Swiss Arms

Swiss Arms

Chapter 108

-VB-

Hans von Fluelaberg

Winter passed and I greeted the Year of Our Lord 1305.

My people managed to go through the harsh Alps winter with very little damage to show for it. Compared to the other cities nearby (Lindau and Chur), there were very any people dying from hunger or exposure. This had a lot to do with the fact that I provided small amount of coal to anyone who asked and provided jobs even to the infirm.

There was this girl - Annabell - who lost her left leg due to some accident before her family migrated to my city earlier this year. Being a cripple, she didn't have much job prospects, so I asked Isabella to take her in and make her into a bureaucrat. Of course, we had to start with reading and writing, but considering that the girl had very little to do even at her home with her family, she was quick to take to reading and writing. She only managed to start working as an actual bureaucrat only at the start of winter, but she's been worth the investment my wife and I put into her.

If there was a problem with my barony, then it was the fact that the city was expanding way too quickly toward Davos, creating an urban sprawl despite the fact that I was forcefully getting my people to build three to four story apartment as the default housing. This problem existed because people kept moving into my city even during winter.

Yes, my city-barony was starting to experience a rise in urbanization.

It helped the people that the basic hygienic practices I've put into practice have been helping the town see less deaths.

But less deaths meant more people in the city that needed to be fed, clothed, and housed.

The city's population hit five thousand by New Year's Eve, which made it the most populated city in all of the Swabian Alps, and it was a size achieved in under four years of its existence.

… There were so many things I needed to implement now before the town became too big and populated. I needed a better and more extensive sewage system, water distribution pipes, more branched out roads, and more. That meant I needed money.

But I spent a whole lot of my liquid cash on acquiring Rheintel, leaving with not enough cash to start any one of those projects at least until summer this year.

I could start it bit by bit, especially if I put myself to work, but that would take me away from my other duties.

"None of you are putting your all into this!" I shouted abruptly at the trainees who had the misfortune of having me for their trainer today. "You better start pushing those boulders before I start adding laps you all have to do before lunch!"

My "encouragement" got the five squads of ranger hopefuls to start pushing harder, but pushing harder didn't necessarily mean they were doing it right.

Right now in front of me were six groups of ranger hopefuls. Men and women who have been soldiers, militia, or mercenaries before they chose to join me for higher, consistent pay and respect.

Rangers were something of a celebrity in the Compact, you know?

And so these hopefuls, some thirty guys and girls (there were two girls because I didn't particularly care that they were choosing to be a soldier, even if the rest of society did) were here in front of me pushing giant cubes chiseled out of the mountains and pushing them along the wooden "rails" the town's miners used to push big rocks out from the entrance of the mines to the edge of the city where they now had a new workshop.

"Put your back into it!" I snapped at them.

They should be grateful that they weren't pushing those boulders on raw ground. Those wooden rails made it easier for them to push the boulder along.

Oh, and this also took care of some work for the miners so they could focus on the actual mining. It was training and working in one job.

Unfortunately for the hopefuls, the first thing I wanted out of them was stamina and strength training. They have to carry a lot and hike all over the forest, valleys, and mountains. Without those two traits, they weren't going to make it as a ranger.

Along the sidelines, two of the ranger instructors giggled at the new training method I'd thought up. Unlike the new hopefuls, they and their peers just got beat up and told to "git gud" if they didn't want to get beat up. They still get beat up but they get beat up less because I started to have them focus on other aspects like awareness and observation.

Anyone would start becoming aware of their surroundings if they got pelted in the face with a packed snowball in the middle of the night by yours truly.

It also helped me train my stealth skill.

[Stealth] LvL.73

Sneaky Beaky Like.

Reduces discovery

*0.75% reduction in discovery chance per level.

*Keep reduction when moving silently outside of enemy's close vision

This skill's been around since the Count of Zernez had come attacking my town.*

My rangers were, ah, becoming paranoid these days. They were always on the lookout for me in my camo gear, but since my winter camo gear gave +60% stealth as base stat if I had snow in the background, they were never catching me.

Not that they knew that.

To them, I was the white devil ready to drop snowballs in their underwears in their sleep, during mealtime, and training.

They hated me.

And soon, these guys will hate me, too.

"Get those thighs pumping! Little kids can push rocks better than you can!" I cackl- shouted at them. I was not enjoying this. This was just training and weeding, nothing more.

---

Despite my desire and push to have more bureaucracy in my barony, the actual day to day paperwork outside of certain seasons and projects remained low.

Low did not mean nonexistent, however, and if I didn't look over them every day to ensure that the work was done, then I would eventually come to my office to stacks of paper that had everything from land dispute claims and tax report to guard report and mine output report. Not to mention report from my porcelain workshop about how much they made, sold, broke, and retained.

I actually thought about delegating the workshop management, but didn't do that because, well, porcelain workshop was kind of like my town's specialty. I wanted to keep a tight control over it.

The mine I already privatized-ish.

And the report I held in front of me told me about its output from the independent miners working their ass off during winter.

Independent miners were also a very interesting group of people. While the initial miners were all from the local area, the demographics changed as time went on. For one, around half of the veteran miners actually stopped mining and took on other jobs related to mining. A good example of this was a man named Joachim from Davos. The man was a farmer's third son, and chose to work in my mines. After two years of working in the mines, he chose to become a sculptor. I wished him the best.

Sure, while I wasn't getting the most amount of money by continuing to allow miners to make a lot of money, but it wasn't just about money. It was about stability among my people, who might have otherwise turned to crime as there was far less jobs during winter for people. By keeping the mine open for independent miners to profit off from, I could redirect otherwise bored, cashless, and starving lower class. After all, it wasn't like I was paying out the miners for useless rocks. Most of the minerals, ores, and even fossils ended up in my treasury, and I paid the miners from money I earned selling porcelain.

The report I held pointed something out that irked me.

"Gold?" I frowned as I stared down at the report.

The mine had somehow found a gold vein, and the news spread like wildfire.

Sure, my town (or rather, I) produced gold from my private shaft underneath the castle. However, having an open source of gold that the public could take advantage of would bring a lot more people than I wanted right now. Gold had the tendency of attracting the unscrupulous thieves and scammers.

I'll have to increase town guard numbers and keep an eye out for corruption, too.

I sighed as I pulled out a new piece of paper to do exactly that.

-VB-

Anton Luhr

Munich, Duchy of Upper Bavaria

He stared at the three piles of metals that Samuel brought to him.

Only the two of them knew what Samuel was doing under his orders, and Anton felt both horrified and vindicated by what he saw.

"A-Are you sure?" he asked his friend.

"Yeah," Samuel grunted as he looked down at the metals in front of him with equal disdain and worry. "The new guelders don't have as much gold as the older guelders. The new pfennigs alos have less silver than the old pfennigs. Like … something like a fifth of the coin is made with some other metal."

In one pile of metal, there were coins.

In the second pile of metal, there were older coins.

And in the third pile of metal, there were silver and gold chunks along with mysterious metals that weren't silver, gold, or copper.

"That's…" Anton muttered in horror. A fifth of the coin was not the precious metal they were supposed to be? "Oh God."

-VB-

A/N:

*Chapter 10

What do you think Merchant Anton will do? He just learned that the duchy just saw an inflation over 15%, even if that's not how he would put it or recognize it as. The pfennigs and guelders may as well be fakes, and he's seeing them everywhere.