The sound of banging was endless. Pedestrians carefully bypassed the "No Entry" danger zone marked with white ash. They walked in a big circle but did not dare to approach.
This was the southernmost tip of the Republic of Northwest, where Rye Fortress was located. In the past, if one wanted to go from the Commonwealth of Gold Coins to the Republic of Northwest, he had to pass through this fortress built in the valley. Now, the fortress was still the same, but the mountain next to it had inexplicably tilted, and a road appeared. People could bypass the fortress and go to Rye City, which was north of the fortress.
As for the fortress, it had been completely surrounded by a circle drawn with white ash. There were many messy signs in the circle, which were labeled with words such as "Danger" and "Do Not Approach" in various languages.
Not only that, if there were illiterate people who wanted to get close, he would feel a little more anxious with every step he took toward the circle. The closer he got, the more anxious he would be. Only by turning around and leaving would he feel better.
If not for this method, the white ash and the warning sign alone would not have been able to stop those rude or curious people.
Of course, this was the work of Sui Xiong. Now he was tossing and turning in the Stronghold, intending to build this originally ordinary Stronghold into a tourist attraction with the theme of "Stronghold". Naturally, he could not let others disturb him.
As for whether it could still be used as a fortress after becoming a tourist attraction … Could a beautifully decorated knife not be used to kill people?
Of course, Sui Xiong did not think that this fortress would be used again. Now, although the population of the Republic of Northwest was not large enough, there were many strong people. If there was a conflict with the Commonwealth of Gold Coins, the Commonwealth of Gold Coins should be thankful that they did not take the initiative to attack. How could they fight back?
If this valley was really attacked and needed to rely on the defense of the fortress, who knew how bad the situation would be!
However, as the saying goes, "The tree longs for peace, but the wind will not stop." Sui Xiong wanted to be his super-sized toy model in peace, but there was already trouble in the Commonwealth of Gold Coins.
The Great Migration had ended. Today, the Commonwealth of Gold Coins was still a complete country on the surface, but in fact, it had been divided into two parts, north and south. The south was controlled by the forces with the big aristocrats as the core. It had a large population, and its industry was mainly agricultural production. The north was controlled by the forces with the big merchants as the core. Although the population was small, it had a large amount of capital with its developed business.
This plan of 'merchants heading north and nobles heading south' seemed to be quite successful at first, but problems soon arose.
The nobles in the south began to impose heavy taxes on the merchants in their territories.
Logically speaking, this was a logical thing to do. The nobles had consolidated their rule, and the next step was to weaken the power of the merchants. It was just that their methods were too crude, and the way they did things was too crude. It felt like they were killing the goose that laid the golden eggs.
As long as there was enough profit, it wouldn't be a problem for them to cooperate with the nobles. However, as soon as the nobles did this, the profits of the merchants in their territories plummeted. Many small merchants went bankrupt, and even the large merchant associations were severely affected.
Of course, the merchants didn't agree and immediately started arguing. But this time, the nobles did not buy it at all. They said that they no longer needed to deal with the lowly and black-hearted merchants, and collected even more taxes.
In some places, the nobles even brought their armies to raid the merchant guilds, wanting to uproot them.
In this way, the conflict had completely intensified.
The people of the Shang Dynasty were furious. They began to gather mercenaries and assumed the posture of using force to protect their own interests. But the nobles didn't give in. They also began to gather their armies, preparing for a big fight.
Under such circumstances, the atmosphere at the border between the south and the north grew increasingly tense. The soldiers of both sides were ready for war at any time.
Fortunately, the Church of the Goddess of Wealth made a move. Seeing that the situation was getting out of hand, they no longer cared about the means and resorted to the most forceful method. Legendary Experts and Oracles appeared and captured the leaders of the aristocratic party and the merchant party by force. They set up a meeting hall at the border and ordered them to negotiate.
"I don't care what conflicts or grudges you have, but I have one thing to say: no fighting!" The Goddess of Wealth personally descended and said sternly. "If anyone dares to make a move, I will suppress him under this meeting hall and never let him go!"
All these years, the Goddess of Wealth had always been inclined to use gentle methods. Her church had always been mediating between the merchant and aristocratic parties. She had never been so forceful. At this moment, when she was furious, she immediately suppressed both parties. Even if they had thousands of small calculations in their minds, they couldn't fight. They could only negotiate honestly.
As the two parties talked, they felt that they didn't have enough manpower. So they each gathered people from the back. The powerful nobles and medium-sized chambers of commerce all rushed to this temporarily built meeting hall to participate in the big meeting that the Goddess of Wealth had forced.
Seeing that the big meeting had finally been set up, the Goddess of Wealth was finally relieved. Her face, which had never been smiling, finally relaxed a little.
But … the price she paid was also very high.
Forceful methods were contrary to her teachings. In other words, she forced the merchant party and the aristocratic party to discuss and negotiate, which was equivalent to hurting herself. Regardless of whether this negotiation was successful or not, her divinity had already been seriously damaged.
Fortunately, in recent years, with Sui Xiong's help, her divinity had improved a lot. Her divinity had greatly increased, and she more or less had some space of autonomy. She had been mentally prepared before, which was why she could make such a decision. Otherwise, if it had been decades ago, even if she had thought of this method, she wouldn't have been able to implement it. She could only watch the situation deteriorate and eventually get out of hand.
So, when the aristocratic party and the merchant party finally started to negotiate, she finally heaved a sigh of relief and went to thank Sui Xiong.
"This time, it's really all thanks to your help all these years!" She said very sincerely. "If it wasn't for the growth of divinity over these years as a buffer, I definitely wouldn't have been able to use this method this time!"
"This is also because you seized the opportunity before and have accumulated." Sui Xiong didn't take credit for it. He laughed and said, "After all, people still need to help themselves. If you didn't accumulate well before, no one could help you this time."
"Hmm …" The Goddess of Wealth nodded, but her expression became worried again. "I don't know if they can actually come to a conclusion this time … This time, there are only merchants and aristocrats in the meeting. There are no clergymen or civilian representatives. I always feel that it's not appropriate."
"Then why don't you force them to join these two parties?" Sui Xiong asked.
"Forcing them to negotiate is already my limit. I can't force them to do anything more. "The Goddess of Wealth sighed and shook her head.
Sui Xiong laughed. "Don't worry, just leave it to me."
"It's nothing more than locking them up and threatening them. I just used this method not long ago, and I'm very familiar with it!"
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
