The spacious city walls are covered with thick ice, the old city has been repeatedly remodeled and heightened over the years, and the towers, ballista holes, winches, ballistas, and catapults are everywhere with traces of post-construction, and perhaps it should be said that the smell of war is everywhere.

With the joint efforts of craftsmen and spellcasters, the entire city wall area has been strengthened for at least more than 30 meters, and when the city wall of more than 100 meters stands on the ground and watches, it is as if stepping into the sky.

Today, the city is not threatened by war, the gates are open, and the crowds of people who come and go are very eye-catching before entering the city.

The orcs took skins and prey to sell on the streets, while buying tobacco, spirits, cotton clothes and other "northern luxuries", and the undead in black cloaks carefully stayed away from these hot-blooded guys, and bought those dark and legal "goods" in small shops deep in the alleys.

In the alley of the gutter, black smoke from the furnace rose from the dwarven shop, and the dwarven weapons were the bestsellers at all times, and the barbarians of the North outside the shop were flaunting their martial arts in the street, hoping to find an employer, while drooling over the liquor and sophisticated weaponry in the shop.

When I first arrived at Diefend, I thought I was in the wrong place, after all, compared to the city of war that burned forever in my memory, this commercial city full of hawkers and shops made people feel a little wrong with the style of painting.

"Compared to eight years ago, the annual transaction volume and business taxes have increased by 337 times, and it is not wrong to say that it is a hundred times prosperous."

Renee's words were full of pride. I can understand this sentiment. The growth is so outrageous. In addition to the miserable base in the past, it is more about the hard work and efforts of the Diefonde people, and what is more joyful and proud than watching the hometown prosper step by step.

If you look at the map, you can see that the market area, which is only used as a trading place, is already larger than the original old town of Difender.

I looked at the map and saw that most of the shops were owned by locals and goblins, and most of the foreigners were still tourists and traders. It seems that as the nameless capital of the Lanmeng, the improvement of its political status has also greatly improved its economic status and military status.

As a fortress city, Difender is qualified, from the beginning according to the geographical terrain of the site, the construction accumulation of the Lan Kingdom over the generations, has made this city a strong fortress facing the north, as long as it is blocked here, the orcs in the north and the demonic abyss of the northeast wind cannot cross the obstacles.

And with the whole of the Northland into a period of peace. The imaginary enemy becomes an ally, and the role of the original strategic point is drastically reduced. But it does not mean that it has withdrawn from the stage of history, on the contrary, due to the increasing importance of the Arashi Kingdom in the nascent Lan League, the city of Difender is also becoming more and more important.

Today's Difender is no longer a lonely city, there are seven satellite cities within hundreds of kilometers around it, some of which are ore processing and smelting engineering bases, some are reserve warehouses for raw materials and grain, as well as the largest arms, rations, and ordnance exchanges in the North, and half of them are the knights and warrior training bases of the Lan Kingdom, and the largest military camp in the North.

Every day, merchants and diplomatic envoys from all over the world come here with various missions, young knights and brave men come here with a vision of the future, and the various ethnic groups of the Lanmeng come here for various reasons, and the flow of people brings prosperity, multi-race, multi-ethnic convergence, and economic and cultural take-off.

The political, cultural, economic, and military center of the Northland, the heavier the weight of the Lan country, the greater the role of Difender, compared with that year, the central city has expanded at least four times, if it is a satellite city, it is not wrong to say that it has expanded dozens of times, and it has been expanded many times in a short period of time, making the streets of the city seem a little crowded and chaotic, but from another point of view, countless languages and residents live here, but it also represents infinite vitality.

Compared with other commercial cities, it has an advantage that other city-states cannot match, and this is the basis for its prosperity.

The holy silver light formed a faint canopy, and the invisible eyes seemed to be watching this city of miracles, and it was not only the guards of the Arashi Kingdom who patrolled the streets back and forth, but also the priests of the law and the knights of justice with the insignia of the scales, who were still the guardians of the city.

Transactions here are special, fast, and even a bit uncanny and unmagical to outsiders.

"I promise to the Law and to the God of Hades, that my covenants are true, and that I will fulfill all the requirements and regulations of the agreement on due date, and deliver the goods to the other party within three months."

"I promise to the Law and to the God of Hades that we will pay for the goods within a month of receiving the furs."

Barbarians and goblins swore to the god of law at the same time, signed their names on the contract, and silently prayed as witnesses to the contract intermediary, and after a short silver light, the contract was watched by the Sleepless of the Lord of the Contract, and no mortal would break it.

Eight years ago, when I returned to the Northlands with my legion, the Sleepless blessed the city, and the Divine Forbidden Spell turned it into the Sanctuary of the Sleepless, a sinless city without crime, where all criminals and deceivers would be marked with a red light representing fraud, and the Inquisitors, the Knights of Justice would appear in five minutes.

And with the improvement and promotion of the priesthood of the god of the contract of the sleepless, the guarantee of the contract contract has officially become within the scope of its duties, and what does it mean to be a city where there is no crime, no fraud, and the transaction contract will be fulfilled, I am afraid that every serious businessman will go crazy.

Not to mention that the large transactions of the countries in the Northland all choose to be carried out here, even the transactions between the kingdoms within the continent will also choose to be carried out here, and the contract commission received by the legal priests who oversee the contract alone is already astronomical.

Many have even suggested that the scope of this contract supervision should be expanded, praying that the Sleepless will not only supervise commercial contracts, but also more important diplomatic and military contracts, and if this step is achieved, I am afraid that the reputation of the Sleepless will reach a new peak.

But think about it. Just know it's a pit.

"Overseeing the covenant between nations" sounds remarkable. But the state does not exist as a personality. There is only pure interest between them, as long as there is a need, betrayal of the covenant is simply commonplace, and once there is real supervision, it is impossible to punish the whole country for breach of contract, and those who should betray will still betray.

Even if the contractor is punished by God, the contract is still broken, and in the long run, the gains outweigh the losses. One failure, two failures, more and more contracts being broken, and the priesthood of the God of Contracts being desecrated can have negative consequences.

Far from it, to get back to the point, Renee said that the sharp increase in commercial taxes, at least half of which is a commission of the transaction contract tax, and the establishment of a financial exchange for remote trading of commodity orders and futures has made Diefend the financial center of the Northland, and the income of the treasury has skyrocketed every year, which is still the premise of massive capital expenditure for military construction.

As small as the buying and selling of hunters and orcs for their furs. From the purchase and sale of arms and materials between super empires, the tax commission ranges from 6% to 30%. Just thinking about it is an astronomical amount of income.

It took less than ten years to go from the bitter cold land to the rich and oily, which seems incredible, but in this world of Ash, where there is a true god, it is the norm in this world.

The rise of a newborn god is too normal to bring about the rise of a country and a nation, as the first country to make the god of the law of the Sleepless as the state religion, the Lan clan is eating the dividends of the rise of the gods of Hades and the Sleepless, at least until the fall of the gods, prosperity is simply inevitable.

And the gaze of the gods also brings up another factor necessary for prosperity - a sense of security.

No matter how profitable the business is, it is not good to make money and spend it, no one is a fool these days, who is behind the Northland Lanmeng is already an open secret, the long-term stability of investment and trading is not only the conventional security and stability, but also the "security and stability" of domestic regimes and policies.

In this regard, the new gods of Hades are all old gods, the goddess of wealth, the god of fate, the god of the moon, and the god of death, at least a group of neutral gods with a good reputation, and the law and fairness represented by the sleepless are the things that merchants crave the most.

As for the most important trade routes and road safety, the floats in the Northland have opened up several regular routes to and from mainland cities, including the royal capital of Baier - Difende, the royal capital of Orlan - Difende, although the transportation fee is indeed a little expensive, but compared to the bandits, monsters, and war dangers that may be encountered by land, this can be expected The additional cost is really nothing, and it is a big deal to pass on the cost to the goods, which is much better than not even having people to bring goods.

Safe, fast, stable, and incredibly fair contract, under the guidance of many factors, vaguely, Difender actually has a tendency to become the commercial capital of the mainland, but the remote northland city has embarked on the commercial route, and there is the potential to become a super commercial city, which really makes people not know how to evaluate.

And prosperity also brings wealth to the people of Lan and even all the people of the Northland, the Northland is not really nothing, the complete fur of a Northland winter wolf is only worth about fifty gold coins in the Northland, but it can be sold for thousands of gold coins in the center of the continent, in the past, it was not that no one had the idea of fighting these Northland specialties, but the expensive transportation costs and the difficulty of the road made the vast majority of hunters prefer to take the safe fifty gold coins.

Arms, all kinds of handicrafts of foreign races, monster materials, alchemy products, engineering products, this is the most common trading goods here, and it is a best-selling item.

And I, even if I sighed a lot, always had to wear a heavy white cloak, and even if I drank water and ate, I did not dare to take it off.

After all, even if I have always been cheeky, when I see the statues of myself everywhere, there are still people chattering at the statues, some thanking and some praying, I really can't stand it, especially ......

"Bless the promotion and make a fortune, just bless the marriage, don't worship me, worship the obvious discrimination of Cavins, I will endure it, bless the safety of the mother and son, and worship me with many children and grandchildren, if you want to worship, you must worship the image of the sad wind."

"Don't mention it, there are really worships, but they are just cults banned by the mainland's order, and they call themselves 'Brothers of Boundless Truth of Great Love'......"

"....... I don't want to know at all."

While gagging Heloise's mouth, I remembered the man who was still in the abyss, and he gave me a letter some time ago, saying that it would take a little time to get rid of that tsundere birdman, so that I could calm down...... I wanted to ask him, "Who wants you to get that birdman, all I want is epic material, just material, please don't make big news, the positive image of these years is very important......"

But I think it's useless no matter what I say, I don't need to use people who are not suspicious, it's better to let him be, well, it's definitely not that I plan to draw a line with that bastard when I get the materials, and then throw it out for a bounty, am I such a ruthless and unrighteous person who crosses the river and demolishes the bridge?

"You still have the face to say, Amira and I...... Do you remember how many bridges you have demolished, but for the sake of world peace, it is better to dismantle 'that bridge' earlier, and the whole world will thank you. ”

While I'm still drinking tea boringly, Renee has something big going on.

"The Duchy of Thorne and the Kingdom of Philtias have applied to join the Lanmeng? When did it happen? What are they for? (To be continued.) )