After leaving the small town, Zhou Qingfeng officially entered the interior of the Northland. His journey slowed down and focused on observing details such as terrain, roads, village and town development. No one had ever paid attention to these conditions. For example, no one could tell the specific population of the Qingbeiland.
Neither Adrian nor Rubio knew how many villages and towns there were around Cold Wind City, what economic forms existed, or even how many knights there were.
The Knights Territory is the basic structure of the foreign government. A knight can own one or more villages and towns, and is the lowest noble class. Only by understanding the situation of the Knights Territory can we know how much manpower and material resources an independent lord can mobilize for war.
A regular knight must be out of work, focusing on honing his combat skills and serving his superior lord. He may not necessarily be a cavalry, but he may also be a dismounted warrior, but he must have strong combat power. It is analogous to the elderly retainers around Inissa.
A regular knight would have several attendants, plus about a dozen serfs. This was worse than the heads of the various families in the human settlements in the Black Forest, but much better than ordinary adventurers.
However, equipment is very expensive, especially armor. It also costs a lot of money to hone martial arts and advance, so the combat effectiveness of different knights varies greatly. The rich ones are naturally stronger.
From this, we can also see how quickly the strength of Harmony Village has risen. When Inisa left, she took with her a large amount of manpower, material and financial resources, equivalent to twenty or thirty knights. Even so, the village's wealth was not completely drained.
Zhou Qingfeng went from village to town to investigate, and he could basically determine the strength of a certain knighthood through simple inquiries. He soon discovered the cruel current situation in the North - overpopulation, stagnant growth, reduced stock, and serious involution.
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Because productivity is too low, the Northland economy is always on the verge of collapse. It is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain survival resources, but the cost of obtaining them is increasing significantly. The people at the bottom are increasingly unable to survive...
"The nobles never care about this. Their governance skills are too poor. But in the presence of high-level combat power, ordinary farmers have no ability to resist. The poor must either run away or die. There is no other way."
What you see along the way are either scattered mountains and lonely travelers, or tired livestock and dilapidated villages. The situation in the Northland is all before your eyes, and the people living there are helpless. It has been like this for thousands of years, without any change.
Cold Wind City is just ahead of the road.
Investigating Cold Wind City is the focus of Zhou Qingfeng's trip. He is very curious about how the powerful people in this world rule and how they fight. Judging from the current situation of exploration, the war in the other world is just one word..., consumption!
Regardless of whether it is the various lords or the knights under the lords, they do not like to engage in brutal decisive battles. Instead, they prefer to spread their troops and engage in long-term confrontations.
Maneuvering, detours, ambushes, sneak attacks, these tactics that require high technical and tactical requirements are completely invisible. This reminds Zhou Qingfeng of the situation he once faced in the Black Forest...
The serfs cannot leave the gaze of the knight, the knight cannot depart from the lord's gaze, and the "grassroots" cannot act alone. The entire force must push forward all the way, otherwise even the march will be a disaster, let alone a war.
War is not about calculating casualties, but about who has more food, who has more gold coins, and who can last longer. At this point, the stronger is stronger, and the nobles in the city have an absolute advantage.
The longer the investigation lasted, the more Zhou Qingfeng felt that the little power in Harmony Village could only dominate the Black Forest. When he arrived in Cold Wind City, the nobles had enough power to suppress him.
After more than ten days of continuous inspection, Zhou Qingfeng finally arrived outside the city of Cold Wind City. This journey gave him an intuitive understanding of the cost of marching - horses are far inferior to humans in long-distance marching.
Without the 'Quick Shadow' to carry the burden, and without using the Succubus to provide logistics, Zhou Qingfeng relied on his own horse to carry part of the rations, simulating the daily needs of ordinary soldiers. In the end, he found...
People's carrying capacity is too weak and cannot go far, but they have good endurance; horses have strong carrying capacity, but they are difficult to maintain after eating too much, and they cannot go far either; without sufficient logistical support, long-term war will be a joke.
The various forces in the other world have more than enough to protect themselves, but not enough to expand. Fabbro's second exploration of the elven ruins only had a few people in the team. Too many people would be troublesome.
In this case, the good news is that Harmony Village is very safe in the Black Forest, but the bad news is that it is difficult for Zhou Qingfeng to expand. Therefore, each family adopts an elite strategy and cultivates high-end combat capabilities.
"But there might be space treasures in the world of swords and magic, that's not even a possibility." Zhou Qingfeng thought to himself.
The population of Hanfeng City is around 70,000 to 80,000, which is obviously much larger than the villages and towns along the way. From a distance, you can see walls that are more than ten meters high, wide moats, tall defensive towers, and the city gate suspension bridge guarded by soldiers.
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The towering city brings strong psychological implications to people. It is a powerful force.
Everyone entering the city must pay a poll tax, and merchants must pay more based on the value of their goods. Of course, if you have a recognized noble status, you are exempt from tax.
The masters and servants paid the poll tax, and people flowed into the city. Most of the buildings in the city were made of stone, and they looked like military fortresses. In fact, all the cities in the North gave priority to military purposes, followed by civilian expansion.
After entering the city, I walked along the streets. The city was not large in size. There were more than a dozen streets hundreds of meters across to divide different areas. There were quite a few shops in the city, about a hundred.
There are many specialty medicinal herb shops in the North, and there are also some specialized timber and ore trading houses. Most people in the city make a living from this.
Zhou Qingfeng went into several shops to inquire about prices. However, the merchants were very indifferent to unfamiliar faces like his, and seeing that he was young, they were too lazy to pay attention. He encountered a few soft nails and was very discouraged.
He wandered around a few "busy" streets in the city and saw them all. He wouldn't be allowed to wander into places like military camps, so his rough impression wouldn't be much better there.
There are also some places that cannot be approached casually. For example, the city lord's palace, the church, and..., Zhou Qingfeng went shopping and came to a tower wrapped in thick fog. When he looked up, he found that it was a typical wizard's tower.
Necromancer Mondino also built a tower in Harmony Village, with only three floors on the ground. The wizard's tower in front of us has seven floors, which is considered a quite tall building in the city.
Zhou Qingfeng stopped and watched outside the tower for a long time. Although he didn't know which wizard's tower this was, there were many people outside the tower who came to visit and it was quite popular.
After walking around outside the tower for a while, there was a man who kept selling things. He sneaked close to the visitors and showed off his goods with his palms covered. But this man walked around a few times, but no one was interested in him.
, all avoided.
Zhou Qingfeng glanced at this man a few times, and he quickly stepped forward, pretending to be mysterious and said in a low voice: "Young man, do you want to hunt for treasure? I have some magic fragments engraved with mysterious patterns. Maybe you are interested."
Where did this guy come from? It was like he was soliciting customers at the small hotel next to the train station. Zhou Qingfeng shrank his hands and said coldly, "No money."
The visitor did not leave, but followed Zhou Qingfeng, and continued to say in a deep voice: "Young man, this is a rare opportunity, take a look. This is a treasure obtained by an expedition led by a real wizard, and no aspiring young man should miss it.
"
Zhou Qingfeng sneered, waved his hands again and shouted: "Young man, I'm not a fool. Who in this world can compare to me in terms of adventure?"
Rubio squeezed in front of the hawker, stretched out his hand and pushed him disdainfully, "Go away, don't disturb my master's mood. You can only use those damn things to deceive country bumpkins, not real nobles."
The tout staggered as he was pushed, and the thing in his hand fell to the ground. The dusty piece looked like a metal fragment dug out of the mud. Nothing could be seen clearly on it, it was very blurry. But...
...
Zhou Qingfeng's eyes suddenly became solemn, and he grabbed the metal fragment with a wave of his hand. The faint pattern on this fragment was very special - cloud pattern?