The king did not immediately accept Edmund's suggestion. In the history of the Lion Kingdom, no king had ever voluntarily given up his territory.
In fact, other kingdoms have never done this, except for the hateful White Tower Kingdom, which has a strange law. With the consent of the people, the lord can declare his people and territory to be separated from the White Tower.
jurisdiction of the country.
The alternative White Tower Country was not a kingdom at all. It could only be regarded as a federation of lords at most. Such an unfashionable country was certainly not someone the king could emulate, but despite this, the king was still tempted by Edmund's suggestion.
To be honest, the king really doesn't care about Broken Snow City, that small piece of land, or the more than a thousand gold coins they send as offerings every year.
The territory of the Lion Country is very vast. The wealthy cities in the south receive tens of thousands of gold coins as offerings every year. Even Zhilin City, which is adjacent to Broken Snow City, receives more than 3,000 gold coins as offerings every year.
As winter becomes longer and longer, Suixue City's food production is getting lower and lower, and its contribution to the kingdom is getting smaller and smaller. But now, a worthless territory has caused earth-shattering trouble. This is typical
A piece of smelly salted fish ruined a pot of seafood soup.
The most important thing to do now is to take a fork, pierce Reginald's smelly salted fish, throw it out of the soup pot, and then give it a hard kick to keep this smelly fish in the Kingdom of Lane forever.
The king disappeared from the land. Just thinking of this scene made the king burst into tears of excitement.
Not only was he tempted, but the prime minister, the bachelor, and all the ministers were also tempted. But before the king spoke, they had to hide their joy.
Reckless Edmund, how could he come up with such a good idea?
The bachelor looked at the Minister of the Interior with a smile. He felt that this young man seemed more and more promising.
It takes a little time, a little time for the kingdom to buffer.
The king will definitely adopt Edmund's suggestion, but he will need some time to unify the opinions of the ministers and lords.
There was only one person who clearly opposed Edmund's suggestion, and that person was Prince Chris.
He was furious at the abandonment of territory and openly said it was a cowardly act.
That night, Chris came to the Chancellor's mansion and wanted to borrow one million pounds of grain from the Chancellor.
"One million pounds, just one million pounds. This amount of grain is really nothing to you. The amount of grain that rots in the granary every year is far more than this."
"Your Highness, this is not a matter of how much. We cannot give food to a rebel, a thug who despises the kingdom!"
Chris said: "Reginore is not a rebel, nor is he a thug. He was just a little rough with the Prime Minister..."
"Your Highness, I don't want to discuss this issue with you, and this issue is not within my scope of authority."
Chris said: "Okay, let's not discuss Shattered Snow City or Reginald. We will only discuss the friendship between us. I want one million pounds of food. Are you willing to lend it to me?"
"Food is the wealth of the kingdom. I cannot lend it to anyone privately, including you!" The finance minister righteously rejected Chris's request.
Seeing his solemn expression, Chris almost spit out his dinner.
"The wealth of the kingdom?" Chris sneered, "How much wealth of the kingdom have you pocketed?"
The finance minister turned his face to one side and said angrily: "Your Highness, please pay attention to the propriety of your words."
Chris laughed loudly: "Are you blushing? Fred? Is this really you? Your face actually turns red? This really surprises me!"
"Your Highness, you don't need to provoke me with such vicious language."
"Am I provoking you? Is this considered a provocation?" Chris instantly stopped smiling and said to the Chancellor of Finance with a fierce look in his eyes, "I heard that something was lost at your house last month, right? It seems to be a few sheepskins.
Is the book right? Why are you so careless? How many things have you lost? Do you want me to help you find them?"
The finance minister was worried. He knew what Kress was referring to. Last month, Kress stole his account book again, and he has not yet offered the chips to redeem the account book.
It seems that he wants to exchange the ledger for food.
"Give me a million pounds of grain, and I will accept your favor," Chris forced out a smile again, "You know I am a good person, and I will definitely help you find your stuff."
The finance minister blinked and looked at the waiters around him.
The waiter was very sensible and left the room immediately.
"Your Highness stopped the epidemic in the north, which is a great achievement," the finance minister slowly raised his head and whispered, "I think the common people who suffered from the plague must need some relief, although our king has never provided relief to others.
Lord, the situation is different this time. Can we use some blurred lines in the law to provide some help to those unfortunate people?"
Chris is a smart man and immediately understood what the Chancellor of the Exchequer meant.
"You are right. The plague is gone, but famine is coming soon. We have to help them survive this winter."
"So I think a million pounds of grain..."
"One million pounds is not enough," Chris shook his head. "The civilians affected by the disaster do need food, you know, but other places also need it."
"Then, one and a half million..."
"Two million!" Chris looked at the Chancellor of Finance with a smile, "After I get the food, I will help you find those parchments immediately."
"Two million pounds...it's going to take a while."
"I'm waiting for you, my good friend!"
Chris took a jar of the best wine from the wine cabinet of the Finance Minister, and the Finance Minister whispered: "That was given to my father by His Majesty..."
With a bang, the seal of the wine can was opened.
"I like this wine very much. It tastes really good. There is another jar in the palace. I will get it for you when I have a chance." Chris poured two glasses of wine and handed one to the finance minister. "Cheers to our friendship."
!”
…
Five days after the war ended, Nelson and his caravan finally appeared. He seemed to be in a hurry. He arrived at the city gate, unloaded the goods, collected the gold coins, and wanted to leave.
This is human nature. The corpses on the mountain road have not been cleaned up yet. As a businessman, if it were not for the sake of gold coins, Nelson would never want to get close to Shattered Snow City in his life.
But Reggie was unusually enthusiastic today. He broke an example and invited Nelson and the leaders of various caravans to the castle and took the initiative to treat them to a sumptuous lunch.
Faced with Reggie's abnormal performance, the experienced Nelson responded immediately.
"Lord, we know that Broken Snow City has just experienced a war. I am proud of your victory and deeply saddened by the trauma caused by the war." As he spoke, Old Nelson's eyes turned red. "I have experienced it too.
War, I know the hardship after the war. When I was young, my mother once asked for a bowl of vegetable soup..."
"Uh... I know your mother is great," Reggie interrupted Nelson, "but I don't want to discuss this topic with you today."
Nielsen wiped his tears and said, "I understand what the lord means. We are willing to do our best to relieve the lord of your worries. From now on, the prices of all the products we provide will be reduced by 10%."
"10% price?" Reggie didn't seem satisfied with this answer.
"I'm sorry, my lord, maybe this little power is not enough to help you tide over the difficulties, but please believe that this is the biggest concession we can make. Business is really hard to do, and the surrounding cities are not willing to sell them.
You are at war with the Bayer Country, and we don’t dare to risk going to the Bayer Country to purchase goods..."
Reggie didn't want to listen to the old fox's complaint, so he interrupted Nelson again: "My friends, I'm not here to bargain with you, I just want to make a big deal with you. As I said..."
"For example, gold and silver jewelry?" Nelson immediately put away the scowl on his face, and once again put on a sinister smile, "If you have some jewelry that you are eager to sell, then you have really found the right person, we will give it to you
The most reasonable price, you will never be disappointed.”
Gold and silver jewelry? He thought he wanted to be a seller?
I really didn't expect that a damn businessman would despise me so much.
"What I want to say is not jewelry. What I want to sell you is something more valuable than that." Reggie made a gesture, and a waiter brought up a clay pot.
The pottery pot was hung with thick sealing mud, and it certainly didn't look like gold or silver.
Reggie ordered someone to open the clay pot. When the pungent smell of garlic floated out, a thin and tall businessman immediately shouted.
"Piss wax!"
The businessman's name was Mosley, and he was an expert in selling rare and rare treasures. Looking at the white wax in the jar, he immediately recognized that it was high-quality urine wax.
"Is it really urine wax?" Nielsen also had a business in the urine wax business. He weighed the jar of urine wax in his hand. Excluding the weight of the pot, the urine wax inside was at least two pounds.
"If you can make up for it, let me try it..."
"Of course." Reggie asked the waiter to hand Nelson a quill. Nelson dipped a little urine wax into it and rubbed it lightly on the tablecloth.
A ball of flame ignited the pen, and Mosley, who was sitting aside, bit his lip tightly.
"This is the best urine wax I've ever seen," Mosley whispered in Nelson's ear. "I've never seen anything so pure."
Nelson signaled Mosley to stop talking. He cleared his throat and said with a smile: "Lord, I want to hear your price first."
Reggie smiled and said: "I'm not a businessman, so let me see your sincerity first."