In the palace of Earl Balwyn, the vice-chancellor of the western court of Besançon, Earl Balwyn personally accompanied Yat to dinner.

With a gold-plated knife in his hand, Earl Balwin cut a small piece of beef tenderloin stewed in spices on a silver plate and put it in his mouth, then took a sip of Podolt's wine in a jewel-encrusted glass.

Putting down the wine glass, Balwin sighed contentedly, "This is the most comfortable dinner I've had since the Marquis was sick for a year, let's make a toast to this little victory." ”

Balwin raised his glass again.

Art also gently raised the wine glass to greet Balwin, and then pinched the goblet and gently put it to his lips to take a sip, Podolte served wine tasted excellent, but Art didn't have much heart to taste the wine at this time.

It was not the first time he had visited Balwyn at the Earl's Court, but it was the first time he had dined with one of the most powerful men in the Earl, and he had been courteous and generous, but his stomach was grumbling with hunger.

Balwin is a noble family, the meal is too exquisite, and Art does not dare to be too presumptuous in front of the earl to appear indiscriminate, although Balwin repeatedly let Art be casual, but Art is still not casual, while accompanying the meal as elegantly as possible, while telling Balwin the whole process from the killer's poisoning to being detected and hunted down to the Paris Inquisition to expose the heresy.

The process was already difficult and exciting, and the tense and exciting plots that Art had woven by herself through a narrative technique known as associative exaggeration, and Earl Balwyn was so excited that a simple dinner for two lasted for an hour.

Balwin finally had his fill, he took the silk towel from the servant, wiped his mouth gently, and said to Art with a smile: "I was originally worried that there would be an accident when you arrived in Besançon, and I was going to let you live directly in my mansion, but now it seems that there is no need."

"Your trick is really ruthless, knowing that Bernard and Fabio are both members of the Inner Court, but you ran to the church to make a fuss, and made the whole capital know. Now, whenever you are in danger in Besançon, people will consciously think of the Count of Bernard, and Archbishop Fabio will not be able to account to the Inquisition of Paris. ”

Art knew that Besançon was a dangerous place for him, so his first stop in the city was not to hide in the palace of Count Balwyn, he swaggered to Besançon Cathedral and threatened to be hunted down by the remnants of the Dean family and implicate the Count of Bernard, so that the nobles who wanted to crush Art would no longer dare to do anything to Art, at least until the heresy subsided.

"Lord Earl, can this matter inflict a heavy blow on the opponent?" Art is most concerned about the upper-level fluctuations caused by heretical events, and he is the initiator of the whole thing, but he is in a low position and has just arrived at the center of the storm, and he is not very clear about the struggle at the top.

Balwin wiped his hands with a silk scarf, threw it on the table, and said, "Art, you are also one of us now, you should know the complexity of the power struggle, if you can completely defeat the opponent with one move, the game of thrones will become very boring." ”

"That old thing Bernard, it seems that he has been prepared for a long time, and I sent people to the city of Thorne to find those who have connections with Assasin according to the news you sent, but the people on the list you provided all disappeared overnight, and even Bernard's academician advisor was nowhere to be found, and I guess they were all killed by Bernard, so we have no way to catch the direct connection between Bernard and Assasin. And Dean and his son have already been killed by you, and we can't channel the flames of heresy to Bernard. ”

"Then I'll kill Dean and his son, won't I?" Yat was also worried about his poor decision-making.

Earl Balwyn shook his head, "You are right, the Dean family must not stay for a long time, and even if they live to stand trial, they will never confess to Bernard, on the contrary, they will desperately clear Bernard's relationship with Assasin, only by keeping Bernard can they have any hope of survival." Art nodded slightly, he also thought of this layer, so he made up his mind not to let Dean and his son live to stand trial.

The servant filled Balwin's cup with wine, and Balwin took a sip of it, and said with great interest: "This heresy and the crimes it entails have cost our opponents very dearly. The Dean family has been killed by you, and the money they tried to buy their lives has also fallen into our control, and the wealthy merchants and trade guilds that have allied with the Dean family in the past few days have also scrambled to break off relations with the Dean family, and some wealthy merchants who have seen the form have switched to my command, so that the opponent has lost a large source of wealth. ”

"This week I have mobilized all my forces to allow the Janissary Mutiny to lead to a large number of Bernard's cronies, and Bishop Orlof and the Bishop of the Diocese of Jonah have joined dozens of bishops and abbessors of the two dioceses to petition the Holy See of Avignon, in order to put pressure on the Archbishop Fabio of the Kingdom to investigate and severely punish the remnants of heresy, especially those who are friendly with the House of Dean. These people are the wings of the Inner Court faction, and I want to eat away at my opponent step by step......"

For a long time, Balwin's faction was in a relatively disadvantaged position in the struggle with the inner court, and he relied on the support of the Marquis to barely equalize the disadvantage, but the marquis's illness once again put Balwyn at a disadvantage, and it was for this reason that Balwyn secretly contacted Flender, Earl of Longxia, hoping to become the core force of the new monarch's faction and support the new lord to completely turn over.

The heresy of the Dean family is undoubtedly a victory for the New Monarch faction, and as a breakthrough, the New Monarch faction will launch a fierce offensive against the inner court faction and accumulate strength for the upcoming earth-shattering upheaval.

As the initiator, Yate was also promoted to the backbone of the Xinjun faction because of his outstanding performance in several battles and his prominent role in this heretical incident.

"Art, two days ago the Count of Flanders sent a secret message from the Midsummer Flying Pigeon, in which he mentioned that two suspicious people had indeed been found in Midsummer City, but the two men had taken poison before they were caught, and they were not left alive for interrogation. Flender has increased his personal guards, and Midsummer City has conducted a thorough inventory. In his letter, the Count of Flanders paid special tribute to your loyalty, and asked me to commend you on his behalf. And you did make the first contribution to this incident, and I won't let you down. ”

"Say, what do you want?" Dinner was coming to an end, and Balwin finally came up with something affordable.

Art was just about to speak, but Balwin hurriedly added: "Art, don't talk about money." Although I have intercepted the 1,600,000 pfennigs that Dean sent to Besançon, the recent mobilization of forces against the Inner Court has already cost hundreds of thousands of pfennigs, and the rest of the money must be set aside for military expenses in future uprisings. ”

"You don't fight for the money, and I don't pursue your exploits on Wincheston and Dean family farms. The Dean family has been operating for more than 1.6 million yuan in 100 years, and the money you loot will belong to you, but all the military expenses of the Wells Legion are also your own responsibility, and I need to concentrate my limited financial resources on the Eastern Army and the Praetorian Guard. ”

When Art heard that Balwyn did not plan to take a share of his share of the 1.6 million Finneys, his mood instantly fell a lot, and he had not yet received a detailed battle report from the Wells Legion, nor did he know whether the Wells Legion had won enough money in this battle.

"Lord Earl, you are a military lieutenant and know very well that it is difficult to raise soldiers, just providing five or six hundred people for food, drink and shelter is far beyond my bearing, and I have been following your orders to build the Welsh Legion into a strong army capable of fighting well, if you don't have enough money to do it, all this will be nonsense."

What Art said was the truth, the Welsh Legion consumed more than 300,000 pfennigs a year just for military pay and food, not to mention the high cost of weapons and armor. The funds of Yate basically depended on the war gains, and the European trading houses were affected by the conquest and the many restrictions of the old forces, and the monthly surplus was uncertain, but at the current scale, it could not reach the annual income of 300,000 fennigs.

Balwyn was silent for a moment after hearing this, he also knew that it was indeed not easy for Art, the territory was less than half of the barony, and the caravan was restricted everywhere, "Art, I am powerless to support the money for the time being, so let's do it, I will try to let you take over the southern trade route of the Dean family from Tignets to Besançon, as soon as the Dean father and son die, this trade route will definitely become the most popular inheritance of everyone, I will do my best to fight for you, but you yourself must also try to gain a foothold as soon as possible." Didn't you control the southern border posts, and if you controlled all the southern goods from the northeast of Roprovence into the Count of Burgundy, and controlled this trade route, your income would be more than 1,600,000 pfennighs. ”

This is what Art was waiting for, and he did not hesitate to kill the Dean family with heresy and touch the interests of many powerful people in the upper echelons of the country, in order to replace the business position of the Dean family in the Count of Burgundy, which was the greatest benefit.

"Lord Earl, I have no problem controlling the trade road, but there are guilds and wealthy merchants from all over the world~"

Balwin waved his hand, "As long as you can control the trade road, you can choke the neck of the Northland and South merchants, and then I can make them submit a little pressure." As long as they can make their money bags bulge, it doesn't matter to them whether Dean or Wells is there. Besides, the alliance of the Dean family will definitely be hit this time, and this is the perfect opportunity for you to gain a foothold. ”

The look of disappointment on Art's face slowly faded.

Balwin picked up his glass again, glanced at Art while he was raising his glass, hesitated for a moment and was about to put down his glass to speak, when Art's voice sounded.

"Lord Earl, I have a begging for one!"

Balwin swallowed the words that had come to his lips raw, slightly unpleasant, "Well, say." ”

Art sat down and said in a straight voice: "Lord Earl, after taking control of the trade channel, I plan to expand the European Merchant House under my command, and I have a hunch that the European Merchant House will grow stronger and stronger with the help of Lord Earl and all the nobles. However, since I have joined the command of Lord Earl, it is natural that the European Merchant House is also Lord Earl's. ”

Bowwin's face suddenly brightened when he heard this, and the embarrassing words held in his stomach had been brought out by Art himself.

"This~" Balwin pretended to postpone it.

"Lord Earl, don't shirk, you and Count Flanders are planning a shocking event, and there must be a lot of money needed, even if how to control the Earl Kingdom after the matter is completed in the future, it will take the best efforts of the two adults, as a vassal, you should naturally share the worries of the lord. Therefore, I would like to give one-third of the annual profits of the Continental Comptoir as a contribution to you and the Earl of Flanders, and I will have your ......hard work in everything I have today, so that the expanded Continental Comptoir will still have your tithes according to the original agreement."

A simple dinner made Earl Balwin completely attract Yat to his confidant.

Art gave more than one-third of the commercial profits to Earl Balwin and the new monarch faction he represented, in exchange for the strong support of the new monarch party for Art.

The result of the effort was also fulfilled immediately, and Balwyn promised that the court would bring the Lane Manor, which had lost its lord, and the Southwest Farm of the Dean family, which belonged to Tignats County, under the command of Arter as soon as possible and become part of the Barony of Art, and Balwyn also instructed the Atter garrison to forcibly occupy Wincheston Manor.

The Frontier Outpost, Boulder Town, Ryan Manor, Wincheston Manor, four points are enough to control the gold-laden "trade river", and the large tracts of land and people around several territories will also bring rich benefits to Art......

Then Art stayed in Besançon for a few more days, and he selectively confessed to Archbishop Besançon what he knew about the heretical crimes of the Dean family, so that Art's leading role in the whole turmoil ended, and the rest was a struggle between religion and the upper class, and Art could only wait and see.

On the third day of his arrival in Besançon, Art and a few guards arrived at the Burgundian branch of the Knights of the Order, and after deducting the cost of 3,000 pfennigs, Art withdrew a loan of 497,000 pfennigs from the treasury of the Order.

Of course, it was impossible for Art to go south with hundreds of thousands of Fennie himself, so he spent another 2,000 Fennie to hire the Knights of the Order, who specialized in escorting money, to escort this huge batch of loans to Tinets County for delivery.

After dealing with these things, Art quietly left Besançon with three escorts.

When he passed through Lucesen, he paid a special visit to Bishop Orlof and gave Bishop Orloff a detailed report on his movements in the past six months and the whole heretical incident of the Dean family.

Orloff was a thoroughly devout saint and a good man, but he was definitely not an honest man, and his love of power and intrigue was no weaker than that of any secular aristocrat, so he did not resent what Art did, but he still made demands on Art in terms of faith and character.

Of course, Art listened attentively, and finally won the right of religious appointment for Father Hamish in the name of "preaching God's holiness and spreading holy grace", and Hamish could appoint the lower priests in the Barony of Art.

After leaving Bishop Orlov, Art secretly summoned the two "Hawkeye" governors who were lurking in the cities of Besançon and Lucesen, listened to the information they had obtained, and ordered them to keep a close watch for heresy.

On the fourth Wednesday of January, Art, who had been away from the Barony of the Valley for months, finally set out on his way back to the realm.

Youyu Bookstore is a free-to-read source APP software, Android phones need to be downloaded and installed on GooglePlay, and Apple phones need to be downloaded and installed by non-mainland Chinese accounts

Tips: Enter "Panda Literature" in the search engine, you can find this site, thank you.

Chapter 278: Interests