Chapter 237: Setting Out East! Dwarf Observations, Dīdì Zhen

Starting from Wierstu Checkpoint, whether heading east, north, or south, all three directions lead into the lands of the smaller yet prosperous and wealthy Bendige Jun.

To travel along the main trade route toward the major cities of Bendige Jun, one must set out toward the south; this is the route chosen by the vast majority of caravans traveling the trade road.

But Jier is somewhat different from these caravans; his destination is to rendezvous with the Kendall Army as quickly as possible, and according to the hand-drawn map provided by the Wealth's Ear organization, the shortest path requires heading directly east from Wierstu Checkpoint.

Heading east from here, after passing through several villages along the branch roads, one can reach a place called Dīdì Zhen, then continue forward, passing through several lakeside villages and a slightly larger lake; it takes about a full day of travel for a caravan to reach the boundary checkpoint between Bendige Jun and the Earl's direct territory.

Shortly after passing through the checkpoint and arriving in the Earl's direct territory in the Southern Province, then following the road to bypass a fairly large forest and passing through the lands of several villages, one can reach a place called Tianguang Zhen, where the Kendall Army is currently stationed and waiting outside the town.

The entire journey is about two hundred kilometers, and the caravan needs at least two full days of travel.

Therefore, after Jier informed the drivers in the caravan of the route, he bid farewell to the caravans that had been following him all the way at the checkpoint intersection. Yesterday, he had already bid farewell to some of the caravans passing through Ke'er Shan Jun; originally, according to the route given by the merchants, he should have headed south here, followed the main trade route to the local main city, and then from the main road there, headed east to officially enter the Earl's direct territory, a route that seemed to be quite wealthy and safe.

Thus, after Jier received the updated destination location, he had to part ways with these caravans that had set out all the way from Duoen Town, because the other party needed to head south to the main city of the county to trade.

"It has been a pleasure traveling with you, Knight Jier. Your bravery in killing enemies and your polite attitude toward us while traveling have truly left a deep impression on us. Upon this parting, I wish for you, Knight Jier, to rendezvous with your army as soon as possible, and I also wish for you to fight bravely, earn merits, and gain the glory of a knight on the battlefield!"

The three caravan stewards who had originally accompanied the army stood together on horseback, hands over their chests, and bowed their heads to bless Jier.

Jier was also in a good mood; although he was still worried about the Wealth's Ear organization, he did not show it, nodding and waving to the three to say goodbye: "Thank you for your blessings, and I also wish you a smooth journey and a full harvest. By the way, after parting with us, you had best hire some reliable caravan guards as soon as possible. I see there are places in the checkpoint where you can recruit them; it would be better to equip yourselves with guards before setting out, as that is safer."

The three caravan stewards looked at each other and laughed: "Thank you for your concern, but the public security in Bendige Jun has always been good, and the trade route with many people and vehicles is prosperous and wealthy. As long as our three caravans travel together, there is no need to deploy special guard forces. After all, the most troublesome Ke'er Shan Jun has already been passed, and the road ahead will be much easier."

"Since you feel this is fine, I will say no more. I shall take my leave and bid you farewell now; I hope we can meet again in the future." Jier tapped the belly of Tianxuecao and turned to leave.

"May the God of Wealth bless you and your team; may your long journey be fruitful, and may your hard work be rewarded."

The three caravans, totaling nearly thirty people, completely parted ways with Jier's team at the checkpoint intersection, and the familiar shop assistants and Warriors in both teams also waved to each other, loudly blessing the friends they had known for only a short time.

With this, Jier's caravan now consisted only of more than forty direct Warriors and drivers, as well as a group of over forty Dwarfs.

Jier had nearly ten carriages, and the Dwarfs also had seven caravan carriages obtained for free from Suishi Cheng. With the departure of the accompanying caravans that needed to transport goods for trade, the mobility of his caravan had improved significantly.

Especially on the road from Duoen Town to Suishi Cheng, after defeating those Bandits, they had captured many caravan horses; even if every carriage was equipped with a pair of horses, there were still nearly ten horses left for his subordinate Warriors to ride.

People with some ability, such as Weier, Aoni, Sipulu, and the Tusi Brothers, were each assigned a horse. Even though Aoni was not skilled at riding, he had been working hard to practice his riding technique these days, striving to make his horsemanship look better.

As for the extra horses, they were rotated among the subordinate Warriors for riding practice; although they could not yet reach the level of one or even several horses per person, Jier hoped that in the future, his direct subordinates would all possess proficient riding skills, transforming the entire team from traditional infantry into battlefield multi-taskers who could both ride and shoot.

They might even become a small cavalry unit, and these people would be his foundation, the fundamental strength upon which he would establish himself in Kendall County.

Speaking of riding, Jier had once asked the Dwarfs like Shishou in the same caravan to ride horses, but although many of Shishou's Dwarfs knew how to ride, they seemed unwilling to ride horses. After asking, he learned that the traditional Dwarf cavalry actually rode war sheep—the kind that were as tall as a person, with huge spiral horns on their heads.

Although this Dwarf-specific mount was not fast, its combat capability was far superior, and it could move smoothly in mountainous terrain; compared to horses that could only run on flat terrain, it was more favored and practically needed by the Dwarfs.

Continuing to ask curiously about this question, Jier learned that unlike Humans who liked to live in plains and hilly terrain, Dwarfs valued mountainous terrain more; the more mountains there were, the more prosperous the region was in the eyes of the Dwarfs.

Mountains could nurture more rivers, forests, mines, and Dwarf settlements. Yes, traditional Dwarf cities were not built on plains, but on ridges or mountain tops, as well as inside the mountains.

In many areas of the Dwarf Kingdom, flat plains and hilly areas were rented out by the Dwarfs to the secondary alien races they ruled to live and multiply.

"The higher the mountain range, the peaks that reach straight into the sky, the more we value them. Although I have never been there, I have heard from books that the tallest building in the world is the Tongtian zhi Ta that we Dwarfs built on the world's highest peak. It is a sword that pierces the sky; the highest point can already overlook all the clouds, and the air is so thin that only the strong can live there. Ordinary Dwarfs need to wear corresponding full sets of Magic clothing to survive."

When speaking of this, Lao Tiequan looked proud, and the other Dwarf Warriors listening around him, although they did not understand, also proudly puffed out their chests.

Jier estimated that this building built by the Dwarfs might be tens of kilometers high; at the very least, the building height had already reached the stratosphere, and a relatively high stratosphere at that—it wouldn't be lower than twenty thousand meters, right?

Jier had never even seen such a building, let alone imagined it, but considering that the other world had magical supernatural powers and the gods could build a Divine Kingdom in the outer space of the planet, such ground buildings didn't seem like anything remarkable by comparison, right?

At least it was still within the realm of understanding.

During the rest period while traveling in the morning, the old Dwarf found Jier, and the two talked privately for a while, naturally about the change of route this morning.

For the Dwarfs, they needed to travel along the way to larger Human towns to inquire where there were Dwarf groups and organizations that had lived in the Southern Province for a long time, so as to connect with these Dwarf groups living in Human society and find a safe route back to the Dwarf Kingdom. Especially, they needed to avoid the route through the Western Province, which was hostile to Dwarfs.

Originally, Jier and the others not heading to Duan Ya Cheng in Ke'er Shan Jun a few days ago had made the old Dwarf have some opinions, but fortunately, they had accidentally heard news about Lao Zhanxue, who had gone out decades ago, which kept the Dwarfs from having more opinions. But this time, after arriving in Bendige Jun, they did not head to the local main city, but instead quickly passed through Bendige Jun directly, using the fastest and shortest route to find the Kendall Army to rendezvous.

Thus, the Dwarfs had some minor opinions.

"Rest assured, if you ask me about gathering information, where could be more convenient than the Southern Province Capital, Jun'gu Bao? It's hard to say about other places, but in a big city like Jun'gu Bao, there must be Dwarfs who have lived there for a long time! It's the same principle as the Dwarf master architect in the capital of our Northwest Province."

The reason Jier gave barely persuaded the old Dwarf, and the two agreed that after rendezvousing with the Kendall Army, the forty-plus Dwarfs would still follow Jier closely and could not just be left in the army.

Although it was troublesome, Jier agreed.

In fact, it was not until he talked to the old Dwarf that Jier remembered one thing. Last night, he was too busy inquiring about the location of the Kendall Army and the disastrous defeat in the Southern Province last year, and completely forgot that he could have asked the Wealth's Ear organization about where Dwarf groups were definitely active in the Southern Province!

If he had asked directly at that time, he could have given the old Dwarf a definite answer now, and there would have been no need to slowly inquire for information later.

But things had reached this point; because the Wealth's Ear organization had sent people to spy on the inn where they were staying at night, and that spy, who was likely a Thief, had been killed and eaten by a shapeshifter, Jier was too embarrassed to turn back and ask this organization for information.

He hoped that the other party would be cautious because of this and not come to trouble him just because they lost an illegally scouting spy.

After taking the small road east from Wierstu Checkpoint, Jier's biggest feeling was that compared to the main trade route heading south, the ordinary dirt road under their carriage wheels and horse hooves was really not easy to travel on.

Fortunately, they could always see villages by the side of the road along the way, and these dirt roads were not in a state of being unmaintained.

Besides their caravan, other caravans and smaller groups of travelers traveling on foot and peddlers with pushcarts could be seen on this branch road heading east at any time. When they saw Jier's large caravan of more than ten carriages from afar, they would retreat to the side of the road early to clear the way for Jier's caravan, avoiding conflicts and trouble.

If you ask why these strangers did this? It can only be said that the armed Cavalrymen riding alone in the caravan were truly very intimidating to ordinary people.

And when the two sides got closer, these caravans and travelers on the road who took the initiative to give way, seeing the fully armed Jier riding a warhorse, would lower their heads even more obediently, avoiding eye contact, and some even took the initiative to salute Jier himself.

Most of the time, Jier would just nod casually to these passersby and not talk much. Only when he saw that the road under his feet was approaching the surrounding villages would Jier take the initiative to ask passersby. He would ask them the names of the nearby villages, compare them with the hand-drawn map, and identify them to confirm whether the direction of travel was the correct road.

Because it was different from other places, the wealthy Bendige Jun had a large population; not only were there many villages along the road, but looking north and south, one could see more villages not close to the road. Every few kilometers, the road under his feet would have fork roads leading to other directions, and Jier was afraid of going the wrong way, so he would constantly ask passersby.

But fortunately, Jier's sense of direction had always been good, and the caravan had only stopped to rest once before noon, arriving at this place on the map called Dīdì Zhen.

Jier, riding on horseback, had a good view; looking over the buildings of the town, he could see the faint appearance of a lake to the east of the town, and he also smelled a large amount of moisture in the air.

Even though they had traveled all the way through many areas of the Southern Province and not a single drop of rain had fallen since the beginning of spring, this Dīdì Zhen was not a place lacking water.

The large tracts of farmland outside the town had perfect irrigation facilities, and the cool lake water from not far away flowed in the canals. When the local farmers wanted to water their fields, they only needed to open the small sluice gate of the irrigation canal accompanied by a Church Priest of the Agricultural God Church to easily irrigate their farmland with a large amount of clear water.

Considering that they had only rested once since setting out from Wierstu Checkpoint in the morning, Jier rested for a while in the section of Dīdì Zhen close to the road.

Outside the town, near the road heading east, because of the passing of merchants and travelers, some simple grocery stores and inns naturally formed along the road. Jier's caravan was quite large, so of course, it was impossible to irresponsibly block the road for others, so he spent a small amount of money to let his caravan stop by the side of the road, on an uncultivated farmland that was resting its soil fertility.

Jier didn't need to look for people to ask everywhere; when his caravan slowed down near Dīdì Zhen, several farmers sitting on this uncultivated field by the side of the road boldly waved and shouted at the caravan.

Sending someone to ask, he learned that because this piece of farmland near the road belonging to these farmers needed to rest its fertility this year and was not being cultivated for crops, they had obtained permission from the Agricultural God Church in the town to temporarily rent it to passing caravans for stopping, resting, or camping overnight, avoiding blocking the narrow road.

The rental fee was also very cheap; the whole piece of land only cost a dozen copper coins.

Jier asked Weier to ask Xueya Site for some money and came forward to temporarily rent the place, letting his caravan rest here for a while to avoid the hottest part of the day. Having run all morning, the horses pulling the carriages needed a large amount of drinking water to replenish their body's moisture.

Simple shops facing passing travelers were open on both sides of the road not far ahead. Jier's subordinate Warriors could not stay in the caravan and applied to Jier to go over and take a look. There seemed to be no danger nearby, so Jier naturally agreed. He himself had no interest in these small roadside shops and stayed in the caravan to discuss some matters regarding potion preparation with Mr. Zuojigela.

This chapter counts as the 22nd's.