The Ural Grand Canyon, the market of Saffo Town, the afternoon rain and the sunny day.

In the bazaar, large and small camel caravans come in and out, most of which have the background of large merchants, and the shipment and receipt are orderly.

Higg was forced to come to the bazaar not to hang out, but to sell the hides of the beasts he had caught for nearly a month.

Higg, who often goes to the bazaar to sell goods, knows that the merchants who sell mountain goods, horses, animal skins, animal tendons, jade and other goods are generally barbarian merchants, and those who sell aquatic products, pearl shells, and medicinal materials are generally merchants from the Mizusawa country, and the merchants of Erathia mainly sell all kinds of porcelain and handicrafts, and the best sales are wine, whether it is wine or liquor, which is highly sought after by the other two caravans. Some of these forbidden weapons and armor are also traded here through side cards, and this is a free zone, as long as you can get here, anything can be traded. The liveliest place is the slave market, where slaves include not only Human, Marine, and Orc slaves, but also gnomes, dwarves, elves, and even giants.

Caravans are usually negotiated a long time ago, but they are only delivered today, so they are usually carried out quickly, and bulk sellers like Higg will stay in the market for a long time. Because Higg is a retail owner of the Erathians who rarely sell animal skins, he has long been accustomed to strange stares and chewing tongues, but there are many people who ask and few people who buy.

Today, it is estimated that there is nothing to harvest, and I have to bargain those black-hearted buyers, and in the end, I have no way to deal with them at a low price, and I am familiar with them, but if you are slaughtered, it is called a ruthless.

Knowing that he was slaughtered, he had to grit his teeth and walk into a merchant store that specializes in collecting all kinds of raw materials.

"Six gold coins, these hides are a little damaged, and they are not very well preserved, this is the price I gave you after all the familiar customers." The shopkeeper squinted as usual and said.

"One price, ten gold coins, or I'll find the next one." Higg said impatiently.

"Eight gold coins, and I'll put the goods down." The shopkeeper seems to have been ruthless.

"Eight gold coins are eight gold coins, but you have to give me two bottles of the wine you just received, and I have to satisfy the old man." Higg said with a smile.

"Deal, just when I take two bottles of wine to worship the gods, that's definitely a good thing, haha!" The shopkeeper is also happy.

Eight gold coins are finally enough for two people to live for a month, in this ghost place, although there is no tax, but everything is expensive, and I don't know how the god stick Andrew was sent to this ghost place to preside over the worship of believers, there are many more heretics here than believers.

Higg didn't know who his parents were since he was a child, and it is said that Andrew adopted him, and the two stayed in the town for more than a decade, before most of the town's residents settled. The children of the poor are in charge of the family, and Higg is almost sixteen years old this year, and has gradually become a qualified hunter, able to catch some of the nearby antelopes and wild deer, and improve the household through these.

Hig's home is housed in a mosque in the town of Savio in the Ural Gorge.

Higg finally had an income today, and he was in a particularly good mood, enjoying the beautiful scenery of the Ural Grand Canyon after the rain along the way.

A beautiful giant rainbow spans the Cape Peaks in the Glenn Mountains, like a multicolored arch bridge on the mountain's road to heaven. Hornhorn Peak, the second highest peak in the Grand Mountains, is covered with snow all year round, and the mountains seem to rise from the plains and rise directly into the clouds.

The east-west Gran Mountains are the largest mountain range in Middle-earth, and the Lookout Peak is the starting point of the mountain range from west to east, and to the east is the Gran Mountains, which stretch for nearly 10,000 kilometers, all the way to the sea; To the west is the north-south Andes Mountains.

At the confluence of the Grand and Andes Mountains is the Grand Canyon of the Urals. It is said to be a Grand Canyon, but in fact, it can also be said to be a small basin. Due to the existence of two giant mountain ranges, the water vapor in the south and west is blocked from reaching the north side of the mountain range, so to the north is the endless Gobi desert, grassland and desert, which is the territory of the barbarian country; To the west is the swampy wetland caused by the heavy rainfall, which is the territory of the Aqua State; To the southeast are the plains and hills of the four seasons, which belonged to the Alasia Empire.

Flash floods are injecting new power into the Leiden River. Whether it is a secluded canyon or a verdant basin, at the most important geographical intersection of Middle-earth, a beautiful rainbow cannot hide the smell of blood, greed, and savagery. The unique geographical location is a battleground for soldiers.

This is the most notorious battlefield in Middle-earth, the Ural meat grinder. The barbarian countries in the north, the Mizusawa countries in the west, the Erathia Empire in the southeast, and the ambitious rulers, you sang and I appeared, and they fought back and forth for nearly a hundred years, winning and losing each other, and it was known as the Hundred Years War.

Fifteen years ago, the three parties reached an armistice agreement, which temporarily divided the area into free zones, where no troops were allowed, and where they could live, trade, produce, and mine.

But Wangjiao Peak has not forgotten, the high mountains are full of flowers, and the corpses of the war dead are still providing them with nourishment.

The Leiden River has not forgotten, it has not been long since the once red water has become clear, and the bones are still lying quietly at the bottom of the river.

The Kuba fortress has not forgotten, and the carvings of the sword, axe and bow on the fortress's city walls, mountains, and the traces of the burning of the war are still clearly visible.

But in any case, the boom here has been going on for a decade.

Although it is a free area, it is actually divided into three areas by each group, and the town of Savo is a natural temporary residence town of Alahia, and the town of Linchel of the barbarians and the town of Singer of the Mizusawa tribe are distributed in full distribution, and each town has an episode every three days, and the trade is carried out in turn.

The fortress of Kuba was a military stronghold set up by the Elasia Empire at the exit of the canyon, and the town of Savo was formed right next to the fortress to avoid an emergency.

When Higg returned home, it was nearly dusk, and the whole canyon was dangerous at night, and the free zone was not only free of trade, freedom of belief, but also freedom of any action, freedom of crime. The tacit understanding formed during the day is naturally supervised by the thieves' guild, which is a spontaneous formation of a civil organization to maintain the law and order of the town. The thieves' guild is not only a specialty of this town, this guild can be found in all corners of the world, maintaining underground security in the form of protection money, buying and selling information, arbitrating disputes, providing paid escorts, and so on. But in the dark, the thieves' guild will not supervise, so the town in the dark is unguarded, as long as there is no burglary, any murder, rape and robbery, the thieves' guild will not pay attention.

Andrew was already at home, anxiously waiting for Higg to bring him wine.

Andrew is a very tasteless person, originally disabled, and rarely trimmed, although this is the only worship temple in the town, but there are basically few believers who come here to pray to God, so the maintenance of the worship temple is difficult. In this anarchic zone of violence and barbarism, it is better to pray to God than to yourself. The only benefit of the mosque is that Higg and Andrew don't have to pay a special monthly poll tax to the Stronghold Commander.

"Old man, two bottles of Xilang wine, can you teach some other magic skills today?" Higg asked hopefully.

"Hmph, my magic skills are too cheap." Andrew said angrily, "In the past few years, you have deceived me of all my housekeeping skills with this little trick, and now I have nothing to teach you." ”

"Forget it, I'll hold it and drink it myself." Higg laughed, having said that, but still threw the bottle to Andrew.

"Eh, it's really the apprentice of the church starving to death Master." Andrew didn't seem to be in a hurry as before, but was very indifferent: "You're almost sixteen years old, let's drink some together today." ”

"Hehe, the sun is coming out of the west, you drunken guy, except for your wife, I'm afraid the only thing you haven't shared with others is wine, you are destined to give your life to the great Lord and alcohol in this life!" Higg laughed.

A plate of jerky and two side dishes, the two began to drink.

After two cups, Higg said, "I really don't understand, people risk coming here to make a fortune with their heads, but it's good for you to carry your heads to develop believers." If this place hadn't been close to the fortress, it would have been a hell on earth. ”

Andrew sneered disdainfully, "The real source of trouble is because it's too close to the fortress!" ”

Higg tore a piece of jerky for Andrew and put it in front of him, and asked thoughtfully, "Wouldn't there be chaos without a fortress?" ”

Andrew took a big sip from the cup, grinned, picked up the jerky and said while chewing: "Not necessarily, but the current chaos is the result of the tacit understanding between the three fortresses and the thieves' guild." Take the Kuba Fortress on our side, for example, now that the Alasia Empire has been in a civil war for ten years, the Kuba Fortress has been far from the eyes of the rulers, and after fifteen years of the armistice, many people feel that this garrison should be transferred back to the country for a civil war. Later, because of the strong reaction from all sides, the size of the garrison was not reduced, but there were already very few military supplies to the fortress. ”

Andrew chewed the jerky with relish, took another big sip, and continued: "The ruler means to let the fortress be self-sufficient in the free zone, but the inhabitants of the town are only 30,000, the garrison of the fortress reaches 40,000, and the war horses are 5,000. Therefore, the leaders of the various troops in the fortress formed their own teams to go out regularly and go to the opponent's territory to loot, which is called fighting the autumn wind. Whether it is property, slaves, or livestock, it is a looted material, and not only the other town is the target of looting, but also the nearby villages and mines. As long as he doesn't loot on his own territory, the Commander will turn a blind eye.

Higg asked strangely: "Didn't you go to the territory of the other two sides to fight the autumn wind, why is our side also chaotic because of the fortress?" ”

Andrew unceremoniously knocked on Higg's head and said, "Is it the patent of the Kuba Fortress to fight the autumn wind?" Your goal is the opponent's territory, and the opponent's goal is also the opponent's territory, which is our town. This kind of mutual revenge against the autumn wind is becoming more and more intense, and it has developed to the present point, not to grab materials and fight the autumn wind, but to fight the autumn wind for the sake of pure autumn wind. Why does the Thieves' Guild stop policing after night? This shows that they have formed a tacit understanding with the fortress to avoid conflict. ”

Looking at the town outside that had been dark for a while through the grille window, Higg seemed to see all kinds of hidden conspiracies, hatreds, and desires under the night, and said slowly: "Yes, this kind of thing is a conspiracy and not a conspiracy, as long as it doesn't happen on the bright side, and there is no too large-scale massacre, the rulers must be more than less." ”

Andrew said calmly: "How can hundreds of years of hatred, nearly a hundred years of war, be terminated by a paper agreement?" Besides, this is an armistice agreement, not a peace treaty, in the final analysis, the war is still maintained, but everyone is tired and wants to rest, whoever likes to toss it!"

Andrew drank the wine in his glass, tapped lightly on the table to signal Higman, and then said: "This is the Ural Grand Canyon, a blessed place, the only direct passage from north to south of Middle-earth, and one of the few passages from east to west, because of greed, power, and desire, millions of living beings are buried here!" ”

Andrew stood up: "Breathtaking, have you ever been shocked?" When you are dyed in red, is it anger, mourning, or silence? The eternal Leiden River, are you still sad? Or did you completely bear all your sins, hatred, right and wrong? ”