After settling many chores in the valley, Art, who had just taken a breath in the valley territory, had to go out again.
Although Art is no longer a forest hunter now, he is still repeating the same things as in the past, except that what he goes out to hunt is no longer elk and goats, but shiny silver coins and all opportunities that are conducive to expanding his strength.
There is no other way. A knight usurped the power of a baron and supported a "huge" standing army and a large number of territorial citizens. These people needed him to find "food" to fill their stomachs.
The journey south to Provence was full of dangers, but it was impossible for Art to go south with all his troops. Regardless of the huge cost, a small lord from a neighboring country brought a large number of troops into other countries without authorization, which would cause a lot of unnecessary trouble. Therefore, for the sake of safety, Art only planned to take away the eight cavalrymen of the Sentinel Cavalry, and then he could only rely on the caravan's protection for the rest.
· At the southern border of Burgundy, the camp next to the outpost was filled with grain covered with felt. Five or six border peasant soldiers were patrolling and guarding the camp with spears and daggers issued by the outpost. Unloaded four-wheeled carriages entered the camp one after another and turned into heavy spokes, pressing out rows of ruts in the hard soil outside the camp gate.
In the camp, Art is taking Salt and several others to count the grain that needs to be shipped to Provence this time.
Salt patted the grain bag on the last carriage, tied the felt rope tightly again, and said to Art: "Sir, there are twenty-five carriages in total. We have fifteen carriages of our own caravan, and we also hired ten carriages and drivers. The grain transported is more than 27,000 pounds. Excluding the consumption of the convoy guards and accompanying troops along the way, we can roughly transport 25,000 pounds of grain to Aosta City."
Matt glanced at the mountains of grain piled in the camp, nodded with satisfaction and replied: "I have sent Felix back to Sapp to tell my father-in-law to transport twenty carts of grain from Sapp to Kitzby, so that our convoy going south will have forty-five carriages, which should attract the attention of the Provence dignitaries. The road from Kitzby to Aosta is the most dangerous. We can combine into a large convoy to take care of each other, so it should be safer."
Salt nodded in agreement, "Sir, if I am lucky enough to get a business license from the Provence court this time, and I try to contact a group of former businessmen friends to raise their money and share their former trade routes, we should be able to take advantage of the troubled times to successfully enter the southern goods trading market in Provence."
"Well, I hope so. Now in Provence Affected by the war, many merchants have stopped trading activities and dare not go out with a large amount of coins in their hands. If we can make the gold coins in their hands produce silver coins at this time, I think they are willing to take the risk and hand over the coins to us for business, especially those silver coin merchants who rely on lending coins to collect interest. They will not be willing to let the silver coins in their wallets just lie there quietly. "
“After we enter Kitzby and join my father-in-law’s convoy, you can leave the caravan with a few strong guards and contact your former business friends on your own, telling them that we have the ability to make profits from their idle coins. I will obtain a business license from the Provence court as soon as possible. Then..."
While Art was discussing with Salter how to contact Provence merchants to raise money from them, Raven, the deputy steward of the caravan, entered the camp and walked up to Art, "Sir, the convoy is ready, shall we set off immediately?"
Hate stopped talking with Salt, glanced at the long queue along the trade road outside the camp gate, and replied: "Give me the order, and the southbound convoy will set off immediately."
Raven turned around to give the order, and Art also adjusted his armor and led Salt out of the camp. He got on the horse led by Matthew and waved to Lusignan, the captain of the sentry team. "From now on, the sentry team will work in pairs, centered on the convoy, and will conduct continuous sentinel inspections in four directions. If there is any abnormality, they will immediately return to warn."
"Let's catch up with the leader of the team." After saying that, he lightly pinched the horse's belly, and the war horse stepped forward and galloped towards the head of the convoy...
…......
All the way south, the impact of the war in Provence has become more and more obvious.
The road from the border to Kitzby is mostly uninhabited wilderness, but the convoy has encountered three waves of bandits along the way. However, these guys who block the road to survive in the wilderness are more like savages than bandits. They do not have any decent clothes to cover their bodies. Their bodies were unkempt and skinny. They held a few wooden sticks and broken pieces of iron in their hands and eagerly attacked the grain transport convoy. These people were really hungry and crazy. They knew that they might be beaten to death if they rushed forward, but they would definitely starve to death if they didn't rush forward. Hunger drove them into madness.
At both sympathizes with and hates these tails falling behind, but he is not alone now, and he will never be a holy mother who helps the world with her swords, so he ordered Lusignan and Jafar to lead the sentry team to directly annihilate the following "savages" like dry grass...
………
With dozens of carriages and constant harassment by small groups of bandits, Art and his party walked for five days before arriving near Kitzby, an important town in the north of Provence.
While there was still half a day's journey from Kitzby, those Provençal grain merchants who smelled the smell of grain were already waiting on the trade road, hoping to receive all the grain from Art at a high price.
But Art flatly refused. His purpose was to use this batch of grain to gain the attention of the Provence court, obtain a business license from the Provence court on the basis of transporting grain, and then use this opportunity to open the southern goods channel in Provence. The channel established during the war will provide Art with a steady stream of silver coin income after the war is over...
The grain merchants in Provence were all dejected after being rejected by Art. They had no choice. Nowadays, there is a severe shortage of food in the southern continent. God is the one who has food. Moreover, this "God" has a lord with a large number of escorts and cavalry, friendly nobles.
In this way, they were entangled by grain merchants all the way. It was almost dark when Art's motorcade arrived in Kitzby.
As soon as he settled into the warehouse in the city, the lord of Kitzby sent his cronies to look for Art. There is no need to think too much about the purpose, it is just for food.
At can ignore the pleadings of the grain merchants, but he cannot ignore the request of the lord of Kitzby City.
After wrangling for half the night, Art had to sell six carriages of food to the lord, so that the lord could use this food to "relieve" the refugees who were struggling on the verge of life and death in Kitzby.
“Sir, will they really use the food to help the hungry refugees in the city?” Matthew asked, looking at the lord’s cronies leaving with tears in their eyes.
Salter chuckled and replied: "Early tomorrow morning, this batch of grain will become the goods in the food store of the benevolent lord, accompanied by a sky-high price that even a refugee can't get even if he sells his son or daughter. Then the lord will hold the bulging money bag and praise this confidant who burst into tears in front of us today~"
"It's really not a thing!" Matthew spat.