Chapter 186: We Were Willing to Contribute to the Territory’s Development

“Lord Su Lun, it’s not about the money, it’s that no scholars are willing…”

“Triple!”

“Your Lordship…”

“Starting next month, your White Sugar and Rum quota is gone.”

“Scholars? No problem, I will definitely bring them to you.” Fernand patted his chest and promised.

“Oh, it won’t be too difficult, will it?” Su Lun said with a smile. “If it’s too difficult, I can find someone else. I remember the Dolong Merchant Guild expressed willingness to contribute to Zhenbei City’s territory several times.”

“Not difficult, not difficult at all. Our Flamingo Merchant Guild is very willing to contribute to Zhenbei City’s development. Please give us this chance, Lord Su Lun.” Fernand declared righteously, but his heart was bleeding inside.

“Thank you very much for the Flamingo Merchant Guild’s contribution to Zhenbei City. Does anyone else here have anything to say?” Su Lun praised the Flamingo Merchant Guild greatly, then looked at the remaining guild managers.

“Lord Su Lun, our Violet Merchant Guild is willing to invite a scholar to Zhenbei City.”

“Lord Su Lun, our Barlo Merchant Guild is very willing to contribute to Zhenbei City’s development…”

“Lord Su Lun, we…”

As soon as Su Lun finished speaking, the other guild managers quickly expressed their willingness to help Zhenbei City develop, fearing that if they spoke too slowly, they would miss the opportunity.

A summit meeting on Zhenbei City’s sustainable development and international cooperation concluded in a warm and friendly atmosphere. The meeting decided that six merchant guilds, including Flamingo, Violet, and Barlo, would each provide one scholar to come to Zhenbei City to teach.

The teaching period was two years. All the scholars’ expenses in Zhenbei City were covered by Zhenbei City, and they were paid triple wages. Neither side could break the agreement after consenting. The teaching scholars needed to arrive with next month’s trading Caravan, and they had to pass Su Lun’s assessment. If they failed the assessment, that Caravan’s White Sugar and Rum quota for the month was canceled and allocated to the other guilds.

Additionally, as punishment, that guild had to bring two scholars the following month. If problems occurred again, then sorry, they would be completely stripped of their White Sugar and Rum purchasing quota.

After the agreement was set, several Caravans left Zhenbei City with this month’s purchased shares. Currently, the most profitable trade in Zhenbei City was White Sugar and Rum. These two items brought tens of thousands of Gold Nar in income to Zhenbei City each month. At the same time, Zhenbei City needed to buy various goods and slaves from other Caravans each month.

Now Zhenbei City could be said to be the largest slave buyer in the Northern Provinces. Every time Ji En’s Caravan went out, it bought thousands of various slaves. The male-to-female ratio in Zhenbei City was very unbalanced. Among those slaves, males made up over eighty percent, with only twenty percent being female slaves.

Actually, in the slave market, the number of female slaves was far fewer than male slaves. Often, when slave traders obtained female slaves, businesses like brothels would come to pick first. Those with even slightly attractive appearances were taken away, leaving only the utterly unappealing ones.

There was no particularly good solution for the territory’s population imbalance for now. In fact, recently, when Ji En bought slaves, he focused more on those with special skills, not buying many ordinary slaves. Zhenbei City was now conducting population migration transactions with various Lords in the Northern Provinces.

Many Lords’ territories had saturated populations. Ji En went to discuss relocating Refugees with them. As long as the money was sufficient, they naturally did not refuse. All Refugees were managed uniformly.

They were trained for three to five days in their original territory and given enough food to ensure they had strength for the migration. During training, the Refugees were organized into teams: ten people formed a group, fifty people formed a squad, and they elected respected individuals as leaders. Then, they were divided into migration groups of five hundred or one thousand people, moving to Zhenbei City in batches.

At the same time, each migration group was assigned a team of twenty Zhenbei City Soldiers and some Mercenaries for protection. The road from Zhenbei City to Karlt City wasn’t very dangerous, at most encountering some Gnolls, Kobolds, or Goblins.

These enemies were perfect for the Soldiers to practice on. Zhenbei City’s Soldiers took turns on these escort missions. Su Lun calculated that this way, nearly three thousand Refugees would join Zhenbei City each month.

The outer city of Zhenbei City was designed to hold fifty thousand people. Su Lun planned to stop buying slaves or migrants, or slow down migration, once the territory’s population exceeded thirty thousand. This was because after surpassing thirty thousand, space needed to be reserved for natural population growth in Zhenbei City in the future.

Of course, Su Lun could choose to continue expanding the city. But building a large city for one hundred thousand people wasn’t easy. By then, many villages or small towns would need to be established around the city, as farmers weren’t suitable for living inside the city.

In this world, cities with over one hundred thousand population usually had a city circle around them. Only with the support of several cities could a large city be sustained. For example, the capitals of many kingdoms, with populations of two to three hundred thousand, were almost entirely supported by the whole nation’s resources.

In ancient China from his previous life, those capitals with millions of people had large amounts of grain imported daily. If Su Lun really wanted to build a large city with over one hundred thousand people, he would first create a city circle and then upgrade the city.

As the territory developed, it needed more and more educated people. So, he planned to start a training school. Having the merchant guilds provide Scholars was to prepare teachers for this training school.

The papermaking technique used by this world’s natives was still very primitive. The paper produced was of poor quality: yellow, rough, and lacking toughness. Usually, when recording important matters, people preferred to use Parchment. Of course, Parchment was very expensive; a simple book made from Parchment could cost hundreds of Gold Nar.

Currently, Zhenbei City used wooden slips or linen cloth for records, reserving Parchment only for important matters, since one sheet of Parchment required one sheepskin.

Su Lun didn’t have much knowledge about papermaking techniques. However, he knew a bit about the papermaking process, one of the four great inventions that influenced the world in his previous life. So, he decided to combine some past experiences to improve this world’s papermaking.

Because the paper quality was so poor in this world, people didn’t value papermaking technology much. Su Lun had Ji En hire several craftsmen at high salaries to come to Zhenbei City when buying slaves. Those craftsmen were skeptical when they saw the price Ji En offered, but after getting assurances from the local Lord, they became somewhat convinced. Ji En practically half-forced, half-persuaded these craftsmen and their families to move to Zhenbei City.

After arriving in Zhenbei City and being assigned housing, these people were still in disbelief. Once they confirmed the houses were really given to them, the craftsmen burst with great enthusiasm.

The day after the papermaking craftsmen arrived, Su Lun began researching how to improve papermaking. His understanding of papermaking was limited to what he read in middle school history textbooks, so he could only experiment bit by bit, combining both methods.

Actually, Su Lun wasn’t very good at advancing technology trees. In the territory, the building that could speed up research was the Academy. But Su Lun had no Scholars now, so the Academy couldn’t be built. As for the Wonder Building ‘Great Library’ that could greatly boost research progress and tech advancement, he didn’t have the blueprint for it now.

Without attribute bonuses, Su Lun had to research on his own. Although he couldn’t use the Academy to advance the tech tree, some basic buildings still provided useful attribute bonuses.

After discussing with the papermaking craftsmen, Su Lun assigned some slaves to build a papermaking workshop in the outer city. The workshop covered over a thousand square meters and had all the necessary processes for making paper.

In three days, a brand new papermaking workshop was completed.

[Papermaking Workshop: A workshop for making paper. The emergence of paper represents the spread of knowledge. Papermaking Technology +5, Paper Quality +5, Work Efficiency +10, Territory Culture +2, Prosperity +2. The spread of knowledge makes your territory more prosperous.]

Seeing the Papermaking Workshop’s attributes, Su Lun was quite satisfied. He then gave the prepared papermaking materials to the craftsmen and had them make paper using the previous technique, while he watched from the side.

After understanding the papermaking process, Su Lun began modifying the technique based on some knowledge from his previous life. First, he changed the raw materials to use tree bark, jute, and other plants. They used water-powered machinery to grind the raw materials, then soaked them in lime water. Next, they proceeded with steps like pulping, sheet forming, and drying.

The entire process took half a month, and finally, the first batch of paper was completed.

“My Lord, this is the paper made using your improved technique. It’s much better than before.” Joel excitedly ran over holding a stack of paper.

Su Lun took the paper and examined it. This paper had slightly better toughness than the original, but it was still somewhat brittle. The surface was rough, far from the smoothness of the paper he used in his previous life. The paper was also yellow and somewhat absorbent, making the writing effect rather poor. Overall, the quality was only slightly better than the yellow paper burned during tomb-sweeping festivals in his previous life.

“My Lord, this paper is much better than the old paper. It can be used for writing now.” The foreman Joel said excitedly beside him.

“No, the paper quality is still too poor. The process needs further improvement.” Su Lun shook his head, then changed his tone: “However, this paper shows progress. Everyone, note ten points as a reward.”

The craftsmen, who were initially disappointed, instantly cheered.

“Alright, continue improving the process. Also, produce some of this paper as well.” Su Lun said to Joel.