Chapter 391: Chapter 41 Crossing the River_3 This content belongs to noᴠelfire.net
In addition, there were trade caravans and smugglers.
The Paratu officials sometimes allowed trade and at other times banned it. The winds of policy were always changing, but the demand was ever-present.
As the saying goes, “From the east come tobacco, liquor, oil, cloth, and sugar; from the west come cattle, sheep, mules, and horses.”
When trade was allowed, they were trade caravans; when it was banned, they became smugglers, but all year round there were always people driving their teams back and forth between the Hurd tribes and Paratu.
Most of the time, the government of Paratu turned a blind eye—but that was regarding animals and miscellaneous goods like tobacco, liquor, sugar, and oil.
Any caravan daring to smuggle ironware, firearms, or gunpowder was unforgivable. Even if they had already crossed the midway point of the no-man’s land, the Piaoqi of Paratu would hunt them down to the death.
However, precisely because of this, ironware, firearms, and gunpowder fetched extremely high prices among the Hurd tribes, which led to many risking danger for the sake of profit.
Apart from the Paratu People, there were also Herders in this “no-man’s land.”
The agreement signed with Ned Smith involved three major tribes: Haidong, Suz, and Terdun; but there were also numerous small and medium-sized Hurd tribes.
There were always Hurd tribes that after suffering disasters or losing battles for pastures, would enter the buffer zone, and these Herders were also unprotected by the tribal council.
Sometimes they plundered private settlers from Paratu, and at other times they were slaughtered by settlers, bandits, or even the Piaoqi of Paratu.
In short, when a person stepped into this “no-man’s land,” they were essentially leaving behind all laws, rules, and civilization of the world.
Herders, Shepherds, stealth cultivators, bandits, smugglers… All sorts of people struggled to survive here.
Sometimes they cooperated, at other times they fought each other. Apart from the weapons in their hands, nothing could guarantee a person’s life or property.
The objective of the Republic of Palatu’s current military campaign was to push this area another hundred kilometers further west.
After crossing a hundred-kilometer-wide no-man’s land, the supply train took a full twelve days.
Most people of Paratu grew up hearing stories like “There are bandits across the Border River,” and initially, they were understandably very nervous.
But in the end, not to mention bandits, they barely encountered even a few rabbits.
It was such an uneventful journey that everyone felt a bit disappointed.
There was nothing to be done about it; with three companies of a hundred men each in charge of escorting, only bandits with a death wish would dare to attack the supply train.
The buffer zone was bounded by a river on the side of Paratu, and likewise by a river on the side of the Hurd tribes.
And the Herders’ Border River was much more impressive than that of the Paratu People.
What blocked the caravan was a river nearly four hundred meters wide with rapid currents and unfathomable depths, connected by only an unstable floating bridge between the two shores.
By crossing the river via the Floating Bridge, the caravan entered a camp at the bridgehead to rest.
However, the guards refused to allow any outsiders into the camp, so the petty traders had to spend the night outside the camp.
The guard force at the bridgehead camp was also much larger than the previous camps, with a full-size company of a hundred men completely commanded by a captain.
After settling the caravan, Winters and the others climbed the watchtower of the camp to take in the view.
“Look, that river must be what the Herders call ‘Kurwalya,’ meaning the river that carries souls away, the river of the underworld,” exclaimed Brother Reed, with his face glowing as he pointed at the river: “I’ve long heard of the grandeur of this river, and seeing it today, it truly lives up to its reputation!”
“Kurwalya… Kurwalya…” Winters rolled the word around in his mouth and then realized: “Isn’t Kurwalya a kind of dance? Something like… the Dance to the Styx?”
Brother Reed chuckled: “This is why I say you’re uncultured, you still won’t admit it. That is ‘Kurwaleta,’ the root is the same, but the suffix is different.”
Winters had only heard it mentioned once by Hestas, and he couldn’t remember how it was pronounced. Thinking of the old Shaman, he sighed with a touch of sadness.
“Such a magnificent sight before us, and you sigh? Don’t spoil the mood!” the old monk rolled his eyes.
Remembering an old friend, Winters smiled: “Old man, you need to live a little longer, don’t just die on me, alright?”
“Don’t worry! I definitely will be alive until I die!” laughed the old monk, who was not at all superstitious about such talk.