Roland sat at his desk and looked with interest at the chief knight who had come to report on the situation of the First Army.

Compared with the meticulous appearance of a few months ago, Carter's iceberg face now has a different kind of emotion, the sense of calmness has faded a lot, and there is more expectation and impatience in it.

Probably something to do with the Star of the West, he thought.

Roland has also heard a little about Carter's recent proximity to May. After all, as one of the top leaders of the First Army, his own representative in the army, his every move is being paid attention to, not to mention that he is surrounded by an eye-catching woman like May.

When they first appeared side by side on the streets of the town, the guards had already reached their ears.

Roland doesn't care about this kind of thing, Carter is about two or three years older than himself, it stands to reason that it is really a very strange thing that he has not yet married, and it would be good if he could really find his other half in the West, as long as it does not affect his work.

According to the Chief Knight's report, the First Army now has about 200 revolver rifles in its ranks, and more than a dozen are added almost every day—in fact, Anna's production capacity can be increased several times if there are enough raw materials, but she has to be in charge of both pig iron and steel making and steam engine making, and the speed is slowed down.

However, such a speed is acceptable, after all, the First Army only has 600 men, and it will be possible to complete all the refitting in another month and a half. And until a new wave of population expansion arrives, the size of the army will not be able to expand further for the time being.

Another point was the formation of the Second Army.

For the sake of training convenience and secrecy, the civilians recruited from the Changge Fortress passed the review and were incorporated into the Second Army by Roland. He is currently undergoing disciplinary training, which is the same as military training. In the evening, there is an ideological education class, striving to make these people develop the belief that they are the guardians of the Western Territory as soon as possible, and the safety of their relatives needs them to protect them.

"At present, the training of the personnel of the Second Army is progressing well, and it is expected that in another week, they will be able to switch to shooting training. By that time, there would be enough flintlock pistols to be eliminated. Carter concluded.

This is also the advantage of the musket, it takes at least a year to train a cold weapon warrior, and it takes about five or six years to train a knight, while a musketeer can become an army in just one month. The longer a battle lasts, the more the musketeers have the upper hand - after all, it is much less effort to pull the trigger than to swing a sword.

"In the practice of live ammunition, we must pay attention to the management of firearms, and we must take back as much as we send them down. The same was true of gunpowder, which was distributed on the spot during exercises, and veterans of the 1st Army were assigned to supervise it. ”

"Yes," he replied with a nod.

"Very well," Roland waved his hand, "in that case, go get busy." ”

"Well, Your Highness......" Carter said after a moment's hesitation, "is it true that you said last time that the perfume in the soap is made from sugar cane?"

"Yes," said the prince, leaning back in his chair, "what's the matter?"

"Is sugar cane expensive?"

"No...... Just ordinary crops. ”

"I've heard that a bottle of perfume the size of a thumb in the royal capital can be sold for five golden dragons," Carter scratched his head, "If that's the case, wouldn't making perfume from sugar cane bring a good income to the town?"

"Five golden dragons?" Roland was stunned, he hadn't thought about it. Back in the old days, when he was in the palace, the fourth prince never cared about the price of a daily commodity, especially perfume, which was a lesser-touched thing - only women preferred these things that filled them with fragrance.

His original motivation for making perfume was simply to get soap. Otherwise, there is only tap water, and the bathroom without soap always feels that something is missing, and letting the bubbles rub all over the body is the romance of the bathroom.

If a small bottle of perfume can buy several gold dragons, it is indeed a good business. Unlike coated mirrors, sugar cane and flowers, which are raw materials, are much cheaper than crystal glass.

Thinking of this, Roland smiled, "That's a good idea, I'll think about it." ”

"Your Highness, what ...... Can I take a cane out of the castle?" asked the chief knight expectantly.

"It's okay," he guessed what the other party was trying to do—after all, the West Frontier was not like a clear water harbor, and the fjord plants were quite rare here, and it was a good choice to please the lady as a gift, "It's on the wall of the backyard, go pick it yourself." ”

"Thank you, Your Highness!" Carter saluted.

Then Roland summoned Barov - it is no longer appropriate to call him assistant to the minister, and as the number one man in the town hall, he is already the administrator of the border town.

After Barov took his seat, Roland gave a general explanation of the perfume, "What do you think of this business, can you make a lot of money?"

Instead of answering immediately, he asked rhetorically with wide eyes, "Your Highness, are you really sure that the perfume is made from that sweet crop?"

"Didn't the soap be sent to you too? The reason why it is scented is that it is mixed with perfume," said Roland, "and it is indeed made of these worthless things." I just don't know if Wangdu's perfume is really as expensive as Carter said. ”

"Much more than that, Your Highness!" Barov said excitedly, "Perfume is a top-secret product of the Royal Capital Alchemy Association, and there are about 1,000 bottles every year, and only a small part of it will be sold in the Royal Capital. Selling it to other cities in the Grey Castle can increase the price by two or three percent, and if it is sold to the Fjords and other kingdoms, the price can almost double. In order to prevent the merchants from making the difference, the association not only firmly controlled the price of perfumes in other places, but even the merchants had to be appointed by them themselves. If you can produce perfumes, even if you only sell them to Chishui City and Falling Dragon Ridge, you can get a good return. ”

"I see. "No one who has been an assistant to the Chancellor of the Exchequer for twenty years, Roland thought to himself, and Barov is indeed very good at the prices of commodities and the state of trade. With this information, he also formed a preliminary plan in his mind.

There are many ways to make perfume, the simplest is to mash the petals or herbs with a unique fragrance and soak them in alcohol, let the alcohol dissolve the aromatic oil in the plant, and finally filter out the residue, dilute it with water and use it.

The alcohol comes from the fermentation of sugar cane juice, and the aromatic oil can be made from rose or, more commonly, rosemary and spirit vanilla. However, since mass production is to be realized, it is best to let the leaves grow a batch of magic plants that can directly secrete aromatic oils.

In addition to perfumes, the industry can also produce both sugar and liquor, which are also consumables in high demand, and although the profit is not as high as perfume, it is also a big step forward for people's livelihoods if they can sell it to the townspeople at a low price and enrich their recipes.

The reason for Roland's delay in developing light industry is that it is difficult to make high profits from small-scale production of daily necessities under the condition of lack of manpower, and it is the most cost-effective way to invest a limited population in heavy industrial production.

Since it is profitable to produce perfumes, maybe he can take the opportunity to make up for this missing link. (To be continued.) )