant fees to the rare travelers who stay there. If they can't pay, they forcibly use the guests' goods and personal items as compensation."

He pointed to the few corpses hanging on the long pole in front of the door: "Those people thought they had some skills, but they ended up in a conflict with the inn's people, were beaten to death that same day, and then hung on the pole to feed the local crows."

Jier didn't care much: "Just ask for the price clearly before staying, don't those travelers understand even that? The inn's actions are a bit crude, but aren't they afraid of revenge from the dead travelers' families or friends? Not to mention coming to kill them, even occasionally throwing a few lit torches at the inn would be more than they could handle. But I don't care about that; I just want to know what the living standards are like in their rooms? Can the shop provide normal supplies for passing caravans?"

The supplies Jier mentioned included drinking water for the caravan, food, fodder for the horses, maintenance and repair of the carriages, and so on. As for the most basic need of finding a place to sleep, he didn't care; having a bed to sleep in was good enough, at least it was more comfortable than sleeping on the ground in the wild. And the supplies for those caravans were very important.

"About that..."

The grocery store owner gave a bitter smile: "It doesn't look very good, and they charge very high fees; the price has risen at least three times recently."

Jier snorted: "If the shop's service is bad and the attitude is poor, then I just won't pay."

He didn't think this kind of small-time trash, similar to local thugs, could take any advantage in front of his dozens of Warriors, not even verbal advantage.

"What about the one with the small square?" Jier continued to ask.

When the shop owner spoke of this one, he nodded: "That is the Zihonghua inn operated by the Oakes Brothers, who are big shots in the nearby village. Because their family is in the village closest to here, and they are a very powerful family in the village, that shop is managed very well by the two brothers. Whether it's the living conditions inside the shop or the safety of personnel and goods, it's guaranteed. It's just that the fees are no cheaper than the former, and some big shots who passed through in the past also stayed there."

The shop owner glanced at Jier's young face: "If you, Knight, have other needs at night, you can find some quiet women there to spend the night with. They are all farm women from the Oakes Brothers' village. Those women often earn some money during the slack farming season, and as for this year's weather, you understand, if they don't come out to do this line of work, they won't have any income at all."

Jier shrugged, indicating he had heard. Although he could understand the difficulty of poor villages wanting to earn money, he didn't feel like expressing any opinion on the local moral climate. If they had a choice, how many people would come out to do these things? Wouldn't it be better to stay comfortably and securely at home?

"Then what about the last inn? I see it's practically built on the trade route. If both sides of the trade route were his shops, I bet that guy would even build a massive iron gate covering the entire width of the trade route to collect tolls from passersby."

Jier made a joke, and the shop owner also gave a bitter smile: "Most likely he would, but that would really offend our Baron. After all, tax evasion is one thing, but setting up checkpoints to collect taxes privately is another."

"That shop is called Wangu Canzhuo, and the owner is just as you said, a greedy and outrageous old guy. However, although that old guy has a pile of faults, he was the first one to open a shop here. At the very beginning, there was nothing here, and that old guy built a shop here to provide food for passing merchants. Later, more shops opened, and more people came, and everyone built up around his inn."

Then the shop owner pointed to the tavern next door: "As for this tavern, its owner didn't give it any name, because we only have one here. However, in the last few months, suspicious people have often been drinking there. You must be careful of them. A few days ago, after the Wealth Fruit Merchant Guild passed through here, they were attacked by bandits on the road ahead. Before and after that incident, many strangers came to the tavern."

The other party sighed: "Especially after that attack, many young and rude guys in the tavern drank all day long and only left after spending all their money."

Jier nodded, knowing that the other party was using a near-explicit way to tell him that many people from the surrounding bandit groups were hanging out in that tavern, and after the robberies, those bandit groups would also drink and spend money here.

But the local public security had nothing to do with him, and those bandits would likely not target a powerful team like his.

If they had any brains left at all.

"I'll ask one last question: one or two months ago, did you see a foreign army pass through here?" Jier asked.

The shop owner thought for a moment, somewhat hesitant: "I don't know which army you are asking about? Since the beginning of spring, several armies have already passed through here. Every time they come, we are both in pain and happy."

Jier frowned, feeling that this middle-aged man's description was a bit strange.

"The army officers have money and are extremely generous when spending, but those soldier-thugs are not very cute. They often don't have a few iron coins in their pockets, but we still have to treat them as guests. Otherwise, those people will look for trouble and throw their weight around. We can't drive them away, and we can't beat them." Speaking of this, the grocery store owner looked at the thugs in his own shop and shook his head helplessly.

These shop thugs doubled as shop assistants and guards; they were fine for maintaining the shop's security and stopping petty theft, but when dealing with soldier-thugs who had an army as their backing, they usually had to keep their tails between their legs.

"An army claiming to be from the Northwest Province, Kendall County, with a scale of about one thousand people, over five hundred armed soldiers, and several hundred logistics personnel," Jier said immediately.

The shop owner scratched his head, as if he suddenly remembered something. He returned to the shop, rummaged through it, and took out a hand-copied book. He opened the book to show Jier some noble emblems simply drawn with an ink pen.

Among several conspicuous emblems, Jier recognized the noble emblem of the Kendall Baron at a glance.

"This is it. They have been here. They went east toward Suishi Cheng, right?"

Although he confirmed it in his heart, Jier still had to ask one more question.

"Of course. The reason our road is a busy trade line is that from Montoka City in the west, to Duoen Town, and then passing through here, you can reach Suishi Cheng in the east, and then after passing through Suishi Cheng and continuing southeast, you can pass through Ke'er Shan Jun all the way to the vast territory of the Earl."

The shop owner said proudly: "This is a golden trade route, because from Montoka City, you can go southwest to reach the Ka-di-er Kingdom, and from the Ka-di-er Kingdom, you can go south to reach the very famous You-shen-wei-ta Kingdom."

"I heard that in the You-shen-wei-ta Kingdom, there is a passage hidden by Magic that leads to the underground world, and that kingdom is very rich because of this."

In this obscure little grocery store, Jier seemed to have heard some incredible news from a middle-aged shop owner.

"Underground world? What is that?" Jier asked curiously.

This time, it was the shop owner who was surprised: "No way, haven't you heard the story of the legendary great merchant Avita? It is said that it was that legend who first discovered the passage to the underground world in the You-shen-wei-ta Kingdom. With that passage, our various non-Empire kingdoms don't have to borrow the road through the Dwarf Kingdom to enter the underground world. The underground world is rich in resources; it's full of gold and large chunks of crystals everywhere! It's practically like picking up money!"

Jier snorted and laughed. Although he hadn't heard the story of this legendary merchant, he knew that such good things didn't just happen in the world.

Gold is naturally a precious metal, but gold cannot fill one's stomach; places covered in gold might exist, but in those places, things that are common to people in the surface world might actually be more valuable.

For example, that sun overhead that has recently made people fear the sunlight.

?? Apologies, I am half an hour late; I truly failed to manage my time well and overestimated my writing speed. Haha.