Road To The Crown 176 Daring Neighbour

2nd June 1574

"So it already happened, huh…"

Standing at the edge of the construction site for the market, I spoke to myself using the fact that for the first time since we went back to Tarnow, Elia wasn't there with me. Apparently, she took a personal interest in how one of the projects that I already managed to forget about, food distribution to the serfs, was going. And while she inspected the quality of the food that was delivered to those who were diligently growing it out of the vast farmlands in my lands, my thoughts were roaming around the matters regarding the highest level of national politics.

If my memory served me right, the older brother of Henry, the current king of France was already dead, and only three weeks or so remained before one of the greatest risks and opportunities for my growth in this place would arise.

That's why, rather than keeping all the materials that came from the mining town to hasten the construction of the local market, every third boat or so was directed to swim all the way down to the border, along with small groups of workers that would settle turn that outpost of mine into the single point of the border that would be free of the customs!

"Sir, the riverbank is finished already. Should we focus on the cranes or the foundations?"

Considering the fact that the construction was ongoing here for over a week already, it still took those workers quite long to establish the proper bank. But it could be explained by a rather tough location to build!

While I had no way to check whether I was right, the place where the market was currently built would in the future house one of the greatest chemical industries in the entire country, amply named after both the city and the element they used a lot, Azote Chemicals Tarnow. Yet I wasn't going to let this uncertain future stand on the way of my progress!

"The foundations will be enough. After all, the main port will be further to the north."

The fact that I wasn't a man from this era was the reason why such a huge amount of resources were wasted. As it turned out when I came back and talked with the local craftsmen, the river that I remembered flowing so close, was in fact a White River. But it was far too small to serve as the main transit point, and it never reached as far south as the current border!

Yet in the grand scale of things, the fact that it was the closest water road to the Tarnow still required me to use it. That's why, despite how it would be only a transit port and local warehousing area for the wares moved from the Tarnow, I still had to invest quite a lot of resources to make a proper river port here!

But the real thing, where most of the s.h.i.+ps was already stopping led just a single kilometre further north than the place where White river joined with the proper Vistula subsidiary, Dunaj River. 

In fact, one could even argue whether the lands where I was building the main transit point were still within my own territory. After all, the Tarnowski privilege obtained by one of my ancestors only detailed the right to tax anyone pa.s.sing the White River bridge. Even though the villages owned by my family extended all the way to the Dunaj river where the port was currently built, the lands on its opposite sh.o.r.e were owned by some local n.o.ble!

That was rather a major problem to my plans, as I was unable to stop anyone pa.s.sing through the river if they were to move through the western bank! While that wouldn't change anything for those travelling on my steam paddlers, as long as even a single merchant came with his own boat and realised this chance, I would have no means to stop him from trading his wares literally anywhere in the western part of the country!

Yet all my attempts to negotiate with the n.o.ble owning the land that I was interested in sadly failed. For some stupid reason, he thought that all the construction that I was doing there was doomed to fail, and demanded me to hand him the pension worth triple the amount that the land I wanted was bringing!

"Sir, there is a messenger from the northern construction site awning your summons!"

As I was thinking over the problematic matter that was placed on my shoulders, one of the workers brought here all the way from the mining town brought the news for me.

"Lead me to him."

With how most of the projects in the mining town were already operating in their full swing, I siphoned almost everyone who used to work on digging up the foundations on the city and brought them to the local constructions sites. As such, outside of the few locals that I managed to poach from the farms, I had quite a huge group of people who already learned how to work with me, not scared of approaching me when necessary.

"Sir, I brought the news from that dumb n.o.ble!"

The moment I stepped inside one of the only finished buildings in the White River port, the administration centre located right at the northern end of the entire site, one of the apprentices of the craftsmen from the Sandomir that continued to move from the city in response to the summons of their masters, places a small note on the table.

Taking up the piece of paper, I unveiled it. Reading through a few words in front of my eyes, I couldn't help but gnash my fist.

Even after I offered him what he initialy wanted, three times of the income from the lands that I wanted to buy for the rest of his life along with a down payment of d.a.m.ned hundred gold coins, he still refused and dared to raise the price even higher!

At this point, I couldn't help but wish for the chaotic period of the interregnum to start already, so that I could deal with him in the old, Polish way!