Chapter 49: Forty-Nine Diplomatic Caravans
In the Baron's Mansion, the butler does not play a very important role. He just assists the lady in managing the affairs of the Baron's Mansion.
The sheriff, whose ancestors were relatives of the baron, had authority within the direct territory and the city of Lavossen.
He can judge the town's judicial and commercial affairs, as well as manage the stewards, the knights without fiefs and the soldiers in the city. He is the baron's most trusted person.
Almost every day, the sheriff would come to the Baron's mansion from his private residence in the town, report to the Baron on the various official business of the previous day, and discuss with the Baron how to handle it.
There are thousands of people in the entire town of Lavosen, dozens of knights and hundreds of soldiers outside the town, and thousands of people in the direct territory. Problems of all sizes arise every day.
The sheriff can handle all unimportant civil disputes and ordinary internal affairs on his own.
He only picked out the most important news to report, but even so, it took him half a day to report.
There were always three or four days every week when he would have his three meals a day in the outer hall of the baron's study.
If the Baroness was in a good mood, she would come to dine with them, just like today, when she brought Olivia to the outer hall of the Baron's study.
The servant went ahead to deliver the message, and when they arrived at the outer hall, dinner was already ready.
Olivia looked around curiously. The outer hall wasn't large, but it was well-lit, with long windows on the north and south sides. It was a horizontal corridor with carpet on the floor and wall coverings, and was decorated with paintings, candlesticks, various emblems, and holy objects. The door in the middle opened, revealing the inner study.
By the window on the left is an oval table that can accommodate five or six people and is decorated very beautifully.
There are several high-backed chairs by the window on the right, which are used for people waiting to be summoned.
If the Baron just had a bite, it would usually be here. At this moment, they were already seated, waiting for the food to be served.
Olivia followed the Baroness up and greeted the Baron and the Sheriff.
Olivia said that she came to report on taking over the new manor.
She was seated at the Baroness's side, face to face with the Sheriff.
The servants brought all the meals, a total of six dishes and one soup. The dishes were quite simple, and there was not even any beef or mutton.
There was a plate of dumplings that Olivia had taught Mrs. Bordall to make, placed very close to the Baron.
The Baron and the Sheriff expressed their concern for her for a few words, without mentioning the manor at all, and then continued with the previous topic.
Baron Bergru, wearing a red velvet robe and a full beard, cut a piece of honey-roasted pigeon with a silver knife and said to the sheriff:
"Has the marriage been decided?"
The sheriff forked a piece of fish from a silver-rimmed bone china plate and nodded.
"Yes, this autumn."
The Baroness took a sip from her glass. "Who's engaged?"
The sheriff turned around and told the Countess and Olivia that Count Constant's heir was engaged to the Count's second grandson, a news the Countess had just delivered.
The second grandson is the Countess's biological grandson.
The Baroness was overjoyed when she heard this and praised it repeatedly.
"In this way, we can legitimately take back the territory for Earl Constant."
As a member of the Countess's lineage, the Countess's grandson became the spouse of the legal heir to the territory, and was bound to be able to distribute more benefits to the people on their side.
This is also good news for Olivia.
If the Earl wants to send troops to the north to retake the territory of Earl Constant, he will most likely have to organize all the knights and soldiers in the county to go out.
At that time, everyone will rely on their own abilities. The baron who seizes more territories and conquers more towns will definitely be rewarded with more land.
The same goes for the knight, maybe he can be promoted from village chief to town mayor.
In peacetime, a poor knight is not a big deal, but it is a different story when it comes to war.
Based on the current social productivity, a baron can organize hundreds of soldiers and knights, and a count can only organize an army of several thousand people.
Although these thousands of people were dispatched with the help of the baron, they were mainly managed directly by one or two hundred knights, with each knight leading an average of ten soldiers.
Military achievements such as beheading generals, capturing flags, breaking through enemy lines, and being the first to reach the target are also applicable in this world.
Generally speaking, if a knight can lead his team of soldiers to obtain some of the above military merits, it will be credited to the baron led by the knight. The baron will then receive corresponding money and fiefdoms, which will be distributed to the meritorious knights.
If a knight has outstanding achievements, he will be given a title by the count on the spot to inspire other knights. After all, anything is possible on the battlefield.
However, conquering an entire county is a very long process, and it is normal to take one or two years.
Most of the time they did not attack with overwhelming force, but instead expanded the battle line from point to surface, conquering one town at a time, nibbling away and annexing the enemy bit by bit.
The Baron and the Sheriff were so excited about the news that they drank several more glasses of wine.
Olivia watched as they said nothing about her new estate.
He didn't ask her indirectly whether she had found anything in the manor.
It seemed that both the sheriff and the baron felt that those things were not with her.
Olivia was completely relieved and asked the servant who served the food for two pieces of roast pigeon. She did not concentrate on enjoying the food, but said a lot of nice things.
"The Baron is very capable. If he were to lead the Northern Expedition, he would surely achieve great things."
Baron Berggru also smiled complacently after hearing the compliment.
After a simple meal, Olivia knew that these people wanted to discuss something, so she tactfully left the Baron's Mansion and prepared to take a car home.
Her mission for today was completed.
First, the Baron and the Sheriff no longer doubted the location of the treasure chest, and second, the Baroness's favorability was maxed out.
The carriage moved forward in the bustling streets. Olivia opened the system and received the copy mission.
Congratulations on receiving:
+50 Experience Points
＊10 "Das Kapital"
The total experience value has reached 200. As for the props, Olivia checked the notes.
This "Das Kapital" is also a four-star item in the "Business" talent category.
There are still some items left over from ten books that can create a business talent with full level from scratch.
You can also give stars to those who already have business talent.
Olivia now faces two choices.
The first one is to use all ten props on the butler, raising the butler's talent points to five stars, and still have some props left for others.
The second option is to use these ten books to create a large number of "business" talents.
It can be used to spread risk and also to explore the personal "skills" of other characters.
Olivia prefers the second option, so she plans to carefully select a group of people she can control and invest her talents in them.
This group of people included sisters at home, parents, and the yeoman farmers and servants in their own lands.
The candidate needs to be decided slowly, so she refreshes the next copy task first.
Cumulative transactions:
1,000 items.
Task Description: Accumulate 1,000 transactions of any independently sellable item. The purchase and sale of the same item will only be counted once.
Mission Reward: +50 Experience Points
+「Character card drawing」function
Uh? What the hell is a thousand pieces?
Olivia was sure that she had not missed any tasks. Wasn't there only a hundred tasks a while ago?
Is the difficulty of this game increasing so fast?
It also noted that the goods must be sold individually. Was this to prevent her from selling a thousand grains of wheat to make up the number?
Olivia thought for a moment and suddenly thought of a way to solve this task.
Invest in caravans.
She could just pay fifty gold coins and ask Letilen and her aunt to help organize a caravan.
First use the money to purchase a batch of goods in the north, then take a relatively safe route all the way to the royal capital and sell them at double the price.
Then go to the southern border of the kingdom, use the 100 gold coins to buy hundreds of southern goods, bring them back to Lavosen in the north, and sell them through the trading company, which will probably double the price.
As long as we don't go beyond the southern border, we won't take too much risk.
After deducting the costs, there are more than 100 gold coins left, which can be divided into 40% and 60%.
By then, she will have accumulated a large number of transactions and can make some money (by laundering them).
Things on the project are proceeding in an orderly manner, and my aunt just needs to keep an eye on it.
Ask Letilen to go to the south, this humanoid map detector can also expand the range of her map search.
This is called killing two birds with one stone.
Olivia thought for a while in the carriage and immediately decided to go find Letilan.
It is lunchtime for the craftsmen in the afternoon, and he should probably be checking on the construction site right now.
So, after leaving the city gate, Olivia went straight to the construction site.
When she arrived at the place where her craftsmen were in charge, Letilen was there as expected, and so was her aunt.
They are accompanied by the architect's assistant, who checks the progress of cutting materials and the quantity to ensure that there are enough materials.
Olivia said she was just stopping by and she had met the designer many times.
After the architect's assistant finished counting the items, Olivia asked Vansh to wait in the car, and she called her aunt and Letilen aside.
Several people walked on the still desolate path outside the city. Surrounded by empty snowfields, there was no place to hide.
Olivia told them her idea of organizing a caravan.
They were all businessmen, especially Letilen, who had done this kind of reselling business many times.
Olivia offered to invest fifty gold coins.
Upon hearing this, Letilun and her aunt were not surprised. She should have the financial resources now. With the new territory and engineering projects, there was no place she could not make money.
However, they all thought she was very brave to spend so much money on her first investment in a caravan.
Fifty gold coins can organize a medium-sized caravan of more than ten people. Rich small merchants can only trade goods worth ten gold coins at a time.
Although the benefits of this matter are huge, the risks are also high.
However, since there is a business to be done, they don't have to invest their own capital, and they can cooperate with others to share the risk, Narcissa and Letilan will certainly not refuse.
The three of them discussed it on the spot.
I plan to leave all the work on the construction site to Narcissa.
Let Letilan lead the team. He organized ten people and Narcissa sent ten people, forming a caravan of twenty people in total.
Olivia was responsible for funding, her aunt provided half of the manpower, and Letilan provided half of the manpower and also led the team.
It was agreed that the profit exceeding the cost would be divided into 2:4:4.
The investor Olivia takes 40% of the profits.
My aunt only helps out and plays a supervisory and protective role, and takes 20% of the profits.
Letilen, who needs to personally trade the goods and take risks by sleeping in the open air, can only get 40% of the profit.
This is also the usual practice of businessmen, working in partnership to avoid losing money and goods in the event of any accidents.
After discussing the basic framework, the three of them took a car back to the manor with Olivia to discuss the detailed route and the purchase list.
Inside the manor, after the servants served all the dishes, Olivia asked Graya to guard outside and not allow anyone to enter the house.
She wants to make sure that everyone around her has no information about her specific financial expenditures.
Letilen had been to the south no less than thirty times and had been abroad several times, so he was quite familiar with the route.
He offered Olivia a choice of routes.
“We passed through five cities in total, and three of them were mandatory.
First go from Lavosen to the Earl's Anko City, and then set off from Anko.
After arriving at the royal capital, clear out the goods and go to Frankfurt City on the southern border to purchase southern goods.
The three cities of Anke City, the Royal Capital, and Frankfurt must stop to replenish supplies."
Letilen then mentioned two or three more options.
There is still a long way to go between leaving Anko and reaching the royal capital.
Either from the fiefdom of the Duke of Valois, or from the territory of Count Antoine or Marquis de Sisso.
These three routes have different levels of difficulty and different distances to the supply cities.
Each route requires different preparations, which should be arranged in advance.
Olivia carefully asked Letilen about the differences between the three routes.
Finally, she chose to go through the territory of Marquis Desiso, passing through the cities of Kasa and Landi there.
"This route is a safe option. The distance between the two cities is not too far, and the town in between is also suitable for resupply, so we don't have to sleep in the wilderness one day."
Olivia nodded. This was not her reason, but she mainly tended to avoid the territories of her political enemies to avoid being targeted.
Although Marquis Desiso was a marginal figure, it was precisely because of this that he never took sides with either the queen, the marquis, or the king.
The Duke of Valeu and Count Antoine, one is the king's man and the other is the queen's relative, so it is better not to go into their territories.
After Olivia decided on the route, she began to discuss with Letilen and her aunt what goods to purchase with the capital.
"We have a lot to choose from, like furs, butter, bacon, wine, honey, and even gems. You can purchase some of them in Lavosen and some in Anko."
In terms of purchasing goods, Olivia's aunt thought of two options. One was a stable type that guaranteed profits, with a large quantity of goods but a low unit price.
Another, more adventurous method involves selling expensive items with large price fluctuations, such as furs and gems.
In order to ensure that the transaction quantity can meet the task quantity, Olivia chose to purchase stable goods.
Those things, that is, the local food, meat, fish, butter and specialty wines, most of the prices are very stable, and fifty gold coins can purchase several carts.
Olivia didn't need to do this personally. She took out fifty gold coins, put them in an embroidered bag, and gave them to her aunt and Letilen separately, asking them to go and purchase the goods.
Once the goods are purchased, she can check them again.
It will take Letilen and my aunt about a week to prepare for this matter.
Since I didn't go abroad, the route I chose was flat and safe, and the round trip would take at most one and a half to two months.
Half of the time is spent on traveling, and the other half is spent on trading and resting.
By the time the caravan returns, it will be around mid-to-late April.
The caravan moved slowly, after all, the goods could not be damaged. If the cavalry were to deliver the military reports, it would take them two months to complete the journey, but the cavalry would only need two days and tire out a few horses.
However, for a business like this, the higher the capital, the more profitable it is. You will have to buy and sell in big cities along the way, so it is safer to move at a slower pace.
This matter went more smoothly than Olivia had imagined. As long as funding was not an issue, all the steps were smoothly discussed in one afternoon.
Before evening, Letilen and his aunt did not plan to stay for dinner and wanted to leave the manor and go back to do business.
Olivia sent them both out, and before leaving, she did not forget to tell them the news she had learned from the Baron.
Since the marriage can be settled in autumn, the Northern Expedition will not be too far away.
By then, every household, whether baron or knight, will have to prepare to recruit soldiers.
After getting firsthand information from Olivia, Letilan and Narcissa both knew where they should prepare this year.
It's nothing more than investing the money in weapon dealers, forges, blacksmith shops, and horse farms, which is a sure win.
After the two left, Olivia breathed a sigh of relief.
She did some calculations and wondered, at this rate, when would it take to launder all the money?
There are still nine hundred gold coins left.
I still have to find some projects to do.
At dinner time, the butler returned to the manor from the neighboring manor after counting the household registration and gave a brief summary of today's work.
“Today I went to count the household registration of the self-employed farmers, and there are about forty-five self-employed farmers there.
Among them were five soldiers and six young men suitable for conscription.
Among the remaining thirty-four people, eight were elderly people over fifty years old.
Twenty middle-aged people aged between thirty and fifty.
There are six children under the age of fifteen."
The butler reported the number of people, and Olivia asked casually, then she looked at Caesar at the dinner table.
"Today at the Baron's Palace, the Baron said that the heir to Count Constant and the Count's second grandson will be engaged in the autumn.
I suspect the Northern Expedition is not far off, so I'll recruit these six suitable soldiers and train them."
Caesar heard this and had no objection at all.
It didn't matter whether he was herding a few sheep or a flock of sheep, he never found it difficult. The soldiers were also very obedient and did whatever they were told to do without anyone complaining of being tired.
Caesar thought that he was still very kind and they should be able to withstand this intensity of training.
Seeing that the two masters had discussed it clearly, the butler made preparations to recruit soldiers and purchase weapons to provide them.
Olivia casually mentioned the investment in her aunt and Letilen to set up a caravan, but passed it over lightly.
The butler and Fanon present did not know the details and thought it was just a minor incident, so they did not take it seriously.
But Caesar understood as soon as he heard it that she was already trying to deceive her superiors and subordinates and turn black into white.
There was no sign of anything unusual on his face. He actually had no feelings about money and was not afraid of the future war.
Olivia thought that it would be more convenient to wash in the future when there is a war. A few hundred would be nothing, even a few thousand would be easy.
What she needs to do now is to train more talented and useful people.
After dinner, Olivia reviewed all the people around her who were suitable for placing props.
She chose to give one prop each to Vansh and Dana, and spent the rest on Lyanna and Sansa.
For Olivia, the lives of these people are either completely controllable or deeply influenced by her, and are totally worth investing in.
After the props were delivered, Olivia checked them.
The two maids who had been given the two items now each possessed a bit of "business" talent, but no skills at all.
The two younger sisters each invested four four-star items, and now both have three-star talents in "Business".
It seems that this item is also in the quinary system, with four books of four stars, a total of sixteen stars, and only three stars can be unlocked.
The favorability of the two of them has not been fully upgraded yet, and only after it is fully upgraded can the skill points be seen.
Except for Caesar, all NPCs have zero initial favorability, which needs to be slowly increased.
Therefore, Olivia planned to increase the favorability of these two people to the maximum.
There is no need to talk about the little sister, she can be bought over with good food and drinks.
As for Lainie, she is now a typical teenage girl.
To Lainie, people older than her are old men, and those younger than her are little ones. She usually doesn't accept anyone and finds everyone clichéd, but she is at a loss in front of herself.
So, she was about to be sent to a monastery for discipline, to learn etiquette, and to be tied onto the ship of fame, wealth and class.
If you want to win her favor, you can't just give her food and drink or gifts. You must make her identify with you spiritually.
So, Olivia planned to go home more often to get to know Lainie.
A few days later, it was already the end of February and approaching March. The seed market in Lavosen started to get busy at this time every year.
In another week or two, in early March, the glaciers will begin to thaw, the streams and lakes will come back to life, and the surface snow will melt away, and the land can be prepared for plowing.
Inside the manor, the construction of the church is almost completed. It will take another week to lay the tiles, do the interior decoration, lay the floor, and build the fireplace.
The census at Toksun Manor has been completed, and the soldiers have been recruited. After a few days of training, everyone has received new equipment.
Only after Letilen sent a message saying that everything was almost ready and the items to be purchased were also prepared, did Olivia take a car into Lavosen early in the morning.
The first thing she did when she came was to take inventory of the goods and check the accounts. She was also going to show her face to the tax collector under the sheriff to help avoid some taxes.
One of the few benefits of the knight class is that they do not have to pay much tax when trading locally.
Like an ordinary merchant, he collected goods worth fifty gold coins in Lavosen and prepared to resell them.
When leaving the city, the tax officer would count and check the goods and take away one-tenth of the value of the goods as tax.
This tax is not a toll, but a tax that must be paid by medium and large caravans if they resell goods exceeding 30 gold coins at one time.
One tenth is five gold coins, which is not much, but after going out, you still have to pay tolls in other cities. Now you should save as much as possible, and the more profit you will make.
Therefore, many merchants were willing to do business with knights.
It is better for them to just say hello to the tax officials than to go to great lengths to please them, and they can avoid the trouble of being bothered by local bullies.
After checking the merchandise accounts, Olivia sent Letilen out of the city gate. The tax officer chatted with her for a while about the things in the Baron's mansion, and without doing much inspection, he let her go.
Fifty gold coins, of which thirty were used to purchase various types of smoked meat, mainly venison, beef, mutton, salmon and grouse.
There were also twenty cans of butter, twenty cans of cheese, forty cans of honey, and forty cans of northern specialties, jam and cider.
The bran was placed on wicker baskets and loaded onto stable and spacious carts one by one. There were about ten carts in total.
My aunt and Letilen each sent out their most experienced men. Letilen also brought two carts of supplies, which were loaded with leather tents, several felt tents, and a cart of dry food to prevent them from sleeping in the open air.
The group marched out of the city in a mighty procession without paying a penny in taxes.
However, Olivia promised the tax collector that she would visit his home.
After finishing these things, she went to stroll around the market and prepare to buy some things so that she could go back to Renault Manor and improve the favorability of Sansa, the greedy girl.
For her, there's nothing a piece of cake can't solve.
…
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