It was okay if the guard didn't ask. When he asked, Viscount Kross's heart was filled with grievances and grief: "The ungrateful Kures!"
Well, as I introduced before, the king of Bihu City State is named Kures.
Upon learning that Viscount Kross was back, the young Aston, the hopeful king of the Xuefeng City State, immediately summoned Kross.
The Viscount, who originally planned to go home to wash up and change his clothes, hurried towards the palace with the guards who came to deliver the order without even entering the door.
Compared to the extremely extravagant Kures royal family, the Aston royal family of the Xuefeng city-state seems to be very frugal.
The total area of the Aston Palace is not half as large as that of the Kures Royal Family, and the whole palace has a minimalist style, without so many fancy murals and no gold and silver decoration.
After all, the ancestors of the Aston royal family left a decree, which is not to allow future generations to enjoy too much luxury. At least 30% of the annual tax revenue of the Snow Wind City State must be spent on people's livelihood, 30% on the military, and 10% on officials.
Two and a half percent of salary expenses are stored in the treasury, and the remaining half is the royal family's expenses.
It is precisely because of this that the children of the Aston royal family have produced many talents throughout the ages.
It’s not just being a king who is a talent. More members of the royal family serve as officials, military officers, and scholars in the Xuefeng City-State. There are even distant cousins of the royal family who have abandoned their royal dignity and run businesses.
Team, contribute to the construction of Xuefeng City-state!
It is precisely because of this that the Xuefeng City-State was able to dominate one area and annex three nearby oases in just a few hundred years.
"Great King! I have brought shame on you!"
As soon as he saw King Aston, Viscount Cros threw himself on the ground and burst into tears.
Seeing the envoy's appearance, the clothes on his body were in tatters and stained with some blood. Even from a distance of five meters, he could feel a stench blowing in his face!
All this made the young King Aston's heart skip a beat.
"What happened?"
"Damn Kures! He didn't want to marry the princess to His Majesty, and he even coveted gifts from our country..."
Now that he has reached this point, Viscount Kross has nothing to hesitate about. He opens his mouth and hits King Kures with all kinds of evil deeds. King Kures is not here anyway.
Unable to defend.
As the wisest king among the recent generations of Xuefeng City-state kings, King Aston would naturally not believe Viscount Crosby's words easily. What if this boy told lies?
Therefore, under the order of King Aston, the palace manager on the side quickly fetched a treasure.
It was a somewhat feminine-looking badge.
Well, this may also explain why His Majesty King Aston does not keep this treasure that can identify the authenticity of words close to his body.
Well, these were the thoughts of Fang Xiaoyue, who quietly sneaked into the palace, transformed into a black cat, and lay on the beam.
No way, after all the hard work, the envoy was sent back so far. Fang Xiaoyue naturally wanted to follow him in and take a look.
After all, compared to Bihu City-state, Xuefeng City-state is much larger in terms of population and area, and it also governs several surrounding oasis territories.
Such a city-state, no matter what, would have more treasures than the Bihu City-state.
In fact, when Fang Xiaoyue saw King Aston, he felt that there were at least five treasures hidden in him.
"Okay, just say what you said before."
His Majesty King Aston looked at Viscount Kross with a serious face and asked.
Viscount Kross repeated what he said before, but this time, he quietly deleted some of the words that made him jealous.
No way, he knows this badge, which can make people distinguish the truth from falsehood in words.
If you add jealousy to the situation and cause His Majesty the King not to believe you, then you will be doomed.
By the time Viscount Crosby repeated his words, King Aston's face had turned blue.
He has confirmed that Viscount Kross's words are true!
"Unexpectedly, King Kures is actually such a person!"
Of course, at this time, Fang Xiaoyue, who was hiding on the beam, also saw that the function of this badge was actually to test the authenticity of the other party's words.
But in Viscount Kross's heart, what he said was true, so there was an error in the test results of the badge.
In any case, after King Aston became furious, the matter quickly slipped in a direction that was not conducive to Bihu City State.
Soon, King Aston summoned all the great nobles in the city-state.
All noble officials above the viscount level are in place.
"Bihu city-state insults my king, I will send troops to attack!"
After listening to Viscount Cros's description, many nobles suddenly became filled with indignation, as if they wanted to go home immediately, order their troops and horses, and go straight to Bihu City.
Of course, they may not always think so.
After all, people are selfish.
As the great nobles in the city-state, they have many private soldiers, which is one of the important guarantees of their power.
Even His Majesty the King would not dare to act rashly until they made no mistakes.
Well, but this time King Aston was plotting, combining his own honor and disgrace with the entire city-state, so that the nobles did not dare not express their stance.
As the imperial meeting progressed, the matter of sending troops to the Bihu City State was decided.
King Aston will personally lead 3,000 elite troops, including 2,500 infantry and 500 cavalry.
Many nobles also reluctantly wrote down the number of troops their families needed to send.
Like those counts, each family needs to send at least 500 troops, while the viscount needs to send 300 troops.
This may not seem like much, but the total number of troops dispatched by the entire Xuefeng City-State was astonishingly over 12,000!
You know, after all, the population capacity of desert oases is much lower than that of plains and grasslands.
The entire Xuefeng city-state has a total population of just over 500,000.
More than 12,000 horses are equivalent to one soldier out of forty men.
In addition, the number of civilians accompanying the army must be at least 5,000.
This is already a huge burden for a city-state.
However, in such a feudal society, no matter how heavy the burden is, it is worth it to wash away the humiliation suffered by the king.
Besides, the reason why the nobles participated so enthusiastically this time was not only to flatter His Majesty the King, but also because they were interested in the population and land of Bihu City State!
Although the total population of Bihu City-state is only 70,000 or 80,000, it is still an oasis in the vast desert.