Chapter 170 The Mort Scam and the Tyroshi Bonds

After learning that the person who was causing trouble for him was Littlefinger, Tob Mott said nothing and his face became a little weird. He neither asked Linde to help him go to the Prime Minister to intercede, nor did he ask Linde to intercede for him. Asking to help him solve the trouble at Littlefinger, it seems that he should be at fault for this matter, and the crime should be quite serious.

Linde looked at the blacksmith in front of him and asked in a deep voice: "I don't like to get involved in other people's troubles, and I don't like to bring other people's troubles into my territory. You are going to Summer Hall with me. , I hope you will be clean when you go, now tell me why Ser Petyr Baelish wants to use his connections in the Prime Minister's Office to deal with you?"

Tob Mott's face was a little ugly, as if he didn't want to say anything. He glanced at Wallis secretly, hoping that Wallis would speak for him.

Varys frowned and said seriously: "Don't look at me, you'd better be honest, otherwise you will offend not only Sir Petyr Baelish and the powerful people in the Prime Minister's Residence."

Seeing this situation, Tob Mott could only tell how he offended Petyr Baelish. After hearing the other party's account, Lind couldn't help but look at this man again, and suddenly felt that this man When the blacksmith has lost his talent, maybe after returning to the Summer Hall, he should not be placed in the position of chief craftsman, but should be placed in other departments.

The reason why the blacksmith offended Little Finger was very simple. He defrauded Little Finger of his money, not once, but three times. The sum of the three times added up was almost more than two thousand gold dragons. What was even more amazing was that the blacksmith used to defraud Little Finger. The method is very similar to the classic Ponzi scheme.

Although Tob Mott made himself the armor and sword in secret, there were still many people who knew about it, and Littlefinger was one of them.

Moreover, he also saw the potential of Tob Mott and wanted to invest in Tob Mott's blacksmith shop. In fact, he planned to find an opportunity to swallow up the blacksmith shop and make Tob Mott his own blacksmith.

Although Tob Mott did not see through Littlefinger's mind, he thought of another way to defeat the wolf with nothing, which is the ice and fire version of the Ponzi scheme.

He claimed that he could buy some Valyrian steel scraps from Qohor through connections. Although it was just scraps, if the quantity was large, it could still be melted and forged into daggers or jewelry. It just required a lot of work in the early stage. A large amount of money is invested, and the return rate in the later period is huge.

Because he had a reputation for building armor and weapons for Linde, no one would doubt him, and the same was true for Littlefinger, so he invested a lot of money and it soon paid off.

So after that, he invested two more amounts of money respectively. After getting another return, when he was waiting for the third return, he was told that the ship transporting the goods had encountered pirates, and all his investments were in vain.

At this time, Littlefinger did not suspect that Tob Mott had defrauded him of his money. He thought that he had really encountered a pirate, and sent someone to investigate the matter to see if there was a way to redeem the goods, but the result was that When it came to the point where there was no such ship, not even the previous two ships existed, which made him immediately realize that he had been deceived.

This is why he used the relationship between the Prime Minister's Office and the garrison to retaliate against Tob Mott. Because from the beginning to the end, he himself did not come forward directly. Everything was done in the name of some Prime Minister's Office, so even if he was entrusted with the job in the end, If anything happens to Bu Motte, it won't be implicated in him, it will only be in the Prime Minister's residence.

Judging from the current situation, it seems that Littlefinger not only wants to get back the money he was defrauded, but may have other ideas.

To be honest, due to various information in his previous life, Linde has always regarded Littlefinger as a person of extraordinary wisdom and one of the people he is most wary of in this world. He has even considered that if Littlefinger dares to plot On him, then he would attack Little Finger directly without any scruples, crushing him completely to death without giving him any chance to use his tricks.

But now after listening to the blacksmith's narration, he suddenly wondered if his previous scruples about Littlefinger were a little too much.

However, he did not really underestimate Littlefinger because of this. As the saying goes, no matter how powerful Littlefinger is, he cannot be foolproof. Being deceived once or twice does not mean that he is not smart enough.

"It's easy to get money this way. You don't have to do anything, and a lot of money will be delivered to you. You must not only deceive Petyr Baelish, right?" Linde stared at the blacksmith with a serious expression. , questioned.

Tob Mott was silent for a moment, nodded, and then named more than a dozen people. Without exception, these people were all powerful people in King's Landing.

After hearing the long list of victims, Lind couldn't help but sit on the chair, touched his forehead with his hand, and glared at Wallis, saying: "You know it all, you know it all, right?"

Wallis nodded and said: "Yes, sir, I know everything, but it was only after the fact that everything was too late and I couldn't save him."

Linde asked in a deep voice: "Where is your little bird? Your little bird didn't notice this either?"

Wallis shrugged and said helplessly: "My little bird can only help me focus on the things that interest me, and making money is one of the things that I am least interested in, just like women are to me."

Lind turned around and looked at Tob Mott, who had his head completely lowered and looked like he was waiting for the verdict. What he wanted to do most now was to leave directly, and then declare that he had nothing to do with Tob Mott and let him go. He was tortured to death by these creditors.

But this does not solve the problem, because the blacksmith is acting entirely in his name. Even if he leaves now and shows that he has nothing to do with the blacksmith, someone will still blame him for this matter, not to mention that he just said The golden robes of the garrison had already admitted that the blacksmith was his chief craftsman.

"Warys, are you plotting against me?" Lind thought about the reason why he came here, and looked at Wallis coldly, full of doubts about Wallis's intentions. In his opinion, Wallis let Lind There is an ulterior motive for getting involved in this matter.

"Of course not." Wallis shook his head and denied it flatly: "Even if it weren't for me, wouldn't you save Tob Mott if something happened to him?"

Although Wallis spoke so decisively and sincerely, Linde did not believe any of his words.

He always believed that there must be Varys' plan involved in today's incident. As for its purpose, he was not clear yet.

However, one thing Wallis said was right. Even without him, Lind would still have to come to the rescue if something happened to Tob Mott.

Because Tob Mott is the only one in Westeros today! He is one of the few people who knows Valyrian steel forging technology. Although Lind already owns the sword of the Lost Knight, he might use Valyrian steel forging technology again in the future. For example, now we are forging frozen dragon rune necklaces for giants.

And it is not difficult to see from the Homeless Knight armor on his body that in addition to his forging skills other than Valyrian steel, Tob Mort is also very skilled in the forging of other steel weapons and armor, and he can be called a master.

He just needs such a master under his command who specializes in building and designing the armor and weapons needed by the army, because in his plan, unifying the equipment of the army is what he needs to focus on in the next one or two years.

"Where's the money? Where's the money?" Linde said in a deep voice, "Don't tell me that it's all spent."

Tob Mott looked at Linde with a bitter look on his face and did not answer.

"Really spent it all?" Linde was completely stunned, stood up from the chair, walked to Tob Mott, and said in a deep voice: "How much is the total, there should be several thousand gold dragons, right? Most of them Even if a noble spends it for a year, he may not be able to spend it all. How do you spend it? "

Feeling the invisible pressure brought by Lind, Tob Mott shrank his neck and whispered: "Sir, I used all the money to buy Tyrosi bonds."

"Tyroshi bonds?" When Lind heard such a familiar term, a financial product from his previous life immediately came to mind. He was a little surprised that such a thing existed in a world of ice and fire like the Middle Ages.

"This is a kind of national gambling invented by Quilo Tyrolis, the Lord of Tyrosi more than a hundred years ago." Varys thought that Lind didn't know what a bond was, so he explained: "Every five years, Tyrosi Grand Lord You will issue a bond. This bond is essentially Tyrosh borrowing money from the buyer to develop his city. If everything goes well, the bond will be paid back with interest in five years, but if something happens The war is easy to win, but if it is defeated, Tyrosh will refuse to pay the bond, and in the end the bond will be as worthless as the dust on the ground. "

"Wouldn't those whose bonds were invalidated object?" Linde frowned and asked in a deep voice.

Wallis explained: "The risks are already discussed when buying bonds, so people whose bonds are invalidated have no choice but to consider themselves unlucky."

Linde asked solemnly: "Could Tyrosh deliberately start a small-scale war with surrounding city-states when the bonds were about to expire because they were unwilling to repay the bonds, and then deliberately lost the war and embezzled all the bonds?" Profit? Or is it an agreement with the rulers of other city-states to stage a show and find an excuse for the bond to be invalidated? "

Wallis was stunned, looking at Linde with surprise in his eyes, and said, "You actually thought of this just by listening to me. It's really incredible." As he said that, he looked down and kept his head down. Tob Mott, the leader, said: "So it's gambling. Those who buy bonds can only pray that the Lord of Tyrosh will be more conscientious and not play these tricks."

After hearing this, Linde took a deep breath, sat back in the chair, and tapped the armrests of the chair with his fingers, looking like he was thinking about the problem.

And Tob Mott also felt that this was the time to decide his fate. He knew that the only person who could save him now was Lind. If Lind gave up on him, he would die without a burial place. .

After a while, Lind suddenly said: "Take out all the Tyrosh bonds you bought."

Tob Mott hesitated for a moment, and immediately understood that Lind must have decided to save him. He couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief. Then he hurried back upstairs and took out the box full of Tyrosh Bonds from his room. The box returned to Linde.

"Open it." Lind ordered.

The blacksmith quickly opened the box.

I saw some palm-sized rectangular pieces of paper piled up throughout the box. Linde picked up a piece and looked at it. These things that looked like paper were actually a kind of animal skin. The patterns on the animal skin were very exquisite and beautiful. It's so subtle that it's not much worse than the currency of any country in the previous life. Moreover, these patterns are not printed on, but are stitched on, which is extremely difficult to imitate.

"The face value of this bond, converted into the currency of the Seven Kingdoms, should be about two golden dragons. There are about three thousand bonds in this box." Varys did a rough calculation and said, "In other words, you spent nearly six Qian Jinlong bought these bonds?”

"It's six thousand five hundred gold dragons." The blacksmith told the answer honestly: "The five hundred gold dragons are my savings."

Varys looked at the blacksmith and smiled: "I think Lord Tyrosh should be very happy to meet a buyer like you. In the past few decades, few people have spent such a large sum of money to buy something. If you go to Tyrosi with this box, you will either be welcomed as a guest of Tyrosi's powerful people, or you will die on the streets, and these bonds will disappear. "

Tob Mott smiled bitterly and didn't know how to answer, because he didn't know how he could be so hot-headed that he kept buying these bonds. By the time he realized something was wrong, it was already too late.

Linde asked in a deep voice: "If after the bond matures, Tyrosi takes back the bond with interest, how much will they have to pay?"

"Sixty-five thousand gold dragons." Varys replied.

"Ten times as much?" Linde was stunned and said in a deep voice: "This is obviously something wrong. Will anyone buy it?"

"Of course someone will buy it. Isn't there one here?" Varys pointed at Tob Mott and said, "That's why I say this is a gamble. The bet is on the conscience of Lord Tyrosh, and Lord Tyrosh does not always find an excuse to declare bonds invalid. In fact, the number of times bonds are redeemed is still many, at least much more than the number of times they are invalidated, so there are still many people buying them. After all, as long as they can If you exchange it, you will gain tenfold.”

Linde hesitated for a moment and said: "That is to say, this bond may also expire after maturity..."

"Impossible." Wallis shook his head very decisively and said: "Because all the previous three bonds were called back at ten times the price after maturity, so many people bought the bonds this time, and my friends also bought many bonds. Less. However, he recently discovered that Tyroshi was deliberately concealing the number of bonds sold, and he simply calculated the amount of bonds held by the people around him who bought Tyroshi bonds, and the final number was as high as more than three million gold dragons. Well, that’s not counting individual buyers like Tob Mott. If you include them, the total would be at least five million.”

"Five million gold dragons, which means that if they take back the bonds, they will have to take out 50 million gold dragons." Linde couldn't help but smile and said: "Can they sell 50 million gold dragons by selling the entire Tyrosh? "

Wallis pretended to be thoughtful and said: "Maybe it can be sold. However, it would be easier to invalidate the bonds. After all, this is not the first time they have done it."

After hearing what Wallis said, Lind seemed to have thought of something and fell into deep thought. The blacksmith also felt nervous again, worried that Lind would regret it.