Knight Lord: Start with Daily Intelligence.

Chapter 127 The Surprise Brought by the Returning Caravan

Su Li was overjoyed to hear the good news reported by Lao En.

The timing of Mr. Kurt and the West Chamber of Commerce's return was perfect.

The territory's army had just set out to clear the Blood Pine Forest, and the forest was relatively empty at that time. The workers from their Chamber of Commerce could go in and cut down the Blood Pine trees.

Meanwhile, after the Summer Solstice celebration tomorrow, reclamation of the territory will begin. The water beneath Bjorn Bay has been drained, and the summer sun has dried the land below, making it soft and dry, perfect for reclamation.

The territory was short of manpower, and Chief Kurt had brought back a slave-hunting group, which could greatly alleviate the shortage of manpower in the territory. The area of ​​fertile farmland reclaimed in the territory would also increase significantly.

Su Li was in no mood to even pay attention to the monsters in Lake Ravelin. He immediately stood up and said to Fastrick, "I'll leave the cleanup here to you. You must eliminate all the deformed monsters to ensure a smooth and peaceful Summer Solstice celebration tomorrow."

Fastrick patted his chest and assured, "Rest assured, my lord. I pledge my knightly honor to never allow any beautiful maiden to fall victim to the monster's clutches. Evil will be purified and brought to an end in my hands."

Su Li waved his hand and said goodbye to him. This powerful Pegasus Knight was good in every way. He was powerful, majestic, full of justice, and hated evil.

The only thing that Su Li found a little difficult to accept was that this young knight had probably listened to too many chivalrous novels and tales of bards, and his words and actions were just like a proud rooster with bright feathers on its head, both coquettish and lively.

But Su Li was too lazy to say anything about him. As far as Su Li knew, within the empire, there were at least half if not 80% of knights as proud and coquettish as him.

Of course, he has the capital to be so proud and coquettish. If Su Li had the strength of a champion at the age of 20, he would be even more proud and frivolous than Fastrick!
If he had been a Champion Knight instead of an Apprentice Knight when he negotiated with Count Suna at Bauhinia Castle, he could have been directly appointed a Kingdom Knight instead of a Pioneer Knight. His territory would have been in the Thorn Valley instead of the Border Prince Territory!

However, as he walked along the road, Su Li quickly adjusted his mindset. Being a pioneer knight also had its advantages, such as a wider fiefdom and more fertile farmland!
As long as there are enough people, the pioneer territory can support an army larger than most of the kingdom knight territories within the empire.

But when he returned to Hesse Town, he found that the scale of Kurt's caravan was beyond his imagination.

Outside the simple wooden walls of the Black Forest, there was a large merchant caravan stationed. They had more than 200 carriages, and there were more than 20 privateers, armed merchant ships, slave ships and grain ships on the Blackwater River.

Seeing this scale, Su Li smiled and said to the approaching Chief Kurt: "Your Excellency has come prepared. You want to take away all the wealth of our territory!"

Chief Kurt pressed his right palm against his heart, bowed slightly, and said with a smile, "This is a win-win situation for both of us, isn't it? Only when the gold coins are in circulation can they have the value of a gold crown. If they are piled in a dark cellar, they are just a pile of scrap metal."

of course!

What Mr. Kurt said makes a lot of sense.

Su Li was not a greedy dragon who liked to collect gold coins. The gold crowns in his basement piled up into three small hills, but they were of no use to him. He still lived in poverty and hunger. He had to patch his clothes and had only one quilt, which had to be dried in the sun every day.

What he wants is the prosperity of the territory, the growth of the army, and wealth that can be converted into improved life and enhanced strength!

So Su Li smiled and said, "That's right, this is a win-win situation. The growth of our territory will also allow those unsaleable goods in your warehouse to be sold at a good value. You no longer have to worry about economic crises. You would rather dump your excess wealth than sell it."

After saying that, the two smiled at each other. It was obvious that this round of confrontation had allowed both sides to demonstrate each other's value.

Then Su Li asked with concern: "Master Kurt, what did you bring to my territory? How come there is such a large caravan?"

Although a caravan of two hundred vehicles and ships is not very large, it is still a gamble.

In order to reduce losses, the chambers of commerce in this world generally set up chamber of commerce alliances in major cities to build complex business networks.

For example, a huge ocean-going cargo ship or a large caravan heading to a foreign land is rarely fully funded by a chamber of commerce.

Because such large caravans often carry hundreds or even thousands of gold crowns worth of supplies.

Once lost in a storm or robbed by looters.

The loss of wealth is enough to cause a well-run chamber of commerce to go bankrupt and suffer serious damage.

Therefore, chambers of commerce generally form business alliances to share profits and risks.

In a large caravan, if each chamber of commerce contributes over a dozen cartloads of supplies, the losses are relatively minimal. Some even have complex caravans, comprised of dozens of chambers of commerce, with each chamber contributing only one or two cartloads of goods. While the profits are relatively small, the risks are also small. A universal truth applies in any world: high returns come with high risks!
Some large mercenaries and escort companies would even have thousands of vehicles escorting a convoy.

They were truly walking on the edge of a knife. Only a group of this size could withstand the attacks of looters and thieves.

Manager Kurt straightened his chest and said proudly, "Dear Lord Su Li, this is a caravan solely owned by our West High Chamber of Commerce. I used my equity as a guarantee to successfully organize such a large caravan. I have brought you all kinds of supplies needed for the territory."

Kurt's gamble was undoubtedly a huge success!
With his successful arrival in Hesse, it means that he can gain at least several thousand gold crowns on this trip back!

Perhaps his overall voice in the West High Chamber of Commerce will be greatly enhanced as a result.

This business transaction of his was not only based on unique vision, but also had a lot of luck!
The storm of Tal swept through the border prince's territory, and a large number of territories were destroyed. There were refugees everywhere, and countless civilians fled with their families. The looters did not pay attention to this low-key caravan, so they arrived in the Hesse Territory very smoothly.

Chief Kurt first discussed the slave issue that Su Li was most concerned about, saying, "We've brought a privateering fleet and a slave-hunting group with us this time, so we've brought you six elite Transcendents, 6 official Transcendents, 12 apprentice Transcendents, and 24 skilled workers from various industries."

"Of course, any territory requires a large number of serfs. We have brought you 173 of them."

In fact, such a large number of slaves could not be carried by a privateering fleet or a slave-hunting group.

Many people underestimate the difficulty of marching during a war!

In large-scale wars at the imperial level, marching is ten or even dozens of times more difficult than fighting.

Marching and fighting, marching and fighting, the marching always comes first and the fighting comes later.

If they could march thousands of miles without suffering large numbers of non-combat casualties and without a large number of slaves and armed attendants escaping, they could bring 90% of the troops to the battlefield smoothly.

Then this general is an outstanding military talent!
If he could just win a few more battles on the battlefield, he would become a famous general who would go down in history.

Of course, the West High Chamber of Commerce did not have such outstanding talents. They initially brought only 150 slaves, which was already a very impressive size for a slave-hunting group.

Deaths and escapes occurred midway through the journey, but thanks to the West High Chamber of Commerce, heavy rains caused refugees to appear everywhere, allowing their slave-hunting groups and privateering fleets to capture them as they went. In the end, the number of slaves increased rather than decreased.

They even captured an elite knight on a flooded slope! He was riding a white warhorse. He had been starving in the flood for three days and three nights, and was so weak that he was almost dying. However, he was easily captured by the slave-catching group and brought onto the ship.

Every natural disaster is a feast for the wealthy and chambers of commerce to get rich overnight. There are such wandering knights everywhere in the border prince's territory. Their territories have been destroyed, and they have no choice but to wander around with only an iron sword, looking for new employers.

The intelligence Su Li had gathered over the past few days had allowed him to collect three elite knights, five official knights, and ten armed attendants from the wild. He also found a camp of roving peasant mobs in the south of the territory, increasing the population of the territory by more than eighty people.

Su Li really didn't want to buy so many elite knights anymore.

After all, each elite knight's monthly salary is five gold coins, and the annual salary of three elite knights is enough for him to buy another elite knight.

His territory now has more than two teams of elite knights, and even if they do nothing for a year, the maintenance costs will be as high as thousands of gold crowns.

Such a huge wealth is far beyond the ability of an ordinary pioneering territory to support.

But now he can only grit his teeth and accept everyone who comes.

He must quickly expand his army to deal with the threat of the green dragon and guard against possible demonic attacks from the north.

So Su Li generously waved his hand and said, "As long as your slaves are not seriously ill, I will take them all. Let's go and see the quality of the slaves now."

Su Li didn't even bargain, because money was the least important thing to him. He needed to give the West High Chamber of Commerce the impression that anyone who came would be accepted! Let them be sure that as long as they brought slaves here, they would be picking up money!
Only in this way will they be more enthusiastic and more active in organizing caravans and slave-hunting groups to go to the Hessen Territory first.

Kurt's eyes immediately lit up with excitement and ecstasy. He had indeed made the right bet! The next time he went back and forth, he could double the number of slaves.

He said excitedly, "Master Su Li, please follow me. I guarantee that the quality of this batch of slaves will satisfy you. These are the elites I have carefully selected."

(End of this chapter)