The lord was in no hurry to return to his territory.
Just at Long River Town, Li Ang directly sent out all the remaining troops in their hands.
A part of the soldiers followed Sir Roland and went to Serenmis to escort back the lonely old people there, who were the ready-made population and farmers.
Don't look down on the elderly. They are actually more reliable than young people when it comes to farming.
The other part, led by Ansen, will inspect other surrounding small villages to see if there are any other places where similar tragedies have occurred. If so, kind and loyal people like Ansen will naturally bring the survivors back to their territory.
Lesley also got a difficult task - to open a transportation company.
Of course, these days, it should be regarded as a complex of armed escort and logistics transportation.
In fact, Pande Continent already has a mercenary fleet that specializes in the transportation industry, but they are actually mercenary logic and can be regarded as some small independent car dealerships.
These car dealerships have no standards at all in their work. They usually negotiate prices based on the value of the goods and distance. Their operation is more like an ancient escort agency.
Most of them provide services for valuable items, such as transporting gold and silver money, luxury goods, wine, war horses, equipment, and even prisoners, captives, etc.
Occasionally, they would transport heavy goods such as grain or ore, but such goods would occupy too many horse-drawn carriages and the transportation cost would be very high. The transportation price would greatly exceed the value of the goods themselves, making it difficult for employers and car dealers to negotiate with each other.
Generally, a deal is possible only when the employer is willing to do whatever it takes.
In addition, the scale of these fleets is generally small, with only a few vehicles or dozens of vehicles, making it difficult to transport bulk commodities and unable to resist larger-scale bandits.
Probably the only advantage is that these fleets are relatively professional and rarely misappropriate goods. After all, most of them are civilians with families, and they cannot afford to offend nobles and wealthy businessmen.
But there are also temporary convoys that do not obey the rules and change their jobs to become bandits at any time - there are such gangs in every place, usually they only prey on foreign businessmen, and most of them belong to Crimson Brotherhood.
This is the main reason why the business atmosphere of the Pande Continent is far different from that of Barkley.
Pande Continent experienced a very large-scale Red Death before, and the population decreased significantly. Five countries still coexisted, and wars and disputes continued. And large-scale transportation was relatively lacking, making the circulation of goods very difficult.
There are not many inland routes that can carry out large-scale water transportation throughout the continent. There are only Sava River in the south and the Shihu inland sea area in the north. However, these two waterways face the same problem - two or even three mutually hostile countries have been competing for control of the waterway. Waterway transportation has to face the enemy's army at any time, and civilians dare not do it...
There are also carriages that specialize in passenger transportation, but these carriages are smaller in scale and are basically self-employed.
The safety of passengers must be taken care of by themselves. If there is an attack, the coachman may run away immediately or even betray him--in fact, sometimes the coachman may also act as a robber.
So the transportation of Pande is a big problem, whether it is passenger transportation or freight transportation.
When ordinary noble lords and merchants need to carry out large-scale transportation, they can only organize their own fleets, or hire multiple carriages to go on the road together, and they also have to hire mercenaries to protect and follow them all the way - it is equivalent to just renting the carriages from the carriages, but actually transporting the goods themselves.
Other regular mercenary groups usually only take on bodyguard business, that is, accompanying them to protect the safety of merchants, but they are not responsible for whether the goods will be lost or transported.
This results in very high transportation costs for goods, so it is normal for the price of goods from the West Coast to increase twenty or thirty times when they are delivered to places like Long River Town in the East.
But this is a huge business opportunity.
The lord has just received more than two hundred draft horses from Baron Leofric, and Brave Shield Fortress will have a steady supply of horses.
When seeing these large animals specially used to pull carts, the lord's first reaction was - Logistics and transportation can be improved.
Even passenger transportation can be done.
Moreover, this is also a reliable way to quickly accumulate troops and population - in this dangerous era, only brave and mature people can engage in the logistics industry.
Of course, with Godric and Horn Summon Ranger Corps and Long River Town, the security of the eastern region will definitely be more guaranteed now than before.
Li Ang has actually wanted to engage in the transportation industry for a long time, but he couldn't start until the entire region was stabilized.
Because the market is clear - every noble lord and big businessman needs logistics and transportation, the market size is quite large, and bulk logistics can currently be considered a blank market.
As for passenger transportation, it is even more urgent. Everyone has a need to travel, especially businessmen and nobles.
Therefore, the lord handed over this important business to Lesley.
Lesley is very good at managing long-distance transport affairs. Her previous business has been between Mistveil City and Long River Town. She once completed the two thousand miles with a caravan within a week. This is an efficiency that other caravans or armies can hardly match.
This transportation company is named 'Long River Express', a subsidiary of Wheat Fragrance International, and has two businesses: logistics and passenger transportation.
This name is of course used to make people in the eastern region more familiar. After all, the main customer group in the initial stage is the lords and businessmen around Long River Town.
Lesley was placed by the lord outside the Long River Town military chief's station - actually outside the inner fort of Madam Bella, where the Long River Town garrison surrounded the inner fort.
Godric chose the Long River Town inner fort as the headquarters of the military affairs chief, and that small square has now become the camp of Godric's personal guards.
There is a large area of houses and open space outside the inner fort. Alma originally arranged for manpower to keep an eye on Madam Bella. Now they have left, leaving just enough land to carry a large number of convoys.
This is the back door that Godric opened for Li Ang. He actually requisitioned this place as a military service area, and then gave the public equipment to Li Ang for private use to start a company - after all, he is the major shareholder of Wheat Fragrance International.
And that place is right next to the Long River Town Central Street. Just walk straight from the Long River Town outer city gate along the wide Central Street. It is a very suitable location for the company's headquarters.
The first task assigned to Lesley by the lord is to buy all the transport fleets that Long River Town can buy.
That's right, as long as we can reach a consensus, we will buy the person and the car together.
Li Ang is not thinking about how to start small and gradually grow bigger at this time - he now has money and the ability to raise a large amount of funds quickly, so he can directly use capital logic.
To put it simply, it is to quickly monopolize the market at any cost and then set industry standards by itself.
In today's Long River Town, no other nobles will interfere with this, and this large purchase went smoothly.
After all, those engaged in transportation are all small fleets or self-employed, and they are all civilians. There are basically no nobles who will do such backbreaking work.
And Godric has just assumed the post of chief of military affairs, and Li Ang is the county governor. These civilian convoys are eager to climb such a big tree.
Within five days, the lord used dinars to smash out more than 400 carriages and more than 500 strong men - all of whom were armed.
Because fleet transportation often faces risks, basically those who work in this industry will have some martial arts skills, but they are no longer willing to fight life and death like ordinary mercenaries - in fact, many regular mercenaries will engage in the transportation industry after having families, and most of them were mercenaries who spent a long time in pubs a few years ago.
In the past five days, the lord spent a total of 100,000 dinars - he finally spent all the gold coins in his hand, and now only the silver coins in the warehouse in the territory are left...
Long River Express, which was established just five days ago, suddenly has more than 500 employees!
There are also close to 700 horses, of course, all draft horses and pack horses.
Lesley was a little panicked about this - she had never managed so many people!
However, the lord has obviously taken this situation into consideration, and he has transferred Eric to serve as the team leader knight in the past few days - in fact, he is the head of the armed force department of Long River Express company.
Eric: People with a flexible mind and smooth handling, but without lack of courage and loyalty. Such people often have a bright future, and the lord will always think of him first.
Besides, the lord did not allocate Knight's Territory to him, so he must make up for it.
Serving as a company executive can significantly increase his salary and dividends. With an income of Eric, it is not a problem to support more than a dozen followers.
Eric is a mercenary, and now he has an official knight status. He is responsible for managing those rough guys, and those from the car dealer will not have any objections.
In fact, even if Eric is given a big Knight's Territory now, he will definitely not be willing to change it - he can now manage five hundred soldiers responsible for armed transportation, which is much more popular than ordinary knights. There are few nobles in the entire kingdom who can have so many subordinates...
With Eric in charge of these people, Lesley can be freed to concentrate on business operations and transportation arrangements, and do what she is best at.
Long River Express just started running forcibly.
In fact, this is not a conventional transportation company - after buying most of Long River Town's fleet, the Lord changed their original operating ideas.
He asked Lesley to recruit a large number of people who could drive as grooms, that is, as temporary workers, so that these armed personnel with combat effectiveness would no longer have to do hard work.
The newly recruited temporary grooms are the ones responsible for handling and driving. They will use the company's vehicles, obey the company's unified management, and receive one payment per order.
The armed personnel from the convoy were also divided into two parts.
Those who are not strong in combat effectiveness but have a flexible mind will be responsible for receiving business and distributing orders. There are about forty people in this department, managed by Lesley;
Most of the remaining personnel will be converted into pure armed escort personnel, close to 500 people, who will be managed by Eric.
At the same time, the lord has directly standardized the prices based on distance and number of vehicles in each county in the past few days, and even made a table and published it.
And the pricing is very low.
For example, when transporting a truckload of goods from Long River Town to White Deer Fortress, no matter what the goods are, the shipping fee is only 10 dinars.
From Long River Town to Mistveil City, the charge is only 80 dinars per car - it depends on the distance anyway.
The manpower dispatched is also standardized. Each vehicle is equipped with a driver and an armed escort as standard.
The reason for standardization is to make taking orders and calculating payments more convenient, and it will also be more convenient for customers.
Drivers are not considered formal employees. They are only paid on a per-item basis. For a total shipping order of 10 dinars, they can get 2 dinars.
This reward is actually very high. After all, the coachmen have not provided any equipment or supplies, and there is no need to fight.
2 dinars is enough to buy more than 100 kilograms of wheat, which can feed a family for a month.
If you are doing other jobs, it would take an ordinary employee at least half a month to earn it.
But now, it only takes a week at most - from Long River Town to White Deer Fortress, it only takes a week at most to drive there and back.
A round trip to Mistveil City, even if they can't reach the level of Lesley, will take a month, but they can earn 16 dinars a month, which is a high salary that they could not get before.
Of course, the purpose of operating in this way is to reduce labor costs and free up those who are capable of fighting - many noble farmhands are very good at driving carriages, but they had nothing else to do before, but now they can go out and run the carriages for a period of time during the off-farm time to earn some extra income.
This will attract a large number of part-time workers in a short period of time.
Of course, even if they are not regular employees, they are not allowed to drive cars casually.
The driver must first register with Lesley to verify his identity to avoid attracting any robbers.
Then the driver has to wait for the assigned task at Long River Town and decide whether to accept the order by himself. If he is not on site, he will definitely not be assigned...
It's almost like an extra on a set.
Armed escorts are regular employees. They will be responsible for the safety of carriages, horses and roads. They will also keep an eye on the driver to prevent him from messing around. Their remuneration is also higher, and they can share more than 40% of a single order.
The reason why it is said to be "above" is because there will be subsidies for businesses that need to leave the eastern region, because the further away, the more dangerous it is.
When transporting goods, the escort is responsible for delivering the goods to the recipient designated by the customer. Only after receiving the receipt can he receive his salary - if the goods are not delivered, there will be no money.
The remaining nearly 40% is the company's income. But this is not a net income, because basic wages must be paid to regular employees, and there may not be any early profits or even losses.
Since he paid the basic salary, Eric will also train these subordinates. Of course, other people will also come to help train when they are free, such as Sir Roland or Kloze...
Anyway, the salary is paid by the big boss Li Ang.
However, a standardized service like Long River Express does not guarantee the safety of the goods. The company only promises to refund the freight if the goods are not delivered - after all, each vehicle only sends one armed person to accompany it, which cannot guarantee the safety of the goods.
If the customer wants to ensure the safety of the goods, they can use customized business. If the goods are lost, the company will not only refund the freight, but also compensate according to the market price.
But the price of customization business must be discussed in detail with the person sent by Lesley.
As long as the money is enough, Long River Express can be escorted by five hundred armed personnel at the same time - in the Pande Continent, basically no one dares to rob a security force of this size.
If we follow the traditional method of previous fleets, we must first see what kind of goods it is. If it is a high-value product, then we will charge more. If the value is low, we may not accept it...
And it is also impossible to guarantee the safety of the goods. After all, there are only a few dozen people in a fleet at most, and no matter how high the price is, there are only a few dozen people.
In contrast, Long River Express's new standardized operation method will naturally have great advantages. At least for conventional transportation, customers can clearly understand the transportation cost, and Long River Express will definitely accept the order.
In the eastern region, the safety of companies under Wheat Fragrance International is also guaranteed, and the possibility of accidents is low.
If it was really robbed, the two barons Godric and Leofric would definitely send troops to chase the robbers thousands of miles away - they are shareholders of the parent company Wheat Fragrance International, and they want dividends.
Therefore, merchants would think that this cost is much lower than transporting it themselves - in fact it is much lower, because just hiring a mercenary to escort them from Long River Town to White Deer Fortress costs more than ten dinars.
In such a comparison, the price-performance ratio of Long River Express will appear to be quite high.
But in fact, the Lord changed the concept of those car dealerships...
Originally, the staff of the car dealership were only regarded as grooms or carriage owners by their employers - and this was indeed the case.
Now, these people are 'professional armed security personnel' and professional soldiers.
They are even regarded by businessmen as more trustworthy warriors than ordinary mercenaries. After all, they are now subordinates of Baron Li Ang, and at least they will not suddenly turn into gangsters.
In this way, the price-performance ratio is suddenly improved - in addition to the driver, each vehicle is equipped with a professional armed security personnel as standard, does this mean that the work of transporting goods is for free?
In fact, the people are still the same people... but after being reorganized into a regular army, the effect is completely different!
In this way, merchants will naturally take the initiative to generate a large number of orders - the price is completely standard. As long as they determine their own needs, they can generate orders. No negotiation is required. Just go to the company headquarters in Long River Town to pay and sign the order.
You can even wait for the Long River Express company's car to come to pick up the goods - of course, the price for door-to-door pickup is also based on the distance and the number of vehicles.
Businessmen are the group that considers comprehensive costs the most, and they have a good relationship and trust with Wheat Fragrance Company. After the evaluation, they will definitely take the initiative to control operating costs again - this will encourage them to no longer support their own transportation vehicles and drivers.
So where will the laid-off coachmen and the carriages no longer needed by the merchants go - Where else can they go, join Long River Express!
A positive cycle will quickly form, and as merchants no longer maintain their own fleets, more orders will be generated.
A large number of orders means that brothers who join Long River Express can always have continuous business to do.
In the past, small fleets often spent most of their time idle due to business negotiations, waiting, various communications and management, unable to find suitable business, industry competition, etc., and could only do two or three high-priced businesses a year. In fact, most practitioners are vain, and their average income is not that high.
After becoming an employee of Long River Express, you will have a fixed basic salary every month, a commission for every order, and you will probably always have work to do, which is of course more stable.
Moreover, they don't have to do hard work and only need to focus on security work, which is very attractive to them - they used to be mercenaries, and no one would be willing to do hard work if they were not forced by life.
In addition, if the company is large enough, it can also undertake bulk logistics. Being able to undertake bulk logistics can ensure long-term business.
In fact, they have been busy from the beginning.