More than ten years ago, Richard and Jossen were both sons of barons, Richard's social status was higher, and Jossen was stronger.

At that time, Richard was not the first heir to the title of William, and Jossen was the illegitimate son of Viscount Blue Shield, let alone a name.

At that time, the Haaland family was a new nobleman, and they had not yet gained a firm foothold in the aristocratic circle, and the external environment was relatively dangerous, and the territory was in turmoil. The Langton family is a vassal of Duke Guise, and their connections and geographical location are stronger than those of the Harland family, and their strength is also stronger than that of the Harland family.

The real status difference between the two is not very big, and they are still in the same class.

More than ten years have passed, and the status of the two sides has been vastly different, and the classes have long been different.

Richard became the Earl of Haaland, ranking in the top ten in the Kingdom of Grant, and in addition to the king and duke, he held a few points of power stronger than the earls and marquises.

Even King Roger, Jonathan, Edward and other dukes had to write letters to communicate with Richard when dealing with major affairs in northern Xinjiang.

And Jossen's dependence on the previous generation of Baron Langton had already died of illness, and his brother Talon didn't care about him as an illegitimate son at all. Without the support of the aristocracy, Jossen has been reduced to a middle- and lower-class businessman. You can only mix food and clothing, anyone can handle it, and if you are not careful, you may lose your life.

Jossen knew in his heart that he had an old grudge against the Haaland family. The reason why he came to Haaland was actually to take refuge.

Jossen was Baron Langton's favorite illegitimate son, and despite being caught by William for his crimes, Baron Langton still paid a ransom worth 3,000 gold coins. Before Baron Langton died, he still left Jossen a fortune of two thousand gold coins.

After Baron Langton fell ill and died, Jossen lost his backer. Later, he stayed in Nolan to do business, perhaps with some talent in this area, and Jossen quickly seized the opportunity to hoard a large amount of grain in advance when the civil war broke out in Nolan, accumulating tens of thousands of gold coins.

In a feudal slave country like the Kingdom of Grant, the channels for ordinary people to rise are very narrow, and the only way to change their fate is to make military achievements and obtain knighthoods. Only by obtaining a hereditary title and gaining a firm foothold politically can economic interests be preserved.

Only by mastering the direct power can economic management guarantee profits.

The Kingdom of Grant is not a free-market economy, and doing business here is bound to be marked by bloody conflicts and rivalries.

Ordinary businessmen do not have the support of the nobility behind them, and the more they earn, the faster they die. After Jossen made his fortune, he soon got into trouble, and a court earl set his sights on his property.

An ordinary businessman is targeted by the aristocracy, and the outcome is self-evident. In order to keep his property, Qiao Sen could only decisively leave Nolan and flee with his wife and children's property.

But the court earl was still unwilling to let him go, and kept sending people to hunt down Qiao Sen. Jossen first fled to the province of Sodamia, and then fled to the province of Gascoigne with his identity revealed.

In the territory of the royal family, the court count was very influential, and the court count who fled twice was unwilling to let him go. In the process of escaping, seven or eight of the guards hired by Jossen twice also died, and his wife and eldest son also lost their lives.

The territory directly under the royal family cannot survive, and Qiao Sen can only go to the territory of the great nobles.

Of the great nobles of the Grant Kingdom, only the Harland family has the best food, and the officials in the territory are the fairest. It is also the most friendly to businessmen who come in from outside, and the ordinary people have the smoothest upward channel. Even for the sake of the future generations, Jossen can only choose Haaland.

Most crucially, Haaland's territory is very close to the province of Gascoigne.

Qiao Sen was originally born in the aristocratic circle, and he made a lot of money in business, and he was better informed than ordinary people. Two years ago, he received the news that the Haaland Territory was holding an exposition, that the ban on migration had been lifted, and that foreign freedmen were welcome, and he immediately decided to move into the Haaland Territory.

Before meeting Richard, Jossen took out a little money, bribed the manager, and used a fake identity to naturalize in King County and become a freeman in the county of Harland.

Qiao Sen is a wealthy man, and soon after becoming naturalized, he bought a property, a shop, and a family business, because he paid a lot of taxes every year, and was also recognized by King County officials.

It has actually been two years since Jossen moved into Haaland's territory. The time spent living in Haaland's territory was one of Jossen's happiest in recent years.

Today the fair opens, Johnson came to Fort William from King County in advance, ready to walk around the streets to see if there is any business to do? He never expected to be so unlucky to be recognized by Richard on the street.

With the current social status of the two, as long as Richard shows a little malice, the whole family of Qiao Sen will be in a catastrophe, including his newly married wife and the children who are waiting to be fed. There was no need for Richard to speak, as long as the officials below knew that he was presiding over the attack, they would spontaneously trouble Qiao Sen and ask for his life.

Seeing Qiao Sen's face frightened, kneeling on the ground and constantly kowtowing and begging for mercy, Richard waved his hand and said: "When you robbed the Harland family's caravan, because you paid the ransom, my father William decided not to trouble you anymore. The Haaland family are nobles who value honor and will not punish you twice for the same crime. But in my heart, people like you are not welcome, I solemnly warn you, you must keep to yourself, operate with integrity, don't cause trouble for yourself, since you have come to Haaland, you must be a law-abiding citizen. ”

Seeing that Richard's words did not investigate his own meaning, Qiao Sen hurriedly got up and bowed respectfully to Richard.

"Dear Earl, I swear to you that I will abide by the law and operate with integrity. I sincerely thank you for your forgiveness, for your heart as vast as the sea, for your morals as high as that of a saint, and for your magnanimity to be forever praised. ”

Richard knew in his heart that the reality of the Dawn plane was that there were very few law-abiding businessmen. Especially businessmen who have a big business, relying on the support of the aristocracy behind them, like to monopolize the market by violence and kill competitors. After all, no commercial means are as effective as violently destroying the flesh of a competitor. It is impossible to maintain peace unless you meet businessmen with the same background and check and balance each other.

Rockefeller commanded mercenaries to massacre striking miners, and the DuPont family sent their rivals' families on dirt planes, blew up rivals' gunpowder factories, and placed them among the merchants of the Dawn plane, all of whom were law-abiding and civilized.

The same is true for the merchants, and the same is true for the merchants. After the caravan enters the castle, it may also obey the law, and when it comes to the deserted wilderness, it is also very common to kill people and steal goods.

In reality, the vast majority of people in business have their lives in their hands.

Even small businessmen who roam the countryside and walk the streets are engaged in a work that carries a high level of risk. If you go to an unfamiliar area, you can easily lose your life.

In order for business to flourish, it is essential to maintain market order.

The core of maintaining market order is to strictly enforce laws and regulations.

After the ban on Haaland's territory was lifted, Richard increased the number of vigilantes and issued decrees to protect the fairness of commercial trade.

Anyone who commits a crime in Haaland's territory will be punished very harshly, even if it is a caravan of the royal family and the ducal family, the punishment in Haaland's territory will not be merciful.

There were once members of the Grant family branch who killed and robbed people in Harland's territory, and as a result, all the caravans were arrested and hanged, even if someone got the letter of intercession from the nobles of the royal capital, Richard did not give face at all.

The royal family is still like this, and the face of other nobles is even less useful on Richard's side.

By setting an example and setting an example, the impression of harsh and just laws in Haaland's territory has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

Because of the harsh laws, the benefits are disproportionate to the risks, and in Haaland's territory, there is basically no dare to do things that bully the market and kill people and sell goods.

Even the caravans from other places have reined in their minions, after all, they can't avoid aerial reconnaissance and can't beat the Warcraft cavalry.

The better the decree is implemented, the more the Haaland territory can be affirmed by the merchants, and the influence of the commodity fair will be greater. The first two commodity fairs were basically the nobles and merchants of northern Xinjiang, and from the third commodity fair, merchants and nobles from the east, west, and south began to pour into the Haaland territory. There were even quite a few foreigners who had arrived from the Grand Duchy of Starnik.

Through the channel of the Church of Fortune and the Watson family, the trade volume of the Harland territory exported to the Grand Duchy of Starnik increased by seven or eight times. By this year, 76,000 gold coins had been exported.

Many nobles of the Grand Duchy of Starnik, unwilling to be second-hand dealers, were exploited by large channels such as the Church of Fortune and the Watson family, and jointly formed a large-scale caravan and began to trade in the territory of Haaland.

The Commodities Fair was held for 12 days, and the export volume reached a new high, an increase of 40 percent over last year, reaching 140,000 gold coins. There are a lot of lucrative goods in it, and it makes very high profits for Haaland's territory.

The import value is also very impressive, with a total of 110,000. Among them, 10,000 gold coins are various mineral raw materials, 100,000 gold coins are slave trade, in just 12 days, 20,000 slaves have been purchased in the Harland territory, counting the displaced people who have migrated to the territory because of the plague, the population that has entered the Harland territory this year has been 70,000.

Of the 70,000 people, 4,000 were freedmen who moved into the Harland Territory on their own initiative, these people were small merchants, craftsmen, losers in the political struggle of the aristocratic territory, many of them were literate and professional, and a few carried a large amount of money, all of whom were very high-quality immigrants.

Circling the streets, Richard went straight to the intelligence department.

"George, can you find someone to check on Jossen's situation and see who he has offended?"

"Yes, Count."

Although I don't know who Jossen is, George is a person who is engaged in intelligence work, and he has subjective initiative in doing things. He first looked for Richard's guards and figured out what happened today from the side. Then he found his brother Hayden and asked who Jossen was.

Hayden was also a witness to that incident back then, the ransom he asked for personally, and of course he knew who Jossen was. After figuring out Josson's situation through Hayden, George quickly found the man. He analyzed Richard's meaning, and saw that Richard was unwilling to find a back account to pursue Qiao Sen, so he investigated the inside story of Qiao Sen's migration to Haaland's territory from the side.

"It's Steven, Earl of the Court, who has his eye on Jyosen."

George arrives at Richard's mansion and reports that Jossen has fled to Haaland's territory.

Hearing this name, even Richard's expression was a little solemn. Because Steven is a heavyweight in the royal capital, the commander of the palace guard, and King Roger held this position before he was knighted, which shows the importance of Steven's status.

This person is a member of the Grant family, and his bloodline talent is very good, and he is now a ninth-order knight. There are now seven court counts in the Grant royal family, and Steven is the most important one.

"How much information do we have about Steven?"

George had a good memory, and he made preparations in advance before the report, and immediately replied: "Most of it is public information, we only know that this person is very talented, and he is a person trained by Duke Breener." ”

Richard squinted his eyes and suddenly said, "Is Steven a greedy person?" ”

George nodded: "A few years ago, Steven was not a greedy person, but since King Roger entrusted him with important tasks, Steven has been particularly ruthless to merchants in Nolan, and there are some rich people who have no political backing, and he has ruined their families." In the mouths of the citizens of the royal capital, Steven has become a man covered in filth and with a bad reputation. The shift was somewhat abrupt, and may have been deliberately exhibited by Steven. ”

"On the surface, it looks fine, but I always feel like there's something behind it. You still have to keep an eye on Qiao Sen, he is a middle-level professional, and he has a very high vigilance, you must plan well when you are watching, and don't get too close. My intuition told me that there should be something behind Joason's back, otherwise Steven wouldn't have been staring and sent people to attack Jossen twice. ”

"Although Steven has the Grant family bloodline, he is actually from a very low background and does not have many people to trust. I also don't think he would have sent someone to attack Jyossen several times just because of some money. ”

Today, the army and intelligence services in Haaland's territory are equipped with a large number of monoculars.

Equipped with telescopes for the military, whether it is tracking or reconnaissance, it has become easier. As long as Jossen was not a person with extraordinary eyesight and acquaintance with Ruiz, it was impossible to find someone staring at him on the windowsill two kilometers away.

After arranging the affairs of Jossen, the trade fair was held very successfully.

After entering October, the Steam Engine Research Institute continued its efforts and successfully manufactured three steam engines using red rubber seals.

These three steam engines are all used in coal mines to pump water, and the workload of each steam engine exceeds fifteen miners, and the power of the machines is already looming, and the productivity is about to usher in a leap forward.

In addition to pumping, Richard asked the Institute of Mechanical Research to allocate manpower to study textile machinery, grinding machinery, and conveyor machinery powered by steam engines.

(End of chapter)