The carnival celebrating the world being saved from destruction lasted for three full days in the West Coast Empire and even the entire Faerûn continent, and then began to fade away.

Immediately afterwards, historians announced that this year would be officially named the "Year of the Serpent" to commemorate the panic and despair that Dendel brought to the entire world.

Similarly, this ancient evil that originally only existed in myths and legends has officially entered the sight of mortals, and triggered extensive discussions and research.

There are even some mad mages who travel to the gray wilderness through interdimensional teleportation, eager to obtain more powerful power from the nightmare snake, or to unlock the ability to create nightmares that even gods are not immune to.

After all, although the population of Faerûn is not large, it has never lacked careerists, geniuses and lunatics.

They regard the gods as objects that can be surpassed sooner or later, and regard demons, devils and angels as stepping stones on their way forward. What's more, they will enslave giant spirits, dragons, giants and the like who possess powerful magical power.

Creatures with clever minds.

For these guys, the only thing Zuo Si could do was to hope that the giant snake would be in a good mood when they found Dendel.

Otherwise, there is a high probability that it will be swallowed and the body and soul will completely disappear.

Because the soul eaten by the Nightmare Serpent is the same as another ancient evil creature, the Chaos Demon Dog Kozif, which is a bit like being erased from the root, and even powerful divine power cannot resurrect it.

At this moment, Zuo Si was sitting in the garden of the Calimport Palace, drinking tea leisurely and looking through the information sent by various agencies under his command with great interest. After several minutes, he raised his head and asked what he was sitting on.

The goddess of wealth across the table: "Do you plan to continue to expand the scope and number of trade alliances and bring the orcs into this system?"

Waking nodded without thinking: "That's right.

After all, wealth is wealth, and there is no distinction between high and low.

As long as those orcs are willing to give up their past raiding style to engage in production and create wealth, why shouldn't I accept them?

You must know that the number of orcs in this world is not large at all, and the fertility rate is also ridiculously high.

Even if only half of it is included, the scale will be millions or even tens of millions in the future.

They are not only qualified producers and workers, but they can also form a huge consumer market and provide amazing vitality to the overall economy.

What's more, my goal is to establish a super trade union that spans the continent of Faerûn and even the planet Toril, including all continents, countries, regions and races."

"So you plan to follow other technologically advanced worlds and establish an economic alliance centered on a continent or planet?"

Zuo Si was obviously aware of the goddess's intentions and ambitions.

You must know that before the establishment of the West Coast Empire, the reason why Waking's influence and number of followers failed to increase was not because there was anything wrong with her teachings, but simply because the environment did not allow it.

Anyone with some common sense in history and economics knows that it was only in modern capitalist society that the earth began to use money and wealth to determine a person's power and status.

Before that, wealth was determined by power, or to put it more bluntly, everything was determined by violence.

Whoever wields the greatest violence has the greatest power and can decide how to distribute wealth as he pleases.

As for businessmen, they are just a group of fattened pigs. No matter how much wealth they accumulate, they may be deprived of them overnight at any time.

Not only that!

Due to the short-sightedness, greed, and desperate pursuit of profit maximization of the business class, their image in the eyes of most people is generally not good.

Even if he is killed by those in power, few people will sympathize with him, and maybe there will still be a lot of ordinary people who have been tricked by profiteers and applaud him, so he can only be deeply attached to those in power in exchange for political asylum.

The result of this high degree of connection with politics is that when a politician falls, the businessmen who have been protected by him will naturally be liquidated, and all the wealth accumulated over generations will become the spoils of the other party.

In this environment, people's desire for power and violence is far greater than wealth.

Therefore, there is a famous saying in the East: "Everything is inferior but education is high." This is because this is the only way to obtain power after establishing a mature bureaucracy and imperial examination system.

In the West, there is a hereditary aristocratic lord system that is linked by sex, mother-child and blood. Each noble has complete political, judicial and military power in his or her own territory.

The common feature of both is that they suppress economic development and the circulation of commodities to a certain extent, and at the same time make people realize that wealth is nothing in the face of real power.

In fact, before Zuo Si established the West Coast Empire and proposed the establishment of a commercial alliance, Faerûn was basically in this state.

A merchant sets out from Kalingang in the south and takes the land route to the north. Along the way, he has to pass through several countries, countless regions, city-states and the lands of noble lords. Every time he passes through one, he basically has to pay a customs duty, or it is called transit.

Travel expenses are also ok.

This amount of money alone is often worth several times or even more than ten times the value of the transported goods themselves.

This is why so many businessmen still choose the sea route instead of the land route, even though they know the risks of taking the sea route are huge.

In addition, in order to avoid being robbed by bandits and monsters that may appear along the way, hiring insurance companies and mercenaries to escort you is also a big expense.

All the above costs will eventually be passed on to consumers together with profits.

This is why the southern region of Faerûn is obviously rich in spices, silk and other commodities, but when sold to a slightly northerly region, their value doubles, turning daily consumer goods into out-and-out luxuries.

Because the middle process was so exploitative, only a handful of nobles and wealthy businessmen could afford it.

Fewer people buying means low demand, and the production link as the source of supply cannot expand its scale. Ultimately, the entire economic cycle is like a pool of stagnant water, without much vitality at all.

In addition, due to social unrest and political instability, property and life safety cannot be guaranteed.

In this way, it is no wonder that the influence of the goddess of wealth, Woking, is so great.

But now the situation is different.

As the West Coast Empire began to become a pole of the Faerûn continent, the property and life safety of the people were fully guaranteed, and the status of merchants was greatly enhanced. Even when you are rich to a certain extent, you can gain corresponding political status and social influence.

The status of power and wealth in people's minds has begun to become more and more important.

In particular, the trade alliance solved issues such as tariffs, markets, and transportation, and also issued a unified currency with a fixed gold content, which immediately cleared the last obstacle to economic growth.

The threshold for businessmen to do business and the risks they need to bear have been greatly reduced, the people have obtained cheaper and richer varieties of goods, and the source of production has also continued to expand due to the increase in purchasing volume, driving employment.

In such a virtuous cycle, the influence of Wojin, the goddess of wealth, can continue to increase until she crosses the threshold of powerful divine power.

To be precise, the more developed, stable and affluent a society is, the more its followers will be.

On the contrary, if a society is turbulent and has frequent wars, its number of believers will be smaller.

After all, even life is at stake. Even if people want to get rich, they will not slowly accumulate and manage through normal business methods. Instead, they will choose to steal, rob, kill and buy goods.

At that time, the influence of gods such as Tempus, the god of war, Bane, the god of tyranny, and Musk, the god of thieves, will be infinitely amplified and become mainstream.

It is precisely because of the two basic foundations of the West Coast Empire and the Business Alliance that the goddess of wealth, Woking, has greater ambitions and desires to establish a huge supply chain system similar to the "globalization" of the earth that integrates production, transportation, and sales.

.

Not only that, she also wants to establish a unified market and currency, making herself a symbol of wealth recognized by all races and countries.

I have to say, this is indeed quite bold.

Because the current Faerûn continent is far from meeting the basic conditions for achieving this goal, whether in terms of population size or other aspects.

But Woking, the goddess of wealth, didn't think so. She stood up directly, opened her arms and said in a slightly excited tone: "Don't you think this is a great idea?

After all, we have now achieved this on the west coast of Faerûn.

In particular, the cheap and efficient airship has fundamentally solved the biggest problem in trade - transportation.

We don't even need to invest money to improve road conditions. By directly connecting all important towns, we can maximize the economic vitality of each region.

Moreover, it can also be used as a preferential condition to attract more cities to actively join the trade alliance.

In fact, I have asked my church to contact all the city-states in the Sea of ​​Fallen Stars region, and many of the powerful nobles and leaders have shown strong interest in this proposal.

As long as a sufficient number of airships can be provided, it won't be long before they are like the city-states in the North, willing to surrender to you and the West Coast Empire one after another.

I guarantee that this will be a win-win cooperation for all three parties."

"Okay, in principle I agree to provide enough airships, but I'm afraid you and your church will have to solve the remaining problems yourself."

After thinking for a moment, Zuo Si decided to agree.

After all, even if this plan failed, there would be no loss for him.

But if it succeeds, it will not only export the imperial bureaucracy and the ideology of monarchical dictatorship, but also cultivate a large number of local vested interest groups and comprador classes.

"that's enough!"

Strong confidence appeared on the face of Woking, the goddess of wealth.

You must know that her time in the huge cyberpunk city on the ninth level of Baator Hell was not in vain. She obtained a lot of professional knowledge about economics, politics, and finance from many souls from other time, space, and universes.

Right now, he is full of energy and wants to make some big splash in Faerun, where business is still in a relatively primitive state.

But soon, Waking suddenly changed the topic and asked in an uncertain tone: "You seem to be very close to the dark girl Eilistraee recently?"

"Well, yes. This involves some internal struggles within the Dark Elf pantheon, and the big moves Rose may make."

Zuo Si didn't try to hide anything and gave the answer openly.

"Rose?"

There was a hint of doubt in Watkin's eyes.

Because in her opinion, after the death of the Goddess of Night, no other god would dare to jump out and cause trouble in a short period of time.

After all, according to the judgment of the powerful Council of Divine Powers, Shar was required not to leave his country within a hundred years, let alone send an avatar or possess him to the planet Toril.

Such a severe punishment is enough to serve as a warning to most evil gods.

Zuo Si put down the empty teacup in his hand and explained with a smile: "This vicious and resentful goddess had actually planned to kill her son and daughter a long time ago in order to monopolize the dark elves' faith and become a powerful god.

Judging from her recent series of abnormal actions, I have reason to suspect that this plan has been officially launched.

So I gave Eilistraee a little heads up.
To be continued...