Chapter 28: Cooperation and Win-Win

“Heh…”

Su Na exhaled softly, a puff of white mist escaping her pink lips.

“The weather has turned cold.”

Levi wrapped a cotton scarf around her neck.

“I didn’t expect such a heavy snow to fall suddenly before our arrival.”

“Miss, this year is colder than previous years.”

“Yes… I felt it.”

Looking at the white snow piled nearly as high as the fence outside the carriage window, Su Na sighed: “The commoners will have a hard time surviving this year, I’m afraid.”

She recalled the letters from the territory stating that the production of cast-iron steam engines was rising steadily.

The coking ovens had officially gone into production, and coal was step-by-step squeezing out the market share of charcoal in the territory.

At the same time, under the broader backdrop of the Regent’s central consolidation of power, many local nobles had already begun selling off their assets to settle in the royal capital.

Under her advice, Baron Kaibuli had exchanged a large amount of land with surrounding lords for territory rich in coal or mining resources.

They had essentially exhausted most of the land and family assets the Fafnir family had accumulated over the years.

Using current prospecting methods as a benchmark, the Fafnir family was already the largest de facto resource territory in the northwestern region of the kingdom.

This was primarily concentrated in the field of mineral resources; coal, because of its low value within the kingdom, was not factored into the comparison.

She reached out to scoop up a glowing red slime that was radiating heat, playing with it as she spoke: “It will only get colder from now on, right until they can no longer bear it.”

Once the steam engines were popularized with the heavy backing of the Church, energy consumption dominated by coal would quickly become mainstream.

Previously, because the gases from burning coal were toxic and polluting, even regions with coal deposits rarely used it.

But steam engines were not picky eaters, and the purchasing price of coal was exceptionally low, so it was inevitable that the winters would become colder year by year.

She could afford to share the steam engine as a stepping stone.

The Church and the Fafnir territory had already reached a preliminary technology-sharing agreement.

In exchange, the trade routes under the Church’s merchants would be shared with the Fafnir Merchant Guild, and the Kortel Merchant Guild would coordinate a portion of their commercial elites to help build Fafnir’s business infrastructure.

At the same time, the caravans would be under the direct protection of the Church.

This meant the Fafnir territory did not need to grope in the dark on its own, nor did it need to slowly build relations with various local lords.

With the direct assistance of the Church, they could pull together a mature merchant guild from scratch and rise rapidly.

Although this approach carried certain hidden risks, there was no other way; it was impossible to expect a newly emerging guild to resolve trade routes, local relations, and highwaymen on its own in a short period.

What exactly was experience?

Knowing which roads were safe and easy to travel, which lords were friendly and charged reasonable entry taxes, which manorial lords weren’t scoundrels who would rob you outright, whether the bandit forces entrenched in various places were strong or weak, and which level of mercenary group to hire—or even which mercenaries had clean hands—did you know any of that?

Many goods could turn a profit simply by being transported to another location—it was merely a question of how much.

But what made you think you could do it while others couldn’t?

Only the money you could actually bring back counted as yours.

The biggest local tyrants in the kingdom were the archbishops distributed across the various dioceses of the Church.

Without cooperating with the Church, she would quickly realize what it meant to take a step forward only to be blocked at every turn.

In truth, there was no need to hesitate.

What Su Na truly set her sights on was the massive potential market for finished steam engines and coal once the Church popularized them, as well as the subsequent demand for coke in the iron smelting industry.

Large-scale iron smelting required steam engines, and building steam engines required iron of sufficient quality.

If one wanted to improve the quality of iron, coke was required as fuel, which in turn needed coking ovens to refine.

And constructing coking ovens required both iron and energy.

These various points constrained and yet enabled one another.

An average local territory could control one or two of these elements at most.

In terms of final cost control, it was incredibly difficult for them to compete with a territory like Fafnir, which had already completed its internal self-sufficient cycle.

Naturally, this would lead to a market phenomenon where buying was far better than manufacturing.

This particular holiday trip home was actually urged desperately by Baron Kaibuli.

The experimental plots Su Na had planted last year yielded an average of about three hundred and fifty jin per mu after the autumn harvest.

Compared to the original yield of one hundred and fifty, it had more than doubled, and the sheer ecstasy in Baron Kaibuli’s letters was practically written on the page.

This was indeed something worth celebrating.

While her crop rotation and plowing reforms might have contributed slightly to the yield, the credit belonged primarily to the guano.

The discovery and utilization of guano was far too important, carrying an impact even more profound than that of the steam engine.

Its source was simple to acquire and its preparation was incredibly easy, while the advent of chemical fertilizers was still far in the future.

Prior to this, Baron Kaibuli had always harbored some complaints about Su Na spending money to buy bird droppings from so far away.

In his eyes, his daughter was perfect in every way, except that her hobbies were a bit too… niche.

She always seemed to have a particular fondness for all kinds of waste and excrement.

He could understand her requests to purchase more land or exchange resources for mineral-rich territories, as the steam engine was right there to justify them.

But the business with the droppings was something he truly could not fathom.

Only now did he realize what a massive fortune lay in that warehouse of guano.

During the new round of winter wheat planting, he had followed Su Na’s suggestions and distributed fermented manure and ground guano powder to the farmers in the territory to be scattered across their fields.

📚 Also on NHV Novels

Heemin’s One-Sided Love

AdultBoys LoveDrama

Read Now →
Not interested