Chapter 365: The Civilian's Book

In the west of Cecil City, there are many forests and lush plants. The vast expanse of jungle here provides a steady stream of building materials and industrial raw materials for the new Cecil Territory - even a source of food, while in the north of this forest, next to Facing the Baishui River, Shuanglin Village is gradually becoming lively as the sun rises.

This is a new village, but it is full of order and vitality. The neatly arranged wooden houses are shrouded in the smoke from the cooking, and the "new houses" built of cement and masonry are dotted between these wooden houses. The wide cement road connects the Several main buildings in the village, due to frequent cleaning and strict sanitation system, these roads are clean and tidy, and there is absolutely no fecal matter that is common on the roads in other areas of this era.

All these characteristics are the embodiment of "Cecil Order".

Lumberjack Buddy went out in the early morning sun, carrying the heat accumulated after a hot meal at home, which helped him resist the early spring winds in the forest, the man who had cut down trees all his life walked On the street, he wiped his nose, which was slightly itchy in the cold wind, and then walked towards the newspaper office.

As he walked across the street, he glanced at the houses on both sides, and the appearance of this place last year vaguely emerged in his mind.

He still remembered that when Cecil's 800 refugees first came to this land, it was just a poor logging camp - dozens of lumberjacks and a small team of soldiers arrived here with axes and swords , set up a tent and laid a fence. The original camp was not as big as the square in the center of the village today, but in less than a year, it has become a village, and it is still a beautiful and large village - the tent has become The lumberjack’s hut was expanded and increased into a street, and the support resources from the city were continuously sent here, just like the wood that was cut down here was continuously sent to the city, cement appeared, and shops appeared. Now, this logging camp-turned village even got a name—the lord himself named it Frostwood Village.

If he hadn't experienced it himself, Buddy couldn't believe it was happening right under his nose.

More lumberjacks appeared on the street. Buddy greeted these friends. Everyone walked forward together laughing and talking. On the way, someone suddenly sighed: "This place has changed a lot."

"That's right, after all, we're not idle in winter," a lumberjack with a big beard laughed. "We even built the bell tower."

"I don't know what's changed in the city recently," Buddy muttered. "It's changing faster there than we are here."

"The last time I entered the city, I saw a new house was being built on the west side of the city. It was said that there were two thousand people in the buffer camp who got that... oh, get citizenship," said the lumberjack who spoke first, "but recently I've never been to town..."

There are convenient roads and rivers between Frostwood Village and Cecil City.

But in fact, the lumberjacks here don’t often come to the city—since this place has become a fixed settlement and various village facilities have been established, Shuanglin Village has gradually become self-sustaining, and the workers who came here have become The settled villagers have a lot of work tasks, and there is nothing to do when they enter the city on weekdays. The people of Shuanglin Village usually enter the city once or twice a month. The changes in the city are often described by people who occasionally enter the city after returning, or listen to the guards of the convoys who transport materials between the village and the city.

During the chat, everyone's topic gradually turned to guessing the changes in the city, guessing whether the lord had made something new, but they didn't chat for too long, and the report office had already arrived.

Buddy wiped his nose and looked at the shed at the check-in office. According to the work flow, he had to pick up tools after checking in here, and then went to the designated area in the woods with the foreman to start work, but something seemed to have happened at the check-in office today. The thing—he saw that many people were gathering in the small clearing in front of the check-in desk, even his foreman was standing there.

Buddy and a few lumberjacks approached curiously and found that it turned out that the convoy transporting supplies had arrived. Although Shuanglin Village has become a village, it is only a new village after all, and many things such as cloth and wine still have to be shipped from the city There are at least one such convoy coming from the city basically every week.

It is indeed a good thing for the convoy to enter the village, but it is a bit strange that everyone gathers together - in order to unload the goods and hand over the items ordered by the villagers, the convoy has to stay here all day, and everyone gathers here early because the convoy Did you bring anything new?

Buddy was wondering about the "confused" when he saw his foreman squeeze out of the crowd with a smile on his face, and the foreman was also holding a few ink-smelling pictures full of words and pictures in his hand. big paper.

"Boss," Buddy hurried over, "what good things did the team bring?"

"Oh, Buddy," exclaimed the foreman, clearly in a good mood, and with a bit of flamboyance, waving the paper in his hand, "look, newspapers! New stuff from town!"

"Newspaper?" Buddy was stunned for a moment, the team really brought something new, and it was the same as every time before - as long as it was something new from the city, it must have never been heard of by everyone, "You You mean these pieces of paper? What is this... for?"

"Civilians can also buy 'books' to read," the foreman glanced at Buddy with pride in his eyes and tone-although he only bought newspapers a little earlier than others, but he was very proud , "There are a lot of things written on it, even the recent changes in the city."

"Where?" When Buddy heard it, he leaned forward, "Where is it written... What did it write?"

"Here, the 'Cypress Street' community in Xicheng District has been completed, and new immigrants who have obtained citizenship are moving. Here, it is said that the price of wheat and 'fur' skins will be reduced recently because the trade route with Glenling has been opened. And this side - darling, isn't the Church of Holy Light in the Holy Spirit Plain crazy... they've all started burning other people's churches?"

The foreman pointed to the sections of the newspaper, and as he spoke, a surprised expression appeared on his face, and then he carefully read the news to himself. Buddy watched with wide-eyed eyes, but suddenly Feeling a bit of frustration—

He can't read...

He can recognize words, but only a small part. At most, he can spell his name, age, and address, and he can only read the form on the clerk card. This is the result of attending night school for a few days - last year in the village There was a night school, and a teacher from the city came to teach you five days a week. Buddy went to a few times, but he didn't listen at all!

He looked at the newspaper full of words and couldn't help but feel annoyed.

The foreman was looking at the contents of the newspaper seriously, ignoring Buddy's annoyance at all, and he laughed half-heartedly when he saw it - the newspaper seemed to have some funny jokes or funny stories, but for Buddy. As far as Di is concerned, everything is unpredictable.

Even if the newspaper is said to only need a few coins.

He knew that he could not ask the foreman to read the newspaper for him, even if the foreman usually had a good relationship with everyone, such a request was unrealistic.

Several familiar workers squeezed out from the crowd, Buddy raised his eyelids and glanced, and saw that one of them was also holding a newspaper in his hand, and was splitting the newspaper in his hand as he walked. to someone else.

They may have bought a joint - although a newspaper is as cheap as a few copper coins, for many lumberjacks who have just had some spare money, spending money to buy a few sheets to read is probably still a kind of "no" worthy" behavior, but after all, they were curious about the content of the newspaper, so the possibility of pooling money to buy it is very "possible". Anyway, a newspaper contains several sheets, and these people can take turns to read them after dismantling them.

Buddy looked at those people with a bit of envy, and muttered in his heart—they were all poor men who had worked with axes and saws, but now they walked straight like a scholar, and they dipped their newspapers in a decent manner. Rolled up and tucked under your arm, like a book, really...

Really decent...

Buddy "touched" his pocket, suddenly gritted his teeth, and turned his head towards the direction of the team.

The foreman was reading some things at this time, and when he looked up and saw Buddy's actions, he couldn't help but shouted curiously from behind: "Why are you going? Call your name soon!"

"I'll buy a newspaper!"

"Can you see it?"

Buddy didn't look back: "I'll buy it back and study it slowly - the big deal is to wait for Mr. Bernard to come and ask him for advice!"

"Mr. Bernard" is the teacher who was sent to Shuanglin Village to give lectures, a second-level clerk working in the Government Affairs Office.

Looking at Buddy, who seemed to be angry when he walked, the foreman shrugged and looked down at the newspaper in his hand.

He said to himself, "I have to put it away when I go back, and save up a few more copies to stick together... I have a book at home."

...

Holy Spirit Plain, in front of the rock fortress, Wright Aviken raised his head and looked up at this ancient fortress standing in the southernmost part of the Holy Spirit Plain.

The black-colored high walls of the fortress glowed with a slight grid-like brilliance in the sun. It was the copper poured into the cracks of the city walls' bricks that was glowing. The builders of the rock fortress melted the copper and mixed the copper juice with pure gold. With red copper, this magic alloy will absorb the magic power from the sun when the sun shines, and release it slowly throughout the day and night, making the entire city wall extremely strong, and this magnificent and strong fortress is exactly the A product of the "chaos" in the foggy moon a hundred years ago.

It stands between the mountains at the junction of the southern border and the Holy Spirit Plain, and controls the only way from the southern border to the Holy Spirit Plain. It is a great irony, symbolizing the kingdom's complete blockade of the entire southern region - for a full century after the fortress was built, the southern border became a land of deliberate exile, and the Second Dynasty feared the ancient and huge fortress. The Sear family will make a comeback and shake the royal family, so while constantly dividing and weakening the southern border, this fortress is also built, as if to regard the rock fortress as the new "southern frontier" of the kingdom, and the survivors of the Cecil family. They threw them to the wasteland in the south.

This incomparably strong fortress is used to guard against the founding family of this kingdom.

However, in the past century, the Cecil family has never crossed this hurdle. They silently suffered the price of failure of the "chaos" in the foggy moon, and silently accepted the separation and suppression of the royal family. It was only after the resurrection of the Cecil ancestor that members of this family crossed the rock fortress for the first time and headed to the Plains of the Holy Spirit.

Wright looked up at the black wall of the rock fortress, and the history of the fortress and the short time he experienced in the unbelievable pioneering land in the south emerged in his mind. Then he looked back and sorted it out. His old priest's robes walked towards the checkpoint. Sword of Dawn