[Word of your victory over the pirates spreads, reputation +5;]

Byron and his family traveled for more than two weeks, including no less than ten days on the Nord Plateau. They traveled through a number of castles that were difficult to defend and difficult to attack, and finally came to the hinterland of the territory of these visitors from the northern continent.

The people of the Nord kingdom speak three dialects and are divided into five tribes with different customs. Although it has been 200 years since they arrived in Calradia, they have retained their customs and culture, believed in Nord polytheism, and are proud of their heroic deaths.

For Byron, the Nords are very similar to the Vikings of the earth, but they are better developed, and the level of technology and culture is also higher.

The Nords also built their own castles and cities, and planted grazing in their own way. As Byron passed by the neatly planned semi-subterranean houses, as well as the rugged stone temples and statues, they were amazed by this unique northern civilization.

Along the way, you can see soldiers with bows and arrows and fighting axes on their backs, speaking a language that Byron did not understand. Even inside the farms, axes and simple spears could be seen next to the houses, and like the Kujits, almost all of them were soldiers, and when the Yars went out, men fit to fight followed. Sometimes, even strong women would pick up bows and arrows and follow the troops into battle.

Between the fields, the ponies of the Nord kingdom can be found everywhere. These short, hardy horses are the most suitable for the inhabitants of the Nord kingdom, but they are not suitable for combat, so the Nords generally only use them to haul goods, and even the horses of the reconnaissance team are imported.

But what does it matter to these warriors?

For the king and the Yars, their infantry was enough to capture the opposing castle and prevent the enemy from taking it back. Enough to loot those villages and towns, and kill all the other side's garrisons and reinforcements in the towns.

The Nords' brain circuits are interesting, and they have spent a hundred years figuring out how to pit their infantry against enemy cavalry, rather than choosing to develop their own cavalry units.

There may be environmental factors and cost considerations, but in any case, there is no doubt that the Nord Kingdom does not have a main cavalry force.

In order to make it easier for Byron to be active in the Nord Kingdom, he also found himself a temporary interpreter and guide, and under his guidance, he successfully arrived at Wocheze.

It is a city with a very strong Nord culture, and it is also one of the richest cities on the mainland. Because in the mountains near Wocheze, there is one of the largest salt mines in the whole continent at present, and it is easy to mine. And along the coast, the production of high-quality sea salt has never been low.

When the first settlers arrived and discovered the huge salt mines in the mountains, they were no less shocked and excited than the discovery of gold!

In those days, fine white salt was more precious than gold. They named the mountain around the Woche "Silver Mountain", the real mountain of silver.

Nowadays, the price of white salt has dropped a lot, and many ordinary people can afford to eat it, but relying on the "silver mountain" and other special products, the commercial status of Woche has never wavered. Even with the Nords ruling the area, the Woche still produced 80% of the trade salt for the continent of Calradia every year.

That's why, despite the treacherous roads, a large number of merchants still rush here every year, and the profits from reselling salt make it impossible for them to give up this opportunity, even if they have to block their lives.

By the time Byron arrived at Wocheze, there were already many local caravans carrying bags of white and coarse salt on their carriages. The local merchant caravans are very large, basically more than 100 people, and there are a whole team of caravan guards and Nord retired soldiers to follow the escort, even if they encounter hundreds of pirates, they can fight.

And their wagon procession is also 100 meters long, and the salt is not sold at all, and if it cannot be sold in the country, it is sold to foreign merchants, from Paravon in the east to Tulga in the Kugit Khanate in the west, there is no big city that does not have the demand for salt.

When Byron brought raw silk into the city, the merchants of the city were still happy, because the silk could enrich the clothing of the nobles and the wealthy, and could raise the price.

Without much saliva, Jamila had raised the price of raw silk to 4,500 dinars, a profit that had almost doubled the cost, and any higher it might have annoyed the merchants, who would have been flattened to death by a group of Nord men at night.

Nord's merchants are very shrewd, and notoriously savage, and if the soft ones don't work, they just come to the hard ones, and they always do.

But when Byron offered to buy salt, they excused themselves on various grounds.

After Byron inquired again and again and asked a man who was familiar with the market to give him money to find out the news, he learned that the salt trade in Wocheze had always been controlled by the local big merchants and nobles, and only foreign merchants who had reached cooperation with them could buy salt from here, and the quantity had to be limited, so as not to steal other people's business or affect the market price of salt.

When Byron first arrived, he naturally did not have the trust of the local merchants, and no nobles would vouch for him.

Byron visited many merchants in and out of the city, and was busy for more than a day, but no progress was made.

Although there were some small traders who were willing to provide Byron with a little coarse salt, those bags of coarse salt were not profitable, and Byron did not want to do this kind of business.

But just when Byron was upset about this matter, someone took the initiative to find Byron.

Thanks to the pirate troops, their activities annoyed the nobles of Wocheze, and they planned to fix the bandits.

The Yars let their "Gals" clean up the pirates and entertain the guests in the mansion themselves.

The "Gal", who were low-ranking nobles, did not want to spend their soldiers on such a frivolous task as destroying robbers, so they found Byron and a few other foreign mercenaries.

Most of the local hugs protected the merchants' caravans, and the cost was too high.

These nobles had always had a good intelligence network, and they knew that Byron's Peony mercenaries were closer to armed caravans, so they issued Byron a certificate with which he could use to get salt from the city.

But obviously, a ticket will never meet Byron's needs, and this is just a bait to attract them.

They promised that as long as Byron and they destroyed the bandits, they could buy as much salt as they wanted in the city.

Also invited were several other mercenaries who came out to look for work, adding up to no less than a hundred.

Twenty Nord warriors and an officer would be sent to the city, and the officer would be in charge.

This was also one of the conditions, Byron and they had to obey the commands of the soldiers in the city when they fought.

It didn't seem to be a big risk, so Byron agreed, and accepted the commission from the nobles as a mercenary.