"Just the gold coins?" Clement wondered inwardly and confirmed again.

"Or else?"

Victor spread his hands and said with a graceful smile: "In addition to the gold coins, what are the lords willing to exchange for the technology of making rock bricks? The Sidon Frontier is now asking for bricks, and the church doesn't want the bricks to take up a few years, right?"

The technology of producing rock bricks is of epoch-making significance, especially in the pioneering wars, and the lords who do not have rock bricks will be left behind. With key rock bricks in their hands, Sylvia and Victor can exchange more than just gold, including adamantite, mythril, grain, and a tenant population, as well as precious potion recipes, advanced casting techniques, and the most critical long-term supply agreements for medicinal herbs and minerals, and even a foster marriage pact with a noble blood family.

The value and impact of these things cannot be measured in money. In contrast, What's the use of asking for gold in Centaur Hill?

Truly precious things cannot be bought with more gold, and the centaur hills can be exchanged for valuable resources from the great lords of the kingdoms with rock bricks.

However, it won't be that simple.

If Victor traded the bricks for the adamantite share of the Seven Alliances, the Grand Lord of Borui would be more than happy, provided that only the two sides shared the technology of the bricks, and excluded the other forces.

This is almost impossible to do, and the strength of the two kingdoms of Borui and Gombis cannot fight against the entire human kingdom, and the final result must be the disclosure of rock brick manufacturing technology. So, why does the Borui Kingdom pay for others for the rock bricks?

Pressure is a double-edged sword, and Victor and Sylvia have made careful arrangements in the early stage and have already grasped the hilt of the double-edged sword. Assuming that they had specified that they would exchange the technology of making rock bricks for half of the annual production of pure gold on the Seven Great Alliances, the high lords and churches of the kingdoms would point the finger at the Borui Kingdom and exert heavy pressure on them to compromise.

Now, everybody wants the bricks, and everybody doesn't want to come out for fear that Gombis will slap the bricks in his face. The eyes of the high lords were all on the church, and the game of high society around the rock bricks was presented into a quiet atmosphere, and everyone was waiting for the moment when the water would come out.

In the same way, whoever can get the bricks from His Highness Randall will be praised by everyone, except for those who pay the price, who do not like their own interests to be compromised, and even hate the church leaders who come forward to negotiate.

As the Pope, Clement was ready to offend some people, and he took the initiative to invite Victor to the El Church through Sylvia, just to talk about the rock bricks, as long as Victor's conditions were not too excessive, he could agree.

Since the technology of making rock bricks needs to be publicized and popularized, no matter how valuable it is, the actual benefits that can be derived from it are not as much as imagined. But Victor's offer to settle in gold and sell the technology for making rock bricks was undoubtedly the most aggrieved and radical compromise for him and Sylvia.

Things went more smoothly than Clement expected, which only made him more confused and hesitant.

Victor is known for his extraordinary intelligence, and his previous layout is to satisfy everyone first, and before he knows it, the centaur hills have the greatest initiative, breaking through the double blockade of politics and diplomacy, and leaping from an ostracized lord of strength to a descendant of the kingdom of Gombis.

Clement could not see through Victor's strategy, and had to admit that using gold coins to solve the problem was the most effective and easiest way at present, and he himself benefited greatly, and the lords would understand that Victor and Sylvia had made great concessions in the Pope's favor.

"How?" asked the Pope indifferently.

"Referring to the way iron bricks and giant brick kilns are traded, we only trade with the kingdoms, and each kingdom will pay me 20 million gold soles, and the Sassan Empire will pay me 60 million. Victor stretched out two fingers and said, "I have two conditions, first, we will only accept gold, silver and copper soles, and we will not accept purple and gold coins issued by the royal family, which must be paid within a year. ”

"Second, the kingdoms may not in any way refuse the normal trade of the Wimbledon Chamber of Commerce with the lords. ”

"At the same time, we guarantee that the manufacturing cost of rock bricks is very low, and the manufacturing of one rock brick is equivalent to 4 green bricks, and the cost is mainly reflected in labor costs. In addition, there is no significant difference between the daily output of rock bricks and green bricks. ”

"The royal family sent representatives to sign the agreement, and the notarization was held before the gods, and I immediately took out the technology of making rock bricks. ”

After listening to the two conditions of His Highness Randall, Clement fell into a long contemplation and gradually understood the other party's intentions.

Two years ago, Centaur Hills had come up with iron bricks and giant brick kilns, and Victor had proposed a distribution strategy in Blinor City, selling the technology to the lords and making a huge amount of money. Those powerful lords who got the right to operate resold the iron brick recipe and the design of the giant brick kiln, and they all made a small profit with His Highness Randall.

During the Orc War, Victor sold swift birds and war birds, and the royal families flocked to it and subscribed one after another.

Regardless of what the lord who got the right to do was doing it, both of these deals made it difficult for the kingdom to finance its finances. Now Victor has repeated his old tricks and offered a sky-high price for the rock brick manufacturing technology.

20 million gold coins, any kingdom can still make up a way to make it up. The problem is that they pay such a large sum of money, plus the previous two transactions, the lords will count one for each, and their coffers will be bottomed out, and maybe they will have to fight the ideas of family vassals and freeman merchants.

It is foreseeable that for a long time in the future, there will be a shortage of currency in the market, which will lead to a decline in prices, and the high-grade war horse, which was originally worth 80 gold coins, may only be sold for a dozen gold soles.

Gold, silver, and copper coins all flowed into the centaur hills, and the thought of what Victor and Sylvia could buy was a sad sigh, and the second condition of the divine notarization ensured this.

Clement couldn't help but praise Victor's plan, but he wasn't sure he saw the whole layout, and the Pope was getting less and less confident in front of the scholar Count Golden-Eye.

Victor had asked him for the right to mint copper sol, and perhaps he had already begun to lay it out at that time.

True allies need to be reciprocal, including mutual restraint and complementarity of wisdom, resources, and power, Clement leaned back on the sofa and said calmly: "Viscount Tenis Ludwig is your friend, although he is not qualified to do so, but you and Sophia do use him as spokespersons...... You want to pass a tax reform package and put Teness in the position of Chanbes Chancellor. ”

"Tenis's tax reform plan was met with a cold spell at the court of Cambys, offending the fiefdoms and lords of Cambes, and even depriving them of their royal positions, so they had to leave the city of Blinor in disgrace. Not long ago, he went to the Sassan Empire to meet His Highness Randall, and then came to the Holy City of El to sell his tax reform plan in the Silver and White Tower, and has held several tea parties, inviting several scholars and masters to speak out for his tax reform bill...... It costs a lot of money. ”

"Or are you and Sophia more in need of a comprehensive tax reform?"

The Pope abruptly shifted the subject to tax reform. Victor was not surprised at all, smiled, and said: "Tenis's tax reform plan has two core elements, the head tax of tenants and the king's transaction tax. Now, the scholars of the royal family support the new tax scheme, but the scholars of the lord family strongly oppose it. I wonder what the church's attitude is to the new tax system?"

"The position of the church does not allow me to oppose it. ”

Clement smiled cheerfully and said, "If the new tax system is implemented in Gambis, you will get 140 million gold soles from the sale of rock bricks, and pay three percent of the trade tax to the king, a total of 4,200,000 gold soles. One percent of this tax goes to the church. ”

"I have a question. Clement looked straight and asked, "As for the poll tax of the tenants, although it is said that the lord bears it, the church takes a tenth of it, and the king takes the remaining twenty percent, but this tax will eventually be passed on to the tenants." What the hell do you think?"

Victor nodded and said: "The size of the tenant group is getting bigger and bigger, and I am afraid that it will not be possible to rely on mutual aid donations and lottery funds to provide relief. The so-called poll tax is actually to ensure that the monogamous tenant family system can continue to function, even if the lord passes the money on to the tenants, I think the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Otherwise, there will be more tenant families in the future, which will eventually lead to the collapse of the entire system. ”

Paying the tax would certainly have caused the tenants to complain, but without this tax for the lord, relief for the tenants was empty talk.

When it comes to the livelihood of the people, the church's consistent approach is to be a good person and let the lord bear the blame. The levy of a poll tax on tenants by the lords was fully in line with the needs of the Church. Clement, who had studied the tenant system in depth, had already sensed that the problem of relief for tenant households would become a terrible loophole, and Victor's proposed poll tax filled this loophole.

Clement bowed his head and said, "The poll tax of the tenants is imperative, and on this point, the lords of the Silver and White Tower have no objection. Only the transaction tax controversy continued, and in general, the royal scholars were left behind, their numbers were smaller, and the scholars of the lord faction were unprecedentedly united on the issue. ”

"It became almost customary for the town of Pinghu to collect a transaction tax from the market merchants, and both the king of Cambis and the church were involved, and the other lords followed suit. Clement paused, and said, "The original pioneer of the bazaar transaction tax suddenly proposed that goods should cross borders, and caravans should pay three percent of the trade tax to the king...... This is actually paid by the lord, and apart from the benefit of the king, what can the descendants of Gambis get?"

Victor said with a little embarrassment: "This matter is Sophia's meaning, according to the original agreement, in another 11 years, she will hand over the Wimbledon Chamber of Commerce to Viscount Sauron Wimbledon." I fear that she may not be able to move up to the Golden Rank during this time, and I hope that she will develop in the direction of kingdom politics, and the border transaction tax is a good entry point to help the Marquis of Wimbledon regain the position of Chancellor of the Exchequer. Anyway, Sophia is about to leave the Chamber of Commerce, and the border transaction tax is also a headache for Solon. If the tax reform proposal fails to pass the Senate, I have nothing to lose. ”

“...... On the surface, it is. Clement glanced at Victor deeply, and then smiled, "I heard that there is an inconspicuous little person in Pinghu Town, named Wei Qi. He was originally a freeman merchant in Blackcastle, but during the Ant Plague, his wealth was forcibly expropriated by his lord. His business failed and he ended up in the Joshua family's Waterdeep City, where he worked as a black market merchant. Wei Qi finally returned to Renma Hill, bought a house in Pinghu Town, and became the head of the mutual aid association...... He had a lot of business in the Buryat family of Yehwillow, as well as in the town of Pinewood, in the county of Chebman...... Do you need me to go on? For example, the public carriage you promote, which Weitch has subscribed to in many territories......"

Victor did not hide his surprise, the Golden Order needed to be protected by the upper echelons of the Church, and his preferred collaborator was Pope Clement. But Victor didn't expect the other party to catch the vein of the Golden Regiment so quickly, linking the noble female knight of the Angry Waves with the insignificant fat merchant Vicky.

The Pope's intention to show strength depends on how much sincerity Victor can show, which determines whether the two sides can reach a consensus.

Victor said, "Your Majesty, have you heard of the Golden Regiment?"

"I'm listening. Clement replied amusedly.

Victor nodded, and after making the necessary deletions of the causes and consequences of the Golden Regiment, he told the reason. After listening to the description of the Count of the Golden Eye, the Pope shook his head and sighed with a complicated expression: "It is unimaginable that as early as when you became the lord of the Barons of the Centaur Hills, you began to plan such an amazing layout...... His Highness's extraordinary wisdom is awe-inspiring. ”

"It's a gradual improvement. Victor corrected: "At first, my idea was very simple, just to improve the family's financial situation and take revenge on Sophia by the way. I wanted to run the Golden Regiment on my own, and I didn't even plan to tell Sylvia. But she finally knew, and she made me understand that only Sophia was the best person to take over the Golden Regiment, and that if I held on to the Golden Regiment, it would only mess things up. ”

Clement needs to keep his fighting spirit in place to control the waves in his heart, and the Golden Regiment's plan is so amazing that it can bring immeasurable value and influence, not only to Victor, Sylvia, and Sophia, but also to him. In other words, as long as he is willing to endorse the Golden Order, he can mobilize a huge latent force without going through the Cardinals, provided that he formally forms a secret alliance with the Golden Order, and the worst consequence is that he will be suppressed by other forces in the Holy See.

The Count of the Golden Eye was in front of him, and the Pope quickly made a decision, and said with a smile: "Your golden regiment can hide from the lords who are in charge of their own affairs, and they must not hide from the priests stationed in various places. Lazarus had been in operation for thirty years in the Grand Diocese of the Kingdom of Cambes, and Tamor had just taken over, and it would be a few more years before he could master the churches everywhere. If it weren't for that, I would have been hard-to-detect the traces of the golden ball. ”

Victor said sincerely: "The Golden Order is growing stronger and needs the protection of His Holiness the Pope. ”

Clement said with satisfaction, "What is the most urgent difficulty of the Golden Regiment?"

"Free Folk Merchant Union. ”

Victor did not hesitate to say: "In the future, tenants will be burdened with heavy agricultural and pastoral work, and more people will be engaged in handicrafts among the lords and vassal families, and trade will flourish due to the increase in the goods of the bazaar." Many merchants will emerge from among the freedmen of the towns, and they will inevitably form a force to establish the rules of the freedmen merchants. These freedmen chambers of commerce are potential competitors to the Golden Mission, but from another point of view, they can also be a helping hand for the Golden Mission. ”

"I hope that the free people's chambers of commerce in various places can be unified under the banner of the Golden Mission, and several big families currently participating in the Golden League are willing to help. ”

Clement thought for a moment and said, "I can solve the legal identity of the Golden Regiment...... It is not realistic to unify the free people's chambers of commerce everywhere. You can't pull all the lords into the Golden Order, but the Cardinal Council will help, at least not to make them enemies of the Golden Order, and you still need to figure out how to cooperate yourself. ”

Victor stood up and saluted, and said solemnly, "Thank you, Your Majesty." ”

Clement waved his hand and motioned for Victor to sit down, smiling kindly, and asked, "When do you plan to make the Golden Regiment officially announced to the public?"

"It's always two or three years. Victor nodded, and further explained: "The kingdom's trade tax is to establish the trading order of the free people merchant group in advance, and the attitude of the royal family is very important to the survival and development of the gold group. ”

Clement laughed and said, "It's the tax rate that matters...... The Centaur Hills have so much money to spend, the Wimbledon Chamber of Commerce came forward to purchase materials for you, and the border was crossed and took the initiative to pay taxes, and the royal families set the trade tax by the way, but in order to appease the anger of their lords, they will only set a lower tax rate, and then ask the church to come forward to notarize...... The low tax rate is just right for the gold group. ”

Victor smiled and said nothing, which was a tacit acquiescence.

The Pope got up from the sofa and said, "I am very satisfied with your plan to exchange rock bricks for gold coins, even if I owe you a favor, if you need my help with anything, except for the Great Prophecy, I will do my best." ”

Victor's eyes burned and said, "Your Majesty, I want to meet His Majesty the Pope in private. ”