You were made to farm, and now you're the emperor of an empire?

Chapter 166 You must be the songstresses.

Roman considered his conversation with Garin to have gone fairly smoothly.

The latter also agreed to become his "magic advisor," responsible for teaching Gweil and Sanna basic training.

Having achieved his goal, Roman asked Garin to move out.

"I'll give you three days, and I'll send someone over to help you demolish your house!" Roman said clearly.

You have to move it out!
There's no room for discussion!
Gweil and Sanna could live in the mountains, but Roman was tired of his people running to the mountains whenever they encountered certain illnesses.

With more and more pregnant women expected in the future, having a doctor is always a good thing.

“I must clarify beforehand that I was just an astrologer in the church, not a real doctor.” Garin said, both amused and exasperated, knowing that it was impossible for him to handle the medical shortage on his own.

Roman said calmly, "I know that."

However, if Garin doesn't go down the mountain, it will take several hours to make a round trip, and some people will miss the effective treatment time.

“I am now a hermit,” Garin repeated.

Roman raised his chin and said, "What are you looking for in the mountains? Inner peace? Or a return to nature? Otherwise, I'll seal off the mountains and let you fend for yourself here."

Garin was speechless. He really wanted to ask, "Do you even understand the meaning of a hermit?"

"I don't want to be exposed."

I will protect you!

"The truth will out."

"But swords and sabers can!"

The two men glared at each other, their beards bristling.

Garin tried to bargain, but Roman insisted on his offer.

There's no room for negotiation.

Gweil returned at this time and went to visit the person who used to call her mother. Now, upon learning from Roman that Garin had agreed to come down the mountain, she immediately beamed with joy.

"Grandpa Garin, I'll help you move in a few days," she said with a smile.

Garin watched the three figures leave, then turned to look at the lonely little house, and began to frown.

the other side.

Roman led Gweil and Sanna to the foot of the mountain, and the hand holding the reins suddenly paused.

He suddenly realized that Garin might not be so simple.

Garin claims to have been a stargazer, but later turned away from the church and now lives in seclusion in the mountains...

Why did he know about the events in the North and the current situation in the Grand Duchy?
It doesn't matter. He's not the type to pry. Even if they're business partners, it's perfectly normal for someone to have some secrets.

He only cares about what a person can do, not what they think.

Back at the manor on horseback, Sanna dismounted first, followed by Roman, and finally carried Gweil down as well.

The male servant led the horse to the stable.

It was lunchtime, and upon seeing Roman return, the maids brought out vegetable soup, roasted venison, fried fish slices, and mutton casserole to the table.

While the three were eating, Seth hurriedly returned to the manor.

"Master, something happened."

The deacon's face was tense.

He rushed over at breakneck speed, just to hand Roman a thick piece of paper.

Roman put down his chopsticks, a wild vegetable root still dangling from his mouth. He chewed as he took the thick paper.

It was then discovered to be a nobleman's letter, with five seal designs at the end, indicating that it was signed jointly by five noblemen.

The content was quite simple: these five nobles wanted to seek justice and an explanation for Count Conde, and demanded that Roman limit the sale of salt to no more than 300,000 catties per year. They would send envoys to negotiate the matter.

"How many kilograms of salt did we sell last year?" Roman asked, looking up.

"Six hundred and eighty-seven thousand three hundred catties of salt," Sais replied.

Last year, most of the supplies that Sige Town received were obtained through bartering salt.

Those individual merchants alone transported out over 100,000 tons of salt.

"This year I plan to increase salt production to 1.5 million jin."

Roman just returned from Garin's side and is now preparing to establish a medical team. He's selecting a group of apostles to teach them medical knowledge, and he also needs to train a group of nurses.

Otherwise, with such a large army, he wouldn't be able to administer medicine to everyone in the event of mass casualties.

And that's how this happened.

Roman didn't seem to feel anything; what was bound to happen had happened anyway.

Therefore, farming is often not a smooth process.

Is 600,000 catties of salt a lot?

It's not a huge amount, but it's not a small amount either. All the salt-producing areas in the seven countries combined produce at least tens of millions of kilograms of salt annually, which is less than two ounces of salt per person per year on average...

is it possible?

Obviously impossible.

If 90% of the peasantry supports 10% of the non-peasant class, that would amount to millions.

Those wealthy farmers, gentry, artisans, free riders, knights of war, nobles, and others who could afford salt.

They will continue to eat salt as long as they can afford it.

Three to five catties of salt per person per year is not enough. Therefore, it is possible to double or quadruple the production.

Roman's estimate was just that, without detailed data.

Five or six hundred thousand catties is just a small ripple. But it will certainly cause local unrest.

Similar to the modern situation, what restricts salt production is not the salt-producing areas, but the greed of people's hearts.

With enough manpower, the output of any salt-producing area can be increased several times over.

However, with a large influx of salt into the market, prices will definitely drop.

This is of no benefit to the salt-producing nobles, as it would be detrimental to their sustainable exploitation of the land once salt prices drop.

The nobles who did not produce salt were pleased with this, as a decrease in the purchase price of salt did not mean a decrease in salt tax; the tax collected would remain the same.

Roman's reply showed that he didn't care about the letter at all, and he simply explained the plans for this year to Seth.

Seth frowned slightly, and Roman said, "Now, can you tell me who's on this list?"

Sais's brow relaxed, and he began to speak fluently.

"These coats of arms come from the Berchtesgaard family, the Vericcka family, the Geylande family, the Carter family, and the Simon family..."

The first three families were either the controllers of a salt field or one of the controllers of a salt field.

The latter two families are different.

The Carter family is also known as the 'robber family'.

The Simon family is a newly emerging aristocratic family in recent years.

In other words, these five are all powerful nobles, either deeply entrenched or extremely powerful.

It's certain that each of them is more capable than Earl Conde.

“Seth, what if we refuse?” Roman asked.

"They might just declare war on you."

"A business war, huh..." Roman murmured.

These days, business warfare is real war; there's no room for pretense.

How many people can they send?

"Sir, I don't know." Although Seth was old, the skin on his cheeks did not sag.

His usually taut face twitched slightly.

You're asking me this? If I knew, I wouldn't have given you an office job.

Roman asked casually, "So what's your opinion?"

"The Berchtes family is the most powerful, but it is the furthest from us and cannot deal with us with its full strength."

"The Vilicka and Geirand families are worth paying attention to. As far as I know, the economies of these two families are entirely supported by salt fields. The Geirand family has been praised by the Iron King and sends a lot of salt to the royal family every year."

"The latter two families must have encountered a bottleneck in their development, so they want to find another way and want to become one of the controllers of a salt field."

"Therefore, I have two proposals. One is to cooperate with the Vericcka family and the Geirand family. The other is to cooperate with the Carter family and the Simon family."

Roman pondered for a moment.

Sais hopes to break up this alliance.

The former leverages the opponent's strength, and its advantage lies in its stability.

Those two families have been operating the salt fields for a long time, so they will definitely follow the rules and we will give them a portion of the salt mine's profits every year.

The latter is like using one tiger to devour another; although it has hidden dangers and great risks, the potential rewards are also enormous.

Because Carter and Simon value the salt mines in Sig Town, if Roman cooperates with them, the three of them working together to deal with Vericchka and Geirand would have a very high chance of winning.

But it's unclear whether these two families are reliable...

This split plan involves the interests and needs of various parties.

If any ignorant, timid, or cowardly minor nobleman were to see this joint letter from five major nobles, he would probably be completely dumbfounded.

Roman and Seth took it as normal.

It's impossible for these five families to collude.

Roman even suspected that Carter and Simon must have used some means to stamp their seals on the letters, forcibly interfering in the process.

There was no other way; the family had reached a bottleneck. They either had to expand their territory or find a new path.

Seth's suggestion was very reasonable, creating a three-on-three situation by pulling two against three.

The two sides are evenly matched; they will either not fight or fight each other.

In any case, one side has to make concessions.

Roman raised his head, looked at the ceiling, and said, "What about the third suggestion?"

Sais remained silent. "If you want to do it, then do it. Why are you asking me what to do?"
Roman then asked, "Has the envoy arrived yet?"

"Five messengers arrived with the letter. They demanded to see you immediately, and their attitude was not very friendly. I stopped them all, and they are now waiting for your response at the dock."

Roman nodded slightly, neither asking about those people's attitudes nor saying that Seth's actions were wrong.

He handed the thick paper to Seth and said in a calm tone:

"Get them out of here! Tell their master: You're the songstresses, aren't you? Come on over here if you dare, we'll slap your faces until they're swollen!"

(End of this chapter)