Chapter 116: Done

The answer is of course worth it.

What does the Pompeii family lack at present?

Prestige!

The Pompeii family is a knight territory, located in the forest, and is the bridgehead and outpost for the Barton family to face the endless threats of the forest.

In history, Pompeii Castle has been breached by monsters many times.

Last time, Luther introduced freemen, bought serfs, and became the farmers of the twenty strongholds of Pompeii now. This has taken a lot of effort.

If the freemen had not lost their fields, they would not be willing to come to Pompeii.

What does Pompeii have to let those residents come to live?

Low housing prices?

This is a means, but it cannot play a decisive role.

The only means is to establish the prestige of the Pompeii family, and there are endless benefits, such as being famous throughout the Orange Province.

Look.

It turns out that there is a Pompeii knight family in Orange.

This is something that cannot be bought with any amount of money.

Besides, even if there are various unfavorable factors in eliminating the thieves group. For example, the thieves group generally does not hoard too much money.

But it is not absolute.

There was once an event where a lord made a fortune by destroying a bandit group. So destroying a bandit group is actually like opening a treasure chest.

If you are lucky, you can make money.

If you are unlucky, you will lose money.

It's just that this good luck is rare.

So Luther quickly decided to use the Autumn Wind Bandit Group to make Pompeii famous and establish prestige.

Now that the matter has been decided, there is only one problem left.

To destroy the Autumn Wind Bandit Group, you must hire mercenaries, at least 100,000 gold coins. So where does this 100,000 gold coins come from?

Luther plans to take a look at the income of Pompeii wine during this period of time to see if he can make up the money. But Luther estimates that it is difficult, because distilled wine is not the mainstream wine in this world after all.

At present, the main product is new products, and only a small number of people are attracted.

And the current channels are probably not open, so the income will not be too much. Besides, Pompeii now makes money quickly and goes away quickly, with various buildings and various things, and it is estimated that there is not much money on the books.

But it doesn't matter, Luther has a backup plan.

So Luther said goodbye to Lelouch and left the city hall, and returned to Pompeii Castle. After returning to Pompeii Castle, Luther came to the living room by himself, and asked the maid to invite Mrs. Sophie and Butler Ferran to come.

Outside, Luther is the acting lord and the next generation of Pompeii knights. But when facing Lelouch, Luther is more like a close partner.

Facing Mrs. Sophie and the old butler in Pompeii Castle, Luther is still a junior. Of course, it is impossible to choose to summon the two.

Just think about gathering in the living room on the second floor and sorting out the current family business.

"Luther, are you okay? Do you want to eat something? I'll ask the kitchen to prepare your favorite bass steak for you. If you want to eat monsters, I'll ask your father to hunt it in the forest."

Mrs. Sophie came first, and she came in to ask Luther about his well-being. Luther couldn't stand the care.

There is no way, mother's love is too heavy.

Luther sometimes couldn't understand how there could be such a good stepmother in the world.

"Mom, I'm fine. Besides, I didn't ask you to come here to talk about food." Luther said helplessly.

"Nothing else matters. Eating is the most important thing. You haven't had a good meal for several days." Mrs. Sophie shook her head, very persistent.

Luther was really decadent in his room these days and ate very little. Mrs. Sophie was really distressed.

Fortunately, Butler Ferran came at this time. The old butler was meticulous. After coming in, Luther bowed to Mrs. Sophie and called her.

"Madam."

"Master."

"Butler Ferran is here. Mom, let's not talk about food first, let's talk about things first." Luther saw the savior and said hurriedly.

Mrs. Sophie didn't know that Luther had also called Butler Ferran. She was not a woman who made trouble. When she saw this scene, she knew that Luther really wanted to say something, so she sat up.

"Mom, how has our family's business developed during this period?" Luther asked.

Mrs. Sophie thought for a moment, and then said: "The main source of income for the family business is Pompeii wine. The sales channels are not limited to Kaiyue City, but also in other towns. At present, the family can earn 300 gold coins per month from the income of Pompeii wine. I plan to stabilize the pace first, and then expand the business to other noble territories next year."

Speaking of this, Mrs. Sophie was still very emotional.

Because the tax revenue of Pompeii before was probably less than 1,000 gold coins a year. It is necessary to support the knights of the Pompeii family and the Iron Horse family, maintain the operation of the territory, raise guards, and maintain the decent expenses of the nobles.

It was really tight in a year.

Now Luther is just trying out a small trick and making Pompeii wine. Pompeii's annual income is 3,600 gold coins. When the business is spread to other territories next year, it is still unknown what the income will be.

Luther was very disappointed when he heard it. It was only 3,600 gold coins a year. This time, I plan to raise 100,000 gold coins to hire a mercenary group to deal with the Qiufeng Thieves Group.

The family is indeed unreliable, and a backup plan must be used.

But since he has met the two helmsmen of the family business, Luther decided to sort out the family business.

"Not bad." Luther said these three words reluctantly, and then asked: "What about other businesses, mother."

"As for other businesses, they are still the ones you told me. The ranch has been expanded to a certain extent, and many calves and lambs have been purchased, but it will take some time to raise them. So at present, the meat of the family knights is still mainly purchased from Kaiyue City."

"The oil press workshop has been established, and all kinds of tools and facilities, as well as workers have been recruited. We can start work when the rapeseed in the territory is ripe this year. I estimate that the amount of rapeseed will be sufficient by then, and the territory may not be able to consume it. We are going to purchase some for export at a suitable price to create some income."

"As for the city, there are also many shops, such as jewelry shops, clothing shops, etc., but because there are no residents in the city at present, jewelry shops and clothing shops have few customers, not only do they not make money, but also lose some money. Grocery stores, cloth shops, etc. make a lot of money because they are aimed at farmers."

Mrs. Sophie knows the business of the Pompeii family very well, and she knows them all.

After hearing this, Luther felt hopeful again and couldn't help asking, "Are grocery stores and cloth stores profitable? So how many gold coins are left in the family account now?"

"There are probably 200 gold coins left, and the foreign debt is 6,000 gold coins." Mrs. Sophie said.

Luther grinned, but he was smart not to ask why this happened.

Money comes and goes quickly.

The current financial structure of the Pompeii family is like this. The city hall is one finance, and the family business is another finance. The two financial systems are parallel.

This is the same as in ancient China, where the money in the treasury belongs to the treasury and the money in the emperor belongs to the emperor.

The emperor has a special money bag, and he also manages it, and the emperor can use it at will.

If the money in the treasury is not enough, the emperor uses his own money to subsidize the treasury.

At present, the Pompeii family is developing rapidly, and the city hall not only does not generate taxes, but also uses a lot of gold coins.

The current foreign debt of the Pompeii family is more than 6,000 gold coins, which is the money that Old Sol borrowed from the other five major knight families to subsidize the city hall to buy serfs, build cities, and houses.

The second expenditure is the salary of knights, officials, and guards, which also goes to the city hall.

But the city hall has no money, so the Pompeii family has to subsidize it.

The monthly salary of knights, officials, and guards is about 300 gold coins, so the money of the Pompeii family has not increased, and of course the financial situation has not continued to deteriorate.

On the contrary, there is a small profit, after all, the business of grocery stores, cloth stores, etc. has improved.

The tight financial situation of the city hall will not improve until the wheat and rapeseed are harvested this autumn.

In short, the Pompeii family has no money.