Urban Sims

Chapter 66 Plateau Corridor
After the beginning of spring in March.

Grand collar, Rose Town.

Inside a tavern called "Wife Louise".

A group of strangers with foreign accents, armed with weapons and menacing looks, male and female, were sitting around a table, drinking ale and chatting about something.

"Cousin Jieluo, you really don't want to be a free-spirited thief, but some kind of mercenary in this small place?"

A well-built man with blond hair and brown eyes, dressed as a thief, took a sip of ale and asked incomprehensibly.

"Yes, my cousin Biro, I intend to wash my hands and do some legitimate business instead of hiding my head and tail in the forest for the rest of my life."

After taking a sip of the slightly bitter cheap ale, the thief Jero said in a low voice.

Originally, he was well-known in the thieves world, with a capable small team, and with a high success rate of crimes, he was not particularly bad. He also felt that he could live in this industry for a lifetime, and when he was old Well, I have saved a sum of money, and I will go to some big cities in the south for retirement. It is better to find a wife and have a few sons or something, then it will be more perfect...

But I don’t know why, since last year, many kingdoms have successively established some business alliance organizations, and the life of these thieves has become particularly difficult. In order to protect the smooth flow of business, the lords of various business alliances have Unite together, adopt the tactics of joint encirclement and suppression, and wipe out many stubborn dens of thieves. The robber Jie Luo himself fell into a big fight in a territory of the Iron Castle Kingdom. Most of his brothers were killed and injured. Among his subordinates, only the four most clever remained.

After escaping from birth, Jie Luo, the thief who felt that there was no future for him as a thief, learned from the rumors in the green forest that Grandling had established a mercenary union and formed a "Free Merchant Alliance Mercenary Group" and was recruiting mercenaries on a large scale. After joining the army, he heard that the salary was good, and Jie Luo, the thief who felt that the industry of thieves was becoming more and more risky, suddenly had the idea of ​​changing careers.

In addition, for Edward, the eldest son of the lord of Granland, the thief Jero had a relationship with him once, or had an experience of "fighting". For example, if a robber saw a fat cow and sheep, how could the robber Jie Luo, who was originally a thief, let go of this opportunity to bite this "fat sheep"?
But the thief Jie Luo's dream of getting rich was soon shattered. He hadn't snatched the treasure yet. He had a team that was always good at digging traps. In the trap, including himself, he was all captured by the young and unreasonable eldest son of the lord.

The big thief Jie Luo was very surprised that the eldest son of the lord did not kill himself, but released all of them, and gave him some extra money, telling him: If you don’t want to be a thief in the future, you can come to Ge Lan Ling came to him, and he could arrange a way for them to live a more stable life.

At that time, the thief Jie Luo didn't take this to heart, but when he was in a difficult, embarrassing, frustrated and confused situation recently, he heard the news that Granin was going to establish a mercenary union, which seemed to ignite a fire in his heart. Gero returned to the land that once brought him deep powerlessness and extreme fear.

I brought my four companions with me, and I brought the glimmer of hope in my heart.

"Mr. Biro, why didn't you continue to be your thief, but showed your face and came to Grandland?"

The snake girl sitting on the side asked a little strangely, the cousin of the boss has been asking the boss why he doesn't continue to be a thief, but as a thief, Mr. Biro, who should have been hiding his head and tail, appeared openly In this tavern?
You know, this Mr. Biro is a well-known "devil thief" in the world of thieves. He is the ultimate thief as terrifying as the devil. He has committed heinous crimes that wiped out three villages. The bounty for the head on his neck , I don’t know how many times it is the thief Jero.

"Cough cough~"

The Bandit Biro coughed twice, and explained rather embarrassingly: "I just came here to avoid the limelight. How can I, the Bandit Biro, do anything other than being a thief? Only a thief can give me what I want." Everything!" Speaking of the agitated Mahiro Biro behind him, the open collar of his clothes accidentally revealed a metallic luster.

"Mercenary Medal?"

The sharp-eyed Dax Johnson saw the thing in the collar of the bandit Biro at a glance, and quickly put one hand on his neck, and then asked the one-eyed Leondo to grab his two hands, and the other His hand groped from the chest inside his collar, and in the sound of the other party's "Don't, don't, don't", after a while, he took out a golden round pie-shaped badge with teeth on the edge.

"Gold Badge?"

Everyone was shocked, and the dwarf Dom even shouted: "Gold-ranked mercenaries! This is a gold-ranked mercenary above bronze, black iron, and silver. We have been here for a few days and this is the first time If you saw a mercenary wearing a gold medal, Demon Bandit Biro, tell me, how did you pass the gold mercenary examination and get this badge?"

The assessment of the mercenary guild is multi-faceted, and the assessment of personal force is only one part. There must also be assessments of field survival ability, knowledge of cultures and customs of various countries, and assessments of various crisis response capabilities. Get the gold-level mercenary medal.

"This is going to be difficult..."

After being exposed, the Demon Bandit Biro stopped hiding, and said with a proud face: "The assessment of a gold-ranked mercenary not only tests martial arts and customs and cultures of various countries, but also tests outdoor survival, plant medicine, and Dealing with some special situations, such as falling off a cliff, biting a poisonous snake, lack of water in the desert, passing through swamps, etc., these are not difficult for me..."

Listening to the thieves cousin, with a babbling look, the black-faced thief Jie Luo squeezed his fists and said to the cousin: "My dear cousin, didn't you just say that there are people who are not thieves? you can't do anything?"

"Hey, did I say that? It seems like I didn't?"

"You bastard, go to hell with me!"

After the slapstick ended, the robber Jie Luo and the others, who had been hesitant at first, didn't hesitate any more. That afternoon, they went to the registration window of the Qiangwei Town Mercenary Union, registered and took the mercenary level test.

……

on the other hand.

As more and more people from all walks of life come to the mercenary union to sign up, after passing the mercenary assessment and certification, they will become official mercenaries at levels such as trainee, bronze, black iron, silver, gold, and platinum (not available for now). More and more, the first established mercenary organization "Free Trade Alliance Mercenary Group" is also accepting people like a sponge absorbing water and never rejecting those who come. The number of recruits quickly breaks through 1000, 2000, 3000... reaching 5000 When the quota is full, the recruitment will stop.

……

Early summer in May.

The snow mountains to the east melted.

It is located at the foot of the Ural Snow Mountain, about 100 kilometers east of the Yukonland, on the Ural Plateau with an average altitude of nearly 6000 meters.

Under the rolling snow-capped mountains with few people, no vegetation, and no birds, a group of human beings who endured the high cold and hypoxic environment appeared in this quiet land.

Most of these humans are tall, hairy, brown-eyed savages. Under the strict supervision of hundreds of supervisors holding whips, these savages are desperately digging rocks, carrying iron pine logs, and laying Wooden rails—many savages with weaker physiques only lasted for three to five days before falling to the ground forever. For savages with stronger physiques, the burden on the heart and lungs caused by the hypoxic environment increased, resulting in death from heart and lung failure. There are dozens of them.

Zhou Ming, who is fully in charge of the design, construction, and operation of this "plateau track", although he is not used to the oxygen content of only half of the plain area, although he also expresses his apologies to the hundreds of savages who die every day... But these sacrifices are necessary. He must open up the about 100-kilometer upward track from Yucanling to the Ula Plateau within three months.

As long as this track is completed, the commercial products produced by the Free Trade Union will be able to pass through the Ula Plateau, the fold channel between the two large mountains with a length of about 1500 kilometers and a width of about 100 kilometers from north to south. Arrive at a new country located in the south of the Iron Castle Kingdom, which is richer than the Iron Castle Kingdom-Copper Mountain Kingdom (a kingdom famous for its rich copper mines).

Through the [world map] in his mind, Zhou Ming noticed that the wrinkled passage in the middle of the Ula Plateau is difficult except for climbing a mountain with an average altitude of more than 6000 meters, but as long as you climb over this mountain and enter the folded area, The rest of the road is as flat as a vast grassland with slight undulations.

Not only that, this folded area running from north to south is high in the north and low in the south. It is shaped like a slide that kindergarten children love to play. Walking from north to south is like a stream in a river. Going down along the terrain saves time and effort. Fast and fast.

But if you go from south to north, it is difficult to climb a mountain, and you will only get more and more tired.

What's more coincidental is that at the southern end of this folded zone, in the eastern mountains of the Copper Mountain Kingdom, there is just a wide natural gap, which is convenient for people and materials to enter and exit through the gap, without the need to climb the mountain again and build another track.

"Isn't this the 'Plateau Corridor' that God prepared for me? As long as the most difficult 100 kilometers are cleared, the next 1500 kilometers will be the 'Golden Road' where no one can stop the Free Trade Union from making money? "

"However, even with the adoption of the step-by-step construction method that speeds up the progress, the dozens of tons of explosives accumulated in the past few years are almost blown up, and the track-laying speed of tens of thousands of workers is still less than two kilometers a day. The road section is less than one-third, so Earl William and the others need to catch more savages, otherwise, if the road is not repaired before August, when the snow season approaches, it will be a big deal this year I can't do it anymore..."

The current Free Trade Union is being squeezed out and resisted by various forces. If a new business route is not opened to break the deadlock and obtain new breakthrough points of interests, otherwise, under the blockade of various forces, the Free Trade Union will either fall apart. Or turn to increase military investment and take the road of overturning tables and killing people...

(End of this chapter)