A gray-white city wall about 3 meters high stood in front, extending to both sides until the end of Lumian's sight.
Many box carriages, four-seater carriages, open carriages, tandem carriages, and freight carriages lined up, waiting to pass through the city gate.
There were tax collectors in blue uniforms and police officers in white shirts and black vests checking the cars one by one, asking passers-by to take out their identification documents or open their suitcases from time to time.
Lumian, who was carrying a brown suitcase, looked there, looking around from time to time to find a way to escape the level.
Not long after, a man who noticed his behavior came closer.
"What's wrong, friend, I feel you are troubled?"
The man was slightly shorter than Lumian, but twice as wide. The flesh on his cheeks bulged, making his blue eyes smaller.
As soon as he got closer, the smell of sweat and low-quality perfume penetrated Lumian's nose, making him frown.
Lumian pointed to the door and asked with a confused expression: "What are you doing?
"Looking for wanted criminals? But why only those who enter Trier, not those who leave the city?"
The man with messy yellow hair and a slightly bloated blue jacket looked at Lumian: "My friend, are you from a small city or a country or a small town?"
Seeing Lumian nod, he sighed and said, "This is a tax collection! Market tax!
"Tariffs for entering the Trier market?" Lumian asked rhetorically.
The man nodded: "Yes, this city wall surrounds the entire Trier. There are 54 gates opened. There are tax collectors and police at each gate. By the way, wanted criminals will be arrested."
"Will all goods be taxed?" Lumian asked curiously.
The man touched the blue jacket made of canvas and said: "Almost, only grains and flour do not need to pay city tax." There used to be, but wasn't there a war a few years ago? The price of bread in Trier went crazy. It caused many citizens to take to the streets to protest and riot, and eventually the government canceled the market tax on all food.
"Hey, why don't you think alcoholics dare to do this? Nowadays, spirits, wine, and champagne have the highest tax rates. Many people go to the suburbs to find taverns to drink tax-free wine on weekends. They call this 'Chengguan Wine'.
"That's right..." Lumian nodded thoughtfully.
The man looked around and lowered his voice and said, "If you have something on you that you don't want to pay tax on, I can take you into the city and you only need to pay me a little reward."
"You want to bribe them?" Lumian pointed at the tax collector and police at the city gate with his chin.
The man immediately sneered, "Their appetite is more exaggerated than that of elephants.
"I'm taking you to the city via a path without checkpoints."
"Isn't the entire Trier surrounded by city walls?" Lumian did not hide his doubts.
The man smiled and said, "You'll find out later."
He then said in a joking tone: "Dear Sir, do you need my service?"
Lumian thought for a moment and said, "How much?"
"3 ferkin." The man smiled enthusiastically, "If you are willing, we can leave now. You can pay it when we get to the city."
"Okay." Lumian pressed the dark wide-brimmed hat on his head, carried the brown suitcase, and followed the fat man away from the city gate.
A quarter of an hour later, the two came to a hill where the vegetation and soil were turned over, revealing gray-white stones.
There are scaffolding, rotten sleepers, and many obvious potholes. It seems to be a mine that has been abandoned for a long time. The obese man led Lumian through piles of messy rocks to the entrance of a certain mine.
"Is this the path?" Lumian asked warily.
The fat man in a blue jacket laughed, "You really don't know much about Trier.
"Haven't you heard a saying? Trier underground is bigger than Trier above ground!"
"No." Lumian shook his head.
The man simply explained, "Trier used to be much smaller than it is now, and it was surrounded by quarries used to build the city. Later, as more and more people came here, the city had to develop outside and use these quarries to build the city." The fields are all covered, and the underground is full of dug holes and mine tunnels." In addition to the Trier that sank into the ground in the Quaternary Period, the government's sewers, dug subways, and buried gas pipes are no better than the above-ground parts. huge? "
Lumian showed a look of sudden realization: "Are you taking me to the city through Underground Trier?"
"Yes." The man turned around, bent down and entered the mine, and asked casually, "What do you call it?"
"Char." Lumian touched the golden hair on the temples, "What about you?"
"Just call me Ramaye."
The man, who was almost as wide as Lumian, fiddled with the rocks in the corner of the mine a few times and pulled out an iron-black lantern.
This lamp is obviously made of metal, with rust on the surface. It is cylindrical in shape and the upper part is slightly narrower than the lower part by the width of a finger. The bottom part is a black rubber base.
A trumpet-shaped metal thing is embedded at the connection between the narrow cylinder and the wide cylinder. It has been wiped clean and polished very smooth, but there are still rust in several places.
Ramaye took out the matchbox and fiddled with it for a while. An orange flame with a hint of blue immediately appeared from the metal horn, illuminating the depths of the mine.
"What is this?" Lumian asked with a confused expression.
Ramaye walked towards the underground with the iron-black lamp in his hand, and said nonchalantly: "Carbide lamp." The guys from the Cave Association made it, and it is used by many workers in the mines. I don't know. Why does it glow? Anyway, just put some stones and water in it and put them on the bottom and top respectively. When you want to use it, just press here and then draw a flame to light the trumpet. "Calcium carbide reacts with water to form acetylene, and acetylene burns and emits light? Lumian recalled the chemistry knowledge he was reviewing a few months ago.
He was silent for a while, until he followed Lamaye into the underground and walked along a remaining mine tunnel, then he continued to ask: "Cave Association?"
"The Trier Cave Association was established by a group of people who like to explore caves and study caves. Now it seems that they are also involved in the mines." Lamaye glanced sideways at Lumian who was walking next to him and smiled. He asked, "Why don't you just take the steam train into Trier? The checkpoints at the train station have never been very strict, just random checks." Lumian recalled: "I mainly wanted to experience the last bit of romance left over from the classical era. "
"Stage coach?" Ramaye smiled, "This is much more expensive than the steam train. I heard your accent sounds like you are from the Lim and Leiston area. From the southernmost point to Trier, it costs about 120 Filkins. Right? It will still take four and a half days! If you switch to a steam train, the third-class seat will cost less than 50 Filkin, and it will take no more than 20 hours to arrive. Haha, the last bit of romance in the classical era is just a lie to you. Planting...well, you spent a lot of money, right?"
Lumian answered honestly: "It's quite a lot. I only have 267 Firkin left on me."
Ramaye glanced sideways at him again, looked away and said, "What a waste..."
He carried a metal carbide lamp, illuminated by the orange and blue flames of the bell mouth, passed through an arch-shaped place, and turned into another road.
Lumian looked up and saw rocks sleeping in the darkness, occasionally dotted with moss and dripping with seeping water.
The road under his feet was full of potholes, and stone pillars stood on both sides, supporting the roof of the cave.
There are stones and other things piled between the pillars, like parallel wall panels, creating a "street" where six or seven people can walk side by side.
Under the light of the carbide lamp, a steel nameplate appeared on a stone pillar, which read: "Right Street" in Intis script.
"Is there a street name here?" Lumian asked in confusion.
Ramaye, who was holding a carbide lamp, chuckled and said, "Didn't I tell you? This is called Underground Trier."
Well, it was actually done during the municipal renovation decades ago. Those people wearing fake collars felt that the underground was too chaotic, like a maze. Whether they were rioters, murderers, smugglers, or cultists, they all If you hide here, you have to take care of it. Moreover, many houses need to be reinforced because of the collapse and subsidence of quarry cavities in the ground. Therefore, the city hall spent almost ten years repairing pillars, building foundations, and opening up the originally independent buildings. Quarry, underground ruins, catacombs and sewers.
"In order to prevent the workers from getting lost, they deliberately made them correspond to the ground during the renovation. Roads, squares and alleys were restored here, and then they hung nameplates corresponding to the streets and marked them with their names. They will need to be repaired in the future. , just report the place name directly."
"That is to say." Lumian pointed to the top of his head with his right hand that was not holding the suitcase. "Is this the real right street?"
"Yes." Ramaye continued, "This is the underground Trier. Well, there is an anti-smuggling wall in front. The quarry police often come here to patrol, but don't worry, I will take you through a small tunnel to get around it. , Haha, those people who wear fake collars and tell lies still think they can manage Trier underground as well as the ground, but they know only a little more than half of the entrances and exits and reconstructed roads...
As he spoke, he led Lumian to the end of a dead end, then found a narrow gap and got in, followed closely by Lumian.
Two or three minutes later, they emerged from the small tunnel. In front of them were the same "walls" composed of stone pillars and the "street" they sandwiched.
At this time, a burly figure was standing next to the stone pillar holding a carbide lamp and said to Ramaye: "Is this our guest?"
Ramaye turned around and smiled at Lumian: "Outlander, I have changed my mind. The reward is 265 ferkin. How about it? I am very kind. I also left you to buy bread and accommodation today. Hotel money?”
"What if I don't give it?" Lumian looked scared and a little stubborn.
Ramaye smiled so much that the fat on his face trembled: "What do you think will happen?
"Didn't your mother tell you not to trust others too easily when you go out?"
He and the burly man approached Lumian step by step from two directions.
Lumian laughed and bent down to put the suitcase aside.
He walked towards Ramaye and his companions.
In the swaying firelight, more than ten seconds passed quickly, and the carbide lamp was in Lumian's hand.
He squatted next to Ramaye, who was trembling with bruises on his face, took out all the banknotes from his wallet, and counted them carefully for a while under the orange-red and blue light.
He then patted Ramaye's right cheek with the stack of banknotes and said with a smile, "There are only 319 Firkin left."
After saying that, Lumian put away the banknotes and walked towards a road that seemed to lead to the ground.
There is a nameplate hanging on the stone pillar, with two rows of Intis text on it: "Candide Market District, Chamber Pot Street."
Among them, "Chamber Pot Street" was scratched with stones, and the name "Chaotic Street" was added next to it.
ps: Today’s update is normal. I’ll make some adjustments and there will be an update tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. Please vote for me~
