The Privy Council meeting adopts the round table method, a circular table with three levels inside and outside.

Lu Ming sat on the outermost floor. As Lu Ming, who had just been nominated to become an alternate member of the Privy Council Economic Committee, he was certainly one of the most peripheral members of the Privy Council. He would not become a full member of the Privy Council until a three-month observation period.

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The Privy Council is divided into seven committees, the Nobles Committee, the Cabinet Committee, the Economic Committee, the Judicial Committee, the "National Assembly" Executive Committee, the Northern Border Affairs Committee, and the University Committee.

Each committee only divides cabinet members according to their responsibilities, and there is no such thing as a chief committee member. In name, all members have equal status.

Among them, the Nobles Committee and the Cabinet Committee are the largest, each with a size of twenty or thirty people.

The Northern Border Affairs Council is mainly composed of the dukes of the principalities bordering the North and Styx Empire.

Other committees only have three or five members.

For example, the Economic Committee, plus Lu Ming as an alternate member, has a total of four members.

There is Earl Moro, the chief tax officer of the empire; Earl Woodrow, the director of the Statistical Efficiency Office of various guilds in the empire; Viscount Hansen, the president of the Imperial General Chamber of Commerce; and now there is Lu Ming, the Yuan Marquis of the Snow Lion Grand Duchy and the chairman of the board of directors of the Yellow River Consortium.

Theoretically, Lu Ming's noble status is not recognized in other principalities.

Therefore, even the viscount or even baron present had a much higher title than his.

But as long as the emperor of the empire still comes from the Snow Lion family, he will be second only to the duke and higher than the earl in the ranking of the nobles of the imperial capital.

This Privy Council meeting was a formal meeting held every three months, and even the Dukes of the five principalities on the northern border also came over.

In fact, in the past, the five northern dukes could only arrive at the meeting at the beginning of the year. At other times, it was normal to be short of people. After all, some principalities were far away from the imperial capital and had inconvenient transportation.

But for this meeting, Constance Transportation Company sent an airship to pick up all five dukes.

A dozen high-ranking dukes from the principality, including members of the noble committee, were also picked up.

Among the main topics at this Privy Council meeting, there is no doubt that the railway network that Constance Transportation Company will build to connect the major cities in the empire is the focus of heated discussion.

These big cities are the capitals of some powerful principalities. It has become a difficult problem for these powerful principalities to share the investment, especially how to calculate the share of investment.

The actual operator of Constance Transportation Company is the Yellow River Consortium, so the preliminary plan was read out by Lu Ming.

In principle, participation in the railway construction plan is not mandatory, and those who are unwilling to invest can be completely excluded from the plan.

But the problem is that there are people who are keen to participate, but they are far away from the imperial capital, and they may have to pass through the territory of the principality that is unwilling to participate.

A dozen of the Dukes of the Empire's superior principalities were included in the Committee of Nobles.

As for the railway construction plan, these dozen top principalities are all in the initial plan.

After all, the capital of its principality is usually a relatively prosperous big city, and some are also transportation hubs.

Several dukes started arguing on the spot.

Only the Duke of North Cedon, who had eaten grapes early, sat firmly on the Diaoyutai and watched this scene with a smile.

The other four princes of the royal family also remained calm.

In fact, normally speaking, I agree or disagree, for such a huge plan, it may take more than ten years for some railway lines to be scheduled, especially in the construction stage when railways have just emerged.

But it happened that Lu Ming even had the ability to complete the construction of railways in the entire empire overnight.

Although everyone present did not know this, they thought that laying the railway would not be difficult and the speed should be very fast. After all, the long railway from the imperial capital to the end of the Snow Lion Principality, North Ceton Castle, suddenly appeared. Although it seemed to have been carried out secretly,

But it's very efficient.

After Lu Ming read out the preliminary plan, he didn't say a word and just observed everyone's reaction.

The issue of railway construction alone was discussed from morning to late at night. It seems certain that this Privy Council meeting will be postponed for several days before it can be concluded.

…

Lu Ming's exclusive little train now has three and a half carriages, with an additional reception carriage and half a kitchen carriage.

The small train was running extremely smoothly on the broad Imperial City Street. Today's Privy Council meeting had just ended. It was already late at night outside, but the street lights were bright and reflected the green palm olive trees. The street scene was beautiful.

There were sumptuous dishes on the table in the reception compartment. Lu Ming smiled and entertained the five Privy Council members he invited, and also sent them to the Yellow River Hotel to rest.

Several members of the Economic Committee came except the Chief Tax Collector. Although the Chief Tax Collector, Count Moro, must be on the side of the Snow Lion family, otherwise he would not be able to occupy such an important position.

But he probably didn't want to get too close to the unknown Marquis Yuan, so he declined the invitation.

Earl Woodrow, the general manager of all the guilds in the empire, and Viscount Hansen, the president of the General Chamber of Commerce, were all excited to ride the Yuan Hou's train.

The other three are three of the five northern Dukes.

Lu Ming wanted to meet some new friends this time, so friends such as the Duke of North Cedon were not invited because even among allies, each has its own interests. The more people there are, the more restrictions the topic will have.

The five northern Dukes and Lu Ming were also invited.

But the Duke of the Northern Czech Principality, the most powerful of the five principalities and the one with the broadest border with the Styx Empire, directly refused.

Northern Czech Republic is one of a dozen superior principalities, bordering Northern Czech Republic. There are various territorial disputes between the two principalities, as well as historical blood debts.

However, from the intelligence collected by Lu Ming, it can be seen that the relationship between the Northern Czech Principality and the Styx people is even more bloody. In order to protect the empire's borders, almost every generation of the Northern Czech Duke family has lost members. From the Red Crossbow against the Styx Empire,

Legion, and later the Musketeers Private, the Northern Czechs paid a heavy price, but they were unyielding and fought bloody battles to keep the Styx people away from the border.

The Styx people have always followed the technical route, but in recent years, the sudden reform of rifled guns and the emergence of various heavy-armed cannons have put the cavalry-dominated Northern Czechs at an absolute disadvantage, but they still refused to throw the Styx people away.

Instead, he gritted his teeth and faced the harassment from the Styx people again and again, and the price he paid was extremely heavy.

This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Although the values ​​​​divided into countries are now like a game in the world of ants in Lu Ming's eyes, Lu Ming still has some respect for the Northern Czechs.

, this has nothing to do with values.

At today's privy meeting, the Duke of Northern Czech hoped to declare war on the Styx Empire in the name of the empire, and the result is predictable.

After all, the Styx Empire's harassment of the border seemed to be caused by local lords.

For example, the Southern Czech Principality of the Styx Empire often invaded the Northern Czech Principality. There was a blood feud between the two sides.

Many nobles at the Privy Council seemed to regard the border conflict as a dispute between the two lord families of the Northern Czech Republic and the Southern Czech Republic.

It's really not worth dragging the empire into a full-scale war for this reason.

In particular, there is still normal trade between the two empires, and even the technology of the Styx Empire is still being introduced in many fields.

After the meeting, the Duke of North Czech Republic was of course full of anger. In addition, it was an open secret that the prince of the Yellow River Consortium and the Duke of North Czech Republic were business partners. When he faced Lu Ming, his expression was extremely cold.

"Marquis Yuan, are you not angry with my Uncle Hansen?" After drinking for thirty years and gradually becoming familiar with each other, Lopez, the Duke of the Eastern Czech Republic, toasted to Lu Ming and suddenly mentioned the Duke of the Northern Czech Republic.

The three northern princes invited were Lopez, Duke of the Eastern Czech Republic, Johnson, Duke of Northern Lanshan, and Munirio, Duke of the Danube Mountains.

The three principalities are all small principalities with a population of less than 500,000. They used to be counties. Fifty years ago, at the National Assembly, all local states that were not dominated by powerful principalities were promoted to principalities, and local lords were promoted to dukes.

The Danube Principality has a population of less than 100,000.

The National Assembly is a check and balance carried out by the five royal families in order to hinder the further growth of powerful local principalities.

But this also resulted in an overwhelming number of principalities in the empire.

The five Grand Duchys each have a population of around 10 million.

Although it was not stated explicitly, the dukes were divided into four levels.

The dukes of the superior principalities are naturally first-class, with a population of more than three million. There are more than a dozen superior principalities in the empire.

Those with a population of less than 3 million and more than 500,000 are ordinary principalities, that is, normal principalities. There are more than 40 ordinary principalities in the empire.

With a population of less than 500,000, such as Eastern Czech Republic and Northern Lanshan are lower-class principalities.

The Danube Mountain Principality with a population of less than 100,000 is classified as a "small principality", and the Danube Mountain Principality is relatively large among the small principalities. After all, there are many small principalities with a population of tens of thousands.

The Principality of East Czech Republic, formerly a county belonging to the Principality of Northern Czech Republic, was secretly supported by the Duke of North Czech Republic for independence, and finally split into the Principality of Eastern Czech Republic.

The Duke family of the East Czech Republic was originally a branch of the Duke family of the Northern Czech Republic.

Duke Lopez of the Eastern Czech Republic always called Duke Hansen of the Northern Czech Republic his uncle, but Hansen simply ignored him.

Hearing Lopez mention his "uncle" at this time, Lu Ming smiled: "How come, Duke Hansen is a hero in my eyes. When he was in his prime, he single-handedly cut down dozens of Styx invaders in the midst of heavy siege.

I respect him very much, but he has some misunderstandings about me."

Lopez looked around and sighed, "Actually, when my grandfather announced his separation from the family, my father did not agree. I was still a child at the time and had no opinions. Now that I am older, I gradually understand my father. Unfortunately, many

There is no turning back..." As he spoke, he quite disapproved of the family's decision back then.

"It's okay to be independent from the family and not be a burden to the family." The one who interrupted with a smile was Viscount Hansen, the president of the General Chamber of Commerce. He was a slightly fat old man.

He has the same name as the Duke of Northern Czech Republic, but their personalities are obviously very different.

The Duke of the Northern Czech Republic has a fiery personality, while Viscount Hansen has been dealing with businessmen for a long time. He also does business himself, and his treatment of others is gentle and gentle, as if there is no trace of fire.

However, according to the information collected by Lu Ming, he was extremely greedy and was extremely ruthless in dealing with big businessmen who did not agree with his wishes in paying tribute.

At this time, he interrupted, naturally because everyone knew that the Duke of Northern Czech Republic was on good terms with the Yuan Dynasty, and the topic of Lopez somewhat offended the Duke of Northern Czech Republic. After all, Northern Czech Republic was behind the independence of the East Czech Republic.

The Duke's father, who took office as the head of Northern Ireland.

Lopez smiled awkwardly: "The president is right."

In terms of title, he is higher than Viscount Hansen. In terms of political status, he is also a lord with a territory of hundreds of thousands of people.

The empire didn't pay much attention to business in the past. Although Viscount Hansen was at the center, in the eyes of local powerful factions, it was nothing more than that.

But after all, the small local lords can't afford the central figure's troubles behind his back.
To be continued...