After listening to Duke's grand plan, Abner also had an excited look on his face, and he took a fierce breath and said, "Lord Lord, if the trade route can be successfully developed, we will no longer have to look at the face of Alpine City. It just so happened that Alpine City recently released the news that it intends to impose a high trade tax on our goods in Storm Castle, and we will not sell anything to him in the future!"

Abner's words made Duke just smile faintly, in fact, he had long been mentally prepared for Alpine City to make trouble, but what he didn't expect was that Alpine City had only released news until now, instead of directly imposing trade sanctions on Storm Castle.

It seems that whether it was the attack on Alpine City at the beginning, or the later shaking of the Holy See army, the strength shown by the Storm Fortress made Alpine City frightened, and they would be so scruples that they did not dare to turn their faces directly.

This is going to happen to Duke, and on the day the Battle of Stormfort was over, it is estimated that he would have announced sanctions. It seems that strength is indeed the foundation of this world. Thinking of this, Duke was a little embarrassed, after experiencing the Battle of Storm Fort, the strength of the Storm Army has also decreased a lot.

More importantly, due to the shortage of human resources in all aspects, and the current financial resources of Storm Castle, Duke cannot recruit troops on a large scale. However, as long as you endure the spring ploughing period, the labor force of Storm Castle will be able to become abundant, and it is estimated that the trade routes will also bear fruit.

"Abner, prepare a large number of goods, and send someone out to contact the merchants, and in the future, the goods of Storm Castle will be sold by ourselves!"

After Duke gave the order, Abner immediately went down to carry it out, the porcelain storm fort had already been filled with warehouses, and a lot of iron tools had been produced for a while before, and it was only necessary to wait for the carriage to be successfully transformed, and it could be transported to other territories of the French Empire immediately.

While Duke was in high spirits and waiting for Ryle to test the results of the new carriage in the field, an acquaintance came to Stormcastle, and this person was Adams, Princess Gina's guardian knight.

Duke was stunned when he heard the soldiers announce that Adams was coming, and that he was only leading a few royal knights. He couldn't think of a reason for Adams to come to Stormcastle, and as a guardian knight, Princess Gina didn't come with him.

Although he didn't understand the purpose of Adams' visit, he was an acquaintance, and Duke didn't let Adams wait long, and met him as soon as possible.

Adams is wearing a royal knight's armor, coupled with a deep and resolute face, he is still the handsome and proud royal knight image at the beginning. Of course, that very unpleasant poker face has not changed, but fortunately, Duke is also used to it, in this world he is full of enemies, Adams is just a little proud, nothing at all.

"Addams, welcome to Storm Castle. Duke first greeted him politely.

To Duke's surprise, this time Adams was not as arrogant as before, but instead bent down and saluted Duke and said, "Thank you Lord Duke for your reception." ”

The reason why Adams lowered his profile this time was because Duke had led the Stormkeep army, and in a sense, he had saved himself and the princess once outside Andorra. Although Adams is usually proud of himself as a royal knight, he still has a noble chivalry and clear grievances.

Another point is that when he came to Storm Castle this time, in addition to helping Princess Gina spread the word, he also asked Duke in a sense.

"You're welcome, Adams, you know I'm a straightforward person, just say anything. ”

Except for the polite words at the beginning, Duke went straight to the point, because he knew Adams's character, this guy was definitely not the kind of person who had nothing to do, and he came to Storm Castle this time, there must be something important.

Adams was also very accustomed to Duke's directness, and he had been with Duke for a few months, and this lord had a different style from all the nobles on the continent. At first, Adams despised Duke's vulgarity because he had no aristocratic etiquette, but now he began to appreciate Duke's style of doing things, and if it weren't for Duke's resoluteness, Stormcastle might not have changed so much.

"Lord Duke, I came here this time mainly to convey the message of Her Royal Highness the Princess, the enrollment of the Imperial Martial Arts Academy has entered the final time period, if you don't sign up, you may have to miss this opportunity. ”

"Her Royal Highness the Princess also said that in addition to learning swordsmanship and magic, the Imperial Martial Arts Academy can also meet the best of other lords' children, which will be of great help to expand your future contacts and development, and the Martial Arts Academy is almost a cultivation place for the future lords of the Empire, and if you want to be among the top of the nobility, this is a necessary path. ”

Hearing Adams' words, Duke suddenly felt an indescribable emotion in his heart. I think that when Gina was in Storm Castle, the two sides didn't like each other, bickering and taunting it was a common thing, and even almost drew their swords to meet each other.

But he also experienced the life-and-death dilemma of Stormcastle and formed a deep "revolutionary" friendship. And Jina was also worried that Duke wouldn't be able to understand her intentions, thinking that she was just letting Duke enter the martial arts academy to practice martial arts, so she was not interested in going over.

So he specially asked Adams to make a trip and tell the real intention behind entering the martial arts academy, because the entire martial arts academy was established to cultivate the core of the future power of the empire, and if you want to truly become a high-level aristocratic ruler in the future, you must establish your own network and contacts here.

To put it mildly, if you can unite enough powerful lords, then it is not impossible for you to become an emperor.

Because the emperor of this world is completely different from the supreme emperor of ancient China, to put it bluntly, he is just the strongest lord. As long as the other lords are strong enough, or can unite several big lords, then they can "force the palace" to seize power and change one lord to be the emperor.

At that time, Henry VII was too inflated with his own strength and wanted to get rid of the control of the Holy See. As a result, I didn't expect that all the major lords under his command would defect to the Holy See overnight, and they almost lost the throne by jointly "forcing the palace", so they recognized the reality clearly, and the humiliated kneeling Pope begged for forgiveness and kept his throne.

So if Duke wants to go further, instead of staying in Stormcastle and making enemies, he must meet more nobles, expand his network and make allies. It's just that Princess Gina doesn't understand Duke's true thoughts, he doesn't want to succumb to the old system and live, but wants to create another era, after all, he is different from this old society!

"Thank you, Princess Gina for me, I'll think about it. Duke politely replied, whether he went to the martial arts academy or not, Ji Na was kind.

When Adams heard Duke's answer, there was a strange hesitant expression on his face, which made Duke a little curious, whether he agreed or not, according to Adams's character, as long as the word arrived.

"Adams, is there anything else?"

In the face of Duke's inquiry, the hesitant expression on Adams' face became even worse, he looked at Duke and finally said: "Her Royal Highness the Princess has encountered some difficulties in Marseille City, and I would like to ask you to help Her Royal Highness in my private capacity. ”