The city of Dulacton is slightly further south than the city of Sewell, but the wind and snow coming from the north still covered the entire city of Dulacton this morning, dyeing the entire city white.
Count Michel put down the letter in his hand and looked up out of the window.
Snow is shrouded outside the window, and icicles hang from the branches. It looks particularly beautiful, and it also indicates that the city of Dulacton is likely to have a good harvest next year.
But Earl Michel did not feel any joy at this moment, but instead fell into a trace of worry.
His Royal Highness Prince Eric was obviously deeply dissatisfied with Count Longley actually having private contact with Xu Yi and even inviting the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce to invest in Basalu City. He even angrily criticized Count Longley in this reply to Count Michel. A traitor who not only betrayed His Royal Highness Prince Eric, but also betrayed his dead father.
Perhaps because of the anger caused by Count Longley, His Royal Highness Prince Eric was also very dissatisfied with Count Michel's previous letter as to whether he should cooperate with the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce. He was full of doubts about Count Michel, and even The only thing he did not ask directly was whether Count Michel also wanted to be a traitor.
Count Michael was not surprised by His Highness Prince Eric's reaction, but he was very disappointed that His Highness Prince Eric only knew how to express his anger in this situation.
Before he really understood why Count Longley contacted Xu Yi, he directly judged Count Longley as a traitor. In the eyes of Count Michel, this was really a very stingy approach.
Even if Count Longli did have contact with Xu Yi. It is true that Xinfei Chamber of Commerce was invited to invest in Batru City, but this is completely different from betraying His Royal Highness Prince Eric, and it does not mean that Batru City and the Longli family will switch to the side of Princess Sevigny from now on.
At such times. The correct approach for His Royal Highness Prince Eric should be to investigate the situation and make judgments and decisions after clearly understanding Earl Longley's thoughts, instead of directly pushing Earl Longley out from the beginning.
He identified Earl Longli as a traitor, so even if Earl Longli did not really betray His Royal Highness Prince Eric, in this case, he would probably be forced to leave.
His Royal Highness Prince Eric does not have many supporters in the Northeast Province. There are only three people: himself, Earl Longley and Earl Will of Laimat City.
Now he defined Count Longley as a traitor. I am still questioning myself in my heart, are I planning to abandon the support of the entire Northeast Province
Although Earl Will's Laimat City is the largest city in the Northeast Province. However, the city of Laimat alone cannot represent the entire Northeastern Province.
What's more, compared to Count Satsuma, the staunch supporter of Her Royal Highness Princess Sevigny in Sewell City, Count Will is probably not that strong.
Moreover, the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce has also entered Sewell City to invest heavily. If Earl of Satsuma and Sewell City are given a few years to develop Sewell City into the same state as Bonta City, then the entire Northeast Province will probably depend on Earl of Satsuma.
Thinking of this, Count Michel suddenly felt a strong sense of exhaustion.
His Highness Prince Eric's attitude towards him made him a little unhappy, and His Highness Prince Eric's way of handling things made him even more disappointed.
He even felt that his original choice was somewhat wrong.
"Maybe... it would be better to choose to support Her Royal Highness Princess Sevigny?"
This idea had just arisen in Count Michel's mind, and he immediately threw it away with a flick of his head.
As a veteran nobleman who is almost sixty years old and has experienced several changes in the kingdom's political situation, he even makes sense.
That is in the fiercest competition. There are winners and losers, but the most unpopular are always the vacillators.
Count Michel sighed. He pinched his forehead to calm down his expression, picked up the bell on the table and shook it gently, calling his personal butler in.
"Go and find out what Count Longli and Xu Yi did during the two days they were together. Even what they said, try to find out as much as possible." Count Michel first ordered. "Then send a gift to Count Longley in my name and tell him a message."
The butler stared at Count Michel.
Count Michel paused. After thinking for a while, he continued: "Just tell him that I hope he can inherit Old Longli's legacy and be the lord of Batru City."
The butler looked a little strange. This was the first time he had received such a vague order from Count Michel.
But the housekeeper didn't have any idea of asking, and wrote down these two orders honestly.
"By the way, are the supplies delivered to His Royal Highness Prince Eric ready?" Count Michel asked again.
"It's ready and can be loaded into the carriage and set off at any time," the steward replied.
"A carriage?" Count Michel smiled, with a hint of sarcasm in his smile. "Okay, let's arrange to load the car and set off as soon as possible. Our Prince, I'm afraid he can't wait any longer."
The housekeeper responded, but stopped talking.
"Say." Earl Michel said solemnly.
The housekeeper quickly said: "Your Excellency, when collecting these supplies, some unscrupulous people tried to resist. As a result, the soldiers of the city guard were not careful and struck too hard. As a result..."
Seeing the troubled expression on the butler's face, Earl Michel lowered his face: "How many died?"
The housekeeper smiled bitterly and replied: "Thirteen people have died so far, and fifty-six people have been seriously injured. Among them, there are probably more than twenty people who cannot survive."
"That means close to forty people will die?" Count Michel's face was so gloomy that it seemed like water was dripping from his eyes. "I asked them to collect supplies, not to kill people!"
The housekeeper looked at the anger hidden in Count Michel's brows and was frightened, but he still had to explain: "Your Majesty, it is the end of the year now, and the things that the civilians can keep in their homes are not much, and they have been forcibly taken away. , Of course they will fight tooth and nail. The soldiers of the city guard have to fight back, and then... "
The butler did not dare to say any more. Looking at the look on Count Michel's face, he suspected that if he continued talking, he might even be in trouble.
Count Michel remained sullenly silent for a long time. Then he took a deep breath, waved his hands and said, "Since he has been beaten to death, forget it. Each of the soldiers who killed the person will be fined one hundred gold coins. If they cannot pay, they will all be thrown into prison."
The butler was startled: "Your Majesty, I'm afraid there will be questions..."
Count Michel glanced at him, and the butler immediately swallowed the following words back.
"Okay. Go arrange for the supplies to be loaded into the car and transported out." Count Michel waved his hand and motioned for the butler to go out.
Seeing Count Michel's expression full of exhaustion. The butler did not dare to say anything more and quietly left after saluting.
After Count Michel stood there for a long time, he suddenly sighed, with a self-deprecating smile on his face.
"It turns out that our huge city of Dulacton is having a hard time even collecting supplies of 300,000 gold coins?"
###
"Lord City Lord, these are the accounts that are about to be handed over to the Kingdom's finances. Please check them." Formar, the financial affairs officer of the City Lord's Palace in Bangta City, respectfully held an account book in his hands and handed it to Sevini opposite.
Sevini took it and just looked through it, then nodded and put it down.
"I already know the accounts clearly, so there is no need to do any more checks." Sevini said with a smile. "This year our Bangta City was able to pay more than 700,000 gold coins in taxes to the kingdom's finances, which is inseparable from everyone's hard work. You have worked hard, and I am here to express my gratitude to you on behalf of my father."
The various affairs officers of the City Lord's Mansion in the room quickly stood up and saluted Sevini fearfully.
"Your Highness. This is our job, but we don't deserve your gratitude."
After saying this, everyone looked happy. The entire room was filled with joy.
The financial revenue of Bangta City this year is much higher than last year. The lives of everyone in Bangta City have been greatly improved, making them, the affairs officers of the city lord's palace, highly respected no matter where they are after leaving the city lord's palace.
"It is precisely because of your outstanding work that our Bangta City can develop so well. It is appropriate to express our gratitude to you." Sevini said. "Okay. Everyone, sit down and discuss next year's development plan for Bangta City. Baron Fomar, tell me, after handing over to the kingdom's finances and settling various expenses for this year, what will our Bonta City plan be? How much money is left in the city’s finances?”
Baron Fomar didn't need to look at any records and answered directly: "There are still 1,276,346 gold coins left."
"That's close to 1.28 million gold coins." Sevini nodded. “Do you have any good suggestions on how to spend this money?”
Everyone looked at each other and hesitated.
"Don't be afraid. Feel free to express your opinions. I just want to ask you for any feasible suggestions." Sevigny encouraged.
"Then... Lord City Lord, let me make a suggestion first." Baron Fomar raised his hand.
Sevigny nodded to him and smiled encouragingly.
Baron Fomar quickly sat up straight and said seriously: "Your Royal Highness, I propose to allocate a sum of funds to repair the old city of our Bangta City. Now our Bangta City has gradually developed into the most prosperous city in the south of the kingdom. But The old city still looks like it did before, which I think is somewhat inconsistent with our current status in Bangta City.”
"Yes, compared with the clean, beautiful and neat new city outside, the old city is simply another world." Another affairs officer also agreed. "Now people in the old city want to move to the new city. If I didn't want to save more money to buy a villa built by the Armli Chamber of Commerce, I would have moved out long ago."
"It's just that the old town is small and crowded, and it's inconvenient to do anything. It would be nice to repair it and make it more beautiful."
"Well, that's what I thought too..."
…
Hearing everyone's agreement, Sevigny thought for a while and nodded: "This is a good proposal. So, Baron Formal, since you have made this proposal, have you ever thought about how much it will cost?"
Baron Fomar had obviously thought about it for a long time, and replied with a confident look: "Lord City Lord, it is obviously impossible for us to really make earth-shaking changes to the old city, so my proposal is only for some that are particularly dilapidated and cannot be used. Part of it will be repaired, so it’s just about building some public facilities, repairing some dilapidated parts, and making some improvements in some places. According to my preliminary estimate, about 50,000 gold coins will be enough.”
"Only fifty thousand gold coins?" Sevini was a little surprised. "You are really thrifty. Well, after excluding these 50,000 gold coins, we still have a financial balance of more than 1.2 million gold coins. Do you have any better suggestions?"
Baron Fomar was a little strange: "Lord City Lord, do you want to spend all the more than 1.2 million gold coins?"
"Of course you can't spend it all. But it's useless to keep so much money, right? This money comes from the taxes paid by the people of Bonta City, so of course it should be spent on improving their lives. Come on, Think of new proposals."
Everyone looked at each other, unable to think of any good ideas for a while.
Seeing everyone in trouble, Sevini sighed, thinking that if Xu Yi were here, he would definitely come up with a lot of novel ideas.
This guy is great at making money, and he's also great at spending money.
But then Sevigny found it a little funny.
At a time when almost all cities in the kingdom are having to deal with financial settlements at the end of the year, I am worrying about how to spend money next year. This is really a luxury. (To be continued)