Riding and Slashing

Chapter 128 Long River Express
The lord was not in a hurry to return to the territory.

In Changhe Town, Li Ang directly dispatched all the remaining troops in his hands.

Some of the soldiers followed Sir Roland to Serrum Meath to escort back the lonely old people there, who were ready-made population and farmers.

Don't look down on old people, they are actually more reliable than young people in terms of farming.

The other part was led by Ansen to inspect other small villages around to see if there were any similar tragedies. If so, a kind and loyal person like Ansen would naturally bring the survivors back to the territory.

Leslie also got a daunting task—opening a transportation company.

Of course, these days, it should be regarded as a combination of armed escort and logistics transportation.

In fact, Pendor Continent already has a mercenary convoy specializing in the transportation industry, but they are actually mercenary logic, which can be regarded as some small independent car dealerships.

These car dealerships have no standards at all, and generally negotiate prices based on the value of the goods and the distance, and the operation method is more like an ancient escort agency.

Most of them provide services for valuables, such as transporting gold and silver money, luxury goods, wine, war horses, equipment, and even prisoners, captives and so on.

Occasionally, they will also transport heavy goods such as grain or ore. However, because such goods occupy too many horse-drawn carts, the transportation cost is very high, and the transportation price will greatly exceed the value of the goods themselves. It is difficult for the employer and the vehicle dealer to negotiate close.

It is generally only possible to close the deal when the employers do not hesitate to pay the price.

In addition, these convoys are generally small in size, with a few vehicles or dozens of vehicles, it is difficult to undertake the transportation of bulk commodities, and they cannot resist large-scale bandits.

Probably the only advantage is that these convoys are fairly professional and rarely embezzle goods.After all, most of them are commoners with families, and they can't afford to offend nobles and wealthy businessmen.

But there are also temporary convoys that don’t obey the rules and turn into bandits at any time. There are such gangs in every place. They usually only trap businessmen from other places, and most of them belong to the Red Brotherhood.

This is the main reason why the business atmosphere of Pande Continent is far from that of Buckley.

The Pendor Continent experienced a large-scale Red Death before, and the population was greatly reduced.There are still five countries coexisting, and wars and disputes continue.The lack of large-scale transportation makes it very difficult for commodity circulation.

There are not many inland routes capable of large-scale water transport on the entire continent, only the Sava River in the south and the inland sea of ​​Shihu Lake in the north, but these two waterways face the same problem-two or even three countries that are hostile to each other have been Competing for the control of waterways and engaging in waterway transportation will have to face the army of the enemy country at any time, and civilians dare not do it...

There are also carriages specialized in passenger transport, but these carriages are smaller and are basically self-employed.

Passengers' safety is entirely up to them. If they encounter an attack, the driver will probably run away immediately or even turn against him. In fact, sometimes the driver may also act as a robber.

So the transportation of Pande is a big problem, whether it is passenger or freight.

When ordinary noble lords and merchants need to carry out large-scale transportation, they can only organize their own convoys, or hire multiple car dealers to go on the road together, and they also have to hire mercenaries to protect them all the way-it is equivalent to renting a car dealer. The carriage is actually still being transported by itself.

And other conventional mercenary groups usually only take over the bodyguard business, that is, accompanying them to protect the safety of the merchants, but they are not responsible for whether the goods will be lost or not delivered.

This leads to a very high cost of commodity transportation, so it is normal for the price of goods on the west coast to increase by [-] or [-] times after they are brought to places like Changhe Town in the east.

But that's a huge business opportunity.

The lord has just received more than 200 draft horses from Baron Leofric, and there will be a steady supply of horses from Yongshield Castle.

And seeing these big animals that specialize in pulling carts, the first reaction of the lord is-the logistics and transportation can be done.

Even passenger transport can be done.

Moreover, this is also a reliable way to quickly accumulate troops and population-in this dangerous era, only the brave and middle-aged can be engaged in the logistics industry.

Of course, with Godric and the Rangers of the Horn Caller in Rivertown, the East is sure to be more secure now than it was before.

In fact, Li Ang wanted to engage in the transportation industry for a long time, but he couldn't start until the whole region was not stable.

Because the market is obvious-any noble lord and big businessman needs logistics transportation, the market size is quite large, and bulk logistics can be considered as a blank market at present.

As for passenger transportation, it is even more urgent. Everyone has the need to travel, especially businessmen and nobles.

Therefore, the lord handed over this important business to Leslie.

Leslie is very good at managing long-distance transshipment affairs. Her previous business has been between Wucage City and Changhe Town. She once led a caravan to complete the [-]-mile journey in a week. The efficiency of the army is hard to match.

This transportation company is named 'Changhe Express', which is a subsidiary of Maixiang International, and has two businesses of logistics and passenger transportation.

The purpose of using this name is of course to make people in the eastern region feel more friendly. After all, the main customer group in the initial stage is the lords and merchants around Changhe Town.

Leslie was placed by the lord outside the Chief of Military Affairs in Changhe Town—in fact, it was outside the inner castle of Mrs. Bella, where the Changhe Town garrison surrounded the inner castle.

Godric chose the chief of military affairs to be stationed in Changhe Town Inner Fort, and that small square has now become the camp of Godric's personal guards.

There is a large area of ​​houses and open space outside the inner castle. It was originally where Alma arranged for people to keep an eye on Mrs. Bella. Now that they have left, there is just enough land left to accommodate a large number of convoys.

This is the back door Godric opened for Li Ang. He actually requisitioned this place as a military office area, and then used the public assets for Li Ang to start a company—after all, he is the major shareholder of Maixiang International.

And that place is next to the central street of Changhe Town, just walk straight along the wide central street from the outer city gate of Changhe Town, which is quite suitable as the company's headquarters.

The first task that the lord entrusted to Laislie was to buy all the transport convoys available in Changhe Town.

That's right, as long as there is an agreement, you can buy it together with the person and the car.

Li Ang wouldn't be thinking about how to start small and grow big at this time - he has money now, and he has the ability to quickly raise a large amount of funds, so he can directly use capital logic.

To put it simply, it is to quickly monopolize the market at any cost, and then set industry standards by itself.

In today's Changhe Town, no other nobles would interfere with this, and this big purchase went quite smoothly.

After all, all the people engaged in transportation are small convoys or self-employed, all of them are civilians, and there are basically no nobles who would do this kind of hard work.

And Godric has just been appointed Chief of Military Affairs, and Li Ang is the county consul. These civilian convoys are eager to climb such a big tree.

In five days, the lord used dinars to smash out more than 400 carriages and more than 500 strong men—all of them were armed.

Because convoy transportation often faces risks, basically those who are engaged in this industry will learn martial arts, but they are no longer willing to fight life and death like ordinary mercenaries all the year round-in fact, many regular mercenaries will engage in military affairs after they have families. In the transportation industry, most of them were mercenaries who had been in taverns for a long time a few years ago.

In the past five days, the lord spent a total of one hundred thousand dinars—he finally spent all the gold coins in his hand, and now only the silver coins in the warehouse in the territory are left...

Changhe Express, which has just been established for five days, now has more than 500 employees!
There are also nearly [-] horses, of course, they are all draft horses and pack horses.

Leslie was a little flustered by this—she had never managed so many people before!

However, the lord obviously considered this situation, and he transferred Eric to serve as the team leader knight in the past few days-in fact, he was the head of the armed department of the Changhe Express Company.

Eric has a flexible mind and is tactful, but he does not lack courage and loyalty. Such a person often has a bright future, and the lord will always think of him first.

Besides, the lord did not assign him a knight collar, so he had to make up for it.

Serving as a company executive can greatly increase his salary and dividends. With Eric's income, it is not a problem to raise a dozen followers.

Eric was a mercenary, and now he has the official status of a knight. He is responsible for managing those rough guys, and those people from the car dealership will not have any opinions.

In fact, even if Eric was given a big knight leader, he would definitely not be willing to change it - he can now manage five hundred warriors in charge of armed transportation, which is much more popular than ordinary knights, and there are not many in the entire kingdom. Nobles can have so many subordinates...

And with Eric in charge of these people, Leslie can be freed to concentrate on business management and transshipment deployment, doing what she is best at.

The Changhe Express was forced to operate in this way.

In fact, this is not a conventional transportation company - after buying most of the fleet in Changhe Town, the lord changed their original operating thinking.

He asked Leslie to recruit a large number of people who can drive to serve as grooms, that is, to be temporary workers, so that these combat-capable armed personnel will no longer do coolies.

The newly recruited temporary grooms are responsible for the transportation and driving. They will use the company's vehicles, obey the company's unified management, and send a single payment for one payment.

The armed men from the convoy were also divided into two parts.

Those who are not strong in combat but flexible in mind will be responsible for receiving business and distributing orders. There are about 40 people in this part, and they will be managed by Leslie;
Most of the rest will be converted to purely armed escorts, close to 500, and these people will be managed by Eric.

At the same time, the lord has used each county as a unit in the past few days to directly standardize the price according to the distance and the number of vehicles, and even made a table to announce it.

And the pricing is low.

For example, if you transport a truckload of goods from Changhe Town to White Hart Castle, you will only be charged 10 dinars for shipping no matter what the goods are.

From Changhe Town to Wucage City, only 80 dinars are charged for a car-anyway, it is based on the distance.

The dispatched manpower is also standardized. Each car is equipped with a driver and an armed escort as standard.

The reason for standardization is to make order taking and billing more convenient, and it will be more convenient for customers.

Drivers are not considered regular employees, they are only paid by order, and they can get 10 dinars for a total freight of 2 dinars.

This reward is actually very high, after all, the coachmen didn't provide any equipment or supplies, and they didn't need to fight.

2 dinars are enough to buy more than 100 catties of wheat, which can feed a family for a month.

If it is doing other work, it takes at least half a month for ordinary employees to earn.

But now, it only takes a week at most - from Changhe Town to White Hart Castle, it only takes a week at most to drive back and forth.

It would take a month to go back and forth to the city of fog, even if they can't do it to the same level as Leslie, but they can earn 16 dinars a month, which is a high salary that they couldn't get before.

Of course, this method of operation is to reduce the cost of manpower and liberate those who are capable of fighting - many noble farm laborers are very good at driving horse-drawn carriages, but they had nothing else to do before, but now they can spend time in slack. When I come out to run a car for a period of time, earn some extra income.

This will attract a large number of part-timers in a short period of time.

Of course, even if they are not full-time employees, they can't just run sports cars at will.

The coachman must first register with Leslie to verify his identity and avoid recruiting any robbers.

Then the coachman has to wait for the assigned task in Changhe Town, and decide whether to accept the order by himself. If he is not on the scene, he will definitely not be assigned...

Almost like extras on set.

The armed escorts are full-time employees. They will be responsible for the safety of the vehicles, horses and roads, and will also keep an eye on the driver to prevent him from messing around. Their remuneration is also higher, and they can divide more than 40% of the order.

The reason for saying 'above' is that there are subsidies for businesses that need to leave the range of the eastern region, because the further away the more dangerous.

When shipping the goods, the escorts are responsible for delivering the goods to the receiver designated by the customer, and they can only get paid when they get the receipt - if they are not delivered, there is no money to take.

The remaining nearly 40% is the company's revenue.But this is not a net gain, because to pay basic salaries to regular employees, there may not be any profit in the early stage, and there may even be a loss.

Since the basic salary is paid, Eric will also train these men.Of course, other people will come to help with training when they are free, such as Sir Roland or Klose...

Anyway, the salary is paid by the big boss Li Ang.

However, the standardized service of Changhe Express does not guarantee the safety of the goods. The company only promises to refund the freight if the goods are not delivered.

If customers want to ensure the safety of the goods, they can use customized business. If the goods are lost, the company will not only refund the freight, but also compensate according to the market price.

But the price of the customized business has to be discussed in detail with the special person sent by Laislie.

As long as the money is enough, Changhe Express can have [-] armed personnel escorting at the same time—in Pender Continent, basically no one would dare to snatch a security force of this size.

If you follow the traditional way of the previous teams, you have to see what kind of cargo it is.If it is a high value item, then charge more, if it is low value, then it may not be accepted...

And it is also impossible to guarantee the safety of the goods. After all, there are only a few dozen people in a convoy at most, and no matter how high the price is, there are only a few dozen people.

In contrast, the new standardized operation mode of Changhe Express will naturally have great advantages.At least for conventional transportation, customers can clearly understand the transportation cost, and Changhe Express will definitely accept the order.

In the eastern region, the safety of Maixiang International's companies is also guaranteed, and the possibility of accidents is unlikely.

If it was really robbed, the two barons Godric and Leofric would definitely send troops thousands of miles to hunt down the robbers-they are shareholders of the parent company, Maixiang International, and they want to share dividends.

Therefore, merchants will think that the cost is much lower than transporting it by themselves—in fact, it is also much lower, because it costs more than ten dinars just to hire a mercenary to escort him from Changhe Town to White Hart Castle. .

In such a comparison, the cost performance of Changhe Express will appear to be quite high.

But in fact, it was the lord who changed the concept of those car dealerships...

Originally, the staff of the dealership would only be regarded by the employer as a groom or a carriage owner-and it is true.

Today, these people are 'professional armed security personnel', professional fighters.

They will even be regarded by merchants as more trustworthy fighters than ordinary mercenaries. After all, they are now under Baron Leon, at least they will not suddenly become gangsters.

In this way, the price-performance ratio has been improved at once—except for the driver, each car is equipped with a professional armed security personnel as standard, does it mean that the work of transporting goods is given away for free?
In fact, the people are still those people... But after being reorganized into a regular army, the effect is completely different!

In this way, merchants will naturally take the initiative to generate a large number of orders-the price is completely standard, as long as they confirm their own needs, they can generate orders, there is no need to negotiate, just go to the company headquarters in Changhe Town to pay and sign the order.

You can even wait for the car of Changhe Express to come to pick up the goods-of course, the door-to-door delivery is also priced according to the distance and the number of vehicles.

Businessmen are the group that considers the overall cost the most, and they have a good relationship and trust with Maixiang Company. After measuring, they will take the initiative to control operating costs again-this will prompt them to no longer support their own transport vehicles and drivers.

So where will the carriages no longer needed by the dismissed coachmen and merchants go—where else can they go, join the long river express!
A positive cycle will soon be formed, and as merchants no longer maintain their own fleets, more orders will be generated.

And a large number of orders means that the brothers who joined Changhe Express can always have continuous business to do.

Small fleets often idle most of their time because of business negotiations, waiting, various communication and management, finding suitable businesses, industry competition, etc., and often only do two or three high-priced businesses a year.In fact, most practitioners feel guilty, and the average income is not so high.

After becoming an employee of Changhe Express, you will have a fixed base salary every month, a commission for each order, and it is likely that you will always have work to do. Of course, it is more stable.

Moreover, they don't have to do coolies, and they only need to focus on security work, which is very attractive to them-they used to be mercenaries, and if they weren't forced by life, no one would want to do coolies.

Coupled with the fact that the company is large enough, bulk logistics can also be undertaken, and being able to undertake bulk logistics can ensure that there will be business for a long time.

In fact, they did get busy from the start.

(End of this chapter)