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[NSFW] - Swiss Arms (Historical SI Gamer)

Swiss Arms
Chapter 44
-VB-
I hummed as I climbed out of my private mine again, and unloaded the content of my bag and inventory at the same time. The large dusty box clunked and rattled as I dropped all of the ores I managed to find.
And I was quickly realizing over the last September that my mine shaft may be soon running out of precious metals and gems in the near future. At least those within a reasonable distance. As this extraction was the source of precious metal crafting and export, if I stopped right now, then it would cause some issues. Namely, the budding jewel crafting will stop. While this was not a big part of Fluelaberg's economy, it was still part of it.
In fact, the cheap jewelry, raw gemstones, and raw precious metals made up a third of the reasons why merchants initially visited my town. Yes, my town. Of course, once they saw what other wonderful goods we offered on the cheap, they came back for those.
I have to find a new vein. Would the side of the mountain work? It wasn't as if it was being used.
… Yeah, why not?
Actually, did I need to work the mine myself? There were plenty of people here. While there was a chance that this might cause my town to convert from a bustling trade town to a mining town, I would own the mine and thus limit how many times people could access it each day. I could artificially stem the tide, so to speak.
If that was case, then they would get precious metals and gemstones with very little place to sell it. They could sell it to passing merchants, sure, but why not sell it to people like Alvia? At the very least, she could pay them on the spot with money they could use right away whereas merchants from far away places might not even have currency we accepted. On top of that, I had a foundry here and merchants didn't. The miners would soon learn that raw ore wouldn't give them a decent payout … not like how I or Alvia can.
Yes, this was an idea.
Now, how could I implement that idea?
-VB-
It's one thing to keep hearing that their new lord (a lord, no matter what he insisted) was a powerful man whose swings cut armored soldiers in half.
An exaggeration, Leon grew up at the foot of the Tirol Castle by Merano City. Part of his daily life was seeing the men-at-arms and militia practicing in the yards at the base of the hill where the castle sat.
Leon saw some of the best of the best in those valleys. Men with arms thicker than his torso. Men with more time spent fighting battles across the entirety of the empire and beyond. He even saw a siege engine!
Sure, he was certain that Lord Fluelaberg was a mighty man.
But cut a man in half?
Get real.
He looked up from his counter at the butcher's shop (the butcher didn't want to learn numbers but he did, so he got hired to record every "transaction"). A bunch of men and women hurried towards the lord's castle. Or rather, they took a route that would take around the castle and towards the mountain slopes.
"Arnold, what's going on!?" he asked one of the men among the group.
Arnold, a thin man working as messenger between the towns, stopped and looked at him. "Oh, Leon! You're in luck! Hans is supposed to be digging a mine for himself and others! He said so in the town meeting!"
Leon blinked.
A town meeting was not an old concept. It happened in most villages, towns, and even cities.
It was odd when the lord showed up and didn't impose his will, insisting actually that everyone make the vote anonymously.
Leon wouldn't know; he wasn't a "proper" resident of the castle town or Davos, so he couldn't participate in the town meeting nor vote. He did, however, hear about this, even if he had initially dismissed it.
"Wait, how would that work?" he asked Arnold.
Arnold looked like he wanted to ignore him and quickly walk away. It was then that Leon finally noticed that he had a pickaxe slung over his back.
Wait…
"Well, Hans said that if you paid for a daily entrance fee of five pennies or the equivalent, then you can have a go at it all day long from sun up to sun down."
Leon's eyes widened as he shot up from where he had been sitting.
"Wait, are you telling me that the lord who has the right to mine … is just giving it away?!"
Five pennies wasn't a lot but it wasn't small, but for a chance to work the same mines or the area that the lord brought out handfuls of gold ores out every day, it was nothing compared to what they could potentially gain!
"Not really. There's weird rules like being allowed to mine only once every week or something like that. Oh, and you gotta have a working job here or in Davos or anywhere else in the Compact. And be a resident or "citizen" of the Compact," Arnold waved his hand. "Okay, gotta go!"
Leon stood there and then gulped.
Could he … strike it rich?
He gulped and turned to his boss.
The burly man grunted. "You can go tomorrow. It's not like the mountain is gonna run out in a single day, and you know that Hans has been pulling up all of that gold for … years now."
Years.
Leon settled his pounding heart.
Yes, he had time. Five pennies. That was a little under half of his daily wage. That wasn't bad for a chance to get a silver nugget or even a gold nugget.
"Umm… can I go watch for a bit?" he asked.
But if he wanted to succeed, then he needed the know-how. Watching others do it or even the lord himself might get him some of that.
Boss looked irritated but waved him away. "Yeah, yeah. It's not like today's a busy day. But if you're gone for too long, then you can expect to not get paid today."
"Thanks, boss!"
Leon quickly ran after the miners, and after what felt like a long trek across the entire town (it wasn't), he arrived at where they had gathered.
He frowned.
There wasn't anything here. Just a bunch of tools, some sturdy wooden carts, and a lot of men and women.
And then there was the lord.
He looked … strong. The muscles alone was on par if not bigger than that of biggest fat-less men-at-arms he ever saw over in Tyrol.
"He's starting," someone muttered and everyone quieted as the lord picked up a …
Was that a steel shovel? It was a giant shovel but it was still a shovel.
And then -.
CLANG!
Leon's eyes nearly popped out of his eyes as the lord dug into the rocks and scooped them out. He tossed them to the side, and a few of the watchers quickly ran over to see if the first rock was worth a damn.
"Quartz!" someone yelled.
The lord just kept digging as if he hadn't dug out a rock as big as a man's torso and did it continuously. He watched as a pile of rock formed within five minutes. Within an hour, there were five such piles and a mine was starting to shape up.
"Alright, I want the support pillars in there now!" the lord shouted as he walked out of the tunnel that was ten ox deep, two ox wide, and angled slightly down. A bunch of men rushed in with planks and timber. Leon watched as they worked furiously. The lord checked their work as they came out and -.
His jaw dropped when the lord reached into his pocket and gave each of the workers responsible for the support pillar two silver pennies each.
Each silver penny was worth ten copper pennies!
They didn't even work for a full hour!
"Alright! We got room for five prospectors! If you want to have a go at it, line up in front of me with your fee ready!"
A dozen men and women did so, but those in the back grumbled and left once they realized that they had been too late in lining up.
The lord accepted the fees, had them write their names on paper, and let them in.
Leon reluctantly went back to work, but later that day at the bar, he heard that of the five, three had found something worth a damn.
Three-fifths chance that he found something decent? Something worth more than five pennies?
It was an extremely good chance.
Who knew that he, a former dung "farmer," would be a miner this far from home?
-VB-
"He lets the peasants work the mines? And sell the gold and silver?"
"Most of them found quartz and only one found a very small nugget, but yes."
"... Is he mad?"
"I think that he wants to ruin the order and peace we have. A peasant lord who knows nothing."
"He is a threat."
"Yes. Very much so."
"And what about our representative? The one who went to meet him?"
"He has rejected the chance to meet him."
"Then it is time we go and talk with the duke."View This ThreadUnread Watched Threads
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Questionable Questing
Gusfes, Vagabond replied to a thread you are watching at Questionable Questing.
[NSFW] - Swiss Arms (Historical SI Gamer)

Blessed are thee who wait for thy daily ... What's that?
Oh. Right. I'm not a pastor or a priest.
Here you go.
-VB-
Swiss Arms
Chapter 45
-VB-
Rudolf I of Bavaria
Munich, Bavaria
What did it say about a man that he was always playing second fiddle to the rest of his family?
His uncle and the current king of the Romans, Albert, was constantly hounding him for his possessions in the Palatinate and Upper Bavaria. When that wasn't the case, he was fending off his younger brother's attempt to usurp the lands he got from their father; his spies in his uncle's court spoke of Louis's letters and couriers traveling there regularly.
And on top of that, he had guild masters begging him for his attention on the first day of his visit!
Even so, he trusted his uncle not to stab him in the back. He had, after all, helped him in the three years since he surrendered to his uncle. Not only did he cooperate fully, much more than Louis, but he also made sure to keep himself in full view of his uncle, unlike Louis.
… Still, it unnerved him that his uncle was so readily in communication with his less reliable and ambitious younger brother.
Today was the second day of his visit to Munich, and he allowed the guild masters an audience.
Sitting upon the seat of power of the Duchy of Upper Bavaria, he watched as the throne room's doors opened. On the other side of the door were four men of varying ages but all equally rich for commoners. One of them even wore silk! It was only a silk sash around his waist, but it was a luxurious item that even he, a duke, dared not wear too often.
"Enter."
The four did as he commanded and bowed before him.
"Thank you for your time, Duke Wittelbach," the eldest of the four greeted.
"Welcome to my court, Guild Master Rueben, and tell me what you seek of this duke."
"Very well, milord. We wish your help in subduing an upstart who is ruining the trade Munich depends on."
"... What?"
---
To say that the guild masters were exaggerating was an overstatement. They were fucking blowing the "damages" out of proportion.
"What has my brother been doing that he has guild masters like these asking us for military aid to curb a small village in the Swabian Alps?"
Louis and he ruled Upper Bavaria together as co-rulers, which was part of the reason why Louis was upset with the situation and sent letters to their maternal uncle.
He let out a sigh of frustration before turning to the one man he trusted.
"Erin."
A young man stepped out of the shadows. "Yes, milord?" the cocky-grin adorning blonde-haired boy asked.
"What can you tell me of this 'Compact'?"
It had been two years since he visited Munich. He had been over in the Palatinate lands and taking care of the family business over there, so he didn't know much about what was happening here or in the neighboring regions. Hell, the Swabian Alps, specifically this "Compact" wasn't even a neighboring region or polity.
"Ah well, they're the ones making the moves, you know, milord?" the once-commoner boy drawled with a shake of his hand. "Like your maternal uncle, the king. The Compact of the Seven… or is it Eight now? They're the ones who came out strong after what the Swabian Alps call 'the Unruly Year.' A year with absolutely no one in control of the wars of naked aggression that nearly all lords participated in. Well, this Compact, formed by a bunch of peasants, went and demolished everyone else. Everyone from the Gorizia in charge of Tyrol to all of the local nobles. In fact, the commander of the Compact burned down a noble's castle to the ground!"
"And what did my uncle do in response?"
"Told them to stop. And made the Compact legitimate."
Rudolf frowned.
"Legitimate how?"
"Absolved them of all crimes committed against the nobility up to that point in time, milord, and formally acknowledged the then Compact of Seven's rule over eastern Swabian Alps west of Tyrol, north of the Kingdom of Italy, south of Swabian Werdenberg, and east of the Lords of Sargans."
Rudolf looked over at the map of the Holy Roman Empire and calculated a rough size estimate of the land that the Compact ruled.
"Of the Seven?"
"Yes. They used to be seven members. And then the Prince-Bishop of Chur joined them."
"I see." There wasn't anything to say to that. If the Prince-Bishop wanted to frolic with the peasants, then Rudolf wasn't going to say no. It wasn't as if those were his lands at any rate.
"Milord."
"Yes?"
"I would advise against fighting them."
"... Why do you say so?"
"My people have reported signs of increased trade."
"Is that not the problem that my guild masters here in Munich have come to me to solve? When trade outside of the city is not even their jurisdiction? Or mine?" he scoffed. Asking the duke to solve their trade issues. Absurd!
"Because there is a chance that one of the artisans in the new small castle of Fluela has discovered a way to mimic fine china."
Rudolf had to think for a second before his eyes widened.
"... China?" he asked as he turned back to look at Erin, his spymaster. "Are you implying that…?"
"There is a chance. China that has not been bought and sold in either Genoese or Venetian market have shown up in the east Swabian Alps."
"And I am just hearing about it?!"
"Not many such pieces have been made, milord," Erin replied with a slight bow, obviously understanding just how shocked he was at the news. "The more relevant information related to the guild masters is the fact the same fort also mass produces ceramic dishes of high quality at large scale, and have been selling to any merchant or peddler passing by their lands." He paused. "What may be of greater concern, and one that the guild masters do not yet know about, is the fact that there may be substantial quantities of gold and silver in those mountains. The new lord of Fluelaberg has made a small name for himself mining for those very precious metals as well as other gemstones like ruby, sapphire, and diamond."
"You are telling me," Rudolf began slowly. "That we, and the Romans before us, have been … sitting on a literal gold mine? And we left it alone?"
"There is a chance, yes."
Rudolf thought about it. He really thought about it. It was impossible that the greedy Romans would have missed any gold in the mountains. There was also no record of substantial silver veins originating from those peaks. Copper, certainly. Gold and silver? No.
"From where?"
"A single hole in the ground within Fluelaberg itself."
"He does not run a mine?"
"No. At least not until very recently, according to my people. He opened up a mine and charges any would-be gold miners a fee to enter and try their luck."
Rudolf looked at his spymaster with his jaws dropped open.
"He… opened his mine to others? He does not find miners to use as his laborers?"
"No. He is an odd character."
"You can say that again." He hummed before drumming his fingers on the arm of his chair. "Tell me, what would you do in my place?"
"Milord, I am a spymaster, not a noble or a bureaucrat working for a noble."
"There must be an idea you have. You are a boy, nearly a man, and all men have ambitions, no matter how small."
Erin looked out of the window for a moment, staring at the setting sun, before looking back.
"The Compact of the Eight is no threat to Munich. In fact, the guild masters have been the ones hurting the city and the duchy with their recklessness. Several trade caravans have 'mysteriously' vanished within our lands and their goods missing. My people would say that certain goods listed in the recovered caravan roster have circulated among one of the guild master's own peoples but I have no definite evidence."
Rudolf gritted his teeth.
"What else?"
"They have imposed a tariff on all goods originating from the Compact. This has led to a distinct lack of Compact goods within Munich and its surrounding townships while they have shown up in Landshut. Coincidentally, Montfort and Werdenberg are outside their influence and no bandits have shown up there. I believe it was an effort made to curb the influence of the Compact within Munich. Stupid, if you see their actions from the outside, but understandable when I think about it in their position. They are, after all, under the assumption that most of the trade coming through that area eventually goes through this city."
"Does it?"
"Lately? No," Erin replied as he pulled out something from his back, walked up to his desk, and slid it across to him.
… Parchment?
He picked it up and his eyes widened at the flexible paper. High quality, no tore edges, smooth surfaced, and evenly colored paper. No blemish, off colors, or any hint of even middling quality. The kind of stuff that even he, a duke, would hesitate to spend money on because of how expensive they could be. A single bible made from this kind of paper would be ruinously expensive in the current economy if only because he would be competing with every other count, duke, bishop, and merchant for an obviously limited product.
"The Compact is also making those, and many guild masters are upset that the Compact is not exclusively selling it to them."
Guild masters potentially financing bandits? Underhandedly changing the policies that only dukes can change? Undermining his and his brother's authorities? To satisfy their greed? That wouldn't do. No. No, it would not…
"Look into their actions and contacts. If any damning evidence is found, bring it to me."
His grip tightened around the arm of the chair.
And then the wood shattered underneath his hand.
"I will execute any filthy traitors with my own bare hands."
On the other hand, he might need to look into this Compact if it reduced his own guild masters to such lengths to control them. Ineffectually, yes, but they had attempted, nonetheless. If the Compact was worth that much, so much so that the guild masters were overstepping their boundaries while he was not here and under his ambitious but less able brother's eyes…
'It must be worth something big.'
Perhaps big enough that if he were to acquire it for himself, then he might be able to use it to ward off Louis. No, he might even be able to use it to keep his uncle from ever interfering in his affairs again.
A plan began to form.
-VB-
A/N: Louis here is Louis the Bavarian (Louis IV of Bavaria) and Rudolf here is Rudolf I of Upper Bavaria.
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