King
Chapter 780 - 780 51 Safety in Numbers _2

780: Chapter 51, Safety in Numbers _2 780: Chapter 51, Safety in Numbers _2 Next, the mission of your Government Affairs Department is significant.

Economic development is a long-term process, and in the short term, we can only select industries suitable for the mountain domains.

Our biggest advantage is living next to the sea, and we must make use of it as soon as possible.

Over ninety percent of the salt circulating in the market of the Southeastern Province comes from the ocean, all monopolized by the Dalton Family.

In the past, we didn’t have access to the sea.

Large swamps blocked us, and even if we managed to produce salt, its management and transportation would be a great hassle, so we could only watch others make wealth.

Things are different now; the ocean is not solely owned by the Dalton family.

If they can extract edible salt from the sea water, we can equally do so.

You can find detailed salt-making processes in the material archive in our domain.

You may get them with my token.

Apart from salt, there is another industry – fisheries.

Don’t underestimate the fisheries; if well-managed, it can completely become another major pillar in our domain.

Select a group of robust youngsters from the domain people, let them practice swimming in the canals.

Once they are familiar, arrange for someone to go to the near-sea area for trial fishing.

The production of fishing boats, and various fishing tools, you can find whatever you need in our storage.

Go find them yourself.

…”

While Hudson’s words did not surprise anyone else, Jose on the side was extremely shocked.

As inland aristocracy, the Koslow Family normally shouldn’t have this kind of information.

Yet, listening to Hudson, it was clear that not only did they have it, they had even more resources.

Did they buy it from The Royal Family?

The dream would be good enough.

It was already a marvel that The Royal Family could sell the shipyard to the mountain domain.

Pining for more technical information required for domain development is just a pipe dream!

Even if The Royal Family were willing to sell, it would definitely not be a small price.

Usually, these things are slowly accumulated over time, with experience.

This is yet another understanding between the major nobles, deliberately setting up technical barriers, to increase the difficulty for the emerging nobility to rise.

However, considering the position Hudson held in the late war, Jose instantaneously understood.

Becoming rich due to success – typical of wartime.

Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but feel bitter.

They had all been on the same battlefield, Hudson had soared sky-high, while he himself had fallen.

…

“Mr.

Jose, the construction of the port and the relocation of the shipyard are your tasks!”

Hudson immediately ordered.

The construction of the port was manageable, as long as they possessed the right technical data and selected a group of craftsmen and civilians to do the work as instructed.

However, relocating the shipyard was a troublesome matter.

It not only involved moving the entire factory, machinery, shipbuilding materials but also the relocation of the staff and their families.

They were originally employed by The Royal Family, and it would definitely cause some dissatisfaction to suddenly have to work for a minor nobility.

This, combined with the difficulty of leaving their homeland, resistance to the move was almost inevitable.

Hudson himself had encountered these sorts of issues during previous relocation efforts.

However, the previous migrants were serfs, lacking the courage to confront the lord.

The craftsmen at the shipyard, while also lacking personal freedom, knew more than simple serfs, particularly the designers.

They were educated and each had his own ideas.

To get them to work completely committed, it cannot be solved simply by force.

Those who need to be appeased must be appeased.

If Jose hadn’t joined, Hudson had been prepared to personally win their hearts over.

“Count, rest assured that I will handle this matter properly.

However, the Berkshine shipyard is not adjacent to our territory.

We have to pass through the Dalton Family’s domain in the midway.

I fear they might sabotage it.”

Even though relations had eased, they were still competitors.

Especially now that the Koslow Family wanted to become sea-bound, directly causing conflicting interests with the Dalton Family.

Some accidents along the way, it couldn’t be more normal.

If the Dalton Family does not react, that should be the problem.

“Rest assured, Mr.

Jose!

Governor Piers is a person who cares about the overall situation.

He will not provoke disputes at this time.

Moreover, I just recently sent a huge gift to the Dalton Family; they won’t be brazen enough to turn hostile so soon.

“As for the secret trickery, I’ll have Maxim drop by from time to time to deter those upstarts,” said Hudson with a relaxed expression.

When it comes to making a scene, the more cunning Belsden takes the cake; but when it comes to intimidation, no one does it better than Maxim.

With his massive physique, he’s pretty hard to ignore.

Especially since, after following Hudson, he grew another two meters.

How much his strength increased is unknown.

Either way, his appearance is even more imposing.

If he claimed to be the Dragon King, I guess ninety-nine percent of people would fall for it.

The assignment had just been handed out when a pair of Gryphon Cavalry swooped down from the sky, landing precisely on Hudson’s ship.

“Honorable Earl Hudson, we are here by the king’s command to deliver this letter to you!”

After casting a detecting spell to make sure there was no foul play, Hudson accepted the letter and unfolded it in front of everyone.

“You can tell His Majesty that I accept this secret mission.”

It was clear that Hudson was very unwilling.

However, he had no choice, the Clergy was willing to lose money to drain Alpha Kingdom’s cash flow and force the Kingdom to declare a debt default.

Caesar IV’s countermeasure was very much to Hudson’s liking.

Since the Clergy wanted to buy war bonds on the market, why not sell them some more?

But these bonds definitely couldn’t be sold within the Kingdom, otherwise the Clergy would quickly sense something amiss.

The best approach was to transport the bonds all over the continent, sell them to the Clergy in installments, then reclaim and publicly destroy them through cashing them in.

Given the current market prices, there would be at least a ten percent profit each round trip.

And if bond prices continue to recover, the profit could be even higher.

The money of the Clergy, if not taken, would be wasted.

If they wanted to disrupt the Kingdom’s finances, they naturally had to pay a price.

However, the biggest problem is the transportation.

Sending ordinary people wouldn’t just compromise safety; it would also take too much time.

God knows how many bonds the Clergy has obtained during this process.

If a large number of bonds are dumped at once, the Alpha Kingdom wouldn’t be able to cope.

The initial plan was to have the Gryphon Cavalry escort the bonds, but unfortunately, Gryphons lacked the stamina to carry a large amount of bonds.

Not to mention, they could easily be spotted and intercepted, which would be a major loss for the Kingdom.

After considering all the options, the most suitable candidate to carry out this task in the Kingdom was Hudson, the Dragon Knight.

He could guarantee efficiency and had sufficient military power.

Additionally, he could evade the Church’s spies by operating at night.

Of course, he wouldn’t be the only one doing this job.

The Kingdom would also send Sky Knights and Great Sorcerers with him for protection.

There was simply no way around it, the Kingdom was gambling high this time.

To take one swing at the Clergy, Caesar IV not only took all the war bonds from the royal house but also borrowed a large number of bonds from the major nobles.

Since internal debt would still be recognized by the Kingdom Government as long as they agreed to it, possessing the physical bonds wouldn’t affect the final cash-out.

Lending out a bunch of paper to help the Kingdom weather the financial crisis, everyone still had this much patriotic sentiment.

Hudson didn’t know the exact amount, but it was certainly astronomical.

Should there be any mishaps along the way that prevent the bonds from being safely delivered, the Alpha Kingdom would have no choice but to default on its debt.

Caesar IV didn’t say anything to him, presumably because the news of selling bonds on the vast plains had already spread.

As for the recent call to buy war bonds, in the eyes of Caesar IV, this was merely political grandstanding by Hudson.

He mistakenly assumed that the Mountain Domain’s financial resources were meager, and they simply couldn’t afford to bail out the Kingdom with a large amount of cash.

This wrong perception led to a wrong conclusion.

Hudson, of course, won’t correct it.

The fact that he managed to fool Caesar IV proves how well his subordinates kept the secret, with the information about buying bonds wholesale yet to leak out.

It was undoubtedly good news.

As the news of buying bonds didn’t leak, future sales of bonds and resultant market fluctuations would not be linked back to him.

After hesitating for a moment, Hudson decided to smuggle out some personal items, delivering the low-interest bonds along the way to get rid of them.

Monetary gains are endless.

There’s no need to lock a large amount of cash in the last few percentage points for profit.

Even if it’s spotted by colleagues, there’s no problem.

He could always make an excuse for helping his smaller brothers turn their bonds into cash.