Chapter 726: Entering Duoen Town Again, 'Beautiful Garments' Clothing Store

Jier nodded, feeling that what the old Merchant Fentijia said made a lot of sense. Thus, he bid farewell to the crowd there and rode his horse toward the front of the open space.

By this time, the trade goods for the previous spoils auction had been gradually transported over. Mr. Bafute was currently leading people at the main gate to inspect the goods being traded; various precious items recovered from the Bandit dens were being exchanged, according to Jier's wishes, for common supplies and tools that had been heavily backlogged locally.

Several hungry, thin donkeys, several large crates of Iron Nails that were useful everywhere, and even brand-new sewing tools were transported over by people sent by local small and medium Merchants. Among these, the sewing tools included small, professional items such as Scissors, needles, and thread, along with several rolls of sturdy fine thread.

Several crates of tableware for commoners, including clean plates and Wooden Bowls, as well as large wooden spoons for cooking and iron forks for roasting food, and other such items.

Thin and tough wooden boards; these were materials prepared to replace the old wooden boards of the salvaged wagons.

Several bags of special powder used for tanning leather, as well as brushes and scrapers for cleaning animal fur and scraping off Grease, and these things even included a simple fur rack that was convenient for Hunters to carry and set up for transport in the wild.

In addition, there were handy logging tools favored by Lumberjacks. With this complete set of items, including two-person saws, the Lumberjacks could easily fell trees and process them more quickly into firewood and timber for everyone's daily use.

There was also a pedal-operated grinding station sold in blacksmith shops. With this thing, the various old Bandit weapons and equipment in the hands of the public could be sharpened at any time, ensuring they remained sharp and free of rust.

Besides these, the most valuable item was, of course, a complete set of blacksmith Forging Tool Sets. This was the most valuable of the several crates of goods, specifically designated for exchange for this item. Only those who could produce the complete set of forging tools they needed could get their hands on the several crates of valuable goods.

Therefore, several Merchants pooled their money together and took the lead in spending money to purchase this set. When it was transported in, the local blacksmith shop and the Merchants' subordinates spent several Handcarts to move the items, including the anvil and the fire-resistant Furnace.

Of course, the people from the blacksmith shop only transported the complete set of tools; the consumables for operating the Furnace, including those for melting iron, were not included.

These consumables had to be prepared by the buyers themselves. After all, coal from the Central Province and local charcoal were not cheap, even though local iron was very inexpensive.

However, large-scale iron-smelting furnaces and the forging furnaces used by individual blacksmiths were two different things; they were not the same and could not be spoken of in the same breath.

At the main gate of the open space, once the goods brought by anyone for exchange arrived and were inspected by Mr. Bafute and Priest Bata'er, the corresponding goods could be taken away under the supervision of the Armed Civilians.

Overall, this was a win-win trade. Everyone felt they had benefited, that they hadn't lost out in the transaction, and had even made a huge profit.

Local Merchants used a portion of their money and a large amount of supplies and goods that were useless or hard to sell recently to call for higher-value looted goods. Even if those goods were valuable items that had been robbed or lost on the Shanglu in the past few years.

In any case, the items had already been lost. Even if the crates containing the goods still bore the names of certain Merchant Guilds, all of this had nothing to do with these current spoils. After all, once the goods were lost in the hands of Bandits, the ownership had nothing to do with the original owners; the items had been captured by the people led by this Knight named Jier, and the ownership of the goods was already in the hands of the Knight.

They had also obtained them through paid trade, after all.

As for Jier's side, his team had thus used various useless spoils to exchange for rare and urgently needed supplies.

With these seemingly miscellaneous supplies, many young people in the team who had nothing to do could fully engage in work, instead of just sitting idly on the ground, chatting away their days in boredom.

Jier found the idle young Shop Assistant of the 'Wealth Fruit' Merchant Guild at the bustling main gate of the open space and beckoned for the other party to lead the way.

Upon seeing Jier's current attire, the Merchant Guild Shop Assistant who had delivered the invitation even rubbed his eyes, confirming it again and again, before realizing that the young man riding the tall prairie horse—this young man who was even several years younger than himself—was the Northern Knight who had previously been wearing a suit of mottled Metal Armor.

"My apologies, my lord. Your transformation is truly so great that I didn't recognize you for a moment."

The other party bowed repeatedly, trying his best not to let the surprised expression on his face anger the young Knight.

Jier shrugged: "No matter. Although it is still early, in order not to be impolite when attending your banquet, I also intend to go to town to purchase some things. Do you know of any good jewelry stores or shops that sell Cloaks and capes in town?"

The young Merchant Guild Shop Assistant immediately smiled and said: "Jewelry stores and clothing shops? I know them, Knight. If you want to go, I will lead the way now; there should still be enough time."

The other party had misunderstood. A young man like Jier would not spend too much time shopping; unlike the wives of those Merchants, he would not spend an entire day in a shop just for the sake of dressing up.

Subsequently, the two walked outward together. Jier rode his horse, while the Merchant Guild Shop Assistant ran toward his own cargo wagon waiting outside the main gate of the open space.

As Jier passed the main gate, he greeted Mr. Bafute and Priest Bata'er, who were busy as could be, and suggested that they could find more people to help.

The Priest thought the suggestion was good, but Mr. Bafute seemed not to have heard him in his busyness, remaining occupied with checking the quality and quantity of the goods the Merchants had brought for exchange.

At the main gate, Jier's horse was blocked by someone. He looked down and saw that it was the middle-aged Steward of the shop—Mr. Lao'er—who had signed a contract with him to find people to help promote this auction.

Although the other party stood vaguely in front of the horse without speaking, seemingly worried that what he said would be heard by those around, Jier knew what the other party meant.

"Thank you, Mr. Lao'er, thank you for your contribution to this auction. As you can see, this auction for selling captured spoils has been very successful and has solved many troubles on my end."

Upon hearing Knight Jier say this, a smile appeared on Mr. Lao'er's face: "This is what I should do; I do not deserve the Knight's praise."

Jier winked, reached into the bulging money pouch at his waist, and pulled out a handful of gold and silver coins. He counted out three Gold Coins from them, then put the rest of the money back into the pouch.

Bending down to secretly hand the three Gold Coins to the other party, Jier said nothing more, waved his hand, and walked away.

As for the middle-aged shop Steward Mr. Lao'er, he hurriedly turned his back, bit the three Gold Coins with his teeth to confirm they were real, and then put them away, proudly saying to his friends sitting on several crates of junk outside the open space: "What did I tell you? Didn't the money come? Haha. Let's go, I'm treating tonight; let's go to the tavern and have a good celebration."

One of his friends kicked the wooden crate they were sitting on with his heel: "Then what about these pieces of junk we spent money to buy? Should we send them to your place?"

Looking at the several crates of old junk with disdain, Mr. Lao'er frowned, hesitated for a moment, and then said: "Why bother with these? Whoever wants them can take them."

Having gained three Gold Coins for nothing, Mr. Lao'er naturally looked down on those pieces of junk that could barely be exchanged for money, but his friends cared and were interested. Therefore, upon hearing that the things they had spent money to buy were theirs to dispose of, they took them two by two, and without needing anyone else's help, they ran off quickly, huffing and puffing.

This forced Mr. Lao'er to shout loudly: "Don't forget! Meet at the old place tonight, I'm treating!"

"Won't forget! Just make sure you bring enough money!"

His friends said this as they carried the things and ran far away.

Mr. Lao'er didn't care. He proudly sniffed, shook his head, and felt that since it was still early and he couldn't be bothered with matters at the shop, he pondered that before night fell, he could go to the Red House to wander around and spend some money for entertainment.

But wearing this set of shop Steward clothes was certainly not appropriate, and he also had to tell his family.

Thinking of this, he took a detour and walked toward his home in town.

Jier rode his horse behind the 'Wealth Fruit' Merchant Guild's wagon, moving quickly toward Duoen Town in the Bei Mian.

Previously, he had wondered why the Merchant Guild Shop Assistant had a wagon loaded with firewood waiting for him at the gate of the open space. It was only when the horse and wagon passed through the foul-smelling streets on the outskirts of town and arrived at a section where the ground was relatively clean and level, and he saw the Shop Assistant jump off the wagon, that he understood.

The Merchant Guild Shop Assistant simply didn't want the shoes on his feet to be contaminated and dirtied by the foul mud of the streets on the outskirts of town.

"Are you all like this usually? Riding in wagons in and out to avoid the foul mud on the ground and such?"

Jier asked curiously.

The young Merchant Guild Shop Assistant first smiled in response to Jier, then looked back with disgust at the churning mud on the street not far behind them: "Knight, if you are talking about us, we can enter town from some cleaner side paths in the vicinity; we won't walk on the main roads. The excrement of the livestock pulling wagons back and forth there is never cleaned up by anyone, and some residents even casually pour their daily sewage onto the streets."

"As for those big shots, they either don't leave the central area of town, or the areas where the ground is still decent. Even if they absolutely must leave town, they only enter and exit by wagon."

Jier found it strange: "I see that there are people responsible for cleaning the hygiene of the streets in town, right? Then why is it that no one cleans this circle of places where ordinary people live outside?"

The young Merchant Guild Shop Assistant seemed very surprised: "Ordinary people? Commoners? No, no, no, Knight, you have misunderstood. Here." He pointed to the street where the two were currently located.

"This is the commoner district where ordinary people live. That circle outside is not a commoner district with some property; it is a place where the destitute, who have no property other than themselves, live—the slum."

Jier raised his eyebrows. Kendall City also had slums, but the residents there each had their own one or two-story houses, and some families even had front and back yards, possessing independent water-drawing and sewage outlets.

He finally understood that what the people of Kendall called a slum was just a form of self-mockery. The people in Duoen Town who lived in rooms like beehives and had nothing to do, where several people couldn't even scrape together a full set of clothes, were the true destitute.

Frowning, Jier gestured toward some buildings he had seen earlier that looked like grave mounds and asked what those places were where people were always coming and going.

Unexpectedly, the young Merchant Guild Shop Assistant leading the way beside the horse winked: "My lord, that is not a place that a big shot like you should know about. I can only say that it is the farmer's last sickle work of the autumn, the small peddler's last day in the Cunzi, or the last meal of milk that a kitten or puppy can eat."

"A place for pleasure?"

Jier guessed.

Unexpectedly, the Shop Assistant waved his hands: "No, no, no, you can't call their place pleasure. To put it bluntly, my lord, that is a place to drain the very last Iron Coin from their hands. Without money, the paupers who have nothing will break each other's heads for a day of hard labor that only pays one or two Copper Coins. Thanks to this, the cost of labor in town is very low, and that is how everyone makes a profit."

Having said that, the other party did not say anything more, but Jier already understood.

"The person who came up with this method is very good at exploiting human nature."

"Who's to say otherwise, Sir Knight? This is a method thought up by the previous head of the Merchant Union. Heh, it works in perfect harmony with the system of reselling debtors' labor devised by the current head."

The young Shop Assistant clearly worshipped these two people, speaking with an excited expression.

Jier was noncommittal about this, only feeling a bit sorrowful. But as he calculated in his mind, he discovered something interesting.

The paupers work daily for a day's wage of one or two Copper Coins; over a year, their income is roughly close to five thousand Iron Coins, or roughly five Silver Coins; if it's more, the labor income could estimate to nearly one Gold Coin.

And this income, while seemingly looked down upon by locals and belonging to the lowest income bracket, already exceeds the income of farmers in almost all rural areas.

Yes.

Almost all farmers in rural areas work harder for a year and have to rely on the weather for their food; at the end of the year, their income is not even half of what the so-called 'paupers' of Duoen Town earn.

If farmers in more remote villages lack channels to convert grain into cash—that is, the trade activities where grain merchants from various places go to the grassroots villages to collect grain—the grain in the farmers' hands cannot even be sold for a single Iron Coin. At the end of the year, besides a large amount of grain that is constantly being stolen by animals, their income is almost zero.

Without coins, they cannot afford any goods that require money to obtain.

Jier exhaled, thought of the songs of Kendall County, and understood what an annual income of one Gold Coin truly meant to ordinary farmers.

So that is why the loss rate of personnel for the long-distance trade caravans of various Merchant Guilds is high, yet there is still a constant stream of newcomers joining.

So that is why the Bandits on the trade routes of various places can never be eradicated; no matter how the Noble Knights of various places wipe them out, new Bandit Groups will always be formed to rob passing Caravans.

In the final analysis, it is nothing more than the four words: there is profit to be made.

The two walked and talked; the young Shop Assistant led the way for the Knight while introducing the shops on both sides of the street and which Merchant Guilds were behind them.

This person was so familiar with the relationship between the shops and the Merchant Guilds behind them that he was clearly not an ordinary Shop Assistant, especially since he could be sent to deliver firewood and invitations to him.

Jier guessed that he should be a young backbone talent heavily cultivated by the 'Wealth Fruit' Merchant Guild.

After all, although most Merchant Guilds rely on family wealth and practical experience to pass down the guild, that is only what small and medium-sized Merchant Guilds do. For large Merchant Guilds whose trade spans everywhere, relying purely on family inheritance and personal teaching to cultivate talent is simply not enough, and they dare not use it.

Upon inquiring, he learned that, for example, the several large Merchant Guilds that make up the Merchant Union in Duoen Town are each formed by several powerful families contributing money and effort. But this is only the beginning; as the Merchant Guild develops, the talent cultivated by the families is never enough.

Especially when going out for business and trade, various personal risks always exist, including but not limited to death or disability due to illness, disability and death caused by Bandit harm, death or injury caused by attacks from peers during out-of-town trade, the risk of death and disability caused by being imprisoned due to greed, and accidental risks caused by natural weather, etc.

Therefore, absorbing talent from all walks of life into the Merchant Guild for cultivation is the only means for large Merchant Guilds today.

Such a Shop Assistant starts being cultivated from the time they enter the Merchant Guild in their teens, and by the time they reach middle age, they can basically use more than ten years of business experience to become a true backbone pillar of the Merchant Guild.

The families behind the large Merchant Guilds then intermarry with them, which can bind the talent to the Merchant Guild.

My wealth is my wealth, and your person and wealth will eventually be my wealth too.

Although this person didn't say it explicitly, Jier guessed it as soon as he thought about it.

The difference between this model in this other world and his previous life is that people here basically do not value education. Commoner families mainly pursue obtaining a skill to make a living, which is why there are a large number of apprentices in every workshop for the Craftsmen to order around.

As for professional language, literacy, and various commercial skill education, the model here is basically still the Merchant Guild's method of passing down experience. Some Merchant Guilds even consider it good to cultivate the backbone talent they have taken a fancy to; more often, they are left to fend for themselves, only caring about making money and waiting for talent to occasionally emerge on their own.

As they talked and walked, the Shop Assistant led Jier to a clothing store, which specialized in selling all kinds of ready-made clothing and, of course, also supported custom-made clothing tailored to measurements.

"If you are missing a suitable cloak, this shop is excellent. This 'Beautiful Garments' is a place where the Stewards of several Merchant Guilds come to have their clothes made."

At the entrance of the clothing store, the young Shop Assistant pointed to the shop's sign and introduced it.

A piece of golden fabric hung from one corner of the sign to the other, very eye-catching and conspicuous; passersby would always unconsciously take a few looks.

Jier did too; he noticed that this piece of golden fabric used as part of the sign seemed to be mixed with a large amount of gold thread.

Even though gold is a soft metal, wouldn't this fabric be stiff with such a high proportion of gold thread added to it?

"I see the fabric on the sign has a lot of gold thread added; don't you find it hard? To use for making clothes?"

Jier flipped off his horse, handed the horse to the shop bouncer who walked out from inside the main gate, and asked the Shop Assistant beside him.

The Shop Assistant naturally did not know the answer, but fortunately, a Shop Assistant at the shop's entrance heard it and took the initiative to come over and explain: "Guest, this kind of fabric is a specialty of the Nanbu Lian He Wang Guo. I heard that after mysterious alchemical processing, gold can also become as soft as silk thread. A bolt of this fabric even costs as much as three times its weight in gold!"

"Good fellow, that impressive?"

Jier clicked his tongue in wonder and looked up at the shop's sign again: "Aren't you afraid of losing it? Just hanging it outside like this?"

The Shop Assistant seemed to have answered similar questions countless times: "Guest, we take it back every day and hang it up again when we open the next day."

Jier laughed and walked into the 'Beautiful Garments' shop.