"Odo, arrange for everyone to repair on the spot, and seize the time to get some sleep before dawn."
"Ron takes people to patrol one mile around."
"Kazak, your team is responsible for the sentry."
Matt gave orders to the commanders around him one by one.
The convoy passed through the manor guard tower safely and then drove all the way. After running all night, it arrived at the ruins of Hades Village in front of the moonlit treetops. The thrilling raid battle and the overnight running made Art feel exhausted, but he was still in the vicinity of the fighting area and the enemy might appear at any time, so Art did not dare to slack off at all.
After letting Spencer bandage the arm that was pierced by a spear, Art stood up again and looked around to check on the soldiers of the patrol and the driver of the convoy. He didn't want any problem to happen to any of his men at this time.
After a while, Ron, who was riding around with a sentry to scout, returned to the ruins. Knowing that there was no enemy within a mile of the surrounding area, Art relaxed a little, and he and his armor leaned against a collapsed earth wall. Within a moment, his eyelids closed together...
"Come out slowly, or my battle ax will chop off your dog's head!" Odo's voice continued to sound, and the soldiers who were awakened nearby also took up their weapons and surrounded the firewood stack.
After a while, there was a rustling sound in the firewood pile, and a guy with disheveled hair and a bloody face slowly climbed out of the firewood pile.
Odo and the soldiers looked at this ghostly guy and slowly put down their weapons.
"Stand up slowly and don't mess around." Otto ordered, taking half a step back.
This guy put his hands on his head and slowly stood up.
The guy in front of him, covered in bloodstains and rags, was dressed like he crawled out of a pile of dead people, but at his collar, you could see that he was wearing a high-quality pure white linen lining. Moreover, his rather rich figure did not match the attire, which made him look particularly weird.
"Tuba, send someone to look around carefully and don't let go of any danger." Odo ordered Tuba to search the surroundings.
"Who are you? Why are you hiding here?" Odo's interrogation sounded.
The weird guy wiped the stains on his face, looked at the people surrounding him, and asked: "Are you not the Lombard army? Are you not from the south?"
Odo was confused by this question. This guy didn't seem to be afraid of these strangers armed with sharp steel knives.
“Who are you? If you don’t tell me, I’ll be rude.” Otto didn’t want to talk to this weird guy.
"I knew you were not those bloodthirsty bastards from Lombardy. Is this gentleman from the north?" The strange guy began to take off his tattered clothes.
Odo was also a little confused by this unknown guy, and was about to use his ax to strike at him to intimidate him.
「您别急，我说，我说，我叫萨尔特·美第奇，是一位小商人………」
原来这个名叫萨尔特·美第奇的中年人是大陆南方的一个行商，自少年时起就跟着一个老行商在南陆各地做些小生意。
Last winter, he had been on the sidelines for more than a year due to the war. He finally decided to take advantage of the war in Provence and Lombardy to make a fortune from the war. So he spent many years of savings and borrowed a large sum of money from city merchants to buy a large amount of grain and urgently needed supplies from all over the north at high prices, intending to smuggle them to the war zone to pay a sky-high price. As a result, the caravan he hired was intercepted and killed by the Lombard army as soon as it reached the edge of the war zone. All his savings over the years were robbed, and all the members of the caravan were killed. He cleverly changed into tattered clothes in advance, and escaped by smearing human blood and getting into a pile of dead people to pretend to be dead... ..
Ron looked at Salt, who was squatting beside the carriage, eating rye bread like a hungry dog, and his eyes rolled back from choking. He said to Bas next to him: "He really crawled out of the dead. He hasn't eaten for many days..."
Att walked over to Salt and handed him a water bag. Salt picked up the water bag and filled his stomach with water.
After learning the identity and experience of the guy in front of him, Art started to recruit him. He squatted down and approached the guy sitting on the ground and said, "Sart, what are you going to do in the future?"
Sart He returned the water bag to Art, wiped the water stains on his mouth and took a hard bite of the hard bread. He answered vaguely with a bulging mouth: "I've lost all my money and become a beggar." Salt, who survived the catastrophe, didn't feel that much sadness.
Matt admired the free and easy businessman in front of him and said, "How about following me?"
Sart stopped chewing, stared at the young man who looked like an officer in front of him, and then at the group of black soldiers behind him, and replied: "My lord, do you want me to be your soldier? I can't hold the sword steady."
Yate smiled and said: "No, no, no, it's a pity to let someone like you become a soldier. I will give you a decent job."
Sart replied without thinking: "That's okay. I'll go with you."
"Why don't you ask us who we are and what we do?"
Sart replied carelessly: "What are you asking? I don't think you are like common people, and it's absolutely right to follow you."
Art was amused by his answer and asked with a smile: "Since you know that we are not common people, you dare to follow us?"
Salt put down the bread and said to himself solemnly: "It's good for the bad guys. Only bad people can survive in this world."
Everyone was relatively speechless...
…..................
The convoy basically fled the war zone after leaving Hades, and there was no longer any harassment from the Lombard army, but the movement of the convoy was not smooth sailing.
When the convoy headed south to the Aosta war zone, because of the flag of Baron Balian and the fact that it was transporting military supplies to the war zone, the checkpoints and lords in various places did not stop it. Of course, there was no need to pay various taxes. But when Art returned with his convoy, the lords who had lost their wealth in the war were not so polite. They returned to their natural instincts and wiped off a layer of oil on anything that passed on their territory. Even if it was an iron rod, they could scrape off a layer of iron filings.
Although Art had a lacquered document written by Baron Balian to prove that they were a convoy helping to transport military supplies in the Aosta war zone, the lords ignored the letter at all. Although Art brought soldiers, they were on their territory after all, so they had to pay taxes and pass the card obediently.
The lords were levying taxes under various names along the way, even though Odo, who had always been tolerant, got angry: "Sir, it's so damn uncomfortable. I have to pay so much commercial tax when I bring an empty carriage across the border. I really want to kill those bastard lords!"
But the businessman Salt, who had just joined the patrol, quickly found a solution to everyone's dilemma.
In the past two days since Salt joined the patrol, he followed Spencer, the "kitchen steward", to do chores such as making fires, cooking, and managing military supplies. During a chat with Spencer, he learned about the identity and background of this army and the purpose of this trip south.
“Sir, will you let these dozen carriages return to the north empty?” Salter looked at Art in disbelief.
A few of these carriages belong to me, and I plan to buy a few carts of supplies in Kitzby to take back."
"What about the remaining dozen carriages? Are they empty?"
"That's another noble The master's fleet is not mine. "
"But they are under your management now..."
According to Salt's idea, Art's fleet will buy from the lords of various towns on their way back the goods they have accumulated due to the war.
Now is a time of war. Many lords have a large backlog of goods. Their goods cannot be sold to the southern war zone, and there are no northern merchants to buy them. Therefore, many lords can only watch the goods in the warehouses rotting and deteriorating day by day. Especially the fruit wine, spices and olive oil that are abundant in Provence. These goods that are quite valuable in normal times seem so cheap during the war. After all, fruit wine, spices cannot replace food and bread. When even food is difficult to supply, luxury goods become dispensable.
Hence the journey, the convoy led by Art changed completely, from an empty convoy rushing back to Sap to an armed caravan traveling north to purchase goods from various parts of Provence.
Status determines treatment. After the lords from various places learned that Art was a northern merchant who came to purchase goods, their attitudes immediately changed dramatically. They waited at the castle gate early to greet the caravan that brought money. Since the purchase of their long-backlogged goods solved their urgent need, of course they did not need to pay any business tax when crossing the border... ...
After six days of travel, when they arrived at Kitzby, the eight carriages of the convoy were already loaded with various goods, including spices, olive oil, and wine produced locally in Provence, as well as ironware, salt, cloth, pepper, cloves from the south, and even raw silk, brocade, tea, and porcelain from Central Asia and the East.
Thanks to the sophist's mouth and skilled business skills of the merchant Salt, the price of these goods purchased from various places was almost half of that in ordinary years. Eight carts of goods only cost Art 12,000 pfennigs.
Yatben could still buy more goods, but for safety reasons, he did not carry all the money with him, and he did not have much money left on him; secondly, it was the first time for him to buy such a large amount of goods. If Mr. Galvin did not buy the goods when they were shipped to Sapp, Yat would have to sell them by himself, which would be risky.
Sart showed his self-worth and gained Art's attention. Art assigned him a green mule as a ride and always followed Art.
Salter turned to look at the fleet behind him and said: "Sir, if these goods can be safely delivered to Burgundy in the north, the price will be quadrupled. However, these carriages are not yours, and it is not easy to carry so much goods through the long and dangerous north-south trade routes at this time of year. So I can only sell the goods to the owner of the fleet, but don't worry, I will definitely raise the price and never let your silver coins go to waste. "Go out."
Art did see the shadow of an excellent businessman in Salt, but he needed more time to understand the conduct of the businessman around him, "Sart, I have never asked, do you have a family and children?"
Salt was always indifferent, "I have a pair of children, but they are now married to an honest farmer with my ex-wife."
It is not surprising that Art is unhappy in the Salt family. As a business traveler, he travels around all the year round. Naturally, he cannot take care of the family and cannot give warmth to his family. In addition, being a businessman is not as good as farming. Today, he may live in good clothes and live on the streets tomorrow. Not every woman is willing to accept such a life of poverty and decline. Naturally, Salt's wife does not want to be afraid of following him as time goes by.