Roland sat at his desk, looking at the Chief Knight who came to report on the First Army's recent situation with great interest.
Compared with his meticulous appearance a few months ago, Carter's icy face now had a different kind of emotion. The sense of calmness had faded a lot, and there was more expectation and impatience in it.
"It probably has something to do with the Star of the Western Region," he thought.
Roland had also heard a little about the fact that Carter and May had recently gotten close to each other. After all, as one of the higher-ups of the First Army and his representative in the army, his every move was being watched, not to mention the eye-catching Mey beside him.
When they first appeared side by side on the street of the small town, the guards had already passed the news to him.
Roland did not care about this kind of thing. Carter was about two or three years older than him, and it was very strange that he was still unmarried. It would be good if he could find his other half in the Western Region, as long as it did not affect his work.
According to the Chief Knight's report, the First Army currently had about 200 wheels in the production line, and almost every day there would be a new batch of about 10. In fact, if there were enough raw materials, Anna's production capacity could be increased several times, but she had to be responsible for the pig iron smelting and the steam engine at the same time, so the speed was slowed down.
But this speed was acceptable, after all, there were only 600 people in the First Army, and in another month and a half, they would all be equipped. And before the new wave of population expansion, the scale of the army could not be further expanded for the time being.
Another point was the establishment of the Second Army.
For the convenience of training and the need for confidentiality, after the civilians recruited from Longsong Stronghold passed the examination, they were all incorporated into the Second Army by Roland. They were currently undergoing disciplinary training, which was the same as military training. In the evening, there was ideological education, striving to make these people believe that they were the guardians of the Western Region and that the safety of their relatives needed them to protect as soon as possible.
"At present, the training of the Second Army personnel is progressing well, and it is expected that in another week, they will be able to start shooting training. By that time, the eliminated flintlocks will be enough for everyone, "Carter concluded.
That was where Bing's advantage lay, to train a cold weapon warrior, it would require at least a year, and to train a Knight, it would require around 5 to 6 years, while Bing only needed a month to form an army to fight. The longer a battle lasted, the more Bing had the advantage, since pulling the trigger was much easier than waving the sword.
"You must pay attention to the management of the gun during the live-fire practice. You must take back as much as you fire. The same goes for the gunpowder. Distribute it on the spot during practice and arrange for the veterans of the First Army to supervise. "
"Yes," he answered with a nod.
"Very good." Roland waved his hand. "In that case, you can go back to work."
"Uh, Your Highness …" Carter hesitated and said, "Last time, you said that the perfume mixed into the soap was made of sugar cane, is this true?"
"Yes." The Prince leaned back in his chair. "What's wrong?"
"Is sugar cane very expensive?"
"No … it's just an ordinary crop."
"I heard that in King's City, a thumb-sized bottle of perfume can be sold for five Golden Dragon," Carter scratched his head. "If that's the case, wouldn't using sugar cane perfume bring a lot of income to Border Town?"
"Five Golden Dragon?" Roland was startled. He had never considered this point. Thinking back to the time when he was in the palace, the 4th Prince never cared about the price of a daily necessities. Perfume was even more so. Only women loved these things that could make them full of fragrance.
His original motive for buying perfume was just to get soap. Otherwise, with only running water and no soap in the bathroom, he would feel that something was missing. Letting bubbles rub all over his body was the romance of the bathroom.
If a small bottle of perfume could buy several Golden Dragon's, it would indeed be a good business. Unlike coated mirrors, sugar cane and flowers as raw materials were much cheaper than crystal glass.
Thinking of this, Roland smiled. "This is a good idea. I'll think about it."
"Your Royal Highness, then … can I take a piece of sugar cane out of the castle?" The Chief Knight asked, full of expectation.
"No problem," hearing his tone, Roland guessed what the other side wanted to do. After all, the Western Region was not like the Port of Clearwater, where the plants of the Fjords were quite rare. As a gift to make a lady happy, it would be a good choice. "It's on the wall in the backyard, go and pick it yourself."
"Thank you, Your Royal Highness!" Carter bowed and left.
Then Roland called Barov. Now it was not appropriate to call him an Assistant Minister. As the head of the City Hall, he could already be regarded as the Chief Administrative Officer of Border Town.
After Barov sat down, Roland roughly explained the matter of the perfume. "What do you think of this business? Can we earn a lot of Golden Dragon's?"
Barov didn't immediately answer. Instead, he opened his eyes wide and asked, "Your Royal Highness, are you sure that the perfume is made from those sweet crops?"
"Didn't I give you the soap to use? The reason why it has a fragrance is because it was mixed with perfume. "Roland spread out his hands." Its raw materials are indeed these worthless things. I just don't know if the perfume in King's City is really as expensive as Carter said. "
"It's far more than that, Your Royal Highness!" Barov excitedly said, "Perfume is a top secret product of King's City Alchemist Workshop. Every year, about a thousand bottles are produced, and only a small part of them will be sold in King's City. If sold to other cities in Graycastle, the price can increase by 20 to 30 percent. If sold to the Fjords and other kingdoms, the price can almost double. In order to prevent merchants from making a profit, the Association not only firmly controls the price of perfume in other places, but also personally designates merchants. If you can produce perfume, even if you only sell it to Redwater City and Fallen Dragon Ridge, you can still get a generous return. "
"So that's how it is." Roland thought, thinking that Barov was indeed an assistant to the Minister of Finance for twenty years. Barov was indeed very good at commodity prices and trade. With this information, Roland formed a preliminary plan in his mind.
There were many ways to make perfume. The simplest way was to crush the petals or herbs with a unique fragrance and soak them in alcohol, letting the alcohol dissolve the aromatic oil in the plants. Finally, the residue was filtered and diluted with water.
The alcohol came from the fermentation of sugar cane juice. The raw materials for the aromatic oil could be rose, or the more common rosemary and spirit vanilla. However, since he wanted to achieve mass production, it was the best choice to let Leaf cultivate a batch of magically modified plants that could directly secrete the aromatic oil.
In addition to perfume, the industry could also produce white sugar and liquor, which were also consumables in high demand. Although the profit was not as high as the perfume, if it could be sold to the townspeople at a low price and enrich their diet, it would also be a big step forward for the people's livelihood.
The reason why Roland delayed the development of light industry was that it was difficult to earn high profits from small-scale production of daily necessities when there was a shortage of manpower. Investing the limited population into heavy industry production was the most cost-effective approach.
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