Chapter 656: Reaching an Agreement, Eight Hundred and Eighty-Seven People, and Maps

Jier turned his head to look at the hotel lobby behind him, realizing that with all sorts of people inside, it was not a suitable place; thus, he took the initiative to walk down the steps and said to the elders among the dozen or so refugees approaching, "If we are to discuss some matters, it is more appropriate right here."

Bata'er Jiaoshi also walked down and nodded to support Jier's decision, although he did not know what these elders were looking to do by coming over at this time.

The leading elders looked at each other and tacitly agreed to this.

They first performed a solemn gesture of respect toward the young Bata'er Jiaoshi: "We thank the Farmer God for His favor, and for your bravery and kindness. You have ensured that everyone will not go hungry for quite some time, that the children will not toss and turn in hunger in the middle of the night, that the women will not have to sell their bodies due to hunger, and that the young people will not be forced to take risks due to hunger, turning a situation that was already bad into something even worse."

Bata'er Jiaoshi felt his face flush upon hearing this, but he immediately performed a gesture of respect to show humility.

The leader among the elders turned to Jier and spoke: "We also thank this Knight, for being able to control this situation with moderation, preventing chaos, and keeping the soldiers at the local checkpoint from using the situation to cause trouble."

Jier waved his hand: "Hmph, I cannot stand what is happening here either. Even with the magnificent, sacred, and great creation that is the White Stone City Wall standing there and watching over everyone, they deliberately make things difficult for everyone, artificially creating suffering."

After the pleasantries, the elders cautiously asked Jier and his companion about their identities and their itinerary.

This was not something that could not be told, so Bata'er Jiaoshi briefly explained the reason.

Changmai Cunzi, Mengtuoka City, the arrivals, the blessing, the Farmer God, the rescue, and so on.

Only after speaking of this did the elders realize that Bata'er Jiaoshi was also a person from the Southern Province, and furthermore, a Cunzi Priest whose village population had been plundered by the defeated army that raided his village.

Some elders exchanged glances, their expressions becoming agitated, as if they had found hope once again.

"If that is the case, please allow the young people among us who have received your grace to assist the two of you. Having received grace, one cannot fail to repay it; otherwise, beans planted will not bear fruit, and wheat sown will not sprout. Even if it is the Farmer God's gift, we wretched people must still contribute the only thing we can: ourselves, to assist in your mission."

The leading elder said as much.

Jier's eyes darted, and he immediately understood what the other party was thinking and doing.

Therefore, before Bata'er Jiaoshi could subconsciously open his mouth to refuse, he reached out to stop his companion and spoke first to respond: "Very well, I thank you all for your assistance. I believe the great Farmer God will certainly be pleased to see this. His people are simple and loyal, always repaying the grace they receive."

Behind Jier, Bata'er Jiaoshi whispered quickly behind Jier's helmet: "Jier the warrior! There is no need for this. How can so many people go to save others? You don't actually intend to let those refugees who have been hungry for a long time fight against a fully armed defeated army, do you? Are you crazy?"

Turning a deaf ear, Jier took the initiative to remove his Steel Armor Gloves, hung them at his waist, and shook hands one by one with the dozen or so elders, asking them how many young people from the Southern Province they could each mobilize.

The refugees within the White Stone City Wall Guanka did not all come from one place; it was only under the chaotic local security environment that people from the western side of the Southern Province were forced to leave their homes. Those with connections went to towns, while those without gathered in groups, attempting to pass through the White Stone City Wall Guanka to reach the Western Province to avoid disaster.

Stating this mainly serves to explain that while the Southern Province refugees currently blocked at the checkpoint were all from the Southern Province and mostly shared the same reason for fleeing, they did not know each other.

Even when struggling to survive at the checkpoint, people who knew each other from the same village would actively gather among those they recognized. These dozen or so elders were the representatives of the vast majority of the refugees who had some semblance of organization.

They were all prominent figures who had some capability in their original villages.

Of course, the people and families who had been best off in the villages had naturally sought refuge with relatives and friends in the towns nearby.

Now that Jier had agreed to what the elders had discussed last night, he asked them one by one how many people they could bring to act with them.

"Ahem, I have twenty young people here, both men and women; please do not mind."

An elder with a hunched back was the first to tell Jier the number.

Jier nodded: "I do not mind; they are all young people and will certainly be of use. Actually, as you can all see, I am also a young person."

With the start made, the other elders reported their numbers one by one. One elder patted his chest and said: "Our village had a large population, and the whole village fled here. Excluding the families who need to care for the injured, the pregnant, and those with small children, we can provide a total of one hundred people. Although they have been a bit listless lately due to hunger, please believe that they were all fine young men and women who could work the fields better than a Plowing Ox."

Jier listened with satisfaction and nodded repeatedly, but Bata'er Jiaoshi felt it was getting stranger the more he heard.

At first, he had tried to stop Jier from taking the young refugees along, as he was anxious to save people; every day of delay meant another day of suffering for his villagers. But as one elder after another reported the number of people they could send, he fell silent.

It was only just now that he understood an important truth.

The villagers of Changmai Cunzi were being plundered and suffering, but were the refugees from many other villages, whose numbers were many times greater and who were trapped at the White Stone City Wall Guanka at this time, not also suffering?

They were all the same people, all believers or followers of the Farmer God, and there should be no distinction between you and me.

Yet, he still subconsciously felt that the villagers of Changmai Cunzi, whom he knew well, were more important.

And far more important than the many times greater number of refugees from other places before his eyes.

So, after realizing this, Bata'er Jiaoshi fell silent.

"So, the total number is eight hundred and eighty-seven? Is that correct?"

Jier said this after finishing his conversation with all the elders.

His question actually stumped many of the villagers who had not performed large-scale calculations; each of them knew the number of people in their own village, but they had not expected that the total number of people gathered would be so high!

"If you feel the number is too large and it is difficult for you, we can have fewer people," someone said.

Jier waved his hand: "No need, no need to have fewer; over eight hundred, nearly nine hundred, that is fine."

Last night, Jier had roughly noticed how many people Bata'er Jiaoshi could prepare rations for using the 'Blessed Grain' blessing; the rough, inaccurate number was around twelve hundred.

Nearly nine hundred was still within the capacity of Bata'er Jiaoshi's blessing.

Even if they added the population of Changmai Cunzi that might be rescued later, if everyone ate sparingly, it would generally be enough.

He clapped his hands to draw everyone's attention: "In that case, have your people gather in groups outside the east gate of the White Stone City Wall Guanka to wait for me. Let me ask: the soldiers at the checkpoint do not allow passage to the west, but they did not say one could not return to the east, to the Southern Province, right?"

Someone immediately replied: "That is possible, those &*￥%, when we entered the checkpoint, they only charged the normal fee, but to pass through the checkpoint, we had to pay fifty times the crossing tax."

Jier smiled slightly: "That is good, as long as we can return to the Southern Province normally. In that case, elders, please send people back to notify your respective groups to head outside the checkpoint now. There is one more thing I must ask of you all."

The elders looked at Jier, and everyone gradually realized that among the equally young Priest and Knight, this young Knight held the true leading authority, rather than the Farmer God Priest who held the grain that could be blessed by the gods.

"Please speak, Knight."

Jier did not bother to clarify that he was not yet a Knight, and continued: "I need maps. Maps of the Southern Province. Mountains, rivers, bridges, roads, towns, villages, dangerous areas, areas where Magic Beasts have appeared, the directions from which attacks by defeated armies or Bandits have come, and so on."

"I need detailed map intelligence, and I hope you can provide it to me. Since you have all arrived at this damn place from your respective villages, you must surely have one or several maps in your possession. Please give me one; I need to combine the maps you have with the intelligence you gathered along the way and the news you have heard into one. This is very important, not only for the mission of myself and Bata'er Jiaoshi, but also for the lives of those young people you have entrusted to me."

Jier let out a breath: "After all, you wouldn't want to see me, an outsider, lead so many young people into a Magic Beast's lair or some dangerous dead end, right?"

The elders looked at each other. Some clever elders took out leather maps they had already prepared from their bosoms, while those who had not thought of this hurriedly had the girls supporting them return to quickly fetch the maps they had used on their journey.

Right on the street outside the hotel, Jier had the male waiters in the hotel bring over a round table and placed the elders' maps on it.

Every map was different, not only in the materials used to make them but also in their content.

One elder looked at the more refined maps of the others, then looked at his own, which was ridiculously crude and as clumsy as a doodle, and had no choice but to scratch his thinning hair and chuckle: "Ours is a bit simple, but at least the general direction was correct, and it still guided our villagers here."

His map was simply absurd; apart from showing several villages and towns around their original village, the directions of the cities further away were a complete mess, even if the general cardinal directions were correct.

The map did not even mark the mountain ranges; the terrain was depicted as completely flat.

The other elders laughed for a while, then ended their good-natured mockery. They were all suffering people, and since everyone was here now, there was no point in making fun of this.

Jier also laughed along, then selected the largest and best map as the base, using the other villages' maps as references, along with the elders' actual experiences fleeing along the way, to correct all the key points and errors on this map one by one.

First, determine the north-south direction, then, following the words of an old man who had visited various large cities in his youth, re-mark the various large cities like Mengtuoka City on the map according to their actual travel distances.

Next, after determining the distances between cities, came the orientation and size of the mountain ranges.

Following that were the detailed locations of the villages where each of the old men lived; this point could be well determined by relying on the connections between the various villages.

Priest Bata'er also pointed out the location of Changmai Cunzi.

Jier looked at the place the Priest's finger was pointing, used an ink quill borrowed from the inn Steward, drew a small circle at the designated spot, and labeled it with the name Changmai Cunzi next to it.

Jier looked closely and discovered that the location of Changmai Cunzi was very subtle.

It was actually the village in the western region of the Southern Province that was closest to the southern national border and the disputed iron ore vein on the southernmost border of the war-torn Southern Province.

It hugged a relatively short, horizontal mountain range; if the army in the disputed area were defeated, they could reach Changmai Cunzi just by crossing this entire mountain range.

Of course, this was very difficult; one must know that according to the scale of the map in front of Jier, that small, relatively short horizontal mountain range was as wide as half of Kendall County. If it were field marching, a regular army with sufficient supplies could not cross this mountain range, let alone defeated troops with incomplete equipment after a battle.

"Priest Bata'er, you say, how could the defeated troops that attacked your village cross such a wide, uninhabited mountain range?" Jier raised this question.

This question, instead, stumped the Priest, who had never thought about this matter before.

"That, that is true, indeed, damn it! No one thought of this point, because with our backs to the Qingxi Mountain Range, we have always kept our attention on the areas to the north and east."

Seeing Priest Bata'er's troubled expression as he tried to think it through, Jier stopped his wild thoughts: "Don't overthink it; we will look at and analyze this matter later."

Subsequently, Jier marked some less fixed intelligence on it according to the news heard by the old men.

For example, the town belonging to the Bowen Fief, where Changmai Cunzi was located, had also been attacked by an unidentified group, and a small half of the town's people were killed or went missing. There was also a certain forest that seemed to be the nearest shortcut, but because there were mysterious and unknown Magic Beasts appearing, it could not be traveled; even though the old map previously marked it as a main road, it was currently impassable.

Besides this, there were also the approximate locations of the lairs of some famous Bandits, areas where Monsters appeared and killed or injured people, unknown dead zones, abandoned alien fortresses, and so on.

These were current pieces of information that simply could not be seen on the map without asking carefully.

Jier marked them one by one with solid and dashed lines, creating possible routes that were dangerous and not dangerous.

"Alright, thank you all. This journey is fraught with danger. I cannot guarantee that I will bring everyone back, but I can swear, I swear on my heart, that I will try my best to bring the young people entrusted to me back alive."

Jier said this, and the old men believed him.

They had no choice but to believe.

Before parting, Jier and Priest Bata'er shook hands with the old men once more. After their palms gripped heavily, the old men were helped away by others.

Once the people had walked further away, Priest Bata'er grabbed a protrusion on Jier's armor and pulled on Jier: "Are you crazy? Letting so many people follow our operation, what exactly are you trying to do?"

Jier patted the map in his hand: "This is one thing."

"And what else?"

Jier smiled slightly: "Let's get on the road first, we'll talk on the way."

The two arrived at the inn's backyard. After Jier paid the inn Steward's accommodation fees, he jumped directly onto the Tianxuecao: "Let's go, Mr. Siter. Priest Bata'er, you ride a horse, let's talk while riding."

The three of them quickly urged their horses and the carriage to leave the inn, heading toward the main road at the inn entrance, and walked toward the city wall on the east side of the checkpoint.

Priest Bata'er rode his horse closer to Jier, looked at the young Refugees gradually gathering on the street and then also walking eastward, and said to Jier: "So, can you tell me now?"

Jier pointed to the young people around them who had been persuaded by the old men of each village and intended to follow them: "Hungry young people are very dangerous. Not only to the Soldiers who need to maintain order in the checkpoint, but also to the people of the Southern Province who have fled here, it is also very dangerous. Therefore, these dangerous young people need to be 'excluded' to ensure the survival of others."

"How could that be?"

Seeing Priest Bata'er's look of disbelief, Jier added: "The reason is simple. When I saw that the people who came to discuss the matter were more than ten old men from various villages, rather than one or two middle-aged men in their prime surrounded by others, I realized this point."

"To outsiders, the Refugees from the Southern Province are a group, a collective. But in reality, they are more than a dozen groups. Besides the fact that they are all people from the Southern Province who came here to escape, they have absolutely nothing in common. Not only that, some villages that are close to each other might not be companions, like companions who fled together and helped each other; on the contrary, they are enemies who usually fight over water sources and fields."

Once Jier said this, Priest Bata'er, who had also stayed in the village for quite some time, understood.

The Refugees, who appeared to outsiders as one group, were actually not together. Not only were they unrelated in terms of region, but even the time from deciding to flee the village to arriving at the White Stone City Wall Guanka was not necessarily unified.

Not to mention that some villages already had conflicts; after being blocked inside the checkpoint, the scarce various survival resources had to be fought over by the Refugees from each village.

Presumably, in places where the locals could not see, this kind of fighting resulted in deaths and injuries on both sides.

This point was very dangerous for the vast majority of people among the Refugees.

Because if the Refugees from other villages with bad relations couldn't beat the young people of your village, couldn't they beat the old, weak, women, and children of your village?

Just thinking about it, Priest Bata'er shivered, feeling that on this spring morning, even though the day was sunny, his whole body felt cold.

"How can they be like wild beasts!"

Jier clearly heard the Priest's muttering: "Wild beasts? If you think the scene inside the orderly checkpoint is like wild beasts, then when we arrive in the Southern Province in a while and see the current situation, what will you say then?"

"What do you mean! Warrior Jier, what do you mean!"

Jier's face turned cold, and he provided further psychological preparation for the Priest: "Perhaps wild beasts are the kindest things we will encounter for a period of time in the future."

Xueya Site listened from the side the whole time. Hearing this, he also shook his head. Unlike Jier, who seemed steady, and Bata'er, who was disappointed and had never witnessed the chaos of war, Xueya Site had seen the situation where all normal survival rules were changed once a war started.

War is the highest masterpiece that every intelligent life must face, and one has no choice but to taste it.