When the summer was hot, the merchants of the West came again, and five large ships came.

Lawrence rode a Dom sheep down the hill and met four captains and a knight in the town of Peumetheus.

The old knight Turaka was the first to take off his hat, bowed respectfully and said, "Merciful prophet, I have brought my family, please allow us to establish a manor on your land. ”

Lawrence said, "I have permission that when you farm this land, you will also serve me and pay taxes at the same time." ”

Turaka looked up and asked, "Yes, that's the way it should be, but we don't have much money to pay taxes right now." ”

Lawrence spoke well, "Wait until next year to pay your taxes, and I will provide you with seeds and farming tools so that you can set up camp safely in the village of Uger." ”

"In the first year, in addition to returning the new tools, grain, and land taxes, you will also need to pay a basket of wheat for military expenses."

"And I need to send two barrels of wine to the owner, so that I will allow you to raise pigs in the woods, and turn in 100 planks and 50 meters of fence every year."

"Before the winter comes, you are to turn in three chicks and fifteen eggs, to work if necessary, and to arrange for a woman to work on my estate for two months, so that you can get the temporary right to use the mill."

"It's just your family's taxes, and you're only going to have to pay those taxes until you get more land."

Tukara rejoiced: "Yes, thank you, merciful master, I will pay these taxes on time." ”

Wood, three chicks and more than a dozen eggs, as well as wheat and some manual work, these were already light.

As for the land tax, it was a tax that should have been, after all, it was for the lord to cultivate the land.

Lawrence got off the sheep's back and looked at the other three captains.

Hill, a merchant who had been here once, took the initiative to put down his hat, and the other two merchants also took off their hats, revealing their bald heads.

Hill said, "Prophet, we have brought the cattle you need, and they are very good black cows, with bulls and cows, and black and white cows. ”

Lawrence was very happy, "Very good! ”

Hill smiled, "These three are the big merchants of our Chamber of Commerce, the wool merchant Selip from the Bartley family, the wool merchant Mile Ji from the Kingdom of Glen, and the wine merchant Buffy from the Dureira Coast. ”

Lawrence took the initiative to greet and said, "It is a pleasure to meet you, merchants from afar, I am a prophet of the Church of the Stars, and I am very happy to hear that you are coming in five large ships, and I am willing to exchange with you. ”

Wine merchant Buffy said, "We are also glad to meet you, this time our five ships are from five different merchants, and one of the captains is Count Karp of the northern kingdom of Haisenli in Durela. ”

Lawrence wondered, "What about others?" ”

Buffy smiled and explained, "He's still on the ship, please forgive him, it's the first time he's been so far away." ”

Lawrence also smiled and said: "This is a normal thing, after all, there are many unfriendly people here besides me, and his decision is very correct, and I can understand it, so I hope we can trade amicably and build trust." ”

Hill explained, "Thank you for your understanding, merciful and forgiving prophet, but you will certainly like Count Karp, for he brought the ten oxen this time, and I brought grain, flax, and slaves. ”

Lawrence was very satisfied, "Then let's go to the port." ”

"Good!"

The four captains and the old knight readily agreed, and Lawrence also had the Bhumians send mounts and set off with a few escorts.

On the way, Buffy, a wine merchant, asked, "Prophet, I have brought four hundred barrels of wine this time, how much do you need here?" ”

Lawrence thought for a moment after hearing this, and laughed: "Of course I want it, in addition to Ao Runzhi powder and egg powder, I also have fine iron tools, farm tools, stone mills and copper blocks here." ”

Copper could be minted and relatively easy to process, which was a good thing for lords in feudal times.

Hill said, "I'm going to trade grain, flax, and slaves for Orunzhi powder, crow droppings, and egg powder, and iron tools too." ”

Two wool merchants also need these.

"We both needed the same things, mainly iron, playing cards, copper ore, beeswax, and wood, and this time we brought two thousand pieces of wool on both ships, all of which had just been sheared this year," said the wool merchant Selip. ”

"According to what we say there, it's twenty bags, but it's a little more."

Lawrence said, "Well, I'll take it, I'll see how much wool there is, and if it's about the same as the sheep we have here, I'm talking about ordinary sheep that are much smaller than domes." ”

"One serving is about the weight of three cans of wheat," Selip said. ”

After determining the criteria for sheep, Lawrence thought and said, "Then if there is no problem with each bag of wool, I can give the price of one pound of soy sauce per bag." ”

"The catty is our unit of weight here, about the same as the weight of a can of wheat."

"Soy sauce is our seasoning here, it can be kept for more than a year, it can make the food more delicious, it is a good aristocratic product, I have been eating this."

The two wool merchants consulted with each other, and after discussing it in their own language, they quickly determined the exchange ratio.

"Half for Aurunzhi powder and egg powder, crow droppings, and the rest for iron changers, copper ore, beeswax, and soy sauce."

"Me too."

Neither of the two wool merchants wanted to take any chances, so they only exchanged a small number of new goods for safety, mainly medicinal powders and health products needed by the nobles.

Raven droppings can be used for divination, as well as to ward off evil spirits and pray for good luck.

Because barbarians always like to take crows to sea, Westerners also find crows useful.

Lawrence couldn't afford to pay for five ships of iron, after all, he had to use it himself.

So in order to sell as many other goods as possible, Lawrence worked hard to sell fish soy sauce, playing cards, and stone grinding discs.

But these businessmen don't seem to be interested in this, either they have it, or they find it too troublesome to ask for it.

Lawrence said, "Do you want wood?" ”

Buffy, a wine merchant, said: "It needs to be ...... Well, it's about 500 pounds of wood, which is used to repair ships. ”

"Yes, I need some too." Hill said: "There was no problem with the last inspection on my ship, so this time I didn't need too much, two hundred pounds of wooden boards would do." ”

"My boat needs to go back as soon as possible, and several places were eaten by bugs during the last inspection, so this time I will repair it, and then go back as soon as possible to find a way to change to a big boat," Selip said. ”

Miji smiled, "My boat has just been repaired, please allow me to ask, what kind of wood is the wood here?" ”

Lawrence replied, "Pine, oak, fir and the rest of the wood." ”

Buffy smiled: "If you have oak, you don't need other wood, the oak in my hometown belongs to the king's private property, if I can buy some wood from here, I want to go back and earn more." ”

Lawrence has a lot of oak forests here, "I have a lot of oaks here, I can sell you oaks under fifteen meters, and I will sell higher oaks for more expensive." ”

Buffy said happily: "Yes! A ten-meter oak tree, which I could exchange for five barrels of wine. ”

Lawrence didn't know the exact price, although he knew that the merchant was definitely going to make a lot of money, but he didn't know how many times the other party had made money.

"Yes, everything has to be done slowly, now we don't have a lot of wood, and it takes a few days to transport and cut it."

Buffy quickly said: "Then next time, I'll overhaul the boat when I get back, and then bring some wine." ”

Lawrence nodded and asked, "Did you repair the ship because it hit a reef, or was it for some other reason?" Looks like they're all bothered by this. ”

Buffy sighed, "Our boat is always gnawed by some bugs, some boats will be bitten out of many big holes in a few years, and once I see those disgusting maggots, I know my ship is going to be destroyed!" ”

Lawrence soon realized why.

Boat maggots, or ship bugs.

It is a parasite in the sea that feeds on the mahogany of the seashore and the wood it encounters.

Once attached to the wood, it will burrow into it and breed, this kind of thing is hermaphroditic, and after burrowing into the wood, it will multiply and spread while eating the wood, and it will not go out until the hull is eaten clean.

They reproduce as fast as most parasites, can grow up to half a meter long, and are nightmare disgusting to most ships.

However, to the Wakiri and Lawrence, this thing is simply so cute!

This thing only eats the ships of the southerners, and the water in the north is cold, especially in the north and the ice sea, where the water can sometimes freeze, and it will all freeze to death after a few days.

The existence of ship bugs causes the ships built by the southerners to be easily damaged, the larger the ships, the easier they are to be damaged, and the money for the damage and scrapping of large ships will make every shipowner feel heartbroken, and the cycle will lead to even more people willing to build large ships.

Unless it is in the iron age, the ship of the southerners will not be able to beat the ship of the north.

Lawrence remained silent, not telling everyone exactly why or what to do.

"Believe me, friends, I'm not just going to sell you wood."

Lawrence took the initiative to say, "I will also bless your ships, and in the name of the Ravenfeather Prophet, order those ship worms to stay away from your ships." ”

"Of course, there is a fee." Lawrence's blessing is not free to use to heathen.

Hearing the name of the Raven Feather Prophet, several merchants were immediately in awe!

Buffy sat on the Dom sheep and raised his hands, "yes, look I forgot this, I damn I didn't notice our friend, the honorable Lawrence Raven Feather Prophet!" ”

The others were just as excited, it was the Crowfeather Prophet!

Those damn bugs, they're going to be eaten by crows!

Lawrence smiled calmly.

Are there crows on the beach?

No.

But there are quite a few birds on the beach!

Because of Mount Talim at sea, the nearby corrupt seagrass kills many small fish, and also attracts a large number of seabirds to be active in the vicinity.

These birds have strengthened the name of the Ravenfeather Prophet.

However, these birds are useless against ship bugs.

It's summer, and you can't freeze the ship insects when you come over, but whoever can come over in winter to send food and warmth is a true friend of the Raven Feather Prophet!

When the time comes, the true friend of the Ravenfeather Prophet will definitely not worry about the problem of ship bugs!

(End of chapter)