The South Gate of the Capital of the Cold Moon Empire.

The huge semicircular arches, the thick and continuous city walls, the spacious and neat streets paved with bluestone slabs, the many heavily armed Imperial soldiers, and the flow of people and horses in and out are the scenery of the South Gate in the evening, and the cries and shouts, the neighing of horses, and the sound of children playing in them also add a lot to this magnificent scenery.

Especially in the autumn season, the caravans carrying wine to the capital are non-stop. In the shade of the trees at the gates of the city, some lazy men lay there and sniffed the intoxicating smell of wine in the air.

In the afternoon, Jingyi came to Ziyue's house, but at that time, Chris's official residence had been sealed by the judicial gendarmes, but from the old maid who was packing up outside the mansion and preparing to leave, Jingyi learned that Chris and Ziyue had just left.

So Jingyi immediately stepped on the fast horse and rushed directly to the south gate of the capital, but happened to intercept them not far from this south gate.

"Thank you so much for coming!" With a sad smile on her face, Ziyue said lightly, "Thank you very much for taking care of me in the academy!"

"How could this be?" Jingyi was a little reluctant to believe it, after all, Ziyue was her good friend, and now that her good friend was leaving, how could this not make her sad?

At this time, the carriage was full of alcohol, and Chris, who looked extremely haggard, pulled his collar hard, and then shook the wine bottle in his hand, his tone was full of anger and helplessness, "What's the matter? Hehe, that's not it, after all, it's not that I'm in the way, I think I'm useless, hateful!" he said while taking a sip of wine.

"Father!" Seeing that his drunken father wanted to get out of the carriage, Ziyue hurriedly stopped him. She knows that her father is very frustrated and sad now, and now he hates those nobles quite much, and he blames himself for the loss of his identity, but what can he do?

Even her own grandfather, Von Buti Amas, didn't even come to see them off at this time in order to get rid of their relationship, let alone others, savoring the heat and coldness of this world, for Ziyue, Jingyi's ability to come desperately at this time may be the only warmth in her heart.

"Leave me alone, do you think I'm going to let that bastard of Onno go?" Sitting limply in the carriage seat, he took another sip of wine and pulled out a crumpled gold coin note, his tone full of mockery, "Look, Miss Jingyi, this is what Count Auno has rewarded me, look at him...... How nice he is to me, haha!"

"I'm sorry to make you see the joke!" Ziyue's beautiful cheeks couldn't help but fall with crystal tears.

She is not sad about the failure of her family, what makes her sad is her father's self-defeating attitude.

After a short silence.

"Where are you going now, and what are your plans for the future?" asked Jingyi softly.

Looking back at her father who was talking to herself, Ziyue said in a low voice: "I plan to go to the Cold Ice City in Tiandong Province with my father, where there is the closest sea transportation line to the Principality of Nandu, my father originally started by smuggling, and when I get there, I think my father will cheer up again!" Speaking of this, Ziyue's plain hand twisted the corners of her skirt slightly, as if there was something unspeakable.

"This is for you!" Jing Yi didn't ask, but she knew that Ziyue was short of money, but with Ziyue's stubborn character, she wouldn't open her mouth if she died, so Jing Yi took out all the money from her money bag, about four hundred gold coin bills and more than a dozen gold coins and some silver coins.

It's all she has.

You must know that although Jing Yi's family is a big noble, there is no direct financial source in the family, and even the tuition income of the women's college is only enough to support the operation of the college, so the money in Jing Yi's hand is already all the savings she has since she was born, so as soon as she heard that Ziyue had an accident, Jing Yi immediately exchanged the money that had been saved for a long time into bills and brought them out.

Stuffing the money into her hand, Jing Yi gently wiped the tears on Zi Yue's cheeks, "No matter where you go, you are Jing Yi Andrew's best friend!"

Speaking of this, the excited Ziyue and Jingyi hugged each other tightly!

After a while, Ziyue collected the money given by Jingyi and showed a confident smile: "The money, I will definitely pay it back!"

Soon after waving goodbye, the dilapidated carriage slowly drove away with the flow of people, gradually disappearing into the horizon. And the wind, with a hint of parting sadness, tied Jingyi's thoughts and expectations tightly to the carriage that Ziyue left, and took them all the way into the distance.

"Miss, where are you going now?" the coachman asked respectfully after the farewell.

It's just that Jing Yixin is already tired at this time!

"Send me home!"

......

Imperial Chancellor's Palace.

Located east of the Imperial City, the majestic and large-scale white complex is the official residence of Nicholas Junt, which is very rare in the entire Cold Moon Empire, even comparable to the Imperial Palace, and the large number of armed soldiers inside and outside the official residence also gives people an insurmountable sense of strong oppression.

Prime Minister's Mansion.

Unlike the impression of a room full of books, Prime Minister Rongte's study is very different, there are no books here, to be precise, the bookshelves here have been completely replaced by wine racks, and books have naturally become countless fine wines, so the well-lit room is full of the aroma of fine wine all the time.

At this time, Prime Minister Rong Te, who was already in his fifties, was still busy at his desk reviewing the documents that had just been sent back from the Cold Ice City of Tiandong Province, and judging from the tightly knit expression between his eyebrows, it seemed that something big had happened.

And there was a man standing in front of the prime minister at this time, and his name was Marquis Kefer Sickor.

He is a capable man in his fifties, although he is ugly but extremely slender, he is also a hereditary nobleman in the Cold Moon Empire, his family is known as the Seedock Consortium in the Cold Moon Empire, he is the nephew of Prime Minister Rongte and is also a very important member of the conservative faction, usually he is responsible for the circulation and operation of gold coins within the conservative faction, and he has a keen observation and judgment of the market.

"What do you think about this?" handed the document to Kefer, and the Prime Minister Ronte took out a bottle of fine wine from the wine shelf next to him, and when he uncorked it with a special driver, a rich fruity aroma suddenly wafted out.

After taking the document, Kefer read the document in detail, and it generally stated that the smuggled minerals from the Cold Ice City to the Southern Capital Principality had accumulated so far, and among them, the most profitable silver ore was the most serious, and even the price was very low, and the buyers were not interested in it at all.

"Is it that the smuggling of silver ore is too much and causes the supply to exceed demand, so ......" After a pause, seeing that the prime minister did not speak, Kefer pondered for a moment, "Could it be that there is a seller who has a lower price than ours?"

The prime minister laughed coldly and poured the wine into two glasses, and the amount of wine was shallow because it was strong.

"I've been told that there's a man in the Cold Moon Empire who is dumping silver ore with all his might and has monopolized the entire smuggling market!" Passing one of the glasses to Kefer, the prime minister stood in front of the window, and took a sip as he looked out the window.

He's thinking!

"But Chris, the biggest smuggler in private, has been eliminated by Earl Ernaux with a vengeance, and now who can run a bigger silver mine smuggling than us?" Shaking the wine glass slightly in front of his nose, Kefer took a shallow sip after inhaling the aroma.

"Do you think Count Onor is this possible?" the Prime Minister asked suddenly, but his tone was obviously not very sure.

Although he has his seemingly seamless revenge rhetoric for Chris's disposition of Earl Onno, Chancellor Ront always feels that things are not so simple.

"Count Onno?" Kefer shook his head slightly, looking at the bright red wine in the wine glass, he said lightly: "I have basically figured out the funds of Count Onno, he just got His Majesty's permission to do some regular material trading, although there is also some smuggling, but it has nothing to do with silver!"

Since the Earl of Onno's family began to have income, Kefer has begun to investigate, but he has not caught any tricks or useful information from the Earl of Onno, so he has always believed that the Count of Onno has not participated in the big cake of smuggling silver at all.

The prime minister didn't speak, still looking out the window, he was obviously thinking again.

In fact, there are not many people in the Cold Moon Empire who can monopolize the silver market, and smuggling silver is a felony, and there are even fewer people who dare to set foot in it.

But if it's not Count Auno, who else will there be?

"Could it be Marshal Ron's old bastard? He's always been our rival, I think ......," Kefer said.

And Prime Minister Rongte snorted coldly, it seems that he has not thought of a more likely candidate than Marshal Ron, "It should be him, only his silver mine smuggling in the empire is second only to us!" Speaking of this, he put down his wine glass and sat down at the desk with difficulty, "How long can our treasury funds sustain the army?"

"We currently have about fifty million gold coins in our vault, but we can't last long to supply the army of the four legions of the Empire!" Winfer showed a hint of concern.

The atmosphere at the scene was a little depressed for a while.

"Isn't there a solution?" Seeing that his nephew didn't understand, the prime minister pointed to another document on the table and said, "Is the only way to accumulate funds is to smuggle silver?"

That document came from the Heavenly Spirit Principality, to the effect that the Cold Moon Emperor agreed to let the Heavenly Spirit Principality dig the Moon Spirit Grand Canal, which connects the eastern sea of the Cold Moon Empire, to facilitate transportation and trade, and this document was previously rejected by the Imperial House of Representatives, and most of the votes against it were Marshal Ron's innovative radicals.

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