"Once the war started, you already made money. Why did you have to interfere with the government affairs of the empire after the war this time?" Clark glanced at Des and asked.
"Of course it's for the greater good! The city lord of Seris is very interesting. He has developed a new woodworking machine that will allow the Longtate family to monopolize the woodworking market." Des told the truth, but he used the truth to hide it.
The truth of the matter.
"I'm afraid, it's not just carpentry, right?" Prime Minister Clark was an experienced man. Naturally, he would not easily believe Des' explanation, so he asked again.
"Of course, there is also a new type of loom! Think about it, the cloth market is much bigger than the woodworking market..." Des continued to tell the truth and answered.
"This makes sense... The young city lord of Siris was sure to pay the tax of 4,500 gold coins in three places, so he thought of taking over Mayne and Ferry." Clark nodded, which was considered a grasp.
Understand the ins and outs of the matter.
The Longtate family was thinking about getting rich, and planned to use 50,000 gold coins to kill themselves as the prime minister. What a good plan! Thinking of this, Clark stared at Des with a smile, and his tone changed.
He became a little cold and said: "Then I will first wish the Long Tate family a prosperous future."
"Here, the Prime Minister still needs to do his best in front of His Majesty, so Des came here this time to make a good deal with the Prime Minister." Des knew that Prime Minister Clark was greedy, so he didn't wait for the other party to attack, and directly started
Talking about cooperation.
Sure enough, after hearing what the other party said, Clark had a smile on his face, waiting for Des to continue speaking.
Des didn't hesitate, stretched out a hand and said to Prime Minister Clark: "Fifty thousand gold coins a year!"
"Hmm..." Clark was noncommittal, waiting for Des' next words.
"This 50,000 yuan is sent to the prime minister's house for taxes..." Des said in a long voice, waiting for Clark to express his position.
"6,000 per year!" Clark didn't let Des wait too long and said directly: "In addition, you have to send me another 200,000 gold coins!"
This time it was Des's turn to be silent. Although he was young, he was still an old profiteer. He knew that Clark would definitely give a satisfactory explanation for the two hundred thousand gold coins.
"After all, Siris has already occupied three cities and can no longer use his identity as a lord! Let your majesty make him a grand duke, but he must operate it properly." Clark said solemnly.
Des nodded: "The price is fair! I'll have the money delivered this afternoon. The prime minister is loyal to the country and works tirelessly. He is truly a model for the world!"
"It's easy to say! It's easy to say! Come here! See the guests off!" Clark's smile grew thicker and he shouted to the audience.
When Des walked out of Chancellor Clark's mansion, Strider was still waiting outside the door.
He walked forward with a smile, took Strider's hand and said, "The matter is done! It cost me a full 200,000 gold coins!"
"Ah?" Hearing what Des said, Strider shivered with fright: He had never seen so much money as 200,000 gold coins in his life. If he had 200,000 gold coins, what kind of territory would he need to run?
What?
"The harvest is not without success." Des smiled and took Strider's hand as he walked forward and said: "Soon, Mr. Chris will be called... Grand Duke Chris!"
After saying that, he glanced at the confused Strider and said with a smile: "Let's go! Let's go to Seris City together!"
…
At this moment, Chris, who has been appointed to be the Grand Duke of Elanthir, still doesn't know about his promotion and salary increase. He is holding a stack of drawings in a daze, looking no different from a technical geek.
Even though Serris City already has a lot of processing equipment and steam engines as power, there are still many things to do. Rome was not built in a day, and Serris City's industrial system cannot be perfected within ten days.
The ability to manufacture machinery so quickly is actually directly related to some of the reserve materials in Seris City: the city defense forces have reserves of kerosene, which can extract various petroleum compounds. Seris City is already rich in special iron such as galeite.
The materials and smelting technology are also outstanding.
In addition, some other special materials can be temporarily found as substitutes, so Seris can quickly produce a large number of industrial machinery and complete the construction of the first few factories.
But then, problems began to arise: the various raw materials needed for industry were too complex and could not be supported by a small city of Seris. Rapid industrialization began to enter a bottleneck period, and it had to slow down its pace.
"There are too many problems before us..." Deans leaned on his chair and complained to Chris, who hurried back to Seris from the ferry city: "I don't know what to do if you don't come back.
That’s all."
He pushed several reports in front of Chris and said helplessly: "We are producing cloth and woodworking products so fast that no businessman can handle so many goods."
Chris had just come back. He didn't even have time to drink. He picked up the reports from the table and read them carefully. If you didn't know, there were quite a few problems.
For example, the cotton and other materials stored in Seris City have been used up, and his factory is facing the dilemma of shortage of materials and shutdown. What is even more frightening is that although the price has been adjusted to half of the original price of the goods, these items are still
Because the quantity was too large, it was seriously unsalable.
"The iron side is a little better. After the stamping machine is assembled according to your drawings, it starts mass production of plate armor and utensils very quickly... We have enough raw materials, but the reserves are also decreasing." Deans
He said worriedly.
Having said this, he looked at Chris and said with great pain: "Originally, we still had more than 1,000 Mayne prisoners who could be used for mining... But because of the need to maintain stability, you ordered them to be released.
Most people are not guilty, which ruins our plan to increase production."
Hearing what Deans said, Chris was also very helpless: "The bastard Berman in Mayne has caused public resentment. If I don't do this, I may have to quell the chaos in Mayne..."
"I know this, but now these things must be dealt with one by one." Deans also tried his best, but unfortunately the things he faced were too new, so new that he had no experience in handling them properly.
.
Chris didn't have a particularly good idea. He could only pin his hopes on Des, who had not shown up again, hoping that Des, a businessman, could help him open up the market and start a completely healthy operation.
"For the time being, let's send the excess cloth produced to Mayne and Ferry City first!" Chris thought for a while and started to arrange things one by one: "Let the soldiers from Ferry City be responsible for the transportation.
Distribute the cloth! Consider it as comfort from the city lord’s mansion!”
"Similarly, send the excess cheap woodworking products to these two places at half price. If that doesn't work, sell them at one-tenth of the price! As cheap as you can get!" After making some calculations, Chris then said
The order became coherent: "In addition, half of the wages of all workers in Seris City and those related to the factory will be converted into products! Deducted at the lowest price... If you want cloth, you will be given cloth, and if you want furniture, you will be given furniture!"
Opening up the internal market and dumping products is Chris's only solution now. The biggest drawback of this approach is that it doesn't make money. This is also the pain of extreme industrialization, and Chris has to bear it.
Deans nodded in agreement, and smiled bitterly in his mind: the furniture and fabrics produced cheaply were finally given away for almost free, which was almost the same as being thrown away. This was really something that I had never dared to think about before.
ironic thing...
While Deans was thinking wildly, Chris had already stood up and walked to his cabinet. He took out a stack of drawings from a locked drawer and started reading. He looked at the drawings in front of him and chose between them.
The pros and cons of various weapons and equipment.
These drawings were all drawn before he left, and they are all weapons and equipment that cannot be produced by the current industrial level of Seris City. Chris needs to choose the weapons suitable for the next step of production from these weapons. This is a
This very painful task can only be done by him alone.
"Our current situation is not optimistic. The factory's production capacity is really too low, so low that I have to temporarily give up many advanced weapons and equipment." Putting down a design drawing of an automatic rifle, Chris looked at something like
Deans who understands but doesn't understand.
He now needs to choose an individual weapon for his troops. Although the artillery is powerful, if the weapons and equipment of each soldier cannot be improved, the troops without the artillery will not be able to perform combat missions alone.
Which gun to choose as an individual weapon is worth thinking about for Chris: sometimes, not the best weapon is necessarily the most suitable. Thinking of this, he reluctantly looked at the simple and practical ones on the table.
Chris, who had to bear the pain of giving up the blueprint of the AK47 assault rifle, sighed.
Because of production capacity, he had to give up many weapons and equipment that were not complicated in their manufacturing process, and the ak47 was just one of them. For example, mortars, simple and practical rocket launchers, etc., he could not list.
Pack.
It’s not that Chris, who has an industrial background, is unwilling to equip more mortars, but the production speed of artillery shells cannot keep up with the consumption of mortars. Only now does Chris know how troublesome it is to maintain a modern army: just weapons
Production is a step that tests industrial strength. The pitiful production capacity he has now cannot even supply the war consumption of an infantry company...