"The duty of silence, the wealthy families belonging to the same kingdom cannot interfere in any form in the inheritance struggle of another wealthy family, whether their heirs ask you or buy them, you must stand by and keep silent, and wait until the dust settles before you can start a relationship with the other party. ”

Big families have the rules of survival of big families, and Victor has not long stepped into the circle of big nobles, and there are still many things to learn. Sylvia is obliged to act as his teacher.

"No thousand-year-old family dares to guarantee its longevity, and the York family has also declined and risen again. We are interfering in the struggle for the heirs of the Solim family now, and other powerful families can interfere with us in the future. ”

Victor thought for a moment and asked, "The wealthy family refers to the thousand-year-old family?"

"One side of the princes. Sylvia shook her head and explained further, "Nimes, Wellington, and Joshua, the ancestors of these three families are all followers of August's ancestors, and their domains defend the direct territories of the Augustian family, located in the west, south, and east of the royal court. And we, the House of York and the House of Solim, were vassals of Neovest. 700 years ago, the eagle broke its wings and the imperial family gradually declined, and the three families of Friedrich, August and Reske took advantage of the situation, and the House of York and Solimme took refuge in Auguste to avoid falling victim to the Restoration War launched by Neovest. ”

"In terms of closeness, York and Solimme certainly don't compare to the Follower family's relationship with Kiteburg. If August takes advantage of the decline of the princes to intervene in the inheritance struggle of the other party, and then divide the princes' territories, not to mention that we will not agree, even the follower families will not agree. On the other hand, if we intervene in the infighting of the Solim family and control the heir of Solim, how will August react? If every prince fights for the flesh and blood of the decayed family like a snake tail vulture, will a civil war break out in the kingdom?"

Sylvia paused and said slowly, "As our kind, we watch Solrim die, or be reborn, or be replaced by a new overlord, but we can't treat them as a piece of fat. Even the Auguste family would not directly intervene in the infighting of the Solim family at such a moment. They chose to coerce and lure the Chebman family into ceding 4,000 square kilometers of territory and placing Weigel August in the south. Weigel would be a nail in the coffin for the Kite Castle to break into the Southern Territory, and the Earl of Chebman was embarrassed by the Kite Castle's marriage request because he feared that Weigel's descendants would compete with the Chebman family for the supremacy of the South. It's almost inevitable, and the Auguste family has been coveting the minerals of the South for a long time. ”

Victor scoffed, "Isn't August deceiving himself?"

"But they did not breach their duty of silence. ”

Sylvia pursed her delicate red lips and asked, "My dear, did you take in the illegitimate son of the Marquis of Solim, did you consider the feelings of the Chebman family, aren't they your allies?"

"I don't have a crush on Count Chebman, I only care about Gillian......" Victor pouted and said, "The walls of the Southern Fortress are about to be completed, and the alliance between Chebman and I will change. ”

Sylvia said angrily and amusefully, "Gillian and Chebman are not the same thing, and you should return those two children to the Solim family...... With Sophia by your side, what is the 100,000 gold sol of the Solim family?"

Are Solim's bastard sons worth only 100,000 gold soles?

The Thur Silver Equipment will come out one day, and even if the major forces do not have the technology to fuse the Thur Silver, it will not prevent them from competing for the Thur Silver resources. Victor was going to use this time to stock up on as much silver ore as possible. With the Marquis of Solim preparing to storm the Elemental Sea, and the family members busy competing for the title, Copper City has no energy to focus on the true value of SoftBank. If it were another lord, even a small baron family, Victor would not have a chance to fish in troubled waters.

As long as Brandon and Shirley remain in the Randall family, Victor has no worries about the new owner of Copper City overturning the agreement Solim's eldest son made with him. When the Golden Regiment is full-fledged, it's a big deal to start a war. Anyway, with the agreement in hand, even if the war of words sprays to the Holy See, Victor is not afraid.

Four Thorsey silver mines deserve a war!

"If you have to fight for more than you can, it's greed! greed makes you stupid!" Sylvia exclaimed in displeasure.

Victor spread out his hands and quibbled forcefully: "It's just two little guys who don't have the right to inherit, I can't watch them being poisoned! Not to mention that the Marquis of Solim is not dead yet, he is not in a hurry to attack the Elemental Sea, at least he can live for more than ten years." My adoption of his illegitimate child is just a normal foster behavior, not interference in Solim's inheritance struggle. ”

"We dominate the hills, do you know how much pressure I'm under, there's enough land for us to digest for a long time...... After ten years, the family's alienated war beasts can be cultivated, and after twenty years, the war beast knights can barely form a scale. By that time, the strategy of southern expansion had been implemented, but the York family alone could not cope with the natives of the southern continent, and we needed the strength of the entire kingdom. The Southern Continent has resources, we don't need to offend the Kite Castle for the sake of the Solim family, Williams will use this as an excuse to unite the Great Lord of the Gambis and isolate our York family!"

"Can't you see that the old guy is using my influence and yours to seek a chance for the Solim family to rise again!"

Victor just shook his head, Sylvia was so angry that her eyebrows rose, and she kicked it when she lifted her delicate feet, but was caught by Victor in his hand and kneaded and caressed.

"What are you laughing at. Sylvia rolled her eyes, but didn't retract her legs.

Victor shook his head and smiled: "The Kite Castle even knows that Brandon and Shirley have awakened a few elemental bits, and the penetration ability of the Kite Castle Agent really scared me...... Williams used spies to intimidate me here, and Roland broke into the kitchen of Silvermoon Manor, and I think Williams must have a wonderful face when he found out. He suddenly asked, "The Marquis of Goron seems to be 100 years old, right?"

"Uh-huh......" Sylvia snorted softly, her nasal voice languishing and charming, "His Highness Goron is 98 years old...... What the hell are you thinking?"

"He and Roland must be in need of blue taro, and I can send someone to collect a few as a gift to congratulate Prince Edward on his accession to the throne. Of course, we offer blue taro to the kite castle every year, and the regent, for the sake of the blue taro, should not trouble me for the sake of two insignificant bastards under any circumstances. ”

Sylvia broke free from Victor's clutches, curled up her slender calves, and said with interest, "Go on." ”

"I have no intention of interfering with the inheritance of the Solim family. My purpose is the Softsilver Mine in the Marquis of Solim!"

"What's the use of SoftBank?" asked Sylvia, her eyes lit up.

The little lover always brings her many surprises, purple cane, golden silk grass, fish-man slime, rotten heart grass, these seemingly ordinary things have been turned into jaggery by him, rock bricks, new adhesives, rattan skin armor, and worthless thorny kidney beans have also become materials for making pancreatic soap, although pancreatic soap is the invention of David, the deputy priest of Pinghu Town.

In short, Randall has a whole bunch of whimsical people. Maybe the muddy SoftBank is also useful now?

"Softsilver is useless!" Victor said without blushing and panting, "The purchase of Softsilver Mine is to divert the lord's attention, and what I want is charcoal from the Dark Forest." ”

"Gambis is about to start a fish-man war, and this incident was caused by Sophia, and as a marquis of the court, she has to bear at least part of the military expenses. In this case, she does not have the ability and the need to invest in the construction of two ports at the same time. The Chebman's proximity to the quarries and the Dark Forest meant lower transportation costs, and Williams cut off the supply of Centaur Hill Stone, so Sophia would only choose to build a port in the Chebman's Land. ”

Victor's voice changed and he said, "Of course, we expected this. ”

"We didn't have stone and we had to build a port, so we invented iron bricks. Iron bricks are very expensive to produce, more expensive than transporting stone, and require large quantities of iron ore. For this reason, we had to sell iron ore concentrate and purchase iron ore, and Kite Castle could not refuse this offer. There are two reasons for this, first, the Nevilles will cooperate with us in reducing the supply of fine iron in Gambis. Second, the Kite Castle understands the cost of producing iron bricks, and they will conclude that our construction of a port with iron bricks is a failure and is doomed to be unsuccessful. Kite Castle loves to see our jokes. ”

"After a few years, it was really unsustainable for us to build the port with iron bricks, so we invented rock bricks. Everyone thought that the appearance of rock bricks was forced. We have a foothold in public opinion, barbarian diplomacy is our tiger skin, and the Nîmes and Wellington are our potential allies, and they can get the construction and production of giant brick kilns as long as they cooperate with us in building momentum. There is no way for the Kite Castle to unite the High Lord to put pressure on the Centaur Hills. While they negotiate with us, they unite against external forces. In short, the kingdoms must not be allowed to acquire the technology for the production of rock bricks first. We have enough time to produce rock bricks to prepare for future big construction, and then sell them for a good price. ”

"That's your strategy for dividing and disintegrating. ”

Sylvia blinked and asked, "Is there anything wrong?"

"No problem. Victor shook his head and said, "I've told you before that charcoal resources are the biggest loophole in this plan. After the advent of the rock bricks, even without the help of the kite castle, the major lords had to rush to buy charcoal from the dark forest, and as long as the price of charcoal was raised to three times, we would not be able to bear it. ”

"I remember that the matter of storing charcoal was entrusted to you...... "Sylvia said in a deep groan, "The purchase of softsilver ore has something to do with charcoal reserves?"

Victor nodded, and said: "The Void Water Element of the Dark Forest is extremely active, the periphery of the forest is overgrown with tenacious thorny shrubs and sedges, and the eleven small families around them have no way to cultivate the farmland and graze cattle and sheep, they are very jealous of Lord Lellila's charcoal business, as long as I nod, they will be happy to sell charcoal to Centaur Hills." However, charcoal is a large commodity, and if I buy it openly, it will definitely arouse the alarm of other families. ”

"Yes, Viscount Randall has a great reputation now, and his every move attracts attention, and if you buy charcoal in large quantities, whether it is useful or not, others will follow suit, and the price of charcoal will definitely skyrocket. Sylvia chuckled, "I wanted to hide you behind me, at a ball of the Marquis de Leopold, Roland carried you out." Now that I think about it, I'm afraid she did it on purpose. Roland's vision is really accurate......"

Victor shook his head and smiled wryly as he continued, "I need an excuse to hide my true purpose. It just so happens that Pinghu Town does not have a city wall yet, so I plan to build a 1.4-meter-thick inner wall with blue bricks first, and use Softsilver ore as a stone to fill the interlayer, so that the wall is strong enough. Softsilver ore is very tough, but it cannot be polished into shape, and it must be boiled and poured into water to make it cracked into stones, which requires a lot of charcoal. ”

"I have surveyed the geography of the Centaur Hill, and there are only three mineable veins of Softsilver in the Centaur Hill, one in my territory and the other two in the north, which are too far from Pinghu Town to be worth mining. I made an agreement with Boris Solim to take in Solim's illegitimate son, and the Solim family would supply Peacelake with soft silver ore at the price of stone until the walls were completed. ”

"Then again, isn't Williams supporting Chebman to replace Solim to monopolize control of the port?

Sylvia pondered for a moment, then smiled, "It's really yours to build a city wall with Softsilver Mine...... But you still haven't been able to solve the problem. As long as the amount of charcoal purchased in the Centaur Hills exceeded the actual consumption, others were bound to hoard charcoal, especially the Wellington family. ”

"So, I can't come forward in person. The charcoal trade must be in the hands of neutral parties. ”

Victor's jawhead agreed, saying, "Before the barbarians crossed the river, the Kite Castle did not dare to deprive Sophia of her title, and her trade in the country was not affected. Sophia's Clover Merchant has the ability to control the charcoal trade. Sophia will pay for the charcoal produced by the 11 families over a seven-year period, with each family providing no less than 300 carts of charcoal per month, with the church overseeing both sides. This ensures that the price of charcoal remains unchanged for seven years. We have the right to purchase charcoal from Sophia's hands at a price that is one and a half percent higher. Wildwillow will become a charcoal distribution center, and the Wellington and Buryat families will also benefit from it. ”

"Seven years later, the oil trees we planted are already in shape, and no one wants to use fuel to clamp us down. ”

"Wonderful layout!" Sylvia said with a smile on her face, "Honey, you always have a way to convince me." ”

Victor smiled slightly, and frowned again: "The eleven lord families belong to four baron lords, and behind these four baron families are Waterdeep, Weststock and Copper City, and I am worried that Wellington and Joshua are secretly blocking this agreement." ”

"Don't worry. The four baronial families are all independent lieges, and the suzerain's influence over them is limited. Sylvia said lightly: "What's more, Sophia is now in full swing, and Wellington and Joshua will never dare to overturn the trade agreement." ”

Victor sighed and said, "What if they secretly ask their respective bishops to refuse to hold a pre-divine notarization for the charcoal trade?"

Sylvia was silent for a moment, then said, "You want me to find Clement?"

"Yes. ”

"If I can influence the decisions of the Cardinals, then what are the troubles?If the Pope defends me, how can he convince the congregation?" Sylvia said leisurely: "It will only backfire if I come forward to talk to Clement. But......" Sylvia stretched out her final note and smiled slyly, "You can talk to him." ”

"Me?" said Victor in surprise.

"That's you. Sylvia nodded affirmatively and said, "Clement and the Knights of Radiance are on the same page, and he wants the human kingdom to eliminate the civil war and unite with the outside world. Seeing that this goal was about to be achieved, he would not care about the small friction between the lords of Gambis. Your status is neither high nor low, and it is appropriate to make a small request to the Pope. ”

"Do you know where the Pope is now?" asked Sylvia suddenly.

Clement and Tournans disguised themselves as outcasts and quietly infiltrated Randall's Domain. Although there are currently more than 40,000 people in Randall's territory, the Randall family manages the population very tightly, and the traces of these two adults have long been mastered by Victor. Moreover, Clement's secret visit did not hide from the Pinghu Town Church.

Victor said with a strange expression: "His Majesty the Pope lives in George Village with Master Tournans, and works with hired workers every day......"