The early morning sun shone through the foliage and shone on the glade, and the thin morning mist condensed drops of crystal dew on the leaves and mushrooms.

A white-tailed gray rabbit quickly emerged from its winter burrow under the pine tree, and its nose almost hit a budding snow lotus, and it twitched its nose and thought for a while, and finally decided to let the little flower stay in place, and the rabbit would not eat the grass next to the nest! Thinking so, it jumped towards the nettle bushes not far away

Past. The nettle covered with stingers is intimidating to people and horses and cows, and rats are afraid to pass by the nettle, but rabbits are not afraid of it, just as the king butterfly is not afraid of the poison of milkweed. Its three-petaled mouth bit down on a newly grown nettle leaf and ate it with relish.

Suddenly, it ceased to move, as still as a sculpture, except for a twitching black nose and high, spinning ears on top of its head, indicating that it was a living thing.

It heard the vibration of the ground, and the rabbit with keen hearing would tap the ground with its feet to send signals to each other, and it was said that it could transmit sounds for more than 100 yards when the conditions were right, but this time it was not its own kind of signal, but a large creature coming in its direction...... A big creature that walks on two legs!

The gray rabbit scurried back to its burrow at lightning speed.

The cuckoo, which had been singing just a moment ago, stopped singing and flew away silently, through the dense forest. The two red squirrels who were fighting in the branches also fled to a pine tree and looked nervously at the ground.

After a while, the figure that caused the commotion approached, a rickety old woman, who was on crutches. Carrying a basket on his back.

She took two steps and saw what she was looking for in a clearing in the woods. A clump of grass with triangular leaves stopped. Pull out a triangular blade and get to work. After a while, she put the tubers under the grass into the basket and continued walking.

Recently, the price of this herb that can be used to treat diarrhea has been doubled, and although she is surprised that this is not the usual season for collecting herbs, the price card of the hospital is not fake, so she went to work in the mountains early in the morning, despite the inconvenience of her legs and feet. In addition to this herb for the treatment of diarrhea. The price of other medicinal materials for treating fever and stopping bleeding has also risen.

Outside the hospital, a friendly guard and a person waiting to see a doctor were doing their homework.

"I heard you're from the Earldom of Faisal? It's a long way, and you have to pass through two parishes, so you must have suffered a lot on the way. ”

"Yes, it's good to be at home, it's hard to go out, it's not bad at all, others really can't imagine how much suffering we have suffered along the way! We were going to cross the Ning River. The bridge we were told was down, and we were so discouraged that we thought we wouldn't be able to get to St. Aubrey's church. As a result, St. Aubrey's blessing, the next day we found a ship......"

"What? Has that bridge over the Ning River fallen? ”

"Yes. It's not as good as under St. Aubrey, where the smallest roads are so smooth. There, no one cares if the bridge left behind by the ancient empire falls—if it were still when I was younger. I'm not afraid, because the Ning River is not a raging river, and I can swim over, but I'm sick now......"

While waiting to see a doctor, the patient is very willing to have a kind and decent person to spend this long and boring time.

"The bridge over the Ning River has fallen." Jason looked at the report and sighed, he was about to revise his battle plan again, "These nobles, won't they fix their food guys after robbing!" ”

Similar reports, from innkeepers and church servants to the chief of staff, corroborated each other and slowly filled in the blanks on the map.

Nor did Jason just stay where he was and wait for other people's gossip, and some reliable people were sent out, some dressed as monks, some dressed as beggars.

"What is your situation here?" A young man dressed as a monk asked the villagers, "I heard that your village is very prosperous, with a hundred families. ”

"Hey, what year are you talking about?" "A few years ago," replied the villagers, "it was true, but first the northerners attacked, then Baron Polly and some other nobles came again, and then the remaining freedmen moved to Tournest, and the serfs who had the means to ransom themselves or fled, and now there are only twelve families in the village!" ”

"Now there are only twelve households!" The monk was surprised, "Then how do you bear the labor?" ”

"The lord told us to plant as many fields as we used to be, but we had neither men nor enough livestock, so—" the farmer shrugged, "and the lord has a whip, and we have a back." ”

"According to you, is the land desolate?"

"It's all deserted, the forest next to you was still cultivated a few years ago, and now the master's land is about the same." The farmer then asked another question, "Is it far to Tournest?" ”

"Uh-you're going?"

"If you don't go, you're waiting for death here, usually we only have stomachs, but now even stomachs don't seem to belong to us."

When he left the village, the monk spread out a small notebook disguised as a holy book and wrote on it that "there is a lack of inhabitants, the land is barren, and there is no food to provide, only firewood and grass."

In the next village, he heard from the inhabitants that the village was not as dilapidated as the previous one, but that the land had been mortgaged to the Grand Abbey because of the owner's indulgence in wine and entertainment.

"The transfer of land rights is now the property of the Great Abbey."

"Ponsstock Creek silted up, and the fields turned into swamps."

"After the northerners burned down the village, there was no one left."

"A new monastery was built, but the people inside didn't seem to serve the gods, they served wine and ale, and they used knives to turn their fates."

"Baron Kling died in a duel on the Day of the Light, leaving no children, and the land has been filled with the treasury."

The other group of people who were sent out did not have such good luck, and Jason listened to them with a bitter face: "My lord, we have just left the diocese of Tournest in our carriage when a group of knights rushed towards us with spears......"

"Your car is empty."

"My lord, if the cart is not empty, I am afraid that we are already waiting to be sold in the slave markets of other countries, and you will never see your carriage again."

"Humph!" This group of robber knights, don't you know that military vehicles can't be robbed! You've been doing this all the time, tell me how to calculate the speed of a horse-drawn wagon on those unpaved roads along the way! And how many parts and car repair carpenters should be prepared! (To be continued......)