Carl stood up in anger.
His father once again stated that he "must be the only candidate for the next generation of leader and leader of the alliance." People in the center of power can easily lose themselves. Even people like Karl who have not yet controlled the supreme power of the alliance have become increasingly unable to see themselves clearly in the past few years. A lot of money.
He felt that he was already a powerful "behemoth".
As a result, the mysterious Ross nobleman suddenly appeared and was so disrespectful to me. It was really unreasonable!
He was still brooding over the humiliation and threats he had just encountered, so he bared his teeth and said viciously: "I don't need the support of a group of idiots who only know how to bicker. Hey, it's you! A stupid young man, you've made me angry. Me, you have to pay the price!"
Karl stared at Arik with cannibalistic eyes. The fire in Arick's heart instantly ignited. His right arm, as thick as a thigh and full of muscle texture, was pulled out directly from the mink coat. The strong muscles were really scary. Got Carl.
Arik was aggressive: "Shut up, you pretentious person. Maybe we should compete and kill each other to prove who is the warrior."
"Then fight! I won't kill you, I will break your legs, smash your teeth, blind your eyes, and let you know the consequences of disrespecting the noble."
There was a quarrel again, and almost a fight? ! Olegin shouted loudly: "Shut up! I am the leader of the alliance!"
Rurik closed his eyes and listened to the quarrel between the two grown men. To put it bluntly, in another situation, they were already fighting for their lives.
Finally, the situation reached a point when Rurik had to speak out. He put on an angry face, and wrinkles appeared on his delicate face. He bowed slightly pretending to be respectful, and said something extremely threatening in a soft voice. He said: "Great leader, I have been patient for a long time. You cannot regard my patience as weakness. You want us to surrender? But if your son humiliates my brother, then he humiliates me. Nothing in this world is without reason. Love and hatred, since the businessman has told you many things, you should also know that we Russians are not really weak, we still have the ability to kill fish and kill nets.
We recognize you as the alliance leader because our bilateral transactions have always been mutually beneficial. This is all because of the gift of the alliance leader. However, your eldest son actually despises us so much. Maybe one day he will inherit your power, and maybe the threat of war is waiting for us. "
"A boy who was just weaned yesterday, do you want a war?" Karl shouted arrogantly.
Rurik glanced at the man with disdain, then looked at the leader with a complicated expression: "So, is this his attitude or yours? We are not your slaves, we want to do business standing up."
Now Olegin really can't stand his son's chattering, as if this guy wants to drive away the tribe's big customers for his own sake, and then expel the Russians who finally announced their return. Obviously Karl has offended the Rurik brothers. He estimates that the brothers will continue to do business pragmatically and will not let go of the hatred caused by the slight and humiliation they encountered. Apologize? Karl will not apologize, not even as the leader of the alliance.
Olegin had his own principles of birth.
The alliance leader must use strong force to intimidate other tribes into surrendering. What about Carl? An ordinary person's arrogant character will suffer a lot in daily life. Karl is not an ordinary person, so the entire tribe may suffer. If he fails to become a strong man in the future, will Melalen's power decline. At least the Ross people must be the second or third strongest tribe in the alliance. They are by no means weak as the kid Rurik described.
Otherwise, how could they have obtained large amounts of silver coins?
In the final analysis, today's meeting is to finalize the grain trade.
Regarding the transaction of other goods, Olegin did not want to talk about those trivial issues.
"Now let's talk about the most important thing. I hope our harmony is still there." As he said that, Olegin stretched out his right hand and showed five fingers: "Half a million pounds of oats! Gould will definitely deal with this. I’ve told you. I can sell you so much wheat, but where’s the money?”
In terms of grain transactions, he is so straightforward? Rurik couldn't stand how quickly things changed. He almost quoted his delivery price, but wait.
Rurik pretended to be calm: "I'm sorry, that's a very heavy payment. A large amount of silver is on Gould's island and is closely guarded by our Russian soldiers."
"How much? Is it really 50,000 pounds? Or more?" Olegin's stretched-out head showed his thirst for money.
Rurik deliberately did not reveal the specific amount. He did not want to show his trump card. "Let's talk about your price, my leader."
Olegin shrugged, muttering to himself that this brat from Ross was pretty good at calculating. In trade since ancient times, whoever puts forward the price first usually suffers the most.
He pinched his chin and made a somewhat embarrassed gesture: "Rurik, maybe you have seen with your own eyes that the weather this year is very bad and the wheat growth is very bad. Based on past experience, we in Mälaren will not be able to have a good harvest this year. , for this reason, the price of food will skyrocket."
"Huh? What does the bad climate have to do with your food?"
All of a sudden, Olegin was asked.
He stared at the innocent expression of the child in front of him, suddenly covered his face with his big hands, and said in embarrassment: "Are you entertaining me? Don't you know that the wheat harvest will fail when the weather is cold? Don't you know that spring comes very late this year."
"I know. But, what does this have to do with you growing wheat?"
"This is very common sense, but you don't understand it?" Olegin's tone became stronger. "Listen, because the weather is cold, the food harvest is poor, and prices are rising, you can't buy more food with money."
"Oh, I understand!" Rurik deliberately glanced at the corner of his mouth, "Are you actually telling me that you are not willing to do this business?"
"No, I didn't say that." Olegin responded in a rapid voice.
By now, Rurik had figured out what the other party was thinking. To put it bluntly, Gould had previously agreed with this person on the price of ten pounds of wheat for one silver coin, but now Olegin wanted to exchange it for a higher price.
How can that be done?
Regarding the conditions of the Melalen people's farmland, Rurik came to bad conclusions through reports from Gould and others, or even through his own field inspections. Obviously, the agricultural harvest in Melalen this year is a foregone conclusion, and their farmers will only have a hard time in the coming year. It is even reasonable to get together to rob foreigners to tide over the difficulties.
Rurik prides himself on being merciful only to his own people. In theory, the Rus and Mellarens are the leaders of the alliance, but these days of being a guest, Rurik has no good impression of them. It is his duty to sympathize with those farmers, and it is his duty to ignore them and only do his own business. Now, Rurik no longer cares about their life or death.
What did Olegin think of Rurik's opinion? He couldn't tell whether the child really lacked common sense or was deliberately pretending to be confused. Anyway, regardless of whether he is pretending to be confused or not, his desire to trick them does not seem to be that easy to implement.
Now that he had guessed the opponent's mentality, Rurik had an idea on how to play his cards.
"Seventeen pounds of dry oats for a silver coin. That was the price last year. I come with the money, and I want to buy it at this price."
"No!" Olegin flatly refused.
"Huh? Do you want to start the business?"
Olegin chuckled, "Of course we have to do business. You may regret my offer. Eight pounds of oats for one silver coin. Please note that we don't have time to dry the new wheat."
"Twice as expensive!"
"Yes. The situation this year is not good, Rurik. This is a fact. I hope you understand our difficulties."
"But who can measure up to us? Although my people can make a good living by fishing, they like the taste of wheat porridge. We Russians put together a huge sum of money and found you to do business. I just don’t want to be exploited by those businessmen along the way. Unexpectedly, you actually want to trap us?"
Olegin glared: "Hey! Boy, why should I trap you? If you think the price is not appropriate, we can negotiate."
This was the effect Rurik wanted, "Fourteen pounds."
"No, I said nine pounds."
"It's still too expensive." Rurik shook his head vigorously.
Olegin was really anxious. He suppressed his urge to curse. He really didn't want to say that he was losing money for every eight pounds of silver coins quoted.
"Nine pounds, Rurik. I hope you don't lose your child's innocence and become a good person."
"Twelve pounds!" Rurik gritted his teeth, "It can't go any lower."
"You!" Olegin held his breath and said sternly: "The harvest season is now, and the situation this year is bad. The price will skyrocket by then. It is beyond my control. By then, one silver coin will not buy seventeen pounds, let alone It’s less than ten pounds, maybe you can only buy five pounds. In the worst case scenario, farmers won’t sell their grain at all. If you leave me, you can hardly buy grain.”
These words spoke to Rurik's heart.
Rurik prides himself on having high insights into the manufacturing of related machinery. However, because his brain is crammed with a lot of knowledge, his elementary economics knowledge still has a huge advantage in today's era.
Olegin's pessimistic prediction may well come true.
The people of Mälaren, who have been farming for a long time, when the harvest fails, do they go crazy and sell the food on the market? I'm afraid that not only do they have no extra grain, but they also don't have much left after deducting the grain for planting! In the next year, a family will either borrow money to survive, or try every means to fish, even catch marmots and insects to satisfy their hunger, or even become a robber to plunder.
If farmers don't sell grain, the market will naturally slump.
Do the Russians want to force farmers to trade with a sword in their right hand and a money bag in their left hand?
It was inappropriate and impossible for the Russians to do this. The only one who could possibly do this was Olegin.
They were in trouble, but Rurik was just pretending to be confused and would not accept this trick. His bottom line was the price Gould had negotiated with Olegin before, which was ten pounds of wheat for one silver coin. If he achieved results through bargaining, it would be worth the effort now.
Rurik countered: "Could it be that we came with a large amount of food and could only buy a negligible amount of food? Rather than doing this, we Russians would rather fish and hunt day after day. We save silver coins and wait until you have a good harvest." Wouldn’t it be great to come back to buy food when the time comes? Leather and other trades are easy to talk about, but the only thing about food is that if you have this attitude, say goodbye!"
Rurik stood up suddenly, and Arik also stood up. He deliberately pretended that the negotiations had broken down, but as soon as he turned around, he was stopped by Olegin.
"Wait!"
For a moment, Rurik felt happy. He turned around again and saw Olegin's gloomy face, which was extremely ugly.
Olegin looked solemn: "Ten pounds! Just like the price of an ordinary year, ten pounds!"
Rurik sat down again, although this had reached his psychological bottom line. Since Olegin was very desperate for business, how could he do it without extorting money?
“It still doesn’t work! It’s too expensive.”
"You!" Olegin stretched out his fist, as if a father wanted to repair his son.
"What? You want to hit me."
"Hell..." Olegin's clenched fist was about to crush the bones of his hand. Looking back on his speculation just now, he could tell that this child was really a tough guy, and the so-called indiscriminateness was just a disguise.
"Eleven pounds. This is my final price! Great leader, we don't have to discuss this matter anymore. I won't add even one more copper coin. If you don't agree, the food trade will not happen this year. "
The child in front of him looked indifferent. Olegin never imagined that he would behave very passively in front of a child.
Rurik, who was "blessed by Odin," had to sigh with emotion. Putting aside those strange titles, this kid really had something in his mind. At least, he can be called a "young and weak wise man".
Seeing the distressed look on the leader's face, Rurik continued: "I really brought a lot of silver coins, which is enough to sink a solid cargo ship (deliberate exaggeration). We Russians are also very worried about pirates plundering us. A fortress was built on Gould Island and heavy troops were deployed. Great leader, this money is what we use to buy food. The whole operation was planned by my father Otto. He told me that only the leader has the courage. Take out a lot of food at once."
It sounded like a flattery to himself, and it also proved Otto's recognition of his status. Olegin still felt uncomfortable hearing it. There was a clear hint in Rurik's words that the island controlled by the merchant Gould was not under the direct jurisdiction of Melalen. The Ross warriors were ready to fight against any pirates.
If you want to use some extreme means to get those silver coins, you really need a head-on war.
Olegin really felt pain in exchanging grain for silver coins, but now, he had no choice.
When Olegin was in a dilemma, in order to promote his compromise, Rurik decided to "concess" a little more. Of course, there is no real concession here, just a verbal promise.
"Leader, I am willing to use 45,454 silver coins. Bah! I will give you a profit. I will buy you 500,000 pounds of wheat for 45,500 silver coins (455 pounds). I will continue to give you a profit."
"It's just a small omission, what's there to say?" Ao Ling said helplessly.
"It's one that will interest you. In the iron trade, I can give you a preferential price."
"Really?!" Hearing this, the dark clouds on Olegin's face turned calm.
In the final analysis, Olegin's core purpose of exchanging grain for silver coins was to exchange silver coins for iron tools, and finally expand his own armaments to deal with the increasing threat of war from the Danes.
Rurik continued: "You plan to buy hard swords and hard spears. I know your price. I can give you a 10% discount on this. If I am in a good mood, I can give you a more favorable price."
"Oh? Are you in a good mood now?" Olegin's eager eyes said everything. This guy desires weapons more than silver coins.
Is it worth it to make the Malaren people martial? Will they attack you one day? Using Russian weapons to attack the Russians, Rurik could not guarantee that such a backstab would not exist. In today's negotiation, the guy named Karl has already stood in the position of "Prince" of Melalen, showing his fangs as a military threat.
But business still has to be done, otherwise, why would they order the Covin people in the northernmost Elon-Olawa Fort to work so hard to smelt chromium and make weapons? Of course, the best human version of the weapon is for the Russians, and the monkey version is for them.
Being able to gain some comfort from the arms trade, Olegin felt he had no choice and accepted the price proposed by Rurik.
At this point, all trade agreements have a verbal outcome.
Just verbally...
Of course this is not possible!
Rurik immediately proposed to engrave the transaction between the two parties on a wooden board in writing and make two copies of the contract. This would urge both parties to the trade not to violate the contract.
Olegin was afraid that the Russians would change his mind. Why didn't Rurik think so?
Soon, Rurik and the other three entered the inner court of the alliance leader's house. In a more private room, under the witness of several priestesses of the Melalen tribe, the contract on the wooden board began to be carved quickly.
What surprised Olegin a little was that Rurik already knew the rune alphabet system very well at a young age and could read words proficiently. After all this, is he still a simple child?
What happened today was too magical. Olegin rarely signed written agreements with others, and daily contracts were mostly verbal. Unexpectedly, today he encountered a tough guy who refused to make a deal without signing a written contract.
It seems like all Russians are like this? Pay attention to written contracts?
Olegin couldn't help but be a little impressed. Since the contract was proved in writing, the Russians would not be the first to do the previous verbal denials and betrayal, right?
This contract clearly stated that after the grain harvest, the Malaren people need to provide the Russians with 500,000 pounds of wheat, and the Russians will deliver 455 pounds of silver coins (measured by weight) as soon as possible, which avoids the fineness of the silver coins. incomplete loss).
Secondly, there is the trade of leather, ironware and other goods. Only in the traditional goods of leather and the cutting-edge trade of high-quality ironware, there is direct trade between the Ross chief family represented by Rurik and the Melalen chief family. , all enjoy a 10% discount.
The contract also confirms that the number of goods sold to the leader of Melalen is decided by the family of the leader of Ross. In fact, it is Rurik who has the final say.
If profits are given away for a long time, won't the Russians continue to suffer losses in market transactions? No! The benefit is for greater profits in the future!
Therefore, the duration of this contract depends on how long Olegin can serve as leader.
Rurik did not publicly oppose Karl's succession as leader, but the contract had clearly revealed the Russians' malicious intent. If Olegin really dies or suddenly steps down as leader of the alliance, all the terms of this contract will be invalidated, and any trade agreement will have to be renegotiated.
After all, it is not a trade agreement between two tribes, it only represents two powerful families. To put it more seriously, it is private trade, but this trade will definitely affect the fate of the two tribes.
With no other choice, Olegin, who was eager to get a lot of silver, a lot of leather, and a lot of iron, estimated that he was still suffering a loss. However, the only one who could provide these three important supplies in large quantities at the same time was the Ross tribe.
Rurik was also very interesting at the last moment. He pulled his reluctant cousin Arik and Carlotta, whose name was confirmed by the alliance leader, and the three of them gave the alliance leader a tactical salute of kneeling on one knee, so as to make the alliance leader lose face again. Get some satisfaction.
They walked out of Olegin's mansion under the soft afterglow of the setting sun, carrying the contract board engraved with text, ending the deal and returning to Gould Island.
But the real deal is about to begin.
