They drove a group of wagons, and without seeing outside, they set up a big tent on the west side of the castle and put up a sign like a circus. They went around soliciting customers and tried to charge for their shows and sell their products.
The entertainment in this era was boring, even more so after the disaster. And the food was incredibly tempting, making people willing to pay everything.
These tricks of the merchants were unbeatable and often drained the last copper from the survivors' hands. And when they leave, there will be many more female supporters and slaves in the group.
That seems to have been the case this time - at least the crowd that came around seemed to be very large. The survivors formed circle after circle, arranged by the merchants in a long line.
However, what made the merchants' faces strange was that the survivors who were so excited, holding empty bottles and cans in their hands, and who came to negotiate with themselves, were neither asking for food, trading goods, nor selling themselves.
After negotiating with a few people, the merchants looked dumbfounded and shooed away the guys who grabbed their clothes and persuaded them to believe in the god of refuge, and put up the 'no fundraising' sign again.
Then, looking at the salesmen who had formed a long line, the businessmen's scalps exploded.
When George came over, the businessmen were re-pinning a sign - Closed for Business.
"There's no point in putting these up, none of my people can read."
After hearing the words behind him, a fat-faced merchant turned back and looked at the young man on Andenas' warhorse, and the half dozen well-equipped and luxuriously robed guards behind him, and his eyes radiated fire anew.
He knew that all the assets in the hands of those lords must have been 'collected' into the hands of this lord.
"My lord, these words are precisely for people like you." The merchant was not condescending and looked like he should be the leader here. He had a little smile on his face and his tone was very polite and humble.
"Hmm." George nodded, his gaze retracted from the bustling camp not far away, looked into the eyes of the merchants that were full of expectant gaze, and slowly opened his mouth, "Have you paid your taxes?"
"..."
Thirty or so heavily armed, fierce merchant guards clenched their fists and slowly gathered around.
...
George led Aggie and the others, while crossing the camp and looking around.
The size of the traveling merchants was not small, there were more than thirty carts alone, and according to the merchants, there were hundreds of 'spare' tall horses, as well as more than forty 'refugees' who were desperate to follow the caravan - all of them volunteered, or were sold into slavery by the lord.
George noticed that the structure of these wagons of the merchants seemed to be extremely advanced, not only with suspension, but also the carrying capacity seemed to be extremely large, especially the car with iron ore, which was almost filled with two sides of ore!
This is a full four or five tons!
But what surprised him even more was the tall horses that pulled the carts.
Normally, such a heavy vehicle can not be pulled without five or six horses, but in the caravan of merchants, many vehicles only have two heads!
"Chief, these are all 'Charvan horses', in ancient times, their ancestors were indeed war horses. But in thousands of years of breeding and improvement, they have become specialized in agricultural work, pulling things of the pulling horse - you do not look so tall and powerful, but also very strong. But it is a bit bulky, and cute and simple ... But most importantly, they eat really too much, which makes generally only in the farm domestication, no one dares to pull them to the battlefield."
George nodded, feeling that Aggie said seems to have some sense. General knight to the battlefield, have to bring two or three horses. According to the frighteningly large size of these horses, the amount of food can be amazing.
But he still felt a little strange.
"Aren't they suitable as mounts for heavy cavalry? Hasn't anyone ever used them that way?" George still curiously asked: "And I heard that Lady Elizabeth Ranch, but also specially trained a group of special..."
"Ahem! Chief... Ahem, there are special war horses for heavy cavalry, these horses are specially bred for the farm, the difference is still great." Aggie quietly disliked George as he spoke. His boss hurriedly shut his mouth and stopped trying to question him.
Ajay amplified his voice and continued: "Generally speaking, the market price of large draft horses like 30-40 silver foxes, and heavy draft horses like Charvan at 40-80 silver foxes. However, I do not steal such horses, because the black-hearted merchants are willing to accept such dirty goods only a few silver foxes, but if caught, it is to lose their heads - my Lord, these so-called 'spare' horse, I am afraid that most of them are also stolen or robbed The 'spare' horses are probably stolen or robbed from the Countess Elizabeth's ranch.
Ajay said, he also took a special glance at the merchant: "These horses, you are not all stolen, right? There's nothing but monsters or dead people over there, there's not much business."
Gale's eyes widened and he wanted to go over and slap the dwarf, but when his eyes glanced at Agi's thick arms, he swallowed his throat and stopped the terrible thought.
He was tempted to explain the origin and good bloodline of these horses - his horses were indeed not war horses, but they were by no means the 40-80 kind of ordinary pulling horses either.
But either informing the customer that the shipment was a no-brainer, or that he had stolen from the object of his allegiance, didn't seem like too good a thing to do. So he felt that there was a price about these horses that should be negotiated in detail afterwards.
"My lord, we are all believers of the god of refuge, how could we do those things that rob the house?" The merchant Gail coughed and said, "You can rest assured that my goods are well documented, and no matter what you buy from me, no other lord will come to you thereafter."
"I believe you, Gail." George turned around, patted his shoulder and said, "With your strength, you can't rob anyone."
Those three dozen merchant guards, equipment are very good. But was let Jack and seven or eight of them beat up the nose.
By the time Alexander ran over, did not even have time to make a move, the fight was over.
It is conceivable that if it is not the hands of this group of merchants, there is a kind of torch that can dispel the mists and monsters, I'm afraid it really can not go to the territories.
But this merchant's words can only be heard three times. In the entire Black Pearl Valley, there are many things without owners. And the great pastures to the north of the Countess are likely to be empty as well. So it's easy to make a no-frills deal as long as you can predict where it's safe.
And these merchants, it seems, then have this mysterious precognitive ability.
"Ahem, Lord Baron, I have quite a few guards for this merchant caravan, actually." The merchant Gale's face smiled bitterly with some embarrassment: "To be honest, in the entire Black Pearl Valley, there are not many lords like you who still have a dozen knights gathered around you."
George felt that the merchant's words were still somewhat boastful, if the territories are really bad into this field, then the western corpses are afraid to have flooded over. But his words still have some sarcastic meaning: "No wonder your guards are so bad-tempered."
The merchant just wanted to curse out, he had never seen such an arrogant and greedy lord. He opened his mouth and introduced a dozen kinds of taxes!
Head tax, goods tax, land tax, car tax, road tax, even manure he also gave a tax ...
All together, more than eight hundred silver foxes! It's like eating people!
At that time, in the face of this group of aggressive bandits, Gail smiled and promised, and after this did not do any dissatisfaction, but all the way for this lord explained his goods.
However, in Gail's view, the greedy lord, although he had severely extorted a sum of money from him, but is meant to carry out a deal with himself, rather than intend to do that one-time cost-free trade.
And he also believes that in this chaotic world of business, is originally hanging on the head of the business. But as long as one can have a good mouth, and a pair of good eyes. Then it will not be some stupid lord to kill the chicken and eggs.
As long as the customer thinks they have taken advantage of, and think that there will continue to have the opportunity to pull the goose over the feather. Then the merchant will be able to earn a lot of money.
As for the eight hundred silver foxes, he will get them back today...
"They have tasted the lesson. My Lord, I am deeply sorry for the misunderstanding just now." Fulfillment merchant Gale bowed slightly and said slowly, "My lord, in fact, we only establish contact with people who have a good reputation, so we rarely get into arguments with people. And if any lord has the potential to invest, we 'Common Help Chamber of Commerce' will always invest in him. And if one day, which of the orderly lords in the Black Pearl Valley, grows stronger. He will also become our firm friend - just like the current Duke of Adeline."
The merchant Gale said euphemistically, but was throwing out the bait and moving his backstage.
George nodded and said nothing more. He did not intend to talk further on this topic. After all, if you really want to survive in the fog, no matter who it is, you have to rely on these special businessmen who can travel around the world to help out a little.
What's more, just after beating up that group of guards, George saw those words that the God of Asylum warned him about - if there is any more conflict with these merchants, a large amount of divine grace will be deducted.
"You said before that you are the new head of this area of the Black Pearl Valley?" George asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Indeed, our Chamber of Commerce travels the world under the grace of the God of Asylum." Merchant Gale smiled and replied, "But we do not divide our merchant fleet by region, but by route. This merchant route, which is currently rotating into my hands, ends there in Wingwind City."
"So, which territories have you been to before?" The lord asked the topic he was most concerned about. He also knew that the merchant in front of him, I'm afraid, is the only source he can get outside information.
When the merchant's answer was a bit surprising to George, he said, "My lord, we came here by ship from the south, and we have passed through many places, and we have been to many places specially. But the lords are reluctant to divulge the situation of their territories to other lords. And because we have a covenant with the God of Asylum, we cannot reveal this information to anyone, otherwise we will lose our divine grace."
"However..." Said here, the merchant turned his head again and said meaningfully: "Why don't you buy some slaves?"