It is normal for caravans to have some overlap with caravanserais, and although experienced caravans do not necessarily have a worse understanding of the grasslands than mappers, it is necessary to find people with similar knowledge and concerns to refer to and communicate with them for the sake of insurance. And this kind of exchange will definitely be accompanied by economic exchanges, the team will often ask the surveyor some questions and then symbolically buy a few maps that may or may not be used as a thank you, and the mapper will sometimes follow the team to update their map cognition, by the way to serve as a temporary guide for the team.

But that was all before, and with the death of the man, the relationship between the various caravans and the mother and son gradually drifted apart. The members of the caravan who had a close friendship with the man would occasionally visit them and buy some maps to help the mother and son live. But there are not a few members of the pack team in front of me who have never visited since then. The relationship between the two is purely of interest, because it is normal for one of the parties to no longer be able to provide equivalent benefits and no longer have dealings. It is not impossible for people with more indifferent personalities to pretend not to know them.

The greetings came and ended suddenly, and though it wasn't obvious, Lothar, who was standing by and pretending to be an outsider, could still detect the tension on the face of the pack leader as he spoke to the woman. He didn't understand the origin of this tension, and he could vaguely guess the origin of some of the tension. The sound of the bell continues to reverberate. The boy who had just come to see the caravan was now unusually quiet. Maybe they misunderstood him from the beginning, Lao Jiu didn't want to see the lively scene of the caravan, he came here to see what kind of work his father used to do.

At the end of the pack, he walked in front of several people. The crowd of onlookers on the street dispersed, either talking about what they had just seen or going back to what they had been doing. Lao Jiu carried his mother to a tent with a few stools in the open air, the owner of the tent obviously knew them, nodded without saying anything, and poured out a few bowls of milk tea from the copper kettle on the stove and delivered them to them.

"Mother Jiu, this is the last pack team. You may not be able to listen to me, the tea seller, but no one needs a map here anymore. You and Lao Jiu should leave as soon as possible, I won't tell you, I will leave before tonight, you are drinking the last pot of tea today. Although this place is protected by a white wolf, he is alone after all, and he can't protect it for long. Otherwise, you can go with us, there is still a place in my car, and it should be possible to load your things. Besides, my daughter is also arguing and worrying about Lao Jiu..."

"No need, let's finish this bowl of tea and leave, don't delay you to pack your things. The woman nodded, rejecting the offer in a gentle voice, and touched her son's head. The words of the tea shop owner made this kid now keep his head down and dare not look at people. He and the daughters here are really familiar, including the children who often go out to play together, and he is like the leader of the group with a slingshot in one hand, and every time he goes out, he can shoot down a few rabbits or careless birds with iron marbles, and make his friends scream.

After the boss walked away to deal with the packing of the luggage, the woman slowly spoke, "I haven't had time to finish halfway through the conversation." This caravan belonged to the Xuelan family, who lived under the snowy mountains in the northern part of the grassland. The clan has been operating pack caravans for generations, and it is said that there are at least thirty caravans of this size under their name, and they are famous for their wealth on the grassland. ”

The family is a form of collective existence that will naturally arise in any civilization environment, and the bloodline allows the members of the family to be better bound together, so many tribes on the grassland are composed of a large and powerful family as the backbone, plus some vassals. Such a clan usually has a family name as a tribal name. Obviously, this is the case with the Xue Lan in the woman's mouth.

"That's an amazing family. To support such a large industry on the grassland, the strength of this Xuelan family must be very strong in all aspects. Lothar nodded. It is often assumed that the power of a family engaged in business, as well as a chamber of commerce, is not as powerful as a family that is directly involved in politics. But as an earl, he knew very well that this was not always the case. It is no joke that businessmen can influence the fate of a country. In many cases, even kings had to maintain considerable respect for the business groups that sought profit from several nations, and that was in a relatively orderly environment.

The order on the steppe is relatively simple, leaving the area of tribal administration, and all that can regulate people's behavior is the teachings of the spirits and the rules of the heart. A family that can still have a large number of pack teams in such an environment, and allow these teams to operate far from their own range, must have more than wealth and force, in a sense, such a family name alone is a deterrent.

"Yes, the Xuelan family is indeed an amazing family. And even if they don't identify with the wolf lords, they are still allowed to do business here. Do you know why?"

Because of the remoteness of the location, there is no possibility of direct conflict with the wolf owner, so it is normal to arbitrarily identify with the identity of the wolf owner in exchange for the right to do business here. Because of the remoteness of the location, they do not identify with the wolf master, so they are not allowed to do business here, which is also a normal situation. But it is absolutely not normal to be able to run a pack team here without recognizing the status of the wolf master, isn't it? The status of the wolf lord is like the throne of the king, how it came to be, what it is made of, in fact, it does not matter, the important thing is that it must be recognized by everyone. If everyone thinks that it is a throne and that it is the king who sits on it, then the throne itself can be a stump, or it can be a mazah. The same is true of the wolf lord, the reason why the wolf lord is respected as the wolf lord is that the nearby tribes sincerely obey, which cannot be compromised.

"Either that, or the strength of this Xue Lan family is stronger than the wolf lord, he doesn't dare to offend them. Either that, or out of personal feelings. If it is a private relationship, it is probably before the wolf lord became the wolf master, someone in this Xuelan family helped him, and after he succeeded, although Xuelan did not recognize his status, he did not embarrass them in the old love. ”

"Well, you're right. The people of the Xuelan family did help the wolf master, and after the wolf owner obtained this title, they also sent many congratulatory gifts in their personal name. Among them, there are several beautiful women. Some of these women were rewarded by the wolf lord to his subordinates, and some became his concubines. Some of them even gave birth to offspring. ”

"You mean—" The hint was obvious enough, and Lothar felt from the beginning that the other party wouldn't waste their time. But he never figured out what the caravan had to do with Nuisa's whereabouts, and as the complicated relationship between the Shiran family and the wolf lord behind the caravan unfolded in the woman's mouth, something became clear.

"The lamb you are looking for has the blood of a snowy mountain. ”