Although visually incomparable to the Tambur Mountains on the west coast, the Palohian plateau on the east coast provides the Padrosi with a wealth of resources that are easier to gather and places to settle. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

Long before the rise of the Laman Empire, the plateau region was inhabited by ethnic minorities. Although it is difficult for the East Coasters to distinguish between the West Coasters, the Highlanders and the Lowland Lamanites look exactly the same to the West Coasters, but they are subtly different. These ethnic minorities, who were able to preserve their traditional culture due to geographical barriers, have been in constant conflict with the mainstream of Lamani society even though they have been conquered and incorporated into the empire for more than a thousand years.

Somewhat impersonal and indifferent to mainstream society, coupled with the difficult and rugged roads, most businessmen would not choose them as their trading partners. This leaves behind an untapped gold mine, giving a respite for the small individual traders who are barely making a living in the midst of competition between large chambers of commerce and more wealthy and powerful individual traders. Despite this, the team that Henry and the others were following this time was not the traditional East Coast Highlanders, but a Ramanid branch of mixed people.

Just as there are steppe planners in the Soradin Highlands region on the west coast, the orthodox Lamanid lineage, which is more culturally contagious and more affluent and convenient, has naturally attracted and annexed countless ethnic minorities with original differences for thousands of years. Today, most of them are an inconspicuous member of the Lamanite world, and newborns do not even know that their ancestors fought bloody battles against the Lamanites in order to preserve their culture.

That's what makes Laman's poison so terrible, but this time they're blessed with it.

Influenced by the dominant Lamani culture, this part of the ethnic minority tribes that migrated from the highlands to the lowlands were more approachable than their counterparts, and the risk of trade with them was much lower.

In lowland areas with a calmer climate and more fertile soils, people can live and work in peace and contentment, and naturally no one wants to risk plundering.

After crossing the stone bridge, the road tends to slope downward.

Nature's wonders are incomprehensible to humans, and despite their proximity to the Palohian Plateau, the highest elevation on the east coast, they are indeed heading to the lowlands that are among the highest in the entire Padrosi Empire.

Fortunately, unlike the Ridaira wetlands on the west coast, the lowlands of the southern part of the empire are not flooded by the sea far from the coastline, so in addition to being relatively wet, it is as habitable as much of the rest of the Paderossi Empire.

"Come-come-come, wait!Steady, steady!" The descent may seem a relief to the trekking traveler, but it is a major nuisance for the merchant hauling a cart full of goods.

The whole convoy stopped, and people came down to help, and the use of the plurality of thick iron hooks nailed to the sides of Padrosi's commercial carriage was on full display. The merchants first covered the top of the open-air carriage with a large net to prevent any goods from falling, and then five men in the prime of life tied the thick hemp rope to the hook and pulled it hard at the back of the carriage so that the chassis of the carriage would not overturn only against the road, while the merchant to whom the two carriages belonged in front of him kept pacifying his pack horse and walked slowly and slowly along the steep slope.

Even though they were all seasoned old merchants, everyone was still terrified as they descended the slope.

A pack horse weighs hundreds of kilograms of its own, and if the merchant who stops in front of it is frightened, it must be the result of being trampled and seriously injured, not to mention the whole cart of goods being pulled behind.

If the horses were frightened and began to gallop down the mountain, if the acceleration inertia was out of control, even if the best of the merchant survived, the horses and the goods on the cart would have been destroyed.

The loss of the capital on which he depends for his livelihood is no different from death for a businessman.

"Be careful, be careful. Peace of mind, peace of mind, nothing is okay, nothing is okay. "Even though this has happened several times, the merchant still needs to constantly reassure the pack horses, who are a little duller than the war horses. The price of this type of pack horse is relatively low, but it is still much more expensive than a mule. Stupid and easily frightened mules, despite their stamina, will only pay more for them when pulling carts on long distances, especially on rough mountain roads like this.

Be careful to sail the ship of ten thousand years, although every time the merchant is taking risks, this kind of adventure is a choice still made after weighing the pros and cons, based on ignorance or arrogance, which is not called a risk, but a suicide.

Back to the point, the slope moved the whole team. All the adults, except the guards, joined in pulling the carts, not only for the commercial carriages, but also for the passengers. They slowly descended the somewhat steep slope one carriage at a time, and the descent alone took most of the morning, and by the end of the day almost everyone except the mercenaries who were guarding the guard were exhausted and out of breath.

Fortunately, after descending this last slope, the road in front of it was relatively smooth, so I stopped for a short time to repair in place. Since most of the people were expected to be very tired, they ate the pre-baked meal in the morning at noon today, and the taste of the food after it was cold was not as good as the hot food that had just been fired, but the hungry people also gobbled it up and didn't care about it.

After lunch, the group made a rare stop.

The fact that the mercenaries who were the guards did not join in the cart pulling was not justified in the fact that there was no reason for the people to protest, and everyone else who had been busy in the morning needed to take a nap to recuperate. And at this time, Henry, who retains his energy, and more than a dozen of them need to be awake to guard their surroundings outside.

After all, people's energy is limited, and performing their duties is the proper posture of a mature team, if the mercenaries who are responsible for the escort task do other things every day, what is really necessary at that time, and how can they exert themselves when they are exhausted.

Those who can't tell the difference between the situation will always blame others for not doing enough every day, as if everyone in the whole world must help him, otherwise he will be cold-blooded and ruthless.

At this point, Padrosi, the Eastern Empire, is much more mature than the West Coast.

Time passed slowly and calmly, and in the soft autumn sun, surrounded by only the singing of birds and insects, it was uncomfortably quiet.

It was about two o'clock in the afternoon, and the people who woke up to rearrange and finish the dotting, although it was a little abrupt, they were ready to part ways.

The travelers set off on the right side of the trail and prepared to return to the main road south to the city-states of the southern part of the empire, some returning to their hometowns to visit family, while others were returning from a trip to Parnilla. And the reason why they had to walk this path with merchants before this is to save money.

There were a variety of wagon-pullers in the empire, and these people, unlike the special coachmen hired by the nobles, made a living by pulling passengers. A horse-drawn carriage with direct access to the main road is the option of the wealthy, as all you can live in is a large rest stop room, which is unaffordable for most people in terms of daily expenses.

Most families choose this cheaper carriage as a mode of travel, and they are usually divided into two sections, the one near the coachman's position can only accommodate one person to rest, and the wider family space behind. This separation is designed to ensure the privacy of travelers, as only a handful of families are willing to spend many nights in the same space with a stranger.

At the fork in the road, the travelers waved goodbye to them, and for the rest of the road they were no longer escorted by mercenaries. However, they were about to return to the avenue, which was guarded by Imperial soldiers along the way, and the carriage that only poor ordinary families rode in did not have much oil and water, and even bandits would not risk it to plunder them.

The team shrank by more than half at once, making it feel inexplicably empty.

Although we have only been traveling together for a few days, the lively scene of the family travelers has been deeply imprinted in my memory. Watching them disappear at the bend in the road on the other side, for a moment only the merchants and the guards were quiet and unaccustomed.

"Hey, if I didn't want them to take this risk, I would have my family accompany me to do business. Uncle Mario, the merchant who led the party, the one who had spoken to Mira before, said with a sigh, apparently feeling a little lonely for a short time after being separated from the travelers.

But loneliness is loneliness, and life still has to go on.

After packing their bags, the team set out on their journey again, heading towards the mixed village in the south.

There are fewer people to guard, and more than half of the team is armed, which is in a sense a little harder to mess with. Henry, they were still the first to be, tall and dressed in plate armor and riding warhorses, enough to scare off any unscrupulous people hiding in the dense roadside vegetation. The remaining eight mercenaries were now on a gentler road, and in order to make up for some of the time they had spent descending the slope, they all rode into the merchant's carriage instead of walking.

It should be mentioned that Filippo's reticence has been alleviated since yesterday, and it is clear that playing the role of a wounded and depressed young man like this is not suitable for him.

Although due to the man's face problem, he was embarrassed to apologize to Morrow and said that he lost his temper. But the frizzy look that looked over there from time to time to see if the other party minded didn't make the other members of the team feel irritated, and it also made the middle-aged mercenary feel creepy, wondering if the young man actually liked men.

"If you want to apologize, go quickly!" was our Miss Loan, who was riding on horseback and kicked Filippo's horse mercilessly. The horse screamed and neighed and galloped forward, and the young man, who had struggled to steer it, looked at the eyes of the remaining four in his group and was embarrassed to return to the queue.

He took a deep breath and mustered up the courage to run towards the merchants, while our Sage glanced at it, and complained as if he had always been bloody, "I don't know which one he is more annoyed with. ”

He said this, and Mira nodded, as did Margaret and Ferruccio, who were old acquaintances of Filippo.

"I feel the same way. The old butler whispered, and Margaret snickered quietly. After talking for a while in the rear, the mature advantages of the middle-aged mercenary Moro were reflected.

Even if he is not of high rank and has little culture, he is also a person who has experienced many things.

"I'm also at fault for this, but you, when you go back later, you have to pay me for the sword. "After people have a certain amount of experience, they will no longer be as angry about a thing as they were when they were teenagers, and this can Morro has already taken a step in his heart, after all, it is not once or twice that a low-level mercenary like them has been ridiculed and looked down upon by the nobles.

It was somewhat surprising that the aristocratic young man had to come to him to apologize, and Filippo's action eased the atmosphere of the whole team. The inherent estrangement between the two classes is universal, but on the individual side, even people of different classes and cultures will become friends after getting to know each other.

Human nature is complex, and human nature is simple.

As long as you can put yourself in each other's shoes, you can still understand each other.

After solving this knot, Filippo became cheerful again, and he ran to the front and began to change his previous frizzy and impulsive appearance. Although the atmosphere of the group separated from the travelers was enlivened up to a certain extent, the appearance of this aristocratic young man who had never seen the scenery of the countryside kept asking questions like a little kid was still a little disturbing.

"What kind of flower is this?"

"What kind of bird is this?"

After the first casual question, and our white-haired girl subconsciously gave an answer, the guy's question could not be stopped, until at last Mira was annoyed and drove forward again, and kicked his horse's ass again, causing Filippo to scream and run out, and finally ushered in another silence.

"Am I the only one who thinks so, and I start to miss the time when he was sad and depressed. The girl let out a long sigh, and Margaret laughed quietly again.

Actually, he didn't always do this. Miss Noble said this, and our Sage on the side shrugged his shoulders again: "Men are simple creatures. ”

He said.

The atmosphere became lighter and the road ahead seemed less long and difficult.

The night's dinner was all eaten around the same campfire, and after the actual conversation, the two classes, despite their differences, still had much in common, perhaps more than many people think.

Uncle Mario was smiling at the calm and harmonious atmosphere, after all, the last thing he wanted was for his team's guards to not be able to work together in the event of a conflict.

Time passed, and after another morning of speeding up the next morning, they finally reached the destination of their trip.

In addition to the highlanders, there were a large number of ordinary Lamanite peasants and their mestizo descendants in this small southern mixed village.

The peculiar Lamanite language spoken in two accents in a village attracted the attention of the five members of the mercenary group, whom Margaret named "Little Explorer", but then they soon noticed that many of the people in the village did not look very good, and when they saw the merchants coming, the expressions on their faces made Henry frown and Mila clenched the hilt of his sword.

That's not hatred or enmity.

It's more dangerous than that.

Desire and hope.