Chapter 272
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Duke Friedreich was coming to the Sky Kingdom from the Volcanic mountains of his borders . Currently, Volcanic mountains were bordered with Duke Norman"s Domain because of recent expansion and also with John"s Western domain .
Duke Friedreich thought as he looked after entering the Sky Kingdom, "It seems we have to move a lot of ballistas on our borders, at least the ones bordering Norman"s domain . Well, it"s good that John is Vlad"s student so he should give me some face when I propose to buy some of his latest weapons, hehe . "
Duke looked at the commander of the escort team and asked, "What do you think? Would that coward and astute Norman attack our borders now that he has those ballistas? or would he be on the defensive . "
The Commander named Lyon shook his head and spoke, "Nope, no chance for now . Aelius, for now, is absolutely terrified of Lord John"s methods and I don"t think Norman would like to stir up any trouble at our border after the previous war . The Imperial court at Aelius is getting hotter now due to the internal politics and struggle for power over the blame of previous war and they are now trying to get a way to acquire their hands on Mana restoring pills produced by Sky . Instead, if we can get more weapons from Sky then we will certainly have leverage whether it is against Aelius or it is against the Demon King . We will gain more stability due to our good relations with Lord John . However, Demon King, Apollyon will get more cautious against us and Sky because of Strength showcased in the previous war . "
Duke nodded as he too understood that fact but he had a smile on his face currently, "Well, it is still better than our previous situation where we were always suppressed . I only fear that they will start supporting my brother Draco . Additionally, now we have a land connection to Sky which is in our favor . Well, Elder Ryan will handle Draco for now so we don"t have any immediate danger . Come lets see the Kingdom of my future son-in-law . Ahahahaha . "
The guards facepalmed as they saw Duke"s occasional stupid behavior but were quite accustomed to it as it loosened the atmosphere .
Lyon thought and spoke as harvest was near, "But we still have the problem of Food . Because of our Demonic power, half of the fields are damaged and we are forced to Plunder or hunt in wildlands . Though because of our strong bodies, we can work more but it leaks out our demonic power to the fields when exposed for a long time which in ruins half of the yields . "
Duke Friedreich saw that there were a few workers working on placing the rails tracts as well as making roads on the other side, "Maybe we can ask John to solve our problem and we can anyway plunder from the highlands and hunt beasts from now on since we have the Ballistas . Ohh look, From the looks of it, they are planning to connect all the villages and towns by roads from the way they are working . I didn"t expect them to connect to the border villages in such a short time even if they had the money to pay for it . As for those tracks, I heard from Vlad that John was planning to make a new transport system . I heard him call that Rail-road-sea Transport System . It seems John is focusing most on the Transportation system and Electrification system . I wonder why he wants those useless Common Magic Crystal mines when he has so much to do . Magic Crystals from beasts is 10,000 times better in quality . These Common Magic Crystals won"t improve your power anyway . He should focus on Agriculture since food and military is the foundation of any country from what I have seen from this continent"s history . Maybe he can show us a different story with Sky as his plans are all over the kingdom whether it is Agriculture, Military, Finance, or Commerce . "
Commander Lyon nodded and spoke, "True, Lord John may have his plans . And any way we can earn quite a sum by selling those useless crystals mines to him . However, watching the work over here is quite incredible we can take the road to the capital here from this border village . We will reach in hours since this road was said to be quite st.u.r.dy by our spies . These roads can carry a lot of load, unlike the stone roads we have in the Fire Abyss Kingdom . Let"s get our Black Fire Demon horse carriages on the road with our flags . We will be picking up our speed today to reach the capital in 7-9 hours maybe even less after watching the quality of these roads . From the looks of the fields, it seems the Elves have helped them this time around . They need to expand their fields from the next year since they have a population expansion this year due to migration and it is around 13m to 15m according to our estimates since those guys at Sky Population organization are keeping their lips tight and shut . According to my information, this population increase has been due to Lord Plato"s plan in the previous war where he hoped to squeeze the resources of Sky to take their technologies . But the problem of Food was solved by hunting the Wildland beasts and currently, there are quite a few forests that are being handled by the sky in case they need food in the future both here and also in Aurora . However, I wonder how many millions of gold has Lord John spent on this infrastructure project . Maybe even a Billion Taels of Gold would be insufficient if done all over the country after watching those Rail Tracks and Roads . "
Duke Friedreich nodded as he spoke, "Aah you shouldn"t worry about his finances . I heard from Vlad that This time they have used all the material resources like Steel, wood, concrete, cement, etc internally from Sky . As for Manpower, I heard they have used the Central Bank Notes i . e Sky Dollars issued by John this time . That don"t have the money yet but he said they have quite a number of Gold and Platinum Mines to pay them back in future and Anyway big trades involving big sums in Sky would be carried in Sky Dollars only so those workers and common people won"t have to worry, only the merchants who travel in and out of the country would worry about the Sky Dollars at first but after a few exchanges with the banks, they too are feeling a.s.sured in addition these banknotes save a lot of s.p.a.ce and are more convenient . This time they even established Banks all over the country in villages, towns, cities and states . This time the government employees too were also paid in banknotes issued by the Government as they were told to encourage the people in using Sky dollars in the name of John . Many merchants too have started using the same currently knowing the reputation of John . Even I was quite shocked by the boldness of John this time around . I remember that they have built quite a number of factories just for Steel, Cement and also for the production of their Railways . However, their Chief engineer has stressed on the need of Spare Parts factories rather than those Rail carriages . I wonder what kind of Marvel would we see after this is completed . Though I heard from Vlad that currently those bills are supported by Gold but later on other resources too will be added to support Sky Dollars like land, mines, Magic Crystal Mines I wonder what he is planning . He said that the Common Magic Crystal Mines are related to energy since Researcher Will and Tornwall recently had a big Technological breakthrough in using Magic Crystal for their machines instead of the usual Coal, oil and other sources of energy . But it would be done only on a later stage when people in the Sky Kingdom become accustomed and are comfortable to Sky Dollars . "
Commander Lyon who thought himself to be quite educated too was confused after hearing the Duke and spoke, "Hmm . . . This seems quite complicated even to me . So In short currently Lord John is paying them from future Income of their minting . Most likely he has found quite a number of Gold Mines and Platinum Mines in Sky to support Sky Dollars and hence he is quite confident in Paying Back via his banks . Maybe they found a number of Gold mines at Aurora Island . I heard that Island was quite rich in mines and minerals . And since most of the wages are paid to the workers in Sky Dollars they won"t have to pay them in Gold anyway since they won"t travel much out of the country Plus John himself is using his own reputation and hence those Sky Dollars won"t lose in value for the time being . As for the common Magic Crystal mines he may have found some use for them and hence he is betting on them . Speaking of Banknotes I noted earlier that Lord John is quite cunning in a sense that he semi-forces merchants to pay taxes in Sky Dollars whenever they are crossing the borders but gives them concessions on taxes as well if they use Sky Dollars . So it seems like a carrot and stick policy . "
Duke nodded as he spoke in agreement, "Hehe, You too will become cunning after you own a fief to manage . A wise Lord needs to be cunning . From this event alone, I can see that a lot of countries too will start issuing their own notes and force John to give his printing Technology to them, or else he will be attacked by them Diplomatically and maybe they could use their spies on Printing Tech since John would be h.o.a.rding their Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Copper coins if Sky Dollars become common all over the continent . Maybe we can benefit from John"s relations.h.i.+p and use it quite well acquiring those printing presses for Fire-abyss kingdom . However, the most incredible part about Sky"s Infrastructure project is that John didn"t a dime of gold this time around since everything was used from internal resources maybe they could have imported some materials but that is negligible in front of this ma.s.sive project . Now that is some high level of Economic brilliance from John or his subordinates . At first, I too was skeptical about Sky Dollars but after reading Vlad"s Letter I understood the brilliance of this Economic Marvel . However, to sustain this he would always need Food as a foundation because of expanding population I am skeptical since countries always keep a restriction when it comes to the export of Food Products and Strategic materials such as magic metals . Well, He can always Invade to plunder by waging war if he feels that he doesn"t have enough food . Countries have always been like that . "
Commander Lyon nodded as he thought about food and spoke, "True, but currently they won"t have to worry much since Mist and Alison have already given their help to Sky so food won"t have a problem for 3 years since they have stocked quite a lot . Previously I heard that in the Last harvest of North Frontier town as well they had 7 times the yield as compared to previous years even without the help of Elves . This time as well I expect the same in fact more since they have taken the help of Elves . "