From pioneer lord to king

Chapter 199 Water Trade【4K】

The current Kanna Territory is several times larger than before, and borders the Warcraft Mountains in the south. Although there is no development plan for the time being, it does belong to Ryan in terms of ownership.

Most of the northern part is in contact with the original Braceland, but it has now become the possession of Chelsea.

The west side is connected to Baron John's land, sandwiched by two Viscounty lands, and the Warcraft Mountains are on the other side. Baron John has completely lost the space for development and can only survive in the cracks.

The south is directly connected to Marton County. It is a buffer area composed of wasteland and hills. The orcs invaded the southern border from here to divide their troops. It can be said to be one of the front lines of the entire southern border.

But because this is not the attacking direction of the orc army, there is no pass and border army stationed here, and everything has to be defended by the nobles on the border.

Among them, Chelt City bears the brunt and is at the forefront of Linton County's defense against the orcs. Therefore, most of the population of the Chelt Territory lives in Chelt City, and a small part of the remaining population lives in the back of the city. Among the four small towns.

In the past, if the orcs were unable to capture the city of Chelt, they would take a detour to attack the Karna Land in the rear, which seriously affected the development and construction of the Karna Land.

The current situation is very embarrassing. There is obviously a large plain between Doman City and Chelter City. Whether it is developing agriculture or building a small town, it is a very good choice.

But because of the yearly invasion of the orcs, Ryan didn't dare to invest in it vigorously, for fear that the bamboo basket would be empty.

Even though eight small towns had been invested in the construction before, they did not dare to leave Doman City too far away, just to transfer the people in time when the orcs invaded.

In view of this embarrassing situation, Ryan already has a plan to change. The first is to build Chelt City into a semi-military fortress, stationed a large number of soldiers, and become a bridgehead against the orcs.

In order to further improve this defensive circle, Ryan chose to build a new city near the Warcraft Mountains. If the orcs choose to bypass Chelt City, they must pass through here. If the orcs want to pass, there is no other way but to attack the city. up.

Of course, to build this defensive circle, it is definitely not enough to rely on these two cities alone. Ryan has more details to fill in slowly, and finally builds a real iron wall.

In this way, Chelt City and New City will form a solid line of defense, protecting the hinterland of the plain behind, and will no longer be threatened by the orcs.

At present, the construction of the new city has been going on for almost three months, and the first city wall has already taken shape, and the speed can be said to be very fast.

All this is due to its geographical location. The steelmaking plant, cement plant, a coal mine, and a copper mine in Kanaling are not far from it, and it is close to the mountains, so it is quite convenient to obtain materials.

This is another goal of Ryan. He wants to build this new city into a city integrating smelting, handicrafts, manufacturing and other industries in the near future.

At that time, the paper-making workshop, alchemy workshop, sugar-pressing workshop, etc. will all be moved here.

This is destined not to be a goal that can be accomplished in the short term. In addition, the current population gap in the Kanna Territory is too large, so Ryan negotiated with the nobles in several surrounding territories and recruited a migrant worker of more than [-] people to participate in the city. construction.

If Ryan wanted to buy them directly, these nobles would definitely not be willing, but if they were employed, there would be less resistance. After all, the lords on the border are not very rich, and this is also a way to increase income.

What's more, most of the money is going into the lord's pocket, and they can't find a reason to refuse, after all, Ryan has given too much...

Ryan stood on the top of a low mountain, looking at the busy construction site below, wondering what he was thinking.

Levi, who has been promoted to become an intermediate knight, said puzzled: "My lord, with so many migrant workers recruited, can the territory's finances support it?"

Ryan smiled, pointed at the construction site below with the horsewhip in his hand, and said, "Of course I can't afford it now, but I can do it later.

Among the following people, I don't know how many spies they planted in, and they all have various purposes.

I don't care about these, after all, what they see is only what I want them to see, such as cement, liquor, paper, crude iron farm tools and so on.

Although these things are not difficult, they are not something they can figure out in a short time. "

Levi's nodded thoughtfully. The speed and effect of cement construction are obvious to all. As long as the price is right, no nobleman can refuse.

In addition, liquor, paper and other things will have a large market, but in his opinion, the so-called rough farm tools are the bigger market.

No matter how shoddy it is, it is still made of iron, and it can greatly increase efficiency when used in agriculture.Melted, it can be forged into a weapon.

Not every nobleman owns a large iron mine like Ryan, and steel has a fatal attraction for border lords.

The profit margins of these things are very large, and the relative prices are not cheap.

If these lords are tempted, because of their stingy nature, most of them use the wages of migrant workers to make up for it. able to afford it.

Sure enough, as Ryan expected, within half a month, these lords found that they could not obtain the craftsmanship of these things, and then sent people to find Ryan and expressed their intention to purchase or cooperate.

All kinds of orders flew in like snowflakes, and in the end not only fully settled the cost of hiring migrant workers for one year, but also made a lot of money.

That's not to mention, after this wave of operations, more and more thoughtful businessmen have noticed the viscounty territory of Kanna, which is on the border. For a while, more and more caravans came to Doman City for trade. .

They brought spices, salt, cloth and other things in exchange for and bought liquor, paper, sugar, cement and other commodities, and then sold them to other places and sold them at high prices, so that these merchants could eat a lot.

And their success has also attracted more businessmen to Kanarling. Doman City has gradually become lively and busy, and its reputation has grown a lot. It has become the veritable second city of Linton County...

"These people bought blank paper from us at a price of ten silver delos and five hundred sheets, and then sold it to other places for a price close to thirty silver delos. These people are really ruthless."

Finance officer Fetrol looked at the investigation report of his subordinates, and couldn't help but be stunned. He thought it would be enough for him to sell ten times the price of one silver dele and five hundred sheets of paper, but he didn't expect these second-hand dealers to sell The sky-high price was nearly thirty times higher, and the sales volume was pretty good.

In fact, if you think about it, you will understand that paper has always been a proper luxury. In the past, animal skin paper was used, which was thick and rough, and the price was calculated by sheet. The current price of five hundred sheets of animal skin paper of the same size is about About one hundred silver dele.

As for paper, although it is not as good as animal skin paper in many aspects, it is thin and delicate, and it is smoother and more beautiful to write on. These are very sought after by nobles.

What's more, the price is much cheaper than expensive animal skin paper. Thirty silver deles and five hundred sheets are really about the same price as cabbage for them. Compared with this, it's not surprising that they sell well.

"It's really an enviable profit, and it's time for us to take a share of it." Fetrol flicked the information in his hand lightly with his fingers, and a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth...

On the second day, Ryan officially issued a decree to restart the water trade route. The originally sealed Cheltling Wharf was officially put into use, and a suitable location was selected to build a second wharf near Doman City.

Since he had no previous experience in trading by waterway, Ryan ordered to recruit experienced crew members from all over the territory, and the financial officer Fetrol personally led the team to set off.

The first time was to accumulate experience, so Ryan did not impose any requirements on them, so as not to cause unnecessary pressure on them.

Before Chelt led the way, the water trade routes had already been developed relatively maturely, and many people depended on water for food, so the crew was recruited quickly.

The most important ships for trade are very simple, just use the ones left by the Yaqi family before. There are a total of eight large ships, and Ryan did not keep a single one, all of which were allocated to Fetrol.

Each of these ships can carry more than 100 people, and the cabin space is large, which can carry a lot of goods.

Lane had previously modified these ships, six of which were merchant ships, each with a guard of 25 men, each carefully selected from the army, at least capable of normal water warfare.

Each one is equipped with a sword at the waist, a bow and crossbow on his back, and wears light leather armor.

In addition, every merchant ship must be equipped with a miniaturized trebuchet. This is the latest achievement of the craftsmen on the trebuchet. The volume is greatly reduced, but the power can maintain [-]% of the original version, which is more than enough to deal with wooden boats on the water. , enough to serve as a deterrent to the little ones.

This is only the defensive force of the merchant ship. The other two were directly transformed into armed ships, each loaded with a hundred soldiers, and also equipped with trebuchets.

That's not to mention, the two ships didn't carry any cargo, and there were other consumable weapons in the cabin except stone bombs, and they directly acted as caravan guards with knives.

Considering the value of the caravan's cargo, Ryan also assigned a knight to each of the two armed ships, and each of them held a thousand machine crossbow, which could be said to be armed to the teeth.

Calculated in this way, Ryan arranged a total of [-] fully armed soldiers as guards for this caravan, and they were all led by the only female knight in the territory, Shia.

In addition, the caravan has also recruited more than [-] crew members, who will be responsible for the daily operation of the fleet, led by the financial officer Fetrol.

Everything is ready, the only thing we need is Dongfeng, as long as the goods fill up the six cargo ships, the fleet can officially set off

------

In February, the weather gradually warmed up, but it was still a bit cold.

Not far from the city of Chelter, the broad Linton River detours. This is a large river that runs through most of the southern border. As long as you have a boat, you can follow this river to reach hundreds of territories along the coast.

This is the river artery of the entire southern border, which contains huge wealth. The Yaqi family used to rely on this river to stand at the forefront of the orc invasion for hundreds of years.

And now, Ryan also has to rely on this river to make the economy of Kanna Territory take off again!
Today is the day for the fleet to set off, and the pier is very busy. Many laborers are working as coolies to continuously move the supplies piled up on the pier onto the merchant ship.

These goods may not be so precious in Karna, but they are "luxury goods" sought after by many nobles outside, such as white wine, green sugar, perfume, etc.

In order to prevent these laborers from making small moves, Shia, who was dressed in fiery red leather armor, led the soldiers to stare at the pier. His murderous look made the laborers present shudder, and they didn't even dare to lift their heads.

But there was a strange existence among these people. It was a big man with an unusually strong build. He was over 1.8 meters tall and looked very simple and honest.

He was wearing a set of short-sleeved sackcloth, and on the exposed half of his bronze-colored arms, the muscle lines were extremely perfect, and it looked like he had been specially trained.

He wore a broken straw hat on his head and a black towel around his neck.

He carried a hundred-pound box on one shoulder but still walked like flying, which attracted the attention of people around him.

Naturally, Shia also noticed this big guy. She had been watching him for a long time, but he behaved very well, and he worked very neatly. There was no fighting spirit or magic fluctuations on his body, as if he was a strong mortal.

Although she felt a little suspicious, but the other party hadn't done anything out of the ordinary, she naturally couldn't question him for no reason, so she had to be closely observed.

Until the last box of goods was moved, the other party didn't do any tricks or anything. After receiving the wages from the manager, he sat on the side to rest like other coolies, and chatted harmoniously with others during the period.

Shia asked someone to ask and found out that the strong man had been working as a coolie at the dock for almost a month. His identity was a refugee fleeing from afar. The officials arranged for him a temporary foothold in Chelt City, which was not fixed. Work, to do coolies for a living.

It seemed that there was no problem. It happened that Ryan arrived at the pier at this time and was about to send the fleet off, so she looked away.

The moment her gaze shifted, the tense muscles on the strong man finally relaxed, and he felt it from the first time Shia saw him, when he thought his identity had been recognized.

He could feel that the woman's strength was not weak, and he might not be able to cope with so many soldiers on the pier. He was already prepared to escape, but now it seemed that it was a false alarm.

"Oh, that's the lord, he is really a kind nobleman, and his salary is much higher than that of the previous master Archie." A middle-aged man next to the strong man suddenly pointed to Ryan who was surrounded by the pier and said with emotion Said.

The strong man followed his fingers and looked over. This was the first time he saw Ryan, but he didn't expect him to be so young.

Ryan in the crowd felt something, turned his head to look at the crowd in the distance, and met the eyes of the strong man.

The strong man was startled suddenly, terrified in his heart: "He found me?"

……

(End of this chapter)