The royal capital is the city of Dilo.

Inside the royal palace, at the Imperial Council.

The royal family, represented by King Jaime, quarreled fiercely with the noble ministers.

"Of the 18 counties, the royal family must take 6, and no one is missing!"

"The royal family took out 10 million gold coins, the royal family took out half of the military expenses, and the loot must have a share of the royal family!"

"You don't want to swallow all the loot!"

Roberts, the old fox, said hoarsely, and he had repeated these words dozens of times, and his voice was almost hoarse.

But the nobles led by Rudolph retorted with those words.

"We have signed an agreement with Your Majesty, and Your Majesty cannot break the agreement and go back on your word!"

"What's more, the royal family spent money to keep Princess Syvernes, and the royal family should come up with this money!"

"Also, we spent a total of 45 million gold coins on this war, and the royal family's money only accounts for a small part, not half!"

"So all the spoils of this war rightfully belong to us. ”

A nobleman with a loud voice said.

It immediately attracted a large number of approvals.

"Yes, Your Majesty is the king, and you must not go back on your word and break your promise!"

"Although we took 18 counties, our losses were also huge, and the royal family only took out a little money. ”

"These territories are built by our ability, why should the royal family take a third of it?"

"No, no!"

Speaking of the pact that contained the trap, King Jaime was both annoyed and remorseful, and angry at the same time.

He even patted his head with his hand and flatly denied it: "What agreement? I'm so old and faint that I don't remember what agreement." ”

"Your Majesty, in black and white, your name is written on it. ”

Immediately, a nobleman took out the agreement on his sleeve and handed it to King Jaime, telling him to read the handwriting in the lower right corner.

King Jaime, who calls himself "old", is quick to take the agreement this time, and is ready to tear it to pieces, and destroy the corpse.

But the nobleman reacted faster, immediately took the agreement back, raised his eyebrows and said, "Your Majesty, you are the king, do you want to cheat?"

"Your Majesty, even if you tear up the agreement, there were still more than 30 nobles as notaries at that time, your memory is not very good, but our memory is very good. ”

"Your Majesty, don't waste any more effort, you don't have a share of the spoils of this war!hahaha~"

Amid the smug laughter of the nobles, King James's face became more and more ugly.

The old fox Roberts also said coldly:

"It is an unforgivable crime to deceive the king by making military plans in secret from Your Majesty, using the army belonging to the king for your own benefit!"

"Even if you have an extra 18 counties in your hands, if Your Majesty does not recognize them and does not give you a knighthood, you will still not be able to legally own these lands. ”

"Now the only way to get Your Majesty to forgive you is to give a portion of the spoils to the royal family. ”

"That's good for everybody. ”

Roberts said in a threatening tone.

The nobles were instantly dumbfounded, as if they had been hit in the soft underbelly.

It is true that the king signed the "Trophy Distribution Agreement", but this was done under the premise that he was hoodwinked, and if King James knew that there would be so much to be gained from this battle, he could not have signed the agreement!

Secondly, the new 18 earldoms are enough to divide 18 on-the-ground earls, or even two or three dukes who own multiple earldoms, and the number of viscounts and barons waiting to be divided below is even more.

If the king does not agree to divide the land, everyone will get it, but there will be no name, which will bring a lot of inconvenience.

Not even protected by the kingdom, it may be defeated by the kingdom of Soliu.

No loot will be distributed to the royal family, and the royal family's countermeasures will make everyone unhappy.

Even from win-win to win-lose.

However, if the royal family wants to swallow six counties and take one-third of the land, it is impossible for the nobles to agree.

The scene fell into an extremely rigid state.

At this time, Zhou Ming had to stand up.

Defuse this impasse.

How to resolve it?

Take out a small part of the interests and level the royal family.

After three days of discussion, after reaching an agreement, as the representative of the nobles, Zhou Ming stood in front of King James and showed his "sincerity".

"The 10 million gold coins that the royal family took out before are now all returned to His Majesty, which is a lot. ”

"Not only that, but we will also give 5 million gold coins as the royal family's war dividend...... This is not a decimal number. ”

In addition, five viscounts and 12 barons agreed to give them their territories that were close to the crown in exchange for another of their new territories. ”

"These 17 plots of land are not large, but they are equivalent to half an earldom, and they are right next to the royal domain. ”

"Your Majesty, this is the best we can offer, and if we can't agree to this, the nobles will decide to elect a duke as their leader, and establish a duchy between the kingdoms of Soliu and the kingdoms of Adude, and no longer owe allegiance to you, Your Majesty...... This kind of situation, Your Majesty, must not want to see it, right?"

Zhou Ming said that the three conditions he gave were "return all the invested funds", "give five million dividends" and "replace 17 territories", which were the best conditions for the royal family that could not be compromised for the nobles.

In exchange for the king's recognition of their new land ownership.

"This ......"

King James was caught in the trade-offs.

15 million gold coins is still a lot of money for the current royal family.

He was a little moved.

The 17 plots of land close to the royal realm were even more enticing to King Jaime...... Although none of them are very large, the royal family has been expanded.

Moreover, the audacious nobles dared to threaten the king that if the king did not recognize their possession of the new land, they would establish a principality of their own!

This is simply a big rebellion!

King Jaime was about to get angry and couldn't stand it.

But......

Now these nobles have much more power in their hands, whether it is land or army, than the royal family, if it really provokes them......

Shook his head.

That scene can be called "the earth shaking the mountains".

And this kid Lei Lin promised: If there is a similar chance for war next time, he will definitely pull the royal family into the gang.

"Well, I promise you terms. ”

"But next time there is such an opportunity, the royal family must get a piece of the pie!"

King Jaime nodded, and the two sides finally agreed.

The nobles breathed a big sigh of relief, and opened the celebration banquet, smiling one by one, and celebrating one after another.

In this war, they can be said to have made a lot of money.

Aside from the 18 counties, in terms of gold and silver treasures alone, a total of more than 35 million ...... were seized This item is basically back to basics.

It also captured 400,000 able-bodied men and soldiers.

If these 400,000 captives are all put into factories or mines, they can create a lot of benefits.

In addition, there are 5 million people in the Suoliu Kingdom, and if all of these people are digested, a large number of them will be transformed into factory workers, medicine farmers who grow medicinal herbs, or herdsmen who raise sheep...... The industrialization of the Kingdom of Addud will be greatly accelerated.

The benefits created are naturally innumerable.

In short, after this war, the group of nobles led by Zhou Ming grabbed huge benefits of more than 500 million gold coins.

It can be said that everyone makes money.

It's just that......

Zhou Ming's father, Earl Cohen, a middle-aged man who was loyal to the king, had some objections to Zhou Ming's statement.

Or even harshly questioned.

"Why don't you help the king, but instead grab benefits for those nobles, who have increased their power, will they still obey the king's orders?"

Father Cohen is very incomprehensible, such a big benefit cake, as a member of the Leilin family, Zhou Ming actually did not bring the royal family to participate?

Isn't this to bring shame on the Leylin family?

In the future, which king will continue to trust and reuse the Leylin family?

Zhou Ming explained to him the difference between "family world" and "public world", talked about the destructiveness and limitations of the king's centralized power, and the superiority of the nobles and the king "ruling the world together".

He even told his father Cohen some bold designs and ideas to make him think.

And in the end, he said:

"Dad, I believe you should have heard of a few ridiculous things that Crown Prince Luther has done in the royal capital recently? robbed beautiful women in broad daylight, trampled on horses, spent money like dirt, and lost 10 million gold coins in gambling establishments...... If such a person sits on the throne, what kind of destruction will be brought to the kingdom, I believe you should be able to guess, right?"

"Will you still be loyal to such a king?"

"Recently, the old king's health has been getting worse and worse, and after the crown prince Luther ascended the throne, did you stop him and teach him to become a wise king?"

"Have you changed a stupid, ignorant, and perverse man by nature?"

"Do you believe that the kingdom will be changed for the better in his hands?"

This......

In the face of Zhou Ming's heart-wrenching questions, Count Cohen stopped speaking and immediately fell silent.

In my heart, I slowly accepted Zhou Ming's proposal called "constitutional monarchy".

……

It's October.

The mercenaries, who numbered more than 100,000 and came to the Aduid Kingdom one after another, happily left the Aduid Kingdom after receiving their rewards.

But there were also a small number of mercenaries who remained in the kingdom of Adude.

There was even a group of mercenaries with a number of about 500 people, who became the nobles of the Aduid Kingdom because of the merit value they received exceeded 10,000.

Possess a territory that belongs to them.

What impressed Zhou Ming the most was a mercenary organization called the "Flame Mercenary Group", who resisted the first line of defense for a month, repelled hundreds of attacks, and killed and injured countless enemies.

In the end, the entire mercenary group consisted of 118 people, 110 were killed in the battle, and only 10 survived.

And of the ten, except for a man named Hodett, who was slightly injured, the other nine were all seriously wounded.

That is, this masonry fortress, under the siege of ignoring the enemy, can be understood as "total annihilation".

Their regimental commander, Klein, was killed in battle.

The old man Arnold was also killed in battle.

Many, many members of the team were killed in battle.

But the fortress they defended never fell.

And the heads of the enemy they cut off and stored in the granary were as many as 1,200...... Including the head of the enemy count...... Klein perished with him.

When Zhou Ming heard the story of the defenders of this fortress, he was deeply shocked.

In order to seize an opportunity to change their fate, this mercenary group actually fought to this extent.

After the end of the war, when the merit value was counted, Zhou Ming personally counted the merit for them, and directly counted their kills without using the head as the basis, and finally calculated that their merit value was 38410 points...... That is, they killed more than 3,000 enemy troops.

With so many merit points, it is enough to give this mercenary group three field barons.

But Zhou Ming thought about it, and in order to set an example, he directly gave the ten surviving people, all of whom were crowned nobles.

One viscount and nine barons.

And the land they had divided was near the fortress where they had fought...... The land in this vicinity of 50 miles belonged to Hodter, who was divided into viscounts, and nine other seriously wounded men.

This viscounty, the name is Klein Domain...... In memory of a man named Klein.

At the grand and solemn funeral, facing the tombstone of the regimental commander Klein, Holdett tore off the aristocratic clothes on his body, took off the noble badge on his chest, threw away the viscount sword at his waist, and knelt in front of the tombstone, crying to death.

"What's the use of me asking for this noble title? I'm just an old man who is dying, what's the use of me being a nobleman?!"

"It's all yours! Klein, everything should be yours!"

"It's me who lies in this tomb! You should survive!"

"Woo woo woo~"

Holdett thumped his chest hard, looking very sad.

Zhou Ming saw all this scene.

walked over, patted him on the shoulder, sighed and said:

"If you want to blame him for his death, blame me. ”

"I gave him hope that he shouldn't have. ”

"Don't be too upset, since you said that Klein has an illegitimate child, then go find him, this land should be well inherited. ”

Hodett wiped away his tears and nodded.