When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

#692 - Armistice

Wiping the sweat from his neck with a handkerchief, Giganon, the trade representative of Thousand River Valley, once again led Slyda into the spacious, cool negotiation room.

The ice blocks, prepared in advance by the wizards, emitted a chilling aura, but it still couldn't dispel the frustration in Slyda's heart.

When he saw Mitney smiling and brewing coffee at the black wood negotiation table, he became even more irritated.

It had been two weeks since he arrived at Sola Fortress in late April, and now it was already early May, but the ceasefire agreement between the two sides had still not been signed.

It wasn't that Slyda wasn't trying hard enough, but that the demands of the Holy Axis were too harsh.

"Oh, Mr. Giganon, Your Excellency Slyda," Mitney put down the copper coffee pot in his hand, revealing his signature smile. "It's really hard on you both to come in such hot weather. Why not have a cup of our Black Serpent Bay's specialty, Blue Berry Coffee, to refresh yourselves?"

"Spare me," Slyda waved his hand. "I'm not used to this kind of thing... Do you have any wine?"

"Of course," Mitney snapped his fingers and called a servant outside the door. "Bring in a bottle of fruit wine, iced."

As he spoke, he used a knife to chip off two pieces of ice, dropped them into a crooked pottery cup, and took a sip of the fruity coffee. Only then did he smile at Slyda: "Your Excellency Slyda, today is your deadline to report to your lord. How have you considered the war reparations and ransom?"

"We are willing to pay the 100,000 gold pounds for the ransom in one lump sum, but isn't the 350,000 gold pounds for reparations a bit too much?" Slyda spread his hands. "Mr. Mitney, you also know that this war has exhausted the financial resources of the Lilac Corridor. 350,000 gold pounds is really an unbearable burden."

In fact, the total of 450,000 gold pounds in reparations was not an exorbitant demand from Horn.

Among those captured knights, about 2,000 held knight titles. According to the market price of 50 gold pounds per knight for ransom, Horn rounded it down to a neat 100,000 gold pounds.

On this point, the nobles of the Lilac Corridor were very happy because it was indeed in accordance with the rules.

But the 350,000 gold pounds in war reparations were beyond the knights' expectations.

"You can earn tens of thousands of gold pounds from the spice trade every year, and now you're telling me you can't come up with 350,000 gold pounds?" Mitney frowned and shook his head. "You've exploited Black Serpent Bay for decades. Asking you to pay only this much is only out of respect for His Majesty the King."

"That's 350,000 gold pounds, which is almost equivalent to 10 tons of gold. Where are we going to find 10 tons of gold for you?" The veins on Slyda's forehead were throbbing. "The lord's family doesn't have that much spare gold either."

Mitney lowered his head and gently stirred his coffee: "Then isn't there an alternative clause? I don't need to tell you, you can see how much of a concession the Holy Axis has made."

The so-called alternative clause was that the Thousand River Valley Fran Royal Trading Company, the Holy Scythe Monastery, and the Witch Council would establish a joint spice company, and the Lilac Corridor would spend 20,000 gold pounds each year for five years to buy shares in the company, but without management rights.

Furthermore, before the war reparations were paid off, all dividends would be used for the development of the joint spice company.

If this were the case, then the remaining 250,000 gold pounds could be reduced by 50,000, and then paid off within five years with a 5% annual interest rate.

In this way, in addition to the 160,000 gold pounds they would have to pay in the first year, they would only have to pay 60,000 gold pounds in reparations each year thereafter, of which 100,000 gold pounds could potentially turn into a return.

"But your joint spice company controls both sales and purchases, and our income will be greatly reduced. You also want to increase the wholesale price of spices. If that's the case, then we would rather let these soldiers starve to death, die outside, jump into the river from the shore, than accept any of your conditions."

Although defeated, the Lilac Corridor was not completely at Horn's mercy, because they were backed by the Fran Royal Family.

If the nobles of the Lilac Corridor were forced into a corner, they would simply abandon their bottom line and completely lean towards the King's side, since the privilege of monopoly was gone anyway.

Then Horn's goal of sharing trade risks through the Lilac Corridor and Red Leaf Hill would not be achieved.

Even weakening them too much would not be good, because it would also lead to these nobles being annexed by the Fran Royal Family.

Faced with the threat, Mitney simply looked at him calmly: "The joint spice company is to maintain market order, not to monopolize the market.

Otherwise, once the spice trade in Black Serpent Bay is liberalized, local planters will inevitably dump pepper in large quantities, causing the price of pepper to plummet. However, the joint spice company can control spice production and prices through preferential purchase rights.

If the market order collapses due to spice dumping, that's not something you want to see, is it?"

Slyda's face was ugly: "Then we demand a fixed quota of spice allocation every year."

After thinking for a moment, Mitney nodded: "We can make a concession on this point. We can give the Lilac Corridor priority to buy 30% of the annual export volume at the market average price.

As for the extra quota, it will be auctioned in Sky Maiden City in batches according to the plantation..."

Hearing this, Slyda's face improved a lot. Although it was less than half of the original quota, at least it wasn't completely lost.

Moreover, without those Secret Party members blocking the way, they could transport it themselves and save some money. In addition, with the auction in Sky Maiden City, it was still feasible to obtain about 50% of the quota.

As for the 30% that was lost, it could only be said that they had to accept their loss. Although they knew that the Lilac Corridor's monopoly on spices would not last too long, they didn't expect it to be taken over by the Royal Family so quickly.

As for the five-year payment, Slyda thought it was actually a maximum of two years, with a maximum payment of 220,000 gold pounds. When the new King Leia freed up his hands next year or the year after, Thousand River Valley would be half-crippled even if it didn't die.

If they made a move at that time, they might even be able to swallow Black Serpent Bay.

"Okay..." Slyda breathed a sigh of relief. "We will send 100,000 gold pounds to Dragonfly Bay before the rainy season to exchange for 2,055 knights."

"Great, we're finally making some progress." Mitney smiled and walked to the door, took the wine bottle from the servant, and poured three glasses of non-alcoholic fruit wine. "Let's have a toast in advance to celebrate peace, shall we?"

With the rapid writing of several scribes, a summarized version of the Spice War ceasefire agreement was freshly baked.

"First, the Lilac Corridor and Black Serpent Bay agree to immediately cease the war and accept the mediation of the Holy Monarchical State of Thousand River Valley and the Fran Royal Family, declaring to the outside world that they were not defeated.

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Second, the nobles of the Lilac Corridor are granted a certain share of preferential purchase rights, but they must give up their monopoly rights.

Third, they must not obstruct merchant ships departing from Dragonfly Port from entering the Lilac Corridor.

Fourth, Dragonfly Port is the only trading port from the Lilac Corridor to Black Serpent Bay. Trade outside of this place is not allowed, and both parties regard it as smuggling.

Fifth, this year's spices will be sold and purchased by the Holy Hoe Monastery. Black Serpent Bay guarantees that spice production will not suddenly increase or decrease significantly to avoid market chaos.

Sixth, the Lilac Corridor needs to pay 100,000 gold pounds to redeem the captured transcendent knights and soldiers.

Seventh, the Lilac Corridor will pay Black Serpent Bay a total of 300,000 gold pounds in war reparations to compensate for losses, and pay in installments of 20,000 gold pounds in stocks and 40,000 gold pounds in war reparations each year, with an annual interest rate of 5%.

Eighth, Black Serpent Bay is willing to receive the exiled criminals and refugees from the Lilac Corridor."

Taking a sip of the non-alcoholic fruit wine and looking at the ceasefire agreement that had been entangled for two weeks, Slyda was filled with mixed feelings.

Although he had tried his best to secure the best conditions for the Lilac Corridor, in its current state, it had only shed a little blood and was not considered to have suffered any serious damage.

But as long as the big nobles above disagreed, his efforts would be in vain.

What he feared most was not that Black Serpent Bay would make exorbitant demands, but that the stubborn old men would not admit defeat and would drag their feet, neither fighting nor making peace.

If that day really came, and he came to this negotiation room a second time, he probably wouldn't have the same conditions as now.

"We will send the treaty to Orange County by clipper within five days," Giganon said with a smile.

Anyway, he didn't suffer any losses. He got a share of the spice trade for nothing within a year of taking office, and his mouth was almost grinning to his ears.

"At the latest, we can give you an answer in a month."

"No hurry, no hurry." Mitney naturally sipped the fruit wine elegantly. "But I remind you, the rainy season is coming, so it's best to hurry up."