Dane was not ignorant of the news that Verina was fighting wits and bravery with those merchants in Shawan Harbor.
Although, during this period of time, he spent most of his time in Aurelia, and he might return to White Wolf Castle occasionally, but he never made public appearances at Shawan Port. But a lot of news still reached his ears through various channels.
He is still very satisfied with Velina's work in Shawan Port.
Obviously, this female knight hero basically understood the two-sentence policy that Dane gave her. She did not recklessly have a direct confrontation with the General Affairs Office and the three giant chambers of commerce behind the General Affairs Office, but she showed her tough attitude very well.
In her recent letter, she mentioned that after the introduction of the new tax bill of Shawan Port, and after all kinds of battles with the three major chambers of commerce, the commercial activity of the entire city has increased in just half a month. Inside, it looked like it had been reduced by ten percent.
This is a very large degree of diving, enough to cause panic in any city administrator.
In particular, the rate of decline still has no intention of slowing down. It seems that as long as the new warlords in Shahaiwan Port continue to fight with those merchants, the business in Shahaiwan Port will continue to slump.
This is the prelude to the collapse of the city. Even if Verina was a determined person, she couldn't help being frightened by it.
In her letter, there was a sentence that Dane agreed with very much.
"... Any small means, under our strong attitude and the guarantee of our sufficient military power, are just tricks, meaningless, and unable to shake our foundation. However, in this During the struggle, the commercial industry of Shawan Port will be greatly affected, and it is unavoidable that the business activity will shrink significantly. This may be the strongest move of the businessmen of the General Affairs Office. It is also their biggest hole card that they have nothing to fear."
Dane agrees with Verina's point of view 100%.
The three major chambers of commerce played a lot of small tricks in Shawan Port, and Verina also spent a lot of brains in order to crack these small tricks.
But in fact, this is not the nature of the matter. Only a fool would think that those means could really threaten Dane's rule in Shawan Harbor. And in the same way, no matter how beautifully Verina cracks these small tricks, she will not be able to truly eradicate the influence of the three major chambers of commerce in Shawan Harbor.
The most fundamental thing is that, looking at the essence through these small means, the purpose of the three major chambers of commerce is to destroy the commercial capabilities of Shawan Port, and force Verina and Dane behind Verina to submit.
This is also the most powerful weapon in the hands of the General Affairs Office: as long as I want to, I can make today's bustling Shawan Port collapse into a wasteland that even a ship is unwilling to come to tomorrow.
Don't think that those warlords who once controlled Shawan Harbor didn't want to completely hold this hen that can lay golden eggs in their own hands. However, this matter is not something that can be done just by thinking about it. Under the extremely tough performance of the General Affairs Office, any warlord had to bow his head.
If you want to control Shawan Port, there is no way. The General Affairs Office would rather destroy this bustling city than let it escape from the control of merchants and truly fall into the hands of warlords.
This is where businessmen get tough.
What's smart about them is that they don't plan to eat alone in Shawan Port. No matter which warlord controls this port city, they will respectfully take out a sum of benefits and dedicate it to the general who controls the city.
For the warlords, a dilapidated Shawan Harbor is of no value. And if it continues to be in the hands of the merchants, at least they can receive a considerable amount of tribute every month.
In this way, how will the warlords choose
Almost all warlords were defeated in such a routine. No one can fight against these businessmen in Shawan Port. Their influence penetrates into every corner of this port city, and it is not limited to this area. Even if they do not have any military power, they are not ordinary business groups. The warlords can fight.
But Dane still asked Verina to maintain a tough attitude. This attitude is also tantamount to telling the businessmen that Dane will not—at least not now—choose to compromise.
It's not that the merchants have never seen such a warlord.
Even though Shahai Bay Port was ruined, it would be a huge loss for the merchants who controlled the lifeline of the city. However, business is fluid. Without Shawan Port, they can explore this market from other places and in other ways, and there will always be a time when they can make up for their losses.
But for the lords, it was almost unacceptable damage for the cities that had finally lost so many lives and fought so hard with other warlords to completely decay.
Therefore, no matter how tough the warlords are, they will always choose to compromise in the end.
As for the 'degree' in this, what kind of measure should be grasped, it depends on the game between the two sides.
According to the merchants' experience, generally when a city's decline reaches 10%, the lords will not be able to sit still. But it was obvious that Dane was much more tolerant than they imagined. After half a month of fighting, Shawan Port's trade volume had dropped by 10%, but Dane had no intention of compromising.
This was somewhat beyond the expectations of the General Affairs Office, but in their eyes, this was nothing more than continuing to lose money. They believe that 10% of Dane will not give in, 20%, 30%, there will always be times when Dane can't bear it.
What if you can bear it all the time? Then let Shawan Harbor fall into disrepair.
However, what they didn't expect was that during this period of time, Dane, who hadn't made any public appearances in Shawan Harbor, already had the idea of breaking the situation in his heart.
Dane, who had just drank the permanent strength potion and was adapting to the newly increased strength, counted the days and wrote a reply letter to Verina.
In his reply, he asked Velina to continue to fight against the General Affairs Office of Shawan Port. The ultimate goal is to maintain the situation as much as possible, maintain a tough attitude, and slow down the decline of Shahaiwan Port. Its rigid target is to require that within half a month, the overall commercial trade volume of the port should not drop by more than 15%.
This is an indicator that Verina needs to work hard to complete, but Dane does at least need the female knight to buy him some more time.
As for other actions...
Dane thought for a while, and wrote several letters to several people. (To be continued.)