Chapter 319 Visitors from the North
The news that the southern wilderness had been invaded by the Innadri people spread through the mouths of traveling merchants three days after the incident and reached Dutata, the largest city in Adler.
Most of the Adler people did not react much to this major event of their territory being invaded by outsiders.
The Naderis occupied the land of lords and nobles, so what could they do to ordinary people?
Not to mention that the wasteland in the south has been abandoned for many years and has become an uninhabited area. Even if there are still people living there, the fact that the lord has changed will not have much impact on the common people - no matter who becomes the lord, the common people have to pay taxes anyway.
The reason for this phenomenon... is not that the local people "have no king and no father", the root cause is that the local rulers did not take the people's hearts into consideration, did not spend time to manage the Republic of China, and did not lead the people to have a sense of belonging.
This is not to say that the politicians in this world are not as smart as those on Earth. The situation on Earth is actually not much better than that in this alien world. Even though the tables of politicians on Earth are more easily overturned by civilians and even though there is the threat of red flags, there are still countless rulers of countries and regions who do not treat civilians as human beings.
Even a certain superpower, the so-called pioneer of civilization, the torch of civilization, and the beacon of civilization, shouts loudly about democracy, but its actions are still hegemonic. On the one hand, it brainwashes the people to be patriotic, and on the other hand, it uses tanks to crush retired veterans. An epidemic killed hundreds of thousands of ordinary people, but the politicians still don't take it seriously. They attack their political enemies when they should, and act as the world police when they should. Hey, it's just for fun~
All in all, for the vast majority of Adler's civilians, not many people care whether the Inadli people are eyeing them covetously or not.
But... the subtle thing is that the attitude of Adler's top elites is similar to that of the common people - from the lords to the lowly and small nobles, they all maintain a strange silence.
It was not until a week after the southern part of the city was openly occupied by the Innadri people that a cavalry team of 20 people entered the city of Dutata with the family emblem and flag of the Innadri lord Charles Rex. Only then did the lords and nobles in the city seem to have stopped the lag time and began to react normally.
One day in May of the year 1032 in the other world.
Wagner Pitt, wearing full armor and carrying a spear on his back, walked into the City Lord's Mansion in Dutata City with his head held high, accompanied by Walton, who was also wearing full armor and holding a sword at his waist.
Normally, local nobles of sufficient status would be invited to attend this kind of formal occasion to receive envoys from other territories. However, the Lord of Adler did not do so this time. Instead, he chose to receive them alone in the City Lord's Mansion - obviously, he knew from the beginning that this meeting would bring shame to him.
After seeing these two knights, whose attire made it difficult to tell who was the leader, Lord Adler was briefly confused...
Walton was a Kenyan, and Kenyans valued dark hair. Walton, who came from a well-off family, had neatly combed short blue-gray hair; but in the eastern region, this kind of dark hair color belonged to the lower class, not to mention that he had a face that looked like a northerner. He was the kind of foreigner who would never be promoted if he worked in the Rhine Kingdom.
Wagner Peter's hair color is slightly lighter, which is in line with the aesthetic of the Rhine people, but he doesn't look like someone from an eastern country - his hair is too thick, the blue stubble on his chin is very obvious, and there are obvious curls on the back of his hands; the temperature in eastern countries is higher, and the local people's hair does not grow so lush.
Confused, Lord Adler repeatedly glanced at the two knights who entered the hall, and a somewhat irritating and incomprehensible thought came to his mind... Could Charlie Rex, a bastard whose identity was known throughout the country, really be so unrefined as to send two foreigners to negotiate with him? !
Wagner and Walton didn't care whether Lord Adler was angry or amused. After bowing according to etiquette, they raised their heads, and Wagner took a half step forward to talk to the lord who met them alone: "Dear Earl, my name is Wagner Peter. Lord Charles Rex of Innadri asked me to come here to discuss the security issues in the southern region with you. You may have known that our important undead ally of Innadri was deceived and abducted to the southern region by a group of lawless people a few days ago, and was illegally imprisoned by a group of criminal groups lurking in the area-"
Bringing up public security as a topic is to save face for the other party.
After all, if you directly say that the knight you awarded is involved in the human black market, then the so-called negotiations are unlikely to continue - the other party will either get angry and turn against you on the spot, or shamelessly deny it to the end, which is obviously not what Innadelli wants.
Lord Adler was stunned when he heard this, and then he acted as if he was hearing this for the first time and said, "Is there such a thing?"
...Everyone knows that the Tarantan Undead just helped the Odysseus family fight a great battle. Wouldn't it be too much to provoke Innadri at this moment ? No matter how angry Lord Adler was that Rex sent foreigners to get rid of him, he would not be willing to accept this SHI basin.
It's not that this lord who had shared the profits from old Stewart's business was against capturing the undead. He himself wanted to get a few Tarantan undead to serve as servants for show. What he was disgusted with was that old Stewart was not thorough in his work and got into trouble before he even had the meat in his mouth.
Wagner nodded slightly and agreed humbly: "This is indeed very shocking, Count. Who would have thought that there would be such an arrogant criminal group at the junction of Innadri and Adler?"
Wagner was able to work for the Bartles family as a foreigner until he was close to retirement. He must be worldly-wise and his acting skills were not bad either...
Next, Wagner very naturally and respectfully mentioned Innadri's request to set up entry and exit checkpoints in the southern wilderness - without mentioning the existence of old Stuart, the "hostage", or the fate of the south.
Just because he didn't mention it doesn't mean Lord Adler can't interpret it.
No matter how respectful Wagner's attitude was, the matter ultimately came down to Nadli's intention to interfere in his own southern wilderness and to set up entry and exit checkpoints in the south, which would certainly offend Lord Adler.
But considering the "missing" old Stuart, the "hostage", although Lord Adler was unhappy, he had to weigh the pros and cons of using a piece of abandoned land to fool the matter -
The illegitimate son Charlie Rex held the Tarantan Undead in his hands. He first defeated the Bartles family, and then assisted the Odysseus family in defeating the regular army of the Principality of Lionel. He was really unwilling to provoke such a powerful enemy for such a trivial matter.
What worries Lord Adler even more is that he is not quite sure how far the relationship between Innadri and the Odysseus family has progressed - if the Odysseus family suddenly shows up and interferes in the war with the undead of Charlie Rex over the ownership of the south, it will be a big trouble.
Among the five earls of the Rhine Kingdom (excluding Rex), the strength of the Odysseus family is not the strongest, but it is not the weakest either, at least it is not weaker than Lord Adler.
While Lord Adler was frowning and weighing the options, Wagner respectfully added two small requests: since Nadeli did not have the manpower to support the construction of the entry and exit checkpoints, he hoped to hire laborers from the city of Dutata; in order to solve the food supply problem for the checkpoint personnel, he hoped to open up wasteland in the south and would pay agricultural taxes according to Adler's tax policy.
Upon hearing this request, Lord Adler made a decision.
It was originally a wasteland that had been abandoned. If taxes could be collected, then who would be allowed to reclaim it? Since Nadeli was willing to be the scapegoat and bear the cost of reclaiming it, why should he be polite?
If the local nobles in Adler Territory had not disliked the huge investment required to open up new land, that piece of land in the south would not have been left uncultivated for so many years!
Two days later, Wagner and Walton successfully took away more than 4,000 refugees from Dutata City... a little more than the number they had planned to recruit, but after witnessing the miserable situation of the landless refugees, even the heavily indebted Wagner could not bear to drive away these refugees who were fighting for their lives.
After Wagner brought the four thousand refugees back to the southern wilderness, the undead engineers who came from Everlook to provide support also arrived in the new town, bringing with them an undead agronomist who was said to be good at agriculture... Wagner welcomed this with open arms.
The refugees from Dutata City knew on the road that there would be undead spirits to guide them in their tasks, so they were relatively receptive, at least calmer than the Westram people who first saw the undead.
The Undead Engineer who had supported the towns of Westham and Everlook successively had a better understanding of the underlying situation of this "game world". The Undead Agronomist who had just been assigned to the helmet not long ago saw living refugees in person for the first time. When the two sides met, the "newbie" among the tool players reacted even more violently than the refugees.
"Oh my god, this is too outrageous!"
In the valley of the new town, a "new player" who had been online for only twenty hours in total almost dropped his jaw when he saw the refugees resting in the square.
This “new player”, whose name is Wu Qing, is not too old, less than 40 years old, and was born in the 1980s.
The competition within the national team is also quite fierce, and the reason why the position of tool person fell on this "young" person is because she also has a similar background to Ji Tang - she is a poverty alleviation cadre. She went to the countryside to help the poor after graduating from an agricultural school more than ten years ago and is particularly able to endure hardships. She has already made great contributions at a young age and was also named one of the top ten outstanding young people in a certain province.
When she was transferred to the poorest mountainous area to help with poverty alleviation, the car she was riding in was swept into a ravine by a mountain torrent. She was the only one among her four colleagues who survived the disaster, but her lumbar spine was injured and she lost consciousness below her chest. When the newly purchased helmets were being distributed internally, an old cadre took the initiative to give her his spot.
When Wu Qing was young, home computers were still a rare commodity. Her family was relatively poor and she didn't have enough money to go to an Internet cafe. After graduating from an agricultural school, she responded to the country's call and signed up to go to the countryside. She went through wind and rain for more than ten years, and even though she had a computer, she didn't have time to play games. She could be considered a true newbie.
After getting the position of tool man, Wu Qing, who was paralyzed in the hospital bed, made up for the "common sense of the game" summarized by many senior members of the national team. After entering the "game", Wu Qing was not shocked by the overly realistic skeleton body like ordinary players. Instead, he enthusiastically followed the agricultural school alumni to the countryside and learned a lot about the poverty of this "game world".
But even after taking the time to run around the villages of Westram and Everlook, and seeing with his own eyes the refugees brought back by these "NPC colleagues", Wu Qing's worldview was still refreshed...
What a miserable group of people!
Being half-naked, having messy hair like straw, and having an appearance as dirty as an African is nothing big. When some film and television dramas on Earth that pay attention to historical research restore the original ecology of the Republic of China, the actors' appearance is not much worse than that of these real refugees.
However, the actors can only reproduce the most basic appearance. No matter how good the actors are, they cannot play the real refugees - all of them are skin covered with bones, without a single piece of flesh, their hands and feet are as thin as bamboo poles, their calves are thinner than supermodels, their shoulders and backs are so thin that you can directly see the skeleton, their abdomens are sunken, and their faces alone are very similar to the players' skulls.
Wu Qing observed the group of people with a look of horror, and shouted to the old senior who led her here: "This, this won't work, uncle, I think these people should go to the hospital first, there is no way they can be allowed to open up the wasteland!"
The older engineer who had more experience in the “game” was also shocked: “It’s quite miserable. The slaves that Everlook Town received before all looked rounder than them.”
Wagner, who was in the matrix and could communicate with the dead without a badge, smiled sarcastically when he heard this: "Slaves are the property of their owners after all. Those who bought them cannot watch them starve to death . The landless refugees may seem to be free, but no one cares whether they live or die."
The old engineer and Wu Qing couldn't help but grin when they heard this...
"What kind of logic is this? A free man is worse than a slave." Wu Qing said angrily, covering his chest.
"Turning living people into ghosts, that's how it was in the old society." The old engineer in his eighties sighed in a very characteristic way of the times, "Xiao Wa, I think we can slow down the land reclamation for a while, let's take some time to get some help first."
Wagner was stunned for a moment before he realized that Xiao Wa was the name he was addressed to. He wiped his sweat and said, "Of course I'll listen to you."
There are two types of Tarantan undead, one that can fight and cause trouble, and the other that does not participate in combat but can take charge of things and are very capable - this is a fact that the natives of the city hall discovered long ago.
As for the difference between these two types of undead, it is also easy to distinguish... the former like to wander around wearing equipment and carrying weapons, acting without scruples, and often treating others as invisible people; the latter mostly only wear simple clothes (novice suits), are polite and courteous to people, and will communicate with others patiently - this is also the experience that the natives of the city hall have explored on their own.
As for the latter, everyone in the city hall is very respectful. After all, the representatives of this type of undead are Mayor Ji Tang and Ms. Zhao. These two are so capable that even knowledgeable people from big cities like Walton, let alone Wagner, cannot find any fault with them.
Following the advice of the old engineer, Wagner first had people boil hot water and prepare medicine, then divided the 4,000 refugees into several groups according to gender, age and status, and cleaned, shaved their hair, distributed clothes to them, and picked out those with physical illnesses for centralized treatment.
Although you can only simply clean the wound, dispense some diluted alchemical potion, apply some dermatitis cream to those with skin diseases, and some Yunnan Baiyao to those with external injuries, it is better than doing nothing.
Next, "health meals" are prepared for these refugees who all suffer from symptoms of long-term malnutrition - in fact, they are corn porridge with eggs, vegetable leaves, less oil and salt stewed in a large pot; people who have been hungry for a long time cannot eat too greasy food, which is common sense known to the locals.
By the time the refugees were settled into the vacant houses in the new town, it was already dark.
At night, when the "NPC colleagues" wanted to rest, the old engineer and Wu Qing did not disturb them. They each took their backpacks and left the valley to explore the surrounding terrain and water sources.
When daybreak came, Wagner got up and found that the only person working in the town hall was the undead engineer; the undead agronomist was missing. The natives who had joined the matrix could see the ID above the player's head and could identify the identity of the undead based on the ID.
"We ran into monsters when we were out looking at the terrain. We were chased by a pack of wolves for half the night. Xiao Wu wasn't used to running away yet, so she was killed by the wolves." The old engineer answered Wagner's question, "She's been offline for more than 40 minutes. She'll be back in another ten minutes."
Wagner:"……"
He could vaguely understand that after death, the undead would sometimes appear in the place where they were teleported to (during wartime), and sometimes would seem to return to the world they originally lived in and would not appear again for an hour (during non-wartime); the only loss for the undead due to death was time, so they were not afraid of life or death.
And from what the undead said occasionally, it seemed that the world they originally lived in was also very large, with many things beyond Wagner's understanding...
The dead have their own relatives and friends. Like normal people, they also need to "go back" to eat, "go back" to work, and "go back" to school on a regular basis...
It would be a lie to say that Wagner was not curious about the origins of the undead. However, as soon as he thought that exploring the origins of the undead might offend Yang, the black magician who summoned the undead to the material plane, Wagner rationally abandoned this dangerous idea.
If he angered Rex, he would only get scolded, but if he angered the black magician Yang... Wagner didn't dare to imagine the consequences.
Wu Qing, who was offline, struggled to survive the half-hour (Earth time) resurrection CD and went online, appearing at the teleportation point downstairs of the Xinzhen Town Hall.
"I saw those players on the forums killing monsters so easily, and I thought there would be nothing in the wild that could threaten us. I didn't expect that we would be killed by a wolf." Wu Qing, who had just returned to the team, said with a smile, "Uncle, do we have to level up like the players?"
The old engineer said with a smile, "That's not necessary. Haven't you heard from the players that you don't have to go out of your way to fight monsters or complete quests? You can level up by staying online. Look at me. I'm also level three like those young people. I won't die if I'm easily attacked by a wolf."
"Is that so? That saves us a lot of trouble." Wu Qing immediately gave up his plan to learn how to play games like a player and devoted his energy to work.
In the past, when the owner of this area in the south was a slave trader, he had no business operating the surrounding areas except for the base camp hidden in the valley. Since Inadelli wanted to build a new town here, everything had to start from scratch.
The first thing to face is the water problem.
"It's not enough to rely on the stream water flowing down from the mountain to supply so many people. Last night we saw a river to the west, not too far from the town. Let's send a few vehicles out to fetch water for a few days. Let's quickly lay a water pipeline to ensure water for daily use..."
"Let's open the vegetable plots to the river bank first. It's a bit far, but we should walk more. Inadeli's well-drilling equipment is lined up everywhere, and we don't know when it will be our turn. Let's consider self-reliance first."
Wagner had no objection to the Undead Engineer's suggestion. That day, he selected more than a hundred slaves who were able to work from the first batch of slaves resettled, and personally led them to open a vegetable garden.
Walton originally wanted to go with them, but the old engineer stopped him and found him some work to do... He asked Walton to lead people to eliminate the wolf packs around the new town.
This kind of monster-killing activity is usually assigned to players by NPCs, but it is unprecedented for "players" to instruct NPCs...
There have been inland merchants passing through the south for a long time, so there is no major threat, but there are still many wild animals such as wolves, bears, tigers, and leopards - after all, it is a wilderness that has been abandoned by humans for more than a hundred years, so it is common for it to be occupied by wild animals again.
Walton led a dozen former city defense officers to diligently sweep the area around the new town for several days, killing two packs of wild wolves, a black bear and a tiger lurking in the mountains not far from the new town, and eliminating the safety hazards of two non-combat undead when they went out for investigation.
Over a hundred acres of vegetable fields along the river bank have been opened up, and the surrounding wild beasts have been almost eliminated. After having eaten their fill for several days, many of the refugees have regained their ability to work. Organized by the veteran engineer and poverty alleviation cadre Wu Qing, they began a vigorous land reclamation activity along the river bank about ten kilometers away from the town.
As the new town in the valley, which was originally used as the base camp by slave traders, gradually developed along a new path, the caravans passing by also discovered the new human settlement that had emerged in this wasteland. Only the caravans involved in the slave trade knew the location of the base camp, and the merchants doing serious business had no idea that there was a town hidden in this uninhabited area.
These caravans recognized the coat of arms of Charles Rex, Lord of Innadri, hanging on the flagpole at the entrance of the valley, and asked if they could pay for accommodation and supplies. The new town was originally an entry and exit checkpoint, so of course they would not push people out, and they also started a post station business...
One day in July of 1032 in the other world, when Yang Qiu's wizard tower was only about to be topped off and the internal magic array arranged, and the new town had already opened up more than a thousand acres of wasteland and planted soybeans, a team coming from the north stepped into the wasteland area in the southern part of Adler territory.
This team consists of only a dozen people.
Although there were only a few people, the caravan traveling along the same route did not think of temporarily "changing jobs" for this team into a group of thieves... A small team of a dozen people dared to travel on the mainland. Although they were exhausted, they were all in high spirits. There were no wounded in the team, which was enough to explain a lot of problems.
"So your caravan has already been to Innadri once this year?"
During the boring journey, a black-haired young man wearing half-body armor, with two swords on his waist and looking very energetic was chatting with the caravan staff with a smile.
"Yes." The caravan's staff knew what the other person's black hair and northern Kenyan appearance meant, and said politely, "Originally, our caravan's habit was to go to the Norsk Federation after passing Inadli, but this year the goods we can buy in Inadli are so good that when we came to Inadli two months ago, the boss said that we didn't need to go to Norsk and should go back home to sell the goods first."
"That's right." The black-haired young man's smile was a little strange, and he said casually , "Is Innadeli's product that good?"
The caravan clerk did not notice that the black-haired young man's smile was a little strange. He pulled open his cloak and showed the other party the grass green short-sleeved T-shirt under the sun-proof cloak. He nodded with a silly smile: "Yes, sir, look at my shirt, such a beautiful color, such soft material, and only ten copper coins for one piece."
The black-haired young man stared at the slightly pilling but still comfortable T-shirt under the caravan companion's cloak for a few seconds. His smile became brighter, but his expression became colder.
