Facing the gazes of the two marquises and the earls, Earl Hauss was silent for a while and said, "Actually, I'm not a person who likes to cause trouble. Since there's a risk of implicating the Republic of Northwest, then I'll admit defeat and withdraw."
"Thank you!" Marquis Yuke smiled and nodded. "I'll compensate you for your loss."
"Not 'I', but 'we,'" Marquis Gordon said. "Hauss did suffer a loss in this matter. Since he chose to retreat for the overall interests of our aristocratic party, then naturally, we should all compensate for his loss together. Hauss, I'll send someone to send you 20 sets of standard plate armor later. "
Hearing this, more than one of the earls frowned slightly.
Plate armor was armor made by embedding wide iron strips on leather armor. Although it was a little cumbersome, it had good protection. For basic soldiers, it was an excellent full-body armor. As long as they wore plate armor, they generally did not have to worry about bows and arrows or swords. If they carried a shield, they would be like walking iron blocks.
Although the price of plate armor had dropped with the introduction of the Republic of Northwest's simplified full-body armor, a standard plate armor was still worth at least about 200 gold coins. 20 sets would be 4,000 gold coins.
This was not much money, but since the marquis had offered 4,000 gold coins, the earls had to offer at least 2,000 gold coins. The few frowning earls did not have a good relationship with the "good horse" earl and were really unwilling to subsidize him so much.
However, Marquis Yuke immediately followed up and said that he could offer 10 sets of the Republic of Northwest's simplified full-body armor, along with a large iron shield.
Calculating the price, this was about 6,000 gold coins.
Therefore, the faces of the earls who were not on good terms with Earl Hauss could not help but become gloomier.
But the two big shots had already expressed their stance. Adding up to tens of thousands of gold coins worth of supplies, how could they be stingy?
So, you offer a little, I offer a little. In the end, the earls pooled together the equivalent of almost 22,000 gold coins in supplies.
Earl Hauss smiled happily. Of course, he had suffered losses this time, but the supplies of more than 30,000 gold coins were enough to make up for his losses and make a lot of profit.
In this way, the matter of him being afraid of the assassination attempt could be put behind him.
A few days later, the supplies were transported to Earl Hauss's territory one after another. Of course, these supplies could not be transferred from the capital or the territories of the various earls. Instead, they were prepared directly near Earl Hauss's territory. The ones responsible for preparing the supplies were the chambers of commerce under Marquis Gordon.
It was not that the aristocratic party did not have merchants. For example, the two marquises each had a Chamber of Commerce of a fairly large scale. Marquis Gordon's Chamber of Commerce happened to have a shop near Earl Hauss's territory. With the help of the Chamber of Commerce's logistics, all kinds of supplies would be sent over in advance. When everyone's supplies actually arrived, the bill would then be settled.
After obtaining this batch of supplies, Earl Hauss naturally withdrew his troops in a hurry. On the other hand, the aristocratic party once again sent out an emissary to discuss a peaceful solution with the merchant party.
At first, the few Chambers of Commerce who were confronting Earl Hauss did not understand what was going on and did not dare to give chase. Although they took the initiative to attack out of anger, anger could not make up for the gap in strength between them. In the past few small-scale confrontations, the merchant army, which was mainly made up of mercenaries, not only did not gain any advantage, but also suffered losses time and time again. Under such circumstances, when they saw Earl Hauss retreat, the first thing they thought of was that there might be a trap. So not only did they not give chase, but they also hurriedly reinforced their positions to ensure their safety.
A few days later, the emissary from the aristocratic party arrived, and they finally understood what was going on.
Some of the more aggressive people naturally felt that they had missed a good opportunity and were filled with regret. But some of the more experienced ones were secretly happy that this border war could finally be resolved peacefully.
The merchants only sought wealth. What good could there be in a war? Even if they could get a little, it might not be enough to pay the mercenaries!
Based on this idea, the peace negotiations went very smoothly.
In fact, the merchant party did not have very conclusive evidence to prove that it was the soldiers of the aristocratic party who attacked the caravans and civilians. The emissary in charge of the negotiations directly took out the big guns and said that they could let the clergymen of the Church of the Lord of Justice (God of Law) come forward to preside over the investigation of the soldiers of the aristocratic party in the nearby territories. Once they found anyone involved in the crime of attacking the merchant party's caravans and civilians, they would be immediately arrested and executed on the spot.
With this, even those merchants who had a more aggressive attitude felt much better. The rest was nothing more than a problem of money.
Money was not a problem.
In other words, for the emissary who had been jointly authorized by the leaders of the aristocratic party, a problem that could be solved with money was not a problem at all.
He said that although he did not know who attacked the caravans and civilians, for the sake of peace, the aristocratic party was willing to compensate half of the other party's losses. If, after investigation, it was proven that the attack was indeed committed by the soldiers of the aristocratic party, then in addition to the other half of the compensation, there would be an additional compensation of double.
This price tag was really full of sincerity, and the various stewards of the merchant party were very satisfied. Although there were some who were insatiably greedy and wanted to take the opportunity to demand an exorbitant price, they were stopped by their companions.
The aristocratic faction wasn't a pushover. Although he didn't know why they were willing to give in this time, if he was too greedy and angered them, not only would he lose everything, he might even end up losing the rice used to lure the chicken and lose the egg.
If they really fought again, the merchant party did not have much of a chance of winning.
With those black sheep under control, the following negotiations naturally went very smoothly. Both sides discussed in detail the problem of how to track down the culprit, and finally signed some terms, completing an agreement.
Overall, this agreement was quite fair, and did not particularly harm the interests of any party. Especially at the end of the agreement, the emissary of the aristocratic party insisted on adding a clause that "if the harassment and attack is found to be the work of external hostile forces, both sides must unite against them." This made the leaders of the merchant party even more thoughtful.
There was no smoke without fire. If they had not sensed some clues, the aristocratic party would not have made such a big concession, and would not have insisted on adding such a clause in the agreement.
So after the peace talks, they immediately contacted the core of the merchant party and told the several large chambers of commerce about this information.
The large chambers of commerce took this matter very seriously, and quickly convened a meeting. After repeated discussions, the rich merchants finally decided to join forces with the aristocratic party to investigate together. They had to find out who was causing trouble behind the scenes.
The merchants only cared about making money, and did not like to cause trouble. But if someone was secretly plotting against them and wanted to provoke them into a war with the aristocratic party, then they would definitely not take it lying down.
After all, fighting a war would cost a lot of money, and many people would die!
Spending money made the merchants' hearts ache, and dying people made the merchants afraid. Once they thought about how they had almost fallen into a trap, the merchants could not help but seethe in anger.
No matter who the culprit was, since he wanted to cause trouble, then he should be prepared to face everyone's wrath!
After about another half a month, the joint investigation team of the merchant party and the aristocratic party finally set off, and began to carefully investigate the attack that happened on the border of both sides.
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