As Carly walked westward, she noticed that the trees were becoming fewer and fewer, and gradually there were many low bushes.
"Fatty, can you hurry up? You eat less black bread than I do every day! How can you gain so much weight?" Carly was very dissatisfied with the slow-moving fat man.
Without the muscular guy, Carly is like a big sister.
"Talent, talent." The panting fat man was also quite dissatisfied with Carly's way of addressing him. "You should call me Mr. Robber, not Fatty, Carly."
"You idiot, hurry up and keep up with me. If you lose me, watch out for your big ass when we get back." Carly gave the fat man a meaningful look.
The fat man was startled; the leader's enormous feet were now right in front of him. He quickly quickened his pace to catch up with Carly.
"Wow! The houses over there are so beautiful! I really want to live in them." Carly and her companion walked out of the jungle and came to the open space in front of them, where they could see the Peach Blossom Village in the distance.
"Carly, look at that castle over there. It's even worse than the mud houses we live in." The fat man pointed to the dilapidated castle in the distance.
"Mr. Robber, if you can't speak properly, then don't speak." Carly was annoyed that the fat man had disrupted her fantasy.
However, this castle is indeed not very impressive.
"Let's go see what's going on," Carly said, and walked forward, with the fat man quickly following behind.
This strange combination immediately caught the attention of the villagers who were cultivating the crops in front of them. A fat man and a thin little girl—it would be strange if such a contrast didn't attract attention.
"Hello, sir, we were a caravan on our way to trade, but we ran into some trouble and got separated. We ended up here without realizing it. We don't know where we are. Could we rest in the village for a while before making any plans? This is my servant." Carly told a story to a villager who was working in the fields.
Upon hearing this, the fat man was somewhat dissatisfied, but seeing the look in Carly's eyes, he obediently shut his mouth.
Upon hearing that the girl had gotten separated from the group and was a little girl, the villager became less wary.
"This is Grey Fortress Territory. You can get to the village from this side." The villager was very hospitable.
"Huh? Uncle, are all your farming tools made of iron? Why are you planting so much wheat?" Carly suddenly noticed that the villagers were all holding iron hoes. There was a lot of wheat planted in the land. She knew that although wheat bread was delicious, the yield was very low. Most territories rarely grew it, and even if they did, it was only a small amount, and it was mostly taken by lords and nobles. Ordinary people rarely got to eat it.
"You don't know this, do you? Our farm tools have long been replaced with iron ones. Not just hoes, but the entire plow is made of iron, and it takes two or three people to hold it up. Look at the land over there, it was just reclaimed not long ago and is being cultivated now. Some of the land over there only requires a 10% tax." The villager finished speaking with an envious look in his eyes.
Ah! Carly was somewhat incredulous. How heavy must the entire iron plow be? How much iron must it have required? She had never seen an iron plow made entirely of iron where she lived. This amount of iron certainly wasn't something these villagers could afford, and over there, only a tenth of the land was taxed. Could there really be such a benevolent lord? This territory seemed incredibly wealthy! But why did that castle look so dilapidated? Carly was puzzled.
"Uncle, you only pay 10% tax on your land. Your lord must be a really good person." Carly was somewhat skeptical.
"Yes, our lord is a very kind man." The villager looked at the castle with gratitude in his heart.
"Then, where can we meet this benevolent lord?"
"In the middle of the village."