"How could that be? This must be a misunderstanding," the centurion hastily explained.
He looked around, seeing the soldiers who had drawn their swords, and angrily shouted, "What are you doing?!"
The soldier who had been knocked to the ground struggled to get up, arguing, "He attacked me suddenly..."
"Shut up!" The centurion slapped the soldier to the ground again, "These are the Holiness's goods, didn't you see the tax exemption certificate?"
"I've never seen such a certificate before," the soldier replied, feeling wronged.
"Can't you read?" The centurion asked angrily, "Even if you can't read, you could have called me over. Why did you have to handle it yourself? Get away from me, if you offend the Holiness, you're as good as dead!"
The soldier retreated repeatedly, saying in terror, "Ah?"
Linley observed silently from the convoy, thinking to himself, the authority of Holiness is indeed great, even import taxes are exempted. Perhaps this is for personal use now, but in the future, someone will definitely use Holiness's channels for smuggling.
After the Holiness's convoy left, the other soldiers were eyeing Linley's convoy. Seeing the situation was bad, Empton immediately doubled his bribe, handing over two gold coins, before successfully passing through the checkpoint.
After passing through this checkpoint, they entered the market. Empton skillfully led the convoy to the backyard of a trading house, found the owner, and presented the cargo list.
The owner of this trading house was named Bell. While his strength was not great, he had many connections and was skilled at buying low and selling high in the market, speculating on goods. Seeing the goods that Empton brought, he raised an eyebrow and asked, "President, why did you bring so many used goods?"
"These were all cleared from Andros Island and other places," Empton explained.
"These are all contraband!" Bell exclaimed in surprise.
"Don't be ridiculous, you sell a lot of contraband too, don't you?" Empton retorted.
"It's true there's a lot of contraband, but who will I sell these statues to? No one is allowed to worship the Olympian false gods anymore," Bell said.
"There are always those who secretly worship them, right?" Empton said nonchalantly.
One of Linley's purposes for going to Crete was to find believers and priests of the Olympian gods, these were forces that could be recruited. Crete had a population of hundreds of thousands, there would definitely be some staunch true believers. Maybe Linley could also learn about the whereabouts of the Olympian gods from them, so he wouldn't have to fight alone.
"Even if someone secretly worships them, they wouldn't buy statues from outside," Bell said.
"Help me inquire, maybe someone will need them," Empton said.
"Alright... but there aren't any statues of Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and revelry, are there? They're cracking down on Dionysus now," Bell reminded, "I heard that Dionysus led sixty thousand believers to plunder Andros Island."
"Six, sixty thousand?" Empton was shocked, "That's completely a rumor! Andros Island only has a population of thirty thousand, if there were really sixty thousand people on the island, would there be any living people left?"
Empton was well aware that Linley had actually brought over more than just a hundred people to the island, though not as many as Governor Goliath's guards. They only managed to successfully occupy Andros Island by relying on their strong fighting abilities and using surprise tactics. Afterward, they stabilized the situation by freeing slaves and buying nobles through promissory notes. In reality, not many people were killed.
"This isn't just a random rumor, this is solid information, directly from Rome. A relative of mine works as a stablehand in the Governor's mansion, he saw the document sent from Rome with his own eyes, it clearly stated: Dionysus led sixty thousand people to plunder Andros Island," Bell said firmly.
"That's not true," Empton immediately retorted, "The Bishop of Holiness planned to release the agricultural slaves on Andros Island, which aroused the strong dissatisfaction of the island's nobility, eventually leading to a rebellion. After much effort, the rebellion was quelled."
"Really?" Bell responded skeptically, "Forget it, I'll find someone to collect your gems first, they're easier to sell."
"Alright," Empton agreed helplessly.
Soon after, Bell brought in dozens of people, who bought most of the gems, leaving only the diamonds untouched. Diamonds are also gems, but they are colorless and extremely hard, making them difficult to process. They cannot be cut into perfect facets, so they are not valued.
Long ago, diamonds were mainly used to make carving tools, and only later gradually became gems. Linley remembered how to process diamonds, using diamond powder to grind them, but he wasn't sure about the specific method. There were no gem cutters on the island, so he could only put it aside for now.
Seeing that the diamonds couldn't be sold, he simply stopped trying to sell them and kept them for his own collection. Perhaps they would be useful in the future, even if not, they would be good as bullets, after all, diamonds are the hardest material in the world.
Gold and silver were also very popular, both being hard currencies. However, the gold and silver in Linley's hands were pried from the temple, not very pure, and couldn't be used directly. They could only be sold to bullion merchants, then exchanged for gold and silver coins, which resulted in some loss in exchange rate.
Pure gold and silver are very soft and not very beautiful in color. To be used as ornaments, their purity must be lowered, but the specific fineness determines their value, so they are not very convenient to use and require an extra step.
If there was enough fuel on the island, they could melt and purify these gold and silver, then exchange them for gold and silver coins. This would avoid any loss, and they could even be used directly, which would be acceptable to others.
Having sold the gems and obtained gold coins, the next step was to buy supplies. Empton purchased a large amount of lumber according to the list, all of which had to be loaded onto the ship, and taxes had to be paid.
Besides lumber, there were also furs, tools, etc., quickly spending all the money from selling the gems, but there were still many things left to buy.
"Linley, we're out of money," Empton said.
"Can't you think of a way?" Linley asked, "You should have some influence here, surely you can find a way to borrow some money."
"I can't borrow any money here. If it were Andros Island, I could borrow a few hundred gold coins." Empton replied.
The problem was they couldn't go back to Andros Island now. The few docks on the island were surely under strict guard. The situation on the island was unclear, and perhaps someone had already betrayed Linley.
"You're the president of a chamber of commerce, you should be able to figure something out," Linley said.
"Andros Island is a small place. If I were the president of the chamber of commerce of Crete Island, I could probably borrow money everywhere." Empton said.
"Aren't you a secret agent for the Senate, can't you borrow money from the Senate? There must be Senate spies on Crete Island, right?" Linley asked.
"I'm a single line contact. I don't know who the Senate's spies are here." Empton replied.
As they were talking, there was a noisy sound from outside. Linley looked out, and saw hundreds of Roman soldiers surrounding Bell's house.