Unknown Knight

With Aix's instructions, Manide demonstrated his business talent beyond expectations in the next few days, and he deserved to be the recognized Minister of Commerce of the territory.

He first invited old man Nicholas to the tavern in Tangquan Fortress for a big meal, allowing him to taste delicacies he had never tasted in his life, including the lord's favorite Northeastern stew and beef and mutton hotpot.

Then he took the old man to experience the most distinctive local hot spring service, where he enjoyed a full range of sauna services, as well as the latest development of the hot spring bath, the Emperor's bone-loosening therapy, which was the lord's favorite.

After soaking for so long that his bones and muscles became soft and numb, the old man asked Manid if he could rent a room in the bathhouse or something, as he wanted to stay there for a while.

The next day, after a sumptuous meal of wild pickled fish, Manid took Nicholas to the theater in the fortress to watch a new stage play, "The Duel of Justice," which was written and directed by director Niza and was based on the true events of the raid on Fort Lerag. The old man unexpectedly became a loyal fan of the two heroines in the play.

After leaving the stage, the old man kept asking Manide about the two female protagonists. Finally, he asked if he could buy the two female protagonists. He was willing to buy them at the price of twenty reindeer each. If that wasn't possible, he could buy one person at the same price.

This made Manideh laugh and cry. After explaining everything to him, Manideh found the two heroines through Niza's relationship and asked them to accompany him for a banquet before the matter was settled.

The two-day fortress experience opened the eyes of old man Nicholas, who had lived in a friendly closed loop all his life. He realized that life can be so wonderful in another way.

When Manide was discussing the business terms between the two companies with him, the old man had completely trusted Manide, the good man he mentioned, and had completely lost his bottom line and principles, and agreed to everything without thinking.

If Aix had not made prior arrangements and Manide was not a heartless businessman who would eat people without leaving any bones, the old man would have risked all the tribe's property.

Fortunately, Manide was an old man around Aix and could understand Aix's spirit very well. In the end, the transaction was completed with conditions that satisfied both parties, which also included the Nikola tribe selling one hundred reindeer to the territory.

However, the two of them had a disagreement on the matter that Aix had instructed in advance, which was to hire twenty sharpshooters from their tribe.

The conditions offered by Manide were: food, lodging, clothing and supplies would be provided for the twenty archers, and each would also pay the tribe supplies worth five silver coins every year as employment fees.

But Nicholas thought that the territory had helped their tribe raise twenty of the most important burdens for nothing, and they were still paying for it? How hurtful would that be? We old people valued our friendship the most, and we couldn't let our friends down.

Besides, their habitat has become increasingly colder over the years, there are fewer and fewer animals to hunt, and the pressure of survival has increased, forcing the old man to look for solutions everywhere, even resorting to the method of traveling far away to pick up gold from stones.

Now that someone is willing to support their tribe for free and also provide them with supplies, the honest old man feels really embarrassed.

In the end, the two sides were deadlocked and Aix had to step in to mediate. After some consolation, he offered Nikola conditions that moved him.

That is, Aix designated an exclusive habitat for them in the northern area of ​​Tangquan Fortress, so that they could migrate there earlier to graze when their original habitat was not suitable for grazing in winter.

Moreover, all members of their tribe will enjoy the same treatment as the people of the territory from now on, and can use preferential prices to enjoy the services of various facilities in the territory. In particular, the old man was given a 30% discount by Aix.

The old man was so moved that his eyes filled with tears. He patted his chest and said to Aix that although their tribe had no other skills, they were good at drawing bows and arrows. If they needed anything, they could just send hired tribesmen to the habitat to tell them, and the whole tribe would come to help.

In this way, Nicholas' tribe stayed outside the Tangquan Fortress for nearly a month. During this month, their tribesmen exchanged sufficient supplies at the fortress and also fattened the tribe's reindeer nearby.

As the ice and snow melted, the tundra was finally suitable for grazing again, and it was finally time for them to leave. At the instruction of Aix, Amanti organized a farewell bonfire party for them, where everyone sang and danced and had fun until late at night.

The next day, Nicholas and all the tribesmen thanked Aix again, and then reluctantly said goodbye to the people from the territory who came to see them off.

They got on the sled, drove the reindeer, played the harmonica, and headed towards the distance of the snowy field.

Their bulging sleds were filled with food, snow salt, spices, iron tools, and even the iron arrows and sharp swords they had longed for. In the past, they might not have been able to obtain these supplies even after years of hard work.

The price for these supplies was to unload the extra animal skins, deer tendons, tiger bones, bear paws, etc. on the sleds, and also to remove the burden of twenty people with the largest appetites.

Nicholas, who was driving the first sled and leading the way, looked at the sled behind him loaded with various supplies from time to time, and felt very happy.

With the treasures they exchanged on the sled, they no longer have to travel back and forth between the Vaegir and Kugit strongholds for several months to trade supplies. They can concentrate on fishing and hunting in their habitats. They believe that this year will be a year of bumper harvest.

With this comfort, he can spare more time to accompany his young wife, and maybe even ask her to give birth to another fat boy for him next year.

Thinking of this, the old guy became interested and sang a song unique to the snowy tundra, a long and majestic song, in a low shaman voice, coordinated with the harmonica played by his young wife.

After watching Nikola lead the tribe away, Aix hummed a little tune and returned to the fortress with everyone. The territory has benefited a lot from interacting with Nikola for more than a month.

Not only did he purchase a large number of animal skins at a low price, but he also bought out the precious albino furs in bulk to Nikola. Manid estimated that just these animal skins and precious furs could at least double the profit of the territory.

This is not even counting the soft gains. One of the soft gains is that Nicholas personally took the lead in teaching the people how to survive in extremely cold weather, such as using sable oil for antifreeze, taking ice baths, sealing the gaps in houses with dry moss, eating jerky reindeer meat to increase body power, and dozens of other experiences.

These are all accumulated year after year at the cost of their ancestors' lives. It is no exaggeration to say that they are priceless. Now they are selflessly given out to teach their subjects.

Aix specifically asked Amanti to record everything carefully, and planned to vigorously promote it to all the subjects after verifying and improving them one by one.

Another soft gain is the experience in reindeer breeding. Nicholas and his team were very thoughtful. They informed them of everything from delivery to breeding, to treatment and cold-proof maintenance. Zhang Ping and others in the territory are now considered half experts in reindeer breeding.

There is another thing that Aix believes is the biggest soft gain, which is the archery skills. Although there are archery masters like Desevi and Robin Hood in the territory, as well as famous eagle shooters on the grassland like Ran Hu, everyone still learned unprecedented archery skills from the Yakuts.

One of their special skills is that in any conditions, whether it is hot or cold, windy, rainy or snowy, the Yakuts do not need any time to adapt to using any bow or shooting any arrow. They only need to weigh, look, touch and aim to quickly get started and achieve the best shooting state.

Another item is the shooting technique for fast-moving targets. This is different from the golden eagle shot by Ran Hu. Although the golden eagle flies high and fast in the air, its trajectory does not change much, so it can be locked.

The Yakuts can shoot ferrets with bows and arrows. These creatures move quickly, are cunning and changeable, have high alertness, and are small targets. They can only be shot from a long distance, and it is difficult for ordinary people to lock on the target. However, they still cannot escape the Yakuts' superb skills.

Although the above skills can only be understood but not explained and are very difficult to learn, after some exchanges, masters such as Ran Hu, Desevi, Robin Hood, Bandak and others still benefited a lot and felt that their skills had risen to a higher level.

In addition, several leaders in the territory who claimed to be masters of archery did not have any knowledge about making arrows, such as what kind of feathers to use for the tail feathers of the arrows, in what order to install them, how long the feathers should be, etc., which were not possessed by Nicholas.

Aix can only use one sentence to describe his mood at this moment: Nicholas and the people in their tribe are very nice and easy to get along with!

In addition, Nicholas also left behind twenty tribal members with excellent archery skills as agreed, led by his young grandson Semil.

Don't underestimate this young boy, Shemir, who is shy and doesn't like to talk, but he is very ruthless in archery and hunting.

In a recent hunting activity organized by Aix near Shules, the twenty people he led captured 60% of all the prey. Also participating in the hunt were Ran Hu, Desevi and others, as well as the forty best shooters in the territory.

It's really impossible not to accept it. Ran Hu and the others can do it, and so can Shemil and the others. If Ran Hu and the others can't do it, then Shemil and the others can do it too.

Through interacting with the Yakut tribe led by Nikolai, Aix realized the role of communication. They were just a tribe of more than a hundred people, but they brought so many changes and improvements to the territory.

Aix had to sigh that human progress requires communication. No matter how advanced your production model is or how high your cultural level is, you must lower your posture, abandon arrogance and prejudice, and humbly learn, exchange and communicate with the people and things around you.

Only with this kind of mentality can we make great progress and become stronger and stronger.