To Four Thousand Years Later
v4 Chapter 94: Paederus
Leonardo knocked on the armrest of the sofa, closed his eyes and meditated.
It has been more than a week since Galeazzo left the Duke's mansion for the capital.
He did not come back.
But a special envoy from the royal capital rushed to Milan today, claiming that Duke Galeazzo would stay in the royal capital for the time being to accompany His Majesty during the Chinese New Year and spring hunting, so he came here to report his safety.
Sure enough, it was as Leonardo and the others expected.
Although I don't know what the Teutonic King is up to, it's not the worst possibility.
At least he was not in the same group as the false minister, and the money that the false minister was greedy for was not handed over to the king. Otherwise, he didn't need to send someone to report his safety. Instead, the people from the Duke's Mansion should be arrested directly to ensure that the news will not get lost. But this is also expected by Leonardo.
It is not necessarily his accomplices, but more likely his lawyers, who expend great efforts to help the criminal. Kret VIII would allow the "Minister of Agriculture" to embezzle so much funds at a critical moment when Teutonic's financial balance was significantly unbalanced, especially before the war. Presumably this transaction itself is of great benefit to him and the entire Teutonic. And these benefits must not be bought by the money, and they are what he needs urgently, and they are even beneficial to the war. This is the "lawyer's fee" paid to him.
So, is it some kind of invention or technology that facilitates warfare? Or Leonardo's heart moved, and he suddenly grabbed the armrest.
He suddenly remembered.
The above content is that the other party will provide him with two tons of high-quality ale, one ton of harvested wheat, and a large amount of soap base and dyes every year. Francesco, on the other hand, wanted to provide the other party with a large number of young slaves, and Francesco called the opposite party Master "Hazkey".
Looking back now, who can easily take out so many to teach wheat and ale? What if he wasn't trading with Francesco alone?
In other words, what if the transaction receipt that Francis stole is only one of several copies? Leonardo began to tap on the armrest of the sofa slowly again, and a lot of information began to be connected in his mind. At least last year at the Teutonic Imperial Council, the Minister of Agriculture had not been replaced: According to Master Verrocchio, the Pazzi family An attempt was made to build an underground railway to drive out the poor; Francesco made a deal with someone in Teutonia to trade young slaves for a large quantity of good Teutonic ale and ale: Galeazzo said to him that recently the Teutonic E Grain was no longer sold to Sardinia, and he had not heard of a large influx of people to a certain place in Teutonia; the "Minister of Agriculture" had used many new machines, but the production had not increased much; and Creed VIII reached a certain agreement with the "Minister of Agriculture", and this agreement is beneficial to the war, but it cannot be stated clearly. Many pieces of information were connected together, and a relatively complete truth was restored in Leonardo's mind. But what he needs is a more complete truth—"Baimon," Leonardo said suddenly, "are you there?"
After a while, Baimon's iconic cold voice sounded in his ears, it was a little vague at first, and then quickly stabilized: "Yes, Your Majesty. What's the matter?
"Help me straight up. How many letters are there with the recipient's name named Hagfish? How many transaction documents are there? Are they all from within a year?"
Leonardo asked Baimon. After two or three seconds, Baimon replied: "There are fourteen letters in total, Your Majesty. Seven of them are transaction receipts. These letters have been from six years ago until not long ago, but the transaction receipts are all within the year. Among them, the name of the strange letter person in the first three letters is 'Pazzi', and the name of the last four letters is 'Paederus'. From the analysis of the handwriting, it should be the same person."
"What are the specific contents of the transaction documents? Are they all exchanging slaves for something?"
"It's mainly slaves exchanging wheat and ale. There are a total of more than 20 tons of wheat and six tons of ale, as well as a small amount of chemical products. Among them, eleven tons of wheat were just shipped four months ago. The trading point is Bologna. To the north is the Padana plain, the most famous granary in Sardinia. To the south is the mountains. After crossing the mountains, you will come to the Tuscany region. No one will suspect that the food will be brought in from here. The best defensive measures Sardinia can take against Teutonic financial attacks are to lower taxes on local agricultural products and provide corresponding subsidies to try to develop local agriculture. One of them is to encourage farmers to let go of planting Grain. If the grain farmers or grain merchants can’t sell it, they can sell it to a fixed grain store at a price 2.5% to 30% lower than the market price. This is a very good price. Because he buys according to the market price, not The purchase price is based on the purchase price of the grain merchant. Therefore, he asks for grain, which is much easier to sell than precious metals such as gold and silver.
As long as there are several convoys from Bologna and go to the grain storage points in various regions, they can quietly resell these grains and even take money from the Medici family. Can effectively weaken their strength.
In this way, everything becomes clear.
The man who replaced the Minister of Agriculture was the "Master Hagfish" of the Order of the Rosary; he had made some kind of deal with Francesco, and he used his position to get Francesco a lot of food. , and Francesco is responsible for getting him a large number of living people who are lost and no one will track them down. The sudden rise of the subway project is because Francesco intends to attack the poor areas, but he can't go in and arrest people openly, he can only drive them away first, and then intercept the poor who fled; and Francesco changed hands. Selling these grains to the Medici family greatly weakened their economic strength, and only after the ups and downs did they dare to challenge the Medici family face to face. However, the reason why King Teutonic tolerated the hagfish's mischief in the country, but he couldn't put him in the open, and he had to go around such a big circle can only be because he wanted something from the hagfish: "The hagfish" So he couldn't hand over more food because he sold some of it to Francesco. In other words, is there any interference from the Order of the Rose behind this war?
Or did the Order of the Roses offer the Teutonic King a condition that he could not refuse?
Considering that he needs a large number of slaves. What evil ritual? Or is it an experiment that must be carried out with a human body?
Everything bites into clarity.
"Hidden Wings
Reciting Francesco's code name, Leonardo narrowed his eyes slightly: "Good code name.
He shook his head, stood up, and stopped thinking about it. A distinguished guest is coming to the Duke's mansion today. Galeazzo is not here, so Leonardo can only let Leonardo come and receive him.
He is the inventor of the open-hearth steelmaking method, Frederick Siemens.