Archie and Leya were not the only ones who were arranged to get married without their knowledge.
In the north of the Lampali Kingdom, on the Muerto Mountains, more than a thousand kilometers away from Xinfei Farm, Viscount Leslie looked at the letter in his hand, sneered, and used both hands to write the letter written on exquisite letter paper. The letter was instantly torn into pieces and then thrown into the mountain stream around him.
In an instant, countless pieces of paper fell one after another, as if there was another light snowfall in the mountains.
Watching the piece of paper fall into the mountain stream and disappear, Viscount Leslie was silent for a moment, then looked back at the other colleagues of the Northern Army around him, thinking that they must be like other ordinary people, very envious of being born into the Stark family. This big aristocratic family doesn't know that as a descendant of a big aristocratic family, there are many things that they can't help themselves.
For example, the letter sent by his mother showed that the family had already decided on a marriage for him, leaving him no room to refuse.
The girl who is about to become his wife is the youngest daughter of the head of the Aleman family. She is twenty-three years old this year. According to her mother, she is beautiful and has a gentle personality. She is very suitable for being a wife. This allowed Viscount Leslie to end up in the north of the town. After fulfilling his two-year military service goal, he immediately returned to Anvilmar to get married. Regarding his mother's evaluation of Miss Aleman, Viscount Leslie could only sneer in response.
Perhaps this Miss Aleman is indeed beautiful in appearance and gentle in character, but Viscount Leslie never believes that his mother is going for her. The reason why he is sure that this Miss Aleman will become his wife is nothing more than for her. Just the Aleman family.
Noble marriages are not uncommon, and Viscount Leslie had long expected that he would also encounter such a day.
He has been resisting this kind of thing for nearly ten years, and now he has finally put it off until he is in his thirties, but he can no longer put it off.
Looking at another letter in his hand that was much plainer in comparison. Viscount Leslie showed a wry smile.
"In comparison, Xu Yi is much freer than me. At least he can be with the girl he really likes."
Lord Leslion sighed, opened the letter sent by Xu Yi and read it carefully.
The letter Xu Yi sent to him naturally did not contain so many short stories. Instead, he briefly described to him the development plan of the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce during this period, and asked him about the current situation of the Zhenbei Army.
The focus of the inquiry was on the armament situation of the Zhenbei Army. If this question was asked by someone else, he would definitely be accused of spying on military intelligence. However, Xu Yi himself had a false title in the military department, and the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce had a deep cooperation with the Military Logistics Administration. Xu Yi is qualified to know these situations.
I hope I can also ask Major McConley about these questions, but I can only get rough statistics from Major McConley, as for the specific details. Of course, people like Viscount Leslie who are in the Northern Army know best.
However, after seeing these questions in Xu Yi's letter, Viscount Leslie smiled bitterly.
"How should I answer him?"
Viscount Leslie looked back at his colleague who was boiling water using a magic hot water kettle that had been flattened due to an accidental fall on the ground. He thought that if the Military Logistics Administration did not continue to supply the Zhenbei Army, , I am afraid that the armaments of the Zhenbei Army cannot keep up with the consumption, and it will not be long before the Muerto Mountains will be lost again and fall into the hands of those guys from the Sac Kingdom again.
In the offensive and defensive battle in the Muerto Mountains from the beginning to the end of last year. Although the Zhenbei Army relied on a large amount of high-quality armaments supplied by the military. They occupied the Murto Mountains in one fell swoop and pinned the Sac Kingdom's Greedy Wolf Legion and Tiger Legion within the borders of the Sac Kingdom in the north of the Murto Mountains. However, in the past six months or so, the Greedy Wolf Legion and the Tiger Legion never gave up the idea of counterattack.
Despite facing the powerful armaments of the Zhenbei Army. The Greedy Wolf Legion and the Tiger Legion did not achieve any results. The Muerto Mountains were still firmly in the hands of the Zhenbei Army, but due to frequent battles. The Zhenbei Army's armaments were depleted very quickly.
Since the second half of last year, the Military Logistics Administration's supply to the Zhenbei Army has been significantly weakened. After winter, except for a few carts of cotton-padded jackets, no other armament was replenished.
The other soldiers of the Zhenbei Army could only complain privately but did not know the details. However, Viscount Leslie knew the specific reasons.
Quite simply, the military department is out of money.
During the offensive and defensive battle in the Muerto Mountains, the military headquarters uncharacteristically provided a large number of military headquarters, which made the Zhenbei Army show great power. However, such a large military headquarters was very resource intensive.
Although armors, weapons, and other items were all manufactured by the newly built arsenal through magic machine tools, the cost was greatly reduced and a lot of money was saved. However, maintaining such a large amount of consumption still made it difficult for the Logistics Department to sustain it.
Xu Yi mentioned this issue in a letter he sent to Viscount Leslie before. He said in his heart that although many of the military supplies provided by the New Aircraft Chamber of Commerce to the military were almost at full cost price, the military But still can't find the money to buy it.
Xu also expressed deep concern about this situation.
If the military headquarters does not have enough funds, and the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce cannot provide them for free, then the Zhenbei Army's arms supply may have problems.
Once the Sac Kingdom's army counterattacks in spring, the situation in the Muerto Mountains will be extremely dangerous.
In the letter, Xu Yi also hinted to Viscount Leslie that if he sensed danger, he must leave as soon as possible to ensure his own life.
Now in this recently sent letter, Xu Yi expressed his worries even more clearly.
The Military Department has not issued any orders to the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce for more than three months, proving that the Military Department is completely unable to support the arms consumption of the Zhenbei Army.
This proves from the side that the current situation of the Zhenbei Army is already very dangerous.
Seeing that Xu Yi once again hinted at the end of the letter that if things went wrong, he would find an opportunity to leave in advance. Viscount Leslie couldn't help but sigh and shook his head slightly.
Of course he knew that Xu Yi had good intentions, but he had served in the Zhenbei Army for nearly two years. Even though he was mainly responsible for logistics work, he still experienced a lot of bloodshed with his colleagues. He had very deep feelings for Zhenbei Army.
Although he knew that the current situation of the Zhenbei Army was not good, Viscount Leslie did not intend to give up here and escape alone.
But he also knows that his own power is extremely limited. With his current ability, he cannot solve the real problem of Zhenbei Army - that is, the military headquarters has no money.
Thinking of having no money, Viscount Leslie developed a deep dislike for Earl Stark, his uncle, who was far away in Bonta City, and he also hated the ideals that his family had always adhered to.
There are clearly better ways to make the entire kingdom rich, but these rotten guys only care about their own interests and deliberately ignore it all. There is even a need to vigorously suppress them.
In their eyes, the rise and fall of the entire kingdom and the quality of life of all its people. I'm afraid it's not as important as the long-term survival of your family, right
"Hmph! A bunch of idiots! Now the world is about to change with the appearance of Xu Yi. You still insist on holding on to that old concept. If this continues, you will become the sinner who will cause the entire family to be eliminated! "
Viscount Leslie narrowed his eyes, pondered for a while, and took out two pieces of letter paper. First I wrote a reply to Xu Yi. In the letter, he roughly described the difficulties that the Zhenbei Army was currently facing, and hoped that Xu Yi could help solve this problem as much as possible.
Second letter. But it was a reply to my mother.
In this letter, Viscount Leslie stated that he was willing to accept the family's arrangement. Returning to Anvilmar City to marry Miss Aleman, he also revealed another layer of his meaning in a very serious tone.
Him, Leslie Stark. He will use his utmost efforts to fight for the position of patriarch of the Stark family!
# # #
While Viscount Leslie was carefully writing a reply, King Lampali XIII was in the palace looking at the year-end financial report of the Lampali Kingdom in his hand, with a smile on his lips.
This year's financial statements are much better than last year's. Compared with last year's statistics, which only had a total financial revenue of less than two million gold coins, this year's statistics show that the kingdom's total financial revenue has suddenly exceeded three million. Gold coins can be said to have taken a leap forward.
However, as the king of a country, Rampalli XIII certainly does not view the issue from such a simple perspective.
Two years ago, the Lampali Kingdom's annual fiscal revenue was only a meager one million gold coins. However, starting from last year, it has achieved a leap for two consecutive years.
The reason for such an obvious change can be seen from this financial statement. More than 90% of the increase comes from commercial taxes.
And if the focus is shifted to commercial taxes, it can be seen from the additional report of the Commerce Department that more than 90% of the increased commercial taxes actually come from chambers of commerce that produce magic machinery. .
In the report, Xinfei Chamber of Commerce was constantly mentioned.
Last year, the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce paid more than 300,000 gold coins in tax revenue to Bangta City in the first half of the year alone, of which 110,000 gold coins were turned over to the national treasury.
In the second half of the year, because the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce has been transferred to the private domain of Viscount Xu Yi, all taxes paid by the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce will be directly attributed to Xu Yi personally, and will eventually be paid to the national treasury by Xu Yi, totaling 2 One hundred and seventy thousand gold coins.
In addition, because the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce has obtained the right to free trade, the taxes paid by the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce in its trade with other countries will not go through Bangta City, but will be paid directly to the treasury.
Although the investment and construction of the New Flying Chamber of Commerce in the Black Rice Wasteland, the Principality of Standing, and the Kingdom of Luersun have only just begun in the second half of the year, the taxes paid are still as high as 130,000 gold coins.
So last year, the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce alone paid a huge sum of more than half a million gold coins to the national treasury.
This does not include all the taxes from the chambers of commerce related to the production of magic machinery that have sprung up throughout the kingdom under the influence of the New Flying Chamber of Commerce.
If these are also counted together, then of the more than 3 million gold coins in taxes collected by the Lampali Kingdom last year, even more than 1.5 million gold coins were influenced by the New Flying Chamber of Commerce.
Moreover, although the commercial taxes increased by other chambers of commerce are not related to magic machinery, they still have the influence of the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce.
Take the Armani Chamber of Commerce in Bangta City, which specializes in the production of clothing, as an example. With the help of the magic textile machine developed by the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce, the production capacity of the Armani Chamber of Commerce has increased significantly. Although the prices of the clothes sold have been reduced to varying degrees, However, due to the substantial increase in sales, the overall profit has made a leap.
According to statistics, the total business tax paid by the Armani Chamber of Commerce last year was as high as 320,000 gold coins.
Another example is the Amri Chamber of Commerce, which is currently mainly responsible for laying roads throughout the kingdom. Last year, it also paid a business tax of 260,000 gold coins.
Another example is the Renekton Chamber of Commerce...
…
After watching for a while, Lampali XIII suddenly discovered that the major chambers of commerce that originally belonged to Bangta City had actually provided the national treasury with a huge commercial tax of nearly 1.5 million gold coins.
However, the total taxes paid by Bangta City this year are only a mere 190,000 gold coins.
Compared with last year, it is undoubtedly far behind.
Looking at this extremely obvious contrast, Lampali XIII couldn't help but sneer.
"I want to see if those guys have the nerve to say anything now."