Iron Powder and Spellcasters

   Chapter 467 Cow and Horse

   "Are you a little too partial to Mr. Mitchell?" Bud asked half-jokingly.

   With the force of the upper and lower jaws, Bud's cheeks are bulging rhythmically.

   Obviously, the beef tonight was tough, but Bud chewed it patiently.

"Is there?" Winters gritted his teeth and poked the beef cubes on the plate, angrily: "I'll have to call Lannis over later and ask him a good question—how can I pay for so much food? Can you make it so bad?"

   Bud swallowed the beef that was not chewable at all without changing his face, glanced at the plate in front of Winters that looked like a slaughtering scene, and reminded in a good voice: "Don't spoil the food."

   "Okay, I'll give you something to eat." Winters raised his hand and surrendered, just like in the past, putting all the meat on his plate into Bud's plate: "All for you."

  Bud gladly accepted all the orders: "This is meat, how could it not be delicious?"

   "Yeah." Winters sighed: "I'm curious about that too."

  …

   The baroque-style mahogany desk, which was cherished by the former garrison officer, was used as a dining table. Winters and Bud declined the invitation of the gentry Artemis, and simply set up shop in the garrison.

   He ate the same things as all the Iron Peak soldiers: beef, radishes, coarse bread.

  The sun has actually been down for a long time, and the capital of Vugnie County outside the window has long since fallen into night, but the two "Tiefeng County tribunes" have not had time to solve the dinner problem until now.

   To be precise, a tribunal was too busy to have time to eat. Another well-known and unknown tribunal, though doing nothing, insisted on waiting for his friends to start a gang together.

  …

   "Maybe the beef is still the beef of the past." Staring at Bud who was enjoying dinner happily, Winters reflected bitterly: "It's just that my teeth and stomach that were once tough as steel have been worn away by the years."

   "First of all, your stomach has never been 'tough as steel'." Bud opened up his friend with a smile: "When you were in Guitucheng, you were very picky eaters."

   "That's just compared to you." Winters defended himself actively: "From the perspective of the college as a whole, I'm definitely not a picky eater."

  Bud lowered his hands to appease his friend, and continued: "If your stomach is really 'tough as steel', then it's not all Mr. Berrian's responsibility to wear it."

   Winters thought for a moment, and the corners of his mouth twitched involuntarily. He nodded and agreed seriously: "Yes, Ms. Navarre is also responsible."

Bud coughed lightly and pointed to the beef on the plate: "I mean, these are the meat of old cattle, which are difficult to cook by themselves. Now, the price of a two-year-old cattle in Vigne has at least doubled compared to last year. Doubled. Even if you pay a high price, you can only buy this kind of old and debilitated cow that is about to be slaughtered.”

After that, Bud put away his smile and said with a serious face: "Not only cattle, but also horses, mules and even donkeys are asking for higher prices than last year. This situation is not only in Vigne County, but it is even more serious in Iron Peak County. I think the same should be true for the rest of the counties in the newly reclaimed land."

   Hearing these words, Winters immediately removed the dinner plate and took out a hardcover book from the drawer.

After reading it carefully, he rested his forehead and thought for a moment, before he raised his head and asked suspiciously, "Is that so? But when I was called up for the Battle of the Great Wasteland, I bought a lot of large livestock, and the price of beef cattle reported by Lannis was about the same as the price of beef cattle. It's very big."

"That's because the prices of gold and silver have also risen." Bud picked up the graphite bar and wrote a few lines of numbers on the paper: "Look, converted into grain prices, it is very intuitive that the price of livestock has risen, at least doubled. ."

   Winters stared at the numbers Bud wrote, lost in thought.

"According to common sense, wars will cause the price of livestock to rise, which is understandable. But why did the prices of gold and silver also skyrocket? The price of food fell instead?" Bud smiled bitterly: "To be honest, I can't think of a reasonable one. Explanation—Is Mr. Leo in Maplestone?"

   "Not here." Winters shook his head gently: "Before Sarnell sent troops to Mirror Lake County, he left the province of New Land."

   "Then... can I contact him?"

   Winters slightly thought: "The letter can be sent through the Navarre business, but no one knows when Mr. Leo will get the letter, don't hold out too much hope."

  Bud nodded, without showing any disappointment or worry, just smiled gently: "Well, let's solve the problem ourselves."

  Somehow, when he met Bud's calm and forgiving gaze, Winters felt that there was no difficulty he could not overcome.

"It's my fault to kill cows and eat meat under the current circumstances." Winters tried his best not to show annoyance and regret, but his fingertips left four scratches on the table unconsciously: "The soldiers Too tired, too hard, I want them to eat more good food..."

"No one blames you, and there is no shortage of livestock to the extent of 'the sky is falling'. But since you already know the scarcity of large livestock, it should not be wasted." Budd dialed the beef back to Winters. Plate, jokingly said: "You always use it, if you don't have enough, ask for it. Of course, I don't know how difficult it is for me and Senior Mason."

   Winters stuffed the beef into his mouth and chewed it silently.

  Bud put down the tableware and asked solemnly: "Do you still have contact with the little lover of the Chihe Department?"

  Winters was startled, and then coughed violently. He subconsciously beat his chest hard, and he was accidentally involved in the injury. He couldn't speak for a long time, and he could only stare at Bud with wide eyes.

"Don't look at me like this, you have never told me about the Chihe Department, so of course I can only ask others." Bud's expression was calm: "They all said that you have a background in the Chihe Department. My lover, now Chihebu is willing to do business with us honestly, thanks to your lover."

   Winters wiped away the food residue from the corner of his mouth and asked fiercely, "Who said that."

   "I tell you, can you keep it a secret?" Bud asked with a smile.

   Winters' full anger was blocked in his throat, he grabbed the corner of the desk angrily, and in the blink of an eye, the two corners of Colonel Zeppel's precious desk turned into pieces of sawdust.

   "Have you reached this level now?" Bud showed a rare expression of surprise and disbelief, but he stopped Winters' madness with just one sentence: "This seems to be quite expensive."

Winters groaned in pain, he pressed his forehead, and after a moment of silence, he calmly told Bud: "First, I do know a lady in the Chihe Department; second, that lady and I are not lovers. Third, you have met that lady, who is one of the Hurd people who helped us on the Red Illusion Island; finally, the Chihe Department is willing to exchange markets, not because of the lady's guarantee, but to get what they need. "

  Bud nodded, "Mmmmmmmm", very unconcerned.

Because His Excellency the bishop is not most concerned about the peach rumors of your friends: "Since you have a close relationship with that lady from the Chihe Department, can she decide to trade horses and cattle with us? Now the Chihe Department sells us only Only wool and sheepskin."

   "You make it clear to me! What is a deep relationship?" Winters was anxious.

  Bud's expression became solemn: "So it doesn't matter?"

   Winters was speechless. After a while, he hesitated: "That can't be said..."

Bud directly ignored Winters' reaction and turned to explaining the current problem to Winters: "The situation in Iron Peak County is okay, we can redistribute the draught horses and the eliminated war horses that are not needed for the time being. The loss of livestock in Nie County is mainly due to the levy of the newly reclaimed land corps, and there is almost no possibility of returning.

Bud sighed: "Without large animals, there is no way to cultivate enough land. If enough land is not cultivated, there is no way to produce enough food. The harm of the shortage of large animals is not at present - it is not obvious now. What. But by next year, the famine will come all the way."

"Although the situation in the other four counties is still unclear, it will not be much better. Lack of livestock is already a common phenomenon. It is impossible to solve the problem by internal circulation. It can only be found outside the new land." Bud paused. After a while, he said sadly: "You know, this place has always been the production area of ​​large livestock. It has only become like this in two years."

   Winters' expression also became serious: "Understood, I'll go talk to Skylark."

   Seeing that Bud raised his eyebrows and looked puzzled, he explained: "It's the agent of the White Lion."

Bud's brows stretched out: "The squires of Vigne County are all beating around the bush to ask me if they can sell them some obsolete military horses. If we can make up for the shortage of draught livestock in Vigne County, it will not only prevent next year's Even if the food production is reduced, it can win the hearts and minds of some people.”

   "Don't hold your hopes too much." Winters' brows were still tightly locked: "I am afraid the Chihe Department will not agree to trade cattle and horses with us."

   "Don't worry, we have a lot of things to exchange with them." Bud comforted Winters: "Mr. Berrian has filled the warehouse of the iron factory, even if it is worth a little blood."

   Winters understood that Bud had misunderstood, and he sighed: "What is the main thing we are selling to the White Lion now?"

   "Pig iron."

  "No" Winters corrected softly: "It's low-quality pig iron that is not desulfurized and contains a lot of 'toxins', which cannot be processed into weapons because we don't want to provide the White Lion with war resources."

  Bud already knew it in his heart, but he patiently listened to Winters as he continued.

   "For the white lion, cows and horses are also valuable war resources. The white lion will gladly accept the exchange of inferior pig iron for wool and sheepskin. But if you want to exchange cows and horses..."

   Winters' expression was uncertain: "The White Lion will definitely offer another price."

  Bud pondered for a long time, and answered seriously: "I think it is worthwhile to exchange weapons for it."

   "You haven't seen the white lion, the white lion..." Although Winters and Budd talked about everything, but the next words, Winters still made a lot of determination before saying: "It's too dangerous."

  Bud did not ridicule Winters for his "timidity", nor did he ask with a smile, "How could the dignified blood wolf think others are dangerous?"

   He listened solemnly to Winters and asked, "How dangerous is it?"

   "In my opinion." Winters replied slowly: "Grove Magnus of the Kings Castle and Arpad on the other side of the river are tied together, and they are not equal to a white lion."

   "Then we'll find another way." Bud answered bluntly, he unreservedly believed Winters' judgment: "The arms transaction with the Chihe Department is no longer considered."

   "No." Winters said astonishingly: "I'll go and talk to Skylark."

   "Why?" Bud was puzzled.

   "I believe, in the eyes of the white lion." Winters pondered: "The three tribes of Hurd are tied together, and it is also not worth me."

  …

  …

  …

   "Eat." Bud put the plate back in front of Winters: "Wait a little longer and it will be cold."

   "You don't believe it?" Winters was both angry and funny.

   "[Unparalleled self-confidence is the commonality of leaders]." Budd recklessly, citing an old phrase from somewhere.

His cheeks were flushed, and after a while, the most generous student in the twenty-first phase of the Senas Alliance Army Academy finally couldn't help laughing: "But when I was studying, I didn't expect that one day you would It blows like that!"

   [I wish everyone a happy National Day holiday! ]

   [Thanks to book lovers for their collection, reading, subscription, recommendation tickets, monthly tickets, rewards and comments, thank you all]

   (end of this chapter)