Chapter 303.2: With A Knife In Hand, I Shall Harvest My Leeks... But How?

The door opened.

His subordinate Enzo came in from outside with a list in his hand.

"Boss, today's inventory data is out. Our copper reserves have grown to 500 tons!"

"Very good!" Simeon's face was filled with a bright smile. He was a big step closer to his 1,000 ton plan.

"By the way, boss... One of our caravans that went to Dawn City heard a rumor there that I think you might want to hear."

Simeon couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. "What rumor?"

Enzo hesitated for a moment, then said in a low voice, "...They heard from the people in the tavern that a copper mine with a reserve of 1,000,000 tons was discovered in the mountainous area north of Remote Creek Town."

Simeon froze for a moment, then let out a chuckle, "And you believe that?"

He couldn't help thinking to himself that this group of cunning blue gophers was quite smart.

He had only increased the price by 20%, but they already realized that someone was hoarding the ores.

But their countermeasure was really silly.

Was it possible that the New Alliance had actually discovered a copper mine with a reserve of 1,000,000 tons?

Of course, there was!

But this possibility was too small, and the timing was too coincidental!

Why did they discover it when the price of copper was rising? And it was exactly 1,000,000 tons? That was a lot of mineral reserves.

Who were they trying to fool?!

If they really found a copper mine with such a large reserve, based on their demand for copper, they would definitely build a road first and then set up an outpost there...

Wait...

Road?!

Simeon's expression changed slightly, and he returned to the map, staring at the railway line on the map.

According to the information collected by the caravans under his association, the New Alliance had been laying a railway northward from the industrial area of Dawn City to the edge of Elm District.

Before, he couldn't figure out why the New Alliance wanted to expand northward.

But now, he vaguely guessed their intention to do so. If that rumor was true...

"Is the rumor reliable? Is there any other news?" Simeon yelled suddenly.

Seeing his boss's face turn ugly, Enzo shook his head quickly. "No!"

With his arms folded before his chest and his back turned to his subordinate, Simeon, who was staring at the map, bit his thumb, and his mind turned rapidly.

After a while, he calmed down.

So what if copper mines were discovered?

Mining minerals would always take time.

Looking back at his subordinate, Simeon immediately ordered, "Let our caravans pay more attention to all the information regarding this rumor, I need to know more!"

Enzo nodded quickly. "Yes, sir!"

...

"Have you heard? Copper mines have been discovered in Remote Creek Town!"

"For real?"

"I don't know! I just heard it from the drunkards in the Highway Town Hotel! I heard from those people that those blue coats have the geographic information data from the federation era, and they have already discovered the copper mine in Remote Creek Town. It’s just that they haven’t disclosed anything about it, and the information only came out recently because they could no longer hide it!”

"It makes sense... Why else would they lay the railroad all the way north? After all, there is nothing else to transport if there are no mines there."

"By the way, have any of you ever been to Remote Creek Town?"

"Why would I want to go there? There isn't even a post station there, and further north of Remote Creek Town is the Bonechewer's territory. All the people stationed there are soldiers from the New Alliance. You will be arrested and treated as spies of marauders if you wander around there."

Dawn City. At the entrance of the trading post.

A few traveling merchants were waiting for the delivery of the goods in a line while bragging to each other.

They were all traveling merchants from Red River Town, but they were doing different businesses.

While they were chatting, an Electric Mule drove into the trading post.

Seeing the drum-shaped equipment unloaded from the carriage by the workers, many people who knew the goods showed surprised expressions in their eyes.

"Multi-cylinder hydraulic crusher?"

"I've seen this thing before. It's imported from Boulder Town. I heard that even second-hand equipment would cost 20,000 chips."

"... It seems like the rumor is true."

Beside the truck with the Horseshoe Merchants Association badge on it, the caravan leader's expression was a little solemn.

That night, he reported the news to the person in charge of the association.

In fact, he didn't have to report at all.

In just a few days, the news of the discovery of a huge copper mine in Remote Creek Town had spread along the trade route to Red River Town.

As one of the main buyers of copper ores produced by Red River Town, the fact that the New Alliance had discovered copper mines was a bolt out of the blue to those big mine owners who relied on exporting copper mines in exchange for bullets, shells, and other industrial products.

When the Tide broke out in Clearspring City, the New Alliance increased the purchase of copper mines. They made a lot of money from copper ore transactions at that time, and some powerful mine owners even took advantage of the opportunity to increase production.

If the price of copper mines fluctuated greatly in the future, or even continued dropping...

Regardless of whether production would be cut in the next quarter, for those mine owners, the top priority now was to take advantage of the inflated copper price to get rid of their inventory as much as possible.

Yes.

It looked like the New Alliance was about to start a war, but the war had not actually started yet.

War was expected, and so was the discovery of copper mines.

These were clues they analyzed based on limited information, not official documents written in black and white.

The increase in copper ore purchases could be interpreted as an increase in munitions reserves, and of course, it could also be interpreted as an increase in electrical equipment. The use of nitric acid and sulfuric acid was not only for making shells but also for pickling in steelmaking and many other industries.

Any logic has pros and cons... But one thing was likely to happen.

If the New Alliance did find copper...

The war might be delayed.

Red River Town had more than 1 association and it also had more than 1 mine.

The price of ores rose before, many people tacitly followed the Horseshoe Merchants Association to hoard the goods, but now they tacitly lowered the reserve line of copper mines and dumped the copper in their hands into the market.

When the growth rate of production significantly exceeded the growth rate of demand, it was also obvious what would happen next.

Simeon soon found that before he had time to backstab his fellow merchants, he was stabbed in the back by his own business partners first.

Their panic selling brought down the 20% price that he had spent a lot of effort to finally push up.

The Horseshoe Merchants Association's warehouses were full of copper.

Just because of the unknown copper mine, the mine owners and business owners of the entire Red River Town became idiots.

Yes.

They were complete idiots.

At least in Simeon's eyes, these people were just a little smarter than donkeys, that was all.

"This group of idiots, can't they wait a little longer?!"

"So what if they have copper mines? Even if they do, will copper ingots grow out of the ground by themselves tomorrow?"

Angry roars filled the office. Enzo, who was standing aside, held his breath, not daring to make a sound.

After venting his anger, Simeon looked at Enzo and growled, "How much budget do we have?"

Enzo answered quickly. "Without affecting other businesses... we can still buy about 700 tons," Enzo looked at his boss and continued cautiously, "Actually, we could only buy more than 400 tons originally, but recently the price of copper has dropped a bit, so we can buy more......"

700 tons!

Compared with the near million tons reserves released by these idiots, it was a drop in the bucket!

Simeon, who almost lost his temper again, took a deep breath to calm himself down.

Excluding these procurement budgets, he no longer had enough tickets to buy more copper mines from mine owners.

Borrow someone else's ticket?

But no matter how much he borrowed, it still wouldn't be enough!

Besides, even if he could borrow it, it was impossible for him to rely on his own association to buy out all the goods that overflowed from the inventories of other associations and mines.

If he really did it, he would be the one exploited by the others!

Who was most worried about falling copper prices?

It had to be the person who bought it at multiple times the selling price.

Once other associations found out that he had accumulated a warehouse of copper mines with a buttload of debts, they would definitely laugh like crazy, and then decisively sell more copper to him.

In fact, there was no need for multiple times the price of copper, as long as 80% of the copper in the market was in his hands, no matter whether he bought it at 80% of the original price or 800%, he would definitely suffer a huge loss.

"These damn blue gophers!"