On the tenth day of exploring the valley along the river, they passed through the last canyon and walked out of the vast mountains and dangerous peaks. They finally came to a low hilly plain. After passing through a dense forest outside the mouth of the canyon, scattered scattered settlements began to appear.
According to the calculation of the distance, further west here should be the junction of the borders of Provence and Lombardy. It seems that the distance from the valley to Lombardy along the river is more than twice shorter than the distance from the east of the Provence border. This is also the result that Art wants to see most. This trip along the river to explore the valley confirmed his guess - the shortest distance from the seaside of the southern continent to the northern countries should be this valley that connects the north and the south. The sporadic records in the history books should be true.
This result made Art very excited......
...
The sudden emergence of a group of people from the dense forest of the valley did not panic the scattered settlements in the hilly area at the mouth of the valley. The villagers along the way who saw the men and horses coming out seemed to have received some instructions. They all took out the salt, linen, ironware, farm tools, clay pots and other items they had prepared for a long time from home and rushed towards Art and his party.
The people at Ate didn't know the intentions of these people, and they were so frightened that they quickly drew their bows and held their swords.
It turned out that these Lombards outside the valley mouth regarded Art and his party as mountain people who came out of the mountains to trade. At this time in the past, there would be a team in the mountains carrying precious furs, bacon, herbs, nuts, dried mushrooms and other hunting goods in the mountains to exchange with the Lombards outside the valley mouth for salt and iron pottery, cloth agricultural tools and other items that could not be produced in the mountains.
Judging from the actions of the people in these sporadic settlements, it is obvious that this is a long-standing practice.
However, when the Lombards discovered that the group of people who suddenly rushed out of the valley were not the group of mountain people they met once a year, the Lombards immediately became nervous. They hurriedly ran back to the village with their goods. After a while, the alarm bells rang, and young men armed with sickles, axes and iron forks appeared in the settlement on guard at the entrance of the village.
"It seems that we are regarded as bandits coming out of the mountains." Ron looked at the Lombards who were hiding in the village and could not get out, and slowly put down the bow and arrow in his hand.
Ate glanced at the Lombard civilians who were holding farm tools and iron tools in their hands and looking frightened. He picked up the reins and said, "Go around the settlement and continue to move forward."
The group of people rode away amidst the nervous preparedness of the Lombard civilians.
The next journey was roughly the same, but the Lombards did not trade things like the settlements at the mouth of the valley. In normal times, the mountain people only conducted valley trade with a few settlements at the mouth of the valley. It is estimated that they did not want to attract attention from outside the valley.
Out of the valley, the weather gets warmer as you go south, and the exotic customs and customs along the way become more and more different.
The original owner of Art's body was originally a Lombard, but when he entered this world, he was in Burgundy in the north. Lombardy in his memory was always vague. Now that he has visited Lombardy in person, he can feel the gap between the north and the south.
Lombardy is a southern continental state based on commerce. More than half of the citizens are merchants or make a living by commerce. Therefore, in addition to the smoothness and shrewdness of merchants, the Lombard people also have the enthusiasm and tolerance in their blood.
This kind of character of a southern continental trading nation becomes more obvious the farther south you go, the larger the place, especially in the market towns. For example, in other countries, the currency is usually not universal. The coins carried by Art's caravan from Burgundy must be exchanged into the local currency in the guild treasury in Provence. Even if the other party collects the foreign currency, generally speaking, a high exchange tax will be charged at the same time, but this kind of This situation does not exist in southern continental states like Lombardy. However, the stewards of larger shops and hotels are familiar with the exchange ratios of various currencies in their own countries. They will directly tell you how much local currency you need to pay based on your accent, and almost every hotel can exchange the local currency of Lombardy.
Not long after leaving the valley and hilly area, Art and the others stopped at a market town hotel for a night's rest. The next day, Art put on the attire of a merchant leader, and Ron and the other four were also dressed as fine caravan guards.
Yate specially called the hotel bartender last night, handed over a few small local coins worth less than one pfennig, and then the bartender told Art in detail about all the big and small cities around the market town.
Early the next morning, Ate took four "caravan guards" and set off southward. The place they were going to was a city called Lavati.
Lavati is no stranger to Art, because two days' walk south of the city called Lavati is a baronial castle called Solonborg, and this castle should have been called Wellsburg ten years ago.
After ten years, Art is finally ready to go back and take a look.
Lavati, north of Solenberg, is the most prosperous city in the surrounding area and the largest city in the northern mountainous area of Lombardy. Lombardy is a trading country with many free cities on its borders. This Lavati is an autonomous city. Different from the lord's castle, these places that are completely autonomous by citizens have a complete urban governance system.
It took less than a day for everyone to arrive outside Razati City.
Lavati is built on a low hill, winding and circling. With the Civic Center Square as the origin, many towering towers and old red houses as old as red wine radiate out in all directions. The rugged stone roads and winding alleys divide the city into many fragments, each of which shines brightly. The most exquisite one among them is located on a Z-shaped hill. It takes advantage of the mountain, so the roads are narrow and uneven, and the roads are intricate and crisscrossed. From time to time, a "line of sky" can be seen. The tall houses squeeze the ancient and quiet alleys into extremely narrow spaces, blocking the bright sunshine. The door handles on the tall arches are carved with exquisite relief patterns. When you look up, you can see the faded and curled shutters.
· In the city, there are constantly coming and going rich merchants and noble ladies in gorgeous clothes, and merchants who are rushing between shops and stalls to trade goods; outside the city, there are groups of caravans leading mules, horses and livestock, and escorting horse and carts.
Lavati is a city without high walls. This is simply impossible in the northern countries, but it is common in the Principality of Lombardy. There are many such undefended cities. The confident Lombard city citizens have a powerful city citizen army. They are confident that they can rely on these teams that are better equipped than the palace army to defend against any hostile visitors.
There are also city security guards patrolling the roads entering the city, wearing half plate armor, holding spears in their hands, and hanging stainless steel swords at their waists. They often patrol along the streets in groups of ten under the leadership of officers. In addition to the security guards patrolling on foot, you can occasionally see elite city guards riding armored horses, wearing full body plate armor, and holding lances. Guarded by these well-equipped people, no one in the city dares to make trouble at will.
Since Art and his team were all riding horses and armed with swords, they were considered an unstable team, so they were stopped by a group of patrolling security guards as soon as they entered from the north of the city.
At stated that he was a businessman who came to Lombardy from Burgundy in the north to look for business opportunities. Originally, Art was going to explain further, but the man who looked like a security force officer did not listen to what Art said. He just told him not to cause trouble in the city and then let him go.
The group of people found a hotel nearby to stay, leaving two guards to look after the horses. After that, Art took Ron and Matthew out of the hotel and wandered around the city with purpose...