After cleaning up the battlefield, the team continued their journey to the city of Muni.

This time, with Todd and hundreds of Lulian cavalry escorting, the road was peaceful. The bandit groups, large and small, avoided far away, and they didn't even send anyone who stepped on the plate.

Roy rode the Living Treasure and walked among several dwarves.

Through Guò's previous observations, Roy discovered that most of the goods in the wagons consisted of dried seafood, cured meats, and grains. There are only a few demonic tools used for smelting and forging, such as wind plates for stoves and cooled snow barrels.

And these materials were originally transported to the dwarven dungeons by caravans every month for trading.

The dwarves specialize in finding and digging ore veins, forging iron and steel products, and although they also grow food, they do so in very small quantities. Most of the necessities of life depend on trading with humans and other races.

The trade road leading to the dwarven dungeon has to pass through the Gobi Desert, over the mountains and mountains, along the way not only bandits, goblins and orc tribes attack, but also monsters are rampant, very dangerous. But because of this, every dungeon trade road is lucrative.

Ordinary food and other daily necessities, as long as they are transported to the dungeon, are ten times more profitable. If it's a fine wine, it's even more profitable. The dwarves, who are heavy drinkers, have never spared money in this regard.

Coupled with the fact that the dwarves are world-famous master blacksmiths, the weapons and armor they create are in short supply, so merchants are eager to do business with them.

In the past, in order to compete for the trade route and the exclusive trading authority with the dwarves, the major merchant groups and chaebols did their best, and the open and secret battles between each other were extremely fierce, even to the point of doing everything. And spare no effort to make friends and encircle the dwarf clan.

It stands to reason that the dwarves don't need to buy these things themselves. Don't

Roy's mind moved, and he rode over to Iron Hill. Walking side by side with his bighorn sheep: "Iron Mountain, these are the things you are transporting?"

"yes. Tie Xiaoshan nodded as a matter of course, looking at the goods with an unusually precious look.

Roy was thoughtful. He asked, "But I've heard that there aren't caravans going to your dungeons every month?"

Hearing Roy's words, Tie Xiaoshan's face suddenly became filled with righteous indignation, as if the love that had been held back for a long time had finally found a place to pour. Indignantly, he said, "Don't mention those damn humans. Oh, I didn't mean you. Fuck, I mean those bastards. We're going to be hurt by them."

The dwarves always spoke upside down, but Roy was used to it, and he didn't interrupt, just listened to him with a smile.

"You know, when it comes to blacksmith work, we dwarves" crackled and boasted to himself for half a prayer, and Iron Hill finally got to the point. "In the past, those trade groups rushed to do business with us. But since the invasion of the demons, hey, none of them are coming."

"Oh?" Roy frowned slightly.

Familiar with the operation of the trade unions, he knew how difficult it was to carve out a lucrative trade route. Therefore, no caravan would give up a well-established trade route lightly.

Especially customers like dwarves are like gold mines for any caravan. Countless caravans are eyeing each other, squeezing their heads and wanting to get a piece of the pie.

Therefore, it is necessary to say that one or two caravans do not do business with the dwarves. Roy can also attribute it to the bankruptcy of the merchant group, encountering bandits on the road, and so on. But no one came. It's definitely quirky.

Could it be that it is because the shortage of food is so tight that it is impossible to buy and trade?

This speculation was quickly denied by Roy himself.

After all, this is Lulian, and although it has also been affected by the war, in terms of food, it is far from being able to afford to eat. Moreover. Businessmen seek profit. They knew better than anyone what a well-crafted set of armor and weapons would be worth in war.

Because of scarcity, so to speak. The price of dwarven weapons and equipment is rising faster than food.

In addition, the dwarves are not unreasonable, and in such a situation, they will be more generous than before when they buy food and other daily necessities. Therefore, the income of the caravan after a trip is probably no different if it follows up with Baoshan. Who would give up such a business?

"Fuck, we know that food is precious now," Tie Xiaoshan muttered and complained, "but we don't take it for nothing......

"Wait......" Roy interrupted Iron Hill and asked, "The merchants who used to come to the dungeon are now gone?"

"Yes," Tie Xiaoshan nodded, suddenly remembering something, and said, "It's not like all of them are here. Some time ago, one came, but instead of bringing a caravan, he was escorted by a group of human knights to find the patriarch. I don't know what I said, but the second patriarch drove him away. ”

Iron Dick. Hearing this name, a smile involuntarily appeared on the corner of Roy's mouth, and a boxy face with a big rosacea nose seemed to appear in front of him.

When he was in the dungeon, he was naughty with the second patriarch of the iron old man. If one day, the dwarves didn't see the seven-hole smoke-making patriarch following a little human boy with his short legs, making chickens fly and dogs jumping, everyone felt that something was abnormal.

"So, why don't you just buy your own food?" Roy asked.

Tie Xiaoshan nodded, grabbed the reins with his short and thick hands and pulled them back, preventing the bighorn sheep from gnawing on the grass on the side of the road, and said, "For our dwarf clan, the demons are also our enemies. The patriarchs and elders all said that since the demon clan has broken through the Broken Sky Mountain Range, we can only fight with them, and there is no place to escape......

As he spoke, the rock sheep was stubborn, so angry that Tie Xiaoshan simply stood on the sheep's back, grabbed a pair of curved horns of the rock sheep with his hand and twisted it hard.

Returning to Roy's side, Tie Xiaoshan clapped his hands, sat down cross-legged, and said: "Anyway, we must fight with humans, this time, the patriarch will simply lead us out, first, to discuss the war with humans, and second, to buy food and go back." ”

"......," Roy turned to look at the carriages. frowned and said, "Are you still buying grain?"

The dwarven iron tribe's dungeon, north of Lulian. Where could there be a more convenient place to buy food than in the city of Muni?

And the hill they went to the southern port of Gaolong, and, for an underground city of thousands of people. Such a small amount of food is really not much. This means......

"It's hard to buy. Tie Xiaoshan's face was depressed, "Now those profiteers have hoarded food. The lords of the grain-producing lands also stopped selling their grain. Especially aliens like us, if you don't pay a high price, you can't buy it at all. It's just a little bit of food, and it's still something we can buy with human middlemen who have tried a lot of tricks......"

Roy nodded.

With Guò Hill's words, he could almost sketch the outline of Lulian's undercurrent.

However, what Roy didn't expect was that Tie Xiaoshan was sullen for a while. Suddenly, he said, "Not only our dwarf race, but I have heard that several other races are like this. The elves are fine, but the dwarfs and barbarians are not having a good time. Alas, when you get to the city of Muni, you will know. ”

In the evening, the convoy was stationed in a leeward spot on the edge of a river beach.

Set up the tent, Todd and a group of Lulian cavalrymen. According to the rules of the army, bury the pot and make rice. They made pancakes from the flour they carried with them. The jerky is boiled into minced meat soup, and the team is divided into a group and eats silently.

Roy was familiar with the rules of marching in the army, and didn't think it was strange at first. However, after watching it for a while, Roy felt that something was wrong. He found. The food of Todd and the knights in the team turned out to be the same as that of ordinary soldiers, and the portion was not much different.

It's not like knightly treatment.

In this hierarchical world, knights are both status, wealth, and status. Compared to ordinary soldiers, they are very different.

Even in the military, knights are much more paid. Especially when a commander like Todd and an officer in the opposite side held a separate table in the tent, drank wine and ate meat, no one felt that there was anything wrong.

Can ....... now

Looking at the knights who were holding a bowl of broth, gobbling up pancakes, and looking like they were taken for granted, Roy secretly wondered. He didn't think this was a way for these knights to express their sharing of weal and woe with their soldiers. It's not a time of war, it's not a long way off, and there's no need for them to do it.

Turning his head, the mercenaries and dwarves of the convoy were also preparing dinner.

On a table made from the baffles of a carriage of a freight carriage lay some fruit, a large piece of cured leg of lamb, a few pieces of black bread and a pot of pea broth. However, everyone was not in a hurry to eat, and while they were busy, they turned their heads from time to time to look at the mountains and forests not far away, as if they were waiting for something.

A moment later, a depressed Trek walked out of the woods. Seeing that he was empty-handed, a trace of disappointment flashed on everyone's faces. The dwarves, in particular, looked at each other, holding their chins in their hands, and sighed at the same time.

"Damn," Trik said, grumbling in frustration, "there's not even a pheasant in the woods. I went around a long circle and didn't find any prey. ”

"It's okay," Alder smiled and comforted, "there are too many people hunting in the mountains and forests during this time, and it's normal to find prey here, because it's close to villages and towns." Today we have plenty of food, and tomorrow we will be on the road, or you will not follow the convoy on the main road. ”

"Well," said Trek with a nod, "I walked through the nearby woods, hunting as I went, and I don't believe I could catch a few pheasants and hares at night." ”

Roy stood aside and listened to the conversation between the two. Turning his head to look at Todd and the other knights, he couldn't help but be a little worried at the same time: "I didn't expect that it had become like this in less than two months." It's still in Loulian, if it's in the north......"

"Leo!" Alder greeted warmly, "come, eat with us." Today there is a pickled leg of lamb. ”

Roy shook off the worry in his head, smiled and nodded, but picked up the longbow.

"You wait for me. ”...... (To be continued......)