industrial lord

Chapter 607 Cooperation between both parties
"I'm not, I didn't, don't talk nonsense!"

When Frederick arrived in La Cobriga and met Archduke Suarez, he hurriedly denied that he had anything to do with the conspiracy against old Louis.

Archduke Suarez asked doubtfully, "Really, it wasn't you who did it?"

"I didn't make such a plan. When the spy sent back this news, I thought it was you who did it."

“I have to say, this is indeed feasible.”

He hinted to Frederick with his eyes, why don't we do something big.

Frederick just smiled and carefully admired the decorations in the living room.

I don't want to get too deeply involved in these things. The market of the Kingdom of Gaul is really too big, so I won't make too many statements.

Archduke Suarez saw Frederick's evasion and did not continue on this matter, but started the next topic.

"I want to build a railway." He said something that did not surprise Frederick, and then he snapped his fingers. Someone brought over sand tables one by one to form a 2m×2m sand table of the Kingdom of Tarragona.

Archduke Suarez pointed to a location close to the center of the Tarragona Kingdom and said, "This is the Bull City, one of the territories of my family."

After saying that, he took out a red flag half the size of his palm from a box beside him and stuck it there.

“These are important cities and ports.”

As he spoke, he inserted smaller flags into the sand table. The yellow flags represented inland cities, and the blue flags were ports.

Then he took out a ball of green thread and spread it out from Bull City as the center, connecting one city after another.

After Archduke Suarez finished all this, he said, "I plan to make the capital in Toros City in the future."

Frederick did not comment much on his plan, saying calmly: "Railways themselves cannot create wealth, they are only responsible for transporting resources."

“It’s very expensive to build railways in the mountains.”

"Because of the war, I have no money."

His meaning was simple. It was very costly to build a railway here, and the lack of resources in the plateau might result in a loss, so he shouldn't ask for money from him.

Archduke Suarez said: "There is little rainfall in the highlands, and the yield of farmland is low, but this is not something that cannot be solved."

"Two years ago, Richard Nall sent me a shipload of flame grass. He said it was drought-resistant, so I arranged for some familiar families to try it out."

"In a year, one hectare of farmland can yield nearly one ton of seeds, as well as stalks and leaves taller than a person, twice as much as wheat."

"People eat the seeds, and cattle eat the leaves and stems, which fills their stomachs."

"The most important thing is that arid land, sandy land and saline-alkali land that originally did not grow crops can still be used for planting. The yield is just lower, but it is better than nothing."

"I gave the seeds and planting methods to the nobles on the plateau. Many people tried to plant them. From the feedback, the harvest was very good and everyone was very happy."

Frederick was a little surprised that he gave away the sorghum seeds, but he soon realized that it was mainly due to political considerations.

Although sorghum doesn't taste very good, that's the farmers and the livestock's business, and the masters continue to eat wheat.

Economically, once these nobles tasted the sweetness in the first two or three years and began to expand the scale of planting, they would find that the seeds began to degenerate.

Next, Frederick made a big profit, Archduke Suarez made a small profit, and he could also use this as a handle to exert political influence.

In addition to seeds, there are also agricultural machinery, fertilizers, etc.

Frederick scratched his head and recalled something. When he and Psyche went for a walk in the lounge, they talked about how to control the landlords by controlling the upstream and downstream circulation links of agriculture. It seemed that Richardnal was also fishing there.

Archduke Suarez continued, "It's not that there are no good things in the plateau, it's just that it's inconvenient to transport them, so no one buys them."

"How about I use the Principality's foreign trade tariffs as collateral?"

Archduke Suarez looked into Frederick's eyes and said seriously: "Richard taught me a way to mortgage the customs to you, and the money can be used to build railways and some factories." "If I ascend the throne, the customs of the entire kingdom can be mortgaged to you."

Frederick frowned, wondering how much of his conversation with Psyche had been eavesdropped by Richardnal.

He said: "This matter is very troublesome. I cannot make a sufficient judgment in a short time. I need to send a delegation to conduct an on-site inspection before I can give a reply."

He had not made any preparation for this matter in advance. Unlike the Kingdom of Sardinia, which had conducted a detailed investigation with the Duchy of Bavaria, there was too little detailed economic and political information about the place to make a judgment.

Archduke Suarez felt sorry that he did not give a clear answer, and could only comfort himself by saying that at least he did not refuse and there was still room for maneuver.

Next came what Eugene had agreed upon earlier.

Archduke Suárez said: "There was a whaling town west of La Cobriga, but it was destroyed by a fire that lasted for five days more than a hundred years ago and has been abandoned ever since."

"The terrain and coast there are both nice, what do you think?"

Frederick had received the details of the negotiations in a telegram from Eugene earlier.

Eugene made a big move and took back a large area of ​​coastal mudflats.

It is sea surface at high tide and a swamp at low tide, where only salt-tolerant reeds survive.

Fortunately, the original town is located a few kilometers upstream from the river mouth.

According to Eugene's idea, use a bulldozer to flatten all the hills here, use the soil to fill the swamp, and then the land will appear.

His understated words stunned Archduke Luis and his son Archduke Suarez.

Now to the world, Frederick's transformation of the swamp into treasure was as normal as cows eating grass and wolves eating meat. Eugene and Archduke Suarez both acted as if it was a matter of course.

Frederick didn't care and said, "It's OK there. I can also build a railway to Fort St. George, which can be connected to the Kingdom of Lisenberg in the future."

Archduke Suarez breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, something was settled.

"So what do you think about training the army?" he asked cautiously.

According to his idea, the arrival of the Wesson Army and the Osmaga New Army would free up a large number of main forces, but these troops would not go to the battlefield first. Instead, they would receive training from the Wesson Army and become a powerful fighter army.

Previously, he recruited translators to serve as officers in this army and just released false information by the way.

But he told Eugene about this matter, but Eugene had no say in it.

This matter cannot be sloppy. Frederick said seriously: "I suggest you recruit a new army from scratch."

"My army is fundamentally different from traditional armies and places great emphasis on discipline."

"Those veteran soldiers are not afraid of death in battle, but asking them to obey military discipline is more painful than killing them."

"Over the past decade or so, dozens of people in my army have been hanged for violating military discipline, but it has not been publicly reported."

Suarez nodded. He knew best what kind of people those old soldiers were.

They set the tone for these big events, and the details are left to others.

Before leaving, Archduke Suarez said: "I give you this manor. You can come and visit when you have time."

Frederick smiled and said, "I'll ask the shipyard to build you a special ship for traveling. It doesn't need sails. It will be here soon after it's built."

The two walked out of the living room talking and laughing, and then said goodbye at the door.

Frederick sat back on the sofa and breathed a deep sigh of relief. It looked like this trip would not be an easy one.

At this time, a pair of hands were placed on his temples and began to massage him.

(End of this chapter)