Travel through time and become a member of the Warhammer Empire

When doing business, even as a private merchant, the most important thing is integrity.

I'm afraid many people have a misunderstanding, thinking that people like Rogue Traders are all scammers.

Because they travel around to various places to do business. After committing fraud in one place, they will go to another place to commit fraud.

In fact, the integrity of merchants like Windlow is second only to that of dwarves in the empire. After all, no one can be sure whether they will never return to a certain place.

If you commit fraud in a place and people hold a grudge against you, it is inevitable that you will return there more than ten years later and be hit on the head with a hammer.

Maintaining credibility also helps merchants do business within the empire and even the entire Old World.

Although Windlow is now a baron, he is still a humble merchant from the countryside of Rick County in his bones and in his mind.

As a promise, he of course paid a hefty insurance premium.

After deducting insurance reimbursement and everything including workers' wages from the total revenue, only a little is left.

Even in such a brutal battle, there would be some insurance money left, not to mention a completely peaceful environment.

As for the old and wounded soldiers who had been promised to solve the pension burden, of course they would all be accepted, but there was only one requirement: they must be within their own territory.

Everyone has no doubts about this question.

After all, if the imperial nobles are not in their own jurisdiction, they are no different from an ordinary rich person.

Compared with wealth, the power to have final say is the only guarantee.

In this way, Windlow went to Blackfire Pass with much money and returned to his territory with the same amount of money.

To this must be added the hundreds of soldiers who had lost most of their labour power.

And the most important thing is that the soldiers do not have particularly good working ability.

Windlow was keenly aware that these men, who had served in the provincial army since adulthood, had almost lost their wisdom and subjective ideas.

The only thing you can do is obey orders. Even if you have some small thoughts, they will be seen through immediately.

If we allow them to find free employment locally, they will probably spend all their military pay and retirement benefits in a few days.

They were either cheated by bad women or emptied out by taverns. After losing all their money, they had no skills to rely on, and finally died on the streets or took desperate measures.

No matter which situation it was, it was a situation that Windlo did not want to see. At this moment, a messenger from Bretonnia found Windlo and handed him a letter with honor on his face.

Judging from the badge above, it was his old friend the Holy Grail Knight. He wanted to tip the messenger with a few copper coins, but the latter waved his hand and said that it was an honor for him to deliver such a letter.

Although the badge looks very delicate, the text inside is very ugly. It is full of simple sentences without any wording.

"Wendalo, I can't send you a warhorse. Bretonnia is in a civil war. Don't come."

With just one simple sentence, the whole situation was made clear.

All knights strictly abide by the code of chivalry, and integrity is the foundation of chivalry. No matter how arrogant a Bretonnian knight is, he must ensure his integrity or remain silent.

He promised to give me a warhorse, but never mind. I won’t ride a Bretonnian horse.

As for the last piece of information, it is very interesting. Is Bretonnia in a civil war? What is going on?

However, based on the relationship between himself and the Holy Grail Knight, he would definitely tell the truth.

I can't go to Bretonnia recently. I just hope that the business of the gunpowder factory that the two of them founded together will not be affected.

Wait, a gunpowder factory?

Back in Bretonnia, Windlow and the Holy Grail Knight co-founded a gunpowder factory.

There are only serfs and knights in Bretonnia. If you want to let serfs who have no technical skills work in factories, the only thing they can do is assembly line work.

Wait, assembly line?

After closing the letter from Bretonnia, Windlow came up with a solution.

Since the greatest ability of these retired soldiers is to obey orders, wouldn't it be enough to just arrange them into different links with only a few standard tasks in each link?

But the question arises again. In a place like Osterling where there is only bird shit, what can Windlow produce even if he sets up a factory?

Out of desperation, they could only start the simplest factory - a charcoal factory.

Charcoal is the most common thing in the entire empire. It is used for cooking, smelting, and heating.

Due to the vast forests and water transportation system in the empire, there are at least 10,000 charcoal factories near the Reik River alone.

Just dig some mud to make a cave, then put the chopped wood into the cave and simmer it.

By maintaining a high temperature environment for a period of time, the wood can be turned into charcoal, which can then be transported by rivers and sold to various parts of the empire.

Thanks to this system, charcoal was very cheap in the empire and opening a charcoal factory was not a profitable business.

They could only be absorbed as labor, and Windlow only needed to wave his hand and formulate basic systems, and several charcoal factories were built along the river.

The re-employment of retired soldiers is also very simple, that is to become charcoal burners.

Those with a healthy whole body can go cutting wood, those with a healthy upper body can cut the wood into firewood, and those with a healthy lower body can guard the cave and wait for the charcoal to be burned.

Because there were too many charcoal factories in the empire, the price of charcoal was outrageously low.

All the charcoal sold was barely enough to pay everyone's wages. To be honest, Windlow really didn't make a penny after all his hard work.

However, there was an unexpected situation.

Since these retired imperial provincial troops still retain the consumption habits they had when they were still in service, they spend whatever they earn.

All the money earned from selling charcoal becomes liquid money and enters the market through consumption.

The economy of the entire town began to develop again.

These retired veterans had no habit of saving. They bought alcoholic beverages, which led to the development of local taverns, and the development of taverns promoted the work of carpenters and glassmakers.

The arrival of these craftsmen promoted the development of the food and entertainment industries, and everyone made money.

This resulted in that although Windlow felt that he did not make any money and did not earn a penny from his hard-earned charcoal factory, his overall tax payment increased.

It seemed that his existence and his plans had no particularly significant impact on the development of the entire territory, so after receiving the emperor's call, he immediately set out for the imperial capital.

At this time? Emperor Karl Franz himself summoned a baron? What was his purpose?