Section 22 Finance

The whole course of the war can be described as a big surprise to all countries. The leader of the Beru, Grufiz, declared himself Grand Duke and established an independent principality, but instead of organizing his forces to hold his current territory and weaken the attack of the Shem by defense, as most people expected, he immediately sent troops to attack Shem in the name of "retaking the land of his ancestors". With thorough preparations, overwhelming superiority in troops, and a surprise attack, Grufiz progressed very smoothly. In just one month, he swept through several surrounding provinces, expanding his actual territory by three times.

On the other hand, Shem lost his division and lost ground all the way, and he was crushed for thousands of miles. No fortified city could hold back even a little bit of the enemy's onslaught. This was mainly due to the fact that the Belu people bribed all the key generals with a lot of money, so that when the soldiers came to the city, they could receive effective assistance from the inside. Of course, on the other hand, it was also because of the unpopular policies of the Queen Mother of the Shem Regency, which led to the discouragement of the army, low morale, and the officers were dissenting.

"Impossible, where did they get so much money?!" General Rafa let out a cry of consternation. This was what he had heard from the spies about the Belu army—according to the intelligence, the Belu were very well equipped, with plenty of horses, armor, weapons, food, and ammunition, a large number of heavy weapons of war, and even a large number of magicians. Even their militia equipment was better than that of the regular army in Shem. According to the spies, the Belu were heavily armed with firearms provided by the dwarves - everyone knew that the dwarves were masters of firearms, and that the dwarves' firearms were lighter, more powerful, longer-range, and more accurate than those commonly used by humans. But the dwarves' greed for gold is even more unknown. It's not enough to buy a dwarven firearm for your collection, but God knows how much it will cost to arm an army.

But it was General Farah who shouted, and the other ministers were silent. Miracles are possible, such as the sudden discovery of a large gold mine hidden by the Beru, and then carefully hiding this from all outside eyes. Of course, the more plausible explanation is that there are backers behind it. The fact that Grufiz was able to proclaim himself Grand Duke and enjoy the support of all the Belu people is in itself an indication of the fact that there are external forces joining in.

At this moment, that is, when the spies sent the relevant information, the outcome of the war was already clear at a glance. In fact, the Belu war money poured out like nothing out of nothing, but Shem did not have such an incredible miracle. There is no doubt about the outcome of the war. The crusading army sent by Queen Sham had been defeated by Grufiz and almost completely annihilated, and the main general was captured directly on the battlefield. Originally, Shem's army had been badly damaged in the last Greenskin invasion and had not yet recovered. After receiving such a blow, they could no longer continue the war, because large-scale turmoil could occur in the country at any time, so the current situation became that Shem took the initiative to sue for peace. The establishment of a new state by the Belu is a sure thing - as long as they do not have any civil strife in this good situation.

"It's impossible. When the venerable Grand Governor of the Court had finished reading the document, General Farah was the first to offer his opinion. "It's completely illogical...... Unless ......"

"Unless they get the unrelenting support of a country, it's impossible. Someone added.

"Which country would do that, or what country would have the motivation and the strength to do it?"

This question seems difficult to answer. To talk about strength, it seems that within the Central Seven Kingdoms, each country has this level of strength. But for the country, contributing money is also an extremely draining thing. If so much money is thrown down, anyone will be greatly damaged. But on the surface, no one gets any particular benefit. Sham is divided and weakened, what good can anyone but the Belu people get?

Ashrufat noticed that Duke Byron was alone, and instead he was caressing the arm of his chair in a bored manner. When the venerable senior director finished reading the document, he waved his hand and motioned for the other party to stand down.

"Further inquiries must be made. When Skadra was gone, General Rafa said. "In this matter, there must be a third party inserting. ”

No one spoke. Half a day later, Duke Byron spoke.

"Colleagues, I believe that on the issue of establishing diplomatic relations," he squinted at Rafa, who was silent on the side, "you shouldn't have any opinions, right?"

"I will come to an agreement with the messenger as soon as possible. The Foreign Secretary immediately intervened. "Strive for the best conditions for the establishment of diplomatic relations for our country. However, I estimate that within ten days, I am afraid that there will be an official envoy coming, and it will be with great fanfare. We should be prepared for reception. ”

Duke Byron turned his head to look at the little girl—it was supposed to be an unconscious move. But at this moment, standing in the position of Ashrufat, he could see a fierce gleam flashing in the duke's eyes.

......

The ensuing scene was a real eye-opener for Ashrufat. Although it is said to be a national imperial council, it looks no different from the annual budget meeting held in the Chamber of Commerce (or when the chairman is not present). The whole room was filled with fierce arguments, threats, and even a few rough shouts could be heard from time to time. In the Chamber of Commerce, each department has to fight for the largest budget for itself, and at the Imperial Council, everyone is doing the same thing.

All in all, it's an incredible sight. Many things that seemed very simple to Ashrufat, a bystander, could be argued with by the ministers for a long time. The best choices that can be easily made as long as they stick together, they just can't come up with. Anyway, no matter how you look at it, the most concluding conclusion of this meeting is by no means the best one.

Is the whole country under the leadership of such a chaotic group of people? In that case, it would be better to find a few random people on the side of the road to be ministers. I'm afraid the conclusions made will not be worse than this.

Of course, this is not to say that the ministers are incompetent or not smart enough. They're so smart that they're constantly making pointless calculations. As the philosophical saying goes: when everyone is doing everything to fight for their own interests, they also lose their own interests. As Rhodia said, the two factions, Byron, the regent who held power, and Rafa, the general who held military power, were at loggerheads over each other's everything, and it was a complete waste of time.

Is this the case when a royal state is without a king? Ashrufat automatically filtered the content of the meeting, and instead pondered over more abstract questions.

The meeting went on in a mess, and each topic became a wrestling ground for two factions, except for a few choices that had no choice at all. Truth be told, for an observer like Ashrufat, it was utterly boring.

But there is a result to everything. There is also an end to this attack. The ministers were able to reach a compromise and complete the plan for the allocation of funds for the year, and agreed to the next step of raising taxes nationwide.

Ashrufat felt that for the first time he had seen what it meant to dig a pit and bury himself. He still remembered that there was a dispute in the city of Brassian over the new taxes, and many residents besieged the governor's palace to demand a plea. If the tax were to be raised, I am afraid that it would not be such a relatively peaceful dispute.

But what can be done? At least at the meeting, the ministers were helpless and miserable. Money is needed everywhere—how can it not be needed? But the Kingdom's tax revenue is decreasing. This year's drought was the biggest difficulty, and although the greatest result of the drought was to triple the price of furs, this did not prevent the nobles from saying that they could not pay their taxes normally. Since the land that had been divided into the land could not be taxed, the only way to make money was to try to make money on the land directly under the royal family. Merchants can't collect money - the various chambers of commerce have long obtained the power to exempt taxes or taxes, and these documents are signed in the name of the queen, how can they go back on their word? The sub-fiefdoms of the great nobles cannot be collected, and the commercial taxes cannot be increased, so the most unlucky people are the small and medium-sized lords directly under the royal family, as well as the commoners.

Although even Ashrufat could see that the consequence of this would be to centrifuge the whole country (not to mention rebellions and tax resistance), it was a royal affair after all, and had nothing to do with the noble ministers who had private fiefdoms. Who told the little queen who sat on the throne now to be a minor and who did not understand anything? So the ministers did so on the principle of not being distressed about spending other people's money.

The meeting finally ended. All the ministers said goodbye to the Queen. Soon, the little girl was left alone in a huge conference room - and of course, the personal guard Ashorufat, who accompanied her. It was only at this moment that Ashrufat realized that the little girl was not asleep, but her eyes were wide open, as if she was thinking carefully about something.

"Ashrufat," the little girl asked after a long time in the empty conference room. "Do you understand what they're saying?"

Ashrufat immediately humbly stated that he had not understood anything.

"Well, it's hard. The little girl lowered her head and exhaled in frustration. "Jana asked me to listen carefully and think carefully about everyone's opinions, positions and ideas. But...... I think they're arguing meaninglessly. ”

Ashruphat couldn't help but let out a chuckle.

"What are you laughing at?"

"It's just a little itchy. Ashrufat replied. Hey, poor little girl.

"Anyway, I want to be a queen. In the next moment, the little girl perked up again. "What Jana said is that studying in books alone is not enough to be a queen......

The minister thinks so too. Ashrufat replied. There were still guards on duty outside the conference room, so it was better for him to lower his posture. Anyway, he just wants to get through the year smoothly, and everything else is not in his consideration. Regardless, the worst outcome for the country was Tiberius's takeover – which was acceptable for the squire aristocracy.

"Skadera said that to be a king you have to grasp the truth, but I don't know what the truth is. ”

"The minister didn't know what to do. Ashrufat replied.

They left the conference room and walked towards the bedroom where the little girl lived. The two men soon walked on the empty lawn. At this time, there is no one around, and no matter what you say, you don't have to worry about a third party hearing it.

"Ashrufat, do you remember that question you had earlier? I think so, the truth must be seen with your own eyes. So I wanted to leave this palace and go to all corners of the city to see what the real world was like. ”

She turned her head to look at Ashrufat. If this courageous remark had made any difference to Ashrufat, at least it wasn't on his face. Instead, Ashruphat just smiled perfunctorily.

"Brave. Your Majesty, but for your safety, it's best not to do so. ”