"Odo, arrange for everyone to fix on the spot, and hurry up and sleep for a while before dawn."

"Ron takes someone to scout for the surrounding mile."

"Kazak, your squad is in charge of the sentry."

Art gave orders to several commanders around him.

The convoy galloped safely through the manor's watchtower, and after a night of travel, arrived in the ruins of Hades Village before the moonset in the treetops. The thrilling raid battles and the overnight rush had exhausted Art, but now that he was still in the vicinity of the battle area, there could be an enemy situation at any time, so he didn't dare to slack off in the slightest.

After asking Spencer to bandage his spear-pierced arm a little, Art got up and looked around to check on the soldiers of the patrol team and the drivers of the convoy, not wanting any of his men to have problems at this time.

After a while, Ron, who had been scouting around the perimeter with the Sentinels, returned to the ruins. Knowing that there was no enemy within a mile of the perimeter, Art relaxed slightly, and leaned against a collapsing earthen wall with his clothes and armor before his eyelids merged for a moment......

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

"Who is it?!"

A loud cry woke up the sleeping Art, and when he opened his eyes, he saw Otto holding an axe and aiming it at a pile of wood and grass in the ruins.

"Come out slowly, or my tomahawk will chop off your dog's head!" Odo's voice continued to sound, and the soldiers who had been awakened around him also took up arms and surrounded the firewood and straw stacks.

After a while, there was a rustling sound in the stack of firewood and straw, and a guy with unkempt hair and a bloody face slowly crawled out of the stack of firewood and straw.

Otto and the soldier looked at the ghostly creature and slowly lowered the weapon in their hands.

"Stand up slowly and don't mess around." Otto commanded with a half-step back.

The guy put his hands on his head and slowly got up and stood up.

The bloodstained and tattered guy in front of him was dressed like he had crawled out of a pile of dead people, but he could be seen wearing a high-quality pure white linen liner at the neckline, and his body was quite rich, and it didn't match this outfit no matter how he looked at it, which looked particularly weird.

"Tuba, send someone around to take a closer look, don't let go of the slightest danger." Otto ordered Tuba to search around.

"Who are you? Why are you hiding here? Otto's interrogation rang out.

The weird guy wiped the stains off his face, looked at the crowd around him, and asked, "Aren't you the Lombard army?" Not a southerner either? ”

Otto was stunned by this question, this guy didn't seem to be afraid of their group of strangers with razor-bladed steel knives.

"Who the hell are you? If you don't say anything else, you're welcome. "Otto didn't want to talk too much about this weird guy.

"I knew you weren't those bloodthirsty mongrels of Lombardy~ This adult is a northerner, right?" The strange guy began to take off his tattered clothes.

Otto was also a little dazed by this unknown fellow, and was about to raise his axe and slash to intimidate him.

"Don't worry, I say, I say, my name is Salter Medici, and I'm a small merchant........."

It turned out that this middle-aged man named Salter Medici was a merchant in the southern part of the mainland, and since he was a teenager, he followed an old merchant to do some small business in various parts of the southern continent.

After shutting down for more than a year due to war last winter, he finally decided to take advantage of the war in Provence and Lombardy, so he spent his savings for many years and borrowed a large amount of money from the city commercial houses to buy a large amount of grain and urgently needed materials from all over the north at high prices, intending to smuggle them to the war zone to buy them at sky-high prices. As a result, the caravan he hired was intercepted by the Lombard army as soon as it touched the edge of the war zone, and all his savings for many years were robbed, and all the members of the convoy were killed......

Ron looked at Salter, who was squatting on the side of the carriage like a hungry dog, nibbling on rye bread and choking on it, and said to Buzz beside him, "It's really a dead man crawling out of a pile of dead people, how many days have you not eaten......"

Art walked over to Salt and handed over a water bladder, which Salter picked up and poured water into his stomach.

After learning the identity and experience of the guy in front of him, Art had the heart to solicit at that time, he squatted down and approached the guy sitting on the ground, and said, "Salter, what are you going to do in the future?" ”

Salter returned the bladder to Art, wiped the water stains from his mouth and took a bite of the hard bread, and replied indistinctly in his bulging mouth: "No~I went~ I lost everything~~ and became a beggar." "The immortal Salter didn't have that much sadness.

Art admired the carefree businessman in front of him very much, and said, "How about coming with me?" ”

Salter stopped chewing, stared at the officer-like young man in front of him, then looked at the group of black-clothed soldiers behind him, and replied, "My lord, do you want me to be your soldier?" I can't hold a sword. ”

Art smiled: "No, no, no, it's a pity to let someone like you become a warrior, I will give you a decent job." ”

Without thinking, Salter replied, "Okay, I'll go with you." ”

"Why don't you ask us who we are and what we do?"

Salter replied with a big grin, "What do you ask, I don't think you look like a commoner, and it's absolutely right to follow you." ”

Art was amused by his answer, and asked with a smile, "Since you know that we are not civilians, you dare to follow us?" ”

Salter put down the bread and said to himself with a solemn face: "Bad people are good, only bad people can survive in this world." ”

The crowd was relatively speechless......

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

After leaving Hades, the convoy largely fled the war zone, and there was no longer any harassment from the Lombard army, but the convoy's march was not all smooth sailing.

When the convoy went south to the Aosta war zone, because of the banner of Baron Berrion and the delivery of military rations to the war zone, the various outposts and lords in various places along the way did not stop them, and of course they did not have to pay various taxes. But when Art returned with the convoy, the lords who had been looted by the war were not so polite, and they regained their nature, and they had to rub off a layer of oil from anything that passed through their territory, even if it was an iron rod.

Although Arte had a lacquered document written by Baron Baron Baron to prove that they were the convoy that helped the Aosta war zone to transport military rations, the lords did not pay attention to a letter, and although Arte brought soldiers, after all, it was in someone's territory, so he had to obediently pay taxes.

Along the way, the lords levied taxes under various names, Rao is always able to endure Ododu aroused his temper: "My lord, it's really uncomfortable, I have to pay so many business taxes when crossing the border with an empty car, I really want to kill those miscellaneous lords!" ”

Art is also a little helpless, now a large number of troops have been gathered in all parts of northern Provence, once Art has a dispute with the local lords here, it is himself who will suffer in the end.

However, Salter, a merchant who had just joined the patrol, soon found a solution to everyone's plight.

In the two days that Salter joined the patrol team, he followed the "house steward" Spencer to do some chores to make fires, cook, and manage military funds, and in the casual conversation with Spencer, he learned the identity and background of this army and the purpose of this southward trip.

"My lord, you just let these dozen carriages go back to the north empty?" Salter looked at Art incredulously.

"How many of these wagons are mine, and I'm going to buy a few cartloads of supplies in Kitsby to bring them back." ”

"And what about the remaining dozen wagons? Empty? ”

"That's another noble lord's convoy, not mine."

"But now they're under your management......"

According to Salter's idea, Arter's convoy was to buy the war-torn goods from the town lords on the way back.

It was a time of war, and many lords had a large backlog of goods in their hands, and their goods could not be sold to the southern war zone, and there were no northern merchants to buy them, so many lords could only watch the goods in the warehouses rot and deteriorate day by day. In particular, Provence is rich in fruit wine, spices and olive oil, which are usually quite valuable goods, in times of war seem so lowly, after all, fruit wine and spices cannot replace grain bread, and even when food supply is difficult, luxury goods become dispensable.

So the rest of the journey, the convoy led by Art was transformed from an empty convoy rushing back to Sapp to an armed caravan that came from the north to buy goods from all over Provence.

Identity determines treatment, after the lords of various places learned that Art was a northern merchant who came to buy goods, their attitude immediately changed dramatically, they waited at the gate of the castle early to meet the caravan that brought money, since they bought their long-standing backlog of goods to solve the urgent need, of course, there was no need to pay any commercial taxes when crossing the border..........

After six days of travel, the eight wagons of the convoy arrived in Kitsby, loaded with all kinds of goods, including spices, olive oil, and wine, which were local to Provence, ironware, salt, cloth, pepper, cloves, and even raw silk, brocade, tea, and porcelain from Central Asia and the East.

Thanks to the merchant Salter's mouth worthy of a sophist's mouth and his skillful commercial skills, the price of these goods purchased from all over the world was almost half that of a normal year, and eight wagons of goods cost Yat only 12,000 dophines.

Arteben could have bought more goods, but he didn't have all his money with him for safety, and he didn't have much money left; Second, it was the first time he bought so many goods, if Master Galvin did not buy the goods when they arrived at Sap, then Art would have to sell them by himself, which was more risky.

Salter, who showed his self-worth, was valued by Art, who gave him a green mule as a ride and followed him at all times.

Turning, Salter glanced at the convoy behind him and said, "My lord, if these goods can be safely delivered to Burgundy in the north, the price will quadruple, but these carriages are not yours, and it is not easy to carry so many goods through the long and dangerous north-south trade route at this time." So I can only sell the goods to the owner of the convoy, but you can rest assured, I will definitely raise the price and never let your silver coins be spent in vain. ”

Art did see the shadow of a good businessman in Salter, but he needed more time to understand the integrity of the businessman around him, "Salter, I haven't asked, do you have any family children?" ”

"I have two children, but they are now married to an honest farmer with my ex-wife. ”

It is not surprising that Arte is not surprised by the misfortune of the Salter family, as a merchant traveler, he is running around all the year round, naturally he can't take care of the family, and there is no way to give his family affection and warmth, plus the merchant is not as good as farming the land, today is fine clothes and food, tomorrow may be on the street, such a day without decline is not what every woman is willing to accept, and Salter's wife naturally does not want to follow him and be afraid.