Chapter 40 Liquid Markets
"In recent years, the Commercial Federation of Santo has always had a long-term plan." Captain Aerland said at the front end of the fleet: "As the organization most familiar with commercial operations in the entire continent, they are preparing to set up a commercial guild in the next few decades. It is said that this will make the channels more smooth and the costs are cheaper."
"This is a good thing." Catherine nodded and said, "But by then there will be three large guilds in the Saint City, which will be even more crowded, right?"
"So they are communicating with the three cities and preparing to start building a new city in the heart of Reala in thirty years. It is said to be a city that operates purely commercially." Aerland said: "But they have no deterrent force, so the three cities need to jointly undertake the protection work."
"Central?" Lina said in surprise: "It is the barren land in the entire Reya, right? It is almost impossible to have any output. How could they choose there?"
"I can't understand what they said. I can't understand what they say, "I don't need any production or other words." Airland said helplessly: "But I don't need to understand. Anyway, they will start building the city thirty years later. When the city is built, it will probably take at least fifty years later. I guess I can't see it, but you may still have a chance to take a few glances."
"Fifty years? Long time." Catherine was dazed in the wilderness, as if she was fantasizing about what she looked like after fifty years: "It's hard to imagine, this concept in fifty years."
"Hey, the chat time is over." Panis ran back on his horse: "I walked for a while and heard the sound of people and cars in front of me. It should be a team of other travelers, as if they were lunch. It seemed that we could buy a carriage."
It is already the fourth day of the convoy starting from the Capital of Knowledge. In the four days, if the straight-line distance between the two cities is calculated, the convoy has already walked halfway. But if you walk forward for a long time, the main road will turn to the north. After taking a long arc, then turn to the southeast and finally reach Free City. So, if you calculate according to the road, the convoy has just walked one third.
Although from the beginning of the morning, everyone discussed buying a few carriages on the road to replace the ones that were destroyed as bait. But today it was abnormal. It was almost noon, but there was no caravan, let alone a caravan. It was very boring to just rush along the way. The players were playing games for two days in a row. Several veterans in the team came to the scene in person, seemingly chatting, but in fact they told the team members some strange stories they encountered during adventures or travel. After finally surviving for a long time, the captain Aerland, who had not lived in the wild for a long time, found that the stories he still remembered were almost told. While talking and working hard to study the next topic, Panis brought this good news. At that moment, Aerland felt that Panis was his savior and brought information that could save the world.
"How far is it?" asked Alland. "If it's not far, let's buy a carriage and have lunch break."
"Seven or eight kilometers." Panis calculated and replied: "If you hurry up, you can arrive in less than an hour at most."
"It's great. Don't chat for now." Aerland finally breathed a sigh of relief, commanding the team members and coachmen: "There is no need to save horsepower. Speed up the speed. When you buy a carriage, you need to re-place gifts when you have lunch break. Then there is plenty of time for the horse to rest. And, young men, please be energetic. The earlier we arrive, the more time we will have to rest. Come on."
Under Aerland's command, the convoy's speed increased significantly. No one spoke, and everyone was rushing to the road, hoping to get more rest time to deal with the long afternoon. Thirty minutes later, the people in the team could already see the darkness in the distance, with several groups of people gathering on the edge of the wilderness next to the road.
"It seems that we are really lucky today." Seeing the large crowds in the distance, Aerland said happily: "We have encountered such a rare scene."
"It seems that this is not the first time you have seen the captain in this kind of scene." Panis pointed to the crowd from afar and asked, "What are those people doing?"
"That's a mobile market, just like a market. Most of the participants are different merchants from two cities. Sometimes, like now, they agree on a middle position, and both parties or multiple parties will trade in this agreed position, which will save the hard work of continuing to move forward. It's a killing of multiple goals." Aerland said: "In fact, this is the prototype of the idea of the Federation of Commerce to build a separate city. I suggest you go shopping in a while. It's quite an interesting activity."
"I'll definitely be there." Catherine looked at the mobile market closer and closer with interest and said, "And I think we can get all four trucks together today, and the people in the team who are still troubled by the crowd can finally breathe a sigh of relief."
As we spoke, the mobile market was getting closer and closer. The noisy voices in the market could be clearly heard into the ears of each team member, and the appearance of the market was clearly displayed to the team members. This is a large market covering an area of about two square kilometers. The market is surrounded by a detachable wooden wall that is half a person high. Every five meters inside the wooden wall stands a fully armed guard ready to deal with emergencies at any time.
There are a large number of caravans parked scattered in the wooden walls, which should be distinguished by caravans. Each caravan occupies an area of varying sizes according to its size, and there are often ten meters of open space between the areas. Not all goods are crowded together in the same area, but independent mobile counters are formed by different merchants. The types of goods sold are hanging in the air above the counter. The types of goods here are much richer than what you think, such as food, wine, clothing, daily necessities, local specialties, luxury goods and even special items for professionals and crystals. These can be found in this mobile market.
"There are so many people." Although Catherine had heard of it before, it was the first time she had actually seen such a mobile market. She looked around curiously: "Are these all for exchanging goods?"
"It's not exchange, but for sale." Airland corrected: "The original bartering was only used in the earliest stages of the mobile market. Later, after the market became famous, there were a large number of small caravans who received news to buy some cheap goods. Later, the Federation simply opened the market to the public, and everyone could come in to buy things, but it was all commodity transactions and would not be sold separately."
"It's so interesting. I didn't expect that a group of ordinary people could come up with such an interesting idea." Lina raised her head, looked at the entire market with a condescending look, and said in a proud tone: "However, there are so many humans here, which makes people really want to swallow their souls, oh hehehe."
"I advise you not to eat, and whisper." Pannis looked involuntarily and covered his face and said, "The organizers are willing to spend money for safety. There are at least two thousand elite mercenaries here to ensure safety. I guess it is a large mercenary group. Moreover, for safety reasons, some larger caravans have hired adventure groups or small mercenary groups as guards. Together, these defensive forces are added, you probably can't beat them."
"Is this true?" Lina hesitated for a moment and sighed with a pity: "Then let's bear it and eat it next time."
"Bang." Catherine, who could not bear it, gently punched Lina on the head: "You two, please restrain me. Have I not talked to you for a long time?"
"I was wrong." Lina and Penis immediately lowered their heads, admitted their mistakes and said with good performance: "Please forgive us this time."
After passing through the periphery of the market, he entered the real mobile market. Although the people in the caravan could see at a glance that this was a wedding delivery convoy rather than a caravan, in recent years, many passers-by were willing to come in and join in and buy some things, so the merchants were not too surprised. At most, they just took a few more glances on Freya's luxury carriage. However, the caravan's guards were different. For such outsiders with obvious differences, the guards stared at them vigilantly throughout the whole process, until the wedding delivery convoy met a team of mercenaries patrolling around the market.
"Ha, who did I see? Isn't this Captain Aerland?" The leader of the mercenary opposite laughed loudly, "Are you here to escort missions too? No, your city guards don't take the mission, you are... Oh, oh, oh, I understand, hahaha, no wonder you escort yourself."
"So it's Rams." Airland raised his index finger in front of his mouth: "Shh, whisper, this news has spread across you?"
"No, I don't know why, the president asked for confidentiality, so now only the top leaders of the two mercenary groups know that the others have not received the news yet. But I guess the news will definitely spread as soon as you enter Free City."
"It won't matter if it spreads at that time." Aerlan breathed a sigh of relief: "Why are you, the captain, taking someone to patrol yourself? You are so idle?"
"You have to find something to do." Rams obviously had a good relationship with Aerland. He came over and punched Aerland in the chest, and suddenly said in surprise: "Hey, why are there only passenger car? I heard that you also brought a lot of gifts."
"The truck had some minor problems in the middle of the way and it broke." Airland casually wrote: "So don't you want to discuss buying a few trucks for emergency use?"
"Oh, then you're really unlucky." Rams expressed gloating at Ayrland's embarrassment: "I still have to patrol. I won't talk to you for now. In an hour, you should have been almost done with the late lunch time. Then go to the rest area inside to find me, and let's have a good chat."
Chapter completed!