N-M #144 - The dust has settled, and the road ahead is smooth
#144 - The dust has settled, and the road ahead is smooth
After bidding farewell to Duke D'Arney, Horn silently led his horse forward. As he reached the drawbridge, he turned back to look at the castle once more.
Surrounded by a moat, figures could be seen moving on the corner towers of the main building between the curtain walls and towers.
Turning back again, he continued forward, the drawbridge creaking under Horn's steps.
He couldn't shake the feeling that his conversation with the Duke today was strange, though he couldn't pinpoint why.
It was clearly a mutually beneficial arrangement: Horn would provide the Duke with the justification for rebellion, and the Duke would provide Horn with economic and military support. Yet, the Duke was being so hesitant and indecisive.
He had hoped to finalize things today. If this dragged on, he didn't know when a decision could be reached.
Time waits for no one.
"Your Grace, are we heading back now?"
"No." Horn led his horse in another direction. "We'll pick up the apothecary and stonemason and bring them back to camp. We'll also stop by the nearby guild church."
Things had been uneasy lately, and Cici's incident had been a reminder for Horn.
He walked along Citizen Road, crossed the Ator Bridge, and the guild church was located at a bend in the canal.
The rough stone walls formed a Palladian facade, and in the second-story shrine, eight marble angels or saints prayed devoutly with their hands clasped.
The people coming and going near the guild church were not priests, but artisans, accountants, and notaries from various trades.
The so-called guild church was not a church for a single guild, but was built with funds pooled from all the guilds near Zhen'deburg.
These included the Notaries Guild, the Stonemasons Guild, the Leatherworkers Guild, the Dye Owners Guild, and so on.
Initially, these guilds were mutual aid organizations for craftsmen and artisans, somewhat like fraternities or alliances.
Their purpose was to prevent cutthroat competition, prevent the leakage of technical secrets, set industry standards and business scopes, and protect the interests of most members by controlling the number of businesses and artisans.
When a member violated the law or became seriously ill, other members would contribute to help, and even had an obligation to conceal his crimes.
After the Hundred Years' War, bilateral economies continued to expand, and the Empire's secondary industry developed rapidly.
This led to individual members of the guilds possessing far more power and influence than others.
Thus, guild oligarchs emerged, relying on their own industries to monopolize certain industries in the area, suppressing and controlling other craftsmen to reap huge profits.
Most of the city councilors and power holders were these guild oligarchs and large workshop owners.
The guild church served as the joint headquarters for these oligarchs, and also functioned for insurance, fundraising, and storing information.
When Horn entered the church, he could still see newly inducted craftsmen swearing oaths to the patron saint under the supervision of their masters.
Normally, outsiders like Horn would not be allowed in, but as a distinguished guest of the Duke, he was permitted to visit some unimportant archives.
After changing into a commoner's jacket, Horn piled more than a dozen thick ledgers on the table.
He opened one from time to time, copied some data, and then calculated on scratch paper, not looking up from the pile of waste paper until the sun had set.
"It's actually correct." Horn stared at the data on the table, lost in thought.
The ledgers collected from the ruins, when calculated by those child soldiers and bishops, showed that the average return on investment for the trading port's workshops and merchants in Imperial Year 1425 was 380%.
Horn had thought they had calculated incorrectly, but after recalculating it himself, the result was indeed 380%.
What raised the overall return on investment were four leather goods merchants and workshops.
Horn thought that year might have been a period of rapid industrial expansion, and perhaps the return on investment for the entire leather goods industry was high. After all, this was a world of the extraordinary, and couldn't be judged by ordinary standards.
He had come here this time just to confirm it, and to see something new at the guild church.
But he never expected that the guild's records for that year showed that the average return on investment was about normal.
In other words, it was really those four leather goods merchants who were abnormally profitable, or those four leather goods merchants just happened to have miscalculated their accounts?
After thinking about it, Horn found it a little funny.
It was just a few leather goods merchants miscalculating their accounts or making false accounts, why care so much?
It seemed his old habit of problem-solving had relapsed.
Putting the ledgers and documents back in their original places, Horn looked at the scratch paper on the table, hesitated for a moment, and then collected it and bound it together.
Descending the rough stone steps to the dirt road, smoke with the smell of firewood was already rising from the houses of each household, and the guards were waiting by the roadside with their horses.
When Horn approached, he saw a familiar Duke's attendant waiting beside the guards.
"What's wrong? Does the Duke have something to tell me?" Horn asked with a smile as he stepped forward.
The attendant stepped forward two steps and lowered his voice, saying, "Lord D'Arney asked me to bring you a message, saying that he has agreed to your conditions, and promises to launch as early as November 12th."
"Oh?" Horn was first surprised, then smiled.
Although he didn't know how the Duke had suddenly made up his mind, it was still beneficial for Horn to finalize it as soon as possible.
"The Duke asked when you have time to discuss the specific matters and sign a contract, such as when you will leave, how many supplies the Duke will provide for your soldiers, and so on."
"The day after tomorrow, I need to discuss this with the people in the camp."
"Understood, I will go and inform the Duke."
After bidding farewell to the attendant, Horn did not ride a horse, but simply walked back.
Although the sky was still gloomy, Horn's mood had improved a lot, and he even hummed 'Kingdom Dream', which he hadn't sung for a long time.
Life in the old camp was guaranteed, and the future of the new camp was arranged.
Once the turmoil in Thousand River Valley calmed down a bit, Horn could bring the old camp to the Mire Town.
In the one or two years in Mire Town, he could lay the foundation, and when these old camps arrived, they would be able to supplement the labor force.
Nearly a thousand alchemists, even in Black Serpent Bay, were a force that could not be ignored, not to mention clockwork technology.
Some time ago, Horn pre-ordered an illustrated catalog of alchemical products through Cici's channels.
In his vision, with the alchemists at the core, Mire Town would establish large-scale alchemical factories.
In the end, aren't those alchemical processes similar to physical and chemical reactions?
By then, could Zhen'deburg's industrial strength compete with alchemical heavy industry?
A street in Mire Town would be enough to shock the entire Empire!
Finding Sesi and his disciples in the labor district, Horn went non-stop to the stonemason's workshop.
But unfortunately, the gatekeeper told him that the city was too chaotic these days, and the stonemasons had moved to a manor in the countryside.
The gatekeeper would pass on Horn's message, and the stonemason should go directly to Horn's camp at that time.
Walking out of the stonemason's workshop alley, Horn held onto the saddle, just about to mount his horse, but saw a familiar figure at the street corner.
"Halkin?"
Halkin was wearing tattered clothes, with ragged strips of cloth hanging on his body, laboriously carrying a bucket of swill to feed the pigs.
"Lord Horn." Putting down the swill bucket, Halkin took off his hat and saluted Horn as he walked over. "I didn't expect to meet you here."
"Why are you in this state? Didn't I give you some living expenses to find a mechanical engineer for me?"
"Actually, I found one." Halkin said confidently, "Absolutely related to mechanics, gears, and stuff."
"You really found one? Is it an engineer?"
"Uh, no, it's a thief who specializes in lockpicking, but not the kind who pries locks, he uses technology to pick locks, he can open any complex lock, his skills are even better than a locksmith."
Horn didn't know what to say for a moment, but then he thought that locks were also a kind of precision machinery, and it was better to have something than nothing.
"Then where is he? Why didn't you bring him to me to ask for the bounty?"
"He took the deposit and ran away. I'm looking for him. When I find him, I'll send him to you." Halkin replied seriously.
Horn didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Then come to me! When will you find him alone?"
"Wouldn't that be like cheating money? How would you know if I actually helped you find someone?" Halkin straightened his back. "Business emphasizes integrity. You give money and I do things. How can I ask you to cover for me if I mess things up... You wait, I will definitely catch that bastard and take him to you."
After speaking, Halkin put his hat back on, bowed to Horn, and was about to leave with the wooden bucket.
"Wait." Horn rubbed his head.
He suddenly remembered that the group of people who had come to Halkin to collect debts had been shot dead by him with a clockwork gun.
"Is there anything else, Lord Horn?" Halkin turned around and looked at Horn with his head held high.
Horn took out dozens of dinars from his pocket and handed them to him: "Those debt collectors of yours were killed by me. It will probably take some time for new debt collectors to take over."
"It is only right to pay debts." Without taking the money, Halkin shook his head. "I won't pay their usurious loans. I will pay them the principal and interest at the current bank interest rate."
"Judging from the future situation, they won't be able to ask you for debts for at least two or three years. Take this money, and when my sword is repaired, you can take your old man and leave."
"No, I can't take it." The swill in the bucket swayed with Halkin's shaking head. "I can't take the money if the matter is not done. I'm not a beggar, don't give me alms."
"Then in the next two days, help me find the old ledgers of various chambers of commerce around 1425. This is the deposit, is that okay?" Horn forcibly stuffed the money into Halkin's hand.
Looking at the dinars in his hand, Halkin looked up at Horn again. He silently put the dinars into his purse, and then took out a gold ring.
"Your Excellency, this ring is a token of the Earl of Franjiiba Mountain, its value is no less than 20 pounds. I will pawn it with you. Unless I die, I will definitely redeem it with 20 pounds."
Looking at Halkin's departing figure, Horn smiled helplessly. Halkin was a stubborn dwarf at heart.
"Let's go, we should go back. After hosting the wedding of Granpwen and Diya, we really have to leave."