Businessmen tend to have a much more direct conversation than politicians, and when they find it difficult to figure out each other's heels in a short period of time, they bypass the topic.

"So, sir, we will get to know each other well for a long time, and now, what is Your Majesty's will?"

Hams was a little curious, the emperor's order at this time must not be to send troops, now it is too late to send troops, he vaguely smelled the smell of reward, but how big and sweet the cake sent by the emperor is, whether it is poisonous or not, this obviously needs to be carefully tasted.

Yubon's eyes rolled slightly, and he smiled as he looked around the busy street market in Valuno

"This is the best place I've been to since I've been to the Northlands, and even the Duke's castle isn't half the size of it. This is obviously someone running this place, and if there are operators who are in the business for a while, it even has a chance to replace the royal court of Beihai and become the most important city in the entire Northland. ”

Yubon's words were poking at Hams's heart, and he smiled awkwardly and replied casually

"You really have a good reputation, this is only a small place, even if it is larger, it is only inhabited by farmers and hunters, how can it be compared to the territory of the princes. ”

Yubang didn't let him go in the slightest.

"Tsk, I have observed the mountains and rivers here when I came, and I won't mention the flat and fertile land, but it seems that there is a river flowing through it in the south of the city...... If a port is built from there, the city will have both water and land transportation, and it is the first city in the north to have a port, and the imperial capital is nothing more than that. ”

Hams's heart was secretly frightened, and the plan he had been thinking about for a long time was just revealed by a foreigner and lightly revealed.

"Port ...... You joke, it's just a poor place without a mill, it's too far away for me to think about. ”

If Hams is frightened, then Yubang is admired. He had just just said that those ideas were not uncommon in the towns of the South, but the people who could actually make them were always as rare as gold in a puddle of golden sand.

From Hams's expression, Yubang got the information that this man from the north probably had a complete plan to develop the port, otherwise with this person's cultivation, he would never have shown such a "bull's-eye" expression. Yubang knew that the main reason why the two were talking like this now was because of the asymmetry in information, so he paused and then continued.

"If you're still thinking about that, I'm really worried about you. The Emperor has sent you a job, but you don't seem to be very interested, and if you don't have faith here, the Courier will definitely not find a second person to take over. ”

Seeing Hams' expression change from initial shock to doubt, Yubang planned to send the favor to the end, and he brought out the bottom of the good news.

"His Majesty the Emperor intends to establish a Free City in Valuno, and you are now the Mayor of the Imperial Free City! I'm afraid I still have something to do, I have a shipment waiting to be sold......"

"You don't have to do it yourself, every stall in my market has a place for your wares! Valuno is a very welcoming city, even in the bitter cold of the Northland, you might as well take a taste of our local customs." ”

"Then I'll thank you for your kindness, Lord Mayor. ”

Yubang still had a smile on his face, at least he wouldn't be in vain this trip, and it would be nice to have fun in this town, anyway, he couldn't pull the caravan back from the winter Northland.

It wasn't until he lay down on the bed of the town's only, and newly-built merchant's inn, with his back against the hot stove burning his neck, that he woke up with a sudden start. It seems that he sold the news of the Imperial Courier for a good price, but in reality, he only sold himself and his caravan for a good price.

There are a lot of businessmen on the streets who have nothing to do like Yubon, and judging from this alone, it is likely that Hams has turned the business of helping people into a business promotion industry, and he is just one of his target customers.

Although he did not suffer a loss, as a businessman, Yubang couldn't cry or laugh, and he was still "compared" by others.

At the moment when Yubang was leaning against the stove and preparing to take his people to cultivate for a while, several aristocratic young people were still thinking about the grand plan of the spring of the second year. They were crammed into a small room, with clean straw on the floor, and a small table in the middle, and the candles on the table were lit as if they were not paying for money.

When the enthusiasm for building the land and becoming a lord began to fade from the faces of several people, the meeting fell silent.

"We don't seem to have any money. ”

Mitchelson said this sentence with some reluctance, and the candle shone on the faces of several people, reflecting their uncertainties clearly. When they were in Abbasquia, they thought that if they could come to the Northland, everything would be better, and the land here would be fertile, and the people would be industrious and willing to work, and at most they would be just one of themselves.

Now the situation is almost half right, they find that the land here is fertile, the people are industrious, but there is no lack of nobles to lead them, the mayor here has everything settled, although there are many displaced people here, even the pioneers they brought with them are not difficult to find work here, they are a little puzzled, these people do not seem to have a reason to leave the town to follow them.

Montgomery clenched and lowered his hand, and when he clenched it, the shadow of his arm reflected high on the wall, as if from a giant, but when he put it down, everything was nothing.

"There's a mercenary here, why don't I go and earn a fortune with my strength?"

A few people didn't say anything, which was obviously not a good idea, not to mention that it was a particularly unseemly thing for this nobleman to become a mercenary, and it was still far from the cost of building a territory.

"I've talked to the churches here, maybe we can get some support from them......"

Amy was the most worried of these people, the archbishop of the imperial capital had already written a letter of introduction to him, and he had already shown it to the local church today, and there was no reason for the people in the church to refuse a young monk, especially when there was a large influx of displaced people and some shortage of manpower.

This is not the best way, but it is not the best way, the people of the Church will not help them in vain, and the territory they have opened up will most likely belong to the "bishopric" for a long time to come, which is obviously not what these young people who seek power want.

Conan's eyes widened as he watched the flickering flames on the table, and he followed his brothers to meet the town's previous mayor, Sir Joyce. Yes, sir, this is also a gift from the Emperor to meritorious heroes. He thought the old man would laugh happily, like a street worker paying his salary, or a child holding candy in his hand.

But he didn't, and the old knight touched the medal of honor, and wept.

"May Your Majesty live a long life. ”

In the afternoon, a bored Conan followed the gray-haired old man to a part of the town, where it was not as noisy as elsewhere, and the air was filled with a milky silence.

"You shouldn't have come here. ”

The old sir didn't look back, but he knew who it was.

Conan watched as the old knight placed the medal on a stone tablet, placed a few glasses of wine under the others, placed a gold coin on the penultimate tablet, and placed a yellowish page of paper on the last tablet with a few lines and some vague letters.

"What are you doing here?"

"Tribute. ”

"Who?"

"A lot. ”

"And what do they have to do with this medal?"

"It doesn't really matter, but this medal is an account for all of them. ”

Joyce turned his head, the wrinkles on his face as deep as a knife mark, except for a portion of his forehead.

"That's not sadness," Conan said almost subconsciously, attracting a few of his brothers to watch.

"What?"

Conan realizes that he has lost his temper, but he has no way to explain what he said, so he can only put on a smile to cover it.

Joyce looked Conan up and down,

"You're still a child, how did those damn officials send a child over to be a lord, don't they know that there's a good chance you'll not survive the second winter?"

"Second winter?"

Joyce didn't speak, just held out his hand to Conan, who shook him off.

"I know, I know, I already knew! The surviving enjoy the honor of the dead, and the dead will sleep in a two-inch-thick coffin. ”

The old man looked at Conan in a daze, as if he had a beast in his eyes that had not yet grown.

"Who do you listen to, aren't you worried that this will ruin you?"

"My father. ”

As soon as he finished speaking, Conan turned and ran away, his speed so fast that even the footprints behind him couldn't keep up with him. Except for two lines of crooked footprints, the two never seem to have met.

Conan didn't dare to know the old man. For he knew that the old man would soon disappear from the world, like the Grey Friar who had taught him, and that at the end of the row of steles he had seen to-day would add a new stele, and perhaps someone else would worship him, but Conan would not and did not want to have anything to do with it.

In the night, young people still sit in front of candles, they are young and beautiful, and they are at a loss.

But these can only be regarded as happy troubles for those civilians, because they can still sit in a warm room with burning candles, and eat and wear without worry.

The pioneers are really going to have a hard time. Hams had absolutely no intention of targeting these homeless men from the south, but he did not intend to raise them as if he were supplying those nobles. The city of Valuno will prosper, but it will only provide a full meal for those who work hard.

Half a month later.

Hams built some long strips of shacks for the pioneers on one side of the town by the wall, which was also a good thing to learn from the Wiegand people, who called this kind of thing the longhouse, which provided very good warmth even in colder places, and it was very cheap to make for these people.

Because considering that these people did not have work experience in the Northland, the townspeople provided them with a kind of "work that can be done with their hands".

Trees were cut down, and there were woods all around the town, and the townspeople set prices for these things according to the different types of wood.

"A one-foot-wide pine can be exchanged for five loaves of black bread, but a one-foot-wide birch can be exchanged for ten loaves of black bread. ”

Of course, Hams was the driving force behind these rules, but in order to avoid suspicion, he chose to operate behind the scenes, which in his opinion was the most suitable job for these people, with a stable income, and the branches collected in the middle could be used to make fires.

But something unexpected happened to Hams, and one night the pioneers burned down the longhouse they lived in, demanding that Hams give them a better job and a place to live.

This job is naturally preferential for the hard-working Northlanders, but it is not very suitable for these young people from the imperial capital, which is completely an oppressive income in the royal city of Abbasquia.

The immigrants went from being angry at the beginning to being euphemistic with snakes, which they called a roundabout tactic, and they often tried everything when they were in their hometown.

But the hearts of the Northlanders are as hard as the weather here, and the citizens of Valuno refuse to help them. They were frozen outside for three days and awake for three days. When the sun rose on the fourth day, one of the townspeople who had gone out saw that a new row of long houses had begun to be built not far from their original location, and the pioneers looked at them with resentment, as if they wanted to make the townsman pay for their misery.

Conan, of course, heard about it, and even he was part of a roundabout tactic. A few of them, pretending to be familiar with them, came to them to demand justice, and several swore to the nobles that if they were willing to do justice for them at this time, they would surely gain the loyalty of these immigrants.

"As long as you help us get through this winter, kind sir. They deceive people too much. ”

The youths agreed, Mitchelson broke a piece of bread and soaked it in a bowl, Montgomery smirked and threw a cutlet into his mouth, Amy wiped his mouth, and Conan ran away from the table.

"Will you be happy to take them?"

"Then you must be joking, Mitch, don't you pride yourself on being kind-hearted, why don't you help them. ”

"It's a tempting way to say that you're loyal, but my future estate doesn't lack the loyalty of a group of 'masters'. ”