Chapter 474: Agreement

A huge fleet sailed on the sea, ships connected one after another, stretching for miles.

It had been three days since they left Ashenford. They arrived at the first port, the only one within the territory of Prince Gerad—Bassein Port.

Before the fleet reached Bassein, Prince Simon had already sent scouts to notify Prince Gerad.

When the warships docked at Bassein dock, Prince Gerad appeared on the dock right on time.

"Oh! Simon, your uncle has been waiting here for you all day," Prince Gerad laughed heartily as he looked at Prince Simon stepping down from the warship.

As soon as one foot touched the ground, Prince Simon finally felt at ease. Sailing on the sea continuously for three days was truly gruelling. In those three days, he finally understood the hardships of the naval soldiers.

He had already seen Prince Gerad from the ship, who also smiled, "I am honoured that you personally came to Bassein."

"Uncle, you are too polite. Even now I still depend on you for help," Prince Simon said.

Prince Gerad’s eyes scanned the large warship, filled with strong envy and surprise.

Prince Simon smiled, noticing the look in Prince Gerad’s eyes—a greedy expression. It seemed Prince Gerad immediately valued his warships. He said "Uncle I really need your help on something really urgent."

Prince Gerad was momentarily stunned. He recalled what the scout had said: Prince Simon fleet stopped at Bassein to resupply, not just a simple stopover. The list of needed supplies was also recorded by the scout.

"Hahaha, right, right! I remembers now. Rest assured, the supplies are all prepared. You can start resupplying now," Prince Gerad said.

Prince Simon felt relieved but still worried a little. He hoped Prince Gerad wouldn’t cause him trouble, or else he would make his days difficult for him also. An eye for an eye.

After ordering the fleet to resupply immediately, Prince Simon followed Prince Gerad into Bassein city. Under Prince Gerad’s warm invitation, he had no choice but to play along.

After several rounds of wine, Prince Gerad said, "Simon, your uncle truly underestimated you. I didn’t expect you to have such a powerful fleet at your disposal. This fleet could probably hold it own against the Dutch."

Prince Gerad spoke with envy. He knew about the Dutch and the strength of their warships. From what he heard, Prince Simon’s warships were very similar to the Dutch ones. Yu

Now, suddenly leading such a powerful fleet here, how could he not be envious?

"Uncle, you flatter me so much. These warships are only escorts for merchant ships not more. I dare not say they could fight the Dutch," Simon smiled.

Prince Gerad was very jealous. He tried to ask, "Simon, how did you build these warships? Oh, I remember, it must be the credit of the missionaries. Ah, why didn’t your uncle have that luck? But Simon, could you build some warships like these for me?"

Prince Simon’s expression changed slightly. He did not expect Prince Gerad to make such a request. He might give Prince Gerad cannons and muskets, but warships—definitely not.

After all, in this era, a warship equipped with cannons was a huge threat to sea routes, and hard to capture.

"Uncle, building these warships is complicated. In three years, I only made about ten or so. Besides, these warships are very expensive, each costing over millions of caps of silver."

" Million what?" Gerad’s face turned pale.

"Of course. Even the smallest warship has about sixty cannons, and just the cannons cost 1.2 million caps each, not including the warship itself."

Gerad nodded, understanding these cannons were naval, more expensive than regular ones.

"This is indeed quite expensive," Gerad stroked his chin. He already knew that Prince Valeric bought thousands of naval cannons from Simon and planned to build a fleet.

His territory bordered Valeric by a river. Prince Valeric was gaining an advantage. After hesitating, he said, "Since that is the case, your uncle doesn’t want to trouble you so much. Simon, why don’t you sell me some cannons then?"

Hearing this, Simon immediately smiled. Now that the steam engine had officially entered production, Brambleford’s industrial power would change drastically, and cannon forging would speed up.

Gerad’s request to buy cannons meant silver money was coming his way. He said, "Uncle, that’s no problem, but the silver..."

According to Simon’s words, a thousand cannons meant 20 million caps of silver. This was a huge sum. But to avoid falling behind Prince Valeric, he gritted his teeth and said, "No problem, at worst I’ll just rob a few rich merchants’ homes."

Hearing this, Simon raised an eyebrow and suddenly felt sorry for those merchants. No wonder many merchants were trying hard to stay in Brambleford; elsewhere they had no rights at all.

But he did not care about merchants in the Gerad domain. What he wanted was the 20 million caps of silver in supplies.

"Uncle, you are quite straightforward. How many cannons do you need?" Simon asked.

"A thousand, should be enough for now." Prince Gerad said.

Prince Simon understood that Gerard was competing with Valeric. He asked, "How do you plan to pay for this silver?"

"Hehe, Simon, your uncle isn’t stingy. In business, one is one, two is two. Since you want to use Bassein as a supply point, the supply costs should be counted as silver. The warships docking at the dock also cost silver," Gerad said with a cunning smile.

There is no free lunch in the world. Prince Simon naturally knew Gerad would not give him Bassein as a supply base for free. So he said, "Wow, you really do make a good point uncle. Then all Brambleford official ships’ supplies will be deducted from the fee. But even so, there is still a lot of silver to be paid."

"Certainly. Let’s temporarily set the supply fees at Bassein dock at 2 million caps. After all, this resupply has already cost 20,000 caps. If it happens often in the future, the silver will be more. When this silver runs out, we’ll talk again," Gerad’s eyes flashed with shrewdness.

Simon nodded in agreement. He raised the price of the naval cannons by double—it was already quite a rip-off, but at least it would give Prince Gerad some psychological comfort.

Then Gerad said, "There’s still 18 million caps left. To be honest, I also has some large merchant ships. I’m willing to trade 100 large merchant ships for 10 million caps. The remaining 8 million, I’ll pay you 400,000 caps in gold and 4 million caps in silver. How about that?"

Prince Simon sighed inside. Gerad’s domain was really rich. Gerad was indeed a tycoon.

"Then we have ourselves a deal," Prince Simon nodded heavily. This was a very good deal. He got Bassein as a supply point and made an arms deal at the same time ripping off his uncle.

After a short one-day stay in Bassein, the next day prince Simon led the fleet to continue sailing. The next place he would reach was Prince Valeric’s spot.

A/N: Thanks to everyone for the gifts. I really appreciate you you all. Simon is really happy about it.