Chapter 144 The dust has settled, and the road ahead is smooth

After bidding farewell to Duke Darnay, Horn led his horse forward silently. When he reached the drawbridge, he turned his head and looked at the castle again.

Surrounded by a moat, between curtain walls and towers, human figures can be seen moving on the corner tower of the castle's main building.

He turned around again and continued walking forward. The suspension bridge under his feet creaked with every step Horn took.

He always felt that there was something strange about the conversation with the Duke today, but he didn't know what was wrong.

It was obviously a win-win situation. Horn provided the Duke with the righteousness of the uprising, and the Duke provided Horn with financial and military support. However, the Duke was really hesitant and dithering.

He had originally wanted to finalize the matter today, otherwise if it continued to drag on, he wouldn't know when a decision would be made.

Time waits for no one.

"Your Majesty, are we going back now?"

"No." Horn led the horse and walked in another direction. "We can just take the pharmacist and the stonemason back to the camp and visit the nearby guild church."

Things have not been peaceful recently, and the previous incident with Sissi was a wake-up call for Horn.

Walking forward from Citizens Road and crossing the Ator Bridge, the Guild Church is located at a corner of the canal.

The Palladian facade is made of rough stone walls. In the shrine on the second floor, eight marble angels or saints are praying devoutly with their hands folded.

It was not priests who came and went near the guild churches, but craftsmen, accountants and notaries from all walks of life.

The so-called guild church was not the church of a guild, but was built with funds raised by all the churches near Joan of Arc.

These included the Notaries' Guild, the Stonemasons' Guild, the Leatherworkers' Guild, the Dye Owners' Guild, and many more.

In the beginning, the so-called guilds were mutual aid organizations of craftsmen and artisans, a bit like a brotherhood or alliance.

Its essence is to prevent vicious competition, prevent the leakage of technical secrets, stipulate internal industry standards and business scope, and ensure the interests of the majority of members by controlling the number of operations and craftsmen.

When a member breaks the law or gets seriously ill, other members will contribute money to help him and may even be obligated to cover up his crime.

After the Hundred Years' War, the bilateral economies continued to expand and the empire's secondary industry developed rapidly.

This resulted in individual members within the guild having far greater power and say than other members.

As a result, guild oligarchs emerged. They relied on their own industries to monopolize a local industry and suppressed and controlled other craftsmen to make huge profits.

Most of the city councilors and rulers are these guild oligarchs and big workshop owners.

The guild church was the joint headquarters of these oligarchs, and also served as an insurance, fund-raising and data storage facility.

When Horn walked into the church, he could see new craftsmen swearing an oath to the patron saint under the supervision of the master craftsman.

Normally, outsiders like Horn were not allowed to enter, but he was the Duke's guest after all, so he was allowed to view some unimportant information.

After changing into a padded jacket commonly worn by ordinary civilians, Horn piled a dozen thick account books on the table.

From time to time he would open a book, copy down some data, and then do calculations on scrap paper. He would not raise his head from the pile of waste paper until the sun set.

"The calculation was actually correct." Horn looked at the data on the table and fell into deep thought.

The account books collected from the ruins earlier were used to calculate for the child soldiers and bishops. It turned out that the average return on investment of the workshops and chambers of commerce in the commercial port in 1425 of the Imperial Calendar was 380%.

Horn thought they had miscalculated, but when he recalculated himself, the result was indeed 380%.

The four fur guilds and workshops are responsible for increasing the overall return on investment.

Horn thought that that year was a period of rapid industrial expansion, and the return on investment in the entire fur industry might be high. After all, it was an extraordinary world and could not be judged by common sense.

He came here just to confirm and to see something new in the guild church.

But what he never expected was that the guild's data for that year showed that the average return on investment was similar to normal.

In other words, did those four fur traders really make abnormal profits, or did they just happen to make a mistake in their calculations?

After thinking about it, Horn found it a little funny.

It's just that a few fur traders made mistakes in their calculations or falsified their accounts. Why do you care so much about it?
It seems that my old problem of problem-solving thinking has relapsed.

After putting the account books and documents back in place, Horn looked at the scraps of paper on the table, hesitated for a moment, and finally put them away and bound them together.

Walking down the rough stone steps to the dirt road, smoke with the smell of firewood was already rising from the houses, and guards were waiting by the roadside with their horses.

When Horn approached, he saw a familiar duke's courtier waiting beside the guard.

"What's wrong? Does the Duke have anything to ask of me?" Horn asked with a smile.

The courtier took two steps forward and said in a low voice, "Lord Darnay asked me to bring you a message saying that he agreed to your terms and promised to launch the war as early as November 11."

"Oh?" Horn was surprised at first, then laughed.

Although he didn't know how the Duke suddenly made up his mind, it would be beneficial for Horn to finalize it as soon as possible. "The Duke asked you when you have time to discuss the specific matters and sign a contract, such as when you will leave, how much supplies the Duke will provide for your soldiers, etc."

"The day after tomorrow. I need to discuss this matter with the people in the camp."

"Got it. I'll go and tell His Excellency the Duke right away."

After saying goodbye to the courtier, Horn did not ride his horse, but just walked back.

Although the sky was still gloomy, Horn's mood improved a lot. He even hummed "Dream of Heaven" which he hadn't sung for a long time.

The life of the old camp is guaranteed, and the future of the new camp has been arranged.

Once the unrest in Qianhe Valley settles down a bit, Horn will be able to take the old camp to Chizhan Town.

During the one or two years in Chizhua Town, we laid the foundation, which would be just enough to replenish the labor force when these old camps arrived.

Nearly a thousand alchemists are a force that cannot be ignored even in Black Snake Bay, not to mention the clockwork technology.

Some time ago, Horn pre-ordered a catalog of alchemical products through Sissi's channel.

In his vision, with alchemists as the core, Swamp Town will build large-scale alchemy factories.

After all, aren't those alchemical processes similar to physical and chemical reactions?

By then, with the limited industrial strength of Jeanne d'Arc, can it defeat the Alchemy Industry?
A street in Chizhua Town is enough to shock the entire empire!

After finding Ceci and his disciples in the labor area, Horn went straight to the stonemason's workshop.

But unfortunately, the gatekeeper told him that the city was too chaotic during that time and the stonemasons moved to their estates in the countryside.

The gatekeeper will pass on Horn's message, and then the stonemason should go directly to Horn's camp.

Walking out of the alley of the stonemason's workshop, Horn held the saddle and was about to mount the horse, but he saw a familiar figure at the corner of the street.

"Halkin?"

Halkin was wearing tattered clothes with tattered strips of cloth hanging on his body, and he was carrying a bucket of slop to feed the pigs with difficulty.

"Mr. Horn." Putting down the swill bucket, Halkin took off his hat and saluted Horn who was walking towards him. "I didn't expect to meet you here."

"How did you get into this state? Didn't I give you some living expenses before and asked you to find a mechanical engineer for me?"

"Actually, I found it." Halkin said confidently, "It's definitely related to machinery, gears, and so on."

"You really found it, is it an engineer?"

"Um, no, they are thieves who specialize in lock picking, but they are not the kind that pick locks. They use technology to pick locks. They can pick any complicated locks. Their skills are better than those of locksmiths."

Horn didn't know what to say for a moment, but then he thought that a lock was also a kind of precision machinery, and it was better to have one than not.

"What about him? Why didn't he come to me to ask for the reward?"

"He took the deposit and ran away. I'm looking for it now. When I find it, I'll send it to you." Halkin answered seriously.

Horn didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Then why don't you come find me? How long will it take you to find me by yourself?"

"Wouldn't that be a scam? How would you know if I helped you find the one?" Halkin straightened his back. "Business requires integrity. You pay me to do the work, and I won't ask you to cover the loss if I mess up... Just wait, I will definitely catch that bastard and bring him to you."

After saying this, Halkin put his hat back on, bowed to Horn, picked up the barrel and was about to leave.

"Wait." Horn touched his head.

He suddenly remembered that the group of people who had come to Halkin to collect debts seemed to have been shot to death by him with a clockwork gun.

"Is there anything else? Lord Horn." Halkin turned around and looked at Horn with his head raised.

Horn took out dozens of dinars from his pocket and handed them to him: "I killed your debt collectors. It will probably take some time for new debt collectors to take over."

"It is only natural to pay back debts." Without taking the money, Halkin shook his head and said, "I will not pay back their loan sharks. I will pay back the principal and interest at the current bank interest rate."

"Judging from the future situation, they won't be able to bother to ask you for the debt for at least two to three years. Take this money. When my sword is repaired, you can take your father away."

"No, I can't take it." The swill in the bucket rippled as Halkin shook his head. "I haven't done anything yet, so I have no reason to take the money. I'm not a beggar, I don't want charity."

"In the next two days, can you help me find the old account books of various chambers of commerce around 1425? This will be the deposit, right?" Horn forced the money into Halkin's hand.

Looking at the dinar in his hand, Halkin looked up at Horn again. He silently put the dinar into his pocket and then took out a gold ring.

"Sir, this ring is a token of the Earl of Frangibashan. It is worth no less than 20 pounds. I pledge it to you. Unless I die, I will redeem it with 20 pounds."

Looking at Halkin's departing figure, Horn smiled helplessly. Halkin was a stubborn dwarf at heart.

"Let's go, we should go back. After we host the wedding of Grampven and Dia, we really have to leave."

(End of this chapter)