After seeing off Princess Sylvia and her party, Lorist was about to leave for the Chaser Legion station in the eastern part of the Northland, but he didn't want to receive an urgent letter from the Duke of Kenmas. After more than a month of negotiations, Kenmais The negotiating envoys sent by the Duke of Si and the Grand Duke of Feisabrun finally reached an agreement on the import of goods and materials from the Snow Salt Chamber of Commerce to the territory of the Feisabrun family. Come to Rock Castle together to meet with Lorist, so that the agreement reached can be ratified and come into force.
Lorist had no choice but to postpone the trip, and stayed in the Rock Castle to wait for the arrival of Duke Kenmes and others. During the day, I went to the Houshan practice field to guide Shi Huade to practice Danhai Yinqi, and gave pointers to Reddy and Genorio's swordsmanship. Stay in the study at night and quietly check some files. Without a woman by his side, Lorist felt that the world was a lot cleaner...
Five days later, Duke Kenmes and Earl Shaheen arrived at Rock Castle, while Earl Felim arrived a day later. Except that the Duke of Kenmes felt a little regretful because Princess Sylvia was not in the Rock Castle and missed the chance to see her, everyone was more concerned about the content of the agreement reached between the Duke of Kenmes and the Feisabrun family.
"There are a total of forty-seven kinds of products, and I doubled them by three to five times. It's a pity that the shipments are a little less. But you don't have to worry, this year's shipments are finished, and your family can get at least thirty or forty Wanjinford." Kenmes is still so pissed that he has become a duke.
Of course, these words were not addressed to Lorist. The Norton family only accounts for 10% of the dividends in the Snow Salt Chamber of Commerce, which is not too much. It was Ken Max who said that it mainly depends on the large shipments. The profits of the Norton family come from the various daily necessities and commodities produced by the family's industrial and mining workshops, which account for almost 80% of the purchases of the Snow Salt Chamber of Commerce. Here, Lorist has already made a lot of money wholesale to the Snow Salt Chamber of Commerce, and the family's 30% dividends from those producers is another big income, not counting the taxes that must be paid. .
However, the eyes of Earl Felim and Earl Shaheen were brightened. For them, the military expenses of maintaining a regular family armed field army are a large amount of expenditure every year, even if the family's armed forces are not as good as those of the Norton family. However, the annual expenditure of 400,000 to 500,000 Jinford is unavoidable. With this dividend, the pressure on military expenditures this year will almost disappear. The replacement of the two territories last year was completed with subsidies from Lorist and Kenmes, but this year there is no such thing.
Earl Felim picked up the agreement and looked at it a little disappointed: "Is there no truce clause?"
Although it returned to the old territory of the Felim family in the southern province, the southern province is adjacent to the Fisabrun family territory of the Eastern Wilderness Province. The border between the two provinces is still in full swing and building a defensive front. The Rock Legion is strictly guarding against Fisabrun. The family armed forces and the barbarian cavalry attacked, and the flames of war have not been extinguished. For Earl Felim, the armistice agreement was obviously more reassuring than the Rock Legion at the front, otherwise he would not be able to build and develop the family territory with peace of mind, and his family's armed Pegasus Legion would have to go for a stroll if there was any trouble on the front line.
"Uh..." The Duke of Kenmes was stunned for a long time before replying embarrassedly: "Sorry, I forgot..."
I really forgot that this guy, Kenmax, only cared about the price of the product when he was negotiating, just like snow salt, which was originally one hundred catties for one jinford, but now he doubled it five times, five goldfords and one hundred catties. What's wrong with bullying you, because the four northern alliances are the winning side, so this fellow Kenmes pointed to the negotiators sent by the Grand Duke Feisabrun and said triumphantly, don't buy if you have the ability, Anyway, there are a lot of alkaline soil lumps on the northeast prairie, you can hug and chew on them...
This is strength. The Duke of Kenmes has forgotten how long it has been since he had such a smooth negotiation. Everyone knows that if alkaline soil pimples are turned into water and used as salt water for livestock, people will get sick, let alone people, and death is not a strange thing. Now the Feisabrun family is trapped on the grassland, with no trade routes, and can only buy salt from the four alliances of the Northland. Eat with salt, hehe, in less than three months, just wait for the Feisabrun family's territory to be in chaos.
Seeing those negotiators with ugly faces and angry expressions but helplessly agreeing to high commodity prices one after another, Duke Kenmes felt as happy as a flower blooming in his heart. Occupying the large and small Jinchuan area is great, having gold mines is great, and the gold you dug up will soon be in our hands... So, Duke Kenmes forgot the most important point, that is, the Northland Four The Home Alliance has not yet signed an armistice agreement with the Feisabrun family, and the two parties are still at war. Even though there have been no conflicts for several months, they are still at war...
"Where are those negotiating envoys?" Lorist asked.
"Follow me to the Rock Castle." The Duke of Kenmes replied quickly, and made up for such a big mistake immediately: "One is that this agreement still needs your consent to be implemented, and the other is that the transaction and delivery of goods have not yet been discussed. Alright. In the end, the two negotiating envoys said they wanted to meet Princess Sylvia."
"Let them go to the reception room, I'll talk to them." Lorist looked at Earl Felim and Earl Shaheen: "You guys come too, if Grand Duke Fessabrun is willing to admit defeat, the armistice agreement will also be signed Sure, it’s a relief for us, we don’t need to take precautions.”
The envoys sent by the Grand Duke Feisabrun to negotiate were led by two old men. The first one was tall and had a gray goatee. He introduced himself as the chief steward of the Feisabrun family, and his name was Fei. Sabron, Aridoc. Lorist heard from two of Princess Silvia's maids that the old man was a member of the Fesabrun family. Although he bore the surname of Fessabrun, his kinship was a bit distant. However, this old man is a diehard loyalist of the Grand Duke, and the Grand Duke Fessabrun also trusts him very much, and always entrusts him with confidential matters.
The old man next to him is short and fat, and smiling at Mimi all the time can easily make people feel close. He introduced himself as Napler without mentioning his last name. Lorist immediately remembered the several pieces of information submitted by Tagle about the important members of the Fesabrun family. Not only was this person famous on the Napler list, but he was also a figure worthy of special attention.
According to intelligence reports, Napler's father was the patriarch of a small tribe in Caoman, and his mother was an aristocratic lady who was taken back to the grassland and became his father's slave girl, who gave birth to Napler. Then his father's barbarian tribe was annexed by another big barbarian tribe. His father died in battle, his mother was raped to death, and Napler became a slave. Later, when he was sixteen years old, he secretly contacted the Grand Duke Fesabrun and wiped out that big grass barbarian tribe in one fell swoop. That battle was the most crucial victory for the Grand Duke Fesabrun to expand the territory of the former Krissen Empire and establish the Eastern Wilderness Province.
This Napler has no official position in the Feisabrun family, and has always been a bit mysterious. However, many of the strategies that Grand Duke Feisabrun used to deal with the grass barbarian tribes should have come from his planning. Like before, he sold the goods and materials of the Snow Salt Chamber of Commerce to the grass barbarian tribes to win over the grass barbarian tribes who surrendered, and selected the grass barbarian cavalry The elite formation of a reserve army to deal with those grassland tribes that refused to submit to the Feisabrun family, etc., all have something to do with this chunky old man in front of him.
While Lorist was looking at the two old men, the representatives of the two envoys were also observing Lorist. The four nobles sitting here are the heads of the four major families of the Northern Land Alliance, but the two envoys quickly focused on Lorist. From the outside, the head of the Norton family, the new Grand Duke of the Northland, is very ordinary. Not tall, not short, ordinary-looking, very inconspicuous, just like a passerby.
Indeed, compared with the Duke of Kenmes, Lorist does not have that kind of suave, unrestrained demeanor. He is not as handsome as Earl Shaheen, nor is he as mighty and majestic as Earl Felim. However, the two envoys were entrusted by Grand Duke Fesabrunn to come to negotiate with their confidantes. They are all human beings, and naturally they will not save people by appearance. What's more, when they came here, they all heard His Royal Highness comment on the Four Northern Alliances. His Royal Highness clearly pointed out that the so-called Four Northern Alliances are the Norton Family, or the Luo rist.
To put it bluntly, those three families in the Northland are nothing. Back then, it was not their turn to line up to flatter the Feisabrun family. The Kenmes family is a family of merchants, and they bought the title of nobility from the second prince at a high price. In the eyes of the Grand Duke Fesabrun, it is the role of Yanggu and Kaizi, and they will not even look at it. .
The Felim family was very famous a hundred years ago, but now it is just a shabby household. Earl Felim was born and died for the second prince. He didn't dare to gnaw on the so-called buried property, he was just a wimp.
As for Earl Shaheen, his birth was even less worth mentioning. He was originally a family golden knight under the former Grand Duke Lukins of the Northland. He was ordered by the Grand Duke to attack the Norton family and was captured. Then the Duke of Lukins made a big mistake. He even put the responsibility for the defeat on him and tried to punish him, forcing his father to pass on his title of baron to him and make him a vassal of the Lukins family. Get rid of the charge of treason. In the end, when Duke Lukins assembled the coalition forces of northern nobles to send troops to the Norton family, Baron Shaheen at that time not only stood by and watched Duke Lukins be defeated, but also took the opportunity to fight back and robbed the Duke of Lukins with the coalition forces of the Norton family. Not to mention the first pot of gold was dug in the southern part of the Northland, it also inherited most of the Lukins family's military power, forming a self-contained body.
If there is no Lorist, these three families are just a mess, and it is very easy for Grand Duke Feisabrun to deal with them, no more difficult than those nobles in the southern province who occupy the city of Windbury. However, with the support of the Norton family, the alliance of the four Northern Lands has become a powerful alliance of nobles, which cannot be underestimated by anyone. Kingdom power. This can be proved by the extinct Principality of Madras and the Kingdom of Iberia.
The key to the alliance of the four Northlands lies with the Norton family, and the one who can really call the shots is Lorist. This was the Grand Duke's order before they left, and they always kept it in their hearts.
"Please sit down." Lorist cut straight to the point: "We don't need to talk nonsense. What I want to know is, what is the Grand Duke Feisabrun thinking? Is he willing to stop the war, or is he planning to make a deal first before continuing with the Our four northern alliances will fight hard and refuse to admit defeat?"
The tall Aridok stood up and gave a chest salute: "His Royal Highness, the Grand Duke of the Northland, the cessation of the war does not depend on our Grand Duke, but when you stop the invasion of the Fesabrun family. As we all know, it was your four Northland alliances that first provoked this war, undeclared war and raided the First Frontier Ranger Legion of our family, and the Grand Duke was forced to resist. Although we are currently at a disadvantage, our Filipino The Sabrun family will never give in to the threat of force, just like we defeated your Chaser Legion in Muyeyuan Province, we have the confidence to persist until the moment of final victory."
Lorist laughed: "Dead ducks are the toughest. Okay, since you guys are not willing to admit defeat, it would be great. I have always wanted to lead the family armed forces to visit the grassland territory of the Feisabrun family. Don't worry, this The agreement reached last time, our four northern land alliances will continue to implement, war is war, business is business, as long as you are willing to pay, we will not prohibit the flow of these people's livelihood supplies into your family."
"I protest, His Royal Highness the Grand Duke of the Northland. You are attacking a nobleman who has made countless contributions to the empire's frontiers and expanded thousands of miles. This is an act that all nobles despise. Not only will your goal of aggression fail to be achieved, Even the Nortons would be condemned by all peaceful nobles..."
"Hehe, is that so?" Lorist sneered, "The former empire has long been wiped out, and it still perished in the hands of the three princes. Aridok is in charge, and I have to remind you that our four northern alliances belong to Andina. In the Kingdom of Ke, His Majesty Ogesello is the orthodox successor of the royal family of the former Krissen Empire. But your Feisabrun family is the remnant of the rebellious second prince. Attacking your family has no morals, it is a just counter-rebellion for us War. No one will protest to us for your family. On the contrary, what the Duke of Feisabrun did to the nobles in Windbury City is worthy of publicity and discussion... "
"Uh..." Steward Aridok was speechless.
However, Napler beside him immediately stood up: "His Royal Highness the Grand Duke of the Northland, our Grand Duke does not want to have a war with you, he has always believed that his mission is to deal with the predatory grassland tribes on the northeast prairie. In fact, the war between our family and your four Northland alliances is the most painful thing for the Grand Duke... What I want to ask is, if our Grand Duke is willing to stop the war, how will you treat our Feisabrun family?"
Lorist shrugged: "Given the relationship between us and the Feisabrun family, no matter what terms we have negotiated regarding military matters, we cannot trust each other. If your Feisabrun family is willing to cease fighting, it's very simple. Your family's armed forces are not allowed to enter within a hundred miles. If there is any situation, you must first notify our border guards. Any sales of goods and materials must be carried out through the Snow Salt Chamber of Commerce. At the same time, your family's armed forces should be transparent, and you must notify us before any military action. Us. In addition, Muyeyuan Province is related to the safety of the Northland, and we have the right to station troops there to ensure the safety of the Northland... "
"It's impossible, why can't you retreat a hundred miles behind the border? Why can't we garrison troops in the north?" Steward Aridok jumped up.
"It's very simple, because we are the victorious side." Lorist told them the truth of a victor straightforwardly: "Now, I want to know whether Grand Duke Feisabrun wants to fight or make peace..."
The steward Aridok was still not convinced and wanted to say something, but Napler who was beside him pulled him, so he shut up and bowed his head.
"His Royal Highness, the Grand Duke of the Northland, our Grand Duke has already expressed his opinion by sending Princess Sylvia." Napler replied humbly.
Lorist stood up: "Since Grand Duke Fesabrun has made up his mind, you can discuss the specific terms of the armistice agreement with Grand Duke Kenmes. Very dissatisfied with the way Princess Sylvia came."
"His Royal Highness the Grand Duke of the Northland, we would like to visit Her Royal Highness Princess. I wonder if we can pass?"
"Sorry, Princess Sylvia went to the Roaring Bear City, the capital of the Northland. You should know where it is. She went there to check on her new home. By the way, I will hold my wedding there in November this year. Marry Sylvia as wife, and she will become the mistress of the Norton family. At the same time, please invite Grand Duke Feisabrun on my behalf, and welcome him to the Northland to participate in his granddaughter's wedding celebration. I sincerely look forward to his arrival."
Lorist finished speaking coldly, then turned and left.
…