After leaving the village, the caravan continued to move forward, and the rest of the journey did not encounter any accidents, and the villages and towns along the way gradually increased, and the road environment also improved greatly. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Roland had a small argument with Mikhail over the itinerary.

Mikhail was frightened along the way, and now he just wanted to rush to the city to deliver the goods as soon as possible, and Viktoria and others had similar thoughts.

Roland didn't want to be so careless. He came to the north for diplomatic activities and to investigate the people's feelings, the latter of which was even more important in his heart.

First of all, it must be admitted that the fortress is the focus of the investigation, after all, the residents of the city account for more than half of the total population of Kitland, but the villages and mines on the outskirts of the city cannot be ignored either, and without understanding the living conditions of these villagers and miners, it is impossible to deeply understand the plight faced by the people of Kitland, then the investigation report he wrote to his father and the basic materials prepared for the negotiations will become empty words on paper.

In the end, Roland decided to say goodbye to the caravan early and continue the journey at his own pace, for which he needed to find a guide who was familiar with the local situation, and Mikhail was able to meet this small request.

Roland had expected Mikhail to send him an ordinary fellow, but he didn't expect Viglav to stay and show him the way.

"You're the mercenary captain of the caravan, so it's not good to leave your post without permission, right?" Roland asked him in surprise.

"It's already very close to the garrison of the fortress, the city guards will come to patrol regularly, there is no risk on the road, and it is not interesting for me to follow, Uncle Mikhail agreed to let me stay."

Hearing him say this, Roland stopped refusing.

Over the next few days, Roland and the others hurried from one village to the next, almost all the settlements around the fortress. Everywhere he went, Roland would give the locals small gifts such as bread, ham, cheese, etc., and ask them to talk about their lives. During the course of his investigations, he carefully examines the local population, prices, security, agriculture, industry and commerce, road traffic, education and health, etc., which are seemingly boring data that are essential to understanding the local society.

The work was so hard that no one could keep it busy, except for Vigrav who followed him from morning till night, Veronica, Lyudmila, Bloom, and Nikita helped without complaint.

Nikita felt that it was too hard for him to run to the countryside every day, and suggested flying straight over, but Roland smiled and refused.

The vast majority of people in this world can't fly, so how can you know the local traffic conditions unless you have walked those country roads yourself?

From the national government to the local organization, the extent to which public power can be extended and to what level it penetrates is closely related to the convenience of transportation.

From the experience of the planet, the limits of a country's territorial expansion are often directly proportional to the ease of transportation.

The U.S. federal government had never exercised truly effective rule over the states in the remote regions until the completion of rail lines across the country.

In modern times, Western colonizers always had to engage in large-scale transportation construction after occupying a piece of land, which was not discovered by the conscience of the capitalists, let alone to facilitate the aborigines to travel, and only fast transportation lines could ensure that the colonists continued to expand their sphere of influence and rule the local majority of the aborigines with a small army.

Varess is a fantasy world, and of course the specifics are different from those on Earth, but there are many common reasons for replacing technology in the elements of productivity with spells - for example, trains powered by magic crystals are not uncommon in the economically developed regions of the Empire. In the Far East, there is only one main railway line, which runs from Fort Atonement, the provincial capital, to Fort Olevy, a major military town. Originally, the railway was built to expand the territory into the Far East, and it was originally planned to use Fort Atonement as a hub, extending north to Baigull Harbor, west to Parnia, and east to Beacon Mountain, but it was forced to be shelved because of the Orc counterattack, so it was not mentioned.

Roland had the ambition to raise funds to complete the plan and build the Far East into a nation-state in the modern sense if he became the master of the Fort of Atonement.

Of course, some of the transportation plans drawn up in the last century are outdated, such as the fact that the original map did not show the Kitland Fortress, and the revision of the plan would require the addition of a branch line to the Kitland Fortress.

It took half a month for Roland to complete the investigation of the surrounding villages and towns, and finally came to Kitland, a long-admired northland city, this morning.

The so-called "Kitland Fortress" is actually a group of fortresses spread over hundreds of miles, each fortress is equipped with a new type of magic crystal cannon to defend against invasion from the ground or the air, and the fortress group is also a large barracks for 40,000 active soldiers.

Roland heard that the total population of Kitlanders is only more than 400,000, so on average, one out of ten people is in the army, and this is not counting retired soldiers!

A cursory calculation shows that it costs an astronomical amount of money just to maintain such a large standing army, so it is no wonder that the Beowulf couple wanted to create an official mercenary guild to rent out troops to make up for the financial shortfall.

Wide moats were dug around the periphery of the fortress group, and the glacier snow melted to form a moat, and a spell barrier was applied so that it would not freeze in the cold season, forming a natural barrier.

The drawbridge spans both sides of the moat, and on the opposite side is a wide horse path for six Highland Losmons to walk side by side, with watchtowers every hundred paces on either side of the road to monitor the flow of merchants.

After about an hour's walk along this straight avenue, the majestic city of Kitland emerges at the end of the road, guarded by fortresses, and stands on the top of the plateau, like a rock giant overlooking all people.

Roland looked from afar and realized that the city's landmark was not the castle of the Lords, but a towering minaret in the middle of the city.

"The tower is called the 'Heroic Tower', a memorial tower built after the Kitlanders overthrew the rule of the orcs, in order to remember the unsung heroes who died in the national liberation war, the building at the base of the tower was originally a temple dedicated to the old gods, and now it has been converted into a large shrine dedicated to the 'God of Strength' Kord." Vigraf introduced Roland and other guests from afar.

Roland noticed that there seemed to be some kind of spell barrier set up at the top of the Heroic Tower, and the arcane fluctuations emitted were extremely strong, and he couldn't help but be curious.

"What kind of spell has been set up on the Martyr's Tower, and it has enveloped the entire city."

Viglaf listened to his question and replied with a smile: "This question Miss Nikita should know better than me, the spell enchantment was designed and built by the ancestors of Kitland City at the expense of the legendary mages of Beacon Hill, and it provided a lot of convenience for the management of the city. ”

"It stumped me, because I wasn't born when I built this tower." Nikita shrugged her shoulders with a wry smile, and continued, "I only know that there is a 'Lost Lock' on the tower, and I don't know what the specific functions are. ”

"So that's the Lost Lock!" Roland couldn't help but be moved. (To be continued.) )