In this letter, the Earl of Conlehill said that the princess did not specify how much food should be sent to Locking because of the high cost of spell communication, so he was prepared to take advantage of Lockin in the process.

He was going to hand over to Luo Ming a full 550,000 catties of grain, which was almost the amount of grain that could be expropriated on 10,000 acres of land, and even if he was ready to snatch the peasants' seeds and all the rations and starve them to death, it would take at least more than 5,000 mu of arable land.

This was much more than the amount that Luo Ming asked the princess for, but the Earl was going to ask Luo Ming to write a receipt for a larger amount—that he had received 700,000 catties of grain.

In this way, the earl will be able to pay less taxes and money in kind to the central government of the country this year, which is equivalent to 150,000 catties of grain.

There was a lot of money and a lot of money, but at the same time, there was a freight left—shipping so many things to Login was completely different from shipping to Brandon, and the freight was definitely not to be underestimated.

After reading the letter, Luo Ming's face couldn't help but twitch twice.

Didn't this just take kickbacks and reimburse more? I thought that your earl was a tyrant, but who knew that you were also such a corrupt villain?

But after thinking about it, he felt that this statement was wrong: the count and himself were in fact semi-independent regimes, and although they were subordinate to the central government, they also harbored their own ambitions.

If Luo Ming obtains the royal power of the principality, he will definitely remediate these local hills.

But now that his revolution has not yet succeeded, and it is only a small hill in the locality, it will be suppressed by the forces of the central government if it is not careful, so this kind of behavior of digging into the corners of the central wall should not only not be opposed, but should also be vigorously supported.

Anyway, the earl knows that his strength is very strong, and he will not be an enemy of him for the time being.

Thinking like this, he no longer hesitated and agreed to the request.

However, he took up the pen and attached a last clause at the end of the letter: "In the name of Your Excellency, help me purchase 2,000 kilograms of iron, or directly give me 1,600 kilograms of iron farming tools, you can send them in batches, and I will pay the price according to the price, and pay the freight and transit fees." ”

In fact, even if he gave Luo Ming iron farming tools, he would directly return some of them to the furnace to make steel, but adding the latter sentence was a misleading way for the earl - it seemed that Luo Ming needed iron for the development of agriculture, and he would not think about armor for a while.

Although the Earl has signed some treaties with him, the Count will not promise that he will not divulge any of his information, and some things will not be hidden for the time being.

After all, there is a difference between intimacy and intimacy, although the Count is friendly or even barely an ally, but he is less reliable than many allies, and those allies are lower than Luo Ming's henchmen, Granty knows more than the average person, and Ariana and her deity, Aya...... Naturally, there will be different levels of intelligence control.

With such a grain income, Luo Ming does not have to worry about food for the time being, which also allows him to spare more people to carry out various tasks.

Of course, he was still more cautious, he didn't plan to be a moonlight clan, but first set aside a part of the grain as a forgiveness just in case, and then used the saved food to start planning how to use people.

In the end, he only sent fifteen men to build a simple stronghold on the north side of the mountain, and then sent another twenty-five men, thirty male slaves (not to omit the word "of") to dig the mines, and ten soldiers to provide guardianship and protection.

The first phase of the mine does not need to be too large, just dig out the outermost part of the iron ore first.

Speaking of slaves, some of the female slaves had already been sold by Luo Ming to rich peasants in the territory, or soldiers who had been saving up their military salaries and had not spent much - Luo Ming gave priority to collecting grain, so he recovered a small batch of grain.

Luo Ming used to promise that when he was a soldier, he would be more likely to marry a wife and live a good life, which was a small part of the promise fulfilled in advance and set an example for more soldiers.

It doesn't matter if the woman is bought back to be a wife or a maid, Luo Ming just drew a red line: she can be a servant, but she can't be killed or injured casually, if she gives birth to a child, she can apply for a childcare fund from the relevant departments to raise the child, or send the child to a designated department for adoption by the government.

This can be regarded as some preparations made by Luo Ming in advance, in the future, he will definitely have a chance to win the battle and capture the slaves and come back, the male ** Li can be thrown into the mines and sweatshops, and the female ** Li If she is just bought home and abused, it is better to give birth to some children to contribute to the birth rate.

If a child is born who is mistreated and wants to take revenge on society, it will only add to the chaos, but if they can grow up healthy, they can become useful people to society and contribute to the construction of imperialism.

Although this is a long-term investment, it will take at least ten years to see the return, but those female ** subordinates will give birth to children at least after this autumn harvest, and then Luo Ming will have more food, and he will not worry about this payment.

Luo Ming is planning to create a country, and last year he drew up a "five-year plan."

If nothing else, he can live for at least eighty or ninety years, and after his cultivation is promoted, he can continue for a long time, and even become a god, he can continue to the point where the sun and the moon live together, and the life span of the country is probably not too short - then, how can he not take a long-term view?

Of course, this is not in conflict with the beginning of a journey of a thousand miles, Luo Ming is still very careful to balance between long-term investment and short-term returns, both hands must be grasped, both hands must be hard, the amount of investment with long-term returns is limited, and it is not enough to occupy too many resources urgently needed at the moment, so it can be said that there is no conflict.

After a few more days, the caravan sent to the northwest to find the Silk Tea Road finally returned to the foot of the mountain.

The goods they brought with them were mainly spirits and fur coats made of the furs of wild beasts in the mountains, as well as small quantities of perfume, paper, and soap for market testing.

The weather in the north is colder, and people generally like stronger wines, so they were sold at a good price, and the leather clothes sold well - originally Luo Ming planned to sell the fur directly, but after Aya's warning, he specially found women who were good at sewing and weaving in the territory to process it into clothes, and sure enough, it was sold several times the price.

It's no wonder that the tribes in the mountains used to say that they were exploited by profiteers, and the price could be doubled several times just by this process.

As for those small things such as perfumes, most of them can be sold smoothly, at most, they may not be able to sell at a high price - but no matter whether the price is high or low, it is actually above the cost price, and Luo Ming still has to make money. Next time, adjust the proportion of goods according to this result.