Give Me the Name of God

On the way, Manda patiently explained his speculation to everyone.

"They are different from real bandits. You should be able to see that Davron is not sure of killing us, but he still has to take action against us, and he deliberately angers me. This is obviously different from the bandits' approach.

The bandit will not attack an opponent he is not sure about, and once he does, he will not have any scruples. This Davron is obviously a soldier. He is acting according to orders. When his life is really threatened, he hesitates. It proved that the order given to him by Shertai also left room for error. "

The lion girl shook her head and said: "I still don't understand, why did Sheltai let the soldiers come to rob you?"

"It was to test me and see my strength and courage. The tail that had been following us also wanted to verify this. When he saw that I gave in, he left."

Moira said: "These soldiers came here specifically to guard here for us?"

Manda shook his head and said: "That's not true. I'm not so proud. They should have been here for a long time."

"Why are the soldiers hiding in the mountains?"

"This is the only way to connect the southwest and the south. As long as the canyon is cut off, it is equivalent to cutting off the connection between the southwest and the south on land."

The lion girl probably understood what Manda meant, but she still had some doubts: "Why didn't Shertai occupy the Crispy Rock Valley openly instead of letting the soldiers dress up as bandits?"

Manda said: "Because bandits can rob, but soldiers can't. Shelty doesn't want to ruin his reputation."

These words made the Leo girl even more confused: "Why did Shelty want to rob? Is he short of money?"

"I also want to know the reason for this. We still don't know enough about this place. Maybe we can find the answer when we get to Parrot City."

Marquis Moritz is in Parrot City, and he is still the nominal ruler here, but Manda has replaced his soldiers with his own people, and arranged for someone to handle government affairs for him.

From Moritz's mouth, Manda got the answer. Although he did not know that Shelty had placed soldiers in the valley, he did know the importance of the Crispy Rock Valley, in addition to its military significance.

"In the eastern part of the southwest, there are many businessmen who make a living selling iron ore. There are iron ore everywhere in the southwest, and they don't sell for much, but there is almost no iron ore in the south, and the price is ridiculously high."

In this era, the mountains and forests were owned by the lords, and merchants could buy mining rights from the lords very cheaply. A load of ore only cost one silver coin.

But in the south, the price of iron ore is calculated based on weight. Two pounds of ore can be sold for one copper coin. A cart of iron ore, which weighs almost two thousand pounds, can be sold for ten silver coins. This is a ten-fold price difference, excluding mining and transportation. expenses, of which there is still nearly six times the profit.

Manda thought for a long time and asked: "Why not take the water route? More ore can be transported by ship."

"There may not be iron ore in the mountains near the river. It also takes time to transport the ore to the river. Moreover, merchants don't have to transport the iron ore to Wonderful Sound City. They only need to transport it to Qingyan City, which is very close to the Crispy Stone Valley. It’s only less than three days away, and the lords there are very friendly to the iron ore merchants and never collect taxes from the iron ore merchants.”

No wonder the bandits in the Crispy Rock Valley never rob iron ore merchants. This road is an important source of iron ore in the south.

But why do they want to grab food?

Moritz still had some business acumen. Unlike other lords who sold mining rights directly to merchants, he used slaves to mine ore and sold it directly to the south.

"This is a shady business that must be done in secret. For nobles, doing business is a shameful thing. If you want to make money, you can try it, but it is best to find a businessman to do it for you, although he will earn There is a slight price difference, but at least it won’t ruin your reputation.

In the south, there are two ways to sell ore. One is to sell it to the lord in exchange for money directly, which is legal. The other is to sell it to other merchants in exchange for food, which is illegal. "

Manda was stunned: "Why is it illegal to sell to merchants? Is this included in the laws of the kingdom?"

"This is not the law of the kingdom," Moritz laughed. "This is the law of the south. Shelty is the Grand Duke. He has the power to make laws. On his territory, exchanging ore for food is a felony. Once discovered, , is the same crime as stealing, but businessmen will still take desperate risks, the land in the southwest is too barren, and food is often more precious than money."

This description finally made Manda understand the truth. Shelty placed soldiers in the Crispy Rock Valley and asked them to pretend to be thieves to carry out selective robberies. Their purpose was only one, allowing the input of resources but prohibiting the outflow of resources.

He would rather exchange gold coins for ore, but would never allow food to be used, so as to ensure sufficient food reserves.

In the same way, the barren land makes the living environment in the southwest very fragile. Once a disaster or war occurs, a large number of civilians will become slaves because they lose their food sources.

These slaves can be sold to the south, and Shertai regards them as resource inputs, but livestock from the south are not allowed to be sold to the southwest, even if they are in excess. Shelty refuses all resource outflows.

This business model seems very smart, but it faces an important problem. The input of resources costs money. Where does Shelty's gold coins come from?

"There is a legend that Grand Duke Shelty had a finger that could turn stone into gold." This is the explanation given by Moritz.

At the mention of Golden Finger, Manda's heart ached. But he thought this was nonsense. Shelty could not have the Midas touch, otherwise he would have become the king long ago.

The value of the Crispy Rock Valley is greater than Manda expected, and this battle is bound to be won. When Manu and his soldiers arrived at Parrot City, Manda immediately held a meeting and began to formulate tactics.

As long as he fought in the mountains, Manu had full confidence. Manda's tactics were very simple. Drill a hole in the mountain, find a suitable exit, find out the enemy's situation, and then kill them all in one fell swoop.

But Chuitt mentioned a detail: "Sir, when you entered the valley, did you see gravel on the road?"

Manda thought about it carefully, shook her head and said, "I have no impression."

Chuitt thought for a moment and described it in the most intuitive way: "If a caravan passes through that valley every day, and if those bandits want to cause a landslide every day, think about it, there will be piles of debris in the valley. How much gravel?”

Manda was shocked. Chuit's problem was really crucial. When they were robbed in the valley, the road was filled with gravel, leaving only a gap in the middle, which could allow one person and one horse to pass through.

Based on this calculation, if we come here a few more times, the road will be blocked by gravel. If things go on like this, the entire valley will be filled with gravel.

But where is the gravel? Before meeting the bandits, the mountain road was very smooth and there were not many gravels. After leaving the group of bandits, there didn't seem to be many stones in the valley.

The only explanation is that someone cleaned up the rubble, but the workload was too great. Even though it was just a small landslide, it would take at least half a month to clean it up simply by manpower.

Could it be that instead of robbing for the past half month, the bandits are working as cleaners?

While thinking hard, Chuitt reminded again: "Do you still remember, when Davron threatened us, a piece of gravel slipped under our feet, but it did not hurt us. Later, he wanted to attack Austria. Ge started, and a stone hit Ogg directly on the head."

Ogg protested: "It didn't hit, I caught it!"

Manda shook his head and said, "That's not the point. The point is that someone controls these gravels."

The room was quiet for a long time. Manda looked at Manu and said, "You may have met your companions. Some of them can accurately control the rocks on the mountain."

Manu frowned, shook his head and said, "Sir, maybe my level is not high enough. I can change the position of the rocks, but it is impossible to control it so accurately and quickly."

"You are already at the third level. Is that person's level higher than yours..." Manda was mumbling to himself, and Manu suddenly said: "I remembered, my teacher can do it, Teacher Zigese's Flying Stone Skill!"

Dear readers, the release of Chapter 2 has been postponed to 9pm, so please stay tuned.