Mercenaries and Adventurers

Kiel nodded, feeling that what the old businessman Fantigar said made sense. So, he bid farewell to the crowd here, and rode towards the front of the clearing.

At this time, the trading materials from the previous loot sale have gradually arrived, and Mr. Barford is leading people to check the trading materials at the gate at this time. It was replaced with ordinary materials and tools that had a serious backlog in the local area recently.

Several hungry and thin donkeys, several large boxes of iron nails that can be used everywhere, and even brand-new sewing tools were all sent by local small and medium businessmen. The sewing tools included several rolls of strong thin thread. Small professional tools such as scissors and needlework.

Several boxes of tableware used by civilians, including clean dinner plates and wooden bowls, as well as large wooden spoons for cooking and iron forks for grilling food, etc.

Thin but strong wood, this is the material to replace the old wood of the wagon picked up.

Several bags of special powder for kneading leather, as well as brushes and scrapers for cleaning animal fur and scraping grease, and even a simple fur hanger that is convenient for hunters to carry in the wild and can be carried at any time.

In addition, there are handy logging tools that lumberjacks like. With these complete sets including double saws, lumberjacks can easily fell down trees and make them faster for everyone to use every day. firewood lumber.

There is also a pedal turntable grinding table sold in the blacksmith shop. With this thing, all kinds of old bandit weapons and equipment in the hands of the people can be polished at any time to ensure sharpness and rust removal.

Besides, the most valuable thing is of course a complete set of blacksmith forging tools. This thing is specially selected from the most valuable boxes of goods to exchange for this thing. Whoever can come up with a complete set of forging tools they need can get several boxes of valuable goods in their hands.

Therefore, several businessmen joined together to pool their money and bought this set of things first. When it was brought in, it took several trolleys for the men of the local blacksmith shop and merchants to transport the things including the iron felt and the refractory furnace.

Of course, the people from the blacksmith shop only brought in a complete set of tools, and the consumables for operating the furnace, including melting iron, were not included here.

These consumables have to be prepared by the buyer himself. After all, the coal from the central provinces and the local charcoal are not cheap, although the local iron is very cheap.

However, the large-scale iron-making furnace and the forging furnace used by a single blacksmith are two different things, and they are not consistent and should not be confused.

At the gate of the vacant lot, whoever brought the goods for exchange arrived, after being inspected by Mr. Barford and Priest Batar, the corresponding goods can be taken away under the supervision of armed people.

Generally speaking, this is a win-win transaction, and everyone feels that they have got a lot of money, did not suffer losses in the transaction, and even made a lot of money.

Local merchants used part of the money and a large amount of materials and goods that were not needed or even sold very well recently to call for more expensive robbed goods. Even if those goods are valuable things that were robbed or even lost on the commercial roads in the past few years.

Anyway, the things have been lost, even if the name of a certain chamber of commerce is still on the box containing the goods, all this has nothing to do with the spoils of war today. After all, after the goods are lost in the hands of the robbers, the ownership has nothing to do with the original owner. The ownership of the goods captured by the knight named Kiel is already in the hands of the knight.

They also got it by spending money.

As for Kiel, his team exchanged all kinds of useless trophies for rare and urgently needed supplies.

With these seemingly messy materials, many idle young people in the team can work fully instead of sitting on the ground and chatting away.

-

At the gate of a bustling open space, Kiel found a young guy from the "Fortune Fruit" Chamber of Commerce who was doing nothing, and beckoned him to lead the way.

After seeing Kiel's attire at this time, the guy from the Chamber of Commerce who sent the invitation rubbed his eyes and checked again and again, only to realize that the young man riding on the tall prairie horse was even several years younger than him. The young man was the northern knight who was wearing mottled metal armor before.

"I'm sorry, my lord, your change is so great that I didn't recognize it for a while."

The other party bent down and bowed again and again, trying not to irritate the young knight with the surprised expression on his face.

Kiel shrugged: "It's okay, although it's still early, but in order not to be rude to attend your banquet, I plan to go to the town to buy some things. Do you know any good jewelry stores and cloak shops in the town?"

The young trade union clerk immediately laughed and said, "Jewelry store and clothing store? I know it well, Mr. Knight, if you want to go there, I will lead the way. There should be time."

The other party thought badly. A young man like Keel would not delay too long when he went to the store to buy things. Unlike those businessmen's wives, he would not spend a whole day in the store just to dress up. .

Then the two walked out together, Keel riding a horse, and the trade union guy ran to his own truck waiting outside the gate of the open space.

When Keir passed by the gate, he greeted Mr. Barford and Priest Batar, who were so busy flying, and suggested that they could find more people to help.

The priest thought the suggestion was good, but Mr. Barford seemed not to hear it in his busy schedule, and was still busy checking the quality and quantity of the materials that the merchants exchanged.

At the gate, Keir's horse was stopped by a person. He looked down and found that it was Mr. Lauer, the middle-aged manager of the store who had signed a contract with him to find someone to participate in the promotion of the sale.

Although the other party stopped in front of the horse and did not speak, it seemed that he was worried that what he said would be heard by the people around him, but Keel knew what the other party meant.

"Thank you, Mr. Raul, thank you for your contribution to this sale. As you can see, this sale of seized loot was very successful and solved a lot of troubles on my side."

As soon as Knight Kiel said this, Mr. Raul showed a smile on his face: "This is what I should do, and I can't be praised by Sir Knight."

Keel winked his eyes, reached out and took out a handful of gold and silver coins from the bulging money bag on his waist. He counted three gold coins out of it, and then put the rest back into the purse.

Bending down and secretly handing the three gold coins to the other party, Keir didn't say much, waved his hand, and walked away.

The middle-aged store manager, Mr. Raul, quickly turned his back, bit the three gold coins with his teeth, and after confirming that they were real, he put them away and sat proudly on top of several boxes of broken goods outside the open space. My friends said: "What did I say? Didn't the money just come? Haha. Let's go, I'll treat you tonight, let's celebrate in the tavern."

One of his friends kicked the sitting wooden box with his heel: "Then what about the junk we bought with money? Send it to your house?"

Taking a disgusted look at the several boxes of worn-out things, Mr. Raul frowned, hesitated for a while and said, "Whatever these things are, whoever wants them can take them away."

Mr. Raul, who got three gold coins for nothing, naturally looked down on those worn-out goods that could barely be exchanged for money at this time, but his friends cared and liked them, so they could dispose of the things bought with money. , the two of them carried a box one after another, and ran away quickly without the help of others.

This forced Mr. Raul to yell loudly: "Don't forget! We meet at the old place tonight, and I treat you!"

"I can't forget! You just need to bring enough money!"

His friends ran away carrying things while talking.

Mr. Raul didn't care, he sniffed proudly, shook his head and felt that it was still early, and he didn't bother to take care of the things in the store at this time, so he thought that before the night came, he could go to the red house and spend some time.

But of course it's not appropriate to wear the shop manager's clothes, and I have to tell my family.

Thinking of this, he took a detour to his house in the town.

-

Kiel rode behind the truck of the 'Fortune Fruit' Chamber of Commerce, and quickly walked towards Dorne Town in the north.

Before, he wondered why the staff of the chamber of commerce waited for him at the gate of the open space in a carriage carrying a load of firewood. When they passed through the stinky streets outside the town and came to a clean and flat area, he saw It wasn't until the Chamber of Commerce buddy jumped off the carriage that he understood.

The Chamber of Commerce guy simply didn't want his shoes to be soiled by the stinky mud pollution from the streets outside the town.

"Do you usually do this? Get in and out of the car, avoid the smelly mud on the ground and so on."

Kyle asked curiously.

The young member of the Chamber of Commerce first responded to Kiel with a smile, and then looked back in disgust at the turbulent mud on the street not far behind: "Master Knight, if you talk about us, then we can use some clean paths around If you enter the town, you will not take the main road, and there is no one to clean up the feces excreted by the carts and livestock, and even some residents will pour the daily sewage on the street at will.”

"As for those big people, they will not go out of the center of the town, or the area in the middle of the ground. Even if they have to go out of the town, they will only go in and out by car."

Keir felt strange: "I think someone is responsible for cleaning the sanitation of the streets in the town, right? Then why is there no one cleaning the places where ordinary people live outside?"

The young Chamber of Commerce guy seemed surprised: "Ordinary people? Common people? No, no, sir, you misunderstood, here." He pointed to the street where the two are now.

"This is the civilian area where ordinary people live. The outer circle is not a civilian area with some property, but a place where poor people live without any property except themselves, a slum area."

Keir raised his eyebrows. There are also slums in Kendall City, but the residents there each have their own one or two-story house, and some even have a front door and a backyard, with independent water and sewage outlets.

It was only then that he realized that the so-called slums of the Kendal people were just a self-deprecating one. Those people in Dorne Town who had nothing to do and lived in beehive-like houses, who couldn't make a set of clothes, were really poor.

Frowning, Kilby glanced at some graveyard-like buildings he had seen before, and asked what the places where people were always coming in and out were for.

Unexpectedly, the young member of the Chamber of Commerce leading the way beside the horses rolled his eyes: "My lord, that is not a place that a big man like you should know. I can only say that it was the last scythe work of the farmers in autumn. The last day in the village is the last meal that kittens and puppies can eat.”

"A place to have fun?"

Keel guessed.

Unexpectedly, the staff of the Chamber of Commerce waved their hands: "No, no, no, they can't call it pleasure, let me be more straightforward, my lord, it's the place where the last iron coin in their hands is spent. Without money, there is nothing Poor people will work hard for a day, and the income is only one or two copper coins. Thanks to this, the cost of labor in the town is very low, and everyone can make a profit."

At the end of the speech, the other party didn't say anything more, but Keir already understood.

"The person who came up with this method is very good at using human nature."

"Who says it's not, Lord Knight, this is the method that the previous chairman of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce came up with. Hey, it's a tacit cooperation with the current chairman's system of reselling labor by debtors."

The young member of the Chamber of Commerce obviously admired these two people very much, and said excitedly.

Keir was noncommittal about this, but felt a little sad. But after thinking about it in his mind, he found something interesting.

The poor work daily, and they earn one or two copper coins a day. After a year, their income is roughly five thousand iron coins, or five silver coins. If there is more, it is estimated that they can earn nearly one gold coin. income.

And this income, which seems to be looked down upon by local people, belongs to the lowest income level, but it has exceeded the income of farmers in almost all rural areas.

Yes.

Almost all the farmers in the rural areas have to work harder and depend on the weather for food. Throughout the year, their income is even less than half of the income of the so-called "poor people" in Dorne Town.

If rural households in relatively remote villages do not have a channel to realize grain, that is, grain merchants from all over the country go to grass-roots villages to collect grain trade activities, and the grain in the hands of farmers cannot even be sold for a single iron coin. Throughout the year, except for a large amount of food that is stolen by animals at any time, their income is almost zero.

Without coins, any commodity that can only be obtained with money is unaffordable.

Keir breathed out, thinking of the song of Kendall County, and knowing what a gold coin a year means to ordinary farmers.

That's why there are still a steady stream of newcomers joining the chambers of commerce all over the world with a high loss rate of trade personnel.

That's why the bandits on the commercial roads in various places have been banned repeatedly. No matter how the noble knights everywhere eradicated, there will still be new bandit gangs formed to rob the caravans that come and go.

In the final analysis, it is nothing more than the word profitable.

-

The two talked while walking, and the young chamber of commerce guy led the way for the knight while introducing the shops on both sides of the street and the chamber of commerce behind the shops.

This person is so familiar with the relationship between various shops and the chamber of commerce behind him, he is obviously not an ordinary chamber of commerce employee, especially if he can be sent to deliver firewood and invitations to him.

Kiel guessed that it should be the young backbones that the "Fortune Fruit" Chamber of Commerce focuses on training.

After all, although most chambers of commerce rely on family wealth and skills and experience to pass on the chamber of commerce, it is only done by small and medium chambers of commerce. For large chambers of commerce with trade all over the world, relying solely on family traditions to cultivate talents is simply not enough, and they dare not use it.

I asked the other party and learned that, for example, there are several large chambers of commerce in Dorn Town that form a union of chambers of commerce, each of which is composed of several powerful families with money and effort. But this is just the beginning. With the development of the chamber of commerce, no matter what, the talents cultivated by the family are not enough.

Especially when going out for business and trade, various personal risks always exist, including but not limited to death or disability due to illness, disability and death caused by robbers, death or injury caused by peer attacks caused by foreign trade, and deep prison caused by greed The risk of death and disability caused by natural disasters, the risk of accidents caused by natural weather, etc.

Therefore, absorbing talents from all walks of life to train in the chamber of commerce is the only way for the chamber of commerce today.

Such a member of the chamber of commerce has been cultivated since he entered the chamber of commerce in his teens, and when he was middle-aged, he could basically use more than ten years of business experience to become the real backbone of the chamber of commerce.

The family behind the big chamber of commerce can then marry with it to bind talents to the chamber of commerce.

My wealth is my wealth, and your people and wealth are ultimately my wealth.

Although this person didn't say anything about the similar reasoning, Keir knew it at a guess.

This model of the different world is roughly different from the previous life in that the people here basically don't pay much attention to education. Common people's main pursuit is to obtain a living skill, so in each workshop, there will be a large number of apprentices for the craftsmen to call.

As for professional language and writing, as well as various business skills education, here is basically a mode of mentoring by the chamber of commerce. There are even some chambers of commerce that are good at cultivating the key talents they are looking for, and more of them are free-range, only caring about making money, and waiting for talents to show up occasionally.

As they walked, the staff of the chamber of commerce led Kiel to a clothing and clothing store. UU Reading www.uukanshu.com specializes in selling all kinds of ready-made clothing, and of course it also supports tailor-made clothing.

"If you lack a suitable cloak, this store is very good. This 'Good Clothes' is the place where managers of several chambers of commerce come to make clothes."

At the entrance of the clothing store, a young member of the Chamber of Commerce pointed to the signboard of the store and introduced.

A piece of golden cloth hangs from one corner of the signboard to the other. It is very eye-catching and conspicuous, and people who pass by will always take a few glances unconsciously.

Keel, too, noticed that the piece of gold cloth used as part of the sign seemed to have a lot of gold thread mixed into it.

Even though gold is a kind of soft metal, if so many gold threads are added to the cloth, is it difficult for the cloth to be stiff?

"I see that the cloth on the signboard has a lot of gold thread added, doesn't it feel hard? Use it to make clothes?"

Kiel got off his horse, handed the horse to the shop thug who came out of the gate, and at the same time asked the fellow of the chamber of commerce next to him.

The clerk of the Chamber of Commerce naturally didn’t know what the answer was, but fortunately, a shop clerk at the entrance of the shop heard it and took the initiative to answer: “Guest, this kind of cloth is a special product of the southern United Kingdom. I heard that it has been processed by mysterious alchemy. , gold can also become as soft as silk thread, and a piece of this cloth is even worth three times the weight of gold!"

"Good guy, so powerful?"

Keir was amazed, and looked up at the signboard of the shop again: "Aren't you afraid of losing it? Just hang it outside like this?"

The store clerk seems to have answered similar questions countless times: "Guests, we take it back every day and hang it up when we open the door the next day."

Keir laughed and walked into the 'Good Clothes' shop.