Defying the Fate of Beheading-Chapter 494 - 276 The Dark Forest

"Joseph, I want a promise from you."

Louis looked at him with a smile.

After a moment, he revealed a subtle smile.

"Very well, I, Joseph Williams, accept this proposal."

Louis knocked on the table and picked up the bell on the table, giving it a shake.

Soon, a butler walked in, presenting a tray.

On the tray was a stack of papers filled with dense numbers.

Louis picked up the papers and handed them to Joseph, saying:

"Everything you wanted to know is here."

He was somewhat taken aback, thinking Mr. Mayer might need some time to conduct an investigation, but unexpectedly, the information was delivered directly.

He helplessly smiled and said:

"You were just sitting at home waiting for me to come."

Louis shook his head and said:

"I really didn’t know you were investigating these things, but recently I’ve felt that there’s some movement on the Giant Plain, so I conducted some investigations."

Of course, the main goal was to investigate the possible actions of the King of Anger.

However, he wouldn’t say this publicly, and instead chose words that would align more with Mayer’s identity:

"I smelled a business opportunity born of blood on that plain."

When he said this, Joseph Williams actually believed him.

Louis smiled and said:

"Of course, compared to these matters, I prefer to make another kind of preparation."

Louis shook the bell again, and the butler walked in once more:

"Patriarch."

"Bring the documents from my office."

The butler withdrew, and when he returned, he brought over thirty contracts.

Louis picked up the contracts and waved them in front of Joseph.

Signaled by Louis, Joseph picked up the contracts and began to read through them one by one, growing more and more astonished as he read and occasionally looking up at Louis:

"Are you purchasing surrounding grain in the name of Mayer Commerce Association?"

Louis smiled and said:

"Is that not allowed?"

"With this approach, you will quickly attract attention from the tribes. The signs of war clearly have an underlying manipulator, and anyone competing with them for grain will undoubtedly become a focus of their attention." 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Louis gave a slight snort and said:

"Isn’t it a good thing that they notice me? I originally also wanted to talk to them and see what their current situation is."

He got up and walked towards the floor-to-ceiling window, looking out at the scenery and said:

"Some matters are better resolved through commercial means."

Joseph sighed inwardly.

Mr. Mayer truly is a grand merchant revered even in the heart of commerce, with a business acumen not daringly held by ordinary small merchants.

Meanwhile, Louis also pondered a question.

During this visit to Tunisia, the most unexpected gain he received was the "Tunisia Regional Local Airflow Data Model" shared from there.

This data model is periodically observed by the Mage Towers across various locations, and the related data is uploaded into a large tower spirit for consolidation.

When Louis and his group left, they took with them a formatted split spirit of this tower.

Bringing this back and integrating it into the White Tower Spirit would enable localized airflow data sharing between the two regions.

The Grand River Project is a fifty-year plan formulated by Louis to ensure the ongoing prosperity of the empire.

An essential element of this plan is the prediction of a nationwide extensive rainfall occurring several years from now.

This involves various tributaries converging, which has caused incalculable destruction in the past.

He initially thought this water disaster wouldn’t manifest clearly until a few years later.

But upon returning to the Tunisia estate and consolidating both countries’ moisture flow graphs, he discovered that not only Ense, but even Tunisia had already entered a fruitful season of abundant water.

The massive damage caused by the convergence was the peak of the disastrous hydraulic aggregation.

This does not imply that there weren’t other hydraulic disasters before this.

On the contrary, aggregated hydrological conditions over the years show that since 10 years ago, hydrological disasters across the empire have been on the rise.

This is only because many disaster-prone territories can self-govern internally, thus it hasn’t attracted much attention, coupled with the incredibly slow flow of information in that era. Indeed, it didn’t quite catch other people’s attention.

But after noticing this situation, Louis had an instant idea.

Among the many impacts brought about by hydrological disasters, apart from the human casualties due to land submergence, another significant aspect deserves considerable attention.

That is the food shortage problem hidden behind the flood disaster.

While the direct death toll from the Grand River disaster was not exaggerated, the national famine that followed with the disaster was an issue far beyond merely estimating the number of deaths.

Considering the future food shortage problem in surrounding areas, he plans to engage in large-scale grain trading during the harvest years.

Or rather, he had long ago already determined the operational strategy of the Mayer Commerce Association.

This association, under his leadership, has grown to a standard-bearer for maintaining the commercial sector balance within the Ense Empire.

In this world with exceedingly low globalization, even if he proposed to Beatrice, advising the large commercial associations, including the Tulip Commerce Association, to start grain preparation, it could not effectively cover the lower rural areas.

These associations primarily exist to maintain the empire’s central stability.

Their innate function limits them from extending their reach into the lowest domains.

At the grassroots level, real commerce functionaries are numerous local small trade groups, individual merchants, and itinerant traders self-organized by local villagers.