Unknown Knight

In the morning, Axe was woken up by Yamila poking his nostrils with the end of her hair. Kress had already sneaked out of the cave as usual. Axe felt a little guilty and didn't know whether Yamila had discovered anything last night. It was already bright outside and he didn't dare to play with Yamila anymore. He just pulled her into his arms, gave her a deep kiss, and turned over and got out of bed.

The eight modified carts in the valley have been loaded with goods. After several actual combat tests, the caravan's chariot formation tactics have become very mature. Later, Aix brought Amanti and several carpenters to make improvements, making the handlebars detachable. In this way, there will be no gaps between the carts when forming a chariot formation. If the enemy wants to break in, he must climb onto the cart first. At this time, even a child with a spear can stab him to death.

Aix and Amanti also designed a new type of truck on the blueprint based on the current car models. The new truck is lighter than the original crude truck and can carry more. The axles are wrapped with bearings made of fine iron and then coated with olive oil. Amanti estimates that the speed will be increased by at least 2-3%. However, due to the heavy construction tasks at present, only urgent construction can be done first. This new car can only be produced slowly in the future.

Only Old John, Amanti, and Catherine were left as the core members of the valley for this trip. The other core members all went out together, including ordinary guys, a total of 22 people, including Yamila and Cress who had just recovered from his injuries.

The reason for such a large lineup is that after Aix communicated with Manide during this period, he held a special meeting with everyone to study and decide. The main reason is that the caravan will try to open up a trading loop of Valley - Tiha - Sagos - Kuraw - Rivadin - Dehrim - Suno - Valley. Such a trading loop can reduce duplication and detours on the route, and can also purchase more goods along the route at a lower price; in addition, the old blacksmith John's family in Kuraw can be picked up to the valley; and when passing through Dehrim, the largest grain-producing area in Calradia, more food can be purchased and brought back to the valley for the winter.

Two days later, the caravan arrived at Tiha. When entering the city, Aix was still worried that Kress would be recognized by Ramon's men, so she asked her and Yamila to wear the valley's uniform cotton-lined leather clothes and put on a pot helmet with a large brim to cover their faces. As a result, there was a bounty for Kress at the city gate, but it said that it was a woman, and the name was unknown. The portrait on it was too funny. It was clearly a female version of Zhang Mazi with a face full of flesh and pockmarks. The bounty was even more ironic. Providing clues 5 silver coins, killing and capturing alive 20 silver coins, Kress even felt that Ramon was humiliating her. Even so, Aix did not dare to be careless. After entering the city, she was directly asked to stay in the wooden house of the warehouse and not to wander around.

It has been a long time since the last time I came to Tiha City. The price of local coarse salt has dropped back to 120 copper coins per bag, and the price of olive oil has risen to 480 copper coins per can due to tight inventory. Aix sold some snow salt and olive oil. The price of snow salt was set at 430 copper coins per bag, which was better than the salt produced in Sarand and Kuji, but the price was more than 100 copper coins lower, making these salts almost have no market. Even the local coarse salt fell by 100 copper coins. Aix took the opportunity to purchase two trucks of coarse salt at a low price.

In addition, Aix also heard a piece of news about Ramon, that is, Ramon would send his slave hunting team to the Kingdom of Vigia to buy "white slaves" when the ice and snow melted in the spring every year. The reason for this time period was that many poor families had run out of food in early spring, and they could buy people at a very low price. In addition, the Vigia people who had been hiding for a winter were the weakest at this time. When they arrived at remote places, Ramon's slave hunting team was unwilling to spend a penny, so they just started to plunder.

Ramon's private slave hunting team is comparable to a noble's private army. It is not believed that he has no backers even if they kill Aix. Maybe Lord Eden, the lord of Tiha City, is his backer. Therefore, it is unrealistic to take direct action in the city. Aix decides to gradually clip his wings, destroy his slave hunting team, and then wait for an opportunity to kill him. After discussing with Cress, she also agreed with Aix's idea.

The caravan stayed in Tiha for two days and then left for Sagos.

After entering the city of Sagos, Aix and his party came to a warehouse that had already taken shape. Before they began unloading the goods, King Ragnar's secretary came over in person and said that His Majesty the King had invited them. This made Aix, who was confused about the situation, very nervous.

As soon as I entered the palace hall, I heard a happy laugh. The host here, King Ragnar, laughed loudly:

"Hahahaha, is it Mr. Aix? Oh my, sir, you miss me so much."

As he said that, he personally stepped down from the throne, came to Aix, patted his shoulder and started to greet him cordially. It turned out that since the last time the king ate the snow salt feast that Aix specially prepared for him, he didn't notice anything in the first two days. After all, he ate too much that time, which made him have no appetite for two days. But as time went by, he missed the delicious food made by Aix more and more. Compared with the rough food made by his own chef every day, it tasted like swill and had no taste in his mouth. If Aix didn't come again, he wanted to send someone to Suno City to find him.

After figuring it out, Aix almost couldn't help laughing out loud. Come to think of it, in this era of scarcity, life was extremely boring. A person like King Ragnar who had resources, abilities, and power would pursue anything that interested him and could enrich his life once he found it.

Knowing that he would have to work hard in the palace kitchen all day, Aix told Fatis, who was accompanying him, to inform the caravan that Manide would be in charge of the commodity trading, and asked Yamila and Kress to come to help. Ragnar also asked all the cooks to follow his command, and announced that a banquet would be held today to celebrate the harvest festival in autumn, which made the whole palace confused. Didn't they hold a harvest festival banquet some time ago? Not only that, he also sent messengers to notify the nearby nobles to come to the banquet.

Hearing that there were about 30 people coming to eat, Aix was overwhelmed, but he had no choice but to bite the bullet. It seemed that Ragnar wanted to use this opportunity to show off himself and win over the nobles under him. Under the feudal aristocratic system in the Middle Ages, one of the effective ways for the king and the nobles to consolidate their status and win over other nobles and subordinates was to hold a banquet to entertain these nobles and their families. Not only that, the banquet could also enhance the feelings among the entire nobles, promote internal unity and harmony, and make decisions on major kingdom affairs.

In order to satisfy Ragnar's appetite and his heart, Aix had to work hard. In addition to the four dishes and one soup last time, he added four more dishes, braised pork elbow, four-joy meatballs, steamed river fish, and stir-fried vegetables, as well as a three-fresh soup with mutton as the main ingredient. In order to increase the size, Aix also asked the clever girls, Yamila and Kress, to decorate with brightly colored berries and vegetables, trying to reflect the standard of a state banquet with good color, aroma and taste. These dishes are relatively easy to make, and the ingredients can be combined with local production. In order to feed more than 30 people, he made each dish at least three times, and by the end of the banquet he was basically exhausted.

But then again, the more you give, the more you get. At the banquet, King Ragnar personally introduced him to the nobles who came to the banquet. He got to know many dignitaries, which is estimated to be of great help to future merchants. At least with Ragnar's personal endorsement at the banquet, he didn't have to worry about the nearby nobles coveting his wealth and secretly sending people to rob him. Moreover, King Ragnar, who got the benefit, also used the delicious dishes at the banquet to vigorously promote the benefits of snow salt, making the entire banquet indirectly a recommendation meeting for snow salt. Aix directly booked about 1000 silver coins worth of snow salt, which was considered to have completed the KPI of this quarter's caravan at one time, and I believe it will also be of great help to the promotion of snow salt in the future.

The banquet, which satisfied all three parties, lasted until late at night. When Axe returned to the warehouse, it was almost midnight. He was so tired that he went to sleep without thinking about anything else.

The next day, after sleeping until noon, Aix was called to Ragnar's palace by the secretary, who said that several trusted nobles wanted to discuss state affairs tonight and needed him to continue cooking.

"If you don't eat enough, then you don't eat enough. What excuses are there?" Aix complained in his heart, but he couldn't shirk his responsibility. He had to bite the bullet and start this day of forced business.

Fortunately, there were only more than 10 people at the banquet tonight, so the workload was much lighter. After finishing the work, Aix was even qualified to dine with everyone.

During the dinner, Aix was in a state of panic - his eyes were opened, and he finally realized how unreliable the so-called discussion of state affairs was in this era. There were more than ten nobles at the table, who were talking loudly about the current political situation while chewing their food. They did not take him, an outsider, seriously at all, let alone have any sense of confidentiality.

After listening to the big guys' talks for a while, Aix slowly understood the main points of what they were saying. It turned out that the two neighboring countries of the Nordic Kingdom, the Kingdom of Vaegir and the Kingdom of Swadia, were likely to face war. The nobles of the Nordic Kingdom took this opportunity to sit together and discuss to see if there were any opportunities to be gained.

The reason for the war in the Vaegir Kingdom is said to be that the city of Kudan will be retaliated by the Khergit Khanate. The lord of Kudan, Voldratboye, was cruel and murderous, and had long harassed the border of the Khergit Khanate. He also attempted to provoke a war between the two countries, and wanted to take the opportunity to seize the Sagiche Castle on the border of the Khergit Khanate. As a result, the Khergit Khanate's Sera Khan was irritated. The Khan took advantage of the autumn Naadam meeting held not long ago and convened a meeting of nobles in the presence of all the nobles in the country to discuss the war to punish Voldratboye. At the same time, he probably also wanted to seize the city of Kudan.

The war in Swadia was caused by the Lord of Uxhall, Marquis Dilinard, who had some connections with Aix, and his daughter was Lady Anna of Suno. The Marquis wanted to monopolize the olive oil business, and for this purpose he sent his men to pretend to be bandits and rob caravans from the Rhodok Kingdom that were selling olive oil to the Nordic Kingdom and the Vaegir Kingdom.

After hearing this, Aix finally understood why Grans wanted to kill all the caravans. It was probably not only because of Lady Anna's tacit approval, but also because of the instruction of Marquis Dilinard. Marquis Dilinard's behavior of eating alone angered the nobles of the Rhodok Kingdom who made their fortunes from olive oil. At the call of King Griffus, most of the nobles in the country gathered in the city of Viruga and vowed to send troops to attack Marquis Dilinard.

The ancestors of these Nordic nobles were all pirates, and they are all opportunists. If they were asked to do nothing in this situation, how could they bear it? Based on their own interests, some said to attack the Kingdom of Vaegir, and some said to attack the Kingdom of Swadia. The situation was in chaos and they argued endlessly.

Aix knew that war situation was business situation, and there might be big money-making opportunities here, so he pricked up his ears and listened carefully, fearing that he would miss any useful information, while at the same time trying to guess the connections involved.

King Ragnar couldn't help but frown as he watched his men quarreling. Nothing useful would come out of their quarreling, and it was becoming more and more outrageous. Some had even started personal attacks, and it was possible that the situation would develop into a physical fight.

Suddenly he saw Aix sitting in the corner. He had always looked up to this businessman who was listening carefully, not only because he cooked delicious meals, but also because his temperament and conversation should be extraordinary. He wanted to hear if he had any different opinions, so he paused on the table with the silver cup in his hand and said:

"My fellow Jarls (a title for the nobles of the Kingdom of Nord, roughly meaning leader or lord), you guys are not going to get any results by arguing like this, why not listen to outsiders' opinions? Mr. Aix, what do you think of the current situation?"

Aix, who was listening and thinking, did not expect to have a chance to speak. He was stunned for a moment. After understanding the situation, he hurriedly said:

"Your Majesty, I am honored that you look up to me. However, this is a major event in your country. As a businessman, I cannot say too much, right?"

Hearing Aix's sensible, humble and measured words, King Ragnar was very impressed with him and waved his hand, saying:

"That's fine, that's fine. I know you are a very talented person and I really want to hear your opinion. I wonder if you have anything to teach me."

"Yes, yes, your opinion must be extraordinary, please share it with me..."

The other nobles were very happy to eat the food cooked by Aix these two days, and they all supported him.

It seemed that it was difficult for Axe to refuse. If he did, it would be hypocritical and he would not give face. So he combined what he had just thought about and said after a moment of hesitation:

"Since you think so highly of me, I will share my humble opinion. I think from the perspective of our Nordic Kingdom, we only need to do two things: it is better to go late than early, and it is better to go north than south."

Looking at the puzzled nobles around him, it seemed that he had been tricked this time, so Axe continued:

"It is better to delay rather than sooner. At present, these countries have not started fighting. As a neighboring country, we must not intervene too early. Even if we are preparing, we should not do it openly. Otherwise, once we arouse others' vigilance and they become alert, they may even negotiate peace and not fight. Then we will definitely not gain any advantage. So we should hold our troops in place and let them fight without worry. When the war escalates and they fight fiercely, we can intervene and gain the advantage, and the relative loss will be the least. It is better to delay rather than sooner.

The so-called "it is better to go north than south" means that we should finally start with the Kingdom of Vaegir in the north. First of all, it is a geographical factor. We are separated from the Kingdom of Swadia by mountains and black forests. They will not pose much threat to us regardless of their strength. However, there is no barrier between the Kingdom of Vaegir and us on the border. Once they become strong, they can easily invade our hinterland.

Secondly, most of the Rhodok soldiers are infantry, good at siege. Once we pin down the Swadian Kingdom from behind, they may capture Uxhall. However, it is not easy for us to occupy the Swadian territory due to the mountains and forests, which will benefit the Rhodok Kingdom. The Khergit Khanate is the opposite. They are mainly cavalry and not good at siege. Even if they win the field battle, they probably won't be able to capture Kudan. Moreover, winter is coming. If Sera Khan sends troops now, once the snow blocks the road, the war may be delayed until next year. If the war continues, won't we have a chance?

By then, they will both be defeated, and we can take advantage of this opportunity to easily occupy strategic locations such as Fort Ismorola. This will not only benefit us, but also not cause too much loss, which is most beneficial to our country."