For those who have lived in the north for a long time, the sea gives them the impression of basically "this", cold, roaring, with a wave of ice particles crashing at them, as if they were going to smash the whole ship to pieces. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Therefore, the men on the sea are very strong, very powerful, very capable of fighting, very tenacious.

Each of these men in the north, in the North Sea, the Porotsk Sea, and the North Atlantic, has muscles comparable to that of a bodybuilding champion, and each of them has a healthy and dark complexion. Each one was hung out with a weather-beaten, angular face by the strong winds of the sea.

In the Middle Ages, pirates riding in dragon-headed warships, wearing chain mail, nose guards, and armed with battle axes and round shields. Until now, whaling fishermen driving all kinds of boats, **** upper body, and holding harpoons. Almost everyone gives William the same impression.

For northerners, the sea symbolizes struggle, the struggle against survival, against enemies, with wealth, with adventure. The black, dark blue, and dark green waters, the reefs on the seashore, and the leaden gray sky together form the great environment of the entire northern ocean.

And before that, Wilhelm von Hereford thought the same way. This country, which was born in the midst of ice and snow, is born with a very harsh natural environment and climate. Of course, it is precisely because of this harsh natural environment that the most resilient, orderly and powerful nation and country in the world have been created.

Therefore, in many cases, the harsh and simple environment can indeed sharpen people's will, and this point will not be questioned in any way.

It was also for this reason that William suddenly felt unaccustomed after seeing the southern ocean.

Moreover, it is quite unaccustomed.

The sea in the south is completely different from the north, the sea is blue and rippling, and the sandy beaches are as grit as gold, dotted with a large number of palm trees and shrub vegetation of the Mediterranean climate.

The seafarers here are indeed fishermen and navies. But it's more about businessmen. Merchants who sailed merchant ships from north to south, using the sea as their conduit. These people wore gorgeous robes woven of silk, and each one had a philistine smile on his face. Habit and measure everything in terms of goods, money, luxuries, land and trade routes.

Likes to label everything. Likes to measure everything in terms of money figures. In the eyes of these guys, there is no such thing as discipline in their hearts. These guys are such annoying guys.

That's it, the sea in the south and the sea in the north are two completely different things. And the people in the south and the people in the north are two completely different things.

In the face of these merchants of the Lombard city-states who liked in the Middle Ages and were accustomed to being second-class dealers and unscrupulous profiteers, if William could choose, William would want to break them all out. It's just a great pity that William couldn't do that. And more importantly, these scum are still useful to William. And it has a very huge effect.

The beaches of Lombardy, the shores of the Adriatic, an area with which Willem von Hereford was about to form an alliance. Ferrara, Mantua, Modena, Tuscany, Sardinia, Venice and Genoa. Several small Lombard states rejoiced at William's arrival, and some even suggested that this was a great opportunity for the deteriorating Lombard states to rise again.

And during this time in northern Lombardy, William did make some speeches, some consensus, and even some agreements. All of these agreements demonstrated the willingness of the Russian-Gothic Empire to cooperate with the Lombards. Even the most desired open market of the Lombards, William was "considering" and even unacceptable.

The Lombards were very nervous, or rather self-conscious, that as long as the empire opened its markets, the country with millions of square kilometers of land and a population of 13 million people (a large influx of refugees, and the registration of steppe nomads, Cossacks, and natural growth) could become a dumping market for the Lombards.

With the support of such a large, emerging, resource-rich, and relatively good purchasing power market, then Lombardy's manufacturing industry will definitely usher in spring.

For the wishful thinking of these guys, William didn't want to express any other opinion except hehe. They may still be living in the Middle Ages, thinking that the world's largest manufacturing base is in Lombardy, and still living in a dream.

As long as these bastards pay a little attention and care a little bit about the changes in the outside world. Take a walk around any of the Hereford family's factories, take a look, take a turn, and you will understand that the decline of the Lombards is predestined and irrevocable.

Of all the heavy industry production, the Lombards were able to supply almost none of the heavy industrial products to the Hereford family. This is true for crude steel, iron, rails, locomotives, wagons, steam engines, lathes, mechanical equipment or mechanical parts.

And for light industry, the goods of the Lombards did not have any competitiveness in the face of imperial goods.

After the great reorganization of the empire, Shilonsk has become the largest cotton textile industrial center in the human world, and the second largest wool textile industrial center in the world, second only to Briton itself. Its textiles, woollen fabrics, woolen fabrics, and cotton textiles are in the forefront of the world in terms of quantity, quality, color, and dyeing.

Of particular note is the Empire's dye industry, which used traditional vegetable dyes and ore dyes, as well as the Empire's chemical industry, which led to the emergence of several artificial dyes, which were then widely popular. The advent of jacquard looms, which could weave a variety of patterns, and the refurbishment of various patterns, also showed that the innovation of the imperial textile industry was increasing.

More importantly, the establishment of the Light Industry Bureau under the Ministry of Industry of the Empire has standardized the market and put an end to vicious internal competition for the improvement and implementation of various rules and regulations for textiles. Manipulative methods such as price labeling also made the empire's textiles extremely competitive.

Whether in the home market or abroad, in the Gothic, in Lombardy, Asturias, and even in the south of Ottoman and Briton, the Empire's textile sales were outstanding.

William held the textile industry, the chicken that lays golden eggs, firmly in his hands. And in other areas, it is not lagging behind at all.

To this day, the Empire is still the only country in the entire human world that can produce its own porcelain without importing it through the Far East. At the same time, the glassware, gold and silver vessels produced by the empire were processed using industrial processes, and were in no way inferior to anyone else in terms of material and artistry.

The large-scale smelting of metals and the manufacture of steel gave the empire the ability to sell metal utensils on a large scale. All kinds of pots and pots for daily use, or cutlery and other utensils, can be produced by the empire of agricultural tools.

Originally, the empire was at a disadvantage in woodworking, furniture, carriages, and shipbuilding. However, after conquering the entire kingdom of Wende, these disadvantages began to be gradually eliminated. Then, the empire conquered the entire Great Frontier region, giving the empire the richest forest resources in the world.

The manufacturing workers of Polotsk, together with the shipbuilding industry in Livonia, the forest resources of the Slavic world, allowed the empire to quickly catch up in woodworking, furniture, horse-drawn carriages, shipbuilding, etc. Filled this weak project in a very short period of time.

That's it, the empire is both heavy and light. All are self-sufficient. Up to ironclads, trains, high-powered steam engines and large differential machines, down to ear-digging spoons. The industry of the empire could satisfy everything.

In this case, the empire and the Lombard states opened their markets to each other, granted MFN status, and reduced tariffs...... The end result will never be that the Lombards and Lombard goods will occupy the imperial market, but, on the contrary, the imperial goods will receive a dumping market with a population of nearly 10 million.

Of course, William would never say this to these dukes and consuls.

Of course, William felt that even if he said it, these guys wouldn't believe it. These Lombards don't know why, but they just have a kind of self-confidence that they feel very remarkable. Exactly why, William himself does not know.

But of course, one thing must be made clear here, that is, the reason why William came all the way to Lombardy and talked about this and that with these small Lombard states was not because of how much he liked them, let alone because of how important they were, so that William could take time out of his busy schedule to take care of these guys.

As for the signing of a trade agreement with the Lombards, this can only be regarded as a rabbit beating the grass, and by the way. Otherwise, if we really want to talk about this kind of thing, it is actually more appropriate for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Commerce to do it.

The main reason why William came here was to solve one thing, and that was a peace agreement.

Certainly not a peace agreement with the Lombards. The two sides are still in a quasi-alliance relationship. There is no way to break out into war. What William really had to deal with was the agreement of the Britons.

In West****, a province located in the southern part of the Kingdom of Frisia, within the Kingdom of Loterania, as the victors of the sectarian war, the Britons are preparing to assemble here to negotiate a new post-war order.

Among the people invited were William and several heads of small Lombard states. In addition to this, the Parliament of the Carpathian Kingdom will also send members to the meeting. At the same time, some of the nobles in the empire were also represented - of course, most of these "representatives" were mere puppets of the Britons.

I am afraid that there are only two people who have a little autonomy, the Grand Duke of Jutland, and the Duke of Bern, who is valued for some reason.

One of the things that is a bit surprising, or actually quite normal, is that two countries that are not participating countries, the Visigothic Kingdom and the Kingdom of Asturias, are also invited. In the words of the Britons, these two countries are not belligerents, but they have a stake, so it is normal to invite them to the negotiations.

It was in this context that William arrived at Lombardy, and he could feel the confusion of the Lombards in this meeting.

The Empire, the traditional sect, and at the same time the side supported by the Lombards, was defeated. Protestantism took over almost the entire empire, which was now under occupation and domination by the Britons. In this case, it would be a joke to say that the Lombards were able to participate in the peace meeting with peace of mind.

All the Lombards were afraid that the Britons would make any excessive demands at the peace conference, or that they would elect Queen Britons as Emperor. Or what if a few small states are forced to convert to Protestantism?

In this case, it is only natural that the small states of Lombardy want to get together and huddle together to keep warm - but even that is useless. It may not sound nice to speak, but no matter how much garbage there is, it's just garbage. A few small states formed a new Lombard alliance on their own to counter the incoming enemies from the mainland, and it felt a little wrong when you thought about it.

It was at this time that the straw came to life, and Wilhelm von Hereford brought the goodwill of the Russian-Gothic Empire.