Rose Empire

Shilin jumped off the bed and gave instructions to the old servant while putting on her armor.

"Yes."

The old servant immediately went to do it.

Shilin put on her armor, picked up her sword, mounted her horse, and headed in the direction the villagers pointed.

It didn't take much searching before Celine saw a group of half-dressed, disheveled and barefoot people walking towards them from the direction of the Campe Mountains.

Seeing these people, Celine was relieved because most of them looked quite human.

Although the mainstream perception of Eagle Continent still regards tribesmen as humans, many tribesmen do not look like humans, such as dwarves, giants, werewolves, winged people, snake people, and all of them look weird. Although there are standard humans in the tribe, their number is usually small.

The group in front of her were almost all standard humans, and Celine quickly understood their origins - mountain people.

In the Orlan Empire, the Kingdom of Lesare or the Edisa Empire, there were often people who had lost their land, went bankrupt and had no means of living, or were burdened with heavy debts that they could not repay, or had committed serious crimes. They wanted to escape and flee to the Campe Mountains to survive.

Some of these people were absorbed into the tribal alliance and became part of the tribal people.

There were also some people who were unwilling to join the tribesmen, and they gathered together in the mountains, built villages to protect themselves, and gradually formed villages. These people were called mountain people.

Although the mountain people claimed that they had not joined the tribal alliance, every winter when the tribesmen came down the mountains to plunder, the mountain people were willing to follow suit. When the tribesmen broke into a village or town and slaughtered and looted the first time, these mountain people would follow behind and slaughter and loot the second time, just like a group of maggots eating carrion.

Xilin stood in front of the villagers and shouted, "Stop!"

When the group of mountain people saw a fully armed cavalryman riding a tall horse, they stopped in their tracks. But when they saw that Celine was alone, they became eager to move forward.

Xilin pulled out a javelin from the saddle and threw it. The javelin landed accurately two or three steps in front of the mountain people. "Whoever crosses the javelin will bear the consequences at his own risk."

The mountaineers were quiet for a moment, but soon another mountaineer who looked quite young came out. Not only did he jump over the javelin, he also unzipped his pants and urinated on the javelin, and finally spat at Celine provocatively.

Shilin pulled the reins, turned the horse's head, and headed towards the young mountaineer.

The young mountaineer quickly turned around and hid behind the crowd.

Celine squeezed the horse's belly with her legs, and the horse started to trot.

The mountain people team showed great unity. They let the young mountain people in, then reunited and tried to stop Celine.

However, Celine had no intention of stopping. She rode faster and faster, and even picked up the javelin halfway.

boom!

The human wall was torn into pieces, and the mountain people who tried to stop Shireen were beaten to pieces by the war horses.

The young mountaineer who had just mocked was exposed in front of Xilin, his face full of panic and fear. Several strong mountaineers raised rattan shields and sticks, trying to save the young mountaineer. Xilin tightened the reins, the warhorse neighed, raised its front hooves and dropped heavily, the bowl-sized hooves directly crushed the rattan shield, the mountaineers wailed and fell to the ground, including the young mountaineer who also fell to the ground.

Celine rode her horse slowly towards the young mountaineer, and no one else dared to stop her.

The javelin fell again, piercing the young mountaineer's chest and nailing him to the ground. The young mountaineer wailed in pain.

"Whoever crosses the javelin does so at his own risk."

Celine said again.

The mountain people looked at each other, not knowing what to do.

"Everyone, get back behind the javelin."

An old voice came from behind the mountain people's team.

Castle of Vicomte.

"Mountain folk?"

Charlotte was very surprised to hear the news reported by the territory guards.

Winter has arrived and the temperature is dropping. During this time, Charlotte has been carefully guarding against the invading tribesmen. However, the tribesmen have not arrived, but the mountain people have arrived early.

This was the first time Charlotte had heard of mountain people who dared to break away from their tribesmen and go down the mountain alone to rob.

What surprised Charlotte even more was...

"You mean Xilin alone blocked nearly a thousand mountain people?"

"No, that's not the case." Although Ed Adkins wanted to flatter his daughter, he had to tell the truth as there were too many witnesses. "The mountain chief had wanted to surrender, and Celine just gave them a warning. The mountain chief said he wanted to meet you, and he has been brought here."

"Oh, then I'll meet him," Charlotte nodded, then casually asked, "Where's Celine?"

"My daughter is outside the study."

Ed Adkins left the study.

Soon, an old mountaineer with ragged clothes and wrinkled face was brought into the study, and it was Celine who brought him in.

"Your Excellency." Celine saluted Charlotte.

Hearing Xilin's address, the old mountain man knelt down with a plop and shouted, "Greetings, Lord Viscount."

Charlotte did not pay attention to the old mountain man at first, but waved to Celine.

Celine reluctantly moved to Charlotte's side, as if Charlotte was much more dangerous than the group of mountain people just now.

Charlotte leaned against the armrest of the chair, took Celine's hand, held it in her palm and played with it, then said to the old mountain man: "What should I call you?"

“Just call me Black Wolf, sir.” The old mountain man replied.

"Black Wolf?" Charlotte chuckled, "But I see you already have a head full of white hair."

"Your Excellency is right," the old mountain dweller said with a flattering smile, "No matter what kind of wolf it is, it will eventually die of old age. From now on, I will no longer be called Black Wolf. I will just call, just call..."

Charlotte waved her hand indifferently: "Forget it, I don't care what your name is, I just want to ask why you mountain people want to come to me for help?"

"There is a lack of food in the mountains, and snow has begun to fall in the northwest. We came down the mountain just to find a way to survive." The old mountain dweller named Black Wolf said, "As long as the Viscount can give us a place to stay and a meal, we can do anything for you."

"That's strange," Charlotte said with a smile, "Haven't you mountain people always been close to the tribal alliance? Why do you need to beg us Orlan people to give you a place to stay now?"

The old mountain dweller lowered his head even lower. "Your Excellency may not know that a tribe called Gushan has emerged in the Kanpei Mountains. Their tribal leader, Basha, is brave and good at fighting. Over the years, he has used his bravery to make most of the tribes in the mountains surrender or submit to him."

"What does this have to do with your not wanting to join the tribesmen?" Charlotte was a little confused.

"That Basha chief is a half-giant, and many of his followers also have giant blood. Giants... eat people." The old mountain man said bitterly.

Charlotte finally understood. She nodded, then frowned and asked, "How powerful is Basha and his Bone Mountain Tribe now?"

The old mountain dweller showed confusion in his eyes. He thought for a long time before saying, "This... I don't know, but I heard that the small tribe called the Basha leader the Basha King."

"King Basha?"

Charlotte murmured, lost in thought.

For thousands of years, the tribal alliance that had always been loose and leaderless actually had a king! This really proved the power of the Basha leader and his tribe.

But is the emergence of such a powerful king and a tribal alliance integrated by force a good thing or a bad thing?

Ambra figure.

Recently, residents of Ambratu have found their lives becoming increasingly difficult.

Not only slaves and free people, but even the citizens who were supposed to be the masters of the city-state generally had similar feelings.

Ever since the Citizens' Assembly rejected the tariff agreement proposed by Viscount Lanwan, prices in the city of Ambratu have begun to soar. Silk, paper, medicinal materials, spices, slaves and other commodities have almost all increased in price, with the cheapest ones increasing by 50%.

If only the above-mentioned commodities increased in price, it would at most cause pain to the citizens of Ambratu, but what really made them complain was food.

"You didn't write it wrong, did you? Why did the price go up again?"

A citizen pointed to the price list at the entrance of the grain store and asked.

"Isn't it normal for prices to go up?" The clerk in the grain store, who was also a citizen, said while picking his nose. "The Lanwan Isthmus is still closed, so the grain from the Orlan Empire can't be shipped in. The store only has so much grain in stock, so we have to save on selling it."

"If the price continues to rise, we won't even be able to afford black bread!" another citizen complained.

"You are the one who asked for it because you can't afford it," the grain store clerk sneered. "Who told you not to agree to pay the tariff to Viscount Lanwan? When you threw the pottery shards, why didn't you think about where our wheat would come from if the Lanwan Isthmus continued to be closed?"

The complaining citizens were speechless.

The grain store clerk said it harshly, but it was true. There were few grain-producing areas on the Sokya Peninsula, and Ambratu had previously relied mainly on purchasing grain from the Green Plains Principality and the Kingdom of Lesare, with the ratio of imported grain from the two purchasing channels being about seven to three.

Without the Isthmus of Lanwan, Ambratu lost its largest source of food. Even with the support of the sea routes of the Kingdom of Lesare, it would not be out of food for the time being, but it was inevitable that food would gradually become scarce, because the Kingdom of Lesare was not a major grain producer.

Why wasn't this considered when voting before?

Looking back, the citizens who faced soaring food prices probably had no answer. After all, they felt that Pande's words "Don't come and rob our pockets!" were very encouraging, or they felt that standing up and shouting "Well said!" were very enthusiastic, and then they cheered and rejected the democrats' proposal.

Just as the citizens of Ambratu began to worry about their next meal, Olivier Capino, the leader of the people's elders, stood in the square again and gave a speech: "The blockade of the Lanwan Isthmus has brought many inconveniences to the residents of the city-state. For the sake of the citizens' normal food, clothing, housing and transportation, I suggest that the Citizens' Assembly allow the Council of Elders to renegotiate tariffs with the Viscount of Lanwan..."

"You are using shameful means to threaten citizens to agree to your proposal!" Pande angrily accused Olivier Picano.

"This citizen cannot falsely accuse the elder. What shameful means have we resorted to?" Jurgen Voller said with a frown.

"You, you..." Pande stuttered for a long time but couldn't make any sense.

Other citizens did not support Pender either. Although they were unhappy in their hearts and felt ashamed to overturn their own decision not long ago, life still had to go on.

Olivier's proposal was easily approved by the Citizens' Assembly.

At the square, the oligarch elders Antanas and Salius looked gloomy. Pande didn't know what tricks the democrats had played, but they knew it clearly. The first shops in the city to raise prices were those run by the democratic elders. Under their leadership and panic, other shops began to raise prices. It might even be their instructions and collusion that led to the collective price increase of other shops.

Antanas thought that after the democrats were frustrated in the Citizens' Assembly, they would come to him for cooperation and use the prestige of the oligarchs to persuade the Citizens' Assembly. Antanas even wanted to ask the democrats for a high price, but he didn't expect that the democrats would use such a sinister trick.

PS: As I mentioned before, the first chapter is gone again. I’ve only written about 100,000 words, but it’s been banned five times. I feel extremely bad…

PS2: The first chapter of the extra will be changed into a real extra, but I haven't decided what to write in the extra. If you have any ideas, please give me some suggestions. @q@q@群1溜⑧②一7妻一溜

Volume 53: Chapter 46 Chapter Arson and Demon Trial

Sokya Peninsula, the city-state of Lesser Sasseni.

Eric Scamario, dressed in a gray linen shirt, sat in a small, dim tavern in the small town of Sassini, drinking cheap ale.

Little Sassini was built two hundred years ago by a group of immigrants who moved out of the city-state of Sassini. During these two hundred years, the original immigrants have multiplied and new immigrants have continued to gather. The population of Little Sassini has become considerable, but its urban core area still retains its original appearance.

The city of Little Sassini can be roughly divided into three parts from outside to inside.

The first part is the outer city, which consists of freely built and disorderly distributed houses, shanties, and a large number of livestock pens. The breeding industry in Little Sassini is well developed, and high-quality wool is their flagship product. It is not a joke here that there are more sheep than people.

The second part is the inner city, which is the urban area built by the immigrants at the beginning, and is also the main body of Little Sassini. There is a low wall between the inner city and the outer city. The architectural order here is better than that of the outer city, and you can see the traces of careful planning. However, it is only better. At the beginning, when Little Sassini was built, there were only a few thousand immigrants. The inner city of Little Sassini must have been very spacious for the population at that time. Even now, there are some sheep pens of the elder families in the inner city of Little Sassini, which proves that the people of Little Sassini originally raised sheep in the city. But two hundred years later, the population of Little Sassini has expanded, and the inner city has become crowded and cramped, with private buildings everywhere, and the streets have become alleys less than two arms wide.

The third part is the mountain city. The mountain city is located inside the inner city, but it is a later built area. The inner city of Little Sassini leans against a mountain called Mount Bion. About a hundred years ago, the people of Little Sassini considered that the inner city was not well defended and was becoming increasingly crowded, so they built an "inner city within the inner city" on the hillside of Mount Bion, which is what the people of Little Sassini now call the mountain city. After the mountain city was built, important facilities such as the elders' council, church, granary, and those powerful old immigrant families moved in, because the mountain city has a more solid wall and a more dangerous geographical location, which is much safer than the inner city.

Eric Scamario referred to the experience of the necromancer Legba Dando, and asked his servants to use a small boat to bypass the Ambratu Sea and take him directly to the coast of Little Sassini. Then he got off the boat and swam at night to land in Little Sassini without being noticed.

Because of Charlotte's request for confidentiality, Eric Scamario did not contact his acquaintances in Little Sassini, but disguised himself as a wool merchant. He had indeed traded wool in Little Sassini before, and he was very knowledgeable when talking about business with the merchants here, which did not arouse any suspicion at all.

After reconnaissance, Eric Scamario discovered that the twelve detained citizens of Ambrato were no longer at the Little Sassini Pier.

After speaking with a dockhand who knew about the situation, Eric Scamario learned that the citizens of Ambrato had been relocated to the inner city.

Eric Scamario thought it would take some effort to find an opportunity for assassination. After all, the inner city had a large population and a complicated situation, and it was not easy to find a place to hold prisoners.

As a result, soon after entering the inner city, Eric found that things were not that difficult.

Almost all the residents in the inner city were talking about the twelve citizens of Ambratu. They cursed the shamelessness of the Ambratu people, laughed at their stupidity, and called their friends to go to the sheepfold and throw feces and urine at the Ambratu citizens.

Eric followed the crowd to take a look. The citizens of Ambratu were indeed tied up in the sheepfold in the inner city, living and eating with a flock of sheep. There were four guards watching over them, but the residents were not prohibited from watching. They even deliberately turned the scene into an exhibition. While the residents treated the citizens of Ambratu like monkeys, they also threw things at their enemies. When Eric saw the twelve citizens of Ambratu, they were already covered in all kinds of filth.

After finding the target, the next step is to assassinate him.

Eric surveyed the situation around the sheepfold, then found a tavern, where he drank while thinking about the assassination method.

There were at least two difficulties for him to assassinate the twelve citizens. First, he lacked weapons. In order to avoid exposing his identity and to reduce weight when swimming, Eric carried a small dagger. Second, it might be difficult for him to escape after the assassination. Although Sasini was a small city-state, it had been hostile to Ambratu for two hundred years, and there was no shortage of extraordinary people. Once he exposed himself, Eric was not sure he could escape safely from the siege of dozens or hundreds of extraordinary people.

Just when Eric was frowning, a diner with a big beard and dirty and shabby clothes sat down opposite him. Such people were common in this tavern, which originally targeted the poor as its target customer group, but the pipe with sparks flickering in his mouth made Eric's eyes move slightly.

As night fell, after a table full of drinks, the drunk Eric was thrown out by the rude bar waiter.

Eric lay in the sewer on the street. In this poor neighborhood, no one would care about the life or death of a drunkard. But no one noticed that after the bartender left, Eric, who had already been unconscious, opened his eyes. After making sure that there was no one around, he stood up and swiftly went into a nearby alley. There was no sign of drunkenness at all.

Little Sassini is dim at night, but not completely dark. Small lights emitting white light are hung on the main roads in the inner city of Little Sassini.

It is said that there is a kind of ore in the Bion Mountain that glows like a night pearl, and can be made into hanging lamps for lighting without the risk of fire. Unfortunately, the brightness of this ore is not as good as a torch, and it will lose its light soon after being mined, so it cannot become a source of income for the Little Sassiani.

This kind of light caused Eric a little trouble tonight. He originally thought that he could easily find fire, but after wandering around the city for a long time, he couldn't find a torch or an oil lamp. Finally, he quietly climbed through the window and sneaked into a civilian's house before he found a fire.

After finding the fire, Eric moved towards the sheepfold.

The sheepfold, which was noisy during the day, had now become quiet. Two of the four guards seemed to have gone to sleep, and the remaining two were still on duty. Eric climbed over the wall and knocked out two guards neatly, then lifted the curtain to make sure that the twelve citizens of Ambratu were still in the sheepfold.

The main structure of the sheepfold is made of wood, the walls are made of rammed earth, the roof is made of hay, and even the door curtain is made of straw. The east side of the sheepfold is where the sheep and the citizens of Ambratu sleep, and the west side is piled with a large pile of hay.

To ensure the effectiveness of his actions, Eric found a pile of dried straw to block the door of the sheep pen. Then he lit the straw and threw a handful of the burning straw into the hay pile in the sheep pen.

The jumping flames spread quickly.

The other two guards who were resting seemed to be startled by the fire, and they hurried back. Eric, who had been prepared, knocked out the two guards as well, and then dived into the darkness again.