The carriage of the Wang Family's manor was not a four-wheeled carriage for people, but a two-wheeled carriage for goods. It was a flat cart surrounded by wooden planks. However, since Viscount Timba wanted to ride it, the manor's manager ordered the servants to clean up the carriage, hang a tapestry around it, and put a sofa on it, turning it into a nondescript carriage for people.
Viscount Timba leaned on the sofa drowsily, while Carrik and Tagger moved two small stools and sat on both sides of the sofa. Laurist sat next to the coachman as a guard. As for the Han and mute slaves, they were lowly slaves and could only sit on the steps at the back of the carriage. When the carriage stopped or went uphill, they had to get down to help push the carriage.
The Haneabada Kingdom was an archipelago country and did not produce horses. Therefore, selling horses from outside was a profitable business. However, it was very risky because horses would get sick and were not used to long-distance transportation on ships. Often, only one-third or half of the horses would be left by the time they arrived, so they had no choice but to raise the price to avoid losses. Of course, this was only for good horses and famous horses. Horses used to pull goods were not so particular.
The horse pulling the carriage was a northern horse, and its butt was branded with the number of the Wang Family's manor: 19. The coachman was also a slave supervisor. In order to win this job, he had promised a lot of benefits to his companions. Everyone knew that sending Viscount Timba back to King's City would be rewarded handsomely.
Seeing that they were about to reach King's City, the coachman skillfully drove the carriage to the side of the road and made way for the main road, preparing to continue their journey after the army had passed. However, he did not expect Carrik to jump around in the carriage and cheer loudly as if he had been injected with chicken blood, immediately attracting the attention of the knights who were opening the way.
A few knights rode their horses to the front of the carriage and shouted: "Who are you people? What are you trying to do by shouting here?"
Viscount Timba woke up in a daze from the sofa, yawned, and asked: "Why aren't we moving?"
The coachman had already respectfully indicated the carriage's owner and the identity of the passengers to the knights. When the knights heard that it was the First Consort's brother, Viscount Timba, who had escaped from the enemy who occupied Nubit Port, they did not dare to act rashly. They left four of them to guard the side while the other two rode their horses back to report.
After a while, a large group of knights swarmed over, bringing with them a luxuriously decorated four-wheeled carriage.
The leader of the knights was a forty to fifty year old man with a mustache. He laughed heartily and hugged Viscount Timba, "My pitiful little Timba, you are finally back. Do you know how much worry your sister had for you? Before I left, she asked me to find you and bring you back. She didn't expect me to complete this task so quickly. Haha, hurry up and get on the carriage. I'll send someone to take you to the palace to see your sister … "
Therefore, Viscount Timba was sent to that gorgeous carriage without saying a word of farewell to everyone. Slave Han and Slave Mute were quick to react. They ran over and stood on the footboard outside the carriage. That burly man with a mustache recognized the two slaves of Viscount Timba. After waving his hand, the luxurious carriage carrying Viscount Timba and the two slaves left...
During this process, Carrick, Tagger, and Lollister were all ignored and became part of the background. Seeing that the carriage was far away, the burly man with a mustache gave an order in a low voice, and the group of knights rolled away.
The carriage of the Wang Family Manor continued to stay by the roadside, waiting for the army to pass. Carrick was already dumbfounded. He didn't expect to be abandoned by Viscount Timba. Now, he was penniless and didn't even have a place to stay in the capital.
The coachman was cursing. His big financial backer was gone, and his work this time was in vain. Without Viscount Timba, there was no reward, and he didn't know how to tell his companions when he returned. The more he thought about it, the angrier he got. The coachman vented his anger at Carrick and cursed him harshly, accusing Carrick of going crazy and luring the knights over. As a result, Viscount Timba was gone. The coachman was ready to strip Carrick naked and take his sword as the transportation fee for this trip...
Carrick shrank in the corner of the carriage and didn't say a word. This time, he was dejected like a castrated chicken. In terms of status, he couldn't compare to the coachman. The other party was at least a slave supervisor of the Wang Family Manor, while he was just a small steward of the Lord's Mansion in the inner city of Nubit Port. Moreover, Nubit Port had fallen into the hands of the enemy...
Lollister gave Tagger a look, and Tagger understood tacitly. He took out a gold ford and stuffed it into the coachman's hand. He chuckled and told the coachman that he was the young master of the Peterson Chamber of Commerce's vice president. He promised that there would be another reward in the capital and that he wouldn't make this trip in vain. Then, he chatted with the coachman.
With a gold coin in his pocket, the coachman immediately became amiable and answered every question he had. He told Tagger that the mustached knight was the uncle of the current King, Luther III, a 2-star Gold Knight who was deeply trusted by the King. It seemed that this time, he was leading the Wang Family's Imperial Guard Corps, and they should be able to recover Nubit Port soon...
Lollister carefully observed the so-called elite Imperial Guard Corps of the kingdom that Garlic had bragged about all the way, but he soon felt bored. The soldiers of the Imperial Guard Corps who passed by the carriages were disheveled and their formation was dragging. They kept complaining. Some of them were even bragging to their companions about how they had f * cked a few female slaves last night and how they did heroic deeds. The soldiers surrounding them were asking to hear the details of their deeds …
Lollister couldn't help but laugh. Are these elites? They are even worse than the garrison in the family's territory. He had been in the hilly area for two days, and the Imperial Guard Corps had only set out today. He believed that Ferocious Tiger Ross and the others were already waiting in the hilly area. Now, he could only hope that Ferocious Tiger Ross and the others could delay the Imperial Guard Corps according to his arrangements and not be too ruthless. Otherwise, the Imperial Guard Corps would be afraid and retreat back to the capital, which would affect his rescue plan...
At noon, the Imperial Guard Corps finally passed by. Next, there were many carriages transporting logistics and supplies. They were also horse-drawn carriages, but they were equipped with more than ten slaves to help push the carriages. The supplies on these carriages were piled high and full, and it was really difficult to move the carriages with just one horse. Some of the soldiers kept whipping the slaves, constantly cursing, "Lazy idiots …" and so on.
After another two hours, the carriages could finally set out. When they arrived at the Hamidas capital, Lollister was shocked by the huge castle in front of him. He didn't expect that there would be a huge castle that was even more majestic than the capital in this slave archipelago country.
The coachman said proudly. When the Kingdom of Haneabada was first established, the capital was set in Nubit port, but later, the second king, Luther I, decided to develop the Royal City Plain. He used more than 300,000 slaves and spent 28 years to build this great castle, which was named Hamidas Royal City after him.
Lollister felt a headache coming on. He didn't expect the Hamidas Capital to be such a huge castle. To put it bluntly, it was like a replica of the Maple Villa in the family's territory. The Maple Villa was built on a huge protruding rock, and other than a two to three hundred meter long road uphill, there was no other way to attack.
The Hamidas Capital was the same. Unlike the Maple Villa, it was located on a hilly area that had half of the mountain shaved off. It was more than ten times larger than the Maple Villa, and from afar, it looked like a city built on a high platform. Just the slope to enter the castle was a thousand meters long, and the rest was made up of stone walls that were more than thirty meters tall and walls that were more than ten meters tall. The drop of forty to fifty meters was daunting for the attackers, and they had no choice but to face it head-on.
Such a capital could only be besieged for a long period of time to deplete its food supply. However, on the way here, Viscount Timba had told him that the Hamidas Capital had stored enough food to feed fifty to sixty thousand people for three years. This meant that even besieging the city was impossible. Who would send an army of a hundred thousand people to sit here for three years? That would be a waste of money, and no one could afford it.
Lollister found that his siege weapons such as crossbows and catapults were completely useless in front of the Hamidas Capital. Due to the drop, these siege weapons had to be very close to the top of the walls, which made it easy for them to be attacked by the long-range weapons on the walls. Thinking about it, there were more than a hundred large crossbows on the walls of the inner city of Nubit Port. He estimated that there would only be more on the walls of the capital.
Lollister wanted to curse. He never dreamed that the capital of this slave archipelago country would be like this. He thought that it would at most be similar to the capital of the Iberian Kingdom of Wenderbri. It was just an overseas country that had been neglected by the Galinthea Continent, a kingdom built by pirates. How could they build such a majestic castle?
At this moment, Lollister was only glad that he had changed his strategy and lured the royal guards to the hilly area to start the battle. If he followed his original plan, after wiping out the enemies in Nubit Port, he would attack the capital of Hamidas. But when he reached the capital, everyone would be shocked …
The coachman sitting next to him saw Lollister's mouth move, but he did not say anything. He could not help but ask curiously, "What's wrong?"
Lollister replied, "Nothing, just a pain in the ass."
"A pain in the ass …" The coachman pondered for a long time but could not understand what Lollister meant. Just as he was about to ask, they arrived at the city gate.
Everyone had to pay a small silver coin to enter the city. In addition, because it was a time of war, the guards at the city gate were very strict. If Viscount Timba was still here, he could swagger into the city without having to pay anything. Now that Viscount Timba was gone, Carrick was in trouble.
Tagger and Lollister both had the identification of the Peterson Chamber of Commerce with them, and they were sitting in the carriage of the royal manor, so they easily passed the inspection of the guards. On the other hand, when Carrick broke out of the inner city of Nubit, he only had a sword with him and nothing else. In addition, the coachman hated Carrick for taking Viscount Timba away, so he deliberately did not say anything to prove his innocence. As a result, the guards acted as if they were facing a formidable enemy. They dragged Carrick over and searched him thoroughly, almost poking his ass to see if there was anything hidden.
In the end, Tagger gave the coachman a gold ford and gave each of the guards a large silver coin. Finally, the coachman proved that Carrick came from the royal manor with him. Only then did the guards let Carrick go. After a lot of trouble, they finally entered the city.
The Hamidas Capital was divided into five districts. The carriages entered from the east gate. The east district was the largest commercial district, as well as the residential district. There were more than 30,000 residents living there, and most of them were the family members of the Royal Guards. Including the slaves, there were about 50,000 to 60,000 people.
The south district was the noble district. All the nobles of the Haneabada Kingdom had their own mansions here. The west district was the heavily guarded warehouse district. It was the smallest, but it was the armory for weapons and equipment, as well as the warehouse for supplies. The north district was divided into three areas. The first was the slave area, the second was the competition area, and the third was the camp area for the royal guard corps.
The so-called slave area was the area closest to the northern city wall. It was densely packed with shacks. The tens of thousands of slaves here were mainly engaged in cleaning, cleaning, and other work to maintain the capital's infrastructure. That was why they had a place to stay in the northern city district.
The competition area was the area where the capital's gladiator arena was located. There were also venues for dog and chicken fights, and it was also the largest gambling venue in the capital. The slave nobles of the Haneabada Kingdom often threw a lot of money here, using the life and death of the slave gladiators to win or lose.
The outermost area of the north district was the camp of the royal guard corps. This way, even if the slaves in the slave area or the gladiator arena wanted to riot, they would be quickly suppressed, and it would not affect the safety of the other districts.
In addition to the east, west, north, and south districts, the most central area was the court district, where the palace was located. It was protected by a high city wall, separating it from the surrounding districts.
According to Viscount Timba, in addition to the 28,000 royal guard corps in the Hamidas capital, the court district also had 2,000 palace guards. The other four districts each had a 1,000-man city defense team responsible for patrolling and defending the city gates and walls. In this way, there would be a total of 34,000 guards in King City.
Tagger gave the coachman the address of a tavern called Flame and Blood. This tavern was the closest to the north district, and it was also where Aire lived. It was convenient for him to go to the gladiator arena to practice his swordsmanship every day.
The carriage traveled for another ten minutes and stopped outside the Flame and Blood tavern.
Tagger took out five gold coins and handed them to the coachman. The coachman was overjoyed and could not stop thanking him. After flattering Tagger for a long time, he finally drove the carriage away.
The environment of the Flame and Blood tavern was worse than the Red Raven tavern. The rooms upstairs were not clean, but the price was very expensive, one gold coin a day. Tagger asked for three rooms, one for each person, and then asked the maids and servants in the tavern to bring the bath water first.
The middle-aged maid who brought the hot water from the tavern really wanted to have a bath with Laurist. After pestering him for a long time and being sternly rejected, she cursed him for being stingy. She slammed the door and ran to Carrik's room next door. Soon, the sounds of a man and a woman making love could be heard next door.
After Laurist finished his bath, he went to Tagger's door and knocked on it. When he found no one was there, he went downstairs and saw Tagger leaning over the counter and chatting happily with the tavern owner. He sat at a table by the side and ordered a bottle of fruit wine to taste while waiting.
After a while, Tagger came over and sat down. He called the maid over and ordered some food. He looked around and whispered to Laurist, "My lord, Aire is not in his room. I asked the tavern owner, and he said that he has not seen Aire for two days. The morning before yesterday, he went out as usual to practice his swordsmanship at the gladiator arena, but he did not come back tonight, yesterday, and today. The boss thinks that he may have made friends with a noble and went to visit him. The last time he disappeared like this for two days … "
Laurist's gaze froze, "What do you think?"
"I suspect that something happened to Aire. It is impossible for Aire to make friends with those slave nobles. He plays the role of a young master who is obsessed with swordsmanship and never pays attention to others. After dinner, we will go to the gladiator arena. Aire and I agreed that he would leave a mark outside the arena … "Tagger said softly.
"Alright, we will go after dinner." Laurist nodded.
… …
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