While Alvin was looking for a way out in the Principality of Boer, Kui Qing had already driven an airship to the principality in the southwest of the Northern Continent—the Principality of Putlani.
It is more like an inaccessible desert than a principality.
This is the wildest area in the northern continent, with the most unique landforms. The wild sand in the sky is the most common scenery. Of course, the robbers and bandits that appear in the desert are the most common specialties here.
Madeira, the "City of Sand Cone" located in the center of the desert, is also the largest city in the Principality of Putrani, and of course, it is also the only city.
At the same time, the city was also a huge exchange.
All the stolen goods stolen from the nobles of various countries will be brought here to be sold. As for why these thieves traveled thousands of miles to come here to sell their stolen goods? Because in Madeira, there are the most knowledgeable buyers, and the thieves can sell the things at a high price. Compared with the large and small black markets that specialize in illegal activities, Madeira should be regarded as a paradise for thieves to sell stolen goods.
In addition to stolen items, property returned from robbery and looting in the desert will also be sold in the market in the city.
These illegal goods will be bought by those smart speculators. After they are transported out of the city and into the desert, they will be robbed by ambushed robbers again, and so on.
So why do businessmen dare to come here to buy goods? After all, this "self-promotion" method is so obvious.
Because in the face of huge profits, businessmen always have a sense of luck, thinking that they can successfully bring the goods out of the desert. Every businessman who thinks this way has actually fallen into the trap of "Prince Yunmoyan". They only see huge benefits, but they don't know that there are also risks and costs.
Of course, there are some businessmen who are very rational and wise.
They wisely paid enough Runes to "Prince Yunmoyan". Then the gangsters under the prince would give them a wide berth, and then they could walk out of the desert with their goods safe and sound. As long as they can take these things out smoothly, there will be many opportunities to earn money back from the nobles in the future, and earn it back exponentially.
But who is this "Prince Yunmoyan"?
This name sounds so inconsistent and funny, so naturally it cannot be canonized by the emperor of the Fuwei Empire, but can only be self-proclaimed.
In fact, the Principality of Putlani is indeed the fiefdom of a certain great noble. Of course, this was hundreds of years ago.
As the desert erodes the oasis bit by bit, it has long been unsuitable for human habitation. The nobles of that line also moved away from this place many years ago.
Over time, this desert gradually became a gathering place for those robbers and thieves. After all, no one wanted to go all the way into this vast desert to catch these fugitives.
Then in the past few decades, a character named "Yunmoyan" suddenly emerged among the many bandits. With his boldness and cunning, he gradually came to dominate the desert.
Originally, Madeira was just a dilapidated camp in the desert. But over the years, relying on the management of this "Yunmoyan", he used all the earned and stolen Looney to build this "Sand Cone City". As a result, all outlaws have a home.
The outlaws living here are also quite convinced of "Yun Moyan" and obey this leader very much. Of course, those who disobey have long since become bones in the desert.
In addition to those lawless people, there are also many poor people
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, nobles in trouble, and those who were fleeing from their enemies, moved in one after another. Over the years, the city has expanded again and again, and now it has reached a size of nearly 100,000 people.
Prince Yun Moyan is also very tolerant to these people, as long as they pay the room fee in full on time.
In Madeira, there are no hotels where you can stay. As soon as you enter the city, the prince's men will register you and lead you to your residence.
In fact, you can also imagine Madeira as a hotel of unprecedented scale, and the owner of the hotel is Yun Moyan.
Of course, this is a bit one-sided. In fact, all the shops in the city belong to Yunmoyan. Whether they are restaurants, pubs, weapons shops, etc., as long as they are industries in the city, they all belong to the prince.
Therefore, as soon as you step into this "city of sand cones", you start consuming, and the silver coins in your pocket can only flow out.
However, when it comes to room rates, the prince is quite kind and sets the price quite low. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be so many residents willing to move here.
It can be said that the consumption of food, clothing, housing and transportation here is at a very low level, not even comparable to many small towns in the north.
Therefore, those who settle here can survive for decades as long as they bring a few thousand rupees with them.
It's just that the living environment here is relatively poor. Located deep in the desert, water is in short supply. All water is distributed uniformly by Yun Moyan's subordinates. Fortunately, the cost of these water is already included in the room rate.
But here, bathing is quite a luxury.
Of course, you can't buy ordinary drinks in the tavern. The only thing you can buy is--"dry wine."
What is dry wine?
This thing is based on a unique plant called violetium in the nearby desert. The fruit of this plant will have a slight taste of wine after fermentation.
Grains of "dry wine" are placed in beer glasses. They look like rotten grapes. They taste dry and hard when chewed, but have some juice. The people who live here can only rely on these juices to comfort themselves, saying that they have been drinking.
If you can’t bathe often and don’t have alcohol to drink, why would anyone want to move here?
As mentioned before, there are many people in this world who are so poor that they are about to starve and freeze to death, and there are also the unlucky ones who have made a lot of enemies for no reason. For them, survival is the first priority. As for what they enjoy, Yes, they have settled in Madeira, so what else do they want to do?
Therefore, some people can't help but ask, what should I do if the people who come here are so poor that they can't afford the room fee? Will he be eaten alive by this terrible prince? Or will he be thrown into the desert?
That's not the case.
These people are so poor that they can't even pay the rent, so they have to work as manpower for the prince to pay for the rent. Works such as repairing city walls, building houses, and cleaning the streets all require manpower.
The main prince also provided food to these people, at least one piece of dried meat for each meal.
Another reason why these nearly 100,000 residents are willing to stay in this city is because Madeira is a city with very good security. It can even be said that in terms of security, Madeira is better than Most cities in the north.
Mainly because this prince in the desert is extremely strict with his subordinates. None of the miscreants under him dared to misbehave in the city, because they knew that once they violated the rules set by the prince, they were not allowed to rob or steal in Madeira.
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If you steal the goods of residents and merchants, you will immediately be thrown into a human-shaped prison deep in the desert. What awaits you is only hunger, thirst, and the desperate sunshine.
Except for the prince's men, the residents in the city also remembered the rules set by the prince and did not dare to violate them. Of course, they have also seen the fate of those who violate the regulations.
So in Madeira, even fights and brawls rarely happen.
If any of those foreign merchants violated the prince's rules, he would be playing into the prince's hands. If he didn't hand over a large sum of runes, he wouldn't even think about leaving Madeira.
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As for why Kui Qing found this place to stay?
In addition to the fact that this place is closest to the Traledi Mountains, there is another reason. That's because she knew in her heart that only here could she quickly find those who dared to go deep into the Traledi Mountains, those who wanted money rather than their lives.
The airship slowly docked at a spire in the Sand Cone City. There are scattered "branches" protruding from all sides of the spire, and the airship stops at the end of these branches.
The remaining members of the Sifang Mercenary Group felt the piercing sand wind, feeling at a loss in their hearts. At this time, they could only count on the little girl Kui Qing to lead them out of the predicament. Obviously, Alvin's disappearance has dealt a heavy blow to these people.
Especially in a foreign country, this confusion is infinitely amplified.
"This should be regarded as a simple airport port." Langyun, who was standing on the deck, thought, "Does this ghost place often have empty boats coming and going?"
The answer is yes. Not only were the merchants coming and going, the prince also had his own fleet of airships, but they just didn't dock nearby. However, judging from the flying sand and smoke in the sky at this time, even if it stopped nearby, it would not be clear.
After all, there are those businessmen who think they are smart and think they can safely bring the goods back from the air, but things are not that simple.
The prince has five modified small airships, which are small in size and fast, especially suitable for pursuit battles in the air. Moreover, these airships are equipped with special bed crossbows. One crossbow arrow can poke the main air bag of the target airship. burst.
Unless the air bag protection is modified like the Tingxiao people, there is no way to defend against such crossbow arrows.
But once armor is added to the airbag and the weight increases, mobility is basically given up.
These small airships can quickly surround them and form a siege battle in which more people attack fewer people.
Therefore, it is best not to think about not paying tribute to the prince, because whether on land or in the air, the prince has a way to keep the merchants' goods in this desert.
"Miss Kui Qing is here." A bearded man wearing goggles smiled and waved, and tied the cable thrown from the airship to a large iron ring at the end of the "branch".
Only then did Langyun and others see clearly that the "branches" just now were actually long steps in the open air for those who got off the airship to walk into the spire.
Kui Qing waved to the big man as a greeting.
She turned around and glanced at everyone on the deck, telling them not to take off their goggles. After the big man tightened the cable little by little and the airship was close to the airport, she led the group of people down the deck and walked along the long steps toward the spire.
(End of chapter)
