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  Jade originally had no road, wronged big head trod many times. - Liu Zhensheng said.

  The north wind is blowing with a loud call, and the temperature drops sharply overnight.

  The sky is still as clean and blue as before, and the bamboo forest in front of the red earth slope is still as lush and green.

  But it's just so cool.

  The herdsman of the vassal tribe waved a loud whip, driving the beasts back and forth. The winter snow was about to arrive, this is the last chance for the beast to grow its fur.

  During this period of time, several unexpected events occurred. Two groups of sea otter herders went out to pasture with dozens of fat antelopes each, but they never came back.

  The wilderness was too vast, and after organizing several large-scale searches, the body of the murdered hedgehog herdsman and some of the fat antelope's bones and fur were finally found in a thorny bush over 100 miles away.

  According to Vieri's knight, the remaining beasts should have been taken away by the bandits of the wasteland.

  The robbers on the wasteland are living a day-by-day life, they disdain to know and do not need to know about the changes of the four seasons and the concept of time.

  Generally speaking, they won't think of winter until the cold arrives.

  Every winter, the vast wilderness is home to starving bandits and robbers who cross the frozen surface of the Sanggan River, rushing into the heartland of the Meng Kingdom, risking being annihilated by regular troops to plunder food. When the cold sets in, the morale of the robbers will be particularly high. They absolutely won't let go of any object that can be looted.

  For this reason, Liu Zhen ordered the herdsmen to graze their livestock within a radius of fifty li from the Red Earth High Slope before snowfall, and strictly forbade them from going beyond that boundary.

  Regarding the siege of the last two strongholds within a 200-mile radius - the White Crow Uruk-hai and the Razor Hill Goblins, it was formally recorded in the memorandum, striving to resolve everything within a week.

  Liu Zhen was always thinking about how to deal with the captives, and he still lacked a compromise method to solve this stubborn problem of bandits that would not be extinguished by the spring breeze. In front of the red earth slope, at the edge of the bamboo forest, under a large hill, a group of slaves were "huffing and puffing" as they dug an underground cave, continuously moving neatly trimmed dry grass inside; because that would be their home. Every breath exhaled by each slave was white, the soil layer was hard and cracked.

  The Danube Steppes were indeed too desolate, Liu Zhen had already withdrawn the sentries that were originally watching them at night, hoping they would run away and reduce the number of people to feed.

  Unfortunately, none of these slaves were willing to escape. Faced with a cruel winter, without weapons and stored food, escaping would mean death. In Florence, there was an unwritten rule that even for slaves, it was forbidden to deduct their rations. Beating, scolding and insulting at will

  Liu Zhen was scared of hunger when he was a child.

  This decree also solidified the resolve of the Ursine and Goblin slaves to stay put.

  A group of militiamen with hair in five colors and six colors, and the lord, sat bare-armed in front of a bamboo forest, drinking wine. The wine was fragrant Hobbit rum, and the dish to drink was roasted yam with charcoal.

  These yams were discovered by the half-human chef in the bamboo forest, not long after the bamboo was planted, and many mouse holes appeared inside. The mice on the wasteland seem to have fallen in love with this dense and sheltered bamboo forest and its tender shoots, and recently many children have nothing to do, digging mouse holes in the bamboo forest all day.

  Guo Guo dug out a mouse hole, it can squeeze into the mouse hole, and when it comes out, it grabs the mouse's tail, a lively one.

  The meat of the guinea pig is very delicious, much more tender than that of the rabbit. A single guinea pig weighs about half a pound, and the yellowish fat inside can be rendered to make lamp oil, which does not irritate the eyes like resin or other animal oils, and has a fascinating wax aroma.

  Ginseng is the favorite food of these hamsters, they excrete the seeds of ginseng from their feces and let them settle down with them in the bamboo forest.

  These sweet potato stems are a bit bitter and only guinea pigs like to eat them.

  The tubers were small, about the size of a sparrow's egg, and grew in clusters like grapes. They had a bitter taste when eaten raw, but the clever hobbit cooks peeled them, crushed them, and roasted them over low heat to make bread that was quite palatable, although rather troublesome.

  The lord created two simple cooking methods, he roasted the sweet potatoes with charcoal until they were slightly charred, tore open the skin, and inside were strips of golden yellow silk, the flavor was both glutinous and fragrant.

  As delicious as honey, the bear man Vieri eats with a smile on his face.

  The lord could still take this wild ginseng tuber, which was used by the Mongolian herdsmen to feed their livestock, and grind it into a white liquid with a millstone. Then he would boil it and mix in some of the bear tribe's special honey sugar brought by the Knights of Vienna. The taste was just like sheep's milk, without any fishy smell. Sugar was a very expensive seasoning, only available to the nobility, so the common people were moved by the lord's generosity.

  Gatani Knights originally adhered to the noble code, naturally disdaining this turnip used to feed livestock, and also showing greater disdain for the lord who gave turnips to his subjects. But since accidentally tasting the delicious turnip juice once, Swan Maiden Knight also began to secretly drink this incomparably delicious beverage.

  After a while, she found that her skin had become much smoother and from then on, she openly drank with Lady Helen.

  I have to share the same fate as Lady Helen, and Knight Gottani has found a reason for herself to continue drinking potato juice.

  The people of Feilongcui, including slaves, have developed a blind worship mentality towards their lord. This also includes the three madams and even Cui Peishan, as if everyone has an illusion that as long as the lord is present, anything impossible becomes possible.

  A row of large dumbbells made of stone, tied with five thick tree vines, lay on the edge of a bamboo forest. A group of militiamen were panting heavily, their noses running, and their powerful upper bodies covered in sweat. Liu Zhen was lying on a rattan armchair, his feet resting on Kalo's shoulders, while Kalo smiled obsequiously as he massaged Liu's legs with all his might. The red soil mound blocked the shadow of the setting sun, and in the distance, the sky and earth were shrouded in a hazy yellow mist, swirling up clumps of wild grass.

  Recently, the human kingdom of Dolore has had some armed escorts riding high-headed horses from the southern wilderness to the north, heading towards Weatherspoon to welcome back human merchants. Because in winter there is a most important festival for humans - Yostar Festival, this festival is as important to humans as the God's Birthday Festival is to the Bimons, and human merchants will generally return home once during this time, bringing all their annual earnings with them, and preparing goods for the coming year. Since the first snowfall, the number of traveling merchants has gradually increased, and the Red Earth Slope welcomes a new group of travelers every one or two days.

  Although there is no bridge on the vast Sanggan River, the Lord's Avoidance Pearl is indeed powerful. Once it enters the water surface, within a radius of five zhangs, it can forcefully open up a dry road, which is much more convenient and faster than using a raft to cross the river.

  The splendor of the humans dazzled Liu Zhen's eyes, those ordinary knights' chain armor and steel swords made him, a lord who lived in a land where iron was scarce, covet them greatly, these rich humans even had chain armor hanging from their warhorses' necks.

  Liu Zhen was originally thought that this was the famous human heavy cavalry, but after listening to Vieri's introduction, he realized that these people were just some wandering knights. The mounts of the human heavy cavalry would be full-body plate armor, except for the four hooves, and the entire body would be a moving steel fortress.

  This chance to strike at the bamboo pole, how could Liu Zhenpeng let it go?

  Human merchants and their protecting mercenaries expressed strong discontent at the sudden appearance of a toll station on the south bank of the Sanggan River, especially since the prices were so expensive - the passage fee for Firenze was floating, with no clear price tag, depending on the number and extravagance of human attendants.

  As long as you pay, dissatisfaction and complaints are your rights. This is Liu's motto.

  The division of labor at the ferry crossing was very clear, Lord Lingzhu was in charge of negotiations, the two bosses of Feilongcui, Ningyu and Aiwier were responsible for collecting money, plus some fierce-looking vassals and militiamen from the Hu people shouting on the side.

  Liu Zhen felt that among the militia, apart from the attached tribes and the Mastiff people who were still decent-looking, they could hold their own outside of the toll station. As for the other militiamen, if they were put at the toll station, this regular toll station would immediately transform into a makeshift shack run by bandits on the Mongolian border.

  The appearance of the militiamen has become too violent, this period of strict physical training has transformed them, the original logs used for push-ups by the strong men have changed from four to ten, with a total weight of around five tons; The river poets who were originally fat and swollen now have abdominal muscles that are all chunky, one and a half logs can be broken with just one leg, as for the pandas, they don't even need to be mentioned, each one has turned their black eye circles white, the evil energy in their eyes is not hidden, "whooshing" straight out, plus they like to hold a bamboo stick and gnaw wildly, making them look even more ferocious.

  The toll station by the Sanggan River was blocked by a dense bamboo forest, and if anything happened, they could rush over directly, so Liu Zhen severely forbade these big-headed militiamen from exposing themselves casually, lest they scare others.

  Now Old Liu makes them train hard every day, doing deep squats, weightlifting, resistance band exercises, boxing, and long-distance running with heavy loads, not stopping until they're half dead, then takes a bath, drinks, sings, and rolls back to the cave to sleep.

  Humans are generally quite polite, but there are also some shameless people who try to flirt with the two stunning beauties. They quickly calm down though - the Mastiffs will let them take a dip in the icy waters of the Sanggan River to sober up.

  In the territory of the Kingdom of Bimon, no human being has ever dared to fight a group of exclusive warriors belonging to a group of noble lords.

  Mainly, Vieley is carrying a large axe and wandering around. After the bear man dyed his eyes black, he looks exactly like a panda with an Aegean logo on it, only a bit rougher in appearance. Especially that wheel-shaped long-handled big axe, for human physique, it's more like a shield than an axe.

  Protests are inevitable, and some human merchants vowed to return next year to make a statement to the Witherston aristocratic inspectorate.

  Cui Peisheng never dreamed that his disciple's grandson would be such a black-hearted person, and he regretted pointing him to build a ferry to collect tolls.

  Liu Zhen's recent study of comparative law is very thorough, which is a commonality among many criminals or those with serious criminal tendencies.

  "In the territory, the lord has the right to collect suitable taxes. If you feel that the tax is unbearable, you can choose another route back to your country. The area within 500 miles south of the Sanggan River is all under the jurisdiction of Feilongcui. You can choose to disembark at a place 500 miles downstream of the Sanggan River and then return to your hometown." The cunning smile on the face of Lord Pige made the human merchants feel depressed.

  How can we possibly go downstream and disembark? The 500-mile journey will take a long time. The merchants grumbled, but they still had to pay up. Liu Zhen's old acquaintance, Luo Ge, also returned from here a few days ago. Luo Ge, who was full of himself, was ruthlessly fleeced by Liu Zhen and handed over the jade pendant that Jing Yu had given him in exchange for the fare.

  "We have different tolls and measurements than you humans, I forgot to tell you." Liu Zhen shook his head and patted Luo Boss's shoulder, smiling: "Next time you come back, the price will go up again, remember to bring enough gold coins."

  Luoge was furious at the time, his whole body shaking with rage, wanting to curse.

  A cold-faced, burly panda warrior emerged silently from behind the smiling Pig Lord, carrying a massive axe on his back. Rog immediately recalled the comrade who had been choked by the panda warrior until his eyes rolled white, and this panda's head was even bigger, with palms as large as windmills.

  Luoke immediately swallowed back the curse that had reached his throat.

  Liu Zhen was stunned and gazed at the breathtaking beauty of desolation in front of him, draining his cup in one gulp.

  The horn made of river snail shells blown by the Kunlun sentinel on the top of the red earth slope startled Liu's thoughts back to reality.

  The red earth slope was at least forty zhang high, and with the addition of a five-zhang-high arrow tower, even the short-statured Kunlun people could see everything within a radius of fifty li. The militiamen also put down their wine cups, stretched their necks to look into the distance, and rubbed their fists together. "Heh heh... it looks like another fat sheep has come to our door!" Liu Zhenshen jumped up from his reclining chair.