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Nearly a thousand kilometers away in the city of St. Quentin from Tugenhaben, a small imperial council was also being held in front of the Emperor of Asturias.

The Imperial Council was the favorite form of court politics of the rulers of various countries, at which important state affairs were decided, and the large imperial councils included the large aristocratic groups of the wealthy families, the cardinals, cardinals, archbishops and other privileged classes of the Church of Light or the God of War in Asturias, as well as the royal stewards and court attendants.

Small-scale pre-imperial meetings are more closed-room, usually the emperor wants to get some opinions before the big discussion, and usually gathers people trusted by the emperor for a closed-room discussion to provide the emperor with reference opinions.

In this form, in the long period of government, the Council was first formed, that is, the emperor His Majesty placed some people or families who could be trusted relatively fixed, and placed such a name.

But under the Senate, it was still not a formal institution of the state, it was the private institution of the king or emperor, at least not with the consent of the Round Table of the Nobles to pay taxes to support it, and the Senate, although barely in name, was in fact only to advise the supreme ruler, and could only exert indirect influence, and had to go through the emperor to achieve some of its goals.

The nobles' round table is a bridge between the royal family and many wealthy families and the privileged class of the church to negotiate and compromise, and the most direct role is that the royal family needs to discuss taxes with the round table council, which will determine the amount of taxes that the major families will pay to the treasury in a year or several years.

Taxation is the most important role of the Round Table Council, and the second is similar to when the national war is born, the royal family can ask the Round Table Parliament to ask the wealthy families to ask them to go to war, and if there are not too many people to oppose it, individual nobles cannot refuse.

Of course, for things like the call for jihad, the Round Table Council has become an opportunity for the wealthy to take the initiative to ask the royal family to join the war and compete for a place in the war.

But in addition, most of the power at the national level is in the hands of the royal family, and the wealthy families can only have influence in the core of their own family that cannot be ignored or even against the royal family, and this influence is based on their own private soldiers, such as Duke Aldrich.

In addition to the part of the annual income of Duke Aldrich's territory that is included in the treasury, the rest is used to maintain the expenses of the territory, support his army, and recruit middle and high-level warriors, strength is the key to Duke Aldrich's influence, which is why he is keen on this Mithril mine, which is a huge wealth.

However, during the reign of His Majesty Edward, Emperor of Asturias, apart from the role of the aristocratic Yuan Parliament as before, the Senate underwent a small change, from a temporary private institution of the royal family to a formal central body, and there were detailed day-to-day divisions in it.

These responsibilities are becoming more and more exclusive, and in the past, the House of Representatives was a matter of state, where everyone could express their opinions, and no one had authority.

At Edward's initiative, however, it was customary to consult the officials and courtiers who were mainly responsible for the matter to provide the main advice, and others added that because Edward was accustomed to letting people with special talents or obvious expertise be in charge of certain aspects of specific affairs, except for the former exclusivity of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, it gradually ceased to be in charge of foreign affairs, defense, etc., as in the past, when the emperor temporarily appointed a person to be in charge of the affairs or was in charge of the person with the status of the king's spokesman.

The former was too unprofessional and depended entirely on the talent and skill of the temporarily appointed people, while the latter, although trusted by the king, was too centralized, and was subject to suspicion, and may not be able to enjoy the cooperation of other nobles.

Edward's new model of consultation and deliberation had been fully embraced in Asturias, and the aristocracy had been reluctant to enter it from the beginning, because it meant holding a certain amount of power in their hands for a long time, and at the same time getting a great chance of being appreciated by His Majesty the Emperor.

From the Council to the Privy Council is a political necessity, not only in Asturias, but also in other countries.

"Your Majesty, the Duke means that this Mithril Mine has huge interests, and we should get it, and the Duke is willing to manage this Mithril Mine for His Majesty, and send a large amount of refined Mithril every year to enrich the treasury and armed army for His Majesty. The man with a small black beard and a white feather stuck in the felt tail on his head said flatteringly.

He was the emissary of the Duke of Aldrich in the county of León, and came to Asturias on behalf of the Duke to report to the royal family about the birth of the Free City.

Although he did not pay attention to the exhibition of Free City two years in advance like Modo, Leon County is the closest place between Asturias and Free City, and the line and circulation of Mithril coinage must not be hidden from Duke Aldrich, not to mention that Franklin and Wang Qinian did not want to hide it, but wanted everyone to know.

Duke Aldrich may not be as diligent as Mordoxiang, but he is definitely not an incompetent fool, so he also realizes that the Free City must have Mithril Mine.

However, it is precisely because the Duke is not a fool that he did not rashly send troops to capture the Free City immediately out of greed.

First, it is because of the fact that Leon County does not know enough about the city of freedom, and it is only known that this city can be used as an intermediary between Asturias and the orcs before, and its own strength is not very clear, but the fact that this city can exist in the wilderness itself represents a certain strength, otherwise it would have been erased by the orcs long ago.

The second is because of the orcs themselves, like Modo, Asturias, or Duke Aldrich himself did not expand into the wilderness and included the Free City into his territory, itself because the shape there was very delicate, and if it was included in his own rule, it would be more direct to border the orcs.

Asturias has always had a bad relationship with Wolff, and it is only in recent decades that as the royal family and the wealthy have increasingly focused their attention on the occupation of the lower planes, the high-intensity warfare in the border area with Wolff has decreased, and it used to be often fought against each other.

Of course, it was only a limited and controlled war, but it was a high-intensity war, or a local war, because it was too expanded, and the orc court would directly intervene or order other tribes to participate, such as the Rhine and Tygo.

In the past twenty years, Leon County has not had a large-scale conflict with the orcs, so although the Duke suspects that the city of freedom is a Mithril mine, he is still a little afraid of the orc's reaction.

If it was just against a tribe like the Munks, Duke Aldrich would have ordered his army to prepare for war, and even if the Free City had a certain strength, it could not stop the Grand Duke's greed for the sake of the Mithril mine.

But there are still orcs over there, and the ambiguous area where the Free City is located is bordered by the territory of the Rhine, the overlord tribe of the Western Beast Plains, and although Wolf is far away, it is not without a chance to reach out.

Just for the Upper Rhine, Duke Aldrich has to think carefully, if Wolf is added, then the Grand Duke can only choose to give up the idea of private appropriation.

So he sent an emissary to report to the royal family, and it would be a very good idea to appoint the Grand Duke as the administrator if the Mithril mine was to be fought for in the name of the Asturian state.

As a manager, as long as he sends the output of Mithril to the satisfaction of His Majesty the Emperor every year, he can fill his own pocket in various ways, such as increasing the actual part of the production, or falsely reporting the smelting loss.

And that's not even counting as a manager, Duke Aldrich can justifiably take a portion of the annual mineral output as a reward, and of course this percentage must be approved by the royal family.

But all in all, for Duke Aldrich, he will have all kinds of ways to profit from this.

Although these benefits are inferior to sending troops to steal the Mithril Mine, the advantage is that he can avoid paying unknown costs and taking huge risks.

"What do you think?" said the questioner, sitting on the throne, looking just a somewhat emaciated middle-aged man, but he was Edward, the current emperor of Asturias.

"Your Majesty, I agree with Duke Aldrich that this Mithril Mine should be placed under the divine rule of Asturias, so that it will be of benefit to His Majesty at all times. "Chancellor of the Exchequer Egbert was the first to take a stand, and of course he agreed, if the Mithril Mine was taken over to Asturias, he, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, would have a lot of wealth in his hands that could be used, and he would not have to worry about it all day long, such as the call for jihad that was about to begin.

Those belligerent generals only know that dimensional warfare can gain a lot of benefits, but who will listen to the bitterness of him, the Chancellor of the Exchequer?

Although jihad can get imaginary benefits, but just like doing business, if you want to make money, you have to invest first, and prepare for the investment of a war, especially the investment of a plane war, which is definitely not easy for him, the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

If the war is lost, it is even worse, it is equivalent to all the investment is gone, and you have to pay an extra sum to appease the soldiers who have returned from the defeat in the war, otherwise there may be chaos.

Since there are people who agree, of course there will be other opinions.

"Your Majesty, but the Holy War is about to begin, and a lot of our strength and resources will be invested in it, and the place that Duke Aldrich said is very complicated, there are two major orc tribes nearby, and some subordinate tribes border, well, it is also very close to Modo, and it has always belonged to the ambiguous zone. When the holy war is about to begin, will it lead to a large-scale war with the orcs?"