Chapter 817: The Earth Wall Outside the Town

Jier's team set off early in the morning, walking along the trade route toward the town visible to the naked eye.

The trade route, running from the northwest to the southeast, was an almost straight path with no cover along the way; the several villages beside the route could also be clearly seen and were passed by.

The team had been traveling for nearly two hours, and as the sun climbed into the sky, the very front approached a circle of newly excavated "walls" built outside the town.

Clang, clang, clang, clang...

Facing the northwest side of the town, on a formal stone wall inside the new earth wall, a warning bell rang incessantly after the team approached. Riding on horseback, Jier could clearly see the town guards gradually gathering from other sections onto the formal town wall without needing to use Divine Art to enhance his vision.

Those guards, wearing simple leather armor, kept pointing at his team, but it seemed that since they had confirmed the large-scale group approaching the town was human, they gathered together, but their vigilance was not very high.

Many people stood empty-handed, leaning on the crenellations of the town wall, wanting to see more clearly.

While the guards on the wall looked on with curiosity, the villagers from the nearby villages who lived between the "new wall" and the formal wall all looked as if disaster were imminent; the elderly and children retreated into the earth holes the farmers had newly dug beneath the town wall, while the farmers and farmwives who had some strength nervously crouched on their newly dug earth wall, using large pieces of furniture marked with their family symbols as cover for resistance and evasion, clutching various metal farm tools, swearing not to let the outsiders approach.

Even though Jier's team were all humans and not the bandits who had been attacking them these days.

To tell the truth, what everyone feared was fellow humans, as the confrontation between humans was far more intense than the confrontation between humans and monsters.

Everyone knew this; among the villagers of the various villages, most of the older or elderly villagers had migrated here from the Empire, and in the Empire where the oppression of the people was severe, everyone knew what a difficult place it was to live.

Unreasonable.

And all their unpleasant experiences this year, it was said, were a gift from the war between the noble lords of the Southern Province and the neighboring country to the south.

The armed squad at the very front of the team had walked to the end of the trade route, but they had to stop because the last bit of the road where the trade route extended to the northwest gate of the town ahead had been cut off by the earth wall dug out by the farmers.

Just as mentioned before, the farmers had dug a deep and wide trench strip in front, and the excavated earth was piled exactly on the side near the town, creating a height difference of at least four meters from the bottom of the pit to the top of the earth pile.

Even if this height difference was not as steep as the formal town wall behind, it looked like a steep slope of nearly seventy or eighty degrees; people could barely climb it, but it was already a very effective defense system.

Seeing this, Jier, in the middle of the team, grinned.

He did not know if this temporary wall could stop the parasitic monsters, but he knew that for the ordinary people under his command, this was indeed a chasm that was very difficult to cross.

Shaking his head, Jier muttered to himself, wondering what these people were guarding against, and if they really knew who their enemy was.

"Villagers! We are not bad people! We are refugees from the west fleeing the chaos, please do not be so vigilant and fearful!"

Someone in the armed squad shouted to the villagers hiding behind the earth pit and earth wall holding weapons, but soon some of the terrified villagers retorted: "Go back! No one is welcome here! Go away! Go away! You guys holding swords and blades!"

It was quite simple and obvious; the villagers on the wall only had to see the farm tools in their own hands and then look at the swords and blades held by the armed squad in the refugee team to know they could not set their minds at ease.

After the front of the refugee team stopped, people in the back were still constantly surging forward; although the locals were exceptionally vigilant, everyone in the refugee team could empathize, after all, when they were at Duoen Town before, Duoen Town did not allow such a team of this size and strength to formally enter the town.

To tell the truth, it was impossible; even Duoen Town, which could accommodate various caravans traveling from north to south, could not suddenly squeeze out inns to host and accommodate a team of hundreds of people.

Squeezing in on the street temporarily was not impossible, but having an external force enter the town as a whole and gather together, to tell the truth, could not make the local administrators feel at ease.

Like Duoen Town, this Yemei Town, which looked exceptionally conservative and nervous, was likely the same, or even more vigilant and sensitive.

The people in the armed squad said a few words and then gave up on the idea of communication; anyway, there was no need for everyone to look for trouble, such matters of communication between superiors should be handled by the Knight.

Jier followed the large group of people in the middle of the team to the place where the manpower had accumulated at the end of the trade route.

Riding on his horse, with his good eyesight, he easily saw the nervousness of the villagers on the earth pile, as well as the peeking and curiosity of the guards on the town wall behind.

"My Lord, what do you think?"

Two Squad Leaders squeezed over from the crowded resting crowd to ask Jier about the situation.

Jier did not rush to reply to the two; he looked left and right, loudly asking the people around for the location of Bata'er Jiaoshi, and called for him to come over.

Soon, Bata'er Jiaoshi walked over; the prairie horse the priest had been riding was injured, and for the past two days, he had been moving while sitting in Jier's carriage.

"Bata'er Jiaoshi, how about this, I will enter the town to communicate with the people of the local noble family and strive to obtain more material supplies from this town. Just as we discussed before, this should be the last place to obtain a significant amount of supplies. What about you? Do you want to soothe these nervous villagers? After all, it looks like the vast majority are Nongshen Believers."

Bata'er Jiaoshi shook his head: "That is not necessary. I often come to Yemei Town, I will go with you; you, warrior, go to meet the local noble family, and I will go to find friends from the Agricultural God Church in the town."

Jier's eyes lit up: "Oh? Friends? That's right, logically speaking, the higher-level church you belong to is the Agricultural God Church of Yemei Town, this is also normal. Hmm."

Jier pondered for a moment: "Since that is the case, I hope you can contact your local church friends more and explain our situation to them; I hope to get some support in terms of strength."

"Sigh, I will try my best, but you also know that those parasitic monsters, not long after I left, seemed to have wreaked havoc on Yemei Town, this prime area of Sasi County." The priest shook his head: "It is difficult for fellow believers to provide more help before getting rid of these things."

"Even needing our help, right?" Jier laughed.

"Try your best to strive for it; at least I hope to balance the supplies. Use some things we don't need to try to exchange for some supplies and tools for the people to settle down from the church."

After the two finished discussing, Jier made arrangements for the team again; he had everyone gather and reassemble, and evenly distributed the armed squads defending against the parasitic monsters in the fields behind.

Only then did he face the direction of the town and shouted loudly: "I am the leader of this refugee team, Qiao-Jier, *cough cough*, Knight. Now leading the team passing through Yemei Town of Sasi County, I apologize for the intrusion and hope the local lord understands."

His voice was very loud; his throat and lungs had been enhanced by Life Energy, and the volume had increased by more than double. At least as soon as he shouted, everyone inside and outside the town wall on this side heard it clearly.

The farmers from the various villages on the earth wall in front looked at each other, wondering where this young Knight came from. It was not that Yemei Town did not have Knights; in fact, there were a few, but they had all gone to war with the Baron before the spring.

And their Sasi County was located in a remote area; to the southeast were the continuous large border mountain ranges under contention, and apart from the plain under their feet, the surroundings were all deep mountain forests that were inconvenient to traverse.

And the guards on the town wall, after hearing Jier's shout, were extremely surprised. To tell the truth, a team of over five hundred people was already rare, and it was even stranger that the leader of such a team was a young Knight.

However, surprised as the guards were, they still quickly sent a messenger to pass this news to the Baron's family.

Bata'er Jiaoshi subsequently also used Divine Art to increase his volume, walked out of the crowd, and stated his identity.

However, although he was the Cunzi Priest of Changmai Cunzi under Yemei Town, almost no one knew him; except for the priests of the Agricultural God Church in the town, few people could prove what he said was true.

A new messenger also chased after the previous one who had passed this news back.

Jier rode his horse, slowly pacing and wandering in the abandoned farmland full of weeds and wildflowers nearby; he was not in a hurry.

Bata'er Jiaoshi, on the other hand, boldly walked forward a few steps, came to the earth pit wall dug by the local villagers, and spoke to the villagers on the earth wall in a normal conversational volume.

Few of the farmers and farmwives had seen the image of an armed priest, and they were not impressed by the Amber Metal Long Staff held by Bata'er Jiaoshi, but the cyan Nongshen Divine Power on the priest could not be faked.

Although the villages near Yemei Town were poor, the Agricultural God priests often came; although there was no separate Cunzi Priest, the influence of the Agricultural God Church on the local villages was not small.

Before long, the reply from inside the town had not yet returned, but Bata'er Jiaoshi had already gained the approval of the villagers, and they actually boldly invited Bata'er Jiaoshi to come over first.

The priest looked at Jier, and Jier shrugged to indicate that he could do as he pleased.

Subsequently, Bata'er Jiaoshi nimbly jumped into the earth pit newly dug by the villagers. To tell the truth, it was fortunate that it hadn't rained in the last few days, otherwise, such a large-scale earth pit dug casually would have had its bottom soaked into mud by rainwater.

And the earth pile stacked casually on the other side of the earth pit would likely collapse after a few washes by rainwater. Even if it didn't collapse, after a heavy rain, it would be difficult to maintain its current height and defensiveness.

The villagers on the opposite side of the earth pit wanted to jump down two young men to help Bata'er Jiaoshi, but they were stopped by the priest. He only let the villagers throw down a rope; he grabbed the bottom of the rope, and with a few villagers above pulling, he was simply pulled up.

As soon as Bata'er Jiaoshi came up, he was surrounded by villagers from various villages, but no one approached casually; everyone looked fearfully at the gorgeous long staff held in the priest's hand, and one after another, they examined him from a close distance.

Knowing what was going on, Bata'er Jiaoshi took the Hushin Statue of the God of the God of Agriculture from the Leather Bag at his waist with his left hand, held it high above his head, and activated the Divine Power of the God of Agriculture.

In an instant, this seemingly crude Hushin Statue of the God emitted rays of green light from the Divine Power of the God of Agriculture, and together with Bata'er Jiaoshi who held it, they were both shrouded in a faint glow of Divine Power.

This scene lasted only a few seconds; after Bata'er Jiaoshi saw the awe in the eyes of the surrounding Villager, he immediately stopped this move. It looked sacred and magnificent, but the consumption of the Divine Power of the God of Agriculture was not small, at least much more than the consumption of him performing a powerful Divine Art through Prayer.

In just those few seconds, the scattered Divine Power of the God of Agriculture could have easily healed several lightly wounded people.

"How is it?"

The Priest asked solemnly.

The surrounding Villager immediately knelt on the ground, expressing their apologies for their previous offense, and begged for the forgiveness of the God of Agriculture and the Priest himself.

Bata'er Jiaoshi, who did not care about this, waved his hand. He first looked back at Jier the warrior not far behind him, and only then did he walk forward into the crowd.

Setting aside Bata'er Jiaoshi for the moment, inside Yemei Town, two messengers, one after the other, rode their horses through the crowded town streets.

Except for the wealthy Villager from the vicinity who had nowhere to settle on the streets, there were actually not many ordinary people in the town coming out for activities. At a time when the lord had led his troops away, Bandits were rising everywhere outside the town, the Shanglu was blocked, and nearby Villager were being gathered and settled, especially after the Bandits rushed into the southern part of the town some days ago and carried out a spree of burning, killing, and looting under the cover of night, the atmosphere in the town was actually not good.

Not only was the atmosphere bad, but many originally normal activities had also stagnated.

Most of the shops had closed their doors. Some, in order to guard against theft, even used wooden boards and Iron Nail to seal the windows and main doors of the shops, mostly leaving only a small door at the back of the shop, but also placing many thugs and Shop Assistant to prevent looting.

Many people wanted to buy things but could not. In such difficult times, the Merchant who operated the shops only dared to do business with familiar old customers, and they would not even open the back doors of their shops for strange faces.

This hurt many of the nearby Refugee who were struggling to survive, and the ordinary people in the town were not having an easy time either.

Of course, the shops selling food for survival were still open. Except for the thin Wheat Porridge that the Baron's family in the town regularly gave to the Refugee for free, anyone who wanted to eat their fill had to hold their nose and endure the gradually rising food prices in the shops selling food.

This was barely tolerable for the Villager from outside the town who carried their own stored food. After all, the lord's family provided free food, and although it was not enough to eat, it was barely enough if one did nothing all day.

But the townspeople who had no fields or food reserves in the town had to endure this constantly rising food price.

Therefore, as a result, apart from the shops selling food being surrounded by many people every day, the various grocery stores in the town were crowded with people. After all, besides selling various daily necessities, the grocery stores also accepted items from customers for sale.

At this time, these Merchant who ran grocery stores revealed their blood-sucking canine teeth and bit hard into the townspeople to suck their blood.

Various small items that were valuable and easy to sell were all bought by the grocery stores at heavily suppressed prices. Although the townspeople looked ugly, they had to endure this unreasonable exploitation in order to feed their whole family.

Some hot-tempered guys even frequently started fights and caused trouble.

For this reason, the guards responsible for security in the town had been extremely busy these days.

After Lanu and Qiaoyi escaped, it did not take long for the Security Office in the town to be crowded again with townspeople who had been arrested for brawling. However, the guards who survived that day or the newly transferred guards had long since lost the interest to exploit the prisoners. Every day, they had to endure the scolding from the lord's family, the warnings from the active Merchant at this time, and the finger-pointing of ordinary townspeople.

They had long been driven crazy by these things.

And come to think of it, among the prisoners locked in the Jianlao of the Security Office, it was unclear how many were truly angry and fought because they could not stand the exploitation of the Local Merchant, or if they had a brainwave and volunteered to commit crimes in these difficult times just to eat a meal of white rice in the Jianlao of the Security Office.

Hehe, that is hard to say.

After all, the vast majority of these prisoners locked in the Jianlao of the Security Office were young men who could eat and cause trouble. By saving this bite of food for themselves, their families' lives would surely be much easier, right?

Back to the messengers, the two messengers were actually the Cavalryman of the Baron's family who had been guarding the town walls since last night. They had not left since last night, and as soon as it dawned today, they indeed waited for the intelligence news of a large-scale team that had appeared inexplicably.

The clattering hooves quickly crossed the Shi Ban Dao Lu paved on the main road of the town, and the crisp sound of the metal Horseshoe hitting the rock ground echoed through the streets.

The two Cavalryman messengers quickly arrived at the main entrance of the Baron's Mansion.

As before, they jumped off their horses and entered through the small door of the main gate of the mansion, and underwent a very 'necessary' identity check. The latter Cavalryman messenger even took a few extra looks at the Priest of the God of Agriculture who was checking, which made this Priest of the God of Agriculture feel baffled.

After a while, the two Cavalryman messengers waiting in the main hall of the mansion waited for several Steward of the local Baron lord who had hurried over.

"What? A young Knight? An armed Priest of the God of Agriculture? And a Refugee Team of hundreds of people? And an armed force of at least a hundred people?"

The young man in his twenties sitting on the Baron's main seat asked repeatedly after hearing this news.

To call it asking was more like expressing surprise and affirmation of the news.

"What is the background of these people? And why come to our place? A Refugee Team, how strange, does taking refuge require coming to our Sasi County?"

The few people present looked at each other, and finally looked down together at the detailed map of Sasi County that was taken out last night and was still placed on the floor in the center of the hall.

Well, not to mention, if one were to talk about being remote and closed off, their Sasi County did have some things to say.