Chapter 63: A Chain of Bad News

Chapter 63 – A String of Bad News
Originally, he thought that the next step of development would be fine, but who knew that Owen would receive a series of bad news after the beginning of spring.

First of all, Kerens returned from Mara Town in a hurry and did not bring back serfs, only horses and livestock, and in the next three years, Mara Town can not afford to provide more livestock, because it has already been booked out, to give these or because of last year’s booked in advance, coupled with Kerens brought troops and horses elite, Mara Viscount did not dare to renege on it, so he gave it to the pain, but next year, there is no more, unless you increase the money.

In the face of Mara Viscount put on an apologetic but disgusting face, Kerens did not get angry, but pretended to be curious to talk with the other side, a look that does not put the matter of not being able to buy the serfs and livestock on the mind, so that Mara Viscount a little puzzled.

But there is no such thing as an enemy in business, not to mention that the other party’s strength is not weak, so Viscount Mara did not hide the reason why he did so.

For Viscount Mara’s words, of course, Collens would not believe all of them, so he looked for a few merchants from the south, which made sure that Viscount Mara was not lying.

According to the information that Corenth got from Viscount Mara and the passing merchants, it was because most of the serfs were intercepted before they even left the border of the empire, and the rest just stepped into the Northland and didn’t go very far before they were divided up by the Northland lords along the way, and it’s not like before when there was still a large amount of surplus to come to the depths of the Northland.

As for the livestock, now is also a hot commodity, Viscount Mara really did not sit on the ground to raise the price, because there are many people who sell more black than him.

Hearing this, Owen slapped his head, how could he forget that the Second Northland Exploitation Corps also needs a lot of manpower to open up the land, and the cheapest labor is undoubtedly the serfs.

As for the Northland Lords who also made a move, obviously they have felt the threat brought by the Second Northland Pioneering Corps, the more serfs they take down, the less manpower the other side has, this is the fight for survival, no mercy.

This can pit Owen, the original cheap serfs are gone, population growth if all rely on the progress value from the system to exchange, obviously for him is a heavy burden, but also the least cost-effective method.

And the territory’s animal husbandry is just getting started, short time can’t be self-sufficient, another troublesome thing.

What’s worse, the bandits in the northern land became more numerous, some were bandits, some weren’t, but they were all doing the work of bandits now, causing the merchants from the south to have to hire more guards, and in this way, in order to make sure that there was enough profit, the prices of all commodities went up.

“Go to Maya where to draw a sum of gold and silver, you immediately head to the border of the empire to find out more information.” Owen didn’t care about his headache, and immediately said seriously to Kerens.

Now everything is from the Mara Viscount and merchants where Ke Lun Si inquired out, how much water who does not know, so must go deep into the empire border to grasp the first-hand intelligence, so as to make accurate judgments.

“Yes sir!” Corenth knew that his chance to perform had come, and immediately nodded his head and said, even though he had only just returned and had not even returned home.

Ke Lun Si knows very well, just by buying and selling serfs and livestock, even if it is hard work, it is only hard work, only crisis can bring credit, so he is not only not afraid, but very much looking forward to it.

After resting for a day, Kerens put on the nobleman’s clothes given by the lord, rode a beautiful white horse, and went to the border of the empire under the escort of the cavalry.

In order to ensure speed, besides the cavalry, the only people traveling with them were the three wagons carrying supplies, without any infantry to slow down the speed, and without stopping at any transit points in between.

But there were four mysterious passengers on the wagons, they were short in stature, shrouded in cloaks, moved silently and never interacted with anyone.

Corenth’s heart fluttered, for the only thing he could think of when he saw these four mysterious people was dead soldiers and assassins. Obviously the Hydra family was far more mysterious than he had imagined, dead soldiers and assassins were not something that someone could be just because they were willing to sell their lives, it represented the heritage of a noble family, so Corenth’s motivation became even stronger.

After Corenth left, Owen was discussing this matter with Maya, because no matter how you look at it, the bad news Corenth brought is just the beginning, the subsequent impact has not yet spread completely, but you can already see that the next situation is not good.

“The entire best part of the Northlands is near the Imperial borderline, they won’t give up those interests, only the losers who can’t intervene will set their sights far away, and these people won’t be a danger to the territory, at most they’ll be a minor inconvenience.”

“So the territory is just as master predicted, there is still at least a year or two of development left, and master’s previous worries were necessary, adventurers and dark forces are indeed objects to be wary of, they are too difficult to watch out for.”

Maya agreed with Owen’s thoughts, it gave him a lot of confidence, it seemed he had learned a lot from the development of the territory over the years.

But even Maya didn’t have anything too good to say about what would happen next, the only advantage they had was that the territory was almost independent of the empire, so unless a large army was sent to overwhelm them, this was their home turf.

Now it was up to them to resist the harassment from the outside world and develop the territory as quickly as possible.

If it wasn’t for Owen’s mystery, Maya wouldn’t have much hope for this, and the best way to do so was to choose a party to defect to, and reap the rewards of several generations of hard work, which was the choice of the vast majority of minor nobles.

Owen, who didn’t know that he had become a territorial hopeful, rubbed his brow and put all of his previous plans on hold, replanning the use of his next progress value.

Thanks to the super farmland of the Magic Horn Tree Forest, the territory did not lack food or fuel for iron smelting, but there was a shortage of meat.

The livestock bought, cattle would be domesticated into plow oxen, horses would be transformed into warhorses, and the only thing that was edible was sheep, but in order to continue expanding reproduction, even the sheep couldn’t be slaughtered too much, and only provided for the upper echelons of the territory to consume, such as him and his maidservant, the Teutonic warriors, and the Corenth family.

The chickens, ducks, and geese from the system are reproducing quite quickly, but they still need time to form a scale, and will eventually be distributed to the peasants to raise their own.

So for now, the only reliable source of meat was fishing.

Owen remembered that he had never been to the wharf of the territory twice, and he hadn’t paid much attention to it, so he didn’t know how efficient the fishing was.

Thinking of this, Owen went out and mounted his horse, and the Char guards who had been guarding beside him accompanied him, and together they came to the riverside.

The castle is located in a very good location, the river is wide, so the water is gentle, suitable for water diversion and irrigation, even if the terrain is different from the high places have set up waterwheels, so that the territory can irrigate more and more land, this year is obviously going to be another year of good harvest.

Unfortunately, it was impossible to continue expanding the scale of production because there were no cheap serfs, and even Owen could hardly afford to consume a large amount of progress value, so he was very tired of the arrival of the Second Northland Exploitation Mission.

(End of chapter)