I'm not a lord

Chapter 152 The Blockade Threat of Sanhe City
Due to the severe cold weather and the cessation of transportation lines, Lynn and Leon have not been in contact for more than three months.

If it weren't for the information provided by Jurgen, the mayor of Sanhe City, Leon would not have known that his "brother-in-law" had already made such a big business.

He certainly knew that Lynn had both ambition and the ability to match his ambition.

But Lynn's speed of action and fruitful results still far exceeded Leon's imagination.

With the size of two baronies, it swallowed up four baronies in one gulp.

Leon could only admire such magnanimity and courage.

At the same time, he secretly felt that he had indeed found a good home for his sister.

What's wrong with the mistress?
My brother-in-law's territory now is no worse than that of an ordinary earldom. If he works harder, it might be possible for him to become a duke!

Is it shameful for a merchant's daughter, or even a black market merchant's daughter, to be the mistress of an earl or a duke?
Not only is it not shameful, it is simply a blessing from our ancestors!
Of course, Leon and Lynn both knew that if they wanted to continue expanding outward, they had to take over that damn Sanhe City.

Leon wants to turn things around and sing, while Lynn wants to expand his power and gain control of the huge group of craftsmen in Sanhe City.

"Capturing Sanhe City is extremely difficult. Due to your actions in the north, Mayor Jurgen has become extremely sensitive. He has increased checks on people entering the city and is preparing to expand the size of the city defense militia.

Oh, by the way, I came to see you on his orders, and I have his handwritten letter here."

In the wooden house next to the Hemarsh Pier, Leon took out a wax-stamped brown paper envelope from the pocket of his woolen coat.

Lin En took the letter, looked at the coat of arms and wax seal on the envelope, and asked, "Does Jurgen know about our relationship?"

The coat of arms of Trois-Rivières is quite distinctive, with a red base. The right half is a golden deer symbolizing the Duke of the Swamp, and the left half is three parallel waves, symbolizing the three rivers that meet in Trois-Rivières.

"He should know something. He is not only the mayor, but also the president of the Fur Guild. He has spies everywhere in the city." Leon was very wary of Jurgen.

In the past few months, Leon has tried to win over some of the core officers of the city defense militia in preparation for the future capture of the city.

However, due to the intimidation from the mayor and his own identity, he has not dared to make any big moves, and has only just made friends with a few marginal military officers.

After all, Leon was just a black marketeer who couldn't show up in public, and there was no place for him in the twenty seats of the city council.

He is not the maker of the rules, but the ruled who is bound by the rules.

"What about the smuggled salt incident? Does he know about it too?" Lynn glanced at Leon, opened the envelope, took out the letter and started reading.

The content of the letter is quite complicated.

Jurgen said that he had no intention of interfering in the territorial disputes among the nobles, but only hoped to continue to maintain the "traditional friendship" between the two sides.

The traditional friendship between the noble territories and the autonomous cities is nothing more than the exchange of what they have and what they need.

Of course, this is an exchange of resources led by the city.

In the past, the White River region was broken into six baronies.

Relying on its locational advantages and the charter issued by the Duke of Swamp, Sanhe City firmly controls the pricing power and first-purchase rights of goods in the region.

The so-called "first purchase right" refers to the city's mandatory first purchase right over goods flowing into the local area.

Affected by this privilege, primary agricultural products such as grain, timber, fur and honey produced in the Baihe River Basin could only be sold to merchants in Sanhe City.

The wine, cloth, ironware and other handicrafts needed in the Baihe River Basin, as well as high-end luxury goods such as woolen cloth, glass, and war horses, can only be purchased from merchants in Sanhe City.

In other words, Sanhe City controls the economic lifeline of the Baihe River Basin.

The prices of goods can only be determined by urban merchants, and the lords in rural areas can only be exploited.

Part of the exploited wealth flowed into the pockets of the city merchants, and the rest turned into city taxes and went into the private treasury of the Duke of the Swamp.

At the same time, Jurgen also made it clear in the letter that if Linn dared to attack the city or destroy the original business agreement, he would not rule out measures such as blocking the White River to prohibit all goods from flowing out of or into the White River basin.

Business trade these days is very complicated and requires a lot of personal connections, and merchants are by no means fixed NPCs.

You can buy whatever you want with money, and there will always be merchants to collect whatever you want to sell. This is difficult to do even in modern society.

Not to mention the ancient times when communication and transportation were extremely backward.

Although Leon had never opened the letter privately, when he saw Lin En's brows gradually frowning, he immediately guessed the contents of the letter.

After thinking for a moment, he replied, "I've been keeping the salt smuggling business very secret, and Jurgen hasn't known about it yet. Also, he has a very good relationship with the Duke of Swampland. It's said that it was the Duke who pushed him into the position of mayor."

The illegal salt business was interrupted due to climate problems in December last year. Now that the ice and snow have melted, this big business is about to restart.

Leon valued the smuggling salt business more than his life. He spent a large sum of money to bribe the customs supervisor at the Sanhe City Wharf, in exchange for a smooth journey.

According to the laws of Sanhe City, all goods entering the port need to be inspected and the corresponding taxes must be paid according to the category and quantity.

Where there are laws, there will naturally be people trying to exploit loopholes in the laws.

Generally speaking, the more something is prohibited by law, the higher the profit margin.

"That's not surprising." Lin En put the letter into the envelope, and his frown gradually relaxed. He said to Leon, "There are a few things I need you to do for me."

When he first arrived in White Bear Territory, Lin En found that what he lacked most was money.

After initially solving the money problem through the salt mine, he found that what he lacked most was the army.

After several rounds of military expansion, he felt that he needed territory and population that matched the size of his army.

After occupying a large territory, he felt that what he lacked most was reputation and connections.

These two things may sound mysterious, but they are very important and complement each other.

It can be said that as his status and strength continue to improve, the problems Lin En faces become more and more complicated, and they also test his cognition and methods, as well as his reputation and connections.

To resolve these issues, Lynn gave Leon four letters.

One of them is a reply letter to Mayor Jurgen.

In the letter, Lin En stated that he had no intention of intruding into Sanhe City, but only wanted to do good business with Sanhe City and was willing to follow past business practices.

Of course, this was just to keep Jurgen steady.

In the past, the territory of the Baihe River Basin was scattered and could only endure the slaughter of Sanhe City.

Now that the six baronies have been unified and Lynn has a large army under his command, these "unequal treaties" are of course no longer valid.

Lin En has never been the type to swallow his anger. If someone offends him, he will definitely offend them.

But he currently needed time to reorganize the newly occupied territories and find the flaws in Sanhe City, so he chose to show weakness temporarily.

The other three letters need to be delivered to the Duke of the Valley, the Duke of the Meadow, and the current king respectively.

The selection of messengers was crucial. Not everyone was qualified to be a messenger these days, let alone when these letters needed to be delivered to the most prestigious individuals in the North.

If we send an ordinary person as a messenger, he won't even be able to leave the Baihe River Basin, and will be eaten as a dish as soon as he leaves the Hezhao Territory.

The person who murdered the messenger could be a horse bandit, a road bully, an innkeeper, or even a local lord or knight.

The messengers or middlemen who deliver letters to high-ranking nobles must be well-known and powerful figures.

Only in this way can we transcend geographical boundaries and deliver the letter to the right people.

Not to mention that the northern border is becoming increasingly chaotic, making it increasingly difficult to deliver letters.

What Lin En lacks most is this kind of external strength.

Fortunately, in the past six months, Leon has expanded some powerful connections through the private salt trade. Coupled with the relationships he has accumulated over the years as a black market businessman, he is able to act as this middleman.

The journey of these three letters will be very tortuous and difficult.

Leon would first hand the letter to several reliable confidants, then entrust his trading partners to escort the messengers to the residences of the great nobles. After that, he would have to go through layers of introductions from other nobles before the letter could finally be delivered.

According to Leon's estimation, even if the letter was delivered to the nearest Duke of the Valley, it would take at least two weeks.

And if you want to send it to the king who is thousands of miles away, it will take months, and there is even a high probability that it will not be delivered.

Sending a letter is so complicated these days.

In the study of the Kawana Territory Castle, Leon took the four envelopes handed to him by Lin En and immediately noticed the signature of 'Lin En, Lord of White River' on the envelopes. He immediately asked:
"Wait, you don't need to go by Roman's name anymore?"

Lin En replied casually, "Well, no need. The Duke of Swamp should know that I am not Roman. This name has no meaning anymore, and I can't use the name of a dead person forever."

Today is of great significance to him.

He will officially get rid of the name of the dead Roman and live in the world under the name of Lin En.

After instructing Leon on the task of delivering the letter, he discussed in depth with Leon the plan to capture Sanhe City.

In Lin En's opinion, the larger the force, the less likely it is to be a monolithic entity.

Sanhe City has a permanent population of eight to nine thousand, and nearly thirty thousand farmers of various identities live in the vast fields outside the city.

The total population is no less than the six baronies under Lynn's command.

Putting aside the minority ruling elite headed by Mayor Jurgen, there are definitely forces and classes that can be won over.

"How much did the Duke of the Marsh raise taxes in Trois-Rivières last year?"

Taxation is the most likely to cause conflict, and Lynn hopes to use this as a starting point.

Leon took a sip of the warm mead and chuckled, "Hey, it was said to be 500 Northern Gold Shields, but in fact, the total collection was nearly 800 Gold Shields. This was revealed to me by the tax collector's clerk over the wine table."

Lin En continued to ask, "Except for the 100 that your black market is responsible for, which guilds are the rest distributed to?"

In those days, autonomous cities usually adopted the guild tax farming system.

To put it simply, the city council sets a specific tax amount for the year and distributes it to each guild, which then collects it from its subordinate merchants and craftsmen.

The black market in Sanhe City is actually a guild. Leon is the president and is responsible for collecting taxes from the small black merchants below and finally handing them over to the city’s tax officials.

The tax collector reports the tax to the city council, which decides how the tax should be spent.

Normally, the city council had to pay a thousand gold shields from taxes to the Duke of the Marsh every year in exchange for the privileges of the municipality.

Last year the Duke of Swampland imposed an additional war tax of fifty percent, totaling five hundred Northern Gold Shields.

However, when Sanhe City actually collected taxes, it levied an additional 300 gold shields.

The Duke was blamed for this; the extra money had apparently been embezzled by some members of the city council.

There's no other way, we all need to make progress together.

Three hundred Northern Gold Shields may not sound like a lot, but it is by no means a small number.

In the past, in the White Bear Territory, this amount of money was enough to buy the annual output of more than 10,000 acres of farmland.

In Sanhe City, the mayor's official annual salary is less than 30 gold shields, which is not even as much as that of a mid-level feudal knight.

Leon spread his hands helplessly. "They're just low-level guilds like blacksmiths, shipbuilders, leatherworkers, and masons. They're all just as miserable as the black market. There's no way they're the mayor's own fur guild."

There are also differences between guilds. In Sanhe City, the more artisans gather in a guild, the lower its status tends to be.

Although the status of craftsmen is low, they have to bear heavy taxes.

There are a total of twenty members in the city council, only two of whom belong to the Artisans' Guild, and the rest are divided among well-known top-level wealthy businessmen or priests of the Three Saints Church.

Lin En asked again, "Will the Duke raise taxes again this year?"

"There's no definite news yet, but I think taxes will definitely be raised. I heard the Duke of Swampland is preparing to lay siege to the city of Coron. It's sure to be another fierce battle."

Due to the slow transmission of information, Leon only knew that the Duke had sent troops to Cologne, and did not know that the Duke had already won a great victory in the north of Cologne.

Lin En thought for a moment and suggested, "I think you could try to contact those craftsmen. They are also a force worth winning over, especially the Blacksmiths' Guild. They are excellent soldiers and they all have their own weapons and armor."

"It's hard."

Leon shook his head. "The blacksmiths' taxes were indeed heavy last year, but they also made a lot of money. Just you, a client, have placed orders for nearly a hundred sets of chain mail. We still haven't finished the orders from nobles and mercenaries from all over the place."

There are reasons for raising taxes during wartime, and many craft guilds benefited from the war.

In fact, in order to save his life and the illegal salt channels, Leon was actually more eager than Lin to overthrow the existing political structure of Sanhe City.

Because he was not sure how long the illegal salt business could be concealed.

No matter how slow the salt field family is, they should be aware by now that large-scale illegal salt has appeared on the market in the north.

After the Salt Field Family reports to the Duke of the Swamp, and the Duke of the Swamp entrusts Mayor Jurgen to investigate, some clues will always be found.

But Leon was not blinded by his eagerness, nor did he expose his true identity by blindly recruiting allies.

The study room suddenly fell silent. After a while, Lin En finally spoke: "There is another method that should work."

Leon asked anxiously: "What method?"

"Didn't Jurgen threaten to blockade the White River Basin? Well, I'll just go along with him and cut off all trade with Three Rivers City! All exports of grain, timber, honey, and other goods will cease!"

(End of this chapter)