This young master truly has the ambition of a hero.

Of course! The merchants weren't fools; their method of resistance was certainly not to confront the governor's mansion representing Duke Best head-on—that would be suicidal. But the merchants weren't without options in dealing with those nobles they perceived as greedy.

This wretched place, Laguge, has never been able to achieve food self-sufficiency. It relies on the merchants who tirelessly transport grain from Shannan so that your governor's office can feed the local population.

This has always been widely accepted as "common sense".

Therefore, some merchants suggested that if we could unite, hold onto all our grain and not sell a single grain, then when a food crisis occurs in the area, the governor's office would have no choice but to compromise with us.

As for whether the new governor would be enraged and send his troops to seize their grain, the merchants believed they were not afraid.

These merchants traveled all over the country and accumulated extensive connections. They all had some well-known backers behind them. Even if they couldn't protect the grain, they should be able to save their own lives.

Moreover, once the governor makes this foolish move, it will play right into their hands. They will then run back to the capital and spread rumors about the governor's atrocities, urging other merchants not to do business here. Once the news is widely known in the capital, Duke Best will surely replace this incompetent and unpopular youngest son.

The businessman who made the suggestion spoke with great enthusiasm, as if he could easily control the governor, but before he could finish speaking, someone in the room immediately made a sarcastic remark.

"That's a great idea. Your Treasure Merchant Guild is a large and powerful organization, backed by the Prime Minister of the Empire. You are certainly not afraid of a mere regional governor. Even if two hundred carts of grain are burned to ashes, it won't be a serious problem for you. But what about us small merchants who are all alone? What the hell do we have to challenge the governor with? The grain we transported is stuck in our hands. Do you think renting warehouses and hiring people to guard it won't cost money?"

The merchant who stood up to voice dissent was the head of the Golden Cat Merchant Guild. The caravan he led was a joint effort of eleven small and medium-sized merchant guilds. Each guild was not as powerful as the larger ones. Although they were also dissatisfied with the decline in profits, they were unwilling to confront the Governor's Office.

They were afraid that if things went wrong, the governor, unable to deal with the large merchants, would take his anger out on them, the small businesses.

This is the problem with the merchants; they are not a united front either.

At this moment, the old merchant spoke again.

"How about this? Our large merchant guild will buy the grain from you small merchants, and the price will be 65% of what it was last year. What do you think?"

"Only 65%?"

"Don't be ungrateful. If you sold it to the Governor's Office, the price wouldn't even be 60% of last year's! Does that mean the connections behind our big merchant guilds are worthless?"

The old merchant's words resonated with some of the smaller merchants present. They couldn't afford to offend either side, so right now they were hoping to earn as much as possible and get rid of the grain as soon as possible so they could make a quick getaway.

As a result, the alliance of small merchants of the Golden Cat Merchant Guild collapsed in an instant. Several small merchants immediately expressed their willingness to sell and hurriedly sold all the grain they had to the large merchant guild. In the end, only the person in charge of the Golden Cat Merchant Guild was still hesitant.

The guy he had previously refuted saw him frowning and couldn't help but sneer.

"Have you thought it through? Make a decision quickly, or we won't wait any longer!"

Looking up at the arrogant expression on the other party's face, the head of the Golden Cat Merchant Guild said nothing. He simply took out a silver coin, paid for the drink in front of him, and then ignored the incessant sarcasm. He got up, bid farewell to the crowd, and left.

After leaving the tavern where they had met, the head of the Golden Cat Merchant Guild did not immediately return to his residence. Instead, he took a stroll along the street, looking around and comparing the familiar street with the scene when he came last year.

He didn't know much about Laguge, the new governor who had only taken office before last winter. He had only heard that the man was an unpopular illegitimate son of the duke's family. The heads of the major merchant guilds who were active in the capital for many years had been talking about the laughingstock that "Dick Best" had left in the capital at the gathering just now, their tone full of disdain and mockery.

Impure bloodline, son of a songstress, dull-witted bookworm, bastard who frequents brothels.

It seems that in their eyes, Dick is just a good-for-nothing, completely oblivious to the changes taking place in the area.

How could a completely useless person possibly solve the bandit problem that many previous governors couldn't solve in just six months?

Stabilizing grain prices sounds easy, but it's not something that can be accomplished by the governor with just a word.

After walking for a short while, the person in charge arrived at a small earthen slope on the edge of town. From a distance, they saw a large crowd gathered there, as if they were watching some rare sight.

So he joined the crowd and squeezed over. On the other side of the hillside, on the wasteland separated from the town by only a river, hundreds and thousands of people were clearing land and working. There were also many soldiers on guard and cavalry patrolling around the perimeter.

The person in charge knew that those were "labor reform prisoners" captured by the governor's private army, mainly bandits and some villagers who colluded with bandits, as well as a small number of prisoners who had committed other crimes.

In previous years, these unpaid slave laborers would definitely have been sent to work in the mines, but the first major thing that Dick did after taking office was to drastically reduce the number of miners. The mining area is no longer the crowded place it used to be.

Upon seeing these labor camp prisoners, the person in charge suddenly remembered the head of the Treasure Merchant Guild who had been talking incessantly at the gathering. His guild was involved in the slave trade, and it seemed that he had been holding a grudge because he wanted to sell these labor camp prisoners but was refused by the governor's office.

After pausing to observe for a moment on the earthen slope, the person in charge returned to the Chamber of Commerce's lodging. As soon as he arrived at the door, his subordinates hurriedly reported to him that the Governor's Mansion had just sent someone over, saying that the Governor wanted to meet him the next day.

Upon hearing that the person in charge had been invited by the governor, the person in charge hesitated for a moment before speaking.

"Make some preparations."

The next morning, the head of the Golden Cat Merchant Guild arrived at the castle gate in the center of town with gifts originally intended to bribe the governor. With the governor's invitation, he was invited in by the soldiers.

Upon entering, the person in charge habitually took out a small stack of silver coins, intending to give them to the centurion in front of him as a token of friendship, hoping to use them for drinks. However, the centurion awkwardly waved his hand and refused.

The person in charge later learned that the castle's garrison was composed of the governor's personal guards, whose pay and benefits were the best among private soldiers. Although Dick, as governor, was strict with his subordinates, he never withheld their pay. Whether out of loyalty to the governor or simply because he didn't want to lose his well-paid job, the sergeant dared not accept the bribes offered by the merchant.

Upon entering the castle, the person in charge was led to the office area in the lower town, where a clerk escorted him to the reception room, where he was told to wait a moment while the governor would arrive shortly.

After the person in charge took their seat, they couldn't help but feel a little nervous.

Although he believed, based on his own judgment, that the new governor was by no means the absurd and incompetent illegitimate son the Chamber of Commerce had described, he could not guarantee that this person would necessarily be a kind and benevolent person.

After all, outstanding ability and ruthlessness are not mutually exclusive.

After waiting for about ten minutes, the door to the reception room opened again, and a handsome mixed-race elf boy walked up to him and said with a smile.

"Are you Mr. Stiepunk of the Golden Cat Merchant Guild? Hello, I am Governor Dick Best. It is an honor to meet you."

As Dick spoke, he smiled and extended his hand, and Stitch quickly shook his hand and bowed, not daring to be negligent in the slightest.

"Please sit down! I value efficiency and don't like beating around the bush. I called you here today because there are some business collaborations I'd like to discuss with you."

"Business cooperation?"

"Yes, I have some local specialties that I'd like to entrust to the Golden Cat Chamber of Commerce for sale."

Upon hearing the governor's words, Stie seemed to suddenly realize that, when it came to Lagug's "local specialties," apart from the cold iron that couldn't be sold casually, there were actually quite a few sought-after goods.

For example, furs, medicinal herbs, and various alchemical materials are not valuable locally, but if they are transported to Shannan or sent to the bustling capital, their prices can increase several times or even ten times!

Nowadays, most of these good things have been snapped up by the farmers' associations under the Governor's Office. If one can use the grain at hand to exchange for some of these goods first, and then hurry up and transport them to the interior for sale, the profits earned, even if not as high as in previous years, are still substantial.

Ultimately, Dick didn't cut off these merchants' livelihoods; they could still make a lot of money, and the profit margin of previous years was actually unreasonable. It's just that everyone had gotten used to making money, so they gradually stopped thinking there was anything wrong with it.

Seeing that Stitch's eyes lit up instantly, Dick smiled. He didn't think it was a bad thing for businessmen to love making money, as long as they followed the rules.

The local merchants of Lagug have now been brought under Dick's control, but most of these merchants have small capital and low profits, and their businesses are generally limited to the local area or the northern part of the empire. They are not as powerful as those merchants who travel all over the country. Therefore, Dick needs to win over some "foreign capital" like the Golden Cat Merchant Guild.

Dick knew perfectly well what the chambers of commerce currently staying in the area were thinking, and even knew exactly what they had discussed in a secret meeting yesterday.

These powerful chambers of commerce, with their own backing, assumed that Dick, out of fear, would be powerless against them.

Indeed, Dick couldn't simply resort to force like he would with bandits, but that didn't mean he was helpless against these merchants.

Chapter 054: Business

Dick's initial idea was to have Rita or Tia as the head, to directly establish a new chamber of commerce of his own, responsible for commercial trade matters, that is, to make money for himself.

Unfortunately, Laguge was in dire need of reconstruction, and there were few capable local talents. Most of the key figures among his confidants were in other more important positions. Therefore, the establishment of the Chamber of Commerce had to be postponed, and a transitional compromise was chosen instead.

That means first cooperating with existing chambers of commerce, preferably finding a medium-sized chamber of commerce that is not large in scale and easy to control to act as an agent, and then forming a direct branch chamber of commerce when conditions are ripe in the future.

Thus, the Golden Cat Merchant Guild came into Dick's view because it refused to compromise with the Grand Merchant Guild, and its leader, Stie, was invited to the castle for a meeting.

Stitch was flattered to learn that the governor intended to cooperate with their Golden Cat Merchant Guild.

The Golden Cat Chamber of Commerce is actually a logistics company with sixty or seventy employees who specialize in caravans, traveling all over the country and earning a hard-earned living. It is neither like those large chambers of commerce with deep backgrounds and abundant funds that can manage the entire production, supply and sales chain, nor like those small chambers of commerce that can survive in a small area. But this is exactly what Laguge needs at present.

Dick presented Stitch with two lists and an employment contract. The contract was for three years, under which Dick, as the governor of Lagug, would employ the Golden Cat Merchant Guild to serve him. He would provide the Golden Cat Merchant Guild with a free base in Lagug as a trading post, and would give them priority in supplying them with various locally produced goods.

The Governor's Office will also provide low-interest loans, but these loans will be restricted in their use, only to employing locals in Lagug and to purchase goods locally.

To put it bluntly, the money Dick lent him was not allowed to be spent anywhere outside of Lagug.

As Dick's "official merchants," the Golden Cat Merchant Guild was obligated not only to sell local products but also to procure the equipment and various supplies needed by the Governor's Office.

Those two lists are the local catalogs of "what can be sold" and "what people want to buy".

The sales list contains the prices and stock of various local goods for sale, while the purchase list prioritizes goods based on their urgency and provides expected prices and demand forecasts.

These two shipping manifests were a treasure to Stie. As a traveling merchant, he was more afraid of encountering bandits and outlaws on the road than of his caravan arriving at a destination only to find that due to a misjudgment of intelligence, the goods they had painstakingly transported could not be sold, or the goods they wanted to purchase could not be bought or could not be afforded.

To Stig's surprise, food was not the top priority on the procurement list.

Thinking of the "labor reform farms" he had seen before, Stie couldn't help but wonder, did the governor in front of him really have the confidence to make this harsh land of Lagug self-sufficient in food?

Admittedly, the area is not lacking in land, and the soil is quite fertile. However, the real problem is the climate. The winters are too long and too cold, and the land is frozen for more than half the year. If an ordinary person tries to break it with a pickaxe, they can only make a shallow white dot.

Stitch thought for a moment and decided that since the governor was sincere about cooperating with their Golden Cat Merchant Guild, it would be better to find out the details first.

"Your Excellency, may I ask some questions?"

"Of course, feel free to ask any questions you may have."

"It's about food. I see you issued a land reclamation order this year and demoted those captured bandits to serfs. This will indeed effectively increase grain production in Laguge, but the climate here..."

"There's no need to worry about the climate; there won't be any more unusually cold winters."

"?"

Seeing Stie's surprised expression, Dick smiled mysteriously and didn't reveal anything about the Winter God. Anyway, people would naturally notice the changes in Lagug when winter came again this year.

Seeing Dick's confidence, Stitch didn't say anything more, directly signed the contract and pressed his fingerprint, officially establishing an employment relationship with Dick.

Dick then personally took Stitch to the official warehouse under the governor's name. In addition to the furs and mountain products that the governor's government had snapped up, there were also many spoils of war seized from bandit dens during the bandit suppression campaign. These items were also on the sales list.

Seeing the various goods stored in the warehouse in good condition, Stitch became even more convinced that cooperating with the governor was definitely a smart move.

Two days later, news of the Golden Cat Merchant Guild's cooperation with the Governor's Mansion spread like wildfire. Upon learning of this, the major merchant guilds that had been secretly plotting against each other were all cursing Stie for being shameless, even though they couldn't actually explain exactly how Stie was shameless. In short, their defenses had been breached.

After that, some wavering small merchants took the initiative to approach the governor's office, seeking cooperation. Among them were the guys who had previously resold all their grain to the large merchant guild.

The group of people took the money and toured the area. They found that the security had indeed improved, and they also discovered they couldn't buy anything. The farmers' association, established by the governor's office, had already snapped up the goods the villagers wanted, offering prices 20% higher than in previous years. Some wealthy locals still had stock, but they were unwilling to sell to them at the usual prices.

So after going around in circles, they eventually returned to the town.

For these small merchants who wavered between different options and had little real power, the Governor's Office only allowed them to purchase from the Farmers' Association at official prices, but did not agree to cooperate with them.

First, the strength is insufficient.

Second, their stance is not firm.

The reason those large merchant guilds dared to challenge the governor's office was simply because they were certain that the Gulag was short of food and that the governor wanted to lower grain prices. So they hoarded the thousands of tons of grain that had been brought in, seemingly confident that Dick wouldn't dare to confront them directly, and appeared fearless.

In fact, Dick didn't intend to do anything to them; he simply ignored them because Lagug wasn't short of food now, and wouldn't be in the future.

With the winter god Ajax now at rest, the climate of Lagug has returned to normal. Although it remains a subarctic climate, the winter season has been shortened by nearly a third, and temperatures have increased significantly throughout the year.

If they make full use of the plains in the eastern part of their territory and introduce improved varieties and advanced agricultural machinery, their grain production will not only be self-sufficient, but they could even become a major grain producer in the northern region, with so much grain that they have to sell it elsewhere.

However, while the prospects are bright, problems also exist.

As mentioned before, the empire possesses technology stolen from Earth, but the nobles, for their own benefit, never considered promoting it.

This has led to extreme imbalances in regional development. Some corners of the empire, like Lagug, are still in the dark Middle Ages, while the capital region seems to have already stepped into the prosperous 20th century.

According to Dick, the agricultural level in Lagug is still in a primitive state, almost like slash-and-burn agriculture. Many farmers may have worked in the fields for most of their lives, but you could still say that they don't actually know how to farm.

Dig a hole, plant the seed, fill it with soil, and then water and weed every day. That's it.

So Dick realized he needed an agricultural expert, preferably one he could summon!

The author says:

Author's note: I'm still recovering, feeling drowsy and weak. The ibuprofen I bought at the beginning of the year is coming in handy now.

Chapter 055: The Fishing Rod Hooked a Dragon

Rather than spending time and effort discovering and cultivating the native talents of this world, Dick actually prefers to employ the Summoners.

After all, he can identify the type of talent he needs, ensuring they are not only capable but also loyal and reliable, and the added bonus of having "anime beauties" is undeniable.

However, the cost of using a summoning spell is not as simple as drawing cards in a mobile game.

Dick also wanted to do a lavish ten-pull, but he regretted that he didn't have enough money!

The materials needed to set up a summoning circle usually cost around 20,000 to 30,000 gold coins. The key issue is that some materials are priceless and not readily available, making them difficult to acquire.

For example, high-grade magic stones are magical crystals formed in the earth's veins, and only large magic stone veins have a certain probability of producing high-grade magic stones with extremely high purity.

Therefore, this thing is a controlled resource at the same level as cold iron, and it is not allowed to be bought, sold or circulated among the general public.

Because the magic stone has too many uses and is too important! In addition to being used to set up magic circles to summon Earthlings, magicians need it to increase their cultivation speed and use some powerful spells. It is also one of the essential materials for alchemists to make high-level magic items, and it is an indispensable military supply.

Ironically, such a vital strategic resource was not allowed to circulate among the common people, but the major mines within the empire were controlled by the great nobles.

Just as cold iron is also subject to regulation, Ragug, which owns the largest cold iron mine, is a fiefdom of the Duke of Best.

Back when Dick was still in the capital, he heard his older brothers boast that at some top aristocratic gatherings, the rich kids whose families owned magic stone mines would organize a game called "Lucky Draw" to show off their wealth. They would set up a summoning circle on the spot, and everyone would have a turn to summon a human, and then compete to see who could summon the rarest human.

When Dick heard that a wealthy man was personally paying for everyone to draw cards, he was very envious of this opportunity to get something for free, but unfortunately, as an illegitimate son of a duke, he would never receive an invitation.