Chapter 190: Departure Checkpoint, Military Camp

Before officially leaving Cuikuang County and entering Ke'er Shan Jun, Jier and his caravan would stop for one night at an important border checkpoint on the main trade route of Cuikuang County leading to Ke'er Shan Jun.

From the caravan accompanying them, they learned that this place, called 【Libie Guanka】, is an important border trade checkpoint and a border garrison stronghold in Cuikuang County facing Ke'er Shan Jun. Because the terrain on the Cuikuang County side is much better than that of Ke'er Shan Jun, the hilly and alluvial plain landscape is suitable for human reproduction and production, while Ke'er Shan Jun, with its many mountains and rivers, has few people and many wild beasts. Furthermore, due to the repeated obstruction by rivers and mountains, local connections in various places are not tight, so Ke'er Shan Jun has always had many small-scale Bandit Groups existing for a long time.

They use remote mountain caves, Rongdong, or beast dens in various places as their lairs, making a living by plundering and extorting merchants traveling on the trade routes.

In order to prevent the bandits of Ke'er Shan Jun from continuously infiltrating and harassing the large number of towns and villages on the east side of Cuikuang County from the main trade route, the Bostafa Family set up a permanent military camp with about five hundred people at the place where the main trade route officially enters Ke'er Shan Jun, and established a checkpoint next to this camp to collect trade taxes from passing caravans.

Of course, this place called 【Libie Guanka】 does not only have the function of collecting taxes. When Jier and his caravan entered here, they actually felt that this checkpoint was more like the last supply preparation trade point for long-distance caravans when they officially stepped into Ke'er Shan Jun.

On the streets here, one can easily see shops selling all kinds of personal self-defense items; Long Swords and Changdao are hung casually on the walls of the shops, or even bundled with ropes and stacked in large quantities.

The shops making simple Leather Armor emit a strange smell of Potion used for processing leather, and one can smell that impressive stench from half a street away.

In the shops selling Shield production, one can hear the apprentices inside hammering away, using Iron Nails to nail dry and sturdy wooden strips and boards together at any time.

The many street taverns here are also wide open on the side facing the street. Some caravan guards looking for work sit in the parts of the taverns near the street, holding a cup of ale, staring at every passing caravan and Merchant, waiting for them to come up and hire them, sitting and drinking for a whole day for this.

Caravans that feel their guard strength is insufficient can shout to recruit people directly on the street, and they can find many skilled caravan guards in these street-facing taverns. And as long as the caravan guards who sit for a long time in the tavern find work, they will shout loudly to the tavern owner, drink the thick ale in their cups in one gulp, and then pay ten copper coins at once.

Don't think this drink money is too much; the rules here are very interesting. When caravan guards looking for work want to find a job, they can come to these street-facing taverns and sit drinking by the open street. This indicates that they currently have no work and can leave at any time. Guys who really want to drink just sit on the inner side of the tavern.

This drink also has a story to it; the foam is dense, the liquor is very thick, and it not only quenches thirst but can even barely be used as food to alleviate hunger. Caravan guards looking for work order a cup of this special liquor in the tavern early in the morning, and then sit down, and they can survive the whole day relying only on this thing.

Moreover, the tavern also has rules. When a caravan guard sits for a whole day without finding work, this special ale only costs them one copper coin, and after the caravan guard luckily finds temporary work, they just pay ten times the price for the drink.

It looks unreasonable, but in reality, the ale itself is worth more than one copper coin, and from a long-term comprehensive calculation, the tavern still makes a profit.

On the road from Suishi Cheng to the east, there are not a few merchants and caravans running trade on the trade route, but in terms of scale, most of them are far inferior compared to Jier's caravan. Only the trade caravans of some large Merchant Guilds can be seen to be much stronger than Jier's team when passing by.

But today, in this Libie Guanka, Jier's caravan is the largest in scale.

Moreover, there are many carriages and few goods in Jier's team, and more Dwarf Warriors and Human Warriors are sitting in the relatively empty carriages, which makes the merchants and traders here unable to understand.

Some timid people avoided the caravan early, temporarily ducking into the shops by the road, curiously peeping at Jier and the others. And merchants and caravans of a certain scale with strong curiosity boldly had people come forward to ask the drivers and Human Warriors in the caravan about the situation of the caravan.

Jier listened for a while and found that the purpose of these people was very obvious: they were asking about the purpose of Jier's caravan to see if they could borrow his influence to hitch a ride.

After all, unlike Cuikuang County, which is very calm in most cases, Ke'er Shan Jun is truly a place where every mountain has a king, every bridge collects money, every village has strongmen, and every town demands taxes. The treacherous geographical environment, coupled with lower production capacity, makes Ke'er Shan Jun unfriendly to outsiders.

To pass through here smoothly—Ke'er Shan Jun is a main route for the Southern Province from west to east; of course, there are other routes that go around from the north through Mengta Ling, but it takes more than ten days longer and requires walking a much longer distance. As for the southern route, it is completely blocked by the Southern Mountains. There was no big road to walk on before, and now the Southern Mountains are the front line of the war between the two countries, so it is even more impossible to walk—one must make various preparations, the scale of one's own caravan cannot be small, and one must be prepared to deal with bandits and local villagers who plunder and block the road. It would be perfect if one could have someone familiar with local relations to lead the way.

Ke'er Shan Jun has bad terrain and many bandits and evil people, but it is the nearest main trade route, so some guys with brains and wide connections have started the business of leading teams through.

Simply put, one can find some people with extensive connections and energy, and by relying on the other party's face, one only needs to pay once without paying extra "expenses" to pass through the various road-blockers in Ke'er Shan Jun smoothly and quickly.

In reality, these people have made prior communication and "clearing" with bandits and towns in various places. People and caravans with relevant tokens can pass through these areas smoothly without the trouble of being plundered or blocked.

Although smart people know the interest-transfer relationship behind this, shrewd merchants calculated and found that it is still more cost-effective and time-saving this way, so this situation naturally continued.

But today is different. The scale of Jier's caravan is not small, and the people in the caravan are all armored and helmeted, looking very, very difficult to provoke. Not to mention that walking at the front of the caravan, there are more than a dozen "Cavalrymen" on horses, as well as a real Knight leading the team.

Such a team is obviously unlikely to be harassed by the various big and small troubles on the road, and in some small places, they don't even have to pay road taxes, after all, no one dares to collect those illegal and unreasonable taxes from such a powerful team.

If one can follow behind such a team, not only is a large amount of money for hiring caravan guards saved, but one can also pay less for a large amount of miscellaneous fees and taxes collected randomly in various places.

Some quick-witted merchants just did a simple calculation and knew that if they could establish such a relationship this time, the cost of leading a team through Ke'er Shan Jun could be saved by as much as ninety percent!

This is all real gold and silver that can fall into their own pockets.

Therefore, before Jier and the others had found a suitable place to stay, many people came forward to chat and inquire about the detailed situation of the caravan.

But the Warriors and drivers in Jier's caravan were strictly ordered by him to talk less with people outside the team, and the Dwarves in the team pretended not to speak Human Common Language. As soon as those harassing merchants approached, the Dwarves pretended to be angry and scared the people away directly.

Fortunately, there were four small-scale caravans following behind Jier's caravan, and it was obvious they were traveling together. These merchants from Dorn Town also traveled north and south and had wide friendships. They quickly became familiar with everyone, whether they knew them or not, and quickly spread some of the things that could be said about Jier's caravan in 【Libie Guanka】.

The caravan circled around the small Libie Guanka and asked about several larger inns for accommodation, but most of these inns had already accommodated many small-scale passing caravans and could not accommodate Jier's entire caravan at once. Jier could not split the caravan to stay in several inns; that would be too unsafe.

This place is obviously a place full of all kinds of people, and Jier does not intend to let the caravan separate.

So there was no way, the caravan had to walk out of the checkpoint area entirely and look around outside the checkpoint. They found that other places were either reclaimed as farmland for growing vegetables or had become breeding farms for raising chickens, ducks, cattle, and sheep. Only next to the military camp where troops were stationed beside the checkpoint was there a sufficiently open space.

Therefore, Jier directly let the caravan camp and stay overnight next to the military camp tonight, while he himself rode his warhorse Tianxuecao to the military camp to obtain permission to borrow the land for the night.

Of course, even if the other party did not allow it, Jier would not let his men move the place. After all, there was no convenient open space around, and if he wanted to find another place to stay overnight, he would have to pass through Libie Guanka and officially enter the territory of Ke'er Shan Jun, or walk back for one or two kilometers, but that would be too ridiculous.

Aoni and Weier had come to the military camp on horseback more than an hour in advance to report the situation of the caravan, so the people in the military camp were prepared for a caravan like Jier's approaching Libie Guanka. However, when Jier's caravan approached the military camp and intended to camp and stay overnight on the open space next to the military camp, it still made many Soldiers in the military camp feel curious and unhappy.

But the fact that most of the people in Jier's caravan wore armor made none of the Soldiers stationed here dare to look for trouble. After all, compared to Jier and the others, although the Soldiers stationed in this military camp were numerous, their weapons and equipment were far inferior.

Most of the stationed Soldiers held three-meter-long Long Spears, wore a hardened leather helmet on their heads, and wore a half-chest Leather Armor on their bodies—not the hardened kind, just that simple tanned Leather Armor. Most of them were also issued a pair of leather wrist guards on their wrists, and a pair of leather boots with soles that had been repaired who knows how many times. That was all.

It didn't look like much, but to equip a team of hundreds of people, the total cost was not a small amount. Moreover, there was a special team of archers here. These archers wore the same clothes as the former, just holding cedar bows that were more than half a person tall, with wide quivers on their waists, and most of the quivers were only inserted with a few long Arrows.

However, when Jier came to the military camp, because it was the afternoon and the scorching sun was shining in the sky, no one was active in the military camp without shade. Everyone was hiding in the barracks or in the shadows of the military camp buildings, curiously looking at Jier and the people and horses of the caravan outside the military camp.

"Where is the Captain of your military camp? I have something to discuss with him."

Jier shouted. Because he looked like a Knight, the Soldiers who were not training but just lazily avoiding the sun immediately pointed out the location where the Commander of the military camp lived.

The entire military camp was similar to those remote villages Jier had seen in Sasi County, surrounded by a circle of three-meter-high Wooden Walls. This height was not high, but it was enough. The defensive capability of this kind of Wooden Wall was limited, mainly serving to separate the military camp from the prosperous and chaotic checkpoint next to it, preventing outsiders from easily entering the military camp and preventing the Soldiers in the military camp from easily running out.

After all, there were still sentries stationed at the gate of the military camp, but when Jier came in, these sentries did not stop him, and even moved away the anti-cavalry obstacles at the gate in advance to make it convenient for Jier to enter.

The location of the military camp Commander was in a three-story wooden tower on the north side of the military camp. The view there was good, and it seemed that as long as one climbed to the observation tower at the top of the tower, one could see the situation within ten kilometers around.

Jumping off the horse, Jier said to some curious Soldiers who were looking over: "Help me watch the warhorse, but don't get close to it. It is very fierce, and I won't care if anyone gets hurt."

After speaking, he was not afraid that these Soldiers would steal the weapons and equipment on his warhorse, because Tianxuecao would protect his weapons and equipment itself.

Giving a low instruction to Tianxuecao, the horse nodded slightly, acknowledging Jier's meaning, and then Jier strode toward the gate of the wooden tower in front of him.

As soon as Jier left, curious Soldiers around braved the scorching sun and gathered around.

Of course, they didn't dare to touch the Knight Lord's things; that would be a beheading offense. But it was possible to watch the warhorse and the Knight's military equipment from a close distance. Moreover, they also liked to judge the personal military equipment of every passing Knight and often quarreled over which Knight was more powerful.

"How should I address you?"

As soon as Jier entered, the local Soldier Captain who had received the news early got up and asked.

Although this person was not a Knight, because he had seen too many passing Knight Lords, he was not unfamiliar with Knights.

"I am Qiao. Ke'er from Kendall County, Northwest Province. I am passing through here with a team to go to the front line to support this war."

Jier tapped his chest lightly with his right fist, stating his origin and purpose. He originally thought he would hear some news about the army led by Kendall Baron as before, but he didn't.

"Kendall County in the Northwest Province? Never heard of it, but it must be really far away. It must take a few months to rush over, right?"

The other party sighed, and then introduced himself: "Captain of the Cuikuang County Border Guard Patrol Battalion—Guge'er-Gulisiman, also serving as the Soldier Captain of the 【Libie Guanka】 military camp."

The other party smiled and said, also striking his own chest with a fist, producing the sound of metal colliding. He was wearing a set of well-fitted lobster-style metal plate armor, and at this moment, he was not wearing a Helmet. Although the plate armor on his body was quite thin, it was already the thickest and heaviest type that a normal person could use and bear.

At the same time, the entire armor was also decorated with quite a few emblems and decorative patterns of the God of Wealth, making his Faith inclination clear at a glance.

Having a Faith inclination is good! Jier raised an eyebrow and conveniently took out the Sixth-Rank Defend Badge from under the armor on his chest.

And upon seeing the badge issued by the Church of the God of Wealth that Jier had taken out, this Soldier Captain with the big name also pulled two gleaming golden badges from his chest!

To think they were two Sixth-Rank badges! And both from the Church of the God of Wealth!

The next moment, both of them laughed heartily, though Jier's was feigned, while the other party's was a sincere and open-hearted smile.

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