264 Carriage Search
When Qiao Mu heard this, she put away the yellow summoning talisman before lifting a corner of the curtain and looking outside.
Yellow sand and thick earth were all that filled her eyes. She could vaguely see a sparse number of houses dotting the hazy sand-scape.
The western border truly was not as prosperous and wealthy as the Mo Kingdom.
Qiao Mu jumped down from the carriage and the chicken also flapped its wings, jumping to her side. Its slender feet joyously running forward.
"Up ahead is the small border town of the Qiu Kingdom." Uncle Wang was leading his horse. He said with relief, "Our whole journey has been rather smooth. Miss Qiao, let's go over there now."
Their journey had indeed been rather smooth, and they did not even encounter a single zombie within the borders of the Mo Kingdom, which Qiao Mu found somewhat unimaginable.
However, after leaving the Mo Kingdom and entering the Liang Kingdom, they ran into a small wave of zombies. Thankfully, their caravan escaped fast enough, so they did not have a direct confrontation with those zombies, wasting their energy.
"Miss Qiao, the further west you travel, the more you have to be careful. Although the Qiu Kingdom is a small kingdom, its monarch is brutal, tyrannical, and licentious, so his soldiers also rampage as they wish and extort from the common people…" Uncle Wang shook his head with a sigh. "We'll need to hand over some supplies when we pass by Pony Town. Sit inside the carriage and don't say a word, Miss Qiao."
Qiao Mu nodded and returned inside the carriage again. Big Cyan, aka that weak chicken, also jumped up and sat on its knees next to the child in a good emulation.
The carriage bounded toward Pony Town on the border of the Qiu Kingdom.
It naturally slowed down as it neared the town's entrance and followed the queue to enter.
There were not a lot of people waiting to enter the Qiu Kingdom.
Most of the population in the northern region of Sikong Planet were concentrated in the Mo Kingdom. Except for traveling merchants, very little normal refugees would escape to a tiny, arduous kingdom like the Qiu Kingdom in a bid for survival.
"What are you doing? What's in your hand? Hand it over!" The interrogating soldier ignored any protest and snatched the basket from an elderly woman's hands.
He lifted the cloth covering the basket, and a repulsive salted fish smell assaulted his nose. This was f*cking stinky, but she treated it like a treasure! The soldier was so angry that he smashed the basket onto the ground.
The elderly woman knelt down while weeping to pick up the salted fish that dropped onto the dirt. She was impatiently kicked by the Qiu soldier and tumbled to the side.
"Hurry and scram!"
"Line up properly! What are you looking at?" The soldier then turned to Uncle Wang's caravan, greed flitting through his eyes. "Come over, come over! Caravan, come over! What are you transporting?"
Uncle Wang handed a small bag of beans with a smile and quietly said next to the soldier's ear, "Brother, we're a trading company from the Mo Kingdom and have a contract with your esteemed country's Duanmu Trade Union to exchange merchandise. This is our official correspondence between the two kingdoms, as well as the letter of certification from Duanmu Trade Union."
The soldier glanced at Uncle Wang and took the documents to look at it. He did not dare to be too hard on them. After all, the Duanmu Trade Union was well-renowned in their Qiu Kingdom, and even the King of the Qiu Kingdom would tremble along if the patriarch of the Duanmu Family stomped his feet.
A minor soldier like him naturally did not dare to be hard on the guest of the Duanmu Trade Union. However, this tiny bag of beans that did not even amount to five pounds was truly too little. Once it was divided amongst him and his brothers, it was uncertain whether each person could get half a pound.
The soldier glanced at Uncle Wang. "According to the rules, we have to search the carriages."
Monkey furiously glared at the soldier but Uncle Wang dragged him to the side by his sleeves. Uncle Wang answered with a chuckle, "Sir Soldier, have a look. However, our miss is in the first carriage, so I hope you won't disturb her…"
