Chapter 211 Light Industry

Roland sat at the desk, looking with interest at the chief knight who came to report the recent situation of the First Army. >>>>>

Compared with the meticulous appearance a few months ago, Carter's Bingshan face now has more different emotions, the sense of calm has faded a lot, and there is more expectation and impatience in it.

Probably something to do with the Star of the West, he thought.

Roland also heard a little about Carter getting closer to May recently. After all, as one of the top ranks of the First Army and his own representative in the army, his every move was watched, not to mention that he was surrounded by an eye-catching woman like May.

When they appeared side by side for the first time on the streets of the town, the personal guard had already passed the news to his ears.

Roland doesn't care about this kind of thing. Carter is probably two or three years older than himself. It stands to reason that it is very strange that he has not yet married. It would be nice if he could find his other half in the western region, as long as it doesn't affect his work. .

According to the report of the Sea Knight, the First Army currently has about 200 revolver rifles in the field, and about a dozen new ones can be added every day - in fact, if the raw materials are sufficient, Anna's production capacity can be doubled several times , but she had to be in charge of pig iron and steelmaking and steam engine manufacturing at the same time, so the speed slowed down.

But this speed is acceptable. After all, the first army only has 600 people, and it will take another one and a half months to complete the replacement. And until the arrival of a new wave of population expansion, the size of the army cannot be further expanded for the time being.

Another point is the formation of the Second Army.

For the convenience of training and the need for confidentiality, all the civilians recruited from Longsong Fortress passed the review and were incorporated into the Second Army by Roland. Currently receiving disciplinary training, that is, the set of military training. In the evening, there is an ideological education class, trying to let these people have the belief that they are the guardians of the western border as soon as possible, and the safety of their relatives needs their protection.

"At present, the training progress of the personnel of the Second Army is good. It is estimated that in another week, they will be able to transfer to shooting training. By then, the eliminated flintlocks will be enough for each man." Carter concluded.

This is also the advantage of musketeers. It takes at least a year to train a cold weapon warrior, and it takes about five or six years to train a knight. However, it only takes a month for musketeers to form an army. The longer a battle lasts, the more musketeers will have an advantage—after all, pulling the trigger is much easier than fighting with a sword.

"Live-ammunition shooting practice must pay attention to the management of guns, and take back as much as it goes down. The same is true for gunpowder. During practice, we must arrange veterans from the First Army to supervise."

"Yes," he nodded.

"Very good," Roland waved his hand, "In that case, go get busy."

"Uh, Your Highness..." Carter hesitated and said, "Last time you said that the perfume mixed into the soap is made from sugarcane. Is that true?"

"Yes," the prince leaned back on the chair, "what's the matter?"

"Is the sugar cane expensive?"

"No... just ordinary crops."

"I've heard people say that a bottle of perfume the size of your thumb can be sold for five gold dragons in the capital," Carter scratched his head, "If that's the case, wouldn't using sugarcane to make perfume bring a lot of income to the town? "

"Five golden dragons?" Roland was startled, but he hadn't thought about it. Recalling the time when he was in the palace, the fourth prince never cared about the price of a daily necessities, especially for something less touched like perfume - only women prefer these things that can fill them with fragrance.

His original motivation for creating perfume was simply to get soap. Otherwise, a bathroom with only running water and no soap always feels that something is missing. Let the bubbles rub the whole body is the romance of the bathroom.

If a small bottle of perfume can buy several golden dragons, it is indeed a good deal. Unlike coated mirrors, raw materials such as sugar cane and flowers are much cheaper than crystal glass.

Thinking of this, Roland smiled and said, "This idea is not bad, I will consider it."

"Your Highness, then... can I take a sugar cane out of the castle?" the chief knight asked expectantly.

"It doesn't matter." Hearing this tone, he guessed what the other party wanted to do—after all, the Western Territory is not like Clearwater Port, and the plants in the fjords are quite rare here. It is a good choice as a gift to please the lady, " It's on the wall in the backyard, pick it yourself."

"Thank you, Your Highness!" Carter bowed and said goodbye.

Then Roland called Barov - it's not appropriate to call him an assistant to the minister now, as the number one person in the city hall, he can already be regarded as the chief administrator of Border Town.

After Barov was seated, Roland briefly talked about the perfume, "What do you think of this business, can you earn a lot of money?"

He didn't answer right away, but asked with wide eyes, "Your Highness, are you sure that the perfume is made from that sweet crop?"

"Isn't the soap also for you? The reason why it has fragrance is that it is mixed with perfume," Roland spread his hands and said, "Its raw materials are indeed these worthless things. I just don't know whether the perfume of the capital is It's as expensive as Carter said."

"It's more than that, Your Highness!" Barov said excitedly, "Perfume is a top-secret product of the Royal Capital Alchemy Association. There are about a thousand bottles of it every year, and only a small part of it will be sold in the Royal Capital. If it is sold to the fjords and other kingdoms, the price can almost double. In order to prevent merchants from making a difference, the association not only firmly controls the price of perfume in other places, but even merchants They will appoint them personally. If you can produce perfume, even if you only sell it to Chishui City and Falling Dragon Ridge, you can get rich rewards."

"I see." Roland thought to himself that he was an assistant to the Minister of Finance for 20 years, and Barov was indeed very good at commodity prices and trade conditions. With this information, he also formed a preliminary plan in his mind.

There are many ways to make perfume. The simplest method is to mash flower petals or herbs with unique fragrance and soak them in alcohol, let the alcohol dissolve the aromatic oil in the plant, and finally filter out the residue, add water to dilute and use.

Alcohol comes from fermented sugarcane juice; the aromatic oil source can be rose, or the more common rosemary and spirit herbs. However, since mass production is to be achieved, it is the best choice to let the leaves cultivate a batch of magically modified plants that can directly secrete aromatic oils.

In addition to perfume, this industry can also produce white sugar and white wine, which are also consumables that are in great demand. Although the profit is not as good as perfume, if they can be sold to the townspeople at a low price and enrich their recipes, it will be a big deal for the people's livelihood. progress.

The reason why Roland has been slow to develop light industry is that in the case of insufficient manpower, it is difficult to earn high profits from small-scale production of daily necessities. It is the most cost-effective way to invest a limited population in heavy industry production.

Since the production of perfume is profitable, maybe he can take this opportunity to make up for this missing link. (To be continued.)