"Once the war begins, you've already made your fortune. Why, this time, concern yourself with imperial affairs after the war?" Clark glanced at Desail and questioned.
"Naturally, for greater benefits! The lord of Seris is quite interesting; he has developed a new woodworking machine that can allow the Dragon Tide family to monopolize the woodworking market," Desail spoke the truth but concealed the true nature of the matter with half-truths.
"I'm afraid it's not just woodworking, is it?" Clark, being an experienced prime minister, wouldn't easily believe Desail's explanation and asked again.
"Of course, there's also a new type of weaving machine! Just think about it, the fabric market is much larger than the woodworking market..." Desail continued to speak the truth, answering.
"That makes sense... Seris' young lord is confident in paying a tribute of 4,500 gold coins from three places, hence the interest in Meine and the ferry crossing," Clark nodded, understanding the ins and outs of the situation.
The Dragon Tide family was solely focused on getting rich, preparing to use fifty thousand gold coins to dismiss Clark, the prime minister. It was quite a well-thought-out plan! Thinking about this, Clark smiled and looked at Desail, his tone becoming somewhat colder, saying, "I wish the Dragon Tide family prosperity in wealth."
"Here, the prime minister needs to exert influence in front of His Majesty. So, Desail's visit this time is to make a good deal with the prime minister," knowing Clark's insatiable greed, Desail, without waiting for him to make a move, directly brought up the topic of cooperation.
Indeed, hearing these words, Clark's face lit up with a smile, waiting for Desail to continue.
Desail was not hesitant; he extended a hand toward Prime Minister Clark, "Fifty thousand gold coins per year!"
"Hmm..." Clark neither agreed nor disagreed, waiting for Desail's following words.
"This fifty thousand will be sent to the Prime Minister's residence. As for taxes..." Desail prolonged the tone, waiting for Clark to express his opinion.
"Six thousand per year!" Clark didn't keep Desail waiting too long, directly stating, "In addition, you need to send me another two hundred thousand gold coins!"
This time, it was Desail's turn to remain silent. Although he was young, he was an old cunning merchant and knew that Clark would need to provide a satisfactory explanation for the additional two hundred thousand gold coins.
"After all, Seris has already taken three cities and can no longer use the identity of a lord. Make His Majesty confer the title of grand duke, but it needs to be properly managed," Clark solemnly said.
Desail nodded, "The price is fair! I'll have someone bring the money this afternoon. Prime Minister, you are truly a model of loyalty and patriotism, working hard for the country."
"Easy to say! Easy to say! Someone, see the guest off!" Clark's face showed even more smiles, loudly instructing below.
As Desail walked out of Prime Minister Clark's mansion, Strede was indeed waiting outside.
He approached with a smile, shaking Strede's hand, "Everything has been settled! It cost me a whole two hundred thousand gold coins!"
"Ah?" Hearing Desail say this, Strede was shocked, shivering all over. He had never seen so much money in his life. If he had 200,000 gold coins, did he still need to manage a territory?
"There's still a harvest." Desail, still smiling, held Strede's hand and said as they walked forward, "Soon, Lord Chris will be called... Duke Chris!"
At this moment, Chris, already designated as the Grand Duke of Ayrshire, was unaware of his promotion and salary increase. He was staring blankly at a stack of drawings, looking no different from a tech geek.
Even though Seris City already had many processing facilities and steam engines as power, there was still much to be done. Rome wasn't built in a day, and the industrial system of Seris City couldn't be perfected in just a few days.
The rapid production of machinery was directly related to some reserves within Seris City: the city defense forces had reserves of oil, which could be refined into various petroleum compounds. Seris City naturally produced special iron materials like shining iron, and their metallurgical technology was outstanding.
With the availability of some alternative materials, Seris could quickly produce a large number of industrial machinery, completing the construction of the first few factories.
However, problems began to emerge afterward: the various raw materials needed for industry were too complex, far beyond what a small city like Seris could support. Rapid industrialization began to face bottlenecks, forcing them to slow down their pace.
"The problems in front of us are just too many..." Deans complained to Chris, who had hastily returned from the ferry port city to Seris, "I didn't know what to do without your return."
He pushed several reports in front of Chris, saying somewhat helplessly, "Our production of fabrics and woodworking products is too fast; there are no merchants who can take in so many goods."
Chris, having just returned, hadn't even had time to drink water. He picked up the reports from the table and carefully read them. Problems were indeed numerous.
For example, the cotton and other materials stored in Seris City were already depleted, and his factories were facing the dilemma of stopping production due to a lack of materials. More frighteningly, even though the prices were adjusted to half of the original, the excess goods were stagnating due to their large quantity.
"The situation is a bit better on the iron side. After assembling the stamping machine according to your drawings, we started mass-producing plate armor and utensils at a rapid pace... Our raw materials are still sufficient, but reserves are decreasing," Deans said with concern.
Having said this, he looked at Chris, expressing his pain, "Originally, we had more than a thousand prisoners from Meine that could be used for mining... But because you ordered the release of most of them without charges to maintain stability, our plan for increased production went down the drain."
Hearing Deans say this, Chris was also very helpless, "Meine is in turmoil because of that bastard Berman. If I didn't do that, we might still be trying to quell the rebellion within Meine now."
"I know this, but these things have to be handled one by one for now." Deans used all his tricks, but the new and fresh issues he faced were too overwhelming, and he lacked experience in dealing with them properly.
Chris didn't have a particularly good solution either; he could only pin his hopes on Desail, who hadn't shown up again, hoping the merchant could help him open up the market and start a thorough positive operation.
"For now, send the excess fabric to Meine and the ferry port city!" Chris thought for a moment and started arranging things step by step, "Let the disarmed soldiers of the ferry port city be responsible for transportation. Distribute the fabric to each place and consider it as the lord's consolation!"
"Similarly, send the excess cheap woodworking products to these two places. Half price, and if necessary, dispose of them at one-tenth of the price! Make it as cheap as possible!" After calculations, Chris's subsequent orders became coherent, "In addition, all the workers in Seris City related to factories, half of their wages converted into products! Deduct at the lowest price... if they want fabric, give them fabric, if they want furniture, give them furniture!"
Opening up the internal market and dumping products was Chris's only option now. The biggest drawback of this method was not making money. This was the painful aspect of pushing industrialization to the limit—Chris had to endure it.
Deans agreed, and in his heart, he smiled bitterly: the cheaply produced furniture and fabric, almost given away for free in the end, was almost indistinguishable from throwing them away. This was truly an ironic situation that he would never have dared to imagine in the past.
While Deans was lost in his thoughts, Chris had already stood up and walked to his cabinet. From a locked drawer, he took out a stack of drawings and started examining them. He carefully looked at various advantages and disadvantages of different weapons and equipment.
These drawings were all completed before he left and were weapons and equipment that Seris City's current industrial level could not manufacture. Chris had to choose a suitable individual weapon for his troops, and this was a very painful task that only he could do.
"Our current situation is not optimistic. The production capacity of the factories is too low, so low that I have to temporarily give up many advanced weapons and equipment," Chris said, putting down the design drawing of an automatic rifle and looking at Deans, who seemed to understand.
Now he had to choose a type of firearm as an individual weapon for his soldiers. While artillery was powerful, if he couldn't improve the equipment of each soldier, a troop without artillery wouldn't be able to execute combat missions independently.
Choosing which type of firearm as an individual weapon was worth Chris's consideration: sometimes, the best weapon wasn't necessarily the most suitable. Thinking about this, he reluctantly looked at the drawing of the AK47 assault rifle, a simple and practical design. Unable to bear it, Chris sighed.
Due to capacity constraints, he had to give up many weapons and equipment with relatively uncomplicated manufacturing processes. AK47 was just one of them. For example, mortars, simple and practical rocket launchers, etc.—these were weapons and equipment he couldn't equip.
Chris, with an industrial foundation, wasn't unwilling to equip more mortars; it was just that the production speed of shells couldn't keep up with the consumption of mortars. Now Chris realized how troublesome it was to maintain a modern army: just producing weapons was a step that tested industrial strength, and the pitiful production capacity in his hands couldn't even supply the war consumption of a single infantry company...
