Lord Harland

More than ten years ago, Richard and Qiao Sen were both sons of barons. Richard had a higher social status and Qiao Sen had more power.

At that time, Richard was not the first heir to the title of William, and Johnson was the illegitimate son of Viscount Blue Shield, and he had no status.

At that time, the Harland family was a new aristocracy and had not yet established itself in the aristocratic circle. The external environment was also relatively dangerous, and the territory was in turmoil. The Langton family is a vassal of the Duke of Guise. Their personal connections and geographical location are stronger than those of the Harland family, and their strength is stronger than that of the Harland family.

The real status difference between the two is not very big, they are still in the same class.

More than ten years have passed, and the status of the two parties has become worlds apart, and their classes are no longer the same.

Richard became the Earl of Harland and ranked among the top ten in the Grant Kingdom. In addition to the king and the duke, his power was somewhat stronger than that of the earl and marquis.

Even King Roger, Jonathan, Edward and other dukes had to write letters to communicate with Richard when dealing with major events in northern Xinjiang.

The previous generation of Baron Langton whom Johnson relied on had already died of illness, and his brother Talon didn't care about his illegitimate son at all. Without the support of the nobility, Qiao Sen has become a middle- and lower-class businessman. You can only make ends meet, anyone can manipulate it, and you may lose your life if you are not careful.

Qiao Sen knew in his heart that he had old grudges with the Harland family. The reason why he came to Harland Territory was actually to take refuge.

Johnson was Baron Langton's favorite illegitimate son. Although he committed a crime and was caught by William, Baron Langton still paid a ransom worth three thousand gold coins. Before Baron Langton died of illness, he still left a property of two thousand gold coins to Johnson.

After Baron Langton died of illness, Johnson lost his supporter. Later, he stayed in Nolan to do business. Perhaps he had some talent in this area. Qiao Sen quickly seized the opportunity and hoarded a large amount of food in advance when the civil war broke out in Nolan, accumulating tens of thousands of gold coins.

In a feudal slave country like the Grant Kingdom, the channels for ordinary people to rise were very narrow. The only way to change their destiny was to achieve military merit and obtain a title. Only by obtaining a hereditary title and gaining a firm political foothold can economic interests be preserved.

Only by grasping direct power can economic operations ensure profits.

The Grant Kingdom is not a free market economy, and doing business here will inevitably involve bloody conflicts and competition.

Ordinary businessmen do not have the support of nobles behind them, and the more they make, the faster they die. After Johnson made a fortune, he soon got into trouble. A court count set his sights on his property. 6̳̳

When an ordinary businessman is targeted by a noble, the outcome is self-evident. In order to keep his property, Qiao Sen could only decisively leave Nolan and escape with his wife and children's property.

But the court earl was still unwilling to let him go, and kept sending people to hunt down Qiao Sen. Jolson first fled into the province of Sodamia, and then fled into the province of Gascoyne after his identity was revealed.

In the royal family's territory, the palace earl was very influential, and the palace earl was unwilling to let him go after he fled twice. During the process of escaping, seven or eight of the guards hired by Qiao Sen twice also died, and his wife and eldest son also lost their lives. If Qiao Sen had not become a mid-level professional, he probably would not have been able to escape into Harland's territory.

Unable to survive in the territories directly under the royal family, Qiao Sen could only go to the territories of the great nobles.

Among the great nobles of the Grant Kingdom, only the Harland family has the best food and the most fair administration in the territory. It is also the most friendly to businessmen coming in from the outside, and the channels for ordinary people to advance are the smoothest. Even for the future of future generations, Qiaosen can only choose Haaland to lead.

The most critical point is that the Haaland Territory is very close to the Gascoigne Province.

Qiao Sen was originally from a noble family, made a lot of money in business, and had better information than ordinary people. Two years ago, he received the news that the Harland Territory held an expo, had lifted the migration ban, and welcomed foreign freedmen. He immediately decided to move to the Harland Territory.

Before meeting Richard, Qiao Sen took out some money, bribed the person in charge, and used a forged identity to become a free citizen in King's County and become a free citizen of the Earl of Harland.

Qiaosen is a wealthy man. He bought real estate, shops, and a family business soon after naturalization. Because he pays a lot of taxes every year, he also received recognition from King County officials.

It has actually been two years since Qiaosen moved into Harland territory. The period of living in Harland territory was the happiest period of time for Qiao Sen in recent years.

The expo opens today. Qiao Sen came to Fort William from King County in advance and planned to walk around the streets to see if there is any business? He never expected to have such bad luck that he would be recognized by Richard on the street.

With their current social status, if Richard showed even a little bit of malice, Qiao Sen's whole family would be in catastrophe, including his newly married wife and the children who were waiting to be fed. Richard doesn't even need to speak, as long as the officials below know that he is the count who is responsible for the attack, they will spontaneously find trouble for Qiao Sen and kill him.

Seeing Qiao Sen's face full of fear, kneeling on the ground and kowtowing repeatedly to beg for his life, Richard waved his hand and said: "When you robbed the Harland family caravan, because you paid the ransom, my father William decided not to do it again. Looking for trouble for you. The Harland family is a noble family that values ​​their reputation and will not punish you twice for the same crime. But in my heart, people like you are not welcome. I solemnly warn you to keep to yourself. , operate with integrity, don’t get yourself into trouble, and since you are in Harland Territory, you must be a law-abiding citizen.”

Seeing that there was no intention of pursuing him in Richard's words, Qiao Sen hurriedly got up and bowed respectfully to Richard.

"Dear Earl, I swear to you that I will abide by the law and operate with integrity. I sincerely thank you for your forgiveness. Your mind is as broad as the sea, your morals are as noble as a saint, and your magnanimity Be praised forever."

Richard knew in his heart that there were very few law-abiding businessmen in the reality of the Dawn Plane. Especially businessmen who have big businesses, relying on the support of nobles behind them, like to monopolize the market with violence and kill competitors. After all, no business method is as effective as violently destroying the body of a competitor. Unless you meet businessmen with the same profound background and check and balance each other, it is possible to maintain peace.

Rockefeller commanded mercenaries to massacre striking miners, the Dupont family sent their rivals' families to fly in earth-moving airplanes, and blew up their rivals' gunpowder factories. Among the businessmen of the Dawn Plane, they were all considered civilized and law-abiding people.

This is true when doing business, and it is the same when doing business. After the caravan enters the castle, it is possible to abide by the law. In the uninhabited wilderness, it is also very common to kill people and steal goods.

In reality, most people who do business have lives in their hands.

Even small businessmen traveling in the countryside and walking through the streets are engaged in high-risk jobs. If you go to an unfamiliar area, you can easily lose your life.

If you want business to prosper, maintaining market order is fundamental.

The core of maintaining market order is to strictly enforce laws and regulations.

After the ban was lifted in the Harland territory, Richard increased the number of security forces and issued decrees to protect the fairness of commercial trade.

Anyone who commits a crime in the Harland Territory will be punished very harshly. Even for the caravans of the royal family and the duke family, the punishment in the Harland Territory will be ruthless.

There were once members of the Grant family who committed murder and robbery in the Harland territory. As a result, all the caravans were arrested and hanged. Even if someone got a letter of intercession from a big noble in the royal capital, Richard would not give him any face.

This is true for the royal family, and the face of other nobles has no effect on Richard.

By killing chickens to scare monkeys and setting an example, the impression that Haaland's territorial laws are strict and fair has been deeply rooted in people's hearts.

Because of the strict laws, the benefits are out of proportion to the risks. In Harland's territory, basically no one dares to bully the market, kill people and buy goods.

Even the caravans from other places have restrained their minions. After all, they cannot avoid aerial reconnaissance and cannot defeat the Warcraft Cavalry.

The better the law is implemented, the more recognition the Harland territory will receive from merchants, and the influence of the commodity fair will become greater and greater. The first two commodity expos were basically nobles and businessmen from northern Xinjiang. Starting from the third commodity expo, merchants and nobles from the east, west, and south began to pour into the Harland Territory. There are even many foreigners coming from the Grand Duchy of Stanik.

Through the channels between the Church of Fortune and the Watson family, the trade volume exported from the Harland Territory to the Grand Duchy of Stanik has increased seven to eight times. By this year, goods worth 76,000 gold coins had been exported.

Many nobles of the Grand Duchy of Stanik were unwilling to be second-rate dealers and were exploited by large channels such as the Church of Fortune and the Watson family. They jointly formed a large-scale caravan and began to trade in the Harland territory.

The Commodity Expo was held for twelve days, and the export volume reached a new high, an increase of 40% over last year, reaching 140,000 gold coins. There are a lot of hugely profitable products here, earning very high profits for the Haaland territory.

The import volume is also very considerable, with the total amount reaching 110,000. Among them, 10,000 gold coins are various mineral raw materials, and 100,000 gold coins are for the slave trade. In just twelve days, the Harland territory purchased 20,000 slaves. Counting the refugees who migrated to the territory due to the plague, those who entered Harland this year The population of Deling has reached 70,000.

Four thousand of the 70,000 people were freedmen who voluntarily moved into the Harland Territory. These people included small businessmen, craftsmen, and losers in the political struggle in the aristocratic territory. Many were literate and had professional skills, and a few carried large quantities of goods with them. The funds are all very high-quality immigrants.

After walking around the streets, Richard went directly to the intelligence department.

"George, find someone to check on Qiao Sen and see who he has offended?"

"Okay, Count."

Although I don’t know who Qiao Sen is, George is a person engaged in intelligence work and has subjective initiative in doing things. He first found Richard's guards and found out what happened today from the side. Then he found his brother Hayden and asked who Qiaosen was.

Hayden was also an eyewitness to that incident, and he personally demanded the ransom. Of course he knew who Qiao Sen was. After figuring out Jolson's situation through Hayden, George quickly found the man. He analyzed Richard's meaning and saw that Richard was unwilling to pursue Qiao Sen behind the scenes, so he investigated the inside story of Qiao Sen's migration to Harland Territory from the side.

"The person who is eyeing Johnson is Court Count Steven."

George came to Richard's mansion and reported the reason why Johnson fled to Harland territory.

Hearing this name, even Richard's expression became a little solemn. Because Steven is a heavyweight in the royal capital and the commander of the palace guards. King Roger had held this position before he was knighted, which shows the importance of Steven's status.

This person is a member of a branch of the Grant family. He has very good blood talent and is now a ninth-level knight. There are now seven court earls in the Grant royal family, and Steven is considered the most important one.

"How much information do we have on Steven?"

George had a good memory and prepared in advance before the report. He immediately replied: "Most of it is public information. We only know that this person is very talented and was trained by Duke Brenner."

Richard squinted his eyes and suddenly said, "Is Steven a greedy person?"

George nodded and said: "Steven was not a greedy person a few years ago, but since King Roger entrusted him with important tasks, Steven has been very harsh on businessmen in Nolan, and some of them have no political backers. A rich man, his family was ruined by him. Among the citizens of the royal capital, Steven has become a man full of filth and has a very bad reputation. This change is a bit abrupt, and it may be that Steven deliberately showed it."

"On the surface, there seems to be no problem, but I always feel that there is something going on behind the scenes. You have to keep a close eye on Qiao Sen. He is a mid-level professional and has a very high level of vigilance. You have to make a good plan when you are following him. , don’t get too close. My intuition tells me that there must be something behind Qiaoson, otherwise Steven wouldn’t keep an eye on him and send people to attack Qiaoson twice.”

"Although Steven has Grant family blood, he actually comes from a very low background and doesn't have many people he can trust. I also don't think he would send people to attack Johnson several times just because of some money."

Nowadays, the army and intelligence agencies in the Haaland territory are equipped with a large number of monocular telescopes.

When telescopes are equipped to the army, both tracking and reconnaissance become easier. As long as Qiaoson didn't have extraordinary eyesight and was an acquaintance of Ruiz, he wouldn't have noticed someone staring at him on the windowsill two kilometers away.

Qiao Sen's affairs were arranged, and the commodity expo was held very successfully.

After entering October, the Steam Engine Research Institute continued its efforts and successfully manufactured three steam engines using red rubber sealing rings.

These three steam engines are all used in coal mines to pump water. Each steam engine does more work than fifteen miners. The power of the machines is already looming, and productivity is about to increase by leaps and bounds.

In addition to pumping water, Richard asked the Mechanical Research Institute to allocate manpower to study textile machinery, grinding machinery, and transmission machinery powered by steam engines. This year's primary school graduates in the Harland Territory will try their best to apply to the Steam Engine Research Institute, the Mechanical Research Institute, and the Plant Research Institute. Research institutes and other scientific research units are tilted.