Age of Mysticism

  Chapter 312 Smash the rice bowl

  Luke used the halfling and a few gold coupons to attract Andre for a while, and then used the merchants who surrounded him to sell goods to confuse the sight of other stalkers, and took advantage of the crowd to sneak into the crowd. The corresponding spies put on a smock and cloak for Luke, and then pushed away the people around him so that he could leave calmly.

   Luke who escaped held a few silver coupons in his hand, put on a hood and lowered his head, like a businessman who had successfully sold his goods, got into a nearby alley.

  There is no overall plan for the dwellings in Riyao City. The randomly built houses make the terrain of the residential area very complicated. The alleys are like a maze, and people who are not familiar with it can easily get lost in it.

  Fortunately, doing the main mission of the clear sky, so that Luke is quite familiar with this place, and there is also the assistance of the map. He moved quickly through the streets and alleys, and sometimes passed through some shops leading back and forth, in order to get rid of possible traces.

  Finally, he climbed over the wall and jumped into a small courtyard.

  There are cargo boxes piled up in the yard, and there are enamel basins and tea mugs inside the several opened boxes. In the stable next to the courtyard wall on one side, several horses, camels and pack animals were tied up. The other three sides are covered with a two-story building with adobe brick and wooden beam structure, and the outer wall is covered with ceramic bricks, which can effectively prevent the damage to the building by wind and sand.

   This is a relatively high-end caravan courtyard, built by the Ould family for lease to large caravans.

  Luke's entry aroused the vigilance of the caravan guards, but after Luke lifted his hood, several guards immediately climbed up to the high point to monitor the surroundings, and another guard pushed open the door of the main hall.

  No one spoke out during the whole process.

  Luke walked into the main hall, and the fast legs of the oasis businessman greeted him.

   "Master Governor!"

  Luke took off his cloak and handed it to the guards around him, and observed the environment of the room again. The walls were plastered with a layer of mud, painted with milky white paint after air drying, and painted with murals that are not exquisite but very atmospheric.

  A few windows have the exotic style of the western region. The glass should be made locally, and the light transmittance is not bad, but it has a strong green color. However, after pasting some animal-shaped stickers, it is very appropriate for the environment that lacks green space.

  The ground is a rough felt carpet made of pack animal hair, with candlesticks standing at the four corners, and a group of buildings leading to the second floor.

   Coupled with the necessary furniture and some decorations for embellishment, the large main hall does not appear empty, but also has the style it should have.

   "Sit down and talk..." There were low tables and low stools by the window, and Luke and Quick Legs sat down facing each other: "Did everything go well?"

Quick Legs skillfully placed the carved wooden cup, and poured a pot of kumiss for Luke: "We entered the Harmutu Basin in the name of the Crescent Oasis Caravan. Although we encountered sand robbers on the way, they were all Little gang, didn't do us too much damage.

  Waiting for my lord, I did a few business deals here and met some merchants in Sunshine City.

  The Harvest Festival is approaching, and businessmen from afar come into the city every day. There are nobles and barbarians. It is the most chaotic time, and no one doubts us. "

  Luke drank the kumiss, which tasted a little sour.

   "Where's the Kestrel?"

   This time he was on a mission to the Western Territory, Luke asked Kuaileg to bring people to the front station in advance, and also sent Kestrel to serve as Kuaileg's deputy. When Kestrel was in the Crusader Engineering Development Institute, he received professional lurking and assassination training, which can greatly improve the strength of this team.

  Because the boiling was too eye-catching, the sandpaper did not come with the kestrel, but with the large group of missions.

  As for the other three rescued beautiful girl killers, they are still receiving treatment from Oulu Academy and are temporarily under observation.

When the governor asked Kestrel, he quickly took out his pocket watch to check the time, and replied: "I heard that the mission was entering the city, so I asked Kestrel to go to Sunyao Manor to find out the news. She won't see you there, and she will definitely come back immediately .”

   "Then wait for her for a while."

   Then Luke asked Kuaileg what news he had found during this time, especially the special envoy sent by the Duke of Celtic, and the abyss mage who came with him.

  Quick Legs then took out a map of Sunshine City, which marked the various information they had heard.

  "The representatives and caravans of the nobles are mainly concentrated near the Sunshine Manor and the East City. Most of the small nobles who are attached to the Ould family have already arrived, and some barbarians have come to visit. They should be from the Tedgar Hills.

  As for the special envoy sent by the Celtic Duke, and the Abyss Mage... Sorry, we haven't found it yet. But we are trying to find a way to bribe the servants in Sunshine Manor, so there should be good news. "

Luke said: "You just came to Sunshine City, so don't be too anxious about some information. The situation in Sunshine Manor is too complicated. Earl Ould is an old fox, and the secret technique of the abyss mage is very strange. The action of buying insiders is suspended. Surveillance is the main thing."

   "Yes, Governor General."

"If there is nothing important these days, raise the price of halfling wine. Then contact some merchants in New Moon Oasis and tell them that you have inside information: Governor Meteor is very optimistic about halfling wine. Rough City performs reprocessing and packaging.

  Finally, the halfling wine was packaged into high-quality red wine with the appreciation of the eldest princess of the Golden Shield Empire as a propaganda speech. The price of halfling wine in a standard wooden barrel can be increased by hundreds of times after passing through the hands of Governor Meteorite. "

  Quick Legs doesn’t know yet, but the halfling wine has been carried by Luke to a bucket of gold coupons. But even if it is calculated on the basis of a barrel of gold coins, it is too exaggerated to multiply hundreds of times.

  But Kuaileg didn't doubt his governor's ability to make money. He asked from another direction: "My lord, do you have any plan for raising the price of halfling wine?"

   Luke is not afraid of leaking this kind of conspiracy, and Kuaileg will not go outside to talk nonsense.

  "Halfling wine can be stored for a long time, and because of its good quality, it has maintained a stable price of one gold coin per barrel for a long time, making it one of the trading currencies recognized by all tribes in the Western Region.

  If I raise the price of halfling wine, it will drive up the price of the entire western region. At least during this harvest festival, the prices of various commodities will rise along with the price of halfling wine. "

  Quick Legs nodded in recognition of Luke's words, but: "What does this have to do with us? After the price rises, the goods we bring are just to make more money."

  Luke knew that Kuaileg couldn't understand his intention, so he explained it in detail.

  First of all, a barrel of halfling wine for a gold coin is a serious exploitation of halflings, which also represents the trading environment of the entire western region.

  The aristocrats of the western border control the main link between the barbarians of the western border and the empire. They use their position, privileges and information monopoly to buy goods from the barbarians of the western border with currency at a very low price, and sell them to the empire at a higher price.

  In order to monopolize this trade, the nobles of the western region even used various methods to prevent the paper money issued by the empire from entering the western region. Including but not limited to supporting sand bandits and preventing large-scale caravans from the empire from entering the western border.

This time they pretended to be an imperial caravan and were only attacked by small-scale sand bandits. That was because some of the large-scale sand bandits cooperated with the harvest festival. Affect the Harvest Festival.

  The Harvest Festival seems to be a grand trade event between the western territories and the barbarians, but in essence it is an economic plunder of the barbarians by the nobles of the western territories. In this event, the aristocrats of the western region can buy a whole season's output of the barbarians at an extremely low price.

   It is precisely because of this closed economic circle that the nobles of the Western Region can maintain their rule with very little money in this barren land.

  Luke finally picked up the wooden cup and said, "When you came to the west, do you think... this kumiss is not much more expensive than water?"

   Kuaileg said with emotion: "Yes, some things here are so cheap that people can't imagine, it makes me feel like a billionaire."

Luke said: "His Royal Highness is sweeping high prices in the Sunshine City Market under my suggestion, and if we try our best to raise the price of halfling wine, we will definitely raise the price of this harvest festival to what the nobles in the western region thought before." I can't even imagine the height.

  This kind of high price has little effect on the barter transaction, but if the nobles in the western region want to purchase goods, they need to spend more than ten times or dozens of times more expensive real gold and silver than before.

  And their soldiers will also find that they can't even afford this kumiss with their pitiful military pay. "

   Speaking of this, Luke couldn't help but think of what just happened.

   Orc General Andre, the commander of Sunshine City's army, couldn't walk because of a few gold coupons.

  After hearing the layout of his governor, Kuaileg couldn't help but be overwhelmed.

   "My lord, you are really amazing! I have been in Sunshine City for so many days, drinking every day, and every day I only feel that the things here are cheap, but I didn't expect this level.

  You just entered the city, and you directly ruined the jobs of the nobles in the western region.

  As long as the price of goods in the western region is raised, the nobles in the western region can’t even afford to support soldiers, so how can they have the strength to fight against the empire. "

   Kuaileg took a big sip of wine, feeling his whole body was transparent, and said with emotion: "It's comfortable and happy to be with the governor to do errands!"

  Luke is not as optimistic as Kuaileg: "We can raise the price this time because the identity of the eldest princess is there. If someone else does this, the nobles of the Western Region will directly arrange the assassin.

   And after we leave, the nobles of the western region can also suppress the price back. "

  Quick Legs said: "The governor should have a solution."

   "There is a way, but we need to do more to make it work..."

  At this time, the door of the main hall opened, and a short figure in a smock walked in. She lifted the hood on the smock, and it was the returning kestrel.

   "Master Governor, I am here to assist under the order of Miss Skylight. If there is anything that needs me to do, please order!"

  Luke stood up and said, "You and Kuaileg are going out with me to do errands. Is there anything I need to prepare?"

  Kestrel said: "No, you can go anytime."

   Stand up quickly, look at your clothes and say: "I'm going to change clothes, this one looks too much like a businessman."

   "No need to change..." Luke took the cloak from the guard's hand, and said to the fast leg: "You go as a merchant, and Kestrel and I will act as your followers.

  The place I went this time is very dangerous, so be careful. "

  Quick Legs and Kestrel said, "Yes, Governor General."

  Fast legs go out first, Luke and Kestrel put on their hoods. Luke also asks for a knife from the guard, posing as the wealthy businessman's bodyguard.

  The three of them left the courtyard rented by the caravan and went straight to the West City of Sunshine City.

  West Market is the largest market in the entire city. Barbarian caravans from afar usually choose to sell their products in the West Market. The items on sale are all kinds of strange things, and there are many treasures that the barbarians can't recognize and are sold at low prices.

  Luke had no intention of wasting time in the West Market, so he passed through the West Market quickly and led the team to the slave trade corner in the northwest of the market.

  Desperate for survival is the eternal theme of the Western Region, the winner has everything for the loser.

  Part of the slave trade corner is inside the market, and the other part extends to an urban area next to the market. This is the filthiest place in the whole city. In order to save space, the slaves are forced to squeeze into crowded cages, where they eat, drink and drink. Only slaves with high value can get a little preferential treatment, but slaves are slaves after all, and they are commodities for sale.

  The guards at Slave Corner are also different from other places. There are no Sunshine City soldiers patrolling here, and the guards only obey the boss here. It can be said that this urban area is a city within a city within Sunshine City.

  It is also the darkest place, even the sunlight seems unwilling to illuminate it, and a large area of ​​buildings is shrouded in a hazy shadow.

   Entering the Slave Corner, Kuaileg's attire immediately attracted the attention of many people. The slave in the cage struggled to stretch out his arms, begging for some food, but was quickly whipped back by the guard with a whip.

   "Dear guest, welcome to the Slave Corner of Sunshine City." A somewhat attractive woman walked over with her slender waist twisted and fast legs. She holds a cigarette rod in her hand, has slender eyes, and wears nose and earrings on her nose and ears.

  Barbarian is a general term for humans who live in the western region and do not belong to the aristocratic territory. They are no different from humans in appearance, but their living habits are greatly influenced by orcs.

  This woman looks like a barbarian at first glance, with wildness all over her body.

  The woman turned around her fast legs, looked around him, and then came to Luke. She took a drag on her cigarette, looked at Luke with her chin raised, and reached out to lift Luke's hood.

  Luke grabs the woman's hand.

  The woman deftly freed her hand from Luke's hand, and then pulled his sleeve away. The smock was ordinary, but the sleeves of the governor's dress were exposed under the sleeves.

  The woman slowly exhaled smoke and said with a smile: "This dress is enough to buy a hundred female slaves. Who are you and what are you doing in the slave corner?"

  Luke said: "You guessed wrong, my clothes can buy the entire Sunshine City. Or...you can buy the entire Western Territory.

  I'm here to discuss business, take me to meet your boss.

  Also, if you dare to disrespect me next time, I will ask your boss to put you in the dirtiest cage! "

  (end of this chapter)