Almost the day after Loren and the Imperial Mission left, the Minor Priest Weber began work on his "reform program."

And bear the brunt of it, taking aim at the extravagance of Byrne Cathedral.

To put it simply, it is necessary to open source and reduce expenditure first.

The fine nightingale wine, white bread mixed with milk, honey and sugar, the traveling caravan and the servants of the church, the stables, the cutlery of pure gold and silver, the clergy's robes of silk and satin......

All the pomp, supplies, and servants of the clergy were confiscated under Weber's "bishop's order", or dismissed or sold at a low price to the United Chamber of Commerce (this was of course planned by Yod Jr. for a long time, otherwise the ordinary Chamber of Commerce would not have been able to come up with so much money at once) to subsidize the daily running of the Byrne Church, charitable work, and so on.

In the face of Weber, who "led by example" and at the same time had the support of both the Duke of Byrne and the Holy Cross Church, the priests of the Byrne Church, who knew their bitterness, could only "willingly" raise their hands in favor of the Bishop's decision.

But that doesn't mean they really gave up on resistance, and instead targeted Webb's second decision – layoffs.

As the "spiritual guide" of the principality, the Byrne Church also had a great deal to deal with, and even had to take on a certain amount of court and tax collector work in the villages, publicize the "great deeds" of the duke, spread the policies of the duchy to the countryside, and occasionally deal with civil disputes.

Such a great deal of work was certainly not possible for the "noble and holy" deacons of the cathedral to do it themselves, but they were only responsible for it, and the specific work was entrusted to the various employees and servants of the church.

Under Weber's "New Reforms," the number of these employees and servants was reduced by four-fifths, much to the deacons' distress, and began to use slackness and "lack of manpower" as an excuse to make Byrne Cathedral almost semi-paralyzed.

But they obviously underestimated the superhuman perseverance of this "Lord Bishop", and his ability to win over allies and "move people's hearts with sincerity".

Weber first laid off the redundant church servants, but all employees with certain "professional skills"—propagandists, judges, and tax collectors—were retained by Weber in the church, and then all passed on to the Byrne court, where they pledged their allegiance directly to the Duke of Byrne and the Council of the Round Table.

In other words, although they still bear the name of the church and do the same things as before, the salary is paid by the principality, and the church no longer cares.

This was a "mutual benefit" for both sides, as Weber was freed from redundant mundane affairs, and the Round Table Council had a large number of junior bureaucrats overnight, far more effective in enforcement than in the past, which had to go through the courts of the counts.

Surprised, Charlotte Turin took advantage of the failure of the counts to react and began to implement her plan of centralization, and Bishop Weber, who had spared his spare energy, was finally able to concentrate on the main functions of the church.

In the face of the collective inaction of the cathedral deacons, Webb showed superhuman perseverance and extraordinary energy, and with only a few priests who had been secretly bribed and instructed by Charlotte, he singled out the entire Byrne Church.

This time, the deacons were really panicked, because they suddenly found that they were not doing anything, and the church was still as usual—doesn't that mean that they are also superfluous to the bishop, and he will not even dismiss his own group of people, right?!

But Weber again "changed his style" and first deposed a few insatiable deacons, most of whom were only relieved of their duties, but retained the priesthood and remained the priests of the cathedral.

The most important point is that Weber's excuses, whether he was deposed or dismissed, were excuses such as "old age" and "acute illness", which left them with the last shred of face.

The rest of the group immediately understood and begged the bishop to be relieved of his duties and allowed them to go home to recuperate, under such pretexts as "their eyes hurt", "their little fingers have broken", "they have a mouse hand", and "they don't think about it when they lie down".

Weber was glad to agree, and immediately promoted a group of younger people from the churches in various places who had similar ideals to him to fill the vacant positions.

After the cathedral was put in order, the little priest - Bishop Byrne - Webb finally had the opportunity to turn the spearhead from "throttling" back to "open source".

As the most powerful of all the duchy churches in the Empire, the Byrne Church is definitely one of the richest in the world, and the already rich Byrne, together with the perennial donations of the nobles from all over the world, and the deliberate co-optation of successive Duke Byrnes, have given the Byrne Church a staggering amount of funds and real estate.

In Lothair, the priests in the villages and towns had to "instigate" donations from the nobles and kulaks, while the clergy in the imperial capital had donations from the faithful who regularly came to pray in the various churches.

Byrne Church alone, almost all large and small churches have their own fields, manors and plantations, plus donations from believers and nobles, enough to make the local clergy live a life comparable to that of an earl, and Byrne Cathedral in Red Blood Castle has the title deeds of the most prosperous areas in the inner city, and also has a staggering amount of assets in the United Chamber of Commerce and the Yod Chamber of Commerce, making money by lending.

But these possessions had already been overthrown by Governor Byrne, and were almost sold by the priests and deacons during the Centaur War, plus Loren and Charlotte secretly "instructed" that little Yod was in charge of execution, and was swept away by the House of Turin and the Yode Chamber of Commerce from the inside out, leaving Weber with only an empty shell.

This is why, as soon as Weber took office, he purged the public servants of the church and ceded the employees to the duke—he had no money left over to provide for these "idlers" unless he borrowed money.

Weber, who was almost "poor and white", immediately hit the deacons who had been dismissed, and wanted to recollect the money they had obtained from selling the church's assets in the name of "corruption".

But it's a pity, because the United Chamber of Commerce Jr. Yode had already guessed that he would do this.

As soon as Weber came to the door, the deacons had either "run away with the money" or had "failed to invest" and went bankrupt; their families were surrounded by walls to a shocking degree; the deacon's family, which had been delicacies from the mountains and seas last month, had been lying in bed in just a few dozen days, emaciated, withered and hungry, and it seemed that there was only half a breath left.

At this point, even if the dying deacons hadn't told him, Webb could have guessed who was behind it all - the Duchy Treasurer, the President of the United Chamber of Commerce, Loren's intelligence chief, and His Excellency Yod the Younger.

The only problem is that, although Yode Jr. is cruel and either cooperate or die, whether it is the transfer of assets or the planning of the "bankruptcy" of the caravan, it is a trick within the "rules" and does not involve the internal affairs of the church.

In other words, unless the skin is torn and the needle is divided, all Bishop Byrne can do is accuse little Yode of being immoral and scold him a few words without itching.

Webb decided to salute first and then soldier.

Bishop Byrne politely came to his door and politely told him that the Byrne Church had a large amount of money in the accounts of the United Chamber of Commerce, and that he now needed to withdraw some money from this fund to keep the church running.

And Xiao Yode also said very politely, it doesn't matter, it just has to wait a few days, because there is so much investment involved, and the amount is so huge, it will take time for the United Chamber of Commerce to collect the money.

Webb nodded, indicating that it was understandable.

So Weber, who waited for more than half a month but never heard from him, finally noticed that something was wrong, and immediately visited the door and questioned Little Yod in person.

What about money?

Little Yode, who had a sincere expression, spread his hands and shook his head regretfully.

Sorry, no.

Stopping the two entourages behind him who wanted to rush up and break Little Yode's body into pieces, Weber, who had an indifferent expression, asked politely, why not?

Little Yode, who sighed for a long time, immediately took out hundreds of pages of accounts, spread them out half a room neatly in front of Webb, and told him one by one how the investments in which the money had been made had gone through gains, increases, falls, and bankruptcies.

To put it simply, the church's investments were once benign and profitable, but unfortunately these investments lost money for various reasons, except for a bunch of IOUs and unmatched white slips, there was not half a copper plate left.

As for the process... Look at this room of ledgers, didn't I tell you everything?

Don't understand? Don't have that much time? Oh, that's not my problem, it's yours.

Unless you can come up with proof that my ledger is fraudulent, this is evidence, and ironclad!

Stopping the retinue who wanted to die with little Yode, Webber nodded, and said that there was nothing else to do, just give me the IOU.

The honest and trustworthy little Yode nodded, indicating that it was okay to be good.

In the end, Weber left the Yode Chamber of Commerce for the second time with an IOU full of wagons and white slips, as well as a few thousand gold coins donated by the "sympathetic" little Yode.

But Bishop Byrne knew very well that little Yode, who had already shown an ugly face, would not let himself go so easily.

Really... Only the next day, rumors of the Bishop of Byrne being the Church's debt were spreading, and it spread to half of the Duchy, and the merchants of Byrne were so disgraced that they alarmed the Council of the Round.

In this case, Webb was left with only two options;

The first is to insist on collecting these debts and destroying the already bankrupt merchants, but this will bring the Byrne's church into disrepute and he himself will certainly be ruined.

The most troublesome thing is that in the event of a dispute, the Byrnec Church will once again be involved in the politics of the principality, which is inconsistent with the original intention of his reforms;

The second is to give up its debts, but the asset-poor Byrne's church is immediately facing the embarrassment of making ends meet, and on the premise that it has already bowed its head to the Turin family once, another compromise is likely to make the church completely lose its independent status and become a vassal of the duke and the Turin family.

Neither option was what Webb wanted to do.

So he decided to choose the third path.

Before Charlotte and the Round Table were ready to get started, Webb went one step ahead and issued a proclamation to the whole Principality in the name of "Bishop of Byrne" that the church's debt would be formally dealt with a week later.

An invitation was sent to all merchants in the Principality who were saddled with the Church's arrears—and basically the vast majority—to be "on time" to come and discuss the matter with him.

Weber's decision was decisive and quick, slightly beyond the expectations of little Yod, but it was still in his plan, and as the president of the United Chamber of Commerce, he was certainly entitled to accept the invitation.

But not for the sake of debt, he was ready to see how Weber could not step down - whether to tear the face of the "saint", or to swallow poison with bitter self-knowledge... It's really exciting to think about.

After dealing with an unscrupulous black-haired wizard for a long time, Xiao Yode, who originally had a very low moral bottom line, became more and more fond of this kind of social activity of "breaking idols" and "exposing human nature".

Unscrupulous means, let those seemingly sanctimonious guys show their ugliest side... It can bring a unique pleasure to little Yode.

On that day, in front of many bewildered and complaining merchants, Weber did not say a word about the debt, but instead angrily denounced the money-lending practices of the Duchy of Byrne, and severely criticized the unscrupulous moneylenders for the purpose of making huge compensation and control of the caravans, and at the same time making the merchants bear the high risks, but did not have any worries about the future.

So little Yod could feel that those originally fearful and resentful eyes began to face him one by one.

Why? The United Chamber of Commerce, under the banner of Duke Byrne, is the largest money lender in the whole principality!

Weber then ordered the debts of the church to be removed and burned to ashes in front of all the merchants!

As the stunned little Jord was stunned, the whole Byrne Cathedral was filled with joy and tears of joy......

At the end of the day, the Byrne Church officially announced to the Principality that all merchants would be forgiven of their debts and debts to the church at one time, and that if any merchants were willing to "pay their debts" in the form of charitable contributions, the church would also "courtesy" hand them a "good faith debt forgiveness".

But this is voluntary, and the church does not force it.

As the tax collector of the principality and the president of the largest chamber of commerce, the little Yode who attended the meeting also shook hands with the bishop "sincerely", saying that he would resolutely support the church's "low-interest debt" decision, severely crack down on all high-interest loans, and curb the trend of lending.

Charlotte Turin, who had received a large number of low-ranking bureaucrats, also came forward and praised Bishop Webb for his "spiritual guidance" for the whole principality.

Within a month, the financial situation of the Byrne Church immediately improved significantly—the "Certificate of Good Faith Debt Forgiveness" issued by the church became for a time some kind of "officially certified" "certificate of good faith", and many businessmen who were not in debt were very happy to donate large sums of money in exchange for this certificate to hang on the façade of their shops.

And the dark tide between the Yode Chamber of Commerce and the Byrne Church has only just begun...... ()

Please remember that the first domain name of this book is:. Mobile version reading URL: