Warlords of the witcher world

Chapter 13 Prosperous Trade
Just as Herme thought, facing Herme's attitude of not cooperating no matter what, everyone was actually very upset, but there was nothing they could do.

The atamans restrained each other and determined that no one dared to launch an attack under the gaze of all parties, not to mention that the possibility of a lone wolf-style attack and overturning was too great, so all threats were finally ignored.

In contrast, Sazarburg took the initiative. After all, the goods are in the hands of Sazarburg, and their initiative is very strong.

But Hemei didn't do anything to raise prices blindly. On the contrary, he also suppressed the merchants' behavior of raising prices. He knew very well that if things went too far, others might unite and settle the matter.

Therefore, Sazarburg was able to spend a stable winter, and through this winter, he did many things.

The snow this winter was quite heavy, but it did not affect the construction of Heme. On the contrary, it also caused some wandering Cossacks and Hacklanders to move to Sazarburg and become his new subjects.

Heme managed the territory with peace of mind, promoted the construction of Fort Sazar, and improved the city's defense system.At the same time, strengthen the connection with many Cossack villages, and mediate the contradictions and conflicts between them, and control the conflicts to the smallest scale as possible.

Because of this victory, many people immigrated to Sazarburg. Although Hackland is always full of chaos, there are still people who are willing to seek safety.

As a result, Sazarburg became more and more crowded. Gradually, the open space in the city was gradually filled with buildings, and it seemed that it was not as empty as it used to be.

Today's Sazarburg is also very different from the past. The biggest change is that there is a circle of moats. The river water is drawn from the Zaar River. Looking from the sky, Sazarburg seems to be a castle surrounded by rivers. isolated island.

The moat was not built along the platform of Sazar Fort, but a few hundred meters away from Sazar Fort, and then a new wooden wall was built beside the moat.

These wooden walls were built higher, larger and stronger using bricks as foundations.

Yes, Herme has expanded the city, and he has predicted that more people will come to Fort Sazar, so he has to prepare for the future.

In addition, the port on the Zaar River has also grown stronger during this period. During the previous siege of the Cossacks, they did not burn the port, which provided the basis for further expansion in the future.

After being incorporated into the new city wall, people's desire for port construction has also greatly increased. After a winter, the current port is no longer as simple as before. There are seven or eight trestle bridges, and the ships on it are also larger.

Today, fishing boats from Sazarburg on the Zaar River are very common, providing fresh catches for city residents every day.

Now there are more merchants attracted from Aden. With the victory under the walls of Fort Sazar, Herme took advantage of the opportunity to set up a patrol team on the road from the Blue Mountain Tunnel to Fort Sazar, which greatly increased the road safety.

With the safety of the roads, there are more businessmen coming and going.

When there are more merchants, there are more merchants who get rich. As those lucky ones show off their wealth, the huge profits contained in the Sazaburg trade have become famous throughout the north.

Now northern businessmen are flocking here frantically, and there are also many immigrants looking for new opportunities.

In the big cities of the North, "Go to Hackland" has become synonymous with getting rich and risking it, and I believe it will become popular throughout the North in a few years.

As the largest stronghold of the North in Hackland, Sazarburg can be said to be extremely lively.

There are newcomers arriving every moment, businessmen chasing wealth, stunned youths who come out to take risks, bankrupts eager for opportunities... All of a sudden, the city becomes a mixed bag.

Under the prosperous trade across the Blue Mountains, King Demavi can be said to have made a lot of money, and he was soft on the passage tax and trade tax collected in the Blue Mountain Tunnel.

The handicraft workshops in the kingdom of Aden, which were somewhat shaken by the impact of Nilfgaardian commodities, were also revived with full blood, and were even able to expand production in such an unfavorable year, which was in stark contrast to the gloomy and even shrinking production before. .

At the same time, because he has the right of passage in such a market, King Demawi now has a powerful political bargaining chip in the hands of the northern countries that are also impacted by Nilfgaardian commodities.

In order to prevent Nilfgaardian goods from flooding into their hard-to-find market, the Kingdom of Aedirn passed legislation to prohibit southern goods from passing through the Blue Mountain Tunnel. Only goods from the northern workshops can pass through this main road.

This makes the imperial merchants feel like a concubine, facing such a big market and being unable to enter, it is really disgusting.

It is also impossible to force Aden to open the road through war. Nilfgaard was the loser in the first northern war!

In the North-South peace talks after the First Northern War, the empire obtained the right to import goods. The essence was that the northerners were able to agree to the import of goods from the empire by taking advantage of the northerners’ ignorance of commercial wars.

Now if the northerners agree to this matter, it is impossible for the empire not to bleed heavily. The current asking price of the northerners will definitely make it difficult for the empire to accept.

Although the empire also has a road to Harkland, their road is too dangerous, full of barbarians and cultists, not to mention the vast no-man's land, it is impossible to walk.

King Demavi was even more delighted. He was just playing chess at one stroke, but he did not expect to achieve such an effect.

At this moment when the entire north, except for Kevier, is under the impact of Nilfgaardian commodities, Aden’s behavior of exploring new markets can be said to be so special, which even increases Aden’s voice in the northern countries. .

And this right to speak will increase even more. Nilfgaard’s economic aggression has only started less than a year ago, and most workshops can still suffer, but the situation will definitely be different as time goes on.

As time goes by, the kings of the north will definitely have to seek the kingdom of Aden in order not to impact their domestic industries, and then Aden can benefit more from it.

The other northern nations are naturally envious of what Aedirn has gained, especially old rival Kaedwen.

Henselt went directly to the border near the Blue Mountain Tunnel to increase troops, and even the most elite Brown Banner Battalion appeared in that direction.

Demawi naturally knew what this old friend was thinking, and he immediately mobilized more troops to the north, led by Selchik, to confront Kaedwen's troops.

Then Kaedwen began to repeat the same old tune, emphasizing the ownership of the Unicorn Dynasty to the Lomark area, while Aedirn still stated that Aedirn had absolutely legal rights to the Upper Aeden area.

The war of words between the two countries was so loud that it attracted everyone's attention, and even the beginning of the trade war between Redania and Temeria was covered up by it.

Most of the commentators have strong concerns about the confrontation between the two armies, thinking that this will undermine the unity of the North, which is very inappropriate now that Nilfgaard is aggressive and the Scoia'tael guerrillas are becoming more active.

However, the front-line soldiers on both sides knew that they would definitely not be able to fight. They were just standing here for the prestige of their respective monarchs.

This has not had any impact on the trade in and out of the Blue Mountain Tunnel. The trade is getting more and more prosperous, and even Kaedweni merchants can go there.

Now that King Demavi is in the court, he often talks about Herme's name. In his opinion, Herme's success in Hackland is the product of his own successful decisions.

Of course, at this time, he definitely wouldn't say that he just sent Herme away very casually.

And because Heme made money for the king, Demawi seemed very generous in giving resources to Fort Sazar. He basically sent all the refugees who fled to Aden to Fort Sazar in Heme.

Naturally, some people suggested that the king send someone to take over Sazarburg. Although Demawi looked stupid, if he thought this was his nature, he would be wrong, and he did not intend to send someone to take over. peach.

The first priority at the moment is to prepare for war. After the end of the first Northern War, everyone can see that the second Northern War is only a matter of time.

For the kingdom, what should be done at this time is to unite all objects that can be united, rather than creating chaos and trouble.

Since Herme's presence in Hackland could continuously provide resources for the kingdom, there was no need to move him. Even if he was to be moved, it would have to be after the Northern War was over.

On the contrary, the king had to throw all the "troubles" in the country to Herme and use them as waste. As the town of Sazaburg became more stable and prosperous, the kingdom could earn more resources.

And since the king has earned so much from the Hackland trade, as Hemei, who enjoys the kingdom's tax-free treatment and is the largest foreign seller in Sazarburg, and is the first handler of the Hackland trade, how much money will he make? How much did you pay?

The answer is about the same as His Majesty the King.

The goods Hemei purchased accounted for a full third of the goods exported from Fort Sazar, and the wealth this brought him was terrifying—it was just a little troublesome to exchange all of them for money.

Of course, of course, it must not be said to the outside world, and the account book cannot be written in this way.

There are several master accountants under Hermey's staff, and they hide it through the ingenious real accounts.

And with so much money, Hemena can naturally do a lot of things. For example, the reason why the various constructions of Fort Sazar are non-stop is because Hemei is constantly investing resources in it to strengthen the construction.

Basically every male who comes to adventure in Sazarburg, if he doesn't have a job, can get a job from Herme, and there's a lot of construction going on here.

Now Sazarburg is a city full of vigor and vitality, with opportunities everywhere, people leaving everywhere, and people coming everywhere.

But generally speaking, the arrivals far outnumber the departures.

After all, Sazarburg is an opportunity. As long as you are willing to work hard, even if you don’t have any skills, you can also own your own land and live a prosperous life here.

With the increase in population, Sazaburg also had temples and altars of the northern gods: Meritelli, Cliff and even the eternal fire. The Cossacks also believed in these gods. After all, their ancestors were also northerners a hundred years ago.

There are always new arrivals on the street, people from all over the north have activities here, and there are even gnomes, dwarves and elves.

With the more frequent activities of the Scoia'tael, the persecution and hostility of the non-human races in the northern countries became more and more intense, and their living environment became worse and worse.

And when they learned that Harkland did not discriminate against non-human races, and only judged a person's value by ability, those people naturally took action.

The traces of the re-war between the North and the South are very obvious, anyone with a discerning eye will notice, and as a non-human race who wants to seek a stable life, they understand better than anyone that under the influence of the war and Scoia'tael activities, they may become A victim of fanaticism.

So leaving has become the choice of many people. Originally, most of them planned to go to Free City Novigrad or Kovir.

But now the news about Hackland came out, so some non-human races went to Hackland, after all, the cost of going there was relatively low.

Herme welcomes these non-human races. Most of them are experienced craftsmen, and what Sazaburg needs are craftsmen.

And the general environment here does satisfy them. Hackland residents do not discriminate against non-human races, and those immigrants from the north have also given up discrimination under the influence of a larger number of Hacklanders. This is a suitable place for them to live in. soil of.

Under such circumstances, some very famous people in the witcher world-and they are also well-informed people-also came to Hakland.

For example, the warlock in front of Herme, looking at him, Herme felt dizzy. She never expected to meet this person, the person who appeared in the original book.

"Commander, you shouldn't hunt monsters without restraint like this. You don't know that you are destroying the local biological chain of Hackland by hunting these species! If this continues, Hackland's ecology will be destroyed sooner or later. Not to mention that you still hang that precious goat’s head at the gate of the city, don’t you know that this is encouraging people to hunt and kill this endangered species?”

The speaking sorcerer wears a flat cap with a red cloth extending over his ears, and is dressed in red and white.

The warlock was eloquent when he spoke, justifying the monster's right to live.

"Master Dorrigale, I understand your opinion."

There was a embarrassed expression on Herme's face—or pretending to be embarrassed, "It's just that my people are under the threat of monsters. As long as you see those people killed by monsters, you won't hold such a grudge anymore." Thoughts...sorry, we must stick to hunting monsters, this is Sazarburg's policy that will not change."

Yes, the only warlock in this world who holds such a view is the famous Dorrigaray. This warlock has always been known for his animal protectionism.

The warlock's daily life is to promote his environmental protection ideas, but he rarely does this to the rulers.

It's just that after Haklan exported a huge amount of monster materials, he couldn't sit still, so he decided to come to Haklan to criticize him.

Although he said that he really wanted to throw Dorrigaray out, but Herme didn't do it.

Dorrigare was not really fascinated by it, though it was annoying to live with that theory all day long.

In fact, when faced with a situation where the monster had to be killed, he complained rather than shot at the hunter.

This is why Hemei has been patient. In Herme's view, this master is indeed a high-quality warlock in the north.

In comparison, those sorceresses were simply...

And male sorcerers are not much better, and there are quite a few who like taboo experiments. There is also the big boss of the original book, Wigforts, who is called a madman, and this one is even more heavyweight.

Just like Herme's impression, upon hearing Herme's rebuttal, Dorrigale grumbled a few times, and didn't intend to continue to criticize it.

Then they talked about something else about Dorrigare's visit.

That is hired warlock.

Previously, Hermey had made a donation to Ban Ade College, nominally in return for his alma mater.

And his request is understood by everyone, that is to send a warlock to his territory.

As a student of Ben Ade, Hemei knew that small and medium-sized territories could obtain a resident warlock, but most college graduates were unwilling to go to those small and medium-sized territories.

After all, there is no money and no one there, and nothing can be gained by working there, so naturally no one goes there.

Gradually, this matter was also forgotten, and only those warlocks who were born in poverty and had no way out would go to those small places to stay permanently.

And Ben Ade did send a low-level warlock, and this warlock was sent by Dorrigaray—anyway, he happened to be going to the East, so the Warlock Brotherhood arranged a mission for him by the way.

However, although he is a low-level warlock, his background is not low, and his ancestors are also warlocks. After all, the wealth of Hemei's territory is very popular now. Those who didn't care before, now care about it.

"This is Dirban, Dirban from Ben Ade College."

In the words of Dorrigalei, the young warlock behind him, wearing a warlock robe and full of shyness and timidity, stood up and bowed respectfully to Herme.

His face is very immature, he should be a few years younger than Herme.

Strictly speaking, Herme is the senior of the young man in front of him, but the difference is that he was dropped out of school because of his poor magic ability.

"Commander, I salute you."

Dirban bowed violently, and the bow was obviously too much. The young man was obviously over-stressed, but Hemei just needed such a person, and he was very satisfied.

If the Brotherhood of Sorcerers sent someone who was experienced -- cunning -- he'd have to worry.

"Welcome, welcome, Warlock Dirban, Marondo, arrange a room for the young master, and then tell the master the rules in Sazar Castle. As for you, Master Dorrigale, you can go to Haklan's Let's continue to study monsters in the countryside, but just don't affect the young man or the witcher hunting monsters."

"Hmph, I know, but how I act, I still have to look at the situation."

Facing Herme's remarks, Dorrigaray didn't say anything except these words, but seeing his eyes, Herme understood that he had listened to these words.

As for that master Dirban, he retreated under the leadership of Captain Marunga, and Herme was relieved when he saw him turn around.

Herme's smile could not be suppressed, since such a young man came, it would be convenient for him to drive him in the future.

He happens to have a very good idea right now...

(End of this chapter)