Marquis Solim knocked on the table, and the noisy hall fell silent.

No one can despise the dignity of the Earth Knight, especially when he is at the end of his transformation. No one can ignore the opinion of a great lord, and despite the decay of the bronze bloodline of the Solim family, the army of the Bronze City still dominates the southern lord.

"This may be the last time I will attend a meeting of the Senate...... I'll get straight to the point. ”

The old marquis was very satisfied with the attitude of the lords, and raised his voice: "Before the establishment of the Gambis, Solim established a settlement on the north bank of the Jinshui River, and it has been 632 years now. As the guardian of the southern border of Gambis, Solim is also 364 years old. ”

"Although we are the guardians of the southern border, the situation in the southern part of the kingdom is well known to all of you here...... Surrounded by mountains, the traffic is inconvenient. The fishmen on the banks of the Jinshui River and the forest people and horses in the west are not against each other in the copper city...... I must admit that for too long Solim has contributed too little to the kingdom. As a guard of the South, Solim lives up to his name. The old marquis sighed in a low voice.

The contribution is too little, and the name does not live up to the name.

In one sentence, the root cause of the decline of the Solim family is exhausted. The four dukes were also embarrassed after hearing this.

The Solim family was once the court counts of the Rand royal family. In order to balance the growing group of Augustian lords, the Imperial Family canonized Solim as the southern border guard of the Empire, led a legion to open up the wasteland on the north bank of the Golden Water River, and formed a north-south encirclement of August.

The Neovest family loses ground, and Solim surrenders to the Iris. However, there was a natural estrangement between Solimme and Augustus, so much so that they renounced their title as Duke of Gambis and refused to marry the royal noblewoman.

The knights of the major families of Gambis responded to the call of the Kite Castle and traveled north to the kingdom of Dordor to fight against the invading Sasanians. Solim was the only one who pushed back and sent only a small number of vassal soldiers in response to the king's war order. The coalition of lords of Gambis has a grudge against Solim, and the soldiers of Copper City naturally do not end well.

The elite soldiers of the Copper City are always wiped out. The Solim family was even more convinced that August was targeting them, so they simply stopped sending even vassal soldiers, and only used prisoners, outcasts, and mountain dwellers to pretend to be family soldiers.

This state of affairs exacerbated the conflict between the lord of Gambis and the copper city. And the knight families of Duoduo and Neville also looked at Solim in a corner of the country, and were unwilling to marry the Copper City.

There is no strong enemy outside, and internal troubles arise by itself. The knights of other families spilled their blood on the battlefield, and there were more and more knights of the Solim family, and they married the noble daughters of small families. The Bronze Knight gives birth to a trainee knight, and the trainee knight gives birth to an ordinary nobleman. The vast number of noble heirs are entangled, and the competition for interests within Solim is becoming more and more fierce.

Buryatia and Chebman were both losers in Solim's infighting. They were kicked out of the Copper City, and even Solim was stripped of his surname. As independent lords of Gambis, they gradually opened up the situation.

Kite Castle seized the opportunity to exchange high-quality refining potions for the resources of the Copper City, completely disrupting Solim's bronze bloodline. The result was a situation where Solim fell apart.

"Your Royal Highness the Regent, on behalf of the Solim family, I accept the tax collector of the royal capital to settle in the Copper City. The old Marquis stood up and bowed deeply to Williams,

Only now to throw in the towel...... It's too late...... Embiter sighed secretly.

The Yorks used to have similar concerns about Solim. But Fangs City is flat and unsafe, and the strength and bloodline of the York family are not as good as Solimm. Aside from trying to cater to August, Fangs had no choice. In the war against the Sassan Empire, the knights of the House of York always took on the most dangerous tasks compared to Joshua, Wellington and Nimes, and showed no mercy to the Sassan knights. The first high-ranking knight to die in Gambis came from Fangs, and more than fifteen knights of the House of York were killed or captured in battle.

Thanks to the heroic efforts of the knights of the family, Fangs not only integrated into Gambis, but also earned the respect of the nobles of Duoduo and Neville. Through the introduction of Neville's Grand Lord, the York family was introduced by Branstet as an Austrian reinforcement, exchanged heirs, maintained the bronze bloodline, and finally gained a firm foothold in the eastern part of the kingdom.

Even so, the York family was still very suppressed by the royal family. Fang's actual territory has shrunk by nearly three-tenths to house the Knight Lords of the Kite Castle. And the territory taken out by Waterdeep City is pitiful. York and Joshua were constantly at odds and hostile to each other. Those outer lords are wall-to-wall grass, constantly causing trouble for Fang.

The joint suppression and infiltration of the royal family and the Joshua family led to the overall strength of the York family at the bottom of the Gambis Great Lords. Otherwise, Ryan August would never dare to divide the three eastern provinces in front of the Divine Knight. As a result, the Iris Castle shot himself in the foot, and even the future queen became the guardian of the House of York.

It's not okay to be too bold, and it's not okay to be too timid...... Victor is like walking on the ice, cautious and courageous...... Embither Yorke looked at Williams, at the Marquis of Solim, then at Duke Joshua, and couldn't help but straighten his back.

If he had a waist.

"As for the specifics of the new tax, my successor is responsible. I don't discuss. The old Marquis of Solim looked around and continued: "The construction of a port and shipbuilding, and the expansion of the river across the river are related to the future of the Gambis. As the Guardian of the Kingdom's Southern Border, I have a suggestion. ”

"Lord Solim, please speak up. The Lord Regent raised his hand.

The old marquis turned his gaze to Embiter, smiled and said, "I completely agree with the Duke of York. If Gambis wants to expand south, it must have enough ports and ships. However, the section of the Jinshui River from the Centaur Hills to the Solim Territory is mountainous on both sides, and there are few river beaches suitable for building a port, and the river channel is narrow, and the water flow is relatively turbulent, so it is difficult for large sailing ships to cross, so they can only go down the river and gradually approach the south bank, and they have to find a suitable place to land and build a port. ”

"Have you ever wondered how our ship would return to port if it went against the water?"

There was silence in the room, save for the rustle of the scribes' quill writing on parchment.

The gray-haired Duke Joshua narrowed his eyes and said with a smile: "Your Excellency Solim doesn't have to worry about the ship's backwater. Every year during the windy season, the large fishing and hunting ships of the Borui Kingdom rely on the monsoon to sail thousands of kilometers westward against the water and sail into the Funas Lake near the Seuss Kingdom, where they cast nets to catch fish and hunt lizards. Our battleships are perfectly capable of ......"

"You can sail into Lake Fes first, and in the windy season, the battleship will sail west from Lake Fes and return to the port nearly a thousand kilometers away. ”

Marquis Solim interrupted Duke Joshua's speech with an indifferent expression, and instead said, "Your Excellency didn't speak just now. It was clear to everyone that the shores of Lake Fes in the southern part of the kingdom were the best place to build a port. ”

"If we're going to start a fish-man war, if we're going to build two ports upstream, why can't we build another port on the shores of Lake Fez, which is more geographically advantageous?"

As if given an order, the clerks rolled up the minutes of the meeting, hurried out of the conference room with anxious expressions, and ran to their respective lounges.

The Jinshui River flows from west to east, stretching for tens of thousands of miles. The section of the river in the territory of Gambis, with its hills on the north bank and cliffs on the south bank, is not suitable for crossing the river and landing at all. Fortunately, the Jinshui River flows through the southeast corner of the Gambis and merges into Lake Fes, the largest lake in the world.

Fes Lake covers an area of more than 100,000 square kilometers, the lake is more than 700 kilometers long from east to west, more than 300 kilometers at the widest point from north to south, and more than 1,900 kilometers on the north coast alone. The four major tributaries of the Jinshui River flow into the lake, except for the Blinor River and the St. Louis River, the other two major rivers that originate in the southern continent, namely the Pituru River and the Wailing Red River.

It is said that more than 10,000 years ago, in order to escape the slaughter of the Chosen One, the northern barbarians gathered millions of people, cut down forests, built rafts, broke through the obstruction of the fishmen, set off from the north bank of the Fes Lake, and fled to the southern continent through the Weeping Red River.

The barbarian raft can still cross Lake Fez, let alone the large warships of the Gambis?

In fact, the Gambis had to sail into Lake Fes before looking for a suitable place to land. And the Barony of Crummen in the Kingdom of Gambis is located at the mouth of Lake Fez. The water is gentle and only 43 kilometres from the shallows of the South Shore. Krumman is the perfect place to build a port.

If Barony Crummen had a port, the ships of Gambis, would come and go as they pleased. The ships traveled north and south without waiting for the monsoon before heading west back to the distant ports of Chebman and Rose.

Everyone knew that the Barony of Klumen was blessed with unique geographical conditions, but no one mentioned it except the old Marquis of Solim.

There are also two major powers on the north shore of Lake Fez, the El Kingdom and the Rand Empire. If Gambis were to wage a fish-man war at the mouth of Lake Fez, Nakhtigarh and Nyovest would take advantage of the situation to wipe out the massive fishmen on the lakeshore and build their own ports.

Once the Fishman War in Gambis becomes a fishman war shared by the three major forces, it becomes a matter of political stance. King Ryan fell into the hands of the Rand Emperor, and Gambis must not allow the Rand Empire to grow again.

Ironically, Emperor Rand is still the titular lord of the Kingdom of Gambis, and Marquis Solim's proposal is not a betrayal.

Duke Joshua, as the guardian of the eastern border of the kingdom and the suzerain of Baron Kluman, must make his political stance clear, and he does not need the advice of the family's think tank at all.

"I'm against it!"

Duke Joshua got up from his seat, looked at the smiling regent first, his eyes swept over the audience, and said calmly: "There are more than one million fishmen on the north shore of Lake Fez, and provoking them is tantamount to starting a full-scale war. Everyone will not forget that the five major families of Borui fought the fish-man war for 80 years in order to clean up the fish-people on the river beach, and they were almost on the verge of collapse. The mountainous shoreline of the Gambis is our greatest strategic advantage, because the number of fish-people is relatively small, and the population is scattered across the river beaches, which makes it easier to deal with. ”

"Our so-called fish-man war is mainly to attract fishmen on the river beach and build ports. It is by no means to mobilize the full power of the kingdom to fight a senseless race war and cheapen the neighbors for nothing. ”

"How can the strength of the five major families of Borui be compared to Gambis? How can the fishmen of Lake Fes be compared to the fishmen of the Great River Bay?"

The Marquis of Solimme pushed away his chair, walked up to Williams, knelt down on one knee, and said in a deep voice: "Your Highness, I swear that Solimme has never betrayed Auguste, it was, it is, and it will be so. ”

Williams bowed his jaw and said, "Well, I'm sure of that. ”

"Your Highness, the main forces of the El Cult are in eastern Sassan, as well as in the Twilight Forest of Seuss. The forces of the two families of Nyovest and Nakhtigar alone could not wipe out the fishmen of Lake Fez, let alone build a port. However, the Great Exploration has become the consensus of mankind. When the nations let down their guard against each other, and when we and the kingdom of Borui succeed in the southern continent, the church must have its own port. I think that even if the Knights of Radiance can't spare their hand, the Kingdom of Seuss will cooperate with the El Cult to build several ports on the shores of Lake Fez. In that case, why can't we join forces and work together to clean up the fish-men of Lake Fez?"

Williams said with an amiable smile: "I prefer that the Suss Kingdom will open up the Eastern Alliance, or cooperate with the Borui Kingdom...... Excellency Solim, please continue to express your opinions. ”

The old Marquis of Solim lowered his head and said in a deep voice: "His Highness Goron has shown me the way to promotion, and I need a vigorous battle. Solim is worthy of being the guardian of the southern border, and has not fulfilled his obligations to the kingdom. I am willing to give 1,500,000 gold soles as the cost of building a port in Lake Fez, and gather 5,000 copper city elites to serve as the main force of the fish-slaughtering people. If I die on the shores of the lake, I will make amends for the mistakes of the Solim family. If I am lucky enough to set foot in the Golden Realm, Solim is willing to serve as a sword in the hands of His Highness, and fight for Gambis in the Southern Continent. ”

The Solim family is dying. Williams found it tricky.

The king should create favorable conditions for the promotion of high-ranking knights. The Marquis of Solim gambled all of his family's wealth and power to swear allegiance to the royal family. If the Kite Castle still rejects him, it seems that August has no royal bearing. Williams was particularly embarrassed, and made the other lords suspicious.

If Williams accepts Marquis Solim's request, Gambis will have to cooperate with the Nyovest family. Williams wanted to cut off Neovestre's head even more, how could he ally with the Emperor Rand?

The Marquis of Goron sat quietly in the corner, like a lifeless statue. Williams retracted his gaze, knocked on the armrest, and said calmly, "Your Excellency Solim, please get up." With that, the regent stood up and addressed the crowd, "I personally support the proposal of the Marquis of Solim, but I have no right to vote. Then, on the proposal of the Marquis of Solim, I would like to invite you to vote. ”

"Against. ”

"Against. ”

"Against. ”

In the midst of opposition, it was the turn of the Yorks. Embither took the letterhead that the clerk had just handed over, glanced at it, and said in a deep voice, "The York family seconded it. ”

There was a deathly silence in the room, and everyone looked at the Duke of York in disbelief, even the Marquis of Goron opened his eyes.

Williams was the first to react and said, "Only the Duke of York seconded it." Lord Solim's proposal could not be adopted. ”

The old marquis smiled and said, "In that case, I will retire first." I'm going north soon to see if the centaur clans of the northern wilderness are truly wild. ”

"I wish Your Excellency Tholim good luck. May your sword be filled with the blood of your enemies, and may you rise to the top. Everyone stood up and bowed, and said in unison.

Without saying a word, the Marquis of Solim walked to the wooden door of the conference room. Before leaving the door, he turned to the Duke of York and said, "Your Excellency, please greet Her Highness Sylvia on my behalf." ”

When Marquis Solim left the conference room, Embiser shook the fat on his cheeks, lowered his head, and muttered in a voice that everyone could hear: "You should greet Viscount Randall......"

Now the eyes of the participants are even more strange. Embither felt that it was a little inappropriate to cheat Victor like this, and he quickly thought of a way to eliminate political influence, and continued to mutter: "This guy has a hot fight with the young lady of the Chebman family, and he doesn't want her to marry someone else...... Alas, I really don't know how important it is. ”

All eyes were on the Regent. Williams said with a straight face: "Move on to the next topic." ”

Blinor, the mansion of the House of York.

Sylvia clasped her hands to her chest and sneered at Victor, who was looking at the map, "You give me a reasonable explanation. Why support Marquis Solim's proposal?

Victor raised his head and said with a smile, "Because it is reasonable." ”

"It's because it makes sense to build a port on the shores of Lake Fez!"