Alien world

Chapter 1214 136. Food Surplus Crisis
Lycomdo Magical Supplies Shop.

As a chain of magic shops that originated in the year 696 of the Saint Laurent calendar and is headquartered in Silstovis, they had great business acumen and chose to sponsor "Annan Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" and promoted it as the magic images became popular.

To continue the cooperation, they also opened a store in Liberty City.

Annan looked up. As a shop that became famous with the help of magical images, the Lycomdo Magic Shop was exactly the same as the one in "Annan Potter".

But what they sell are not magic muskets, and there is no shooting range.

Pushing the door open, I saw the merchant behind the counter was also a middle-aged man dressed as an ancient wizard.

"Lord Annan, what do you need!?"

The boss greeted excitedly, attracting the attention of other guests.

"Is there a magic annihilation gun here?"

"Is that... a magical weapon?"

"It seems not."

Annan left just as inexplicably as he came.

As time passed, the influence of the dream gradually faded, and Annan soon put it behind him and was pulled by Olmedo to do two things.

Nearly half of the year 1002 of the Saint Laurent calendar has passed, and the autumn offensive of the McKeon clan is not far away. They have to make preparations in all aspects.

For example, storing supplies, expanding the army, and allowing Liberty City to take away all citizens in times of crisis.

In early June, Francois, who was also responsible for communicating with the Empire, received an official response through the Imperial Ministry of Foreign Affairs: the Empire intended to completely resolve the problems in the North.

"Solve the problem or solve the people who created the problem?" Annan asked.

"Does it make a difference?"

"To solve the problem is to clear out the rats and demons that got too close. To solve the problem is to kill all the rats and demons."

"It should be the latter..."

Whether it is the former or the latter, the empire will recruit another group of coalition forces at that time.

Annan was not in a hurry to form an alliance. The Empire's response confirmed that the Skaven were going to advance southwards in a large scale. So he let Francois take the Empire's response and take a tour around the surrounding areas.

The surrounding forces have no sense of crisis, so how can Annan take advantage of them?

The news did scare the small forces around Liberty City. They had no military capabilities, and basically relied on private soldiers for small matters and the empire for big matters. This was also the philosophy of most lords. There were very few territories like Liberty City that took care of both business and military affairs. Otherwise, why would a politician say that Liberty City was a country disguised as a territory?
If the Skaven invade, who should they rely on, the Empire or Free City?
At this time, Francois said, "Have you heard of the magic musket?"

The lords' reaction was predictable and unexpected: they preferred concrete walls to magic muskets.

The nobles feared that commoners who got their hands on the magic muskets would become Freeblades and turn against them.

Concrete walls are fine too... Liberty City will provide the lime and workers anyway.

After helping Liberty City absorb thousands of unemployed people, they couldn't help but ask curiously how Liberty City knew about the movements of the ratmen before the Empire.

Francois naturally wouldn't say it was the Rat Man, he just said: "Liberty City has its own news channels."

The entire collective, including Annan, is spontaneously establishing the prestige of the Free City.

How to build prestige?

I said the Rat Man would come, and everyone thought the Rat Man would not come, and then the Rat Man really came;
You are afraid that the rat people will pack up their property and run away, while I am building walls, collecting taxes, and recruiting soldiers;
Even if the ratmen came, no one could defeat them except me. Annan wanted to repeat the same trick in the western territory of Franco, but the lord said that there were solid walls in the territory and declined the good intention of the Free City.

Annan felt a little regretful. After all, the territory of Franco was very large, equivalent to a bunch of small forces in the east. As for whether they could not stop the ratmen and affect the Free City...

After personally entering the forest mountain range, Renato said there was no need to worry. Even if it was the Franco territory, Liberty City had the mountain range as a natural wall, and could also receive the Franco territory's legacy...

"The Franco Territory is our partner," Annan corrected.

"I spoke out of turn." Renato lowered his head slightly.

Winter is approaching, and the first ones to notice it are not humans, but migratory birds.

The reason for this is that merchants suddenly began to hoard a large amount of supplies, and the price of food began to rise. The closer to the north, the higher the price of food. Especially for the Zorensais Chamber of Commerce, which was backed by the Principality of Keating, food was almost only imported but not exported.

The Kingdom of Keating is close to the northern border, and the surrounding countries are not very strong. No matter which one is gone, it will be the next to suffer.

The fact that Annan did not gloat over other people's misfortune is a sign of his high moral character.

As The Voice of Liberty and other regional newspapers continued to publish news about the northern situation, citizens of Liberty City gradually realized the purpose of Annan's order to open up new land a few months ago.

It turns out that Lord Annan knew it at that time!
But the citizens of Liberty City are extremely loyal. Who would care if the world's tallest mountain grew another meter?

Among them, the Zoronsas Chamber of Commerce set its sights on the food in Liberty City.

They expressed their willingness to purchase this year's new grain at a high price.

Annan did some calculations: the ratio of distilled liquor to grain is about 1:5, that is, five pounds of grain can make one pound of alcohol.

Harvey Stoneskull said he was willing to buy it for 30 gold per barrel... That was just bragging. The words of drunkards of any race in the world cannot be trusted.

Mr. Fast helped to do the math and found out that the price of a barrel of alcohol should not exceed 7 kinaers. If it was more expensive, the drunkards would not be able to afford it.

Annan would not do something like selling the tavern at a low price or selling it to the dwarves at a high price.

200 pounds of grain brewed into wine is worth 7 kinaers, so how much is the Zoronsais Chamber of Commerce willing to pay for the grain? The answer is three times the premium.

200 pounds of grain is about 36 silver coins.

That's almost a 20-fold difference.

Annan asked Ingrid to reply to the Zollenses Chamber of Commerce: Food is 3 silver per pound, if you want it, take it, if you don’t want it, forget it.

The answer from the Zollenses Chamber of Commerce was also very straightforward: the price increased from 6 coppers to 3 silvers, why don’t you go and grab it?
Ingrid said seriously: "Robbery is faster than ours?"

"Then it depends on who you can sell all that food to!" The leader of the Chamber of Commerce walked out of the City Lord's Mansion in a rage, but did not leave.

He didn't think Liberty City could digest so much food, so he would have to sell it to them when the time comes.

Annan didn’t know whether he could digest all the food, but in addition to brewing and storage, Annan planned to send a batch of food to the Kingdom of Dimon.

Because news came back from the commercial street of the Kingdom of Dimon that although the kingdom had regained the Lesio Valley, it had been contaminated by ratmen and could not be used for cultivation.

After losing a large amount of land and major granaries, the kingdom was running out of food this year and had to spend money to purchase large quantities.

Annan was impressed by this kingdom that defended its territory and offered to support it. Because it might not be in time to send it after the autumn harvest, he simply counted the surplus grain in the city and sent it to the Dimon Kingdom first.

(End of this chapter)