The gray-white wall, about 3 meters high, stands in front of it, extending to the sides to the end of Lumian's sight.
Many box-style carriages, four-seater carriages, open-top carriages, tandem carriages, and wagons lined up in a line, waiting to pass through the city gate.
There were tax collectors in blue uniforms and police officers in white shirts and black vests checking one by one, asking passers-by to take out their identification documents or open suitcases from time to time.
Lumian looked there, carrying a brown suitcase, looking around from time to time, trying to find a way to escape the level.
Not long after, a man who noticed his behavior approached.
"What's wrong, friend, I feel like you're annoyed?" The man was slightly shorter than Lumian, but twice as wide as he was, and the flesh on his cheeks bulged out, squeezing his blue eyes very small.
As soon as he approached, the smell of sweat and inferior perfume penetrated into Lumian's nose, making him frown.
Lumian pointed to the door and asked with a blank face:
"What is that doing?
"Looking for a wanted criminal? But why only check the people in Trier, regardless of those who are out of the city?"
The man with yellow hair and a blue bolero that was a little bloated looked at Lumian:
"My friend, are you from a small city or a village or a small town?"
Seeing Lumian nodding, he sighed and said:
"This is collecting taxes! Enter the tax on entering the market!"
"Tariffs on entering Trier Market?" Lumian asked rhetorically.
The man nodded:
"Yes, this circle of walls surrounds the entire Trier, with 54 gates, each with tax collectors and police, and by the way, a wanted criminal."
"All goods will be taxed?" Lumian asked curiously.
The man touched the blue bolero made of canvas and said:
"Almost, only grains and flour do not have to pay municipal tax.
"There used to be, but a few years ago, there was a war, the price of bread in Trier went crazy, causing many citizens to take to the streets to protest and riot, and finally the government canceled the entrance tax on all food.
"Hey, why do you think drunkards don't dare to do this? Now the tax rate for spirits, wine, and champagne is the highest, and many people go to the suburbs to find taverns to drink duty-free wine on weekends, which they call 'Chengguan wine'."
"That's right......" Lumian nodded thoughtfully.
The man glanced left and right, lowered his voice and said:
"If you have something you don't want to pay taxes, I can take you to the city, and you only need to pay me a little money."
"You want to buy them out?" Lumian pointed with his chin to the tax collector and police officer at the city gate.
The man immediately sneered:
"Their appetite is more than that of an elephant.
"I am taking you down a path without checkpoints into the city."
"Isn't the whole of Trier surrounded by city walls?" Lumian did not hide his doubts.
The man smiled:
"You'll know later."
He then said in a teasing tone:
"Honorable sir, do you need my service?"
Lumian thought for a moment and said:
"How much?"
"3 Felkin." The man smiled enthusiastically and said, "If you want, we can set off now, and you will pay when we get to the city."
"Okay." Lumian pressed down the dark wide-brimmed hat on his head, carried the brown suitcase, and followed the fat man away from the city gate.
A quarter of an hour later, the two came to a hill where vegetation and soil were turned over, revealing gray-white stones.
There are scaffolding, rotten sleepers, and many obvious potholes, and it seems to be a long-abandoned mine.
The fat man led Lumian through piles of messy stones to the entrance of a mine.
"This is the path?" Lumian asked with a wary expression.
The fat man in the blue bolero laughed:
"You really don't know much about Trier.
"Haven't you heard a word? The trills underground are bigger than the trills on the ground!"
"No." Lumian shook his head.
The man explained simply:
"In the past, Trier was much smaller than it is now, surrounded by quarries used to build the city, but later, there were more and more people here, and the city had to develop outside, so these quarries were included, and the ground was full of hollows and mine tunnels.
"Coupled with the Trier that sank underground in the Quaternary period, the government's sewers, dug subways, and buried gas pipes, isn't this bigger than the above-ground part?"
Lumian showed a look of sudden realization:
"Are you taking me underground Trier into the city?"
"Yes." The man turned around and asked casually as he bent down into the mine, "What is your name?"
"Charles." Lumian touched the golden hair at his temples, "What about you?"
"Just call me Lamayer." Two men almost as wide as Lumian fiddled with the pile of stones in the corner of the mine a few times and turned out an iron-black lantern.
The lamp is clearly made of metal, with rust on the surface, and the overall shape is cylindrical, the upper part is slightly narrower than the lower part by a finger's width, and the bottom part is a black rubber base.
A trumpet-shaped metal thing is embedded where the narrow and wide cylinders connect, which are wiped clean and polished very smoothly, but there are still a few places that are rusty.
Lamayor took out a matchbox and tinkered for a while, and an orange-yellow flash with a hint of blue immediately appeared at the metal horn, illuminating the depths of the mine.
"What is this?" Lumian looked like he didn't understand.
Lamayer took the iron-black lamp and walked to the ground, and murmured;
"Calcium carbide lamp.
"The people from the Cave Association made it, many mine workers are using it, I don't know why it glows, anyway, just get some stones and water in, put it on the bottom and on the top respectively, and when you want to use it, press here, and then draw the flame to light the bell."
Calcium carbide and water react to form acetylene, and acetylene burns to emit light? Lumian recalled the chemistry knowledge he was reviewing a few months ago.
He was silent for a while, until he followed LaMaye into the ground and walked forward along a remaining mine passage, before continuing to ask, "Cave Society?"
"The Trier Cave Society, created by a group of people who like to explore caves and study caves, now seems to be involved in the matter of mines." Lamayer glanced sideways at Lumian walking next to him, and asked with a smile, "Why don't you just take the steam train into Trier? The checkpoints at the train station have not been very strict, just spot checks."
Lumian recalled:
"I mainly want to experience the last bit of romance left over from the classical era."
"Stagecoach?" Lamayer smiled, "This is much more expensive than the steam train, I hear your accent like Lim and Leston, from the southernmost point to Trier, it costs about 120 Felkin, right? It will take four and a half days! If you change to a steam train, the third class seat is less than 50 Felkin, and you can get there in no more than 20 hours...... Uh, you spent a lot of money, didn't you?"
Lumian replied honestly:
"That's quite a lot, there are only 267 Felkin left."
LaMayer glanced sideways at him again, retracted his gaze and said:
"What a waste......"
He carried a calcium carbide lamp made of metal, and through the illumination of orange, yellow and blue flames at the bell mouth, he passed through a place shaped like an arch and turned into another road.
Lumian looked up and saw stones sleeping in the dark, occasionally embellished with moss, and oozing water droplets.
The road under his feet was bumpy, with stone pillars towering on both sides, supporting the top of the cave.
Stones and other things are piled up between the pillars, like parallel wall panels, creating a "street" that can accommodate six or seven people walking side by side.
Due to the light of calcium carbide, a nameplate made of steel appeared on a stone pillar, which was written in Intis:
"Right Street".
"Is there a street name here?" Lumian said suspiciously.
Lamayer, who was holding a calcium carbide lamp, laughed and said:
"Didn't I tell you? This is called Underground Trier.
"Well, it was actually done during the municipal renovation decades ago, and the people wearing fake collars above felt that the underground was too messy, just like a maze, whether it was riots, murderers, smugglers, or cults, they all hid here, and they had to take care of it.
"In order not to let the workers get lost, they deliberately corresponded to the ground during the renovation, and the roads, squares and alleys were all restored here, and then the nameplates of the corresponding streets were hung, marked with names, and if they need to be repaired in the future, just report the place name directly."
"That is to say." Lumian pointed to the top of his head with his right hand without a suitcase, "Is the real Right Street above?"
"Yes." Lamayor continued, "This is the underground Trier, well, there is an anti-smuggling wall in front, those quarry police often come over to patrol, but don't worry, I'll take you through a small tunnel around it, hehe, those people with fake collars and full mouths of lies think they can manage the underground Trier like they control the ground, but they only know more than half of the entrances and exits, the renovated roads, ......."
As he spoke, he led Lumian to the end of a dead end, then found a small gap and got in, followed by Lumian.
After two or three minutes, they came out of the small tunnel, and in front of them were also "walls" made of stone pillars and the "streets" they sandwiched.
At this time, a burly figure was standing next to the stone pillar with a calcium carbide lamp, and said to Lamayer:
"This is our guest?"
Lamayer turned his body and smiled at Lumian:
"Outsider, I changed my mind, the reward is 265 Felkin. How about it, am I not kind enough to leave you money to buy bread and stay in a hotel today?"
"What if I don't give it?" Lumian looked frightened and a little stubborn.
Lamayer smiled so hard that his face trembled:
"What do you think will happen?
"Didn't your mother tell you not to trust others too easily when you go out?"
He and the burly man approached Lumian step by step from both directions.
Lumian laughed and bent down to put the suitcase aside.
He walked towards Lamayor and his companions.
In the shaking firelight, more than ten seconds passed quickly, and the calcium carbide lamp was in Lumian's hand.
He squatted next to Lamayer, who was swollen and trembling with a swollen face, took out all the banknotes from the other party's wallet, and counted them carefully for a while with orange and blue light.
He then patted Lamayor's right cheek with the stack of bills, and said with a smile:
"Now there are only 319 Felkin left."
With that, Lumian put away the bill and walked towards a path that seemed to lead to the ground.
There are stone pillars with nameplates with two rows of Intes:
"Honest market area, Night Pot Street."
Among them, "Night Pot Street" was scratched with stones and a name was added next to it:
"Messy streets."
ps: Update normally today, adjust, there will be an additional update tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, ask for a monthly pass~
PS2: Thank you to the book friends 20230421181603541 reward the Silver League.
(End of this chapter)