dognovel Chapter 140 Big Business
Chapter 140 Big Business
Saint-Remy, as the name suggests, is a city related to religion. In the early years, there was only a small church and a village here. Because it is located at a transportation hub, the city has prospered relying on commercial activities.
Although clergy cannot directly engage in commercial activities, they can find others to participate. Through investment, supporting chambers of commerce and other means, local clergy have made a lot of money from business.
When you have money, you should squander it. Clergymen are no less frugal than secular nobles in spending money. Devout clergymen will build bigger churches to show their loyalty to their faith. Of course, most of them do it for the King's Office. Some clergymen also built more manors in the suburbs, most of which are used to grow grapes, which are fermented and made into wine and sold to various places through their chambers of commerce. Only a few who can do practical things will build a few church schools, hospitals and other infrastructure.
Such a wealthy city naturally needs armed forces to protect the personal and property safety of local people and create a safe business environment.
Because the king did not allow the church to have its own armed forces before, in order to have a certain degree of self-protection ability, the locals would recruit mercenaries through the Chamber of Commerce to form an army. These mercenaries nominally obeyed the various chambers of commerce, but in fact they were commanded by the local church.
Of course, some of the chambers of commerce that came here to trade did not want to submit to the rule of the church, so they would recruit mercenaries on their own, such as the Simon Chamber of Commerce and the Black Watch Mercenary Group. With the establishment of the chamber of commerce, the unique business environment here immediately became one of the focuses of the Simon Chamber of Commerce in Midland, and the headquarters of the Black Watch Mercenary Group was also moved here. There are about 2,000 Black Watch mercenaries stationed here, becoming a powerful local military force.
At this time, Charlie, the leader of the mercenary group, was checking various business contracts. At first, Charlie thought that leading a mercenary group was just like being a bandit and collecting money and killing people. But it turned out that this was not the case. In addition to being responsible for the combat, he was also responsible for the development and diplomacy of the mercenary group. Fortunately, after Simon's teaching, Charlie was able to handle these annoying contracts on his own.
These contracts were commissioned by different people, some were for personal protection of nobles, and some were for caravan protection. Of course, more of them were for people with bad intentions to do illegal things, such as pretending to be bandits to burn down a noble's village. A regular mercenary group would definitely not do this kind of commission, as there were too many political reasons involved. Blackwatch could not and did not need to get involved in this mess. Generally, only those wandering mercenaries would do this kind of thing.
Just as he was thinking about a business contract, the office door suddenly opened and a front desk clerk stood at the door and said:
"Captain, the commander of the Western Midland Corps wants to discuss a big contract with you."
"Oh, you asked him to wait for...who first?" Charlie put down the pen in his hand, thought for a while and then said:
"I'll go see him myself."
On the way to the reception room, Charlie was still thinking about this person. He also knew that the Western Legion was a military group in name only. Now when there was a problem in any noble territory, they would either use their own army or hire mercenaries. Why would the commander of a legion that could not fight a battle in a year hire mercenaries? To help him retrain the soldiers?
As the waiter pushed open the door, Charlie saw the highest military commander of the royal family in the western region of Midland in name. However, looking at his beer belly that was about to burst his buttons, it was clear that this man probably didn't exercise much.
"You must be Captain Charlie, I've heard a lot about you." The legion commander complimented Charlie for the first time. In the past, those mercenaries had to run to the headquarters with gifts and speak well of him before they could get permission to do mercenary business here. However, considering that the Black Watch Mercenary Group has John as its backer and the current situation is critical, the legion commander was very sensible and tried to be humble and speak well of him first.
"Hello, do you need any service from the mercenary group?" After the two of them sat down, Charlie said to the slightly nervous legion commander opposite.
The legion commander looked around and made sure that there was no one else around. Then he sat down next to Charlie and whispered in his ear:
"I want to hire mercenaries to fight, the more the better."
"Fighting?" Charlie frowned. The definition of fighting is a bit broad. Fighting against a band of dozens or hundreds of people can be considered a war, and fighting against the fully armed Yoda people can also be considered a war.
"Who are you fighting against?" Charlie asked.
"Fight the natives."
"Natives?" Charlie thought about it carefully, but unfortunately, what he knew couldn't make him understand where the natives were in Midland, so he asked:
"The natives you're talking about, are you from Midland?"
"Yes, they have now defeated the army of the Midlan nobles and are marching towards Windam, so now I am in urgent need of soldiers." The legion commander said anxiously.
Charlie immediately realized the seriousness of the matter. If he really said this to him, then the news would inevitably spread throughout the country and attract the attention of the king. At the same time, if he took this job and wiped out this group of natives, he would not only get some money, but also allow other lords to more intuitively see the strength of the mercenary group and gain more market.
"I want to ask for more information about the natives, such as how many people there are, what equipment they have, and who their leader is, so that we can make a more detailed plan." Charlie said after thinking for a while.
The legion commander thought about it carefully and told Charlie the situation exactly as it happened:
"This group of natives is large and powerful, estimated to be about tens of thousands of people. Their leader is a man named Esa, and their equipment..." The legion commander thought carefully about the contents of the letter, and suddenly thought of something, and then said:
"Wood. Most of their weapons are made of wood!"
"Huh?" Charlie couldn't help but ask, because in his opinion, no matter how useless the Midland army was, it was impossible for them to be defeated by the natives holding wood, otherwise how could the beggars in the city holding wooden sticks endure the fists of the soldiers every day.
"This is the situation. I don't know what's going on, but what's more terrifying is that this group of natives has already set out for Windam. If we don't stop them, if the Midlanders lose, we will become their slaves. If the Midlanders win, I will also be accused of dereliction of duty." The legion commander said in annoyance.
"Hmm..." Charlie was in a dilemma at this moment. On the one hand, the natives were numerous and seemed to have witchcraft, so he didn't dare to set off on his own. On the other hand, he was unwilling to give up this great opportunity to showcase the mercenary group.
After thinking it over, Charlie said to the legion commander, "I need to think about it carefully," and then he returned to his office, took out a pen and paper, wrote a letter, folded it into a small strip, and tied it to the pigeon's leg. Charlie opened the window and released the pigeon. After watching it fly to Franche-Comté, Charlie muttered to himself:
"I hope Lord John will agree to this plan."