The much smaller group of eight people began their journey south along the main arterial road of Yidi, and with a local guide to guide them, they didn't have to worry about mistakes in the direction.

But Lulu won't stay with them forever, her goal is to return to her people, so she will leave the group alone after a while.

She was still a little wary, even when it came to the likes of Henry and Mira. When the girl asked where the fleeing Yiren were hiding, she only replied briefly to the words in the mountains in the south, and she did not want to say where, so Mira did not ask.

The armed conflict instigated by the missionaries began in December last year, and it took only half a month for the forces of the Moon Country to completely suppress them.

However, the arrest of the Yi people and other ethnic minorities was half a month late, not only because it took time to make decisions and transfer troops, but also because of the impact of the weather caused by seasonal changes.

Unlike the Moon State, which has a strong national strength and can hoard enough resources, the loose Yiren and other ethnic minority villages are basically dependent on the mountains and the water. Although they may also have the habit of hoarding supplies in the autumn and waiting for them to be used in the winter, they are unlikely to have the strong support capacity of the state to move supplies from one place to another.

In this way, the choice to carry out the arrest work in the cold winter is obviously due to the lack of materials in winter. There is a lack of wild vegetables and fruits to pick, and wild animals are basically missing, and this food shortage can be replenished by the army of the Moon Country through logistical support, but the people of Yi do not have such good conditions.

Like the camp where the group had been staying, the villages that would be built as permanent camps basically had resources nearby for wintering, but they weren't all that easy to find.

Coupled with the various thick clothes needed to keep warm in winter and the obstacles to the progress of the snow, the Moon Country chose to start at this point in time, obviously wanting to make the Yiren themselves trapped by the environment and choose to submit without much effort.

Although the Yi certainly had their own place of refuge, on the whole they were quite clever in their approach, using the weather to successfully weaken their power without causing a violent armed conflict.

The troops sent by the Tsuki no Kuni to the land were all cavalry, or "samurai" as Lulu put it.

The country's military system is somewhat similar to that of the Rigalese, but more hierarchical. The commoners of the Lunar Land were not allowed to own horses, and whether they were traveling or farming, they could only use carts pulled by donkeys at most, and spent most of the rest of the time on foot.

So when you see someone riding a horse, you can quickly identify that it is a samurai nobleman.

There is no such thing as a mercenary class like the one in mainland Rigal, where the rich can ride a horse, and all aspects of the country are so strict that the slightest disobedience can lead to jail time.

This situation further made the situation of Henry and the others very delicate, and they were foreigners, armed and a unicorn, and instead of landing in the central port, they were traveling south by land from the north.

If we encounter the army of the Moon Nation along the way, no matter how experienced our Sage is, I am afraid that we will not be able to find a reasonable explanation for all this.

But people who are afraid of trouble can't be risk-takers, although there are also differences in severity, but after discussion, the group still decided to take one step at a time.

The place where the Oriental Moon docked was in the southwest corner of Yidi, a difficult and harsh land where there were not many plains for people to settle in, and the plateau further north was so barren that even the Yiren would not go there if they fled.

The vast plains between the two mountain ranges in which they were now located were not very suitable for cultivation because of their northern location, so they were mostly settled by hunters and fishermen.

The Yi people are better at hunting in the mountains, while the Wato are good at fishing and whaling. The two have different needs for environmental resources, so there is some distance between the places where they settle, which is one of the main reasons why they have been able to live together so far.

The Heren forces near Yidi are not particularly strong, and there have been intermarriages between the two ethnic groups in those scattered fishing villages for a long time, and culturally they are actually closer to the Yiren than the mainstream society in the central and southern regions.

After discussion, Lulu decided to take the group to a nearby fishing village.

The most intense hunt for the Yi people has passed, and with days of heavy snow blocking the road, it is theoretically impossible for them to encounter the forces of the Moon Country in the short term. And because of the cultural commonality, and the fact that the missionaries carried a lot of money, it should not be difficult to find someone who would help them.

As long as they avoid the largest port towns nearby, keep a low profile, and they should still be able to reach their destination.

After leading them to the fishing village for supplies, Lulu will march together for a while, and then leave the group in the mountains further south.

This is their current schedule, but even the nearest fishing village still has to walk for days due to the isolation between the two communities and the fact that the group is on foot.

Camping outside in the winter is never a great experience, especially if they don't have the right equipment.

For example, in the case of an adult male with an average physique on mainland Rigal, the weight that most people can afford for a long time is around 30 kilograms in the standard unit of kilograms on mainland Rigal.

And this is actually the combat burden of the vast majority of combat professionals. Hundreds of years ago, the soldiers of the heyday of chain mail usually carried a large shield of about 4 kilograms, about 20 kilograms of chain mail that did not cover the whole body, one-handed swords and helmets, and various provisions;

Nowadays, the full set of armor of the Plate Knights that prevail throughout the Rigal Continent is also about this weight. However, it is a luxury for a noble knight with a large number of attendants and accompanying servants to use all his personal weight to carry weapons and armor, and for ordinary mercenaries, it is more reasonable for weapons and armor to occupy one-third of the load, and the rest of the personal burden must be used to carry all kinds of miscellaneous daily necessities.

The reason for this is that the missionaries, who occupy a very large share of the burden in the ranks, carry very strange things.

Books and prayer equipment, as well as gold and silver treasures, took up a large part of their burdens, and the rest was personal necessities and evenly distributed food rations.

As a result, they brought only one tent, the one Henry and Mira had bought on the East Coast. The only pots and pans that can be used are two small pots and a frying pan, which is still barely enough to cook food for everyone, but wastes a lot of fuel compared to a large enough pot.

The light tent used by the adventurer can only sleep for up to 5 people, but fortunately, improvisation is a necessary skill for mercenaries, so by pulling the cloth on one side and covering the nearby cleaved coniferous branches to form an isolation cover, it is also a temporary expansion of an area for sleeping.

Leaving aside the noisy group of scholars, only four missionaries remained, and the atmosphere of the whole team was much better.

These people are more hard-working than pretentious scholars because of their religious beliefs. Combined with the previous example, now no one is lazy, everyone has found what they have to do, and all kinds of work are doubling the efficiency.

Except for being relatively dull and unspeakable, and being a little guarded against Henry and others because of money, these missionaries became good travel companions.

The tents and other items removed from the little unicorns were quickly set up before the end of the short daylight hours of winter, after which they began to cook the food they had previously handled.

As always, in order to keep the body warm and make the most of the little food rations they have, they made soup.

Even if you eat something delicious for many days in a row, you will be tired, but luckily our Sage still found this kind of spruce in the Crescent Continent in the far east, and the plucked branches were boiled together until the green leaves began to turn yellow. Although the sourness is a bit peculiar, it makes the smoked fish broth taste a little fresher.

The rest of the bear meat was cut into small strips and smoked into jerky, and the old bear's dry meat was so tough that it was hard to chew and could hardly taste anything other than a slight fishy smell, so it was distributed to everyone as an emergency ration.

According to the description of the aboriginal girl, the locals will use honey to remove the smell when tasting bear meat, after all, both are difficult to obtain, so it can be regarded as a kind of celebration and festival meal. After leaving the longhouse, Lulu has a higher chance of saying something during mealtime, warm food and the right person to eat can always open people's conversations, if Loren and the others had chosen to do so, maybe they would not have been left behind by Henry and the others.

And when it comes to the scholars who have been left behind, the group of eight has not forgotten them indifferently and ruthlessly.

The young and somewhat thin missionary Agee was so worried that he could not help but speak, he was very worried about what would happen to the scholars who were very good at what would happen to them, after all, their own survival ability was so low that they were afraid that they would not be able to save it.

However, his concern did not attract much attention from the four Henry, not because they were so ruthless, but because they had enough food left for those people, and the snow had stopped for days, and the snow had almost melted under the clear sun.

In other words, as long as they don't do anything stupid on their own, it's okay to go south on their own to get to a populated place.

Of course, in the absence of experienced Henry to solve various problems, it is inevitable to endure hardship.

This explanation allowed Edgey and several other missionaries to come to an understanding. It is not difficult to see the gap between them and the scholarly community.

Although the monks of the White Church also came from high society, most of them were actually the second sons of various families or orphans adopted by the Church.

Those from the lower middle and lower classes are better at communicating with each other than the scholars who put up a fight, and this is one of the reasons why Henry would be willing to take them with him - after all, the foreigners who caused the struggle and were targeted by the Moon Country were these missionaries and not scholars. With the precedent of Lorraine, how can there be any guarantee that these missionaries will not have the same intentions, and they will be drawn into this vortex?

The answer to this question involves some of the class relations in Lamani society: all of them are groups of scholars from high society who have some decision-making power. They can make their own subjective judgments on some issues, and only need to report to a higher level afterwards.

The four missionaries were low-level religious personnel, and there was no ruling class among them, just the men who were sent to provide reinforcements and funds.

In other words, they will not actively try to continue to mix in the current turbulent situation, but will simply focus on completing the errand mission.

This type of quest is the favorite of the mercenary profession, it is simple and bright, and there are no extraneous elements. After all, this is a profession that is accompanied by danger, and the most feared thing is that the employer does not fully disclose the situation, and even intends to take the initiative to cause trouble.

Despite being called "adventurers", the mercenary's main job is to make sure that they are safe to clear or avoid trouble, rather than actively provoking trouble.

All in all, even if there is no verbal conflict, it would be better for them to find some reason to distance themselves after realizing that Loren has bad intentions.

Accustomed to treating other people as victims, the Raman upper class who thinks that the world revolves around them, is destined to be mercilessly sacrificed as cannon fodder in the future from the day they get involved.

Time passes without a trace.

The flames burned slowly, and after the vigil had been arranged, the smoke of spruce tea rose from the hot spruce tea in the wooden cups.

It's getting dark.