Free Trade City-State, East Street, Mercenary Square, forty or fifty men were sitting in a corner of the square with grim faces.

A red-faced man said to the middle-aged man in front of him, "Brother, I've been waiting for this for a day, and no one has hired us, why don't we go back?"

A trace of gloom flashed through the middle-aged man's eyes, and he pursed his lips and said, "Wait a little longer and see if anyone will come in a while."

The red-faced man sighed long and muttered in a low voice, "I have been waiting for three days now. The people in our village are still hungry. The other mercenary groups have already collected stalls. Can we wait for a job if we wait so much?"

The man next to the red-faced man stumbling him hard, handed him a look and told him not to say anything further. The red-faced man said dissatisfiedly, "It's true, I know that the eldest brother is for our own good, but this is not a solution. If no one hires us, the people in the village will starve to death."

The man next to him whispered, "Do you think your brother doesn't know these? What's the use of these? Do you have a better solution? We have not thought about finding a job as a mailman, but when they heard that we were from the ancient country, they were reluctant to use us at all!"

At this time, a group of people carrying weapons suddenly came to the Mercenary Square, with a total of thirty or forty people. The leader was a handsome, wise and martial young man.

The red-faced man looked at the group of people with weapons and sneered disdainfully, "Look at what I said, it's almost over, and a group of people are coming to compete with us."

The group of people started chatting with the mercenary team in the square. The red-faced man and the middle-aged man heard it. They were talking about hiring mercenaries. The leading young man said, "We need to attack a cottage, and we need to hire a team of mercenaries. The price is easy to negotiate?"

"Attack the clan, what clan? As far as I know, all clans nearby have their own land. We are mercenaries, not robbers. Even if you pay us more, I am afraid that we will have a life to make a living and spend it."

When the red-faced man and the middle-aged man heard the conversation between the two sides, his eyes showed shock and excitement. The middle-aged man immediately caught up with the young man and bowed, "This little brother, do you want to hire mercenaries?"

Lin Tao looked at the middle-aged man in front of him a few times, then looked at the mercenary group behind the middle-aged man, raised his chin, "What, are you interested?"

The middle-aged man asked cautiously, "I don't know what tasks you want to hire a mercenary group to do, the price can be negotiated."

In fact, the villagers in their hometown are now owed food for three consecutive years, and have been out of food for many days, and are on the verge of starvation. So, don’t talk about whether the rewards are good or not, and you can give them a few bags of food as rewards, these men who have no way out may agree immediately.

Lin Tao nodded slightly and said, "We plan to attack a copycat to treat it as our garrison. Of course, any risk this time may be lost. We have inquired about the remuneration for the market price, but if all of you dozens of people participate, we are willing to make this number."

Lin Tao took out a pocket of animal skin, spread the opening of the pocket, and a golden color was revealed inside. The bright light jumped on the middle-aged man's face, making people feel like a dream.

Forest

Tao just shook his skin pocket and immediately tied it in his pocket. The middle-aged man's eyes kept staring at his pocket until Lin Tao completely put it away, and gradually returned to normal. He looked back at his other companions and said, "Give us some time to discuss."

After saying that, the middle-aged man and his companions stepped aside and muttered quietly, while saying a questioning look at Lin Tao. Finally, the middle-aged man returned to Lin Tao and said, "We can accept this reward, but there is a condition. You must pay half of the gold sword coins first as a deposit. Otherwise, there will be no negotiation."

"Okay, deal." Lin Tao agreed readily, which surprised the middle-aged man. He actually did not expect Lin Tao to agree to this condition. In fact, as long as Lin Tao was willing to pay one-third or even one-quarter of the deposit first, they would immediately agree.

Lin Tao took out the pocket of the animal skin, counted half of it from it and handed it to the middle-aged man. When the middle-aged man received the reward, he immediately sent two people to a nearby grain store to buy rice and then transported it back to a village hundreds of miles away. These are all later stories.

"Actually, I have a question. You know that this mission is dangerous, why do you still have to go ahead?" Lin Tao also knew that there were some outlaws in the mercenary team. He was just curious about the reason why these outlaws were outlaws.

The middle-aged man smiled bitterly and said in a deep voice, "Since we have taken this mission, it's okay to tell the truth to you. To be honest, even if we don't take this mission, our families in the village will starve to death. So... we don't care."

Lin Tao turned his head and glanced at him, "Aren't you afraid of capturing the clerk with us and offending Tengguo? That wouldn't it bring disaster to your family and your village?"

A little haze flashed through the middle-aged man's eyes. "Our village is a survivor of an ancient country that was destroyed. The generation of our father and grandfather were once all nobles of the ancient country. So, offend those royal families of Teng Kingdom? We are incompatible with them."

In fact, if it weren't for these two relationships, even if Lin Tao offered double the price, he would probably not have hired a group of mercenaries who were willing to follow them. Just as the mercenaries said, they had the life to make money, but they had no life to spend it.

As the sky became darker, the stalls in the city-state were collected early, and red lanterns were hung in each store, emitting a faint dim light. There are two types of shops in the free trade city-state. The first is inns, hotels, etc., the second is taverns and restaurants for dining, and there are also many remaining places for singing, dancing, brothels and entertainment. This kind of place is usually open all night, and the entire free trade city-state is full of lights and wine, and never sleeps all night.

Shengyang Inn is located at No. 7 East Street. It has tall red lacquer logs, square plaques with gold characters, and long flat lanterns hanging on the eaves of green tiles, with a large "Sheng" written on it, which is extremely lively and prosperous.

At the entrance of the inn, Lin Tao stood for a moment, spread his footsteps and stepped into the threshold.

The hall was brightly lit, with a high counter, seven or eight square tables of pear blossoms and wood, and exquisitely carved dragon ridge lamps, with secret fragrance wax thicker than wrists burning on it.

Lin Tao greeted the inn owner and asked for several rooms in the big bunk bed. With so many mercenaries and disciples of the sect, of course they could not have one room alone, so Lin Tao would go bankrupt tonight.

Although Shengyang Inn is the largest and most famous inn nearby, after calling out nearly 100 people in Lin Tao, after a while, he finally barely settled down.

Lin Tao did not give himself special treatment, and just slept in the big bunk shop like everyone else. After all, everyone works hard with you. Why do you sleep well and eat well? We have to risk our lives in this way? We cannot do this in life.

After a night of rest, Lin Tao took everyone to the village. After nearly two days, they quietly stationed in nearby villages after arriving at their destination.

That night, Lin Tao called the others to his room. For fairness, he also called the leader of the mercenary group, the middle-aged man named Li Chun, to come together and held a combat meeting in the room.

It is said to be a combat meeting, but in fact it is everyone who gathers together to come up with ideas and how to win the copycat with the least amount of losses.

Lin Tao briefly explained their situation and the garrison in the city, then leaned gently behind and sighed, "This is the situation. Now everyone express their opinions and tell me what they think."

"Well……"

Lin Tao glanced at Xiao Zhan, and he looked like he was reluctant to speak, and said, "Brother Xiao, if you have anything to say, you are not outsiders here."

Xiao Zhan hesitated and looked at Li Chun, the leader of the mercenary group, and said, "Brother Lin, you just said that we should take down this hamlet at least because there is only one way, that is, let the mercenary group members walk in front and behind our people. This is right to maximize our health..."

This is obviously a strategy to let the mercenary group be cannon fodder. When Li Chun heard Lin Tao's answer, he pursed the corner of his lips tightly and clenched his fists. He didn't say anything, but his heart must be very complicated. But Lin Tao's next words made him feel relieved.

Lin Tao suddenly changed his words, "You said nothing wrong in the first half, but you misunderstood what I mean. What I mean is to let everyone in our team try not to suffer any losses, not only you and me, these cultivators, but also these mercenary groups. They should be treated equally like us."

Li Chun suddenly felt a heat in his heart, and his fist that had just been clenched suddenly loosened. He stood up and bowed to Lin Tao. "Thank you Brother Lin for your kindness. The brothers in our mercenary group are willing to go through fire and water for Brother Lin and complete the task."

Lin Tao smiled comfortingly and waved his hand gently, "This is not a big deal. Captain Li, I hope you can understand us too. We attacked the parody, just a helpless move, because we came from another world and just wanted to have a foothold in this world to survive. Therefore, our purpose is not to massacre other people or take our own people to die, but to fight for the opportunity to survive. Even if we capture the parody in the future, this position will not change."

There was tears flashing in Li Chun's eyes, and he was completely convinced by Lin Tao, and he nodded firmly.

Lin Tao took a deep breath, thought for a while, and said, "I think it's better for us to ask the villagers here first, maybe we can find out some key information in this fortress from them."

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Medical flow crazy soldiers
Chapter completed!