It wasn't just Archie and Leia who were set to marry without their knowledge.

In the north of the Lampari Kingdom, on the Muerto Mountains, which are more than a thousand kilometers away from Xinfei Farm, Viscount Leslie looked at the letter in his hand, sneered, and tore the letter written on fine letter paper into pieces in an instant, and then threw it into the mountain stream around him.

Suddenly, countless pieces of paper fell, as if a light snow had fallen in the mountains.

Watching the pieces of paper fall into the mountain stream and disappear, Viscount Leslie was silent for a moment, looked back at the other colleagues of the Zhenbei Army around him, and thought that they must be the same as other ordinary people in their hearts, very envious of their own background, the Stark family, a big aristocratic family, but they didn't know that as a descendant of a big aristocratic family, there were also many places where they couldn't help themselves.

For example, in this letter sent by his mother, it shows that the family has set up a marriage for him, and there is no room for him to refuse.

The girl who was about to become his wife was the youngest daughter of the patriarch of the Aleman family, twenty-three years old this year, according to her mother, she was beautiful and mild-mannered, and she was very suitable for being a wife, so that Viscount Leslie returned to Anvimar City immediately after completing his two-year service in the Zhenbei Army.

Viscount Leslie could only sneer at his mother's evaluation of this Miss Alemandine.

Perhaps this Miss Aleman was indeed beautiful and mild-mannered, but Viscount Leslie would never believe that his mother was going for her, and the reason why he was sure that this Miss Aleman would become his wife was nothing more than for the Aleman family.

Noble marriages are not uncommon. Viscount Leslie had long expected that he would encounter such a day.

He has been resisting this kind of thing for almost a decade. Now it's hard to drag on to your thirties. But it can't be dragged on any longer.

Looking at the other letter in his hand, which was much more modest in comparison, Viscount Leslie showed a wry smile.

"In comparison, Xu Yi is much freer than me, at least he can be with the girl he really likes. ”

Les Ion Jue sighed, opened the letter sent by Xu Yi and read it carefully.

Xu Yi naturally did not have so many parents in the letter he sent, but briefly described to him the development plan of the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce during this period, and asked him about the current situation of the Zhenbei Army.

The focus of the inquiry was on the armament of the Zhenbei Army.

If this is asked by someone else. will inevitably be charged with spying on military intelligence, but Xu Yi himself has a false title in the military department, and the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce and the Logistics Department of the military department have a very deep cooperation, so Xu Yi is qualified to know these situations.

I hope that these questions can also be asked by Major McConley, but from Major McConley can only get approximate statistics, and as for the specific details, of course, people like Viscount Leslie who are in the northern army know best.

However, after seeing Xu Yi's questions in the letter, Viscount Leslie smiled bitterly again.

"How shall I answer him?"

Viscount Leslie glanced back at his colleague who was boiling water using a magic kettle that had been smashed into a corner because he accidentally fell to the ground, and thought to himself that if the Logistics Department of the Military Department did not supply the Zhenbei Army, he was afraid that the armaments of the Zhenbei Army would not be able to keep up with the consumption. It won't be long before the Murto Mountains fall back into the hands of those guys in the Kingdom of Sark.

In the offensive and defensive battle of the Muerto Mountains from the beginning of last year to the end of the year. Although the Zhenbei Army relied on a large number of high-quality armaments supplied by the military department to occupy the Muerto Mountains in one fell swoop, and pressed the Greedy Wolf Legion and the Tiger Legion of the Sark Kingdom in the territory of the Sark Kingdom in the north of the Muerto Mountains, but in the following half a year or so, the Greedy Wolf Legion and the Tiger Legion never gave up the idea of counterattacking.

Despite the strong armament of the Zhenbei Army, the Greedy Wolf Legion and the Tiger Legion did not achieve any results, and the Murto Mountains were still firmly in the hands of the Zhenbei Army, but because of the frequent battles, the armaments of the Zhenbei Army were depleted very quickly.

Since the second half of last year, the supply of the Zhenbei Army by the Logistics Department of the Military Department has been greatly weakened, and after the beginning of winter, except for a few truckloads of cotton jackets, no other armaments have been replenished.

The other soldiers of the Zhenbei Army could only complain in private, but they didn't know what was going on, but Viscount Leslie knew the specific reason.

Quite simply, the military department ran out of money.

In the offensive and defensive battle of the Muerto Mountains, the military headquarters unusually provided a large number of military headquarters, which made the Zhenbei Army mighty, but such a huge military headquarters was very expensive.

Although the armor and weapons are all built by the newly built arsenal through the Guò Magic Machine Tool, the cost is greatly reduced, and a lot of money is saved, but maintaining such a large amount of consumption still makes the Logistics Department unable to support it.

Xu Yi mentioned this problem in a letter sent to Viscount Leslie before, and he said in his heart that although many of the armaments and materials provided by the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce to the military department have almost reached the full cost price, the military department still can't come up with the money to buy them.

Xu also expressed deep concern about the situation.

If the military department has not had enough funds, and the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce cannot provide it for free, then the supply of armaments to the Zhenbei Army may be problematic.

In the event of a counterattack by the army of the Kingdom of Sark at the beginning of spring, the situation in the Murto Mountains will be extremely dangerous.

In the letter, Xu Yi also hinted to Viscount Leslie that if he sensed danger, he must leave as much as possible to ensure his life.

Now, in this recent letter, Xu Yi has made his concerns even clearer.

The military department has not issued any orders to the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce for more than three months, which proves that the military department is completely unable to support the military consumption of the Zhenbei Army.

This proves from the side that the current shape of the Zhenbei Army is already very dangerous.

Seeing that Xu Yi once again hinted at the end of this letter that if he saw a bad opportunity, he must find a chance to leave in advance, Viscount Leslie couldn't help but sigh and shook his head slightly.

Of course, he knew that Xu Yi had good intentions. But he has been serving in the Zhenbei Army for nearly two years. Even if he's mainly responsible for logistics. But he still experienced a lot of bloody storms with his colleagues, and he had a very deep affection for the Zhenbei Army.

Although he knew that the current shape of the Zhenbei Army was not good, Viscount Leslie did not intend to give up here and flee alone.

However, he also knew that his strength alone was extremely limited, and with his current ability, he could not solve the real problem of the Zhenbei Army at all -- that is, the military headquarters had no money.

Thinking of having no money, Viscount Leslie developed a deep dislike for Earl Stark, his own uncle, who was far away in Bonta City. I hated the concept that my family had always adhered to.

There is obviously a better way to make the entire kingdom richer, but these rotten guys only care about their own interests, deliberately ignore this qiē, and even vigorously suppress it.

In their eyes, the success or failure of the entire kingdom and the well-being of all the people are probably not as important as the long-term survival of their own family, right?

"Hmph, a bunch of fools! Now that this world is about to change with the appearance of Xu Yi, you still have to hold that old concept, if you continue like this, you yourself will become sinners who will lead the entire family to be eliminated!"

Viscount Leslie's eyes narrowed. After pondering for a while, he took out two pieces of stationery. first wrote a reply letter to Xu Yi, in which he roughly described the difficulties faced by the Zhenbei Army, and hoped that Xu Yi would help solve this problem as much as possible.

The second letter was a reply to my mother.

In this letter, Viscount Leslie expressed his willingness to accept the family's arrangement and return to Anvimar to marry Miss Alemand, and at the same time revealed another meaning of his own meaning in a very serious tone.

He, Leslie Stark, will do his best to fight for the position of patriarch of the Stark family!

###

When Viscount Leslie was carefully writing his reply, Lampari XIII was looking at the year-end financial report of the Lampari Kingdom in his hand in the palace, and a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

This year's financial statements are much better than last year's, compared to last year's statistics, which only totaled less than two million gold coins, this year, according to statistics, all the kingdom's financial revenues have suddenly broken through to a full three million gold coins, which can be said to have made a leap.

However, as the king of a country, Lampari XIII certainly does not look at things from such a simple perspective.

Two years ago, the annual revenue of the Lampari Kingdom was only a little more than a million gold coins, but since last year, it has made a leap for two consecutive years.

The reason for such an obvious change can be seen from this financial statement, and more than ninety percent of the increase comes from commercial tax.

And if the focus is shifted to commercial tax, it can be seen from the additional report of the Commercial Department that more than 90% of the increase in commercial tax is actually as high as 40% and more than 40% of it comes from the chamber of commerce that produces magic machinery.

In the report, the new flying chamber of commerce is constantly mentioned.

In the first half of last year, the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce paid more than 300,000 gold coins in tax revenue to Bangta City in the first half of the year alone, of which 110,000 gold coins were handed over to the state treasury.

In the second half of the year, because the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce was transferred to Viscount Xu Yi's private territory, all the taxes paid by the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce will be directly owned by Xu Yi, and finally handed over to the treasury by Xu Yi, totaling 270,000 gold coins.

In addition, because the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce has obtained the right to trade freely, the tax revenue of the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce in trade with other countries will not pass through the city of Bonta, but will be directly paid to the national treasury.

Although the investment and construction of the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce in the Heimi Wasteland, the Duchy of Stantin and the Kingdom of Ruerson in the second half of the year have only just been rolled out, the taxes paid are still as high as 130,000 gold coins.

So last year, the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce alone, paid a huge amount of more than 500,000 gold coins to the state treasury.

This does not take into account all the taxes paid by the Chamber of Commerce related to the production of magical machinery that have sprung up in various parts of the kingdom under the influence of the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce.

If these are also counted, then of the more than three million gold coins collected by the Lampari Kingdom last year, even more than one and a half million gold coins have been affected by the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce.

Moreover, among the commercial taxes increased by other chambers of commerce, although they are not related to magic machinery, they still have the influence of the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce.

For example, with the help of the magic loom developed by the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce, the Armani Chamber of Commerce's production capacity has increased significantly, and although the prices of the clothes sold have been reduced in different ways, the overall profit has taken a leap forward because of the significant increase in sales.

According to statistics, the Armani Chamber of Commerce paid a total of 320,000 gold coins in business taxes last year.

Another example is the Amritri Chamber of Commerce, which is now mainly responsible for paving roads everywhere in the kingdom, and also paid 260,000 gold coins in business taxes last year.

Another example is the Renekton Chamber of Commerce......

......

After looking at it for a while, Lampari XIII suddenly discovered that the major chambers of commerce that originally belonged to Bonta City alone had actually added up to a huge commercial tax of nearly 1.5 million gold coins to the national treasury.

However, the total tax paid by Bangta City this year is only 190,000 gold coins.

Compared to last year, it is undoubtedly far worse.

Looking at this stark contrast, Lampari XIII couldn't help but let out a sneer.

"I'd like to see what those guys still have the face to say. (To be continued......)