Chapter 330 Invitation Letter
Not long after the Goddess’s Birthday, Harland’s primary and secondary schools started to reopen in late January.
Every spring semester begins, the Mage Association tests the qualifications of newly admitted first-year students. At this time, the top leaders of the Mage Association are very busy, and sometimes Richard and Sophia even need to come forward in person.
Because Harland only has two magic crystal balls with testing qualifications, and now needs to test thousands of new students every year, the magicians are simply too busy, and they have to work continuously when they have time.
It is very difficult to create a magic qualification crystal ball. It requires special elemental affinity crystals, and it also requires a high-level magic alchemist to personally refine it. This kind of crystal ball is not low-grade, it can be regarded as a seventh-grade magic item. Converted into gold coins, it would cost several thousand.
Grant Kingdom is a magical desert area. The level of magicians in the country is very average, and there is very little communication between magicians. There is only one high-level alchemist who specializes in enchanted weapons. The success rate of refining magic to detect crystal balls is not high. .
Zooming into the surrounding countries, the level of development of magic civilization is also very low, and important magic props come from the west coast of the Dawn Continent.
Magic qualification testing crystal balls are not a precious resource in Markholm Magic Kingdom, but they are very scarce in Grant Kingdom.
Harland's first magic aptitude test crystal ball came from the Duke of Jonathan. Back then, Richard killed the flying dragon and used dragon marrow liquid to exchange several relatively scarce magic resources with Duke Jonathan.
The second magic qualification detection crystal ball comes from the Grant royal family, using three hundred magic crystals in exchange.
In fact, the Harland Leader Mage Association has the magic qualifications to detect the refining method of the crystal ball. This knowledge comes from the exchange with the Church of the Dawn. However, there were no high-level alchemists in the territory, and the materials for refining the crystal ball for qualification testing were also in short supply, so Richard did not try to refine it.
Within the Harland Mage Association, Sophia is already an intermediate pharmacist, and has successfully refined a sixth-level potion, which is placed in Markholm Magic Kingdom. Pharmacists of this level are considered the backbone.
In the entire Grant Kingdom, there were only two people who were better than Sophia in refining pharmaceuticals.
Over the years, there have been twelve pharmacists brought out by Sophia herself. Harland takes a large part of the basic medicines and is able to be self-sufficient.
Only with sufficient resource support can professionals continue to emerge.
Throughout last year, Harland led a total of 126 professionals who successfully advanced. In addition to six magicians and five knights, the remaining more than 100 were warriors.
Behind these one hundred and twenty-six professionals, thousands of potions need to be provided.
With enough apothecaries available, the Harland lords could wean themselves off dependence on the royal family for pharmaceuticals.
When magical civilization has developed to a certain extent, it can greatly promote the development of the territory.
Compared with the level of potion refining, Harland's alchemy level is relatively poor. Although Richard invented several enchanted armors and made pioneering contributions to the field of enchanted armors, the alchemy items he refined the most were actually There are only four levels.
There are only five alchemy students that Richard brought out from the Mage Association. They only know how to refine armor and weapons, and their basic skills are somewhat poor.
In recent years, Richard has seriously felt the shortage of magic qualification testing crystal balls. Richard has no time to go to Markholm Magic Kingdom, and there has been no place to exchange them.
With the school expansion this year, Harland Territory already has fourteen elementary schools. After more than ten years of subtle development, basically the freedmen class will enroll their children in school, and each primary school will enroll more than four classes. According to statistics from various schools, more than 4,000 new students have enrolled this year.
The total student population of fourteen primary schools and three middle schools has exceeded 20,000.
This year, the Harland Territory needs to test the qualifications of more than 4,000 new students. The two magic qualification testing crystal balls cannot be turned at all. The Mage Association has been busy for a month just testing the qualifications of the new students.
By late February, the qualification test for new students has been completed, and the Harland Mage Association will welcome forty-three new blood this year. Counting the preliminary members, the Mage Association has more than 300 members.
The scale of the magic organization of three hundred people is already very impressive.
After years of development, the Grant Kingdom Mage Association has a total of only four to five hundred members.
After February, Richard planned to organize a caravan to travel far away, and arranged for Sophia to lead the team to Markholm Magic Kingdom to have a look and buy some precious resources, especially the magic qualification testing crystal ball. The shortage has affected the development of the territory. Before he was ready, an invitation letter suddenly came from Nolan.
The invitation was sent by the Fanxing Chamber of Commerce, inviting Richard to attend a large auction in Nolan.
Generally speaking, for large chambers of commerce such as Fanxing and Cangqing, it takes five or six years for a round trip from Nolan to the Holy Glory Empire because of the business they do along the way.
Every five or six years, two large multinational chambers of commerce will jointly hold an auction to auction the precious specialties brought back from the Holy Glory Empire and the magical countries on the west coast. There are many precious resources in it.
Every time an auction is held, the Transnational Chamber of Commerce will send invitations to the great nobles of the Grant Kingdom.
It has only been four and a half years since Richard was promoted to hereditary earl, and the last auction held by the Cangqing Chamber of Commerce was six years ago. Six years ago, the Haaland family was only a hereditary viscount. Although it was not weak, it did not receive an invitation letter.
In fact, even if he received the invitation letter, Haaland had little money six years ago.
It was precisely because of his lack of money that Richard did not go to Nolan to participate in the auction six years ago. Richard also heard about the auction six years ago and heard that many precious extraordinary resources were sold.
This time he received the invitation letter, and Leader Harland had also saved a huge sum of 600,000 gold coins. Richard decided to go to the auction to take a look first.
If you take a picture of the magic aptitude test crystal ball, you won’t need to go to Markhome Magic Kingdom for the time being. After all, a trip to Markhome Magic Kingdom would take two years to get there and back, even if you walked faster.
Sophia is obsessed with magic and wants to advance to legend. She is scrambling for time every day. Meditation, researching magic, and doing magic experiments have taken up most of her time, and she is not willing to delay it for two years.
After receiving the invitation letter from the multinational chamber of commerce, Richard notified the seven vassal barons in the territory.
Ron and his third uncle Bernie didn't have much money. Although the situation of their two families was better than that of Richard when he first started running the territory, after all, they didn't have the same information as Richard in his previous life. They couldn't make money by monopolizing goods and industries. They could only rely on economic accumulation. agriculture.
Of course, it is very slow to accumulate capital through agriculture. Although Bernie and Ron have passed the most difficult period, there are already 5,000 serfs in the territory and 500 soldiers have been recruited. The soldiers' food and salary also need to be subsidized by Richard.
The two Barons Vader and Grumang are not as good as Ron and Bernie. These two are completely the first generation of barons. Even though their individual combat capabilities are very strong, Vader is a seventh-level knight and Grumang is an eighth-level warrior. Their family's accumulation is far away. It's far from enough. There are now less than 3,000 serfs in the territory, and the lord's guard only has 300 soldiers.
In order to operate the territory and purchase the population, Vader and Grumang have owed thousands of gold coins. If they hadn't made a fortune with Richard in the Delong Kingdom last year and were allocated thousands of people, the situation of these two barons would have been different. Even more pitiful.
Baron Sharp's situation is slightly better. After all, he has been a baron for more than ten years. Moreover, Sharp married Raphael and received a huge sum of money. He has accumulated tens of thousands of gold coins in his hands.
It's just that Sharp is nearly 60 years old, so it's difficult for him to break through and advance.
Sharp's son's qualifications and abilities are very average, and he may not be able to keep the family business when Sharp leaves. Sharp already had two baronies in his name. Once he died, the territories were in danger of being annexed by Raphael.
In order to be promoted to a hereditary noble as early as possible, Sharp took a shortcut to marry Raphael and borrowed Raphael's merits. Now it has become very troublesome to split up.
Now Sharp is so preoccupied with his relationship with Raphael that he has no intention of attending the auction.
The only ones interested in the auction were Soros and Baron Jose.
Although the Soros family was promoted to baron for a short period of time, the family has many talents. Uncle Soros is a seventh-level warrior, and Harland is a heavyweight officer. The annual military pay and subsidies add up to more than 300 gold coins.
Cousin Morgan is very talented. He serves as the captain of Harland's scout cavalry. He is already a fifth-level knight and receives an annual military salary of 200 gold coins.
Cousin Audrey was the most talented. She was promoted to a fourth-level knight when she was just twenty-eight years old. She commanded Harland and led the Griffin Cavalry. Her annual military salary exceeded one hundred and sixty gold coins.
Coupled with some other industries they operate, the Soros family's annual salary plus business profits is close to two thousand gold coins, not counting territorial gains.
In the past few years, following Richard's wars in the north and south, Barony Soros has experienced rapid development, with a population of 7,000 and more than 6,000 gold coins.
It has been many years since Soros advanced to the seventh level. He is not yet sixty years old, and he still wants to improve his strength and continue to advance. Soros is going to buy a precious advanced potion at this auction. For this purpose, he also borrowed it from Richard. Got some money.
The Jose family is a long-established aristocracy in the Grant Kingdom. Although this family is not as powerful as the great aristocracy, its members also include a viscount and five barons. If it can be integrated, the power is very impressive.
Baron Jose's mother's family and wife's family are hereditary nobles. His father is the previous generation Viscount Jose. He left a large amount of property. Although he is the first generation of hereditary nobles, Baron Jose's assigned territory is Vivida, Grumang. Much better, adjacent to the Barony of Burnie and not on the front line. By borrowing some from relatives, Baron Jose could come up with 20,000 gold coins and prepare to go to the auction to see the world.
Although the Duchy of Harland has developed particularly well, it was established only a short time after all. The main industries in the territory are controlled by the government, and the merchants have not yet made much money.
In addition to hereditary vassals, those with the strongest economic strength and the most assets were high-ranking military officers.
High-ranking officers wanted to become hereditary nobles, especially hereditary nobles who had made more meritorious services, had higher official positions, and were expected to be knighted. Each of them was relatively frugal and prepared to save money to run the territory. They were not in a position to spend money at auctions.
In the end, Richard took a squadron of Warcraft Cavalry and rushed to Nolan together with Soros and Jose.
Although Richard is the Duke of Grant Kingdom, he rarely goes to Norland.
In recent years, Richard has been clinging to his territory, running various industries, and focusing on farming in northern Xinjiang. The work of communicating with the royal family and the upper management in Nolan has always been done by his father William.
The Harland family's focus is rarely on Nolan. A prestigious Duke actually has no real estate in Nolan.
In the end, King Roger couldn't stand it anymore and gave the palace count's mansion, which had lost its power, and it became the property of the Harland family in Norland.
No one lives in the Harland family's Nolan mansion all year round, with only a dozen slaves cleaning and taking care of it. The managers responsible for the sales of goods in the territory sometimes come to supervise the environmental sanitation and are responsible for the repairs of the mansion.
Richard and others had just entered Nolan and first sent someone to purchase a batch of supplies from the market.
After all, there were not many people in Nolan's mansion. Although there were more than sixty rooms that could accommodate Richard and his party, there was a shortage of food, bedding, and firewood.
As soon as the purchased supplies were distributed, representatives from Fanxing and Cangqing Chamber of Commerce came to the door together, ready to talk to Richard.
Transnational chambers of commerce are very powerful, and each one has a legendary backer.
The background of Fanxing and Cangqing Chamber of Commerce, which is active in Grant Kingdom, is not a secret among the great nobles.
The largest shareholder of the Stars Chamber of Commerce is the son of the legendary magician Markholm. This large-scale chamber of commerce has only been established for twenty years. As long as the legendary magician Markholm is still there, even the Grant royal family will not dare to touch the property of the Stars Chamber of Commerce.
The Cangqing Chamber of Commerce is the property of a hereditary duke of the Stark Kingdom. This dukedom borders the Holy Glory Empire and mainly deals in the specialties of the Holy Glory Empire.
The Cangqing Chamber of Commerce has been established for three hundred years, and a new shareholder was added a few years ago. This shareholder is a legendary warrior who controls a powerful mercenary group.
The representatives of the two major chambers of commerce respectfully saluted Richard, exchanged polite greetings for a moment, and then went straight to the point: "The porcelain produced by His Excellency the Duke has seriously impacted the market and affected our interests. Today we are here to visit the Duke, hoping to Talk to the Duke.
We put forward two conditions. First, we will give the Duke 30,000 gold coins as dividends every year, hoping that the Duke will give up the porcelain industry. Second, we give up the Grant
Kingdom market, but Your Excellency, the Duke, please also give up the markets in nearby countries. Especially at commodity fairs, it is forbidden to sell porcelain to other countries.
If the Duke agrees to this request, we are willing to sell a batch of extraordinary resources to the Duke at a low level every year. The
amount of this batch of extraordinary resources is 60,000 gold coins, leaving the Duke’s sales The price is 20% cheaper than the market price. Your Excellency the Duke can save 10,000 gold coins every year." "
What extraordinary resources can you provide in large quantities?" "
Mainly Tenghui potions, bloodline enlightenment potions, bloodline purification potions, and spiritual power enhancement Potions, and occasionally some high-end potion resources. In addition to potions, we will also sell three types of enchanted armor and customized enchanted weapons. Please rest assured, Duke, we
have enough supply."
The multinational chamber of commerce came to visit, Richard It is psychologically prepared in advance.
Porcelain is an important commodity for the two major multinational chambers of commerce. In the Grant Kingdom alone, the annual sales are close to 30,000 gold coins. When expanded to the three or four nearby countries where the two major multinational chambers of commerce, Fanxing and Cangqing, are active, the annual sales More than 100,000 gold coins.
The porcelain produced in the capital area of the Holy Glory Empire was brought to the Grant Kingdom. In addition to the transportation costs along the way, the price of the porcelain itself was very low.
The profits brought by the monopoly on porcelain are very huge, and multinational chambers of commerce are never willing to let it go.
If the Haaland family were just a small aristocracy and dared to attack the multinational chamber of commerce, they would probably be easily destroyed.
Now the multinational chamber of commerce has no choice but to use bribery to negotiate with Richard.
(End of chapter)