Imperial Crown

Raven said coherently: "First, don't stop the acquisition of magic cores. Tell Feili that if you can't receive the second-level magic cores in a short time, don't force it. The supply of first-level magic cores must be guaranteed to me. Never less than 20 coins per month.”

"Second, ask Feili to find me five skilled leatherworkers in my name, whether hiring or requisitioning them, within 10 days. They are required to be able to make leather armor independently. The hiring price can be 30% higher than the market price, but Once signed, the contract is at least 5 years.”

"Third, continue to import live pigs, no less than 100 pigs per month."

Old Gordon recorded it neatly, and then raised his head to report the bill: "Baron, according to your request, 5 skilled cobblers, each with 3 apprentices, that is 20 people, the annual salary is about 4.8 gold coins , This is not a lot.”

"100 live pigs cost about 18-23 gold coins per month, which is within our affordability."

"But on average, Fili will send about 24-30 magic cores in a month. Based on the average price of 3.72 gold coins, it costs at least 93 gold coins."

"In addition, we also need to pay a loan of 179.6 gold coins every month."

"Including military pay and personnel salaries, we need to pay an average of 311.52 gold coins every month; and the monthly repayment from Angel Tears is about 270-300 gold coins, which is beyond our means."

Raven nodded. He had a rough idea of ​​these figures, but he didn't understand them as clearly as Old Gordon did: "The taxes from Goldsmith Town and the autumn grain from Eagle Town should also be recorded, right?"

"Yes, sir." Old Gordon said: "This time, the tax revenue of Gold Flash Town has been basically calculated, and there are about 617.65 gold coins. When the autumn grain is put into the warehouse, it is expected that there will be 80,000 kilograms of wheat, which can produce about 80,000 kilograms of wheat. 70,000 kilograms of semolina.”

"Hmm..." Raven knocked on the table: "In other words, there will be a gap in food?"

"Yes, sir." Old Gordon said: "But there are still 21,000 kilograms of semolina in the warehouse. If you include the autumn grain, there will be about 100,000 kilograms, enough to support seven months of consumption."

"Not enough, far from enough." Raven shook his head and said, "Denise is on the right track regarding food. Go and talk to her about this. I need 200,000 kilograms of semolina, and the more the better, as long as she can get it." Come on, I want it even if it’s 1 million kilograms.”

Old Gordon's breath was stagnant: "Sir, isn't this too much? Although the price of food is not high, we can't consume it at all. This is simply throwing money away; and we don't have such a big warehouse."

"Don't worry, there's no way it won't be consumed." Lei Wen said meaningfully: "We will organize manpower to build the warehouse. The autumn harvest is almost over anyway, so we can find some work for them."

"By the way, organize those women who are idle at home and clean up all the abandoned houses in Eagle Town. Don't let the deployed citizens have no place to live when they come over."

After writing down Raven's instructions one by one, Old Gordon was about to speak when he heard Raven say half-jokingly: "Are you trying to say that I'm going to make the best use of my people again?"

"My lord, you have a keen eye." Old Gordon smiled and nodded: "However, there are still some problems in terms of 'making the best use of everything'."

"Our finances are still too tight. Even if the money from Angel's Tears has arrived and the autumn taxes from Goldsmith Town have been recovered, the gold coins in our treasury will only be between 500 and 600. This amount, this amount is very difficult Respond to…well, emergencies.”

When he finished speaking, Old Gordon raised his head and glanced at Raven.

"I think you need at least 2,000 gold coins to be safe enough."

"Yes, the money we have is still too little." Raven sighed with emotion.

As a magician, he needs to buy new spells and spices to improve meditation efficiency. First-level spells cost about 120-500 gold coins, and second-level spells cost 800-3000 gold coins. Spices are not cheap, even for first-level spells. It costs 80-200 gold coins, and the second level is even more ridiculously expensive. It starts at 500 gold coins, and 1,000 gold coins is not impossible.

And now that Raven has become a first-level extraordinary, the improvement of the strength of his subordinates must also be put on the agenda. At least three more first-level extraordinarys must be produced. At the price of 300 gold coins for a bottle of first-level god-given potion, even if it is 50% The success rate requires at least 5 bottles, which is 1,500 gold coins, and it also needs to help Eric improve his rank.

This is money that must be spent.

Not to mention the 7800 gold coins to be paid to Judra.

"2,000 gold coins is too little." Raven knocked on the table: "In my opinion, you need at least 10,000 gold coins to be considered insurance."

Although he had lived a prosperous life for a few months, Old Gordon had not forgotten the previous embarrassment. Thinking about how Raven had just sent Simon to the Bloody Highlands to spy on intelligence, he suddenly had a bad feeling.

He swallowed and persuaded: "Sir, your achievements in the past few months are already high enough. It is better to move forward steadily and step by step. There is no need to take risks."

"Haha, don't worry, I value my own life more than anyone else." Raven chuckled.

Old Gordon was still a little worried: "Then...how do you plan to make money, sir?"

"The mountain man has his own clever plan!" Raven shook his head and said something that Old Gordon couldn't understand.

The clever plan arrived in Eagle Town the next morning with the first shipment of flowers.

After washing up, Raven briefly discussed the issue of food procurement with Denise, and then led his men into the riverside workshop.

At the door of a workshop at the northernmost end, Raven stopped and said, "Poirot, you have to think about it. If you follow me in this time, you will not be able to leave this workshop for a few months at the shortest, or a year and a half at the longest."

Poirot took a deep breath and nodded vigorously, "I understand, sir!"

"Very good." As he said that, Raven pushed open the door of the workshop, and a strong floral fragrance came to his nose.

In the corner, there were large baskets of roses.

Poirot followed closely and stepped into the door, and was immediately stunned.

He finally understood why Raven had such high requirements for confidentiality.

Now a rumor has begun to spread in the market: Baron Raven is obsessed with "magic experiments" and wastes his family wealth.

In just two months, four large alchemical equipment were broken, and two more were bought in one go, and four more were customized in advance.

Raven even got a new nickname because of this: "The Prodigal Baron II."

The first one is of course the dead Donald.

But now, these four devices that should have been "broken" are lying in this workshop.

Raven did not intend to explain, and said while wearing gloves: "Don't stand there, help me - put on the gloves next to you and cut the flowers from those baskets of roses."

"Okay, sir!" Poirot came back to his senses and hurried to work with Raven.

All the buds were cut off and washed, a total of 247 roses, with a total weight of 10.12 kilograms.

"You must pay attention to what I do next, and you must remember every word I say." Raven said, and brought a pot of flowers that had been controlled with water to an alchemy equipment.

The main body of this equipment is a three-meter-long and one-and-a-half-meter-wide table. It is made of steel mixed with [Muscovite] and has quite good corrosion resistance and heat resistance. It is supported by two cabinets one and a half meters high. In the left cabinet is a designed stove, and on the right is a wooden barrel for storing waste liquid.

At the left end of the table, above the stove, is a spherical flask the size of a bucket, with a long neck and a round bottom. There is a fork on the right side of the bottle mouth, connected to a straight glass tube. A circle of leather water pipes is wrapped around the glass tube. Water can be poured in for cooling. The glass tube is tilted to the right as a whole, and the end is bent down, connected to a detachable narrow-mouthed flask to hold the final liquid.

The most valuable part of this equipment is not the table below, but the glassware on it. At least 60 of the 83 gold coins were spent on it.

And its cost is just a pile of sand.

"Swindler!" Raven sighed, secretly competing in his heart.

When we get a good source of sand in the future, we must get the glass out anyway.

Using a spoon to carefully spread some fine porcelain pieces on the bottom of the bottle, Raven said: "Don't be distracted, Poirot, don't forget this step, it's better to put more than less."

This is to prevent boiling.

Once this phenomenon occurs, the suddenly increased air pressure in the bottle is likely to burst the flask.

Then he picked up the washed flowers and threw them into the bottle one by one: "Don't be lazy in this step, put them one by one, try to bring as little water as possible, pay attention to the position of the flowers, don't stick to the branch pipe, if you stick to it, use a straw to poke it, don't dare to use anything else."

Soon, the bright red roses filled most of the flask. Raven walked to the side, untied the lid of a water tank and said: "This is filled with water that has been boiled and then left to stand. Someone will keep replenishing it for you.

Remember, it must be left to stand for at least one night, and the last one-fifth of the water must be poured out directly, and it is not allowed to be used."

This is the method that Raven had to use in order to balance efficiency and effect.

For distillation work like this, it is best to use pure water to prevent scale from accumulating in the bottle and causing unnecessary trouble.

But now there are not enough alchemical equipment and manpower, and Raven has no time and no time to distill pure water.

Boil the water to minimize the content of impurities; let it stand to precipitate the impurities precipitated after boiling; take only the upper part of the water to avoid interference from impurities as much as possible.

Scoop water to fill the flask to three-quarters, and plug the bottle mouth with an oak cork: "Remember, the water level cannot be too high, otherwise it may flow into the cooling pipe and affect the final effect; don't plug the cork too tightly, it's better to have a little gap than to plug it all in, otherwise it may cause the bottle mouth to break..."

While Raven was operating, he kept talking, and occasionally stopped to answer Poirot's doubts.

As all the processes were prepared, Raven put the prepared charcoal into the furnace, chanted a few syllables, a flame appeared at his fingertips, and soon the charcoal was ignited.

Poirot hesitated and said, "Sir... this... I don't know how to do it."

Raven chuckled, "I didn't ask you to learn this - there's a flint next to you, and you're a chef, how to keep the fire? I don't need to teach you, right?"

The flames rose and burned the table. After more than ten minutes, the water in the flask finally boiled, and the steam poured into the branch pipe. Under the cooling of the leather water pipe, it condensed into water droplets and flowed into the flask on the other side at a slightly inclined angle.

It was the first time that Poirot saw this situation, and his eyes were straight.

"Don't stand there, you'll have time to watch later." Raven clapped his hands, "I'll give you the alchemy equipment over there, and you'll operate it this time."

Poirot was nervous when he heard this. He knew how valuable this thing was. If it was broken, he couldn't afford to sell it.

Seeing his nervousness, Raven comforted him: "Don't worry, I'm not that kind of unscrupulous lord. As long as you follow my operating procedures, even if the equipment is damaged, it's my own loss."

Poirot swallowed again, nodded, walked forward and started to operate. After every two steps, he would open his notebook to check.

It must be said that Poirot got started quickly because of his experience in extracting glycerin. Raven only corrected a few minor problems, and this alchemy equipment started to operate.

"Okay, there's another job next, and then you can be free for a while." Raven pointed to the corner of the wall: "Boil a pot of lard, the raw materials are on the shelf over there, at the bottom."

But Poirot still obeyed obediently.

After the lard was cooked, Poirot habitually asked, "My lord, where is the caustic soda?"

Sodium hydroxide solution will leave caustic soda when it dries naturally. Just add water when you need it. Poirot had made and stored a lot of it before.

"Don't worry, put it aside first." As he said that, Raven took out a few pieces of charcoal from a bag and threw them into the lard.

Poirot was surprised and asked, "My lord, what is this?"

Raven was too lazy to explain: "Just remember it, no need to ask, this charcoal will be used as fuel after it is used up, and new charcoal will be put in next time."

Porous activated carbon can absorb the odor in the lard. Although Raven does not have activated carbon, charcoal can be used to deal with it.

As time goes by, the rose petals gradually fade from color, from the original bright red to dark purple, and the water in the flask becomes lighter and lighter.

When there is only a trace of water left in the bottle, Raven immediately turns off the fire and says, "Stop the other one and dry it with the residual heat. It is better to leave more than less."

Poirot hurriedly does it.

When the water in the condenser tube was almost drained, Raven took off the flask on the right, and suddenly a strong rose fragrance filled the air.

This liquid can be called "rose pure water", also called "water essential oil". It has a strong fragrance and is an important raw material for many cosmetics.

Poirot rubbed his nose and sniffed it in disbelief. The rich fragrance made him a little unbelievable: "Sir, is this the treasure you want?"

"It's just rose pure water, it's far from it." Raven opened a pottery jar on the shelf next to him, grabbed a handful of salt and threw it in, and began to stir it with an iron spoon.

When the salt melted cleanly, Raven took a deep breath, took out a thin and long glass funnel, blocked the outlet of the funnel with cork, and covered the funnel with a glass plate, waiting nervously.

There was nothing wrong with the experimental process, but Raven didn't know whether the final result would be satisfactory.

After a few minutes, a layer of light oil finally floated on the surface of the pure water in the funnel.

"It's done!" Raven clenched his fists excitedly, took an iron bucket, opened the wooden stopper under the funnel, drained more than half of the liquid, then blocked the mouth of the funnel and began to repeat the above process.

This process can be described as boring, but neither Raven nor Poirot slacked off at all. Once one of them was a little tired, the other would take over.

After four hours, the rose hydrosol in the two large beakers was finally poured out, and a layer of clear oil finally condensed on the surface of the hydrosol in the funnel.

Raven carefully pulled open the wooden stopper under the funnel and drained the hydrosol. He had to wait for a while after each drain, for fear of letting go of a little bit of the oil on it. In the end, there was only a little hydrosol left in the funnel, and the oil on it looked less than the size of a soybean.

Putting the funnel on the iron rack, Raven moved his wrist: "Give me the small glass bottle under the rack over there."

Poirot hurried over, opened the stopper, and put it in the former's hand.

Putting the small bottle on the table, Raven leaned over, pursed his lips, held his breath, took the funnel, pointed it at the mouth of the glass bottle, and tilted the funnel upwards with a little force. Finally, the oil fell into the glass bottle, spreading a layer of oil film at the bottom of the bottle.

"Huh..." Raven breathed a sigh of relief, quickly covered the bottle stopper, and held it high up to the sun, as if looking at his lover: "Finally got you!"

This is rose essential oil, the fragrance is much longer and more meaningful than pure water, even in the previous life it was valuable, known as liquid gold.

A full 247 roses, weighing 10 kilograms, costing up to 24.7 silver coins, only extracted this tiny drop of less than 1 gram.

"Sir, what should we do with these... uh, rose pure water, throw it away?" Poirot's voice sounded.

Raven smiled and said, "You can't throw this away. I've been busy for so long. Do you think it's just for a drop of hydrosol?"

"Pour the caustic soda powder in and add lard!"

Raven didn't need to direct this step. After a few months, Poirot had already become an expert.

Prepare the solution, heat the lard, and then pour the solution in.

The caustic soda solution based on hydrosol was poured into the lard. As Poirot skillfully stirred, a little bit of debris condensed and precipitated in it, and then settled down, condensing into layers of soap.

After filtering out the glycerin, Poirot habitually wanted to throw away the soap, but was stopped by Raven, who pointed at the latter and said, "Don't be so anxious, smell it."

Poirot put his nose close to it: "It seems... nothing special, ouch! Ahem!"

It turned out that Raven had brought the charcoal soaked in lard to his nose, and Poirot immediately smelled the strong and disgusting pig smell.

Raven raised his chin: "Smell it again now."

Poirot approached with some doubts, sniffed lightly, and his eyes suddenly lit up: "My Lord... This, this is simply amazing! Did you use magic!?"

The soap was still the soap Poirot was familiar with, but the smell was completely different. Not only did it not smell the slightest bit of pig smell, but it was also full of the seductive fragrance of roses.

Raven said nothing, but there was a smile on his lips.

He had long known that using charcoal to deodorize could solve the problem of soap odor, but that was unnecessary.

A bar of soap was only 50 copper coins. If you sell it rashly, not only will you not get much profit, but people will associate it with the Angel's Tears that suddenly appeared.

There are not so many fools in this world, especially businessmen.

This is also one of the reasons why Raven announced that many alchemical equipment were broken, and he was willing to bear the infamy of "the second prodigal baron".

He didn't want anyone to associate alchemical equipment with new products.

"This thing can be called soap." Raven said.

Poirot nodded slowly and admired from the bottom of his heart: "Soap... What a good name, sir. This kind of thing will definitely sell like crazy in the homes of wealthy merchants and nobles!"

He is no longer just Raven's chef, but also his chief craftsman. The more money Raven makes, the more benefits he will get. After all, Raven has always been generous to his subordinates.

"Then you should be happy too early." Raven smiled mysteriously: "This is just the beginning. What I'm going to do next is the big deal."

After all, what he wants cannot be achieved by rose essential oil alone.

"Poirot, go tell the warehouse.

The wine can be transported here."

...