The second prince personally led a large group of administrative officials to the Norton Family's military camp. He did not believe that Laurist really had monster furs that were worth more than a million gold coins, and hoped that Laurist was just bluffing. Unfortunately, he was disappointed. According to the valuation of the leather goods expert he had brought, the magical beast furs stored in the camp were worth more than 1,467,000 gold coins. The 1,200,000 gold coins that Laurist had offered him was indeed a discounted price.
Laurist happily watched as the second prince paid the bill with a bitter expression. Today was a sunny day, and his luck was really good. He was actually able to sell this batch of ordinary fur for a high price. To the Norton Family, monster furs had become the largest stockpile of the family, and it was also the most difficult to deal with.
There was no cotton in the Galinthia Continent, so there was no cotton cloth, quilts, and jackets to keep out the cold. The main fabrics and fabrics were silk, fine linen, linen, and coarse hemp. To the Galinthians who were used to living in the winter, the best clothing to keep out the cold was nothing more than sweaters and leather. The best leather clothing was made from monster furs, such as overcoats, leather pants, leather hats, and leather boots. Not only were they light and flexible, they could also keep out the wind.
When Laurist returned to the family's territory and led the family's armed forces to fight against the monster tide that swept through the family's territory every winter, the family's warehouse was filled with all kinds of monster furs. In terms of value, these monster furs were extremely expensive, but the problem was that they could not be converted into cash. The reason why every soldier in the Norton Family's armed forces was because they had no other choice. If they could not be sold and stored in the warehouse, they would go bad. Besides, when they needed monster furs, they could just send the family's armed forces to the Barbarian Plains.
It was only when Laurist opened up a sea route from the north to Cilovas Island that the Norton Family connected with the Peterson Chamber of Commerce, one of the seven giants of the Trade Alliance. Then, they received an unbelievable piece of news: there was no market for the monster furs stored in the north!
How was that possible? Laurist clearly remembered that when he was twenty years old, he was dragged by Fatty Shi to complete a mercenary adventure. That mission was to go to an underground cavern. Because of the extreme cold, Laurist had no choice but to go to a boutique and buy a vest made of demon sheepskin at a high price to resist the cold. In Laurist's imagination, the magic beast furs stored by his family should be the most popular. Back when he was doing mercenary missions, he had hunted a few magic beast furs and sold them for a good price.
But when the steward in charge of the fur trade in the Peterson Chamber of Commerce explained the reason, Laurist was speechless. This was really an absurd reason. The main reason why so many magical beast furs couldn't be sold was that no one could afford to buy them. The Peterson Chamber of Commerce was the largest fur merchant in the Ford Commercial Alliance and controlled almost all of the fur market in the entire Commercial Alliance. Although the reasons they gave were laughable, they were undeniable facts.
Magic beast furs were more effective against the cold than artificially bred cow and sheepskin, but the commoners in the Commercial Alliance basically used cow and sheepskin to keep out the cold. The price of magic beast furs was two or three times higher than cow and sheepskin. The Peterson Chamber of Commerce could allow the sporadic hunting of magic beast furs to enter the market and receive a high reward, which also raised the price of magic beast furs.
But the Peterson Chamber of Commerce would never allow the millions of magic beast furs hunted by the Norton Family to enter the fur market in the Commercial Alliance and disrupt the order of the low-end fur market, which mainly consisted of cow and sheepskin. At the same time, it also warned Laurist that magic beast furs had always been worth two or three times more than cow and sheepskin, and the main users in the Commercial Alliance were basically freelance mercenaries. As for the commoners and citizens, they usually used cow and sheepskin to make winter clothes. They were also reluctant to spend two or three times the price to buy magic beast furs. At most, they would just stay at home and warm their stoves for the winter.
It wasn't that the Peterson Chamber of Commerce didn't do business with magic beast furs, but they needed the more precious magic beast furs, which were suitable for the high-end and luxury market. They earned the gold coins of the rich, and the profits in this area could be said to be huge. The contract they signed with the Norton Family for furs was only worth 400,000 to 500,000 gold coins, but they only purchased rare magic beast furs. They didn't need the furs of magic beasts like the Norton Family, but the Norton Family just happened to have the most of them.
The storage of magic beast furs was also very particular. Otherwise, it would easily spoil or turn into a pile of rotten skin after a period of time. This was also one of the reasons why Laurist had to get people to make the stored magic beast furs into winter clothes for the family's armed forces. Resources that couldn't be sold would just be a pile of garbage no matter how much they were stored. It was better to put them to use as soon as possible.
Laurist led the Flying Tiger Army to the Magical Plains to hunt, and most of the creatures they hunted were the Magical Plains' wild wolves and some herbivorous magic beasts. However, although the furs of these magic beasts were valuable, they couldn't be sold. Just like the large amount of magic beast furs that the Norton Family stored in the family's territory, there was no market.
Laurist remembered very clearly that he had once wanted to sell the large amount of magic beast furs that the family had stored at the price of cattle and sheep furs. He thought that such a low price would open up the leather goods market in the trade alliance. He didn't expect to be rejected by the Peterson Chamber of Commerce's leather goods manager.
The manager said righteously that if the magic beast furs were sold at the price of cattle and sheep furs, then the price of cattle and sheep furs would plummet. Even if the magic beast furs were sold out, the price of cattle and sheep furs would not recover. This idea was no less than a glass of poisoned wine to the Peterson Chamber of Commerce, which had stabilized the entire low-end leather goods market. The impact would be very bad …
Just like the migration of the refugees at the end of last year, the Norton Family was not afraid of the cold and snow at all. In fact, the reason was very simple. Every refugee was given one or a few pieces of clothing made of magic beast furs to protect them from the cold, and this was distributed to them for free. Coupled with convenient transportation tools like snowmobiles and sleds, as well as sufficient logistical supplies along the way, they were able to complete the migration of hundreds of thousands of people in a single winter.
If Laurist claimed that the Norton Family's storage and use of magic beast furs were the best in the entire Galinthea Continent, be it in terms of country or family, he believed that no one could deny it. A few years ago, the family had armed a few legions to the Barbarian Plains for training, and they had brought back close to 100,000 magic beast corpses along the way. Even some of the depleted warehouses were filled with magic beast furs again.
The Wild Wolf and Sheep furs that they had brought back from the Magical Plains were useless to Laurist. It would be a pity to throw them away and bring them back. No matter what, the market price was very high, but they couldn't sell them in large quantities. Even if they wanted to sell them, there was no market. If it was peaceful times, when people's living standards had improved and they had gold coins in their pockets, the supply of magic beast furs might not be able to meet the demand. But now, it was a chaotic world, and the people were in dire straits. No commoner would spend money to buy expensive clothing made of magic beast furs to protect themselves from the cold.
The skin of a magic beast like the Swamp Crocodile was the best material for making leather armor, and it had always been expensive and hard to find. Even some of the more precious magic beast furs were transported back to the family's territory before he considered what to do with the Wild Wolf and Sheep furs. He didn't expect the second prince to want them all. How could Laurist not be overjoyed? In this day and age, rich people were as hard to find as rich people.
This was why Laurist not only gave a discount, but was also willing to give dozens of precious magic beast furs to the second prince. When the second prince saw that Laurist was happy, he tentatively asked to buy a few Thunderbolt Catapults, which Laurist readily agreed to. He sold the Flying Tiger Army's Thunderbolt Catapult Battalion and 500 catapults to the second prince at the price of 150 gold coins per catapult. Seeing that the second prince was now rich, Laurist even offered to sell him a chariot regiment's 2500 steel ballistae, but the second prince refused.
In the second prince's eyes, the Norton Family's catapults were the ultimate offensive weapon. Even in defense, they were more convenient and flexible than those clumsy giant lever-type catapults. At least they could change positions after throwing a few rounds of stones, instead of staying still like those lever-type catapults and becoming long-range targets.
As for the Norton Family's steel ballistae, the second prince was a little tempted at that moment. But with the development of the shield carriages, the power of the steel ballistae had been greatly reduced. Now, who wouldn't arrange for a shield carriage to defend against the ballistae before arranging a formation? Whether it was for offense or defense, the shield carriage had become an essential part of the army, and it was getting stronger and bigger, effectively improving the protection of soldiers and facilities.
That was why the second prince refused Laurist's offer. He held a huge sum of nearly 6 million gold fords in his hands, but he had his own uses for this money. He couldn't wait to consolidate the army and expand the kingdom's regular army. Although the four central duchies' conquest did not result in a loss for both the Northern Four Family Alliance and the four central duchies' armed forces, he was still very satisfied that he had taken down eleven provinces from the four central duchies at a small price with Laurist's help.
What he needed to do next was to let the kingdom have a strong military force to ensure that the Northern Four Family Alliance, the Fisablen Family, and the three central duchies that he had just subdued wouldn't have other ideas. He would then spend two to three years to send a strong army to the Commerce Alliance, forcing them to return the provinces that they had forcibly occupied. Now, the second prince wasn't afraid of having too much money, but he felt that the gold fords were too little. It would be great if he could take down the four central duchies instead of subduing them. That way, he might be able to get even more without paying any price …
A king could not go back on his words. Now that Lollister had a hold on him, he could only be forced to buy all of the magical beast pelts in his camp. The second prince was already regretting his carelessness and slip of the tongue. What should he do after buying so many magical beast pelts? Fortunately, one of his tax officers thought that Laurist's words were very reasonable. Shipping them back to the imperial capital was indeed a good business. The only downside was that it might take a few years to sell off the extra magic beast furs. If he was lucky, he might even be able to make a lot of money after deducting the amount of magic beast furs needed by the Blizzard Assault Team. This finally gave the second prince some comfort.
He had already spent 1.2 million gold fords to buy these magic beast furs, and the second prince began to carefully calculate the gold coins in his hands. Laurist agreeing to sell the Thunderbolt Catapult was already a pleasant surprise. He had ordered the kingdom's skilled craftsmen to try to make a knockoff of the catapult, but the biggest difficulty was the special spring steel. Without the steel with the same properties, it was impossible to imitate the Norton Family's catapult. The second prince had spent a lot of money to no avail, and could only curse the craftsmen for being stupid and useless.
Laurist was very disappointed that the second prince refused to buy the war chariots and ballistae. In fact, he was also prepared to let the second prince be the one to take over the waste. Whether it was the catapult, war chariots or ballistae, they would all be scrapped when they returned. There was a term called fatigue. This did not only refer to humans and animals, but also the spring steel and steel ballistae that were standard on the catapult and war chariots. They also had fatigue.
In this expedition to the four central duchies, the Flying Tiger Legion rarely went into battle, but the war chariots, steel ballistae, and catapults were very busy. When attacking the trenches and walls of the Vorendor Duchy, the catapults, war chariots, and steel ballistae never stopped long-range attacks. Whether it was for attack or cover, the catapults and war chariots played a very important role.
A good catapult in its best state could throw stones up to four to five hundred meters, but because of the fatigue of the spring steel, it could only throw stones up to three hundred and thirty meters. The war chariots and steel ballistae performed better. When the magical beasts were hunted in the Demonplains, the war chariots and steel ballistae had displayed their might. Most of the magical beasts had died to the war chariots and steel ballistae's long-range attacks. But because of the frequent firing, the steel ballistae's fatigue had greatly increased, and the range had dropped from more than three hundred meters to around two to four hundred meters.
Laurist estimated that these war chariots and steel ballistae would be scrapped after another two to three hundred shots. Since the second prince wanted to buy catapults, there was no harm in trying to sell these war chariots and steel ballistae that were about to be scrapped. Unfortunately, the second prince thought of the shield chariots and ultimately rejected Laurist's proposal.
On the tenth day of the ninth month of the 1783 calendar of the Galinthia Continent, Laurist was relaxed. He held more than a million gold yuan certificates in his bosom as he led the Flying Tiger Legion and his guards. Accompanied by Duke Filim, Duke Şahin, and their family's armed forces, he set out on the road back to the north.
In this expedition to the four central duchies, Laurist believed that although the second prince had obtained eleven provinces, he was not the final winner. Just like how he had claimed that the four central duchies were traitors, the final result was that three of the duchies had surrendered and one had defected. And the second prince had to admit that the three central duchies were not traitors. Back then, the two sides had clashed because of a misunderstanding.
The loss outweighed the gain. With the help of Count Churjwick's account, the truth of the fall out between the four central duchies and the second prince had spread, and the second prince's harsh and cruel personality had begun to be understood by more nobles.
Occupying the four central duchies had not improved the second prince's reputation. On the contrary, his reputation had worsened after he admitted that he had misunderstood and did not believe that the four central duchies were traitors. At the same time, he had forcefully occupied eleven provinces of the four central duchies. Some of the former nobles of the four central duchies were even willing to be stripped of their titles and territories to seek refuge with the three transferred duchies, unwilling to serve the second prince, the king of the Andinac Kingdom.
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