Chapter Eighty-Two: Crossing the River and Arrival

Viscount Comas didn't do anything with the supplies handed over at noon the next day, perhaps in his heart he wished that the sooner Lorist left his viscounty, the sooner he would be relieved, so much so that he gave Sedercamp a big surprise. Seven carts of grain and three wagons of linen cloth provided by Lord Viscount for Lorlist's convoy were delivered along with the wagons, much to the delight of Sedkamp, who could not afford to buy a long-distance freight wagon in the town of Vonata.

With ten more wagons, Sedcamp had no need to worry about the shipment of supplies, and after a night of overhaul and preparation, Lorist set out on the northbound journey again on the morning of 11 February.

Three days later, Lorist's convoy arrived in Nadegas, the border city between the Kingdom of Andinac and the Duchy of Madras, and set off again after a day's rest to enter the Duchy of Madras.

Compared with the Kingdom of Andinac, the situation in the Principality of Madras is significantly better, both in terms of people's livelihood and law and order. This is thanks to the Archduke Madras, who was dedicated to self-protection during the civil war in the empire, and if anyone invaded, he would not attack, but he would not attack if no one invaded, that is, he would guard the border and strengthen the defenses, which earned him the title of the archduke of a hedgehog, and also made the Duchy of Madras suffer less damage during the civil war.

Lorist's convoy traveled more than 1,300 miles from the southern frontier of the Duchy of Madras to the northern frontier, and in seven days encountered only two bandits and one gang of horse thieves. Of course, these short-sighted fellows soon regretted their idea that they should not have fought this convoy, and by the time they reached the Mitoblo River, the natural dividing line between the Duchy of Madras and the Northland Plateau, Lorlist's convoy had six more wagons laden with booty, and more than seventy prisoners.

"My lord, after crossing the Mitoburo River, we will reach the edge of the northern land, and there is only nearly seven hundred miles left. We don't need to travel overnight, even if we walk a hundred miles a day, it will be enough to reach the family territory by March. Sedcamp breathed a sigh of relief, and finally did not delay Lorlist's return to inherit the title and the family domain because he and Pat insisted on returning with a large number of supplies.

The Mitoburo River in front of you is spacious and calm, and the clear water flows quietly.

Across the Mitoburo River, you can see the vainly high terrain in the distance, and patches of verdant are dotted among the endless mountains and hills.

That's the Northlands, the hometown of Rock Jr., the original owner of this body......

Lorist stared into the distance, which would be his new home......

"I remember when I left the Northland with my family caravan ten years ago, I passed through a rope bridge, and the river under the bridge was turbulent, and there was no peace and tranquility in front of me......

"My lord, you are talking about the Hendry Ford Rope Bridge, which is in the upper reaches of the Mitoburo River, more than a hundred miles away from here. Cross the Hendry Cord Bridge to reach Fresd Castle, the domain of Lord Lukins, Grand Duke of Northland. At first, you said that you didn't want to deal with the Grand Duke for the time being, so I chose to cross the river from here, which is one of the two crossings to the northland. After crossing the river, we will pass through seven more territories and reach our family territory. Sedkamp explained.

"Where's the ferry?" asked Lorlist.

"Not far ahead, it's Baron Shuras's domain. We've crossed the river with so many wagons and horses, and Baron Seuras will earn a lot of money for the ferry. Said Sedercamp.

"You still have to pay what you have to pay. Let's go, cross the river and camp on the spot, and rest for the day. Lorist said.

......

As a nobleman, it is free to pass through the realms of other lords. For example, the convoy led by Lorist only needs to show the family badge to indicate that this is a family convoy and not a caravan, and it does not cost money to clear customs or pass through other lords' territories. But crossing the river is different, and Lorist also has to pay the ferry fee.

The ferry terminal at Baron Seuras is not large, with only two ferries. On the pier is a large sign with a clear price of the various ferry fares: one person, one imperial silver coin. A horse, ten Imperial silver coins, a four-wheeled long-distance freight wagon full of goods, a gold Imperial Old Man's head, and more. Even for the aristocracy, there are no free benefits and discounts, and the only care is priority right-of-way.

Lorist said in his heart that this priority passage is a fart, there are not many people to cross the river at all, the boatmen on the two ferries have herded sheep, and an old man is on the boat repairing the oars.

The arrival of the convoy made the secluded ferry port so noisy that it alarmed Baron Seuras, who rushed to the ferry with a small group of garrisons to check the gate himself, took stock of the vehicles and men to cross the river, and finally took the convoy ferry fare given by Lorlist, and laughed from ear to ear with a large bag of gold coins. Baron Seuras, who was in a good mood, sent a few bottles of wine back to his manor castle, set up tables and chairs at the ferry, and invited Lorist to come and taste them.

Lorist felt a real pain, a ferry carrying a four-wheeled carriage and several people at a time, and four boatmen paddling desperately, and it took an hour to make a round trip. How much time does it take for his own convoy of nearly 100 wagons and 600 horses to cross the river by these two ferries? There are only eight boatmen, and they will also be tired and need to eat, sleep, and rest, so it will take at least six or seven days for the convoy to cross the river.

Baron Seuras felt sorry, after all, he had charged so much for the ferry fare, but he really only had these two ferries and these boatmen in his domain, so he could only say that he could not help.

Lorist asked, is there a rope then?

Baron Shuras nodded, there were a lot of ropes. Because the territory is by the river, and there are many reeds growing on the riverside, Baron Shuras will order people to harvest a large number of reeds every year, and then use the reeds to weave straw mats and ropes, which is also a special product of his territory, which can increase the income of Baron Shulas by two or three gold coins every year.

Lorist asked Baron Seuras to send a lot of ropes, first to connect the ropes, to tie one rope to the bow and one to the stern of the two ferries, and to have four large wheels made on each side of the river, and to attach the ropes, and use the wheels to pull the ferry. This not only saves the physical strength of the boatmen, so that only two boatmen on the ferry are needed to ensure the stability and docking of the ferry, but also greatly reduces the time to go back and forth, and one hour round trip becomes less than half an hour, speeding up the crossing of the convoy.

Even so, it was already the evening of the next day when Lorist stepped onto the ferry as one of the last members of the convoy. Søderkamp, who came to greet him with the ship, looked at Baron Shulas, who had come to see off Lorist on the shore and kept waving his hand, and said indignantly: "This trip of our convoy has earned Baron Seuras nearly one hundred and fifty imperial gold coins. No wonder he was so attentive, and he ran to see him off when it was almost dark. ”

Lorist also waved his hand at Baron Shuras on the shore, and last night he accepted Baron Shuras's invitation to take Ovicis to the Baron's manor castle as a guest, but he was enough to impress the former bearded bandits. In fact, Lorist took him only because Josk took Pat and Setkamp to cross the river first to arrange the affairs of camping, and only Reddy, Ovikis and Lorist were left here, and after receiving the invitation, Lorist considered that it would be more reassuring for Reddy to keep an eye on the follow-up carriages and horses crossing the river, so he took the bearded man to the banquet.

Lorist gave Baron Shuras a suit of gold-patterned plate armor as a gift, which was the spoils of the gang of horse thieves he encountered on the way to sweep. I don't know which unlucky nobleman the horse thief robbed it from, and was triumphantly worn by the horse thief leader. Because it was too gorgeous and dazzling, he was targeted by Josk with an arrow to seal his throat and took the life of the horse thief leader. This set of gorgeous plate armor was thus in the hands of Lorist.

Lorist estimated that this set of half-length plate armor should have been specially customized by some horse spirit as a coming-of-age gift for the male children of a noble family, so the plate armor was not engraved with the family crest. It's a great gift for someone. Anyway, Lorist doesn't like the gorgeous style of this half-body plate armor, wearing such plate armor into battle is simply calling out to the enemy, come and attack me, shoot me with arrows, this kind of self-defeating practice is not Lorlist's dish.

Baron Seuras was so fond of the gift from Lorist that he couldn't put it down. After the feast, the bearded Ovikis consciously took his leave and went to the docks to assist Reddy in arranging the overnight crossing of the river, while Baron Shulas invited Lorist to his study to admire his collection of more than a dozen bottles of old wine.

In the study, Baron Seuras thanked Lorist again. He said that in the past three or four months, there have been many convoys of the family of the Northland lords who want to cross the river from the small ferry port in their territory, but the capacity is limited, and many convoys are unwilling to wait and go to the Hengdeli Ford Rope Bridge to cross the river from there, so that they have lost a lot of ferry fares. Now the ferry at the pier has been improved by Lorlist, which has almost doubled its efficiency, and it is believed that many family convoys from the Northland will cross the river from their own place.

Lorist was very strange, he didn't want to deal with that Grand Duke Lukins so he chose this road to avoid the territory of the Grand Duke of the Northland, so why did the other Northland family convoys choose to cross the river from here?

"Didn't you say that the cost of crossing the river at the Hendry Rope Bridge was half as much as the ferry fare here for you, Lord Baron, and why would those Northland convoys choose to cross the river from here?" asked Lorlist.

Baron Shulas smirked: "Lord Lukins, Grand Duke of the Northland, is famous for his insatiable greed, and the cost of crossing the river at the Hendry Ford Bridge is less than half of that of me, but across the river is the Grand Duke's Castle of Fresde." Grand Duke Lukins set up a strict checkpoint there, and although the nobles were exempt from taxation, as long as the Grand Duke found out that there were goods in the convoy that he was interested in, he forcibly levied them, and only gave half of the market price. The lucky ones lost only one or two carriages, and the unlucky ones were requisitioned half of the convoys, and the nobles of the Northland complained a lot, but the Grand Duke could not help it, so they preferred to cross the river from my small ferry. ”

Lorist stood on the ferry, and the cold river breeze blowing in front of him made him feel extremely clear-headed. I recalled in my heart what Baron Shulas said last night, although the Northland is vast and there is the Mitobro River as a natural danger, there are only two external transportation arteries. The first is the Hendry Ford Rope Bridge connecting the two banks, but that is in the hands of the Grand Duke of the Northland. The second is the meandering and migratory surface of the more than ten miles of the Mitobro River in the middle reaches of the Baron's Domain, but this section of the river is extremely vast, and it can only be bridged by ferry, which is very time-consuming.

The natural danger of the Mitoburo River being leaned on as the northern land lies in the fact that the section that flows around the northern land is either a cliff or a rocky river with turbulent currents. Except for the Barony of Shuras in the middle reaches, the meandering river surface of the Metobro River is relatively calm and tranquil, and there is no way to sail through other rivers.

Lorist suspected that the Northlands were sparsely populated and difficult to attract displaced people to the Northlands so that the Northlands could be fully exploited because the main roads of transportation were in private hands, such as the Grand Duke Lugins and the Baron Shulas, who were eyeing the fees collected for crossing the river, which was their inexhaustible source of gold mines.

Even if Shi Fatzi's convoy arrives at the family territory smoothly in the future, the external transportation arteries are in the hands of other lords, and they can cut off the family's external contact at any time. In that case, the family domain will not be fully developed and sustained. As the propaganda slogan that was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people in the previous life said, if you want to get rich, you must first build a road, but how can this road be developed if the territory is not passable?

Perhaps after inheriting the family territory, he must first plan to open up a new artery for external communication to avoid being choked by the throat. Alas, there is still a long way to go. Lorist looked at the mountains and rivers in the distance, and fell into deep thought with a faint sadness and a full stomach.

Because of the delay of a day, Lorist led the convoy back to the family territory on 25 February. He decided to cover the remaining six or seven hundred miles in five days and reach the family territory by February 30.

After setting foot in the Northland, Lorist found that the Northland was full of smoke when Shi Fatzi held a family knight meeting to formulate the northbound strategy, and the situation of the war was not hearsay, but a real fact that happened in front of him.

In just three territories, I've encountered five territorial wars. There are conflicts between the nobles of the old territory and the new nobles, there are those who summon nearby lords to help them fight against the invading territory, there are those who help the friends and lords invade other people's territories, there are old lords who fight with the old lords because of old grudges, and there are also new lords and new lords who fight together for various reasons. In short, it was a fight, and there were shouts and shouts everywhere.

It is also because of the vast and sparsely populated land of the Northlands that the wars between these lords are all village-level weapons fights in Lorlist's opinion. Generally, the lord brings two or three family knights and dozens of garrisons, and then recruits one or two hundred peasant soldiers to claim the title of a large army to launch a large-scale collective brawl against the hostile lord. The largest army of lords that Lorist encountered was only four or five hundred men, all of them ragged peasant soldiers.

It is ridiculous that the lord who has strong troops and horses also hit the idea of Lorlist's convoy, and even asked Lorist to hand over half of the vehicle as road money before allowing it to pass. For the sake of the free passage of the holy nobles, Lorist let the guard team launch an attack and beat the opposing army with zero casualties. The arrogant lord knelt before Lorist and demanded redemption with tears and snot in his eyes, and finally regained his freedom at the cost of fifty northland horses and four carriages laden with grain.

In order to avoid being provoked by the lords who had been knocked away from the brawl, Lorist ordered the guards to ride heavily on horseback and carry out a parade escort. Sure enough, there were no more flies that came to harass with troops. Even on the fourth day, the two armies of the lords, who were fighting fiercely, deliberately ceased fighting to make way for the convoy to pass first.

On the fifth day, endless primeval forests and endless mountains appeared in front of the convoy.

Sedkamp and Pat cheered: "My lord, our family territory has arrived, and that is the Black Forest, and the Gaogang Mountains in the distance are the Demon Dragon Mountains. After the rolling hills of the Black Forest is the Morgen Hills, and after the Morgen Hills, the motorcade will run for another day to reach our family castle estate......"

It took more than half a day for the convoy to get around the edge of the Black Forest. The Morgen Hills come into view......

But Sedkamp and Pat froze, and at some point a rock-hewn wall appeared at the opening of the Morgen Hill to which the avenue led ahead, and the banner fluttering above the wall was not a roaring bear, but three golden circles painted together......