Hobert came to Audrey today to talk to her about the dos and don'ts of diplomatic work.

He took a sip of tea from his teacup and continued to say to Audrey: "Don't be deceived by the international relations in the newspapers, the real cooperation model and benefit transactions will not be published in the newspapers, and even few people know about it.

"For example, this negotiation with the Church of the Eternal Sun seems to be an 'icebreaking' negotiation, but it is actually a 'routine negotiation' that regulates the future.

"In the event of a conflict between the two sides, it will no longer affect the cooperation of the Northern Continent, but there must be a custom of exchanging extraordinary characteristics, so as to avoid the outflow of extraordinary characteristics from both sides."

Audrey's exposure to the aristocratic family since she was a child made her immediately understand: "If both parties want to get back their own extraordinary characteristics, they will swap 1:1."

"But in this war, the Duchy of South Bailang was victorious, capturing many of the Eternal Sun Church's extraordinary characteristics, and in the event of the defeat of the Eternal Sun Church, they need to exchange double the extraordinary characteristics."

Hobert smiled and nodded: "That's probably the truth." ”

"But......" Audrey still had some doubts, "but I'm still a little difficult to accept the mode of fighting and cooperating, so it won't ...... Doesn't it feel very disconnected? ”

"All the relationships between organizations are, to put it bluntly, the relationship between the competition and distribution of interests." Hobart further explained: "Negotiation, war, confrontation, and cooperation are all means of competing or dividing interests. ”

"Just like in the Republic of Intis, the Church of the Eternal Sun has a common interest with the 'Earl's Light', so they can cooperate.

"And in the southern continent, because there is a conflict, so they fight.

"But the conflict in the southern continent is not so big that it is necessary to sacrifice the relevant interests of the northern continent, so it is very simple, just fight and cooperate at the same time."

Hobert said solemnly: "Never treat diplomatic negotiations as polarized treatment of "peace" or "war", peace and war are not the main battlefield of diplomatic negotiations, your main battlefield is between peace and war.

"And the core of your work is actually the division of interests!"

Audrey felt that she was greatly inspired, and she suddenly had a very clear idea of what to do.

Three hours later, at the dining table of the Earl Hall's family.

After hearing Audrey's description, Earl Hall was surprised at first, but soon felt that it seemed reasonable: "Hobart has a very thorough understanding of the purpose of diplomacy. ”

Audrey took the spoon and asked, "But father, I have consulted many experts in the field of diplomacy during this time, why is there no one like Hobart who can describe my work so clearly?" ”

Earl Hall took a sip of wine before smiling, "At present, there are only two diplomats in the entire Northern Continent who are recognized diplomats. ”

Audrey was delighted, and apparently Hobert received a lot of praise from her father.

At this moment, Earl Hall's secretary entered the dining room under the guidance of the butler: "Sorry everyone, I disturbed your meal. ”

Then the secretary said: "Mr. Earl, the Prime Minister just called and asked you to come over immediately. ”

Earl Hall wiped his hands with a napkin and got up: "Okay." ”

When he got out of the restaurant, he asked his secretary, "Is there anything urgent?" ”

The secretary took a deep breath: "The defense line on the south bank of the sea is lost. ”

……

In the northern part of the kingdom of Rune, a blizzard has ushered in the city, and the industrial city of Constance has turned into a white city as if overnight.

As the sound of gunfire got closer to the city, it was now in chaos, the streets were full of fleeing pedestrians, and the thick snow was trampled and slippery.

Car accidents and arguments often occur due to slips or uncontrollable slides.

At the same time, there is little security in the city, and thieves and robbers are rampant.

In the middle of a noisy and crowded street, a young man dressed as a manager stood on a barrel and shouted, "Are there any steelworkers?" The factory recruits steelmaking workers, and workers who will use the CT-15 steelmaking production line are preferred.

"As long as we complete the application, we will send you and your family directly to the new factory in the south of Beckland by horse-drawn carriage, and provide working meals, provide staff dormitories, and family members can also live in dormitories, with a weekly salary of 1 pound 8 sules......"

Before the manager could finish shouting, he was already surrounded by applicants.

This recruiting manager, of course, the "Earl's Light" person, encountered an embarrassing problem in the heavy industry center built in the southern continent, the equipment purchased before was too advanced, and many workers were not very good at using it.

Just like the manager just mentioned the CT-15 steelmaking line, which is currently the most advanced steelmaking production line in the Kingdom of Rune and even in the whole world, only a few large steelmaking plants in Constance City have a large number of skilled workers using this production line.

If it weren't for the loss of the battle line on the southern shore of the Sea, it would have been difficult for the "Earl's Light" to recruit such skilled workers.

Now, the salary is not very high, but in just about 3 minutes, more than 100 qualified workers have applied for the job.

For the "Count's Light", or rather the conditions laid down by the Duchy of South Bairan, seem to have been prepared for these fleeing workers.

The carriage was delivered to the new factory, and the food and lodging were also managed, and you must know that the price of a horse-drawn carriage in the city is now ridiculously high, and it costs 10 pounds just to get out of the city!

Train and carriage tickets have been copied to sky-high prices, and even if ordinary workers spend all their savings, it is difficult for their families to leave the city by these means of transportation.

The workers had to flee with their families carrying their luggage, but because of the congestion on the roads, they were already tired before they left the city.

In addition, it is said that some bandits are already waiting outside the city, waiting for people who cannot afford to buy tickets to be delivered to their doors.

At this time, the manager shouted again: "Are there any workers who know all kinds of machine tools produced by Box?" You can only ...... any kind of lathe, milling machine, boring machine, drilling machine, and grinding machine."

Across the street at the Liverston Hotel, Hobert sat in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows, watching the managers shouting hard, the workers scrambling to sign up, the blankness and helplessness on people's faces, and the children's ignorance or crying.

Today, every street in Constance City is filled with a manager, and successful candidates are immediately taken to a large power plant under construction on the outskirts.

Bread, hot soup, and hot water would be served there, and after everyone had eaten and drunk enough, the people of the government of the Principality of South Bailang would use the teleportation array that had just been built there to send the workers directly to the southern continent.

When they arrived in Crowlier and showed them around the working environment, they were told that they were already in the Duchy of South Bairan, which was indeed the south of Beckland, but a little too south.

If it were a job opportunity in the Southern Continent, it would be estimated that the workers would treat the recruitment managers as human traffickers.

Hobert smiled, "That's a white lie. ”

At this time, Todd knocked on the door a little tiredly and came in: "Grand Duke, it has been negotiated, and it cost 13,000 pounds." ”

"Good." Hobert poured him a glass of red wine: "Take a break, there will be a negotiation in a moment." ”

With the loss of the battle line in the southern part of the Makai Sea, Hobert took the opportunity to recruit all kinds of skilled workers in the industrial zone in the southern part of the Makai Sea.

This has even led to a peculiar phenomenon of people surging in the major industrial areas and cities of several industrial cities, while at railway stations, at long-distance bus stations, on the roads to the major cities in the south, there is no sign of congestion.

At the same time, Hobert led the management of the "Earl's Light", carrying a large amount of cash, to buy a large number of factories, land, real estate and so on here a few days in advance.

For example, an energy tycoon planned to build a huge power plant in Conston with a supporting light bulb factory and a wire factory, etc., with an initial investment of more than 200,000 pounds, but was bought by Todd for 12,000 pounds.

Although the power plant and various factories were not yet completed, they were almost built, and Hobart completed the acquisition for about one-fifteenth of the peacetime price.

In recent days, Hobart's team have spent around £3 million to buy almost half of Conston.

It's not that no one saw through Hobert's tricks, the people who sold the land and the factory knew that the "Earl's Light" was a robbery, but they were still willing to sell their property.

Because in such a chaotic time of war, only with gold pounds in hand can the heart not panic, in times of crisis, a stack of gold pounds may be able to save one's life, and a title deed has no effect.

In addition, the speed of the rout of the Rune Line exceeded people's expectations, coupled with the fact that the Republic of Intis declared war on Rune, the rich people generally lost confidence in the Rune Kingdom, and felt that it was difficult for them to return to Constance to run their own estates, so they simply sold these properties.

Of course, there are some venture capital firms that also buy real estate like Hobart, but they don't dare to make as many acquisitions as Hobart, or they don't give money so happily like Hobart.

The reason is simple, the Rune soldiers have begun to organize defensive lines in the industrial cities, where they are said to continue to resist and fight the enemy in the streets.

Then in the next war, the acquired factory is likely to be in ruins, and even if the Rune army can fight back, such ruins will be difficult for them to deal with.

Back in his room at the Hayston Hotel, Todd took a sip of the red wine and smiled: "For now, we have only spent £120,000 on the total investment in electricity in the industrial area on the south bank of the sea!"

"If it is peacetime, it will take at least 2 million pounds to complete the investment of this scale, which means that someone has helped us choose the site of the factory and plan the scale of production.

"When the factory was about to be built, it was delivered to us at a very low price."

Of course, the premise of all this is that the Kingdom of Rune can fight back in the future, otherwise these lands and factories will be the spoils of the Visak Empire, and the "Earl's Light" is equivalent to acquiring a stack of waste paper.

But Todd is confident in Hobert's judgment, because it has been proven more than once that Hobart's judgment is correct.

Todd had been concerned about the technology to build power plants that the energy tycoons had bought from Earl's Light at high prices, as well as the massive construction of factories north and west of Rune.

Now it seems that the final winner was the "Earl Light", which first made a lot of royalties, and then bought the power plant and supporting factories at a low price.

Now wait for the war to end, rebuild the factory, and then put it into operation, and the "Earl's Light" will have no opponents in the entire Northern Continent.

In all likelihood, the "Earl's Light" will become a "billion-pound" mega-corporation immediately after the war.

Hobert smiled at Todd's compliment, "We're also going to take a big risk of pumping cash from Earl's Light. ”

Todd could tell that Hobert's words were purely polite, and the Grand Duke was very sure that he would get ten or dozens of times the benefits in the future.

So Todd said: "That's not true, the 'Duke Grain Store' has a lot of cash supply to the 'Earl's Light' every day. ”

The Duke Grain Store is a grain company that was just established in Beckland in early December, and on the first day of grain sales, the stores were crowded with bakeries and food processing workshops.

Because the price of grain in the "Duke's Grain Store" was only half of the current price of grain in Beckland, these workshops selling food, as well as many ordinary citizens, used all their gold pounds to store grain.

At present, the price of food in Beckland has risen four times compared to the pre-war period, that is, it is only half of the current food price, and it is also twice the price of food before the war.

After all, these grains come from the Rorsted Islands, from the southern continent, the price is very low, and it is transported to Beckland through the teleportation array, and the freight is not high.

On the first day of opening, there were basically small workshops to buy grain, and on the second day, some food companies and aristocratic housekeepers came to negotiate large transactions.

On the third day, under the recommendation of Lord Bradley, several major grain merchants approached the Duke's Palace, hoping that the "Duke's Grain Company" would respect the current situation of the grain market and ask Hobart not to disturb the grain market again.

As a result, Hobert said: "You are right, you should indeed respect the grain industry, and tomorrow I will let the grain store reduce the price." ”

Several grain merchants were dumbfounded, didn't they express their meaning clearly? Why do you need to reduce the price?

On the fourth day of opening, the "Duke Grain Store" did not reduce its price, but several major grain merchants also joined the ranks of rushing to buy grain.

Their intention was very simple, to buy all the cheap grain from the "Duke Grain Store", and only high-priced grain would be left in the market.

The business war between the "Earl Light" and the gas industry has only been over for a few months, and these grain merchants still want to continue the dialogue with Hobart.

But because of Hobert's engagement to Audrey, many nobles secretly held a grudge against Hobert.

So they secretly contacted the grain merchants, said they were willing to pay for them, and made some political promises, hoping that they would bleed Hobert.

So these grain merchants were ready to fight a grain war with Hobert, and they would take as much grain as the "grain line" released.

However, the "Duke Grain Store" has been open for more than ten days, and it seems that the supply of grain is still very sufficient.

It was precisely because of the strong support of these grain merchants and nobles that Todd had the confidence to buy real estate on a large scale.

Otherwise, if there is only 10 million pounds previously prepared, Todd will set aside a large part of the funds to prepare for the acquisition of power plants, wire factories and other factories under construction in the north and west of Rune to complete the power layout of Rune.

It will never be as extravagant as it is now, spending £3 million on Connet alone.

Hobert stayed on the southern shore of the Sea for about a week, until the Fursack army reached the outskirts of Conston and returned to the southern continent to continue his eyes on the land reform and institutional reform of the Duchy of South Bailang.

These two reform measures have now allowed Hobert to digest half of the potion, and as the reform comes to an end, he can only wait for the next opportunity to digest the potion.

However, with the influx of immigrants and the beginning of major construction in various places, Hobert believes that the potion will continue to be digested.

In addition, some new policies will continue to be introduced in the future, which is similar to Hobert's role, and can also help him consolidate his state and kill two birds with one stone.

At present, Hobert's focus has been placed on the construction of his first mausoleum.

The tomb was built in the belly of the mountain using a natural cave.

The people who built the mausoleum were prisoners of the rebels during the previous civil war.

Hobart had Angus interrogate them, and those who had killed people outside the battlefield or committed the most heinous crimes were sent to build mausoleums.

Because after the mausoleum was built, Hobert did not intend to keep these people alive, so he first interrogated them, but did not carry out a verdict, and when the mausoleum was repaired, he simply carried out the death sentence immediately.

After the interrogation, the team that built the mausoleum immediately got more than 20,000 laborers.

There were many extraordinary people among them, but they did not receive special care and forgiveness, and they still had to work as coolies, and even their labor was even greater.

On the periphery of the construction site, Hobert directly put on uniqueness in the "country of disorder", creating a "wall" of "chaos".

Because the person of the "wall" is very high, it is difficult to find it if it is not at the level of the true god.

But soon the construction of the mausoleum encountered a very embarrassing problem, and there were not so many people on the construction site!

Hobert immediately began to look for a place to build a second mausoleum, and it was at this time that he received a report from his subordinates that an envoy from the Kingdom of Rune was coming to visit the Duchy of South Bailang.

……

Princess Alice of the royal family of Rune was appointed as a special envoy by her brother Winton II to visit the Duchy of South Bailang.

Accompanying this princess with outstanding temperament was Georgina, the chief of MI9.

The mission also included a number of diplomats, a team of guards, and journalists from major newspapers.

On the departure from Beckland, the reporters of the major newspapers were told by the diplomats of the Principality of South Bailang that they could not report or reveal the way to the southern mainland.

And to sign a non-disclosure agreement, it is possible to report only what the Principality of South Bailang agrees with them.

Of course, the reporters were very resistant to such a request, but at the request of Princess Alice, the reporters reluctantly signed the agreement.

After the delegation departed, when these reporters saw the magical teleportation array, all their grievances were calmed.

How do you report on the teleportation array? Will anyone believe it?

So when the diplomats of the Principality of South Bailang asked them to write in the report that they had arrived in the Principality of South Bailang by airship, the reporters smiled and agreed.

The high-level delegation was received by the newly appointed Foreign Minister Audrey.

At present, with the help of Earl Hall and Hobart, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has a framework, and there is no problem in receiving foreign guests, holding talks, or anything.

Audrey didn't put Alice and the others in Angelou, which was the capital of the Duchy of South Bailang, but now a large construction site and a transit center for immigrants, and it looked very cluttered.

She arranged for the visit in Puerto Laranagua, the capital of Mirhe, which is home to several mountain estates left behind by former colonial forces or local aristocrats.

Audrey arranged them in one of the lodges and held a grand welcome banquet that night.

The banquet was attended by political dignitaries such as Conrad and Donna, as well as several military officers such as Hill.

Because not long after the end of the civil war, there were still many "Rose School" lurking in various parts of the Principality of South Bailang, so Elliot's "Dawn Army" was transferred to ensure the safety of the visiting group.

Although most of the main figures of the Duchy of South Bailang arrived, Hobert was not seen.

The reason Audrey gave was that the Grand Duke had gone out on an expedition.

But both Alice and Georgina knew that even if Hobart was far away in the Rorsted Islands, he would still be able to come back before the feast began, if he wanted to.

However, neither envoy felt that he was being underestimated, and after the victory of the civil war in the Duchy of South Bairan, Hobert's political position in the country of Rune was second only to King Cowinton II, and he was completely eligible not to attend the reception.

The next day, Audrey arranged an activity for the delegation to visit Changwei Island, and the two ladies had a very tacit understanding, and the yawning Folth came to pick up the people, but Audrey did not show up.

The officials and reporters of the delegation were shocked when they saw the bustling crowds of people at Changwei Port, the neat wheat and rice fields, and the rubber trees as far as the eye could see.

According to some of the Rune people who once lived here, the island was wild and backward, and the natives didn't even wear clothes.

But the brick houses in the fields, and the shoulders and shorts worn by the natives, proved that the descriptions were all rumors.

At this time, Forth personally explained to Alice: "The dam under everyone's feet, known locally as 'Earl's Dam', was built when Hobert was still an earl.

"Don't look at the river in front of you, because in the rainy season, the river will overflow the embankment and the surrounding villages will be flooded.

"At that time, the natives on both sides of the river did not build houses, but only built a straw hut, because even if they did, they would be washed away during the rainy season......

Foirth then introduced the main canals and canals built by the dam, forming a very scientific water conservancy system.

After Furth finished talking, Alice smiled and said, "You seem to know this water conservancy project very well." ”

"Yes." Furth said proudly: "I supervised the construction of this project, and after a project, I am half a hydraulic scientist." ”

Alice was slightly stunned, feeling as if something was wrong.

After touring the water system, Furth accompanied Alice to meet with the local mayor.

The mayor was a thin, swarthy young man, dressed in a half-sleeved shirt and trousers, the uniform uniform of a civil servant, and he looked energetic, especially in his eyes, which everyone could even see.

The mayor smiled and said generously to Alice, "Your Royal Highness, I didn't expect to see you here. ”

When Alice was stunned, Georgina had already recognized: "Adrian, you are Adrian?" ”

"Yes, Your Excellency."

In retrospect, Alice did look like a relative of the royal family, but in Alice's impression, he was a fat man, and he was submissive, and there was always some annoying blankness in his eyes.

In the next moment, Alice finally knew that something was wrong with the island, and that the people here were in good spirits.

There are farmers on the ridges of the fields who laugh loudly, and the duchess actually participates in a small water conservancy project, and a big fat man with low self-esteem has become a confident and sunny young man.

Alice suddenly said, "This is such a wonderful place. ”

Thank you for the reward from [Jiupin Sesame Official].

(End of chapter)