Chapter 715: Duoen Town—The Numb Debtors

A crisp bell sound rang out urgently from the high wooden tower on the west side of the town. The large number of "townspeople" strolling through the complex and chaotic streets below were stunned for a moment, then, as if remembering some bad omen, they began to curse and run away with quick steps.

What is it?

Go home and hide!

On both sides of the narrow, filthy, and foul-smelling streets, shop assistants heard the bell and hurriedly urged the customers out of their shops, then shut the heavy doors tight and propped them closed with heavy objects.

Under the direction of the shop owners or stewards, the thugs and assistants in the shops scrambled to find the swords and weapons that had long been prepared.

But they did not go out to do anything; they simply stayed in their respective shops, pricking up their ears to listen to the movement on the street outside.

The shop owners set up wooden ladders they had recently purchased in the backyards of their shops, climbed onto the roofs using their hands and feet, stepped on the wooden tiles or the roofs thatched with wheat straw, and stretched their bodies to gaze far toward the west side of the town.

The main roads around Duoen Town were intentionally kept free of trees, so by looking out from high points in the town, one could see movement from a great distance.

If a large number of bandits or an army were to attack, they would have a certain amount of time to prepare and gather their strength.

A few days ago, everyone had not taken this response plan, which had been discussed since the town was founded, to heart. As a result, when a crack force of six or seven hundred soldiers emerged from the mountains via the west Shanglu and quickly approached the town that day, it scared everyone in the entire town half to death.

They waited in chaos for a long time, and when no one stormed into the town, only then did someone go out to communicate with the other side.

It turned out to be reinforcements from the north supporting the war on the southern border. The merchants in the town had thought it was some high-ranking Noble leading troops who, under the current unstable situation, wanted to purge Duoen Town and collect military supplies and logistics.

At this moment, the warning bell rang again, and everyone remembered the response methods that those who had lived in the town for a long time should know.

Then, those who were going home went home, and those who were closing shops closed their shops.

The armed thugs of each family did not need to gather to fight for the defense of the town's collective wealth this time. With the experience from last time, everyone knew that when facing an external force of unknown but certainly large numbers, the few large Merchant Guilds in the town would always send people to inquire and scout out the other party's intentions.

This time should be the same.

Sure enough, not long after the bell rang, several riders surrounded a gorgeously dressed Merchant and rode together toward the west to make contact.

Many eyes on the shop roofs watched the departing Merchant; their gazes were complex, and no one knew what each person was thinking.

Perhaps they were cursing the laziness of the large Merchant Guilds, perhaps they were praying to some deity for safety and peace, or perhaps they were calculating some evil money-making scheme.

After emerging from the Shanglu sandwiched between the mountains, not only was the field of vision wide, but the Shanglu underfoot was also more than twice as broad. The people under Jier's command quickened their pace, each of them eager to return to the world of human civilization, even if the town ahead was a place as rotten as could be.

Yet even such a wretched town was far better than the desolate, uninhabited wilderness.

Every day when camping in the wild, nocturnal birds of prey that made strange noises would often circle back and forth in the night sky. These nocturnal birds of prey, which made terrifying flapping sounds with their wings, would attempt to descend and attack the heads of those who were alone with their sharp claws and beaks.

Someone had their head injured while getting up at night; after being saved by the Priest, the person became muddled and foolish due to the head injury.

Later, Jier made everyone active at night watch their heads, and only then did no one get hurt.

Approaching Duoen Town along the wide Shanglu, the fields on both sides of the road were more complex than the patterns on a tangram. Not only were the crops planted in adjacent fields inconsistent, but there was also not a single bit of irrigation infrastructure.

Many thin men and women in rags carried water buckets in the middle of the afternoon, traveling back and forth between the water source along the river and the fields they were responsible for. They often needed to work like this for an entire day to provide sufficient water for some precious vegetables or crops.

Every day, overseers patrolling back and forth would stand on the field ridges. These guys holding whips would rush over as soon as they saw anyone put down a water bucket or farm tool, and with a "crack," they would lash them with a whip; if they dared to resist, they would get another lash.

The tips of the vicious whips were not smooth; hard objects were intentionally added to them. When they hit a person, skin being torn was a minor matter; what the men and women who could only do hard labor to pay off debts felt more heartache over was their final wealth—their tattered clothes.

They were often ruined just like that.

But today was different. When a team of several hundred people with unclear intentions emerged from the gap in the continuous mountains to the west, those overseers with whips ran faster than anyone else. They vaulted off the field ridges and dove into the crops, which were not yet very dense or tall.

And the debtors, who were no longer being watched, could finally heave a sigh of relief. They stopped one after another, placed the water buckets they had been carrying on their heads or shoulders on the ground, and rested on the spot.

They dared not run. After all, running away before paying off debts was a serious crime in Duoen Town and would result in having one's fingers chopped off. Run once, lose a finger.

Once the thumb of a hand was chopped off, that hand could no longer do work, and the person would lose their value as a laborer.

What would be left for these people would be a more miserable, yet ignored, outcome.

Therefore, they dared not run, so they stood on the spot one after another, "fearlessly" watching the team of several hundred people gradually approaching along the Shanglu.

When they saw the reflecting swords, they realized they should be afraid, so they hurriedly picked up their water buckets and jumped off the field ridges.

But they still sized up the walking team passing along the Shanglu.

They always sized up every team that passed by like this.

It was just that none of the previous Caravans had ever cared about these hardworking debtors, nor did they think there was anything wrong with these people working to pay off debts.

Jier walked at the very front of the team. He naturally noticed the tattered people in the messy fields on both sides of the road who were blankly sizing them up.

Feiniya was very familiar with this place, and many of the rescued Merchants had also been here. So Jier knew how these people had ended up here.

It looked pitiful, but also hateful enough.

Duoen Town had its own rules, and these people were those who had fallen into debt due to loans from casinos.

Although the debts were not large, these guys whose entire net worth had been washed away in the casino and who did not have a single Iron Coin left, regardless of gender, had to go to the fields to work for the gangs responsible for lending money in the casino, no matter how small the debt was.

Those thugs certainly had faster ways to make money, but people would soon disappear or die from injuries that way, which was not a sustainable way to maintain things. Therefore, around Duoen Town, from the few large Merchant Guilds that maintained the management here, down to gangs, shops, and workshops, all had, to varying degrees, messy fields of various sizes outside the town.

In these fields, they planted whatever crop was most valuable on the market. Gangs with oil presses would plant oil crops vigorously in the fields they owned.

Merchant Guilds with a group of female spinners and weavers would plant cotton or hemp plants vigorously in the fields, regardless of whether the climate or soil was suitable for planting.

Taverns would vigorously plant hops in their own fields, and when idle, they would plant vegetables or root crops, using nearly free labor to obtain food raw materials that would otherwise have to be bought with money.

Behind all this was the black market for debt transactions. The town had its own calculation method for daily labor in exchange for reducing debt. According to the amount of debt, a debtor with a small amount might have to work for half a month, while one with a large amount might have to work hard for several years.

These IOUs marking the debtors were traded back and forth by people, providing the labor allocation for the very bottom of the entire town.

Even if it was so close to a slave system.

Even if the Saint Hors Kingdom, in accordance with the Empire's decree, had abolished the slave trade since its founding.

But all of this was happening so obviously in Duoen Town. The men and women coming and going, the Nobles and big Merchants, everyone knew, but everyone acted as if they didn't see it.

Bata'er Jiaoshi had naturally been here. He looked back at those numb gazes that had looked over with a face full of regret. He hadn't understood that such a place existed before; when he borrowed his way through here to Mengtuoka City a few days ago, he had been shocked by how barbaric and backward this place was.

Although it was said that the days debtors were forced to work only depended on how much debt they owed themselves, it looked like it was all their own fault for gambling and getting into debt, right?

But at the time, Bata'er Jiaoshi only entered the fields here and talked to a dozen or so debtors for a while, and he realized that in Duoen Town, when a person's wealth limit approached zero, if there was no stable job that provided food and housing, then that person was particularly prone to falling into the casino, attempting to rely on gambling to turn their life around.

But it was easy to borrow money and hard to pay it back, and nine out of ten bets were lost. There were really too few people who could rely on gambling to turn their lives around and leave this place. More people often fell into the traps of the casino dealers, losing all their property in a flash, unable to even keep the borrowed money warm, and would immediately be collared with a Rope like a beast and taken to the black market where IOUs were traded, to be bought by various buyers to work.

The entire town was designed with a downward-spiraling path for people on the verge of bankruptcy. Want to turn your life around?

Too hard, too hard.

So he gave up quickly at the time.

Now that he had come to Duoen Town again, the Priest did not even dare to carefully look back at those eyes that were watching him.

Jier, however, did not care. After hearing his companions talk about the way things were in this Duoen Town, he remained noncommittal. Because the saying, "let go of the desire to help others and respect their fate," was truly too appropriate to use here.

It could only be said that this way of doing things in Duoen Town was a method of management and governance suitable for a small place during a time of peace and stability. To maintain it in normal times, one had to rely on blood transfusions of external resources and manpower.

But now, public order throughout the Southern Province was rapidly deteriorating. Most small and medium-sized Caravans, which made up the majority of Merchants, dared not conduct long-distance trade. Only a few large Merchant Guilds could still arm themselves and travel unimpeded, but this was merely a drop in the bucket.

The foundation of trade—the various villages—was being abandoned one after another, and a large number of people had fled to big cities or other places for refuge. With the roots of trade dug out, what was revealed was the gradual decline of Duoen Town.

What Jier did not know was that at this moment, Duoen Town was frantically snapping up cheap, bloody, and dirty goods from the hands of various Bandit Groups that had emerged from the mountains and disbanded, but this was merely the final brilliance.

Once this wave of fever passed, Duoen Town would completely lose its replenishment of materials and wealth, and this whole system would completely cease to function.

Because the entire town, even the food they ate, was brought in and supplied by Merchants from outside.

Don't look at the scale of the scattered fields outside the town, where many debtors worked; those fields were planted with too many miscellaneous crops, and the small amount of proper farmland simply could not support the various extravagant Merchant Guilds in the town.

Da-da-da, da-da-da, a team of five riders quickly ran over along the road from the exit on the west side of the town, and Jier waved his hand to make the team stop.

Following the shouts and commands of his subordinates, the entire team gradually came to a halt.

Whether they were Armed Civilians with swords in their hands or civilians carrying only supplies, everyone stretched their necks, wanting to see what had happened in front that required them to stop so close to the town.

Jier certainly knew why the other party had come. Just like when he encountered that armed Caravan on the Shanglu, any person would become nervous when so many armed teams holding swords approached.

"I should have sent people ahead to notify them. Just like the work I did in the Kendall Army."

Jier muttered, lifted his steel Faceplate, and spurred his horse forward to greet these people coming out of the town.

Scanning the five people from afar, one could tell at a glance that the four burly guys on the outside were merely guards for the person in the middle. The middle-aged man wearing gorgeous Merchant clothing was the real master.

As the other party approached, Jier raised his chin without speaking.

After approaching, the other party also used his naked eye to roughly confirm the composition of Jier's team.

Although among the seven or eight hundred people, most were ordinary people carrying things on their backs or shoulders, the rough guys at the front and back of the long line who were either holding or wearing swords at their waists, while not many—only about a hundred—were still a force that Duoen Town could not easily provoke.

Especially this one in front, riding a tall and powerful prairie horse, wearing a mottled set of Metal Armor, with all kinds of weapons and equipment on his horse and person, he had quite the look of a Knight.

Especially the cold and hard atmosphere about him gave him the same feeling as the Kendall Knight from the north he had met some days ago.

"Welcome, welcome, welcome everyone to the prosperous Duoen Town. I am the Senior Steward of 'Wealth Fruit,' one of the Merchant Guilds responsible for managing local order in the town, Dunde'er-Aolierjia-Deripari. Everyone likes to call me by my nickname: 'The Gaunt Aolier.' I wonder how to address this one?"

This Steward did not see any family crests or emblems of a Knight or Noble on Jier's horse and armor, but Jier was clearly the leader of this group, so he asked cautiously before making up for any etiquette he might have lacked.

Jier clenched his right fist and struck his left chest, saying casually: "Qiao-Jier, a Kendall man, a Knight."

'The Gaunt Aolier' immediately narrowed his eyes upon hearing this, saying with a smile: "Ah, so it is our friend, the most loyal and noble Kendall County Knight! I just happened to get to know two Knights accompanying the Kendall Army a few days ago. I wonder if they are...?"

Jier chuckled and answered casually: "Knight Doddell-Kela is my teacher, the mentor who led me onto the path of the Knight. And the other one is Knight Pángkè-Lūmǐ. Both of them and I are very good friends, and we have fought together more than once. How about that?"

"Welcome, welcome. Duoen Town welcomes Knights from Kendall County. May I ask who these, uh, 'civilians' who look like Bandits are?"

Jier explained the general situation at the White Stone City Wall Guanka directly to the other party, letting him understand that these people were all rural civilians fleeing from the Southern Province to avoid disaster.

"How detestable. Sorry, I don't mean the noble lords of Mengtuoka City, but to handle things this way, there must be subordinates in the White Stone City Wall Guanka making trouble and doing evil. After all, everyone knows that those lords rarely care about these small matters. Recently, very few refugees have been heading west to the Western Province. The White Stone City Wall Guanka might as well just let those remaining poor people pass through the checkpoint; it would even reduce local conflicts."

The two rode side by side talking. Facing what this Mr. 'Gaunt Aolier' said, Jier just smiled and did not take it to heart.

Because Jier knew that as one of the major Merchant Guilds responsible for participating in the management of this place, Duoen Town, this thin and talkative middle-aged Merchant was actually definitely a guy who was only bad, not stupid.

A fool could not be a Senior Steward of a large Merchant Guild, and a good person could not survive in Duoen Town, let alone be sent out to contact a large, unidentified external force.

Therefore, Jier just listened to what this person said; he didn't believe a single word.

Jier noticed that ever since he approached and saw the composition of Jier's team, this Merchant Steward had signaled a rider to return to town early to report. And after confirming Jier's identity, the other party secretly signaled his subordinates again, letting another rider run back to town early to report.

It was easy to understand: this was to pass on information. The first person likely delivered information like "the arrivals are safe," because it was confirmed that the people who came were refugees. Although hundreds of them were armed and relatively difficult to deal with, these people were still within a number the town could handle.

The information passed by the second person was likely related to "the Kendall Army from a few days ago." This information would be much clearer and more detailed. It was estimated that they would follow the number of Jier's subordinates and deal with Jier's people in the same way they dealt with the Kendall County Army.

At this time, the team behind Jier continued to set off. While talking along the way, the other party welcomed Jier to a huge, fenced-in open space on the south side of the town.

"Knight Jier, this was originally a piece of land that had been ownerless for many years. It just so happened that when your Kendall Army came to the town for supplies a few days ago, we chose this place for the army to camp for the night. After the army rested comfortably here for a day, they headed east along the main road leading straight to the Province Capital."

Hearing this, Jier looked at the road extending eastward in the northeast direction, then nodded and said: "I am not heading east, but south. Are the measures for drinking water and waste disposal still there in this open space?"

The other party hurriedly said: "Yes, yes. For drinking water, there is a well near the town side; the water is very clean and can be drunk directly. As for the waste of many people, we can send people over every day to collect and pile up the feces. There is a river nearby, just pour it in."

Thus, Jier rode his horse around the soft, fenced-in open space twice, then came to the gate of the open space and waved to his subordinates waiting there: "Go in and set up camp!"

Afterward, Jier asked Mr. 'Gaunt Aolier': "Then, how is the firewood for lighting the fires prepared?"

The other party was stunned for a moment, then hurriedly replied: "Ah, oh, firewood, firewood. The Kendall Army brought their own firewood, but if your team needs it, there are shops in the town that sell these goods. After you settle your people, please come with me to tour the town. Duoen Town is an important distribution center for commodities and goods; it is the shining golden necklace of the western region of the Southern Province! There are all kinds of goods here, and all kinds of services! I guarantee you can find everything you want!"

Jier narrowed his eyes: "Goods? Shops? You mean to say, I have to spend money to buy them?"