Warlord: King of All Clans

Watching Ivan and Wei'er leave talking and laughing, Leo couldn't help but sigh.

Sure enough, men become bad when they have money!

Ivan, the innocent young man who used to be afraid to look straight at the opposite sex, now has a tendency to become a scumbag.

"That won't do. We must find him a wife quickly, or he will become our River Bay Sea King."

Today, Ivan holds the noble title of the Knight of Hekou Town and is also the commander of the River Bay Infantry Regiment. His status and position is much higher than that of an ordinary Corner Flag Knight.

Moreover, Hewan would not treat him unfairly. They provided him with food, clothing, housing and transportation, and gave him a minimum salary of three gold coins every month.

In that era when hiring a maid only required a monthly salary of five silver coins in addition to providing food and lodging, a net income of more than thirty gold coins a year was truly high-income.

Moreover, as a military noble, his core income has never been a fixed salary. Ivan can increase his income significantly by training his troops, leading his troops to suppress bandits, or fighting a war.

Such a diamond bachelor does not need to work hard, as there are many people of the opposite sex or their parents and matchmakers targeting him.

When we returned to the Riverbend House, the guard immediately reported, "The messenger from the Western Territory has arrived."

When Leo went in, he found Ajina Mishe and Yue Gechaer sitting in front of the fire in the big house, warming themselves by the fire.

In order to please the Northerners, the brother and sister both wore Northern clothes and even learned the Northern accent when talking to Savinting, who was entertaining guests nearby.

But they obviously learned it wrong. Savinting was not a Northerner, but a kobold, and they learned the kobolds' accent.

The Tarhan family, which has the prairie wind wolf as its emblem, becomes more humble than anyone else once they become submissive.

Leo walked over and laughed, "Why didn't the beautiful girl from the Western Territory send it this time? You are so insincere."

Yue Gechaer had been warned long ago, so he stood up quickly, very reservedly, and bowed his head and called out, "Sir Mondo."

The last time he was released, he took a few kobold muskets with him. Although he was not held accountable, he still felt guilty.

Now that I have fallen into a trap, I am very afraid that Leo will suddenly turn against me.

Arina Mishe was much more natural. She stared at Leo and said with a smile, "If you agree to my terms, I will send you a hundred beauties every year."

In the past few months, she has been exchanging letters with Leo, continuously enriching the trade content between the River Bay Territory and the Talhan Tribe.

The burning stones, leather, cheese, cattle, sheep, and war horses from the West were continuously transported into the river bay through the World Tree Avenue.

The high-quality armor, weapons, gold, silver and bronze wares from Hewan were also sent to the western border in cartloads.

Official trade also boosted private trade. The trade routes in the west and north began to prosper again, and the tax officials in Buck Fortress collected taxes until their wallets were overwhelmed.

But Arina Mishe was not satisfied with these conventional goods, she wanted to get firearms from Hewan more.

The overall artisan system of the Talhan family is not as good as that of Hewan, but it is not completely blank. They also have senior alchemists and senior craftsmen.

She quickly copied the crude short-barreled musket of the Kobolds, but due to problems with the quality of the iron, she was unable to mass-produce it.

Even so, relying on the population base of the territory and a large number of low-level craftsmen who work day and night around the small iron furnace, it is expected that by the beginning of next spring, Arina Mishe will be able to collect 500 short-barreled muskets.

She had tested these short-barreled muskets herself and found that they were perfect horse-fighting weapons tailor-made for the Western Border Light Cavalry.

After slightly modifying the Kobold muskets into short-barreled muskets that were more suitable for horse combat, Arina Mishe used them to form a musket cavalry regiment.

A ten-year-old armored knight costs a hundred gold coins and has a cavalry spear with an attack range of four meters. He is basically the pinnacle of mortal soldiers.

A one-year-old musketeer costs twenty gold, and the short-barreled musket in his hand has an effective range of twenty meters.

The lightly armed and fast-riding musketeer cavalry only needed to approach the target within ten meters, raise their shotguns and fire a shot at the target's face.

Not to mention lightly armored targets, even a heavily armored elite or armored knight wearing a steel helmet would be killed on the spot if they were hit in the face by shotgun pellets or one or two small lead bullets shot into their eyes.

In the past, the Western Border Archers could only pose a threat to the armored knights by shooting at them at close range.

But compared to shooting an arrow in the face, it's easier to hit the face with a shotgun.

The elite archers of the Tarhan tribe switched to short-barreled muskets for training for half a month, and they no longer mentioned how superb their archery skills were.

What bothers her now is the problem of ammunition.

With Hewan gunpowder as the research object, the alchemist supported by the Talhan family quickly mastered the formula of gunpowder.

This type of low-end alchemical material is not difficult to copy.

Because there were no saltpeter mines, the alchemists in the Western Territory learned to make saltpeter by themselves. Using the saltpeter soil from toilets and stables, they created black gunpowder that was comparable to the one in Hewan.

But boiling saltpeter for a thousand days is not as effective as one shot from a general. This traditional method of making saltpeter relies on daily accumulation and collection from the public, and its efficiency is a hundred times lower than mining saltpeter mines.

The Tarhan tribe, which had just started, had accumulated black gunpowder for several months, but it was only enough for the training of a hundred or so musketeer cavalrymen.

If placed in the river bend, one salvo from the artillery regiment would be enough.

So this time, Arina Mishe took advantage of the winter truce and rushed to Hewan with her brother to negotiate with Leo face to face, hoping to purchase Hewan's high-quality guns and ammunition.

The custom of the grassland is extremely patriarchal. Even though Arina Mishe is a grassland wolf girl with the aura of faith, her status within the family is still not as good as that of her younger brother, Yue Gechar, the youngest son of Talhanbek. Bringing him here is the greatest sincerity.

Leo knew Arina's intention in the letter, but he just evaded the question, "Hewan doesn't have any guns or ammunition to sell to you. We don't even have enough for ourselves. We used up all the gunpowder in the north to suppress the rebellion. We don't have any stock at all."

Arina Mishe didn't believe it at all. "Our purchase of guns and ammunition will not pose any threat to you. Others may not know the details of the short-barreled musket, but don't you know? Using it to attack the river bend is suicide."

"We don't want your long guns - because you won't sell them. I only want short guns and ammunition. As long as I can equip a thousand musket cavalry, I can crush the surrounding tribes and dominate the grassland."

Leo taunted, "Then you'll have your hands free to attack us in the North, right?"

Arina Mishe said quickly: "We are allies. The stronger the Tarhan tribe is, the more beneficial it will be to Hewan. Are you afraid that we will be stronger than Hewan?"

Leo turned a deaf ear to this extremely superficial provocation and just shook his head, "No, no, out of stock."

Arina Mishe continued, "Even if we deal with the North in the future, we won't attack you first. With Buck Fortress blocking us, there is no benefit in going to war with you. We will only go to the Earl of Gustav in the south."

When Leo heard this, he was slightly touched, but his face remained unchanged. He just perfunctorily said, "Let's talk about it later."

After saying that, he sent the guest away, "Everyone who comes from afar is a guest. Since you have come to Hewan, stay for a few days and have fun before leaving."