MTL - Mercenaries and Adventurers-v4 Chapter 174 , the desolation and hidden dangers of the eastward road

As soon as the opponent made a move while cursing, Kiel judged the opponent's next move.

He just judged subconsciously, and he knew that the opponent's flying kick couldn't really do anything to him.

Therefore, he didn't move his upper body. He just took half a step back with his right foot, stabilizing his body back and forth.

Boom!

A flying kick from the young gang leader hit Kiel in the middle of the chest, but Kiel only swayed slightly, and took the opponent's attack calmly.

Lifting and grabbing his right hand from the metal belt, he grabbed the man's right ankle.

Looking at the strong young gang leader, the actual ankle is not strong, he was caught by Kiel, and then raised his hand. While the man was screaming in panic, Keir's left hand grabbed the man's waist and raised it accordingly.

A large living person, like a domestic dog, was easily lifted above his head by Keel.

No matter how the man twisted, waved his palm and slapped and broke Kiel's metal palm, it didn't help.

"What are you doing in a daze! Come and save me!"

The young gang leader yelled for help from his subordinates, but among the dozen or so people, only three rushed up, including his woman.

"Laugh."

Keir sneered, and threw the guy caught above his head towards the few people rushing in front of him.

He didn't use too much force, he was afraid that after too much force, it would be troublesome to break these people's bones, and he had to ask Batar priest to use magical healing.

With the sound of kicking and clattering, these people fell together, and the trousers of the guy who was thrown out were frightened and wet, and dripping water dripped from the linen trousers, dripping onto the face of the companion who was pressed under him.

The man wanted to call for help, but he didn't dare to open his mouth.

Kiel patted his chest with his hands, and there was a harsh scratching sound between the steel, which was like a warning, making all the young people around realize the difference in strength between the two.

"You may think that you can't do things like 'safe villages', but don't think I can't, understand?"

Kiel nodded to the few people who got up in a panic in front of him, and said loudly to the people around him.

The young gang leader with wet trousers looked ashamed and angry, pulled out a short knife from his waist, and rushed over angrily. Keir didn't even look at it, he grabbed the blade of the short knife with his left hand, and then pulled hard to **** the short knife from the opponent's hand.

The young gang leader without a guy in his hand is like a domestic dog that has been thrown away, and it suddenly feels good.

Kiel flaunted the dagger in his left hand to other people around him, then held the hilt with his right hand and the blade with his left hand, exerted a little force, and guided the life energy on his arm to provide assistance. An iron dagger was just used by him. The hands broke into U-shaped garbage.

Throwing this thing on the ground casually, Keel clicked his mouth.

"Everyone, please believe me, this power can still do something. I don't have any prejudice against you. This trip, you assist me and Priest Batar to complete the mission and rescue people. I promise to let you go to a safe place. Get through this chaotic time."

With such a 'performance', most of the young people present agreed with Keir's statement, at least they no longer opposed it, and were ready to see if Keir really did what he said.

Keir saw the reactions of hundreds of people around him, and then patted the shoulder of the young gang leader who was still in front of him with his head bowed in a daze: "Pick up your toys, and get back honestly."

The guy stiffly picked up the bent short knife on the grass at his feet, silently bowed his head and backed away.

His companion also bowed his head in embarrassment. When the four of them returned to the ranks of the rest of the gang, they were immediately disgusted. What was the disgust? I can't tell.

-

Kiel's side initially settled the crowd, and Priest Batar's side also stopped praying to the little Saturn statue.

The priest put away the amulet statue with messy fluorescence, and then asked dozens of people around him to follow him, and then communicated with Kiel.

"What should we do now?"

The priest looked at a large group of people around him, and asked with some scalp numbness.

Kiel shrugged: "What else can I do, let's go. Anyway, I can provide them with food, right. Then go first." Kiel took it out of the small backpack hanging behind the armor and got it. map.

Unfolding, Keir pointed to the map that had been redrawn on the original map and said: "Let's start first, go east, and arrive at Yidong Town, where I will reorganize the team. I have already thought about it. Come like the Militia in Del. Organize first, and then arm them a little bit later on the way to the southeast."

Priest Batar looked surprised: "Arm up, so many people, even if we sell them, we can't do it! With the current situation, it is impossible for merchants and blacksmiths to sell weapons. People use them to arm themselves. Probably not enough!"

Keir smiled and whispered, "Who said you have to spend money to buy it?"

"What do you mean?" Seemingly guessing Kiel's thoughts, Priest Batar found it inconceivable: "Those guys aren't stupid, are they?"

"It's hard to say. When seeing delicious food in front of your eyes, one or two guys with strong will and experience in life may be able to endure themselves and a few people, but once the number of people increases, greedy desires will not One or two people can stop it."

Kyle replied in a low voice mysteriously.

-

When it was almost noon, the more than 800 refugee youths still gathered in a long crowd, followed Kiel and the others who led the way, and slowly moved along the main eastward commercial road.

Although most people barely ate two bowls of rice last night and this morning, most of the young people who were farmers before, their physical strength and resilience were not fake. Although they were confused and panicked, hungry and weak, no one Those who fall behind gather together to keep up with the front team according to their acquaintance groups.

Bloodyaster drove the carriage and walked at the forefront of the team. He did not interfere with any actions of Kier and Priest Batar, and he was afraid of being heard if he said something wrong. After the team moved forward, He even talked a lot less.

Priest Batar, who was riding a borrowed prairie horse, let the horse slowly follow the carriage. Behind him were dozens of "Saturn believers" who specially gathered together, although it is not known how many people were inside. He really believed in the God of Saturn, and he believed in the God of Saturn, but the priest didn't care about it at this time. As long as he first united people with religion and belief, he could reduce the number of people who caused trouble for Kiel.

After all, he is a priest of the Saturnalia Church, and his social class is naturally higher than that of ordinary people. Regardless of whether his beliefs are true or not, these believers must obey his actual commands and orders after expressing their beliefs and inclinations.

This is the benefit of the sense of church and society domination.

In addition to dozens of young people who expressed their faith, their friends and brothers and lovers also came out of the original village acquaintance group and followed the former team.

There are also dozens of people in this group, and the two add up to roughly a hundred people. Priest Batar rubbed the amulet statue in his hand, and while decomposing and disposing of the messy spiritual beliefs on the amulet statue, he felt that he could help Kiel deal with the troubles of at least a hundred people, which was already a very good result.

His eyes skipped over the ruins of a solitary stone house beside the road. Priest Batar still vaguely remembered seeing this place when he came here.

At that time, this stone house was still a roadside repair hotel with thugs watching over it. Unexpectedly, after more than 20 days, it was destroyed and burned like the hotel outside the east gate of the Baishi City Wall Checkpoint.

The stone walls collapsed inwards as the wooden beams supporting them were burned, pushing other debris inside the building under the stone. It is not known how many people were buried inside.

At this moment, Keir came back from patrolling on horseback. Seeing the priest staring at the ruins of the building beside the road, he asked, "Why? Is this building weird?"

Shaking his head: "It's nothing weird. When I came here, it was still in business. Although the business is not good, the refugees who fled here probably can buy a meal here that doubles the price." Bata So said the priest.

Keir found it interesting, and quickly approached the ruins with his horse. He steered the horse around the collapsed stone and wood building that occupied a rather large area, and then returned.

"It's interesting. When I got close, I could smell the thick smoke coming from the collapsed ruins. It looked like it was destroyed by fire a few days ago."

After speaking, Keir looked thoughtfully at both sides of the deserted road.

The north-south facing mountains in the distance are lush and green in spring, and trees of different sizes grow in the low places, and the trees gather to form a forest, which becomes a group of forests in places with gentle terrain.

The trees sprouted and stretched their leaves, swaying with the spring breeze.

Looking left and right, Keir rubbed his teeth, rode his horse to the front of the team, and quietly said to Xueyasite: "Slow down the speed of the carriage. Can you get out of the gap in this mountain range before dark?" ?”

Kiel's words confuse Bloodyaster. What does it mean to be able to get out of here?

Do you want to get out, or do you not want to get out of here?

After thinking about it, and looking at Kiel's expression, Xueyasite finally understood what Kiel meant, and he said carefully: "If this is the plan, we can let the team walk for a while and then take a rest. After all, these young people People are weak, and their physical strength is not enough. And after the team stops to rest, it will be much more troublesome to get people to set off. After all, not every team is like your Kendalls."

Kiel smiled: "Good way, then, you slow down first. I see where the front is suitable, so let everyone find a place to rest."

After finishing speaking, Keir knocked on the horse's belly and ran out quickly.

This main commercial road in the mountains is paved with stones picked from the mountains, so after Kiel's blood licks ran fast, the horseshoes collided with the stones and made a loud knocking sound.

As Kiel ordered, Bloodfang slowed down the speed of the carriage, and the long line of young refugees following behind also inadvertently slowed down the walking speed that followed.

Some people have better physical strength, so they feel the speed slowing down during the uncomfortable journey, but other young people who are out of breath, their thinking ability has long been deprived of the uncomfortable strength after physical exertion, and they can't detect the speed of progress at all. difference.

-

Keel ran forward for a while, and found a gentle open space next to a relatively open road, which happened to be next to a small stream, and everyone in the team could also replenish water here.

There are also remnants of the business travelers who came and went to rest in this open space, but this place is not far from the Baishi city wall checkpoint, and the business travelers who come and go will not spend the night at this place that is about to reach the checkpoint.

If you want to spend the night, you will spend the night in a large open space outside the checkpoint, waiting for the gate on the east side of the checkpoint to open the next day.

Interestingly, the white stone city wall on the west side of the Baishi city wall will never close the city gate due to the light, while the man-made stone city wall on the east side will close the city gate after night.

The main thing is that on the west side of the checkpoint is the city of Montorka, which has good law and order, and it doesn't matter whether the city gate is closed or not. But the east side faced the wilderness in the mountains. He felt that anything was possible in this unmanaged place.

However, when Kiel saw the hotel that was set on fire and destroyed by the road before, he realized that the most people here must be some bandits who robbed houses and robbed business travelers.

Keir rode back, thinking and thinking as he walked.

A large area here is so desolate, which is naturally related to the fact that the mountains are too close.

There are many monsters and monsters in the mountains, which are not suitable for building settlements.

In the past, there were still some hotels operating here that relied on stone buildings to resist monster attacks along the road, and it was also because this was a commercial route that must be taken from the southern province to the western province.

If it is profitable, some bold operators will take the risk to run a hotel here for business travelers.

And there are probably quite a few human bandits who rely on plundering to survive.

Everyone eats this bowl of rice, and they all rely on business travelers to make a living, so the bandits probably won't attack those hotels. After all, they may need those hotels for consumption and enjoyment, and even make some money there. The stolen goods.

Mutual benefit and reciprocity, well water does not offend river water.

However, there was a war in the border area of ​​the southern province before, and the defeat of the war gradually spread to other parts of the province. Chaos, restlessness, gradually spread with the absence of violence.

It is estimated that the local nobles and lords transferred soldiers to maintain law and order to participate in the war, which is probably also a big reason. The defeat in the war caused deserters and routs on the battlefield to lose their organization and supplies, which also led to more serious consequences.

If you think about it, you will know that some soldiers who killed people on the battlefield fled back to their hometowns. These people probably had to join various underground forces nearby in order to avoid punishment from the local ruling power.

Road robbers who gather in the mountains and forests, gang thugs who live on the people in towns, and thieves who steal and rob secretly.

All of a sudden, all the blood poured into his heart.

Coupled with the lack of local governance and security forces, it is estimated that the entire southern province will gradually deteriorate.

The caravans of merchants were killed and robbed one after another, resulting in a rapid decrease in the number of foreign merchants who dared to go out of the city to do business or come here.

This leads to a problem.

Standing by the road, Keir shouted to the carriage passing in front of him and the many young refugees following him: "There is an open space next to the stream ahead, let's take a short rest there!"

He repeatedly said to the people passing by him, many young people who were weak due to hunger breathed a sigh of relief, their bodies also gained a little strength, and their feet speeded up a little.

Keir followed at the end of the line, nodded to a group of refugee gang members specially arranged by him, followed at the end of the line, and thought again.

The deterioration of law and order in the southern provinces has greatly reduced the number of merchants who dare to come from and do business locally.

After all, there are not many powerful large chambers of commerce anywhere, and the proportion of personnel in the industry has always been small, middle and low-level chambers of commerce and caravans.

These small and medium-sized caravans and merchant associations dare not come out to do business, so who will the bandits and the hotels they run in the area where Keir and the others eat and drink?

With a sneer, UU Reading www.uukanshu.com Kiel understood after a little thought that at the beginning, the black and white of relying on this main business route for his livelihood was probably still on the sidelines. But as there are fewer and fewer merchants coming and going, only some villagers who have fled from the whole village pass here.

Although the refugees are poor, they are not without oil and water. The bandits and hotel operators can barely make a living by pinching their noses, but as time goes by.

Here, Kiel guessed that it was about the period of time after the priest Batar passed westward from here. Even the refugees who wanted to flee west to the western provinces of Montoka City in the western provinces in the western provinces of a few noble territories gradually disappeared.

With no one to communicate with, the bandits and hotel operators who depended on commercial routes for their livelihood became the only 'residents' here. Of course, some armed large caravans probably passed by here, but the bandits probably suffered heavy losses after several fights, so they stopped attacking the large chamber of commerce's team in vain.

Instead, in the days before Keir and the others came, they set their sights on locally run hotels.

There is a knife on one side, and meat on the other.

The results speak for themselves.

However, how many people can a few hotels feed the bandits? how long?

They must have been like hungry wolves at this time, in the woods far away on both sides of the road, staring at them with hungry green eyes.

Kiel put his hand on the hilt of his hunting sword and pulled it away a little, revealing the black-gray blade.

He whispered to his own weapon: "Wait a moment, wait a moment. It is estimated that it will not be long before a battle that can satisfy you and me will come."

The long sword vibrated slightly in the scabbard, Kiel smiled and inserted the long sword back into the scabbard.