Alberton Jr. and Palatine were both old friends of Roland, and Frank focused on introducing John Lauer to Roland, especially emphasizing that he was quite insightful in the field of economics and finance, and many of his views coincided with Roland's own arguments.

Roland took the initiative to shake John Lauer's hand, maintaining a modest smile on his face, guessing that Frank had introduced his financial advisor to him out of good intentions, hoping that he and John Lauer would establish a friendship based on like-mindedness. Unfortunately, the crown prince's kindness did not fulfill his wishes, and Roland sensed that the short, stocky red-haired young man seemed to be hostile to him as soon as he shook hands with John Lauer.

This was the first time Roland had met John Lauer, and he couldn't think of how he had offended this person, and why the other party was hostile? This puzzled him. After the pleasantries, he took Palatine to a secluded place and inquired privately about John Lauer's whereabouts.

"This man was born in Feizhen, and it is said that the second son of a small nobleman came out at a young age, and offended people at the gambling table, and was forced to flee from Feizhen and cross the sea to try his luck in the holy city." Palatine glanced at the "red-haired" John through the gap in the crowd, and then introduced the history of this person to Roland, "In the first two years of John's arrival in the Holy City, he was still in the casino, earning his first pot of gold with his superb gambling skills, and then entered the stock exchange, making a tenfold profit in just half a year, and becoming a news figure in the newspaper's wealth section. ”

"This man was very ambitious, not willing to just be in the limelight at the airport, but also wanted to squeeze into the social arena of the nobility of the Holy City, for which he frequently published articles in the newspapers, expressing his views on the financial and socio-economic difficulties of the imperial authorities, I don't know if it was because of his insight or because of his aggressive and sharp style, Frank praised his articles and offered to meet with him."

"'Red-haired' John seized the opportunity to meet him, and the meeting lasted more than two hours, after which Frank spoke highly of him, not only arranging for this speculator, who had not even graduated from high school, to make an exception to join Imperial Central University, becoming the youngest lecturer in the history of the business school, but also inviting him to join the Reform Club and hire him as a private financial adviser, arguably the most favored celebrity by the crown prince today."

"The history of Mr. John Lauer reminds me of the lives of the great adventurers of history, and I have always had a great respect for those who have achieved success through self-made efforts, but I do not understand why Mr. Raul has not been very friendly to me." Roland expressed his confusion.

Palatina smiled slightly, revealing a look of surprise.

"John Lauer is now popular, but after all, he came from a humble background, and he had been accused of gambling and cheating and his reputation was damaged, so the old aristocratic families in the Holy City looked down on him more or less, and he was too competitive to attack scholars who disagreed with him, and his theories of national economy and finance were not taken seriously by the cabinet, and he never had the opportunity to put them into practice, and was ridiculed by his opponents as ' 'On paper,' Mr. Raul was so anxious to curry favor with Frank that he hoped that one day his theories would be used to guide national policy, and while he was trying to climb up, you came to the Holy City. ”

"It seems that I have inadvertently become a 'stumbling block' in someone's mind." Roland came to his senses.

"One of your most remarkable achievements in the Far East is the economic reform and the establishment of the financial system, which is precisely the dream that the red-haired John desperately desires but cannot put into practice, and you become a respected pioneer before he realizes it, and you are invited by Frank to guide the imperial authorities in the implementation of social and economic reforms, how can the always competitive and pretentious Mr. Raul not be jealous of you." Palatine unfolded her folding fan and chuckled.

Beautiful women, all dressed in slim robes and accentuating their graceful curves, put plates of delicacies on the table, making it impossible to guess whether they were real nuns or deliberately dressed up as priests.

At the feast, Frank arranged for Roland to sit on his left hand side. Roland sensed the coldness in John's eyes and guessed that he had probably occupied his usual seat, which added a bit of jealousy to him.

Roland didn't want to offend the celebrities around the crown prince, and he had to be casual, and this sumptuous dinner tasted really unpleasant. However, when I think about it, I feel that being envied is not necessarily a bad thing, especially since John Lauer, a wise man who is deeply relied on by Frank, can help him carry out his plan if he uses it wisely.

Roland is secretly thinking about how to use John Lauer's hostility to provide a reverse boost for himself, and at the same time distract himself from Frank.

His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was in good spirits, and he made no secret of the fact that he had read Palatina's report on his expedition to the Far East and was interested in Roland's land reform and agricultural innovations in the Far East.

Palatina sat on Roland's left-hand side, heard Frank mention his report, and took over the conversation at the right time, telling about what she had seen and heard during her expedition to the Far East, especially impressed by the local collective farms and village communes.

Frank basically agreed with Palatina's assertion, but there was still a question that he couldn't figure out, and Palatine couldn't give a satisfactory answer, so she took the opportunity to talk to Roland and brought it up to him in person.

"Palatina is very much admired the agricultural reform in the Far East, and also summed up the many advantages of large-scale agriculture, but there are also many large estates covering tens of thousands of acres in the empire, which are not inferior to the farms in the Far East in terms of scale, why is it that the grain output in the Far East has repeatedly reached new highs, but the average grain yield per mu of our large estates is only half of that of the Far East, and it has been maintained at this level all year round and cannot be further improved?"

Roland was well prepared for the meeting, and Frank's question was within his plan, and he immediately gave a coherent answer.

"Your Highness, the great farms of the Far East are only similar in shape to the great estates of the Empire, and their internal operating mechanisms are very different, and these differences are the root cause of the disparity in grain production."

Can you elaborate on the differences?" Frank smiled mildly and asked Roland for advice with great interest.

"There are two main differences, one is the organization and management model, and the other is the agricultural farming technology." Roland first threw out the generalization, and then explained it one by one.

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