Chapter 672 The Waves Restart
============
「——Hurry, come up!」
In the dense forest one mile away from the Free Market outside Solonborg, Ron, who fell at the end of the team, was pulled out of the hole by two guards. At this point, Art and others have completed their close inspection of the defenses in Sauron Castle.
"You two, cover the hole and restore it to its original state." Rocky ordered the two followers who followed him.
Obviously, this is not the first time the two of them have done this.
After the board blocking the entrance of the hole was covered, the two people found a lot of rotten leaves mixed with soil and sprinkled it on it, and stepped on it with their feet. Then I collected some dry leaves and weeds and shrubs and threw them on top. Finally, the two moved some gravel and threw it around randomly, and dumped a large dead tree with branches above the entrance of the tunnel.
After some operations, the entrance seems to have been integrated with the surrounding environment, and there is no abnormality.
"Don't tell me, Sir Lodge's men are really good at it. If I hadn't been here, I would never have known that there would be a hole down here~"
Angus supported his sore waist and praised Rocky's men greatly.
Matt glanced at the blocked entrance, breathed a sigh of relief, and said, "Okay, it's daybreak. It's not suitable to stay here for a long time. Let's go!"
Immediately, one person got on the horse and walked slowly towards Lavati -
By the time he walked out of the dense forest, the sky was already slightly bright.
Att glanced back at the cleared trail in the dense forest, and then looked sideways at the tall and majestic silhouette of Sauron Castle before dawn. Then he turned the reins, kicked the horse's belly lightly, and walked towards the north -...
Lavati in autumn is sometimes filled with morning fog, sometimes with clear skies. When the golden light fell on the church spire in the city, a melodious and high-pitched bell spread from the church spire to every corner of the city ~
Several times in a row, the sound of bells woke up Lavati from her deep sleep.
The moment the bells ended, the captain of the guard who had been waiting at the south gate shouted.
Immediately, the four guards standing on both sides of the door stepped forward, removed the crossbar, and then pulled the giant iron-clad oak door inward.
Squeak～
With a squeaking sound, Lavati South City was slowly opened.
At this time, the business travelers who had been waiting on both sides of the gate began to get restless -.
As a trading city-state, Lavati has always insisted on opening the market on time for decades, no matter it is windy, rainy, or extremely hot and cold, this is almost an unchanging iron rule.
The merchants, vendors and city residents who were doing business in Rawati also waited at the city gate early, waiting for the moment the city gate opened to start a new day's activities.
Like other towns in Lombardy, goods entering and exiting Lavati must pay a certain commercial tax based on the market value, but the tax rate varies from place to place.
Taking the tax rates of Rawati and the neighboring city of Santia as an example, the difference between them is about double. Obviously, as an autonomous city-state, Lavati's tax rate must be much lower than that of Santia City. The main reason is that the status and attributes of the two are different.
As a fiefdom of the Lombard court count, the tax revenue of Santia City is very different from that of other non-autonomous city-states. As an autonomous city-state, Lavati has considerable autonomy in taxation. Therefore, in order to attract merchants from all over the world to come to Lavati for trade, the merchants were naturally given huge reductions in commercial taxes. Coupled with the cooperation of other policies, Rawati has become a well-known commercial capital.
After a period of hustle and bustle, Rawati started a new day.
At this time, the two tax collectors in charge of registration were already sitting on both sides of the south gate, checking the goods carried by the passing vendors one by one~
"Name~"
The tax collector with white hair and wearing a light gray linen coat sitting in front of the wooden table asked the leader of the caravan who came forward.
“Uh, sir, my name is Riske.” The man in fine clothes replied respectfully.
税吏抬头看了一眼，继续问道：「携带何种货物？数量多少？将要前往何处？」
「大人，我们马车上装的都是粮食，总共十架马车，打算运往桑蒂亚城。」男子对答如流。
The tax collector glanced at the carriages not far behind the man, and then motioned to his assistant to come forward and check.
After a while, the assistant returned, and after whispering a few words in the tax collector's ear, the tax collector collected a certain amount of business tax in accordance with regulations, and then let the caravan enter the city.
Of course, the caravan leader wisely stuffed a few small silver coins under the tax collector's register when no one was looking.
On a gentle hill half a mile outside the south gate of Lavati, Ron turned to Art, who was walking in the middle of the team.
At raised his hands and eyebrows and looked forward, the crowds of people coming in and out of the city were clearly visible. Since the group left Soronborg, the closer they got to Lavati, the more business travelers on the road gradually increased.
Although the two sides were still at war at this time, due to livelihood constraints, many people still took risks and bypassed the towns embedded in the north-south trade road to trade elsewhere.
Having not slept a wink all night, coupled with running back and forth, Art felt physically and mentally exhausted. At this moment, seeing Lavati appear in his field of vision made him feel a little more awake.
“Let’s go.” Art said.
The group of people immediately rode towards Lavati. The dust rising behind him was like a moving cloud in the morning light, drifting towards Lavati.
Just as Art and others were about to return to Lavati, another troublesome thing for the guild leader Mario was placed in front of him ===*
Last night, a large amount of shocking news suddenly appeared at the entrance of the Lavati Commercial Guild, near the church, the free market, major shops, and places where people gathered in the city. The king of Burgundy, Flanders Otto, had been killed in a battle with the Lombard army a few days ago.
This chilling news spread through the parchment written with sensational "rumors" posted on prominent walls throughout Lavati City.
Early this morning, the guard captain in charge of city defense hurried to the private residence of Mario, the leader of the guild, and delivered the parchment torn from the door of a shop near the south gate.
At that time, the guard captain had finished his errand for the night and was enjoying a delicious breakfast in a restaurant. On his way back home after finishing his meal, a notice posted outside a tavern not far from the north gate of the city caught his eye.
When he stepped forward to check it, he was shocked by the simple words written on it. He immediately tore off the notice and ran towards Mario's residence.
When Mario angrily got up from the warm bed and was about to get angry at the guard captain, the information on the parchment surprised him.
But reason quickly allowed him to recover from the shocking news. Regardless of whether this news is true or false, once it spreads throughout Lavati, it will definitely cause a lot of chaos. In particular, many representatives from other city-states are still staying in Lavati for the time being. If this unfavorable news reaches them, it will have an extremely negative impact on the cooperation between the two parties.
Hence, Mario immediately asked the guard captain to summon his men, intending to tear down all these notices before the news spread widely. On the other hand, the whole city was under martial law to search for those Lombard spies hiding in the dark.
After arranging these two things, Mario returned to the bedroom to wash up, and then ran straight towards Art's mansion with the butler -
"——Mr. Mario, the Earl is not at the mansion yet. "
These words came from the mouth of the guard in charge of the mansion where Art was located.
Since the guards did not know where Art was, Mario had to make a wasted trip. But now that such a big thing happened in the city, he was extremely worried.
No valuable clues have been found about the poisoning incident that occurred two days ago, and now someone is spreading the news that Flanders, the king of Burgundy, was killed in battle. These two obviously related things weighed on Mario's head like two mountains, leaving him a little at a loss.
After waiting at the door of Art's mansion for a while, Mario could no longer sit still. So on the one hand, he sent people to search for traces of Art and others along the business road. On the other hand, he called together the guard captains responsible for the city-state's defense and strictly ordered everyone to strengthen patrols in the city. Anyone who encountered anything suspicious would be captured.
As a result, a large-scale manhunt was launched quietly -
In a secluded corner in the east of Lavati City, two men dressed in tattered refugee clothes were nervously watching the movement at the end of the alley.
"Brother Yoren, something is wrong~" A man looking out through the crack in the door said to his companions, "It stands to reason that the news we posted everywhere last night has already spread, and the guards in the city should be searching for our whereabouts, but there has been no movement so far~"
Snap!
The guy named Yoren slapped his companion on the head and shouted loudly: "You bastard, you are the only smart one. How can I not see such an obvious thing?"
After the scolding, the companion wiped the spittle from his face, lowered his head, and did not dare to speak again.
Yesterday morning, the two men dressed up as businessmen and sneaked into the city again, and headed to the mansion where the guild was located as soon as possible.
After observing the tavern opposite the guild for half a day, I didn’t find anything unusual about the guild. So Yoren, who felt a little strange, asked around and found out that most of the representatives from various city-states had left Lavati one after another.
This news hit Yoren like a bolt from the blue, pouring cold water on him who thought he was done.
Hence, another trick came into being -
Before leaving Milan, the Duke of Lombardy personally summoned him and informed him of the two tasks to be completed during his trip. First, eradicate everyone who participated in the meeting of the autonomous city-state of Lavati. Secondly, spreading the news of Flanders' death in battle made the northerners unstable and took the opportunity to cause riots.
After discovering that the poisoning plot had failed, the Lombard Baron, who went by the pseudonym Yoren, embarked on a second mission.
Last night, he gave the false notices he had prepared in advance to all his subordinates who had sneaked in, and asked them to post these notices in places in the city that were easily noticed, and then dispersed and hid in the city, waiting for the news.
Yoren and one of his subordinates hid in this dilapidated wooden house in the east of the city, waiting for news from the outside.
Once riots begin in the city, they can take the opportunity to stir up trouble again and completely disrupt the deployment of the northerners—.
]