Unknown Knight

After having breakfast at the Bedouin old man's house, Aix and his party spent more than a dozen silver coins to buy almost all the dried meat in their store, and even all the cheese made from a mixture of goat's milk and camel's milk.

The price at which these things were sold was twice as high as the price the old Bedouin man paid when he drove his camel all the way to Zion to sell them. If it weren't for the need to keep some basic food rations, he would have wanted to sell all his stored food.

The apologetic old Bedouin, under Afanti's persuasion, sold a camel to Aix for three gold coins to load the supplies purchased from him. Of course, he made a lot of money. The same camel would only cost two gold coins at most in Zion City.

Perhaps feeling that he had made a lot of money, the old Bedouin man felt a little guilty, so he told Afanti something that everyone needed to pay attention to: there was a group of hundreds of robbers outside the city of Zion, and their leader was called Hassan.

Moreover, the old Bedouin man also advised Aix not to buy too many camels at one time. Generally, Bedouin herders would only sell four or five camels at most when they sold livestock and supplies. The robbers led by Hassan would not usually rob them, but if there were more than ten camels, they had to be careful, especially for travelers from other places, who would basically be doomed.

After listening to the old man's kind advice, Aix had a bad feeling about this trip to Zion, but the harsh reality left them with no choice but to go on this trip.

Through the communication between Afanti and the old man last night, he learned that due to the severe lack of water in this death desert, even if there is a brief rainfall, it will be evaporated by the strong sunlight, so that the vegetation here is sparse and the land can only support a very limited number of livestock and people.

Therefore, the people encountered in this area are all nomads living in family units, and the population of each family generally does not exceed ten people. Otherwise, the land cannot support them, and they have to migrate to pastures at the risk of being sunburned to death or dying of thirst.

Moreover, the financial resources of every nomadic Bedouin family are similar to that of this old man, and they don't have many camels. The reality is that even if you want to buy a camel, they may not sell it to you. After all, for the Bedouins living here, camels are different from other livestock. They are strategic materials essential for survival.

According to this reality, if Aix did not go to Zion City to buy camels, but instead went to the scattered Bedouin nomads in the wild to buy them, it would take an unknown amount of time to gather twenty camels to cross the Death Desert.

It seems that the city of Zion is a place that we must visit. As for how to transport as many as twenty camels and supplies safely without attracting attention, we can only think about it when the time comes.

After bidding farewell to the old Bedouin family, Aix and his party headed along the coastline towards the city of Zion, two hundred miles away.

They stopped and walked along the way, and came across two fishing villages with only two or three households, as well as a family of Bedouin nomads.

It took them a total of six days to reach Zion City. If there had been no delays on the road, the journey from Mingsha Bay to Zion City would have taken only two and a half to three days at their speed. However, Aix deliberately stayed a little longer on the road.

One reason was to ask people along the way for news about the city of Zion, so they would stay in each settlement for one or two days.

Second, isn't it because their genes are so excellent and rare? Whether they arrive in a fishing village or a herdsman's home, they are warmly received. This special treatment is also welcomed by the team members.

With the two daughters of Ai Suranying, Aix could not let a full man not know the hunger of a hungry man, which ruined everyone's interest. They had to let it go, which seriously delayed the journey. It took everyone five or six days to walk the 200-mile journey.

However, with these five or six days of buffer, Axe and his team had enough time to carefully inquire about various information about the city of Zion.

Through the information collected and summarized in these three settlements, Aix learned that the so-called Zion City was actually just a larger town with a total population of only three to four thousand inside and outside the city. Moreover, it was a city without a lord, so the public security was very chaotic.

The reason why a large settlement of a town can be formed is mainly due to the five major families entrenched in the city to maintain the most basic order. These five major families are the five largest forces in the city with the family as the core. Most of the important affairs in the city are decided by the five major families. They are:

The planter Harisi family is the earliest settler of the city of Zion. They made their fortune by planting spices such as cloves, cumin, and nutmeg. The family is powerful, has the deepest roots, and is the most populous of the five families.

The Isam family is a mercenary family. The head of the family, Isam, is the leader of the largest mercenary group in the city - the Rattlesnake Mercenary Group. The mercenary group he leads consists of more than 120 mercenaries, who are mainly engaged in caravan escort and city security. It is considered the most powerful force in the city.

The Sabir family, a merchant family, is the richest family in the city. Not only nearly half of the inns and hotels in the city are owned by them, but also the largest trading company in the city. It can be said that most of the commercial activities in the city are more or less related to them.

The slave trader Ogbai family is actually the behind-the-scenes king of the entire Zion. As the name suggests, their family is mainly engaged in the slave trade. It is said that their family is engaged in big business, which is the cross-continental maritime slave trade. They have established slave bases in places such as Gronia Continent, Shariz in Calradia Continent, and even in the distant Eastern Continent.

The city of Zion was actually originally built by their family. Because it was located at the middle node of their family's slave trade route, it became an important base for them to temporarily detain slaves in transit, as well as a port of call for replenishing fresh water and supplies.

The price setter is the Fahad family. The patriarch Fahad has four brothers, and he is the second oldest. In his early years, he was a livestock dealer in the city. He is tall and strong, very barbaric and ferocious. His other three brothers are mostly the same. In addition, he has many cousins ​​and in-laws. Relying on these forces, Fahad gradually became the boss of the livestock business.

After Farhad took control of the livestock business, he had the final say in the pricing of camels and other livestock. He made a lot of money from this and kept dozens of gangsters in the city around him.

Camels, donkeys, horses and other livestock sold in the livestock market are important means of production here. Especially the camel, which is called the ship of the desert, can be said to be an indispensable livestock, so much so that all the locals who come to trade have to give him face and try their best to please him.

Over time, this guy became more and more powerful. Even the Bedouins from the deep desert, who were known for their unruly nature, respected and feared him. When they came to trade livestock, they had to obediently accept his exploitation.

The Farhad family is an existence that Aix cannot avoid on his trip to Zion City. Judging from the information he has learned along the way, the head of the family, Farhad, has a bad reputation. It seems that the purchase of a large number of camels on this trip will not be so smooth.