On the afternoon of the day of the Ress team's victory over the Thunder team, the young Fernando XIII convened a royal council in his study, at which he denounced the injustices of the empire and resolved to change the situation once and for all.

To this end, the young Fernando XIII carried out a large-scale adjustment of the existing officials of the empire, dismissed many officials who usually had nothing to do and passed the buck to each other, and arranged a large number of young people he had secretly cultivated to replace them.

This time, the scope and magnitude of the official removal are very large, and it can be said that it is the only one in the empire in two hundred years. However, despite the great impact of this action, with the full support of Orlando, the highest military governor of the empire and the head of the Royal Knights, no one dared to have any objection to the appointment of Fernando XIII.

What's more, even the Imperial Finance Minister Luke and the Imperial Minister of State Chad, who have also undergone a lot of changes in their subordinates, did not say anything, and even some disgruntled people were just venting their complaints behind their backs.

――――――――――――*――――――――――――*―――――――――――― On the night when the young Fernando XIII made such a huge personnel change, Luke and Victor were sitting facing each other in the study of the Imperial Chancellor of the Exchequer, Luke, and their topic was exactly what Fernando XIII had done this afternoon.

Luke, who was full of vicissitudes of life, took a small sip of the best Bordeaux, the wine entered his throat, and the expression of his face slowly eased, Luke closed his eyes, as if reminiscing about the taste of the best Bordeaux, and suddenly, Luke opened his eyes and said to Victor: "What do you think?"

Victor took a sip of water from the glass in front of him, and as a magician, he had to keep his head clear at all times. Victor thought for a while and said: "Actually, if you think about it carefully, His Majesty the Emperor should almost make a move, don't forget that in the past ten years since he was crowned, you and Chad have basically controlled the government, and he is just a symbol of a country many times, which is not a good thing for Crowe Fernando, who is ambitious and wants to make a career." ”

Luke shook his head when he heard his old friend call Fernando XIII by his name, and said, "Victor, I have always regarded you as my good friend and wise man for so many years, and you have indeed put a lot of effort into me," Luke's tone changed at this point, and he continued: "I am not unhappy that my power has been weakened, after all, the emperor of this empire is Fernando, not Raidia. But I think Your Majesty is too impatient, and his large-scale blood exchange will not only cause problems in the operation of the empire, but also easily lead to the suspicion of lords everywhere. ”

Speaking of this, Luke's voice suddenly rose: "If all these people he installed have a lot of experience, then that's fine, but look at it, it's just that after studying at the Royal Academy for so many months, he actually arranged for them to be tax collectors." It's so funny, these little ones are afraid that they haven't even touched a few gold coins, and they are ashamed to want to collect taxes from those old foxes?"

Luke took out a document from his desk, he turned to the third page, and said to Victor: "The empire's taxes for the whole of last year totaled 69 million gold coins, not counting the fraction. Among them, the tax revenue of a city in the imperial capital is 9 million, the sunrise city actually controlled by the empire is 8 million, and the sea breeze city is 18 million. The total amount of gold handed over by the lords in various places is about 12 million. ”

"12 million! Anyway, there are so many lords in the empire, their territory accounts for more than ninety percent of the entire territory of the empire, and their total tax revenue is actually more than a city in God! Why?"

Victor picked up the flask in front of him and filled Luke's glass with the finest Bordeaux, while Luke took it and drank it down. Victor said, "Speak slowly, old friend, I'm listening." ”

Luke drank the wine to stabilize his mood, and he slowed down his tone and said to Victor: "When Bird Fernando established the Holy Alliance Empire, mankind was facing internal and external troubles, and in order to stabilize the rule of the empire as soon as possible, Fernando I formulated two laws. The first is that each lord must pay a tax to the empire every year, and other than that, the lords of each city decide everything in their own domains, but the amount of taxes collected by each lord cannot exceed the amount of taxes paid to the empire. The second is: Each lord may own an army and bear his own military expenses, but he must not have cavalry, and once it is verified, he will be dealt with immediately for treason!"

"As long as these two decrees are strictly observed, it is impossible for the lords to have cavalry units that can confront the Royal Knights, after all, cavalry requires several years of training to become an army, and the procurement and transportation of war horses, Training and so on cannot be hidden, once exposed, you will get a fatal blow to the empire, this risk is too great; if you want to fight against the knights, you can only use a large number of infantry, relying on the advantage of numbers, but the lords of various places cannot levy a large amount of taxes, because the more you collect, the more you will pay to the empire, and excessive taxation can only collapse the economy in your own territory. If you don't have gold, why talk about building a large army?"

"Therefore, for two hundred years, people have only seen the Royal Knights extremely sharp, sweeping across the entire continent, and they do not know how many rebellions have been put down. Far away, such as Senate's rebellion, the Holy Knights can quickly extinguish it, although they are superior in strength, but this is also the reason why Senate does not have cavalry troops, on the plains, with infantry against cavalry, there has not been a successful battle for thousands of years. ”

"No matter how strict the law is, it will be found by those who are interested in it, after so many years, the lords in various places have gradually developed countermeasures, aren't they not allowed to have cavalry?Then I will form a hoplite, Sennat's hoplite, wearing heavy armor, armed with spears and thick shields, is the best way for infantry to fight cavalry, and its cost is not much less than forming cavalry, if it is not for Orlando's superb command, the royal knights may not be able to win so easily. ”

"Where does the gold come from to form such an army? Although there are imperial laws, those cunning lords will do everything possible to perfunctory you, for example, some lords have a monopoly on all kinds of daily necessities in their territory, and they can sell as much as they want, and how can you collect as much as they want? ”

"Some of the tax officials I go to collect every year may be more greedy and a little bit corrupt behind the scenes, but he can collect more gold coins than others, and I will turn a blind eye. Now His Majesty has removed all of them from his posts and replaced them with his own henchmen, but can these little white rabbits who have never seen the world really be able to deal with those old foxes? Seeing that this year's taxes should be collected again, if the finances of these lords cannot be effectively restricted, then the next time the Royal Knights will face a cavalry legion!"

With that, Luke let out a long sigh.