OBS Chapter 254: Fake? Really!
Chapter 254: Fake? Really!
After a few minutes of explanation, John understood the reason. All the management of this so-called National Construction Guild were soldiers who had fled after the failure of the border war. They got the seal of the Midland Army from somewhere and established such a fake national guild.
"Who is Pav?" John asked, and immediately two soldiers came to John with a man.
John looked up and saw a ruddy man with a brown mustache. It seemed that this guy had eaten pretty well after becoming the president.
"Let me ask you, where did the seal of the army come from?"
"From a general's tent."
John was surprised to hear this and said:
"You, an ordinary soldier, can quietly enter the general's heavily guarded tent?"
"Well, we had lost the battle at that time and the general had already fled. I stole some packages when no one was in. I thought they were money, but they turned out to be some seals and documents." Pav responded hurriedly, fearing that John would chop him up.
"What a bunch of losers. The generals all ran away. No wonder they were defeated by Lana in a few days." John complained about the current situation of the Midland army and then asked:
"Then let me ask you, how did you deceive the trust of the Mont-de-Marsan City Council and profit from it?"
"It is like this, sir. Before I joined the army, I was an apprentice to a wall worker and a stonemason. After I finished my apprenticeship, the plague hit and everyone fled, so naturally there was not much work. When the plague was over, I wanted to go to the city to find a job, but I was caught by the local conscription officer and became a coolie to expand the fortress."
"Then, I followed the army to the southwest border. As soon as I arrived, I encountered a defeat. There were deserters everywhere. The officers in charge of the army and the nobles also ran away. I wanted to steal some valuables in the chaos, and ended up taking some seals."
"After I fled to Mont-de-Marsan, I was so poor that I didn't even have the money for accommodation. In addition, there were always supervisory teams arresting deserters at any time. So I gathered some deserters and used this seal to create a fake identity for myself. I wrote a letter to the construction manager of the city council in the style of a document and founded the Construction Guild."
After listening to Pav's explanation, John was still a little unconvinced. Several months had passed between the time when Hows was defeated and when John came to Mont-de-Marsan. Didn't Hows or the people in the city council suspect that this construction guild was fake?
"So how did you manage to keep no one from suspecting you all these months?"
"I was also afraid that someone would suspect that I was a fake, so I generally didn't take jobs in big cities. I only used military orders in small towns to get locals to raise funds to build fortifications. I paid the construction workers' wages on time and never deducted any. If a building was not up to standard, I would have it demolished and rebuilt, so basically no one would suspect that I was a fake."
"Oh, it seems that you are a talented leader." John said lightly, then sat back in his chair and said to Pav who was kneeling on the ground:
"You're a deserter, you're impersonating a kingdom official and collecting money. What do you want me to do with you?"
"I am guilty. I am willing to offer all my money. Please spare my life!" When Pav heard this, he kowtowed to John like an old hen pecking at rice.
"Alright, since you are so sincere, I will forgive you this time, but you have to promise me one thing, that is, bring your people to help me build various military facilities. You have to do whatever I ask you to do, and don't try to be petty and deduct money from me."
After John finished speaking, he stood up and pointed to several members of the construction guild next to him and said:
"Tell your brothers that from now on they will work for me. I will provide their wages and food. For now, you should prepare the blueprints for building the military camp and report to me at the embassy tomorrow."
"Thank you, Governor General. Thank you, Governor General!"
Only after John went upstairs did Pav stand up and wipe the cold sweat from his head. Unlike the officials he had dealt with before, in Pav's eyes, John always spoke to him without emotion and mostly in an imperative tone.
"It seems that if I can't do it well, I will definitely die tomorrow." Thinking so, Pav left the embassy in a panic.
The next day, Pav was waiting at the door of the embassy before dawn and did not enter the embassy until John finished breakfast.
"It looks pretty good. Are you sure your people can build this kind of military camp? Do you want me to send you some more people?" John glanced at the blueprint. Although all kinds of buildings were available on it, John was still worried that Pav's Construction Guild would not have enough manpower.
"No, no, if there are not enough, I will recruit more myself. I have made a lot of money from construction in the past few months."
"How much money did you make?" Seeing how confident he was, John was very curious about how much he had earned from this.
"Fortunately, it has only been established for a few months, and after deducting the materials and manpower, the net profit is only more than 20,000 gold coins."
"Twenty...twenty thousand?"
Seeing John asking him with a slightly surprised tone, Pav told the truth:
"You've probably read some construction contracts these days. The fees listed on them only cover construction costs, but in fact, if you only look at the cost, it includes almost all the costs of construction. Many construction guilds can earn 50% or even 100% or 200% of the cost from a single order."
After listening to Puff's explanation, John asked him:
"So, how much does the camp I need cost?"
Puff knew that this was a great opportunity to make a good first impression on John, so he patted his chest and said:
"My lord, it only takes 8,000 to 10,000 gold coins, and I guarantee that all the buildings mentioned above can be built this winter."
"Okay! Then I'll give you 10,000 gold coins, and you take your people to the designated location to build it now."
After Pav left, John ordered the White Wolf Knight next to him:
"Spread the news that Governor John had to hire a foreign construction guild because the local construction guild's price was too high. Make a few copies of the blueprints and write on them that the project has started. Then post them near the construction guilds in Mont-de-Marsan."
At noon that day, when the staff of various guilds were preparing to go out for lunch, there was quite a commotion on the street with the most construction guilds in Mont-de-Marsan.
A large number of stonemasons and construction workers were pointing and commenting on the drawings on the wall. Most of them had already found out through various means that John was going to build a large-scale military camp.
Building a large building requires a lot of manpower, especially a complex of multiple buildings. In the eyes of these stonemasons and workers, if they want to finish the construction before winter, the governor must hire a lot of workers to carry building materials, lay foundations, and pile stones, and must hire a lot of stonemasons to carve the residences built for the governor and various officials and nobles.
However, due to the epidemic, the entire city simply does not have so many jobs to offer to the increasing number of unemployed homeless people, and a large number of citizens are unemployed at home. As long as this project starts, it can solve the employment and food problems of thousands of people, which is something that citizens of the entire city are happy to see.
Although they didn't know which construction guild took over the order, almost everyone thought it should be the local construction guild, and they would just have to go to the construction site and change jobs when the time came.
Just as they were about to finish their meal and leave town to apply for a job at the construction site, a breathless man ran into the crowd and shouted:
"Don't go! The Governor hired a construction guild from another place, and they are already full!"
This news struck everyone like a bolt from the blue, and the entire street was filled with the noisy voices of stonemasons and workers.
In their view, every time there is a big project, it is the guild presidents and shareholders who get to eat the meat, while they, the laborers, get to drink the soup. How come now it is the masters who get to drink the wind, while they themselves get to eat the fart?