[Sorry, it was only midnight yesterday. Today, I locked myself outside. I thought I was going to stop updating.]
The existence of the Purgatory Desert was half good and half bad for the Titan Duchy. The good thing was that neither Qin Yin nor the Tanggulas Empire could ambush the Titan Duchy. They had to go around the desert and enter Titan through a limited number of roads. Thus, the Titan Duchy had never encountered a sudden crisis.
The bad thing was even more obvious. Half of the Titan Duchy's land was unsuitable for farming, and the climate was harsh.
In reality, the Titan Duchy wasn't right next to the Purgatory Desert. The Purgatory Desert had a radius of thousands of kilometers, and the periphery of the desert was land without a lord.
No one would live on these barren lands. Even adventurers wouldn't be willing to explore the Purgatory Desert.
However, the counties near the Titan border weren't poor. The grain production here was very low, but it was suitable for growing grapes. They had excellent winemaking skills and countless winemakers.
The wineries here produced hundreds of thousands of barrels of wine every year, most of which were sold to Qin Yin. Thus, it wasn't strange at all for Qin Yin people to appear in the Titan Duchy. There were more Qin Yin merchants here than Scotia merchants.
According to Qin's laws, wine made from grains was banned, so Titan Wine's sales were shockingly high.
Salin's group of four carriages carried the weapons that the Titans liked to trade for the wine. This kind of behavior would blend into the crowd and not attract any attention.
In order to maintain the quality of the wine, it was best to have mages take care of it during the transportation. Rex's plan was very thorough. When these four carriages, a team of a dozen swordsmen and a few mages entered the Titan Duchy, they only paid a dozen gold coins as tax. Nobody bothered them along the way.
Rex sat in a carriage with Nania and Salin, while Zola was pushed aside helplessly. However, his swordsmanship was the highest in this team, and he had to protect the caravan's safety at all times, so he could only ride his horse and follow beside the carriage.
The skeleton warhorse had long been put away into the Green Spirit and replaced with ordinary horses. Rex leaned against the soft cushion in the carriage, feeling very comfortable. This magic carriage was a moving fortress for Mages. Of course, it was designed to fit the habits and psychology of Mages.
Inside the carriage, there were eight spacious chairs that were spacious enough for a Magician to lie down and rest on. There was a low platform in the middle of the carriage. It was hard and light, but it was a piece of equipment that could be used to set up temporary magic arrays. The walls of the carriage were decorated with hollowed out patterns and inlaid with discarded crystals.
Through the crystal, a Magician could directly observe the outside world, but when someone from the outside wanted to see what was inside the car, all they could see was distorted images, and they couldn't see clearly what was inside.
However, the essence of the magic chariot was under the seats. Below the seats were closely arranged magic arrays that had been embedded with corresponding magic cores to enhance spells. After Mages familiarized themselves with all the magic arrays, they could also use some of them to launch long-range attacks.
Under the effects of these magic formations, the consumption of a mage's magic string and mental strength was reduced to the lowest point. Even a mediocre mage could perform like Salin and instantly cast all the spells he had learned. This was because there would be no elemental chaos or magic backlash on the chariot.
Rex stretched lazily, which he rarely did. His long hair spread out, and he seemed to be enjoying it very much. She said nonchalantly, "Salin, this car is not bad. Give me one."
"Sure, I have seven and a half cars, do you want the other half or …"
The so-called half was the magic chariot that Salin hadn't repaired. The chariot had sunk into the bottom of the sea with the warship, and many parts had been damaged. Salin was able to gather a complete set of seven vehicles because of Neris, an irreplaceable salvager.
"I want this one. It's very suitable for me."
Nania looked at Rex in surprise. Her Highness seemed to have changed a lot. She was more like a person who was easy to get close to. Rex had always been very nice to the people around her, but she had a noble temperament, so she naturally had a sense of authority. She didn't even realize it herself, but in reality, everyone was still afraid of her.
Salin smiled and didn't say anything. Rex had brought so many people to Metatlin City. There would definitely be many people who wouldn't accept her. Rex asking for the magic chariot was actually a sign of closeness, and also an indication that their relationship wasn't one of profit. Many people would give up on the idea of finding trouble with her after knowing this.
In name, Metatlin City belonged to the Bitter Water Prefectural Kingdom, but in reality, this city was built by Salin. Without Rex, it would at most be smaller and develop slower. As long as he had Serrig Island's help, it wouldn't be difficult for Salin to build a city.
He didn't know when it started, but Salin could always see through these little tricks of the nobles at a glance. It seemed that he was born with this kind of blood in his veins.
"Rex, I'm just curious. Why do we have to take an extra thousand miles?" Salin was already very familiar with the map that Rex showed him. Rex was supposed to head south after leaving Jialou Lan, but she led the team to the west and headed straight for the border between the Titans and Tanggulas.
"The Bordeaux region is the most important wine-producing area in the Titan Duchy. The winemakers here are also the best. However, it's adjacent to the Tanggulas Empire. If there's a war, this place will be the first to suffer. I came in advance to hire a batch of winemakers and bring them back to Metatlin City. "
"Rex, Metatlin City isn't suitable for growing grapes." Salin asked curiously, "Although I'm not an alcoholic, I know that the quality of wine is related to the grapes. I haven't seen any vineyards in the entire north."
"But we have Magicians! Salin, things like wine can't be banned. If we don't make our own wine, it will make the price of wine high in the north, and some people will even use grain to brew it. Caucasians like to drink, and they don't care about any kind of wine. If we don't control the wine in our hands, it will affect the combat power of the army. "
Salin nodded to show that he understood. Rex planned to build a magic vineyard and use magic to simulate the growing environment that grapes liked. The cost would be higher this way, but if they bought directly from the south, the price would be even higher.
Metatlin City wouldn't be self-sufficient in food in the short term. If someone used grain to brew wine, it would create a bad atmosphere, and that would be even worse. His ability to understand magic might be similar to Rex's, but when it came to managing the country's army, he was far behind.
The winter in the north was extremely cold, and it was impossible to forbid soldiers from drinking. However, making wine themselves could turn the whole problem into an advantage. Controlling the wine supplied to the army could improve morale.
Actually, Rex wasn't the first to do this. Sacred Rock City had been doing it for a long time. And it wasn't just that. When Sacred Rock City was founded, it had been planning to have countless troupes write scripts to satirize people who drank strong wine, describing the weaker wine as incomparable.
Thus, after a thousand years, the people of Qin Yin had long gotten used to drinking wine made from fruits. Only the uncouth Tanggulas people would drink strong wine made from grain.
Now, even the nobles themselves believed that drinking wine was in line with their status, and drinking wine made from grain was a bad habit of the peasants.
This brought great benefits to Qin Yin. The environment suitable for grapes wasn't suitable for growing grain. Many grapes suitable for wine needed sandy soil and a large temperature difference. Grapes were most afraid of rainstorms, hail, and pests, and had no requirements for fertile soil.
All these years, Qin Yin had experienced dozens of floods and hundreds of droughts, but not many people had starved to death. This was because the royal family had always controlled the planting and storage of grain. Qin Yin also had many absurd nobles, but few dared to use farmland indiscriminately.
"The place we're going to is the princess' castle, the earliest fief of the Titan Grand Duke. Back then, in order to rope in the Titan Grand Duke, the Yunliu royal family married their daughter to him, and built a huge castle for him as a dowry. The Titan Grand Duke used the power of the entire country to stop the Holy Knights of the Vatican, and died in battle in front of this castle. Princess Yunliu became a widow. "
Rex told Salin about the places they were going to, talking about the dusty past of history.
"It's not worth it," Neris said softly.
"Why wouldn't it be worth it? The princess left behind two descendants for the Grand Duke. From then on, the Titan Empire's reputation rose, and it defeated the surrounding small countries to become a powerful principality. It had the support of the Cloud Flow Empire, or else it would have fallen long ago. Do you think it's so easy to establish the four duchies? It's even more difficult for them to survive than the four empires. "
"Master definitely won't like this ending." Neris wasn't afraid of Rex. She had already entered the mature stage, and Lologalo's power was starting to show. Level-6 Magicians could no longer deter her.
"Neris, don't talk nonsense." Salin interrupted Neris.
"I'm not talking nonsense. What's the point of using your own death to exchange for the prosperity of a duchy? That Princess Yunliu doesn't have any good intentions either. Who knows whose son she gave birth to. Sister Sicar, am I right? "
Salin immediately stopped talking. Princess Yunliu, Titan Grand Duke, it had nothing to do with him. Why does it sound like he's insinuating Rex and me? Although Rex had nothing to do with him.
Neris put her mouth behind Salin's ear, and whispered, "Master, you seem to be guilty."
No matter how small her voice was, it couldn't fool a level-6 Magician. Salin was so angry that he wanted to kick Neris, but he was afraid of hurting his own foot. Rex, on the other hand, was calm, and ignored Neris's teasing. He continued to talk to Salin.
"The Titan Grand Duke is also a hero. Even the people of Yunliu admire him. That's why the Yunliu Empire doesn't plan to weaken the Titan Grand Duke. I'm afraid it will cause internal dissatisfaction. "
Hero?
When this word popped up in Salin's mind, he felt it was ridiculous. In his impression, all the heroes in novels, poems, and plays didn't have good endings.
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