My XX deal with Sister Nero

But relatively speaking, the price of coal is surprisingly low.

The Iceni Kingdom obviously had not yet realized what a good thing coal was, and since the production was small, one kilogram of coal only cost one copper coin.

Tony looked at the price and knew without anyone telling him that there must be something fishy going on with the price.

You ask for an exorbitant price, but I can pay you back at a low price!

As of 2018:23, 59, the total collection of this book is 1358, the total recommendation is 1067, the total monthly ticket is 66, the valid book review is 9, the valid interval post is 108, the reward is 1600, and the total amount of owed updates this month is 99... Check and it seems that 100 is not too late.

It has been less than a month since the new book No. 4 was approved. It has more than 1,300 collections and nearly 1,100 recommendation votes. I don’t know what kind of achievement such a new book has on Shuke...Hedgehog Cat, but for me personally, this is already my best achievement. Here, I, the little monster, thank you all.

I am a bit of a people-spotter. I am not afraid of not earning any income from writing books. What I am afraid of is that no one will read them. So in the future, I may reduce the updates due to work, or I may be forced to stop updating because I am too busy. But as long as there are still people reading this book, I will continue to write.

There are five days left in this month, and I will not issue new bounties in the remaining five days. I'll wait until January. Well, the January contract should be sent to the editorial department, and I can also apply for a recommendation. I plan to make a big move then. Anyway, I will be going back to my hometown in two days and it will be impossible for me to take my desktop computer back. I can only stay at home and write with this broken laptop without any games.

Finally! That pinned comment only has six likes and five replies, not a lot! It seems like you guys don’t really want to see me in women’s clothing, that’s great!

Chapter 76: A Gift for My Sister

"Ahem, Your Majesty, the price is a little expensive..." Tony coughed lightly and said with a smile.

He is not a businessman, and there are not many businessmen in his territory.

When Tony first learned about the town of Odney, the note here was that it was a town mostly populated by hunters, so his initial plan was to stabilize the food problem in the town first, in simple terms, to reclaim land.

So Tony never thought that his small town would be involved in trade issues!

"Your Highness, this price is already lower than the transaction price between us and the British Province." Prasutagus rubbed his hands and smiled helplessly.

Looking at Prasutagus with a smile on his face, Tony couldn't tell for a moment whether the other party had offered a low price. Although he had saved the other party's life in Rome, one thing is one thing, and no one stipulates that others must make concessions at this time.

After thinking for a while, Tony said, "Well, I'm here to do long-term business this time, not just one or two business trips. The price can be lowered a bit. One copper coin for one kilogram of this black ore is a bit high. And to be honest, not many people buy this."

Prasutagus said somewhat embarrassedly: "Not many people buy this thing of mine. To be honest, even I don't know what it can be used for. Besides burning fire, can it be used for anything else?"

Tony shook his head and said honestly, "This thing can only be used to burn fire. That's its main function. The reason I bought it is because there are some things that can only be burned with it."

Tony didn't say it completely, and he didn't dare to say it for the time being. If Prasutagus knew that this black ore could be used to forge better swords, then with an army of 80,000 equipped with excellent weapons, it would be no problem for them to sweep across the Celtic tribes in northern Britain.

Now the Roman Empire's garrison in Britain can still suppress the Iceni Kingdom. If it waits until the Iceni Kingdom annexes northern Britain, I am afraid that this British province will be in name only.

"Is it just fire? Then why doesn't Your Highness use charcoal directly? There is a dense forest surrounding Your Highness's territory. Charcoal and other things should be inexhaustible, right?" Prasutagus looked at Tony and asked with a smile.

"Yes, we have plenty of wood, but if we cut down all the trees, where can I find such beautiful scenery?" Tony remained calm and told lies as soon as he opened his mouth.

Honestly speaking, Tony's lie was so poor that even a fool could tell it was a lie. But considering his serious expression and his background, you have to admit it, it's really possible.

"Okay, let's put it this way. We can lower the price of iron ore. After all, you saved my wife. One gold coin, two kilograms, how about it?" Prasutagus said after pondering for a moment.

"What are the general prices of minerals?" Tony glanced at the expert behind him, quietly moved back and asked in a low voice.

"One gold and three kilograms." The expert also whispered.

Tony nodded without leaving a trace, looked at Prasutagus, and said, "Since His Majesty the King is like this, then I will quote my price. Iron ore, one gold coin, ten kilograms, black ore, one copper coin, ten kilograms!"

Upon hearing the price, Prasutagus was stunned for a moment, then burst out laughing and said, "Your Highness is really a joker. I don't think anyone will sell it at this price, right?"

Tony laughed and said, "Your Majesty thought I didn't know the price, so he offered a high price. Then I can only bid a low price."

A hint of embarrassment flashed across Prasutagus's face, and then he coughed and said, "Two gold coins per kilogram of iron ore, the price is already below the average price."

"Three gold coins for two kilograms of iron ore. That's it." Tony made the decision.

Prasutagus thought about it. Although he didn't make much from this price, he could still make some money after all. The Iceni Kingdom had just become a vassal state of the Roman Empire. It needed a big backer within the empire to speak for it, and His Royal Highness Prince Odeni was the best backer.

"Okay, three gold coins for two kilograms of iron ore, and one gold coin for ten kilograms of black ore." Finally, Prasutagus made the decision and agreed to the price.

"I can barely accept this price. How about this, this time, give me all the goods you have. I will buy them all." Tony nodded and said with a smile.

"Buy all? Your Highness, you are not kidding, are you?" Prasutagus stood up subconsciously, looked at Tony, and asked in disbelief.

"Your Majesty, do you think I am the kind of person who likes to joke? I will buy as much as you have, but let me make it clear in advance that if I want to pay, I'm afraid I will have to wait until the beginning of next spring." Tony said with a smile on his face.

During the time he was discussing business with Prasutagus, he had already had a rough idea of ​​what the future would look like.

The town of Odney is very poor now, and the income of the entire town is basically a negative number. Currently all the infrastructure is paid for by Tony out of his own pocket. He really wants to buy these minerals and other things, but he has to calculate every penny carefully. What should he do?

The answer is simple, that is to ask your sister to buy it!

Iron smelted from coal is much better than iron smelted from charcoal. Correspondingly, iron weapons are also much stronger. If this news was known by Nero, the emperor of the Roman Empire, what would be the consequences?

Of course it’s shopping!

Although the empire is now the overlord of all of Europe and one of the only two superpowers left in the world, and none of the surrounding barbarians dare to show any disrespect to this behemoth, but now that something has appeared that can make weapons sharper and more durable, will Nero choose not to accept it?

What a joke! The better the army’s weapons, the stronger its combat effectiveness and the more powerful it will be in fighting. It will then be a virtuous circle, and maybe even the Roman Empire will be able to unify all of Europe!

At that time, in the confrontation with the Senate, the coal mine will become Nero's new trump card, a new trump card used to clamp down on the Senate. The stronger Nero's power is, the better Tony's life will be.

Well, let's not talk about the long term, let's not talk about controlling the Senate to strengthen the empire's strength, let's talk about the short term, when Nero knows the use of coal mines, he will naturally buy them up in large quantities, and Tony, as the introducer of the coal mines, will naturally benefit a lot. With Nero's brother control, Tony may even be able to get the coal mines from Nero for free. After all, the amount of coal Tony needs is very small, which can be completely ignored compared to a behemoth like the Roman Empire.

"It's almost mid-November now. It looks like I should set off back to the territory tomorrow and try to get to Rome before the New Year." Tony muttered.

To be honest, Tony is pretty lucky.

During the reign of Nero, the whole of Rome was basically filled with an atmosphere of laziness and luxury. In Tony's words, "The whole city of Rome is full of capitalist life."

Thanks to this trend, Nero linked his birthday with the Roman Empire's Saturnalia and New Year, and took a long holiday from December 12th to January 14th. During this nearly one-month period, the only task of all citizens of the Roman Empire was to enjoy themselves.

He definitely wouldn't be able to make it to his sister's birthday, and he would have missed the Saturnalia, so Tony could only aim for the New Year and try to reach Rome before the New Year.

"What did Your Highness say just now?" Although Prasutagus heard Tony's muttering, it was obvious that she did not hear clearly what he said.

"Ah? It's nothing, it's nothing. We have already discussed the price. Let's put it this way. Next spring, the Empire will send someone to discuss this matter with you. Originally, I should have discussed it with you in detail, but suddenly I realized that it is already mid-November. I must hurry back to Rome and try to catch up with my sister's birthday." After frowning, Tony finally decided to speak his mind truthfully.

"Ah, yes, His Majesty the Emperor's birthday is coming soon. As a vassal state, our Iceni Kingdom should show some loyalty." Prasutagus slapped his forehead. If Tony hadn't reminded him, he really wouldn't have thought of this!

Logically speaking, the monarchs of these small vassal states should remember the birthday of every emperor, but now Claudius has just died and Nero has ascended the throne. Not to mention knowing her birthday, even the slightly more remote tribal states may not even know that Claudius is dead.

For example, King Aochu next door probably knows nothing.

Before Tony could react, Prasutagus called a guard over. After whispering a few words in his ear, the guard bowed slightly and then left.

"Now that we have discussed the business, Your Highness, how about staying here for a few days?" Prasutagus asked with a smile.

Tony looked at the sky outside and pondered for a moment before saying, "Well, I'll bother His Majesty the King tonight, but I have to return to the territory early tomorrow morning. After all, time is tight and I have to prepare gifts."

In fact, Tony has already thought about what gift to give to his sister.

His Majesty Nero, the fifth emperor of the empire, as an emperor, hopes that the troops under his command can become stronger, whether it is to deter other countries externally or to deter the Senate internally. The gift Tony is going to give this time is something that can help the army become stronger.

New iron smelting technology, and hand cannons.

Even if Tony wanted to popularize hand cannons and advance the era of cold weapons to the era of hot weapons in one go, he couldn't do it now, because saltpeter, one of the raw materials, was too scarce, and hand cannons simply couldn't be equipped to the troops on a large scale. Even Tony, who knew the technology, only had three hand cannons in his hands, and two of them were still semi-finished products.

PS1: Thanks to "公司已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已已

PS2: Currently there are 1429 collections. If this collection is real, it means that there should be at least 1429 people interested in this book. However, only more than people want to see my women's clothing. So what does this mean? It means that most people don't want to see it! I know your aesthetic taste is normal!

PS3: Starting from today, this book will be updated once a day, with words per chapter, and additional updates will be added from time to time. That's it~

PS4: Leave a group number, you can come and play, 413992272

Chapter 78: Offering Gifts

The city of Rome is now immersed in a sea of ​​joy.

It was the first birthday of the new emperor shortly after he ascended the throne. No matter how everyone was fighting openly or secretly, they still gave face when it was due. The governors of various provinces had already begun to hand over their work to their subordinates months ago and returned to Rome with gifts. The same was true for the monarchs of several surrounding vassal states of the Roman Empire.

In addition, several rebellious vassal states also announced a ceasefire on this day and sent envoys to the Roman Empire's military camp with gifts to celebrate the Emperor's birthday.

For Tony, this is very strange. After all, Tony has the thinking of modern people. No matter how much modern people know about history, it is impossible for them to fully understand how great an impact the concept of divine right of kings has on the world.

What's more, in everyone's understanding, the Roman Empire was not a divinely ordained monarchy, but the Roman emperor was a descendant of God.

To put it bluntly, the reason why countries such as the Kingdom of Thrace betrayed Rome was that the Roman Empire exploited these small countries too severely on a daily basis. They rebelled in order to fight for more living space, not to attack Rome and kill Nero. For these small countries, Nero was a descendant of the god Romulus, and Romulus' father was the famous god of war Mars in Roman mythology.

Although countries like Thrace had the courage to rise up in rebellion, they did not have the courage to attack the city of Rome, which was believed to be protected by gods. They firmly believed that if they dared to do so, the great god of war Mars would surely bring down his tremendous wrath.

The topic has gone off track, let us shift our attention back to the city of Rome.

It was His Majesty's birthday and the whole nation was celebrating. At this time, Nero was not only no longer a "public enemy", but also because he was very popular among the people when he was a praetor. Therefore, the Roman citizens at this time still respected Nero very much.

"It's so festive." Tony couldn't help but sigh as he sat in the carriage and looked at the colorfully decorated city of Rome and the warm smiles on the faces of the citizens.

"Yes, Your Highness. Tomorrow is His Majesty's birthday, so naturally the citizens of the empire have to dress up nicely. Also, the birthday is followed by Saturnalia and New Year, so there is nearly a month's holiday, and naturally the citizens want to relax." Beside the carriage, Captain Mary rode a tall horse to Tony and explained in a low voice.

At this time, Zero, who had been silent on the road, suddenly spoke up: "As the hegemon of the world, the Roman Empire is indeed qualified to be corrupt. The powerful military force protects the empire's borders from foreign invasion. Even this rebellion will not last long. For the people of Rome, the war in the Balkan Peninsula is just a distant local war that has little to do with them."

Jie Luo's words completely expressed the voice of the people of the Roman Empire. The four words "Celestial Empire" were not exclusive to the Eastern Han Empire. The people of the Roman Empire during the same period also had a similar mentality.

The Roman Empire was invincible, and all around it were barbarian tribes.

Now that I think about it, unless it was a war with a behemoth like the Parthian Empire, the citizens of the Roman Empire would not care about the war on the border at all.

But then again, the civil war in the Parthian Empire ended only a few years ago, and the empire is in ruins. It is unlikely that the empire will go to war with the Roman Empire.

In general, the Roman Empire now has almost no external threats. Internally, the new emperor Nero has ascended the throne, won over the Praetorian Guards, and temporarily suppressed the Senate. At least in the last one or two years, the Roman Empire will enter its most prosperous period.

Tony bought a piece of bread on the way, but before he finished eating, his convoy was stopped by a man dressed in the armor of a Royal Guard officer. The man dismounted respectfully, stood in front of the convoy, bowed slightly and said, "Lucius, the captain of the Roman Imperial Guard, greets His Royal Highness."

Lucius?

Tony was not familiar with the name, but if he said he was not familiar with the position of Captain of the Guards, he would not dare to call himself a history lover.

The Roman Empire's Praetorian Guard consisted of nine infantry cohorts, twenty-four cavalry squadrons, and a so-called "Inner Guard" composed of women.

Of course, everyone knows that the internal guard established by Nero himself is just a name in the German Guard and does not count. The commander of these nine infantry battalions is the so-called battalion commander.

In other words, Lucius was the real power in the Praetorian Guard and a senior officer who commanded thousands of soldiers.

Although Lucius was respectful to Tony, it was actually just superficial respect. A vassal who did not have many troops under his command was not enough for Lucius to treat him as an equal.

"It's General Lucius. I wonder what brings General Lucius here?" Tony didn't dare to be arrogant towards this general who held real power, so he stuck his head out of the carriage and asked.

"Your Highness, I am here on the orders of His Majesty to welcome you into the palace. His Majesty was very happy to hear that you would arrive in Rome earlier, so he asked me to come and protect Your Highness." Lucius said with a smile.

"Ah? Is that so? Thank you very much, General." Tony also smiled slightly and gestured to Lucius.

"No problem." Although General Lucius did not bring any soldiers with him, in the city of Rome, a captain of the Imperial Guards did not need to lead any troops to protect Tony, because here, no force dared to provoke the Imperial Guards.

Under the guidance of Lucius, Tony soon arrived at the gate of the palace.

What Tony didn't expect was that before he could get off the carriage, he heard a female voice coming from the palace gate: "Wow! I'm so touched. Brother, you actually came back from Britain to celebrate my birthday~"

"What the hell?" Tony exclaimed subconsciously when he heard the voice.

What the hell? The emperor of the empire was waiting for him at the gate of the palace.

"Greetings, Your Majesty." After a brief loss of composure, Tony got off the carriage with the help of his maid Ola, walked in front of Nero, and prepared to kneel on one knee to perform the etiquette between a monarch and his subject.

"What are you doing?" Seeing Tony about to kneel down, Nero quickly supported him and said, "Brother, why are you kneeling? You are not a foreign minister, you are my brother, so don't kneel anymore. You are so young, kneeling on this stone. What if your knees hurt?"

...Meow meow meow?

Tony let Nero help him up with a confused look on his face. No matter how he thought about it, he felt that the rhythm was not right!

Wait a minute! Why does Nero's brother complex seem to be getting worse? I understand not letting him kneel, but why is it such a lame excuse? What do you mean by kneeling until your knees hurt?

Without noticing the subtle expression on Tony's face, Nero took Tony's hand and said, "Come on, let's go back to the palace first. You must be exhausted after the journey. Do you want to take a rest first?"

Tony was stunned for a long time, and finally uttered a sentence: "Your Majesty, aren't you going to the Senate meeting..."

The Roman Empire also had a morning court system similar to that of the Eastern Han Empire. Every morning the Senate would hold meetings to discuss major issues. After Augustus became the first citizen, although the power of the Senate was greatly weakened, the Roman Empire had not yet publicly abolished the democratic system. Logically speaking, Nero should have attended the meeting even if it was just a formality. After all, she was the first citizen and the chief senator.

"It's so boring to face those old men. Besides, they do nothing but quarrel. I'm too lazy to face them." Nero curled his lips and said nonchalantly.

"Uh..." Although this is true, it's not necessary to say it so openly, right? Tony was a little embarrassed and didn't know how to respond.

"Okay, let's not talk about this anymore. Be good, let's go back first and talk about it later." Nero smiled, took Tony's hand, and without waiting for Tony to react, he dragged him towards the palace.

"Wait a minute!" Tony was stunned at first, then he stood firm and said to the people behind him: "Sister Mary, bring in the gifts as well."

"Gift? Brother, you actually prepared a gift?" Hearing the word "gift", Nero couldn't help but be very moved. His little brother who was lost and found not only rushed back to celebrate his birthday, but also prepared a gift. Who wouldn't be moved by such a thought?

Tony nodded and said with a smile, "Yes, but sister, you can only see my gift in the room."

Seeing Tony's mysterious expression, Nero said with great interest: "Well, I want to see what gift you have prepared for your sister."

Under Nero's leadership, Tony and Ola came to Nero's bedroom.

As a tyrant famous for his luxury in later generations, Nero's luxury was simply brought to the extreme in this corrupt and decadent era. Looking at this extremely luxurious palace, Tony swallowed subconsciously.

How much the hell does this cost!