Chapter 348 Wind Direction

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After the month of recovery, the weather in southern Ansu is starting to warm up quickly.

It's a happy change for someone who works in a place like a port terminal.

The temperature rises, the frozen river begins to thaw, and the water frozen on the ground in the form of ice and snow melts into a trickle with the power of the sun, and the trickle converges into a stream and a small river. The glacier water is poured into the major rivers together. As the water level rises, the number of merchant ships operating on the river gradually increases, and these merchant ships come and go to support the people who work on the wharf, commonly known as "mules". porters.

Sam is an old resident of Tanzania Town. The history of his family's settlement in this mining town can be traced back to a hundred years ago. The ancestor was a "mule" on the dock, and then this profession was passed on from generation to generation, to his grandfather, to his father, and finally to him.

His parents and grandparents have witnessed all the changes in this town in the past 100 years, but in most of the time, the town has hardly changed - the city walls are still those city walls, the trestle bridges are still those trestle bridges, the mines and caves in the back mountain The farmland outside the city can support a limited population, and the land that the lord can manage is also limited, so when a town develops to a certain scale, it may not change for hundreds of years. In the whole life of Sam's grandfather, his The greatest thing he ever witnessed (and what he most often brags about to his descendants) was that he had seen with his own eyes a trestle was added to the wharf, and the lord built a mill on the south side of the town.

And Sam, in the past two months, he has seen three trestle bridges, two commercial houses, four warehouses and a new bridge rising from the ground in the southwest corner of Tanzania Town.

He felt that he could witness more things in his life than his ancestors combined.

The output of ore in Houshan has increased several times in the past two months, and the number of merchant ships on the river has also increased several times, and many strange machines and magical devices have been transported into the city. All the changes are related to the "Cecil's Territory" that had just appeared in the lower reaches of the Baishui River. It is said that the lord reached an agreement with the Duke of Gawain Cecil, and in the process got huge benefits, and even brought the whole town to develop...

But these things are not easy for Sam to understand, and he doesn't pay much attention to it, he only pays attention to his work on the dock - and, happily, he has a lot of work.

As an old resident of the town and an old man on the dock, Sam has an unusual position in this increasingly busy place. Although he is also a person who works for others, he has to listen to the assignment of the dock owner, but Sam is a "mule" As their leader, there are more than a dozen people who have to obey his orders, which is the most "decent" thing he thinks.

Early in the morning, after getting out of the dark and damp shack, Sam rushed to the dock and directed the brothers to load and unload the ship.

With the rising waters of the Whitewater, large boats have begun to dock at the docks these days, mostly from the Carroll Land or Holy Spirit Plains to the north, loaded with spices, tea leaves, and fine cloth , these things are unloaded and transported by caravan to the town's "civil quarters" and the lord's castle, and the empty ships are then refilled, mostly with ore - which then flow down the river to Sisi Erling, where the shipowners can make a lot of money.

"All hands and feet are quick! It's early in the morning, don't act like you haven't eaten!"

Sam was walking on the trestle wet with the morning mist, supervising the "mules" unloading the ship's cargo, his red nose twitching unsteadily in the mist, and a smell of alcohol seduced his belly. Greedy: In addition to the cloth, the boat in front of me also has half the cabin of good wine. One of the wine barrels probably cracked when it was swaying on the river, and the wine seeped out a lot along the mouth. Good Carnaube wine - the owner of the boat was standing beside the gangway, sighing and grimacing, and he was afraid he had to pay the merchant a lot of money for the loss, while the gang of mules full of crazy ideas were scrambling to carry the broken Buckets - they must be ready to sneak a few licks when people aren't looking.

Sam shook his head, he wasn't going to risk whipping for this temptation, but he wasn't going to stop those slickers, anyway, if they were lucky, they could have a good drink and go back and brag about it, and even bad luck. It was just two whips.

Another ship was approaching the dock, and Sam raised his eyes to see that the ship had a high, wide deck and sides painted red, and his eyes were sharp, and soon he saw the cover under the side of the ship (that was the cabin's side). position) were opened a few, and a few pairs of eyes were looking out of those narrow windows.

Those curious, panicked glances don't look like sailors on a boat, Sam pouted, knowing that those were another "cargo".

It might be a slave, or it might be a stray boat from the north, or whatever.

After the construction of the New Cecil in the south, this kind of "goods" has become a frequent visitor on the river. Basically, except for the days when the river is blocked in winter, several boats full of people pass by here every day. I don't know how much land and food the new pioneer has, and it can support so many people.

Sam wasn't very fond of these people-carrying ships--because they tended to have little work to do, and the owners usually took the money from the slaver or the Duke "Gawain Cecil" to take the people. Sent to Cecil Territory, they stopped here in Tanzania just to replenish some clean water and dry food.

However, there may be some ship owners who are just piggybacking people, and there will be other cargo piled up in their cabins, and those slaves and refugees will sleep with the cargo - in this case, there is still something to do.

Just thinking about this, Sam saw the pier master wave to him in the distance, and then raised his finger to the red boat with a red side that had just landed on the pier. Seeing this instruction, he quickly stopped his wild thoughts and accelerated. The footsteps walked towards the ship.

The boat steadied, the springboard was lowered, and a boat boss in a brown cotton-padded coat stepped out and nodded to Sam: "Call a few nimble mules, and unload the wine barrels in the cabin."

Sam greeted enough people, then jumped into the boat himself, followed the boat boss to the hatch, opened the cover, and peered inside.

He saw that the cabin was full of wine barrels, and there was almost no place for people, and the owners he had seen before with frightened eyes-those people were all curled up in the gap between the wine barrels, a A haggard, pale face.

Sam frowned, these people were cramped here to even sit and rest, let alone lie down, and I don't know where they came from, and how long they had been in this terrible environment - but there was One thing is obvious, these people are definitely not as valuable to the ship boss as those wines.

But the strange thing is that these people are not slaves in rags, nor do they look like refugees, and a few of them even wear decent wool clothes - where did these people come from?

While the guys were at work, Sam went to chat with the bosun who was overseeing next to him--he didn't dare to speak to the owner, who was a real decent man--and he asked about the people in the warehouse. Not a ghost, but the origin of the well-dressed "boat passenger". As a person who is begging for a living on the dock, inquiring about some things on the ship is the capital for him to brag with people in the tavern after he goes back.

"They? From the Plains of the Holy Spirit," the boatswain spit aside. "Fugitives."

"Plain of the Holy Spirit? That's far away!" Sam looked surprised. "What are they doing so far?"

"They are all blood gods, and there are a few shadow sects," the sailor said casually. "It is said that some people in their local church have an affair with cultists, and even those who often go to the church are suspected of being heretics. Holy Spirit The killing of the cultists on the plain is fierce, and the Inquisition of the Church of the Holy Light has burned thousands of people to death - these people could not survive in the local area, so they changed their business and escaped."

As he spoke, the bosun shook his head: "Three died on the way. They were all thrown into the river for fear of getting sick."

When Sam heard that he had something to do with the cultists, his hair immediately tightened, and when he looked at the passengers in the cabin, his eyes became awkward - he looked at those people, as if there were really a few cultists hidden in them. similar.

"Look at how timid you are—these people don't get off the boat, they have to go all the way to Cecil's lead," the bosun couldn't help shaking his head when he saw Sam's appearance, "but Cecil's lead is over there. If you don't want these people, I'll just say two things, after all, they are related to heresy... If they don't, these people will have to be thrown into the wilderness, but that's better than burning them to death."

Sam wiped his red nose, suddenly feeling a little uncomfortable.

He believed in the blood god.

The wind, which had already started to warm, seemed to be cold again at this time.

At the same time, in Cecil's only Holy Light Church, Pastor Wright ended his morning prayer.

He's a devout believer, a preacher who loves preaching - and while many will be deceived by his powerful appearance, Wright himself knows that he's never been a man who likes to take things into force - especially Force is applied to the heads of fellow citizens.

The Lord of Holy Light protects the world, and teaches vulnerable mortals the art of Holy Light that can heal and exorcise evil, in order to protect the world, so the essence of the way of Holy Light should also be protection, not destruction - so Wright He just tempered his own flesh and body because he hoped that even when it was time to eradicate evil, he could use power other than the Holy Light to attack the enemy, so as not to tarnish the original application of comforting and protecting people. the power of.

This is his obsession, and he knows that this obsession is a bit stupid, but he has no plans to change it.

But a letter sent to the church a few days ago made him a little confused.

Wright cleaned the prayer hall of the church, then sat in the front row of seats, took out the church letter from the Plain of the Holy Spirit from his arms, and read the contents on it again.

"...Evil breeds, pagans are active... All the ignorant people who believe in alien gods are polluting the pure beliefs of the world... The Lord hopes that this land will be restored to purity, and the solution is to clear the confusion and wrong beliefs in the hearts of mortals... …

"... Therefore, those who do not obey the guidance of the Holy Light and who do not agree with the Lord's teaching... are heretics..."

The white stationery was crumpled up, but was re-unfolded, flattened, folded and put away.

Wright looked up at the bright skylight of the church, and at the statue of the Holy Light shining in the sun of the skylight.

"Lord, do you really think so..."