() It's a strange feeling that the sand is blown into your mouth by the wind, because there is nothing else like this. No matter how much saliva you spit, you can still feel the sand remaining in your mouth when you rub your teeth.

As far as I can see, the land of Salander and Creel is not a place of abundance. Of course, this also has something to do with the fact that I didn't go to those rich grain-producing areas. In fact, the surrounding environment is quite harsh, adjacent to the desert, and the water source is also problematic in some places. But it was in these places that the Salanders and Creelians built a number of commercial towns that were the envy of the Wikibians. It can be seen that the source of wealth is still in the people, and there are always limitations and shortcomings in natural resources, but well-trained people can extract wealth from the sand and build civilization from the wilderness.

I heard an ingenious story that was told to me by a merchant who accompanied the army. When the ancient Emperor Chanda conquered the cities that now belonged to the Salanders, he was intrigued by their wealth and gathered the local nobles to inquire about the source of their wealth.

The oldest and wisest of them all walked up to the Emperor and placed an olive and a grape in his hands, "Your Majesty, this is the source of our wealth. ”

We do have a lot of olive groves and vineyards around us, and in this somewhat dry area, such crops are very suitable for growing. In ancient times, it was said that the dry range was further north, and the vineyards and olive groves were further north than they are today. I've seen the remains of ancient vineyards on Vikia, and those stone gardens are well planned and have obvious traces of Zen masters.

Wealth has slipped away from the earth in the space of a few hundred years, and we are the obscure descendants of our great ancestors.

Almost every man worshipped the ancient emperors when he was a child, longed for the fairness and justice of that time, and longed for the glorious wars of that time. But when they grow up, they only know how to attack the neighbor's manor and rape the wife and daughter of the loser. I'm going to be like that one day, I don't doubt it at all. In this way, those times in the Romanov family were simply gentle like pastoral songs. And those times on the river are like legends from hundreds of years ago: the earth flows with honey and nǎi. Everyone is friendly and young.

Numerous outcasts appeared around us, and these people slowed down our march, and the officers of the coalition army feared that this was a trick of the Salanders. But after questioning the leaders of the Salander exiles, the Kugit began to signal for their release.

Several soldiers who knew Kugit asked about the origin of the men: they had escaped from the oases in the desert.

"War?" I asked an ointment merchant.

"No," he asked if I wanted the ointment, saying it would cure a cut wound, and I motioned for no. He continued, "These people are never afraid of war, because they are businessmen, and whoever fights will not offend businessmen. You know, the businessman in the oasis is the one who cares for the water source. Only if these people cooperate, the army's water supply will be guaranteed. These people are afraid of the plague of the devil. ”

"The plague?" I remembered a series of things I had seen about that terrible illness during this time, "To be honest, I'm a little worried now, this plague seems to be very tight. ”

The ointment merchant coughed, "It's all right," and suddenly he began to bleed from his nose, and he wiped it with an oily handkerchief. He found me looking at him. So he shook his head at me and said, "I've been eating too much lamb and pepper lately." Plus the weather is getting warmer, so there are occasional nosebleeds. Well, I was saying that those plagues are nothing spectacular. Every once in a while, a disease that no one knows about will come to the desert. At the end of the day, people's lives will always get back on track. ”

"But this time there were a lot of deaths."

"Those who are destined to die will always die," said the merchant, "and when all these people are dead, the living will continue their lives." Everything is predestined, unchangeable, unquestionable. ”

"Is this the doctrine of the Salanders? I haven't heard of anything like that. ”

"No, I'm not from Sarande, I do have a little bit of Kugit blood." The merchant of the ointment once again sold his ointment as a group of wounded Kugit passed by, and the Kujiit looked at his goods and walked away with disdain, and the merchant's face twitched, "Actually, I only have a small part of Kujiit blood. My people believe in things that are different from those of the Salanders, and we feel that everything is predestined, who fails, who succeeds, these are things that are predestined before birth. Everyone looks back on the fact that if they hadn't made any choices, they would have become something else. You know why? Because that's not your choice at all, that's what your destiny does. Go back to that time, and you still don't hesitate to choose those things. The same is true of everything in the world, walking the predestined path again and again, after the chūn day is summer, after love is betrayal, until the world is destroyed, all people are gone, and then the world will come again. ”

"It's heresy." After listening to this, I finally understood that this man believed in a certain god in the East.

"Haha, the Salanders think the Rhodoks are heretics, and the Vycians think the Valands are heretics," the merchant began to cough uncontrollably, and coughed up some blood, and it seemed that some Kugit had also coughed up blood clots. "Who is Orthodoxy? It's hard to say. My people have ten million gods, and the Salanders have one, why are they right and I wrong? ”

I didn't say I could win against the merchant at all, so I changed the subject, "I said, you've been staying with the Kujits, right?" ”

"Yes."

"You started coughing up blood after following these Kujits?"

The man recalled, "That's true. ”

"I suspect that these Kugit people are carrying the plague, you better have a good rest. We Valans are healthy and don't get sick easily, but you're just a businessman. ”

The businessman stared at me for a moment after hearing my conceited words, and then he burst out laughing, almost suppressing his coughing chongdong, "I'm just a businessman? Don't you know that in the grasslands, the prerequisite for becoming a merchant is to be able to defeat the most ferocious robbers? Boy, I'm not one of the big fat silk-clad merchants of the Salanders, and I'm a tribal warrior! ”

"I just think the Kugit are too vulnerable," I don't fear of the plague. I've heard the priests say that. The plague is a curse that only kills those who have done the most heinous things, and I don't think I have done anything vicious, so even if the Kujiit are cursed by the plague, I have no worries. I dare not say that these Kugit are cursed by the plague because they have done something wrong, and I have to say that they are too vulnerable. "You stay with them. Sooner or later, they will become as vulnerable as they are. I saw that several Kugit people had sores on their palms, and they were bleeding from sweat. ”

"Hmm," the merchant's eyes were a little pale, and his lips were even more similar to those of Nǎi Frozen Son, "What did I tell you, boy?" If the gods of wisdom want me to leave the world of suffering. Then I'll leave. There is a definite amount of human suffering, and once it has been experienced, one will enter a place of extreme happiness. He said with a smile, "That place is indescribable." ”

"You haven't been." I retorted to him. "What's the difference between this and Sarande's seventy-two virgins?"

"It's just a rumor." The merchant smiled and said, "Only the stupidest and most gullible people will believe it." 'You will also have three thousand beautiful women, satisfying your desire to speak only to yourself at night', such poems are written by many Salander poets. I do know of small towns where bards gather, and the Salander poets are just as talented as they are elsewhere. It's just as filthy and nasty. Seventy-two virgins. Haha, about the Salanders. What else do you know?'''"

The merchant had a good conversation with me, and as he was leaving, he gave me two jars of ointment that could not be sold, and went to sell his goods to other Valans.

We stopped near a water source, it was not yet noon, and we were surrounded by large olive groves, but there was no gardener here to maintain the estate. We have gone deep into the suburbs, and we are approaching the Mamluk station, and after our last water replenishment, we will be able to reach the Mamluk nests. Cruzkal, this bastard, is probably waiting for us shivering.

Hundreds of Varan and Kugit soldiers fetched water from the pool in groups. After waiting for the highest-ranking boyar knights to get water, I followed a few boyars to squat on the edge of the pool and unplug their water bladders and fill them with clean water. The water was a little dirty, the cavalry in front of it muddied it, and when taking water, I had to remove the scum from the water over and over again, and at the same time avoid the mud in the water, I had no way to catch the water at all, I took a few steps forward and walked to the place where the water flooded my calves, and the water here was much cleaner.

I was catching water when something suddenly floated up not far in front of me. I was startled, thinking that the Salandan lizards were coming to attack me. The Salanders say that the salamanders have armor-thick skin, a thousand teeth in their mouths, and as long as they bite their prey, they will constantly spin and roll, eventually tearing their food apart. I retreated, but I found that the thing had not followed, it was just floating quietly, with a cloth wrapped around it: it was a dead man.

I shouted so that more people around me could see the dead man.

The sound of scolding spread around the pond, and several daring Valan soldiers hooked the man ashore with their hooked scythes, and a foul stench emanated from his body, a smell mixed with the smell of blood and thick juice, and at the same time the smell of rotting flesh, and the horses were so frightened that the knight could hardly hold the reins. Then, as the Valan soldiers rolled through the pool, more corpses floated.

The Kugit drained their water bladders, while the Varans appeared indifferent. It seems that the Kugit are afraid of these water sources of dead people, and the Varans snicker, mocking these Kugit people for being as cowardly as rats.

A few Kugit soldiers gestured to the Varan soldiers, meaning to make them pour out the water.

I pulled an archer who knew the Kugit dialect and asked him, "What are the Kugit people talking about?" ”

He listened carefully, "I don't understand it, it seems to be about cursed water, the plague of the dead or something. These guys are scared, it's okay, Victor, just a few corpses. ”

I looked at the corpses, and the Kugit seemed disgusted when they were far away from them. The corpses had no wounds, but their faces were horribly distorted and had ugly scars.

After the water was fetched, the horn sounded and we moved on.

After crossing a large olive grove, the estate came into view.

There were many archers and spearmen standing on the walls of its courtyard, and after we had gone out of the woods, the manor rang with a close bell. The walls of the courtyard were so low that one soldier could climb over them by stepping on the shoulders of another.

The people of Salander are dead.