Chapter 320 Investigation Team
The wasteland in the southern part of Adler Territory is long and narrow. If you come from the north and cross the wasteland to Innadri, you need to travel about 120 kilometers.
This distance is neither long nor short. At least it is difficult for a caravan carrying a large amount of goods and many carriages to complete the journey in one day, and they will inevitably have to spend the night in the wilderness.
This caravan from Middle-earth traveled back and forth on this trade route every year and was quite familiar with the terrain. They successfully arrived near the new town before dark.
Due to the large number of refugees moving into the new town, many wooden houses and sheds were added to the valley, and the original square in front of the town was converted into a living area. Passing caravans certainly could not enter the valley to spend the night.
However, the new town was very sincere about the post station business for these traveling merchants. The newly opened square in front of the valley was much wider than the original square in front of the town, and many new service facilities were added to provide convenient service for the caravans.
A team of more than ten people who called themselves the Kenya Adventure Team followed the caravan that knew the way through the dense jungle. The black-haired young man riding on the back of a lizard horse took a quick look and saw a large square the size of a racecourse cleared out in the woods in front of the mountain. On the square, there were many strange-looking long steel houses stacked two stories high (actually, they were assembled houses made from scrapped containers).
On the left side of the steel house which was stacked into two layers and had a handrail staircase welded on the outside, there was also a large shed where carriages and horses could be parked. When their group arrived, several two-story steel houses had already been rented to the caravans that arrived earlier, and many people dressed in different styles were moving around in the open space in front of the houses.
The caravan attendant who was already very familiar with the black-haired young man pointed to the steel houses in the square and introduced them, "Those iron houses are rented out to passing caravans for overnight stays. A lot of people can stay in one room. Although it's a bit crowded, it's more comfortable than sleeping in a tent."
The black young man frowned and stared at the cramped wooden house that looked like an iron cage for a while, then shook his head and said, "Forget it, we would rather live in a tent."
The caravan clerk knew that such a particular person would not be interested in a place that looked like an animal cage, so he said cautiously, "If you don't want to rent a tin house, you can find a place to camp in the square."
The black-haired young man nodded indifferently. In fact, they didn't need to stay overnight in a specific place. It was not impossible to travel to Innadri overnight.
As the convoy entered the square, a man wearing an Innadri operator's uniform leaned out of the window of a steel house near the intersection and waved to the caravan.
The leader of the caravan had stayed here before on his way back more than a month ago, and knew the rules here. He climbed down from the back of the six-legged lizard and trotted with two of his men to the steel house with a sign saying "New Town Square Management Office" to register, rent guest rooms and park horses.
A two-story steel house with six long rooms and a simple shed outside that can park carriages and horses. The overnight rent is one gold coin per night, which can be said to be quite affordable - the caravan members are not too picky about living conditions. Even if more than a dozen people are squeezed into one room, it is indeed much more comfortable for merchants who are used to sleeping in the open air than sleeping in the wild.
When the black-haired young man and his companions entered the square in the caravan, the black-haired young man with keen hearing heard the staff of the management office selling the dinner service they provided to the caravan boss.
After entering the square, the black-haired young man whispered to the caravan attendant, "We can stay here overnight, don't we need to register everyone?"
"I heard that it's not necessary, sir. Only those who rent tin houses and carriage sheds need to register. If you don't want to rent, you can come in and find a place to camp for the night. The people here won't chase you away." said the caravan clerk.
The black-haired young man looked slightly disdainful...
The caravan clerk was still very young and not very good at observing people's expressions. He continued to show off: "When we arrived at Innadri, there were not many procedures to enter the city. When we went to the market to do business, someone would come to check the goods. When we purchased goods, the seller would include the tax to be paid in the payment. The tax officer would only collect taxes from the seller and would not pay attention to outsiders like us. It is much easier than before..."
If he didn't want to reveal his identity, the black-haired young man would have wanted to sneer out loud - even the big cities have such careless and extensive management methods, these southern countries are really so backward that it's jaw-dropping.
Only half a day's journey away from Innadri, the black-haired young man no longer planned to continue traveling with the caravan and found an excuse to separate from this Middle-earth caravan.
The square is very large, and it is no problem for more than a dozen caravans to stay overnight at the same time. The black-haired young man and his group wandered around selectively and found a secluded corner to stop and set up camp.
This small team of eleven people brought fifteen horses and two carriages pulled by ground lizards. All of them, including the black-haired young man, were wearing armor and carrying weapons. They stood out from the Middle-earth caravan and attracted people from other caravans to look at them.
Although I was curious, no one came up to talk to me... People who are too curious when they are out and about can easily get into trouble, and people who are engaged in traveling business are often only curious about things that are both safe and can make money.
"Ge Jier, maybe we shouldn't separate from that caravan too early." After setting up the tent, an extremely burly man walked up to the black-haired young man who was sitting down to drink water and said.
The black-haired young man Gejier glanced at the burly man with a half-smile: "Why, the disappearance of Walton's regiment has made you wary of even such a small country in the east?"
The sturdy man frowned and said, "You know that's not what I meant. Since we are here to investigate the disappearance of Walton's group, we should act in secret."
The black-haired young man Gejier sneered, his face turned grim: "Is it necessary to investigate? Isn't this an open question? All these eastern countries know that the Nightmare Butcher is staying in the Rhine Kingdom, and they even openly promote an illegitimate nobleman. Why did Walton, who was ordered to hunt down the Nightmare Butcher, lose contact? Could that old guy Harris really be completely unaware of this!"
The sturdy man's expression suddenly became serious.
"Speak less, Gejier."
A middle-aged man who got off the carriage looked over here and said calmly, "Harris is the white-robed priest assigned to the Gold Coin Parish by the Holy Land. You should respect him more."
Gejier snorted coldly, put down the water bag, and stood up to pack up his tent.
"I don't think there's anything wrong with the way Gejier addressed her." Another equally young female warrior, also wearing half-armor, shrugged her shoulders and interrupted, "Harris, the bishop who was exiled here, hasn't been back to the Holy Land for many years, right? Who knows if this person will develop resentment, or even -"
The middle-aged man interrupted the female warrior in a cold tone: "If we can find evidence of Harris's betrayal, then we have the responsibility to bring his head back to the Holy Land. If we cannot, or cannot find definite and reliable evidence, then no one can judge a diocesan bishop assigned by the Holy Land."
The female warrior closed her mouth.
The middle-aged man who seemed to be the leader of this group of people was somewhat dissatisfied with the attitude of his subordinates who were unwilling to accept the situation. He was about to say something, but he noticed that a uniformed operator was walking towards him, so he stopped talking.
"Good night, distinguished guests who have come from afar!" The operator of the new town waved warmly from afar, "I see that you haven't made a fire yet. If you don't mind, why not consider the dinner service we provide here? We can arrange for someone to deliver the food, or you can dine in the restaurant in the town. The delicious meals are personally prepared by the chef of the Nadeli Logistics Department, and there are many flavors to choose from!"
A group of Kenyans looked at the enthusiastic operators with strange expressions and looked at each other.
Although they looked down on the steel houses that looked like animal cages... the idea of having a ready-made dinner was still very tempting to these prominent Kenyans.
It is not possible to leave the camp collectively to eat, but since the other party has expressed that they can deliver the meals, this group of people will not be unable to pay.
Ge Jier, who was good at dealing with people, adjusted his mood and went out. He talked to the operators in the new town and asked about the types of meals that the local restaurants could provide. He ordered eleven of the most expensive VIP sets - a single serving cost two silver coins.
The more enthusiastic operator happily took the money and ran back to the town to have the meal prepared.
"We can't expect anything decent in this small place." After the local operator left, the fake smile on Gejier's face disappeared after he paid the bill. He complained to his companion with a look of disgust, "I hope these country bumpkins can wash the plates more cleanly because we ordered the most expensive set meal."
This time, even the middle-aged man didn’t think he had gone too far… The two meals he had while staying in Dutata City were really hard to describe.
"These eastern countries are not even as big as a province in our empire. They are short of resources and naturally can't produce anything good." The middle-aged man commented calmly.
In the valley, in the only restaurant in the living area that was converted from the original square in front of the town, the chef who was busy preparing dinner for the caravan staying there was excited when he heard that the operator had sold out eleven of the most expensive set meals. He immediately handed the work at hand to the apprentice and was eager to cook it himself.
"Is it a mercenary group or an adventure group this time? Most people can't afford to order such an expensive set meal. Eleven servings cost more than two gold coins." The chef, who skillfully set up the wok and cooked, talked to the operator in charge of managing the square while working.
"It's probably an adventure group organized by a wealthy family. They look like they're from the northern part of the continent." The operator who sold a lot of packages said happily.
The post station service provided by the new town does not make much profit on accommodation because there is no manpower to build decent guest rooms - a caravan of less than 100 people can rent two steel houses to stay, and the parking shed and camping site are provided free of charge.
But there is no profit from accommodation, but a small profit can be made from food... The cheapest single-person meal costs twenty copper coins, and there are higher price levels such as thirty copper coins, forty copper coins, and sixty copper coins, as well as top-level VIP meals that only wealthy caravan owners, mercenary groups, and adventure groups will order.
What’s even better is that most people won’t just eat one meal and leave, they will often have another meal before leaving…
If a caravan stayed overnight, the town would earn at least three or four gold coins, which was a long-term business, not to mention how much it alleviated Wagner's debt anxiety.
About forty minutes later, the staff of the square management office and the apprentices from the restaurant came running to the Kenyan camp with lunch boxes and delivered meals enthusiastically.
Before the operators and apprentices ran into the camp, the aroma of food wafting from the bamboo food boxes attracted a group of Kenyans who had just packed up their tents for the night.
The operator opened the lunch box deftly and placed it on the small square table brought by the Kenyan. He introduced with a smile on his face, "Look, everyone. This is a luxurious dinner carefully prepared by the chef of the Logistics Department of Innadelli. It is rice fried with chopped pepper and eggs. The side dishes are braised pork, minced pork with fish flavor, eggplant and fresh lettuce. The soup is our chef's most famous lamb chop and radish soup. The appetizer is fresh cucumber slices mixed with chili oil. The dessert is also very exquisite. It is a small cake made with the best flour and cream..."
Only the caravan owners or the leading figures in the caravan, as well as mercenaries and adventurers would order the top-level set meal, which has twice the size of the ordinary set meal... After all, most of these people have professional-level strength and a big appetite, so the portions for ordinary people are not enough.
Even if the portion is doubled, the profit from selling such a set meal is still very substantial - 100% is not enough, the profit can reach 200% or more!
Despite such staggering profits, no customer who has ordered the top-level VIP meal has ever given a bad review, and the reason is very simple... the dishes in the VIP meal are all freshly made, not the semi-finished food packages used in the cheaper meal packages that cost only twenty or thirty copper coins each!
Ge Jier, who did not have much expectation for the local food, stared in disbelief at the set meal laid out by the operator, which was divided into two food boxes, a soup pot, and a small plate. He was unable to recover for a long time.
"Everyone, please enjoy your meal. It's best to eat while it's hot." The operator smiled and stepped aside. He politely pointed to the apprentice standing next to him and said, "After dinner, please put the lunch boxes, plates and soup pots into the lunch boxes. Our people will come to clean up in half an hour."
Ge Jier nodded awkwardly but reservedly.
After the operators and apprentices left, Ge Jier and his companions picked up their forks and spoons and started eating with dignity.
Kenyans originally ate wheat like the central countries. But after the great voyages and magic technology four hundred years ago, as their national strength grew, they began to eat rice like the Sokre Empire in the south. After all, growing rice requires more technical skills than growing wheat, and it requires higher agricultural water conservancy conditions. Except for a few places with abundant natural water resources, poor countries cannot afford to grow or consume rice.
The chef of the Innadeli Logistics Department is a Chinese chef who has been eating rice for thousands of years (watch the video to learn). The egg fried rice he cooked with chopped peppers was so fresh, salty and spicy that it instantly conquered the taste buds of these Kenyans - the pepper seeds from the Nabarron continent were originally brought back by Kenyans from other continents, so of course Kenyans can eat spicy food.
Not to mention the side dishes such as braised pork, fish-flavored eggplant, and lamb chops with carrot soup, even the appetizer of cold cucumber left this group of upper-class people who thought they were from a big city speechless.
After the meal, the female warrior began to doubt her life: "What the hell did we eat in Dutata City before? Do the people of Dutata look down on us and deliberately sell us pig food?"
"That shouldn't be the case. The other Dutata people also eat the same things." The middle-aged man's calm face showed a conflicted look, "It seems that this Innadri... is not the same as the Rhine Kingdom."
Ge Jier, who had swallowed his dessert in one gulp, suddenly slapped his thigh hard: "So that's what happened!"
"Huh?" Everyone else looked at him.
"Hasn't the Nightmare Butcher been roaming around the continent like a rat for so many years? Why did he stop in Innadri? This guy must have discovered that there is something different about Innadri!" Gejier said confidently, "He claimed that the undead cloth and the ridiculously cheap ready-made clothes all came from Tarantan. This kind of nonsense can only fool children. Who doesn't know that Tarantan is a place that is completely uninhabitable after the War of the Gods? The problem lies with the land of Innadri! "
This analysis... sounds reasonable.
The middle-aged man thought for a moment, "That makes sense. The Nightmare Butcher should know that Innadri has a bishop of his religion. He is willing to take the risk to stay here. He must have discovered something unusual about Innadri."
The female warrior said in confusion: "But... Innadri is the parish of the Gold Coin Church. If Innadri really has some strange way to make money, how come the Gold Coin Church has not discovered it for so many years?"
This made Ge Jier and the middle-aged man both feel embarrassed.
The style of the Gold Coin Church... that's known to the whole continent.
Among the many orthodox religious sects on the continent, the Gold Coin Church is the only one that is willing to allow foreign sects to build churches in its diocese. All they have to do is pay...
If there was a place in this remote area of Innadri where one could get undead cloth and clothes of unknown origin, the Church of the Gold Coin would have sealed off this place long ago.
The priests of the Gold Coin Church would not allow anyone to sell undead cloth and ready-made clothes to caravans at a cheap price. It was not uncommon for their own clergy to do business in person.
No matter how you think about it, this matter is extremely abnormal!
"Let's investigate ." The middle-aged man frowned and said, "No matter if the problem lies with Innadri or Nightmare Butcher, these inexplicable things must have a source and cannot be born out of thin air. Once the source is found, the problem will be simple."
This investigation team from the Holy Land of the Fiery Sun Church of the Kenyan Empire has two missions on this trip.
The first is to investigate the whereabouts of the religious group that lost contact for no reason while chasing the Nightmare Butcher, and to investigate whether Bishop Harris betrayed the Holy Land.
The second task is to investigate the "Cloth of the Dead" that has gradually spread in the eastern part of the mainland since last year.
Before the caravan's active period this year, most of the undead cloth released by Innadri was consumed by the local people of Innadri, and only a small amount flowed out.
This small amount of outflow is not enough to attract the attention of Kenya, the leading textile empire in the north. After all, the textile industry of the Kenya Empire covers the entire Napalm continent.
This year, as summer approached, the amount of Cloth of the Dead circulating in the eastern countries suddenly increased at an alarming rate...
Because Nadeli did not impose purchase restrictions, all merchants who came to do business were allowed to sell their goods as long as they had sufficient payment and could take them away.
In terms of supply, the quantity of "dead cloth" is times that of second-hand clothes - Yang Qiu's reputation of purchasing large quantities of backlog finished cloth without being picky about quality spread, and manufacturers in several provinces adjacent to Province G that were on the verge of bankruptcy or had already gone bankrupt came to him for dumping; carloads of finished cloth (including but not limited to curtain cloth, bed sheets, quilt covers, etc.) were shipped to City A, and they could not be sold out in time, so there was no reason to restrict shipments.
There is no way. China produces more than 70% of the world's textiles. The domestic textile industry has been involuted to an inhuman level...
The obsolete products under the cruel competition of modern industry would only be gathered in warehouses gathering dust on Earth, or used by some supermarkets and shopping malls to hold big sales to fool the elderly. But when transferred to another world, they become invincible and powerful generals - any undead cloth brought out of Innadili by the caravan, even if the transaction tax and caravan freight were added to the original price of ten copper coins per meter, would still cause a scramble among the locals.
By last month, even some cities in Middle-earth had seen women wearing flowery dresses made from fabrics not unlike those produced locally.
Although the undead cloth leaked from Innadri is far from enough to shake the market share of Kenyan cotton cloth, this mass-produced cloth with unknown printing and dyeing technology, unknown textile process, and even materials that are obviously different from local cloth is enough to attract the attention of local textile industry leaders.
The investigation team led by the middle-aged man has a difficult task.
As for what to do after finding the source... that is not something the middle-aged man can decide. His authority is only to decide whether to execute the traitor. Matters related to the empire's industry must be decided by the Holy Land.
The middle-aged man thought that there were only two possible outcomes: annihilation or annexation. Although the Nightmare Butcher was difficult to deal with, as long as the Holy Land was determined enough, it would not be difficult to wipe this person off the continent.
Considering that his team included young people who had never seen the methods of the Nightmare Butcher, the middle-aged man frowned and solemnly warned his subordinates: "These words can only be said before entering Innadri. Once you enter a place controlled by the Nightmare Butcher, keep your mouths shut. That cunning guy has escaped unscathed from the encirclement and suppression of the Inquisition many times. His methods are extraordinary-"
The female warrior suddenly gasped and pointed in a certain direction in fear, "There, there! Look there!"
The middle-aged man glared at the subordinate who was making a fuss with displeasure, and turned his gaze to the direction the female warrior pointed.
On the other side of the square, on a small path close to the side of the mountain, a group of people carrying hoes, shovels, pickaxes, carrying baskets on their backs and pushing carts were walking tiredly towards the entrance of the valley under the moonlight.
This group of people all had straw hats hanging behind their necks. Even from a long distance, one could see that they were covered in dust, as if they had just returned from a construction site.
At this distance and in this light, even a professional-level warrior cannot clearly see people in the distance.
But when the female warrior pointed in that direction...the group of people were passing by the camp of a group of traveling merchants.
There was a very conspicuous person in the crowd. He was very tall and strong, and his physique was completely different from that of an ordinary migrant worker.
When he passed by the caravan's camp, his face was illuminated by the bonfire lit by the caravan. Although the distance was a little far, people who were familiar with him could still recognize him.
"——Walton?!" The middle-aged man was stunned on the spot.
