On the way, Manda patiently explained his speculation to the public.

"They are different from the real mountain bandits. You should see that dafron is not sure to kill us, but he must fight us and deliberately annoy me. This is obviously different from the practice of mountain bandits.

The mountain bandit will not take action against his uncertain opponent. Once he takes action, he will not have any scruples. This dafron is obviously a soldier. He is acting according to the order. When it really threatens his life, he hesitates, which proves that there is room for the order given to him by sheltai. "

The lioness shook her head and said, "I still don\'t understand why sheltai asked the soldiers to rob you?"

"It\'s to test me and see my strength and courage. The tail that has been following us is also to verify this. When he saw that I was counselled, he left."

Moira said, "these soldiers are here for us?"

Manda shook her head and said, "that\'s not true. I don\'t have such a big face. They should have been here for a long time."

"Why did the soldiers hide on the mountain?"

"This is the only way to connect the southwest and due south. As long as you cut off the canyon, you will break the land connection between the southwest and the south."

The lioness probably understood what Manda meant, but she still had some doubts: "why doesn\'t sheltai occupy the brittle stone Valley openly, rather than let the soldiers dress up as mountain thieves?"

Manda said, "because mountain thieves can rob, but soldiers can\'t. sheltai doesn\'t want to ruin his reputation."

These words made the lioness more puzzled: "why did sheltai rob? Is he short of money?"

"I also want to know the reason. We don\'t know enough about here. Maybe we can find the answer when we arrive at parrot city."

Marquis Moritz is in parrot city. He is also the nominal ruler here, but Manda replaced his soldiers with his own and arranged special personnel to handle government affairs for him.

From Moritz\'s mouth, Manda got the answer. Although he didn\'t know that sheltai had planted soldiers in the valley, he knew the significance of brittle rock valley, except military significance.

"In the east of the southwest, many businessmen make a living selling iron ore. there are iron ores everywhere in the southwest, which can\'t be sold at any price, but there is almost no iron ore in the south, and the price is strange."

In this era, the mountains and forests were owned by the Lord. Businessmen could buy mining rights from the Lord. It was very cheap. A truck of ore only needed one silver coin.

But in the south, the price of iron ore should be calculated according to the weight. Two pounds of ore can sell one copper coin, and a truck of iron ore can sell almost two thousand pounds and ten silver coins. This is ten times the price difference. Excluding the costs of mining and transportation, there is still nearly six times the profit.

Manda thought for a long time and asked, "why not go by water? More ore can be transported by boat."

"There may not be iron ore on the mountain near the river. It also takes time to transport the ore to the river. Moreover, businessmen don\'t have to transport the iron ore to Miaoyin city. They just need to send it to Qingyang City, which is very close to brittle stone Valley, less than three days away. Moreover, the Lords there are very friendly to iron ore merchants and never collect taxes from iron ore merchants."

No wonder mountain bandits in Brittle Rock Valley never rob iron ore merchants. This road is an important source of iron ore in the south.

But why do they rob food?

Moritz had some business sense. Unlike other lords who directly sold mining rights to merchants, he used slaves to mine ore and sell it directly to the south.

"This is a shady business, which must be carried out in the dark. It\'s shameful for nobles to do business. You can try if you want to make money, but you\'d better find a businessman to do it for you. Although he will earn some price difference, at least he won\'t damage your reputation,

In the south, there are two markets for ore. one is to sell it to the Lord in exchange for money, which is legal. The other is to sell it to other merchants in exchange for food, which is illegal. "

Manda was stunned: "why is it illegal to sell to merchants? Is there this in the law of the kingdom?"

"This is not the law of the Kingdom," Moritz said with a smile. "This is the law of the south. Shertai is the Archduke. He has the power to formulate the law. It is a felony to exchange minerals for food on his territory. Once found, it is the same crime as theft, but businessmen will still take risks. The land in the southwest is too barren, and food is more precious than money in many cases."

This description finally made Manda understand the truth. Sheltai installed soldiers in brittle rock valley and asked them to pretend to be thieves for selective robbery. There is only one purpose, allowing resource input but prohibiting resource outflow.

He would rather exchange gold coins for ore, but he would never allow food, so as to ensure sufficient food reserves.

Similarly, the poor land makes the living environment in the southwest very fragile. In case of disaster or war, a large number of civilians will become slaves because of the loss of food sources.

These slaves can be sold to the south, which is regarded as resource input by sheltai, but the livestock in the south are not allowed to be sold to the southwest, even if the quantity is excessive. Sheltai rejects all resource outflows.

This business model looks very smart, but it faces an important problem. Resource input costs money. Where does sheltai\'s gold coin come from?

"There is a legend that shertai has a finger that can turn stone into gold," Moritz explained.

At the mention of the golden finger, Manda felt a faint pain in her heart. But he thought it was nonsense. Sertae could not have the ability to turn a stone into gold, otherwise he would have become king long ago.

The value of brittle rock valley is greater than Manda expected, and this battle is bound to be won. When manu took the soldiers to parrot City, Manda immediately held a meeting and began to formulate tactics.

As long as he fights in the mountains, Manu has full confidence. Manda\'s tactics are very simple. He drills a hole in the mountains, finds a suitable exit, finds out the enemy\'s situation, and then catches them all.

But chuyt mentioned a detail: "Sir, when you entered the valley, did you see gravel on the road?"

Manda thought about it carefully, shook her head and said, "I don\'t remember."

Chuyt thought for a moment and described it in the most intuitive way: "if a caravan passes through the valley every day, if the mountain thieves want to make a landslide every day, how many gravel will be accumulated in the valley?"

Manda was surprised that chuyt\'s problem was really crucial. When they were robbed in the valley, the road was filled with gravel, leaving only a gap in the middle, which could allow one person to pass by.

According to this calculation, if you come a few more times, the road will be sealed by gravel. In the long run, the whole valley should be filled with gravel.

But that\'s gravel. Where is it? Before meeting the mountain bandits, the mountain path was very flat and didn\'t see too many gravel. After leaving the mountain bandits, there didn\'t seem to be too many stones in the valley.

The only explanation is that someone cleaned up the rubble, but the workload is too heavy. Although it is only a small landslide, it will take at least half a month to clean up by manpower.

Did the mountain bandits not rob for half a month and become cleaners instead?

During his hard thinking, chuyt reminded us: "do you remember that when duflon threatened us, a piece of gravel slipped under our feet, but did not hurt us. Later, he wanted to lay hands on Ogg, and a stone hit Ogg directly on his head."

Ogg protested, "I didn\'t hit it. I caught it!"

Manda shook her head and said, "this is not the point. The point is that someone has controlled the gravel."

The room was quiet for a long time. Manda looked at manu and said, "you may meet your companions. Some of them can accurately control the stones on the mountain."

Manu frowned, shook his head and said, "my Lord, maybe my class is not enough. I can change the position of mountains and rocks, but I can\'t make such accurate and rapid control."

"You\'ve reached the third level. Is that person\'s class higher than you..." Manda was muttering to herself. Manu suddenly said, "I remember, my teacher can, Mr. ziegsey\'s flying stone skills!"