On the tenth day of exploring the valley along the river, after passing through the last canyon and walking out of the vast mountains and dangerous peaks, everyone finally came to a low hilly plain, and scattered settlements began to appear after passing through a dense forest beyond the mouth of the canyon.

According to the distance calculation, further west should be the border between Provence and Lombardy, it seems that the distance from the valley down the river to Lombardy is more than twice as short as the detour from the eastern part of the border of Provence, which is also the result that Yate is most willing to see, this trip to explore the valley along the river confirmed his suspicion that the shortest distance from the coast of the southern continent to the northern countries should be this valley connecting the north and the south, and the scattered records in the annals should be true.

This result made Yate very excited......

The sudden emergence of a group of people from the dense forest of the valley did not panic the scattered settlements in the hilly area of Taniguchi, and the villagers along the way who saw the people and horses coming out seemed to have received some instructions, and one by one took out salt, linen, ironware, farm tools, clay pots and other things that had been prepared for a long time from their homes and rushed to Yate and his party.

The Yates didn't know the intentions of these people, so they were so frightened that they hurriedly stretched their bows and held their swords.

In previous years, at this time of the year, there would be a team in the mountains with precious furs, bacon, herbs, nuts, dried mushrooms and other hunting goods in the mountains to exchange salt, iron, pottery, cloth and other agricultural tools that could not be produced in the mountains.

Judging from the actions of the people in these scattered settlements, it is clear that this is a perennial practice.

But when the Lombards found out that the people who had suddenly rushed out of the valley were not the mountain people whom they had met once a year, the Lombards immediately became nervous, and they hurried back to the village with their goods.

"It seems that they have treated us as bandits and robbers from the mountains." Ron looked at the Lombards who had shrunk into the village settlement, and slowly lowered his bow and arrows.

Art glanced at the Lombard civilians with farm tools in their hands and a look of horror, and lifted the reins, "Go around the settlement and move on." ”

The group rode away as the Lombard civilians were on guard.

The rest of the road was roughly like this, but the Lombards did not trade things like the valley settlements, and in normal times, those mountain people only traded with a few settlements in the valley, and they probably didn't want to attract the attention of the valley outside.

Out of the valley, the further south you go, the warmer the weather becomes, and the exotic customs along the way become more and more different.

The original owner of Art's body was originally a Lombard, but when he entered this world, he was in northern Burgundy, and the Lombard in his memory was always vague, and now he came to Lombardy in person, only to feel the gap between the north and the south.

Lombardy is a southern continent country based on commerce, and more than half of its citizens are merchants or depend on commerce and trade, so in the blood of the Lombards, in addition to the sleekness and shrewdness of merchants, there is also that kind of warmth and tolerance.

The further south you go, the larger the character of this southern trading state becomes, especially in the market towns. For example, in other states, the currency is usually not in common use, and the caravans of the Ates from Burgundy have to go to the guild vaults in Provence to exchange them for local currency, and even if the other party collects foreign currency, it will generally be accompanied by a high exchange tax, but this does not exist in a southern continent state like Lombardy, but the stewards of all the larger shops and inns are familiar with the exchange ratio of the currencies of various countries in their own countries, and they will tell you directly how much they need to pay in their own currency according to your accent. And almost every hostel can exchange local Lombardy currency.

Soon after leaving the valley and hills, the Artist and the others stopped at a market town inn for a night's rest, and the next day Art changed into a merchant leader's outfit, and the four of Ron were all dressed as hardcover caravan guards.

Art called the hotel bartender last night, handed over a few small local coins worth less than a pfennig, and then gave Art a detailed description of all the big and small cities around the market town.

Early the next morning, Art set out south with four "caravan guards" to a city called Rawati.

Rawati was no stranger to Arte, as two days south of the city was the Baron's Castle called Sorenburg, which would have been called Willsburg ten years ago.

After ten years, Art is finally ready to go back and see.

Rawati in the north of Sorrenburg is the most prosperous city in the surrounding area, and it is also the largest city in the northern mountains of Lombardy. Unlike castle lords, these completely self-governing places have a well-developed system of urban governance.

In less than a day, the crowd arrived outside the city of Lazati.

Built on a gentle hill that winds and winds, Rawati radiates from the Civic Center Square with towering towers and old wine-aged red houses, while rugged cobblestone roads and winding alleys divide the city into many pieces, each one shining brightly. One of the most exquisite pieces is located on a zigzag hill, depending on the mountain, so the road is narrow and undulating, intricately and criss-crossed. From time to time, there is a "silver lining", the tall houses crowd the old and quiet alleys extremely narrow, the bright sunlight is blocked, the doorknobs of the tall arches are carved in exquisite relief patterns, and the faded curly shutters can be seen when you look up.

The city is filled with wealthy merchants and ladies in splendid clothes and traders who hurriedly shuttle between shops and stalls to trade goods; Outside the city, caravans of mules, horses, livestock, wagons, and ox carts came and went.

Ravati was a city without high walls, which was simply impossible in the northern kingdoms, but it was commonplace in the Duchy of Lombardy, where there were many such undefended cities, and the confident Lombard citizens had a strong army of city citizens, who were confident that they could defend themselves against any hostile visitors with their better equipped ranks than the court army.

On the road into the city, there are also city security guards in half-body plate armor, spears in their hands, and steel swords on their waists, and they often patrol the streets in groups of ten under the leadership of officers.

Since Art and his party were all riding horses and swords, they could be regarded as a team with unstable factors, so they were stopped by a group of patrolling security guards as soon as they came in from the north of the city.

Art showed that he was a merchant who had come to Lombardy from northern Burgundy to look for business opportunities, and Art was going to explain it again, but the man who looked like a security officer didn't listen to Yat much at all, but just let him go after explaining that he should not cause trouble in the city.

After the group found a nearby hotel to stay in, leaving two guards to take care of the horses, Art took Ron and Matthew out of the hotel and wandered around the city with purpose......

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Chapter 388: The Nation of Commerce and Trade