The wide and clean streets, the tall and neatly planned buildings, the magic crystal lamps that stood by the side of the road like guards, the magical projections floating in the air, and the incredible arcanotech machines on display in the square...
The great merchant, Codd, sat in the carriage. As a mature and steady merchant, he had successfully adjusted his state of mind and began to observe the scene outside with a calm and indifferent expression. However, the storm in his heart had not subsided at all.
Calore used to be a viscount's territory, but due to its close proximity to the Divine Spirit Plains, it was once one of the wealthiest regions in the Southern Territory. The prosperity of Calore City had always been something that Coade was very satisfied with and proud of, but compared to the city before him …
No, there was no need to compare the two cities at all.
The air here did not have the rancid smell of feces that was commonly seen in big cities. There were also no poor people and serfs in ragged clothes walking on the streets. An indescribable "order" seemed to permeate the air. This sense of order was something Codd had never seen anywhere else.
He knew about the new government office in Calore City, and he also knew about the new laws issued by the government office. Some of the new laws were supported by the locals, such as reducing taxes and allocating land. However, some of the new laws were difficult to implement, such as the health law and some work regulations. Frankly speaking, even Codd could not fully understand the meaning of the new laws. However, after seeing the scene in Cecil City today, he at least realized one thing:
Living in such a city was at least more comfortable than living in Calore City.
When I get back, I should mobilize the people in the Chamber of Commerce. At least, I should get everyone to willingly implement the health law...
The carriage left the bustling city street and turned two corners. The surroundings gradually became quiet.
The Pioneer Square was next to the government office and the liege's mansion. There were only two streets between the two. There was no city wall or moat in between. There were only a few outposts guarding the road to the administrative district. The merchant's carriage stopped at one of the outposts for inspection.
Kord and Phal had already prepared the coins needed to bribe the soldiers. When the carriage came to a stop, they immediately obeyed the order and got off the carriage. Then, they saw a warrior in enchanted armor coming to them. "Stop for inspection — please show your identification."
Curt hurriedly took out the identification card issued by Cecil's Ministry of Commerce and the letter of recommendation signed by Minister Padrick. He handed it to the soldier while estimating how much money it would cost to hire such a guard. Although he had told Bual that he had been to Cecil before, he had only been here once last year with his family's fleet to sell medicinal materials. After that, he had never been here again, so he did not know much about this city.
When he said that he had been to Cecil, it was more or less a form of self-boasting.
While he was thinking, the soldier had finished checking the document and two soldiers checked the carriage. A voice came into Codd and Bual's ears. "Inspection passed. You may enter." Codd "Codd" Codd "you may enter now."
Codd nodded instinctively and was stunned. "Huh... Huh?"
"You can go in now," the soldier repeated again. After noticing the confused look on the merchant's face, he looked down at the document in his hand and confirmed the contents again. "There is no problem. Go in, take your pass."
Codd took the document and the pass in a daze and returned to the carriage with Bual. He did not understand what had happened until the carriage left the outpost.
Bual was also confused. "Father... Did those soldiers forget to take our money?"
"How could they forget something like that?" Codd looked at his son and mumbled in disbelief. "It's the same in Calore. It's the same here. How did the duke do it?"
With a head full of confusion, the carriage continued to move forward.
A moment later, they arrived at the liege's mansion.
Leaving the carriage and looking up at the tall mansion, Corde took a deep breath. He carefully hid all the surprise, curiosity, confusion, and excitement he felt along the way under his calm expression. Then, he straightened his impeccable clothes and walked forward with Phal, accompanied by a guard of the mansion.
There was more than one car parked in front of the Lord's Mansion. It was clear that there were other visitors. In front of the door with the emblem of the Cecil Family, Coade saw a young woman walking out. She was dressed in a proper winter dress and walked down the steps. It seemed that she was about to leave.
The guard at the door was familiar with the young woman. They chatted for a while.
"Miss Kipley. You're done with your report so soon?"
The young woman smiled. "It's just a routine report."
The guard was looking forward to it. "Will there be more shows tomorrow?"
"Of course. Every day. There might even be new shows to watch in the next few days."
When Coade came to the door, the accompanying guards stepped forward to take over. The young woman called Miss Kiplee turned around and curiously glanced at the big merchant from Calore City.
"Hello." The young woman nodded slightly and said politely.
"Ah... I saw you on the... magical projection!" Coade looked at the young woman in front of him in surprise. Only then did he realize that she was the person he had seen on the holographic projection in the city. He was surprised to see the person in person when he was just looking at the holographic projection. Then, he bowed in a perfect manly manner. "Miss Witch, you're even more beautiful than what you see on the holographic projection."
"Thank you for the compliment." Kipley nodded with a smile. However, in the next second, she felt a strange sense of familiarity. The face of the middle-aged merchant in front of her overlapped with a face in her mind.
Codd also looked at Kipley. After putting aside the barrier of 'magical projection', he looked at the 'Miss Witch'. Suddenly, he felt a vague sense of familiarity in his heart.
The two of them said at the same time, "Have we met before?"
At the same time, they both found the source of this sense of familiarity.
In one autumn more than ten years ago, a young merchant who had just taken over his family business traveled to the south and came to a strange city with great ambition.
In that autumn, a fleeing mage apprentice was stranded in a foreign land and hungry.
The young merchant was looking for business opportunities. He came to a fortune-telling stall in high spirits and wanted to listen to some good words.
The young mage apprentice was looking for food. She took out a few tricks she had just learned and wanted to exchange them for two pieces of bread.
A silent and brief awkwardness froze in front of the steps of the lord's manor. The great merchant of Calore and the famous witch of the Weave stood face to face. A few seconds later, the awkwardness was broken by the two of them laughing at the same time.
"You said that the city is full of gold." Codd stepped forward and stretched out his hand. "Codd, I'm from Calore."
"Kipley, nice to meet you again." Kipley gently shook Codd's hand. "I'm sorry, I lied to you at that time. I was very hungry."
"I know." Codd let go of her hand and took a step back politely. "I can see that you don't know how to do fortune-telling at all."
Kipley smiled. "But from that day on, I learned how to do it."
They walked past each other. The merchant walked towards the main gate of the mansion while the witch walked towards the carriage that was parked by the side of the road. But before she got into the carriage, Gypsy suddenly stopped. She turned around and said loudly, "Mister Codd, this city is full of gold."
Codd looked back in surprise. He saw the Miss Witch waving at him. "It's true this time."
The great merchant laughed. "I know."
The carriage by the roadside drove away. Codd and Phal stepped through the gate of the lord's mansion.
"Father," the young Phal could not help but ask after entering the gate. "Do you know the Miss Witch?"
"We met once when we were young. She was just a little girl then," the great merchant said casually. "She taught me my first lesson."
"Your first lesson?"
"Yes, the lesson was' Don't believe in fortune-telling by the roadside '."
...
There were two documents in front of Gwen.
One was a report from Rebecca on the analysis of the "universal traction chassis". In this report, there was a detailed explanation of the entire system of the first-generation magic-powered vehicle. Based on this, and the technical experience of the magic-powered vehicle as a starting point, the plan to create a universal traction chassis.
The magic-powered vehicle was a success. The researchers of this world had used magic technology and the unique resources of this world. After a series of difficult development, they finally succeeded in solving most of the technical problems encountered. A vehicle that was powered by magic and could be operated by ordinary people was now on the road. Although it was still a long way from being perfected, and there were still various problems, the first step was undoubtedly a success.
A vehicle that was stronger, faster, tireless, and did not need to consume fodder. With this vehicle, the transportation problems that Cecil had encountered in the large-scale construction process would undoubtedly be greatly alleviated. In order to maximize the value of this technology, it was necessary to create a variety of special engineering vehicles with different functions based on the principles of the magic-powered vehicle.
Under Gwen's influence for so long, Rebecca had the concept of modular design and universal technology. She had also tasted great benefits from it. So, after the magic-powered vehicle was built, the maiden came up with a plan for the "universal chassis" without waiting for Gwen's request.
In this plan, Rebecca believed that it was necessary to make the chassis of the first-generation "Type-475" magic-powered vehicle into a modular chassis that could be easily connected to other shells and tractors. Then, on this foundation, she would build a large number of derivative vehicles such as trucks, buses, agricultural machinery, and engineering machines. She even drew a simple diagram of the chariot at the end of the report. The basic structure was a light magic cannon welded to the chassis of the Type-475 magic-powered vehicle, and then a circle of steel plates around the outside of the vehicle.
There was even a nondescript ram at the front of the vehicle.
Simple, crude, simple, crude, and very surprising.
To be honest, after seeing this report, Gwen was surprised for a long time because he did not have time to propose this concept.
And next to this report, the second document was a plan that Gwen was drafting himself.
"The Potential Value of Developing New Media"
Newspapers had gradually become popular in the Southern Region, and the coverage had basically reached every town-level unit. The brand-new magic network broadcast centered on the cross axis was covering more and more cities. The people in the Southern Region were gradually getting familiar with these new things. On the other hand, the people who produced newspapers and broadcasts were also gradually getting familiar with these new jobs.
The role of the new media in the dissemination of information had gradually manifested, especially in the Louan City incident. The power of public opinion and propaganda left a deep impression on everyone in the government office. Heti had also lamented that the power of those newspapers and programs was no less than a fully armed army.
But Gwen knew that the value of these new media was far from being developed. They were still limited to the tools used by the government office to announce affairs.
The content was monotonous, the variety was scarce, and the lack of commercial benefits. It was not so much a new media as it was a bigger bulletin board.
This was too far from Gwen's original goal.
He picked up a pen and listed the next step of the plan. He had to find a way to teach his subjects to actively participate in these new things so that they would have a deeper understanding that the things created by the feudal lord were not only for the feudal lord to use, but also for the commoners. He had to find a way to create more civilian markets so that these new things could 'come alive' and maximize their value …
The benefits of this were obvious. Just from the opening of the commercial section of the newspaper, on the one hand, it could quickly open the wisdom of the people, stimulate ordinary people to think and act, and accelerate the cultural construction of Cecil. On the other hand, it could generate economic benefits to alleviate the increasing financial pressure of Cecil's government office. Too many construction projects were squeezing the economy of the Principality of Cecil. At present, many of the new things created by Cecil were completely "official projects." They were completely dependent on the finances of the principality, but they could hardly recover the cost (or only recover the initial cost and could not generate subsequent benefits). They were 100% "government office industries" and were almost completely disconnected from various civil groups.
Although there was nothing wrong at the moment, it would become a huge problem sooner or later.
Of course, during this process, how to effectively control and prevent these new things from getting out of the control of the government office also had to be seriously considered.
Gwen frowned and thought, his pen pausing. He had to consider the future development direction of the new media and the corresponding management system, and also consider how to guide the people. Considering the way people of this era thought, it was not easy to make a plan.
At this moment, Betty's voice suddenly came from outside the door, interrupting Gwen's thoughts.
"Master! Mr. Codd and Mr. Parr of Calore are here! "
Gwen was stunned for a moment, and then he remembered who these two unfamiliar names were.
They were the father and son merchants recommended by the Minister of Commerce, Patrick.
"Let them in."
The door opened, and Codd and Parr walked into the lord's study with a trace of nervousness.
They finally saw the ruler of the Southern Region with their own eyes.
He was sitting behind a large desk, holding a pen in his hand. There was a huge floor-to-ceiling window behind him, and sunlight spilled into the room through the floor-to-ceiling window, falling on the shoulders of the founding duke like a light golden cloak.
He was taller than Codd had imagined.
"Your Excellency." After a brief moment of astonishment, the great merchant hurriedly pulled his son and respectfully saluted. "We are very honored — your light shines on this land."
(Damn!!)
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