With his promotion successfully completed, Martin decided to lead the four of them on a mission to collect some mineral resources. They first headed to the training valley in Del Luna to observe the progress of the slave training.
The four of them, along with Martin, traveled at breakneck speed, arriving at the training valley in no time. Del Luna, sensing Martin's arrival, immediately left the training valley to greet him.
After seeing Martin, Deluna shouted his loyalty. Then, accompanied by Deluna, he walked inside and listened to his introduction of the situation: "Currently, there are 1,090 male slaves. I have not terminated the slave contracts of those 1,000 people, so they are all very well-behaved.
In addition, I have assigned the ninety people from before to serve as team leaders to manage them. There are fifty female slaves here, and after careful instruction from the slave teachers, they are basically no different from noble maids.
Martin nodded slightly and said, "Wait a minute, I will personally terminate the slave group contracts for them and increase their loyalty." Upon hearing this, Del Luna looked hesitant, as if he wanted to stop Martin.
Martin noticed his expression and said, "Don't worry, I will assign a golden knight to you later so that you won't have any pressure." After hearing this, Deluna no longer insisted.
De Luna then ordered the ninety captains to gather all the slaves. Martin watched the crowd gradually gather and strode towards the podium.
When the slaves in the audience saw Martin walk up to the podium, they immediately shouted "loyalty" in unison. Martin was very happy. He gently raised his hand and pressed it down, and the shouting from the audience gradually weakened until it disappeared.
Martin said: "I came up here to say only one thing, I want to release you from your collective slavery contract. From today on, you are my soldiers, Martin White, and you are no longer slaves.
"From now on, you'll have enough to eat, have the opportunity to become a knight, and even wear knight armor. But to obtain all of this, there's only one prerequisite: loyalty to me, absolute loyalty!" He took the slave group contract from Del Luna and tore it apart without hesitation.
When the slaves saw that Martin had really torn up the slave group contract, this time, they spontaneously shouted "loyalty".
After that, Martin began to select soldiers with a loyalty of 60 or above. He directly called out the soldiers and asked them to stand out. It took him half a day to call out a total of 360 soldiers with loyalty that met the standards. He then asked the Golden Knight to take them to Luoxia Valley to station first.
Martin then dismissed the remaining men. He came to Druna and said, "Continue to cultivate their loyalty. I'll come back later to recruit them."
You will be in charge of all matters related to the Training Valley. If you encounter any problems, please send me a message through the communication crystal." Martin left behind a golden knight and departed.
Next, Martin and his team headed to two mines to collect energy, harvesting 70,000 and 30,000 respectively. The second mine was nearly depleted, and it would likely be a while before they had to search for a new one. Martin then returned to Luoqiu Town.
Night had already fallen when he returned to town. Martin sent a message to Yoder and Roland via the communication crystal, asking them to meet him the next day to discuss matters such as taxation, castle construction progress, and the Chamber of Commerce's profitability. After a quick wash, Martin fell into bed and fell asleep.
The next morning, Joad and Roland arrived. Martin invited them to have breakfast together. During the meal, Martin chatted with them casually about family matters and did not mention business to avoid affecting their appetite. After the meal, they went to Martin's room.
It was Joad who stepped forward first to report: "Master, the taxation problem itself is not difficult to solve. The tricky part is the power behind the caravan. If we don't handle this aspect well, no one will pay attention to us, and we will offend those nobles." After saying that, Joad looked at Martin.
Martin turned to Roland and asked, "Do you know which guild sells knight armor?" Roland thought for a moment and replied, "Both the Shale Chamber of Commerce and the Emerald Chamber of Commerce sell armor."
Upon hearing that the Emerald Chamber of Commerce was selling knight armor, Martin immediately took out his communication crystal and called Conrad. The call went through quickly, and Martin said, "Conrad, we've got a big deal. I need four hundred sets of D-grade armor. Can you calculate the total cost?"
Conrad was shocked and repeatedly asked Martin if he was joking. After confirming that Martin was serious, he began to calculate. After the calculation was completed, Conrad said to the communication crystal, "Master Martin, a total of 40,000 gold coins are required."
Martin thought for a moment and asked, "What discount can we give you this time?" Conrad replied, "Sir Martin, the maximum discount I can give you this time is 15%. This is the maximum I can give you." Martin agreed and then asked, "Can we use ore to offset the discount?"
Conrad responded, "Of course, Master Martin. However, it will take some time to dispatch. It will arrive in Luoqiu Town in five days."
After the discussion was settled, Martin turned to Roland and asked, "How much gold can the Chamber of Commerce afford to operate during this period?" Roland replied, "Master Martin, I recently acquired the assets of Peter's Auction House. After a period of operation, it is barely enough to sustain itself, so I can't afford to pay out gold coins at the moment."
After hearing this, Martin did not doubt it. He knew that the loyal Roland would not deceive him. It seemed that he could only exchange the ore for the armor.
Talking about ore, Martin felt that there was a shortage of manpower in the mining industry, and it was a pure waste to keep so many prospectors. The Earldom also needed prospectors, so it would be better to mark out the suspected ore veins first, keep two prospectors, and send the other twelve back to the Earldom.
Martin acted immediately. He asked the Golden Knights to escort the prospectors in their exploration of the mineral veins, and also notified Betan to escort them together. There should be no problem with two Golden Knights escorting them.
Before leaving, Martin handed him a nearly detailed military map and asked him to mark the suspected mineral veins. After the search was completed, he and Betan sent them back to the Earl's Castle.
After the Golden Knight left, Martin asked Yoder about the progress of the castle construction. Yoder said that the construction was going smoothly and would be completed in about three months. There was also plenty of gold coins. Martin nodded after hearing this.
Suddenly, Martin turned to Roland and Yoder and asked: "Regarding taxation, what if we change our thinking? What if we directly exchange taxes for something else of equal value?"
Starting tomorrow, Yoder, you go and register all the shops, auction houses and places where transactions take place in the town. Since they are evading taxes and we can't deal with those noble old Bidens, can't we deal with them?
Then increase taxes from another angle. If they want to leave, let them leave. If they don’t want to leave, they should pay the money honestly.
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