Section 22 Finance

The entire war process surprised all countries. Grufiz, the leader of the Beiru people, declared himself the Grand Duke and established an independent principality, but he did not organize troops to defend his current territory and rely on defense to weaken the attacks of the Shem people. Instead, he immediately sent troops to attack Sharm in the name of "taking back the land of his ancestors." With his careful preparation, overwhelming superior troops and unexpected sudden attacks, Grufiz made a very smooth progress. In just one month, he swept across several surrounding provinces and expanded his actual territory by three times.

In contrast, Sham lost his troops and land all the way, and was defeated thousands of miles. No strong city could even slightly block the enemy's offensive. This was mainly because the Beiru people bribed all key generals with a large amount of money, so that they could get effective assistance from their subordinates when they arrived at the city. Of course, on the other hand, the Queen Mother of Sham's regent's policy was unpopular, resulting in the disarray of the army, the morale was low, and the officers all had strange intentions.

"Impossible, where did they get so much money?!" General Rafa let out a shocking cry. This was what he heard the spies' description of the Beiru's army. According to the intelligence, the Beiru's equipment was very well-equipped, with war horses, armor, weapons, food, and ammunition, equipped with a large number of heavy war weapons, and even a large number of magicians. Even their militia equipment was of better quality than the regular army of Shem. According to the spies, the Beiru's firearms were equipped with a large number of firearms provided by the dwarves - everyone knew that the dwarves were masters of firearms, and the dwarves' firearms were lighter, more powerful, longer ranges, and more accurate than those commonly used by humans. But everyone knew that the dwarves' greed for gold was even more unknown. It would be fine to buy a dwarves' firearm as a collection, but God knew how much it would cost to arm an army.

However, General Farah made a cry, and the other ministers remained silent. Miracle was indeed possible. For example, the Beiru people suddenly discovered a hidden gold mine and carefully concealed this matter from all external eyes. Of course, a more reasonable explanation is that there are supporters behind it. In fact, Grufiz was able to claim to be the Grand Duke and gain the common support of all Beiru people, which itself shows that external forces have joined.

At this moment, when the spies sent the relevant information, the result of the war was clear at a glance. In fact, the war funds of the Beiru people were like they were made out of nothing, and they kept pouring out, but Shem did not have such an incredible miracle. The result of the war was without any suspense. The siege army sent by Queen Mother Sham had been defeated by Grufiz and was almost wiped out. The main general was captured directly on the battlefield. Originally, Shem's army was severely injured in the last green-skinned invasion and has not recovered yet. After being hit like this, they could no longer continue the war, because large-scale turmoil in the country could occur at any time, so the current situation became that Shem took the initiative to seek peace. It was a foregone conclusion that the Beiru people had established a new country - as long as they did not cause any civil strife in this good situation.

"This is impossible." When the respectable court chief read the document, General Farah was the first to put forward his own opinions. "This is completely illogical...unless..."

“Unless they can get the support of a country that spares no effort, it is impossible,” someone added.

"Which country will do this? Or, which country has the motivation and ability to do this?"

This question seems difficult to answer. To be strong, it seems that every country has this level of strength within the seven central countries. But for the country, spending money is also an extremely depleting thing. If so much money is spent, anyone will be seriously damaged. But on the surface, no one can get special benefits. Sham split and weakened. What benefits can anyone get except the Beiru people?

Ashu Rufate noticed that there was no deep thought on the face of the Duke of Byron. Instead, he was bored and stroking the armrest of the chair. When the respectable chief finished reading the document, he waved his hand and signaled the other party to retreat.

"We must find out further relevant information." General Rafa said after Scadra left. "There must be a third party to insert it in this matter."

No one spoke. After a long time, Duke Byron spoke up.

"Dear colleagues, I believe that on the issue of establishing diplomatic relations," he glanced at Rafa who was silent while silenced. "You should have no objection, right?"

"I will reach an agreement with the envoy as soon as possible." The Foreign Minister immediately intervened. "Get the best conditions for establishing diplomatic relations for our country. However, I estimate that within ten days, there will probably be formal envoys, and it will be a big fan. We should be prepared for reception."

Duke Byron turned his head and glanced at the little girl - it should be an unconscious action. But at this moment, standing in Ash Rufate's position, you could see a trace of fierce light flashing in the duke's eyes.

...

The next scene really opened the eyes of Ash Rufate. Although this is a national imperial meeting, it seems no different from the annual budget meeting held in the chamber of commerce (or the president is not present). The entire venue was full of fierce quarrels, threats, and even a few rough screams could be heard from time to time. In the chamber of commerce, each department had to fight for the largest budget for itself, and at the imperial meeting, what everyone was doing was essentially the same.

In short, this kind of scene is really incredible. Many things that seem to be very simple to the bystander Ashrufate, and the ministers in this game can argue for a long time. As long as they are united, the best choice can be made easily, and they just can't draw. Anyway, no matter how they look at it, the final conclusions obtained by this meeting are definitely not the best.

Is the whole country moving forward under the leadership of such a messy group of people? In this case, it would be better to find a few people on the side of the road to be ministers. I am afraid the conclusions made will not be worse than this.

Of course, this does not mean that the ministers are incapable or are not smart enough. They are so smart that they keep making meaningless calculations. As a philosophical saying: when everyone is doing everything they can to fight for their own interests, they lose their own interests. As Rhodeya said, the two major factions, namely the regent of the regime, Byron, and the general Rafa, who holds military power, are fighting against each other in every matter, which is a waste of time.

Will this happen when a kingly country loses its king? Ashu Rufate automatically filters the content of the meeting and instead thinks about some more abstract issues carefully.

The meeting continued in a mess. Except for some choices that had no choice at all, each topic became a battleground for the two factions to fight. To be honest, it was completely boring for listeners like Asu Ruffat.

However, everything has a result. The attack also ended. The ministers finally reached a compromise, completed the annual fund allocation plan, and agreed to raise taxes nationwide in the next step.

Ashu Rufat felt that he had seen for the first time what it means to dig a hole and bury it by himself. He still remembered the disputes arising from the new taxes in Brassian City, and many residents surrounded the Governor's Office and asked for confession. If the tax was increased, it would probably not be such a relatively peaceful dispute.

But what are the solutions? At least at the meeting, all the ministers looked helpless and painful. Money was needed everywhere - how could they not need money? But the tax sources of the kingdom were decreasing. This year's drought was the biggest difficulty. Although Ashrufate knew that the biggest result of this drought was to double the price of fur, it did not affect the great nobles' statement on this ground that they could not pay taxes normally. Since the land enfeoffed could not get taxes, then they could only try to find a way to make money on the land directly under the royal family. Merchants could not collect money - various chambers of commerce had long obtained the power of tax exemption or tax-free, and these documents were signed in the name of the queen. How could they go back on their word? The great nobles could not collect the territory of the feudal and commercial tax could not increase, so the unlucky people were the small and medium-sized lords and civilians who were directly under the royal family.

Although even Ashu Rufate could see that the consequence of doing this was to make the whole country feel discontinued (not to mention rebellion and tax resistance, etc.), this was a royal family matter after all, and had nothing to do with the noble ministers with private fiefs. Who said that the person sitting on the throne is a young queen who is still a minor and knows nothing? So the ministers did this based on the principle of spending other people's money without feeling sorry for them.

The meeting was finally over. All the ministers said goodbye to the queen. Soon, there was only the little girl left in the huge conference room - of course, there was also the personal guard Ash Rufate who accompanied him. It was not until this moment that Ash Rufate discovered that the little girl was not asleep, but opened her eyes wide, as if she was thinking about something carefully.

"Ashrufate," the little girl asked after a long time in front of the empty conference room. "Do you understand what they are saying?"

Ashu Rufate immediately humbly said that he had not understood anything.

"Oh, it's really difficult." The little girl lowered her head and exhaled in frustration. "Jana asked me to listen carefully, think carefully about everyone's opinions, and have ideas. But... I think they are completely meaninglessly arguing."

Ashu Rufate couldn't help but chuckle.

"why are you laughing?"

"It's just a little itchy." Ash Rufate replied. Alas, poor little girl.

"No matter what, I want to be a queen." The next moment, the little girl cheered up again. "What Jiana said is far from being a queen by relying on learning from books alone..."

"I think so too." Ashrufate replied. There were still guards on duty outside the conference room, so it would be better for him to lower his posture. Anyway, he only wanted to spend a year smoothly, and nothing else was within his consideration. No matter how he looked at it, the worst outcome of this country was to be taken over by Tiberius - for the squire and nobles, this was acceptable.

"Scadra said that being a king requires realism, but I don't know what realism is."

"I don't know either." Ashu Rufate replied.

They left the conference room and walked towards the dormitory where the little girl lived. The two of them quickly walked on the empty lawn. At this time, there was no one around, and no matter what they said, there was no need to worry about the third party hearing it.

"Ashu Rufat, do you still remember the question you had before? That's what I think, the truth must be seen with my own eyes. So I want to leave this palace and go to every corner of the city to see what the real world is like."

She turned to look at Ashu Rufate. If this courageous sentence caused any change to Ashu Rufate, at least he did not show his face. On the contrary, Ashu Rufate just smiled perfunctorily.

"It's very brave. Your Majesty, but it's better not to do this for your safety."
Chapter completed!