On April 5, the sun rose in the east, and the air was clear.

At the gate of the Wooden Fort in the Valley, Cooper and Bass, along with several civil affairs officials, sent Yat to school as he was about to explore the southern part of the valley

"My lord, I think it's better to send the soldiers of the Legion to explore, right? It's really not okay for you to bring more guards, the south has been deserted for hundreds of years, I really don't know what kind of danger there is, it's always right to bring a few more people. Buzz had a sad look on his face, he didn't support the risk of Art, who was already a viscount.

"Okay, I'm still not sure if I don't go to see it in person, I've already decided on this matter, you don't need more."

"There is no need for the guards, if my estimation is correct, the long valley in the south along the Rainel Mountains is probably Lombardy, and if I bring too many guards, it will be easy to attract attention." Art couldn't help but walk over to the riding horse that Ron was leading, grabbed the saddle and jumped on it.

He straightened the bow and quiver in the front saddle, touched the saddle bag and felt blanket grain bag behind him, and gently turned the horse's head to look in the direction of the lord's mansion, "Cooper, you tell Madame that I don't want to enjoy myself at home, but I really dare not indulge in peace and happiness in troubled times. ”

Art glanced at the second floor of the mansion again and shouted, "God testifies, everything I have done is to make it possible for you to live here in peace."

There was still no sound on the second floor of the mansion, and Art shrugged his shoulders and kicked the horse's belly, "Ron, let's go!" ”

Art was the first to rush out of the outer wall of the wooden fort and run south along the carriageway beside the stream.

Ron immediately mounted his horse and chased after three caravan guards lined with chain mail and leather armor, and the four guards were also wrapped in swords, axes, spears, bows, quivers, and mattresses on their horses.

At the end of the saddle of one of the guards there was a rein, and at the other end of the reins was a young pack horse, which carried bread, bacon, beer, ale, and other grain baggage, as well as black beans, wheat bran and horse concentrates......

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

Although the so-called horse-drawn carriageway is no wider than the four-wheeled carriage that has just passed, far less than the trade road that communicates the north and south outside the valley, it is wide and smooth enough for a remote "barren valley", and the clear rut marks on the lane also indicate that the road is frequently used by frames.

Art and four guards rode along the road, declining the warm invitation of the villages on both sides of the river, and it took less than a morning for the five of them to reach the workshop area at the end of the road.

This is already the southernmost point of the development of the entire valley, and the workshop area is the forbidden land of the valley, which is always guarded by peasants, and almost no one attempts to explore the south, except for the organized cutting of timber and the collection of firewood and grass to take a few extra steps back to the south.

After stopping in the workshop area for a short time to eat a big pot meal with the craftsmen, and after learning that several people were going south to explore, several craftsmen in the weapons workshop took advantage of the lunch time to use half-formed iron embryos to make a two-foot-long single-edged straight knife with a long back, which was wide in front and narrow in the back, which was very suitable for chopping vines and trees.

After eating lunch and feeding the horses, the five of Yate crossed the horse and held the frontier and headed south to school

"Sir, two miles to the south are sparse pine and other miscellaneous trees, and further south of the dwarf pine forest is a large area of barren and overgrown land, twelve or thirteen miles long, and if you continue south, you will enter a low hill, and the river at your feet will become turbulent, and after the hill will be dense forest and long canyons. I don't remember how long the canyon was, but we walked through two full squares before we got out of the canyon, and at the end of the canyon was a basin, and there was no farmland in the basin, but there seemed to be traces of human activity. ”

"Because of that sudden illness of someone, we had to turn back after exploring the basin, and I felt that if we continued south along the Lamel Mountains and the river, we should be able to reach somewhere north of Lombardy......"

Ron rode side by side with Art, he had led people to explore the south a year ago, and was more familiar with this place, their route was still along the right bank of the river, and the road that Ron had traveled a year ago was covered by weeds, but after all, it was much easier to walk again.

"Ron, Matthew, you two are more or less literate, from now on I will always make a record of the trip, but I may not record it completely, so the two of you should also do your best to record the trip, including the distance estimate, the slow flow of the river, the terrain along the way, the distribution of mountains and rivers, and the things you think are of some value, and you will use this southward exploration as a battlefield outpost for the army."

Arte took out a few pieces of valley-made "straw paper" and a few sharpened hardwood charcoal sticks from the right back saddle bag and handed them to Ron.

Ron reluctantly took it and gave some to Matthew, "Why do you want me to find a few more straw charcoal sticks." It turned out that we had prepared a copy~"

"Where did you get so many words, it's harder for you to write something than to eat, the road ahead!" Art laughed and slapped Ron on the back......

In the next few days, Yate and a few people walked day and night, walking through the unknown secret realm of the valley, sometimes walking through the dense forest and trees, sometimes riding horses on the barren grass and flat land, but many times several people need to dismount and walk to open the way in turn, because the weeds in many places have not reached the top of their heads, and they cannot ride through the school at all

The road was not all smooth sailing, there is no need to worry about bandits rushing out of the way, but the poisonous snake has come out of the hole, the mountain birds and beasts along the way have also begun to move, several people have encountered a group of wild boars in the barren grassland, almost scattered the horses, and also encountered a lone wolf who went out to forage......

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

"Trip fifth, in the evening, about seventy-five miles from the workshop area. Garrison: Half a mile of abandoned monastery ruins on the riverbank, there are ancient road ruins fifty steps before the ruins, the ruins of the ancient road are about twenty feet wide, there is a stone fort, suspected to be the site of the ancient business road......" Art pinched the carbon rod that was half cut short and wrote on the dense papyrus, he had tried to keep the text as simple as possible, but the papyrus was quickly filled. In order to save paper, Art had to make a hasty conclusion, and then put the straw paper full of symbols in a cowhide bag and sealed it.

This is already the fifth time that Atlanta has explored the south, and according to Ron's description, a little further south will see the basin they explored last year.

The cluster is a ruin that has been abandoned for many years, and the parts of the building that are more than half human have collapsed, only the stone walls are still standing strong in the grass and trees, telling the glory of the past.

Matthew had already cleared the ruins of the monastery with a few guards, vacated the camp in a clearing with relatively intact foundations, set up a felt shed, and built a bonfire.

After a while, Ron ran back in a hurry, dragging a long snake half a wrist thick in his hand, the head of which had been smashed by Ron, but the body was still wrapped around Ron's arm.

"Yo, where are you going to get such a big earthworm, and I'm not afraid of biting you." Art wasn't afraid of snakes, but he didn't have much affection for them, and he hadn't eaten snake meat when he was a hunter.

Ron pinched the snake's head and pulled the snake off his arm, "I was patrolling behind the ruins just now, and this guy is stalking a squirrel, so can I let him go?" So I picked up a stone and smashed its snake head, the squirrel was big, and it seemed to have been bitten, I was afraid of poison and threw it away~"

Ron, a guard who fetched water and made food walked in, and Ron just threw the dead snake to the guard, "Peel the skin and dirt, and boil a pot of snake soup at night." ”

The guard took the dead snake, drew his short knife, and went out to dispose of the snake's flesh.

"Master, I took a closer look in the future, and found iron filings embroidered into slag at the root of the back wall of the ruins, which may be the wheels of the carriage clad iron, but I can't see the appearance of the wheels anymore." Ron regained his serious look.

"Well, I think the road in front of the monastery should be an ancient commercial road, but there are not many sections of the road where a stone fort can be built like this one, and other dirt roads have long since turned into barren grass and dense forests for hundreds of years, and there are not many places that can be well preserved like that section of the road."

Several people along the way try to choose places where there may be traces of the ancient road to walk, which is of vital significance to Yate's long-term planning, but this barren valley has been abandoned for hundreds of years, and only those broken historical records can not restore the original historical appearance.

"Sir, do you really intend to open a trade route connecting the north and the south in this canyon? Isn't that easy? You're looking at the barren mountains and valleys~" Ron knew what Art was going to do, but he was clearly not confident about it.

"Ron, it's restoration, restoration!"

"Hundreds of years ago, there was a north-south trade route here, and at that time there was a steady stream of goods from the southern coast to the north from the road in this valley."

"Ron, imagine what it would mean if we could restore this trade route~"

Art looked up at the south of the canyon river, his eyes full of anticipation......

The next one, a few people continued to walk in the valley, leaving the ruins of the monastery became more and more difficult to walk, Art tried to find the ruins of the ancient road in front of the ruins to go south, because usually the place where the caravan road can be built is relatively flat and easy, but Art still failed to tread the road after all, and the ruins of the ancient road disappeared in the dense forest near the mountain range of the canyon.

There was a steep hill in front of the forest where the ancient road had disappeared, and the hill divided the canyon in half, and Art speculated that the ancient road might pass from the right side of the hill, but the basin that Ron had previously discovered that might be inhabited was on the left side of the hill where the river flowed, and Art didn't plan to take the risk, so he made a note of the location, made a striking mark, and then turned to the left and continued south along the river......