Fort Pattum.

Herbert Wells, commander of the 101st Garrison Brigade, stood on the commanding heights of the fortress and looked into the distance with a telescope.

In his sight, the mountain path stretching out into the Ott Mountains was full of travelers, refugees from the north, and many of them wealthy.

The war had affected the hinterland of the empire, and many people, hearing of the abundance and stability of the south, especially Genoa, made their way south over the Ott Mountains to Fort Patnam. But those who were able to go this far either had some financial resources to support their travel, or they had relatives in Genoa to go to.

This has put pressure on Genoa, first and foremost on law and order and rising food prices. And the grain business has been monopolized by the state and sold in rations according to the population.

It was October 1834, and in fact the imperial wartime policy had been promulgated, as Carlos II said in his edict:

The empire semi-nationalized all military-related arms industries, and any production of rifles, artillery and ammunition, uniforms, and boots was supervised by officials sent by the state.

In addition to sugar and salt, the state monopoly of important livelihood goods such as tea, matches, cloth, grease and soap is also implemented to maintain the necessity of the country's survival.

A land tax was fully implemented, and the state levied a tax of 1/20 of all land outputs, regardless of whether it was a church, a nobleman, or a commoner, and a tax collector sent by the state was responsible for assessing the output and collecting it. Anyone who disobeys this order will be considered treason. Land owned by the royal family is also included in this list.

All transaction tax and market tax will be increased by 5% on the basis of the local tax rate, and the poll tax and military service tax will be increased by 10%. No subject shall disobey. For Estates-General, which introduced a lump sum payment, the total tax was increased by 20% from 1833.

The exemption from conscription in the Estates-General area was abolished, and any man over the age of 15 and under the age of 45 without a disability was included in the list of conscription.

From a rational point of view, all of the above measures were necessary decisions, yet the love letter flew like snowflakes in front of the emperor's imperial case.

Everyone seems to have a bitter stomach, and the selfishness of human nature is undoubtedly revealed in just one month.

For the Genoese, they were in a noticeably better position than their northern neighbours, but everyone began to be frugal, and even the most beautiful women dressed modestly, for the loss of the land had begun to affect them.

As commander of the garrison brigade, Wells had received an order to expand the strength of one division by March 1835, with only one additional requirement: self-financing.

Wells felt a little headache.

The Genoese were rich, and the money in the hands of the Doge's Palace alone could definitely afford to raise a division, but he knew deep down that the patriotic fervor of the Genoese did not seem to be so high, and their good life was affected by the war at the very beginning.

A trend of thought is quietly growing.

As an article in the newspaper Le Genoese complained: "When we were poor, we did not enjoy the privileges of the Empire, when we were the Empire's cash chest, and when we became rich, we became the object of looting, and the cash chest became even bigger.

A 20 percent increase in total taxes, a wartime policy interpreted by the Genoese as tailor-made by the state.

As for the introduction of universal conscription, the Genoese ignored it.

Outside Fort Partenham, a group of soldiers were drilling.

Since the end of Daguerre's counterinsurgency war in the spring of 1832, the Genoa Civil Defence was reorganized into a garrison brigade of 2,500 men, with little change in officers and men.

After two years of unremitting training, the individual military skills of the soldiers of the garrison brigade have been improved, and most of the officers have also received further training.

Wells dared to say that his brigade could compete with the Empire's most elite troops of equal strength.

He didn't pay much attention to the order to expand the army, but when he saw the northerners moving south, he realized that the situation in the north was even more dangerous than he had imagined.

Brigadier Wells decided to take a trip to Poitou, and he needed to hear someone's opinion.

Poitou, Sean's estate is still thriving.

Because of the agreement reached between Kang's Shipbuilding and Kang's Power with Xia Guoren, not only did not reduce their business, but had to expand their manufacturing capacity again.

The Rocky Mountain ironclad cargo ship and three Shark-class warships sold to the Xia people sailed for the Xia country not long ago, loaded with ship equipment and necessary supplies.

The ship's large and small caliber guns were supplied by the bass machinery, but the money earned had nothing to do with the bass, because of this damn nationalization, he only got a little hard money. He was planning to give away his two arms factories and one artillery factory in the north to the army free of charge in exchange for his benefits in Genoa.

Sean's severance surprised Sean, who knew that the three factories were Beth's brainchild.

"I have decided to move my family to the town of Vichy and to be a neighbour with you. Bess said.

"Was that a hasty decision?" said Sean.

"No, my Count, the factories are still nominally mine, but I'm just a humanoid stamp, and I can't get my hands on it. Bess gritted his teeth and said, "Cutting off people's wealth is like killing your parents." Rather than this, I might as well be happy, anyway, the representatives of the army think I'm in the way. ”

"What are you going to do?"

Sean could tell that the old friend was ready to take refuge in himself.

"Poitou Chemical Company is a promising company with the best chemists and engineers, but it shouldn't just produce gunpowder. I know that you have a rather mysterious laboratory there, and I want to exchange it for the freedom from nationalization of the Poitou company at the expense of my two rifle production plants and an artillery factory. "I only need a 30 percent stake." ”

Poitou Chemistry is a joint venture between Sean and the University of Poitou and Bess who own 70 percent, the University of Poittu 20 percent, and Bess the remaining 10 percent.

"Are you sure about what to do? This includes increasing the scope of the chemical company. Sean asked curiously.

The network of arms dealers was always large, but he didn't quite believe that Bess was capable of doing that.

"As long as you nod your head, I'll do the rest. This stake ......"

"There will be no change in the shares of the University of Poitou, I can give you that 20% from my shares. "As the president of Poitou, I have to think about the interests of the university. This is also the price to pay for avoiding nationalization. ”

"Earl, I have long said that you have a talent for business. I assure you that you will not regret your decision today, you are not short of money, you have a group of talented scholars, but you lack a competent general manager. Bess conceitedly said, "No one is better suited to run an arms company than me." ”

"I believe that too, then it's up to you. Sean nodded in agreement.

The reason why he agreed to Bess's request was that he was also very optimistic about Poitou Chemical Company, because there were many of his secrets there.

He invested a lot in this, and he was more reluctant to take care of those laboratories and talents than those fixed assets, and he needed someone like Bess to take care of it for himself.

Bass's decision was in Sean's interest, but Bass's decision still surprised him, which made him think a little higher of Bass.

After negotiating this important matter, Bess obviously relaxed a lot, he slumped himself into the sofa chair, and said in the most comfortable posture and frivolous tone:

"The country is hopeless!"

"Not that yet, is it?" said Sean, surprised.

"My Count, you are a Genoese, far from the ravages of war, and your career is thriving, and you can judge the situation in such a tone that does not concern you. But we northerners, especially the people of the Holy City and Gyeonggi, seem to have lost their sense of security overnight. In the past, we thought of ourselves as 'superior' and you were nothing more than 'provincials', even if you were an earl!" Bess said, "It is the instinct of the rich to transfer assets to a safe place, have you not noticed that there are suddenly more rich people in the foreign land of Poitou?"

"Of course I do. "Our Genoese policy is positive, and we welcome anyone to settle and invest in Poitou, including you 'Northerners', who must abide by our norms and local ordinances." These people have already pushed up the price of local real estate, and I would prefer that they invest their money in industry, and that the development of production always comes first, whether it is to strengthen the country or to protect employment. ”

But the move of the rich to the south meant that they did not trust the Imperial Army and the Cabinet. Bess stretched out his index finger and pointed to the sky, "The man is already unconscious, and many people are full of complaints about him, which is a bad omen for the country." ”

This was to be expected by Sean.

The "man" in Bess's mouth is, of course, Carlos II, the once considered wise and decisive emperor, who has become more and more arbitrary as he has grown older, and who has now offended the interests of many.

Even the army was full of complaints, because the crown prince was nominally responsible for the war in the north, but in fact he was only a logistics chief, and he had no direct command over many armies on the front, and could only command his own guards.

At the critical moment of the fall of the country in August, Carlos II was pressured not to grant de facto command to the crown prince who had been stranded in the occupied areas.

The poor crown prince was struggling to gather a small army willing to obey his command to resist the Assyrian siege.

According to the newspaper, General Schmidt, the crown prince's most trusted general, won several victories in succession, forming a base centered on the capital of the Pasella Prairie Province, temporarily halting the decline.

Carlos believed that Jean-Solon, as the crown prince, should be the first to set an example for his subjects, and that no Assyrian should be allowed to approach the Osera.

Others thought the decision was risky – perhaps one day people would read the crown prince's proclamation in the newspapers.

Apparently Sean was reluctant to go into this sensitive subject, just as Genoese wanted to know Sean's true view of the current situation.

There was a desire to encourage Sean to take the lead in opposing wartime policies.