Chapter 377 July Fire Stream
The bright moon pulls the city wall out of the sloping black shadow, like a crawling black panther.
Four guards followed behind her. Catherine held the wall with her left hand and walked up the stairs beside the city wall.
Walking on the quiet steps, she would look into the city from time to time.
The rapids city was eerily quiet under the night wind, as if everything had been filtered with a light blue filter. The iron rooster on the top of the church pointed to the wind now and then to the east and west.
But if you look carefully, the sleeping soldiers in the streets, the blocked rivers, and the smell of blood in the sky are all very different from the past.
The blue-gray stone bricks are covered with arrow marks and knife marks, not to mention the blood stains that solidified into black.
Her fingers brushed against the rough wall, and she felt a painful friction sensation coming from her fingertips.
It was as if she was abandoned by her mother in the forest when she was a child. She felt the thorns scratching her body as she walked helplessly.
If it weren’t for the teacher, she would have died at the hands of wild wolves, beggars and robbers in the forest.
Walking up the steps to the top of the city wall, the night wind with the smell of snuff outside the city blew on my face.
Under the accustomed eyes of the guarding soldiers, Catherine walked to a crenel and looked towards the port.
In the past, whenever she had insomnia, she would walk around the city wall and look at the streets and markets and workshops outside the city at night.
But things are different now.
Under the wilderness of the night sky, the once bustling market and workshop area outside the city were demolished into ruins during the war, and the original port was almost razed to the ground.
After this period of siege warfare, most of the fortresses originally built outside the city were demolished, all the shops and workshops were burned, and even the built tunnels were filled with water or directly dug down by the knights.
The prosperity that was once cooked by fire has fallen under the sword of the church.
“Hiss!”
Catherine, who was blowing in the night wind, suddenly withdrew her hand. On the pad of her full index finger, a drop of bright red blood was oozing out.
Although she is thirty-one years old this year, Catherine's hands are still well maintained.
But today, these white hands are stained with blood and scars.
After all, most of the time, these hands were bent over the desk writing, and they rarely held the sword.
When Catherine was a child in the monastery of Brago, she also learned swordsmanship from Juano.
But as time went by, she almost forgot how to hold a sword.
She lowered her head and looked at the calluses on her knuckles from holding the pen.
Fifteen years have passed since he inherited the Megdi Chamber of Commerce.
In fifteen years, under her control, Rapid City changed from a free city waiting for development to the second most prosperous city in the Thousand River Valley.
Catherine first used Juanno's relationship and her own background to act as a white glove for each estate, cooperating with the secret party for smuggling.
Using this network of relationships to establish a dye guild, one person controls the entire process of raw materials, production and sales of dyes, basically monopolizing most of the dye industry in the Qianhe River Valley.
Naturally, she had a seat on the City Council of Rapid City, and she overcame all objections on the City Council and developed today's port area.
The Port District and its excellent tax exemptions, security, and services have successfully become a major source of revenue for the City of Grand Rapids.
Land prices are rising steadily, and Catherine's right to speak naturally increases with it.
Thereafter, she established the Share Act by pushing through the city council.
Using the funds accumulated in the early stage and the investment of the secret party, the Megedy Chamber of Commerce established Megedy Bank five years ago.
Through various means such as loans, investments and mortgages, Catherine purchased a large number of workshops and stocks of various large and small chambers of commerce.
Through the "Share Law" and the establishment of sub-chambers of commerce, cross-shareholdings were repeatedly made and workshops and chambers of commerce were forced to participate in and be participated in shares.
Gradually, most of the industries in Rapid City came under her chamber of commerce or sub-chamber of commerce.
Due to her Aiel identity and Rapid City's status as a city in the Azik Alliance, Megdi controls capital that is more than ten times her own value.
Although on the surface, she is just a small chamber of commerce that deals in dyes.
As the City Councilor of Rapids City and the headquarters of the Megdi Chamber of Commerce, Rapids City has attracted a large number of people and funds in the past fifteen years, and it has become the second most prosperous city in the Thousand River Valley.
When it was most prosperous, there was even a city councilor in Rapid City who proudly declared, "Selling the port area is enough to buy Flying Castle."
It's just the port area that makes the citizens of Rapid City proud, and now It has become a ruins in the flames of war.
Catherine stretched out her hand from behind the city wall, as if to touch the ruined port in front of her.
But just as her fingers "touched" the top of the bell tower, she withdrew her hand as if she was being stung.
Every brick and brick here was built slowly by her and her chamber of commerce. She personally designed, built and formulated the policies herself. Although the Megdi Chamber of Commerce took the opportunity to monopolize the stone industry, Catherine believed that this was the reward she deserved.
Looking up from the broken bell tower, the bright moon shone on Catherine's face.
“Is July 7th already the Flower Festival?”
July 7th happens to be the day when the port area is completed, and it is also the Flower Festival, a traditional festival in Qianhe River Valley.
Every year on July 7th, people in Rapid City will pick a lot of flowers and put them on their heads and houses.
Each guild will also fund a float parade, and every pub in the port area will offer beer at a 30% discount, and will also launch rare sophora flower wine, as well as various entertainment projects such as fencing, boating, boxing, and beauty pageants.
The Flower Festival is sometimes even more lively than Advent. After all, there won’t be so many people running on the streets on Advent night.
Even Catherine herself will ride on the float of the Megdi Chamber of Commerce to scatter coins during this festival.
Yes, when Catherine said throwing coins, she really threw coins.
Unlike other chambers of commerce that spread copper, Catherine spread dinars, and could spread two to three hundred gold pounds in one night.
Therefore, in the annual float competition, the Megdi Chamber of Commerce has defended its championship three times in a row through votes from the audience and citizens present.
In fact, it should be the four-time defending champion, but in the first one, the Prago Monastery float led by Juano came on stage and eclipsed Catherine's dinar with only biscuits.
"The old man has been fighting with biscuits all his life. He has never tired of eating them in so many years."
Putting the biscuits in the box into her mouth, sipping them for a while, Catherine suddenly took them off He wore glasses and dug at the corners of his eyes with his little finger.
When she couldn't sleep in the past, she would go to Teacher Juanno.
No matter how late it is, Teacher Juanno will get up, give her biscuits and tell her stories.
Sometimes they tell fairy tales, but more often they tell stories that she could not understand until now.
Story adapted from real events.
Catherine couldn't help but knock the cookie box lightly: "Talking to such a young child about such dark things, what did you think at the time?"
But at that time it was those embarrassing things. A scary story can put Catherine to sleep.
The biscuits with the taste of brown sugar slowly melted in her mouth, and she gently stroked the biscuit box.
Even though Catherine is a thirty-year-old woman who is still unmarried, she still maintains the habit of eating cookies when she has insomnia.
"Teacher, I miss you."
Just as Catherine closed her eyes and was immersed in the memories of the past, her nose smelled a strange smell.
Is this something burnt?
"Boom——"
The next second, a violent flash of light rose behind Catherine.
Although she did not turn around, her eyes could not help but widen, and a terrible thought arose in her mind.
The huge sound carried the hot wind, blowing her sleeves forward, and grass blades and wood chips flew out from above her head and around her.
The four guards stepped forward and blocked the aftermath of the explosion with their bodies.
But Catherine pushed away the guards blocking him, put her arms in front of her face to block the hot wind, and stared blankly in that direction.
In the direction of the Red Dragon's Breath Warehouse in the city, balls of fire exploded continuously, and the flames sprayed around like a fountain.
Houses were set on fire and people ran out of the houses screaming.
Screams and dog barks followed, and the whole city was lit up by flames, as if it were daytime.
After Catherine's hard work outside the city was consumed by fire, even the city of Rapids was engulfed in flames.
After watching for five seconds, Catherine screamed in an unprecedented voice: "Red dragon's breath, red dragon's breath!"
Katherine's scream lingered, Then there was a nightmarish horn sound.
The reason why I say this is because the horn sound is coming from outside the city.
Under the bright moonlight and firelight, thousands of infantry and knights pushed the siege tower and carried the long ladder and ran towards the city wall.
On the towers of the city wall, bright firelights rose one by one, and the trumpet warning of the enemy's incoming attack was almost drowned out by the violent explosions.
Amid the shouts of the infantry captains, Catherine fell into an ice cave and could not speak a word.
(End of this chapter)