We are in Terra and there is no book to read.

Chapter 13 The Lion King

At night, Teresica and her group stayed in an ordinary hotel.

After buying a copy of all the newspapers here and combining it with the information from the Pardoner, Teresica now has a clearer understanding of Victoria's situation.

Although Victoria has a large land area, most of it was acquired through war, and the ethnic differences in each region are significant.In this case, the enfeoffed grand dukes controlled everything in their own territories, and they only had to pay a certain proportion of taxes to the Lion King every year.

Recently, the Lion King has expressed dissatisfaction with the old tax system and wants to increase taxation. This will undoubtedly allow the dukes to hand over more benefits.

In response to the Lion King's new tax policy, the major Dukes have taken measures to reduce military expenditures in their territories and reduce the production of high-energy Originium substances for military use.Following these actions, various security problems arose in the territories of the major dukes. Except for one Cumberland, the other dukes asked the Lion King one after another for his direct steam knights to enter what was originally regarded as a private country. The duchy maintains law and order.Secretly, he also purchased a large amount of military purity source stones from Kazdel.

"Lion King, I'm afraid I don't have long to live."

Teresica murmured, this steam knight directly under the emperor is not only the foundation of Victoria's strength, but also a private soldier who is directly loyal to him. Most of them are now dispersed to various duchies.Once the dukes attacked, these knights could neither rescue the emperor nor protect themselves.

As for Cumberland, the only one who seems to be loyal at present, part of his troops have been sent to the border of Leitania, and part of them are heading to Rem Billiton, which is Victoria's colony and is the source of most of the country's ores. land.The last remaining one is trying its best to maintain law and order in the territory. For some unknown reason, the security conflict in this duke's territory is extremely serious.

The emperor's power in this country was no longer able to suppress the dukes.

"Rem Billiton had the idea of ​​independence very early on."

Salus noticed that Teresica picked up the information about Rem Billiton, and she said: "The rapid development of Victoria's industry is inseparable from Rem Billiton's ore. Their ore is charged at a near-zero cost price. But there is no development in the local area. When I was in school in this country, Rem Billiton did not dare to take any action. Now in this situation... the feudal nobles in the colony may have joined the locals."

"Rembiliton has added a separate tax to the price of goods flowing into Victoria. The colonial aristocrats are using the decline in ore production to challenge the Lion King."

Teresica put down the newspaper in her hand.The nobles in Victoria have their own ideas, the national sentiments in the previously annexed lands are also recovering, and the colonies also have dissident intentions. Sooner or later, this kind of disunity will blow Victoria into pieces.

The Lion King increased taxes and military expenditures at this time, perhaps because he wanted to rely on his strong military power to smooth out all problems, but unfortunately it was too late.

Victoria was once one of the countries that joined forces with many countries to attack Kazdaele. A powerful old enemy trapped in civil strife, it was of no harm to Kazdaele, but Teresica did not dare to make a deal with these dukes.As long as these people still maintain Victoria's traditional stance, they will not let Sakaz become stronger after the situation stabilizes.

Originally, he was considering Rem Billiton, which was far away from the mainland of Victoria, and Sakaz had never caused any trouble to the Castors there, but after learning that it was a huge mine, he had no choice but to give up.

In addition to raw materials, what improvements in industrial capabilities can a mine bring to Kazdale?

There is only one Tara person left who can cooperate, and they seem to have their own independent armed forces - Shenchi.If you have the ability to produce some weapons on your own, you must have a certain number of machine tools in your hands, or you can get them.

Kazdel is short of machine tools, and the Tara people are short of Origin Stones. The two sides have a basis for trade.But he didn't want to cooperate with these people because these people had already started to cause trouble.Their ghost army collected source stones of military-grade purity all over Victoria, and committed many murders, causing their actions to be published in various newspapers.Although no one has been caught so far, it is not safe after all. If something goes wrong with this small group, it is very likely that Sakaz will be betrayed.

Then Sarkaz will become a tool for the Lion King to divert conflicts, a supply pack that can extend his life!

Those dukes will also actively attack Sakaz and destroy their little tricks before they are exposed!

"You are very troubled. Maybe I can give you a solution. The Pardoner is currently experimenting with a new Origin Stone technique to peel off a person's soul and obtain his memory."

Salus suddenly sat next to him, his whole body pressed close to him, and his face with an empty smile came very close.

"Which factory workers do you need? Tell me and I will kill them and take out their souls. Then you can easily get what you want."

"Your leader has never said this. It should be an immature technology. If it fails, it will be a huge loss."

Teresica sat back a little. To be honest, the touch on her hands was very soft, but that smile looked really chilling.

"The possibility you mentioned does exist. It seems that you don't agree with my plan. What a pity."

Salus sighed in frustration and sat back down. At this time, the wooden door was pushed open and Shining walked in.

"The transaction has been completed. Here is the transaction record. Please take a look."

The small pieces of paper record the purification levels of the Source Stone given tonight, their quantities, and how much profit they made today.

"It went very well. That's it for today. Get some rest early."

Teresica nodded with satisfaction and waved to the two pardoners to go out.He just said rest, but he couldn't sleep.

He needs to make a decision whether to continue building Kazdaele's industrial base using today's extremely inefficient but safe method.It's better to take a risk and try the unstable Tara people. If you're lucky, you can quickly establish Sakaz's industry. If you're not lucky, you'll be finished.

Teresa paced the room, a decision fraught with danger.

[bang bang bang]

Suddenly there was a gentle knock on the door. He opened the door and found Shining standing in front of the door. She asked calmly.

"You haven't fallen asleep. Are you not used to the accommodation here? Tomorrow we have to rush to the next trading location. It will not be good for you not to have enough rest. I can put you to sleep like before."

"..."

Teresica frowned, he was 18 anyway!Why is he always regarded as a Sakaz baby? !

so annoying!

.........

...

…smells so good

Chapter 14 People of Tara

The bed was filled with the scent of The Shining, and the place next to her was still warm, but it had become empty.Teresica opened her eyes. She had finished dressing and was standing quietly aside.

"It's time for you to get up. We've almost finished replenishing supplies. There's still an hour left until departure time."

"Well, I see."

He set off quickly. In order to avoid being caught, they had to plunge into the wilderness again today and detour to the next duchy.

Following Victoria's entire eastern border, Teresica actively visited Victoria's towns while following the shapeshifters to learn about the transaction process.

The Source Stone natural disaster is a boost to Terra's development, but it is also a shackle.It will provide source of stone ore veins to the land, and will also completely destroy the man-made objects within the area of ​​influence.In order to avoid natural disasters, all countries in Terra built mobile cities to obtain eternal safety zones at a high price.

Victoria is located in the central plains of Terra, and there are few natural disasters here.Originally, this country had no origin stone mines and could only rely on land resources to develop agriculture.However, after the colonization of Rem Billiton, the country's shortcomings were filled, and the factors that had previously restricted Victoria's industrial development became its great advantages.

It doesn't have to worry about agricultural resources or industrial resources!

Victoria began to develop rapidly. It did not have to worry about natural disasters and did not have to devote a lot of resources to evacuation equipment.Therefore, railways were built to connect various permanent strategic points, and the circulation of materials across the country was extremely smooth. This enabled the entire territory of Victoria to begin to develop in a balanced and rapid manner, with a stable and rapid population growth, and at the same time, with the assistance of perfect social mechanisms, it fed back to the whole country. throughout.

After accumulating so far, Victoria and Kazdaele have two completely different painting styles.

No, that cautious look won’t do!The gap between Kazdaele and other countries is huge!

After many days of struggle and thinking, Teresica decided to give up his original approach. He wanted to try to expand the transaction with the Tara people.

The Tara people want to make something happen, and chaos will help them. If Victoria becomes stable, they may not have room to move, so they may not betray Sakaz.

Everyone wants to fish in the troubled waters of Victoria!

On the transport ship, he summoned everyone and made his decision known.

"Shapeshifter, I want to participate in tonight's deal with the Tara people."

He didn't know much about trading, so he had been avoiding interference, but now the situation was different.

"Do you want to cooperate with the Tara people? Then... the staffing will be adjusted tonight."

The shapeshifter thought for a while, "I will immediately send a messenger to say that there is an agent from the royal court who wants to improve the cooperation contract. Is that okay?"

"Well, you go do it."

Teresica felt her heart beating faster. He had taken a dangerous step.

.........

The last stop of the transaction arrived. Teresica and her party of four arrived at Xiaoqiu County. Before they went to the Entry and Exit Management Office, someone came to them first.

He made a standard Victorian aristocratic courtesy, "I have been waiting for you for a long time. We have already arranged some minor formalities. The leader has arranged a dinner. I hope to reach a win-win agreement with you."

"Yeah, I hope so too."

With ceremonial smiles on their faces, Teresica and the others followed the leader.

The group of people walked openly on the street without encountering anyone to question them or come up to check whether they were patients with ore disease. They easily entered a well-decorated restaurant.

In the private room, Teresica saw a girl wearing a Victoria High School uniform, standing next to the main seat with a natural expression.

"Hello, respected agent of the royal court."

"Hello, Shenchi..."

The two parties took their seats, but at this moment, the girl suddenly stretched out her hand to signal to stop, "Please forgive my servant for being inconsiderate. I am just a leader of Shenchi. Using the word leader is really overstepping. You can just call me Ahemo." Ni is fine."

"Okay, Your Excellency Ahmoni."

Teresica changed her tune, "I have seen a lot along the way. Please allow me to express my admiration for you."

"It's an honor. The people of Tara have long been tired of Victoria's oppression. All this is the strength shown by the leader behind the scenes."

Ahhmoni said with a smile, raising her cup in a humble salute.

"It is indeed very powerful, so Wang Ting also decided to change the transaction content in a timely manner."

"Please speak." Ahhmoni made a gesture.

"Sarkaz continues to export source stones of military grade purity to Shenchi. If you need it, we can increase the quantity, but what we need is not gold coins, but machine tools."

Ahmouni thought for a moment and then said, "What kind of machine tool?"

"We need turning, boring, milling, planing, grinding, drilling, all kinds of Victoria military machine tools. Sakaz can afford it, and we can completely use refined source stone ingots with a purity of more than 95% to settle the bill. In general sources It has no energy response under the stone detection machine, and you can even bring it into the city easily."

Teresica looked like a wealthy person, while Ahemoni looked a little dull. She didn't expect Sakaz to make such a big order.

"Sorry, the price of these things is not low, it's just a little Origin Stone."

"Really? Then our deal ends here."

Teresica stood up immediately, followed closely by Shining and Salus, and the whole group looked ready to leave.

"Please wait a moment!" Ahemoni said quickly, "Even if you go elsewhere, you can't buy military machine tools."

"No, merchants don't have a position like you. As long as they can afford the price, they can buy anything. It's just more expensive."

Teresica smiled nonchalantly, which made Ahhmoni's face change suddenly.

"Yes, businessmen only recognize money. You are right."

She spoke quickly, "But in order to make money, they often use false means to package their products. They are very likely to sell you the obsolete military production lines as new ones."

"Ok?"

Teresica sat down again, as if he was interested in the deep pool again, but in fact he breathed a sigh of relief in his heart. It would be troublesome if no one stopped him.

Seeing that the people were back, Ahemoni also breathed a sigh of relief. Her smile returned to her face and she said: "Although we do not have military machine tools, we do have civilian machine tools. We can use the latest generation of civilian machine tools Sold to you, and the equipment is brand new too.”

"There are many things that can actually be processed by civilian machine tools. The weapons and equipment used by our people in Shenchi are processed by these machine tools. It happens that your guards are here, why not come and check the quality of the products?"

Chapter 15 The information is wrong

After getting everyone's consent, Ahemoni signaled to her servants, who immediately walked out, and soon several people moved in a bunch of things.

A dummy, wearing a full set of heavy protective gear, holding a heavy shield in his hand, and a crossbow.

"These are some things that Shenchi is about to prepare for mass production. Agent, you can give it a try."

She smiled and made a gesture to Shining and others, "You can let your guard try it... don't have any worries, I trust our collaborators."

"thank you very much."

Teresica smiled and nodded in greeting, and Shining immediately started to move. There was a slight friction sound, and the sword in her hand was already unsheathed.

【Clang—】

The dummy wearing heavy protective gear and the shield in his hand broke into two pieces and fell to the ground, making two heavy sounds.

"The defense... is very weak. There is a big gap between it and Victoria's heavy-armed soldiers."

Salus smiled slightly and picked up the crossbow. She pulled the bowstring directly with her hand. As the strength increased, the bowstring and bow arm broke.

"Eh, the strength is average."

Ahhmoni's eyes widened, and the relaxed and natural look on her face became a little forced.

"The performance of equipment is not only the machine tools, but also the materials provided and many other factors. Recently, there is a lack of various mineral resources from Rem Billiton, and many things have been affected..."

"Ah, I have also learned about this matter. Your Excellency Ahmoni is right. I have decided to trust Shenchi once as the beginning of our friendly cooperation."

Teresica wrote a number on a piece of paper, "This is our stuff, how much can Your Excellency Ahmoni give me?"

"100 units of each type of machine tools, brand new. 10 units in a batch. Please ask the agent to transport them by yourself."

"100 is too little. There are 200 machine tools of various types. The price of Originium in Victoria has doubled several times recently."

"120 units, too many will delay Shenchi's production rhythm."