"Viscount Charlin, Her Majesty has summoned you."

After the court meeting was over, Xia Lin was ready to go back to deal with matters related to the pension of the new army, but he did not expect that Dorothea, who had just succeeded the empress, actually sent another summoning invitation through the court attendants.

"Really? It just so happens that I also have some things to explain to Her Majesty, so please lead the way!"

Xia Lin thought about Dorothy's possible purpose for summoning him, then nodded and said to the respectful squire.

Following the guidance of the palace attendants, Xia Lin came to the Sun Palace, where Dorothea was talking with an old man he knew in a somewhat unreasonable atmosphere.

"Your Majesty, I beg your pardon for my offense, but when exactly will the phase you promised our Louis family be fulfilled?"

"Chief Babbitt, I just took the throne tonight, so naturally it is impossible to clash with the Fosk Palace now. When the situation calms down, I will divide the palace into the left and right phases according to our agreement."

Without the help of Chief Babbitt, Dorothy would never have had the support of Field Marshal Hubbard, and although Babbitt's actions were somewhat arrogant, Dorothy said softly.

"If that is the case, then the old servant will be relieved. Your Majesty, the Louis family will offer you eternal loyalty."

Captain Babbitt received Dorothy's verbal promise, and the tension in his expression finally eased a lot.

Ever since they had taken that step, it was inevitable that they would no longer be able to remain in the position of chief chamberlain.

After all, no emperor would trust a chief attendant to assist in the change, and even if the emperor himself benefited from the chief attendant's actions, it was impossible for him.

"Don't worry! Chief Babbitt, it's time for the position of the Fosk Palace Minister to change."

Noticing the vague uneasiness of the chief chamberlain, Empress Dorothea continued to comfort the old man who had served her father for decades.

At this moment, the court attendant also knocked lightly on the door and reported:

"Your Majesty, Viscount Xia Lin has arrived!"

"Really? Viscount Xia Lin, please come in and sit!"

Empress Dorothea is still dressed in the azure dress she wore for the New Year's banquet, but after a series of upheavals tonight, after grasping the supreme power of the empire, her temperament has changed a lot.

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your kindness!"

Charlin gave Empress Dorothea a standard aristocratic salute and sat down as if it were good. The court maid on the side immediately stepped forward to pour him green tea.

"Viscount Charlin, why did you propose at the court to formalize the Union Council and let me give the Union Council the power to legislate?"

When Xia Lin sat down, Dorothea took a sip of black tea, then put down the gilded silver cup along the mouth, and looked at Xia Lin with his eyes and asked. Apparently Dorothea was very unhappy with Charlin's idea of dividing the power of the emperor to the Parliament.

"Your Majesty, this is a necessary move for you to govern."

After a series of changes, it was late at night, Xia Lin looked at the luxurious silver cup, did not drink the green tea that was still hot inside, put down the cup and looked at the golden twin children of Empress Dorothy, and continued to say to her:

"As I said before, the foundation of the Enlightened Sect lies in merchants and commercial aristocrats, and that is where your foundation lies, and now that you have taken the throne, what do you think your foundation will be now?"

「……」

"Of course, it's still the enlightened sect I built."

Dorothea was silent for a moment, the dissatisfaction between her eyebrows calmed down slightly, and she said thoughtfully.

"Yes, Your Majesty, your roots are enlightened.

Although in various myths and epics, there is a saying that the gods gave the emperor the power to rule, but you must know that that the gods need to really come forward and support them with her might.

At a time when the gods are unknown and your personal strength is not strong enough to change everything, all your power comes from your foundation.

If you want to carry out your will to the Empire

must meet the needs of their own foundation and become the spokesman of their will.

This is what the saying goes, "Water can carry a boat, or it can subvert a boat."

Xia Lin explained, this statement suddenly made Dorothea a little dumbfounded, so she had to murmur in a low voice:

"But there's no need to give parliament the power to legislate......

The three most important powers of the emperor were military decision-making, personnel power, and legislative power.

The legislative power in it represents the power of the emperor to speak with the constitution of heaven and follow the law, and Xia Lin wants to attribute this power to the parliament, which naturally caused Dorosia to be quite uneasy.

"Then Your Majesty, what do you want to use to settle your base?"

"I think lowering business taxes is enough."

Dorothea said with a frown.

"That's what you promised to the members of the Alliance, and naturally it's not enough for everyone to hand over the hard-earned gold to solve the current predicament of the royal family, unless you are willing to promise to permanently exempt all commercial taxes except customs!"

Charin mercilessly pointed out the fallacies of Empress Dorothea's naïve thoughts.

The Empire's current merchant tax rate is 1 out of 10, and there is an additional tariff of 5 out of 100 on goods traded overseas.

Just reducing the business tax, although it will benefit the alliance member chambers of commerce a lot, basically every percentage point can make the medium-sized chambers of commerce earn nearly 100 gold lunt more profits every year, but compared to the price of at least hundreds of gold lun to enter the council, it is really not worth it.

The most important thing is that the original intention of the establishment of the business alliance was to protect the interests of the merchant group, and it can be said that Dorosia originally promised to reduce business taxes and support the development of commerce in exchange for the support of the enlightened nobles.

「……」

Empress Dorothea also realized that no one would want to do a loss-making business, and if she only relied on this bargaining chip, she really couldn't raise enough funds from the members of the alliance to stabilize the three major legions and stabilize the situation, so she had to fall silent.

"Your Majesty, raising such a huge sum of money requires the full support of the Alliance, and if you want to get the full support of the Alliance, you must give the Alliance sufficient power."

「……」

"I see, I will allow the Union Parliament to be transformed into the full parliament of the Empire, and gain legislative power."

Dorothea thought about it and couldn't think of a way to break the deadlock, and finally sighed and said.

"Your wisdom will surely make the empire grow, Your Majesty."

Xia Lin was relieved to see that Dorothea was willing to compromise, as long as there was a council, then some things would be easier to handle.

"But I have two demands, the first is that this council must bring me no less than 150,000 gold lunts in return, and I will hand over the legislative power to the council!"

Dorothea then continued to add forcefully.

"This is simple, Your Majesty, we only need to divide the parliament into two types, one is the upper house, and the former members of the League need to subscribe for at least 1,000 gold lunts to hold the office, and the other is the lower house, the former members of the League need to subscribe for at least 300 gold lundes.

The House of Commons has the power of financial and administrative supervision, while the House of Lords has the power of legislation, review and veto of laws.

In this way, the alliance will be able to raise at least 200,000 gold lundes."

Xia Lin explained the structure of the council that he had changed by magic. Compared with the conservative aristocracy, who basically relied on the output of the land for food, the enlightened aristocracy who controlled many industries in the empire had a wealth of funds several times more than that.

Although this money will make many chambers of commerce that do not have so much liquidity on their books have to sell some of their fixed assets, it will not reach the level of breaking their muscles and bones.