{For the needs of the plot, the distance in the text has been exaggerated, please do not delve into it!} }

Half a day's drive west of the city of Saône, a mountain range of hundreds of miles stretches over the plains leading to the Duchy of Burgundy, which divide the plains into east and west.

The mountains are not small in length but not too wide, from the entrance to the exit, they are no more than ten miles wide, and the middle of the mountain seems to be cut by a giant axe, and a wide valley appears in the middle of the mountains, becoming a passage connecting the east and the west.

In the middle of the wide valley there is a thriving castle, Beaune, a major trading town on the border between the Duchy of Burgundy and the Palazzo of Burgundy.

The remnant sun was like blood, and on the east lane of Beaune, a group of cavalry galloped towards Beaune with two wagons, dragging a tail of dust on the clear road for several days.

"Sir, Stanley has already sentry first, and there is no vigilance or strangeness in Bona City, and the enemy has certainly not issued an order to seal the border. Shall we go into the city to rest? The horse had been running for a long time and had to rest. Ron kicked the horse's belly lightly with both feet, and his body shook up and down with the gallop of the warhorse, and his voice trembled slightly.

Art got up slightly, moved the support point from the buttocks to the soles of his feet, and eased his buttocks, which had been jolting for half an afternoon, and then replied: "There are many people, and it is easy to make trouble, so we will continue westward around the city of Beauna, and if we encounter a village and market town, we will stop and rest, and if we can't, we will camp in front of the black." ”

Beaune is an important border trade town, but due to the suzerainty between the Count of Burgundy and the Duchy of Burgundy, the role of the trade market in Beaune is far greater than the military role of the border, so the city of Beaune does not completely block the road from the city to the principality, if there are business travelers who do not want to enter the city, they can directly bypass the city of Beaune and enter and exit the border freely.

After fleeing from the city of Saône, Art drove west without stopping, and finally arrived at the city of Beaune before dark, after which it was no longer part of the borders of the Count of Burgundy, and even if the opponent reacted, it was impossible to send an army to pursue it with great fanfare.

Art didn't want an accident at the last moment, whether there was anything unusual or not, they always had to be interrogated when they entered and exited the city gates with the infidels, and they had to be carefully disguised to accept the interrogation, which was very troublesome. So despite the Sentry's report that everything was normal in the city, he decided to bypass Beaune and spend the night in the next populated village or market town.

As the convoy galloped around Beaune, the city was still bustling with activity, where the trade of the two feudal kingdoms of the same size converged, and many merchants took advantage of the intermittent trade routes to complete the last trade of the year.

The defenders of the walls of Bonnan were puzzled as they watched a dusty procession gallop along the road about a mile to the south, for they had been stationed here for many years, and it was rare to see anyone who did not enter the city after dark, but who were desperately hurrying on the way.

Beyond the city of Beaune, the party continued for about five miles, and finally came to a village in a valley before it was dark.

The village is located next to the carriageway, and there are often pedestrians and caravans passing by to stop at the road, so the villagers did not panic in the slightest when they saw a group of people wearing caravan guard clothes and carrying short swords and short knives at their waists entering the village.

An old man who looked like an elder in the village received the group.

The old man was not only the elder of the village, but also the owner of a hotel in the village, and almost all the passing caravans would stop at his house, so the old man was basically out of the farmer's business, and he was quite tactful.

Entering the inn, Art declined the old man's offer to take care of the carriage, and let Ron take care of it with a few soldiers.

Entering the first floor of the inn, the old man instructed the kitchen to prepare a large table of bacon, bread, peas, wheat cereal and other food, and took out a barrel of high-quality beer from behind the wine cabinet and poured a wooden cup full of it, took the wooden cup and drank it all to show that it was drunk, and then asked the bartender to take a few more of the same cups for Yat and the others to fill one by one, and said politely: "This old man must be the first time to take this trade route, and it is always right to be careful." However, this trade route has been prosperous for decades, and seven or eight years ago there were occasional caravans killed along the way, but it has not happened on this road for many years since the Duchy of Burgundy sent troops to clean it up, so you can eat and walk in peace. ”

After speaking, the old man patted the beer barrel and said: "Even if this barrel of beer is given to you by you, in the future, if you pass by, whether you are settled or not, I have a barrel of good wine here waiting for the guests to pick it up." After saying that, he left naturally.

Art thought the old man was very interesting, and guessed that he was on guard, so he consciously tasted the first glass of wine for the guests, so that the guests could relax and avoid embarrassment, and then generously gave away beer, threatening to drink a barrel of beer as long as they passed by, whether they ate or did not live in the store, such a flexible mind can only be cultivated in such a prosperous place of commerce.

Art drank a glass of beer and glanced at the hotel, now that the weather was getting colder, even if there were business travelers, they were in a hurry to complete the trade, so there were not many guests in this hotel, and the old man of the inn was very leisurely.

Art picked up his glass, paced to the old man standing behind the wine cabinet and counted the books, and said with a smile: "I have seen many people, but I have rarely seen such a shrewd person as Your Excellency, you can get beer at any time, I don't know how many business travelers will be attracted to your shop to eat, drink and rest." I'm afraid that your Excellency is not from an ordinary peasant family? ”

The old man stopped the quill in his hand, glanced at Art, and replied, "Sir, I dare not call you 'Your Excellency' in front of the nobles, my name is Brigitte Foss. You're right, ordinary farmers don't take goose feathers in their accounts. My family was originally a merchant family in France, but by the time of my generation, it was already dilapidated, and it was difficult to wrap one's stomach, but fortunately, my father and ancestors left a business mind so that they were lucky not to starve to death. ”

Sure enough, it seems that he is also a person who has ups and downs in the business world.

"Since you have been doing business from all over the world, I would like to ask you how you can get to the city of Paris as quickly as possible by going northwest from here, avoiding the castle fortress and the checkpoint pass?" As he spoke, Art pulled out his money bag from his bosom, took out five small silver coins worth sixty pfennigs, and gently placed them on the front desk of the wine cabinet.

Glancing at the small silver coins on the table that were enough for this group of people to eat and drink for five or six days, and repeatedly looking at Art and the few people on the table in the house, the old man decided that this was a caravan wishing to take a hidden road to evade commercial taxes, and such a thing was familiar to him, so he picked up the silver coins one by one, and calmly replied: "Two miles west from here out of the valley is a Pingchuan, and Pingchuan continues westward and encounters the first village he encounters, and stops, finds a middle-aged man named Sandra, and tells him that you are friends of old Brie." ”

"Fifty pfennigs per carriage, and he will take you around all the castle fortresses and checkpoints along the way to a port city called Auxerre, where Sandra will find you riverboats that go straight to Paris, which are ships that carry military rations to Paris, and do not have to pay taxes, but the conditions are really not very good."

After the old man finished speaking, he specially ordered, "Sandra only takes on the work of caravans below three carriages at a time, and if the scale is large, he can't do anything." ”

The old man glanced at Robert, who was sitting on the wooden table in the hall drinking beer, and said, "But I see that you have a priest accompanying you, and the most direct way is to fly the banner of the church, as long as you threaten to send donations to the church in Paris, so that no one dares to intercept the tax." ”

Art carefully wrote down the old man's words, and after asking the old man about some business trips, he thanked him, returned to the table, ate and drank seriously, and after eating and drinking, he went to the stable to replace the Ron, who was guarding the carriage and horses......

............

Nothing happened all night, and early the next morning, Art settled the room and board bills and continued with the team, and it didn't take long to reach the village that the old man of the inn said, and after giving a small copper coin to a boy with a runny nose at the entrance of the village, Art easily found Sandra who was gambling with someone in a thatched hut in the village, and found a secluded place to explain his intentions, Sandra took Art's deal without the slightest hesitation, and then did not ask who or what was in the carriage at all, After returning to the dilapidated thatched hut, he cleaned up a little bit, took out a mule and horse, and left the village with Art and his party, and ran south......

After leaving the valley, the terrain was very flat, and the road to the west was very smooth, and if you drove a horse and drove according to the normal route, you could reach the river port city of Auxerre.

But this is a trade road, there are many castles and fortresses along the way, and there are many outpost tax cards, in order to keep a low profile, the group went south for a long time under the guidance of the gambler named Sandra, and then went west through some country roads, streams, farms, manors and even walked around the farmland of farmers, and the village settlements along the way saw Sandra leading the way and also ignored Yat and his party, obviously there are many doorways here.

He followed Sandra all the way through the river and water, and it was not until noon on the fifth day that the party reached Auxerre. The distance is quite far, and the road is very difficult, but it does bypass almost all the castle fortresses and outpost checkpoints along the way, and even the few remote checkpoints that cannot be bypassed are finalized by Sandra with a few words.

Fifty pfennig for a car, people are expensive and have their own reason.

Upon arrival in Auxerre, the party found a small inn near the docks to rest, and Sandra went alone to find a riverboat that would take the party to Paris.

Auxerre is a port city, located in the middle of the Yona River, which originated in the southeast mountainous area before the Yona River formed river transportation conditions suitable for large and medium-sized ships, so it can be regarded as the first port city on the Yona River, along the Yona River to the northwest, in a city called Montroover into the Seine, and then continue to sail to the city of Paris.

Due to its special location and port, Auxerre was one of the few cities that was not walled and exempt from the traveling merchant tax, and its main sources of income came from river transport, lodging and trade.

After resting for the night in a warehouse near the port, Sandra came back early the next morning with news that the ship bound for Paris had been found.

Art left Stanley and Dawson to guard the carriage, while he took Father Robert and Ron and Matthew to follow Sandra to the port cargo dock to meet the captain of the cargo ship.

When the group arrived at the wharf, although there was no longer the bustling and noisy scene of summer and autumn, there were still many ships sailing back and forth and berthing in port.