Winter Lord: Starting with Daily Intelligence

Chapter 16 The Seed Prince

Jack was originally just a small seed merchant in the South, barely making a living by selling grain and fruit seeds.

Although life wasn't wealthy, it was at least enough to eat and drink.

Until a few months ago, he heard his colleagues at the bar bragging:

After the Northern Expedition was issued, many nobles flocked to the North to reclaim wasteland, creating a huge demand for seeds that could not meet the supply!

This rumor excited him greatly.

You should know that there are so many seed merchants in the south that they're like horse manure on the roadside. With hundreds of people vying for a single piece of cake, making big money is as difficult as climbing to heaven.

But the North is different. I heard that it is barren and desolate there, and seeds are hard to come by. But once the goods arrive, there is no worry about selling them!
"This is a chance to make a fortune!"

Jack excitedly exchanged all his savings from the past years for seeds.

He loaded his small truck full and headed non-stop to the North, dreaming of getting rich overnight.

However, the moment he stepped into Frostspear City, he was completely dumbfounded.

"Isn't this the largest city in the North?"

The city was dilapidated, the streets were muddy, and the pedestrians were dressed in tattered clothes and looked tired. There was not a trace of prosperity or business opportunities.

Jack's heart skipped a beat, and a sense of foreboding washed over him.

"Oh no, am I going to lose everything?!"

But since we've come all this way, we can't leave empty-handed.

So he gritted his teeth and found an open space on the east side of the market to set up his small stall.

"Are you Jack, the seed seller?"

Before the goods were even laid out, three knights rode up, still covered in the dust of their journey, their armor splattered with mud, and looking somewhat anxious.

Jack froze for a moment, his heart pounding.

Why did the other person know my name?

Could it be that my reputation as the "Seed Prince" has spread from the Central Province to the Northern Province?!
But since he was a guest, he quickly straightened his back, cleared his throat, and prepared to properly introduce his products.

"What would you gentlemen like? Our shop has rye, oats, wheat..."

The knight leader interrupted him directly: "Take them all."

"W-what?" Jack was shocked, wondering if he had misheard.

"We'll take them all. How much?"

Jack was truly dumbfounded.

Are all the people in the North this arrogant?!
Jack's mind raced, calculating how much of the goods he had brought could actually be sold...

Finally, he pretended to hesitate for a moment, then held up five fingers: "Since you all want them, I'll give you a discount, five gold coins."

Five gold coins!

In the South, a bag of potato seeds costs only two iron coins, and the total cost of his entire cartload of seeds is less than one gold coin!
Jack was prepared to be haggled over, and even planned to lower the price even further if the other party wasn't happy.

"it is good."

To everyone's surprise, the leading knight didn't even listen, simply pulled out five gold coins from his pouch and casually tossed them to him.

Then he and the other two knights quickly packed up all his seeds and left in a hurry.

Jack was left standing there, clutching five heavy gold coins, dumbfounded.

When the cold wind blew by, he realized that his stall had been completely sold out.

He quickly bent down to examine the gold coins, flipping through them one by one to make sure they were all genuine.

It's really...it's all true!
The next second, an overwhelming feeling of joy welled up inside Jack, and he almost jumped up.

"I'm rich!!!"

His seeds, plus the travel expenses to the North, cost less than a gold coin. Now he's made a net profit of four gold coins! And he's done almost nothing!

Is doing business in the North really that easy?!

Jack gripped the gold coin tightly, his mind already racing as he sketched out his next plan.

Where did this go?
If he went back and bought a few hundred more bags of seeds wholesale to sell, wouldn't he be able to earn hundreds of gold coins?!

Thinking of this, Jack's lips curled up at a ninety-degree angle.

The North is a gold mine!
He's going back to get a loan and become the number one seed merchant in the North!

Of course, he didn't know that the seeds he had just sold included Frostblood Redberry seeds, which could fetch thousands of gold coins.

Otherwise, you'll regret it to the core.

As for his later story of losing everything, that's another story.

…………

Just as Lambert was rushing back to Red Tide Territory with the seeds, Louis was riding on horseback inspecting the planting progress in the fields.

In the fields, farmers are busy sowing seeds, and the sound of hoes turning the soil rises and falls.

Wherever Louis went, the farmers stopped what they were doing and bowed respectfully.

But unlike other noble territories, the peasants here did not have a humble fear in their eyes, but rather a heartfelt respect.

Especially the slave laborers, their eyes held a burning fervor as they looked at Louis.

They longed for their efforts to be noticed by the lord, thus gaining the opportunity for freedom!

Louis observed all of this but did not show much emotion.

After all, in his view, there was no difference between slaves and free people; they were all cattle and horses of the Red Tide Territory.

Moreover, the current system motivates these people to work harder, so he's not in a hurry to change it.

When the time is right, perhaps we can consider more prudent measures to free the slaves, but for now they must prove their worth.

Just then, Mick walked over, leaning on his hoe, his face beaming with undisguised joy.

"My lord!" Mick wiped the sweat from his brow, his wrinkles crinkling with laughter. "These fertilizers are working wonderfully! This year is sure to be a great harvest!"

Louis glanced at the plowed field and found that the soil was indeed moist and soft, with a deep color, indicating that it had fully absorbed nutrients.

He nodded slightly: "What was the first crop?"

“Rye, turnips, potatoes,” Mick replied immediately. “These crops are cold-resistant and mature quickly. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, we should have our first harvest in three months!”

Louis nodded in agreement.

Rye can be ground into whole grains, and turnips can be used as both vegetables and livestock feed.

Potatoes are easy to grow and harvest, and have a long storage time, making them the most suitable crop for emergency food.

Although some areas of Red Tide Territory are blessed with geothermal energy, making them much better off than other lands in the North, not all lands are suitable for precision agriculture.

To be on the safe side, prioritizing the planting of these cold-resistant crops is the most sensible choice.

But this was far from enough to satisfy Louis's ambitions.

Once greenhouse cultivation technology is perfected, he plans to plant more varieties of crops to completely solve the food problem in the Red Tide Territory.

Louis stood quietly on the edge of the field, his gaze sweeping across the land before him.

The fertile black soil gleamed in the sunlight, and the busy figures of farmers crisscrossed the fields, sowing the seeds of hope for the future of Chichaoling.

This once barren frozen land is gradually being brought to life under his planning.

A sense of indescribable accomplishment welled up in Louis's heart.

(End of this chapter)