Chapter 416: Conversations on Both Sides

"Let's continue. First is the arrangement for the Refugee Team, second is the contact with the villagers of Torito Cunzi, and finally, the Dwarves." Jier counted on his fingers, ticking off one, two, three.

"As for the Dwarves, are you really going to take them away?" The Priest truly could not imagine, could not understand, how Jier would choose such a method to resolve the predicament of Torito Cunzi.

"Of course. All the problems here are caused by them. Only if they leave, are willing to leave, and truly leave, will all the dilemmas in this Valley be resolved. After all, they are an alien race, and beneath our feet is, after all, human land."

Jier shrugged, his tone relaxed: "Perhaps this place belonged to their Dwarves in the past, but now it is ours, and in the future, it will inevitably be ours. If they want to live, they must take the initiative to retreat; otherwise, there will only be bloodshed, endless bloodshed, until all the Dwarves' blood is drained dry."

"Therefore, their emotions must be well appeased. I will go to the village in a moment and have them release the captured Dwarves. At the same time, I will arrange with the Dwarves that starting tomorrow morning, I will hold a three-party negotiation with them and the human villagers regarding the exchange of supplies."

"This matter must be handled early. Once it is settled, we can set off sooner to save people."

Bata'er Jiaoshi was somewhat puzzled as to why the warrior Jier considered this matter of material exchange so important.

Hearing the Priest's question, Jier had to explain: "For the Dwarves to leave here, besides the North Mine which they cannot take with them, they will inevitably abandon most of the wealth and fixed assets they have accumulated over the years. Instead, they will trade these things for supplies or insurance promises that can be useful on their journey."

The Priest keenly grasped a key point: "Insurance promises? Whose promises? Yours, Jier?"

Jier rubbed his nose and smiled awkwardly: "I can make a small profit too, can't I? I am taking them away from here, sheltering them in my name along the way, and providing some security protection—although they are very powerful and don't really need me to protect them. But aside from the things promised during the negotiations to resolve the Torito Cunzi predicament, shouldn't they pay me with some—no, a small amount of—wealth for the extra protection and shelter?"

"I did put in the effort, after all."

After a brief explanation, Jier continued the previous topic: "And the villagers of Torito Cunzi, they want to occupy the wealth and fixed assets left behind by the Dwarves, so shouldn't they use some supplies to trade for them? Not only do the Dwarves think so, but the villagers think so too. Because the Dwarves' things are quite good—sturdy, durable, and rare in the outside world."

Jier held up a finger and said with a mysterious expression: "Besides that, the most valuable thing is the land left behind after the Dwarf houses in the center of the village collapsed due to the fighting. That place is the best location in the village. As long as they go through reasonable exchange transactions, the villagers who obtain the land can be considered to officially own them."

"Even if someone argues about this in the future, they can take out the contracts left after trading with the Dwarves as proof of the land in their hands."

The Priest rubbed his chin, pondered for a while, and asked Jier with a smile on his face: "Warrior Jier, do you think the future Nongshen Church should have one built in the center of Torito Cunzi?"

Jier laughed out loud: "Then you must act early. Hurry and see what you can take out from your team to trade with the Dwarves tomorrow, otherwise, if you are slow, I estimate the villagers will snap up all the good spots at once. After all, those four elders in the village, along with their own families, will certainly gain quite a few benefits in this process."

"But if you ask for a share, they will certainly give you that face."

On the other side, outside the gate of the Treasure Mine in the northern part of the village.

The ground here was all gravel and dust, not even a blade of grass growing. It looked a bit strange, but the Dwarves were used to it.

The group of old Dwarves who had returned early were currently arranging for people to prepare a temporary living space for the Human believer of the God of Strength who had followed them back.

It was just a simple camp tent modeled after the ones where the commoners lived in Jier's camp. This sort of thing was truly too simple for the Dwarves; although they hadn't made one before, they knew how to put it together after one look.

"First, set up the main wooden frame. Remember, the sharp end is the bottom; it must be driven into the soil. Leave grooves for splicing between the wooden frames, then secure them with Rope. After the whole frame is set up, finally cover it with the Linen Cloth roof. The large piece of Linen Cloth used as the roof must be secured around the edges with ground nails and Rope."

The Wild Priest of the God of Strength was currently busy leading people to set up the temporary camp. This work didn't have much to do with him originally, but since this Human was a new believer, he had to put his heart into it. Otherwise, if he didn't take good care of him and the person ran away, how would he answer to the deity?

The old Dwarf, acting as the leader, called the Human believer to the side, and the two sat on simple stone chairs outside the mine, speaking in low voices.

"Don't be nervous, young man. Since you have bravely converted to our Dwarf deity, you are one of us. We are truly in urgent need of manpower right now; your joining is truly too important." The old Dwarf comforted the somewhat nervous young Human Warrior.

"Mr. Aobosi, may I call you that? I'm actually not nervous. In fact, I feel great right now; I feel full of strength." The young man said excitedly, and after speaking, he made a gesture of clenching his fist and waving it forcefully.

"Ha, ha, ha. That's good, that's good. Since you aren't nervous, shall we chat? You will be acting together with our Priest of the God of Strength from now on, so everyone needs to get familiar with each other, don't they?"

The old Dwarf stroked his beard and asked in a relaxed manner.

"You're right. If there is anything you want to know, please ask." The young Human Warrior was also very straightforward.

The old Dwarf pondered for a moment and asked a question he cared about most: "I once heard that young Knight Jier say that he met you and these fleeing commoners at a place built with glowing stone, right?"

The young man realized: "You must mean Baishi Pass, right? That's right, that's right, it was there. Come to think of it, my home is in a place called Red Leaf Forest Cunzi, a bit north of the Province Capital. Because starting from last summer, the local lord took away a large number of our soldiers and the able-bodied men from the village to fight. As a result, after the Harvest Festival in the autumn, many of the original gangsters and hooligans from the towns gathered quite a few people to go to various villages to extort and steal."

The young man was extremely indignant when he said this: "They thought there was no one left nearby who could punish them because the lord and the soldiers were gone, so they committed violence against us villagers and did all sorts of bad things. Everyone resisted, but every day, young people from various villages who were blinded and bewitched were tempted by the benefits offered by those gangsters and hooligans, joining their groups."

The old Dwarf said nothing, just patiently listening to the young Human's complaints. Although he really wanted to know the specific defensive situation of what the Humans called Baishi Pass—the Baishi Castle on the Dwarf side—he was very patient and knew some techniques for conversation.

The more you want to know something, the less you should discuss it directly; that will expose your intentions and cause resistance.

"Everyone later drove them out of our village, but after only a few days, bad guys from nearby villages gathered together and surrounded our village. They didn't attack directly; they just surrounded the outside of the village so that everyone inside couldn't get out to warn the town. Later, one day, a small group of people snuck into the village and set fires everywhere. Sigh, we surrendered afterward and gave them money, hoping they would leave us alone."

"But they were even worse after taking the money." The young man had an angry look on his face.

The old Dwarf interjected at this point: "You shouldn't have given them money. You should have gone out to fight at that time. As long as you defeat the leaders, the others will see there is no benefit and there will be casualties, so they will just scatter or go somewhere else."

The young man smashed his fist hard against the stone chair he was sitting on. With a 'bang', cracks appeared where the stone chair was hit: "You are right, but at that time, no one dared to go out and fight for their lives. Everyone was terrified, thinking that if we gave them money, those hooligans and bad guys would be satisfied. As a result, they became even bolder."

The young man shook his head, seemingly recalling some memories he really didn't want to think about.

"The day we gave them the money, those people rushed into the village, grabbing everything, taking everything. Many young girls were dragged away by them from their homes, and they only left after committing violence. They didn't leave because they were satisfied with us, but because they were in a hurry to go to other villages to extort, rob, and commit violence. After that, everyone in the village was afraid. Many people, even if they didn't want their houses and land, had to flee this place that had completely lost its safety."

"From then on, our entire village only carried clothes and food, first heading north, trying to go to the Central Province, but there were many ponds and swamps there, and the air smelled of rot. Although it was almost winter, there were still many mosquitoes and insects, so many people got sick and didn't dare to continue north."

When the young man said this, he let out a long sigh: "My mother died then because she was bitten by mosquitoes and infected with a parasite. It could have been cured, but finding a doctor and buying medicine was too expensive. Just because we were outsiders, the price of the same medicine was more than five times higher. Going to the Agricultural God Church also didn't work because we weren't local believers; the church Priest told us to buy land locally first, then join the membership, and then wait in line for treatment. But..."

The young man shook his head, tears flowing from his eyes, streaming down his cheeks: "My mother finally held her head and kept screaming in pain, kept screaming in pain. She couldn't take it, so she slammed her head against the stone wall of the local Agricultural God Church and died."

"Even the funeral—sigh, because there was a lack of Forest there, even firewood for burning was very expensive. My mother's body couldn't even be burned into ashes to take away. We could only do like the local poor, using the insect burial method, letting maggots eat the flesh off the body clean, and after only the bones were left, we smashed the bones and put them in a wooden jar to take away."

The old Dwarf also sighed: "To think such a thing happened. What happened later? You didn't continue north, did you?"

The young man nodded numbly: "Yes, my father discussed it with the heads of other refugee families in the village for two days. Everyone was afraid of the annoying environment of the Central Province and decided to return and head west, because we heard from passing Merchants that Mengtuoka City in the Western Province, near our Southern Province, welcomed outsiders to migrate there. So everyone headed west."

"On the road, there were refugees from all over. Everyone was on guard, but also supported each other, and suffered a lot. Hunger, extortion, robbery, disease, accidents—many people fell on the road without even a decent burial. But fortunately, last winter, not a single snow fell. The temperature was low, but if it didn't snow, the roads in various places were still passable."

The old Dwarf looked at the sky: "Not only did it not snow last winter, but from winter to now in spring, not a single drop of rain has fallen here either. We are fine here; there is water from the mountains flowing into the Pond, so there is no shortage for farming and such. What about other places?"

"Who is still farming this year? Everyone has fled. At that time, on the way to Baishi Pass, we could easily meet refugee commoners from other places; there were people from every region and every village." The young man added.

"So the situation outside is that bad?" The old Dwarf narrowed his eyes.

The young man replied: "I didn't know before, but later when I arrived at Baishi Pass, I heard the old man who ran the shop there explain it clearly. Because of the war with the neighboring country, all the lords and Knight lords of our Southern Province took their troops and people to the Province Capital to assemble. I heard that they organized an army once earlier last year, but they didn't win against the southern neighboring country, so starting from last autumn, the Noble lords gathered more troops, more Soldiers, and more young people, intending to try again this year."

"Oh, is that so." After hearing this, the old Dwarf felt something was wrong.

He pondered for a while before he figured out what was going on.

The lords in various parts of the Human lands taking away the Soldiers and able-bodied men from the villages would inevitably lead to a void in local security, a failure of management, and the rise of Bandits and hooligans. This would cause villages without self-defense capabilities to collapse and flee entirely.

From the perspective of governance, this whole thing is not cost-effective. Because for the various lords, the land they own and the population on that land are their greatest wealth.

Such a strange move of abandoning future returns, unless those lords can make up for the returns elsewhere.

Otherwise, no matter how you calculate it, it's a loss.

There must be a way to make up for the returns, the old Dwarf thought, but he knew that such things could not be asked from the young man in front of him.

"So, after you fled to that Baishi City, uh, Baishi Pass, what happened? According to what you said, shouldn't you have gone directly to that what-you-call-it city in the Western Province of you Humans?" The old Dwarf continued to ask.

He didn't ask directly about the Dwarf Baishi Castle, but instead asked about what happened after the young man arrived at the Human Baishi Pass.

Unexpectedly, the young man slapped his thigh hard—*slap*—his own strength was so great that he ended up hurting himself: "Sigh, everyone only found out once we arrived there. Because we went a bit late, Mengtuoka City already had enough outsiders to accommodate; they were no longer accepting people to migrate and settle down. So, the soldiers at Baishiguan blocked everyone who came later inside the pass and wouldn't let anyone through. Unless you were especially rich and could pay those soldiers enough."

"Unable to pass, everyone had no choice but to crowd inside the pass. We couldn't return to our hometowns, nor could we reach the other side. We could only scramble for every job we could find. Those without work could only survive by begging every day. Fortunately, it was very prosperous there; the tiny bit of food begged was barely enough for a family to eat. Just barely enough to eat, barely..."

After saying this, the young man fell silent, seemingly recalling those dark days.

"Oh, could you tell me about the situation at that time? Specifically, what you saw and heard inside Baishiguan." The old Dwarf showed his true colors, turning the topic back to Baishiguan.

"There's nothing much to speak of, old sir. Just chaotic things like fighting for work, brawling, begging, scrambling for relief food distributed by the church, and then fighting again because of the food, and so on." The young man looked helpless, even exposing his shoulder to show the scars left on his arm from injuries sustained during those fights.

"The soldiers blocked you and wouldn't let you pass, so you really didn't cross? Were there more of you people seeking survival in the pass, or more of those soldiers?" The old Dwarf took the opportunity to ask about the questions he truly cared about.

The young man got angry as soon as he heard this: "Of course there were more of us refugees! But numbers were useless. We were all refugees from different villages who didn't know each other; there was simply no one who could organize or rally everyone. Inside the pass, everyone scrambled against each other for job opportunities and food, which had long since made relationships very stiff."

"Besides, although the soldiers were few in number, there were still several hundred of them. They were all elite soldiers fully equipped with weapons and armor. Every single one had iron chest armor, carried a sword and a bow, not to mention that leading these soldiers were several Knights. I didn't know how powerful Knights were at the time, I only saw that the elders were very afraid of those Knights, even far more than they feared the soldiers who were more numerous in the pass."

The young man sighed and shook his head: "Later, I followed Knight Jier on the road to seek a living. Only after truly witnessing Knight Jier's skills did I understand why the elders were so afraid of the Knights in the pass. I remember, just a few days after our group set out from the pass, we encountered a large group of Bandits entrenched on the Shanglu. It happened at night. Many, many people died that night, but Knight Jier killed nearly a hundred Bandits all by himself."

"Killed over a hundred people by himself?" The old Dwarf gasped.

"Yes, I was fighting alongside him at the time. Because I was always fighting with people inside Baishiguan, I was still capable of fighting, which is why I was later chosen to join the Armed Squad. Knight Jier was covered in charred blood scabs at the time; that was blood baked dry by high heat. A large group of Bandits were burned to death by a weapon in his hand that could release flames. His Long Spear could even perform a jumping cleave, splitting a Bandit in two from head to crotch. Many people were terrified by Knight Jier's battle that day."

"From then on, no one was ever afraid of Bandits again, because everyone knew that Knight Jier was far more terrifying than those Bandits," the young man finally said.

"A weapon that releases flames..." The old Dwarf shook his head, knowing he had been deceived by that young Knight during the negotiation. Only now did he finally realize that Jier's most powerful weapon was not the Luminous Longsword thrown to the bottom of the large pit, but a Magic weapon capable of releasing flames to scorch enemies.

"Tell me about Baishiguan. You were blocked there at the time and didn't dare to storm the pass, so why didn't you try to bypass the pass from the outside? Wouldn't you have been able to reach a safe area that way?" The old Dwarf turned the topic back to Baishiguan again.

And the young Human Warrior was also willing to answer these matters that no longer had much to do with him. The two asked and answered, and time passed quickly.

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