madnovel Chapter 232 Selling Tens of Thousands of Tons
Chapter 232 Selling Tens of Thousands of Tons
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Ironwater Fortress sits on a small hill in the center of town. Although it is called a castle, it is more like a fortified stone manor.
The wall was only slightly taller than a person, which shows that the Iron Barons of all time didn't put much effort into defense; they probably spent their money elsewhere.
There were no more living guards in the castle; all the resisters lay on the ground. Im was leading a squad of Chiffon Guards, searching all the rooms.
As Richard and Lucy slowly walked into the main hall of the castle, they saw two guards carrying a carved wooden box down the stairs.
Upon seeing the lord enter, the guards immediately stopped what they were doing, stepped forward, and bowed respectfully.
"My lord, the storeroom is filled with boxes; all the valuables have been packed up by Baron Iron."
It seems that the Ironwater Baron really intends to completely abandon Ironwater Territory, as he has even packed up his valuables neatly, saving them a lot of trouble.
Following the guards to the large storeroom on the west side of the castle, we pushed open the heavy wooden door and were greeted by a smell of old leather, rusted metal, and dust.
The storeroom had no windows, but the guards lit a few magic lamps, their dim light illuminating the entire space.
There were wooden crates of all sizes piled up like small mountains, stretching from the ground to the roof. A rough count revealed that there were over a hundred of them.
Richard gestured to the guards to open the boxes, starting with the smaller, less conspicuous ones.
When the first batch of boxes were opened, they were full of odds and ends.
For example, there are carved silver candlesticks, large bronze mirrors inlaid with diamonds, and several exquisitely framed landscape paintings.
The only slightly more upscale items were a dozen or so magic lamps of various shapes, some shaped like animal heads, others like flowers, with small pieces of magic crystal embedded in the lamp bases.
Every lord's castle needs this; otherwise, if other nobles come to visit and they can't even afford to light a magic lamp, they'll be laughed at.
Among nobles, these kinds of displays of extravagance were the most important.
...
"They're all useless junk."
Richard glanced at it and lost interest; the brightness was mediocre, and magical materials like crystal powder had to be added from time to time.
Besides, they're all used, worn-out secondhand goods; they'd take up too much space if I brought them home.
The guards continued opening the chests and soon brought out several heavy wooden boxes, which contained land deeds, account books, and family documents.
Richard picked up a stack of account books, flipped through them casually, and found that the farmland in Ironwater Territory had pitifully low yields; a yield of thirty or forty kilograms of rye per acre was considered high.
There is an iron mine in the territory, and the production recorded in the ledger has been declining year by year. In recent months, it has been pitifully low, and it looks like it is about to be depleted.
No wonder the baron ran away; the yield of this land is indeed worrying.
Just then, Richard pulled out a brand-new contract from a pile of documents; the ink was still fresh.
Curious, he unfolded it and couldn't help but laugh out loud. He handed the contract to Lucy and said, "Look at that, you're pretty good at this."
Lucy took a look and found herself increasingly amused and exasperated.
The contract states that Ironwater Fortress will transfer the iron ore mining rights within its territory to Thorn Fortress for a period of thirty years.
Thornhold requires an upfront payment of 500 gold coins, followed by 10 gold coins annually, depending on the signing date...
Good guy!
It was the very day the plague broke out!
Lucy returned the contract to Richard, her tone tinged with helplessness.
"It's estimated that as soon as he got the news of the plague spreading, he decided to leave the North and immediately went to swindle the Thorn Baron, making a last bit of money."
Richard rolled up the parchment and casually tossed it back into the box: "It's a pity I got the money, but not my life."
...
Next up is the most anticipated currency.
The guards opened more than a dozen locked iron chests, which were filled to the brim with gold, silver and copper coins.
Richard was also somewhat surprised; he hadn't expected the Iron Baron to have so much wealth hidden away.
The guards did a rough count and found that there were more than a thousand gold coins, with silver and copper coins being the most numerous. After conversion, they estimated that it could be exchanged for more than two thousand gold coins.
However, many of the coins still had dark brown bloodstains on them, and they had an unsettling sheen in the dim light.
It's not hard to imagine how cruel the Iron Baron was to his people in order to plunder them before leaving, killing more than 40,000 people!
Just then, Richard noticed several unusual coins in the pile, with unfamiliar emblems pressed along their edges.
This is currency issued by the royal family of the Demon Spirit and Titan Empire. Richard picked it up, intending to examine it closely.
Suddenly, a system notification sounded in my mind.
[Note: Legitimate circulating currency has been detected and can be used for system consumption.]
Yo!
Richard's eyes lit up instantly!
It's interesting that the currencies of the other two great empires can also be used.
Doesn't this mean that chiffon cakes can be traded internationally? And without any scruples at all.
As long as the other party can handle it, he dares to sell not just a few million kilograms of grain, but tens of millions of tons!
But then another problem arose...
Richard fiddled with the currency in his hand, quickly calculating in his mind: the biggest problem with selling grain was still transportation.
International transport, in particular, involves not only long distances but also the risk of encountering bandits, monsters, and other dangerous things.
The ideal solution is to use the portal of the [Portable Mine] to achieve large-scale transfers.
However, the system stipulates that if you are not within the Chiffon Farm area, you cannot open the mine portal.
In other words, to achieve inter-space transportation through this method, one must obtain a legally valid piece of land in the Demon Empire or the Titan Empire.
Only by owning the land can he include it within the scope of Chiffon Farm and go across to open the portal.
This method is theoretically feasible, but it is quite difficult to implement at this stage.
The most direct way to acquire land ownership in other empires is to obtain a local title.
The simplest way to obtain a title is to buy it, like the Iron Baron, but this requires connections and channels.
Yes.
Without an introduction, who cares about you?
The territories granted out by the upper-ranking nobles are nominally the responsibility of the nobles.
If it were discovered that Richard also held a title in the Star Empire, the high-ranking noble who granted him the title would be in serious trouble.
At best, they would be demoted by the royal family; at worst, they would be stripped of their noble status and reduced to free citizens. In such cases, even selling a title would require "verification of funds and identity."
The fact that Baron Ironwater dared to do this must mean he had already found a way in advance, or that he had a trusted old acquaintance there.
Perhaps there were correspondence among those ledgers and documents. If we go back and investigate carefully, we might find out who the Iron Baron's contact is.
Although this matter is a bit complicated, at least a new path to getting rich has been found.
It's not too late to deal with this matter after a while, when the Chiffon Army is strong enough, and make a killing from them!