The 122nd chapter foreshadowing

The bell rings at the door of the room, interrupting the conversation.

"Come in." Byron frowned and shouted.

An officer in uniform walked in. He was Byron's housekeeper and retainer, named Turner, and was arguably one of Byron's most trusted people.

"Is there anything?"

"About the magical messaging scroll..." Turner said. "My Duke, I remember the last time I told you that a new 'scroll' chamber of commerce has now become an agent, and all the scrolls made by the church are sold on their behalf."

"I know." Byron replied. To be honest, it's really not a good thing to have such a chamber of commerce, and the price of scrolls has increased more than doubled. "I remember asking you to negotiate with them and make a lot of purchases."

Buying a large amount of money is always cheaper than buying zero, at least not more expensive than buying zero.

"But, Lord Duke, we seem to have a better choice," Turner said.

"What does it mean? Didn't the church say that all the magic scrolls were represented?"

"It's like that, the Reels Chamber said they have two shipments," Turner reported. "One is the kind of magic messaging reel we've been using in the past, retailing for a hundred gold orleys. The other is much cheaper and it's sold at half the price."

"Ah, why?"

"It is said that the second type of reel has some flaws in manufacturing and is more likely to break. But they also guarantee that this type of reel is exactly the same as the first type in terms of magic communication effects, and there will be no mistakes. Those merchants strongly recommend the second type to me. According to what they say, if there is no need to take the reel to walk far away, the second type is a much better choice. Lord Duke, we do not need to store this kind of thing for a long time, so I suggest using the second type in the future."

"Just make a decision on such a small thing." Byron replied. "Just a small thing."

Now every day his spies in Eagle City will send the latest information through magic communications. In addition, in other aspects, the consumption of such scrolls is very large. Although the savings are small money, as the saying goes, mosquito meat is also meat.

Turner left, and Byron once again focused his attention on the map in front of him. This is a national map of Groney, not the kind of rough goods that can be seen everywhere on the street, but a real fine product. It is a masterpiece carefully crafted by a master of painting. The map is drawn on special paper with special oil paint, waterproof, fireproof, insect-proof.

Some small paper heads are placed on the map to clearly illustrate the situation of various domestic forces.

Although Byron believed that the little queen was a rabbit's tail could not grow, in fact, she not only did not collapse due to financial problems, but was still continuing to expand her power. In any case, she was indeed the legal queen of Groney and a descendant of the Mark Remiz family, so her expansion can be said to be very easy. Only those forces with strong public opinion or independent army can stop the little queen's White Eagle flag.

By changing local officials and requiring the little lord to pay taxes, hostages and other means, the little queen's power has expanded around the city of Eagle Falcon. In addition, the western part of the kingdom also fully supports the little queen. This is because there is no particularly powerful lord in this place. Without a public opinion basis, the local officials in these places still only the queen's orders are from.

Fortunately, with Byron's preparation (it must be said that he is indeed forward-looking), these places cannot provide enough money for the Little Queen. This is because he has "pre-collected" enough money. If the Little Queen tries to get more money from these places, it will centrifuge the people.

When thinking about this issue, Byron was actually a little confused. Unmistakable news came from Eagle Falcon City. Asu Ruffatt didn't know why he did not serve as prime minister, but became a minister of finance. Not only that, he also left the city as the Minister of Finance, left the power center, and went to some other inexplicable place. He could understand it as Eagle Falcon City was not as good as the political level of the people, or was young and lacked skills. It could also be understood as Eagle Falcon City was not as harmonious as the monarch and ministers on the surface, and there were great contradictions within it. But the problem was...

That little girl seemed to be able to handle everything herself.

It's a bit unbelievable. At least when Byron was the Regent, he didn't see anything extraordinary about that little girl. He should be just an ordinary little girl. Although he inherited noble blood, she had nothing except noble blood.

Is it a scam? Or is it really the real ability of that little girl? As the saying goes, the fire recognizes real gold. Just like the great heroes or wise men recorded in some stories, you can't see anything unusual in the ordinary people. Only at a certain time will you show your side that is far beyond the mortals?

Byron shook his head and threw this meaningless idea out of his mind. He had gone too far and everything was irreversible. Now he and the little queen had no chance to reconcile, or the little queen had cut off this opportunity from the beginning. Now there is only a life-and-death struggle left.

Besides, his capital is much stronger than that queen. Comparing all this to a gambling, he had already got the best card for himself at the beginning of the bet. In fact, in his plan, the little queen was not a problem at all. The real trouble was Rafa, who was located in the north at the moment, holding heavy troops. If it weren't for that Ash Rufate, even Rafa wouldn't be a problem.

In addition to the troubles of the Eagle City, there is Rafa. After so many major things happened, Rafa maintained the most stoic silence. He still stayed in the north, seemingly not aware of anything, at least not making any public statements. Of course, Byron knew that Rafa was waiting - but he didn't know why he had to wait. Does Rafa think that little girl could win this battle?

But no matter what, Rafa could indeed wait, at least for a while. Because at the beginning of the year, the fiscal budget did give priority to Rafa (and also paralyzed him), which made him not have much financial problems within a year. In addition, if Byron's forces wanted to go north, they had to control the Hawk City in their hands, which meant that he and the little queen had to have a decisive battle.

Byron didn't want to fight to the decisive battle, and he didn't want to give up such a big strategic advantage and chose to fight on the battlefield. Time was on his side. As time went by, his two enemies would face difficulties due to financial issues, but he wouldn't.

However, it is not a solution to continue like this. The sooner things are solved, the better, and delays will change.

"Master Duke!" A call from his subordinate brought him back to reality from his meditation.

"What's up?"

"My Duke, the Queen has now controlled a large area... and according to intelligence, she often uses methods such as changing garrisons, replacing the governor and other officials to establish her own control. In this way, she may be able to establish her own rule." Her subordinates reminded her.

"Well, it's a pity that she is a little girl after all." Byron said. "I heard that she always used the Guards to replace the garrisons in various places. In this way, on the surface, she seemed to have determined the rule, but in fact she replaced the elite Guards in her hands with second-rate garrisons in various places. This is a typical example of picking up sesame seeds and losing watermelons... If it were me, I would change to a more clever way. I would let the garrisons rotate between the local garrisons, which on the one hand ensured the combat effectiveness of the Guards, and on the other hand consolidated the rule."

"But," a subordinate cleverly flattered. "It doesn't matter what she does. Our little queen can only get a drop in the bucket from these cities, and she can't hold on for too long. The Duke just needs to wait patiently."

Byron smiled. This is his favorite saying. Unconsciously, this strategy has become a basic idea for him, and it can even be said to be a spiritual pillar that allows him to remain confident in the face of various adverse information.

...

"Just do it like this!" The little girl made a decision easily. After saying this, she looked around the ministers present. Everyone knew that this was Her Majesty's hint to end the meeting. So, they stood up one by one and said goodbye to the queen.

Now, they looked at the little girl's expression without any contempt or arrogance. The bloodline of the Markremiz family has not been lost. The little girl showed her insight and strength that was completely incompatible with her age. To be honest, it is impossible for ordinary people to list almost all the great nobles in their country as traitors in one breath.

Although at the beginning, most people firmly resisted the Queen's order. Everyone knew how stupid it would be to push all neutrals to the enemy's side under the current situation, the little queen insisted on it to the end.

This was initially understood as a kind of childishness, a kind of stupidity, arrogance and paranoia that is unique to girls of this age. Many people even found a way out for themselves, waiting for the collapse of the newly built palace. But the facts proved that the little queen was not stupid at all except this. On the contrary, she was so sophisticated, cold and cunning that she was not like a girl of this age. Those tricks and tricks were completely ineffective against her. Not only that, those guys who tried to play tricks had almost no good results.

In the eyes of these ministers, the one sitting on the throne at this time did not look like the rubber stamp in the past. Some even doubted whether some demon was possessed by the little queen.

At the meeting just now, the Minister of Commerce had been severely warned in public for his dereliction of duty. This was because he left a little selfishness for himself when he was responsible for dealing with the confiscated "rebel property". No one knew how the little queen knew the truth, but she just knew the truth, and then she exposed it bit by bit, cruelly shattering the other party's stupid and useless resistance. She was not as hesitant and shaken as a girl of this age should have, nor the straightforwardness that she exposes in one breath. On the contrary, she seemed to enjoy watching the other party lie and struggle.

Everyone saw the Minister of Commerce sweating profusely on this not-hot morning. However, the final result was pretty good. The Queen gave him a chance to correct his mistakes and asked him to reorganize everything in two days.

Although many people predict that this newly built palace will only be short-lived because countless debts are destined to drag it to death. But the facts seem to prove that this is a complete rumor. At least, the little queen has not had any financial problems so far. Either the city is hidden with huge wealth that no one expected, or the debts owed over the years are far less than the legendary ones. In short, at least no financial problems are seen at present. Of course, no one knows the specific situation, because Ashu Rufate has kept this tight. In the current city of Eiw Rufate, no one knows what the situation is in the treasury except for a limited number of people such as the Little Queen and Ashu Rufate.
Chapter completed!