A heavy snowfall in early winter wiped out the entire border between the Count of Burgundy and the Duchy of Swabia, and the fierce border war for a month or two was also covered with heavy snow, and the smoke and flames of war were temporarily extinguished.

Due to the arrival of this heavy snowfall, Arter, who had planned to enter the heart of Swabia to harass the country, had to retreat to the border with a small amount of looted goods in a chariot before the snow closed the road, and temporarily stationed in an abandoned village on the border east of Fort Gené, where he waited for the snow to melt and continued to attack the Swabian border.

It was also because of this heavy snow that Count Landy, who had rushed back to Ao Nang from the Swabian court, also stopped his attack. Randy had already gritted his teeth with hatred for the maggots attached to the bones, and on the day he returned to Ao Nang, he was ready to gather an army to besiege the Burgundian army that was deep into the border, and then he had no choice but to suspend his attack as soon as he finished deploying for battle.

While the frontier battlefield was resting and recuperating, an armed caravan was still walking on the King's Road in the province of Jonah.

The size of this caravan was not large, fifteen iron-inlaid four-wheeled vans and two ordinary accompanying carriages, together with armed guards, officials, and miscellaneous servants, there were only about twenty people in total.

Of course, there are also a few Swabians who have quietly arrived in Burgundy from the border areas, and they are the families of the valley artisans.

Able to walk unhindered through the snow of the long road, the carriage of this caravan was certainly not an ordinary carriage, or a little unusual.

Road-snow carriage, this is the name that Art gave to this type of carriage. In the Montagonal Confederation in southwestern Burgundy, such carriages were called sleighs.

Unlike the sleds used by the mountain people, the caravans' wagons can walk on snow and on the carriageway like a normal wagon. It was very simple to make – the carriage had a side panel made of a specially made curved head plate, which was roughly the width and length of the carriage, the front end of the side panel was slightly upturned, and there were four brackets on the side panels to hold the wheels in place.

If you encounter heavy snow and close the road, you only need to remove the side panels, put them on the bottom of the car, and then fix the four wheels on the corresponding brackets of the side panels, and this carriage can immediately become the kind of sled commonly used by mountain people, which is convenient and practical.

In winter, few people are willing to go on a long trip, let alone the cold winter and heavy snowy weather.

However, the caravans of the European comptoirs had to seize the opportunity of the snowy winter to trade freight.

The past year was a year of rapid expansion of the European merchant bank, seizing the opportunity of the post-war recovery of Provence, the European merchant house in the planning of Art and the strong manipulation of Sarthe and others has stood firm in the southern trade line of eastern Provence, the southern branch of the European merchant bank can control the fate of the entire eastern trade, in several important cities in the eastern part of Provence have the stronghold of the European merchant house, and many large and small nobles and wealthy merchants on the eastern trade line have joined the power of the European merchant house, becoming the foundation of the European merchant house.

For more than a year, the power of the European trading houses in the north of the Count of Burgundy has not been improved corresponding to the southern continent, although after the destruction of the Dean family, Art also forcibly occupied a southern goods market in the northland, but the traditional commercial strength is still deep-rooted, and the southern goods of Yate have always been outside the north can not fully occupy the terminal profits.

After a complete break with Bernard, Yate's southern goods were affected in the Thorne, Codor and Besançon, and the southern goods trading houses under the direct jurisdiction were reduced from three to the Lucesine family.

After the rise of civil strife in the Northland, the trade of southern goods in the north was even more bleak, and in the midst of the war, how many people could have the heart and spare money to buy luxury southern goods?

On the one hand, there is a growing supply market for southern goods in the southern continent, and on the other hand, there is a shrinking sales channel for goods in the north, which makes everyone in the European trading houses anxious.

Fortunately, they opened a trade route from Provence to the Kingdom of France, which, although not dominant, was able to absorb the goods that had come from the south.

At present, the route in Provence, also in the north-western Kingdom of France, is in charge of Lavin, the commander of the armed escort of the Continental Comptoir, and Manid, the newly promoted steward of the Continental Comptoir.

The province of Jonne, which fills the vacancy in the southern market of Burgundy, has established a stable sales network under the temptation of the baron of Antmaias, the baron of Fort Andermatt, and the European comptoirs have been directly involved in it and have taken up most of the profits, but in the same way, people in the war do not have much to put money on luxury goods, and the southern goods market in the province of Jonah is also sluggish.

When the domestic situation was worried, Art was determined to open up the southern goods market of the Duchy of Swabia, so there was a caravan led by Salter himself, with the secret assistance of the county magistrate of Glaru, Herres, to infiltrate the southwestern border of the Duchy of Swabia to trade southern goods.

The Swabians may not have taken the skirmish of the Northlands seriously at all, or they were eager to obtain an abundant source of southern trade from the Count of Burgundy, and when Salter led a caravan laden with goods across the border into southwest Swabia, the rich merchants of the lords did not have the slightest hatred.

The looting that Salter feared did not happen, nor did the heavy taxes.

On the contrary, when the lords who operated in secret and the merchants who ran in the shadows showed great welcome when they learned of Salt's identity.

It is no wonder that the Duchy of Swabia is located in the northern interior, and their current southern goods are only the first place in Lombard, and if Lombard southern goods want to enter Swabian, they have to go over the mountains and mountains and go through a long road, so the price is naturally unattainable.

Many years ago, the Duchy of Swabia was able to obtain some supplies of southern goods from the merchants of the Count of Burgundy, but in recent years, there were frequent wars between the two countries, and the Count of Burgundy began to strictly restrict the supply of southern goods to Swabia, and Swabia was able to obtain less and less relatively cheap southern goods.

However, the wealthy merchants and nobles of the Duchy of Swabia liked these things, so there was a big gap in southern goods.

At this time, a southern caravan suddenly appeared in front of you, telling you that not only the goods were abundant but also cheap (the southern goods imported into Swabia used to come from Besançon detour, and after layers of resale and increase, the price has been several times higher), such an opportunity shrewd Swabia will certainly not let go.

So in less than three days of infiltrating Swabia, more than a dozen truckloads of southern goods were sold out, and there were also several merchants and lords who had already established secret contacts with Salthe, and of course Viscount Hereth was also involved.

After selling the southern goods, Salter also bought large quantities of fine iron through the channels of lords and merchants, and the steel produced in the Swabian hinterland was an excellent raw material for forging weapons and armor.

"Lord Salt, I didn't expect those Swabians to be so quick to buy our goods and let us back safely. You say that now that we are at war with them, how can they treat us as friends? "The new caravan escort captain is a veteran officer of the army who has just joined the caravan and does not know the situation of the caravan yet.

Salter put his hands in his cuffs and glanced back at the caravan behind him from his horse, "The Schwaben are not stupid, war may break out every year, but they can't live forever on war, they need to eat and spend money, and we are what they rely on to eat and spend money." ”

"And we are springs, and as long as we protect them, we can keep flowing every day. For the thirsty Schwabians, protecting the spring was the right thing to do. If he robs us of this batch of goods, he will be cut off forever from a way to make money......"

While Salter was chatting with the captain of the caravan guard, a mounted escort who was an outpost returned to the group, "Lord Salter, Captain Saas, five miles ahead to Bramon, Lord Spencer of the army is already waiting for us outside Bramont. ”

"Alright, herald the caravan to speed up, we'll get to Brammon before dark!"

Rise in the Middle Ages