Chapter 51 Appointment

The people of the White Dove Comptoir were very puzzled by the Romanovs' rash acceptance of Varankoff

The shrewd agents felt that a thin family was already in turmoil, and that the Varankov, who had taken over such a large stall and wanted bad things in the end, was not a good place, because it meant violence and turmoil, and these things were the things that could not attract the fortune of the White Dove Comptoir in the branch of Ivangelodes, while writing urgent letters to Gil and persuading the Count to abandon his plans

"Your Excellency Kalinin," said a Zen man in charge of the eastern affairs of the White Dove Chamber of Commerce, "Valankov is a disaster for businessmen, we don't put money in the water, a gold coin is placed elsewhere, and in the next year it can become two or more gold coins, but no matter how much money you spend, you can't fill that big hole in Valankov, and our caravan has been robbed by the Valans more than once, and the people there are extremely conservative, and outsiders are not allowed to open shops among them, When they really need something, they go outside and buy almost nothing but wheat, wine, and coarse linen, and their goods are armor and mercenaries, both of which, I suppose you know, are controlled by the Valans themselves."

"If you have to go to receive Varankov, then I'm afraid we won't be able to support you as comprehensively as we used to, because we can't squander our wealth, I really don't understand, there are so many businesses in the east, and receiving Varankov is probably the most money-losing one, why do you want to run there?"

"You mean you won't be giving me help anytime soon?" The Count asked rhetorically

"I'm afraid yes," the man nodded, "even if Mr. Jill had an order first, I'm afraid I'll only disobey my orders, I've been here for forty years, twenty of which have been driven around as a slave who can settle accounts, I know how this land works, Your Excellency, Mr. Jill saved me, so I have to be responsible for him, if you go to Varankov, we won't be able to fully support you as agreed, because this is your breach of contract first, I have read the contract, and it says' Anything that happens to the Romanovs must be resolved with the White Dove Firm, and it is clear that you have not heeded our advice on this matter."

"Hmph, that's a nice thing to say," said the count, "is it possible that the Romanovs have become subordinates of the White Dove Firm?" What do I have to negotiate with you? Do you tell me if something happens? It's amazing that what Jill promised me would be rejected by his men, even if I want to blame, I can't catch up on Jill's head, right? Because these are all done by his subordinates, and he has always been kind enough to help me."

"Your Excellency, there is no point in making too many associations," said the monotonous tone of the Zen master, which was the mark of his many years of life as a 'literate slave'

"Whatever you want," said the Count to the Zenda, "the first aid you will provide will have to wait for a year at the earliest, and by the time Alexei talks to you, you have already set the conditions, and for the current Romanovs, is there a difference between the aid to be given after a year and the interruption of aid?" ”

"Your Excellency, I'm sorry you say that."

"I don't see it," the count decided to interrupt the conversation, "you change the terms without permission, and then push all the problems to others, and after the threat doesn't work, say regrets or something like that, if all people think only about themselves, then the world is going to be broken, don't just look at the immediate benefits, Zenda, no matter if you interrupt the aid or whatever, I will still welcome you to come, but I tell you, the attitude of the Romanovs is not forever"

It seems that everything is looking a little bad: Ivangorod's gossip suggests that Varankov is a fire pit; And the Valans at the banquet honestly admit it; Now, even the only ally is ready to temporarily cut off aid

I haven't seen the Count show up for a few days, and the current situation is definitely not a good situation for the Count, there are hundreds of people waiting for the Count to lead them, and the pressure on the Count can be imagined

The Count always went to the Parliament to ask for more help

This kind of request has been made by many lords in the past, but the council has not passed it, because the two sides are always at odds with each other: the lords feel that the council gives too little, and the council feels that the lord asks too much for this contradiction to reconcile, and the council often demands that the lord must be sealed before he can receive all the aid, which scares off many people

This time, the count's situation was different, and the Duma council had to hold several meetings of the scale to discuss how to help the unjust lord, and this time the count's attitude made the council a little reassured: the count had a large number of lords and could not change the plan at will; The Earl has great respect for the Council, and will accept it as long as it helps, and does not pick and choose; In addition, the Valans in the city have been taken in by the Count, which is another good sign

In fact, at last point, after the feast, the Count set about it, and he ordered the men to vacate a few tents, and sent into the city by night to gather the Valans, and Tom was the best choice for the task, and he took a dozen peasants and drove their donkey carts into the city to look for the Valans, and they found the drunken Valans in the haystacks, and threw them in the carts; pay the wine bills for the Valans in the tavern, and take the detained from the cellar; At the door of the brothel, he waited patiently for the Valans to run out of money and buy their strength, and then take them home

Tom is very fond of the taste of the Valans, and the Valans like to tell very dirty jokes, but Tom knows almost a thousand of them, so they talk quite well, and Tom spends the earl's money very generously, pays their bills without hesitation, and brings everyone a large bag of Vekia wine, which makes the Valans look at Tom a little differently

In the past, the Valan people hated people like Tom very much, because this kind of person loves cleanliness and is crazy, and he wants to take a bath once a month, like the men of Valan, they usually only take a bath once a year on St. George's Day, but Tom told these Valan people that women will like it only if they bathe frequently, and if they have some money to bathe frequently, then women will almost go crazy for you

The Valans seemed to believe Tom's teachings, but when they saw that Tom was easily eye-to-eye with the brothel girl, they greatly admired Tom, and late that night, when Tom brought a group of Valans back to the camp, the Valans had already learned the song "Oak Grove" from Tom, and the men drank wine, rode in donkey carts, and sang songs, alarming the resting citizens in the streets along the way

The next day almost everyone knew that the Valans had followed the Count

The weather has begun to get cold, and when you get up at night, a layer of frost will rise on the ground, and you can exhale a white mist even if you exhale a slight breath, and it will be very warm when the sun hits your body around noon

The hunters had already carried bundles of skins to the city to do business, and some of the peasants had sent their own grain and coarse wine in exchange for some wintering things, and some of the inhabitants of the East Lake had sold a kind of planks that walked on the lake, which fascinated the Count, and the Count bought a few copies for the carpenters to study, and asked if they could be copied, and the carpenters soon reported to the Count that they could make as many as they needed with tools and materials

The golden wheat was piled up in half-open bags, the polished fruit was not as cheap as the dried fruit in the transparent cans, the wine made last year had become a fresh drink, the waxed leather coat was held in the hands of the fur merchants, and the whole of Ivangelod was filled with the smell of a harvest, and the count was doing his best to reap his aid in the council

In the end, the council gave a somewhat stingy aid package: twenty boxes of tools, a hundred large animals, enough grain for three months and nine thousand pieces of wood and enough firewood for three hundred people to survive the winter, and as for the gold subsidy requested by the count, the council pushed back, saying that all the people in the war had spent all the money, emptied their pockets for the country, and now there was no money at all, but the council said that in the next three years, if Varankov wanted to buy consumables, he could get the best price from Ivangorod

The Earl, of course, was not satisfied, and he visited the boyars and the representatives of the townspeople again and again, asking for their help, and at the same time in some of the taverns and brothels that Tom frequented, rumors began to circulate that the Burkes would cross the frozen East Lake in the winter to attack Ivangorod, and that if Valankov was sleepy, he would not be able to hold on to the edge of the East Lake, and at the same time this rumor made people believe that if the lord who came was sent to Ivangorod to take charge of everything, the situation would be much better

The news sent the commercial city into turmoil, and the city magistrate ordered the arrest of those who spread rumors in the tavern, which caused a wave of suspicion among the townspeople, who demanded that the Romanovs' demands be fulfilled as soon as possible to get to Varykov

In the end, after some bargaining, the Count obtained forty-four chests of tools, improvised armor sufficient to arm a hundred, more than two hundred inferior swords, two hundred bows of varying quality, a thousand bowstrings, nine thousand arrows, six hundred large iron and copper ingots, enough firewood and grass to sustain a winter, a large amount of grain, a whole pasture of cattle, sheep, mules and horses, and seeds for the next day, and the right to harvest a large area around Valankov, which had previously belonged to other towns

The boyars and the representatives of the townspeople gathered all these things, and the rags in the town warehouses were swept away, and the count even took with him dozens of blank parchments for bookkeeping, and the people began to say that the count was a locust, and that there was no grass in the places where he passed, and the count only laughed at the bad comments

The council-aided stuff was piled up on top of the station

As the date of receiving Valankov drew closer, the relationship between the Romanovs and the White Dove Chamber of Commerce took a sharp turn for the worse, and for a while the two sides could not even greet each other every day, although in front of outsiders, the Count was still close to the people of the White Dove Chamber of Commerce

After the aid was allocated, the town council would send men every day to urge the Count to take office, but the Count always politely sent the men away and left himself in the camp to attend to his business

Rumours spread again, and some clever townspeople pointed out that it was the council that had embezzled most of the aid given to the count, and that the count had trouble saying that the charge did not go because of his weakness, and that the council was so bad that they were simply joking with the fate of the town

Rumours were rampant in the autumn season, and soon led to a second arrest, and the council asked the Count himself to clarify this to the public, but the Earl said that it would be better for the council to do something for the public to see, "Gentlemen of the council, how can you allow foolish people to insult you at will?" Are you really greedy for the aid you have given me? Are you really stingy with that little bit of money? No, you ought to stand up and show your generosity, and let the ignorant ones see your determination."

The Count's suggestion was very reasonable and considerate, but it greatly annoyed the people in the Parliament, some said that the Count was a vampire from the West, and some said that the Count was a cunning wild dog, but no matter what nickname they gave the Count, as long as this bastard thing did not go to Valankov for a day, it would be difficult for the Parliament to live in peace, and some citizens even proposed to abolish this parliament and re-elect representatives, which was supported by many speculators

In this case, the parliament had to once again allocate a relief sum of three thousand rubles to the Romanovs, and at the same time, they allowed Count Kalinin to enter the boyar parliament as soon as he took office

For every day the Earl stays, the Council will give more things, and time is like the Earl's oil press, squeezing the Parliament's oil and water clean

In the end, the unbearable council issued an ultimatum that if the count did not go to Valankov, they would convene the council of Du and re-elect the lord

The Earl felt that the time was enough, and soon gave a clear answer to the council At the same time, the Earl recalled Tom, who had been spreading rumors in the front line of taverns and brothels, and the Earl patted Tom on the shoulder: "Hard work"

Most of the Romanovs will remain in Ivangorod and will be cared for by the White Pigeon Chamber and the Ivangorod Town Hall, while an advance party of about 100 people will be stationed in Valankov in the winter

The morning before leaving, the leaves of the birch forest fell to the ground as if it were raining

Kirov came to me and told me to get ready, I hurriedly finished my bread porridge and a handful of beans, and then got on my horse and ran to join the group

The Messiah did not accept my farewell, but I felt that as I rode away, she watched me from behind the window, and Kaja came, and she even gave me a pair of gloves, which she had bought herself and sewn in sheepskin, which were very ugly, but which I had to put in my bag

We walked around the camp, and those who stayed behind blessed us, waving their hands with tears in their eyes

The knights and servants of the earl carried bright banners, and we all changed into armor or leather coats, and someone gave me a huge infantry helmet, with wax on the helmet, just to look good

Our horsemen roared round Ivangelod, then turned east, and met the Valans who had been waiting for us for a long time at the gates

The horses' hooves were kicking, and we galloped through the birch forest and headed straight for Varykov