Facing the gazes of the two marquis and earls, Earl House was silent for a while and said: "Actually, I am not someone who likes to cause trouble. Since there is a risk of implicating the Northwest Republic, I will withdraw my troops."
"Thank you!" Marquis Youke nodded with a smile, "I will compensate you for your losses."
"It's not 'I', but 'we'." Marquis Gordon said, "House did suffer in this matter. Since he chose to give in for the overall benefit of our aristocratic faction, then naturally it should be done by Let's all work together to compensate for his losses. House, I will send someone to deliver you twenty sets of standard lath armor later."
Hearing this, more than one earl frowned slightly.
Lath armor is an armor made of wide iron bars inlaid on leather armor. Although it is a little bulky, it has good protection. It is an excellent full-body armor for grassroots soldiers. As long as you wear a suit of lath armor, you generally don't have to worry about bows or swords. If you add a shield, it will be like a walking iron block.
Although the price of lath armor has also dropped with the launch of simplified full-body armor in the Northwest Republic, a piece of standard lath armor is still worth at least about two hundred gold coins, and twenty sets are four thousand gold coins.
The money was not much, but since the Marquis paid four thousand gold coins, the earls had to pay at least two thousand gold coins. Those frowning earls did not have a good relationship with the "good horse" earl, and they were really unwilling to subsidize him so much.
However, Marquis Youke immediately followed up and said that he could produce ten sets of the simplified full-body armor of the Northwest Republic, which also came with a large iron-covered shield.
Calculating the price, this is approximately close to six thousand gold coins.
As a result, the faces of the earls who had a bad relationship with Earl House couldn't help but become more gloomy.
But the two big guys have expressed their opinions and together they have provided supplies worth tens of thousands of gold coins. How can they be stingy
So you contributed a little, and I contributed a little. In the end, the earls gathered together supplies that were almost equivalent to 22,000 gold coins.
Earl House smiled happily. Of course he suffered losses this time, but the supplies of more than 30,000 gold coins were enough to make up for his losses and make him a big profit.
In this way, the things that made him afraid of being assassinated before could be put aside.
A few days later, supplies were gradually delivered to the Earl of House. Of course, these supplies could not be transferred from the capital or the territories of the Earls. They were prepared directly near Earl of House's territory. The person responsible for preparing the supplies was Ge. Chamber of Commerce under the Marquis of Den.
The aristocratic faction is not without businessmen. For example, the two marquises have a large-scale chamber of commerce in their names. The chamber of commerce of Marquis Gordon happens to have a store near the earldom of House. With the help of the chamber of commerce's logistics, various All the materials have been paid in advance and sent there, and we can settle the account after the materials that everyone supports actually arrive.
After obtaining this batch of supplies, Earl House naturally withdrew his troops in a hurry. The aristocratic faction once again sent envoys to discuss peaceful settlement of the problem with the merchant faction.
The several chambers of commerce that were confronting Earl House didn't understand what was going on at first, and they didn't dare to pursue him. Although they took the initiative to attack out of anger, their anger could not make up for the gap in strength between them. In the past few small-scale confrontations, the merchant army, whose main force was mercenaries, not only failed to take advantage, but also suffered losses repeatedly. In this case, when they saw Earl House retreating, their first thought was that there might be a trap, so instead of pursuing him, they hurriedly strengthened their position to ensure safety.
A few days later, the envoys sent by the nobles came, and they finally understood the truth.
Some of the more intense people naturally feel that they have missed an opportunity and are filled with regret. But other more mature people were secretly happy, happy that the border war could finally be resolved peacefully.
Businessmen only seek money, so what good can come from fighting? Even if you can get a little, it may not be enough to pay the mercenaries!
Based on this idea, the peace negotiations went smoothly.
In fact, the merchant faction did not have very conclusive evidence that it was the soldiers of the aristocratic faction who attacked the caravans and civilians. The messenger in charge of the negotiations directly took out a big weapon and said that he could let the Lord of Justice (God of Law) teach The clergy came forward to preside over the inspection of the noble soldiers in various nearby territories. Once they found someone involved in the crime of attacking the merchant caravans and civilians, they were immediately captured and executed on the spot.
In this way, even those businessmen with a more fierce attitude feel much more comfortable. The rest is nothing more than a matter of money.
money is not a problem.
In other words, for the negotiators who have been jointly authorized by the leaders of the noble faction, problems that can be solved with money are not problems.
He said that although it was unclear who attacked the caravan and civilians, for the sake of peace, the noble faction was willing to subsidize half of the other party's losses. If after investigation, it is proven that the attack was indeed carried out by soldiers from the noble faction, then in addition to the other half of the subsidy, there will be an additional double compensation.
This price is really sincere, and all the managers from the merchant faction are very satisfied. Although there were some greedy ones who wanted to take advantage of the opportunity for the lion to open his mouth, they were stopped by his companions.
The noble faction is not a soft persimmon to be pinched. Although I don't know why they are willing to give in this time, if they are too greedy and anger them, they will not only lose the chicken but lose the rice.
If there were to be another fight, the merchant faction wouldn't have much chance of winning.
With those black sheep under control, the subsequent negotiations will naturally go smoothly. The two parties discussed in detail how to track down the murderer, and finally signed some terms and completed an agreement.
This agreement is generally fair and does not harm the interests of any party in particular. Especially at the end of the agreement, the envoys of the noble faction insisted on adding the clause "if harassment and attacks are found to be caused by external hostile forces, the two parties must jointly deal with the outside world", which made several leaders of the merchant faction think deeply.
There is no smoke without fire. If they hadn't noticed some clues, the noble faction would not have made such a big concession, let alone insisted on adding this clause to the agreement.
So after the peace talks, they immediately contacted the core of the merchant faction and told several large chambers of commerce the information.
The major chambers of commerce took this matter seriously and quickly held meetings. After repeated discussions, the wealthy businessmen finally decided to unite with the noble faction to investigate together, and they must track down the troublemakers behind the scenes.
Businessmen only care about making money and don't like to cause trouble. But if someone secretly plots against them and wants to provoke them into a war with the noble faction, then they will never tolerate it.
You know, war will cost a lot of money and kill a lot of people!
Spending money makes businessmen feel distressed; dead people make businessmen fearful. The merchants couldn't help but get angry at the thought of almost falling into a trap.
No matter who he is, if he wants to cause trouble, be prepared to face everyone's anger!
About half a month later, the joint investigation team of the merchant faction and the noble faction finally set off and began to carefully investigate the attacks that occurred on the border between the two sides.