It was once a wealthy city with 300,000 residents. It had vast fertile land and convenient and developed water conservancy facilities. It was known as one of the granaries of the empire with no land and no idle people.
In addition, it is adjacent to the Longjiang River, the largest river in the empire, to the north. It has excellent inland river ports and commodity distribution centers, so the commerce here is also quite developed. Every year, countless merchant ships transport locally produced food to the north, or carry northern industrial products.
Shipped here.
But now it is dilapidated because it once fell into the hands of the rebels. Minsk had been at peace for a long time and was taken by the rebels, who were leaderless at the time. They swarmed in and competed with each other.
Killings, looting, and various horrific incidents continued to occur.
They robbed everything and burned everything. Money and killing lost their nature, but their blindness also prevented them from surviving in the city for a long time. The food stocks they collected were quickly eaten up, among which
Most of it is wasted.
After experiencing a thrilling ambush, Crown Prince Jean Sauron followed the same pattern, cooperated inside and outside, and easily regained Minsk. He did not have many regular troops in his hands. They were local garrison troops and other troops gathered along the way when he went south from the Holy City.
Some soldiers were recruited later.
Most of the empire's elite regular armies were deployed in the north at this time. The pressure from the Assyrian Empire was too great and they could not move easily. There was also the Bilis Empire in the northwest, which was a military-style country with all the people in arms. It was also a European-Roman empire.
It is said that his old rival also wants to take advantage of the situation.
When someone from his subordinates complained privately about the emperor's lack of kindness, the crown prince would use the above reasons to explain. As for what he was thinking in his heart, no one could tell anything from his always calm face.
But it is a well-known open secret that the relationship between father and son, the emperor and the crown prince, is very poor.
The only thing the crown prince could rely on was the emperor's permission to recruit some middle- and lower-level officers from the Guards, which allowed him to build a passable army in a short period of time.
He had military experience at a very young age, starting as an ordinary soldier. He was strict with himself, performed well in the military, and had a good relationship with senior military officers. Moreover, his mother was born in the military aristocratic Frank family. Therefore, he is a powerful person in the political arena.
It is generally believed that the military is actually the crown prince’s biggest backer.
In terms of conspiracy theory, this is also the reason why the emperor doesn't like him very much and is even a little afraid of him. One example is that the emperor could have drawn some of the organic troops from the guards guarding the holy city and the palace, such as a division.
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The emperor is a person who loves power very much. Of course, some people regard this as a test of the emperor against the crown prince.
Regardless of what the upper echelons said behind their backs, the crown prince took his counter-insurgency work very seriously. However, after the rebels' early blind expansion and mutual quarrels caused a great loss in strength, a powerful leader suddenly appeared.
The leader, nicknamed Professor, changed the rebels' blind expansion trend, eliminated the old and weak, strictly prohibited his subordinates from harassing and robbing civilians, and even provided relief to some homeless people, restoring normalcy in some places completely controlled by the rebels.
The production, coupled with the banner they raised, greatly increased the strength of the rebels.
Within half a year, the crown prince's army and the rebels fought many battles back and forth. Both sides won and lost each other and entered a stalemate.
While fighting the rebels, the crown prince also had to fight against bureaucracy. Weapons, ammunition, food, military uniforms, medicines, etc. did not fall out of thin air. They were all "money", and what the empire lacked most was money.
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The emperor and the prime minister also talked about money in their letters to him. The reason for annihilating the rebels as soon as possible was because there was no money, and without money, the rebels could not be annihilated. This was a strange cycle.
From the holy city to local areas, the crown prince writes letters every day, urging officials to allocate funds or supplies, and every day officials at all levels also reply to letters complaining about difficulties and colleagues.
The crown prince felt that he was going crazy. He felt that he should not be a clerk, but should be with the soldiers.
But he will not complain to the people around him, or even openly show any dissatisfaction. He devotes himself to work with full energy every day.
He hates complaining, thinking that is what long-tongued women are best at.
The crown prince set up his headquarters in a university. In the entire city of Minsk, this is the only university whose buildings are still complete and can accommodate his subordinates and entourage.
The local residents either died in the rebellion or fled to other places. These once wealthy and proud residents are now performing tragedies that have ended or are about to end.
As soon as the sun rose, the crown prince came to his office.
This is the office of the unfortunate principal. It is said that in order to prevent the rebels from breaking into the university, this respectable principal committed suicide in public at the school gate to express his will.
The reason why the rebels wanted to come in was to find some books to light the fire for cooking.
As soon as the crown prince sat down, secretary Clint Wesson sent a pile of documents.
His 41st birthday has just passed, which is a good time for a man to be energetic and achieve great achievements. The crown prince is especially famous for his proficiency in mathematics and photographic memory. It is said that he can recite pi to 100 decimal places in one minute.
Therefore, he quickly found a few suspicious numbers from a pile of documents.
But in order to verify these figures, he needed to spend almost a morning, meeting with officers and officials at different levels, and looking through other documents and materials. Although he finally solved his doubts, he suddenly found that he had many more questions as a result.
Got more questions.
The work is never done.
If Sean were here, he would definitely wonder why Franco Frank stayed by his side. With such a leader, his subordinates would certainly not take it easy.
People who are too diligent can only be friends, but it is best not to work with them.
It was almost 11:30 when the Crown Prince finally looked up from the piles of documents. He leaned his head back on the chair and rubbed his sore eyes. He suspected that his eyesight had declined a lot recently.
At this time, Clint Wesson promptly brought a cup of hot tea. The crown prince took a look at it and said curiously:
"Clint, I remember that the can of tea that Philip gave me was finished three days ago."
Wesson replied: "Yes, Your Highness. This was sent by Lieutenant Frank. It is said that this is the personal collection of Viscount Sean Connery of Genoa. It is definitely the best tea."
"Sean Connery? Oh, I know him. The Genoese finally invented a useful thing that can be popular throughout the country." The crown prince suddenly said, "Speaking of Viscount Connery, did Franco send a letter?
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"His messenger arrived half an hour ago, and he brought the tea. He is currently waiting for your summons, so I have temporarily modified today's schedule. You will not have time to see him until 14:00 sharp in the afternoon." Weisen said.
, "Now, do you want to take a rest?"
"No, let him come over now, I'll treat it as a rest."
The crown prince immediately changed his mind.
"Yes!" Wesson turned and left.
He took a sip of the tea, which had a slightly bitter taste with a hint of sweetness. Seeing the green buds relaxing in the hot water, the Crown Prince's tired brows also relaxed.
He never liked the romance of flowers before the moon and under the moon, thinking that it was a murder of life and time, but the mist rising in front of him, dense, lingering and slowly drifting away, created an elegant and tranquil temperament, making time seem to pass very quickly.
Slowly, it actually calmed down the irritability deep in his heart.
This seems to be the reason why this drink can quickly become popular among the upper class and people who need to use a lot of mental power. Whether it is used to relieve hangover or fatigue after a feast, or between a lot of mental work.
, people like to have a drink.
Because it is sought after by the upper class, the production of tea is very small and the price is extremely expensive. If measured by weight, it is much more expensive than the best and most expensive wine.
The crown prince even heard that some officials were discussing the possibility of imposing a luxury tax on tea - the empire's increasingly difficult financial situation meant they were always looking for ways to expand tax sources.
In a short time, Lieutenant Franco's messenger arrived. Lieutenant Frank was an officer in the Crown Prince's Guards. If calculated by biological relationship, Lieutenant Frank was his nephew, so Lieutenant Frank was one of the closest people to the Crown Prince.
The messenger crown prince also had the impression that he was Frank's servant.
"Your name is Theodore, right?" The crown prince spoke first.
"Yes, Your Highness, you have a very good memory." The messenger gave a small compliment.
"Thank you for bringing me the tea." The crown prince looked at the other person's dusty appearance and nodded to express his gratitude.
"The lieutenant asked me to bring this by the way. I was just running errands." The messenger said, "The lieutenant paid tribute to you and asked me to bring a letter to you for your highness to read!"
The Crown Prince is an unsmiling person, and it is really not easy to get a thank you from him. This is not to say that the Crown Prince is unkind, but that His Highness has always been cold and cold, which makes his subordinates dare not be presumptuous.
Wesson took the letter and handed it to the Crown Prince's desk. The Crown Prince opened the letter himself and read it quickly, feeling a little incredible:
"The Genoa Civil Defense Force actually killed all the werewolves entrenched in the Otter Mountains? 500 werewolves? There are actually so many!"
The messenger said excitedly: "It's absolutely true, Your Highness, I've seen it with my own eyes. In my opinion, those werewolves are nothing special. Fighting on the plains, they are no match at all. They can't even defeat the Genoese."
"Franco's letter did not describe it in detail. Since you saw it with your own eyes, tell me the whole process in detail." The crown prince said, "In addition, you should not despise the werewolves or the Genoese, just as we should not despise those farmers.
Just like a rebel army composed of professional gangsters. To despise your opponents is to despise yourself."
"What your Highness is teaching you," the messenger quickly said in a respectful manner, "is that it starts with a terrible disease like smallpox..."
"Wait!" The Crown Prince suddenly stopped and signaled to his secretary, "Clint, look for me in the Holy City Journal from five days ago. I remember that it introduced the discovery of smallpox by Genoese scholars."
Wesson quickly found the newspaper that the crown prince needed. The "Journal of the Holy City" was on the front page and spared no effort to introduce in detail the great discovery of Nolan, a professor at the University of Poitou.
In the second and third editions, there are articles by some famous scholars in the Holy City analyzing and commenting on Professor Nolan's important discovery. They all praised and vigorously advocated this amazing discovery.
The words written by these scholars reveal a kind of jealousy and regret, because Sean Connery is a Genoese, otherwise such a major achievement would probably have been made by scholars from the Holy City.
The crown prince suddenly thought that he had a younger brother, but unfortunately he contracted smallpox and died when he was six years old. It was because of this that his dear mother passed away in depression.
The messenger is a very smart person, otherwise the Frank family would not let him follow Franco and serve the crown prince. He introduced the process of Sean's encirclement and suppression of werewolves in such a vivid and detailed manner that even the crown prince couldn't help but admire:
"The name of the wizard seems to be truly worthy of its name."
Then he said to his secretary: "Clint, write it down. If there is a chance, I want to meet this viscount."