There are more refugees in Jinyang City, but there are more guests in Heiling City.
This group of guests is a bit strange.
different.
In front is a road-finding thief with sharp eyes riding a galloping lizard. In the middle of the team are dozens of mercenaries, escorting a dozen criminals who have been tortured so hard that their flesh and teeth have been shredded and their bodies are almost skeletons tied in a prison car. into town. At the end, there is also a huge sub-dragon 'bigfoot walking earth dragon'. Along the road full of bones, the big-footed ground dragon came slowly, with an incomparably luxurious golden seat on its back.
On the golden throne, besides two similarly dressed silver armored warriors, there was also a female slave and a little girl holding a baby.
Unlike ordinary caravans, this team is more like a slave hunting team.
But it is rare to see a slave hunting team that can be so luxurious. They will have a quasi-heaven-level 'Bigfoot Walking Dragon' that is usually only eligible to ride if they are above the city lord, and they will also have a golden throne that is so cool...
The most surprising thing is that on the golden seat, there is no particularly distinguished nobleman, only two warriors, and even a lowly slave girl and a little girl who looks like a hungry person. Even though they were sitting at the feet of the two silver armored warriors, sitting on that incomparably luxurious golden throne, looking down at the surroundings, the timidity and anxiety in their eyes could still be clearly seen. Anyone with a little foresight can tell at a glance that they are definitely not descendants of nobles. On the contrary, these should be untouchables, the hungry among the untouchables!
What qualifications do untouchables have to sit on the golden throne
The captain of the guard who was in charge of collecting taxes at the gate of the city felt incredible about this.
"The wine and meat of the Zhumen stinks, and there are frozen bones on the road..." He vaguely heard the silver armored warrior on the left on the golden seat say to the silver armored warrior on the right.
"Don't drop your book bag. Now is not the time to express your emotions. Hurry up and get down to business. We don't have much time, and we have to cross the Zhifeng Swamp. Hurry up and take down the outer ones." The captain of the guard at the city gate heard silver on the right The armored warrior said this, although the distance is a bit far, the surrounding is a bit noisy, and I can't hear it very clearly, but judging from this accent, the silver armored warrior on the right should be a woman.
"What are you doing?" The guard stepped forward to stop the pathfinding thieves who were walking in the front, and asked loudly, no matter what your status is when you come to Hei Ling City, you must pay taxes. This is the rule set by the lord.
The lord of Hei Ling City is the younger brother of the lord of the country.
Not to mention the leader of Hei Ling, even in the entire Zhifeng country, no one would dare to disobey the will of the lord.
Here, the lord is the sky, the earth, and the only ruler who controls the fate of all people in Hei Ling Territory!
The pathfinder thief with bright eyes rolled down his long legs and ran to the back of the lizard, with a smile on his face, he came forward to say hello as if he hadn't seen him for a long time, and skillfully stuffed a small purse into the guard's ear, and put it in the guard's ear , biting his ear and talking for a while. Pointing back to the ground dragon, he said something in a low voice. In the end, the pathfinder thief took out a bigger and more inflated money bag from his pocket, and smiled and offered it as tax money... This is all normal, almost all caravans or slave hunting teams do this.
Bribing the guards is the most common action for every pathfinder thief, and paying taxes is also in line with the laws and regulations of each region.
The captain at the gate of the city frowned secretly at this ordinary procedure.
I don't know what it feels like.
The captain of the guard always felt that the pathfinder's smile was not flattery, but an indescribable mockery.
It seems that the guard who collects the money will be unlucky soon... But there is no problem with the gold coins at all. When the captain of the guard watched the guard open the money bag to register the tax, he found that the gold coins were real, there was no deception, and there were a lot of them, far exceeding ordinary traps. Slave caravans, even caravans beyond the average size.
Well, do these people have so much money that they have no place to squander it
Look at the fugitive slaves they captured, all of them were tortured so hard that they couldn't live any longer. They were worthless at all. For these fugitive slaves, is it really worth paying a tax of nearly a thousand gold coins? Besides, for a team like this, others would have complained a lot if they had to pay a hundred gold, but this pathfinder thief paid nearly a thousand gold, and his face was still full of smiles.
It's so weird!
When this team entered the city, the captain of the guard still couldn't figure out why he felt uneasy.
Why do you still feel uncomfortable when you have received more tax and you should be happy? What went wrong
"Greyhound, what did he say just now?" the captain of the guard summoned his subordinates to ask.
"Boss, that's a slave hunting team that hunts down escaped slaves. They have traveled between Zhifeng Country and Hurricane Country for a long time. This time, they are just passing by. It is said that they are mainly responsible for smuggling, and slave hunting is only a part-time job. I guess they entered this time." A large sum of money, sold very generously, paid a full tax of more than 800 gold, first, we are going to be prosperous this time, that is, we have paid the highest limit of 200 gold, and the rest can be divided into more than 600 gold. Brothers can finally celebrate! In this poor and rotten place, how long has it been without such an income, half a month, no, half a year, I haven’t seen such a fat sheep coming to the door!" The guard danced with excitement, smiling happily Report the good news to the captain.
The captain of the guard nodded, indicating that he knew.
Although he had the opportunity to enrich his own pocket, he was not happy, and even had a faint sense of fear floating around.
Impossible... This slave hunting team will pay 800 gold as taxes? Even if smuggling is easy to earn, it is impossible to pay such taxes when entering the city. This is simply the behavior of a fool. Who would spend money for no reason
If this band of slave catchers did it on purpose, what was it for
Why did they use heavy bribes to enter the city
Why did the pathfinder show a mocking smile in the depths of his eyes? How can those lowly slave girls and hungry little girls be qualified to sit on the golden seat? The most puzzling thing is that those two silver armored warriors with exactly the same costumes are obviously very weak, but how could they give themselves a feeling of incomparable fear
The captain of the guard who was in charge of collecting taxes at the entrance of the city couldn't understand what he thought.
I don't know how long it has been.
From a distant direction, a griffin flew over, carrying a flying courier covered in blood on it. Before it could enter the city in time, the courier fell headlong.
When the captain of the guard rushed forward to rescue the flying messenger, he found that he was already seriously injured and on the verge of death, dying. At the last moment of death, the flying messenger revived his spirits and held the captain's hand tightly: "Quick, quick, quickly report to the lord, Yotei City, Sandstone City, Gobi City, Thorn City, Walnut City, have all been destroyed!" Breakthrough, I just escaped in Buffalo City... I, I, I was the only one who escaped... Hurry up and inform the lord, the enemy... ask the lord for help, ah... "
The messenger seemed to want to say something, but couldn't hold on anymore.
He tilted his head and died out of breath.
"I'll be right away..." The captain of the guard immediately jumped up when he heard the news. The whole Hei Ling territory was broken, so what's the deal? I don't know who, the territory outside the combat zone has also been invaded. Could it be that the flames of war have spread to the rear of the Zhifeng Swamp area
He was about to use the fastest speed to rush to the lord's mansion and report the bad news to the lord of Hei Ling.
But the bloody scene of the fugitive slave who was tied to the prison cart and tortured until he lost his shape just now flashed through the depths of the guard captain's mind.
Yotei City, Sandstone City, Gobi City, Thorn City, Walnut City, and Buffalo City were all captured by the enemy, so were the city owners and garrison generals of these cities all captured
Could it be...
The captain of the guard suddenly shivered with fear.
I thought of the smiling face of the pathfinder thieves who paid heavy taxes just now, I thought of the pariah who could not sit on the throne, I thought of those runaway slaves who were tied up in prison wagons and tortured until they were out of shape, and I thought of the men and women dressed in the same way The conversation of the samurai... The captain of the guard trembled with fear, and sweat drenched his whole body like rain.
"What's the matter? Head?" Several guards looked at the captain inexplicably.
"I have something very important to report to the lord, so you stay here carefully. By the way, I don't want the share of the tax. You can share a few points. Remember to have fun at night!" The captain of the guard wiped Sweating, suppressing the fear in my heart, I ordered to go on.
"Understood, boss, you have to go early and return early!" Several guards were so happy that they heard that the captain was going to go to the king's side for a mission without paying any money.
"The Griffin is ready!" The clever Greyhound even quickly led the captain's flying messenger mount and waited for the captain to travel.
"Brothers, goodbye." The captain of the guard turned to the back of the griffin and said this intentionally.
Then, he frantically urged the griffin.
Let it go as fast as possible.
two days later.
The griffin, who was overworked from flying at high speed day and night, fell to the ground and was abandoned by the captain of the guard.
The guard captain exhausted all his strength and hurried on his way. What he wanted most in his heart was not to report this news to the king. The king didn't need his report for such news, and he believed that he had already received it. What he had to do was to save his own life, to flee desperately to the capital where the lord of the country was, because that was the safest place.
In Green Willow City, the capital of Zhifeng Kingdom, the tall spire has appeared at the limit of sight.
Green Willow City, a peaceful place where wars have never broken out.
Because of the mighty strength of Lord Zhifeng, and being located in the rear of the battle zone of Tianhuayu, here, thousands of miles of fertile land, prosperous and prosperous, no army or mob can attack here...
The captain of the guard faintly saw the Green Willow City in sight, and then he breathed a sigh of relief.
Well, it's finally safe to escape here.
He took off the captain's clothes and threw them away, then put on the deerskin he got from hunting, and pretended to be a hunter who had lived in the forest for a long time. Although he didn't know how the war was going, he had already abandoned his previous identity as the captain of the city gate guard, and decided to change his identity, sneak into Green Willow City, and start a new life in this peaceful city. If you have a certain level of strength, you don't have to be afraid of starving to death. As long as your place of residence is safe enough, your identity doesn't matter at all.
Check it up and down, and feel that there is no flaw.
The former captain of the guard flew out from the forest area and landed at the gate of Green Willow City. He handed over the identity certificate and tax money that he had disguised long ago to the guard, and with a smile on his face, he expressed that he needed to enter the city to buy some furs.
"Poor guy!" The guard snorted in disgust, and forcibly extorted two more gold coins, then waved: "Get out!"
"Wow, look, look over there, there is a luxurious slave hunting team coming, my God, this slave hunting team seems to have made a lot of money, and there is a golden throne on the back of the big-footed dragon. , Which slave hunting team is this?" Several guards discussed in surprise.
Hearing this, the captain of the former guard of Hei Ling City became stiff all over.
He turned around in disbelief.
Desperately, he found that the slave-catching team he had seen in Hei Ling City was slowly walking towards Luliu City.
Their team seems to have grown a bit stronger, with more than a dozen more mercenaries in charge of guarding, and a few more prison vehicles. Still grinning... And sitting on the golden seat was the slave girl and the little girl holding the baby, and on top of that sat the two silver armored warriors who were almost identically dressed.
The original guard captain was so frightened that his face was pale, and he almost collapsed on the ground.
He knew the distance between Hei Ling City and Green Willow City.
Not to mention walking with big feet and dragons, even flying with griffins would take ten days.
The reason why he was able to get here in three days was because he discovered an unknown space rift, passing through the space rift saved at least 70% of the journey to get here.
This team of slave hunters can catch up with their own slave hunting team from Hei Ling City to Green Willow City with their footsteps...
The former captain of the guards didn't dare to think about it, and he didn't dare to look at it anymore, because he found a bloody figure in one of the prison cars very familiar... The pathfinder thief with sharp eyes turned over and jumped down, and stuffed the guards with a smile on his face. With a money bag, he smiled at the former captain of the Heiling City guards and said coldly, "You're very fast, I never thought you would still be ahead of us!"