Chapter 491: War and disorder 1
Chapter 491: War Trouble 1
“Fighting over! Fighting over!”
A guy dressed as a merchant ran into the tavern in panic.
He was a very rich man, struggling to move his large belly and exhausting himself to the point of gasping for breath, yet didn’t slow his pace at all, not even caring that the wig on his head was about to fall off.
With a loud thud, the merchant collided with the waiter carrying the wine, and both of them fell on their backs together, making a close contact with the floor.
Lister, who was drinking, put down his glass and looked at the wretched merchant.
Under his gaze, the merchant hurriedly got up from the floor, ignoring his soiled clothes and screaming hysterically.
“Run, all of you, quickly! Collins’ cavalry is coming!”
“What are you babbling about? Jeb is a neutral city-state!”
Someone loudly refuted him, but a hint of fear was clearly taken away from his voice.
The merchant nonchalantly shot back, “Neutral? Neutrality my ass, you can only be neutral when others tell you to be neutral, what’s the point of shouting neutrality yourself? The cavalry of the inlanders is already only a few miles away from this city, if you don’t believe me, go out the east gate and see for yourself! I’m done talking to you!”
He scuffed up the stairs, this tavern also doubled as lodging, and presumably went to pack his own bags.
The guests who were drinking looked at each other in disbelief.
Lister’s heart went cold, thinking that he wouldn’t be so unlucky, would he?
Because of the tense situation in the Horned Bay Alliance, he had left Fort Ness early to avoid getting involved in the war.
On the fringes of the Horned Bay, there were still some small city-states that did not offend either way that were neutral, neither opposing the church nor condemning the apostasy of the coastal countries. This provides a sheltered harbor for some merchants who are reluctant to leave the Horned Bay – many believe that the war will not last too long, and that with one or two larger battles, peace will soon return to the Horned Bay as one side loses, surrenders, pays out money, or cedes land, and then it will be time to make money happily again.
Jeb is one such city-state that proclaims its neutrality.
But today it was surprising to see cavalry from the church side approaching the city that did not want to be involved in a war.
The merchants were talking about it.
“The lord of Jeb should intervene, right?”
“A friend just told me that he saw the lord’s caravan out hunting there at the south gate.”
“……”
Lister no longer hesitated, he decided to leave the city immediately.
He padded the bag of money in his arms and felt that it was enough for a while, so he decided not to go back to his lodgings to pack his bags.
After running out of the tavern, Lister went straight to a nearby carriage house, the one he rode to Yebu was sick.
After entering the carriage house, his tense heart relaxed by half, luckily, there weren’t many people here yet, it looked like not many people had learned the news.
He took a fancy to a mid-range carriage equipped with two steeds, the carriage was not too big and could sit open for two or three people.
He said to the coachman, “How much to neighboring Praia?”
The coachman held out three fingers, “Three silver coins, sir.”
Lister cheerfully pulled out three silver coins and slapped them in the cart driver’s hand, “Can we leave now?”
“Yes, sir.”
Lister was just about to get into the carriage when he saw a large group of people pouring into the carriage house.
“How much to Praia?”
“How much to Sonson?”
“How much for this horse of yours?”
The people pouring in were all here to rent a car or buy a horse.
The coachman immediately realized what was going on, and he seized Lester, who was about to mount the carriage, by the lapels of his coat.
“Guest, it’s ten silver coins now.” Liszt grimaced, “Why are you so dishonest?”
The cart driver hemmed and hawed, “The me of just now is not the me of now.”
Lister didn’t want to argue philosophically with him as he looked around the caravan.
What to do? Find someone else? But almost all the carriage drivers were negotiating prices with others.
“Alright, ten pieces is ten pieces!”
Lister gritted his teeth and agreed to the carter’s price increase.
“Guest, please get in the car and do your best, we’ll be leaving soon.”
Lister got into the carriage, the coachman shook the reins, and the two horses pulled the carriage into motion.
Waiting besides the carriage and horse line, Lister found something wrong, “Wait, going to Praia doesn’t seem to be out of the city gate in this direction, right?”
“Master!” The cart driver replied loudly, “My home is in Yebu, and I still have a wife and child at home na, I want to take them to Praia together.”
Liszt cried tears of joy upon hearing this, and hated himself for not looking for someone else when he got into the carriage house just now.
By the time the coachman arrived home to receive his wife and children, the news of the cavalry outside the city had already spread throughout the city, the streets were filled with chaotic crowds, there were those who rushed to the outside of the city, there were those who rushed to buy food, there were those who searched around for their loved ones, and the traffic was chaotic, which greatly impacted the carriage’s movement.
After another hour or so, Liszt and his party finally left the city walls of Yebu.
“Can you go a little faster with this carriage?”
Liszt was on the verge of crying, impatiently urging the driver who had just lashed a whip into the horse’s ass.
“Master, this is the speed, it can’t go any faster, there are four of us in this cart.”
The driver could only answer him this way.
The helpless Liszt could only keep drawing the holy emblem on his chest, praying that everything would go well for him and that he wouldn’t run into any messy soldiers.
Unfortunately, it was true that what you fear comes to you.
They hadn’t even traveled three miles when they ran into two groups of troops on the plains in front of them.
One group of armies bore the flag of Jeb, and the other group of armies had a flag that Lister did not recognize, it should not be Collins’, but in all likelihood, it was an allied army of Collins.
The other pedestrians who took refuge on the road immediately turned around and ran away in all directions.
Lister discussed with the driver and decided to hide in the nearby grove first, following the others was too big of a target, God knows if there were any other armies in the neighborhood.
After coming to the grove, they parked the car. The terrain here was higher, so they could see the surrounding situation clearly.
Lister and the driver quietly hid in the bushes at the edge of the woodland, observing the two groups of armies that had already set up their positions in the distance.
The soldiers on both sides seemed to be shouting at each other, each one dancing and making gestures of contempt for the enemy.
However, those knights riding high horses and wearing armor were staring at each other without moving a muscle.
Lister noticed that there were quite a few unridden horses parked near the group of troops with unknown flags, perhaps the main force of this army was not cavalry, and mounted infantry.
Accompanied by the high and low sound of horns and the waving of flags, both sides gradually quieted down, and then slowly approached each other under the command of those commander-like knights.
The infantrymen basically held their spears in their hands, with those in the front row holding their spears straight ahead and flat, while those in the back row held their own spears out through the gaps in the front row or on the shoulders of those in front.
From a distance, the two sides’ spear formations looked like two porcupines approaching each other with their backs to each other.
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(End of chapter)