Chapter 42: Kingdom Crisis 1
Chapter 42 – Kingdom Crisis 1
After visiting the shipyard, Paul and Quiller took a walk to the beach to enjoy the scenery, today’s weather is good, slightly fishy sea breeze blowing slowly, let a person’s mind relax.
Queller suddenly asked curiously, “What are you going to sell?”
“Some novelties, a new type of paper, cheap and plentiful, not as expensive as parchment. And a beautiful utensil that you will absolutely love.”
Paul said slightly smugly, remembering the Europeans’ craze for porcelain, he was confident that he could definitely make a killing.
He pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Quiller, saying, “Here’s the paper I’m selling. I’m going back to Lakewood in a few days, do you want to go with me to see that kind of ware, it’s really much better looking than the pottery we use.”
“Yes, I’ll be sure to go.” Quiller took the paper and marveled, “You mean this kind of paper can be made in large quantities?”
The southern countries had a developed economy, and a large amount of paper was needed for daily business activities; contracts, bookkeeping, correspondence and other activities consumed countless amounts of paper daily, and the developed economy brought about cultural prosperity, and the cultural industry was a big consumer of paper. If there is really a new type of paper that can be supplied in sufficient quantity and at a cheap enough price, there is no worry about not finding sales.
“Yes, in my workshop, spending the same amount of manpower and time I can increase production to dozens of times that of parchment.” In fact, this was something Paul made up off the top of his head, he didn’t know exactly how many times higher it could be, but given that there were enough raw materials, and that the manpower could be recruited again, he guessed that it should be no problem to increase it by thirty or forty times.
He suddenly remembered another idea and tapped his head, “Ah! Right, I’ve heard that you have a developed culture in the south, with countless great literary figures and great dramatists? “
The eunuch crossed his left hand and ran his right hand through his hair, showing a hint of pride, “I’m flattered! Although we in the south are inferior to you in the north in terms of force, but when it comes to literature and art, we really can’t be too modest. Haha!” That expression was as if he himself was a literary artist.
Paul immediately put on an expression full of expectations, “Little brother, I’ve admired this for a long time, after you go back can you send me some popular literary works, such as novels, poems and whatnot.”
Quiller’s heart was filled with pride, “Good talk, good talk! Hahahahaha–“
“But why do you want to go through sea transportation? There are still quite a few ports on the west coast of the Kingdom of Aldo where you can dock for supplies, right? What if we encounter extreme weather or if the ship breaks down?”
Paul said helplessly, “It can’t be helped, you’ve been imprisoned by pirates for months, you shouldn’t know that there’s a war going on in the south of our country, right? To say something disrespectful to His Majesty the King, I don’t know when this war will end. I don’t want my caravan to pass through a war-torn place, what if it gets robbed. Even if there’s no war, there are still checkpoints all along the way, and just paying the tax alone will result in several layers of skin being peeled off.”
Quiller put on an understanding expression, “I just heard about it, it’s Greedy Wolf Giles, right? That’s a dangerous guy, even in our part of the world he’s a ‘big name’. But he’s a lord who’s higher than the rest of your country somehow, and he’s made a lot of money by holding the trade between Aldo and Horned Bay with his lower tariffs and preferential treatment of merchants.”
Quiller suddenly remembered something, he paused, looked around, and attached himself to Paul’s ear and said quietly, “I’ll secretly tell you a secret haha, don’t tell anyone else.”
Seeing him so mysterious, Paul was aroused with curiosity and nodded his head to agree, “Don’t worry, I will keep my mouth shut. “
Only to hear Quake whisper, “I guess your country’s royal family is in a bad way this time, Giles has a big power behind him.”
“What did you say?” Appearing as if he had heard some extraordinary news, Paul was astonished. “I’m saying that it’s highly likely that your Kingdom of Aldo is going to be changed!” Seeing his friend stunned by his said secret, Quiller felt slightly satisfied.
Paul had an incredulous face, “Don’t lie to me, but Giles started the rebellion after you fell into the pirate’s den, how did you know that he had someone’s support behind him? And with enough energy to overthrow the crown?”
“You don’t think Giles came up with the idea of a rebellion on a whim a few months ago, do you? He’s been preparing for it for years, and it’s something that the top brass in every country know all too well. But he’s got someone behind him, and I only inadvertently learned about it shortly before I left home. I guess it was the support of this force that made him make the final decision to rebel.”
“And how did you ‘unintentionally’ know that?”
“Have you forgotten that my old man was a seat on the Convocation? I snuck a look at some papers in his study. It seems that some chambers of commerce of the Horned Bay Alliance are sending supplies by sea to the Jarls territory on behalf of that power behind the scenes, tons of ordnance, food, and so on, in amounts that will make you smack your lips. So I’d say that His Majesty the King of yours is a bit hung over this time.”
“Well–” Paul wrinkled his eyebrows, if that was the case, as a party lord he would have to carefully consider the issue of standing on the wrong side of the line, the Greiman family was kicked to the Northwest Bay because of the wrong side of the line in the past.
Queller seems to see what Paul is thinking, put his hand on his shoulder and said: “If you don’t have the strength to protect yourself, you can temporarily be a wallflower for a period of time, wait for the situation to become clear and then indicate the position. If it really comes to the point where everything can’t be undone, come to Horn Bay to find me, you saved my life, I’ll protect you for the rest of your life.”
“It takes some strength to be a wallflower.” Paul thought darkly in his heart, but Quiller’s words were touching.
He looked up at Quiller’s sincere eyes, “Thank you, Quiller.” Curious again, “Which side are you Horned Bay Alliance supporting?”
Quiller immediately replied, “The Horned Bay Alliance has practiced the diplomatic principle of ‘armed neutrality’ since its inception, we just want to do business quietly, we won’t get too involved in the internal strife of other countries, in case we make the wrong bets, we might not even be able to do business. “
“Uh ……” he said, “at least the official attitude is like this, as for the secret how, I’m not interested in politics, I know little, after all, a country can exist until now can not be as simple as the surface so simple. ”
He continued, “Third party business like transportation of supplies is not prohibited by the laws of Horned Bay. If your king also places an order, our chamber will take it.”
“And do you know who the forces behind Giles are?”
“The Convocation is not authorized to investigate trade secrets as long as they don’t harm the Alliance’s own interests, and the documents don’t specify who. But there’s not much scope for speculation, Aldo isn’t exactly a small country anymore, how many forces can there be that are capable of interfering with you? Besides, I remember those chambers of commerce running business along the eastern side of Horn Bay.”
What a good idea, transportation by sea is easy to hide from the public, and the volume of shipments is huge. Since it was large quantities of ordnance and food, it was probably a national level act.
East of Cape Bay? Isn’t that the Trian Sea? The only ones who are close to the Trian Sea and have the ability to support Giles are probably the Holy See and the Gabella Empire.
(End of chapter)