Volume 9: Home Chapter 281 No, three hundred million.
Ironforge was built in a valley between two mountains. Not only the valley is their city, but the hollowed-out mountains and the vast space dug out from the ground are also their city. The capital of the dwarf kingdom is like an inverted Chinese character "競", and has some of the meaning of a 3D magical city.
After obtaining permission from the Dwarf King, Hongye and the others, led by the elven knight accompanying them, entered the lower city area and were arranged to stay in a "Veterans Inn" waiting for an interview.
Well, this lower city area is different from the lower city area in the human city. It is just named after the terrain. The dwarves have a total population of tens of millions, reproduction is not as easy as humans, and the living environment is harsh. There are not enough conditions to breed a class of non-productive people who can enjoy the unearned income comfortably. Naturally, there are no parasites who have eaten the free meals of others for generations and have the nerve to think they are noble. Why would there be high-level and low-level areas in the same city?
Sitting on the second floor of the Veteran's Inn and looking down, Hongye and other grassland people quite like the atmosphere of life in Ironforge... The dwarves walking on the streets are all wearing clothes of similar materials, the only difference is the style. There are no "big shots" with people following them on the streets, and no carriages and mounts rushing around. For the grassland people who have learned a lot of "shortcomings" of human cities, the capital of the Dark Iron Dwarves is undoubtedly more in line with their aesthetics.
"That man is holding our vermicelli!" The cat magician, black panther Xiaorui's eyes suddenly lit up, and she pointed at the pedestrians on the cobblestone street downstairs and shouted.
"real?"
"Let me see, let me see!"
A few people rushed to the window and found that there was indeed a passerby carrying a bundle of sweet potato flour tied with straw . They were all very excited...
"There's someone carrying our vermicelli over there!"
"Look there, look there, that store at the end seems to be the one that sells our vermicelli!"
“Wow, so many people are buying it!”
Hongye looked back, not knowing whether to laugh or cry: "Hey, you guys... those are not our vermicelli, they are the vermicelli we sold, be careful when you speak."
"Got it!" Xiao Rui said perfunctorily, and then pointed at the passers-by and shouted, "Wow, that person's beard can be braided into a braid! And it looks pretty good!"
"It's not good-looking. Ayun said that beards get dirty easily and it's unhygienic if you don't shave them cleanly." said a snow wolf man next to him.
"Yeah, it's better to have hair than a beard."
"But it's not easy to take care of your hair when it's long. It takes Ah Shan a long time to comb his hair every time. I feel tired just watching him."
“Not necessarily. I see Evelin doesn’t do much with her hair, and her hair looks great.”
Hongye turned her head helplessly and said apologetically to the Elf Knight at the same table: "I'm sorry, they are too noisy, Elizabeth."
Elizabeth , the warrior and knight who was on vacation, the daughter of General Crest , who joined the Queen's Knights four years ago under the operation of Elder Meili, held her chin with both hands, stared at Hongye with her eyes, and said tenderly: "It's okay, I like the hustle and bustle."
After Elder Meli personally overthrew Gwendolyn, in order to demonstrate the justice of her coming to power, her policy must be the opposite of that when Gwendolyn was in power... Elder Meli spared no effort to win over the two local generals of Ananas City, who were looked down upon by Elder Gwendolyn, and Elizabeth just took advantage of her father's favor.
Elder Meli, who had mixed feelings about the Snow Wolf Tribe's choice, did not interfere. Not only did she readily ask the queen for permission to obtain an official letter of envoy, she also considerately arranged for the daughter of General Crest, whose relationship with Xiao Yun was second only to Evelyn, to be the queen's envoy. At least her attitude was very generous - this was also a choice made after weighing the pros and cons. After all, the Fire Tribe could also ask the queen to see them through the minotaurs (the minotaurs had a special status, and the dark elves had to hold their noses and be polite to the minotaurs even though they didn't get along, so asking them to see the queen was not a big problem for them), and the queen was known for her tolerance, kindness and easy talking, so it would be better for her to sell it herself.
Hmm... If Xiao Yun knew that Elder Meili was so considerate, I wonder if he would vomit blood...
Hongye was very happy that Elizabeth was so tolerant of the people she brought with her. She stood up attentively and poured tea and added fruit for Elizabeth. Elizabeth also sat quietly and accepted Hongye's "little flattery". The pair of beautiful eyes inherited from General Crest narrowed into crescents...
At another table, Xia, who was assigned to be Hongye's assistant and saw through everything, silently picked up the cup.
Originally, Xiao Yun wanted to let Chief Ali be Hongye's deputy, but considering that both the chief and deputy envoys were from the Snow Wolf Tribe, it would not be enough to demonstrate the inclusiveness of the Fire Tribe (after all, the Fire Tribe also includes gray dwarves), so he replaced him with Xia, who also had a lot of bad intentions.
Because Qingyan once had the "bad record" of being too close to Dahe, before leaving, Xiao Yun caught Xia and kept repeating for a long time that "inter-racial love has no future", and threatened him openly and secretly not to have any ideas about Hongye.
Xia’s reaction at that time was: “…(●—●)”
Arriving at the Queen's City, Xia saw Elizabeth's eyes immediately clinging to him when she saw the red leaves. Xia's reaction was: "...(ΦωΦ)"
...This guy who saw through everything kept his mouth shut tightly.
At this moment, seeing Hongye unconsciously making the Elf Knight "deeper and deeper", the bad guy Xia even felt that the bitter self-produced highland tree tea of the Dark Iron Dwarves tasted much better...
After having afternoon tea and resting for two hours at the Veterans Inn, the Dwarf King's guards arrived and without checking whether they had any dangerous goods on them, they directly brought them into the Dwarf King's palace.
The palace of the Dwarf King... To be honest, it's not very well built, even worse than the residences of some human nobles: the entire palace has only two inner and outer courtyards, and the garden outside is probably slightly larger than the meeting room of the Fire Department. Except for the majestic stone sculptures displayed on both sides, there is almost no highlight.
As for the main hall where the Dwarf King received them, well, it was about the size of a living room in an ordinary manor owner's house...
The dwarf king lived in a very simple and friendly residence. Although he was still wearing a linen shirt and cotton trousers that were not presentable enough, he wore a shiny crown in a very formal manner. When he sat on the throne to receive the envoy, he was very pretentious.
Elizabeth, wearing the silver-white armor of the Queen's Knights, stepped forward first. She held the knight's sword with one hand and placed the other across her chest, performing a standard knight's salute: "Elizabeth of the Queen's Knights sends greetings to you, respected Dwarf King."
"Hongye of the Snow Wolf Clan (Xia of the Cat Clan) send you their greetings." Hongye and Xia followed Elizabeth's instructions, one on the left and one on the right, and saluted.
The dwarf king nodded majestically to Elizabeth, exchanged a few polite words, and then asked the three envoys to sit down and asked the guards to serve tea to the guests - well, the dwarf king's court didn't even have maids, let alone female officials...
"Messenger of the grassland tribe, why are you here?" After the guest sat down, the Dwarf King looked at Hongye with sharp eyes and full of momentum.
Xia, who was sitting next to Hongye, suddenly felt a sense of pressure coming towards him and his face changed instantly.
Hongye also felt the aura that the Dwarf King "inadvertently" released and frowned slightly.
Although she was forced by Xiao Yun to be transformed into a "civil servant", Hongye's dream has always been to become a great warrior in the tribe, and she does have talents that Lian Yu even praises. Facing the threat of the demigod at close range, Hongye just frowned and relaxed, and said calmly, clearly and fluently: "Of course I came here to gain your friendship, respected dwarf king."
Elizabeth has a look of admiration and infatuation on her face, with no one else in her eyes except Hongye... He is not afraid of the demigod's aura, he is worthy of being the man (woman) she likes!
The Dwarf King seemed very satisfied that Hongye could withstand the pressure from him. He smiled slightly and retracted some of his outward momentum: "Oh? I said that it was unreasonable for you Snow Wolf Clan to teach us Dark Iron Dwarves how to develop terraced fields for nothing. Are you trying to take credit for it?"
If Xiao Yun was present, he would definitely pinch his thigh - that's why the Dwarf King has always suffered at the hands of the Beast King, this guy is really a fool!
Not only is he stupid when talking to the Beast King, he's also stupid when communicating with others!
That’s right, the Grassland Tribe has declined to the point where it can’t even join the racial alliance organized by the Elf King, and is not eligible to send spellcasters to Miriam for “further training”, but you have benefited a lot from the Grassland Tribe anyway, so you don’t even know how to say something nice!
If it were someone else, they would be at a loss and embarrassed when faced with such direct and rude words from the Dwarf King, but Hongye didn't have this weakness... Xiao Yun, who could speak even more harshly than the Dwarf King when he was sharp-tongued, had already trained her out of this.
"Sharing agricultural technology with all tribes on the continent is the common wish of our grassland tribes and forest elves. We, who have been blessed by the Tauren, are just taking them as an example." Hongye's expression remained unchanged, and he was very calm.
The Dwarf King touched his nose. He had never thought that the Snow Wolf Tribe could be so talkative... They had even brought the Forest Elves with them. He had no choice but to jump over this one himself: "So how are the Grassland Tribe going to gain my friendship?"
Replacing "Snow Wolf Tribe" with "Grassland Tribe" was the Dwarf King's greatest act of goodwill - calling the Fire Tribe, which always claimed that the grassland races lived in harmony, simply the Snow Wolf Tribe was actually not very polite.
Hongye was smart enough to listen to the words, nodded slightly, and began to talk about the past of the main races of the Fire Tribe, the Snow Wolf Tribe, and the Cat Tribe...
At first the Dwarf King listened attentively, but after five minutes, his majestic expression became a little dull...
Ten minutes later, the impatient Dwarf King moved his butt and raised his hand to stop Hongye who was not about to shut up: "Alright, alright, I get it... That is to say, you have regarded the Cursed Land as your home, and you don't want to go back to the Far East or deal with the Beast King, right? This is very wise, and I agree with it. No, I support it too - how many vermicelli do you plan to sell us?"
Hongye seemed calm but was actually nervous: "..."
Ayun was right. With the Dwarf King's hot temper, it would be very easy to get him to speak first... The only person who could make the Dwarf King give face was the Queen's messenger sitting next to him, which reduced the possibility of the Dwarf King turning hostile. So as long as we paid attention to the scale, this guy was actually very easy to take down.
Elizabeth stared at Hongye with little pink stars in her eyes...
Hongye secretly breathed a sigh of relief and did not respond to the Dwarf King's words. Instead, she said respectfully, "Dear Dwarf King, our grassland tribe is unable to deliver our goods to your country. If you don't mind, we hope that the forest elves can trade on our behalf."
What this means is that the forest elves also make money from the freight... After all, such a large quantity of vermicelli has to pass through the Elf Forest, and it would be unreasonable not to let the Elf Forest get some benefits.
The irritable and foolish Dwarf King was just impatient, which didn't mean he had any problems with his brain. Upon hearing this, the guy stroked his beard.
The Dwarf King gritted his teeth and held on for more than half a year despite the food shortage. He did not want the elves to know his own strengths and weaknesses. It was true that the Forest Elves were on good terms with the Dark Iron Dwarves, but it was not difficult for the Dark Elves to get information from the Forest Elves.
Even if the Dwarf King decided to borrow food from the Queen, he planned to borrow less... Although it hurts to pretend to be rich, sometimes you have to do it.
After pondering the pros and cons, the Dwarf King repeated his previous question: "How many kilograms of vermicelli can the grassland tribe provide?"
Hongye compared three fingers.
"Thirty million?" The Dwarf King frowned. No matter how carefully he calculated the amount, it would only be enough to feed hundreds of thousands of mouths in Ironforge until spring.
Hongye shook her head: "No, three hundred million."
The dwarf king's hands trembled and several strands of his beard were broken.
