Volume 4: How big is the heart, how vast is the earth Chapter 114 The Prince's Murder
Xiao Yun's purpose of coming to the Elf Port was very simple. This trade route built with St. Bridge's fleet as a bridge was the lifeline of Carlisle and the Snow Wolf Clan. Someone stepped on Xiao Yun's aorta. Even if Prince Carlisle couldn't do it, he had to find a way to tear this person apart.
Cutting off someone's source of wealth is like killing their parents, cutting off their livelihood is even worse. In the current situation, the Snow Wolf Clan will die if they don't develop. The three businesses of skin, fur, and powder must continue to provide blood transfusions to the grassland for at least ten years before the grassland's economy can be revitalized. How can Xiao Yun tolerate this when someone comes to pick peaches right out of nowhere?
You must not do that!
No matter how the forest elves pretend to be cool, at least they are doing business in an honest way and their moral standards are still relatively high. But Anthony, a prince of the feudal hereditary system who has not been personally educated... To be honest, it is better to believe that those literary and artistic scumbags in the Ministry of Education love their country, the Party, and the people, and to sing a song of loyalty than to believe that such people have moral standards.
If he hadn't taken Carlisle's feelings into consideration, Xiao Yun could have brought a group of warriors to kill Anthony directly... As long as he was willing to pay a price and use more clever means without disrupting the existing transaction situation, Xiao Yun didn't think the forest elves would mind the Snow Wolf Tribe killing a prince of a small human country on their land.
So when Xiao Yun saw Prince Carlisle on the ship, he immediately asked him a soul-searching question without saying anything: "How many more years can Saint Bridge drag on?"
Then Prince Carlisle fell silent.
Lamia's merchant group is bloated and slow, but that doesn't mean they don't react to Saint Bridge's food grabbing. Since the first transaction, Lamia's coast guard has not appeared in the Elf Port again. Why? Have they given up? It must not be... They are accumulating power and reading the bar to kill you, why do you have to talk nonsense with a "dead person" - the enemy is ready to punch you in the face and kill you, and you are still at home playing a bloody drama of royal brothers' emotions with an idle person, what nonsense do you have to talk?
Carlisle sighed and said, as a man, one must be cruel to oneself and the people around him... Do it!
As the saying goes, the longer the night, the more dreams one may have. Now that they have decided to do it, it is naturally better to do it sooner rather than later. Xiao Yun also wants to resolve the matter as soon as possible and go home to farm. He also can't stand people wasting time - mainly because in Xiao Yun's opinion, Anthony, the eldest prince, is really asking for death. If it were Zhu Di's two sons fighting for the throne, and Zhu Gaoxu went to his eldest brother Zhu Gaochi and said, "Brother, I have conquered Goryeo. Let's go see if the Goryeo beauties are pretty," would Zhu Gaochi happily run out of the East Palace and go out to play with his brother's army?
As long as the prince's head has not been pinched by a door panel, he must not do this...
Carlisle had been running the fleet for two years. He had people from the navy to the nobles and the sailors. For Anthony, who was also a competitor for the crown prince, it was not much better than a den of tigers and wolves. As a result, hey, everyone came on board happily, and acted like a eldest prince in a grand manner. He couldn't stand that person and looked down on that person. He was under the gun point of others and even planned to steal their bowls and smash their pots. On the way here, Carlisle didn't find a chance to throw this guy into the sea to feed the fish. It really means that his IQ has averaged out to a negative number compared to that of his stupid brother.
...In short, Carlisle, a respectable man, cannot accept a direct attack, so a reasonable death must be arranged. Then Xiao Yun naturally follows the host's wishes and uses the cocktail party that was originally used to "exclude" Anthony.
At the beginning, several people discussed for a long time how to quietly let Anthony be "left alone" at the beginning of the cocktail party. In the end... all the arrangements were useless. Anthony was late and acted like a big shot.
This really saves a lot of trouble... ahem.
"I see. Vermicelli is made from sweet potatoes. It's a unique idea to use the starch in the potatoes to make fine flour food."
An old gentleman with slicked back hair nodded politely in agreement. He was the earl, the highest-ranking nobleman following Carlisle. Originally, he himself did not need to appear in the fleet, but after Anthony got on board, Carlisle needed someone to impress, so he invited this old gentleman over.
"The loss will be quite large, right? Are there that much starch in potatoes?"
Another younger viscount spoke up at the right time. This was also a "shill" arranged by Carlisle.
Xiao Yun, who was sitting between the two gentlemen, put on a business smile and nodded, "Indeed, it is difficult to produce one pound of powder from ten pounds of potato chunks, plus the labor consumption during processing, so we set the price of dry powder at six copper coins."
The starch content of "free-range" tuber crops is certainly not high. The sweet potato pieces Xiao Yun found on the slave merchant ship were only as thick as fingers. If you collect sweet potatoes from the human kingdom to make vermicelli, you will definitely lose everything... Only the potato pieces grown at home have enough starch content to withstand the consumption of making vermicelli.
The nobles who were sitting in a circle began to whisper to each other. They had also visited the Snow Wolf Tribe's food store two days after arriving at the port. Two taels of vermicelli could fill the stomachs of most humans. In addition, the taste of vermicelli was indeed better than wheat flour, so they could not lose money no matter how they calculated the price.
"So Mr. Ayun, how many tons of vermicelli can you produce every year?" Seeing that everyone had almost finished their discussion, the old count raised the question that everyone was most concerned about.
"We only started production this spring. To be honest, the current output is not satisfactory." Xiao Yun nodded apologetically. "This year we can produce about 500,000 kilograms of dry powder. By next spring, we will strive to increase the output to 5 million kilograms."
Five hundred thousand kilograms of dry powder sounds like a lot, but there is not much left after each family gets a share. The nobles present were a little disappointed, but when they heard that the output could increase tenfold next year, their eyes began to light up - compared to skins and furs, vermicelli, which can be used as daily food, is a definite "must-have" and there is no need to worry about sales. It is also easy to store and transport and does not deteriorate easily. As long as it is shipped back, it will be a profit.
The fourth sea trade, the nobles who could follow Carlisle to the sea in the wind and sun were pragmatic people who could endure hardships, and they were the kind who were short of money... After all, going to sea was risky, who would be willing to go out and suffer when they could have a good life at home? The masters who had made enough money in the first two trips didn't want to come, and just sent a butler to follow them and earn as much as they could. Only when the money was not enough, they were eagerly looking forward to finding opportunities to seize new business opportunities.
People with greed will complain if they can't make more than ten times the profit in one trip, but these people won't do that. Let alone five times the profit, they would be grinning even if they could make two or three times - business is not that easy to do in St. Bridges. If you invest a hundred gold coins and make ten back, it's considered a good way to make money. Where can you find such a good thing as doubling your money?
Prince Carlisle ate the raw material business alone, and he did not touch the vermicelli business, leaving it all to the nobles. Xiao Yun reported a total of 500,000 catties, and the twenty or so nobles present began to discuss the distribution of shares. They could not expect to make a lot of money from this batch of goods, but they could test the market reaction, and when the supply is sufficient next year, they would have a good idea of which family can take how much.
Xiao Yun was not shy about it, and took advantage of the crowd to explain the two types of vermicelli in detail, including how to store and eat them, and the recommended sales methods for retail outlets. After all, St. Bridges was a spice production area with no shortage of condiments, and with enough ingredients, the vermicelli would be delicious enough. This could be considered as the two companies' products competing with each other to raise their value...
Vermicelli can be sold together with spices, which is the most attractive thing. As soon as Xiao Yun started, the shrewd and pragmatic nobles looked at him as if he were a lover; if he was not already Carlisle's teacher, he might have had more disciples who bowed down to him immediately...
Among the hundreds of nobles, big and small, in St. Bridges, more than sixty of them boarded Carlisle's ship. This was not a small number - it meant that before Carlisle became king, at least one-sixth of the nobles had followed him.
Of course, it's not like so many nobles would tie their lives and fortunes to Carlisle. In the final analysis, they followed Carlisle just to get the meat, and their loyalty was linked to the "value" of Carlisle... It's fine for them to be your younger brothers and cheer for you, but don't expect them to follow you through thick and thin. Carlisle knew this very well, so his rivalry with Anthony was kept under the surface.
But this doesn't mean that Carlisle won't play tricks. When Anthony wanted to board the ship, he quickly moved the old earl out and replaced all the candidates on the ship with pragmatic nobles, in order to avoid the situation where a bunch of stupid men would flatter Anthony...
Such an arrangement can also come in handy at this time. When Prince Anthony arrived late, most of the nobles were busy discussing the distribution of dry powder. No one was willing to step down from the front line to chat with Anthony at this time - this is the advantage of pragmatism. The prince's face is not as important as gold coins. When there is money to be made, who cares about your identity!
Xiao Yun saw Anthony squeeze into the crowd and sit down. His eyes gleamed. Without waiting for the nobles around him to talk to Anthony, he immediately changed the subject and threw out the trump card in his hand: "The climate in St. Bridge is very suitable for growing sugarcane and beets, right?"
"That's true. The spice business has been difficult in recent years. If it weren't for the good yield of sugarcane from the plantation, my family's estate would have almost collapsed." The old earl immediately laughed and responded.
"The grasslands of our Snow Wolf tribe are not suitable for growing sugarcane, so we can only rely on wheat and rice to make sugar, which consumes a lot of raw materials. I envy Saint Bridge for being able to produce sugarcane and beets that are more suitable for making sugar." Xiao Yun smiled and said, "Speaking of which, although we don't have the foundation for sugar production, we have accidentally discovered the technology to remove impurities from colored sugar and purify it into pure white sugar crystals..."
All the nobles present gasped - human aesthetics are the same in every world, white is good, purity is beautiful, red beans, yellow beans, and black beans are all beans, the first two can be served on the table but the last one can only be fed to horses. People with low appearance don't even have human rights, let alone "bean rights"...
"Mr. Ayun, what kind of magical method is needed to achieve this?" The old earl was so excited that he was incoherent. Carlisle just asked him to talk to the young snow werewolf and told him that there must be benefits, but he didn't tell him what the benefits were.
"It's actually very simple to process, but it's not easy to find this method. The story starts two years ago when we first met Prince Carlisle..."
Xiao Yun smiled slightly, and recounted the process of the Snow Wolf tribe discovering that pure white sugar could be precipitated by using activated carbon to stir and filter the sugar solution. The operation process was actually very easy. To put it simply, it was to grind the charcoal into powder and add it to the brown sugar water. Stir and filter the sugar water until it becomes a colorless and clear solution. Then heat and evaporate it to dryness, and the precipitated white sugar would be white sugar. However, Xiao Yun's purpose was not to give technology to others, so all he narrated was the process of discovering the technology. The story was full of ups and downs and exaggerated, but it never got to the point, dragging the story out until it was cool...
White sugar and brown sugar are both sugar, there is no essential difference between them, the only difference is that the former looks better and the price is at least twice as high; there were few fools present, even though Xiao Yun was clearly talking about technology but told it like a story, no one wanted to be distracted, they all listened carefully with their ears tilted, for fear of missing any details.
Anthony, who was ignored after sitting down, said: "..."
Would His Royal Highness Anthony, who has never worked in industry in his life, care about the technology of turning brown sugar into white sugar? He could care. If someone offers technology to him, he would accept it with reluctance. But if you want this distinguished prince to listen patiently to the savages on the grassland telling how they discovered a certain technology, then you are thinking in the wrong direction - others are people who do great things, who has time to talk nonsense with you?
The eldest son of a convenience store owner, are you interested in knowing the details of how a township enterprise in a certain place developed and researched a certain product that sells well?
After His Royal Highness Anthony sat down, he listened patiently for fifteen minutes before he stood up and left with a gloomy face. This is because he has good upbringing and good manners...
Anthony wanted to ask who the talkative snow wolf was, but no one praised him, which made the prince upset and disappointed. He didn't even feel like asking a name. After leaving the inexplicable circle of nobles, Anthony looked around and realized that there were not many people at this party who were worth his attention.
The Elf General Crest was not present. Among the officials from the Adventurer's Association, there were only two women of mediocre looks. Anthony took one look at them and had no interest in taking a second look. After walking around for a while, Anthony, who felt that this cocktail party was worthless, threw the wine glass on the long table and walked towards the door with his hands in his pockets.
For a moment, several pairs of eyes were cast towards the back of the eldest prince Anthony as he left the scene.
Darren, who was about to rush out and splash wine all over everyone, breathed a sigh of relief, drank the wine in the glass, and slowly walked towards Tim in the corner.
Tim, who had been chatting with Baron Humphrey about trivial matters, smiled and waved to Darren.
At the integrated bar on one side of the hall, Carlisle, who was standing behind Dahe, closed his eyes and gently placed the wine glass in his hand on the counter.
A guard sitting by the window stood up quietly and left through the waiter passage.
"Huh?" Sean suddenly felt something was wrong and looked towards the bustling venue in confusion.
"What's wrong, old buddy, are you going to drink this bottle? If not, I'll pass out." Primo, who was drinking the free wine, burped, picked up the bottle and poured it into the glass.
Sean looked away, looking at his old friend with amusement: "I was wondering why you wanted to hide your identity. It turns out that you wanted to take advantage of others unscrupulously?"
"Of course, my friend." Primo smiled proudly and pointed to the most crowded place. "If I were invited to sit over there and spent all my time talking meaningless nonsense, wouldn't it be a shame to have so many fine wines put out for people to enjoy?"
Sean had no way to deal with him and shook his head helplessly... When Primo first came, he was willing to show his true face, but after being constantly pestered by adventurers to establish a relationship with him, this guy's face was different every day.
"Don't shake your head at me. Didn't you also hide in the corner with me and take advantage of others? The prince wanted you to get to know his 'teacher', but you just said hello and walked away. It's much more rude than hiding your identity like me." Primo chuckled.
Sean was both angry and amused: "Don't tell me you can't see that the prince wants to use this cocktail party to do something. That little guy just brought out a kid from the Snow Wolf tribe as a signboard. Do I have to accompany these little brats to pretend?"
"Well... I can't say that. I think that Snow Wolf's cub is still quite something." Primo drank most of the wine in one breath and burped. "At least his eyes give me the feeling that... hiccups, anyway, he doesn't look like a Snow Wolf."
"There are always exceptions in every race. That cub is indeed different, but that's it... We've seen a lot of geniuses." Sean smiled disapprovingly.
Primo laughed and raised his glass: "Cheers to the years."
Sean responded: "To time."
The atmosphere at the cocktail party was lively, but the upper cabin was very quiet. Anthony felt a little uncomfortable when he returned to the cold room. He looked around and frowned immediately: “Where’s Alyssa?”
Guard Captain Kalu was stunned and said cautiously: "Alyssa is feeling a little unwell... I mentioned it to you at noon..."
"What about Mary?" Anthony thought of this, but still felt unhappy.
"This, Mary sang at the party..."
"Call her back. There are no guests at the party who need her to perform." Anthony interrupted with a wave of his hand.
"yes."
Captain Kalu left the room and was about to call the guards in the corridor, but found that there was no one there.
"Damn it, have these guys gone downstairs to drink?" Captain Guard Kalu looked around and didn't find anyone. He turned around to look at the closed door of the Crown Prince's room. After thinking for a while, he decided to go downstairs himself. Nothing good would come of making the Crown Prince wait too long. He knew Anthony's temper too well.
After going down to the middle cabin where the cocktail party was held, before turning into the corridor, Captain Guard Kalu saw a few brats sneaking out.
"Did you really come here? I said there is no one up there!" shouted the captain of the guards Karu.
" Captain of the Guards, didn't His Highness go to the meeting place?" Several guards who had sneaked away from their posts hurriedly explained.
"His Highness has gone back! All right, hurry up and go up!" Captain of the Guards Karu said unhappily.
Several guards were planning to return to their posts, and they trotted up the stairs in dejected manner.
The two princes each had their own guards, but due to limited space on the ship, it was impossible to bring all the guards aboard. Prince Carlisle took a step back and only brought two guards to take care of his daily life. The rest, including the captain of the guards, were all Anthony's men.
Prince Carlisle could accept the guards' service. His Highness Anthony brought his own maid and looked down on the rough guards, so ordinary guards were not allowed to enter Anthony's room except for the captain of the guards, Kalu. The guards only patrolled everywhere when they went upstairs, and they had to be careful to walk lightly when passing by Anthony's room to avoid disturbing His Highness the eldest prince.
Captain Carew brought the singer Mary out of the venue and returned to the upper cabin while whispering to the famous singer of St. Bridget to serve His Royal Highness Anthony carefully.
Not long after the footsteps disappeared from the narrow corridor, screams were heard from the first-class cabin on the upper deck...
Carlisle walked into the room decorated luxuriously by Anthony, and at first sight he saw the owner of the room lying on the sofa. He was staring at the ceiling, and he had not changed out of the suit he wore for the cocktail party. There was a small pool of crystal wine glass debris under his wrist hanging on the edge of the sofa. It seemed that he was leisurely enjoying the fine red wine produced in St. Bridget just a second before his chest was pierced by a sharp blade.
Carlisle thought he would feel very guilty, but the strange thing was... when he actually saw Anthony's body, he was very calm. The first thought that came to his mind was "I can finally do my job without distraction", rather than any shame for murdering his blood relative.
"Your Highness... Your Highness..." Captain Guard Karu sat down at the other end of the carpet in a daze, his eyes empty, muttering unconsciously, and he didn't even notice Carlisle came in.
"Is this... the sword of the royal guard?" The old earl bent down and stared at the sword on Anthony's chest for a few seconds, then stood up and glared at the lost Kalu sternly, then turned to look at Carlisle, "Your Highness, someone used the guard's sword to assassinate His Highness Anthony. I suggest that all the guards be summoned immediately to see whose sword is lost."
Carlisle nodded and told the guards to assemble with a heavy expression.
Everyone knew that there was no need to seal the upper cabins, check swords, check movements while on duty, etc., but everyone also knew that they had to be done; just like everyone knew that Carlisle was involved in Anthony's inexplicable assassination, but no one could be sure that it was definitely Carlisle who did it.
It sounds a bit confusing... In fact, it means that you can do it but cannot say it, and you can do it but cannot give people a chance to criticize you; as long as it can be dealt with on the surface and the excuses arranged can fool most people, no matter how absurd the "result" is, it is the only result - everyone on earth knows that Iraq is aggrieved, but who can really argue with the United States about whether there are "weapons of mass destruction"... Such things as justice and fairness have never existed, not in any world.
On the surface, the whole night was bustling with excitement over the assassination of the eldest prince. The "actors" who took part in the performance, both the main and supporting roles, sang very hard. At dawn, Carlisle, with bloodshot eyes, came to the conclusion that "Captain of the Guard Carew betrayed His Highness Anthony and was arrested and brought back to the country for trial." The exhausted people, whether they believed it or not, all nodded in agreement and dispersed to rest.
"I think I am the target of everyone's suspicion."
In Carlisle's room, the tired Prince said self-deprecatingly to his teacher.
"You said it yourself, it's suspicion, suspicion means there is no evidence, so according to the presumption of innocence, it has nothing to do with you." Xiao Yun said indifferently, "You reached out to grab food from other people's plates, you deserve to be beaten to death. It's like you got involved in the sea trade business monopolized by the Lamia Merchant Group. One day you made a wrong move and the Lamia people got the chance to kill you, you can only blame yourself for your bad luck."
"..." Carlisle didn't know whether to laugh or cry, "Teacher, you don't have to be so direct, right?"
"A true warrior must have the courage to face the cruelty of life. Those who do not see the risks and only think about making profits are all fools who do not take their lives seriously." Xiao Yun sneered, "You said that Anthony was jealous of the trade route you opened up and wanted to compete with you. Then has he ever thought about why you dared not even leave the Elf Port when you came to the Northern Continent? Has he ever thought that you might be killed at any time? Ya Ma Ma came here without considering licking his face. He only sees the thief eating meat but not the thief being beaten. Even if he wins the robbery, he will be killed..."
Carlisle listened to Xiao Yun's chatter in silence for a long time, then sighed, "I don't regret murdering Anthony. To be honest, I just felt relieved when I saw his body...finally no one is holding me back." Carlisle smiled bitterly and shook his head, "It's this thought that makes me feel bad, teacher. I seem to have... become the kind of person who doesn't take people's lives seriously. I kill anyone who gets in my way without hesitation. Wouldn't it be terrible if I got used to this? Would I still be qualified to consider myself a hero who revived St. Bridget's?"
Xiao Yun did not answer him directly, but sighed and said: "Sure enough, no matter how old a man is, he has the dream of becoming a hero... But, Carlisle, have you ever thought about this, what a hero pursues is a flawless and bright image in the eyes of others, or doing what he really wants to do?"
Carlisle was stunned. Xiao Yun's two classifications of heroes were indeed something he had never considered before.
"Whether it's a tribe on the grassland or your country, if a group wants to develop, it must move in the same direction under the common will recognized by most people in the group and use the group's strength in the right direction. Only in this way can it promote the group's progress. But people are different from each other, and it is impossible for their thoughts to be completely synchronized. If you want most people to agree with the same concept and the same will, a group of people must take the lead and work hard for countless years. If you greedily want everyone to agree, then you are talking about a myth, something that is simply impossible to do."
"Even in a group with a shared destiny, there will always be people who oppose you for selfish or selfless reasons. This cannot be changed by anyone's will."
Carlisle nodded slowly, looking painful... The collision between the little boy's heroic dream and reality was very cruel, and the more deeply he understood it, the more he could appreciate the cruelty.
"As someone who strongly desires the group to progress, I cannot ignore those compatriots who hold opposing opinions. So what should I do at this time? There are no shortcuts in this place. I can only take one step at a time, promote your ideas more, and use practical actions and facts to prove that your will can make most people have a better life, and strive to make more people agree with you."
Xiao Yun smiled and said, "It took me half an autumn and a winter to convince more than 30 tribesmen to learn farming from the Tauren. Even for me, facing such a small group of people, there is no shortcut. But the hard work will not be in vain. If you take this first step firmly, the road ahead will become smoother and smoother."
Carlisle couldn't help but smile. He agreed very much with Teacher Ayun's basic theory. He spent more than half a year doing preliminary preparations before the fleet went out to sea. Facts have proved that laying a solid foundation for the team before taking action is far more reliable than going out to sea rashly.
"If we can win the approval of most of our peers after working hard all our lives, it's already pretty good. Don't fantasize about getting everyone's approval. That's unrealistic. We smart people don't do such stupid things. So what should we do about those who oppose us or even hold us back and go backwards?"
At this point, Xiao Yun's expression became serious. "A one-size-fits-all approach is not advisable. We can only deal with those who are dragging our feet and moving backwards according to how destructive things they can do. Those who have nothing but a big mouth don't need to be paid attention to. Just put them aside so that they don't get in the way. Those who are capable of causing trouble should be put in unimportant places. As for those who have great power to influence the entire group and actually take action, such as Anthony, it's a pity... The appeasement policy based on appeasement is not applicable to such people. You can only revolutionize - the highest political action to achieve social change, collective justice, and transfer of power within the group, which means revolution. It's not your personal will that will kill anyone, but the rolling wheel of the group's progress and development will inevitably crush those supporters of the backward era who hinder progress. The group represented by the common will of the majority of people will kill these people without a complete body."
Carlisle was completely stunned, unable to react at all.
Xiao Yun slowly unscrewed the water bottle and drank a sip of water. He looked at the young man with a loving look as an experienced person: "To accomplish such a serious matter as promoting the reform and progress of the entire group, the effort and energy put in is much more than being a boastful hero. You are still in the mood to worry about moral cleanliness, which shows that you are not doing things attentively, Carlisle."
