Chapter 21: 21 not a single word of truth

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"So naturally, I would pick some of the less desirable lands to purchase, you would get a cut, I would get a cut, and the soldiers below us would have something to skim...naturally, everyone would be overjoyed, right?" Tang Mo continued to explain.

"Hmm... Now that you put it that way, I understand." The town mayor's expression eased considerably, and he nodded slightly in praise of Tang Mo, "I could tell from the start that you are very sensible, young man with boundless potential."

You just heard about the cut, so now I'm the young man with boundless potential, huh? Tang Mo cynically commented to himself in his heart.

However, he still maintained a smile, extended a finger, and made a promise, "Once the job is done, I'll give you this amount!"

"..." Seeing the gesture Tang Mo made with his lips, the mayor's heart skipped a beat. That was a hundred Gold Coins! He'd have to...no, he'd have to struggle for an entire year to make that much in under-the-table income!

It wasn't as though the Shireck Consortium only gave Baron Stela a yearly profit of 150 Gold Coins. As the mayor of this small town, he could barely scrape together 100 Gold Coins after a year of hard work. Now he had a chance to double that income; how could he not be tempted?

"Let's hear the specifics, see if I can help the Lord Earl resolve his dilemma..." The mayor implied something more in his remarks.

"I'll buy to the north! Towards the direction of the Vicious Forest, buying up the wastelands, forest lands... How about it?" Tang Mo finally revealed his true purpose.

The mayor was taken aback for a moment, then his face showed a satisfied smile, "Good! I knew since you were paying to sort out this matter, you definitely had a way to make that money back..."

If it were the fertile lands to the south, the manors and such, he could not accept. Because that was his profit, and it was also for him to control the Sheriff and the tax officials, and to support himself.

But the lands to the north were different; mostly non-arable and untillable, and too unsafe being next to the Vicious Forest, so few people were interested in them.

Such lands being idle were just as well; being able to sell them for a good sum, he was like turning waste into treasure, gaining an advantage other mayors couldn't.

He paused, then feigned contemplation before continuing to agree with Tang Mo, "Sure, if it's those ownerless lands to the north, I can decide to sell them to the Lord Earl."

As he spoke, he glanced at the man dressed as a military officer standing behind Tang Mo, who had remained quiet. Seeing no dissatisfaction on the man's face, he knew that these soldiers had apparently been "bought over" by Tang Mo, the cunning businessman.

This made him even more reassured because it meant that those below were in collusion, and under such circumstances, the nobility above were often deceived by their subordinates for a time.

"Just one thing!" But he leaned towards Tang Mo and raised a seemingly worrisome question, "What if the Earl finds out about this...?"

"Don't you worry... Mr. Mayor." Tang Mo didn't give him the chance to drive up the price and assured boldly, "By the time the Earl loses Northern Ridge and has to flee here... will he still have the mood to trouble us?"

"Err... Haha!" The mayor was startled, then burst into loud laughter. He pointed at Tang Mo and praised satisfactorily, "Why didn't I realize earlier that you're such an interesting person?"

So, although Tang Mo appeared very wealthy, in reality, the capital he could maneuver was not that much.

It was unavoidable because Count Fisheo was not greedy, so he could not come up with so many gold coins at once, and therefore Tang Mo could not possibly receive all the goods payment at once either.

Actually, Tang Mo was already quite content. Being able to bring back over 1000 gold coins at once had greatly exceeded his expectations.

Over time, a good deal of this money had already been spent. On one hand, Tang Mo had purchased a large quantity of steel and food from the port, as well as a substantial amount of leather and bristles.

In addition to recruiting construction workers, buying construction materials, acquiring some land nearby, and paying his workers—he had already used about 300 gold coins.

The remaining gold coins, of course, could not all be spent, as he needed to keep around 300 gold coins to hire teachers, build schools, construct new factories, and procure more steel materials.

Therefore, the funds he could use amounted to roughly around 500 gold coins. Considering the need to reserve some gold coins for potential risks, the amount he could spend without any concerns might only be between 300 to 400 gold coins.

It might sound like a lot, but it definitely was not. In comparison to the large plots of land he wanted to purchase, this money seemed somewhat insufficient from any point of view.

The town mayor on the other side didn't know about this, and upon hearing that there was a big spender like Tang Mo willing to help the Lord Earl buy a large piece of wasteland, he had already begun to calculate just how much he could embezzle from the deal.

Afterward, the two of them began discussing the specific size of the land, as the gold coins in Tang Mo's hands were not enough to buy all the land between Brunas and Vicious Forest directly.

Therefore, which parts to take and which to leave out needed careful deliberation. Tang Mo was very familiar with the area, and the town mayor knew it like the back of his hand, so the two of them marked up the map and quickly decided on the size and location of the land.

Tang Mo didn't fuss about the quality of the land; he needed land to build factories and expand production. Thus, he only chose a piece of land next to his weapons workshop, so vast that it could truly be described as 'huge' due to its barrenness.

After pondering for a moment, the mayor looked up and nodded in agreement, "All right! We can sign the land sale agreement immediately!"

"Hold on!" Of course, Tang Mo couldn't possibly come up with 600 gold coins, so naturally, he stopped the mayor in his tracks from getting up to draft the land purchase contract and slaughtering him like a fattened pig.

"Hmm?" The mayor frowned and looked at Tang Mo.

"My lord, part of the Earl's gold coins are still on the way... so, it will be ten days later before I can pay you the other half of the gold coins!"

"I thought it was something serious! You can issue an IOU! If the gold coins don't arrive, our contract will simply be null and void..." The mayor said carefreely, waving his hand. He had no reason to disagree with such an arrangement; if Tang Mo couldn't produce the final payment, he would simply take back the land and pocket a few hundred gold coins, naturally making a bit more profit.

As expected, once he had said this, he immediately revealed a greedy smile, "However, if you are the one who breaches the contract, the first half of the payment you've already made is non-refundable, you know!"

"Of course! That's perfectly reasonable!" Tang Mo had no intention of defaulting on these 300 gold coins, so he smiled and extended his hand, shaking hands with the other party, and spoke the phrase he knew all too well, "It's a pleasure doing business with you!"