Preparations for commercial activities

Remember that you can give me ideas and if it is possible to apply them in the story I will do it.

don't ask how and why, just enjoy it, I will probably be returning from the trip when this chapter is uploaded.

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Friedrich von Roon POV

sometimes I don't understand what goes through the head of our king, Friedrich III, he was a crazy fanatic, who only thought about expanding the peaceful customs of our religion by force, his son, our current king, is quite different, he is too calculating, to such an extent that he plans the steps to follow several days in advance.

that happened with lord Tarly, the king had planned how the trade deal would develop, but something happened at the meeting that broke the king's plan causing him to panic leaving a moderately simple deal that ended up very much in lord Tarly's favor.

it is a matter of seeing how the king looks when the meeting was over, he was rubbing his nose all the time cursing himself for not having anticipated that answer from lord Tarly, it was already a bad day and unfortunately the Myr envoys arrived and tried to make negotiations with them, but it seemed more like extortion than anything else, but finally they insulted the king and that was something that even the calm monarch would not let happen.

Every king needs his own monster to bring the more undecided parts of the kingdom back into the fold, only the king has too many monsters around him

Charles, the knight who is invincible, kidnapped from an early age by the Teutonic knights for finding the best members for the order, endured all kinds of hellish training to make him the beast he is on the battlefield, but he is different from the average Teutonic knight, they have no feelings they are people who were dehumanized to show no mercy to the enemy, through breaking them with their training to reform them into a perfect soldier the one who only follows orders; However, Charles was not broken, he resisted all the training being one of the few who still has feelings, extremely linked to the king, as this was who was protecting and raising him since he was born, I would say that he even sees him as his own son, the representation of the force that the king deploys to fill the enemies with fear seeing how he looks like a monster destroying the enemy ranks.

Aleksanteri, a man without scruples for him, the end justifies the means, the one in charge of keeping an eye on the king's dissidents, a coward who uses women's weapons, poison, he is completely obsessed with poisons, since he found out that we nobles have resistance to poisons, he is obsessed with also making himself immune with the practice of consuming poisons constantly, it is not rare to find him in his chambers letting a snake bite him, for a while I thought he was the worst person I knew, since he showed no mercy even when the enemies surrendered, he kills the little birds that come to our domain with a smile on his face or see how he put a face of satisfaction when someone dies poisoned.

But the worst of all Lothar, when I knew him he was a devout protestant, honorable, but very tolerant with the other believers of the faith, he loved his big family, everything changed when the Great religious war came, that war changed him for bad, the honorable and tolerant man, he became the king's mad dog, he lost his 3 sons in the war each one of them died in the battlefield, after learning of his wife's suicide he only seeks to fill the pain with faith since then he detests the heretic, hates the pagan and has always been looking for ways to eliminate anyone who does not see the region as he does, with the previous king there could not be more harmony, since both were equal, but the current king is different he disobeyed his orders and he fell in disgrace and his duties fell on me.

The mere fact of sending lothar to a city in which god is not believed in the way he sees it is a death sentence, the king has condemned that damned city to be a new Jerusalem after the first crusade, except for the intervention of the divine, the city of Myr is condemned to a bloodbath, but the offense is too great the punishment is a bit severe not unjust.

Getting fanatic soldiers to lothar was not a difficult task, it was only necessary to give them an hour off from training and see if they would go to pray at the temple, repeat that for 2 days and that was it, the ones that visited the temple the most were the ones we selected to accompany the beast on his journey to the east, I just hope he doesn't try to retaliate with them, as they are locals and very few Prussians will go on this expedition

but my greatest concern centers on the foreigner lord Tarly my king trusts him too much, we hardly know him and he showed him the plans of the fortress showing him all our ways of defending the city

but now, after dispatching lothar to essos, the king wants lord Tarly to become more integrated into our administration, to make him feel part of the new administration.

The king had called me to give me a mission when I was done with lothar, and that's what I was heading for right now.

''my king I just finished sending lothar to essos, I am waiting for his new instructions'' I said as soon as I entered my king's chamber.

''Friedrich, great, I have a rather important mission for you, lord Tarly has insisted on seeing how our armies are trained in person and I think of no better person than you, since you are in charge of the training camps, plus he wants you to present him with the mercantile proposal we have been planning for the summer islands'' said my king while working on the ledgers

''yes my king, I know this does not concern me, but why so much interest in Lord Tarly, you showed him the plans of our fortress, if he were to betray us, he would know many of the weak points of our stronghold, besides we will have to train his men in the tercio combat system'' I said with concern.

''the best way to attract lord Tarly to our fold is to show him that we trust him, it is not unknown to anyone that he abhorred the tyrells, which makes it easier for us to win him over, besides the man is a soldier not an engineer he will never be able to memorize all the plans of the city that was in German'' said the king while he closed the book to continue

''Lord Tarly was genuinely interested in having his own fortress and tell me Friedrich who has the knowledge to build one of these?'', said the king in a questioning tone.

''only we have the engineers who know how to build one of those, my king'' I said confidently.

''Who else has the knowledge to produce the cement and to have large quantities of steel for the reinforcement bars'', the king asked again

''only us, my king'' I said, nodding my head.

''if Lord Tarly wants his own fortress he will have to negotiate with me and building one is not cheap neu danzig being a fortress and city will cost us almost 16 million golden dragons when its construction is completed in the next 2 years, not considering if there is no shortage of materials in the future'' said the king as he put his hand on his chin.

''all the gold I paid to lord Tarly for the mining rights will, sooner or later, return to my coffers and if you manage to convince him to invest with us to the summer island's expedition we will bind him not only for duty, but also for an economic business'' said the king looking me in the eyes

Lord Tarly's participation in the spice trade is so necessary,'' I asked doubtfully.

''it is not, but it gives a guarantee of confidence to other nobles or merchants who want to invest, since it would not be crazy if one of the ancient houses of the seven kingdoms trusts in the success of this one, that is why it is necessary that you convince him, but not obligatory, many nobles see merchants with bad eyes, so there are no problems if he rejects our proposal, so entertain lord Tarly for the day'' said the king while he pointed me to the door.

As I left his room, I went to wait for Lord Tarly to finish eating to take him to see one of our tactics training sessions.

''Lord Tarly, I am Friedrich von Roon, captain general of the king in Prussia, I am in charge of showing you the training of our tercios'' I said looking him in the eyes.

''thank you mhh lord Roon?'', he said doubtfully.

''yes you may consider me a lord, my noble title includes lands, now if you have something to do or shall we go straight to the training grounds?'', I said while maintaining eye contact

''I have to go collect some armor I ordered from our lord's smiths'' said Lord Tarly.

For 30 minutes, I watched as the blacksmiths finished the final touches to his armor so that it would have no weak points besides the joints, until finally lord Tarly came out.

''Is everything all right?'', I asked, looking at his armor.

''A little heavy for what I'm used to, but it's just a matter of wearing it every day until you get used to it, well, let's continue with what we have planned'' said Lord Tarly with his typical serious tone.

Finally, we got on our horses and ride to the training grounds of the local tercio that is under my command, Lord Tarly seemed genuinely interested in our tactics.

''I have noticed that you use various types of weapons in your tercio, what is that due to?'', Lord Tarly asked, looking at the tercio's formation ready for combat.

''the tercios are a natural reaction against the cavalry, the pikemen are to provide protection with their pikes to the crossbowmen, the crossbowmen have the mission to harass infantry as well the cavalry and the Zweihänder have the mission to cut the enemy pikes to make it easier to get into close combat'' I said showing him each type of weapon.

''I see, as you know our lord has agreed to train my men in your form of combat, I would like to know when this training will begin'' said Lord Tarly without looking at me.

''it depends on the budget, but I believe that after 2 years we will be able to train your men'' I said looking at my men.

''our lord promised that they would be trained'' said lord tarly this time looking me in the eyes

''yes he promised they would be trained not when, right now all the soldiers we use to give trainings are busy, so even if I wanted it wouldn't be feasible until later, the army budget has already been approved and no more changes are allowed until next year, but there is something you can do if you want to speed things up'' I said looking at him with a small smile

''and what would be what I could do'' said lord Tarly in a serious way.

''all in proper time lord Tarly, now we will fulfill your request to see our tactics'' I said looking him in the eyes

lord Tarly just nodded with a frown, and we stayed for 3 hours showing him all kinds of formations that can be done leading a tercio and the ways of combat, until finally, we got back on the horses and rode to the arsenal.

''Now can we talk about what I can do to speed up the training of my men? Lord Tarly asked in a serious tone.

''Yes lord Tarly, the king plans to organize a trading company to import spices from the summer isles'' I said looking at him.

''trade with the summer isles is not uncommon, but quite difficult because of the presence of pirates and iron born, so lord Hohenzollern wants to earn gold by trading, but where do I come in,'' lord Tarly said with a questioning tone as we continued riding towards the dockyard.

''the king wants you to participate, lord Tarly, he is sure with his new ships, we will be able to supply the demand for spices that the seven kingdoms have and even sell them to essos, if you contribute part of your personal wealth for the trading company, your house will consolidate as the second richest and most powerful house of the reach even more than the Hightower'' I said while I showed him the galleons.

Lord Tarly did not speak, but I could understand that he was surprised by the size of the ships.

''Yes they are big ships, our lord has full confidence that the venture will work?'' lord tarly asked.

''completely, these ships are made to carry 1500 tons of cargo, they can withstand the storms in the area and have enough armament to make the most intrepid pirate think twice before attacking'' I said looking him in the eyes.

''How many dragons do I have to participate in this enterprise?'', Lord Tarly asked.

''You will have to talk to our king as he knows all the specific details'', I said ending the conversation.

After this Lord Tarly returned to the fortress to speak with the king about his proposal, while I was dedicated to continue with my work.

''Captain General Friedrich von Roon we have a problem'' said one of the quartermaster officers of the shipyard.

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