Chapter 173: Misunderstandings and Anger, Suishi Cheng as Described by Others

As the sky turned toward the afternoon, the caravan's speed slowed even further.

After all, those surrendered bandits who were dragging down the caravan's speed had not truly eaten for over a day. Even though Jier kept giving them water to drink, allowing them to temporarily not die, the lack of food still left the captives with insufficient stamina, stumbling along behind the caravan under the scorching sun.

The caravan was also accommodating these captives; after all, they were not good people, and releasing them because they were dragging down the caravan's speed would be a case of letting a tiger return to the mountains.

Therefore, Jier gave the word: even if they had to crawl, these surrendered bandits had to be delivered to Suishi Cheng, to be handed over to the judicial system of Suishi Cheng to be dealt with by local laws for these attackers.

As for whether they would be beheaded after an investigation and interrogation, or sent to dangerous mines to dig for ore, that was no longer Jier's business.

When dusk arrived, the side of the Shanglu was no longer barren wasteland, but began to show large fields of withered crops.

Man-made wooden aqueducts extended all the way from far in the north, spreading across the farmland in this area, but by the time the diverted water reached the edge of the fields, the flow was already very small; the sparse, trickling clear water was simply unable to support the growth of large areas of crops.

Therefore, this required the farmers to manually transport the precious water of this season, bucket by bucket, from the distant water source to their own withered fields, carefully watering each and every crop.

When Jier's caravan emerged on the Shanglu, the farmers working in these fields discovered them at the first moment.

Originally, this was a busy Shanglu, and although Jier's caravan was large in scale, it was not an unusual sight. But recently, bandits on the Shanglu had increased, wantonly plundering small and medium-sized caravans passing through; for some time now, almost no caravans had been traveling.

Not only were there none from Suishi Cheng to Duoen Town, there were none from Duoen Town to Suishi Cheng either.

After discovering Jier's caravan, the farmers immediately shouted, spontaneously running quickly to call people, picking up their respective farm tools, and gathering all the men working hard in the fields.

There was a reason for their caution; after all, those Bandit Groups that relied on plundering the Shanglu for a living had not failed to set their sights on the villages near Suishi Cheng.

But these villages had long anticipated this situation and made full mobilization of their manpower, so that the bandits' repeated harassment had all been driven away by the force of the farmers.

Because the area near Suishi Cheng was densely populated, the terrain was relatively flat, and there were several rivers, the population of the villages here was not small, and because Suishi Cheng's metal forging industry was prosperous, the farmers here were not unarmed and weaklings to be bullied.

Large villages here could easily spontaneously gather hundreds of armed farmers with sufficient stamina and high combat capability; driving away those bandits who bullied the weak and feared the strong was no problem.

When Jier's caravan approached here along the Shanglu, it was immediately blocked by more than two hundred local farmers on the side of the road.

However, soon, with the appearance of Jier riding the fully armed Tianxuecao, these local farmers realized they had blocked the wrong people; a young Knight as fully armed as Jier could certainly not be a Bandit Group that barely knew how to ride horses.

And as the caravan approached, these farmers guarding the side of the road saw the bandits with sallow faces being escorted by the caravan; after boldly questioning people in the caravan, they learned that this was Knight Jier's caravan that had defeated a large number of attacking Bandit Groups, and these were all captives taken in the battle.

"Great! Now those scums probably won't come to harass everyone for a long time!"

"Ha, look at these guys, one by one stripped of their clothes and their arms tied, the skin on their bodies scorched by the sun, they deserve it! These bandit dog bastards should be skinned, preferably pierced with an Iron Sign and roasted over a fire!"

"I said it, as long as the Knights are in the territory, those Bandit Groups formed by refugees from other places are easily defeated! Where was there ever such frustration before! We pay grain and taxes to the Lord, and the Knight Lord of our territory uses his war spear to break the heads of every bandit who harasses the village!"

"It's all the fault of the Baron of Suishi Cheng, calling our Lord away to fight; he's been gone for months and hasn't returned, the days are truly worrying."

Seeing that it was not the harassing bandits, but the caravan of a young Knight capable of defeating bandits, the farmers relaxed one after another, chatting while standing on tiptoe, looking at the fully armed Human and Dwarf Warriors in Jier's caravan.

Their fields were right next to the Shanglu, so they naturally saw many kinds of armed Human Warriors, but Dwarves were such rare aliens!

Especially in Suishi Cheng and the surrounding areas, a hundred years ago it was a large-scale open-pit copper mine base for Dwarves; who didn't have a few permanent buildings and a large amount of supplies and tools left behind by the Dwarves at home, heh.

The locals were both familiar with and strangely curious about the alien race of Dwarves.

At this moment, when the farmers saw real Dwarves for the first time, they couldn't help but exclaim: "Dwarves, they really are short enough!"

"Look at that big beard, it's longer than my wife's hair!"

"Isn't that so, the braids my daughter wears aren't as well-woven as the beard on that Dwarf's chin over there."

The Dwarf Warriors could understand Human Common Language; once they heard these loud discussions about them to their faces, they were immediately annoyed, many glaring at those ignorant farmers with loose mouths, their hands reaching toward the weapon hilts at their waists.

Fortunately, at this time, the old Dwarf's warning came in time: "Calm down, all of you! Calm down, all of you! Remember, you don't understand the Human language, don't forget that!" (Dwarven Language)

They came to their senses, turned their heads away angrily, and stopped looking at those rude and stupid Human farmers.

Jier was almost laughing to death on the side, but he couldn't laugh; if he laughed, he would lose favor with the Dwarves. He had to personally step forward to talk to the local farmers, first using the captives in the caravan to demonstrate his achievements, letting these local farmers accept him, and then Jier asked where there was a suitable place to camp along the road ahead.

First, the camping place could not be too far from the Shanglu; second, there had to be at least a sufficiently open space there; the place didn't need to be too big, as long as there was room for the carriages and horses in the caravan. As for the large number of people in the caravan, because it was summer now and the night temperature was not low, it was no problem for everyone to just lie on the ground and rest for the night.

Finally, it would be best if there was a place to replenish drinking water and food at the camping site.

Guided by the farmers who had a good impression of Jier, and even personally led by them, Jier and his group found a patch of forest clearing near the Shanglu between the fields of two villages, one kilometer ahead.

This was an artificial forest planted by the two nearby villages for picking firewood, located exactly between the fields belonging to the two villages, used for public use and to divide the management scope of the two villages.

There was an open space at the edge of the forest, which was a temporary stopping place for peddlers, small Merchants, and small Caravans traveling between villages.

There was even a simple Toilet and cesspit at the edge of the clearing, which facilitated the preparation work for everyone's excretion, saving the need to dig pits.

However, manure was a precious means of fertilizing the land, and this ownerless Toilet cesspit between the two villages did not have a single bit of fermented manure; it was estimated that it had long been scooped away by quick-handed farmers.

"Thank you all for the guidance. If possible, why not have some dinner prepared by our caravan? Although it is just some food thrown together to appease the stomach, because the caravan has not long departed from Duoen Town, there is quite a lot of meat."

Jier jumped off his warhorse, took off the steel helmet he had worn all day, and sincerely invited the few farmers who had guided the caravan here to spend the night.

He mainly wanted to pry some basic local information from these enthusiastic local farmers so that he wouldn't be completely in the dark for the next few days.

"There's meat to eat? Then young Lord Jier, please don't mind if we have big appetites!"

The farmers said with a grin.

Jier waved his hand: "I'm not afraid of big appetites, I'm only afraid that everyone won't be used to the taste."

After speaking, Jier directed the caravan to carry out the camping work.

Because there was no need to feed the captives, who were the largest in number, and only drinking water needed to be provided, the preparations for the night were actually much easier.

Next to them was the narrow artificial forest where the two surrounding villages picked firewood daily, so there was no shortage of fuel, and the campfire at the campsite was quickly lit and rose.

The two Dwarf Chefs were professional cooks, and they specifically carried various kitchen utensils, so after the Dwarves joined the team, they quickly became the two alien Chef Captains for the team's cooking!

Seeing that it was two female Dwarves directing the Human Cook to cook, and even doing it themselves, the farmers who stayed for dinner were overjoyed; after all, being able to personally taste food made by female Dwarves was bragging capital that could be taken out and shown off for years after returning to the village!

And the Dwarf Chefs were no joke; because the ingredients were ready-made, the food produced was not complicated, and with the Dwarf-made food processing kitchen utensils, a large pot of food satisfying over a hundred people was quickly made.

At this time, the sun had not even set below the horizon.

Several other caravans nearby were still noisily and busily preparing to cut food and boil water, while Jier's side was already eating.

"Try it, it's meat paste bean porridge with Dwarf flavor, led by the Dwarf Chefs, paired with Roasted Bread slices, the Bread slices are even spread with cheese!" Jier excitedly brought the food for the few farmers himself, and he also sat on the side; while everyone was excitedly eating things they had never eaten before, Jier asked about local interesting events, and the farmers scrambled to answer.

After eating, Jier sent away the enthusiastic farmers who were returning to the village together, and he returned to the only tent set up in the entire caravan—his own.

He took off his heavy weapons and equipment one by one and hung them on a 'Feng' shaped equipment rack next to him.

The area around Suishi Cheng was quite prosperous, and the population was not small; because the terrain was flat, it was a rare narrow plain in the surrounding area, so it gathered almost more than half of the population of the entire Copper Mine County.

Traveling east along the Shanglu from the current location of Jier's caravan, one would pass Ge Wu Cunzi, which was one kilometer away from the Shanglu; continuing forward for a short while, one would reach Baiduoyang Town, which the nearby villages relied on; continuing along the town for a short half-day, and passing several villages, one could reach the center of the nearby area—Suishi Cheng.

According to the descriptions of farmers who have been to the county seat, Suishi Cheng is a Human city gradually built and developed upon the foundation of an original open-pit Cuikuang once belonging to the Dwarf.

A distinctive feature is that the entire city is built in a downward ring-like succession following the terrain originally excavated by the Dwarf; powerful and influential people and organizations have built their houses on the outermost surface of the topmost ring, followed by the city center, where the houses of Merchant, Craftsman, commoners, and the destitute at the bottom are built and inhabited in order.

At the very center is a passage that continues to slope downward; it is said that all the trash and sewage of the town are transported through this passage to the deep underground, where an Underground River carries the town's discarded trash and sewage to some unknown, distant place.

(Residents of a certain region in the underground world have become puzzled: why has the "rainfall" from the "sky" in recent decades carried a foul odor and some discarded trash? Residents of Suishi Cheng: "I don't know?")

Jier recorded these things he had heard in a small notebook of his, then took the notebook to find the old Dwarf.

As a member from a large Dwarf family, the old Dwarf should have been to the open-pit Cuikuang that was the predecessor of Suishi Cheng; telling the other party about the current situation was also a form of friendly exchange.

But when Jier found the old Dwarf after he had finished his meal, this Dwarf elder of several hundred years was currently gathering several important personnel from the Dwarf group, seemingly discussing something.

Because they were using Dwarven Language to communicate with each other, Jier could not understand much, only hearing a few familiar Dwarven words, such as death, anger, and difference.

Jier came over, but the discussion among the Dwarf did not end; other Dwarf who had finished eating also gathered around, heard what the old Dwarf and the others were discussing, and joined in, offering some of their own views.

Some of the things said by some of them drew the agreement of many Dwarf, who nodded one after another, but others stood up to express their opposition.

However, the arguments raised by those who opposed naturally drew opposition from others; this kind of public discussion and expression of public opinion often turned into a mode of debate instead.

No one cared about the truth of the matter or the principles behind it; instead, defeating the other side in an argument became the thing everyone cared about most.

After arguing for a long time, Jier had learned over a dozen more Dwarven words by guessing and inferring, and he diligently recorded them in his little notebook, using Human Common Language to study them by comparison.

After the Dwarf finished their discussion and arguing, Jier finally struck up a conversation with the old Dwarf, whose expression was not very good: "What are you all talking about? So many people are participating, and it seems like you were arguing quite fiercely."

The old Dwarf sighed, pointed at the two Dwarf, "Longtail" and "Pebble," who were still arguing, and looked troubled: "We are discussing whether it is because of the various differences between us Dwarf and you Human, as well as the differences in culture, that things which seem insignificant to you Human are actually very important to us Dwarf."

"Perhaps this kind of difference caused by different races and different civilizations and cultures will lead to misunderstandings and accidents? In fact, the casual comments made by those Human farmers toward us this evening have already made many of my subordinates and Shop Assistant very angry. If I hadn't interrupted in time, it probably would have caused a scene back then."

Subsequently, the old Dwarf stroked his beard: "The matter has arrived; when a misalignment in the understanding and reaction to the same thing due to different cultures triggers a conflict, and there is no one like me to call a halt in time, then could it be that decades ago, that kid from the 'Tie Xigai' war-boot family, my Soldier Captain, went out for Scout alone and ended up constantly triggering conflicts in Human society because of such things? Thereby offending an enemy he couldn't beat and ultimately suffering defeat?"

Jier thought about it and felt that the old Dwarf's conjecture was very likely.

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