Unknown Knight

The lineup of this merchant trip is unprecedentedly large, with a convoy of up to 12 vehicles and 36 people. It should be a large-scale caravan in the entire continent.

It was for nothing else but to intimidate certain people, especially Count Dilinard and Lady Anna of Suno City who were hiding in Yeruige Village. In addition to the elite soldiers in chain mail, Aix also selected more than 10 bandits with first-class archery skills. They were all reliable people with families. Aix also upgraded their equipment. They were not carrying the original hunting bows, but the yew wood hard bows specially made by Aix for carpenters. This kind of bow has a long range and high accuracy. With the pointed armor-piercing arrows, the combat power has increased several times. They wear leather armor, leather hats, leather boots, and each of them is equipped with a shield and a dagger. It can be said that they are on par with the elite archers of various countries.

A tall flag was also planted on the first car. It was a vertical flag with a red background and a yellow dragon. The yellow dragon body resembled bronze decorations, which looked simple and elegant. This was a noble flag designed by Aix. Together with the exclusive coiled dragon emblem in the previous announcement, it was a symbol of his noble status and had been reported to the Royal Archives of Paraven City. This flag and emblem alone could highlight Aix's extraordinary status. Looking at the flags and emblems of other nobles, they were either axes or wild boars, or bows and arrows, ravens, etc., which had no class at all, let alone any taste.

After four days of traveling, the caravan arrived at the city of Uxhall. The commander of the city defense army was a lord, who was said to be a close confidant of Harlaus and a distant relative of the royal family. However, he did not have the airs of a royal relative at all. He personally went out of the city to greet them and was extremely polite. He knew his own weight. Even though he was the commander of the city defense army, more than half of his subordinates' military expenses depended on this god of wealth. How could he not be polite?

At the same time, several nobles living in the city also went out of the city to welcome him. Now Aix's status is different. He is considered to be a person of equal status. It is said that he is also a favorite of King Harlaus, who is currently in high spirits. How can he not be polite?

The welcoming banquet that evening was inevitable and could not be refused. As a noble, etiquette and face had to be taken into consideration. However, Aix was restrained at the banquet and did not dare to open up to the guests. He responded humbly and politely, then said that he had official duties the next day and left early. Before leaving, he gave each of the people a piece of velvet and a bag of snow salt. The total value of these gifts exceeded the dinner several times, winning him praise after his death.

The next day, Aix turned down the invitation to a banquet that had been sent to him early in the morning. Without stopping, he led the caravan directly out. He had done his job of intimidating and pretending. If he didn't leave, would he make friends with these local nobles?

After another two days of traveling, the caravan arrived at the city of Suno. However, the reaction this time was completely different from that of the city of Uxhall. No one came to greet them. It seemed that the female head was petty. Aix didn't care. After all, they were on someone else's territory, and he would not take the initiative to visit them to curry favor. Now he had a national olive oil franchise in his hand, so he didn't have to worry too much. He entered the city, pulled two trucks of olive oil and set off.

As soon as he left the city, he doubled the number of front and rear scouts. Although Aix was not afraid of them now, judging from what had happened recently, the Dilinard family was notoriously treacherous. They not only attacked their own caravans, but also dared to attack the caravans of the entire Rhodok Kingdom. It was better to be on guard.

It is not known whether the deterrence worked or the opponent was in a low period and needed to keep a low profile, but the caravan pulled snow salt in the valley all the way to the territory of the Nord Kingdom without encountering any attacks.

Arriving at Tiha, Aix took the initiative to visit Lord Iden at the City Lord's Mansion. Aix had a good impression of Lord Iden, mainly because his experience was quite inspiring. He was able to grow from an ordinary Nord warrior to a city lord step by step, which showed that he was an extraordinary person. Such a person must be a friend, and Aix took the initiative to come here to make friends this time.

After presenting the gifts, the two of them couldn't help but exchange business compliments. In the evening, Lord Eden invited Axe to a dinner, and he didn't refuse. After all, they were now of equal status, and it wouldn't be considered as currying favor by inviting him to stay for dinner.

The two chatted a lot during the dinner and seemed to get along very well, but Aix gradually felt that something was wrong with the atmosphere. As to what was wrong, Aix could not tell for a moment, but he just felt that this Edenyar was very concerned about his snow salt business and asked carefully about a lot of information about snow salt. Fortunately, Aix told the legend of snow salt many times so that he did not show weakness under the scorching gaze of the city lord.

In addition, in order to help Cress, Axe told about the two times he went to Ramon to buy slaves, hoping to learn more about this big slave trader. Axe believed that there was such a large unofficial force in the city, and the city lord must know them very well. But contrary to what he thought, Eden said that he didn't know much about Ramon and took the initiative to avoid talking about Ramon. Seeing his flickering eyes, Axe didn't believe what he said at all. There must be something unspeakable here, but he didn't ask too much, so he ended the topic.

The dinner did not last very late. At the beginning, everyone was very talkative, but later neither side wanted to talk more about the topics that interested the other, so the party ended early.

The next day, Aix was originally preparing to leave Tiha for Sagos. King Ragnar had sent him two letters in a row. However, something happened in the caravan, forcing him to stay in Tiha for a few more days.

The cause of the incident was that Manide reported to him that the caravan was targeted by the local merchants selling crude salt. When the caravan went to buy crude salt, the price of crude salt, which was originally about 100 copper coins per bag, doubled to more than 200 copper coins per bag. They could not buy more, and they were only willing to sell a maximum of 5 bags to the caravan. When others came to buy, the price remained the same. When asked why they did this, the shop assistant said that the boss above wanted to sell it this way. When asked where the boss was, he said that the boss was not there. It seemed that they were definitely being targeted.

Moreover, Manide also found that there was a high-quality imitation of snow salt on the market. Although the color of this salt was not as white as snow salt, it was not much different. Only the taste was much worse. It had not gotten rid of the bitter taste of coarse salt. Aix knew that this was actually very easy to solve. Either use carbon adsorption, or use the method of our ancestors to add soy milk to precipitate other ingredients. Obviously, high-quality imitations did not understand this. Moreover, this high-quality imitation was only sold for 300 copper coins a bag, which was 100 copper coins cheaper than the snow salt sold by the caravan. However, there were very few buyers. The rich did not recognize it, and the poor might as well buy coarse salt directly.

You don't have to think too much to know the cause and effect of this. Considering the reaction of Lord Eden at the banquet last night, maybe this person is also a participant, or even the one who planned and instigated this matter.

Aix is ​​also in a bad mood now. After discussing with Manid and Bandak, they all feel that this matter cannot be let go. Originally, coarse salt and snow salt were two different tracks, and the benchmarks were the mineral salt produced by the Khergit Khanate and the Sarand Emirate. If the snow salt sells well, Aix will increase the purchase of coarse salt to promote the sales of coarse salt. But now that someone has put the chopsticks into the bowl, this can still be tolerated, and it seems that the other party obviously wants to take the bowl away.

So Aix decided to start a price war and lowered the price of each bag of snow salt directly to 200 copper coins so that the poor people who wanted to buy coarse salt could also afford it. Soon the whole city of Tiha was in an uproar, and there was a situation of scrambling for salt in the city. Some families had already stockpiled salt for the next few years. It was certain that there would not be much sales of coarse salt in Tiha in the next year at least. The happiest people were the merchants from other places who came to buy salt. They knew the profit of snow salt, so they also came to grab salt. As a result, Aix had to limit the amount for each person, otherwise the several trucks of salt he brought this time would be sold out.

Finally, Lord Eden had to step in. He came over with a red face and a thick neck, and half threatened and half negotiated with Aix, asking Aix to restore the price of snow salt to the original price, and let the local salt merchants promise in person that they would still sell coarse salt to the caravan at the previous price. Although Aix agreed to restore the price of snow salt to Lord Eden's face, he could not arbitrarily decide it. In front of Lord Eden, he angrily said to the salt shop owner:

"Today, I am giving face to Lord Iden. Originally, my snow salt competed with the mineral salt produced in Sarande and Kuji, and it had nothing to do with your coarse salt. The reason why I bought your coarse salt was because I didn't want the truck to be empty after selling the goods, so I took the coarse salt to the Kingdom of Vigia to sell to them to feed their livestock. Now that you are doing this, no one has any business to do."

Lord Iden saw that Aix seemed very angry, so he had to say some nice words. Aix pretended to stop, and he was also cunning. He only bought less than one-third of the usual amount of coarse salt, saying that the Kingdom of Vigia was in the midst of war and people's livelihood was in decline, so they didn't need too much coarse salt, so he had to buy less.

The salt shop owner must be regretting his decision now. Aix has reason to believe that the price of crude salt here will be lower next time he comes, because he had a plan for this trip, which is to build a warehouse in Wocheze City. It is a coastal city that also produces crude salt. Moreover, since it is more remote than Tiha City, the price of crude salt is relatively cheaper. If it were not for the recent busy affairs, Aix would have opened this trade route long ago. After all, it is easy to be manipulated by others if there is only one source of crude salt, so it is better not to put all your eggs in one basket.