Mid-July. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

A wooden track that winds straight forward and winds upwards from Joken to the top of the formidable ridge of the Ula Plateau.

As if it were a miracle on earth, all the people who saw this track for the first time were shocked and shocked.

This short track of about 100 kilometers across the moat may not be anything in modern times, but in this ancient civilization world, only a few miracles of civilization such as the church's thousand-foot-high temple of holy light, the thousand-layer lighthouse of the Aguston Kingdom, the hundred-zhang stone man of the Prologis Kingdom, and the sky city of the Nevis Kingdom can be compared with it.

A total of 6,174 workers died of various altitude sicknesses during the construction of the track.

Zhou Ming did not forget the more than 6,000 dead workers who were mostly savages and a few were purchased slaves, but asked people to build a small monument at the end of the track, at the top of the high mountain range, on which the exploits of these workers were recorded for future generations to remember.

After the completion of the construction of this track, more than 6,000 slave laborers who were lucky to survive, Zhou Ming announced to these workers: In order to express his gratitude, these slave workers will be given the status of free citizens, but because there are so many people, it is not easy to arrange jobs for them at once, and they will complete the construction of the next plateau track as freelance workers (of course, the track in the plateau corridor is easier to build, and there will not be such a large number of deaths).

……

End of July.

Inside the newly built trading station to the east of Yoken Territory.

Starting from the many members of the Free Business Alliance, a caravan carrying all kinds of goods gathered in this large trading station, and for a while, people were screaming and noisy.

In the center of the trading station, inside a large wooden house.

A group of richly dressed aristocrats were sitting around a large table for a meeting.

Sitting at the top, holding a list of goods in his hand, Earl Houghton, the Earl of Bhamme, who was elected as the rotating president of the Chamber of Commerce this year, read the words on the list: "Joken Collar, 50 carts of canned meat and nuts, Nathan Collar, 20 carts of bread, Parton Collar, 200 carts of ceramics, Grand Collar, 500 carts of furniture, fur clothing, paper and ironware...... There are also goods from other territories combined, a total of 1,000 carts of goods, so many goods, sold to the Copper Mountain Kingdom, in addition to gold coins, what else can we get, the copper of the Copper Mountain Kingdom?"

Earl Houghton asked with some puzzlement, if it is the iron of the Iron Castle Kingdom, which has a great effect on the Shang Alliance, then it is naturally necessary to trade with it, but the copper of the Copper Mountain Kingdom is not so useful, of course, copper is also valuable, but the practicality is not as great as iron.

"Knight Edward, this plateau corridor you built, it is not difficult to transport goods from the outside from the Shang Alliance, but it is a bit troublesome to transport the goods from the outside into the Shang Alliance, this ghost place, even the plain horses can't be ridden, only the alpine horses can pull some light things, and you can pull more when you go to the south...... But how do you pull the heavy copper of the Copper Mountain Kingdom from the south back to the north?"

Another earl raised a question, feeling that the plateau corridor opened up by Zhou Ming had huge shortcomings in terms of commerce and trade.

"Of course I will ask for copper, and I will find a way to transport it from the south, but not now, what we lack most now is not copper, but people. ”

"People?"

Everyone looked at Zhou Ming one after another, and they were all a little surprised.

"Yes, it's people, to be exact, slave miners, slave miners on the countless copper mines of the Copper Mountain Kingdom, these slave miners, are the commodities that the Free Merchants Alliance currently lacks the most. ”

Zhou Ming explained to everyone.

With the progress of agricultural technology in the member territories of the Free Business Alliance in recent years, the meat rations needed by the various territories are not so scarce, and there is no shortage of primary handicraft products such as furniture, farm tools, fur and clothing.

Zhou Ming made statistics and found that the seven northern and southern counties of the Warris Kingdom were not very different in terms of economic aggregate in the past two years, but in terms of population, the seven counties in the north were only one-third of those in the south (not including the royal territory, which accounted for 1/5 of the population of the kingdom), because of the cold climate, the birth rate in the north was not as high as in the south.

If there is a civil war in the interior of the Volis Kingdom in the future, the individual combat ability of the northern knights is stronger than that of the south, but in terms of the number of soldiers, the north is at a great disadvantage, coupled with the limitation of the population base, once it enters the war of attrition, it is more difficult for the north to defeat the south and draw the fight.

Therefore, Zhou Ming needed as many people as possible to expand the market size of the Free Business Alliance, to promote the economic vitality of the Free Business Alliance, to tap the mineral resources within the Free Business Alliance, and to increase the war potential of the Free Business Alliance.

So, he established a mercenary union, absorbing a large number of thieves, mercenaries, thieves and other floating population, he opened up the plateau corridor, obtained slave miners from the Copper Mountain Kingdom, transported them to various mines in the member territories of the Free Merchant Alliance, and excavated various underground resources such as gold, silver, copper, iron, and coal (many territories of the Free Merchant Alliance also have iron ore and copper mines, but the reserves are smaller and the grade is lower, but they can also be used).

As long as the population base of the Free Business Alliance changes from quantitative to qualitative, the power that finally erupts is probably not something that a small Southern Business Alliance can resist.

After listening to Zhou Ming's theory, the eyes of all the barons and earls present lit up.

"There happens to be an iron mine in my territory, but there is a shortage of people to dig it, after this business is over, can you sell 1,000 slave miners to me?"

"I also have mines in my territory, give me 3,000 slaves!"

"I need at least 5,000 slave laborers!"

"10,000!"

“……”

Seeing the incomparably enthusiastic appearance of these nobles, Zhou Ming accepted them one by one, and secretly said in his heart, when these nobles realized the infinite convenience brought by the slaves, perhaps just like the tragic scene in his world history, where African black slaves were sold to the Americas in hundreds of millions of quantities and died during transportation, I am afraid that it will be staged similarly in this world.

Are the slaves pitiful?

Of course, but that's capital!

……

Late August.

Copper Mountain Kingdom, eastern frontier.

In the eastern mountains of the Barony of Bamo, a group of uninvited guests suddenly came.

Hundreds of these uninvited guests were heavily armed knights with bright armor and spears, thousands of them were fierce mercenaries armed with all kinds of weapons, and thousands of them were horsemen who were driving thousands of heavy carriages, their faces were very tired, but they cheered together because they had arrived at their destination.

Seeing this group of uninvited guests, Baron Geraldi, the lord of the Barmo Lord, was almost scared, because this place was closed, and he had not experienced war for hundreds of years, and the knights who pulled out were not much more powerful than the stronger farmers, and after being teased by the knights brought by Zhou Ming, they were all captured alive, and the desperate Baron Geraldi's legs were weak, and he immediately knelt on the ground and asked to surrender.

Zhou Ming didn't embarrass him, but instead sent some gifts to show his friendliness, saying that he was just a merchant with his caravan and wanted to come to the Tongshan Kingdom to do some small business.

After looking at the exquisite goods brought by Zhou Ming, Baron Geraldy, whose eyes were shining with gold, soon became his first customer, and with only a few Paton porcelain, a few stacks of white paper, and dozens of fur clothes, he exchanged all the more than 100,000 gold coins, millions of copper coins, and a large amount of grain that had been saved for hundreds of years in Baron Geraldy's castle warehouse.

Baron Geraldy, who squandered all the wealth that his family had accumulated for hundreds of years, didn't care at all, because the small copper mine in his territory was enough for his family to dig for thousands more years.

Zhou Ming, who got off to a good start in his first business, swelled up in confidence!

In addition, I learned from Baron Geraldi that although the Copper Mountain Kingdom is a large country with 47 counties, the combat effectiveness of the army is not very good, and the army defending the kingdom is mainly composed of foreign mercenaries, and there are many defeats in foreign wars...... The so-called wealth and wealth consume fighting spirit, and arrogance corrupts ambition, which is a true portrayal of this country sitting on copper mines.

is like Zhou Ming's several Middle Eastern tyrant countries in the world, all of them are very rich, but the soldiers of the prince who are armed to the teeth are the scum of war that even the guerrillas can't beat.

Zhou Ming, who understood this, the next thing was easier to do, under the banner of doing business, Zhou Ming took his caravan all the way through the city, passing by several earls' territories, facing this huge caravan with elite knights and a large number of mercenaries to escort him, the lords of various places, except for the initial temptation, none of them dared to come forward to provoke.

looked at the exquisite goods brought by Zhou Ming again, and spent money one by one to buy them generously.

Early October.

Before the arrival of the snow season, Zhou Ming and others, who had already sold out the goods, and were holding a large number of gold coins and copper coins to buy mine slaves from the slave traders of the Tongshan Kingdom, had to buy more than 20,000 slave miners of all ages, young and old, and after more than a month of difficult trekking, they finally returned to Yoken before the first snow fell in November.