Unexpectedly, the Guards mutinied at this time and promoted the fourth prince, His Royal Highness Frederic, to the throne. Claude thought for a long time before he suddenly realized that it was his attack by sending the Thunder Legion to land on the kingdom's mainland that delayed the action plan of the Guards Corps, and it took nearly a year to pull Sterling XI from the throne. It can be seen from this that the Imperial Guards are also deeply wary and suspicious of overseas autonomous territories. Even if they are not hostile, they are not considered friendly forces.
Another unexpected thing was that Sterling XI would be shot to death in the palace. This was really beyond the expectations of everyone in the overseas autonomous territories. Generally speaking, in a mutiny like this, the basic outcome of a king being pulled from the throne would be to be placed under house arrest for the rest of his life or forced to live in seclusion, but his life would still be guaranteed. It is really surprising that Sterling XI was killed directly like this. After all, he was also a king and the brother of Frederick I who succeeded to the throne.
General Bolognik was very happy and immediately sent a congratulatory envoy to the royal capital. This time the special envoy was not Colonel Bockard, but several members of the Dominion Parliament. The speaker, Mr. Sir Bennet, one-armed, served as the head of the envoy. General Bolognik hopes that the overseas autonomous territories can restore normal relations with the Kingdom, just like they did when Sterling X was in power, and that people can travel freely to promote economic and trade development between the two sides.
Claude was not optimistic about the prospects of this overture to the overseas dominions. He doubted whether the newly elected King Frederick I had the ability to control the royal capital and stabilize the situation in the entire kingdom. Ever since the death of Sterling XI, Claude believed that His Royal Highness the Fourth Prince Frederic could not restrain the Guards Corps, because the consequences of doing so would easily leave a stain in the history books that he killed his brother to gain power. This is not Maybe it was his intention.
From March to June, a lot of information about the royal capital came through the Griffin Legion stationed in White Deer City during these three months. After Frederick I came to power, he officially issued three decrees. The first was to repeal the seven taxation orders added by Stirling XI, which finally made the people of the kingdom breathe a sigh of relief. The second is to arrest and liquidate the crimes of the emerging business aristocrats who were treasonous to Sterling XI. The third is to encourage local counties in the kingdom to resume production, dispatch the Imperial Guard to eliminate bandits and bandits in various places, and vigorously improve public security order.
From these three decrees issued by Frederick I, it can be seen that the new king has done a good job and has gained a reputation as a wise king among the people. However, the envoys returned to the overseas autonomous territories in mid-July and the news they brought back was not very good. How should I put it? It is difficult for the parliaments of the overseas autonomous territories to accept the demands made by the Royal Capital, and Claude and others are even more unwilling to accept the conditions proposed by the Kingdom’s Ministry of War.
Sir Bennett told the story of his trip to the royal capital. From his words, one can draw the conclusion that the newly elected Frederick I is actually just a puppet monarch. It is the old aristocratic families who really control the real power of the kingdom. . The demands they made were considered extremely excessive by the members of the overseas autonomous territories, and they still looked at the overseas autonomous territories from the old perspective.
The first request is to cancel the title of Overseas Dominion and restore the name of Overseas Dominion. This can be agreed to. But then they demanded the dissolution of the autonomous region council and the restoration of the governor-general-admiral jurisdiction. The royal capital would dispatch governors and admirals to exercise jurisdiction over the autonomous territories. This was something that all members of the autonomous region council would firmly oppose. No one was willing to give up their rights. right.
The second request is to resume the collection of taxes and tributes from the royal capital by overseas jurisdictions. This shows that the adults in the royal capital still view overseas autonomous territories with the same old eyes. Because the total amount of taxes and tributes they proposed was only half a million gold crowns per year, the tax burden on the overseas autonomous territories was now nearly two million gold crowns a year. It was not a heavy burden and was completely acceptable. But it is too much to require overseas autonomous territories to hand over 70% of their mineral resources free of charge every year.
The third request was for the Dominion Military District. The royal capital believed that the colonial war was over and the establishment of the war district could be cancelled. At the same time, it is required to reduce the strength of the Thunder Legion and the Rock Legion, change the legions into divisions, allow the names of the Thunder Division and the Rock Division to be retained, reduce the strength of the troops by half, and return the command of the two reorganized divisions to the Kingdom. War Department.
The fourth request is about the ocean cruising fleet. The royal capital requires that the ocean cruising fleet be brought under the jurisdiction of the Kingdom’s Navy Ministry, renamed the Beluga Fleet, and placed under the deployment of the Kingdom’s Navy Ministry, but half of the sailors of the ocean cruising fleet are allowed to retire and be sent overseas. The autonomous territories will establish separate overseas patrol squadrons for the autonomous territories. To put it bluntly, this is an attempt to nationalize the ocean-going cruise fleet for free.
Finally, there was another request that was also directed at the Dominion Military Region. The king asked the Dominion Military Region to dedicate the manufacturing process and drawings of the new rifle to the kingdom. Last year's battle between the Thunder Legion and the Red Dragon Legion had made the kingdom's established noble families clearly aware of the sharpness of the new rifles. They had been thinking about this new rifle for some time, but the relationship between the two parties at that time was very delicate, neither enemies nor friends. Because they were afraid of angering the Thunder Legion, they could only endure it.
To a certain extent, the forces of established aristocratic families and emerging business aristocrats share the same characteristic, which is greed. The only thing that is better than the emerging business aristocrats is that they also know a little bit of propriety and do not act as unscrupulously as the emerging business aristocrats. They will restore local production in the kingdom, rectify public security, stabilize the situation in the kingdom, and promote commercial development.
However, they still have the same old view of the overseas autonomous territories. They regard the overseas autonomous territories as the source of local resources for the Kingdom, and maintain a repressive and plundering attitude towards the economic development of the overseas autonomous territories. It can be seen from the first two demands they made that the established aristocratic family forces hope that everything in the overseas autonomous territories will return to the way it was before the colonial war. They hate all new changes and developments in the overseas autonomous territories that are beyond their control.
Sir Bennett said that the royal capital told these envoys that if the overseas dominions agreed to these demands, then His Majesty the King could pardon the overseas dominions for sending troops to land in the kingdom to rob military industry and civilian machinery and equipment, and pardon them for organizing their own parliaments. , pardoning them for declaring autonomy without authorization.
As for the five generals in the war zone and the officers and soldiers of the two legions, their merits in the colonial war will be re-verified by the Kingdom's Ministry of War, and their achievements will be awarded by His Majesty the King himself. Generals like Claude and Bolognik are very sure to be promoted to generals of the kingdom and receive knighthoods. Generals Skree, General Beachlin, and General Albert are no exception.
Claude laughed dumbly. Is this considered an inducement? Unfortunately, the money spent was not enough, and it was simply not enough to impress the high-ranking officials of the Dominion Military Region. Even though General Bolognik wanted to be a loyal minister of the kingdom, when he heard Sir Bennett repeating the demands made by the old aristocratic families, his face turned ashen and he almost took a pen to write "I" on his face. I don’t agree with these words.
"It's too much!" General Albert was the first to jump out. "What do the big guys in the royal capital think of our Dominion Military Region as stray dogs wagging their tails and begging for food? Why are we asked to reduce the strength of two legions? Our two legions." The combat power is obviously stronger than theirs, so if we want to reduce it, we should reduce their legions that are not worth mentioning."
"By the way, I forgot to mention it." Sir Bennett remembered something. "When our envoy team came back, we heard that the Guards Corps was going to expand the strength of one division and form a large army with four divisions. The total strength is equivalent to two regular main field armies."
The Guards Corps originally had three divisions, and one division would be left to guard the royal capital when going out to fight. Now expanded to four divisions, the combined strength is more than 100,000, which is equal to the combined strength of the Thunder Legion and the Rock Legion. I wonder if there will be another garrison division added in the future, so that when we go out to fight, we can fight one against two.
General Skerry raised his head curiously and asked, "Didn't you say that Sterling XI ruined the treasury so much that even rats starved to death? Where did the Guards get the money to expand its army?"
Sir Bennett sighed and said, "The mutiny of the Guards Corps was so sudden that no one could predict it. At the same time as the mutiny, the troops of the Guards Corps immediately blocked the entire capital and followed Stirling XI. None of the members of the emerging business aristocracy escaped, they were all arrested. When our envoy group arrived at the royal capital, we heard rumors that the new king sent people to search the properties of these members of the emerging business aristocracy, and confiscated nearly 1,000 yuan. Tens of thousands of crowns of stolen money.
That's why the new king issued those three decrees, which exempted the people of the kingdom from seven types of taxes and fees, reducing the burden on the people of the kingdom. On the day the decree was issued, the people of the royal capital took to the streets to cheer happily, thanking Frederick I for his grace and kindness. In fact, the ill-gotten wealth that the Imperial Guards plundered from the emerging commercial aristocratic forces would be enough to sustain the new king for three years if saved. And in three years, the kingdom's economy should be back to normal. "
"How many members of the emerging business aristocracy have been arrested?" General Skerry asked.
Sir Bennett shook his head, "I don't know about this, there should be hundreds of them. The newspaper I read when I was in the capital said that there were forty or fifty people who were sentenced to death for their heinous crimes, and their subordinates were all ordered to have their homes searched. Go to a labor camp and work as a coolie.”
General Skerry thought for a while, "That's more than nearly 10 million gold crowns. Just like the special envoy we sent last time, we cried and begged for mercy after being captured. We are willing to pay a ransom of 200,000 to 300,000 gold crowns to redeem them and return to the kingdom. If The members of the emerging commercial aristocracy who were sentenced all have the net worth of these kingdom’s special envoys, so our new king should be said to have made a lot of money by confiscating his property this time.”
General Bolognik slammed the table angrily, interrupting the discussion between General Skerry and Sir Bennett about how much ill-gotten wealth the new king had gained from stealing the properties of the emerging business aristocrats. "Don't say that. What nonsense are you talking about? What do you think about these demands proposed by the royal capital? Let me state in advance that I am firmly opposed to it. They regard our war zone as something other than a new rifle. There is no way we can agree to their request. Ask Claude, what do you think?"
How do I see Claude shrugging, there is nothing to say, just reject. The old aristocratic families in the royal capital got carried away as soon as they took over the power of the kingdom. They put forward so many harsh demands to the overseas autonomous territories. Do they really think they can conquer the overseas autonomous territories? Apart from other things, the first and second demands cannot be obtained by the parliament of the autonomous territories. agree. Now those congressmen are all taking the initiative. Who wants to have two mothers-in-law on his head to serve him
Not to mention the restoration of the governor-general's jurisdiction, the requirement that the overseas territories hand over 70% of their mineral resources free of charge every year will be firmly resisted by all members of the parliament. The reason is simple. This is money taken from their pockets. Who would be happy to give 70% of their income to the royal capital every year and then take a small amount for themselves. The most loyal people who serve their country will also think about whether it is worth it at this moment.
As for the reduction of the strength of the Thunder Legion and the Rock Legion into two divisions, as well as the requirement to bring the ocean-going cruise fleet under the jurisdiction of the Kingdom's Navy Department, to put it simply, Claude would like to ask why the Guards Corps recommended Fu King Ridley I made a great contribution to his rise to power, and expanded it into a grand army. The Thunder Legion and the Rock Legion guarded the overseas territories without losing an inch of territory. They also gave the kingdom an extra colony. However, the merits of opening up the territory and expanding the territory have to be reduced. Who can do this? convinced
The other ocean cruising fleet was the spoils of the two legions and was not originally under the jurisdiction of the Kingdom's Navy Department. The war zone reorganized the captured combined fleet into an ocean cruising fleet, responsible for guarding the waters of the directly-administered war zone. It invested a lot of money to build an army. As a result, the capital now wants to collect even a penny of capital. Returning it to national ownership may also imply limiting the ocean shipping capabilities of overseas autonomous territories directly to the Kingdom's mainland. It is simply a daydream.
Finally, they also came up with the idea of a new rifle, which was the lifeblood of the overseas autonomous territories. Not to mention the five generals, most of the members of the parliament were opposed to handing over the manufacturing process and blueprints of the new rifle to the royal capital. No one wants to see enemies from overseas autonomous territories confronting their own troops with new rifles in the future, and it will be too late to regret by then.
Take the grenade as an example. Claude transferred his production license and manufacturing process to the established aristocratic family. As a result, all countries in the Farea continent began to imitate and research the grenade. The Hicks Kingdom used grenades to catch the two legions in the war zone by surprise, causing heavy casualties. No one wants to experience such a war again.
Claude doesn't care much about the leakage of information about the new rifle, because the real key to the new rifle lies in the bullet, and the key to the bullet lies in the gunpowder invented by Lady Sonia. He kept the formula of gunpowder strictly confidential, and the people who made it were all students in his sister Anna's laboratory. Each time a large bullet is produced, it is enough to produce bullets for ten and a half days. The gunpowder used for each bullet is only a tiny bit the size of a booger.
Without powder, the bullets would misfire, and new rifles with misfired bullets were less effective than a spear. Claude can give the new rifle to the royal capital, but it is impossible to give him gunpowder. Of course, this is just a thought in my own mind, because when the new rifles are in the hands of the old aristocratic families, it is guaranteed that all countries in the continent will know how to make new rifles.
Claude can't guarantee whether smart people from other countries will invent something similar to gunpowder to solve the problem of misfiring bullets. If such a situation really happens, Claude won't even have time to cry, and he will be mute by then. Eating Coptis chinensis is unspeakably painful. Therefore, it is absolutely impossible to agree to this request from those established aristocratic families.
"How do we respond to the request made by the royal capital?" Sir Bennett asked. He was the leader of the envoy this time, so he was very concerned about this issue.
Claude smiled and said, "Why should we respond to their request? We just need to write down the conditions we can agree with and give them to them. This thing is like bargaining in a grocery store. They are making an offer and we are counter-offering. We can't reach an agreement." Just one shot and two and it’ll be over.”
"Okay, let's decide like this. Let's discuss what conditions we should propose to the royal capital." General Bolognik made the decision.
Soon, the members of the executive committee present discussed it for a while and wrote a reply letter to the royal capital. The letter states that the overseas autonomous territories can restore their original names as directly administered territories, but they must retain the two major power institutions of the overseas autonomous territories, the parliament and the military region. Next, the overseas autonomous territories can pay taxes and tributes of 500,000 gold crowns to the royal capital every year. As for mineral resources, they can be sold to local merchants in the kingdom at a discount of 30% off the market price.
Regarding the two legions of the overseas autonomous territories, the requirements are very simple. The military expenses are self-financing and they are directly under the jurisdiction of the autonomous military regions to fulfill the will of the late King Sterling X to defend the overseas territories. Regarding the settlement of military exploits in the colonial war with the Kingdom of Hicks, I hope that the royal capital will approve the reward and promotion lists of the officers and soldiers of the two legions as soon as possible and record them in the files, and do not deliberately leave them in trouble.
In addition, the ocean-going cruising fleet in the Dominion Theater was a trophy of the colonial war and is now under the jurisdiction of the Dominion Military District. It can help the Kingdom's Navy prepare to build a new ocean-going fleet, but it refuses to bring the ocean-going cruising fleet under the jurisdiction of the Kingdom's Navy. There was also the matter of the new rifle, which was not mentioned at all. He clearly told the old aristocratic families in the royal capital not to think about this new rifle.
"What if they don't agree?" Sir Bennet asked.
"If you don't agree, just delay. We have nothing to rely on in the kingdom now. The most they can do is not give us rewards or promotions. What impact will this have on us? Our soldiers have long been accustomed to the royal capital's treatment of us. It's unfair. If they agreed, I would be really surprised. Will the sun rise from the west in the future?" Claude answered lightly.
As expected by Claude, after this reply letter was sent to the royal capital, it was like a stone sinking in the ocean, with no response at all. However, General Hadro, the commander of the Griffin Legion stationed in White Deer City, sent a handwritten letter to the Dominion Military Region. The letter said that the big bosses in the royal capital became furious and cursed after reading the reply letter from the overseas dominion. The overseas dominions are all rebellious. When the kingdom recovers, it will be the first to send troops to conquer the overseas dominions.
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