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

Chapter 92 Castle? Useless thing
Roman frowned slightly.

"Your father, Selin, is on good terms with the Oak Duke, yet he also fears the Raging Tide Duke?"

Serin was a business senator, essentially an aristocrat among businessmen.

When the merchants of a chamber of commerce grow to a certain size, they will seek to attach themselves to other businesses.

Or perhaps the church, nobles, and kings, thus gaining powerful protection.

Otherwise, you will encounter a situation similar to Daken's.

As far as Roman knew, Selin had signed an agreement with the Grand Duke of Oak years ago, using the Grand Duke's knights to protect his caravans in exchange for generous compensation.

Roman was no stranger to this, as the Grand Duchy of the Cracked Armor Family also had similar merchants who came and went every day.

His brothers and sisters occasionally worked as guards for caravans.

But he chose to leave, and the merchants of those great duchies wouldn't travel thousands of miles to help him develop in the wilderness.

Morey smiled wryly, "The Archduke of Oak doesn't care about the son of Serin."

Moreover, he is the son of Selin after the family split up.

The fact that the wealthy merchant Selin signed a contract with the Duke of Oak does not mean that Selin's son also signed a contract.

If his caravan encountered the army of the Duke of Rage, it would be like encountering the pirates of Daken; he could not intimidate them with the name of the Duke of Oak.

Of course, Morey is not Daken.

Professional merchants' guards are usually their own private army, some of whom are no less capable than knights and are extremely loyal to the merchants.

However, the number is destined to be small because merchants do not have a base of support and cannot afford to maintain a large-scale armed force.

Even if they can afford to maintain them, if their armed forces reach a certain scale, they will attract the attention of nobles.

If you're going to do business, just do business. What are you trying to achieve by building an army? Don't you want to be exploited anymore?
Nobles have power and land, and as long as they can afford it, even if a baron raises an army of ten thousand, it doesn't matter, and no one will criticize them.

What's wrong with me forming an army of 10,000?
You, Earl, are questioning me, Baron?

Shall we have a little sparring match?

Either you kill me, or my territory is yours;

Either I kill you, or your territory becomes mine.

……

Nobles can do this, but merchants can't.

Morey's bodyguards were the "family division fee" his father gave him.

If they encounter pirates, they will fight to the death for Morey.

But encountering the army of the Duke of Fury is a different story.

Roman understood Morey's concerns.

He felt Morey's caution was a good thing.

If Morey also gets into trouble, then he will still only have this many people to allocate, and there will be no way to increase the population in the short term—he will be disappointed, but he will simply postpone what he needs to do.

Whether Roman flips the table a year earlier or a year later is just a matter of time; at worst, he can bide his time for a few more years.

Fortunately, Morey is more rational and knows better than Daken how to avoid risks.

Merchants and all nobles had trade treaties, paying high commercial taxes in exchange for a certain degree of security and insurance.

This treaty will not be in effect all the time.

In the event of war, it is reasonable for noble armies to buy up merchants' goods at low prices, or even worse, to plunder everything—the latter being the most common scenario, with the merchant guild offering no compensation whatsoever.

This unspoken rule also advises ordinary businessmen that if they don't have connections with the military, or if they're doing business with military caravans, they shouldn't hang around in front of them.

Morey stayed in Pearl Harbor for a full two weeks until the situation stabilized before he dared to set off again.

During this period, Morey was responsible for all the slaves' food, drink, and bodily functions, which put him under tremendous pressure.

He had never been involved in the slave trade before.

In this era, human life is as worthless as grass.

Prices couldn't go up because transportation was a major problem; transportation efficiency was extremely low in this era.

Slaves are not inanimate objects like salt, iron, tobacco, alcohol, sugar, or cloth; they cannot be stacked up and stored away, nor can they be ignored.

The slaves needed food rations; over six hundred people required at least a thousand catties of grain per day. They also needed cleaning, and had to be released regularly, otherwise they would make a mess of his otherwise clean merchant ships.

In contrast, Morey preferred expensive and lightweight goods such as silk, linen, spices, wool, salt, and steel.

In fact, he would never have allowed any slaves to board his merchant ships unless Roman insisted—except for sailors and boatmen.

But this lord was so eager for slaves.

He had no choice but to bring in a batch of slaves.

Immediately afterwards, the rumor that the Duke of Nuchao was mobilizing his army terrified him.

Fortunately, the Grand Duke did not take any further action, and all the turmoil gradually subsided.

Morey successfully reached Sgard and brought his slave to Roman.

"Tell me, what reward do you want?"

Roman was never stingy with his wealth, especially towards those who helped him.

The mining of salt provided the town of Sig with a large amount of start-up capital, offering all the nutrients it needed for rampant growth.

In fact, each salt-producing area was an extremely fertile land, and many nobles would fight each other over a salt field until a victor was determined or a cooperation treaty was signed.

Morey thought for a moment, "When I came here, I saw you doing a lot of construction? You built a lot of red brick houses."

Roman's expression turned somewhat grim upon hearing this.

“The recent torrential rains washed away those fools’ huts, so I had to build them sturdier brick houses so they wouldn’t waste my time every year because of this.”

He was acutely aware of the benefits of a one-time solution.

This will also make future production efficiency twice as effective.

Living in a clean environment helps them recover their strength and saves them time in their daily lives.

Of course, only Roman could afford to make such a large-scale investment; not all territories can afford to stop production for two or three months—whether building houses counts as production is debatable.

Morey was extremely surprised.

“I have never seen any other nobleman do this.”

"Because they're a bunch of idiots!" Roman said dismissively, his words sharp and cutting like a needle.

Morey never thought that nobles who could build sturdy castles and fight bravely on the battlefield were fools.

He looked around the hall; it was spacious and bright.

But it is indeed made of wood.

He was certain of that.

This is just a manor, enough for a knight. But for a nobleman, it's a far cry from the ideal – his subjects are about to move into brick houses.

"Aren't you going to build a castle?"

Castles were military fortifications and symbols of status; their size often represented the local power and wealth of the nobility.

"Castle? Useless thing!" Roman was indifferent to it.

To undertake a large-scale construction project, spending one or two years and investing hundreds of gold coins, just to build a small castle?
Roman viewed this behavior as utterly pointless and futile.

He reclined in his chair, arms resting on the armrests, and hummed softly, his fingers clenching into a fist. "If anyone dares to offend my territory, I will destroy them and teach them a lesson they won't forget!"

If any nobleman dares to march into Sig Town, he will immediately stop all production and urgently mobilize everyone to take up shovels, pickaxes, and hoes to fight.

Sige Town is easy to defend and difficult to attack, with a natural geographical advantage. The tributary of the Bro River flows mightily from the Silver Dragon Canyon. The dock is in front of the river, and on the other side of the river are towering mountains, which means there is no wide place to land.

The attacking side needs at least 2000 infantrymen to charge forward at breakneck speed; otherwise, they will never be able to reach the shore.

But whether there are enough ships to transport 2000 infantrymen depends on whether there are enough ships available.

Of course, if the visitor is a knight of conquest, that's a different story.

If Roman hadn't intervened, his 50 fully armed knights would have been enough to destroy this land.

Or rather, the concept of the Conqueror Knights is currently unsolvable in the town of Sig.

Now, with the slaves Morey brought, Roman was confident he could solve this problem before winter ended.

At that time, even if 100 or 50 knights came, it wouldn't make a difference.

(End of this chapter)