(Leaving for Guangzhou tomorrow, I'm not sure if I can continue to update it in the next few days... Well, if the integrity is off the table, it may be updated. For the sake of integrity, how about you vote for a monthly ticket and subscribe?)
It is only a few tens of kilometers away from Songlin Village, and it only took half a day for us to leave that quiet and peaceful forest village. However, such a small distance in time and space is enough for people to truly experience the difference between peace and war. Layers are thinner than paper.
The North Fortress has become a veritable military-heavy place. With this fortress as the center, there are large and small military camps and garrisons along the long bridge mountain range for hundreds of miles. They include regular troops from the interior of the empire, and some from Second-line regiments organized by local lords and churches, and the rest are scattered free mercenaries and people with lofty ideals. This can be said to be a grand event, or it can be called madness: the fearless attitude of the people on the ground in the face of the dark moon invasion and the spirit of the whole country's resistance are amazing. Although the dark moon war itself seems inexplicable to us, but stick to it. On both sides of the Longbridge Mountains, these people who are ready to fight at any time are still worthy of the name of warriors.
Compared with the atmosphere where even the air is tinged with death, the atmosphere of Songlin Village seems too peaceful and too timid, but there is nothing to criticize: after all, not every race can be like Xi. Like Ling Ling, all the people are soldiers, and ordinary people also have ordinary ways of life. It is understandable for the villagers of Songlin Village to first think about their three meals a day. Moreover, they will also appear on the second line of defense as militiamen in the near future. From this point of view, this can already be called a strong folk style.
We are going to spend the night outside the northern fortress tonight, but it is said that it is outside the fortress, but there is absolutely no feeling of wilderness here: free mercenaries from all over the country have built a hundred-mile company in the wilderness, even if you The horse galloped down the Changqiao Mountain, and within a short period of time, there was no real "uninhabited" place.
When we were preparing to set up camp, we also encountered a small episode: at first I wanted to inquire whether there was a nominal planner in the free mercenary station, but I only found out after asking, let alone a special planner. Even the officers in the fortress don't know how the mercenary garrison is "planned". These loose small teams are randomly distributed in the "no rules area" divided by the Knights. Whether they form a group or work alone depends on their preferences. It even feels like a group of newcomers who have just got off the train and are waiting for odd jobs at various intersections. In such a group of migrant workers who enter the city, no one needs to consider the issue of "arrangement of camps and tents".
It's just that the nature of the work of these "migrant workers" is particularly high-end: they are here to save the world, at least they think so.
So we directly found a relatively quiet place in the mercenary area as a "site", and then it didn't take much effort to prepare the tents. The god Bingtis directly used the power of creation to make three large tents. It is not much different from the tents of the people around, but there are a lot of barriers and barriers inside: we don't have to worry about being known even if we discuss the end of the world inside.
The tents were ready in twos and threes, and Bingtis and Viska started to toss dinner volunteered (yes, they were the two of them). I saw that I didn’t have anything to do at the moment, so I stayed in this large camp Feel free to stroll around. Because Lin Xue wanted to be clean, we chose a place far away from other people. According to the scale of this mercenary garrison, the place we stayed was at least outside the tenth ring... I had to walk for a long time to meet the nearest "" Neighbors" say hello.
What makes me happy is that all the mercenaries I met during my walk were friendly, probably because they were all on the same desperate front. Even the mercenaries who were usually fiercely competitive became a harmonious family here. Even though most of the people here don’t know each other, even though everyone here may see other people from all over the country, I still feel as if I have come to a lively country street, surrounded by neighbors who have known each other for many years and can chat together . This kind of atmosphere may be very noisy, but if you first meet it...it's actually quite interesting. The mercenaries are almost all big mouths. You can walk here for 30 minutes and go back to write a lifetime of fantasy at the starting point...
While wandering around these lively camps like courtyard houses, I certainly didn't forget to ask around for some information. As a newcomer "novice mercenary", I quickly figured out these seemingly unorganized and undisciplined soldiers. Exactly how the guys plan to participate in the battle against the dark moon is almost as expected: mercenaries are not prepared for the frontal battlefield.
They're still doing what they've always done here: selling their combat prowess for a price.
The Knights of the North Fortress have specially prepared a contact window for the mercenaries. They will issue tasks on the fortress. These tasks may be very tricky and dangerous, but without exception, the rewards are generous and they can earn a big reputation. The Knights and other regular soldiers have precious hands, and they don't have so many "special forces" to perform piecemeal reconnaissance and exploration tasks, so these tasks are outsourced to mercenaries. Every day, there will be people who are responsible for notifying the mission list running between the fortress and the mercenary garrison—these people are usually mercenaries, and their running around like this is actually a daily task—every large or small mercenary team is getting the information After that, I will weigh my own ability and luck, and decide whether to go out to work hard by myself or watch others go out to work hard today.
All mercenaries are like this, and the process of their stationing here is also the same: after receiving the news of the imperial conscription, they come by themselves, find the registrar of the fortress, report the name of the individual or team, and then get a small identification card Son, so he set up camp by himself and became a member of the protection of this world: a group of people who are really chaotic but free and easy.
The knights, the second-line army, the mercenary group, the temporary dispatch center, the semi-free task handover and various military operations on two lines, these elements together form a special small society. A line of defense, it's also an eerie city without walls: between the various camps you'll even find bazaars and traveling traders!
It looks chaotic here, but after turning around, I also faintly feel that there is a basic order in this chaos. No matter who is managing the North Fortress, it must be a talent: able to manage the vegetable market and the military barracks at the same time In my eyes, the guy is already astonishing.
I didn't go too far either, I just wandered around this mercenary camp and an independent legion camp next to it: the latter claimed to be a lord regiment of a "Prince Hector" in the empire. Since it already belonged to a regular army garrison, I didn't go in: there was nothing to see anyway.
"Yo, the master is back?"
As soon as I got back to my family's tent, I heard Bingtis' carefree voice from the front. I followed the sound and saw that female hooligan was sitting in front of the campfire and waving her hands vigorously. Lin Xue beside her used He bumped Bingtis hard with his elbow: "It's the head of our family—don't add trouble to you, a three-cultivator big fireball."
I happily walked over and sat down between Lin Xue and Qianqian. The latter came up to me with excitement and gnawed on my face, then turned his head and continued to stir the firewood in the campfire with a stick. This girl is always interested in things like camping and campfire dinners, and I also understand this: I am used to living in the high-tech Shadow City, and it is actually quite interesting to come out to experience this kind of original ecological life once in a while.
"What about the dinner?" I looked at Bingtis, and then at Hueska who was sitting on the other side of Qianqian. The two of them just announced with great interest that they were going to prepare dinner. I have a lot of doubts, but they should cook better than Sandora, so I just let these two mess around. It's getting late now, and I'm curious what they've come up with.
"Don't worry, it's rich," Bingtis pulled out a tray floating in the air from behind, and there were a lot of sea bowls on it, steaming hot, with a strong smell, "scallion oil pork ribs, dried seafood, tender beef in old soup, Seaweed dried shrimp, and chicken stewed with mushrooms, but the soaking time is a little longer... "
After a while, I sucked on Master Kong’s Chicken Mushroom Noodles, which had almost turned into a lump, and told Viska earnestly: "In the future, try not to mix things that I am not familiar with, you know? Especially this guy Bingtis You can’t get involved with your ideas—let’s eat the ready-made dry food we brought from home tomorrow.”
Weiska and Pandora shared a bowl of noodles that was bigger than their heads, and the former nodded vigorously, almost knocking Pandora's head into the bowl...
"It's not bad to do this once in a while." Miss Lin looked very happy. She took out a small cross-section and fed it to Ding Dong who was sitting next to her bowl, but looked around, and then her tone suddenly changed, "Every day What Shadow City is facing is "major national affairs", legions, worlds, races, the rise and fall of life and death in the universe as a unit, and slowly it seems that I, like those imperial soldiers, only know one way of doing things, sweep, sweep , or sweeping... If you are indecisive, just sweep... Wood, do you think that if we don't have this opportunity, sooner or later, we will forget that the places we have swept are full of people who can cry and laugh ? Look around at these..."
Although Lin Xue seemed to just say it casually, I was suddenly stunned.
Although we wandered around in the macro world every day when we were in the empire area, and got along with everyone, how long has it been since we have had a good contact with a new world that has not been touched by the empire like this? It’s not coming as an invincible, nor is it observing with the mentality of a savior, without an army, without any conquest plan, but just like a tourist coming among the locals and living with them for a period of time—this kind of contact, How long has it been
Going to the hometown of vanilla, we have the idea of testing the belief of the Crow God, and we go to the world of the Melova rebels. We have the purpose of countering the rebellion. Even if we contact the natives of those worlds, we have always observed them from a detached perspective. Thinking, planning... Although I know that my mentality is fine, there is still a problem with this fact.
Only this time, things were a little different.
I looked at the tent behind me, at the noisy mercenary camps in the distance, the metal plate that Joseph handed to me was still in my arms, the big fool was still waiting for us to go to find him tomorrow—we are using a long-lost "" Contacting and living together with the local people in a low-efficiency” way has not summoned any superpowers to tear apart the truth of the world so far (thanks to the deterrent power of the fallen apostles in this regard). It's a bit of a waste of time by Apostle's standards, but I think it might make sense.
Although Bingtis said that our family has the ability to maintain the mind (you can call it lack of mind), but if we can use other methods to remind ourselves of the lack of mind It is also a good thing to pay attention to people and things that are easily overlooked.
My eyes fell on Bingtis, this carefree female hooligan did not know when she became the "leader" of our group of people, she planned the action plan for these two days, including this trip to the North Fortress is hers Thoughts, it's hard to tell if there's really some kind of forethought in those decisions. But noticing the sight on his body, Bingtis just raised his head and rolled his eyes: "Hurry up and eat, we are still studying banned books, and the louse spirit has already copied some of the books."
Whatever it is, it's just not my style to think too much.
We managed this "rich" dinner in threes and fives, and then came to the tent in the middle. Bingtis took out three thick books without covers from the personal space and threw them on the low table: "This These are the three most representative books among those banned books, one is the history book of a certain genocide, the other is the folk tales and poems of the year, and the third is the ancient continental encyclopedia."
Qianqian immediately rushed forward in a hurry, grabbed a book and flipped through it: "Hey, why is it still hot? You also have body temperature in your portable space?"
"Didn't you say it was copied just now?" Bingtis glanced shallowly, "It's just the temperature generated by the magic. Oh, by the way, there are no words in the second half of these books for the time being. The function of the louse is not strong. When copying Packets are lost and I'm retransmitting them."
I picked up a so-called "banned book" and flipped through it. The second half of it was indeed blank paper, but large paragraphs of text and pictures were quickly emerging on the blank paper, and some passages were copied incorrectly from time to time. So the words on the pages of the book were wiped and reprinted in front of me. What is amazing is that there is a very faint watermark on the surface of each page of the book copied by magic. There is a line of large characters on the watermark: pirated reading It's a last resort, please support the genuine version if you have the conditions.
Me: "... Bingtis, your magic is really human."
The female gangster proudly tossed her hair (this time she really slapped Viska on the head): "Cut, there is still a print on the cigarette package that smoking is harmful to health. No matter how you say it, I am also a dignified goddess, so I have to pretend that I have professional ethics." Right—and it’s easy to pass the trial when you apply for a patent at the Pantheon with such lines, and those old antiques are all foolish, and it’s okay for others to create anything, except that when defending against concubines, it’s like guarding against thieves.”
My forehead is sweating: This goddess who calls herself a technical geek and a schoolmaster has studied many weird "magic arts". "With such a cold technology, I don't know how her brain grows, but it is undeniable that she is indeed a genius in a certain sense. The so-called genius does not mean that you have to develop the theory of relativity to change the world. Sometimes you can explain why there is static electricity when you take off your sweater in winter but there is no static electricity when you take off your sweater in summer. That is also a genius. When I was watching TV, I was stimulated by those little inventors. For a while, I was obsessed with researching why there was no static electricity when I took off my sweater in summer. I thought that once I succeeded in my research, I might be able to occupy five minutes on the local TV station. Later, when this project was successful I was cut in half by my sister, she told me that the reason why I can’t get rid of static electricity when I take off sweaters in summer is that no one wears sweaters in summer...
I casually flipped through the book in my hand. It should be the folklore story mentioned by Bingtis—the folktale before the First Dark Moon War. Such a large book does not seem to be much thinner than the Goddess Church's Bible, and the other two books Qianqian and Lin Xue held in their hands are also large, so it is obviously unrealistic to read them word by word. So I can only roughly flip through.
When we studied the Goddess Sect Bible before, we discovered that this sect cut off the history before the first Dark Moon War, and turned all the knowledge before the war into legends in the name of "The Age of Heaven". It is obviously abnormal for any academic institution outside the church to characterize that period of history.
Under normal circumstances, there are only two reasons for ancient history to be regarded as legends. Either human beings were really too primitive at that time, and they still lived the days of cutting meat with stone slices and smearing grass juice on their faces to pretend to be possessed by gods. Of course, it will become no different from legends due to the lack of written records. The other reasons are only extermination wars, and the scale of the wars must reduce the world's population to one-tenth or even less, and completely destroy all countries. The level of this kind of civilization relics will do. The civilization process of each intelligent race is indeed often hit by war, but in many cases, its robustness and "fake death" ability are also staggering. Qianqian's father can piece together from a pile of broken tiles an ancient civilization that has been extinct for thousands of years, what to eat three meals a day, so the traces of civilization left by intelligent creatures are not so easy to be completely erased.
Therefore, it is obviously wrong that the history before the first Dark Moon War is regarded as "ancient legend". It has not been completely cut off by the war, so where is the real history before the first war
It's in the books we have in hand.
The scriptures of the Goddess Cult describe the history before the First War as an era of "Great Order" in which all races were peaceful and the world was united, and they called it the "Era of the Kingdom of Heaven". Considering that most intelligent species grow up in war and gunpowder, and multi-species mixed civilizations will have extinct wars every now and then, if a multi-species mixed world can really make all races live in peace Nothing, even if it only develops to the national stage relatively peacefully, it is really a miracle, and it is indeed enough to be called "the world in the age of heaven".
But just a few minutes after I flipped through the book, I saw at least four or five folklore in the book with racial discrimination and melee wars as the background...
What I was flipping through was a history book, which was even more exaggerated: it was recorded by another race from the perspective of a bystander. The passage of extinction! RS