Chapter 155: Dwarves Want to Help, Caravans That Slow Down the Pace

At the same time, Jier had Xueya Site use the individual heavy crossbow captured previously, while instructing these few to arrange for the Herbalist's family, ensuring nothing happened to them during the chaotic battle that might occur today.

After all, Mr. Zuojigela was someone who could earn Jier a great deal of money in the future.

If Mr. Zuojigela's spirit and work were affected due to his family suffering casualties in the battle, the loss would be too great, which was why Jier gave instructions in advance.

After eating and getting the caravan packed and ready, Jier went to the nearby 【Zihonghua】 inn and had the caravan Steward who claimed last night that he would cover the accommodation fees for Jier's caravan come over to settle the bill for the 【Siren Ganzi】 inn.

Although the 【Siren Ganzi】 inn did not actually charge that exaggeratedly high accommodation price, but rather charged according to standard rates, this sum was still higher than the cost of staying one night at the 【Zihonghua】 inn. When paying, the caravan Steward's face looked ugly, but seemingly having thought of something, the caravan Steward suddenly became generous, 'friendly' patting the 【Siren Ganzi】 innkeeper on the shoulder, and said with a chuckle: "Enjoy this income well, enjoy it well."

After saying these words with unclear meaning, the other party turned and left, leaving only the innkeeper 'Blood Dagger' somewhat surprised, the expression on his face uncertain, his face wrinkled. After Jier's caravan departed, he walked around his empty inn lobby a few times, felt something was wrong, so he had his subordinates watch the inn, while he himself rode the inn's horse, crossed the wilderness beside the Shanglu alone, and took a detour to run toward the Jiedian of those foreign Bandit Groups to investigate.

As an experienced, successfully retired Bandit, his intuition was telling him that something was wrong. Could it be that those Bandit Groups had heard his advice, yet still intended to attack Knight Jier's caravan?

This was an extremely hard nut to crack; even if those Bandit Groups were lucky enough to eventually devour Knight Jier's caravan, they would definitely suffer heavy losses, with more than half dead or injured.

If this were elsewhere, this result would be nothing, but here it was close to Duoen Town, and the Thieves Guild in Duoen Town must have been secretly watching everyone all along. When those detestable thieves discovered that the Bandit Group had lost more than half their manpower, it was not hard to guess what they would do then.

"Damn it, a bunch of pigs blinded by greed! People can be driven by desire to do things, but they cannot have only desire in their eyes. Those who cannot control their desire will only be pushed by desire into the Abyss."

'Blood Dagger' cursed in his mouth, but after riding out for a while, he regretted it, because he had been too hurried when leaving, so he did not carry a water bottle or waterskin with him. As a result, even though it was morning, the newborn sun was still scorching, making his whole body hot, leaving him parched and sweating profusely.

There was no other way, so he had to rely on his familiarity with the surrounding terrain and landscape to turn and go into the nearby Shulin to look for a pond in the woods.

Jier met up with the Dwarf team and the following caravan at the street of the Chalu, and after the caravan was reorganized, they immediately set off to the east.

A large number of horse-drawn and ox-drawn carts traveled on the empty road, their hooves and wheels kicking up a large amount of dust from the dry ground. Where the caravan passed, the fine dust raised could even reach five or six meters high, and the position of their caravan could be seen from far away.

Jier rode on horseback, informing the old Dwarf 'Iron Fist' of the possible situation today as they went. He had originally thought the old Dwarf would be quite worried, or suggest he take a detour to avoid the battle, but he did not expect Jier had guessed wrong.

"Jier, this is a good opportunity. My people and I will also join this operation, if they dare to come. After all, we are also members of the team, and proud Dwarves. Although we are currently in Human society, which is inconvenient for our travel and activities, I think that taking action against these scums who disturb Human society should be a good thing for Human society, right?"

"Probably?" Jier was not sure either, but in fact, as long as they left the towns and left the areas controlled by the lord's decrees, these unmanned wildernesses and long Shanglu were places where decrees and social rules hardly worked at all.

What truly prevailed here was naked strength, using respective violence to converse and connect.

It was fine for Dwarves to be cautious in Human towns, but in these wildernesses where almost no one cared, they could just do whatever they wanted.

Moreover, Jier also understood the old Dwarf's meaning; they Dwarves also wanted to do something to show their value during the journey, rather than just being expensive crafts carefully protected by Jier.

What a joke, they Dwarves were the sturdiest metal materials, could chisel through the earth, could build continuous palaces, and could forge the best armaments. How could they be objects that needed a young Human to carefully protect and cherish?

For a period before, the Dwarves were relatively honest, mainly because they did not understand the outside Human environment. After all, they had sent their most capable Soldier Captain decades ago, only for them to disappear without a trace. This made the Dwarves hold caution and misunderstanding toward the unknown Human society, fearing that they, these Miners, would annoy some untouchable objects in Human society.

But the experiences in Yemei Town and Duoen Town during these days made them, who had inquired about quite a bit of news, realize that Human society was nothing much, right?

External Monster parasites were rampant, and although they won, Sasi County suffered heavy losses.

Internal Bandit Groups were expanding rapidly, almost cutting off important trade Shanglu, and could only let those Merchants rely on Jier to cover the caravan to open up the Shanglu.

Looking at it this way, their caution these days was really not very necessary.

"But if a battle happens today, I still hope you won't be too proactive in attacking, but mainly defend the caravan here, protecting the drivers and Herbalists in the caravan. In addition, please also look after the Merchant teams in the caravan; I only promised to protect them last night, and they are willing to cover all the expenses of the entire caravan." Jier turned his head and said to the old Dwarf on the cart.

The old Dwarf touched his gray beard with his hand: "Including the expenses for us Dwarves along the way?"

"Should be? After all, in the eyes of outsiders, you are the alien mercenaries I hired, and overall you are subordinate to me. Although in reality, I am responsible for protecting you and escorting you all the way to a big city to find other Dwarf groups." Jier smiled as he said this.

"Ha, then what about last night's expenses? Although everyone earned some money by selling some odds and ends in Duoen Town, I didn't expect the accommodation fees for these inns to be so high? If necessary, perhaps that kind of 'Dwarf Goods Sale' will have to be held a few more times in the towns we pass through later." The old Dwarf patted his money bag somewhat embarrassedly, which contained some Gold Coins, most of the money everyone had earned after selling things in Duoen Town previously.

At that time, they calculated according to the town's prices and felt that these Gold Coins were quite sufficient and should be enough for their expenses along the way. But they had only walked for one day and stayed at an expensive inn on the Shanglu once, and they felt that this money might not be enough.

If someone could pay this money for them, then naturally they would save as much as they could.

"I'll go ask, it should be fine. Tell me about the consumption situation last night."

The old Dwarf then had Xiaoxuezi hand a piece of paper with data recorded on it to Jier. The paper recorded last night's expenses in Dwarf script, but specifically marked the price data in the common Human script.

After Jier looked at it, he also raised his eyebrows, because although 【Wangu Canzhuo】 was not a black shop, the accommodation price was still not much lower than the 【Siren Ganzi】 inn that gave a 'normal' price.

One night of people eating and cattle chewing, plus accommodation and replenishing various supplies, actually cost more than three Gold Coins.

You know, this was not a small number. The purchasing power of Gold Coins was very strong everywhere; a Farmer family did not have one Gold Coin of income in a year, and the accommodation and supplies for these dozens of Dwarves for one night cost three Gold Coins and several Silver Coins.

"I don't know what the accommodation fee for the 【Zihonghua】 inn is, I guess it's not low either." Jier muttered, holding the paper and riding his horse toward the back of the caravan.

When he informed the caravan Stewards of the 'alien mercenaries'' accommodation expenses from last night, these people did not express surprise, so Jier knew that the accommodation and supply costs of the 【Zihonghua】 inn were not low either.

However, although these shops on the Shanglu had increased their charges, for the Merchants who did business, it did not count for much. After all, the more they spent while running trade, the more it showed that trade circulation was not smooth, so the prices of trade goods and necessities in some places would naturally rise.

Depending on the conscience and morality of Merchants everywhere, the money spent on the road would eventually be earned back in the destination's trading market. Ultimately, those who bore all the price increases were all the people in the destination area and specific trading targets.

As long as they could reach the destination, in most cases, Merchants would not lose money.

Of course, business and trade were not such simple things. When multiple Merchants arrived in an area with the same goods at the same time, because of the sharp increase in supply, the commodity prices would temporarily fall, so it was not uncommon to suffer huge losses.

Moreover, the price increase of a certain commodity in one place did not necessarily mean that the local area was truly out of stock. Perhaps it was just that the local big Merchants locked everything in the warehouse, artificially creating a situation of shortage in the market, just to sell goods at higher prices.

At this time, if a Merchant felt this was a good opportunity and mobilized a batch of goods from elsewhere, not only would they encounter a sudden large-scale shipment from the local area, leading to a price plunge and loss in trade, but they would also offend the local big Merchants.

In short, Merchants who could risk being robbed by a large number of Bandit Groups in the current situation and still risk going on the road to run trade, the goods in their hands were likely to be some with very high profit margins, or some scarce goods that must be supplied according to previous contracts, because if they were not supplied in time, they might face huge compensation for violating the contract.

By then, the Church of the God of Wealth, which acted as an intermediary to supervise the contract, was not without means to punish the Merchant Guild.

In short, several caravan Stewards readily settled this Dwarf expense for Jier, and Jier was able to take the money and find the old Dwarf: "Here, take it. They were quite prompt in paying."

The old Dwarf smiled: "Since they think my subordinates and I are 'alien mercenaries', then today we had better do some things that befit mercenaries. Jier, back to the previous topic, if there is a battle today, please give us orders readily. Don't feel embarrassed; your strength has been unanimously recognized by all of us, and many are looking forward to fighting alongside you."

Jier scratched the newly grown beard on his chin with his steel-armored fingers and chuckled.

However, after walking for a while, the caravan's journey was not so smooth and beautiful.

The caravan side changed from yesterday's briskness, and overall they were dragging their feet. When they stopped to let the horses rest, not only were they slow to dismount, but they were also the slowest group of all when preparing to set off again.

But Jier had just taken people's money, so it was not easy to blame them for anything. It was just that after the caravan continued to move, Jier asked these caravan Stewards one by one and received such replies:

"No way, Knight Jier. This weather is really too hot. Let alone the caravan Shop Assistants, even we Stewards who don't have to do anything are dizzy from the sun, and our eyes are darkened by the white road surface."

"I have no choice, sir, you saw it, it's all the fault of these lazy guys. They only cared about drinking last night and didn't check the cart wheels properly, which is why they didn't find that one of the wheels had a broken spoke. Now it can't be repaired in this place where there is nothing, so we can only temporarily replace it with a good one. Fortunately, we brought spare wheels when we set off, so it just took some extra time to change the wheel. But I guarantee, this situation will not happen again today!"

"It's all the fault of that guy in our team. Who knew he had a stomachache? He could run so far to take a dump, and we had to have your subordinates go out to find him. Look, I will punish him severely. Hmm, I'll deduct fifty copper coins from his salary first! How about that?"

"I'm really sorry, Lord Jier. Who could have thought that my deputy would leave the amulet his wife gave him at the fork? I've already said it several times, let them check carefully for anything left behind when they get up in the morning. As a result, he, an experienced hand in the caravan, would actually leave important things there. Fortunately, the team hadn't been gone long before he remembered the things were left behind, otherwise, it would have been a disaster if he remembered when we stayed overnight today."

"Lord Knight, don't look at me, my caravan people are brisk enough, right? My people are different from others; they are all strictly trained and carefully instructed. Very different from those semi-illiterates who don't even know characters! Therefore, if there is any use for us later, please find us, we can definitely help you complete everything perfectly. Our Merchant Guild's business scope is very wide, including collecting grain taxes for the lord in local areas, transshipment of metal raw materials, construction of fireproof warehouses..."

When facing the last caravan Steward, this person actually started introducing business to him, and Jier hurriedly spurred his horse away, leaving the chattering, annoying Steward.

These people all had their own reasons on the surface, but Jier's intuition told him that these caravans were performing differently today than yesterday, and the reason behind it might not just be the excuses they spoke out.

After all, one Caravan might have some delays, but for five Caravans, or four Caravans, to all appear to have delayed departures, no matter how one looks at it, it is suspicious. Added to the situations he saw last night using the Shadow Bird, and the situation Kuaitui Maomao discovered where a large number of personnel from the Zihonghua inn set out in the middle of the night, all of this indicates that something major will happen today.

"Why do I feel like a catfish stirring up muddy water? Everyone is staring at me, all thinking about setting traps for me?"

He was somewhat dissatisfied; did these people all underestimate the combat strength that he and his team possessed? Did they really think they were mud that could be kneaded by anyone at will?

Fine, then let everyone see exactly what kind of strength he and his team have.

?? Yesterday I felt mentally exhausted and empty, so I couldn't write anything and didn't update. Today I am better and can write things.