Lux's Magic Penetration Rod

This winter, Forsbarrow's material supply has been Lux's focus.

As the saying goes, people are like iron rice and steel. Lux led the private army and demon-stricken people northward, plus the merchants and housekeepers who accompanied the team, the number was close to 2,500 - without taking money from the Forsbarrow people. Now, more than two thousand people must be supported by Lux.

The expenses for more than two thousand people including food, accommodation and daily necessities are quite staggering. Even if Lux is the little princess of the Crown Guard family, it would be difficult for her to afford it.

What's more, after accepting the title, Lux will become Count Laxana. Peter and Ogesha can indeed subsidize her, but they cannot use the family's resources to subsidize her unlimitedly!

Under this circumstance, in order to raise enough supplies to support the lives of soldiers and demon-stricken people, Lux made two preparations before the knighting ceremony.

On the one hand, she patiently participated in many aristocratic interactions that she did not want to participate in. By walking up the upper aisle, she opened many local trade doors for Forsbarrow.

Considering that Earl Laxana is a model of Demacia's nobility and a rare count with real power in recent years, although the nobles in the capital are not very optimistic about her future career as a lord, making some favor investments is not considered What a big problem.

In this way, Lux gained a source of wealth by selling favors. Now the Forsbarrow Chamber of Commerce can only trade at the trade fair in Xiongdu, but Lux can directly go to other lords' places to manufacture high-quality products. Direct sales, in which the profit growth range will be an important source of income for Forsbarrow during the tax holiday.

On the other hand, Lux had an honest and frank "settlement of accounts between father and daughter" with her father, Pete.

We have a long-term source of supplies, but we can only rely on Mithril City for supplies for the winter. Since Lux came to Mithril City last time, the branch nobles of Mithril City have been in trouble for a short time. After restraining the unnecessary thoughts, there is now a lot of food and furs stored in the warehouse of Mithril City, all of which Lux needs.

Peter has a share of these supplies, but they should nominally belong to the "Crown Guard Family".

Although according to Peter and Ogesha's wishes, it is entirely possible for Lacus to take advantage of the fact that the family has not been separated yet, and give a large part to Lacus in the way of "recognizing outstanding young people in the clan", so that she can use it directly to meet urgent needs, but Lacus Not willing to do so.

It's against the rules, and it's short-handed.

Just when Peter and Ogesha almost got angry because of Lux's unscrupulous behavior, Tiana came out with an assist. She used the previous separation of families as an example to enrich their own pockets, proving that this kind of distribution can easily cause problems. Discord and corruption within the family.

In the end, at the insistence of Lux and Tiana, Lux negotiated a deal with Peter as "Count Laxana".

The supplies used to help Lux's soldiers and demon-stricken people survive the winter were not gifts, but borrowed, and they would be returned with interest later.

Originally, according to Lux's wish, he could repay whatever he borrowed, but after receiving the news, Mithril City unanimously requested to borrow materials and repay the gold coins. In addition to the loan, there was also a sale.

The grains were all old and the furs were second-hand goods of poor quality, but the repayment had to be calculated based on the bulk transaction prices at that time.

There was no doubt that this was a request made by members of the Crown Guard family in order to cash out their dividends, but Lux had a subtle expression on this request.

Demacia's commodity trade is underdeveloped. Although there are many nobles engaged in loan sharking, futures for commodities only exist to a very small extent. Most of the time, everyone is just used to paying one hand and delivering the goods.

However, while in Zaun, Lux learned about Piltover's futures market in detail, and also had a certain understanding of futures and futures delivery.

Therefore, there was no need for Karya to remind her. She immediately realized the possible situation of this kind of loan-if the price of grain and fur in the market is very low when the loan is repaid, then I am afraid that the transaction of the Crown Guard family It would be a big loss.

Of course, the members of the Crown Guard family who proposed this transaction method are not stupid either.

In their view, Demacia has had good weather in recent years, with bumper harvests every year, and food prices have hit rock bottom. If they collect money at market prices in the next few years, they will definitely make extra money.

It's a pity that they know nothing about the productivity that magic can bring. Lux is sure that during the repayment period in five years, the price of food in the entire northern region will be reduced to a level due to Forsbarrow's bumper harvest. Eye-popping prices!

So she happily accepted the request and placed it on the deal contract.

In other words, Fosbarrow's supplies will depend on the income from newly opened trade routes in the long term, and in the short term they will be borrowed from Mithril City.

However, just now, Lux received news from Mithril City that the next batch of supplies might not be shipped.

……………………

When she learned that the supplies in Mithril City could not be transported, Lux's first reaction was that "someone is doing something wrong in the separation of families", but after thinking about it carefully, she found that this was impossible - Mithril City had too much food and furs. That's for sure, and the furs were delivered in the early stage, so why couldn't the subsequent food be delivered?

Don’t the people who separate their families need to pay back the money themselves?

Therefore, before meeting the envoy from Mithril City, both Lux and Ino thought that the branch might have to raise the price or increase the shipping cost through clever design.

But after meeting the Mithril City envoy, Lux realized that things might be different from what she imagined.

The messenger who came to Forsbarrow was none other than one of the disaster patrol knights that Lux personally interviewed and appointed in Mithril City.

By sending such a person as an envoy, Mithril City didn't seem to be trying to embarrass themselves.

Sure enough, after meeting Lux, this usually honest and honest farmer first saluted in a non-standard manner, and then went straight to the point and talked about the difficulties in Mithril City - the Dragon Bird Knight came with news, and on the snowy field to the north A large-scale barbarian army dispatch appeared!

As one of the northern fulcrum fortresses of Demacia, Mithril City completely entered a state of martial law after receiving the news.

"So, that batch of grain was temporarily requisitioned?"

"No, no, absolutely not!" The disaster patrol knight shook his head like a drum, "There is plenty of food, but there is no manpower to transport it in Mithril City!"

According to the Disaster Patrol Knight, because Misilin City has put on full alert, all private armies and northern garrison troops must be on standby. Under such circumstances, it is impossible for Misilin City to detach an army to escort food. .

What, you said you don’t need the army but directly send militiamen to escort you?

The Freljord barbarians are gathering in large numbers and are ready to move. At this time, sending a militia with slow movements and limited combat power to transport food, wouldn't it be siding with the enemy?

Everyone in the North knows that the barbarians of Freljord are the ones who can push their limits. If they identify a place where they can gain something, they will keep an eye on it - although the barbarians of Freljord may not understand mithril. Due to the topography of the city, this grain transport team may not be discovered, but if it is discovered, the winter in Mithril City will be unsettled within three to five years!

No one would take such a risk!

After figuring out the situation, Lux let out a long breath under the apologetic eyes of the disaster patrol knight.

"As long as there is food," Lux said with a smile, "As long as there is food and it can be transported out, then I can send people to get it - as long as I get the food, everything is mine."

"This, this can't be counted!" Although the Disaster Patrol Knight respected Lux ​​very much, but the matter involved whether Mithril City would become the focus of care for the Freljord people in the next few years, he could only shake his head vigorously, " If the food is discovered by the barbarians in the north, Misilver City will suffer!"

"No, absolutely not." Lux was confident about this, "We can skip the Dragon's Back Mountains and go around from the south."

"Don't go through the Dragon's Back Mountains?" The disaster patrol knight obviously didn't expect to get this answer. "The rivers are all frozen now. If there is no water transportation from the south... the food has been transported, and spring has arrived!"

Although it is also a northern city, there are two routes from Mithril City to Forsbarrow, both winter and summer.

The summer route is to take a boat from Mithral City to the south, take the northwest road from Lithos, and then go to Forsbarrow. In this way, half of the journey will be by water and the other half by the dry riverbed. Although it will take a while to go uphill, it will not be a long walk. difficulty.

The winter route is to go directly west along the Longji Mountains and walk straight through the frozen soil - this section of the road is covered with melting lakes in the summer, but in the winter it is hard frozen soil, so you can walk in a straight line.

Miyin City's materials are transported in batches. A large part of the reason is that the permafrost is not frozen solid in autumn and the waterways are not easy to travel, so only a small number of them take the summer route, and the rest wait until winter comes and it snows. Once the frozen soil has solidified, we can send it over via the winter route.

After all, apart from the initial furs and daily necessities, all the supplies on Fosbello's side can be considered to be consumed at a constant rate.

No one expected that this winter in the ice element north of Mithral City, the dragon bird scouts discovered the large-scale dispatch of the Freljord barbarians!

Now the winter route from Mithral City to Fosbarrow is unavailable. The canals on the summer route are frozen, and the transportation speed has been greatly slowed down. No matter how you look at it, it can't be transported to Fosbarrow on time!

However, Lux has her own way.

In the helpless eyes of the disaster patrol knight, she quickly wrote a reply, stamped her personal seal, and sealed it with fire paint.

"Don't worry." Lux said firmly, "I'm taking the summer route. As long as we get the food, it's ours even if it's late."

"Your Excellency Laxana, don't you really consider buying food from elsewhere?" The disaster patrol knight obviously didn't know the transaction behind this batch of food, so he could only give the best advice from his own perspective, "Let's go If we take the summer route, it will be very slow to transport it to Fosbello... Maybe it’s too late to send a fast horse to Velos to collect food first.”

"Don't worry." Lux patted the other party's shoulder lightly, "Go back and deliver the letter. My food receiving team will leave soon!"

……………………

For ordinary people, frozen canals in winter have no transportation value - although the canals in the northern part of Demacia will freeze, the ice surface is not complete due to the relatively large drop.

In relatively gentle river sections, there will be large areas of ice caps on the river surface, but these ice caps will break down where there is a drop, forming broken ice similar to ice floods.

The difference between ice caps and ice flakes is not very obvious. If you want to use dog sledding and other methods to transport on the ice, it is very likely that you will end up in a place that "looks like an ice cap but is actually an ice flake." In the area, people and goods fell into the freezing ice water.

Even if there is a guide who understands the terrain and the hydrology and ice conditions of each river section, it still requires frequent loading and unloading of goods, sometimes on the river bank and sometimes on the river.

This is undoubtedly quite time-consuming.

Moreover, due to the usual water transportation, there are no specially built roads along the canal that can be used for large-scale transportation.

The combination of the two means that taking the summer passage in winter is a task with twice the result and half the result. As the disaster patrol knight said, when it is delivered, spring will come.

But for Lux, this is not a problem.

Where does Lux's confidence come from?

The answer comes from Ino.

Ordinary people might not be able to tell the difference between ice and ice caps, but Ino couldn't.

Ordinary people might only be able to load and unload cargo ashore when faced with ice, but Ino didn't have to.

With Ino taking the lead and bringing along Group 11 (ice element group), they can complete this transportation at a faster speed!

That's why Lux responded confidently.

After sending away the worried looking Disaster Patrol Knight, Lux quickly found Ino and told the whole matter and her thoughts.

There is no doubt that Ino agreed with Lux's statement.

"No problem, I'm familiar with that section of the canal in Mithril City!"

As a little girl born outside Mithril City, Ino knows quite a lot about the canal and the road from Mithril City to Lithos.

With just a little calculation, she confidently agreed to the task - the ice was not strong enough, so strengthen the ice to make it strong. With Ino and the ice elemental mage from Group 11, this trip Transportation is destined to be effortless!

Just as they were told, Lux and Ino immediately found the ice elemental mages of Group 11 and quickly assigned this special task.

Among all the groups, the attitude of the 11th group of mages is the most positive - the reason is very simple. Miss Ino, Fosbairo's "second in command", is a powerful ice elemental mage, a real One's own people and "backers".

It is precisely for this reason that they are the first group to cooperate, and their enthusiasm for work has always been the highest.

(Similarly, the first group to start working together was the Sound and Vibration group, and this group all regarded Sona as their idol.)

After learning that they were about to take on the task of transporting food from Mithral City to Forsbarrow, the ice elemental mages in Group 11 were surprised for a moment, and then they all puffed up their chests, showing full confidence.

They shouted their promise without Lux asking.

"Promise to complete the mission!"