Chapter 16: Jatu Plunderer
The next day, Li Ang and Sarah set off for Changhe Town together.
Sarah had a fine horse—even when the going got tough, she never thought of selling it.
Moreover, Leon also discovered that Sarah had amazing riding skills, which were not much worse than Leon himself.
Perhaps even in the Desha Principality in the southern desert, a semi-nomadic and semi-settled tribal alliance, Sarah would be among the top riders.
It's like two experienced drivers going on a road trip together, and they are traveling very fast.
Although Sarah refused to mention her last name, Leon could tell that Sarah was originally from Desha.
She probably does love traveling, but maybe she's also running away from something.
Aside from her excellent riding skills and her love for horses, Sarah didn't have any characteristics similar to the rough and uncultured Deshar tribesmen.
Sarah is not only an excellent bard, but also a talkative scholar - she knows the culture, customs and even military systems of various places, and is familiar with the historical secrets of nobles in various countries.
She is also very good at chatting and has an extraordinary ability to understand things. It is really a pleasure to travel with her.
Sarah no longer tried to seduce Leon with her beauty, and she showed unprecedented respect for Leon.
Perhaps it was because Leon completely ignored gender, appearance or other factors and treated her exactly as a diplomatic officer - this was indeed different from all the nobles she had met.
This also made her feel really relaxed and happy.
So she quickly got used to using the knowledge and information she had to provide services to Leon instead of using her body.
But perhaps, Li Ang still has a little regret in his heart...
Therefore, beautiful songs can be heard from time to time along the way.
In just one day, the two men traveled hundreds of miles and had already entered the jurisdiction of Changhe Town.
The name is Changhe Town, but it is actually a county.
If we only talk about the area of jurisdiction, Changhe Town can be regarded as the largest county on the continent - its jurisdiction occupies 20% of the land area of the Kingdom of Fierce Lions, and most of the entire Eastern Province belongs to the jurisdiction of Changhe Town.
When the Kingdom of Sarleon was first established, Changhe Town was just a small fortress town on the border of the kingdom.
But now, it has become the heartland of the kingdom and the center of the eastern province.
This is because Changhe Town has been the first choice for pioneering lords for more than a hundred years. Generation after generation of pioneers have used Changhe Town as a base to expand their territory and build villages and fortresses around it.
To date, over the past hundred years, the kingdom's border has been expanded to hundreds of miles northeast of Changhe Town - the current border fortress is Count Oden's Brave Shield Castle.
Precisely because this area was once a border, unlike the area around Fierce Lion City which was almost entirely fields and farms, most of the territory of Changhe Town was uninhabited - except for those territories opened up by generations of lords, the rest was either primeval forest or wilderness.
Many places are uninhabited, and there are even no people for hundreds of miles.
Leon and Sarah were walking in an uninhabited area.
Looking at the wilderness, Leon now especially understood why Sarah wanted to find someone to accompany her.
It’s not a question of safety or not. If you walk alone in a place like this, you’d probably go crazy.
There are many rivers and hills in the distance, and the fog is always thick, making the sky extremely dark .
From time to time, one could hear the roars of various wild animals, and occasionally other strange noises - it was hard to tell whether they were caused by the wind blowing through the valley, or by some incomprehensible unnatural species.
The road did exist, winding forward, but in the fog only a few dozen meters could be seen ahead, and from time to time animal skeletons could be seen on the roadside - occasionally human skeletons as well.
Although they had been traveling for a whole day, neither of them showed any intention of camping until the sun set.
Li Ang didn't bring a tent...
Sarah had camping equipment, but no woman would be able to sleep in a place like this.
The two of them simply traveled overnight and headed directly to Changhe Town.
There were no stars at all in this place at night. All kinds of strange noises in the distance mixed together, creating a terrifying silence. The desolate roads were still uninhabited.
The two men rode slowly and leisurely - the road was not clear at night and it was not suitable to go too fast.
Sarah kept talking, perhaps only this could ease the fear in her heart.
Along the way, she told Li Ang what she had seen and heard on this continent, and Li Ang listened attentively.
He needed to get to know Pendor better as soon as possible, and Sarah, the knowledgeable traveling poet, was undoubtedly the best teacher.
Li Ang even secretly vowed that if he had the chance to return to his original world in the future, he would fully understand the background and story of each game when playing games again, instead of just fighting and killing...
The two men stopped talking until the sky turned pale.
Because they heard the sound of horse hooves. It took at least a hundred horses galloping together to make such a loud noise, and even the ground was shaking slightly.
The sound came from the front, which is the direction of Changhe Town.
"Sir, we'd better take shelter..."
"Sarah, hide quickly, it might be a horse thief..."
The two men gave the same suggestion at the same time, and then drove the two horses away and hid in the woods on the side of the road.
Hiding behind the rocks in the forest, the two men saw a group of cavalry galloping past.
There were at least a hundred cavalrymen, and they were obviously an organized unit, wearing uniform armor and holding uniform lances.
This is already a very strong combat capability, even equivalent to the entire armed forces of a mid- or low-level lord.
However, this unit did not carry any flags, its formation was somewhat disorganized, and it was shouting and yelling as it marched, with no discipline at all.
The faces of these cavalrymen could not be seen clearly in the fog, but just from their attire and their casual marching manner, it was clear that this was a nomadic army.
This team of foreign cavalry seemed to have obtained a lot of spoils of war - or they had just robbed a caravan or village, and each horse was carrying some civilian items that had nothing to do with the battle.
For example, fabrics, crafts, or everyday utensils such as pots and jars, and even women's skirts.
Neither of them dared to make a sound, so as not to alert the passing foreign troops.
The two did not speak again until the troop had completely disappeared from sight.
"Nomads? Sarah, can you identify who those are?"
For some reason, after seeing living people, even if they were a group of scary horse thieves, Leon's originally frightened heart actually calmed down a little, and he began to ask Sarah for advice.
"These are the Jatu people! How could such a large number of Jatu raiders appear in the heart of Sarleon... Could it be that Brave Shield Castle has been breached?"
Sarah's eyes were filled with horror, her face was pale, and her lips were trembling.
"Jatul people? This place is at least five hundred miles away from the grassland border! Sarah, are you sure you are not mistaken?"
Li Ang realized the seriousness of the matter.
"A month ago, I saw two Jatu riders at Forcher's place. They were dressed like this..."
"Jato is invading? Sarah, we have to hurry and report this news to the garrison in Changhe Town!"
