In the last two weeks of December, after a gap of 5 months, Rand was once again informed by the Great Council that the Empire would determine his final title based on the extent of the territory and population under his control.

The Empire has established Rand as the master of the Prancing Plains, but it is still undecided whether Rand's realm is a relatively independent kingdom, a direct dominion of the Empire, or a vassal principality of the Empire or the Dragon Kingdom.

The names of the various administrative regions within the empire, such as kingdoms, principalities, dominions, and dependencies, actually puzzled Rand for a long time, and even after asking Albert and Ben Kaul, he could not get a reasonable answer, as if the administration of the empire did not care much about these names.

Generally speaking, kingdoms and principalities are relatively independent, pay less taxes to the empire, but receive less subsidies, and in times of war, the empire prioritizes policy support rather than direct military contributions, which can be understood as a buffer zone between the core of the empire and the aliens.

For example, 300 years ago, the Galloping Horse Kingdom was a buffer zone between humans and orcs, and the Galloping Horse royal family had higher decision-making autonomy in the west.

Of course, whether a kingdom is established or not depends not only on geographical location, but also on a variety of factors such as belief system, ethnic composition, strength, etc., such as Kirislav and Dragon, which have very unique beliefs relative to the core of the empire, and are also located in the border area, so they become independent kingdoms.

If they are not strong enough to defend themselves in the face of the borders, or if they need a lot of resources in the core of the empire, or if the land area is too small and heavily dependent on the empire's economy and policies, they will become autonomous territories, such as the relatively large number of free ports in the south, and these prosperous cities are like Abaidi, the commercial capital of the Hindkir, which has both nominal city councils and tyrants who actually control the city. Several frontier realms within the Dragon Kingdom are more similar to Dominions, except that the liege has additional frontier development rights.

As for the direct jurisdiction, it is more clear, the "property rights" of the city belong to the lord of a higher level, and the lord of the direct jurisdiction is more like a hereditary official, for example, the Lan Yuan City, where the Lan Yuan family is located, is a direct territory of Longya City, the royal capital, although the Lan Yuan family has been here for many years, it is only the user and manager of the city, not the owner.

After the secret meeting of the Temple of Commerce on the 24th, Jenny brought the news of Mr. Giant Tree, and there was a rumor in the imperial capital recently, and the nobles in the south were contacting the Finance Department, hoping to finally determine the Galloping Plain as a direct or autonomous territory of the Empire, on the grounds that the population of the Galloping Plain was less than 20,000 people, which was not enough to support such a huge territory.

This population data is the remaining human population after excluding all the Hindukar people, slaves who were originally sold to the plains, slaves bought from the south, all orcs, half-orcs, and barbarians, most of these populations are the population of the imperial capital, the northwest territory, and the king of Dragon's Tooth City.

"That Mr. Giant Tree said that the southern nobles want to prevent you from having too much say in the empire and interfering with their business with the Sea God System, and the Finance Department wants to use this matter to restrain your energy." Jenny said, "My lord, the fundamental purpose of the Finance Department should be to exchange the Galloping Horse for the right to issue magic furnace coupons. ”

Hearing this, Rant's heart was quite sad, and he couldn't help but sigh: "Once, I always thought that the enemies of the empire were barbarians, and after unifying the Manchus, I thought that the biggest enemy was the orcs; I have stabilized the orcs again, and the merfolk have become a problem for the empire again; Hey, now I know......"

Before Rand finished speaking, Jenny preemptively said: "Your Highness, if you continue like this, you should become the biggest hidden danger of the empire!" ”

"Hmm...... Reasonable. Lan Ling nodded, and the henchmen and henchmen were not very far away.

……

On the afternoon of December 27, the imperial capital, the imperial palace.

Even after the construction of a representative office belonging to the galloping horse family in the old town of the imperial capital in the morning, Rand was still invited to a guest room in the royal palace as his recent base in the imperial capital, which was called closer to the Great Council.

And the real reason is that in the palace, who Rand wants to see or not, he himself will not count.

For example, the first wave of Rand came to Rand were the Southern Kingdom delegates led by Fiat Galloper, who strongly demanded that Rand sell them containers with high stress resistance and life patterns, or individual magic pattern plates.

"Your Royal Highness, our workshop has signed a clear contract with the Night Qi City, and we have the right of first refusal to purchase some of the Demon Pattern Containers!" Fiat was the first to say.

"Yes, Duke, without our production capacity, your Demon Pattern Cabinet industry can't make money like water, right?" An earl of the Southern Seaport Alliance also said.

As soon as these nobles spoke, Rand knew that they must be vassals of the Poseidon clan.

Looking at the anxious appearance of these people, Rand sighed with emotion in his heart: just a few months ago, the magic pattern plates provided by these suppliers greatly increased the output of the magic pattern containers in the Night Qicheng Workshop, which not only doubled the speed of river and land transportation from Night Qicheng to Iowa, but also attracted various neutral cities in Hinduker, so that the two tribes of Lyncat and Jiao Wolf were sandwiched between the royal court and the neutral city-state.

Now, however, the Timber Cat and the Scorched Wolf have become an important force supporting the Sea Beasts and an important ally of the Rand, while the former suppliers have become hostile forces.

Of course, Rand can use the various decrees of the empire and his commercial power to force a few suppliers, but in a few months, perhaps the enemy he faces will change again, and today's opponent may be tomorrow's help.

"Ladies and gentlemen, our workshop never treats our friends badly," after watching a group of people finish speaking, Rand said leisurely, "The Temple of Fortune has placed a big order for us before, and I am afraid it will not be completed until the end of the month." ”

"That means that your workshop, Duke, will be able to deliver the relevant goods in early January?" When Fiat heard this, he quickly asked.

"I'm afraid that until the beginning of February, only a very few magic masters can process the magic pattern plates that you fancie, and these magic masters will have half a month's vacation after the orders are completed at the beginning of the year, and they can only start scheduling production after resuming work."

"This ......" Fiat and a few people looked at each other, a little hesitant.

"Ladies and gentlemen, didn't you buy these magic cabinets to raise seafood? Not in a hurry, right? It shouldn't matter if you wait for half a month, right? Rand glared at several people with innocent eyes.

After all, the empire was hostile to the sea god in the official face, and it was impossible for anyone to blatantly say that it was hostile to Brejak, so Fiat and others used the reason of raising seafood.

Fiat nodded to the others before saying, "Since the Duke is willing to sell, then we are not in a hurry." ”

"Then we'll quit!" Several nobles scrambled to leave, but Fiat was a few steps late and remained in the meeting room of the guest room.

"Duke Rand, as a nobleman on the coast, I must remind you that the coastal part of the empire has always been the richest region, and these areas have contributed a lot of tax revenue to the empire, and it is precisely because the sea has provided a large number of demonic beasts and a large number of demonic algae that the empire can still retain such a number of demon supporters."

Fiat's meaning is very clear, that is, he wants to persuade Rand to stay away from the war of Brejac and not to become an enemy of the sea god.

"Lord Fiat," Rand said with a smile, "if the creatures of the sea have no rivals, will your workshops that make a living from the sea and provide magical equipment for the sea still be as comfortable as they are now?" ”

"You ......" Fiat carefully reflected on Rand's words, as if that was indeed the case.

"What I'm doing now is all for your glory and wealth! Once the oceans are completely ruled by a Leviathan, you will be parasites living by the sea. ”