Chapter 637: The Road to Survival

Karen is a teenager from a village near Tianji City. He has dark brown hair, bright black eyes, and fair skin, which are very typical characteristics of a stone man.

The Dornish people living in the south of the Crimson Mountains are roughly divided into three major groups. Although they are collectively called the Dornish people, they have a detailed division.

The Salt People live by the sea, mainly in the Horn of Broken Arm near the Sea of ​​Dorne in the Crimson Mountains.

Soft and dark, with smooth olive skin and long black hair that fluttered in the wind, they were mostly fishermen and sailors, experienced seamen in Dorne's fleet.

Oberyn and the Martell family are typical salt men.

The sand people live in deserts and long and narrow river valleys, and they are even darker than the salt people. They are exposed to strong sunlight all day long, and their faces are reddish brown.

As for the last large group, the Stonemen, who lived in the high mountains and the pass of the Crimson Mountains, were the best and most beautiful of the three, descended from the Andals and the First Men, with brown or blond hair .

Compared with the exclusion of the other two groups from the outside world, the Stone People are the most friendly group among the Dornish people to the people in the outside world, because their ancestors are also descendants of the Andals and the ancestors.

But in Dorne, because of this very obvious appearance and cultural difference, the faces of the stone people are very similar to their enemies, and there is almost no difference. Therefore, the stone people in Dorne are also the objects most excluded by the other two ethnic groups. .

Now, Karen, a teenager in a village near Tianji City, is leading the villagers to escape from their hometown where they have lived for generations and go to the outside world.

However, all roads to the outside world have now been closed by the nobles.

This avenue of Prince's Pass used to be unobstructed, and it was the main road to and from Dorne. It was easier to walk than the bone road, and there were no steep cliffs.

But now the Prince's Pass has been subject to very strict inspections, only caravans can enter and exit, and the number of people has also been greatly limited.

Therefore, Karen, along with his mother, younger brother, and dozens of villagers from Tianji City, could only take great risks and try to cross the Crimson Mountains to the frontier, and even the King Territory of the Reach.

And the reason why this group of Dornish people fled their hometown is not too complicated, it is naturally because they can't live any longer.

The traditional aristocrats paid very high taxes on their fiefs, and even during the war, they even had to leave a mouthful of food and not starve to death.

But this system has disappeared in other parts of the Seven Kingdoms, and the days when the nobles themselves decide how much to tax are over.

Now the tax officials under the Iron Throne go to various places to collect taxes. The taxes are paid according to a certain percentage, and they are transparent and open. Compared with the previous taxes, the tax has dropped a lot, and the living standards of the people have also improved significantly.

And these are also a chain reaction. When people's living standards improve, there will be fewer bandits, bullies, and brotherhoods. As long as they are not desperate, no one will choose to take risks.

Policy changes on the Iron Throne have created a virtuous circle.

But among these changes, Dorne, the only one in the Seven Kingdoms who has not changed, is very abrupt.

At first, the Dornish people relied on their own privileges to be domineering in other parts of the Seven Kingdoms. The local noble officials dared not speak out. After all, there was a Dornish queen behind them.

However, with the end of the war, the Seven Kingdoms gradually returned to peace, and the privileges of the Dornish people gradually became less effective.

King's Landing's capital garrison no longer turns a blind eye to the crimes of the Dornishmen. The Dornishmen's caravan at first ran rampant and offended many of its counterparts, but also encountered joint suppression by other caravans, and finally had to flee in embarrassment. Out of King's Landing.

The gradual loss of privileges is one aspect, but in the end, the Dornishmen even found themselves attacking the outside world from time to time, but in fact their life was not as good as the other party's, and combined with the previous behavior, it looked like a clown.

The living standards of the people in other parts of the Seven Kingdoms are rising, only Dorne is standing still, and even slightly retreats.

Moreover, many colleagues who participated in the first and second conquest wars were canonized as knights, property knights, and even lords because of their military exploits.

The number of lords in the Seven Kingdoms has produced a big explosion. Although most of them have cut their large territories into countless small territories and entrusted them to these meritorious soldiers, they have no dissatisfaction, but it is too late to be happy. After all, they have already leaped over the dragon gate and completed the leap of class.

However, the Dornish people also did not participate in all this, because the king promised the Dornish people a high degree of self-control, and the Dornish soldiers should be conferred by their noble masters. The Iron Throne would not interfere, and the Dornish nobles naturally did not. Willing to take out their own land.

To sum up, these cumbersome reasons caused the first batch of Dornish people to become unbalanced and left their hometowns to develop in King's Landing, Seagull Town, Lannisport and other places.

Later, more Dornishmen also left their hometowns and embarked on the journey to the north, and finally formed a scale. A large number of village populations dropped sharply, which aroused the vigilance of Dornish nobles and began to prohibit the people of their territories from leaving. , but it was already too late.

"We'll leave alive, won't we, Karen?"

The brown-haired boy's mother hugged her younger brother, wrapped in a headscarf with a somewhat unkempt appearance, and said with a slightly trembling voice.

At this moment, they are hiding in the woods of the Crimson Mountains. The young Karen is most familiar with the terrain here, so as a guide, he leads the other villagers to escape together.

Among the dozens of villagers remaining were tall and strong warriors, who had even served in the Dornish army, with homemade spears and long swords in their hands, waiting in full force.

Hearing his mother's words, the brown-haired boy turned his head to look at her and his brother in his arms, and nodded silently.

"Um!"

"Most definitely."

In fact, Karen has regretted running away a little. Although life in Dorne is not very satisfactory, after all, he will not starve to death, and this is his hometown.

However, after running out at this moment, it is impossible to have a chance to turn back. The village chief discovered that several of their families had run away and may have reported it to Earl Franklin Fowler.

And the "Old Falcon Eagle" of Tianji City has already issued an order, which has spread all over the surrounding villages. Anyone who dares to leave their home without returning home is caught and will be sentenced to death.

In other words, Karen and the others escaped to the Prince's Pass, and there is no turning back.