Chapter 158 The Settlement of Refugees
The weather is getting cold. &1t;/p>
When the giant sun flies into the sky, the clouds appear hazy and illusory, more and more gray-yellow stripes appear in the sky at the alternation of day and night, and the stars appear cold and bright. winter. &1t;/p>
And homeless people have a hard time surviving such a winter. &1t;/p>
"Red-Nosed Tom" was limping on the way back to the settlement, holding a bundle of dry wood that he had collected with great difficulty. , blowing it on his face and pouring it into his collar, making him seem to be immersed in a basin of gradually cooling cold water. &1t;/p>
He is a young man of only seventeen years old. According to Ansu's law, he is an adult. However, due to long-term malnutrition, he is as thin and short as most of his peers. His face and numb eyes reveal his true age, as well as his harsh living conditions. &1t;/p>
He could already see the settlement, and he said it was a settlement. In fact, it was a small camp in the southern forest. Even the camp was reluctant to say it: some low and broken tents and stone piles gathered here, surrounded by surrounding areas. With a circle of equally tattered fences and thorns, the little remnants of the Tanzanian mine extending to the southeast formed a low barrier here, barely providing the most basic shelter for the poor people hiding here. The cold wind makes winter come a little later, and people here live a little longer. &1t;/p>
Tom walked into the camp with dry wood in his arms, and what he saw was a pair of indifferent eyes. There were 26 households and 102 people gathered here, but the number was 109 a few days ago. Most of them are refugees who escaped from Condor Land, where a flood made them homeless. The rest are from various Viscounties in the South, who have lost their land and shelter for various reasons. poor. &1t;/p>
They roamed city after city or village and town, were driven, plundered, killed by local lords or local beasts, or died of cold and starvation. For those nobles who only know how to scrape blood and sweat from the land and serfs, any refugee who wanders into their own territory is a disgusting mouth that needs to eat, so the refugees can only choose to live in the wilderness in the end.” settle down".
&1t;/p>
Tom found his place, it was a tattered little tent, which was a very good situation, because not every family had a tent, and many had already lost almost all their belongings in the process of exile, and they only Sleeping in tree roots or rock nests, wrapped in tattered clothes or a pile of weeds, and Tom still has a little tent to keep out the wind and rain, all because of his and his sister's machetes and bows and arrows still on him. &1t;/p>
The fire in front of the tent had been extinguished, but it was not night yet, so Tom carried the firewood into the tent, and when his eyes got used to the darkness inside, he saw bright eyes looking at him in the dark. &1t;/p>
"Sister," Tom looked at the black girl, "I didn't find any mushrooms, only these firewood."&1t;/p>
The black girl just froze, and after a few seconds, she suddenly said: "The two children of the Bohm family starved to death."&1t;/p>
"...Oh," Tom agreed in a low voice, sitting down in the dark before whispering a few seconds later, "Is there anything to eat today...?"&1t;/p>
The black girl got up again, and Tom couldn't help but have an ominous premonition in his heart, but after a while, the black girl suddenly moved half of her body, groped for something and threw it away. &1t;/p>
It was a small pheasant, and it smelled of fresh blood, but in the tent filled with all kinds of odors, Tom was completely unaware of its existence. &1t;/p>
A skinny pheasant is not enough to fill the stomachs of two siblings, especially when they can only eat one meal a day, but it still keeps Tom in good spirits: compared to roasted mushrooms and roasted moss , meat can make people last longer in this colder weather, and he is overjoyed: "You hit something?! We don't have to go hungry today!"&1t;/p>
"Take the hunting knife when you go out to shed the chickens," the black girl said lightly, "in a conspicuous place."&1t;/p>
"Yeah!" Tom nodded vigorously, but as he became more accustomed to the darkness in the tent, he finally noticed the abnormality in his sister. She was always lying in the corner in a weird posture, and her strength was obviously not as good as usual. Tom With an ominous premonition, I stepped forward, and finally saw the blood near my sister's shoulders, and the arm hanging weakly by her side, "Sister, are you injured?!"&1t;/p>
"I was bitten by a wild dog and hurt my tendons," the black girl's voice finally trembled, "I... can't hunt anymore."&1t;/p>
As if a bucket of ice water was poured from the head, Tom was so cold from head to foot that he couldn't hold a knife or draw a bow. The injury to his arm meant that the only sister who could go hunting in the woods lost the ability to obtain food. It means that the two of them... are already dead. &1t;/p>
Everyone is hungry, and it is impossible for anyone to help their brothers and sisters. For these people who have lost everything, even a small injury on the hands and feet, or the loss of labor for a short period of time, is fatal. threaten! &1t;/p>
What's more, people bitten by wild dogs are highly susceptible to infection, and once infected, it is impossible to save them. &1t;/p>
"I..." Tom gritted his teeth and made up his mind, "I will bring a bow and arrow tomorrow..."&1t;/p>
"Don't go," the black girl said sternly, her eyes falling on Tom's feet, "if you go, you can't come back. Going hunting in the woods is not the same as picking up firewood nearby!" &1t;/ p>
Tom was not born lame, his leg was broken by a knight of the lord's house, because the knight went to the church to listen to a sermon, the priest of the blood god sect said that only by breaking a man's leg with his own hands, can martial arts and Courage broke through the bottleneck, so the knight master broke Tom's leg without hesitation and compensated for half a pocket of wheat afterwards. &1t;/p>
"I'll set traps," Tom insisted, "I'll remember how to identify bears and wolves, and I'll get around..."&1t;/p>
"But if you die outside, I'll definitely die too," the black girl stared at Tom's eyes, "Go to the woods to pick up mushrooms, and look for the tree seeds and fruits under the roots, it's really not good..."&1t; /p>
What can I do if it really doesn't work? She doesn't know either. &1t;/p>
Tom bit his lip, thought hard, and finally said the thought that had been brewing for a long time: "We can... find the lord here..."&1t;/p>
"You forgot how everyone was driven out in Carroll Territory?" The black girl said sternly, "It's the frosty moon now, when farming is no longer, and hunting is difficult. A mouth!"&1t;/p>
"Then..." Tom thought about it again, and said hesitantly, "Maybe the lord of Tanzang Town has a large mine that needs slaves in the mine. Even if there is a frosty moon, the mine still needs slave labor..."&1t;/ p>
"Can you be a slave laborer?" The black girl stared at Tom's leg. "I can't work now, and neither can you. Even if they want slaves, they won't want us like this!"&1t;/p>
"How about going further south? I heard that the south of the Baishui River is the newly developed territory of the Cecil family. There should be a shortage of people working in a place like that... I can at least tan leather." &1t;/ p>
"Don't think about it," the black girl finally sighed, her eyes dazedly leaning back on the moldy haystack, "noble gentlemen...all the same..."&1t;/p>
The howling wind was blowing from the north again, sweeping through this desolate and poor camp. &1t;/p>
Hunger and cold stopped the only activities of the day, and everyone huddled into their tents or haystacks to minimize the loss of physical strength and heat, and in the process, the camp gradually quieted down. &1t;/p>
But outside the camp, in the slightly denser woods, some shaking shadows were gathering. &1t;/p>
They were armed with various but exceptionally well-equipped weapons, and they did not have any uniform signs on their bodies. They gathered in groups in the mountains and forests, staring at the small settlement through the trees and the night. &1t;/p>
Like a hyena watching its prey in the dark, eyes full of greed and hunger. &1t;/p>
...&1t;/p>
Gawain received a report from Philip in the main tent of the lord of Cecil Land. &1t;/p>
"A refugee gathering point? In the mountains north of the Baishui River, east of the Tanzanian mine?"&1t;/p>
"Yes, my lord," the young knight nodded, "Knight Byron was supposed to report to you, but he was exploring the ruins in the mountains, and the news came to me."&1t;/p>
Gawain put down the dip pen in his hand: "How big is the scale? Have you sent someone to contact it?"&1t;/p>
At the same time, his heart was excited: after opening up information channels, investigators finally began to discover those hidden refugee settlements! &1t;/p>
"It's not big, about a hundred people, but it's possible to contact other refugee settlements through them," Philip Knight replied, "but our people haven't contacted them yet...because it's a little troublesome."&1t;/p >
"Trouble?" Gao Wen frowned. &1t;/p>
"Some armed men of unknown origin are operating near the settlement, I am afraid they are the mercenary 'slave hunting team' waiting to attack," Philip said with a look of disgust on his face. Sophisticated, sure there are mortal professions, maybe even one or two casters, but the level is unknown."&1t;/p>
"Multiple mortals sit in town?" Gawain was a little surprised, "The strength of this mercenary team is not bad."&1t;/p>
Knight Philip nodded: "Sir, how to deal with it?"&1t;/p>
"Of course... to bring back those territorial people who should be sheltered by the Cecil family," Gawain smiled, "The mountains, plains, jungles, and rivers to the east of the Tanzanian mines and south of the nobles' lands belong to the Borderlands, in the south, as long as there is no owner, it belongs to the Cecil family!"&1t;/p>
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