CHAPTER 35: CHAPTER 35: FERTILE LANDS — FOOTHILLS OF HESSE

Hearing Su Li’s promise and threat, Shabulin scrambled to the counter, grabbing a new map and displaying it in front of Su Li.

He hastily promised, "Honorable Pioneer Lord, I assure you that every word I say is the truth. Take a look at the location of the Hesse foothills; it’s located to the northeast of the Border Prince’s Territory, with a branch of the Black Mountain Range, the Gray Mountain Range, stretching across the north."

"Many rivers flow from the Gray Mountain Range into the vast Hesse Plain at the foot, crucial for the development of the Territory. Moreover, for the lords, the lower slopes of the Gray Mountain Range are also important resources. Many veins can be mined here for minerals such as iron, gold, marble, and gemstones."

"To the southeast of it lies the vast Blood Pine Forest, mainly comprising oak, pine, elm, and beech trees, but also producing a reddish-brown high-quality pine wood that is popular worldwide. There are often furniture merchants and hired workers who come here to harvest pine wood, but because the forest is so dense, some logging workers often fall victim to attacks by forest goblins and beastmen hiding inside. You could provide them with escorts and earn substantial profits."

"Your Territory, located between the vast Blood Pine Forest and the Gray Mountain Range, is an area of rolling hills and fertile valleys called the foothills of Hesse."

"Here the land is fertile, waterways are dense, river transport is developed, and opportunities abound. The northern mountains are filled with dwarf tunnels, many of which have been abandoned. But some dwarf fortresses still exist on the heights of the Gray Mountain Range, though these little islands are mostly surrounded by a sea of beastmen, goblins, bandits, and mountain giants. You need to open the roads to connect with them. Their engineering skills will provide tremendous help in building hydraulic projects for you."

"The eastern Blood Pine Forest is rich in resources, and its prized timber specialties can help you rapidly accumulate wealth. Various valuable fruits and herbs can help you strengthen your forces. The only thing to be careful of is the raiding beastmen warbands and goblin tribes inside, but I think all this is no problem for a powerful and wise lord such as yourself."

Looking at the geographical features depicted on the map, Su Li was already tempted. The green area representing fertile plains was very vast, surrounded by gray mountains and black forests, quite a distance from human strongholds, perfectly suitable for exploration, while also allowing time for daily intelligence preparation warnings.

Su Li considered for a moment and said, "Then let’s register here first. I will stay in Marle Castle for another day or two. If I have any other ideas, I’ll come back to make changes."

"No problem, no problem." Shabulin quickly nodded and said, "This is a routine practice for Pioneer Lords. Do you want to enjoy a few days? I can recommend a few nice pubs, brothels, and courtesan theaters."

Su Li glared at him indignantly and said, "I’m not interested. If you want to recommend a good place, you can tell me which trading house is good."

"Oh, oh, this kind of good place." Shabulin quickly replied, "The Gray Market Chamber of Commerce on the east side of the City Hall is a good choice. They have a lot of contraband, and the Dark Night Slave Capture Team under them often has slaves that can’t be seen in the light. Generally, without connections, people can’t get into these kinds of trades. But if you tell them you were introduced by Shabulin, they will surely lead you to the Dark Zone."

With this connection, Su Li finally waved to Shabulin satisfactorily and said, "Then thank you, we won’t disturb your rest anymore, we’re leaving."

With that, Su Li left the City Hall with Oerstein and Hilude, and the guards around, under Shabulin’s greeting, did not intercept them.

An Elite Knight got up from the ground and limped over to Shabulin, asking, "Lord Shabulin, what did they say? Are we just letting them go like this?"

Shabulin watched the backs of the departing group, gritting his teeth in anger, "Humph, offending me, and you still want to have good luck? Another fool going to die at the Hesse foothills, he won’t last half a year! This dog got lucky, this information used to sell for at least 200 gold coins, fooling one batch of idiots wanting to find a backdoor after another."

Beside him, the Elite Knight’s eyes lit up, "The Hesse Foothills? Is that place somewhere ordinary Pioneer Lords can stay? Without the support of a great noble, they can’t establish themselves locally at all, they’ll be eaten to the bone. I bet it won’t take three months before we can con the next fool into paying to send themselves to die."

Su Li was unaware of what happened inside the Government Hall. As soon as he left, he headed directly to the Gray Market Chamber of Commerce, which took up a vast area, with towering Gothic buildings standing four stories high, housing multiple shops within.

At the entrance of the Chamber of Commerce, Su Li soon waited for Hilude to summon Frederick and Schwartz.

Schwartz carried a money box and reverently presented it before Su Li, saying, "Young Master Su Li, our transactions went very smoothly. After comparing several trading houses, we sold at a very high price, collecting a total of 342 gold coins. We spent 100 gold coins buying food, seeds, and various pioneering tools, purchasing 5 carts of apples, 2 carts of cabbages, beets, 20 carts of dry food, black bread, barley and wheat, as well as sixty sheep and twenty cows. Additionally, we also bought some wine, cheese, and sausages."

Su Li smiled with satisfaction; this figure was already quite impressive. Together with the funds brought from leaving Bauhinia Castle and the piecemeal wealth acquired along the way, and after the expense of procuring grain and fodder, he still had 931 gold coins remaining.

The largest consumption among these was the procurement of grain. Even if only eating black bread, beans, and cabbage, which taste like wax, an ordinary farmer still needed 3-5 copper coins a day. This kind of meal for Armed Attendants would already cause complaints, and providing it to Knights was even more impossible. Under normal circumstances, the diet for Knights needs to ensure cheese bread, malt beer, pies, and some roast meat and jerky, and with such a meal, the consumption would multiply by four or five times, and Knights are big eaters, needing sufficient nutrition to maintain physical strength.

The minimum dietary consumption for a Knight per day is 30 copper coins; if they eat roast meat that day, this consumption would soar to more than a silver coin.

A young lad can eat you out of house and home. Hundreds of mouths consume over a thousand pounds of food every day doing nothing else.

Upon arriving at the Pioneer Territory, there will be no grain income until autumn, so they must stockpile ample grain.

Furthermore, in these remaining 831 gold coins, there are 60 gold coins that are rewards for soldiers collecting herbs and fighting magical beasts along the way, and 200 gold coins must be reserved for paying wages to the soldiers.

Although, at Bauhinia Castle, these Knights once swore that even if Young Master Su Li’s Pioneer Territory didn’t have money to pay wages, they wouldn’t complain.

But should a lord really act like this, not paying wages would only be asking to be overthrown by the Knights.

Having no money and being unable to pay wages is one thing. Having money and not paying is quite another.

The Knights need their wages to establish homes and lives in the Pioneer Territory.

Therefore, after deducting 200 gold coins for wages and bonuses, Su Li still had about 671 gold coins to use at the Gray Market Chamber of Commerce, which was quite a substantial sum. If this money were donated to the Knight Order, the Knight Order could deploy several squads of Elite Knights with nearly a thousand Armed Attendants to help the Lord fight a war from start to finish.