Circassian summer, William's room. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

This summer's temperature is as high as the enthusiasm for the Crusaders. The drought caused by the high temperatures caused a reduction in wheat production to a certain extent, followed by famine, then desertion, displacement, and pestilence......

According to the rumors of the merchants, there were no more people in the interior of the empire. Those people either starved to death or became outcasts.

In this way, this year, the Knights' export business for the displaced people in the large border area has been upgraded to a higher level again...... Although the craze of the crusaders was in full swing. But for the Gothic knights who were on the Empire's soil, it didn't have much to do with them......

At first, after hearing about the success of the crusade, many Gothic knights who stayed in the country were quite excited. I feel like it's time to run.

Although they did not make it to the first batch, they felt that by virtue of the Crusaders' connection with the Gothic Order, they could happily join in the feast of the partition of Ruthenia as long as they negotiated their intention of cooperation with West Brandt.

However, they were disappointed.

Sibeland has never been a generous person, nor has he ever been a smart person. Soon, the Gothic Knights received the latest news that their lieutenant had "betrayed" the Gothic Order. His followers and his knights were reorganized into a new Martial Order called the Knights of the Holy Sword of Ruthenia and Pillm.

The new Order, known simply as the Knights of the Holy Sword, controlled a large area of territory south of Ruthenia and Pilm. At the same time, it has an armed force of almost fifty thousand. The self-proclaimed Grand Master of Siberland's status and power were much stronger than those of the Gothic Knights, who were struggling on the Empire's soil.

In this way, the Gothic knights severed ties with Sibeland. At the same time, out of anger and jealousy of the Knights of the Holy Sword, the noble crusaders of Ruthenia and the north of Pyrm also refused to accept the Gothic knights. In this way, the Crusader path of the Gothic knights was completely blocked.

The Church of Rome also did a good job in this matter. Pope Pius IV made a public statement endorsing the Knights of the Holy Sword, while denouncing the Gothic Knights who remained within the empire as cowards and hypocrites. In this way, Pius IV made overtures to Sibeland, hoping to gain the support of the rising Grand Master in order to save the Roman Church from its declining predicament.

That's it. The days of the Gothic knights became quite sad. And after cutting off the crusaders' dream of making a fortune, they can only obediently do their old job. That is, to transport a large number of displaced people to the large border areas.

Some of these outcasts joined the Crusaders and became cannon fodder, as well as serfs of the noble knights of the Crusaders. for the reclamation of abandoned land in Ruthenia and Pyrm. The other part was included in William's bag.

The Duchy of Mystia, which had made a lot of war money, entered a period of rapid development. On the day of the summer of 1747, William inspected the new pasture. A look at the condition of the Romanov sheep.

Accompanied by Paul, the ranch manager, William inspected the sheep - a flock of about 200 sheep at the time of introduction had grown into a medium-sized herd of more than 500 sheep after a year of breeding.

"We checked the condition of the sheep. Excellency. Then castrate those rams that are not of good breed. Only the best, the best sheep with the best wool quality are left to be used as breeding sheep. This ensures that the wool quality of the next generation of sheep becomes even better. And we're also trying to figure out a way to do it with the merchants of Asturias, Ottoman, and Briton. Although it is very difficult. But we still managed to get a few good breeds of sheep from their country. I assure you, Your Excellency. Just give me another year and we can do better. ”

Paul stayed by William's side, hunched slightly, looking cowering and agitated at the same time.

"I've checked your accounts and I've seen the ranch. William smiled and said to Paul, "You're doing a good job." In the recent pasture, I have acquired more pastures and am preparing to set up a livestock department. If you work hard, maybe you have a certain competitiveness in the position of minister of this ministry. ”

After hearing William's "promise", Paul's face flushed with excitement: "Yes, thank you, great earl. I will, I will, I promise you. ”

That's it, William completed his inspection of the new ranch. In the last few days, he has also seen several new pastures like this. The best of these is this ranch that Paul manages. This made William secretly glad that he had indeed picked up a treasure by accepting this guy before.

But, of course, a few hundred sheep may be a great asset for a rich man. But for a person who actually controls a principality, nothing is enough...... The development cycle of animal husbandry is much longer than that of crop farming. So by now, although the Duchy of Mestia has also begun to produce wool, butter, and leather goods in small quantities. But this amount is still too small. It is completely unable to impact the existing market and affect the economy of the principality. It could not support the textile industry that William envisioned.

"So, cotton is better than wool...... It's just that the climate in the Duchy of Mystia is not at all suitable for growing cotton...... In fact, on this side of the human world, I have never seen any country that has grown cotton on a large scale, no, it should be said, I have not even seen cotton fields. Damn it. William thought to himself:

"Look at it in this parallel world. There should be three cotton producing areas now, one is India in the far east, and the other is the New World far away from the ocean. There is also a more distant dragon country. It doesn't fit anywhere...... Forget it, in a short period of time, temporarily give up cotton textiles, and still take wool textiles as the development goal. William thought to himself, sighing secretly.

In addition to the breeding of sheep and dairy cows. For the breeding of war horses, it is the top priority. In fact, William spent at least twice as much on horse breeding as he spent on the first two.

Thousands of horses are being bred and cared for with the best and most care at various horse farms. Lots of alfalfa, multigrain feed, soybean cake...... The wide plains and the border Goths, who were good at horse herding, made William's horse breeding industry flourish.

Whenever the situation permitted, William was able to arm thousands of traditional cavalry in the shortest possible time. And two new cavalry regiments were provided for the Forces nouvelles.

That's it, the Duchy of Mystia is thriving. William also became involved in banking and animal husbandry. However, the real pillars of the principality are still the grain and oil crops. And this situation is not going to change anytime soon.

William is constantly trying to find ways to increase the sown area of oil and grain crops in the Duchy of Mystia. The acquisition of estates in Mazovia, as well as the acquisition of displaced people from the empire itself, were all methods of William's work.

As long as weather conditions permit. Then during the autumn harvest, the production of grain and oil crops in the Duchy of Mystia

To make matters worse, deep in the interior of the principality, there is no outlet to the sea.

This is one of the reasons why William was eager to intervene in the United Province of Polotsk, which has the most developed commercial city on the coast of Polotsk, the most developed market, and the registration of thousands of merchant ships of all kinds. The fastest and most convenient way for the Duchy of Mystia to develop further explosively is to intervene in the neighboring Polotsk United Voivodeship.

Of course, this way of "meddling" needs to be cautious. The merchants of the Polotsk Union Province were very sensitive to outsiders, especially the "aristocracy". If one is not careful, it will cause a war between the two sides.

And in this case, intervening in Polotsk by purely commercial means has become the most convenient and safest tactic.

It's like what was said above. William is massively shorting the Crusaders. And after the failure of the Crusaders. The Polotsk merchants, who were too closely connected with the Crusaders, had to, and had to, transfer their markets to the heirs of the Duchy of Mystia.

It's just that it's not enough - yes, it's not enough. After thinking about it carefully, William felt that if it were a normal loss of business loans, it would not be enough to deal a fatal blow to the merchant and burgher class in Polotsk. He needed more, better, and more powerful weapons to plunder, to destroy, to weaken Polotsk's power. So that in the event of a reshuffle of Polotsk in the future, he will be able to get more.

That's it. In Polotsk, a new "investment business" began.

William, through his agents, began to sell development shares to Polotsk businessmen. He named the stock the sacred bond of the Crusaders - the object of this investment, which was, of course, the war dividends of the Crusaders.