The Canghong Empire, the northern leaders.
After the extremely cold winter night, this land did not usher in the promised warm spring and summer, and the cold wind and snow were still blowing between the mountains and forests. Although it is already July, most of the territory is still only over ten degrees, which is far from warm.
The center of Cold Leaf Collar, Ice Needle City.
This is the coldest and remotest city in the Empire. It is located in the north, close to the Sigh Mountains. After crossing the ridges and forests in the north of the Cold Leaf Territory, there is an ocean of floating ice.
In the lord's castle, thick candles lit by pine wax were placed on the table, illuminating the figures in the room full of snow.
The lord Tucson sat at the top of the long table, wearing thick armor. Under the bright silver armor was a solid black layer of cotton. Although it was inconvenient, it also gave people a mountain-like weight.
"This snowstorm is expected to last for a long time, not just this month, next month, this year, and even the next year." There was still a little ice residue on his thick beard, which slowly melted away in the candlelight.
After hearing this, the dozen or so thick-armored knights present also fell silent, only the heat from time to time under their noses showed that everyone's hearts were not so stable.
"Winter is coming..."
In this extraordinary world with mana, the cold and hot will be more obvious and changeable than the previous earth. The cold wave is not only a short-term cooling, but a large-scale cooling that lasts for months or even years. And it's not just the first time something like this has happened in the North.
"First Evolution"
"This time I have to go south to buy food again. Fortunately, there are not many people in our territory, and we need less food." Tucson put his armoured wrist on the table and tapped it gently.
"The south of the empire is not very stable now, who is willing to buy food?" He asked these knights in his territory.
Purchasing food is not easy to do, not to mention how to cross the rugged mountain road of thousands of miles and pass through the fiefs of many other nobles, and even the money for purchasing food is often not sufficient, which will test the means of the executor. .
Cold Leaf Collar is not rich, and there are not many things produced here, so it cannot provide sufficient funds.
Although in normal seasons, everyone can live a stable and orderly life, once this time comes, it will become tense and critical.
After Tucson finished speaking, one of the knights below fell into thought, and one by one kept analyzing the impact of this incident.
They are all vassals of Viscount Tucson, with villages and small manors or small castles under their own names, and they are the lowest nobles in the empire.
If this task is accepted, the lord will generally not assign other things to him and his family within ten years after completion, and will also take care of the younger generation.
However, such a task is by no means easy. If it is not completed well, it will not only face the dissatisfaction of the lord, but also meet the complaints and anger of the people. The north is no better than the south of the empire. Under the harsh environment, people's lives can be lost at any time, and they will not bear the anger in patience. Maybe one night, a group of people will burst into your small castle and manor, set a fire, and add their swords to you.
In the local history, this kind of thing happened several times, and afterward, in order to appease the lord, it was not easy for the lord to deal with these troubled people, because the land really lacked people and could not stand the killing.
The dozen or so knights in thick armor were silent. After a few minutes of thinking, many of them thought that this task was extremely difficult, and that rashly taking it would only bring disaster.
Seeing that everyone was silent, Lord Tucson tapped his fingers slowly, and his dark blue eyes slowly swept across the faces of the people present. Most of these people were 40-50 years old, with brown-black beards and wearing different styles of armor. At this moment, some looked at the table, some looked at the candles in the table, and some looked at their rough palms, lost in thought, and no one spoke.
This time, Tucson is also well aware that the situation this time is different from the past. Now the situation in the empire is unknown. Several uprisings have broken out in the south. Major nobles have begun to protect themselves. The prestige of the royal family has dropped significantly, and even the interior is faint Steady news came. People were panicking for a while, even as the lord who stayed in a remote corner, he received a lot of messy and unknown news from relatives.
Some people say that the Duke of Raven began to dispatch troops to build weapons and armor, and some people say that the Griffin family in the west began to plan to restore the country and prepare to break away from the empire. Those who have descendants and bloodlines are the ones who should ascend to the throne. Those who used to be loyal to the crown prince are secretly active again, spreading rumors that are not good for the Ackerman brothers.
"In order to survive this cold winter, I'm going to sell some treasures from the past and collect 1,800 extraordinary gold coins. I don't know which loyal knight is willing to go." Tucson spoke again, stating the conditions for his preparation this time.
Hearing this sentence, these knights finally changed, their eyes no longer condensed on the tabletop and loose candles, and some people turned their heads and looked at Lord Tucson who looked up.
They start to get caught up in a new flurry of analysis and hesitation.
Finally, three knights raised their hands.
"I would like to serve Master Tucson." They then pushed away the heavy wooden chairs and stood up. With the sound of armor rubbing against each other, the three of them pressed their arms to their chests and bent over to salute.
"Then there are a few to work." Looking at the three, Tucson nodded slowly, then recruited a clerk, and began to prepare contracts, documents and other necessary things.
The pine wax candles in the room were still burning, emitting a little black smoke and rosin, but the atmosphere was much more relaxed at this time, and some knights began to communicate with each other in a low voice, relieved.
Looking at the appearance of these people, Lord Tucson shook his head slightly, and stopped talking, but turned his eyes to the window of the gray rock. The coniferous trees in the mountains were covered by white snow, and only a little bit could be seen under the snow on the branches. black.
The pure white snow-covered world does not mean beauty in the eyes of the locals. They will not be surprised by such a huge snowfall like the southerners of the empire, but will feel annoyed and depressed.
Snow on tree branches, snow on roads, snow on haystacks, snow on roofs, snow in fields, snow with cold hands, ice that does not melt on the ground, foggy frost on windows, condensation in water tanks hard surface.
The cold penetrates into every corner and every crevice in life, and cuts through your body like a knife, making you painful and sober, soberly aware of your own insignificance and powerlessness, the kind of despair and suffocation that gradually drowns.
In the face of the slowly approaching winter solstice giant, the local residents can only hold on to the only warmth left at hand, struggling to meet the test of the cold winter in prayer and extreme frugality.