Iron Powder and Spellcasters

   Chapter 386 Thunder

  In the early morning, the messenger Pegasus entered the city.

   Before noon, bad news has spread throughout Steelcastle.

   The imaginary scene of “Solingen State climbed high and other autonomous prefectures gathered to respond” did not appear, but the representative of Solingen was surprised that he had become a minority.

   The Steel Castle, which hastily counterattacked, used the power of a state to wrestle arms with the already prepared upper house. The battle situation can be described as terrible. Not only did they fail to overturn the embargo order, but the representatives of the pro-union provinces took advantage of the momentum to pass the embargo order three times in the House of Representatives, making the embargo order a finalized official law.

   In the political system of the Monta Republic, the role of the House of Lords is to suppress the Monta native faction. Although the House of Lords has only incomplete legislative functions, it also has absolute veto power.

   From the moment the embargo becomes official law, there is no possibility of it being abolished unless the Constitution of the Republic of Monta is rewritten or the House of Lords is blood-washed.

   At noon, Geisberg the Iron Hand was the first to send someone secretly to visit the Baron and his wife Granache.

   followed closely, and other forge owners also showed their favor, bowed their heads, and lowered their posture. Throughout the afternoon, the servants and messengers who came to deliver letters kept coming and going.

   In the evening, a simple carriage stopped under the stone building by the lake. [Ernst Fuller], with red eyes, disheveled hair, and a decadent look, got out of the car.

   Winters led Fuller into the small living room and motioned for Kaman and the guards to leave.

   He politely poured Fuller half a glass of wine and said in common language: "Looks like you need a little of this, Mr. Fuller."

Fuller rudely picked up the glass and drank it all in one breath, lowered his head, and said to himself, "I originally intended to accept your offer, Your Excellency, I intended to accept it! But I suddenly thought that my The goods may not even be worth your original bid now. Good deal, sir, good deal…”

   Winters listened to Fuller's vent quietly, and gave Fuller another drink.

   "But do you know?" Fuller looked up at the Baron and said drunkenly, "You are not the most profitable in this big business, and you are not the most profitable!"

   Winters frowned slightly, resumed his upright sitting position, and waited for Fuller to continue speaking.

Ernst Fuller, who is nearly forty years old, is like a child who knows who is sleeping with whose adult - with a mysterious smile on the corner of his mouth, he stretches out his upper body and sneaks towards Wen. Tes beckoned and asked the latter to listen to him.

   Winters smiled and leaned forward slightly in coordination.

   "This deal." Fuller lowered his voice: "We Steelcastle people are the most profitable."

After   , Fuller slapped his thigh hard, crying and laughing: "We Steelcastle people!"

   Winters stated the facts calmly: "You're drunk, Mr. Fuller."

   "That's right! I'm drunk." Fuller snorted, slurred but corrected the baron very seriously: "But my brain is... still sober!"

   "Please go back to the house to rest first, and we can talk about it tomorrow." Winters knocked on the handrail, and the two guards pushed open the door and walked into the living room.

   Winters turned to look at the curtains: "Send Mr. Fuller home."

   "No!" Fuller stood up suddenly, staggered to regain his balance, and shouted: "I have to tell you today! I haven't finished speaking yet!"

   Winters nodded, waiting for an order to take down the arrogant drunken guard in front of him and back out the door.

   "What you bought is the barrel and the sword." Fuller muttered vaguely, waving his arms vigorously, and asked Winters: "But do you know what we Steelcastle people want to buy?"

   "What to buy?" Winters raised an eyebrow.

  Fuller licked his lips, bent down, and uttered a word in a faint voice: "Forge".

   After he finished speaking, he laughed and asked Winters triumphantly, "Don't you understand? It's the forge, ha!"

   The more he laughed, the redder Fuller's eyes became. He stumbled under his feet and fell heavily beside the small table.

   Winters stood up, picked up the plump White Fuller with one hand, and placed it on the bench as if he were placing an item.

Fuller, who was still giggling just now, suddenly burst into tears. He desperately beat the bench, beat his chest, and tore his hair: "They want a forge! They want my grandfather's forge! They want my father's forge. They're going to take my family's forge..."

   Witnessing the middle-aged man collapse in front of him, Wenteske restrained himself from showing any sympathy or contempt.

   Waited until Fuller's mood calmed down a little before Winters patted Fuller on the shoulder and handed the latter a handkerchief.

   "What the **** is going on?" Winters asked.

   Fuller choked and replied, "They're going to liquidate me."

   "Who's going to liquidate you?" Winters asked.

Fuller's eyes were red, and he gritted his teeth and said one name after another: "Gaisberger, Witzleben, Herring, Odoff... Respected gentlemen! Respectable gentlemen! They are from other people. Buy my debt, turn around and force me to repay it! I can't pay it..."

   At the end, Fuller burst into tears again: "If I don't make it, I will go bankrupt! I will take away my forge!"

   Winters listened calmly and restrained, not at all surprised, because the strategy adopted by Iron Hand Geisberger was the one that Anna offered to them earlier.

  …

   After carefully checking the income and expenditure of small and medium-sized armory workshops, Ms. Navarre found that most of the small steel castle workshops are currently extremely short of cash.

  When they ordered raw materials and paid for their wages, they agreed on prices in gold and silver coins.

   Even after the outbreak of the Palatine Civil War, the price of ordnance has risen, and the cost of raw materials, processing and wages has also risen.

   On the other hand, the main forms of book assets of small and medium-sized ordnance workshops are muskets, armors, lead ingots, swords and other spot ordnance.

   Debt is fixed, but assets are floating. Once the price of ordnance plummets, small and medium-sized workshops can easily fall into the dead end of "inability to repay debts - forced liquidation - cash offsets are not enough to repay debts - bankruptcy".

  Especially at the moment, the embargo decree has been passed by the House of Representatives with three calls to stamp out the last hope, and no one will buy ordnance at all. If it works well, the muskets, armor, and swords in the small workshop's inventory can become worthless on the book.

  Crisis is also an opportunity, and every crisis is an opportunity to reshuffle. The result of a pond already full of fish like Steelcastle is that the smaller fish that are incapable of resisting the risk are forced out, and the bigger fish take advantage of the opportunity to merge and expand—or kill each other.

Ms. Navarre never thought of stepping into the pond of Steel Castle. She just found the most suitable point of strength and pushed the big fish gently behind it, driving the big fish to devour the small fish. .

   Acquiring debts, lobbying courts, running liquidations... Who can do these things better than the local master workshop owners in Steelcastle?

  …

   Winters looked at Mr. Fuller, who was crying heartbroken.

  According to the agreement between Anna and Iron Hand and others, what Winters has to do is very simple. He just needs not to buy the arms of the small workshop owners and wait for the latter to go bankrupt.

  At that time, Iron Hand and others took away the forge, and Winters could buy the ordnance stocked by the small workshop owners at a price that was "low enough to give away".

   Winters asked: "Gaisberger is from Senator Servette, and Witzleben is from Mayor Wupper. How can they be united?"

   "In front of the forge." Fuller wiped his tears and said bitterly, "Politics is a piece of shit!"

   "Member Servette and Mayor Wupper didn't stop?"

   "In front of the forge, the councilor is a piece of shit! The mayor is a piece of shit! They're all a gang!"

   Winters was silent for a moment, then asked, "How do you want me to help you? Buy your entire stock?"

"No, no, you can't help me, Your Excellency. Even if you buy all my goods, you won't be able to pay my debts. I'm not here to ask you for help, no." Fuller burst into tears again: " I'm just so sick, so painful, I have no one to talk to, I don't know who to talk to, who else to talk to..."

   Winters got up and left, and it didn't take long to get the other party's clean handkerchief and hand it to Fuller.

   "It's not worth your debt to buy all your goods?" Winters asked.

  Fuller wiped some tears, blew his nose hard, and asked with a miserable smile, "Do you know how my grandfather does business?"

"do not know."

Fuller gestured drunkenly: "It's simple, when the sun didn't come out, he worked by the forge until it was dark. Only a small part of the money he earned was spent on himself and his family, and the rest was saved. Save and save until he can afford a forge. That's how the Fuller's first forge came about. Do you know how my father does business?"

"do not know."

   "Like my grandfather, worked, saved, worked, saved, saved for a lifetime, and finally bought a second forge."

   Winters nodded lightly in approval and approval.

"But!" Fuller's voice changed, his voice high as if he was angry: "That was all they did back then. Save money, buy a forge—that's what they can do. Not anymore! Not anymore! A forge can no longer be bought by hard work and savings of a silver coin. In the past, a blacksmith could buy a forge with a lifetime of hard work, but now? How many blacksmiths are attached to others in Steel Castle now? Working in the family's workshop? How many blacksmiths have never had their own forge in their entire life?"

   Winters listened silently, noncommittal.

But before Fuller finished speaking, he slammed the table hard, stood up abruptly, and waved his arms exaggeratedly: "The idea of ​​saving money and expanding it has long been unworkable! If Fuller's workshop wants to grow bigger, it can only be To borrow money, you can only borrow money, and you can only use other people's money to fight! Go fight! Go bet!"

   "But you lost the bet," Winters said softly.

  Fuller's volume and mood suddenly dropped, and he fell back to the bench. He covered his face, and after a while, a whimpering cry came from between his fingers: "I lost, I lost, I am willing to accept the loss... But I am so unwilling, I am so unwilling."

   At this moment, there was a knock on the door.

  Kaman walked into the living room, ignoring the tearful Fuller, walked straight to Winters, leaned over and whispered: "You have another guest."

   "Who?" Winters asked generously.

   Kaman whispered a name.

  The corners of Winters' mouth suddenly turned up slightly - Kaman recognized that it was the smile that Winters only had when he wanted to make fun of people.

   Winters stood up, picked up Fuller, shoved the latter into Kaman's arms, and let the latter rest on Kaman's shoulders.

   "Let Mr. Fuller go inside too." Winters ordered: "Don't make a sound."

   After saying that, regardless of whether Kaman agreed or not, Winters walked quickly to the wall, pushed open the window, and then hurried to open the window on the other side.

  Kaman rolled his eyes in disbelief, and helped Fuller to the inside.

   took away the cups, tidied up the benches, and waited until the smell of drunks in the living room had dissipated before Winters closed the window and let Koch invite visitors into the house.

After a while, Koch led a man in a black cloak and hood.

   Koch bowed out of the living room. The mysterious visitor took off his cape and hood, revealing a shrewd and powerful face. He laughed and reached out to Winters: "Lord Baron."

   Winters also smiled and held the rough palm known as the "Iron Hand": "Mr. Geisberger."

   After shaking hands in the manner of the Blacksmith Brotherhood, they took their seats by the fireplace.

   "What's the matter with your visit in person?" Winters asked.

  The iron hand Geisberger showed two rows of strong teeth: "I always feel uneasy about letting others speak for me. It is a matter of great importance, and it is best to negotiate face to face."

   "I thought so too." Winters picked up the bottle and poured both Ironhand and himself.

  The Iron Hand Gaisberg raised his glass and asked playfully, "Where's your wife? Don't want her present?"

   "Since you are visiting in person, there is no need for others to speak for me." Winters smiled lightly: "Just talk to me directly."

   Iron Hand Geisberger laughed: "I knew that, in the final analysis, you are in charge!"

  The purpose of Iron Hand's visit this time is not only to reconfirm the previous "agreement", but also to discuss the price and process of acquisition of ordnance by Winters in the future.

  The big workshop owners of Steel Castle have abandoned the small and medium workshop owners, as well as political differences, and formed a new alliance.

  There are fewer new alliance members, the binding of interests is more direct, and the bargaining power is stronger. The iron hand Geisberg is based on the new situation, put forward new conditions.

   He proposed that, without waiting for the bankruptcy liquidation process, His Excellency the Baron can now directly buy the stock in the hands of the major workshop owners.

   In this way, Winters saves time - who knows how long the bankruptcy liquidation process will take?

  The major workshop owners have received more sufficient funds for acquisitions - while also eliminating the unstable factors in this merger wave.

   Of course, the price of the ordnance has to be increased as appropriate, from "low to free" to "slightly lower than the price offered by the baron".

  Winters listened carefully, nodded politely in agreement, but said at the last moment "I still hope to think about it again".

  Gaisberger agreed, put on his cloak and hood again, and left contentedly.

   Winters poured the rest of the wine into the fireplace, pushed open the door leading to the inner room, and asked with a smile, "Okay, you all heard it."

   In the inner room on the first floor next to the small living room, there are not only the bored Kaman and the stunned Ernst Fuller - the latter leaning against the wall and trying to eavesdrop on the conversation in the small living room.

   And Ms. Ana Navarre and the livid old man Schmid.

  …

By the time Winters and Kaman sent old Schmidt and Fuller off, it was completely dark.

   Old Schmid and Fuller came to visit secretly, so the carriage stopped far away, and Winters and Kaman also sent a few more steps.

"So, my attitude remains the same. I respect you." Winters held onto his cane, tightened his robe, and said to Old Man Schmid as he walked: "But if you want me to be on your side, you must Offer better terms than Iron Hands — at least the same terms."

   "I understand." Old Schmid nodded expressionlessly.

   Ernst Fuller, who was white and chubby, got drunk and was already unconscious, and Kaman helped him walk behind. There were also two Dussac guards who were in charge of carrying the lanterns, escorting the four in tandem.

  The cold wind whistled and the night was dark, and the six of them walked all the way to the place where Old Man Schmid's carriage was waiting.

   "I won't send you any more." Winters stretched out his hand to Old Man Schmid: "Take care."

   Old Schmid took Winters' hand and shook it slightly: "Take care."

  A guard with a lantern walked over to the driver's seat and patted the driver's leg lightly. The driver seemed to have fallen asleep, and the guards took several shots but didn't respond.

   Suddenly, Guard Dussac, who wanted to wake the driver, shuddered and fell straight to the ground, and the lantern also fell to the ground.

   Like a cat who sensed danger, Winters' entire body instantly exploded with chills.

  The door of Old Man Schmid's carriage opened with a "creak", and four figures in masks appeared from the darkness, surrounding Winters and the others from different directions.

"It's really interesting. According to the records of the Imperial House of Lords, the last nobleman whose fief was on the frontier of Granasi died twelve years ago, and his title was Earl. If he was still alive, he should be... fifty years old now. Right?" The talking man stepped out of the carriage lightly: "You said it was interesting? Mr. Granasi?"

   Through the dim light, Winters saw the man's face - handsome features, blond hair, and green eyes.

   Through the dim light, the green-eyed man could also see Winters clearly.

The expression of    green eyes froze slightly, the pupils dilated uncontrollably, put away the frivolous tone, and immediately changed his mind to ask: "Who are you? You..."

   The green-eyed man didn't finish his sentence, because Kaman lunged at him like a leopard.

   [These days seem to be bigger chapters the next day (summary after the fact)]

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   (end of this chapter)