"Any problem that can be solved with money is not a problem." A proverb in the South.
Located in the subtropical Abu Sera Grassland, the rainy season often brings cloudy weather after autumn, so the southern merchants and mercenaries from Thoradin Highlands in the team can't help but add an extra cloak.
After all, everyone has the blood of their hometown. People who were born and raised in one place will have a firm mark on their body and psychology that is difficult to remove. Even if a generation moves to another place, their accent will still have a trace of it after many years. The smell of the place of origin, body, hair and skin all bear in mind the temperature and humidity of the place where I lived in the past, as well as the singing of the wind and birds there. Therefore, when I go to another place, no matter whether my heart has adapted or not, my body will naturally react to the slight differences. And produce a reaction.
In tropical areas like the South and Thoradin, the temperature is basically above 25 degrees even in autumn. Even in the coldest months of winter, you can only wear thin clothes in the coldest season. The relatively pleasant weather has allowed people in the south to wear a variety of thin, beautiful and unique clothes without the need to keep warm. However, when they are accustomed to this living environment, the temperature will drop to ten degrees when the wind blows. Even though it was only a few changes during the Absera, many young people began to tremble.
Our Roan maiden, who was born in Avenela, could not understand this. The heavy half-armor and cotton armor plus the burqa made her extremely hot, so when the weather turned cloudy and started to blow, the only thing she felt was coolness and warmth. Comfortable. This kind of different feelings in the same situation due to different living areas is deep-rooted. The white-haired little Mira can't stand the heat of the South and Thoradin, and in this kind of weather that they think is already cool, Her ability to withstand the cold impressed the older mercenaries.
Culture and race, language and customs, all of these are inseparable from the region in which they live. Even if they belong to settled nations that claim to be civilized societies, Avenella and Thoradin, Thoradin and the Southern Territory still have their own differences. All kinds of subtle differences, not to mention the nomadic people on the Abu Sera prairie who were rejected by them.
"" The sound of the whistling wind, the sound of horse hooves, the sound of rolling wheels, and the sound of various equipment and debris colliding with each other. Accompanied by the sound of hunting flags and cloaks, the mighty team of more than a hundred people divided into The two members, who were on guard against each other, slowly walked forward at an unhurried pace.
The opponents who were fighting each other a few hours ago have now become their guides, but just from the distance between the teams, it can be seen that trust is not cheap enough to be established immediately. . On the contrary, due to cultural conflicts and various other reasons, the relationship with Khalid and his group that had finally been established with great difficulty has entered a shaky state.
Anyone with a discerning eye can see that the people of the Aries clan are a little unhappy because of their cooperation with these people. In fact, they are not the only ones. Due to the casualties of horses and a few merchants and mercenaries in the previous continuous siege, even the members of the team Others were also hostile to these people, and they resented Henry and his group of twenty or thirty cavalry for not coming over immediately to support them when they were besieged. It was said that the entire caravan was already showing signs of falling apart by now. , perhaps it is not an exaggeration.
The time went back slightly to a few hours ago. The commander of the Red-billed Clan, who was two hundred meters away, and now knew that his name was Albany, the middle-aged prairie noble asked the two sides for a truce. When he saw Henry and the others, Bian was still prepared, so he turned around and started to order half of his men to retreat toward the rear.
The distance of two hundred meters is neither far nor close. Most common short bows on the grassland have a range of about 150 meters. With a pulling force of 30 to 40 kilograms, they generally have leather armor defense if they do not use poisonous arrows. The enemy's effective range is also discounted. Against West Coast mercenaries wearing metal armor like Henry and others, they can only attack horses and exposed vital points. However, when both sides are moving at high speed, Rao is excellent at shooting on the ground. As a shooter, you can only guarantee that it will not go too far.
Accuracy was insufficient to make up for the quantity. In order to perfectly swallow up Henry and his group of more than 30 cavalry, Albany originally planned to wait until they entered a distance of about 70 meters, with 80 people coming together, and use superior firepower to directly attack them. The caravans were completely defeated before they could join together. After all, even if the number of people increased to this amount and all of them were light cavalry, they would not have an absolute advantage. Under such prerequisites, Henry and his party would not be fooled. In order to preserve their strength, Albany , naturally they had no choice but to negotiate a peace.
This is simply a shameful behavior in the eyes of Khalid, who was born in a middle-class clan. Although he understands that in order to survive on the grassland with a difficult living environment, a small clan like the Red Beak must not fight to the death with passion, but he is As the martial Abu Serra people, they actually took the initiative to seek peace, which made the young nobleman of the Aries clan so angry that his nose became crooked. He angrily wanted to kill these guys who had insulted the honor of the prairie people, but Henry, who had unknowingly become the leader of a dozen mercenaries, raised his hand, instructing his companions to follow Aiben. The team on Ni's side retreated and slowly approached.
"You guys! You weak guys!" The furious Khalid once again showed his youthful and arrogant shortcomings, but he was just a collaborator, shouting that he wanted to fight the opponent desperately to prove the glory of the prairie people. With the power and qualifications to command the mercenaries with heavy armor and shields, and seeing the mercenaries as shields and vanguards begin to drive forward, the older prairie warriors had no choice but to persuade their masters to follow them quickly to avoid being left alone. The situation worsened.
"We'll see!" Although his character was reckless, he still had the knowledge that suited his status. He didn't know who he was talking about. Khalid commanded the remaining dozen prairie warriors. Following them, as they advanced, some of the cavalry under Albany's command also retreated to a distance of more than a hundred meters. They stayed on the plain behind, leaving only more than forty cavalry here to face the enemy. A line of cavalry joining the main caravan formation.
Dense arrows filled the land here and the sides of the carriage, and several spare shields were shot into hedgehogs. Luckily for the mercenaries with protective gear, the ratio of injured to dead among the merchants was higher. The young businessman who had applauded Mira and Khalid during their military performance has now become a cold corpse on the ground. Obviously, regardless of origin, appearance, and personality, death is not something that can happen to anyone. They are all equal. The white-haired Luoan girl glanced at it. Although she had witnessed not a few deaths, she still felt chills every time she saw someone who was not much older than herself lose their life.
"Pa Ta" Albany's step was an out-and-out concession. After Henry and his group merged with the caravan's main formation, they quickly reorganized their formation and began to retreat slightly. The situation between the two sides fell into A stalemate in another sense. Albany's other horse archer team stayed more than a hundred meters away, which was just enough distance to shoot arrows and rush over without directly threatening the caravan, so they regrouped. The total combat power of Henry and the others has slightly increased, and they have barely reached a balance.
The sincerity expressed by one party is accepted wisely by the other party. Although many people, including Khalid and some mercenaries, looked gloomy, mixed with nervousness and fear, and no one took the lead, they all stayed in place obediently, with their own agendas. They were not merchant mercenaries who unified the regular army. The team composed of prairie people has shown some advantages at this moment, because everyone is not very familiar with each other, so it is more difficult for them to be incited by a single individual. Therefore, despite some dissatisfaction and impulsiveness at this moment, most of them People also suppressed it and did not express it.
These details have not escaped the attention of the caravan leader, but the most important thing right now is to ensure the survival of the group and complete the purpose of coming here. It was the lesser of two evils. Although he knew that morale had been shaken and the team was showing signs of splitting, in order to survive, the fat businessman leader Yin Yaji made the best choice and deal for the southerners.
The two sides were on guard against each other, communicating with flags and the language of the grasslands, and reached a consensus on sending several representatives to the open space between the opposing sides for negotiations. Later, accompanied by Henry, Barrett and two accompanying businessmen, the delegation led by Inyagi came to the front of Albenni, the high-ranking nobleman of the Red-billed Clan. They had not noticed it during the brief confrontation at a distance, but now everyone realized that this man's clothing was very noble compared to the others. After a brief mutual introduction, he appeared to be unique among the prairie people wearing short-sleeved leather jackets. The mixed-color woven clothing naturally matches his higher status appropriately.
Henry didn't speak this time. It was all the translation of the conversation by the middle-aged mercenary Barrett. Originally out of respect for the collaborators, in this case they should have invited Khalid from the Aries clan to accompany him, but The young prairie nobleman is considered calm if he can restrain himself from rushing forward to fight to the death according to the so-called prairie people's glory. If you want him to come over and have a good conversation, it is obviously forcing him to do something difficult.
"Your Excellency, please allow us to state that we have no intention of offending. The conflict was entirely due to a misunderstanding, and we hope that this misunderstanding can be resolved quickly." Translated by Barrett Yin Yaji's first sentence showed the cunning and cautiousness of the southern merchants. Based on the principle of turning big things into small ones, he described the conflict in which both sides had suffered casualties as a misunderstanding. This made the onlookers Henry couldn't help but pay some attention to this fat businessman. Although the sage's expression showed that his eyes turned to that side and raised his eyebrows, if Xiao Mira, who was familiar with him, had not stayed in the defense formation at this moment, she would have understood that this fat businessman should not be underestimated. character of.
Obviously, this person's experience of communicating with the prairie people was definitely more than what he said, which was just once a few years ago. He has at least a general understanding of the customs and customs here, which is why he can carefully speak the corresponding words according to the name mentioned by the other party when announcing his home. This requires not only knowledge, but also With the experienced and calm response brought by experience, it is not unreasonable for Lao Juan to choose this person as the leader of the caravan. If it were a younger and more energetic southern businessman, even the one in his early twenties who still exists in the team With a character like Khalid, who was born and raised in Abu Serra, I am afraid that the entire negotiation will definitely not be established.
The young nobleman who is still staring here with gritted teeth, even if he doesn't draw his sword immediately, as the top nobleman in a medium-sized clan that can be named after livestock, his deep-rooted class concept will inevitably make him angry once he opens his mouth. It would be to use one's identity to bully others, requiring the other party to unilaterally obey and compensate.
After all, this is someone else's territory. Although the Aries clan has some prestige, I'm afraid it's still not that strong. At most, he can only save his own life. Those warriors must be killed by the other party as a warning. The old patriarch obviously had this calculation in mind when he asked his young and energetic son to set off with the team with only about twenty guards.
No matter what the current situation is, we must not let Khalid do anything bad. In short, because Yaji hinted in his words that he gave the other party a step to go down, inciting emotions is the most important thing at the moment, he said this while Observing Albany's expression, he breathed a small sigh of relief when he saw that the other party was unmoved. He took a step back while the iron was hot in the unique style of southerners: "Nevertheless, even though this is an unfortunate misunderstanding, We are still willing to provide you with some spices and rock salt as compensation. If you are willing, how about we start negotiating the price here?"
When he spoke like this, not to mention Khalid who was not far behind him, even the two young businessmen in the team looked at each other. This was one-sided compensation. They still retained considerable combat power. A complete defeat. If we think about it according to common sense, shouldn't both sides take a step back and go their separate ways?
What is the team leader trying to do? They are not in an absolute disadvantage now, so why should they take the initiative to show weakness? The young businessman thought so, and Abenny, who was riding a red-brown prairie war horse opposite him, was silent for a while, smiled confidently and then nodded.
"Okay, let's start talking." He said this without any intention of feeling ashamed about this matter. There was a conversation going back and forth. As the lowest-ranking small clan named after a bird, the commander named Albany showed the rare calmness and rationality of the prairie people in his behavior, which made the conversation more interesting. Further progress became possible.
"Yes, oh, by the way, in addition, Your Excellency, we also want to ask you about another thing that happened in the nearby area, about a group of white-haired people."
The final result of the negotiation was that the team paid a lot of materials as an apology and finally reached a temporary leadership relationship. This was unreasonable to most people in the team, including Mira, because all of this It's as if a robber came out and wanted to rob you of your property, but you still chose to offer it with both hands even though you had the ability to defend yourself. In addition, the group of people at the moment were following them, these guys with unknown origins, and headed towards them. Walking towards the base camp, it looks like a sheep entering a tiger's mouth.
But people who have such ideas are obviously still ignorant and unfamiliar with everything on the grassland.
It is true that the total number of people in the entire caravan, combined with the cavalry of the Red Beak Clan of about 80 people, may not be lost, but there are more than 100 people on the vast Abu Serra prairie. If such a clan encounters the enemy again after suffering heavy casualties with them, it will be completely destroyed.
And who can guarantee that he will not die accidentally during the battle, and that the money spent can be earned back later. If a person dies, there will be nothing.
Khalid, who was born in a middle-class clan, is a noble but not the head of the clan. He has enjoyed the power of squandering commands since childhood but does not understand the corresponding responsibilities and does not need to be prepared for the survival of the clan. Therefore, he developed this image. Impulsive and willful, he always tries to prove his temper. In comparison, as a senior member of a small clan like Red Beak, after Ebenni accepted the so-called apology and reached a temporary cooperative relationship with everyone, as long as they remained vigilant, they would basically not take action.
This is still the case even after arriving at the base camp.
As mentioned before, this is the rainy season when supplies are plentiful, so there is no need to plunder a lot to ensure survival.
Therefore, under this background, what small clans have to do is naturally to preserve their strength, avoid conflicts, and make a fortune silently.
Yinyaji chose such a plan after understanding the premise of all this and observing his actions and understanding that Albany was not an impulsive young man. Although many people in the team complained about this, especially Khalid. This further confirmed his belief that settled peoples were cowards, but they avoided disputes and succeeded in preserving the relative integrity of their ranks.
After regrouping, our little Mira once again roughly understood the reasons behind this under the sage's explanation, and after learning more about some things about human life, the group of people headed towards the territory of the Red-billed Clan under the gusts of wind. Go.
The small clan that is expanding during the rainy season needs all the power it can get. It is said that among the exiled Luoans who appeared nearby, there are dozens of them in their base camp, regardless of whether they are the royal family they are looking for. , Mira wants to be with her long-lost tribesmen.
See you last time. To be continued.
