The Mysterious World Under Steampunk

After hearing Sylvia's words, the people in the caravan didn't know what to say for a long time. Many people thought that Sylvia must be crazy. She had already obtained the glory, status and To give up rights like this, except for lunatics, it is absolutely impossible for normal people to do such a thing.

On the contrary, those wandering knights who originally admired Sylvia admired Sylvia even more, because they knew very well that if they were in Sylvia's position, it was absolutely impossible to give up everything and leave.

As for the inference that Sylvia was driven away, no one would think so, because just think about Sylvia's status and reputation in Toussaint in various rumors, plus the military power she has mastered. Power, only she can drive others away, absolutely no one can drive her away, not even the Duchess.

On the subsequent journey, Sylvia gave some pointers on the security of the caravan. The caravan leader found that what Sylvia said was very reasonable, so he simply handed over the caravan guard work to Sylvia. Ya, of course, the cost of employment is naturally quite a lot.

Sylvia didn't refuse either. After finishing the caravan guard work, she began to rearrange the caravan guard according to her idea.

For example, the knights were integrated and assigned to the back of the caravan. Once encountering the enemy, the knights have enough space to launch the first round of impact on the enemy.

The mercenaries were placed in the middle of the convoy, and there were some heavy vehicles next to them. If there was a sudden attack, these vehicles would move to the two sides, and the front and rear would move closer to the middle, which would quickly form a defense and prepare the ground.

As for the bounty hunters, they were used as scouts. Their rich tracking instincts allowed them to discover abnormal conditions around them through some clues, giving the caravan enough time to defend.

After Sylvia's arrangement, the originally chaotic convoy queue became orderly, which also made the speed of travel a lot faster. A camping point that was originally expected to be reached in the evening had already been reached just after noon. The caravan had to revise its itinerary plan, continue on the road, and set up camp after arriving at a village about half a day away from the camping point.

The village chosen by the caravan leader to camp is not near the commercial road, but on a hillside away from one end of the commercial road. This village mainly grows a kind of tree hemp, which is one of the main raw materials for cloth. The cloth made from this tree hemp is very strong, durable, and not easily corroded by sea water, so it is often used by the Nilfgaardian Empire to make military uniforms and sails.

Although the Nilfgaardian Empire has a great demand for hemp, the purchase price of hemp raw materials is not high, and those villages that grow hemp can barely make a little profit from each year's harvest, and really earn a lot of money. Most of them are those big merchants and great lords who have mastered the weaving workshops. The Nilfgaardian Empire will buy various fabrics made of tree hemp at a price ten times or even dozens of times higher than the raw material of tree hemp.

It is precisely because of the huge benefits contained in hemp that the villages that do not grow hemp are divided into small territories by those big nobles and big businessmen, and each person can only buy hemp in his own territory. The tree hemp in the site can only be sold to the owner of the site.

This kind of decision is very beneficial to nobles and businessmen, because they don’t have to raise prices and squeeze profits because of the purchase of hemp, and at the same time avoid some unnecessary competition. The land for sale is fine. If there is any dispute, there will be a committee established by merchants and nobles to arbitrate.

For the Nilfgaardian Empire, this order is also beneficial. They can get a stable supply of hemp cloth, and they don't have to spend extra energy on trivial matters such as purchasing hemp and making cloth.

But for those villages that plant hemp, this order is definitely not a good thing, because they have been chained to hemp planting for generations, but they can only obtain extremely meager benefits.

Because of this, these hemp-growing villages wanted to resist, and the first step they took was to stop selling hemp to nobles and merchants, and at the same time announced that they would stop planting hemp and grow food instead.

The behavior of these villages has simply touched the pockets of the great nobles and merchants of the Nilfgaard Empire. Naturally, those nobles and merchants would not allow this, so they sent people to appease these villages on the surface, and secretly thought of a way We must teach these villages a lesson and let them know how powerful it is.

The caravans traveling between Toussaint and Medina are well-informed people who are well aware of the conflicts between these hemp-growing villages and the great nobles and merchants. They are unwilling to be involved in these conflicts, so they chose to camp. At that time, even if there was a village next to the road that could allow the caravan to rest better, they would not choose to camp here, but went to other open places to camp.

However, the village the caravan leader chose was a little selfish, because he had encountered bandits once in the past, and the caravan suffered heavy casualties, so he also received serious injuries. He was thrown on the side of the road at will, but the villagers of this village found him and took him back to the village for treatment, so that he survived.

Not long ago, he received news through his own channels, knowing that this village is also one of the villages that refuse to sell hemp and is planning to replant food, and the nobleman who controls the purchase of hemp in this area is a military nobleman with an extremely violent personality , this nobleman has decided to use this village as the target of his prestige, and is going to send his personal guards to disguise as bandits, kill all the people in this village, and use it to warn other villages.

The caravan leader originally planned to leave the caravan in a safe place to camp, and then he rode to the village alone to report the news, so that the people in the village could leave the village before the nobles' private guards arrived, and come back when things calmed down .

However, with the addition of Sylvia and others, the caravan leader also had other ideas, especially the caravan came to the reserved camping site half a day in advance, and this camping site only takes half a day to reach the village, he thinks This was a revelation from the heavens, so he decided to take the caravan to the village and let the guards of his caravan and Sylvia act as protectors without knowing it.

In this way, everyone was brought to this small village by the caravan leader without knowing it. There is no inn in the small village. In a fairly spacious open space.

Sylvia was a little puzzled by the fact that the caravan leader led everyone to camp in this off-road village, because no matter how you look at it, this village is not a suitable place to camp. However, this was the location chosen by the caravan leader after all, and she didn't say much. In addition, this village could provide some supplies, so the shortcomings of camping in this village were ignored.

It wasn't until the caravan formed a defensive camp according to Sylvia's instructions, and when Sylvia began to arrange the defense of the camp, the caravan leader invited Sylvia aside to let what might happen tonight Tell Sylvia.

However, what puzzled the caravan leader was that Sylvia did not scold or blame him for this, but looked at him calmly, looked up and down with scrutiny, and said: "The caravan should belong to you, right?" ?”

"It's not entirely mine." The caravan leader shook his head slightly, and explained: "There are still two nobles' shares, and I'm just directly responsible for managing the caravan."

"Is it worth it?" Sylvia asked again: "For the sake of these villagers, is it worth paying for your own caravan?"

"They saved me before." The caravan leader said in a deep voice.

Sylvia asked calmly again: "But have you thought about the rest of the caravan? They were used by you because you wanted to repay your kindness, and they were in danger?"

The caravan leader couldn't answer this question, but just lowered his head with a look of shame on his face.

Sylvia didn't say anything else, and turned around to return to the camp, but the caravan leader said at this moment: "My lord, you'd better tell them to stop camping and set off overnight! I'll tell the village chief and the others that they left the village... ..."

"It's not necessary! It's just a group of bandits!" Sylvia interrupted the caravan leader and said in a deep voice, "You remember that there are no private guards of nobles at all, just a group of bandits."

After speaking, Sylvia quickly returned to the camp, and then pointed out the location of the camp, and then came to the tent prepared by the caravan for her and Leo. Strengthen control over blood power.

"I know where the voyeur you found hiding in the woods came from!" After entering the tent, Sylvia said directly to Leo.

"Where did you come from?" Leo asked cooperatively with one mind and two minds.

Sylvia then repeated what the caravan leader told her just now.

"Do you need me to solve them?" Leo asked.

Although the voyeur had already left, Leo was able to trace his whereabouts based on the traces left by him, and then find the location of the noble's private guard.

"No need!" Sylvia shook her head and said, "I haven't been active for more than a month, so I just warm up with these guys."

Seeing that Sylvia had already made a decision, Leo didn't say much, and asked Sylvia if she needed help. Sylvia just asked Sylvia to protect the existing villagers when the battle happened. .

After that, Sylvia found Geralt and the others separately and explained the situation.

Although Geralt and the others felt indignant at being used by others, they did not express their desire to leave, and they all stayed. Sylvia left them in the caravan camp and was in charge of guarding the camp.

Afterwards, she met with several prestigious people among the wandering knights, mercenaries, and bounty hunters separately, and told them that there might be a battle tonight, so that they could get ready.

Several people wondered why Sylvia knew about this, but Sylvia didn't say anything more, and didn't reveal anything about the caravan leader.

The admiration for Sylvia made the wandering knight immediately believe Sylvia's words, and said that he would obey Sylvia's arrangement. Although the mercenaries and bounty hunters were a little puzzled, they didn't ask any further questions. It didn't hurt to think they were ready to defend whether or not someone came back to attack here in the end.

Therefore, Sylvia began to rearrange the defense of the camp, and asked the bounty hunters to set up some simple traps outside the camp, forming a car barrier to block the vehicles, and then handed over the defense work of her camp to Cassirer, because Cassirer is the person with the highest status in the camp, and he is also the one who actually participated in the war.

And Sylvia herself led the wandering knights in full armor, and left the camp, her figure disappeared into the darkness outside the camp.

Sylvia's series of actions were not covered up at all, and everyone saw it. Some smart people immediately realized that something was going to happen, so they found a safe place to hide first.

At this time, the caravan leader also led the villagers to the camp and accepted the protection of the caravan.

There are not many villagers in this village, only more than two hundred people, slightly less than the caravan, because when Sylvia surrounded the caravan with a carriage, she expected this situation, so the area surrounded by the caravan It has expanded a lot, and more than two hundred people entering the camp will not make the camp feel crowded.

And the people in the caravan did not express any objection to this, because they all thought that the battle that might arise later was caused by the caravan, and they felt a little guilty about facing the people in this village.

Because of the joining of the villagers, the camp immediately became much more lively. Although these villagers could not increase the combat effectiveness of the caravan guards much, the word "massive force" is still used here, at least because of Sylvia's actions just now The panic caused quickly dissipated from the camp, and everyone sat around the campfire chatting and bragging.

The lively atmosphere in the camp made Angulan, a young girl, very excited. She walked around, inquired about various rumors, and listened to mercenaries and bounty hunters bragging to each other, as if treating this place as a bonfire It's party.

As time passed, everyone also felt sleepy. Those with tents went into the tents to rest, and those without tents laid a blanket on the ground not far from the campfire and rested on the spot.

Cassirer arranged for most of the mercenaries and bounty hunters to rest, and only a few people were left to take charge of the night watch. Geralt and Regil couldn't sleep, so they joined the night watch team.

A few hours passed, and it was late at night. When ordinary people were extremely sleepy, Geralt and Regil, who were in charge of the guards, heard the sound of horseshoes in the distance almost at the same time. They climbed to the roof of the car and looked towards the place where the sound came from, only to see more than a hundred torches appearing in the darkness and approaching here at a very fast speed.

Upon discovering this, they immediately woke up the people in the camp and drew out their weapons, ready to fight.