28th July 1574
"Mike! It's been a while!"
It took us an entire four days in order to cover the distance that I was capable of passing within a day while with just a small detachnt of people. By the ti I could finally recognise the layout of the area around , indicating that we were slowly approaching the city of Sandomir, the scouts have reported that Jan's private army was already camping under the city, awaiting the arrival of the rest of the army.
From that point onwards, everything started to happen in really quick succession. The ssengers from both armies were sent, successfully establishing the communication link between the two camps. Within the next few hours, Jan was already done with discussing the general outlook at the strategy with the rest of the noble commanders, finally finding so ti to have a calm talk with .
"Jan, I'm glad you are already prepared for the war. Do you have any news from the mining town? I left them with quite a bit of work, so I would love to know what is their rate of progress."
Knowing that the war was already ongoing even before a single army was ford on Commonwealth side, there was no way that the commanders would dare to waste the ti by camping here, so rather than going to the city by myself, I knew that unless sothing unpredictable happened, I would have to rely on the second-hand news.
"Noting detailed. My people passed so ssages directed to you, and ever since I confird your version of the story with Zamoyski household, I didn't dare to break the taboo of breaking your seals. I hope you will find the answers you seek in those letters."
Reaching towards one of the bags attached to his saddle, Jan quickly broke the thin leather strap that was holding the bag in place, before throwing it towards . After almost failing to catch it in the air due to a misstep of Helga, I finally brought it to my chest before untying the knot that closed its opening and pulling one piece of paper at a ti.
"... new source of gunpowder, a makeshift ammunition plan was created. Thanks to the paper factory employing seven new engines in their old plant and fourteen in the modernised one, the cloth used for the casing previously was replaced with hard, oiled cartoon after the testing proved its quality."
If just the first report I randomly picked up from the bag was already so nice, then I didn't even want to have any expectations for what would co next!
"Thanks to the successful implentation of the steel plant logistics, the manufacturing of the mark seven personal rifles increased by twelve percent. The current output equals to nearly two thousand barrel pieces. As soon as the improvents to the plants producing other plants will be implented, we are expecting the total daily output of the guns to reach seven hundred pieces."
One letter by another, I was overwheld by better and better news. Even if all the improvents that this letter detailed would only be implented in the future, then I could still guess that at least a quarter of a thousand rifles were produced every single day by now!
"Oh, since I heard so news about what's going on in that mining town of yours I think you should know about one thing first before you will get puzzled by it yourself. The thing is, you surely want to know where did the money for all the increased production ca from."
Riding beside so far in silence, Jan finally broke his stupor, stopping from reading through more of the reports. And the problem he raised was sothing that was actually bothering even before I learned about all the improvents that the developnt officers of mine implented in the area!
"Well, with Ostros attack on my lands, the entire business for the beer kind of stalled, so it's actually pretty surprising that those people of mine still have the money to keep their pace."
As there was no point in denying it, I could only shrug my arms and admit this fact. Even if this montary break in the supply of the Tarnowian beer would ultimately end up rising it price and improving my inco, it didn't change the fact that for now, I didn't have any reliable source of inco that I could rely on.
Unless
"Yeah, I'm not sure if you still rember, but you invested quite a lot in that wood factory of yours. Do you still recall what I told you about this rchant friend of mine? Seeing how the situation in the commonwealth started to deteriorate with the news of the war spreading, rather than trying to sell that furniture that your plant started to produce recently to the locals, I asked him to sell it abroad."
Suddenly turning his head, so far directed straight forward, to , Jan taxed with his eyes while not even trying to his accomplished smile.
"I will have you know, just the first shipnt brough you over seventeen thousand golden pieces of raw inco. Fifty-five thousand for the rchandise alone, fifteen thousand for the use of the ships that were just floating on the river and stacking up. And no, you don't need to worry, every single ship of yours returned, and was operated solely by your people."
Hearing the news, I couldn't stop my hands from shaking.
Seventy thousand gold pieces?
After running the numbers through my head Even if I ignored how inaccurate this number would be, then according to the prices from the modern world, where the gold was far more abundant and overall cheap when compared to its worth today, that would still amount to more than fucking fifteen million dollars!
For a single shipnt? How was that possible?!
"I can see on your face that you can't believe it either But well, didn't I say you that he is quite skilled at his job? Also, he asked to tell you that this furniture of yours Is age breaking!"
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