lizard lord

Chapter 183 Official Smuggling
It is said that sailors are somewhat superstitious. I don't know if this is true in modern times, but it was basically the same in ancient times, both in China and abroad.

The person responsible for explaining Tang Zhao was also a sailor, and he seemed to be the kind of person who was very talkative and good at telling stories. He talked about the legend about the sea wolf vividly, as if he had really seen similar creatures.

But to sum up the information, this story is just like that to a pre-modern person like Tang Zhao. I have seen many more curious and terrifying stories in my previous life.

Among other things, when he grows to the largest size, he looks much more intimidating than the "finned, webbed claws, fierce" sea wolf.

Now it is just to take care of the emotions of the human crew, not to grow to such a large size, which will bring them a strong sense of oppression.These are just sailors of merchant ships, not loyal dead soldiers. Tang Zhao only has confidence in their ability to control ships, and never expects anything else.

[How is the credibility of this legend? 】

Hearing this, the sailor shrugged his shoulders: "We dare not say this. The sailors on these ships are only active in the west of Oran, and they don't know much about the situation near Yintao City. This is the news I just inquired about. It's true. We didn’t even have time to verify it.”

[Understood, you continue to investigate.By the way, keep an eye out for me, is there a slightly wider entrance to the sewer. 】

Tang Zhao didn't really believe this legend in his heart, but he believed that it was not groundless, there should be some source, and he wanted to know what the source was and where it came from.

The sailor agreed twice, and retreated into the crowd.

Discuss a few words with everyone, and start to assign the next tasks.

A small group of people went to the coast and river banks to check to see if they could find traces of sea wolves, a group of people searched for clues in the market, and a group of people used the cargo in the merchant ship as a springboard to talk to local well-informed merchants. As for Tang Zhao, his fate was more difficult, because the sewer environment in Yintao City was very bad, and no one on board had learned magic such as breath holding and cleaning, so this task could only fall on his head.

It sounds like a lot of fanfare, but in fact these people add up to less than 20 people, which is not a big problem for the very lively Yintao City, and the Sterling family may not be able to notice them.

Most of the fleet are lizardmen. Tang Zhao has confidence in the level of education of common people in this era. They will definitely regard these scaled creatures as demons or other dangerous creatures. Let them stay in the compound. It's better to stay in peace. Anyway, with the social skills of the lizard people, it is estimated that they will not be able to ask anything, and the time to use them has not yet come.

Judging from the research results of the druids, the traces of the berserker demons were left only recently, and neither the Church of Heim nor the merchants and commoners had heard of any demons appearing in Yintao City recently.

Either the demon has been secretly cleaned up by someone, or the demon is still active somewhere underground in Yintao City. Obviously the latter is more likely, but neither can be determined.

Anyway, it's not time to scare the snake, now we need to observe the situation quietly, and when we figure out what's going on in the city, it's not too late to make a move.

Their task is to grasp the evidence of the collusion between the Sterling family and the devil, not to get rid of a specific monster, and if they don't get rid of the mastermind behind it, there will always be monsters.

Without letting anyone follow, Tang Zhao began to tour the city alone. He has a very keen sense of smell, and he might be able to find some unexpected things in the city.

……

[This is probably unexpected...]

Looking at the scene in front of him, Tang Zhao breathed a sigh of relief.

In front of the Sterling family's mansion, many civilians were queuing up to receive food.

The quantity per person per serving is not much, just enough for an adult to eat half full, but it is said that the Sterling family has been distributing food during this period of time, which will be a considerable expense in the long run.

This is not the point, the point is that the civilians in Yintao City don't have to worry about being starved to death.There are wars going on all over the country this year, and the food production is not good. The royal family of Oran has no intention of opening the granary to help the people. If the people fight hard by themselves, the result will not be very good.

Perhaps these members of the Sterling family were putting on a show in front of others in order to preserve their status, but Tang Zhao always believed that if he did a good deed objectively, he did a good deed.

However, whether it can offset the merits and demerits of previous mistakes is another matter.

[Remember to have someone check to see if there are small tricks in these foods, and by the way, let's see who is the current decision-maker of the Sterling family]

Tang Zhao is now opposite the Sterling family mansion. The roof of a private house has a good view. In addition, his eyesight is also very good. Now he can barely see, behind the food distribution point, inside the Sterling manor , Some people are watching the situation outside the manor.

Originally, he planned to go shopping again, but time did not allow it. He returned to the location of the Helm Church, and followed the other party's people into a car, which was headed for the municipal mansion.

Merchant ships must register if they want to enter the city, and all registration data will eventually be reported to the city magistrate. The passengers on Tang Zhao's ship are very conspicuous, and they must be reported separately in the statistics table. It is absolutely necessary to avoid them. impossible.

Rather than letting the other party take the initiative to come and investigate, it is better to take the initiative to meet with the other party. This is the least way to make the other party suspicious.
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The mayor of Yintao City is a middle-aged man, he looks about 50 to [-] years old, and there are many signs of erosion on his face. From the position of the calluses on his hands, it can be seen that this person has suffered a lot before. And [-]% have taken weapons.

"Hello, Neta introduced you to meet me, and said that there is something important, can you explain it to me?"

Neta is the abbreviation of Iniesta, which is the name of the commander of the Heim Church. Generally, this abbreviation is only used between two people who are very familiar with each other. It is conceivable that the personal relationship between the two parties is definitely not bad.

The mayor used to be a middle-level commander of the army directly under the royal family. Later, he was wounded in the war with the orcs, so he was assigned to the rear as a civilian staff, and went round and round to Yintao City.

It stands to reason that he would not be able to climb to the high position of the mayor, but after the rebellion of the Marquis of Stirling, the current Earl of Stirling promoted him to be a mayor.

On the one hand, his ability has indeed passed the test. On the other hand, he was originally from the army directly under the royal family, and he was also a war hero who fought against the orcs.

[You should know that three special merchant ships have entered Yintao City today. I want to say hello in advance, after all, my identity is quite sensitive. 】

The mayor heard the words calmly, as if he was thinking and recalling: "I have the impression that it is indeed very special. If you don't come, I'm afraid I will have to ask."

Judging from the current situation, the city official's attitude towards him is beyond normal. This is not an elf who has been dealing with creatures in the forest all year round. This is a former human soldier. what you want.

[I have the best impression. The purpose of our coming to Yintao City is to deliver goods, and the recipient is Iniesta, the commander of the Helm Church.In addition, my Hermes Chamber of Commerce also wants to open a branch in Yintao City. Yintao City is also one of the largest large port cities in Oran. We want to import some goods. 】

"That's it, I understand. Although you have brought a lot of strong sailors, considering the special value of the cargo, it is not incomprehensible. My old friend Iniesta and the respected Mr. Burke also recognize you, So I believe your explanation, there will be people in the barracks watching you, and those lizardman sailors can’t move around in the city, I’m worried that it will cause further panic.”

[I can understand, that's what I planned to do. 】

"Besides that, I have some personal requests. You are from Luford, where is a famous grain distribution center in the whole country. I also know the Hermes Chamber of Commerce, and its foundation is also in the city of Luford. Now Yintao The city is relatively short of food, I want to buy a batch of food from you for emergency, is that okay?"

[There are tens of thousands of hectares of fertile land around, and the various nobles below hold a large amount of grain in their hands. It may be infinitely more convenient to find them to buy.It takes half a month for us to go back and forth, and the price of grain over there is not as cheap as the place where it is produced. 】

This obviously pretending to be stupid made the mayor tighten his fists, but he finally breathed a sigh of relief and explained to Tang Zhao: "Now the cultivated land belongs to the Earl Castell's family, and we have no right to harvest it. And those nobles are also avoiding Earl Sterling and Yintao City now, it is no problem to buy food from them, but the price is very high, several times higher than the food shipped directly from Luford."

He made a mistake and called the Marquis the Earl, but Tang Zhao didn't bother to hold on to this kind of thing.

[Actually, it’s not impossible, but there should be additional conditions, right?Otherwise, you can find any chamber of commerce from Yintao City to do it, and if you ask me, it means that you really have nothing to do. 】

This time the mayor did not refute: "The request is simple, no one should know, just transport the food to Yintao City safely, and someone will take care of you. You don't need to worry about the rest of the matter."

If you think about it carefully, there are only two people who can do this—the Elf and Karak Solma.

The surrounding aristocrats can't count on it, or they are nothing.They turned around early to follow the Marquis of Castell, and the remaining nobles who still had feelings for the Sterling family did not dare to do anything. Now they are being watched by countless pairs of eyes, and any actions will be discovered. The old aristocrats who survived the purge were not strong enough to avoid surveillance, so they were naturally helpless.

The big chambers of commerce basically have some background, and they all choose to sit on the sidelines. Some people in the small chambers of commerce are willing to take risks, but it is really a drop in the bucket.

The elves and Tang Zhao are relatively independent, and no one else can know if they have food to mobilize. They are the only two possible candidates.

However, the elves were oriented toward the Oran royal family, and they didn't care about the affairs of the Sterling family or Yintao City. After excluding them, Tang Zhao and the others were worth counting on.

Although the mayor looked a little old, his eyes were still as sharp and clear as those of a young man. He was staring at Tang Zhao at this moment, hoping that he could make a favorable decision.

【Actually, it’s not impossible, but I want to know the use of your food. Besides, there should be a lot of remuneration and smuggling fees, according to the market price. 】

The mayor heaved a sigh of relief. Now that Tang Zhao agrees, it is good. Doing business with the Sterling family has huge risks. He can accept it even if he is cautious or harsh, because there is really no one else who can cooperate.

"The price issue is easy to discuss, we can discuss it in detail, there are still a lot of deposits in the Yintao City vault, even without the money from the Sterling family.

Food issues are mainly used for winter, and some are used to help the poor.The Earl of Stirling was granted the title of Yintao City. In fact, there is not much arable land in this area. There are 13 people in the city, and the number of farmers around is only [-]. They have always needed to rely on other territories for food supply. However, relying on trade to prosper has not caused any major troubles.But now, things are different.”

It turned out that these territories belonged to the Stirling family and their vassals, and it didn't matter whether they were left-handed or right-handed. Now that other families can't avoid it, they have no main source of food, and self-production and sales are not enough at all.

It has to be said that the Marquis of Castell was very hurt. First, he allowed the Sterling family to take away some of the people in the pretense of helping them adapt to the new territory. Then he suddenly decided to cut off food, and the pressure on food increased sharply.

Perhaps it was to eradicate the grass, or to create a famine and to destroy the prestige of the remnants of the Stirling family. In short, the current Earl of Stirling was just an inconspicuous branch with no money or food in hand, and the Marquis's property had been copied Well, it was distributed to nobles and soldiers as military salaries and rewards. The current Sterling family is simply unable to deal with this crisis.

[If you can provide relevant evidence, I can nod to help the gang. I am not responsible for the details. Talk to the businessmen under me. 】

After hesitating for a moment, Tang Zhao still agreed.

The Sterling family had indeed committed many mistakes before, especially collusion with the devil, which is unforgivable, but Tang Zhao is a modern person, and would not attribute the crime to the entire family.

Most of the people who colluded with the devil have been directly executed. Now the rest of the Sterling family are basically innocent. The task Tang Zhao got was to find the remnants of the devil among them. There is no evidence, otherwise he would not have asked him, an outsider, to do things.

Even if there is evidence, these civilians in Yintao City are innocent, and there are many poor people among them. If there is no one to help them, they will not be able to survive this famine year. Regardless of whether it is out of kindness, show or atonement, at least the people of the Sterling family Food is indeed being distributed.

Tang Zhao is not considered noble, and he can use any means during a war, but he doesn't want to watch a large number of civilians starve to death, so it's better to help if he can.When he first crossed, he was often hungry, and he knew how uncomfortable it was.

However, every yard counts. Taking the opportunity of cooperation, he will investigate the interior of the Sterling family more deeply. After discovering a problem, he will never be soft-hearted.

Anyway, uprooting the Sterling family and assigning the territory to the Marquis of Casdeil, the food problem in this area will be largely resolved.Castei is not stupid, he will not waste this commercial port.

(End of this chapter)