Chapter 708: A Group Discussion at Night

The sky darkened quickly, and the group did not have much strict discipline. Having experienced the slaughter and fighting last night, the young people now understood what this cruel world was truly like. Therefore, after wiping away their tears, whether genuine or feigned, everyone revealed smiles.

Some particularly lively young people began to sing, gathering around the fire to dance.

Even though they had appeared exhausted before, once they began to dance, their bodies seemed to be instantly refilled with energy.

Most of them only knew simple village dances: stomping their feet, holding their companions' hands, kicking their legs forward and back together, or laughing as they spun around and swapped partners.

There were not many rules to the dancing; they could be as free and uninhibited as they liked.

Some of the young men who had fought bravely the night before were especially popular with the girls in the group. With warm wheat porridge in hand, everyone ate and drank their fill, becoming merry in groups organized by village.

"The blue-tail flower is not as fragrant as you."

"Butterflies always circle around you too."

"The bees are also tipsy this spring, collecting the sweat and tears of every girl."

"And I, brave enough to gather honey, only wish to taste the sweet, cloying flavor that carries your scent."

"Please don't be shy, the reddest flower cannot compare to your cheeks."

"Please don't be shy, the most beautiful flower cannot compare to your cheeks."

"Your cheeks."

Xueya Site did not know when he had also begun to show off his singing voice by a campfire; although he did not sing well, his level of singing was already above those around him.

Jier smiled. At this moment, he was sitting by the campfire next to his carriage, relying on the fire's light to carefully and meticulously wipe his armor with a damp, fine cloth, then using a dry cloth to remove the moisture before oiling the armor.

If he encountered scratches on the armor caused by the bandits' arrows from the night before, he would take out a small metal hammer and tap away at the areas with slight damage.

But if the damage was too great, it was not something he could handle; it had to be left to a professional craftsman to deal with.

Repairing armor damage did not require a professional armor craftsman like Ganna; an ordinary blacksmith was generally enough. But ordinary blacksmiths could only barely maintain metal armor; having these people make one from scratch was difficult for many who had not received professional training.

Similar ring mail made of small metal rings did not require the skills of a master craftsman; a craftsman who could forge iron nails could generally make this.

However, ring mail was time-consuming and laborious; a blacksmith could only make one suit of ring mail in half a year. This meant that this type of light metal armor, which had limited defense and was easily damaged, could only be prepared for wealthy and idle warriors who lacked the strength of a Knight.

Formal Knights all used powerful Knight Armor; these armors weighed at least nearly one hundred kilograms, which ordinary people could not use at all.

After a while, amidst the singing and dancing that had been deliberately guided by someone, Bata'er Jiaoshi wiped the sweat from his head and walked over.

He sat down beside Jier without regard for his image, panting: "Your method is not bad; everyone's spirits are finally up. It's a change from the confused and silent atmosphere of the afternoon."

"That's not important, it's a small matter. Come, look over here at my plan."

Jier moved his metal breastplate onto the ground between the two of them to use as a low table.

Then he took out a map.

The map was unfolded, with many marks and short text descriptions written and drawn on it.

Bata'er Jiaoshi soon followed Jier's finger and found the White Stone City Wall Guanka and their current location.

A short distance to the east of the checkpoint, Jier had drawn a red cross: "This is where the battle took place last night," he explained.

Then Jier moved a little further east and pointed here: "This is where we are now."

Around them were several small red dots: "These are the places where several bandit nests were wiped out last night."

Jier followed the Shanglu marked by two dashed lines all the way east: "At our current speed—though perhaps a bit faster—if we walk for another three days, we will be able to walk out of the narrow strip between the mountains. Then we will be able to see the first town on the barely opening land—Dorn Town."

"You've been there, right? How is it?"

Facing Jier's question, Bataer replied directly: "Not great. It's a smelly, dirty, and chaotic little place. The place isn't big, but there are plenty of scoundrels. When I passed through there, I couldn't stand it. I can only say that the rotten guys on this Shanglu who gave up being bandits are probably all gathered in that place right now."

Jier rubbed his chin: "Hmm, I think I understand. What else? Who is the ruler? What is the population, and how is the local industry?"

Bata'er Jiaoshi rolled his eyes: "Let me think. Sigh, I don't want to recall such a bad place. I remember there is no main ruler locally. Nominally, it belongs to a local Baron, but the other party also knows the special nature of this place, so they didn't intervene directly in the management, but instead delegated the local management power to several large Merchant Guilds. The Noble only wants the taxes handed over by the other party; they don't care about anything else."

The Priest complained: "They let that place be full of black markets, prostitutes, and gambling dens everywhere. Many Merchants there do everything, both legitimate and illegitimate. As for the population, it's about two thousand people. There are still some people farming around it, and I remember there are special farms raising chickens to produce eggs to supply the town's meat consumption."

"Industry? You can imagine it, Jier. You copy the White Stone City Wall Guanka over there, then remove the stationed Soldiers, and double the chaos. Dorn Town is just about like that."

Jier nodded: "Sounds like a good place full of wealth?"

The Priest shook his head: "From the perspective of the Church of the God of Wealth, it is a good place. But if you look at it as a Priest of the Agricultural God Church, that place is terrible. The farmers who farm and raise animals around the town don't rely on this for a living; they are all debtors forced to work by others. It's terrible."

"Oh, debtors? Then they will probably never pay off their debts. After all, just as they finish paying off their debts, they go to the man-eating gambling tables in town, and they probably have to owe a lot of money again."

Jier stretched out both hands, lifting his left hand: "Desire, all kinds of desires that lead people to fall."

He lifted his right hand: "Debt labor, working endlessly for almost no pay."

He clasped his hands together: "Combined, ordinary people will only sink deeper and deeper, unable to escape, and they are not even willing to be 'rescued' by others."

Bata'er Jiaoshi let out a breath: "Who's to say otherwise."

After a moment of silence, Jier continued to point from the location of Dorn Town toward the southeast, his finger sliding across the map, passing through several towns and one city along the secondary branch of the Shanglu, as well as scattered villages represented by only a single dot.

Finally, on this map of the western region of the Southern Province, near the southeastern border mountains, there was a small red dot with a name next to it—Changmai.

That was Changmai Cunzi.

It looked very remote, and in terms of distance, it was not far from the border front where he heard the Southern Province army was defeated last year.

It was just that Changmai Cunzi was adjacent to a mountain range that stretched across the border on the map, a wide mountain range oriented southwest-northeast.

It looked like the straight-line distance on the map was very close, but if you didn't intend to cross the mountains, the actual distance was very long; that distance could even take you directly to the capital of the Southern Province.

Jier spoke: "Let's talk about something practical. How about this: considering that after rescuing the population of Changmai Cunzi, the burned-down Changmai Cunzi is no longer suitable for resettlement, I intend to take these young Refugees around me and find a suitable, uninhabited village to settle down in."

"Most of these people around us will be settled there. We will take a small number of those who can fight, then go to Changmai Cunzi, start from there to look for the retreat traces of the defeated army that snatched the population, find the place, and break it. Then we will bring the rescued people back to the safe settlement. The people of Changmai Cunzi will live together with these young Refugees."

"In this way, as a Priest, you can also have a group of people who support you. Instead of these so-called 'believers' whose true intentions are hard to distinguish, like now."

Bata'er Jiaoshi pursed his lips, knowing that Jier saw through the fact that many believers did not truly have Faith in the Agricultural God; those people just wanted to rely on his status to escape danger and obtain the false sense of security that came from huddling together.

The Priest still reminded him: "Don't say this everywhere. If you don't say it, everyone knows but can still maintain it. If you say it out loud, some people who could have truly converted into believers will all run away. I won't have anyone left under me, eh."

Jier waved his hand with a smile: "I won't cause you any trouble, rest assured. In short, that's the general process. How about it? Do you have anything to add?"

After listening, the Priest lowered his head and carefully examined the complex map. After a while, he said: "So, the only problem is, where should a safe settlement be chosen that can avoid the chaos that might last for several years?"

The Priest's finger swept across most of the map: "Even Changmai Cunzi was attacked, plus many villages that fled the chaos in their entirety. I feel that unless some town or city is willing to accept us, nowhere is safe. I know the village will definitely train some village Militia who are willing to fight to protect themselves, but the bad guys also have legs; they will attack my village, which cannot compare to the defenses of a town, endlessly. And the bad guys also have ears and mouths; they will unite, just like last night, having discussed how to divide the wealth and lives of these innocent people, and then launch an attack together."

Bata'er Jiaoshi looked dejected, his finger waving randomly on the map: "I can't find a place that looks safe. There are naturally many bad guys and bandits near cities and towns, and abandoned villages have their own reasons for being abandoned. They will always be targeted by someone."

Jier nodded: "So this is a question worth discussing. I am not familiar with this land of yours either; the methods and plans have already been proposed, and what remains is to find a suitable place."

Jier scratched his slightly itchy nape: "How about we find some reliable people and discuss it together?"

The Priest asked in confusion: "Which reliable people?"

Jier stood up and called over a nimble young man who had been listening to his orders by a nearby campfire: "Go, call those four guys under my command, and tell them I called for them."

This young man was about the same age as Jier, only sixteen or seventeen, but he was far behind in height and weight, reaching only to Jier's chest; he nodded repeatedly, remembering the tasks the Knight had entrusted to him.

"Hmm, also call Nobi-Fentijia, that rescued old Merchant, over as well. Luosa, should we call Ms. Feiniya over?"

The Priest hurriedly waved his hand in refusal: "Forget it. From what you said, she will likely leave at Duoen Town; it is better not to involve her."

"Hmm, in that case, finally, call Long-Bafute, that is the middle-aged Merchant who was previously managing the distribution of everyone's cargo; you know him, right?"

The young man nodded; he did not memorize the names Jier spoke, but rather the characteristics of the people to find. For example, the old Merchant among the rescued people, and the middle-aged Merchant who managed the transport.

"These people, and call Xueya Site over as well; tell him to stop idling and singing, and have everyone come over to discuss matters. Go."

Jier waved his hand, and the young man received the order, turned, and ran off to call the people.

"This way, we can briefly explain the situation to everyone and let everyone discuss and decide on a safe place. These people are either experienced Caravan guards who have traveled far and wide, or villagers from the original villages in this area, or middle-aged core Merchants and experienced old Merchants. Their understanding of the region is certainly above ours."

Jier smiled and pointed at the Priest and himself: "After all, one of us is an outsider, and the other is a Cunzi Priest from the most remote village in the region."

Priest Bata'er curled his lips and retorted: "Although Changmai Cunzi is remote, its scale is not small. The village population is also quite large, and overall it is stronger than many refugee villages. You must know, if it hadn't been for the attack by that suddenly appearing defeated army, relying on our village's defenses and population, ordinary Bandits would simply not be our match."

"Yes, yes, that's right, absolutely correct," Jier said perfunctorily.

Priest Bata'er felt that Jier was mocking him, but he had no evidence.

After a while, the people who were called arrived one after another.

They arrived in turn and were arranged by Jier to sit together, after which Jier briefly explained the current situation to these people. He did not say much about the plan regarding Changmai Cunzi, but he clearly informed everyone about the need to find a place that could remain safe and stable for a long time to avoid the chaotic situation in the Southern Province.

Xueya Site was the first to arrive. After he came over, he observed the map spread out on the Metal Breastplate for a while, and after asking what the various marks on the map meant, he pointed to one of the places and said: "How about this place?"

The Knight and the Priest leaned their heads over to look and discovered that what Xueya Site was pointing at was a small plain area near the only place in the local region that could be considered a large city—Borisfa City.

As mentioned before, the west, south, and east sides of the Southern Province are spanned by large mountain ranges; overall, there are no large mountain ranges within the province to block or divide the entire region. But while there are no large ones, there are many other small mountain ranges and forests. Furthermore, the large and small rivers relying on the mountain ranges also divide the vast Southern Province into small, narrow plains along the rivers.

Many towns and villages rely on those small and medium-sized plain areas to produce food crops to support their populations.

Therefore, where there is a large urban population, there must be a plain area nearby that can satisfy the needs of the urban population.

This Borisfa City is just like that; around it is a relatively vast food-producing plain nourished and divided by multiple rivers.

Logically speaking, there should be a circle of villages living by farming around here, or at least there should be quite a few similar villages on the entire plain.

Especially with the protection of the city guards of a large city, the public security there should be very good, right?

Just as Jier and Bata'er were analyzing the reasons Xueya Site gave for choosing this place, Long-Bafute, that middle-aged Merchant who had walked over quickly, gave a subtle warning of rejection after understanding what they were doing.

"Ahem, around Borisfa City, I had just escaped from there with a Caravan before I was captured by Bandits nearby."

"Escaped? Did something happen there?"

Priest Bata'er immediately asked with concern; there was a relatively large parish of the Agricultural God Church in that city, and he had spent nearly twenty years of his previous time there, growing up to adulthood.

In other words, Priest Luosa-Bata'er, not to mention his bloodline, was himself a native of Borisfa City.

However, he had always thought that everything was fine there. When he set out from Changmai Cunzi, he did not pass through there, so he had not known news of Borisfa City for several years, let alone recent news.

Long-Bafute blinked his eyes, coughed lightly, and said: "Last winter, that is, the last quarter, more than half of the army of Borisfa City was taken away by Viscount Borisfa. And that lord's original army had already suffered losses in last year's war. You know, with more than half the army gone, and the city increasing its grain levy—hmm, the levy tripled and more—although it was said there would be compensation, and after defeating the enemy army later, there would also be tax reductions."

The old Merchant also walked over, along with the four refugee leaders who were commanding all the young refugees capable of fighting.

The old Merchant shook his head: "I heard, just heard, mind you, that the neighboring country, the one currently at war, sent people to spread the news that Viscount Borisfa dueled someone at the Province Capital here and died outside. Heh, now the grain levy demand of Borisfa City is all fake; it's all things fabricated by some people for profit. The grain levy is real, but it is not necessarily used for military consumption, but to be resold to other places in the Southern Province that are short of grain due to the chaos. After all, the price of grain is very high now."

A young man wearing damaged, simple leather armor took over the conversation: "The village I am from is adjacent to the area where Borisfa City is located. I heard that even the compensation and tax reductions are fake. It feels like the local villages that were deceived have surrounded the entire city, demanding that the city's Viscount family give a definite answer as to whether those things are true or not."

The old Merchant tapped his lower back, shook his head, and said: "The reason why the enemy country's rumors can incite a large number of Farmers to surround the city is that the rumors are not all fake. Part true, part fake; half true, half fake; mostly true, partly fake; or even all true, but in the process of spreading them to each other, they only tell the part that is true but unfavorable to the situation."

"Actually, these are not the problems. The key problem is that the city's armed forces are few. Precisely because there are few people, they dare not send people to clarify the rumors and contact the calm Farmers in a chaotic situation. Because compared to other things, the safety of the Noble families in the city is the most important."

"The situation is chaotic and deadlocked; everyone is waiting for Viscount Borisfa to bring the army back from the Province Capital to explain clearly."

Jier opened his eyes wide: "That Viscount is not dead?"

The old Merchant smiled: "I said it was a rumor. Even if he really died, there is still a Noble Heir, right? The army being fine is the key. But in this way, some of the rumors being passed around have made everything chaotic. After the assembled army arrives at the destination, they have to return. Not to mention the consumption and entanglement of the back-and-forth, just the front line where your Southern army is confronting the enemy—with these people missing, how would other Nobles view it?"

Jier clicked his tongue: "Truly impressive, no wonder they suffered a crushing defeat last year."