RPAGF #298 - Martin felt something was wrong.
#298 - Martin felt something was wrong.
Martin pursed his lips with a headache: "How much do you want to buy?"
"Isn't this the spring famine?" Horn chuckled. "We're allies, right? Your gain is roughly my gain too, so I want to spend 20,000 gold pounds to buy 1.2 million gallons of grain."
"1.2 million gallons?!" Martin's eyes widened. "That's too much!"
"Is it too much? Caxia County is a major grain-producing region. 1.2 million gallons is about 5,000 tons, which isn't much, right?"
"The monastery doesn't have surplus grain either..." Martin took out a small booklet from his pocket, flipped through a couple of pages, and said.
"Everyone knows Caxia County wasn't hit too hard by the disaster, so there's plenty of grain, but the annual yield is somewhat affected.
Moreover, after the floods, grain prices soared everywhere, and the farmers in Caxia County made a fortune. They don't have that much grain left in their hands.
It's okay around the monastery, but further away, we're not the actual lords of Caxia County, so we can't force them..."
As Martin explained, Horn gradually gained a general understanding of Caxia County.
The situation in Caxia County can basically be summarized as: local Cush Knights + immigrant armed farmers + local citizens + monastery monks versus Thousand Valley Church + immigrant knights.
The church forcefully pushed the foreign immigrant armed farmers to the point of forming an alliance with the local Cush Knights.
So the Huannuo faction alliance is actually a loose political alliance with local characteristics.
They exist because of their enemies, not because of common interests.
When Huannuo was still around, he could rely on his extraordinary prestige to forcefully push the alliance forward.
But after Huannuo was burned to death, the farmers and citizens were truly angry and completely lost confidence in the church.
The nobles and some monks still harbored illusions, attempting to reconcile with the church, maintain superficial obedience, and then close their doors and become local tyrants.
"So there are many voices within the monastery, some advocating bloodless reform, some wanting to manage themselves, and some wanting to sit back and watch both sides suffer and then take over..."
The more Martin spoke, the more suffocated he became. In the end, he kept clicking his tongue: "If Abbot Huannuo were still here, that would be great."
"I see... Then what's the most you can offer?"
"The most? Maybe 500,000 or 450,000 gallons of grain for 10,000 gold pounds might be negotiable?"
Horn smacked his lips and didn't respond immediately, but silently calculated in his mind.
Horn not only needs grain.
If he buys grain and distributes it to the farmers for free as disaster relief, although the money is spent, the manpower is wasted.
Absorbing some young and strong farmers into the army is certainly a strategy, but he can't let everyone become soldiers.
Excluding the part for war monks, Horn plans to use the remaining grain for two purposes.
The first is to recruit construction workers, who will be used to dredge the rivers in the Great Marsh Township.
According to the only hydraulic scholar in Jeanneburg, as long as a small opening is made, the rushing water can be used to wash away some of the silt.
In this way, the water level of South Marsh Lake will drop, and large areas of swampy land will be added to the Great Marsh Township.
It may be a little difficult to plant other things on this land, but there's absolutely no problem in planting flax, which likes wet and acidic soil.
Coupled with the spinning jenny, the textile industry, the easiest category to start in light industry, can be quickly established.
The second is to develop rural sideline workshops and proto-industrialization, and cultivate enough laborers.
Horn has no foreign capital, no industrial transfer, and no colonies for him to exploit.
He only has productivity, but converting productivity into the economy is either a bloody or a lengthy process.
Relying on the start-up capital accumulated by fighting the church, internally through long-term urban-rural commodity exchange, and externally through dumping on the imperial market, to complete the primitive accumulation.
Regardless of which one, Horn needs a batch of skilled laborers.
Money circulates to be money. After the work-for-relief ends, at least the villagers have a certain consumption ability, thereby driving domestic demand.
Such an economy is a prosperous and positive economy.
If he doesn't export to the external market and doesn't exchange industrial products for grain, not only will he not be able to save up military rations, but a famine is expected to break out in May.
Horn came to Martin to solve this problem.
"Now we have rebelled, Rapid Stream City has rebelled, and Duke Hemas has also rebelled."
After calming down, Horn didn't continue with the grain issue, but instead talked about the current situation:
"The matter started because of Abbot Huannuo, and the rest of the people more or less waved Huannuo's banner.
It is impossible for you to stay out of it. The church will definitely attack you. I really want to ask you what your plans are."
Martin's previous anxiety slowly disappeared and transformed into another form of anxiety: "I don't know either. There's arguing in the monastery every day. The teacher has a soft personality and can't make a decision for a long time."
After a long silence in the dust-filled room, Horn patted Martin's hand:
"In my opinion, since you don't dare to attack the church and can't directly rebel, you should focus on defensive counterattacks and wait for reinforcements."
"Yes, that's what I think too, at least there won't be no ability to resist at all," Martin closed his eyes in pain, "But Caxia is a plain county, with at most some hills, and there's no natural defense at all."
Horn was curious: "Isn't Caxia County the main base of the former Cush Knights? What about the castles?"
"The Thousand Valley Church issued the 'One Lord, One Castle Decree', using the excuse of demolishing old castles and building new ones to demolish most of the castles in Caxia County."
Horn asked: "Can't they be repaired?"
"Yes, but it takes a long time, and there's not enough time at all," Martin said with a wry smile.
"Why isn't there enough time? Is there a problem with the materials? You don't seem to be lacking stone and manpower, right?" Horn frowned.
Martin slowly shook his head: "Stone and manpower are certainly not lacking, but what's lacking is volcanic ash or mortar.
This kind of stone binder is what we lack the most.
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Since the last emperor gave the church the special permission for volcanic ash, the current volcanic ash trade is basically monopolized by the church."
Horn shrugged helplessly: "Actually, I really want to help you, but unfortunately I don't have volcanic ash."
"Yes, you..." Martin suddenly opened his eyes, "That's not right, don't you have mortar?"
See, he found it himself.
If Horn hadn't been so knowledgeable, he almost couldn't suppress the upward curve of his mouth.
Before Horn could reply, Martin rejected it to himself: "It still won't work, your mortar production is enough, but there's not enough time, the mortar takes at least two or three months to dry."
"Why? We dried it in a month."
"That's because you have a lot, um..." Martin carefully chose his words, "You have a lot of natural priests, and it's good enough for us to secretly protect two or three.
If we bring in too many alchemists, the villagers and monks below will have opinions."
A smile appeared on Horn's face. He stood up, personally poured a glass of water for Martin, and then sat down again: "What about what I said last time about the Holy Father Society and Huannuo exchanging learning?"
Martin opened his mouth slightly. He couldn't keep up with Horn's train of thought. Why did he suddenly talk about this?
"The news from the pigeons last night is that the abbot agreed and even opened a letter of introduction." Although he didn't understand Horn's meaning, Martin still replied.
Horn pushed a stack of documents on the table to Martin: "This is the list of monks who will go to the monastery to study this time."
Martin flipped through it, not knowing why, but he was stunned after flipping through two pages, and then he flipped faster and faster.
"These, these people are all natural priests..."
"I'm a school of natural theology, of course I have to send natural priests out. The exchange is definitely natural theurgy."
Martin's eyes lit up immediately, because the monks actually don't object to alchemists in their hearts.
Otherwise, they wouldn't even use mortar, let alone secretly protect a few alchemists.
They are anti-witches for the sake of anti-witches, a means of maintaining their own orthodoxy, not the purpose.
As for the villagers, in addition to the church's consistent propaganda.
The most important thing is that the people of Black Serpent Bay have always been emotionally unstable and often cause trouble.
Now that the image of the Thousand Valley Church has collapsed, Horn seized the opportunity to fill Huannuo's vacancy after defeating the Edict Company.
With his reputation as a guarantee, it may be true.
"Those knights and monks definitely want to repair the castle, but they can't buy mortar even if they have money." Horn pointed to the stack of documents with his finger and leaned forward, "And we can provide mortar and let the natural priests help them quickly reinforce the castle.
Do you think 10,000 gold pounds plus 10,000 gold pounds worth of textiles, mortar, and peat can be exchanged for 1 million gallons of grain?"
The same smile as at the beginning appeared on Horn's face.
Walking out of the study, Martin frowned and looked back. He always felt that something was wrong.
Oh well, whatever!
Martin was born optimistic. Anyway, he couldn't see any loopholes in this plan.
This thick document in his hand can be considered a solution to a troublesome problem for the teacher.
No matter how you calculate it, he should be credited, right? It depends on whether the teacher is willing to accept it.