Andrew was the name of the middle-aged craftsman just now. While on the road, Otto roughly figured out his personal situation.
He is in his early thirties and single. He usually makes a living by making bows and arrows for others and cultivating land.
Andrew's residence is no different from the houses of many civilians in this era.
The low wooden houses have thatched roofs and small windows that cannot meet the lighting needs at all.
There were not many decent pieces of furniture in the house. The only thing that caught people's attention was the various bows of different lengths hanging all over the wall.
It can be seen that in this era, even people with a unique craft still cannot live a relatively prosperous life.
Andrew rummaged in a corner of the house for a long time and took out three crossbows.
"Master, look at it, is it this kind of crossbow? The hunter in the village got hold of this kind of weapon before, so he asked me to make some. These few are the ones left over from the sale and are being kept."
Andrew introduced the crossbow while handing it to Gent.
When he saw the appearance of these three crossbows, a look of disappointment flashed in Otto's eyes. There was no other reason. These three crossbows were too small, very similar to the hand crossbows he had seen in movies and TV series.
Without testing, Otto knew that this kind of light crossbow could only cause damage to leather armor, and was completely ineffective against metal armor.
"Master, do you want to give it a try?" Gent held the crossbow and looked at Otto.
"No need." Otto shook his head. The crossbow machine could only fire finger-length crossbow arrows, which completely failed to meet his requirements.
However, the principle of the crossbow machine is universal. If you can make a small one, you can make a bigger one.
"These crossbows are too small, can you make some bigger ones?" Otto looked at Andrew, who was holding a few crossbow arrows and was at a loss, and asked softly.
"Ah..." Andrew didn't come back to his senses for a moment. He originally thought he would have the opportunity to work for the nobles, but when Otto said there was no need to test, his heart dropped. Obviously, the noble young master did not like his production. crossbow.
But unexpectedly, things turned around and the young master in front of him was willing to give him another chance. However, he has not made a larger crossbow yet.
"It should...should be possible, but a larger crossbow requires longer crossbow arrows. I...I may not be able to make the corresponding crossbow arrows." Andrew replied awkwardly, holding the crossbow arrows in his hand tighter, vaguely I can feel the pain coming from my palms.
"It doesn't matter." Otto looked very happy after getting the answer he wanted. "You don't have to worry about the crossbow. Just let others do it. Your task is to make a bigger crossbow, at least as big as this.
Whatever materials are needed, just ask. As long as you can make it, I guarantee that you will be rich and prosperous for the rest of your life. "
Otto recalled the crossbow in his memory and roughly indicated its length with his hand.
"Oh, okay, okay!" Andrew nodded excitedly and gestured like Otto, trying to remember the size. During the gesture, the crossbow arrow tightly held in the palm of his right hand also fell off. .
He was about to bend down to pick it up, but Otto had already taken the first step and picked up a few crossbow arrows on the ground.
"Let's go back and eat! I'm starving."
Otto reached out and took a crossbow from Gent and tried to load it.
On the way back to the castle, Gent asked Otto, who was playing with the crossbow all the way and couldn't put it down.
"Master, I know that weapons like crossbows have limited power. Master, do you want to prepare this for all the farmers?"
"The power is limited?" Otto smiled, pointed the crossbow in his hand at a tree nearby, and tried to aim. "You foolish man, you know nothing of the power of machinery."
With that said, Otto pulled the trigger, and the crossbow arrow flew out and penetrated into the trunk of the tree.
After dinner, Otto returned to his room, spread out the map he had drawn, and marked the location where he planned to build the Eagle Fort.
Now there were soldiers, and soon there were weapons. After being equipped with crossbows, this "new army" of mine also has a certain combat effectiveness. Then there are only two things that need to be paid attention to next, the construction of Eagle Castle and the threat of Mrs. Kellyn.
The key to the construction of Eagle Fort is money. The money provided by Mrs. Kelly can barely build a small earthen castle, while Otto wants to build a large stone castle. The difference in cost is more than one or two times.
Even if the stone could be mined by serfs, corresponding other building materials would also cost a lot of money.
Money, where does it come from? Otto had already thought of the answer.
The Allgäu Territory is located at a key location between South Germany and the French trade route, so it is natural to make good use of this location advantage. With so many caravans passing by every year, how can we only pay a symbolic bridge toll and toll?
Originally, Otto was not prepared to start collecting commercial taxes so early. When there was little development in his own territory, levying high commercial taxes was completely simplistic. But in the current situation, Otto couldn't care less about what he was doing.
Even though he knew that this behavior would cause the caravans passing through the border to take detours, which would be detrimental to the long-term development of the territory, Otto felt that it was worth it compared to the benefits brought by building the Eagle Fort. What's more, collecting some taxes won't necessarily make businessmen detour.
Historically, after a certain family ruled the northwestern region of Switzerland, they built thousands of fortresses, large and small, and set up checkpoints along the way. By collecting tolls, they made a fortune and completed the family's rule. primitive accumulation.
Compared to the exorbitant levies of that family in history, Otto felt that the commercial tax of thirty to one was just a cabbage price.
Otto's reconstruction of Eagle Fort this time was not only to meet the strange requirements of the system, but also to take this opportunity to build a commercial town based on Eagle Fort.
After the collapse of the Roman Empire, almost all the original towns in the empire declined, and only a few towns still retained commercial functions. The main reason for this situation lies in the successive establishment of feudal systems in various parts of Europe.
The feudal system distributed land and population as private property to lords, large and small, and turned the original free people into serfs. Without enough free citizens, it would naturally be impossible to support the development of cities and towns, and their decline would become inevitable.
Otto wanted to abolish serfdom in one step, mainly because serfdom restricted the development of productive forces. But he also knew that this was impossible. Not to mention how great the resistance to reform has been since ancient times, Otto did not want to become an alternative.
Therefore, Otto's idea is to use the newly built Eagle Fort to transform some serfs into yeoman farmers who own their own land, and then gather craftsmen from all over the territory to Eagle Fort.
In this way, the prototype of a small commercial town was established. As time goes by, a siphon effect will occur here and it will gradually develop and grow. Coupled with the geographical location of Eagle Castle, it is likely to become the business center of the entire Switzerland and even South Germany in the future.
Historically, many towns in Germany and northern France grew up in this way.
Even if it fails to become a business center, it can still gain great benefits as a trade transfer station on trade routes. The most direct example is Constantinople, the city of desire in the world, which makes a lot of money by relying on resale trade. Full.
With such a simple primitive accumulation method, why bother exploiting the residents who have no profit to begin with?
