Chapter 539 Tent Village
Author: Fierce Male Hamster
Chapter 539 Tent Village
The Golden Triangle can be formed. The farmers in the western border of Erathia who want to go to Avili to make a living are undoubtedly the source of everything.
If these humans want to leave Erathia, there will be fewer believers and coolies for the church, so the church will "manage" these farmers who enter Aveli in the name of population dispatch.
Those farmers worked so hard that they could only get 1/3 of the rewards paid by the elves, and 2/3 would be confiscated by the church to provide food, drink and fun for all levels of the church.
It's impossible for farmers not to pay this amount.
Erathia stipulates that only farmers who are married and have children can go to Avili, and neither children nor wives can be brought there.
And it must be a farm that cooperates with the church, and the church will allow farmers to work there.
Various interests and rules were woven into an invisible web, trapping farmers who tried to escape Erathia.
But even so, the lives of these farmers who were lucky enough to leave Erathia are still much better than those who stayed in Erathia.
At the very least, in Aveli, if you work 6 to 9 hours a day, you can save gold coins every year.
In Erathia, working 12 hours a day makes survival a problem.
Thanks to Aveili's efforts, the church still gave those farmers some hope.
As long as he advances to level 4 agricultural scholar, Aveili will buy out the agricultural scholar and his family from Erathia in an official capacity with two years' salary of the agricultural scholar.
For farmers who know the path of Aveli, this is an excellent way out - as long as you work hard, there is hope, which is much better than Erathia, who only has despair no matter how hard you try.
But those who can take the formal route are still in the minority.
The church has limited control and cannot control huge boundaries.
Because of this, some of the farmers gathered near the Aveli border risked their lives to cross the border illegally.
But the success rate of smuggling is really low.
The border of Avili and the border of Erathia are not directly adjacent to each other, and there is a wild monster area in between.
Forcefully pass through the wild monster area, and there will be no chance of death.
Only under the leadership of some explorers, business groups, and adventurers could farmers sneak across.
Where there is oppression, there is resistance. Where there is resistance, there is repression.
Those who are capable of leading farmers through the wild monster area must at least have a strong team led by a hero.
The Church and the Erathian Border Guard investigate these teams very strictly, and if caught, they will be severely punished.
As time goes by, fewer and fewer people dare to take on this kind of business.
However, there will still be a steady stream of farmers flowing from the western border of Erathia to the Avili border.
They hold on to their last hope and struggle to survive by doing some tiring and poorly paid jobs, looking forward to the opportunity to change their destiny.
These farmers have their own nicknames among the three forces.
The Erathian Church and Roland's men call them [Human Mines].
This means that these farmers are like gold mines that mine automatically. They squeeze out gold coins by themselves without doing anything.
Moreover, it can never be dug out completely.
The necromancers of Diya call them "living zombies", which means spare corpses that can be killed at will.
Avili calls them "Traveler Birds".
The traveling bird is a bird unique to the Elf Empire. It is at home all over the world and has no fixed place.
After a traveling bird gets married, it will show closeness to other birds. The couple will live in the nests of other birds and raise the young traveling bird. Then the whole family will go their separate ways and continue wandering.
Except for Avili's relatively neutral names for these farmers, Diya and Erathia's names were full of malice towards them.
These Erathian farmers gathered on the border and lived together in villages, which were called contemptuously by the local residents:
【Tent Village】.
At this time, seven luxury carriages, which are completely opposite to the barren western border of Erathia, are heading to the [Tent Village] under the leadership of digital guides.
In front of each of these carriages are four high-spirited war horses.
Just by looking at their soft fur without a stray hair and the clearly visible strong muscles all over their bodies, you can tell that the price of these war horses is definitely not cheap.
Such a horse can still pull a shabby open carriage with a sense of nobility.
But the carriage they were pulling now made people feel that these war horses were not worthy.
In addition to the various reliefs decorated around the luxurious carriages, there are also many shiny mechanical devices, which means that they are all luxury goods imported from Bracada.
Even in the royal capital of Shengtian City, only the top rich and powerful can ride such carriages.
Each carriage is as big as a small room, and can easily seat a dozen people inside.
Even a layman who knows nothing will immediately realize when he sees these carriages that they cannot afford to offend the people sitting in them.
Four flags were erected on the top of each luxury carriage.
The [Holy Angel Flag] represents the church, the [Blue Flower Flag] represents Longgue Port City, the [Pigeon] flag represents the Timely Rain Chamber of Commerce, and the [Holy Grail Flag] represents Saint Adela.
Even if you don't understand the specific meaning of these four flags, just seeing the exquisite embroidery and expensive fabrics is enough to make people understand that the meaning behind these four flags must be extraordinary.
Meteor and his sister Liuli were sitting alone in the front carriage. The other carriages behind them were filled with professional players from the World Hegemony Guild.
This is a team of wealthy businessmen composed entirely of players with financial abilities.
"Xu~~~"
Several coachmen gave orders to stop at the same time, and the luxurious carriage convoy slowly stopped on the muddy road.
The guide responsible for leading the way, with a flattering smile on his face, asked for instructions from the leading carriage:
"Vice President Meteor, we have arrived.
This place is full of cheap refugees, none of them have anything to care about, and it's very chaotic.
Some people are so poor that they can do anything.
Please wait here with all the adults while I go find a local steward."
"go."
Meteor said coldly in the tent, and threw a small bag of gold coins from the tent.
Not many, 4 pieces, divided into the hands of 4 guides, each person only has 1 piece.
But for these guides, this is already unimaginably generous.
The guides thanked them profusely, backed away, and joined the other three companions.
Liuli opened the curtains of the carriage and looked outside curiously.
It is said to be a tent village, but in fact there is no village at all.
[Tent Village] This is not a village at all, it is just a muddy field with many shabby tents in it.
Many tents have leaky roofs, and wooden barrels to catch rainwater are placed underneath.
Many unsupervised children are curiously looking at Liuli's carriage. They are both male and female, but they all have long hair. It's not that there is any tradition of long hair here, but no one in the entire tent village buys it.
Just pick up the scissors.
Liuli looked a little uncomfortable.
These children's arms are pitifully thin, about the size of a shooting star's thumb, and their clothes have many irregular holes, regardless of whether they are dry or not.
Liuli saw that there were no beds at all in the tents where these children lived, only some dry thatch leaves piled into a pile, and then surrounded by stones.
There are even chickens, ducks and pigs living in some tents, and animal excrement is everywhere.
It can be seen that the owner of the tent lives in the same tent as these livestock.
Before Liuli could take a closer look, the four guides who had brought them here dragged a skinny old man over.
One of the guides said to the old man arrogantly:
"You're in luck. These are all important people from the royal capital. As long as you serve them well, you will benefit a lot from them."
After he finished speaking, he trotted to the carriage and introduced him flatteringly:
"Vice President Meteor, this is the local steward.
This old man will take you to understand the situation of each family here in a while.
He has lived here for decades and is more familiar with it than we are.
Don’t worry, we’ll pay you, so you don’t have to waste your money.”
Liuli looked at the old man. His eyes were evasive, his dirty hands were trembling, and his face was full of confusion and helplessness.
Liuli was a little angry for some reason. She opened the carriage curtain and said:
"In that case, you four shouldn't follow him, just let him take us."
"this……"
"Miss, there is a lot of chaos here. If we are not here, we are afraid that those people will bump into you."
"Yes, yes, we are here, they don't dare to mess around."
"The people here are evil and capable of anything."
The four guides were all anxious at the same time, spouting words of advice and recommending themselves.
But Liuli had no intention of listening at all. She just looked at the shooting stars and shouted:
"elder brother!"
"What my sister said is what she said, why are you dissatisfied?"
Meteor glanced at the four guides, and the four of them immediately fell silent, not daring to say another word.
Meteor protected Liuli and got out of the carriage together. He pushed aside the four people and walked to the old man.
Meteor said gently to the old man in charge:
"Old man, we are here for inspection. We want to see the living conditions of the villagers in the tent village. Can you take us to see it?
By the way, please introduce it to us."
"Sir, of course you can. This is my fusion form."
The old man didn't dare to refuse, so he quickly learned a sentence that he heard somewhere, and the words he said were not standard enough, so the system translated it incorrectly.
Meteor had to guess a lot before he understood.
"Sir, please come this way."
As soon as the three of them got rid of the four guides, Liuli couldn't help but ask:
"Old man, I see there are many children here. Don't these children need to go to school?"
The old man looked confused and opened his mouth, as if he was afraid to enter.
Liuli said quickly: "It's okay, just tell the truth, we just want to hear the truth.
No matter what you say, we won't blame you."
The old man sighed and said:
“How is it possible for children to go to school?
Most of the people who come here are those who suffered hardships in their hometowns.
But even if we weren't in trouble, we couldn't afford to go to school in the village.
Only children from the city are lucky enough to go to school.
These children here generally start working when they are over 5 years old.
Their parents also get up early and walk for 1 to 2 hours to nearby villages and cities to do some cleaning, coolie work, etc., and barely come back in exchange for some food.
We are all refugees, there is no land for us to grow, and we have no way to be self-reliant.
The ones who do best are the ones with livestock in their tents.
Usually, someone in the family is selected, so you can send some money back to buy them.
When these chickens, ducks, and pigs are raised and sold, they can sustain expenses for about half a year.
The tent with the pigs you see now belongs to the Chaplin family.
Chaplin was lucky enough to be selected so that he could leave something for his wife and three children."
The old man in charge pointed to a tent as he spoke.
Seeing that she was being pointed at, a thin woman in the tent immediately stood up and called to the three children in the crowd.
Then she asked the children to hide in the tent, and quickly lowered a tent curtain made of rags, covering the entire room.
The old man in charge was a little embarrassed for a while.
He coughed and said:
"The Chaplin family is relatively well off, so some gunmen would often come over to catch a chicken when they were passing by on patrol, and they would pick up two eggs or something like that.
At least their family could survive if something was robbed.
But other families, not to mention livestock, don’t even have any food stored in their tanks.
If a little bit of coarse wheat earned by adults after a hard day's work is robbed, the whole family will starve.
If you are robbed a few more times, you will starve to death."
So, is the Chaplin family regarded as victims?
Liuli's mouth moved but she didn't say anything.
Apart from this method, what else can the frail old man in front of me do?
Don't encourage others to do good unless they have suffered.
Meteor took a deep breath and said, "You misunderstood, we are not here to steal anything.
Turn around and look at our carriage, do you think there is anything we can like here?"
The old man in charge was so frightened that his legs weakened and he almost knelt down.
"Snapped!"
He slapped himself hard and loud, startling both Meteor and Liuli.
"Sir, I have a bad mouth and I talk nonsense.
Sir, I don’t have much knowledge and I’m just talking nonsense. You must not be as knowledgeable as me.”
"What are you doing."
When he did this, Meteor felt a little guilty.
The respect for the elderly and love for the young is engraved in the bones of the Chinese nation, which makes Meteor a little uncomfortable with such a scene.
"You, well, forget it. Just lead the way.
I said, no matter what you say, I won't blame you.
Don't be afraid of us, tell the truth.
We want to see the most realistic scene here."
"Hey, okay, okay."
The slap was strong and urgent. There was no reaction at first, but now the dark cheeks of the old man in charge began to become red and swollen.
He took Meteor and Liuli to visit several places in the [Tent Village], looking at the stoves made of cracked mud pots and the walls made of garbage.
Finally, the old man in charge took Liuli and the others to his yard.
Compared to the tent, the old man's yard is a bit more advanced.
At the very least, there are some white stone and earth walls surrounding the city.
Although the height of the earthen wall cannot prevent robbers, soldiers, or wild beasts, it can prevent the invasion of chickens and ducks.
This makes the old man's yard look particularly clean.
In this small courtyard lived the old man's three sons, two daughters-in-law, and nine grandchildren.
From the conversation, Meteor and the others learned that the old man's youngest son also had a daughter-in-law who was also a refugee.
But the younger daughter-in-law was so good-looking that a priest from a nearby city took notice of her.
The younger daughter-in-law had a bad temper and didn't want to hurt the elderly family, so she jumped into the river and drowned herself.
As a result, the old man's youngest son, who was originally the smartest and most capable, and who dreamed of becoming an archer, has been living in confusion ever since, living like a useless person, and has no intention of marrying again.
If he hadn't been afraid that the old man would be too sad, he would have gone with his daughter-in-law.
Meteor had a keen insight into the nature of the mission and began to try to get close to the old man's young son.
But the younger son was dumbfounded and didn't respond to anything Mei Xing said.
Even when Meteor said he wanted to help him take revenge, he just shook his head and lay on the ground with his eyes blank.
Perhaps, the old man's youngest son had died that day, and all that was left alive was a corpse.
Liuli took a look at the old man's home and saw a bed made of vines and wood in the old man's eldest son's tent.
Sitting on it was an older girl of about ten years old, using a comb made of bones to help another little girl of about six years old comb her hair.
At the eldest girl's feet, there was a piece of floral cloth hanging under the bed. In the cloth lay a sleeping baby with its eyes closed.
While the older girl was helping the younger girl comb her hair, she gently kicked the fabric with her feet to make it sway from side to side.
It looks just like a real-life cradle for babies.
The old man looked very nervous when he saw Liuli approaching the house.
He cautiously approached Liuli and said to Liuli:
"Sir, these three are my eldest son's daughters.
Both my eldest son and my eldest daughter-in-law have gone to work in the city. I cannot take care of the two children by myself, so my eldest granddaughter helps take care of them.
There's nothing to see inside. Sir, I'll take you to see Widow Wang's family.
It was the most miserable family in the village. Her three husbands were all dead, and she had seven children, two boys and five girls.
She has no choice but to rely on selling..."
"Huh?" At this moment, the old man's eldest granddaughter and second granddaughter seemed to hear the noise and turned around.
The second granddaughter was ignorant, but as soon as the eldest granddaughter saw Liuli, her face showed an expression of yearning and admiration.
She gently moved out of bed, walked up to Liuli, looked at Liuli with shining eyes, and exclaimed in a low voice:
"Sister, you are so beautiful.
You are the most beautiful person I have ever seen."
Liuli looked at the bright smile on her eldest daughter's face and felt her kindness, and couldn't help but feel a little sad.
She felt that if the roles were reversed, she would never be able to laugh like the girl in front of her.
For some reason, Liuli suddenly thought of Schmidt.
She followed Smit's example, leaned down slightly, held the girl's face, gently stroked the girl's rough cheeks with her fingertips, and whispered:
"Thank you, you are beautiful too."
"Hey." The girl happily covered Liuli's hand with a smile on her face.
She turned around and hurriedly and quietly dug out a garland of flowers from the pile of clothes piled on the ground.
She held the wreath in both hands, raised it high, and whispered:
"Sister, this is for you."
Liuli felt mixed emotions for a moment, she covered her mouth and raised her head.
The sun is just right and the breeze is not dry.
It seems that all suffering has been melted into the sunshine.
…
…
Meteor and Liuli returned to the carriage, Liuli was a little hard to let go:
"Brother, the people here are living in such a miserable condition.
I, I want to help them."
Meteor shook his head coldly and flatly refused to answer:
"Sister, it's just a plot designed in the game. Don't take it too seriously."
Liuli pursed her lips and said unconvinced:
“But, I think it’s too real.
The game Heroic Soul World, really, why is it so realistic?
It made me feel very uncomfortable.
Seeing them like this, I always want to do something to help them."
Meteor glanced at Liuli with complicated eyes, sighed for a long time, and said:
"Have you forgotten what the Seven Pigeons Master told us before?
Don't be overly sympathetic, don't give them gold coins and food directly, and don't help them haphazardly.
People who live in darkness will not feel anything wrong if they have never seen the light.
But sometimes, this kind of light makes them unable to adapt to the darkness.
Once they develop the habit of "reaching out for help", it will not help, but harm.
Most of these NPCs, who have been tortured themselves, will degenerate at a speed beyond our imagination.
Moreover, if you give it to them, they cannot keep it.
Those spearmen who even snatch chickens dare to kill people if they see gold coins.
Don't forget, this is not Queen Catherine's territory, it is the church and Roland's territory.
The military discipline of the NPC troops here is not as good as that of Queen Catherine.
Besides, there are thousands of tent villages like this in the entire Western Region, each with at least a thousand people, which means millions of Npcs by any calculation.
How much does it cost just for food for a day?
Don’t talk about you, even if the funds of our entire World Hegemony Guild pour in, we won’t be able to help.”
Liuli leaned on the cushion and touched the wreath on her head.
She said a little sadly:
"I know, I know everything.
But I still want to help them.
The little girl who gave me the wreath is a little darker, but her facial features are very regular and she is really good-looking.
She lives here, just in case one day she is like that little daughter-in-law and is taken aback by someone.
Will she be trampled on, will she be humiliated, will she be tortured to pieces and then sold to the slave market like garbage?
Or, will she be like the little daughter-in-law and jump into the cold river in despair?
When I think about one pure soul after another being treated like this, I feel bad in my heart.
Brother, I’m not as smart as you and can’t think of any good ideas. Can you help me think of ways to help them?”
Meteor smiled softly and said:
"If I had known you were of this temper, don't worry, Master Qi Ge would have already thought it over for us.
Please take a look at what I sent you."
"Huh? This is?!"
Liuli opened her friend's message, and her eyes suddenly lit up.
ps: It is currently ranked 4th in the game area on the monthly ticket list. If you can get into the top three, you will need 10,000 per day. If you can get into the top 3, it will take 10,000 per day until you fall from the top three.
(End of chapter)
This chapter has been completed!