It was Grand Duke Feisabrun who appeared in front of the two of them, but he was wearing a nightgown and soft-soled slippers on his feet, without any weapons on his body, as if he woke up in the middle of the night to take a convenience and drink a few sips of water look like.
Lorist patted Genorio's shoulder, motioned him to put his sword back, and asked strangely, "Why are you here?"
"Hehe, I can't sleep, so I got up and walked around. The moonlight is beautiful tonight, and I wandered over to you before I knew it..." Grand Duke Fesabrun said as if it was true.
Lorist curled his lips, with a look of contempt on his face, liar, old man, the villa you live in is three houses away from me, and you sneaked around and even wandered into my back garden, and you didn't hide it The guards on the night watch outside, did you wander out by accident? It's clear that I have something to talk to me in secret and I don't want to be found out.
"Go to the study." Lorist turned and left, not bothering to talk nonsense to the old man.
Although Genorio was tall and strong, he was quick-witted and good at winking. He went into the study room first, lit a candle, then carefully closed the curtains, and asked Lorist, "Your Highness, what do you need?" ?"
"Go get some appetizers, and bring some good bottles of wine from the wine cellar. After you're done, go and rest, it's already late at night," Lorist said.
Genorio responded and went out, but the Grand Duke Fesabrun's face was full of light: "The Duke of Kenmes treats you more respectfully than His Majesty, let you live in the best villa here, and he even treasures it. All the good wine has been sent to your wine cellar. This time when His Majesty came here, he only gave up his own residence, but did not let you move out of this house... "
The Second Highness came here in a hurry a few days ago. According to the usual practice, the most luxurious villa here should be given up as his place to stay. But because he came without warning, the best villa here has already been occupied by Lorist. The Duke of Kenmes is also very cunning. He didn't mention it at all. Instead, he gave up his house to the Second Highness, and then moved himself to a small house next to the villa area. This move made those who wanted to see a joke People have nothing to say.
No one dared to ask Lorist to give up his house to His Majesty the King, not even His Highness the Second Highness, he said to those nobles, first come, first served, I am just an uninvited guest, the Duke of Kenmes even gave me his own house Well, what else can I accuse him of
In fact, everyone knew in their hearts that if Lorist was asked to give up the house to the Second Highness, then Lorist would definitely do so, but he would immediately pat his butt and go back to the Northland, and then the Second Highness' plan would be in vain.
"Do you know how many bottles of good wine this guy Kenmas took away from me? Although he is not as good as you, I am too lazy to argue with him." Lorist invited the Grand Duke Fesabrun to sit down. .
After getting in touch with this old man for a long time, Lorist discovered that this old man is a grand duke and a third-level great swordsman, but he is a greedy and lustful guy. I really don't understand how he became a third-level great swordsman. Especially good wine, the same as the Duke of Kenmes, but the Duke of Kenmes can go into Lorist's study to find good wine in the wine cabinet, but this old man can't enter the study, but he has another way, every New Year's in previous years Qing came to participate, but soon disappeared, and then he could be found in the wine cellar.
All the good wines in Lorist are not bought, but spoils of war. In the slave kingdom that perished on the Haneyabad archipelago that year, the most harvested was all kinds of fine wines collected in the manors of the slave nobles, adding up to tens of thousands of bottles. At that time, Lorist wanted to reward the family's armed soldiers to enjoy these fine wines, but was stopped by Fatty Shi. Fatty Shi said that the lowest price of these wines was worth a few gold dollars, and the highest price was nearly a thousand. It would be a waste for the soldiers to enjoy them and they would not be able to tell the difference between these good wines and bad wines.
So these tens of thousands of bottles of good wine were transported back to the Northland for storage. The various activities held by the family in the past ten years, such as New Year's celebrations and other celebrations, plus rewards and Lorist's daily consumption, were almost Nearly 10,000 bottles are gone. Since the Grand Duke Fesabrunn went to the Norton family to participate in the New Year's celebration, throughout the winter and rainy season, he went to the wine cellar to choose two or three bottles of fine wine every day, and he was unshakable. When I leave, I have to take two boxes with me.
A rough calculation shows that every time the old man came to participate in the New Year's celebration, he drank about 300 bottles of good wine. The annoyed Director Speer secretly cursed him to drink to death. It's a pity that the Grand Duke Feisabrun is a third-level great swordsman, physically strong, able to eat and drink, and he just cursed him for nothing. As the grandfather of Princess Sylvia, the mistress of the Norton family, every time he comes to the wine cellar, it is like visiting his own vegetable garden. Director Speer has to greet him with a smile and warm reception...
"Tell me, what's the matter with touching me if you don't sleep in the middle of the night?" Lorist pulled a chair and sat in front of the Grand Duke Fesabrun.
"It's okay, I'm really just wandering around." The old man was still stubborn.
"Do you think I'll believe it?" Lorist sneered, "Did Your Majesty ask you to feel my bottom?"
"No." The old man categorically denied, "I came here so late to hide it from him."
"Really? What's your plan?" Lorist thought to himself that this old man is cunning and cunning, so I have to be careful.
Grand Duke Feisabrun leaned back and slumped on the sofa: "I didn't have any idea at all, okay? I just wanted to come over and ask why you refused to send troops."
"Do you need to think about it? What do you think I sent troops to help His Majesty? He promised you all good conditions, but what benefits can he give to our Norton family? He doesn't have as much money as our family, and we have reached the peak of the title. It's even more impossible to increase the territory. I don't want to say anything about the righteousness of unifying and revitalizing the empire, that's nonsense. I only know that the soldiers armed by our Norton family can't sacrifice for the so-called righteousness in vain." Loris Tell the truth.
"Well, what you said is true." Grand Duke Feisabrun nodded in agreement. This is also the tradition of the aristocrats. Interests come first. If there is no conflict of interests, it is a group of harmony. Once there are interests, the brothers will settle accounts clearly. White knives go in and red knives go out. Those who practice loyalty and learn from Lei Feng are either regarded as fools or suspected of having malicious intentions.
"By the way, what conditions and benefits did His Majesty promise to your Feisabrun family for you to agree to send troops?" Lorist asked.
"I haven't agreed to send troops yet," Grand Duke Fesabrun replied.
"What did you say?" Lorist was taken aback, "Why didn't you agree to send troops?"
Originally thought that he would be the first to respond to His Royal Highness's request to send troops to join the battle, but the Grand Duke Fesabrun did not agree to send troops, which really aroused Lorist's curiosity.
"It's very simple. I tell His Majesty that if the Norton family does not send troops, neither can the Feisabrun family. Because the armed forces of the Feisabrun family have always regarded the armed forces of the Norton family as their biggest opponent. If the Norton family refuses to send troops, then We can't send troops to guard against them." Grand Duke Feisabrun replied in the presence of the old god.
"You..." Lorist's eyes suddenly became unfriendly: "Old man, you think our Norton family has not roasted enough on the fire, and you are pouring oil into the fire again?"
The old man clearly disliked that the conditions and price offered to him by His Royal Highness were not up to standard, and it was not easy to refuse in person, so he pulled the Norton family out as a shield.
"You did a good job... But do you think His Majesty will believe your rhetoric?" Lorist sneered.
"I don't know if Your Majesty believes it or not, but I believe it anyway." The old man was very calm.
Lorist gave a thumbs up: "Old man, you are too shameless, you have been visiting our family to attend the New Year's celebration every year for the past three years, and drank so much good wine from our family, you really think His Majesty is deaf and foolish, you don't know whereabouts?"
The old man was very calm: "So what if you know? Don't forget that I am Sylvia's grandfather, so I went to see what my granddaughter has to do with it. Besides, His Majesty is concerned about whether there is any military cooperation between our two families. I have already Admitting that your four Northland alliances force our family to buy so many daily necessities and civilian supplies every year, but refuse to sell us military supplies. Your Majesty also persuaded me to be patient and not to conflict with you, let me bear the burden... "
Lorist was speechless. This old man is indeed an old fox. He cleared up his relationship with him in a few words, and said that coming to the New Year's celebration every year was because he endured humiliation and made the cooperation between the Fesabrun family and the four Northland families His commercial activities were said to be persecuted and oppressed, and then the Second Highness, whose mind was full of the great cause of the unified empire, actually believed his lies...
Lorist shook his head resentfully and sighed: "You old man is double-sided, playing tricks on the wind. When the second prince established the Kingdom of Iberia, your Fesabrun family was still behind him. Now it has suddenly become His Majesty's in-laws. Your Majesty trusts you more than our Norton family, which has been serving the kingdom, is simply unreasonable."
"Hehe..." Grand Duke Feisabrun was about to say something when the door was knocked. Genorio came in with a few bottles of good wine, and served some dishes from the servants outside the door. Come in, bid farewell to Lorist and leave.
With glowing eyes, the old man picked up a bottle of good wine and pulled out the cork. He poured himself a glass and drank it down before filling the silver cup in front of Lorist.
"Tell me, what condition did His Majesty set for you to make you dissatisfied and dump the blame on us?" Lorist asked, tasting the wine in the silver cup slightly.
"It's nothing, it's nothing more than a promise to give our family territory another 200,000 immigrants, but we want our family to send out two legions..."
Lorist smiled: "I think that's the case, His Majesty can't ask for any better terms. Don't forget that if our Norton family falls in the future, your Fessabrun family will immediately become His Majesty." The biggest taboo in my heart..."
"So now we are using your Norton family as an excuse, and the sky will fall and you will bear it. As long as we regard you as the biggest enemy on the surface, His Majesty will always trust our family. But we want to use 200,000 immigrants He just sent our Feisabrun family to work for him, and his idea is too good." The old man said angrily and outrageous words.
"Then tell me, what do you want?" Lorist asked amusedly.
"We want to have a province in the interior," replied the old man.
"Hmm..." Lorist shook his hand and almost dropped the glass: "Is this possible? Don't dream, old man, you'd better go back to sleep after drinking too much..."
"Of course it is possible." The old man said solemnly: "If you are willing to cooperate, this condition will be easily accepted by His Majesty. Also, I only drank two glasses, but I didn't get a bottle. How could I be drunk?"
"Really? Are you talking drunk? Think about it, your Feisabrun family, like our Norton family, has one direct-controlled territory and two jurisdictions. This is the end. Why will your majesty add more to your family?" A provincial territory, isn't he worried that the power of our two families is not growing fast enough?" Lorist laughed.
"That's why I think now is a good opportunity. You and I are aware of the first step of the strategy planned by His Majesty this time, which is to recover the province of Andervoff, Puerto Orgue, Campona and the Northwest Territories. This goal is very easy. Reached, the two provinces of the former Rulm Principality need to be negotiated to resolve. It is very likely that there will be no major war, and His Majesty is only using power to force people to rely on nearly a million troops to force the business alliance to return those two provinces and reach an agreement. protocol.
In terms of risk, His Majesty's plan is highly successful, and participating in this war is beneficial and harmless. It's just that our two families still need greater interests, instead of His Majesty letting us pass through a little bit of benefits through his fingers. If you and my two families cooperate skillfully, His Majesty will satisfy our two families' requirements. "The old man is persuasive.
Lorist shook his head: "I still don't want to get involved, this war is of no benefit to our family."
"Aren't you interested in Muyeyuan Province?" Grand Duke Fesabrun hit the nail on the head.
"Hehe... So what if you're interested? Could it be that His Majesty canonized Muyeyuan Province as the jurisdiction of our Norton family? Also, what are you planning? Don't forget that Muyeyuan Province belongs to your Feisabrun family. Jurisdictional territory..." Lorist stared at the old man.
"My idea is good for both of us. You just need to remember this. In the next two days, His Majesty will discuss with you the conditions for dispatching troops, so you can tell him and ask him to transfer Muyeyuan Province to you." As a jurisdiction, you agree to send troops... "
"To put it simply, what excuse do I want Makinohara to use?"
"Silly boy, just in case, you are worried that our Feisabrun family will launch a surprise attack on the Northland, can't you? Just look at the map and you will understand that with the Makinohara Province, no one can directly raid Beidi, this is also for the safety of the Beidi family territory... You only agree to send troops if you insist on Muyeyuan Province as the jurisdictional territory, then His Majesty will have to discuss it with me..." The old man analyzed it very clearly.
Lorist laughed: "Then you will ask the Second Highness to take out an inland province to compensate your Feisabrun family, right? But I don't understand, your Feisabrun family has developed well on the northeast prairie Yes, why do you want an inland province to be the family territory? Dividing the family power into two halves is easier to be broken separately... "
Grand Duke Feisabrun sighed: "Boy, when your Norton family members grow stronger and stronger, you will understand the difficulty of being the head of the family. If it is in the inland provinces, the three provinces of our Feisabrun family territory have long been destroyed. The enfeoffment is completely clean. But we can't do this in the northeast prairie, we can only keep warm in groups, and unity can survive.
Now our family has nearly a thousand members, good and bad are intermingled, intrigues and conflicts abound. Even as the head of the house, sometimes I can't do anything about some things. That's why we want an inland province to kick out all the unsightly members of the family and let them fend for themselves in the territory of that inland province. It's called separation, and it's a way to preserve the family's blood inheritance. This is also a kind of self-purification of the family, so as to stabilize the foundation of the family territory, understand? "
Lorist was silent.
Grand Duke Feisabrun drank the remaining wine in the glass in one gulp, reached out and grabbed two bottles of good wine and stood up and said, "As long as you know what's in your mind, I should go too, so as not to be discovered. Remember, you only need to insist on Muye The original province is enough, and the rest of His Majesty will come to me to discuss, hehe, he will agree to our conditions. Without the participation of our two families, he has no confidence in this war!"
Grand Duke Feisabrun walked away without anyone noticing, but the candles in Lorist's study were lit until dawn.
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