industrial lord

Chapter 602: Do You Want to Make a Big Scam?

The terrain of the Kingdom of Tarago is a plateau with complex terrain and few resources in the central part, while the coastal areas are fertile hills and plains.

In the central plateau, most of the external water vapor is intercepted by the high mountains that surround it like walls, resulting in less rainfall. In addition, due to the complex terrain and inconvenient transportation, it has been a place of no contention for military strategists since ancient times.

The nobles there all stay within their own borders and pledge allegiance to whoever controls the wealthy coastal areas.

Therefore, some people jokingly call the war in the Kingdom of Tarago the "hat brim war". Whoever can knock down the surrounding brim will own the entire hat.

There is an iron wall mountain range to the west of the Kingdom of Tarago that separates it from the Kingdom of Madeira, and Fort St. George is on the east side of the mountain range.

The Kingdom of Madeira is surrounded by the sea on three sides and is mainly hilly, but there are no high mountains. Most of the water vapor from the ocean floats away in the air, making the area barren due to lack of water. Only the eastern land irrigated by the water vapor intercepted by the Iron Wall Mountains is fertile.

Therefore, the Kingdom of Madeira has always wanted to cross the Iron Wall Mountains and occupy the "hat edge" of the Kingdom of Tarragona.

To this end, the Kingdom of Tarraco has been resisting the attacks of the Kingdom of Madeira in the Iron Wall Mountains. Gradually, a warlord group headed by Archduke Suarez emerged, with a large number of battle-hardened veterans.

Now that Archduke Suarez wants to fight for the throne of the Kingdom of Tarragona, he needs to withdraw troops, but he cannot abandon the defense line of the Iron Wall Mountains, otherwise he will be attacked from both sides.

Now that reinforcements from the Principality of Wessen and the Osmaga Empire have arrived to defend important fortress areas, Archduke Suarez can draw on his core team to join the battle for the throne.

War is not just about taking weapons and fighting on the battlefield, what is more important is logistical support.

The Western Front Corps is different from traditional armies. Weapons and equipment cannot be supplied locally. They need to be shipped by sea from the Duchy of Wessen thousands of kilometers away to the city of Lacobriga, and then to the Fortress of St. George.

The road from Lacobriga to Fort St. George, which is about 300 kilometers long, is relatively easy to travel. Frederick thought that after sending the troops, he should first send people to guide the construction of a wider gravel road that could be used by horse-drawn carriages and cars.

But this is not enough. Wesson's army needs a logistics base to build a vehicle and ordnance repair factory, a food factory and a hospital.

Normally, Frederick would need to be present in person for this matter, but he was still in Milan at the moment and it would take at least three months for him to get here.

Frederick appointed Eugene as his plenipotentiary representative at the beginning, and Archduke Suarez appointed his eldest son Luis as plenipotentiary envoy, and the two sides began negotiations.

Eugene was born into a powerful family in the Kingdom of Gaul and was very familiar with this kind of negotiation. Few people in the Duchy of Wessen could compare to him.

He did not have a formal talk at the beginning, but went hunting with Louis in the nearby mountains so that any problems could be dealt with more easily.

Frederick sold a batch of firearms to Archduke Suarez that were not formally equipped but only used as technical reserves. This type of gun used Minié bullets with steel ball cores. The bullets were connected front and back and installed in the cylinder on the right. The chamber was an "+" shaped iron block with a round hole. The iron block was pushed to the right in front of the cylinder and the bullet entered the round hole. When the hand was released, the spring sheet pushed the iron block and the bullet back into the chamber to complete the loading.

In combat, a skilled shooter can quickly replace the magazine after using up the bullets in it, firing at least 30 rounds in one minute.

In last year's battle, Louis commanded two hundred guards equipped with this type of gun and used a rain of bullets to stop several cavalry attacks from the Kingdom of Gaul.

Now he likes this gun very much and takes it with him when hunting.

He knew that the Wesson Army was equipped with better weapons, but he couldn't be too greedy. For now, this was enough.

A group of pheasants appeared in the bushes. Louis raised his gun and shot at the three fattest ones in one breath.

The servants nearby released the hunting dogs and brought back the prey.

Eugene was holding a double-barreled shotgun. For him, hunting was a sport, not a battlefield, so he only used sports products, even though many places regarded double-barreled shotguns as standard military equipment.

Negotiations were naturally based on sky-high prices. He said casually, "Grand Duke Wessen wants a place to build a logistics base."

Louis nodded and said, "No problem. A few years ago, my father offered a reward of baronial title to anyone who could cure my mother's curse. Grand Duke Wesson can get this reward."

His mother suffered from gynecological diseases at that time, and it was the allicin sent by Frederick that cured her.

People in this era lacked a correct understanding of this type of disease and believed it to be a curse from God, which put them in a politically passive position when fighting for the throne.

Frederick first cured Mrs. Suarez, and at first some of his political opponents thought it was some kind of witchcraft.

But later Frederick cured old Louis's sepsis with the same medicine, and old Louis was the boss behind these political enemies, so they all shut up.

Louis continued, "The title my father originally gave me was only a court noble, but it's not impossible to be ennobled."

News has already arrived from the Kingdom of Sardinia that Frederick and the royal family are partnering to build a shipyard, so Archduke Suarez also began to have some ideas.

Although Frederick had an affair with Archduke Suarez's daughter Penelope, neither Archduke Suarez nor Luis thought this was enough leverage to achieve their goals.

Moreover, they did not have many bargaining chips in their hands, and could only follow the current tradition and use land to tie Frederick to themselves. Otherwise, they would not be able to defeat the Duke of Alansati, who was backed by the Kingdom of Gaul, in the battle for the throne.

Eugene realized the political factors behind it and couldn't help but think about Frederick's bottom line. Now Frederick was trying to win over allies, so he was very generous.

There are mines in the Kingdom of Tarago. Although there are not many, they are still mines.

One of the bottom lines Frederick gave was to build a smelter around the minerals and give them 40% of the shares.

In addition, some light industrial factories can be built to absorb the families of smelter workers.

Eugene didn't know how to do business before, but after living in the Principality of Wessen for a long time, he has learned a lot.

Not to mention that his good friend Metzger's family is in business, and they often talk about this topic.

"I think Grand Duke Wesson can build a smelter here." Eugene's words made Louis' eyes light up, "I think we can give you all the markets in the north of the Inner Sea."

Louis remained calm on the surface, but he was a little excited in his heart.

In war, whoever controls steel is closer to victory.

Moreover, steel has always been a lucrative business and can even be used as a political bargaining chip. Not to mention far-flung places, controlling the steel sales in the Tarago Kingdom can gain huge political benefits.

Eugene noticed that Louis' eyes had changed a bit, and he knew that he had been impressed, so he stopped talking about the shares and continued, "Grand Duke Wesson should also build a metal manufacturing plant to make parts for repairing weapons, not to mention making farm tools and the like."

"There is also a cannery. It is indeed inconvenient to bring it from the Principality of Wessen. It is better to build one here relying on marine resources."

Louis pretended to ask casually, "Can we get the sales from the cannery, too?"

The central highlands are poor, but the landowners still have some money.

However, the means of preserving meat were limited in those days, and the landlords could only eat fresh meat when slaughtering livestock. On weekdays, they could only eat dry meat such as bacon and salted meat.

The Principality of Weshen has been selling canned food for so long, so naturally some people will learn from it.

For example, canned food such as fish and shrimps sealed in clay jars allow landlords to enjoy a bite of tender meat.

But the road is difficult, and many pottery jars are damaged along the way, so their prices are not low.

The cans of the Principality of Wesson are made of slime hard plastic, which is strong, lightweight and not easily damaged. In addition, the shipping cost of thousands of kilometers is not much more expensive than ceramic cans.

If this canned food could be produced locally, saving the shipping cost from the Principality of Wessen, we could make more money.

Eugene replied: "As long as the soldiers on the front line have enough to eat, it won't be a problem for us to sell the rest to you."

As long as you don’t mention the issue of shares, it doesn’t matter who you give the sales rights to.

Eugene was afraid that Louis would react, so he wanted to settle the matter first, and said seriously: "How about this, I'll make the decision. All the factories built by Grand Duke Wesson on the territory of the Kingdom of Tarago, and the sales rights to the area north of the Inland Sea will be given to you."

"We can now finalize these conditions in the form of a memorandum."

Louis' eyes widened. Everyone knew that the products produced by the factories in the Principality of Wessen were profitable. If he monopolized the sales of these products in the Kingdom of Tarago or even the Kingdom of Lisenberg, how much money could he make?

At this moment, he suddenly became alert. Why did Eugene offer such favorable conditions?
He quickly thought that it might be because Eugene's father was the commander-in-chief of the Gallic army on the opposite side, and he was avoiding suspicion in this way.

Everyone has their own selfish desires. There are many cases in negotiations where people use their boss's money to profit for themselves. Louis had cheated his own father many times in the past, and he himself had been cheated by his subordinates many times. As long as it does not cross the bottom line, it's fine.

After Louis figured this out, he began to feel embarrassed. This was too much and the price he offered didn't seem to be enough.

He asked cautiously, "How about making the city of La Cobriga the fief of Grand Duke Wessen?"

The city of Lacobriga used to be just an ordinary fishing village. Later, after good pottery clay was discovered nearby, the pottery industry flourished. The ships transporting pottery promoted the development of the port, and now it has developed into a small city.

In Louis' opinion, although the taxes here are higher, they are far different from those in the smelter.

Eugene suddenly realized that he seemed to have played too big and quickly figured out the problem.

In his view, Archduke Luis and Archduke Suarez were both traditional aristocrats, skilled in military and politics, but not in business.

This is because the Kingdom of Tarragona was relatively poor, its commerce was far less developed than that of the Kingdom of Gaul and the Kingdom of Sardinia, and the business atmosphere was not strong, which led to the nobles rarely coming into contact with big business and being short-sighted in this regard.

So Eugene began to hesitate, whether to quit while he was ahead or make a big loss.

(End of this chapter)