Volume 3: Fellow villagers, let’s farm together~ Chapter 90 Beyond the Transaction
So far, the tribe has processed about 110,000 kilograms of wool... This output is mainly limited by the overly backward production tools and the pitifully small number of employees in the wool spinning factory. Even though Qiu worked very hard and took the lead in working overtime, the tribe's own wool was still not processed. When Xiao Yun set out, most of the semi-finished wool in the warehouse had not been spun.
This quantity seems a bit pitiful no matter how you look at it, but it is enough to serve as a pathfinder for the market... Carlisle estimated and found that these wool yarns can at least make 50,000 sets of warm sweaters and pants to solve the problem of keeping warm for the residents of the royal city. The look in his eyes when he looked at Xiao Yun was even more affectionate than the one he gave to the Fire Clan leader back then - he didn't even complain about the small quantity or anything.
After talking about the fruits of labor in woolen textiles, next we will talk about the favorite of the poor: pickles.
Xiao Yun believed that pickles, which were looked down upon by the forest elves, should have a market in the human kingdom because they were cheap and could reduce the consumption of salt to a certain extent. Even though Saint Bridge was a coastal country, salt was not cheap. A small half of the salt on the salt market came from the Lamia Merchant Group, and most of it came from various noble families. The cheapest green salt, which was mixed with sand and gravel, cost ten copper coins per pound.
It stands to reason that the St. Bridget royal family should suppress the domestic salt price. After all, this thing is a daily necessity and should not be used to make a profit. However... Even though Prince Carlisle, who was sitting in front of Xiao Yun, had received targeted guidance from Xiao Yun, this royal family member still did not realize the importance of livelihood issues. When Xiao Yun made it clear that cheap pickles could supplement the salt needs of civilians, this guy was stunned for a long time before he reacted...
The developed countries in the white world on Earth would not have remembered to pay attention to the lower classes if the Soviets had not come. They were scared by the Russians and did not treat the common people sincerely. The policy of keeping the people ignorant has been in play for decades, so Xiao Yun can't say that Prince Carlisle is not good enough... After all, there is a generation gap between dimensions and times, so don't ask for too much. It's okay to implement "benefiting the people" as a motivation to gain public support with utilitarian purposes. After all, it's also a kind of progress.
"I will charge you one copper coin per pound for the processing of this batch of pickles. You can see the market reaction first. If the public accepts it, you can arrange for someone to do it in China... This is the method of making pickles. I will give it all to you. The climate in St. Bridge is much better than that on the grassland. You can grow at least five crops of green vegetables a year. The cost will be lower than what we make on the grassland. You will not lose money even if you sell it to the public at one copper coin per pound. If you can replace half of the salt consumption with pickles, the public who rely on pickles to supplement salt will be your loyal supporters."
Xiao Yun directly gave Carlisle the method of making pickles and the method of increasing the yield of green vegetables summarized by the Snow Wolf Clan. Since he had made a fortune from the wool trading, he did not plan to make a profit from the pickles... After all, green vegetables are too common, and pickles are not high-end products. It is better to make them completely cheap. On the one hand, he can help his disciples and secretly dig into the Lamia Merchant Group. On the other hand, Xiao Yun is also annoyed by those nobles who make a fortune with daily necessities.
Prince Carlisle was really moved this time. He moved his lips for a long time but couldn't utter a word. After Teacher Ayun pointed out the shortcomings of St. Bridget's in people's livelihood, he immediately taught him this method to solve the salt price problem in a roundabout way without causing major domestic conflicts. He really didn't know how to thank Teacher Ayun.
In a nutshell... Xiao Yun and Carlisle both knew very well that the St. Bridget royal family had no confidence to go against all the nobles in the country!
Reform? In Chinese history, even a powerful person like Zhang Juzheng, who was so smart that he was almost a demon, could not escape the end of his political career and the reckoning after his death, and he also smeared the Qing Dynasty with black mud... Anyway, Xiao Yun was not optimistic that Carlisle could carry out drastic reforms in St. Bridges when surrounded by powerful enemies. If he insisted on doing so, Xiao Yun felt that he would be able to burn paper money for Carlisle in a few years...
Even if Carlisle was a prince, if he stood up and advocated lowering the price of salt, the nobles who made money from salt would inevitably attack him. Carlisle didn't dare to take this risk at all, and Xiao Yun wouldn't let him take the risk while watching the fun from across the sea. Bypassing the salt problem and using pickles, which have low cost and can be sold at the lowest price to solve part of the salt demand, would be much easier and the conflict would not break out too much. After all, it costs money for the nobles to oppose the royal family. As long as the royal family doesn't go too far, the nobles can bear it.
After talking about the pickles that are given away for free, the next things to look forward to are canned fruit, vinegar, and sauerkraut, a byproduct of vinegar.
A long-term and stable business is a truly good business. No smart person would think that he would make a quick buck and then be done with it. When it comes to non-essential needs, Xiao Yun definitely doesn’t need to be too saintly. He “specially supplies” the fleet with canned fruit for consumption during the sea transportation at five copper coins per can, and the price of vinegar and pickled cabbage is the same as the price sold to the forest elves. As a teacher, Xiao Yun won’t ask for too much from his disciples and try to take advantage of them, but he can’t suffer a loss either…
Prince Carlisle naturally would not bargain with Xiao Yun. As for the demand for vinegar, he was willing for Teacher Ayun to slightly raise the price and increase the supply - the summer in St. Brigid's is hot, and sour vinegar is very appetizing, so there must be a market for it in the country.
Unfortunately, there is not much stock left, so Xiao Yun cannot respond to this matter...
Once the deal is done, the next step is education.
Xiao Yun didn't expect that he could just give the natives some pointers and they would be able to complete the task as well as the NPCs ... If he wasn't so generous, the group of snow wolves would have pissed him off countless times. So in addition to giving the method, we also need to give the idea of how to implement it.
Xiao Yun, who used to work as a building materials merchant, knew very well that the more a product changes hands, the higher the "cost" becomes, and the less cost-effective it becomes for consumers (which is why physical stores cannot compete with e-commerce). He carefully explained to Prince Carlisle the rationale for building his own sales channel - a poor manufacturer like him could not build channels to the end of the sales process, while Prince Carlisle, who was rich and had connections, had sufficient conditions in this regard. Most importantly, Prince Carlisle could take this opportunity to cultivate more human resources that could be used by him, which would be of great benefit to his actual control over St. Bridges.
Not to mention that Carlisle's expression became more serious the more he listened, Darren and Tim who were listening also held their breath...
"...In order to implement the plan, you need people to assist you in implementing it. You have been trained in this aspect of personnel selection for a year, so you should have some understanding. All I can teach you is to advise you to carefully calculate the accounts before hiring people , and settle the accounts between you and your vassal."
"If you give concessions to people who already have resources, they may not appreciate your kindness and their gratitude will be limited. But for those who are in a difficult situation or even unable to survive, if you give them something to eat, they will remember your kindness. If you not only feed them but also give them a stable job so that they have the opportunity to support themselves and their family, then they will not easily betray you unless someone else offers them a higher price."
"Everyone who does something will consider the cost and whether it is cost-effective. Whether it is someone who has done you a favor or someone you have done him a favor, the more they will calculate the cost and benefits of betrayal, because who would be willing to gamble with their life before finishing their food if they have enough food to eat? On the other hand, if the people who follow you have to consider where to find their next meal, then it is normal for them to betray you."
Carlisle couldn't help but nod. If it was a year ago, he might not be able to accept such words, but now he could understand what Teacher Ayun meant: after dealing with those kingdom knights with the lowest title and whose territories were small villages with only dozens of households, he also heard some country rumors that servants killed their masters due to excessive hunger. This opened the eyes of His Royal Highness the Prince, who had never known that there were servants of country nobles who were so embarrassed that they were on the verge of starvation... In the face of the great proposition of survival, loyalty and morality must give way.
"So I suggest, Carlisle, that you try your best to arrange a way out for those you think are useful. If others follow you and see that they can stutter and see a future, then no matter whether they agree with your ideas or not, they will have no other choice besides you, at least in the short term."
"After settling others' accounts, you have to settle your own accounts. If a person who does not agree with your ideas, or a person whom you despise and look down upon in some aspects, follows you just because he stutters, can you despise him or even reject him? Of course, this is unnecessary - you use this person because you need him to do things for you. As long as this person is doing things for you, why do you care whether he understands or agrees with you? Why do you care what his status is, or whether his thoughts and ideas are in line with your ideas?"
"A person who intends to do bad things is still a good person before he has the opportunity to do bad things. Similarly, if a person you despise and you think is more likely to cause trouble than to achieve good things is always following your orders and has not made any mistakes before he does bad things, you cannot think that such a person is not qualified to follow you."
"We herd sheep on the grasslands. The leader of the flock, or the direction of the leading sheep, ultimately depends on where the shepherd drives the sheep. If the shepherd shouts at the leading sheep to jump off the cliff, or if the shepherd does not quickly drive the sheep out of the danger zone when the leading sheep is walking on the edge of the cliff, can we say that the accident of the sheep is the fault of the leading sheep? If the shepherd knows that there is a dangerous cliff near where he is herding sheep, then he will build a row of fences on the edge of the cliff in advance, or prevent the sheep from approaching, then will the danger still exist?"
The more Tim listened, the more he felt something was wrong. He couldn't help but secretly look at Darren and Carlisle's faces, but found that they were just listening very carefully and couldn't see anything unusual.
"Did I misunderstand what Teacher Ayun said?" This thought flashed through Tim's mind. He subconsciously clenched his hands on his knees into fists, and then slowly released them.
Xiao Yun noticed Tim's gaze, chuckled at him, and continued to give examples of things on the grassland; Tim noticed his hint, and clenched his hand again, just loosening it, and looked at Xiao Yun with sparkling eyes.
"Although he didn't accept me as his disciple, Teacher Ayun did consider me!" Tim suppressed the excitement in his chest, and beads of sweat oozed from the tip of his nose due to excessive excitement.
Well... Tim didn't misunderstand too much. Xiao Yun did intend to build a ladder for Tim and Darren.
First of all, it is impossible for Xiao Yun to talk about class and people's war to a prince who symbolizes feudal power. This is no different from talking about private oligarchs undermining national interests in front of Trump...
He also couldn't simply say "recruit talents regardless of their background", because if he led Carlisle to the path of becoming a powerful hero, then he would have committed a huge sin... Xiao Yun himself came from the lower class, so he knew the problems of the lower class. The combination of kindness and poverty was just a fairy tale, and the saying that poor mountains and bad waters produce unruly people was not politically correct but it was very true. One had to sit in the right place, but one could not ignore the actual situation. If His Royal Highness the Prince arbitrarily promoted people with despicable character, the damage caused would be no less than that of the current group of nobles, and might even be worse.
So he could only guide His Royal Highness the Prince in a roundabout way to know how to use people, dare to use people, and at the same time impose restrictions on people; whether the lower beam will be crooked depends entirely on whether the upper beam is straight. He could not say this directly in case of causing Carlisle's disgust, but he had to make Carlisle understand this meaning.
After all, it is not easy to be a prince's teacher. If you think that Carlisle is licking you well now and don't pay attention to the way you get along with him, don't respect Carlisle's self-esteem as a prince, and don't consider his acceptance, then you will be in trouble in the future.
I specially invited Tim and Darren to attend as auditors... It's obviously a flattery: the person who persuaded your prince to break out of the aristocratic framework and employ people is his teacher~!
It was I who persuaded your prince to value the interests of those who followed him~!
It's stupid to just do it without saying anything. It's stupid to do good things but not show off. What can Xiao Yun do with this stupid thing!
Tim reacted, but Darren hadn't caught up with his train of thought. However, Xiao Yun believed that with Darren's intelligence, he could understand his deeper meaning. Then he would have one more pair of dogs to boot... cough cough cough!
It's not that he didn't trust Carlyle and secretly influenced the people around him, but he should have thought more deeply about such a powerful person who held unlimited power. It's not that we should always be on guard against others. Don't forget who dug Zhang Juzheng's grave!
Uh… Although Xiao Yun didn’t think Carlisle could reach the grassland or live longer than himself, after all, if the Snow Wolf didn’t ruin his body, he would be strong as hell in his sixties or seventies…
While one pair of master and disciple was full of reverence while the other was secretly scheming, in the city of Ananas in the forest, another pair of master and disciple were sitting opposite each other and having a deep conversation.
"So, the two chiefs of this Snow Wolf tribe are different from others?"
In the pavilion surrounded by flowers, on the square coffee table made of logs with bark on it were placed several plates of green leafy vegetables mixed with vinegar, soy sauce, and a little chili powder and pepper powder. Elder Gwendolyn tried a few bites of the hot and sour sauerkraut produced by the Snow Wolf Tribe, put down her silver fork, and looked up at the disciple sitting opposite her.
"Yes, teacher. I only met one of the tribe leaders. The feeling this tribe leader gave me..." Evelyn thought for a moment before saying, "This Snow Wolf tribe leader named Grassroot handed over the important matter of the tribe's transaction to a cub after a brief meeting. Her relaxation made me feel... rather than trusting the cub Ayun, it would be better to say that she has everything under control. She seemed to have guessed how we would react and didn't think that this transaction required her to show up."
Hmm... that's a very subtle misunderstanding.
"Where is the other clan leader?" asked Elder Gwendolyn.
Evelin shook her head. “The other Fire Chief never showed up. I also tried to inquire about it, but the cub Ayun said that the Fire Chief was carrying out a mission that was very important to the Snow Wolf Tribe and could not spare the time to receive the guests.”
"To be honest..." Elder Gwendolyn frowned and tapped her fingers on the wooden coffee table. "These two clan leaders think that the transaction with us forest elves is not as important as the business they are doing? Could it be that this Snow Wolf tribe has really found its heritage?"
“Teacher, is the Snow Wolf Tribe’s heritage extraordinary?” Evelyn asked curiously.
Gwendolyn nodded, then shook her head. "When the previous Beast King was alive, the Snow Wolf Tribe was indeed the strongest ground army in Bloomfield Continent, but that was all. The Far East is a complicated place, and the Snow Wolf Tribe and the Tiger Tribe are too involved. Now that the previous Beast King has passed away, no one in the Far East will be willing to let the Snow Wolf Tribe continue to grow stronger."
Regardless of whether the Snow Wolf Tribe was responsible for the rearguard mission during the retreat, the tribes in the Far East would not miss the opportunity to weaken the Snow Wolf Tribe.
Evelyn was a little surprised: "Is that so? Then why did the Tiger Tribe and the Snow Wolf Tribe become estranged after the remnants of the old royal family moved into the cursed land?"
"That's because the Tiger Tribe was struggling to protect itself at the time, and had no spare energy to take care of the Snow Wolf Tribe, which suffered heavy losses and only had a few thousand cubs left. By the time the Tiger Tribe had recovered, the Snow Wolf Tribe no longer needed the Tiger Tribe's protection." Elder Gwendolyn sneered, "After all, after the death of the previous Beast King, the Tiger Tribe also lost its ambition to become a strong force, and even its once close allies began to become suspicious."
"Well... if that's the case, and the Tiger Tribe doesn't interfere, then it seems we don't need to be too concerned about the deal with the Snow Wolf Tribe. Is that right, Teacher?" Evelyn said.
Gwendolyn nodded and said, "Confirm again...Evelyn, arrange for someone to go to the Tiger Tribe's royal court."
Evelin's expression changed, and she said hurriedly, "If there are porcelains produced by the Snow Wolf Tribe in the market of the Tiger Tribe's royal court, then the Fire Tribe lied. If there are Snow Wolf people in the Tiger Tribe's royal court, then their transaction with us is likely to be a cover-up, just to stabilize us?"
"No, you're thinking in the wrong direction." Elder Gwendolyn couldn't help but smile. "Even the chief of the Fire Tribe has to take charge of affairs, which means they are short of manpower and have not yet joined forces with other Snow Wolf tribes. The Snow Wolf Tribe, which is still a loose sand, is eager to cooperate with the Tiger Tribe? With the wisdom shown by the two chiefs of the Fire Tribe, this is not practical."
“This…Teacher, what do we need to confirm?” Evelin was confused.
"Of course, it's to confirm whether the tiger tribe's naive ambitions have changed." Gwendolyn said with some disdain, "It's well known that the tiger tribe wants to return to the Far East. We and the one in the north have the same opinion on this... It doesn't matter whether the tiger tribe leaves or stays, as long as they don't affect the cursed land. But if the tiger tribe wants to cause a bloody storm before leaving, that doesn't fit our point of view."
Gwendolyn looked at her disciples kindly and taught softly, "Since the two chiefs of the Fire Tribe can see through the signs of unrest in the Cursed Land and show us goodwill in advance, we don't need to promise them anything, but we can't just sit back and watch the situation deteriorate."
"Eh...ah!" Evelyn turned the corner and said in surprise, "So that's why - is that the reason?"
"Military generals from the Far East have frequently appeared in the Cursed Land since two years ago. The one in the North discussed this matter with our queen before the snow melted. Although I don't know through what channel the Fire Tribe got the news, since they are working so hard to save themselves, it is always worthy of praise." Elder Gwendolyn was very satisfied with her disciple's intelligence and nodded with a smile.
“I understand, teacher, thank you for your guidance… The purpose of a transaction is often beyond the transaction, I understand what you mean.” Evelin said excitedly.
Watching her beloved disciple run out of the courtyard with her skirt lifted up, Elder Gwendolyn smiled and shook her head: "This little guy... is still so unstable."
After enjoying afternoon tea in her own courtyard, Elder Gwendolyn stood up and walked back to her study. After thinking about her attitude towards the Snow Wolf Tribe with her hands behind her back, Elder Gwendolyn walked to the bookshelf, controlled the wind element to take out a scroll, and gently spread it out.
The forest elves also have records of the Snow Wolf Tribe's heritage, but it is not comprehensive, and only some parts have been publicly circulated. In the Snow Wolf Tribe information collected by the forest elves, the legend of this strongest army on earth is always closely related to a pair of Snow Wolf heroes; the first painting that appears after the scroll in Gwendolyn's hand is opened is a statue of the Snow Wolf heroic couple - on the back of a huge silver-white war wolf, the majestic Snow Wolf warrior is heroic and proud.
After admiring it for a moment, Gwendolyn closed the scroll and sighed softly: "If you can't even protect your own race, what's the use of becoming a demigod? A hero... is just a hero."
The wind element lifted the scroll and put it back in place. Gwendolyn walked to the desk, lowered her eyes, and looked at the faded page cut from the Bard's Travels to the Continent five hundred years ago, which was pressed under the crystal table.
The pages contain an image of a human man, the necromancer Melville J. Bancroft.
Gwendolyn sighed softly again as she stroked her fingers over the thin face of the human man in the black and white image.
"The only human who successfully transformed himself into a lich, a demigod of the human race, who influenced the entire southern continent of Bloomfield and made all the human royal families issue orders that the conscription of civilians must not affect the cultivation of the land and must provide food and fodder. All that was left behind was a bad reputation that no one was allowed to even mention his name."
Gwendolyn, the elder of Ananas, put her hands behind her back and looked up at the sky outside the window with a calm and somewhat indifferent look.
"History has proven countless times that heroes cannot protect anything, but the momentary glory of becoming a hero always attracts countless strong people to follow." The wise elf elder whispered to himself, "The Tiger Tribe is lost in the fog of revival, and what about the Snow Wolf Tribe..."
Elder Gwendolyn did not believe that one or two heroes could lead the tribe out of its downturn. The Fire Tribe, a tribe of snow wolves that showed trading value, made her a little undecided. The elves valued long-term development, and their concept of time was different from that of other tribes. When other tribes were complacent about gaining ten or twenty years of peace, their sights were already set on a longer time downstream.
So... Elder Gwendolyn was hesitating whether she should personally contact the two chiefs of the Fire Tribe. After all, Elder Gwendolyn did not want to see the "investment" go to waste.
