Chapter 472 [0467] Fosbiero's Logistical Crisis

This winter, the supply of materials in Fosbyro has always been the focus of Lux's attention.

As the saying goes, people are made of iron and food is made of steel. Lux led his private army and the infected demons to the north, plus the merchants and housekeepers who followed the team, the number of people was close to 2,500 - without taking money from the Fosbyro people, these 2,000 people all depended on Lux.

More than 2,000 people were provided with food, accommodation and daily necessities. This was a very astonishing expense. Even if Lux was the little princess of the Crown Guard family, it would be difficult for her to afford it.

Moreover, after accepting the title, Lux became Count Laxanna. Peter and Ogasha could indeed subsidize her, but they could not use the family's resources to subsidize her indefinitely!

In this case, in order to raise enough materials to support the lives of soldiers and infected demons, Lux made two preparations before the knighting ceremony.

On the one hand, she patiently participated in many noble social activities that she did not want to participate in at all, and opened many local trade doors for Fosbyro by going through the upper channel.

Considering that Count Laxana is a model of Demacia's nobility and one of the few powerful earls in recent years, although the nobles in Xiongdu are not very optimistic about her future career as a lord, it is not a big problem to make some personal investments.

In this way, Lux obtained a source of wealth by selling personal favors. Now the Fosbyro Chamber of Commerce can only trade at the trade fair in Xiongdu, but Lux can go directly to other lords' places to sell directly to high-end manufacturers. The profit increase range will be an important income for Fosbyro during the tax-free period.

On the other hand, Lux had a frank talk with her father Peter about "father and daughter, clear accounts".

There is a long-term source of supplies, but the winter supplies can only rely on the Secret Silver City. Since Lux made a big splash in the Secret Silver City last time, the branch nobles of the Secret Silver City have restrained their thoughts in a short period of time. Now there are a lot of food and furs stored in the warehouses of the Secret Silver City, which are all what Lux needs.

These supplies have a share from Pete, but nominally they should belong to the "Crown Guard Family".

Although according to Pete and Ogasha's intention, they could give Lux a large portion of them as a "commendation for outstanding young people in the family" before Lux split up, so that she could use them directly to solve the urgent problem, but Lux was unwilling to do so.

It was against the rules, and she was short-handed.

Just when Pete and Ogasha were about to get angry because of Lux's unfamiliar behavior, Tiana spoke up to assist. She used the various examples of embezzlement in the previous split up to prove that such distribution could easily cause discord and corruption within the family.

In the end, under the insistence of Lux and Tiana, Lux negotiated a deal with Pete in the capacity of "Count Laxana".

The supplies used to help Lux's soldiers and demon-tainted people survive the winter were not gifts, but loans, and they had to be returned with interest later.

Originally, according to Lux's intention, she would repay whatever she borrowed, but after the Secret Silver City got the news, they unanimously required that the gold coins be repaid for the materials borrowed, and in addition to the loan, an additional sales amount should be added.

The grains were all old grains, and the furs were also second-hand goods of poor quality, but the repayment should be calculated according to the bulk transaction price at that time.

Undoubtedly, this was a request made by the members of the Crown Guard family branch to cash in the dividends, but Lux had a subtle expression on this request.

The commodity trade in Demacia is not well developed. Although there are many nobles who are engaged in usury, futures for commodities only exist in a very small range. Most of the time, people are just used to handing over money and goods.

However, when in Zaun, Lux had a detailed understanding of the futures market in Piltover, and had a certain understanding of futures and futures delivery.

Therefore, without Karya's reminder, she immediately realized the possible situation of this kind of borrowing - if the price of grain and furs in the market is very low when repaying, then the Crown Guard family may lose a lot of money in this transaction.

Of course, the members of the Crown Guard family branch who proposed this transaction method are not stupid.

In their view, Demacia has had good weather and good harvests in recent years, and the price of grain has fallen to the bottom. In a few years, they will definitely make extra money by collecting money at the market price.

Unfortunately, they know nothing about the productivity that magic can bring. Lux is sure that in the repayment period of five years, the price of grain in the entire northern region will be suppressed to a jaw-dropping price because of Fosbyro's good harvest!

So, she happily accepted this request and put it in the transaction contract.

In other words, Fosbyro's supplies will rely on the income from the newly opened trade route in the long run, and borrow from the Secret Silver City in the short term.

However, just now, Lux received news from the Secret Silver City that the next batch of supplies might not be delivered.

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When Lux learned that the supplies from Mithril City could not be delivered, her first reaction was that "someone from the branch family was playing tricks", but after thinking about it carefully, she found that this was impossible - Mithril City had too much food and furs stored, and the furs in the early stage had been delivered, so why couldn't the subsequent food be delivered?

Don't the people from the branch family need to pay back the money themselves?

Therefore, before meeting the envoy from Mithril City, Lux and Ino thought that the branch family might raise the price or make up excuses to increase the freight.

But after meeting the messenger from Mithril City, Lux realized that things might not be as he imagined.

The messenger who came to Fosbyro was none other than one of the patrol knights that Lux had interviewed and appointed in Mithril City.

It seemed that Mithril City did not want to embarrass him by sending such a person as a messenger.

Sure enough, after meeting Lux, this usually honest farmer first saluted in a non-standard way, and then went straight to the point and talked about the difficulties in Mithril City - the Dragon Bird Knights sent news that a large-scale barbarian army had appeared on the snowfield in the north!

As one of the northern fulcrum fortresses of Demacia, Mithril City was completely under martial law after receiving the news.

"So, that batch of food was temporarily requisitioned?"

"No, no, absolutely not!" The Patrol Knight shook his head like a rattle, "There is plenty of food, but Secret Silver City doesn't have the manpower to transport it!"

According to the Patrol Knight, because Secret Silver City has begun full alert, all private armies and northern garrisons must be on high alert. In this case, Secret Silver City can never send an army to escort the food.

What, you said no army, just send militia to escort?

The barbarians of Freljord are gathering on a large scale and ready to move. At this time, sending a militia with slow movements and limited combat power to transport food, wouldn't that be aiding the enemy?

People in the North know that the barbarians of Freljord are the most aggressive. If they are determined to have gains, they will keep an eye on that place - although the barbarians of Freljord may not understand the terrain of Secret Silver City, and this grain transport team may not be discovered, but if they are discovered, the winter of Secret Silver City will be restless for three to five years!

No one would take such a risk!

After figuring out the situation, Lux breathed a long sigh of relief in the apologetic eyes of the Patrol Knight.

"As long as there is food, it's fine." Lux said with a smile, "As long as there is food and it can be transported out, I can send people to get it - as long as I get the food, everything is mine."

"This, this can't be counted!" Although the Patrol Knight respected Lux ​​very much, the matter involved whether the Silver City would become the focus of the Freljord people's care in the next few years. He could only shake his head vigorously, "If the food is discovered by the barbarians in the north, then the Silver City will suffer!"

"No, absolutely not." Lux was full of confidence in this, "We can avoid the Dragon Spine Mountains and go around from the south."

"Not going through the Dragon Spine Mountains?" The Patrol Knight obviously didn't expect to get this answer, "Now the big rivers are frozen, and there is no water transportation from the south... If the food is delivered, spring will come!"

Although it is also a northern city, there are two routes from Silver City to Fosbyro in winter and summer.

The summer route is to take a boat from Mithril City to the south, take the northwest route in Lisos, and then go to Fosbyro. In this way, half of the journey is by water, and the other half is on the dry riverbed. Although it is a slope, it is not difficult to walk.

The winter route is to go straight west along the Dragon Spine Mountains and walk on the frozen soil - this section of the road is all hot melt lakes in summer, but it is hard frozen soil in winter, so you can walk directly in a straight line.

The materials of Mithril City are transported in batches. A large part of the reason is that the frozen soil is not frozen solid in autumn and the waterway is not easy to travel, so only a small part of it comes via the summer route. The rest will be sent via the winter route when winter comes, snow falls, and the frozen soil is solid.

After all, except for the initial furs and daily necessities, the rest of the materials in Fosbyro can be regarded as uniform consumption.

No one expected that this winter, in the ice element north of Mithril City, the dragon bird scouts discovered a large-scale dispatch of Freljord barbarians!

Now, the winter route from Mithril City to Fosbyro is unavailable, and the summer route is frozen in the canal, which greatly slows down the transportation speed. It seems impossible to transport it to Fosbyro on time!

However, Lux has her own way.

In the helpless eyes of the Patrol Knight, she quickly wrote a reply letter, stamped it with her personal seal, and sealed it with wax.

"Don't worry." Lux said firmly, "I'll take the summer route. As long as we get the food, it will be ours even if it's late."

"Sir Laxana, don't you really consider buying food from somewhere else?" The Disaster Patrol Knight obviously didn't know the deal behind this batch of food, and could only give some suggestions from his own perspective. "If we take the summer route, it will take a long time to transport it to Fosbyro... Maybe it's not too late to send a fast horse to Veros to collect food first."

"Don't worry." Lux patted the other person's shoulder gently, "Go back and send a letter. My food collection team will set off soon!"

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For ordinary people, the frozen canal in winter has no transportation value-although the canal in the northern border of Demacia will freeze, the ice surface is not complete because of the large drop.

In relatively flat sections of the river, there will be a large area of ​​ice cover on the river surface, but these ice covers will be destroyed in places with drops, forming broken ice similar to ice floods.

The difference between an ice sheet and an icicle is not very clear. If you want to transport goods on the ice by dog ​​sledding, you may fall into the icy water together with the goods in an area that looks like an ice sheet but is actually an icicle.

Even if there is a guide who knows the topography and the hydrology and ice conditions of each river section, it will still require frequent loading and unloading of goods, sometimes on the river bank and sometimes on the river.

This is undoubtedly quite time-consuming.

Moreover, due to the usual water transportation, there are no specially built roads along the canal that can be used for large-scale transportation.

The combination of the two means that taking the summer passage in winter is a task with twice the result and half the result. As the disaster patrol knight said, when it is delivered, spring will come.

But for Lux, this is not a problem.

Where does Lux's confidence come from?

The answer comes from Ino.

Ordinary people might not be able to tell the difference between ice and ice caps, but Ino couldn't.

Ordinary people might only be able to load and unload cargo ashore when faced with ice, but Ino didn't have to.

With Ino taking the lead and bringing along Group 11 (ice element group), they can complete this transportation at a faster speed!

That's why Lux responded confidently.

After sending away the worried looking Disaster Patrol Knight, Lux quickly found Ino and told the whole matter and her thoughts.

There was no doubt that Ino agreed with Lux's statement.

"No problem, I'm familiar with that section of the canal in Mithril City!"

As a little girl born outside Mithril City, Ino knew quite a lot about the canal and the road from Mithril City to Lithos.

After just a little calculation, she confidently agreed to the task - the ice was not strong enough, so strengthen the ice to make it strong. With Ino and the ice elemental mage from Group 11, this trip Transportation is destined to be effortless!

Just as they were told, Lux and Ino immediately found the ice elemental mages of Group 11 and quickly assigned this special task.

Among all the groups, the attitude of the 11th group of mages is the most positive - the reason is very simple. Miss Ino, Fosbairo's "second in command", is a powerful ice elemental mage, a real One's own people and "backers".

It is precisely for this reason that they are the first group to cooperate, and their enthusiasm for work has always been the highest.

(Similarly, the first group to start working together was the Sound and Vibration group, and this group all regarded Sona as their idol.)

After learning that they were about to take on the task of transporting food from Mithral City to Forsbarrow, the ice elemental mages in Group 11 were surprised for a moment, and then they all puffed up their chests, showing full confidence.

They shouted their promise without Lux asking.

"Promise to complete the mission!"

Kalya's Little Classroom·Winter in the North of Demacia:

When the time comes to winter, the entire northern border of Demacia near the Dragonspine Mountains almost falls into silence - most people start to wait for the arrival of spring.

Even if it is as prosperous as Mithral City, there is no winter trade to speak of. The few people who are still active outside in winter have more or less relations with the Northern Army.