industrial lord

Chapter 536 There is an untapped gold mine
Frederick had earlier proposed a plan to win over the non-inheritance children of each family, using them to enrich the civil service system of the Duchy of Wessen, while strengthening ties with the various families.

Therefore, many second sons and daughters of noble families in the Rhine Alliance went to the Duchy of Wessen to seek opportunities. Some of them became civil servants, some joined the army, and many engaged in research and education, and some entered the industrial system.

Now, let’s put the Kingdom of Sverrie aside for now. Children from dozens of families disappeared quietly not long ago. They were said to have gone to the south. Many of them asked their families for a large sum of money before leaving, saying it was for investment.

This is a serious problem. No one knows what they are doing, and no one knows what the money is used for. There is no news at all, and no one knows whether they are dead or alive.

Frederick demanded a thorough investigation of the matter, and then a certain Knight was stuffed into an airship and sent to Hamma City.

After Bellberk arrived in Hammer, Frederick first tortured him and then interrogated him.

"Gu... just kill me..."

"If you don't answer honestly, you will die."

"Did I say I wouldn't answer?"

Bellburk bit Frederick on the shoulder angrily.

Frederick reached out and gently scratched the back of her neck, causing her body to relax immediately. Then he said, "Tell me about this matter in detail. What happened to those people and where did they go?"

"I don't want to talk about it now." Bellburk got angry, lying on Frederick's chest with his mouth tightly shut.

Frederick did not torture her again, but just kissed her on the forehead and hugged her gently.

The relationship between the two of them is a bit awkward.

At first, Bell and Burke were just trying to protect themselves after being captured, but later the two of them cooperated for their own interests and developed a bit of friendship.

Later, when Frederick was just 16 years old, Bell Burke teased him again, wanting to see him make a fool of himself like before, but it ended up backfiring.

At first, it was a physical relationship that they didn't get tired of, and then they fell in love with each other. However, both of them were stubborn and unwilling to admit that the other was their lover.

After lunch, Bell Burke recounted the whole story in detail in the tea room.

“Maria was the one who led this.”

As soon as Bellburk opened his mouth, he startled Frederick.

Frederick didn't expect that Maria was behind this matter.

Bell Burke continued to talk about the cause of this incident.

……

Let’s go back to the day last year when Frederick was arm wrestling on the Dried Seal.

……

Frederick gave Maria a piece of land on the hill west of the University Lake, with the University of Weissenburg not far to the south.

Maria built a manor there with her own money, which she lived in and used as a vacation home for her parents and godfather.

Because the exterior walls and roofs of this manor are painted snow-white, people call it Snow White Villa.

On this day, Snow White Villa welcomed a nervous guest.

Sir Clare managed to escape from old Louis with great difficulty, and helped the "relevant departments" of the Duchy of Wesson to draw a portrait of the spy that the Kingdom of Gaul was going to send to the Kingdom of Tarragona, and launched the steam fishing boat that Frederick had promised to send him.

She had never expected that Frederick's fiancée, Miss Eltal, would invite her to a tea party.

The garden of the villa is on the edge of a cliff. On one side of the pavilion are colorful flowers, and on the other side is the shimmering university lake.

Most of the guests attending the tea party today are Maria’s close friends in the Principality of Mainz.

Each tea party has a theme. Maria is very interested in life in the south and asks Sir Clare many questions. Sir Clare mentions food: "Not far south of the Cyclops Island is the forest sea of ​​the southern continent, where there are many delicious fruits."

"Many fruits ripen at different times, and new fruits ripen almost every month."

Someone immediately asked, “Can we eat it in winter?”

Sir Clare replied: "There is no winter there, only dry season and rainy season. When it is cold here, it is raining there."

"When it rains, there are also newly ripened fruits. There is a kind of eye fruit that looks like a human eyeball. Eating it is just like drinking tea and making you unable to sleep."

"Legend has it that there is a kind of red fruit deep in the forest. It is very sweet. If you eat too much, your sweat will turn red."

She introduced more than a dozen kinds of fruits commonly eaten by grade four students, which made the northern girls around her marvel.

Then Sir Clare said: "I am not used to the wheat of the north, but the rice of the south suits me better."

At this time, another girl from the north asked, "How does rice grow? Does it grow like wheat? Or does it grow on vines like grapes? Or does it grow on trees like apples?"

There are now many local restaurants in the Principality of Wessen, and many of them sell rice. These wealthy ladies have eaten it, but they have never seen how it looks like.

Sir Clare said: "Rice grows the same as wheat. It is also planted in the ground, and when it is ripe, there are a lot of clusters on the top of the head."

People in her territory and the surrounding lands grew rice, so she explained how rice was grown. The northern girls were amazed at the "wheat growing in water", and even more surprised that rice could be grown two or three times a year.

Someone sighed, "If we grow this kind of water wheat in the forest, we will make a lot of money."

Sir Clare shook his head and said, "It's too dangerous in the forest. It's easy to get sick and lose your life."

"Many people live near the sea where rivers flow into the sea, but now there are people living there and the uninhabited areas are just large swamps."

The speaker may not have intended it, but the listener may have taken it to heart. At this time, the landlord class and the bourgeoisie had the same idea.

The daughter of a landowner said, "Then we can turn the swamp into farmland."

Sir Clare shook his head and said, "It's not that simple. It would cost a lot of money. We would have to build a dam to enclose the swamp and then fill it with soil. It would cost too much."

Someone once developed a tidal flat on the Cyclops Island, but after doing the math, they found out that it would take 30 to 40 years of growing rice to recoup the investment.

After hearing this, Maria's eyes turned and she had an idea.

The next day an article appeared in the gossip section of the Wesson Journal, ostensibly a mere retelling of Sir Clare's story.

However, today, the Wesson Daily has become a political weather vane in the eyes of many people. They analyze it word by word in the hope of finding the next investment hotspot.

Some people interpreted this article and focused on the fact that there are many uncultivated swamps on the southern coast of the Inland Sea.

The swamps do not scare the Wessen people. Everyone knows that Grand Duke Wessen converted large tracts of swamps into farmland in the lowland areas.

Just at this time, Bila, a former student of Weissenburg University, current vice president of Weissenburg University Linhai Branch, and a king in Linhai, was in Weissenburg City, preparing to participate in this year's World Expo, and saw this article.

Bila had lived in Linhai for many years and was very familiar with the situation there. He spent several nights writing a book introducing the geography, climate, resources, customs and traditions of Linhai.

He thought he had a keen political sense and knew that the principal intended to get involved in Linhai, so he opened a Linhai branch two years ago. Now it is time to blow the horn.

It is nice to lean against a big tree for shade. If the Principality of Wessen has a large number of strongholds on the coast of Linhai, wouldn't he be able to be a person with a loud voice inside Linhai?

So, in Bila's writing, the forest sea became an unrefined high-grade gold ore, where grain, fruit, and cotton could be grown, livestock could be raised, and fishing could be carried out. With a few years of hard work, it could become a land flowing with milk and honey.

The book is not thick and was printed and published quickly at the printing house of the University of Weissenburg, where it sold well.

(End of this chapter)