Chapter 14 January 406 AD Paulsland Capital-Corporate Solution

            The news of Paulsland losing a half-million-man army was almost lost alongside the news that Kush had taken the steam weapons and would soon create their own versions. Only the families of those who were lost took note of their deaths, although just weeks after the news of their loss, and when much of the grieving was finished, letters from the Paulsland soldiers who were enslaved began arriving.

Kush had forced all the Paulsland prisoners of war to write a letter to at least one family member or friend, and preferably more, letting them know they were alive. In the envelope with the POW’s letter was a letter from Kush announcing that they would free their Paulsland slaves once Paulsland outlawed the sale of addictive drugs. Kush had sent those letters by ships from neutral countries that stopped at both nations' ports, and it was shocking news to everyone who received a letter.

Those letters created a significant amount of civil unrest as some family members wanted to go to Kush and fight immediately, and others wanted to go to the capital and demand laws making addictive drugs illegal, or at least exporting them to Kush.

The seventy families had mixed feelings about the entire affair. On one hand, it was devastating to their future profits and military plans that Kush had the steam weapons, but on the other hand, the POW situation created a significant amount of turmoil, and the seventy families were looking forward to exploiting the situation, as they never let a good disaster go to waste. That’s how their ancestors made the seventy families so strong. Catastrophes were profitable to those with wisdom and cunning.

When news of Kush capturing steam weapons reached the capital, the seventy families set up a meeting time. It just so happened that news of the POWs and the civil unrest from the news reached the capital a few days before their meeting.         

Malkia took control of the meeting as normal and said, “The biggest problem with Kush capturing the steam weapons is that they will soon be able to copy them and sell their own version. The biggest advantage is that Jinka must either go into the Kush mountains or make peace with Kush, ending his reign as Kingsminister. The advantages significantly outweigh the disadvantages, and this debacle may be a blessing in disguise. Not just because we will finally be able to get rid of that thorn, but because this could bring us massive profits.”

Although Malkia only hinted at her treasonous suggestion, the rest of the seventy family leaders nodded their heads in agreement. They all had the same thought. In fact, the head of the Saul family spoke, “If you are too afraid to say it, I will. Since Kush has the steam weapons, we should sell steam weapons to anyone who wants them befure Kush can, assuming Paulsland is not currently at war with them.”

The Uta family representative said, “We should create auctions for these weapons. Not just for foreign merchants and nations, but have the military, and towns of Paulsland bid against other nations for the steam weapons before Kush can begin selling their own. If we cannot keep them from the rest of the world, then we should maximize our profit before Kush can cut into them.”

Malkia nodded and said, “And until Kush sells their version of steam weapons, we can require the buyers to ship the weapons home themselves.”

Uta asked, “Why?”

“How many nations on the Erythraean sea are at war at any given moment? If one nation finds out their enemy is shipping in steam weapons, then they will do everything in their power to stop them. Imagine them spending thousands of gold coins to buy steam weapons only for the ship carrying those weapons to sink, forcing them to spend thousands more in gold coins. If we shipped the weapons, they wouldn’t dare stop the shipment, but since we will not deliver a lot of those shipments will be lost, leading to returning customers.”

Uta nodded his head and said, “That is why you are the head of Paulson Industries.”

“I am glad you approve. Now that we agree on the steam weapons, what should we do with Jinka?”

The head of the Saul family said, “Use our papers to make him a hero. For the last few years, our papers have constantly criticized and nitpicked him at every turn, but it's time to change that. Now that General Kitako is dead, Jinka is viewed as a legitimate victorious hero due to his victories over the Romans.”

It was Malkia’s turn to be confused and she asked, “Why would we make Jinka a hero?”

“To force his hand. Either he goes into Kush as the conquering hero, where he will die to their tactics, landscape, and steam weapons, or he is a coward. Considering his victories over the Romans, it is a terrible time to condemn the man, but if he won't go into Kush, we can call him a coward and question his victory over Rome.”

Malia nodded and said, “Ah, I see. The hero Jinka successfully used steam weapons against Rome as a pioneer of the new technology, and since he is the first commander to use these weapons, he has a tremendous advantage over the foolish Kush. We can stroke his ego and put him on a pedestal so high that if he doesn’t go into Kush, the fall from that pedestal will be so far that his family won't even survive. I like it. Thanks for reminding me how effective a weapon praise can be.”

The Uta family head asked, “That is all well and good, but what are we going to do with Kush’s demand. At this point, it's clear we do not think Kush will be defeated, so sooner or later we will have to do something.”

Malia frowned and said, “We will have to agree to it.”

Half the audience shouted condemnation, the other half was shocked. Someone said, “Half the gold that comes into Paulsland comes from the women in our nation selling their homemade drugs. The profit loss will be enormous.”

Malkia shook her head and said, “You are missing the big picture. First of all, Kush is the nearest trade partner to us, not the only one. Second Paulsland has seriously expanded borders with the acquisition of Roman land filled with new customers. Third, to the west are the Merchant Guild lands. We need lots and lots of drugs to send their way. Since they have never had our drugs, they have plenty of gold or other wealth to spend on them. Sure, it will take a bit of time to find a trade route to them, but once we have it, we will need all the drugs the ladies of Paulsland can make. We can even have our papers write stories about how it would be wise to make as many drugs as possible for the various trading companies to sell in these new lands. Once they get focused on those profits, they will forget about Kush for a while.”

The other family leaders nodded along, and one asked, “When will we send out ships to map out a path to the Merchant Guild?”

“I have already sent out Central Roman Trading Company ships. Although the Merchant Guild ships that traded with us didn’t tell us where their land was, we know it's to the west. As many of you know, Paulsland has sent out ships to explore the west, toward the empty continent. As many of you know, many years ago, Paulsland found a continent there that appears to be empty, if the trade with the far east wasn’t so profitable, we would have likely already attempted to colonize it. Our ships are going to the northernmost section that was previously explored and heading north from there, following the coast. Sooner or later, they will find the Merchant Guild and hopefully more trading partners.”

The head of the Saul family said, “So your trading company is going to reap all the rewards?”

Malkia smiled at the man and sweetly said, “Your trading company can send out ships the same as mine. Are you willing to take the risk?”

………………………………………………

Savannah north of Great Swamp

            Jinka’s army was making their way across the Savannah as quickly as they could, although that pace was slow as it was the rainy season, and this season was a bit more rainy than most. Thanks to the peace treaty with Rome the land they were currently traveling on was Paulsland territory, but this land was still a long way from having communication towers. They relied on communication balloons, which was great during the dry season, but were limited in operating time during the rainy season, and so horsemen were used to shore up their message capacity.

            As the army traveled east toward Kush a messenger made his way to General Kisu, and gave the General dozens of pages worth of messages. The General had to put up an unbrella to read them as his horse faithfully continued to head eastward. Once he was done reading them he made his way to Kingsminister Jinka.

            Once his horse was next to Jinka’s he said, “We have received dozens of useless messages, and two interesting ones.”

            Jinka perked up and asked, “Oh, and what are they?”

            “The first one is that the seventy families have started auctioning off steam weapons at the eastern ports of Paulsland. Ship captains are selling their entire stock of goods at steep price cuts in the hopes of having enough coin to buying those weapons and bringing them back home.”

            Jinka chuckled and said, “Oh the traitors have made their true colors show. I trust our papers are calling them out on this.”

            “Of course. Although their papers are saying that we have to profit off the weapons before Kush does. Besides, our ally the Parthian Empire were the first to get the opportunity to buy some of the steam weapons.”

            “Well that will make a lot of people still upset with Rome happy. Are they selling the steam cannons and rifles?”

            “So far just the steam rifles. I suspect they will wait to sell the steam cannons until the various nations on the Erythraean Sea hear the news and can send their representatives with ships filled with gold.”

            “Whats the other news?”

            “All the papers that were calling you evil, wicked, stupid, greedy, and various other names are now saying that you are a hero and where Kitako failed at defeating the backstabbing nation of Kush you will succeed.”

            As Jinka listened he grew confussed for a moment before hearing how he was supposed to be a hero and defeat Kush. He shook his head and said, “Well this just confirms they have no idea what we are building in our factory. We will continue to slowly head to Kush, and once the locomotives and steam shovels start coming off the line we will delay heading into Kush further as we will need to set up more rail lines for the locomotives to help us in our war against Kush. We should be able to delay this war for years as we gather more and more economic power. In time they will either have to declare me the new King or go bankrupt.”

            Kisu asked, “I am confused about one thing? Why don’t they just make peace with Kush, and vote in a new Kingsminister?”

            “Because they would lose too much money. Kush wants the women of Paulsland to stop making addictive drugs, it would devastate the economy, and create tremendous backlash. Perhaps Kush would settle for limiting a peace treaty to no more addictive drugs being sold in Kush, but lets be honest, it wouldn’t be long until that treaty was broken. Kush simply wants something that is impossible for us to give. Even if the two halls of representatives passed a law simular to what they wanted, few women would obey it, and no jury would convict anyone for making addictive drugs. Once Kush sees that Paulsland isn’t serious we would be right back at war. In the near future we are either going to have one long war with Kush, or a bunch of short wars.”

            “Ah I see.”

            “Well, we have traveled twenty miles in the rain, have the men set up camp. We are not in a hurry, the locomotive needs to be out in public before we get to Kush.”


Authors note-Sorry for the delay in the chapter release, expect delays until mid october. Note locomotives will be coming out soon, and things are going to go off the rails (I made a pun) rather quickly.