Ah sneeze~

"Who's scolding me?" Art slowly looked up from the wooden table in the study on the second floor.

Early in the morning, Art lay down on the table and began to deal with the various general affairs reported by the military and government affairs of Wales Province and the layout of the circle for the further development of the European commercial bank.

As a provincial province, military and political officials at all levels in Wales have begun to get used to using official documents to handle affairs.

Due to the complicated things recently, Yate felt quite tired, and as soon as he finished processing some of the Wen Ce, he felt that his head gradually became heavy, and he stuck it on the table little by little. After a while, a snoring sound came~

In early spring, the weather was still cold, and the charcoal fire placed on the table gradually burned to ashes, until the last spark went out, the cold air from the window invaded, and the temperature in the house began to gradually drop. The heat on Art's body slowly dissipated, and his body began to become cold, and then a sneezing sound was heard in the room.

"Honey, what's wrong with you?"

Lottie, who was busy in the next room, pushed the door open and walked in.

Ah ~ Ah Ah ~

Art sneezed a few more times, tightened the mink coat that was draped over his body, and shivered. Then he took out the silk scarf in his pocket and wiped the corners of his mouth.

"I'm fine."

Art reached over the brazier and felt the warmth.

"Look at you, you're so busy that you don't even know if the carbon fire is extinguished!" Looking at the ashes left in the brazier, Lottie grumbled under his breath.

"Ollie, go get some charcoal, the brazier in the master's study is extinguished."

Lottie shouted as she walked to the door of the study.

"Okay, ma'am~"

After a while, Ollie fetched some charcoal from the basket and rekindled the extinguished charcoal fire in the study. After a while, the temperature inside the house began to rise.

After Arte took Lottie away, he rubbed his cold hands and began to pick up the quill pen and write on the paper. The breath exhaled from Art's mouth and nose was particularly conspicuous in the light, and the sound of stomping feet could be heard from time to time in the room.

Despite this, Art still braved the cold in the study to complete the affairs of the military and government offices of Wales Province in recent days. If these big and small affairs pile up, it will be even more headache at that time. After dealing with military and government affairs, Yate took the expansion plan of the European commercial bank that Salter had previously drawn up on the table and studied~

Like Flender, both men were men who led troops into battle. Although he prefers life on horseback, as a lord, he must do his best to manage his territory. The construction of the territory is not only related to the lives of the people, but more importantly, Art also has an army of thousands in his hands, and the size of the army is gradually expanding, and the number of the people is also increasing exponentially.

More than 1,000 soldiers, horses, tens of thousands of people, these mouths need to be fed by Art.

In any era, the army is a gold-eating monster. If you rely only on the money captured in the war to support the army, you can barely survive in the short term. But there will be a day when the war will end. When the time comes, if we want to keep the army running, we must find another way and return to normalcy.

For Art, apart from running a territory to support the army, the quickest way is to do business.

Now, by controlling the economic lifeline of the Hou Kingdom, the European Continental Commercial Bank has put hundreds of thousands of gold coins of Fennig into Yate's pocket every month. Although the Continental Merchant House also distributed a part of its profits to the princely magnates such as Flender and Balwyn and the dignitaries and bureaucrats of the Duchy of Provence in the south, even those who were involved in the Continental Merchant House would serve a bowl of soup from this cauldron. However, due to the huge profits, Yate, as the core of the European commercial house, naturally put most of the profits into its own pocket.

As long as Art delivers the profits that belong to those people to them on time every month, no one will find out how much money the Continental Comptoir makes each month. Even if there are a few greedy guys who want to knock on more, it depends on whether they have the ability to do it.

A few days ago, Arter had ordered Salter to win over the merchant nobles who were dissatisfied with the European trading houses dominating the north-south trade of the Hou Kingdom, provide them with supplies, and use their shops all over the Hou Kingdom to occupy more markets and earn more profits.

Most people are grateful to Art for this move, but there are still some guys who take advantage of the regression of the European comptoirs to grab more profits. In their view, the reason why the European comptoir was willing to provide them with supplies was obviously that their previous practices had worked. If you don't take the opportunity to take two more bites, you won't have a chance in the future.

But within a few days, the few leaders of the merchant aristocracy who had opened their mouths to the lion of the European merchant houses were either burned to death in their homes, drowned in some icy river, and even drunkenly fell into a dung heap outside a family's house.

To outsiders, these people died in an accident. But those who pay a little attention will find that these people are people who have opposed the European comptoirs and have been able to take a step back after the European comptoirs have taken a step back.

All of this is nothing more than the work of some of the task forces under Stanley's command. Their mission is to deal with the stubborn ones and clear the stumbling blocks in the progress of the European comptoir.

Since then, no merchant or nobleman has ever dared to be dissatisfied with the European trading houses, at least no longer with anger in their faces. They all knew in their hearts that those who were dissatisfied would be sent to God by Art.

After most of the profits of the European Merchant Bank were put into Art's pocket, except for a part of it to keep the merchant running, almost the rest was invested in the construction of the territory and the expansion of the army.

When the province of Wales was first established, everything started with "one". The entire valley to the south of Art's newly sealed territory was almost a wilderness. Although the land is fertile, it is all based on the fact that there are enough people and farming tools to cultivate.

At the beginning of Arte's ascension to the Earl of Wales, the civil administration, under the leadership of Cooper, recruited displaced people everywhere to buy farm tools, livestock and grain. With the previous accumulation of the valley alone, it was impossible to feed and drink the food and drink of these tens of thousands of people. In addition to other expenditures, the province's strength is barely able to support it.

If it weren't for the succession's lucrative gains and the millions of dollars that the European Merchant House had amassed through the war, Art would not have been able to recruit enough of its lords as planned. The Welsh Legion also captured millions of Fennigh during the war. Some of it was for the army, and most of it was for the construction of the province of Wales.

As a result, the army and the European merchant houses injected a steady stream of golden blood into the nascent land, nourishing it.

At the same time, most of the soldiers in the Welsh Legion came from the families of the lords who had previously settled in the valley. Men of young men in almost every family were conscripted into the army and became the backbone of the legion.

These people became mercenaries of the legion and enjoyed high salaries and benefits. According to statistics, the salary of a legion soldier and the share of the spoils captured in the battle and the post-war bounty were enough to feed a family of four. This is also the reason why the young and strong leaders of the valley have joined the legion one after another. The moment the legion recruits a soldier, it already indirectly feeds the rest of this soldier's family.

Although the territory of Yat has not yet been able to exert sufficient advantages, it has also supported the development of the Legion in some ways.

In addition to providing the Legion with high-quality troops, the weapons created by the Vale Collar's Weapons Workshop secured a portion of the Legion's supply of weapons during the War of the Successors. Although the quality could not catch up with the production of Lombardy and Swabian countries, at least it ensured that the legionnaires would not go into battle empty-handed.

In addition to the caravans, at least one-fifth of the grain and forage baggage of the Welsh Legion was provided by the Valley Lord. These grains and grasses were all exchanged by the civil administration from the people of various localities, which effectively solved the problem of grain and grass for the corps.

At present, the paper produced by the valley collar paper workshop has also been basically finalized. According to Art's arrangement, the Bible was bound on paper and delivered to bishops and senior clergy in various places. According to the previous response, these senior faculty members were full of praise for Wales Paper and sent a large number of orders to the province of Wales. It is hoped that through these papers, a large number of Bibles will be transcribed and the gospel of God will be conveyed to believers.

Once these gold-like papers spread through the influence of the church, they would be sold throughout the princely kingdom and the surrounding principalities with the help of the merchants. When the time comes, there will be a steady stream of gold coins coming back.

In a sense, the Welsh Regiment provided military protection to the province of Wales. The European Comptoir became the money bag for the development and expansion of the Welsh Army and the Welsh Province. When the potential of Wales is exploited, it will become a strong backing for the Welsh Army and the European Comptoir.

The three are like three carriages, becoming Yate's right-hand man in expanding its territory......

............

Throughout the day, Art was busy in the study on the second floor.

After these complicated business tasks are dealt with, the sunset is slowly setting from the treetops on the top of the mountain in the west~

Art leaned the quill against the pen stand in the upper right corner of the table, stood up and stretched. He took a sip of the wine from his glass and took a long breath.

At this time, the sound of the people talking to each other was heard outside the house.

Yate slowly walked towards the window, propped his hands on the window frame, supported his chin, and enjoyed a rare leisure~

Watching groups of hunters armed with bows and arrows, hares and pheasants and foxes on their shoulders returning with a full load, there was talk and laughter. The new earl's mind went back to that winter day a few years ago~

In those days, like these people, he went into the mountains to hunt with bows and arrows and short knives, just to fill his stomach. But the difference is that they were one person back then, and they are now a group of people. With the passage of time, the thatched huts have been transformed into today's wooden forts, and the surrounding wasteland has been replaced by houses.

Art did not lose his promise, and the down-and-out little aristocrat finally turned over~

Just as Art was thinking about it, a heavy footstep came from downstairs. A few moments later, Ron, Art's personal guard, knocked on the wooden door of the study.

"Master~"

Chirping~

The door to the study opened.

"Ron, what's the matter?"

"Sir, the people at the border post have come to report that a Lombard caravan wants to enter the border. The guy in the lead indicated that he wanted to see you, saying that he had something important to discuss with you, and that you must be interested, and that the border post did not dare to make a decision, and quickly returned. ”

"Caravans in Lombardy?" Art thought silently in his heart.

"How many of them are there?"

"There were only two dozen of them, three carriages. Among them, the caravan escort was fifteen, and the others were coachmen and handymen. ”

Ron elaborated.

Art was silent, thinking in his heart, "How could the Lombard caravan suddenly appear at the border at this time?" Why did the leader of the caravan come to see me by name? ”

After a while, Art finally spoke, beckoned Ron to his side, and whispered: "You go to the border outpost immediately, let our people seize their goods first, and everyone will be held alone, and then you ~"

"Yes, sir. I see~"

Ron turned and exited the study, and hurried downstairs to ride north.

Standing by the window, Art's brow furrowed slightly, watching Ron's back disappear into the dense forest. Then he wrapped his mink jacket tightly around his body, turned around and walked towards the house.

…………

In the middle of the night, on the north side of the border post, in a neat row of barracks built in a semicircle, a group of guys claiming to be Lombard merchants were held alone in the barracks of the border post. The goods of the three accompanying wagons were also seized and temporarily stored in warehouses.

The cold night was slightly cool, and a full moon hung high in the clear sky. From time to time, there was a chirping of insects in the grass around the barracks, and the withered yellow weeds swayed in the breeze.

Every once in a while, an eight-man patrol appeared around the barracks. On weekdays, there is no need for people to patrol the area around the barracks. But tonight, the officer on duty at the border post temporarily arranged a patrol to take charge of the security around the barracks and prevent the group of suspicious people from escaping. According to the above, it is very likely that these people are spies sent by the Lombards, and they must be strictly guarded against.

In the middle room on the north side of the barracks, a middle-aged man in a woolen coat and a felt hat looked indifferent, wrapped in a woolen blanket and leaning against the wall inside the bed, his eyes slightly closed.

At noon this day, this man came to the border post with a caravan in the name of a merchant, saying that he had an important matter to meet the Earl of Wales. The officers at the border post had no right to make their own decisions, and they needed to send someone back to the valley to inform Lord Earl. The group was then gathered in a room, and the goods were seized.

Moments earlier, a scarred officer, guided by an outpost officer, had come to inspect the group of merchants who claimed to have come all the way from Lombard. After some observation, the border post officer held the two dozen men in solitary confinement at the man's command.

At this time, the guy leaning against the wall never imagined that he would be locked up in a hut not long after he brought people close to the border post. The man thought about it, wondering what went wrong.

Two days ago, in order not to be conspicuous, the caravan of more than forty people was divided into two waves in Kitsby, Provence. A wave of people traveled to Wales to meet Earl Arte, Wales. Another wave diverted their route and crossed the border with the Kodor border into the princedom of Burgundy, and then traveled north to find out the news.

It stands to reason that there are no loopholes in their own arrangements, and it is impossible for the spies in Wales to arrange for them to be in Provence. Why were their own people detained here not long after they arrived at the border? The caravan leader was puzzled. In this way, the new Earl of Wales is indeed not an idle person. Otherwise, the Duke of Lombardy would not have gone to great lengths to send someone to find out the details of this person.

In the days that followed, the detained merchant never saw anyone again, except for the soldiers who delivered the food. He really didn't understand in his heart what kind of medicine was sold in the earl's gourd.