Chapter 342: Negotiation

After sending off Princess Celevia and her party, Lorist was about to leave for the Huntsman Corps in the eastern region of the Northlands, but he didn't want to receive an urgent letter from Duke Kenmeth, after more than a month of negotiations, the negotiators sent by Duke Kenmax and the Grand Duke of Fisabrun finally reached an agreement on the import of goods and materials from the Snow Salt Chamber of Commerce to the Fisabrun family's territory, so five days later, Duke Kenmeth, Count Philim and Count Shaheen will come to Rock Castle to meet with Lorlist, so that the agreement reached can be approved and effective。 Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Lorist had no choice but to postpone his trip and stay at Rock Castle to wait for the arrival of Duke Kenmath and others. During the day, he went to the Houshan Cultivation Ground to guide Schward to practice the Danhai Qi Induction Technique, and instructed Reddy and Genolio in their swordsmanship. Stay in the study at night and quietly consult some documents and files. Without a woman by her side, Lorist felt that the world was a lot cleaner all at once......

Five days later, the Duke of Kenmax, the Earl of Shahin, arrived at the Rock Castle, and the Earl of Philim arrived a day late. Except for the Duke of Kenmeth, who felt a little sorry that Princess Silvia was not in the Rock Castle, everyone was more concerned about the content of the agreement reached between the Duke of Kenmeth and the Fisabrun family.

"There are forty-seven commodities in total, and I have multiplied them three to five times. It's a pity that the shipments are a little less. But you don't have to worry, after this batch of goods is shipped out this year, your family can get at least three or four hundred thousand gold fords. "Kenmax, this guy has become a duke, and he is still so embarrassed.

Of course, this is not said to Lorist, the dividends in the Snow Salt Chamber of Commerce in the Norton family only account for ten percent, which is not much, in previous years, there was a dividend of tens of thousands of tens of thousands of dollars, which is considered very good, just like Kenmax said that the main thing is to rely on the large number of shipments. The Norton family's profits come from the various daily necessities and commodities produced by the family's industrial and mining workshops, accounting for almost 80% of the purchase volume of the Snow Salt Chamber of Commerce. Here, the wholesale to the Snow Salt Chamber of Commerce Lorist has already made a lot of money, and the family's thirty percent of the dividends on those producers is a large amount of income, not counting the taxes that must be paid.

However, the eyes of Earl Philim and Earl Shaheen lit up, for them, the military expenditure of maintaining a regular family armed field legion is a large amount of expenditure every year, even if the family armed forces are not as generous as those legions of the Norton family, but the annual expenses of four or five hundred thousand goldfords are inevitable, with this dividend, the pressure on military spending this year is almost gone. The year before last, the two territories were replaced by Lorist and Kenmeth, but this year there was none.

Count Philim picked up the agreement and looked at it with a little disappointment: "Is there no armistice clause?"

Although he has returned to the old territory of the Filim family in the southern province, the southern province is close to the territory of the Fisabrun family in the Eastern Wilderness Province, and the border between the two provinces is still in full swing to build a defensive front, and the Rock Legion is strictly guarding against the attacks of the Fisabulun family and the barbarian cavalry, and the war has not yet been extinguished. For Count Philim, it was obvious that the armistice was more reassuring to him than the Rock Legion at the front, otherwise he would not be able to build and develop his family domain with peace of mind, and his family's armed Pegasus Legion would have to be pulled up and wander around whenever the wind broke on the front line.

"Uh......" Duke Kenmas was stunned for a long time before he replied embarrassedly: "Sorry, I forgot ......"

I really forgot that this guy Kenmax only cares about the price of goods when negotiating, just like snow salt, which was originally a hundred catties of one Jinford, but now he has multiplied it five times, five Jinfords and one hundred catties. It's bullying you, what's wrong, because the four alliances of the Northland are the victorious side, so this guy Kenmath pointed to the negotiating envoys sent by the Grand Duke of Fisabrun and said triumphantly, if you have the ability, don't buy it, anyway, there are a lot of alkaline soil lumps on the Northeast Prairie, you can hold on to it......

This is the strength, Duke Kenmax has forgotten how long it has been since such a smooth negotiation. Everyone knows that if you give water to livestock as salt water, you will get sick, let alone people, and it is not strange for people to die. Now the Fisabrun family is trapped on the grassland, the trade route is cut off, and they can only buy salt from the four alliances of the Northland, if they don't buy it, then they will gnaw on the boiled meat, there is no food to eat and drink, no salt to eat, hehe, it will not take three months, just wait for the chaos in the territory of the Fisabrun family.

Seeing the negotiators with ugly faces and angry expressions but helplessly agreeing to the high prices of goods, Duke Kenmeth felt as if he was in bloom. It's great to occupy the big and small Jinchuan area, it's great to have gold mines, and the gold you dig up will soon be in our hands...... As a result, Duke Kenmeth forgot the most important point, that is, the four alliances of the Northland have not yet signed an armistice with the Fisabruns, and the two sides are still at war, even if there has been no conflict for several months......

"Where are the negotiators?" asked Lorlist.

"Come with me to Rock Castle. Duke Kenmax hurriedly replied, and made up for such a big mistake immediately: "One is that this agreement still needs your consent to be implemented, and the other is that where to trade and deliver goods has not yet been discussed." Finally, the two negotiators said they wanted to meet Princess Celevia. ”

"Let them go to the reception room, and I'll talk to them. Lorist looked at Count Philim and Count Shaheen: "Come on, if the Grand Duke of Fisabrun is willing to accept defeat, then the armistice will also be signed, and it is a relief for us, and there is no need to take precautions." ”

The envoys sent by the Grand Duke of Fisabrun to negotiate were led by two old men, the first of whom was very tall and had a gray goatee, and introduced himself as the chief steward of the Fisabrun family, named Fisabrun, Aridok. Lorist had heard from Princess Celevia's two maids that the old man was a member of the Fisabrun family, and although he had a Fisabrun surname, the relationship was a bit distant. However, this old man was a die-hard loyalist of the Grand Duke, and the Grand Duke of Fisabrun trusted him very much, and always entrusted him with the confidential affairs of his confidants.

The old man next to him is short and fat, and smiling all the time is easy to make people feel close. He introduced himself as Naple, without mentioning his last name. Lorist immediately remembered several pieces of information submitted by Tagger about important members of the Fisabrun family, a figure who was not only famous on the Napler list, but also deserved special attention.

According to the intelligence, Naple's father was the patriarch of a small barbarian tribe, and his mother was a noble lady who was taken back to the steppe and became his father's slave girl, giving birth to Naple. His father's barbarian tribe was then annexed by another large barbarian tribe, his father was killed in battle, his mother was humiliated to death, and Naple became a slave. Later, when he was sixteen years old, he secretly contacted the Grand Duke of Fisabrun and wiped out the big grass barbarian tribe in one fell swoop. That battle was the most crucial victory for the Grand Duke of Fisabrun to expand the territory of the former Krisson Empire and establish the Eastern Wilderness Province.

This Naple has no official position in the Fisabrun family and has always been somewhat mysterious. However, many of the strategies of Grand Duke Fisabrun to deal with the grass barbarian tribes should have come from his planning, such as taking the goods and materials of the Snow Salt Chamber of Commerce and selling them to the grass barbarian tribes, encircling those subjugating the grass barbarian tribes, and selecting the elite of the grass barbarian cavalry to form a reserve army to deal with the grass barbarian tribes who refused to submit to the Fisabrun family, etc., all of which were related to the short and fat old man in front of him.

While Lorist was looking at the two old men, the two messenger representatives were also observing Lorist. The four nobles seated were the heads of the four major families of the Four Northland Alliance, but the two envoys quickly turned their attention to Lorist. Judging from the appearance, the head of the Norton family, the new Grand Duke of the Northland, is very ordinary. Not tall, not short, ordinary-looking, very inconspicuous, almost like a passerby.

Indeed, compared with Duke Kenmath, Lorist does not have that kind of suave and chic bearing. He is not as handsome as Count Shaheen, nor as majestic as Count Philim. But these two envoys were able to negotiate with the Grand Duke of Fisabrun entrusted with the matter of confidants, and they were all human spirits, so naturally they would not treat people with their appearances. What's more, when they came, they all heard His Royal Highness comment on the Four Alliances of the Northlands, and His Royal Highness made it very clear that the so-called Four Alliances of the Northlands, the real threat to the Fisabrun family is the Norton family, or Lorlist.

To put it mildly, what are the three families in the Northland, and it was not their turn to line up to shoot the sycophants of the Fisabrun family back then. The Kenmath family is a commercial family, and it took a lot of money to buy the title of the nobleman of the territory from the second prince, and in the eyes of the Grand Duke of Fisabrun, it is the role of Yang Gong and Kaizi, and he will not look at it with his eyes.

The Philim family was very famous a hundred years ago, and now it is just a broken settlement, Count Philim was born and died for the second prince, charged into battle, and had to spend money to become a baron on the ground, and even the second prince sent someone to dig his family cemetery to find the so-called buried property, he didn't dare to gnaw, a nest of waste.

As for Count Shahin, his origins are even less worth mentioning. He was originally a family golden knight under the former Grand Duke of Northland, Duke Lukins, and was ordered by the Grand Duke to attack the Norton family, but was captured. Then Duke Lukins made a big mistake and put the blame for the defeat on him, trying to punish him, forcing his father to pass on his baronial title to him and make him a vassal of the Lukins family, so that he could be absolved of the charge of rebellion. In the end, when Duke Lukins gathered the Northland noble alliance to send troops to the Norton family, Baron Saheen at that time not only stood by and watched Duke Lukins's defeat, but also took the opportunity to fight back, and teamed up with the Norton family to loot the southern region of the Northland under Duke Lukins, digging the first pot of gold, not to mention, and inherited most of the Lukins family's armed forces, which was self-contained.

Without Lorliste, these three families would be a scattered mess, and it would have been very easy for the Grand Duke of Fisabrun to deal with them, no more difficult than the nobles of the Southern Province who had occupied the royal city of Windbrie. But with the Norton family in the middle, the four alliances of the Northlands have become a powerful alliance of nobles that should not be underestimated, and their strength is second to none in the northeast of the former Cresteen Empire, and they have become a force that can influence the kingdom of Andinac. This can be seen in the destruction of the Duchy of Madras and the Kingdom of Iberia.

The key to the four alliances of the Northland is the Norton family, and the person who can really call the shots is Lorist. This was the advice of the Grand Duke before they were leaving, and they kept it in their hearts.

"You may be seated. Lorist got straight to the point: "We don't need to talk nonsense, what I want to know is, what does Grand Duke Fisabrun think in his heart? Is he willing to stop the war, or is he going to make a deal first and then continue to fight with our four Northland alliances and refuse to admit defeat?"

The tall Alidok stood up and gave a chest salute: "Your Royal Highness, the truce does not depend on our Grand Duke, but when you stop the invasion of the Fisabrun family. As we all know, it was your four alliances in the Northland that took the lead in provoking this war, and raided our family's First Frontier Ranger Regiment without declaring war, and the Grand Duke was forced to resist. Although we are currently at a disadvantage, we of the Fisabrun will not succumb to the threat of force, just as we defeated your hunting army in the province of Makinogahara, and we are confident that we will hold out until the moment of final victory. ”

Lorist laughed, "Dead ducks are the hardest. Well, it's only good that you don't admit defeat, I've always wanted to lead my family's armed forces to visit the Fisabrun family's steppe territory. Rest assured, the agreement reached this time will be implemented by the four alliances of our Northlands, war is war, business is business, as long as you are willing to pay, like these civilian goods and supplies, we will not prohibit the flow into your family. ”

"I protest, Your Highness the Grand Duke of the Northlands, you are an unjustifiable and unreasonable attack on a nobleman who has made countless feats for the empire to defend the frontier and expand the land, this is an act that all nobles spurn, not only will your goal of aggression not be achieved, but even the Norton family will be condemned by all peace-loving nobles......"

"Hehe, is it?" Lorist sneered, "The former empire has long since fallen into ashes, and it is still in the hands of the three princes. Steward Alidok, I have to remind you that our four alliances of the Northlands belong to the Kingdom of Antinac, and His Majesty Ogseiro is the orthodox inheritance of the royal family of the former Krisson Empire. But you, the Fisabrun family, are the remnants of the rebellious Second Prince. Attacking your family has no moral meaning, it is a just counterinsurgency war for us. No one will protest against us for the sake of your family. On the contrary, what the Grand Duke of Fisabrun did to the nobles in the royal city of Windbury is worth publicizing and discussing......"

"Uh......" Steward Alidok was speechless.

However, Napler beside him immediately stood up: "Your Royal Highness, Your Royal Highness the Grand Duke of the Northlands, our Grand Duke does not want to go to war with you, he has always believed that his mission is to deal with the predatory grass barbarian tribes in the Northeast Prairie. In fact, the war between our family and your four alliances in the Northland is the most painful thing for the Grand Duke...... I would like to ask you, if our Grand Duke is willing to cease the war, what will you do to our Fisabrun family?"

Lorist shrugged: "Given our relationship with the Fisabrun family, we cannot trust each other in any military terms we negotiate at this time. If your Fisabrun clan is willing to cease fighting, it is very simple, your clan forces are not allowed to enter within a hundred miles of the border, and if there is a situation, you must notify our border guards in advance, and any trade in goods and materials must be carried out through the Snow Salt Chamber of Commerce, and at the same time make your family armed transparent, and notify us before any military action. In addition, Makinohara's province is related to the safety of the Northland, and we have the right to station troops there to ensure the safety of the Northland......"

"This is impossible, why can't you retreat a hundred miles back to the border, why can't we garrison troops in the Northland?" said Steward Alidok, jumping up.

"It's simple, because we're on the winning side. Lorist bluntly told them the truth of a victor: "Now, I wonder if the Grand Duke of Fisabrun wants to fight or to make peace with ......"

Steward Alidoc was still unconvinced and wanted to say something, but Naple, who was beside him, pulled him by the hand, and he shut up and lowered his head.

"Your Royal Highness the Grand Duke of the Northlands, our Grand Duke has already expressed his opinion by sending Princess Celivia. Napler replied humbly.

Lorist stood up: "Now that the Grand Duke of Fisabrun has made up his mind, you can discuss the specific terms of the armistice agreement with the Grand Duke of Kenmas. However, I would like to say that I am very dissatisfied with the way in which Grand Duke Fisabrun sent Princess Celivia. “

"His Royal Highness the Grand Duke of the Northland, we want to visit Her Royal Highness the Princess, I wonder if we can pass?"

"I'm sorry, Princess Celivia went to Roaring Bear City, the capital of the Northlands, you should know it's there. She went there to check out her new home. By the way, in November of this year, I will be married there to marry Celevia, who will be the head mother of the Norton family. In the meantime, on my behalf, I would like to invite the Archduke of Fisabrun to welcome him to the Northland for the celebration of his granddaughter's wedding, and I sincerely look forward to his arrival. “

Lorist said coldly, turned and left.

...... (To be continued.) )