flstandardbreds Chapter 256: It's not wasted, it's sent
Chapter 256: It's not wasted, it's sent
Five miles east of the city of Mont-de-Marsan was the temporary camp where John's army was stationed, and a few hundred meters further east was the site for the new fortress.
Although it was already late autumn, it still felt stuffy near noon. Even the air around was distorted by the heat wave, so that the fully armed soldiers in the barracks had sweat on their foreheads.
Of course, the hardest working group is the Noble Education Team that was just formed a few days ago.
Spirit! Struggle! Unity! Victory!
Under the blazing midday sun, dozens of young masters from different noble families in Mont-de-Marsan were carrying out physical training with the utmost enthusiasm amid the angry rebukes of the White Wolf Knight.
"Crawl for me! If you can't walk, crawl for me!"
In the mud pit, the young nobleman who originally looked so glamorous outside was like a pig playing in the mud in a pigsty, with mud all over his body. If a young nobleman refused to jump into the mud pit, the White Wolf Knight behind him would kick him down.
"Hey, the next generation of nobles is ruined."
Looking at the young nobles who were training in the distance, the White Wolf Knight Commander who was in charge of the education team under the shade of the tree couldn't help shaking his head. He thought that the group of White Lion Knights he brought a few years ago would not be satisfactory, but he didn't expect that this group of people didn't even look like human beings.
"Not good, not good."
At this moment, a White Wolf Knight suddenly rushed over.
"Several young nobles suddenly fell ill in the house."
"If you are sick, go see a doctor."
"Well, this disease may not be easy to cure. It seems like madness." The White Wolf Knight thought for a long time before replying.
"Take me to see it!"
After hearing this, the White Wolf Knight Commander went to check immediately. If anything went wrong, it would be difficult to explain to Governor John.
When he entered the house, the White Wolf Knight Commander saw several young masters tied to chairs, each with a rag stuffed in their mouths. Most of them had their eyes wide open, and their bodies were constantly struggling, like a few fish that had just landed on land.
"What's going on?"
Looking at the situation in front of him that seemed like it was possessed by a demon, the White Wolf Knight drew his sword and asked the doctor present.
"I'm not sure. I've never seen this disease before. It shouldn't be a fake. It's better to send him to a local hospital as soon as possible." The doctor shook his head and said.
At this moment, a young noble from the education team was about to enter the room, but he saw a group of people suddenly appear in the room. He was about to withdraw his foot, but was stopped by the White Wolf Knight Commander:
"come here."
When the noble young master approached, the White Wolf Knight Commander asked:
"Do you know these people?"
"It's OK. Although we don't meet often, we can still talk when we meet."
"Have these people ever had this problem before?" asked the White Wolf Knight, turning sideways to let him see the situation inside clearly.
"Oh, this is not a disease. They are just addicted to cigarettes. Just give them cigarettes."
"Is smoking a new form of addiction?" The young nobleman's words directly hit the blind spot of the White Wolf Knight's knowledge. He had heard of alcohol addiction, card addiction and some other addictions, but he had never heard of smoking addiction.
"So what should we do in this situation now?"
"Well, if you don't give him cigarettes, he'll stay tied up. He'll stop when he gets tired."
"Then keep tying him up, and write a letter to the Governor-General to tell him about the situation here."
After John received the letter, the issue about the noble young masters' addiction to smoking made John's brain crash on the spot. This was no longer a question of whether they would become useless or not. It was hard to say how many years these noble young masters could live.
What surprised John even more was that there was actually a tobacco shop in Mont-de-Marsan that specialized in selling tobacco.
"Come here, ask the local carriage guild to prepare a carriage, and also prepare the carriage for the embassy, and ask a team of soldiers to follow. I want to see what this opium den in Mont-de-Marsan is all about."
Under the guidance of the local coachman, John quickly found the location of the opium den, which was located in a large villa with a courtyard near the inner city wall in the western civilian area. There were several carriages parked at the door. John saw several familiar badges, which seemed to be only owned by the nobles of Mondemarsan.
"Get out of the car, drive the people at the door away, and then send someone to follow me in."
After receiving the order, the soldiers immediately drove away the crowd at the door of the tobacco shop, and John led the team into the tobacco shop.
As soon as he entered the tobacco shop, the smell of cigarettes rushed straight into John's nose, forcing him to cover his nose. He grabbed a man dressed like a servant and said:
"Where is the person in charge here?"
The captured servant saw a group of soldiers standing on both sides of John and at the door behind him, and knew that if he didn't follow John's words, nothing good would happen, so he immediately said:
"The second room on the right upstairs is the room of our tobacco shop director. He is working in the room right now."
After hearing this, John pushed away the servant of the opium den and went straight to the second floor with the soldiers. The wooden boards of the stairs creaked so much that by the time John went upstairs, almost all the rooms were opened by the people inside to see what was going on. John also recognized a few familiar faces, who were the nobles he had met before. After seeing John, the anger on their faces due to being disturbed instantly turned into fear, and then they quickly closed the door and went back to their own rooms.
When he arrived at the door, John knocked first and then pushed it open. This was just a habit John kept. He also didn't like others entering his room without knocking. But this kind of respect was limited for other people because John would go in directly after knocking on the door regardless of whether the other party agreed or not.
Entering the house, John found that the decoration here was the same as the Principality of Is that he had seen in the forest before, and the person sitting next to the desk was also dressed like an Is person.
When the director of the tobacco shop saw the newcomer, he greeted him warmly:
"Isn't this Lord John? I heard a few days ago that you came to Mont-de-Marsan to take up a post. I wanted to go over to see you, but I was really too busy those days and couldn't take care of it. Please forgive me."
"Stop, stop, stop, do you know me?" John asked.
"Look at what you said. Of course I know you. When you built your house, I sent you a lot of marble. If it weren't for your nod, my business would not have come this far." The curator said as he took out a bottle of wine from the wine cabinet.
"This is a wine from Brittany, east of Midland. Come, let me pour it for you."
"Okay, I didn't come here to drink. Let me tell you straight out, is this smoking den yours?" John didn't want to get too close to him anymore, so he asked directly.
"Of course it's mine. Governor John, are you buying tobacco or smoking utensils? I not only have pipes, but I also sell Kusha hookahs."
"That's good. From now on, no nobles or their families are allowed to come into your tobacco shop, and they are not allowed to buy from you."
"Oh, this is not good." The curator was shocked at first, then immediately pleaded:
"You know, I'm a small business here. It costs a lot of money to transport tobacco from Yisu. And those nobles are my big consumers. Without them, I will definitely lose money."
Looking at the curator who was originally happy but now looked pitiful, John couldn't help but sneer in his heart. For these businessmen, making less money means losing money.
"Are you really stupid or are you just pretending to be stupid? What has become of the nobles over there? If you want to open a court, just open it. If something happens, open the court of nobles immediately. By then, it will not be a question of whether this opium den can be opened or not, but a question of your own life."
John paused after he finished speaking, and then dropped a bombshell on the curator:
"Don't think I don't know which chamber of commerce you belong to. I will write a letter right away and ask the fleets of Qiusda and Beigang to conduct a thorough investigation of your chamber of commerce. Then we will see if your chamber of commerce's ships can still cross the South Grant Sea."
If the first point John mentioned only endangered the curator's personal life, then the second point would directly affect the future of the entire family. At this moment, the curator wanted to slap himself twice. He would not have argued with John if he had known this, because some people have the strength to resist this.
"I deserve to die, I deserve to die, please don't be angry, I will let those nobles go right now, please spare my life for the sake of our Grand Duke."
"Well, it's still a personal statement, so let's do it this way."
John was about to stand up and walk out when he reached the door, but he suddenly turned around and said,
"Go find me some Isu merchants who specialize in grain trading."
The curator was a little bit unbelievable when he heard this, so he bravely asked:
"Sir, I am in the tobacco business, I don't know anyone who sells grain."
"I believe other people's words, but I definitely don't believe you Yisu people's words. You can switch back and forth from merchants to pirates, but you can't just change the goods you sell and tell them that the price is negotiable. It must be at least twice as expensive as the current market price."