When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

Chapter 737 Meliati's War Bonds
"Still chasing, still chasing!" A Norn mercenary wearing ragged leather armor, with a bald head and a big beard, cursed in a heavily accented Leia language, "I've been chasing for seven miles, and you're still chasing!"

But old Lav and others behind him still had no intention of stopping. They still held their sabers and spears, chasing the bandits and fleeing soldiers in the wilderness.

Soon, the Gravelfield mercenaries, whose willpower and physical strength were far inferior to those of Old Laffer and others, were blocked by a fallen dead tree and a muddy pond.

With no other options, the mercenaries turned around, raised their hands, and shouted angrily and helplessly: "We surrender!"

However, the Holy League Infantry Manual explicitly requires war monks to strictly control unarmed prisoners.

So Old Laffer and his men were divided into two groups, one group pointed their spears at their vital points, while the other group stepped forward to disarm them.

Slightly raising his head and moving his throat away from the tip of the spear, the leading Gravelland mercenary could clearly feel the difference between the spearman and the saber-wielding soldier.

His many years of battlefield experience enabled him to immediately recognize that the man in front of him was a genuine mercenary.

"How many dozen dinars a month?" The mercenary gasped after spitting out a mouthful of blood-stained phlegm. "What are you playing with?"

"A few dozen dinars? How much can you get?" The old mercenary said with some emotion, "We pay you the full amount."

In a state of war, Meliati gave each mercenary 30 dinars in full silver coins at the beginning and middle of the month.

Many mercenaries who came from Norn cried. They had never seen such a generous customer in their lives.

You have to know that Prince Conde had to send out his knights to plunder everywhere in order to get those 30,000 or 50,000 gold pounds.

This ultimately led to the nobles' indecision and ultimate defeat.

But after the Horn hundred system, the situation changed dramatically.

Under this system, a large number of nobles and knights left their fiefdoms, taking away the terrible feudal oppression.

Although the bulk of the Windmill Land Financial War was borne by the Magdi Chamber of Commerce, the bulk of the reparations for the Black Snake Bay War was borne by the Holy Machinery Court.

But these two almost never save money, either they repay bonds or use it to expand reproduction.

The specific method is to first implement agricultural mutual assistance, iron farm tools and animal power sharing in the hundred-household area, and then free up a large number of people to engage in industry, commerce and construction.

Either they go to the priest town to work as construction workers, or repair canals and roads, or they go to the docks to work as porters.

Thanks to these civil engineering projects and supporting industries, everyone has some money in their pockets.

Except for a few Grandet-like characters, everyone spends some money more or less.

As a result, the strong demand brought about by strong consumption gave rise to strong town trade and considerable market taxes and tariffs.

The established infrastructure such as roads, small canals, houses, etc. began to benefit industry and commerce and reduce trade costs.

The original market was held every ten days, but later it was held every eight days or even every five days. Now many stalls are simply permanent.

This allowed many ordinary craftsmen and even labor groups to make a fortune in this wave.

However, the current general situation in the imperial market is that prices are soaring and precious metal currencies are depreciating.

In addition to the hot money brought by the Black Snake Bay War and the Windmill Land Financial War, the Thousand River Valley Trading Company of the Fran royal family brought in a stable cash flow.

White sugar, spices, ready-made clothes, alchemical potions, and especially white paper and printing, were popular in France because of their low prices.

Many French scholars, because publishing books in their country is too expensive, specially sent people to send their manuscripts to Qianhe Valley to help with publishing and printing.

As a result, the influx of large amounts of precious metal currencies also caused prices to rise in the Holy League, and the money in hand depreciated at a rapid rate.

People who make money have three choices: first, spend it quickly; second, invest it in reproduction; and third, consider financial investment.

If you still bury it in the backyard like before, the value will be completely lost.

The huge amount of money Horn spent on infrastructure flowed back into his hands and turned into bonds, stocks and boxes of goods.

Therefore, the people of Qianhe Valley had no great resistance to financial investment. The three major exchanges in Xialu City, Rapid City, and Zhendark Castle were crowded. Taking advantage of this favorable situation, Meliati followed suit and began to issue war bonds with the Saint Bank as collateral.

Melia offered a high-value, short-term, two-year bond at 7%, issuing 9000 bonds, with a minimum amount of 5 gold pounds per bond.

It is roughly equivalent to the surplus of a small landlord family for three to five years.

Anyway, this price is precisely aimed at harvesting grassroots citizens and small landlords.

There are nearly 2 urban citizens in Hotam County alone, not to mention the noble knights who were forced to gather around Xialuo City.

These noble knights even went back to their "old ways", raising funds to start the financial industry and establishing several small banks.

They would buy these war bonds in large quantities, and then use them to distribute 1% interest rate bonds of around 5 pound to small rural landowners and self-employed farmers.

The money raised was then used to continue purchasing war bonds, and then to continue distributing small-denomination bonds.

In just one week, Meliati sold nearly 4000 war bonds and raised 2 gold pounds.

Prince Conde worked hard for a month, causing great outrage among the people, but his work was not as fast as Meliati's in a week.

After tying up the wailing captives, Old Lav and the other mercenaries escorted them and began to slowly march towards Feldheim, which was not far away.

They first returned to the road along the wilderness, and then continued along the road.

And these so-called avenues are definitely not as good as the Holy Union Road, with lots of potholes and large and small stones.

But at this moment, the dirt road was still full of carriages swaying back and forth, splashing countless mud spots.

The wheels bounced back and forth over potholes and gravel, doing nothing to slow the drivers down.

Looking at the mud spots on their boots and calves, Old Laffer and the others were not annoyed.

Because they all knew that this was a carriage carrying wool.

In order to boost confidence and raise more funds, Meliati directly sent troops to occupy the town of Feldheim.

What old Lavro and his men didn't know was that the Magdeburg Business Journal, the Cold Spring Weekly, and the Iris Newspaper all praised Meliati's victory and the mountains of spoils.

From old Laffer's perspective, he didn't see any mountains of spoils, but he did see mountains of wool.

You should know that in the Shishiyuan dialect, small town and tax farmer have the same meaning.

The twice-a-year shearing season (April and September) had just passed, and the Duke's warehouse in Feldheim was filled with wool sent by shepherds.

When old Laffer opened the warehouse yesterday, the wool with dark black edges looked like unmelted snow sleeping in the warehouse in winter.

Many wool merchants from mountain counties rushed to the scene day and night, moving wool from the town's warehouses onto horse-drawn carriages like moving cabbages.

With red eyes from not sleeping for several nights, they hurried to Ladenburg to take a boat to High Castle City and then headed north to deliver the wool to the Ibe River waterway.

The South Mound County Textile Production Order, which had been hungry for more than four months, devoured the batch of wool like a dog that hadn't eaten shit for a long time.

The creaking sound of spinning once again echoed in the night sky of South Mound County.

As a result, the downstream industries, including the previously sluggish Saint-Germain textile factory and the garment factory in Jeanne d'Arc, became busy again.

Now, even the Pravda, which had previously held a critical attitude, began to gradually shift its stance towards neutrality.

These complicated situations are what the top leaders should consider and have nothing to do with ordinary soldiers like Old Laver.

There is only one thought in their minds now - when can they eat.

When old Laffer and others rushed back to Feldheim, they just made it in time for dinner.

(End of this chapter)