The journey that almost traversed the entire Padrosi Empire came to an end at the end of 1532 in the Imperial Calendar. At the beginning of the New Year in 1533, the group began the final journey to the junction of the Suomir Kingdom and the Empire.
At present, they have money on hand, and the bounty on them has been cancelled. After selling the horses and some of the equipment they had previously used to travel, they returned some money. With the rations and the equipment they picked up and planned to keep, the group hired a private carriage to spend the final journey in a more relaxed way.
The old four-wheeled carriage was swaying, and the light snow falling in the sky fell on the yellowed linseed oil waterproof canvas hood. Because the temperature was not yet that low, it gradually turned into water droplets and followed the rib-like outline of the hood frame. shed. The wood and fabrics in the carriage exuded a unique smell of damp cotton and wood, but what was more uncomfortable than this smell was the smell of the coachman.
The female members sat at the back of the car to breathe fresher air, but despite this, the smell of alcohol and tobacco from the driver's body still came in waves as they moved forward.
——But this is the only carriage willing to accept their employment.
The abundant funds that poured into the empire due to Constantine's victory greatly enriched the wallets of the people of the empire. Therefore, many workers stopped working as the New Year approached, hoping to use the money to spend time with their families. Celebrate and enjoy together.
Even the scheduled public carriages were suspended in large numbers, and the coachmen chose to use their hard-earned surplus to spend the New Year with their families.
Wherever there is excitement, there will always be lonely people. Just like a cemetery that remains lonely under the ringing of church bells and hymns, there will always be people who don't fit in - the sixty-year-old man hired by Henry and his party. The coachman is one of them.
He is an old bachelor, and the reason why he cannot get married is simply that he has no money.
There are many scattered small towns and villages in the northern part of the empire near the Kingdom of Suomir. Because it is close to the mountains, the terrain is relatively fragmented and there is a lack of fertile and arable plains. Therefore, the population in such places is generally sparse, and there is nothing to develop. up industry.
The driver's family was originally a coastal fisherman, but the fish stocks were not prosperous along the northern coast of the empire. If they wanted to catch more, they could only go north to Suomir's territorial waters. A few generations ago, his family had a large boat, but after a conflict with local fishermen in Suomir when going north to fish, the boat sank and the strong laborers at the time were also killed, leaving only one child for the orphans and widows. A shabby house and an old fishing net that had been repaired and repaired. After that, his elders tried various measures, but they were still unable to make the family prosperous.
When his generation was the only one left, he once fantasized about changing his destiny by working with his own hands. However, three years after three years, and in a blink of an eye, he was already over 30 years old and had accomplished nothing. He even worked as an apprentice. No one wants them anymore.
In the end, I simply sold the old shabby house and everything I owned and bought a carriage. When I was tired and sleepy, I took a nap on the seat of my carriage. The money I earned was enough to feed the old horse and myself, and there was no extra money. Part of it he spent on bad liquor and equally bad tobacco.
When someone is in the car, he smokes to refresh himself; when no one is in the car, he drinks to sleep.
They numb themselves with their hobbies, and sometimes even use the food money for people and horses to buy cigarettes and alcohol. Living a life that doesn't change day after day, without any expectations for the future or any long-term ideals. Making such a decision and living like this, half a life has passed in the blink of an eye.
Light snow fell slowly in the sky. Perhaps it was the liveliness of other people's homes during the New Year that touched him. Perhaps he was infected by the youthful energy of the team that hired him. The coachman who became more talkative didn't even care if there was an audience. Gu Zi told the story of half his life and complained about various trivial matters in life.
"So, we have to live our lives. The elders of the church think that smoking and alcohol are not good, so we have to control them. Can you use it to embarrass me?" The Laman language with a strong northern accent was not pleasant, and he opened a cigarette The smell just kept coming out. Although it is difficult to compare with the stories told by the eloquent bards, it can be regarded as a lonely pastime during the long journey.
And some of it is certainly worth listening to, too.
"Yes." Henry, who was sitting in the front seat, agreed casually. This kind of approval was obviously something that the lonely old man did not often encounter, so he was enthusiastic and kept talking.
The coachman, who is over 60 years old, is very short and wizened. His abundant experience allows him to know the precise timing to swing his whip. From time to time, the sounds of "pa-" and "pa--" urged the old horses, which were also shriveled and skinny, to pull the carriage that was too big for them forward. The wheels rolled on the ground that was wet with half-melted snow. Deep marks were left on the dirt floor.
The carriage was not moving very fast, and if it weren't for the smell of the coachman's tobacco, the slow shaking combined with the cold air would be enough to make people sleepy.
"If they want to regulate it, just ask the noble gentlemen to abide by it!" The reason why the old coachman, who obviously didn't have much faith, complained was that the price of tobacco had almost doubled, so he could only smoke less. This hobby is popular mainly in the north of the empire, but its origin is in the warmer south. Tobacco, which can only be supplied by land and sea transportation, is a commodity that is extremely vulnerable to customs inspection, and this time it was the Inquisition of the White Church that took action.
——Although this should not be their jurisdiction.
Before the New Year, a merchant who originally transported a large amount of tobacco was intercepted on the road, and was later asked for a large amount of "atonement" by church personnel. Because selling such indulgences is a symbol of depravity, merchants not only have to pay taxes to the imperial nobles, but also have to spend money from the church to buy their indulgences. The businessman who wanted to make a big profit so spent all his funds to buy goods was unable to pay the money. After begging to make up for it after the sale to no avail, not only did his goods have all been confiscated, but he also owed the church a large sum of money. money.
The confiscated tobacco resold and appeared on the market at double the price. The old coachmen who became dependent on them had no choice but to spend their only funds to buy them.
After excluding the complaints and swear words in the description, he rambled on for almost half an empire hour - generally speaking, an hour - which can be summed up in the above.
"There are also those people, one or two, who say that the church is doing the right thing, and that it is not a good thing in the first place!" The angry old man took a puff of cigarette and continued. Complaining to the Sage, it was obvious that he was not only dissatisfied with the Paladins, but also the townspeople. It seems that this is not the first time he has complained like this, but when he said this to the townspeople who thought they would agree with him, he could only be sarcastic.
The aggrieved but helpless old coachman could only express his dissatisfaction to strangers like them - in fact, he originally planned to do more than just verbal curses. After seeing the equipment of Henry and his party at the beginning, he even wanted to use "carry you there for free" as a bargaining chip to ask the sage to "help teach those people a lesson", but from his subsequent chatter, he now learned that the scope of the lesson targets Obviously Henry's decisive refusal and preferring to pay was the right answer.
The people the old man wanted to "teach" ranged from the nun at the soup kitchen who refused to give him an extra spoonful, to the store owner who refused to look at him when buying wine, and he suspected that the wine sold to him was adulterated with too much water, to the store owner who refused to look at him when buying wine. The paladins who intercepted his tobacco and the townspeople who didn't share the same hatred about the incident. If he really followed his wishes, then the group of them would have to beat up most of the people in the town where he parked his car, including the entire church, in exchange for a free long-distance trip.
If you might be able to get away with using force to commit violence against civilians, attacking the church in a place like this would be just a matter of impatience.
The church that distributes free food every weekend becomes more and more influential in the more remote and poor places. The resurgent business class in coastal cities and the small aristocrats who hang out with them don't respect the church more and more. , but in those border towns where trade is not very developed, free food once a week is enough to win over people.
The nobles live safely in their castles and dance with joy, while the church is in the marketplace. For ordinary people in the empire, they are a more accessible authority.
A real free lunch in material terms, and even spiritual comfort can be achieved by describing one's sins in the confessional and then being forgiven by a nun, although this method cannot solve any practical problems.
In the small town where the group set out, people like the old coachman were an outlier. It was normal for others to spontaneously support him when he criticized the church.
Although objectively and overall, the influence of Yetina Sect has indeed been declining, especially in big cities and among the middle and upper-class nobles as well as emerging groups of citizens and businessmen. There are many wealthy people who do not like to abide by the church's virtues of restraint and frugality and advocate enjoyment, but there are still many people in poor villages who are willing to take up arms to defend the church.
Henry could notice these things. Ling also understood this after learning more about the deeds of the White Church. Mira had enough time to think about the ins and outs when she could only travel at a slow speed with the carriage, but for the old coachman But it was something completely beyond his scope of consideration.
If others make him unhappy and look down on him, he must teach them a lesson. His thoughts are very simple and pure. If you feel uncomfortable, you should become comfortable. If you are angry, you should vent. As for the possible consequences and how many people will be implicated, he has never considered it at all.
He has lived here all his life, but as a civilian at the bottom of the empire who has not received much education, he has no idea of the overall situation. The ease with which one person can feed the whole family without starving also means that he does not know the concept of responsibility. Although he is over 50 years old, in fact he still lives like a teenager who only focuses on his own likes and dislikes. . He thought that these armed outsiders could help him teach those people a lesson, but he could not give any decent remuneration. In the end, when he was rejected, he could only complain endlessly to calm his emotions to a certain extent.
This is an ordinary old bachelor of Laman. His life may have been finalized in his twenties and thirties. Even if he meets a being like a sage, there won't be any changes, because he himself doesn't pursue change.
It is enough to drink a little wine and smoke a small pipe, and live a tolerable life.
But it is people like him who are most sensitive to subtle changes in the "everyday life" they are accustomed to.
"Ah, what are you talking about, the big, big enemy conqueror? His troops in black armor, is it really not hot? Although the weather is indeed not hot now, are you still scolding those paladins who have no parents? Arguing? Get up." Because Henry and others did not refute him, the old man became more and more unkind to the church members. Because most of the paladins in the operational forces under the Inquisition were indeed orphans adopted by the church, he directly called them parentsless.
"Oh?" Henry's response was still very casual, but the content of this passage caught his attention.
"It seems that the dark side is that it is not good for them to execute nobles at will, which will cause dissatisfaction. But those who have no parents say that they must be purified, drink, purify, I think they just want to take all the sweetness and benefits for themselves, just like tobacco That! Cough - bah - " After the old man finished speaking, he spat on the snowy ground next to him, almost spitting on his companion Mitya. He was startled, and then turned to the man on horseback. Mira squeezed out a sarcastic smile: "Hey, don't mind, don't mind, ah, if I were rich, maybe my granddaughter would be as old as you. Why don't you try calling me Grandpa the Coachman?"
"..." Seeing the Luoan girl silently slowing down and retreating to a place where he could not see, the old man seemed to have lost his interest in chatting, and for the time being he focused on smoking slowly and driving the old man. On top of a horse-drawn cart.
And the various changes he described in this round were a lot of information worth digesting in the ears of Henry and others.
Obviously, the actions of the Paladins and the Yetina Sect behind them were not only reflected in the crusade in Chester, they were trying to extend their capabilities at all levels. Intercepting businessmen on the pretext of paying taxes is essentially an act of extortion. Ordinary nobles often do this, but the Church generally does not do such things that are easy to implement and influence people's hearts. After all, their foundation is at the grassroots level.
The information described by the old coachman is worth pondering. The Paladin who intercepted the businessman was mostly a small individual act. Those in power will always seek to benefit themselves, no matter how small the power.
But most of the people above are also aware of this. Knowing the truth, he allowed these people to do this kind of behavior that was more or less a test and provocation to the authority of the imperial nobility. If tolerated, he would go one step further. If he caused dissatisfaction, he would cut these people off and sell them as the culprits to appease the anger.
"The ally he found doesn't seem to be of the same mind." Henry seemed to be talking to himself, which made the old coachman turn his head and look at him, but he didn't understand what the sentence meant, so he didn't say much. care.
