Lux's Farewell

This winter, Forsbarrow's supplies have been the focus of Lux's attention.

As the saying goes, people are iron and rice is steel. Lacus led the private army and demons to the north, plus the merchants and housekeepers accompanying the team. Now, the more than 2000 people are all supported by Lacus.

Food, lodging, and daily necessities for more than 2000 people is quite an astonishing amount of expenses. Even if Lacus is the little princess of the Crown Guard family, it is difficult to afford it.

What's more, after accepting the title, Lacus is the Earl of Laxana. Pete and Augatha can indeed subsidize her, but they cannot use the family's resources to subsidize unlimitedly!

In this case, in order to raise enough supplies to support the lives of soldiers and demon-infected people, Lux made two-handed preparations before the conferring ceremony.

On the one hand, she patiently participated in many aristocratic exchanges that she did not want to participate in at all, and by going to the upper passages, she knocked on many local trade doors for Fossbarrow.

Considering that Earl Laxana is a model of nobles in Demacia and a rare earl with real power in recent years. Although the nobles in Xiongdu are not very optimistic about her future career as a lord, it is not worth investing in some favors. What a big question.

In this way, Lux obtained a source of wealth by selling favors. Now the Forsbarrow Chamber of Commerce can only conduct trade at the Fair in Xiongdu, but Lux can directly go to other local high-end manufacturers of lords. Direct sales, in which the profit growth range will be an important income for Fossbarrow during the tax holiday period.

On the other hand, Lacus had a frank and honest meeting with her father, Pete, "to kiss father and daughter and settle accounts clearly".

There is a long-term source of supplies, but the supplies for the winter can only rely on the city of Mithril—since Lux came to Boda in Mithril City last time, the branch nobles of Mithril City have been in a short period of time. I restrained my thoughts that I shouldn't have, and now in the warehouse of Mithral City, a lot of food and furs are stockpiled, all of which are needed by Lux.

These materials have Peter's share, but they should belong to the "Crownguard Family" in name.

Although according to Pete and Augusta's intentions, it is entirely possible to distribute a large part of Lax in the form of "recognition of outstanding young people in the clan" while Lax has not yet separated, and let her directly use it to solve her urgent needs, but Lax Not willing to do this.

Unruly and short-handed.

Just when Pete and Augatha were about to get angry because of Lux's out-of-the-way behavior, Tiana made an assist. She used the previous division of the family to enrich their own pockets as an example, proving that this kind of distribution is easy to cause trouble. Discord and corruption within the family.

In the end, at the insistence of Lax and Tiana, Lax negotiated a deal with Peter as "Count Laxana".

The materials used to help the soldiers and demon-infected people under Lux's command survive the winter are not given, but borrowed, and they will be returned together with the principal and interest.

Originally, according to Lux's intention, he could repay whatever he borrowed, but after Mithral City got the news, they unanimously demanded to borrow materials to repay the gold coins, in addition to the loan, plus a sale.

The food is old food, and the fur is also second-hand goods of poor quality, but the repayment must be calculated according to the price of the bulk transaction at that time.

There is no doubt that this is a request made by members of the Crown Guard family to cash out dividends, but Lux has a subtle expression on this request.

Commodity trade in Demacia is underdeveloped. Although there are many nobles engaged in usury, the futures for commodities only exist in a very small range. Most of the time, everyone is just used to paying with one hand and delivering the other.

However, when she was in Zaun, Lux had a detailed understanding of Piltover's futures market, and also had a certain understanding of futures and futures delivery.

Therefore, without Carya's reminder, she immediately realized the possible situation of this kind of loan-if the price of grain and furs in the market is very low when the loan is repaid, then the transaction of the Crown Guard family may It's a big loss.

Of course, the branch members of the crown guard family who proposed this transaction method are not stupid.

From their point of view, in recent years, Demacia has had good weather and good harvests every year, and grain prices have fallen to the bottom. In the next few years, they will be paid according to the market price, and they will definitely make an extra profit.

It's a pity that they don't know anything about the productivity that magic can bring. Lacus is sure that after five years of repayment period, the food price in the entire northern region will be suppressed to a certain level due to Fossbarrow's bumper harvest. Eye-popping prices!

So, she happily accepted the request and landed it on the deal contract.

In other words, in the long run, Fossbarrow's supplies depended on the income from newly opened business routes, and in the short term, it was borrowed from Mithral City.

However, just now, Lux received news from Mithral City that the next batch of supplies might not be able to arrive.

........................

When she found out that Mithril City’s supplies couldn’t be delivered, Lux’s first reaction was “someone is messing with the family”, but after thinking about it carefully, she found that this was impossible—there was too much food and fur in Mithril City. That's for sure, and the furs from the previous period have been delivered, why can't the follow-up food be delivered?
Don't the separated people need to pay back the money themselves?

Therefore, before seeing the envoy from Mithral City, both Lacus and Ino thought that the branch family might have to raise the price on the ground, or set up a clever plan to increase the shipping fee.

But after seeing the envoy of Mithral City, Lux realized that things might be different from what she imagined.

The emissary who came to Fossbarrow was none other than one of the disaster patrol knights that Lux personally interviewed and appointed in Misill City.

Sending such a person as an envoy does not seem to be embarrassing itself for the city of Mithral.

Sure enough, after meeting Lacus, the normally honest farmer first saluted in a non-standard way, and then straight to the point, he talked about the difficulties in Miyin City—a news came from the dragon bird knight, and the snow field in the north There has been a massive barbarian army dispatch!
As one of the northern fulcrum fortresses of Demacia, Mithral City has completely entered a state of martial law after receiving the news.

"So, that batch of food was temporarily requisitioned?"

"No, no, absolutely not!" The disaster patrol knight shook his head like a splashing drum, "There is a lot of food, but there is no manpower in Mithril City!"

According to the disaster patrol knights, because Miyin City has started a comprehensive alert, all private troops and northern garrisons must be on alert. Under such circumstances, it is impossible for Miyin City to send out an army to escort food anyway. .

What, you said that you don't need the army, but directly send the militia to escort them?
The savages of the Freljord are gathering on a large scale and ready to move. At this time, sending a militia that is slow to move and has limited combat power to deliver food, isn't it an aid to the enemy?
Everyone in the north knows that the barbarians of the Freljord are the most capable of making progress. If they find that there is something to gain, then they will stare at it endlessly—although the barbarians of the Freljord may not necessarily understand the secret silver. Given the topography of the city, this food transport team may not be discovered, but if it is discovered, the winter in Miyin City will be unsettled within three to five years!
No one would take such a risk!

After figuring out the situation, under the apologetic eyes of the patrol knight, Lacus let out a long breath.

"As long as there is food." Lux said with a smile, "As long as there is food and can be transported outside, then I can send someone to pick it up—as long as I get the food, everything is mine."

"This, this can't be counted!" Although the disaster patrol knight respects Lux very much, but the matter involves whether Mithral City will become the focus of the Freljord people's care in the next few years, he can only shake his head vigorously, " If the food is found by the barbarians in the north, then Miyin City will suffer!"

"No, absolutely not." Lux was full of confidence, "We can bypass the Dragon's Back Mountain Range and make a circle from the south."

"Don't go to the Dragon's Back Mountain Range?" The disaster patrol knight obviously didn't expect to get this answer. "Now the big rivers are frozen, and if there is no water transport to go around from the south...the food has arrived, and spring is here!"

Although it is also a city in the north, there are two routes from Mitril City to Fossbarrow.

The summer route is to go south by boat from Miriam City, take the northwest route at Rithos, and then go to Fossbarrow. In this way, half of the journey will be by water, and the other half will be by dry riverbed. Although there is a slope, it is not worth walking difficulty.

The winter route is to go straight west along the Longji Mountains and go straight to the permafrost - this section of the road is full of hot melt lakes in summer, but in winter it is hard permafrost, so you can go straight in a straight line.

The materials in Miyin City are transported in batches. A large part of the reason is that in autumn, the permafrost is not frozen solid, and the waterways are not easy to travel. Therefore, only a small number of them take the summer route, and the rest wait until winter, snow, Once the permafrost has solidified, we will take the winter route to send it over.

After all, except for the initial furs and daily necessities, all the materials on Fossbarrow's side can be considered to be consumed at a constant rate.

No one expected that this winter in the ice element north of Mithril City, dragon bird scouts discovered the Freljord barbarians dispatched on a large scale!

Right now, from Miraz to Fossbarrow, the winter route is impossible, and the canals of the summer route are frozen, and the speed of transportation has been greatly slowed down. No matter how you look at it, it is impossible to transport to Fossbarrow on time!
However, Lux has her own way.

Under the helpless eyes of the disaster patrol knight, she quickly wrote a reply letter, affixed her personal seal, and sealed it with wax.

"Don't worry." Lacus said firmly, "I'm going on the summer route. As long as we get the food, even if it's late, it's our own."

"Your Excellency Laxana, don't you really think about buying food from other places?" The disaster patrol knight obviously didn't know the transaction behind this batch of food, so he could only give some advice from his own point of view, "Let's go For the summer route, it will be very slow to transport to Fossbarrow... Maybe it is too late to send fast horses to Velos to raise food first."

"Don't worry." Lux patted the other person's shoulder lightly, "Go back and deliver the letter, my food delivery team will be leaving soon!"

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For ordinary people, the frozen canals in winter are of no traffic value—although the canals in the northern part of Demacia will freeze, the ice surface is not complete due to the relatively large drop.

In relatively gentle river sections, there will be large areas of ice sheets on the river surface, but these ice sheets will be destroyed in places with drop, forming ice shards similar to ice floods.

The difference between an ice sheet and an ice slush is not very obvious. If you want to use methods such as dog sleds to carry out transportation on the ice, it is very likely that there will be a place where "it looks like an ice sheet, but it is actually an ice slush". In the area, people and goods fell into the icy water.

Even if there is a guide who understands the terrain and the hydrology and ice conditions of each river section, it is necessary to load and unload goods frequently, sometimes on the river bank and sometimes on the river.

This is undoubtedly quite time-consuming.

Moreover, because of the usual water transportation, there are no specially built roads along the canal that can be used for large-scale transportation.

The combination of the two means that taking the summer passage in winter is a matter of getting twice the result with half the effort. As the disaster patrol knight said, when it is delivered, spring will come.

But for Lux, this is not a problem.

Where does Lux's confidence come from?
The answer comes from Eno.

Ordinary people might not be able to tell the difference between a slug and an ice sheet, but not Ino.

Ordinary people may only be able to load and unload goods ashore when faced with ice, but Yinuo doesn't.

Led by Eno, with the 11th group (ice elemental group), they can complete the transportation at a faster speed!

That's why Lux replied confidently.

After sending away the worried patrol knight, Lux quickly found Ino and told about the whole matter and her own thoughts.

Undoubtedly, Ino agreed with Lux's statement.

"No problem, I am familiar with that section of the canal in Miraz City!"

As a little girl born outside the city of Miraz, Ino knew a lot about the canal and the road from Miraz to Lythos.

After a little calculation, she confidently agreed to the task——the ice surface is not strong enough, so the ice surface should be reinforced to make it stronger. With Ino and the 11th group of ice elemental mages, this trip Transportation is destined to be without difficulty!
Just do what they said, Lacus and Ino immediately found the ice elemental mages of the 11th group, and quickly assigned this special task.

Among all the groups, the attitude of the 11th group of archons is the most positive group - the reason is very simple, Ms. Ino, the "second in command" of Forsbarrow, is a powerful ice elemental mage, a real One's own people and "backers".

It is precisely for this reason that they are the first group to cooperate, and their enthusiasm for work has always been the highest.

(Similarly, the first group to start working together was Sound and Vibration, a group that idolizes Sona.)
After learning that they were about to undertake the task of transporting food from Mithral City to Fossbarrow, the ice elemental mages of the 11th group were surprised for a moment, and all of them puffed up their chests, showing full confidence.

Without Lux asking, they shouted their promise.

"Guaranteed to complete the mission!"