"Governance?" The lord began to giggle incessantly. "You have to know that the prosperity of commerce in this South Elta has fueled a large part of the power of the merchants. The merchant power is large, and those of us who once fought for the old Emperor Elta have a small power. As you may know, the merchants of this city have bought more property than I have taken from home. ”

The meaning of this sentence is very clear - whether it is a lord who has been passed down from generation to generation or a magistrate who has been parachuted into the place by the emperor, he must listen to the advice of some merchants in the acre and third of the land in this southern elta. Even if you don't "divide it into five and five and merge with it", at least you have to "pluck the goose and make a fortune in a muffled voice".

The old lord is close to the former, but now the world has changed. He wanted to turn over and become a well-fed apartment, but he didn't want to go to Mendong City or Cierta - it felt like an invisible house arrest, especially the pictures that the envoy had shown him, and it was the towering tower city that made him extremely uncomfortable.

If you want to stay in the local area and be a "at least respectable" elder, you can't forget the influence of the intertwined business system of South Elta. The Hazelal Chamber of Commerce can be destroyed, but commerce cannot be stopped, trade cannot be stopped, and the circulation of wealth and capital and commodities cannot be stopped. Whether it is the lord, or the frightened bird of the Hazelal Chamber of Commerce, or the Chinese and Elta empires behind the plenipotentiary envoy, they all know this.

Since commerce cannot be destroyed, the vast majority of people will remain in the business system. Because the business system is really a very broad concept, how broad is it? The street vendors, the handymen in the cloth shops and the garment shops, are all part of this commercial system in the South Elta.

They may have sent letters to Hu Manxiahi, heard the shopkeepers talk about the trivial matters of the Chamber of Commerce, and knew some of the big businessmen and big people in the Chamber of Commerce and even the general meeting - maybe they were the idols of these little people.

That's where the horror of the Southern Elta Metropolitan Business Alliance lies. At first glance, they are just an inconspicuous little cash cow. But the cash cow has been planted all the way from Kamla, the southernmost metropolis, to feed the whole society with money and resources, but also because it is safe from the floods.

In the last wave of the flood, that is, the Southern Route Army sent by the Bilunar Church to Elta had to treat every grass and tree in the south politely, and the levies had to say the same - in the face of them whose violent means were restricted or even forbidden, fighting against a whole system that could self-circulate and pay enough taxes to the center of Elta was tantamount to hitting a stone with an egg.

The strong army must bow its head by three points at this point, and the same is true of the administrative forces of the old Elta at all levels without strong troops. Even in the port of Kamra, businessmen spontaneously set up meetings for communication and exchange of opinions, and the matters voted on were handed over to the magistrates, whose policies had to be deliberated by the councils......

In the face of eternal interests, Kamra's appointed magistrates came and went for one term, but this iron-clad official could not stop the erosion of interests, and after sitting for two days, he obediently surrendered power under coercion and temptation, and completely forgot the admonitions of high-ranking officials and even the emperor.

Anyway, the sky is high, the emperor is far away, and the money is closest.

The old lord has long been surprised by these things: no matter what kind of official you are, you must be a Roman when you come to the city of Rome.

But this official, after all, is divided into two kinds. Of course, the magistrate of the flowing water was willing to sell the rights of the place, because it was not his own territory, and after selling the money, he walked away with shaking his hands, leaving no trace of dust behind--it sounded quite elegant.

But for the lords and city lords who have been passed down from generation to generation, although the merchants' attempts to encroach are not traceless, the fifty-fifty is the meat earned by their ancestors - the lords naturally want to operate it themselves, but how easy is it to say? Their own every move can't escape the control of the air roots planted by this cash tree, let alone cultivate a new small cash cow to squeeze benefits for themselves - the tax rate in the lord's own territory is not set by the lord himself, and there will be no good fruit to eat if he crosses this limit.

Sincerely, the lord wanted his children to live a good life with no worries about food and clothing, and always have someone to support him after he retired—and he could understand the intention of the plenipotentiary envoy to have him sign under the "shareholder" column of the "Southern Elta Development Co., Ltd.", which was a heavenly job that could be reached out for.

"Not harmonious", that is just the tacit understanding between the old lord and the envoy plenipotentiary after reaching an OO deal. In the eyes of Humanshahi and the merchants of the entire Hazelal Chamber of Commerce, as well as all the inhabitants of Hazelal City, and even the troops brought by the plenipotentiary envoy, the old lord has always practiced the principle of "non-violent non-cooperation", and has skillfully assisted "his community of interests" without impunity......

If you want to fool the enemy, first fool yourself. The envoy plenipotentiary listened to the old lord's calm expression, and the corners of his mouth quietly hooked up.

The old lord wanted to take revenge for his personal revenge and relieve himself of his worries by the way, so he took his sharp arrow. Then he took advantage of the trust of the merchants of the Chamber of Commerce in him to make them consciously stand in front of the longbow.

"Mr. Lord, I'd like to hear your thoughts on what you think of Balanham."

"Young man, you already know it, don't you? I am using this kind of trick for the old man, so why bother? The old lord chuckled dryly, and then changed his tone to a very benevolent tone.

"Barranham is not the mastermind, that's clear to me. You're trying to deal with the bellied merchants who stay in the Hazelar Chamber of Commerce and won't hand over their food, am I right? ”

The old lord gently struck the bronze bell with his index knuckle in agreement.

"Now you can tell me who is behind the scenes, right? I know that you are in two copies, but I don't know who you sent it to. ”

"If you dig deeper, he won't leak a handle for you to hold." The old lord replied. "They're not as good as you think, and you're wrong about burning granaries or robbing grain convoys outside the city."

The plenipotentiary envoy's face turned grim—what he didn't expect was that the old lord had even seen through his two preparations.

"It's very simple, you weakened the garrison of the town hall and the city gate, and strengthened it near the granary, and this thing can be seen clearly from a high vantage point."

The Plenipotentiary was silent, partly because he saw the whole Baranham family appear in his field of vision, and partly because he really couldn't find the next words about the lord's opinion.

"You guys are really good with what they call 'telescopes'. Can you give me a pair of tricks to play with in the future? The old lord also shook his body and searched the end of the queue with the telescope in his hand.

"The price of this thing is not low, you can buy it, but if you want to give it away, I'm afraid it won't. A discount can be considered. The Plenipotentiary almost couldn't help laughing when he said this—this is nothing more than a civilian 8X30x binoculars for a few hundred dollars in China.

"Why does this sound like the group of copper-smelling merchants below?" The old lord soon found Baranham on crutches from his field of vision. "This guy is really bold, but he finally caught up."

It didn't take long for a few soldiers to take another important piece of equipment from the ox cart with a whistle - a folded barbed wire fence that quickly cut off the formed queue from the outside world. Barbed wire without barbs is not lethal, but it is enough to deter or stop people who want to break into the queue.

"Residents who have received their clothes are asked to leave the line immediately, and if they have any objections to the quality of their clothes, please change them at the city hall tomorrow...... We do not welcome anyone who has received their clothes or any unrelated person to stay around the queue......"

The megaphone took its responsibility well, and the entire fenced column was left with no one except for the guarded soldiers and pedestrians who left in a hurry.

At the front of each queue, a soldier is responsible for measuring the arm length of the first person in the queue with a soft ruler.

"Stretch out your arms!" The soldier shouted. Now the first in line of the women's blouse is tattered, if it shrinks fine, the hole in the top can easily let outsiders see her breasts. So she cowered and didn't want to spread her arms.

"Quick! Do you know that you're wasting the time of everyone behind you? The soldier with the meter ruler stomped his feet angrily. Their superiors made it impossible for them to "overlord the bow" to the citizens who simply did not cooperate, especially the girls. It was the first time that the corporal, who had fought twice in the Battle of Cierta, felt so powerless.

"Women's Medium!" The corporal shouted angrily, and then pointed with his right hand: "Go over there and get your clothes, and let's get this hole suit off!" Oh my God......"

It's not that this woman is seductive - the exact opposite, I should say. Born in the slums, she looked like a reed stick, black and thin, with messy hair and a lot of parasites on it. The soldiers who came out of Cierta wanted to ask for a worker's wife, and who wanted to deal with these women who had the only white (poor tears) in their eyes? I'm full!

Not to mention her, the whole slum is this virtue except for a few people. The ratio of the size of the clothes prepared by Sierta to the clothes supplemented by the Chinese side is not strictly 1:1, but is mostly in sizes S and M.

But this set of standards soon ran aground in front of Cockroach Point: the XS was completely cut off, the S was close to being out of stock, the M was consumed faster than usual, the XL sold only a few pieces, and the XXL was useless.

Soon the soldiers began to whisper among themselves:

"If you can give the big one, don't give it to the small one!"

"The little one is cautious! If you really meet a little doll, if you give someone an L number, what will people do? ”

Although the soldiers began to hand out as large sizes as possible, the gap between the XS and S sizes could no longer be filled......

The size issue has not been noticed, and it has quietly cast a shadow over what should have been a smooth distribution of clothes......