Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 757 Wu Fan's Begging Gang
When the locals first heard this claim, they were quite surprised, thinking that the people from the Wu King's Palace were exaggerating. But soon after, the people from the Wu King's Palace actually wrote a lot of letters and reports, requesting more "support".

This time, the most impoverished Mongolian tribes were the most proactive. Several tribes located in the northern mountains immediately went to collect seeds and farming tools, and organized people to dig ditches and build dams on the river to begin improving the land.

Perhaps because the local infrastructure was too weak, a slight overhaul brought about significant changes. That year, many other tribes requested to join. The following year, Adil went to Lorraine again, where the court officials told him that the King of Wu had already traveled to various states with some ministers, but the local government was still functioning normally. So, the government helped him by sending a construction team from Bavaria to help them repair roads.

Compared to the individual agricultural improvement efforts undertaken by each party, road construction was a major undertaking. It involved significant financial investment, manpower allocation, and various other related matters, exceeding the capacity of the entire earldom. The Wu Prince's Mansion, being new to the area, lacked sufficient resources to directly drive such a large-scale project.

However, Wu Wang's team has been facing this problem since they started their independent business, so they are already familiar with how to deal with it.

After arriving, they conducted a preliminary survey of the ancient Roman roads and the surrounding area, and then began to make moves around, trying to leverage the connections of the royal court to bring various people together to participate in the project.

The mountain people generally support road construction, as everyone benefits from improved roads. However, the only support they can offer is manpower. The people sent by the Wu King's Palace can guide the construction, but for such a large project, this number is certainly insufficient.

The people in the Prince's Mansion believed that, from a safety perspective, to recoup costs quickly, and to avoid wasting manpower and resources, the project should be completed as soon as possible. The more people involved and the greater the initial investment, the lower the overall cost would be. However, this would require hiring a large number of local craftsmen and artisans from the Shannan Italian region, as well as procuring large quantities of construction materials and supplies, and commencing work simultaneously in multiple locations.

As a result, the makeshift team at the Prince's Palace wasn't even enough to manage the project. To quickly transform the idea into a viable plan, they began selecting locals with professional skills and providing them with daily intensive training. Additionally, they hired a group of accountants from Italy to calculate the road's costs.

This kind of work has rarely been attempted before, and now a group of farmers of unknown origin suddenly claims to have a king and is even preparing to build a passage across the Alps, which sounds rather absurd.

Therefore, many well-known accountants are reluctant to take on such cases, either politely declining or simply advising the client not to get their hopes up—at least, before making such grand pronouncements, they should understand and respect the general rules of the financial world, right? Otherwise, even the apprentices here probably won't believe them.

However, the messengers did not give up and searched everywhere for connections. Finally, they found a rising nobleman named Salvatore de' Medici.

Unlike the others, Salwesterlo was quite interested in these people. He spoke at length with the envoy from the Wu King's Palace and finally said that he could help.

He told the messenger that due to the nature of his work, he frequently interacted with the lower classes. He was first given a significant position ten years earlier, during the wool workers' uprising in Florence.

Florence was an aristocratic republic, with real power held by large guilds. The powerful clans within the city-state controlled the guilds, and thus, the entire nation's power. However, after a tax increase, the lower classes, long dissatisfied with this situation, launched a rebellion.

In Italy, the lower classes of the city-state were called "popolo minuto"—literally, "small people" in Chinese. These "small people" did not possess civic rights, nor did they, as a professional group, have their own guilds to represent them politically. Therefore, they consistently sought to change this situation.

These people's demands also received support from many members of smaller guilds. Although they nominally own guilds and are considered official citizens, the power is divided among the large and powerful guilds, leaving these members of smaller guilds in a situation not much better off than the "petty people."

At this very moment, a serious conflict erupted between the major guilds over important issues such as taxation. The newly emerging elites, led by the Medici family, challenged the Papacy, which had long controlled the city-state. With both sides locked in infighting and unable to maintain control, the lower and middle classes seized the opportunity to organize and demonstrate against the city-state, demanding fair taxation and guild authority. When the city-state's rulers refused, they forcibly occupied the city hall and established their own government.

The rebels' regime advocated for political power across all social classes and the establishment of a universal democratic system, which they began to implement within the city-state. Faced with this change, Salvatore did not rush to respond to the calls of other powerful figures to lead his followers in suppression; instead, he chose to observe and even engage with some of the lower-class representatives. In his view, these people would not last long and were not worth his time.

Sure enough, just two weeks later, serious divisions broke out within the democratic government.

Their chosen leader was a wool worker named Michel de Lando. However, Lando and his followers favored the interests of small guilds and were cautious in their approach to municipal reforms, failing to meet the demands of the radical lower classes and being perceived as overly conservative. Lando and his followers were also unwilling to back down, believing that many of the lower classes' demands were mere fantasies, impossible to realize immediately, and would only lead to the collapse of the city-state.

Disliking each other, the "villains" elected an eight-member committee to rival Lando. However, this committee was also deeply divided, further weakening its power.

At this point, the old aristocrats who had been expelled during the riot were also forced to put aside their differences and hope that the Medici family would step in to restore order. Salvestro then contacted the representatives of the smaller guilds and reached an agreement. With his support, Lando defeated the Council of Eight and their radical supporters, regaining power. Both sides made concessions, dissolving the guilds of the lower-class workers and apprentices, but preserving the other smaller guilds and their power. The riot was thus successfully resolved.

The Medici family began to solidify their power in Florence at this time. Therefore, this event also had a profound impact on Salvestro.

He told the messenger that he did not look down on commoners like the traditional nobles of the Guilf Party (Papal Party) in the city. On the contrary, he highly valued and respected the power of the common people; otherwise, his family would not have reached its current position.

However, their family shared a consensus: "A nation cannot be governed by rosaries." Neither the old-fashioned nobles who constantly preached papal authority, arguing for the elevation of the Pope's status and the importance of the Church's role, nor the commoners who clamored for universal democracy and the restoration of communal property from the apostolic era, were capable of getting things done. Instead, it was those who truly got things done who the city-state could rely on.

Now, everyone else thought this so-called "Wu Prince's Mansion" was a dubious, makeshift operation, so they didn't think much of them. But he found that the people from the Prince's Mansion spoke clearly and their plans were detailed and specific. Although many parts were obviously rushed and might not be the most suitable, it was clear that the planners had conducted a systematic investigation and provided practical solutions for various possible problems. This showed they were people who truly got things done.

More than the project itself, he was curious about where their team came from and how they were organized.

The envoy gave him a brief introduction to the background of the King of Wu's team, and stated that the King of Wu's identity was genuine, and that they were indeed a legitimate government agency, not some strange group of folk engineering enthusiasts or some strange idea that stonemasons had become kings, as other merchants had speculated...

However, many people in the aristocratic circle had been offended by the King of Wu and therefore did not want to acknowledge him, which is why he appeared somewhat down on his luck.

However, Salwesterlo told him with a smile that it didn't really matter.

In his view, whoever could mobilize so many people and work with such efficiency over such a vast area was the king; the area where he could mobilize manpower and resources was his territory. As for his title or whether the nobles recognized him, those were secondary matters.

Especially now, in the German regions where urban culture is less developed than in Italy, gathering a group of commoners into such an efficient and well-organized group is far more difficult than rallying noble vassals for war. Therefore, this person's strength clearly surpasses that of the nobles.

The fact that the nobles don't yet recognize the King of Wu is a good thing. It makes him even more of an investment. Unlike other merchants, he believes this is an excellent investment opportunity that will surely bring promotions and returns in the future.

He's currently quite busy and unable to personally participate in the project. However, his brother Giovanni is currently in Rome, helping the Pope manage banking affairs. He will write a letter requesting Giovanni to provide them with financial and networking support. He has also recommended some accountants and craftsmen to the Wu king's government to go north and assist the king with construction.

With a big shot in the banking industry backing them up, things became much easier afterwards.

Road construction is something even many nobles wouldn't normally consider. The investment is huge, the income unstable, and there's little guarantee that the profits will actually come into their pockets. But the Wu Prince's Mansion wasn't too worried about it from the start. On the contrary, after the craftsmen and accountants completed their investigations and initially confirmed various intentions, they became increasingly confident. They even gathered some local representatives and headed south to Venice, saying they wanted to raise the necessary funds to begin construction.

The locals thought they were crazy. They had nothing to their name and were just asking for money—it was practically begging! And of all people to ask, why these misers? But surprisingly, the Venetian merchants hesitated, seemingly genuinely interested in the idea.

To promote their cause, the Royal Palace even contacted the merchant guild that had been previously driven out by the Count. It turned out that the previous failed investment had caused considerable dissatisfaction among the Venetians, a situation the Royal Palace had taken notice of. Before taking any action, they had prepared by leveraging their connections with the Purple Horde to conduct their activities there.

They brought with them a written order from the King of Wu, pointing to the large seal on it, and told the merchants that if things went smoothly, this single document would allow them to travel directly from Venice to any point on either side of the Alps. Goods from Constantinople, as well as minerals and agricultural products from the mountains, could flow through this transportation network. The cost would be merely some inexpensive gold coins. Most of these coins would simply remain in the books and wouldn't need to be withdrawn.

What puzzled the merchants was that the amount of money they requested was actually quite small relative to the scale of the project. According to the envoy from the Wu King's Palace, it would only require about five or six thousand gold coins for the first two years. However, they needed merchants to provide guarantees for them—and the more guarantees they had, and the more prominent their status, the more financial support they would receive, while the less money they would actually spend.

Not to mention the mountain people, even many businessmen found this statement strange. What does it mean that the more money you spend, the less money you actually spend? Are these people really speaking human language?

However, this time, the delegation actually succeeded in persuading several senior figures to endorse the project.

Many people are confused about this, which has led to various rumors.

Some say this is because the financial backers behind the project are from Florence, and bankers there are hyping up the topic to scam people out of money and get them to invest in a project that has no chance of success.

Some believe the project is real because they can mobilize people from such diverse backgrounds and identities to help. Even if the project was initially fake, people will now make it a reality. The reason for the uproar is likely because this "King Wu" is actually a Mongol nobleman. It's confirmed that his team has close ties with the Purple Horde and received substantial sponsorship from the Mongols. He's probably some Mongol Khan who got tired of life on the grasslands and came here for a visit.
Others claimed that this King Wu was likely from Venice and might be a front for some powerful figure. Those who made such claims were soon approached by people claiming to be from the Jin Merchant Guild, and afterwards lived in constant fear, afraid to even speak. They were probably warned by someone sent by a duke or some other important figure.

However, in the end, with their help, the financing work went very smoothly, and the accounts were well done, clearly defining the participation methods, inputs, and rights of various towns, villages, and tribes along the way.

According to the plan, the ownership of this road will be shared by all participants, calculated based on shares. People in this area will contribute money or labor, and some can also provide various services such as transportation and supplies. The value that each group can provide will be converted into shares in the road.

Of course, their commotion had other consequences—the count wasn't deaf, after all, and eventually found out about it. Incidentally, it also attracted the attention of the true powerful lords here, the Habsburg family.

(End of this chapter)