Soon, some "lucky" foreign travelers discovered gold nuggets here.
No matter where you find the news of getting rich overnight, it is always the most popular news and the most likely to ignite the atmosphere.
Through word of mouth among the Nuggets, it instantly ignited enthusiasm throughout the southern region and even beyond.
After hearing the news and believing deeply in the matter, civilians, mercenaries, scattered knights, businessmen from far away, and wanderers packed their bags and rushed here, hoping to get a share of the pie.
With the influx of these gold diggers, the nascent New Harbor area immediately became lively.
The originally sparse construction sites and villages gathered a large number of people in a short period of time, injecting strong impetus into the rapid development of the port.
It is precisely because of this gold nugget story that the real owner of the port area, Titus, officially set the name "Jinshan Port" on this new site.
Inside Jinshan Port, at the entrance to Shekou Industrial Zone, there is an eye-catching sign with one line clearly written on it, "Time is money, efficiency is life."
This may be a reflection of the original temperament of New Harbor.
Whether the gold rush legend is true or not is not important at all. What is important is that the momentum of New Harbor mouth has fully gained momentum.
This is a rare free port and neutral zone on Westeros. It is backed by quite rich resources. Relying on the large number of commodities with distinctive characteristics and rich categories in the Reach, Stormlands, and Dorne, the trade potential is huge.
This is especially true for the Narrow Sea visitors.
Jinshan Port is closer to the Narrow Sea than Lannisport and Oldtown, which means that merchants traveling in the direction of Essos are more efficient.
In addition to the special products produced in Titus's own territory, such as the 1985 Lafite Nouveau wine that was previously praised by knights, Cider Hall from Zhouyihe is also a partner of Titus.
They are also the shipping party, transporting local high-quality grains, dried fruits and handicrafts to this place for trading.
Stormlands and Dorne on the north and south sides of Prince's Pass are also important sources of supply.
Stormlands's ironware, Rainwood's by-products of rare animals and precious plants, Dorne's citrus fruits, lemons, olives and pomegranates, as well as Titus's sand war horses, which have always been coveted, have all become hot commodities at the dock.
Especially the latter, this kind of swift horse only produced by Dorne can run for two days without getting tired - once it appears, Titus will be the first one to make the move - even if he has purchased Dorne horse breeds in batches from the middle of Dorne, he will never mind having too many good horses at his disposal.
More and more businessmen sensed business opportunities and swarmed in like a tide, starting a reselling and reselling business.
The sails on the pier were in pieces, the number of merchant ships coming and going was gradually increasing, and the sounds of unloading and loading were heard one after another.
Thanks to the extremely open terrain of the river mouth area where Jinshan Port is located, and the Torrentine river water being deep enough, it can accommodate the increasing number of merchant ships without causing congestion or stagnation.
This is the situation at the port.
On the other hand, the development of Jinshan Port is of course indispensable with the help from the Royal Capital Center.
Since Titus couldn't bear to see that the King's Small Council was never full, he kindly recommended Brightwater Keep Earl Allister Florent to Jon Hand of the King as a candidate for the vacant position.
Alister old Earl had already gone to King's Landing and successfully took the seat of Master of Coin.
As a distant relative and old friend, whatever policies Mr. Titus wants to have, Mr. Master of Coin of the new dynasty will spare no effort to facilitate them.
With this relationship, the new Jinshan Port has better prospects.
Even under the leadership of the Cider Hall's Alyn·Cuy Earl, they began to attract Mander River's middle and upper reaches the Reach nobles to bring their "capital" and goods to join the investment around the port area.
It can only be said that the Reach people may not be good at fighting, but when it comes to doing business, each one is more capable than the other.
However, these the Reach lords who saw the potential of Jinshan Port were also secretly wondering:
Why does Starfall, which belongs to the Dorne force, allow a large number of outsiders to enter the river through the sea outlet controlled by it and enter the territory actually controlled by Titus?
How can Blackmont, which is located in the middle and upper reaches of Torrentine and at the confluence of two rivers, tolerate the Dornish Marches forces on the other side of the mountain range to develop so unscrupulously and safely in the northern part of their territory?
The answer is actually very simple.
All this depends on the strong charm and extraordinary ability of our Titus Earl.
For the big lords around Torrentine, Jinshan Port is not only a neutral free trade port, but also a place for lovers to date themselves.
This is the case for Starfall and Blackmont's female Earl.
The relationship between Titus and the two women Earl has long gone beyond the scope of ordinary lovers or allies. Through increasingly frequent private meetings and binding interests, he has already won their full support.
Of course, this is under the premise that "the king does not see the king".
Even if love is not mentioned, for Starfall and Blackmont, the prosperity of Jinshan Port can bring tangible benefits to their territory.
The two women have similar attributes. They are both loyal fans who hope to accelerate the development of Titus's career and break the hostility between the two families.
The circulation of goods, active commerce, sharing of customs duties, and export channels for specialty products—all these make them willing to follow Ms. Wenda's example of "turning a blind eye, closing one eye," and pretending that the other party does not exist.
At the same time, he acquiesced and even helped Titus's entire layout on Torrentine.
Compared with dealing with these two beautiful and shrewd female lords, Torrentine itself is actually the most difficult part.
In other words, the course of the turbulent river was the most difficult obstacle for Titus to overcome in the process of establishing Jinshan Port.
This river runs through the west of Dorne. Along its banks are Blackmont, High Hermitage, Starfall and other large and small castles.
Where did the name "Torrentine" come from?
Naturally, it is the upstream stage of the river, with a large number of rapids, waterfalls, canyons and fissures, rapid water flow and dense reefs.
Under normal circumstances, larger ships cannot pass from the downstream to the upstream intersection area of the two rivers, let alone reach the newly built Jinshan Port all the way.
Otherwise, how could this treasure land with a superior location and great development value have been deserted for a long time, and it would be the turn of Titus at the other end of the mountain range to look at it?
Faced with such natural dangers, no one else can solve the problem.
No matter how powerful Titus's charm and skills are, it won't help if we use this big river.
So.
How can we overcome the shipping obstacles in the upper reaches of Torrentine so that a large number of merchant ships can sail to Jinshan Port smoothly?
Fortunately, Titus also has "magic".
Although the scientific content of this "magic" is very high.
Black Earl briefly inspected the construction of the port without disturbing the manager of Jinshan Port, a certain knight he trusted.
They passed through the port area and headed south along the Torrentine coast until they reached the northern boundary of the Blamont territory.
Although Titus has already "opened up" the "superstructure" of House Blackmont and won the support of Lora·Blamont, who became Earl more than a year ago, and can take the upper-level route, it does not mean that he has been recognized or welcomed by all the people in the land of Blamont.
His personal charm is not big enough to convince the entire Blamont territory.
With the establishment of Jinshan Port and the rise of the "Golden Triangle" area where it is located, business activities have increased day by day, and Blackmont has also obtained good profits from it.
After all, all caravans and travelers traveling upstream from the south must first pass through Blamont before they can reach the rear safely--
Jinshan Port, customs taxes and supply revenue along the way have made Blackmont's finances increasingly abundant.
But this benefit did not benefit all House Blackmont's vassal knights.
Especially those knights whose territories were not close to rivers and trade routes, could not benefit from the business, and watched helplessly as Lora female Earl continued to "suck in money" by virtue of her relationship with the north. The riverside knights who gathered around Blackmont Earl also ate meat and drank soup.
The sense of imbalance in my heart is naturally getting stronger.
Don't worry about scarcity, but worry about inequality.
These knights, who had no stable way to make money, began to frequently talk about the past hatred history between House Blackmont and House Peake. Their words were full of complaints and dissatisfaction, and even secretly incited the resistance of the common people.
Lora·Blamont's "love brain" can only be used on her "Romeo".
This woman is as fierce as fire. She never shows mercy when faced with complaints and objections from her subordinates, and her cruelty is even greater than that of her father.
Lora immediately took action, punished several of the knights who made the most trouble, uprooted their knight families, and used ruthless means to suppress public opinion that was unfavorable to her and Titus.
The dissatisfied guys were frightened and temporarily calmed down.
But everyone with a discerning eye knows that the resistance in Blamont's territory has not completely dissipated, but is just dormant temporarily.
Because of this, Titus still has to be cautious when coming here.
Otherwise, there would be no need to go to such great lengths like today. He could just bring his own superior bodyguards. Why would he need to call in the Survey Corps, which is more familiar with the mountain environment, to accompany him?
Along the boundary line of Blamont's territory, turn diagonally and pass through a mountain trail. After walking slowly for a while, a small square castle expanded based on the Hunter wooden house appeared in front of everyone.
The small fortress was built close to the forest. The walls were made of a mixture of stones and logs. It was simple but strong. A colorful flag was randomly hung on the top of the small fort to hide it from the eyes. It was also surrounded by several warehouses and stone and wood fences.
It is hidden among dense woods and is not easily discovered by outsiders.
When Titus and the group just arrived at the gate of the fortress, the gate opened from the inside. Two guards struggled to push open the heavy door. Captain Wenda, dressed in a white outfit, walked out quickly and greeted them with a smile, "Sir, you are finally here."
The cabin in the woods and its converted fortress Hunter: