Chapter 219: Firearms Trade
After returning with a pile of luxury goods gifted by Owen, Ferrier, who was extremely pleased, didn’t sleep all night. She tried on dozens of clothes alone, let alone a pile of jewelry, all of which were displayed in front of the ornate dressing mirror. She even had the thought of becoming a kept woman.
“I will be the most dazzling one at the banquet in the coming year,” Ferrier said confidently, especially when her eyes fell on the dazzling array of cosmetics, her eyes almost shining.
It was also the first time she realized that makeup and skincare were so complicated, no less difficult than concocting magic potions.
But it has to be said that the lethality of these things to women is definitely at the level of a mushroom bomb. Ferrier, who hadn’t slept all night, worked very hard. The next day, she began to promote the arms, and generously showed the soldiers who were training to use muskets and cannons.
Although firearms are rare in the Empire, they are not non-existent. After all, they were only removed from large-scale equipment back then, not completely destroyed. Instead, many of them flowed out of the army. Until now, many remote nobles like to equip their subordinates with a small amount of such intimidating weapons. The effect is very good. Often with a bang, those peasants will kneel down on the spot.
Even the Imperial Border Army would choose to equip some patrolling soldiers because firing a shot is equivalent to an alarm.
But there are really not many large-scale equipment because the barrels need to be hammered by hand, and it has to be done by skilled blacksmiths. Otherwise, if there is a slight deviation in the hammered barrel, the bullets will fly who knows where.
The time and energy spent in this way is enough to forge seven or eight spearheads or two or three single-handed swords. Moreover, the service life of muskets is too short. Excluding training, they can only fire a hundred shots at most before they should be scrapped. In a real fierce battle, they will be finished after one battle.
Moreover, the maintenance of firearms and the storage of ammunition have high requirements. Therefore, due to many problems and shortcomings, coupled with the high cost, not many people would choose to buy them in large quantities, at most nobles would use them for hunting.
But now it’s different. The Northland is in chaos. All the nobles in the Northland and even some small nobles on the border of the Empire are eager to find a weapon that can protect themselves.
And the firearms that are easy to train and intimidating, which can be used by peasants after simple training, have become their first choice. Anyway, if they can’t kill people, they can embolden themselves by hearing the sound, so Ferrier Town’s newly opened arms business is very popular.
As soon as Ferrier’s arms business opened, Count Solari knew about it.
As one of the only two Counts in the Northland, Count Solari has always looked down on Countess Ferrier, not only because she is a woman, but also because she relies entirely on her beauty to develop her network of relationships, which has gradually monopolized the fur of the Northland and created a foundation, so he looks down on her from the bottom of his heart.
But the last time she used cursed flesh and blood to lure away the mutants, it made him raise his vigilance a lot. He sent more people to Ferrier Town, so he discovered so quickly that she was selling firearms, and even asked someone to buy a batch of discounted goods.
These discounted goods were used in the Battle of Mara Town, five or six layers new, well maintained, and there was a danger of exploding after firing a few shots with a full charge, but they were still fine for training with a half charge.
Because they are cheap, many people actually buy them. After all, if they can’t solve the problem with a few shots, they can already choose to lie flat and save themselves the struggle, so they don’t dislike it.
As for why Count Solari wanted to buy discounted goods, it was mainly because he wanted to see from them who made these muskets. New goods can be disguised, but old goods cannot.
Looking at each musket, Count Solari wiped his hands with his cloak, his expression thoughtful.
“It’s not used by the Imperial Border Army, where did she get her supply from?” Count Solari found that although the quality of these muskets was average, they were uniform in specifications, obviously mass-produced, and there were really not many people with this ability. Only the Imperial Border Army nearby had this ability, but judging from the style, it was not. It was obtained from elsewhere, but who was behind the woman?
Thinking about her network of relationships, Count Solari had a headache, so he simply gave up thinking and turned to wondering whether to buy a batch of firearms.
Because he has an elite cavalry under his command, Count Solari prefers to take the initiative and attack quickly. He is not interested in musketeers who focus on formations and move slowly.
But the situation is getting worse and worse now. He vaguely perceives the Empire’s intentions, and his family’s attitude has become ambiguous, which gives him a bad premonition. Therefore, as a defensive weapon, it is indeed necessary to purchase a batch of muskets. The most important thing is that the price is not expensive, even if it is brand new, he can accept it.
As Count Solari purchased a large number of muskets, Countess Ferrier even trained a firearm army, swaggering around to drive away the rebels, which immediately caused a change in the entire Northland.
Many nobles in the Northland and small nobles on the border of the Empire came to buy muskets. Ferrier refused to come, and sold them for money. In a short period of time, she sold thousands of muskets, allowing Owen to obtain a large amount of funds, and Ferrier also used her own share to exchange for more luxury goods from him, even including a luxurious bathroom.
Such a large-scale sale of muskets naturally attracted the attention of many people, but just like Count Solari, Countess Ferrier’s interpersonal relationship is too complicated. Over the past ten years, her network has spread throughout the Northland and the border of the Empire, even the Imperial Capital And several big cities are also related, after all, the top fur in the Northland is the best stepping stone.
Coupled with the fact that Countess Ferrier is charming and good at socializing, she has friends all over the world, and there are countless admirers. It is not impossible to find the person who provided these muskets from her network of relationships, but the time and cost spent will definitely make most people give up. This idea, so we can only use other methods.
Samui, who was building an intelligence network in Ferrier Town, suddenly came back, but Owen was dumbfounded after listening to her report.
“Is the situation really that bad?” Owen rubbed his brows and said.
“It’s just that the time is too short. If Root is given some more time, we will be able to dig out more information.” Samui was also a little helpless, because she knew very well the importance of Ferrier Town to the development of territorial intelligence, but the situation in Ferrier Town was so complicated that even she found it tricky.
Because Ferrier is addicted to the upper-class aristocratic life, many things in the territory are left to her subordinates to complete. These subordinates have been tampered with by Ferrier. There is no problem with their loyalty, but their abilities are average and their number is too small, resulting in even if they want to do something, they have to find more people to complete it, so the ruling fault is inevitable.
It just so happens that there is a lot of traffic and frequent exchanges here, coupled with the fact that powerful figures from the Northland and the border of the Empire often come and go, so Ferrier Town has become a place for various forces to install personnel to inquire about intelligence and collect information.
As time goes by, almost all the merchants in Ferrier Town have become the eyes and ears of various forces, and they all have many assistants under them, and these assistants have developed more civilians as their eyes and ears.
Let’s put it this way, if you randomly arrest ten people in Ferrier Town and kill them all, there may be some who are wronged, but if you kill nine, there will definitely be some who escape the net. This shows the number of spies and informants in Ferrier Town.
