Chapter 19: The First Batch of Leading the Way (II)

In a small hollow at the foot of the Arnous hills, hundreds of tents are surrounded by barbed wire, forming a separate camp. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 More than 800 local natives who were sheltered by Wang Qiu were temporarily resettled here. And the young sorcerer Leilai, who had just finished the inquiry and was allowed to come back to rest, was wearing a gray-white robe with a hood like a priest, and with curious and apprehensive eyes, she looked at all kinds of strange things that appeared around her.

“…… That's what it is...... Humans from otherworldly countries? How powerful! The empire is still trying to rob them......"

Standing outside the gate of the refugee camp, looking at the "steel monsters" that rumbled even at night, and on the top of the Arnous Hill in the distance, the "Gate of the Gods" was brightly lit by the spotlights, and the young magician Relai, who had short aqua blue hair, couldn't help but hold her wand and muttered to herself-although she is only fifteen years old this year, compared to those villagers who have never left their hometown several times in their lives, she used to be an apprentice magician, Leilai, who has traveled to many cities all over the Falmatt continent, is definitely well-informed.

However, the human army of another world that appeared on the hills of Arnous still shocked Leilai, and in her memory, even the most prosperous imperial capital on the continent, Ulabyanca City, or the most academic city of knowledge, Rendel, would not have such bright lights at night. Even in the magnificent temple where the lantern is lit all day long, it is impossible to be as bright as day even in the middle of the night like the Arnous Hills at this moment--however, this place in front of us is as brightly lit as a sea of stars, but it is not a metropolis that has taken a hundred years to slowly operate and build, but just a temporary camp that these people from the other world quickly set up in less than a day!

What's even more terrifying is that for these humans from another world, such lights seem to be just a common thing......

In addition, the abundant logistics supply of this otherworldly army also made Leilai, who was accustomed to seeing the banditry of various armies on the Fermat continent, very staggering - on the Farmatt continent, due to low social productivity and insufficient material reserves, the daily supply of most of the army was very embarrassing. Especially when going out to fight, because the logistics and transportation capacity cannot keep up, even the regular armies of various countries, in order to ensure that the soldiers can eat rations on time, often need to loot the enemy's people to collect supplies. And for the sake of fast marches, officers often gave orders to reduce food rations. If they are unfortunate enough to go to the barren mountains and mountains where there is no food to rob, then the soldiers will often have to survive with hunger and hunger. Even if the city defense troops are stationed in the city, all kinds of petty theft and extra money are common.

However, this otherworldly army that appeared in the Arnous Hills was rich and rich. Leaving aside the things they couldn't even understand, the metal spent on one of their steel chariots alone was enough for the Empire to build a legion's sword, right? And those "metal golems" that rumble and roar to dig earth and stone and tamp the foundation are even more powerful existences that Leilai is completely incomprehensible.

Also, the food and clothing provided by this army for ordinary soldiers made her feel jealous as a magician. The things that those people from the other world ate by themselves, because there were many things that Leilai had never seen before, so it was impossible to evaluate their quality for a while. But the relief rations allocated to the refugees in Gota Village alone had already stunned the villagers in the poor and remote countryside: the staple food given to them by the aliens was not the hard coarse wheat bread or black bread that the villagers usually saw, let alone the barley porridge mixed with a lot of weeds, but the white bread that only the nobles or the rich could often afford! The soft texture that they had never experienced before, and the sweet taste brought about by the addition of a lot of sugar and cream, made the refugees exclaim.

Next, each refugee was given a fried salted fish and a large bowl of broth sprinkled with plenty of spices and salt, and a lot of unknown vegetables (borscht) added to the soup. After dinner, the green-clothed men from the other world handed out some crystal-pure candy cubes (monocrystalline rock candy) to the children...... For the barren village of Gota, in addition to the lack of alcohol, such food is already the level of a festive feast! Even Leilai, who had attended several aristocratic banquets and balls, felt that these green-clothed people from the other world were really particular about eating and drinking.

Although in the communication with these otherworldly people, the girl magician Leilai already knew that on the opposite side of the "gate" was a prosperous port in their country, so their current supply line was naturally very smooth, and there was no risk of lack of food and clothing. But Lei Lai can also judge that even with the power of the Empire, even in the imperial capital of Ulabianka City, it is very difficult to mobilize so many materials and equipment in one go.

It can be seen from this that the human country behind the "door" will be so powerful and rich...... Although they haven't really seen this army in battle, and it's hard to gauge the level of their combat effectiveness, just looking at the fact that they can easily take out the thousand-year-old flame dragon that has caused disaster in the Falmatt continent, and there are so many cold and shining metal equipment in the camp, and even enough to support tents with steel, it is enough to prove that their combat effectiveness is not weak.

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-- In all eras, there is a simple mathematical criterion for measuring the strength of an army, and although it is not possible to accurately represent combat effectiveness every time, it is usually not too far off. This criterion is gunpowder consumption in the age of firearms, fuel consumption in the era of mechanized warfare, total yield of strategic nuclear weapons in the era of nuclear warfare, and sum of total frequency of processors in the age of digitalization...... In the more ancient Iron and Bronze Ages, the most intuitive measure of the strength of an armed force is naturally the total weight of metal......

What the? Also think about magic? The magicians in the Falmatt continent are not so powerful, they don't have any earth-destroying powers, and they haven't even done teleportation and flying skills, and in terms of actual combat effectiveness, they are at best similar to the British wizards in the plot world of "Harry Potter", or even slightly inferior. Even the mages of the empire's army rarely directly rub fireballs into battle, but they have some unique features in logistics, communication and reconnaissance, and in terms of military status, they are probably equivalent to the high-level craftsmen carried by the ancient armies on the earth.

All in all, compared to the vast majority of time-traveling novels, those who usually only bring a backpack, at most a "system", or even have nothing with a bare ass, and have to single-handedly break into the other world to create a strong life, the Chinese otherworldly advance team now entrenched on the Arnus hills can be described as out-and-out super-rich, as well as kryptonite cheating players with a gold finger plug-in: not only are there many people, there are many generals, with a full set of mechanized equipment, from tanks, Armored vehicles and drones are readily available, and there is an unimpeded logistical supply line behind it, as well as a large industrialized country with a population of more than a billion people, ready to receive all-round support from materials and equipment to technical personnel.

In addition, given that this is likely to be the last time to cross the Atlas in the foreseeable future period, the relevant departments did not hesitate to take out almost all of the remaining Doraemon plane black technology props - anyway, there will be no chance to use them again after this time. Now because the survey of the terrain and soil has not yet been completed, and the large-scale construction work has not yet really started, the camp near the Arnous Hills is a little "rudimentary". After the expert team came up with the design and planning plan, relying on those completely unscientific Doraemon plane black technology props, even if they wanted to build a modern city directly around the Arnous hills, it would only take a few days to complete. (Refer to "Doraemon Epic: Doraemon and the Land of Clouds", Nobita's group of elementary school students built a cloud city in only one or two weeks.) ）

Therefore, in the coming days, there will be more and more surprises to the blue-haired girl magician Leilai and the local indigenous refugees......

In addition, what made Lei Lai feel even more puzzled and puzzled was that the two priestesses of the Headhunter Rabbit Clan, who had sheltered the refugees for many days, actually seemed to be very familiar with the otherworldly people from the other side of the "door", and they were not surprised to see the strange things on the Arnous hills, and they also helped the otherworlders everywhere...... This made Lei Lai secretly speculate: whether these humans who are said to be from another world have any secret relationship with the headhunter rabbit clan in the grasslands in the northeast of the Falmatt continent, and whether it will have some kind of impact on the current situation in the Falmatt continent......

――Of course, the reason for this consideration does not mean that Leilai is worried about the country and the people. In fact, the city she came from had only been conquered by force by the Empire for only a few years, so Leilai didn't really have any sense of belonging to the empire that claimed to unify the continent of Falmat. But in any case, she is also a pure-blood human after all, and belongs to a different camp from the orc tribe like the Headhunter Rabbit.

It's just that now after all, she's under the fence, and she's never considered herself obligated to be loyal to the Empire, and besides, those two headhunter rabbit priestesses, who look a little suspicious, are still the great benefactors who saved herself and so many people in Gota Village. With Leilai's moral quality, no matter what, he can't just rely on an unreliable conjecture to do such a crazy thing as revenge on them. Therefore, in the face of all these shocking new and strange things on the Arnus hills, Leilai didn't know how to deal with and judge for a while, and it seemed that he could only take one step at a time for the time being......

One last glance at the Arnus hills, illuminated by a high-powered iodine-tungsten lamp, she sighed faintly and turned and walked into the camp.

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At this moment, it is already the dead of night. Hundreds of indigenous refugees who had traveled long distances with their luggage and were tired from a long day's work, and who had been frightened for so many days, had not had enough to eat or sleep, and were already exhausted, and after eating, they got into their respective tents and slept in the blankets provided by the People's Liberation Army. The entire camp was filled with thunderous snoring.

Leilai had planned to go into the tent he had set aside for himself to rest, but he stumbled upon the old chief of Gota Village, instead of sleeping, sitting cross-legged outside his tent door, drinking wine from his treasured silver flask, while looking apprehensively at the spotlights that lit up the night sky not far away.

“…… Grandpa the village chief, it's so late, why haven't you rested? After a moment of silence, Raylai greeted.

“…… Ahem, it turned out to be Leilai! Ahem, there's no way, it's too bright outside, I really can't sleep! Ahem! ”

Because Leilai's footsteps were too light, the old village chief who was thinking about his heart noticed it at all, but he was caught off guard and choked up. After coughing for a while, the old village chief put down the silver wine jug on his lips, stopped coughing, wiped the wine stains on his mouth again, and relieved himself and asked, "...... That one...... Leilai, how did you stay at this point in the green? They didn't have much trouble for you, did they? ”

“…… Nothing, they were very polite, they just asked me a lot about this continent, and why the Empire opened a door to their harbor underwater on the Arnous hills? According to the Greenmen of the other world, the gate suddenly appeared in the water near the dock of a seaport city in their country, turning the entire harbor into a maelstrom and paralyzing it for four months. ”

Raylay replied, "...... It was only recently that they managed to build a dam to stop the sea from leaking, and then sent someone to find out. ”

Hearing this, the old village chief's heart suddenly felt very uncomfortable - as a family that was washed away by this "otherworldly flood" that gushed out of the "door", and drowned his wife and two sons, and the remaining younger son was also separated on the way to escape and did not know his whereabouts, and completely became a victim of a lonely old man, it is impossible to say that the old village chief has no resentment in his heart against these visitors from another world. But if you think about it, it seems that you can't really blame the green-clothed people, after all, this "door" was not opened by them - from the perspective of these green-clothed people, a door appeared in their harbor for no reason, paralyzing shipping, and maybe sucking boats and swimmers into it.

Now, these green-clothed people from the other world on the other side of the "gate" obviously have such powerful force, even fierce beasts like Yanlong can easily kill, but they did not wantonly take revenge on their imperial subjects, but took care of them so generously and diligently, which is already very polite.

What's more, the empire originally planned to send troops to loot the wealth of the other world on the other side of the "gate", but it turned out to be self-defeating, and it became what it is now, and it can only be said that it is its own death, and it can't blame others...... After such careful consideration, the old village chief of Gota Village reluctantly found that in the end, he who unfortunately suffered the disaster of breaking his family and destroying his family, it seemed that he could only settle this account on the emperor and the senator's house, and he couldn't help but burst into tears for a while......

“…… Ahem, then, Lelai, how did you answer the green-clad men? After a moment of sighing, the old village chief asked a little nervously.

“…… Naturally, I told the truth. Such a big thing can't be hidden at all. What's more, there are also those two headhunter rabbit priests! ”

Leilai replied with a flat face, "...... Everything I know about this expedition of the Empire has been told to them just now. ”

“…… This...... Alas! I also know that such a big thing will definitely not be hidden, but if they know the goal of the empire to open the 'door', it is actually to attack and plunder their world...... So will you be angry with us Imperial subjects and drive us out? ”

The old village chief sighed to Leilai with a worried expression and said, "...... The rest of the people in the village have no way to go! ”

- Although the most basic human beings are vigilant, after this brief encounter of the day, they are still quite wary of these green-clad people from the other world from the other side of the "door", and they are quite resentful of the flood gushing out of the "door". But in any case, it was these strange "green-clothed men" who killed the Yanlong who threatened their lives when they were most desperate, and provided them with quite good shelter, food and security.

In fact, in the opinion of the old village chief, the living conditions in this refugee camp are even better today than they were in Gota Village. Although I slept in a tent now, it was far cleaner than the broken houses in the cottages full of bed bugs and fleas, and there was no air leakage at all. The steel cups and bowls that the man in green gave him for eating and drinking looked so smooth and shiny, even in a big city like the imperial capital, it was only for the upper class to afford it, not to mention a poor place like Gota Village. Now the lilac blanket that is wrapped around himself to keep out the cold is also a very delicate and high-quality product. Look at the workmanship, the dyeing, and the pattern, and the silk wrapped around the edge of the blanket, according to the old village chief's experience, each of these blankets could be sold for at least four or five goats in the market, and even the most generous family in the village would probably be reluctant to buy it. However, these green-clothed men on the hills of Arnous did not care to provide each refugee with such a blanket, even a child.

-- In the industrial era and the pre-industrial era, the value of a commodity that seemed to be similar to that of ordinary people could be described as worlds apart.

Well, if it were possible, the old village chief really didn't want to be forced to leave this good place with food, shelter and clothing, because for the vast majority of refugees who already had nothing, such an end was almost equivalent to death - the old village chief's entire family, old and young, had all died in the recent series of disasters, and he really didn't want the few people left in the village to follow the same path of death: the only problem was that he was a refugee and a "door" The green-clothed man on the opposite side is not a relative, why should he let the other party keep supporting himself?

“…… Rest assured, the village chief, the people in green are very generous, and they have promised to continue to provide relief to all of us. ”

Leilai comforted the old village chief dryly and said, "...... In addition, they promised to build us a house near the Arnous hills......"

“…… The man in green from another world promised to build us a house? Where is it in the Arnous hills? ”

The old village chief was not as optimistic as Lei Lai, but frowned and looked around, "...... That's good news...... However, even if we get the help of the people in green and rebuild the village in this area, what will we live on in the future? The area around the Arnous hills is the most barren part of the land, and there is no way to grow crops. Now I've been soaked in salt water again, and I'm afraid that even the grass won't grow well in the future.

Moreover, almost all the strong men and young men in the village are dead, the cattle and farm implements are gone, the money and food have long since run out, and only a group of girls, widows, children, and us old fellows are left, where is the money to buy seeds? I don't have the strength to open up the wasteland! ”

In this regard, Lei Lai was silent for a long time before slowly speaking, "...... Grandpa the village chief, you should know that in some cases, the army itself is the most generous customer, and in a difficult world, even women and children who have nothing can rely on the army to find their way around......"

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- Although the above words of the young magician Relai were very vague, the old village chief understood what she meant in an instant.

Seriously, how can someone like him who has lived to this age not understand what kind of business women who have lost their homes and possessions in the war will do with the soldiers of the victorious side in order to keep themselves and their children alive - isn't it just selling themselves to make money?

Although most women of good families would not be willing to do such a thing if they had a choice, when they were at the end of their rope, it became a natural choice for women to sell their flesh and skin to earn a living: in times of peace, and even more so in years of war and disaster.

-- When even life is about to be lost, where can we take care of dignity and chastity?

Even in ancient China, which advocated that "starvation is a small matter, and a loss of temperance is a big matter", whenever war and famine came, there were many more women who sold their bodies than committed suicide.

In general, the soldiers of the regular army were very generous high-rollers: first, in order to win the war, except for a few professional households, the vast majority of generals and kings would give generously in times of war, so that the soldiers would receive rich salaries, bounties and booty, so as to stimulate their morale and fighting spirit; Secondly, because of the need to face death at any time on the battlefield, after today, there is no telling if there will be tomorrow, and soldiers who get coins rarely save them, but prefer to take advantage of their own lives and seize every opportunity to spend their money and enjoy it, which is the so-called drinking today and getting drunk today. Therefore, despite the dangers on the battlefield and the possibility of losing their lives at any time, there are still always merchant groups and mobile *** who are not afraid of death to follow the army on a long journey, and even rush to the place where the army is ready to set up camp first, setting up their own stalls, just to make huge profits by doing business with soldiers - such as buying booty and prisoners from soldiers at low prices, and then selling them alcohol, meat and bedsheet service at high prices, etc.

However, the refugees have nothing to sell, and the only ones who can sell are the women themselves.

Although the army of the "greenmen" from the other world who are now stationed in the Arnous Hills have not made contact with any opponents so far, it is estimated that they have not received any loot for the time being, except for the fire dragon that was defeated. But even so, judging from the "extravagance" of these "green-clothed men" from another world, it should not be worrying that their soldiers will now have no money to pay for prostitution - even if the coins on both sides are not universal, as long as these green-clothed people are willing to give a few metal bowls and plates, or pay for a few blankets and a few clothes, they can also take them to the city market to exchange money or barter!

In addition to the fact that the young girls in the village could do laundry and cook for the soldiers, and accompany them to bed to sell meat. Children may be able to serve them for a small income, while the few surviving elderly people should be able to guide these unfamiliar visitors to the other world with their rich experience...... All in all, judging from the current situation, as long as you can pull off your face, it should not be difficult for all the old and weak women and children who have fled here to find a way to survive by the green-clothed people from the other world. The only thing to worry about was the punishment and retribution of the Imperial government and the local nobility in the future.

“…… I can't help it...... The Empire doesn't care if we live or die, and it has brought ruin to our villages. And the lord who lives in the city really can't be counted on in this state of affairs at the moment. What's more, now that even Gota Village is gone, he is no longer our lord. ”

After a moment of silence, the old village chief craned his neck, drank the little wine that was left in the jug, then wiped his mouth with his greasy sleeve, and muttered, "...... Now, if we want to continue to live, the only hope is these green men on the hills of Arnous. As for the future, I really can't care so much about it for the time being. Tomorrow I will talk to the girls and widows of the village, and now everyone has fallen to such a point, it is all thanks to these kind green men and gentlemen that they can have food and shelter, and they should have come to their senses...... If those old men in green have a place where I can use my old bones, I can always be a guide for them to lead the way, and there is no one in every mountain, forest, and stream in the vicinity that I am not familiar with...... Even if there is any danger, I am almost content to live to this age......"

-- In a Caigang activity house a few hundred meters away, Political Commissar Guo, who was sorting out the records of interrogation under the lamp, probably never thought that before he even opened his mouth to solicit them, some very eye-catching natives from other worlds were already determined to be dogs and lead the way for them......

However, even if he knew, he would probably just laugh it off and save it for tomorrow...... Because, at this time, he was intently typing on the keyboard, writing a working document on his laptop that he was going to submit to his superiors: "Preliminary Investigation Report on Another World". (To be continued.) )