Iron Powder and Spellcaster

Tiefeng County, Jevaudan.

Do you want to sell the head tickets? This problem troubles almost every Tiefeng County militiaman.

The militiamen with greater merit are more entangled, and Ivan is among them.

"Sell it." Aksiniya hugged her youngest son and begged her husband: "Sell at least one piece?"

Ivan didn't speak, just stared at the five heads of tickets lined up on the table.

Regardless of the value assigned to it, the head ticket is actually an ordinary piece of parchment with a decree and number printed on it. The only special thing is probably the lacquer seal and signature of the tribune of Montagne.

The more Ivan looked at it, the more incredible it became that such an ordinary piece of paper could actually represent such a huge amount of wealth.

"But to whom will it be sold?" Ivan said hesitantly: "How many gold coins will it be sold for?"

Aksinya sat opposite her husband holding her sleeping child, her voice trembling: "I just feel scared."

What is Aksinya afraid of? Are you afraid of some people with evil intentions? Or are you simply afraid of wealth? She couldn't tell either.

"I want to wait for the life to stabilize and exchange these few heads of tickets for real land." Ivan bit his nails and poured out his true feelings to his wife: "We can go to the countryside to become rich farmers, and we no longer have to stay in the city. I can’t live a day or a day in this life—I don’t want to swing my sword anymore.”

"But when will we be able to settle down?"

"I don't know either."

"I am afraid."

"Then... I'll go out and ask tomorrow." Ivan put away the five heads of tickets and carefully hid them behind the shrine: "Who is willing to buy them?"

…

Conversations similar to the one between Mr. and Mrs. Ivan happened in Gevaudan and even throughout Tiefeng County. In some cases, conversations even turned into quarrels and violence.

When the Ivans fell asleep with uneasiness and anxiety, Winters was taking Mr. Leo to visit the printing workshop, and little Priskin was also there.

The county government printing workshop used a classic Gutenberg printing press. In order to meet the special needs of printing announcements, a set of oversized lead type was specially cast.

Winters picked up a newly printed announcement. After checking that it was correct, he handed it to Mr. Leo with a smile: "Tomorrow, this announcement will be posted. You are about to leave Tiefeng County, so please take a look. One glance.”

"Thank God." Leo took the announcement: "It's done."

"It's all your credit." Winters thanked Mr. Leo.

"It's just tinkering." There was no trace of pride on Leo's face. He lowered his head slightly: "There's no credit for it."

Little Priskin could not suppress his inner curiosity and secretly glanced at the newly printed announcement.

The entire announcement is about one thing - head tickets.

…

When he first implemented the first-level merit system, Winters didn't think too much about it and only used it as a temporary incentive measure.

After all, the Terdun barbarians who invaded Tiefeng County only had more than 10,000 heads, so it was no big deal to exchange them all for land and send them out.

However, after the two policies of "free buying and selling" and "replacing heads as certificates" were introduced, the nature of the head coupons changed.

It became a reservoir and a powder magazine, a thorn in the side for Winters.

In addition to the speculators in Iron Peak County, there was another person who was very interested in the head coupons - Fernando Leo.

Leo observed Winters' decision-making with great interest. After learning enough, he found Winters and had an in-depth conversation.

Leo rarely beat around the bush and asked straight to the point: "I want to know why you want to replace the physical head with a paper voucher? Paper vouchers are much easier to forge than human heads."

"There's no reason." Winters laughed: "The militiamen are selling their heads too cheaply. I can't stand it, so I want to raise the price of the heads."

"So that's it." Leo showed no emotion.

"That was the case at that time." Winters decided to tell Leo truthfully: "Now I have some new ideas. I think...head coupons may be used as a tool to raise funds."

"How to raise funds?"

"As far as I can see, the vast majority of people who purchase the coupons do not intend to actually exchange the coupons for land." Winters expressed his immature thoughts with a slight embarrassment: "They regard it as a A commodity that can add value.”

Business is an area that Winters knows nothing about. He is eager to get guidance from senior businessmen: "If possible, I would like to use all the unsold land in Iron Peak County as collateral to issue bonds - just like Marshal Ned used to do. That way.”

Leo listened carefully and asked, "Why do you want to issue bonds?"

"Because there is no money." Winters spread his hands: "Tiefeng County needs money everywhere, but there is nothing in the treasury."

Leo was not polite at all: "If you want the value of the head coupon to be linked to the price of the land, then I can tell you now - you are playing with fire."

"Why?"

"Land is not gold, and its value will fluctuate. The current land price in Tiefeng County is stable because the new land reclamation army has rigidly set the price. It also strictly controls the supply and artificially raises the land price." Leo pointed to his feet and asked Said: "What do you think a head ticket is?"

Winters followed Leo's train of thought and answered: "Land?"

"That's right." Leo dissected the underlying logic of the head coupon bit by bit: "The head coupon is not a piece of paper, it is one hundred acres of land. Every transaction is equivalent to one hundred acres of land changing hands."

Leo's fat face was a little red: "You linked the head coupons to the land, which in disguise reduced the difficulty of land buying and selling, leading to an increase in the liquidity of the land.

Prior to this, all land sales had to go through the New Reclamation Corps. What now? Land sales have become a matter of "paying money with one hand and paying coupons with another hand", and the new land reclamation army will no longer set the price.

What's more, the sudden increase of thousands of head tickets on the market means that you can put hundreds of thousands of acres of land into the market in one go. I am not being alarmist. When the people of Tiefeng County wake up, the price of land in Tiefeng County will plummet, and all the landowners in Tiefeng County will become your enemies. "

When he first listened, Winters frowned because Leo mentioned issues that he had never considered.

But when he heard Leo's serious warning, "You are going to crash the land prices in Tiefeng County," Winters' eyebrows suddenly widened.

"Wait a minute." Winters asked with a smile: "Are you saying that if the capitation coupons continue to be implemented, land prices will fall? Will it make land sales easier?"

"Of course!" Leo didn't know why, but he still explained patiently: "Just like a fabric merchant suddenly takes out hundreds of thousands of woolen materials, the price of woolen materials on the market will naturally fall."

Winters nodded and his expression became more relaxed: "Then I can feel a little more at ease."

Leo simply couldn't make sense with the self-taught wild boar economist: "Your Excellency Montagne—all the landowners in Iron Peak County will regard you as their enemy."

"I know." Winters considered the pros and cons: "But it will be smaller than the resistance caused by direct distribution of land. The manor owner will be dissatisfied, but more people will become my allies, so I am not very afraid. "

Leo was speechless and asked: "Then have you ever thought about it, suppose the landlords buy a large number of head coupons, and you want to give land to the poor, but the land ends up in the hands of the landlords?"

Winters was stopped by the question and kept silent for a long time. He grabbed Mr. Leo's hand and said, "Then I need you to help me find a way to avoid this situation from happening."

…

The next day, Ivan got up very early. He planned to find an acquaintance of the Sheriff and ask who was buying the head coupons.

After leaving the house, he wrapped himself in his clothes and walked to the other end of the city.

Passing by the square, he saw many people gathered in front of the bulletin board. It was just dawn at this time, so there wouldn't be many people going out.

Driven by curiosity, Ivan walked towards the square.

Most of the people crowded around the signboard were illiterate, but that didn't matter, the city clerk was shouting at the top of his lungs.

Ivan stood outside the crowd and listened for a long time, and roughly understood two things:

First of all, the county government must start clearing the land and cash the polls to anyone who wants to cash them as soon as Corpus Christi next year;

Secondly, the county government will issue smaller denominations of capitation coupons to gradually replace the current capitation coupons.

Hearing this, Ivan stamped his feet and prepared to go home. He has no plans to sell his head tickets for the time being, because one head ticket now is equivalent to one hundred acres, and Ivan will feel distressed every time he sells one.

He is not in a hurry to use money, so he plans to exchange it for a smaller denomination of head coupons and then sell them as needed.

…

Tiefeng County, Manyun Valley.

The mayor of Manyungu originally thought that Tamas's cavalry was all the "bridge-building soldiers".

It wasn't until he discovered that Tamas had circled a huge camp that could accommodate thousands of people that he realized how wrong he was.

As Plato enters the depths of winter step by step, there are almost no pedestrians on the road. But the road between Jevaudan and Manyun Valley was unnaturally busy.

Since the cavalry arrived in Manyun Valley, armed escort convoys have been coming from Jevaudan for several days.

From morning to night, the townspeople could hear the harsh grinding sound of heavily loaded carriages.

Tamas kept his promise. After the fort was completed, he immediately led people to cut down trees and build a pontoon bridge.

Fear lingered in the mind of the mayor of Manyun Valley, and he secretly speculated: "With so much baggage coming, is there going to be another war?"

The mayor is not the only smart guy in Manyun Valley, and news of the war spread like wildfire. For a time, people were panicked, and many wealthy households even went out at night to escape the disaster and went to seek refuge with relatives.

"What's this?" Tamas couldn't laugh or cry: "Should we call everyone together and explain it?"

"Explain what?" Moreau put down the graphite strip and said impatiently: "The more you explain, the more they don't believe it. They are just idle at home in the winter with nothing to do, and they talk endlessly when they encounter something interesting... a war. ? How do they know what fighting is like..."

As he spoke, Moreau realized that he had spoken too much, so he suddenly stopped and continued to immerse himself in drawing.

"You can't blame them. First they levied grain, then they levied men, and they fought with Baishan County and then with the Hed people. They never stopped." Tamas said with emotion: "If I were a common person in Manyun Valley, I would Also scared.”

Moreau continued drawing, ignoring Tamas. After a while, he said coldly: "You are no longer a civilian... When will the people from Baishan County arrive?"

"tomorrow."

"Tell your people to stop being lazy and get the pontoon bridge done quickly."

The next day, the Baishan County army arrived on the other side of the river, causing panic in Manyun Valley.

Tamas had to come forward to explain the situation and appease everyone, but with little success.

The actions of the Baishan County army were surprisingly consistent with those of Tiefeng County: they first built a fort on the river bank and then started to build a bridge.

The floating bridge runs east to west and was completed earlier than planned.

…

The person in charge of Baishan County is an engineer lieutenant named [Woods]. He is not tall and speaks in a gentle manner. He does not have the kind of vagueness that Tamas often feels in "officer students". arrogant.

"Tamas." Woods really didn't know how to address the other person. After thinking about it again and again, he chose the one that was unmistakable: "Mr."

Tamas nodded, showing his body language that he was listening.

"About the thousand horses you agreed to return..."

"Don't worry, there won't be one missing."

"I believe the quantity is definitely no problem." Woods looked at the horses, his brows knitted tightly: "It's just that the ones you kidnapped were Palatumas, and these horses - if I read it correctly - are Hede horses. Bar?"

In front of them, the horses foraging for food were generally one to two punches shorter than Woods's mount.

Moreover, the horse's condition was not good either. Its belly was flat and its ribs were protruding one by one.

Tamas was a little ashamed and scratched his head: "You don't know something. The war horses we got from your county were exhausted and died of illness. There are really only a few of them left. We only have these captured Hede horses now. You Look, isn’t it that I’m riding a Hed horse?”

As he spoke, Tamas patted the mount's neck.

"Then why are those war horses used as cargo..." Woods pointed to another group of horses in the distance.

The group of horses in the distance were obviously larger than the Hed horses in front of them.

Tamas rushed to speak: "We must give priority to the best war horses as goods, otherwise it will cause you to suffer losses? Return or return, a transaction is a transaction. The two things cannot be confused, and the two groups of horses cannot be confused. They can’t be mixed together.”

Woods bent his riding crop and asked, "Does Colonel Gesar know about this?"

"Of course I know." Tamas patted his chest and assured: "Your Excellency Montagne has obtained Colonel Geza's understanding."

Woods' expression became increasingly strange: "When Captain Montagne obtained the colonel's forgiveness... was the colonel conscious?"

"This...I don't know about this."

After Woods repeatedly confirmed that Colonel Gesar knew about the matter, he sighed helplessly: "So be it. Think about it from another perspective, no matter how much you spit out, we still make money."

"You have already confirmed the war horse." Tamas put away his smile: "Where are our people?"

"It's on the other side. I'll bring it to you in a minute. It's good to eat and drink, and I haven't lost a single tooth." Woods took out his notebook from his arms: "Now, we can talk about other business."

…

The civilians of Manyun Valley were shocked to find that not only did the "rebels" and the Baishan County army not fight, but there seemed to be some kind of tacit understanding, each stationed at the bridgehead, and no one crossed the Anya River.

Townspeople with relatives on the other side tried to apply for a pontoon bridge pass from the army, but the answer was, "Anyone can use the pontoon bridge as long as they do not carry weapons."

The panic gradually subsided, and the communication between the two counties, which had been cut off since Winters Montagne captured Gevaudan, was finally restored.

The forts at both ends of the pontoon served as delivery points, with grain and salt to the west and horses, tobacco and sesame oil to the east.

[The author knows nothing about economics (face covering), and the more I write, the more I realize my lack of knowledge and writing skills]

[Assuming that there is such a thing as a human head coupon, then someone will definitely lose everything - there is no world where no one is injured]

[In other words, only little Priskin's injured world has been achieved (Winters' kind smile)]

[So we still need to think carefully about the head ticket part, or find a way to "digest" it]

[The transition plot has been a bit lengthy recently, I will try to be concise and run into the next volume]

[Thank you book friends for your company, I am extremely grateful]

[The recent stories have not been well written, and I feel guilty. I want to focus on Winters, but there are always other things to explain]

[Practice proves that my ability is still not enough to handle bigger stories (face covering)]

[But don’t worry, I will continue writing]

[Book friends, can you recommend some writing theory books? Many thanks]

[Thank you book friends for your collection, reading, subscription, recommendation votes, monthly votes, rewards and comments, thank you all]