Although Laurist had been loitering outside for more than three months and only hurried back to the Monolith Castle when Miss Tresti was about to give birth, he sent his guards to deliver mushy love letters and gifts to her from time to time, which was why Miss Tresti easily forgave him for not keeping his promise. This made Laurist heave a sigh of relief. A pregnant woman who was about to give birth couldn't take any stimulation …
When Fatty Shi entered the study, he saw Lollister laughing. He was very curious. "What's making you so happy?"
Lollister smiled and waved a letter in his hand. "I just received news that Duke Fisabulon has run back to the Eastern Wasteland Province. The letter says that Duke Fisabulon has been the regent of the Iberian Kingdom for more than a month. Other than quarreling with the nobles in the Rose Palace every day, he hasn't done anything serious. The few policies he has promulgated have been resisted by the nobles, both openly and secretly. In the end, this great swordsman couldn't stand these cumbersome affairs and resigned from his position as regent. He left a cavalry regiment in the capital and ran away. Now, the beautiful queen is in charge of the Iberian Kingdom … "
"This poor old man definitely doesn't know that this is all your arrangement …" Fatty Shi shook his head. "When I heard the guards who delivered the letter say that you didn't allow the family's armed forces to loot the nobles and the rich in the capital of Wendeli City and gave the queen preferential treatment, I knew who you were planning to trick again. Especially when the two chariot battalions of our family's armed forces helped the Henned and Felim families to wipe out almost half of Winston Province, but they didn't hang any rebellious lords. I was even more certain of this idea. Now I understand that you want to deal with Duke Fisabulon. "
"No, you're wrong. In fact, I didn't want to trick anyone. Fisabulon jumped into the pit himself. I made it very clear this time that I only want to target the second prince. I don't want to go against the nobles of the entire Iberian Kingdom, and then let them spread the name of the Norton Family being a bandit family to the whole of Gelumbia … "
Lollister stood up and went to the wine cabinet to choose a small barrel of fruit wine. He took two silver cups and poured them for Fatty Shi. "Try it. I got it from a vineyard in Winston Province."
Fatty Shi took it and tasted it, praising, "It's not bad. But Locke, I'm confused. You didn't rob the property of the nobles in the royal capital, but you colluded with Henned and the Filim family to rob most of the lords in Winston province. Isn't this contradictory to your statement? "
"Haha …" Laurist laughed, "There's no contradiction. What you don't understand is what the nobles of the Iberian Kingdom are like. When the second prince established the kingdom, he used the method of conferring nobles to buy and sell titles. He sold all the land in the southern province and Winston province, except for the capital. He also conferred dozens of lords to the north, so the Iberian Kingdom had the largest number of nobles.
The second prince had used the wealth from the sale of the title to form the kingdom's army to attack the Duchy of Melaine. Unexpectedly, after fighting for two years, not only did he suffer defeat, but he also turned the southern province of the kingdom into ruins. The nobles who had been conferred titles to the southern province realized that the future was not good. They had already packed up their belongings and ran to the royal capital. Then, they bickered with the second prince every day, asking him to take responsibility for the southern province turning into ruins.
A few years ago, the second prince had no choice but to borrow troops from Duke Fisablun. He had to give an explanation to the nobles who stayed in the royal capital, so he set his sights on the Madras Duchy, which seemed easy to bully. His plan was to occupy the Madras Duchy's Delemke province and replace the nobles' territories in the royal capital. He also wanted to take the opportunity to make a fortune and get rid of the huge food debt he owed to the Madras Duchy.
You can understand by looking at the map. The Delemke province was known as the granary of the former empire. Was the neighboring Winston province that bad? In fact, the second prince did not have the ability to control the lords under him like the Madras Duchy did. After the territory was conferred, the lords of the Winston province acted on their own. They abandoned the laborious and unprofitable industry of growing food and opened orchards, wineries, and planted very profitable cash crops. Therefore, after the southern province was in ruins, the Iberian Kingdom had always been short of food, and the food was in the hands of the lords of the Winston province. The price of food in the kingdom had been very high for the past few years. This was the masterpiece of the lords of the Winston province.
Because of the high price of food, the lords of the Winston province had taken advantage of the favorable weather in the past few years to hoard a large amount of food. They controlled the foreign grain merchants from entering the kingdom and maintained the price of food in the kingdom, making a lot of money. The lords of the south stayed in the royal capital and were jealous of the country bumpkins and nouveau riche of the Winston province. The two sides were in conflict. This was the main reason why the second prince stayed in the north for the past few years and was too lazy to return to the royal capital. He did not want to argue with the nobles.
Therefore, when the news of our three northern families robbing the lords of the Winston province spread to the royal capital, the nobles of the royal capital cheered and thought that we should have taught the country bumpkins of the Winston province a lesson a long time ago. In fact, my original intention was to give the nobles of the Iberian Kingdom a great purge, just like what you did in the Andinak Kingdom. Hang these nobles and the world will be much more peaceful.
Unfortunately, doing that would only help the person who took over the ruling power of the Iberian Kingdom. Just like Grand Duke Fisablun, if he unified the four provinces of the Iberian Kingdom, then his strength would increase several times. We would have added a very difficult enemy to deal with for no reason, so I would not do such a stupid thing.
I purposely ordered the armed forces of Henned and the Filim family not to harm the lives of the feudal lords during the looting process for this reason. I emptied their granaries and supplies, plundered their floating wealth, and migrated their citizens so that the feudal lords of Winston Province and the feudal lords of the southern province who stayed in the capital would be evenly matched. If I robbed the nobles of the royal capital, all the nobles would be united against the enemy, while I let the nobles of the southern province go. Then, they would take pleasure in the misfortune of the Winston province's lords.
For the Winston province's lords, what they hate the most is that our three northern families migrated their people. Without their people, they would not be able to accumulate wealth and grow food. Moreover, the north has a natural barrier, so they would not be able to fight back. If I wanted to obtain people, I would have to think of other ways, but if I migrate the poor people of the royal capital, these lords would not be able to recruit people. Then, the only way left would be to attack the neighboring Madras Duchy of Delemke province.
The last time the second prince attacked the Delemke province, it was the nobles of the southern province who stayed in the royal capital who contributed money and manpower. The Winston province's lords only provided some food and soldiers perfunctorily. Now, if the Winston province's lords wanted to attack the Delemke province for their own interests, they would definitely be strongly opposed by the nobles of the southern province.
In the past, any proposal made by the nobles of the southern province would always be opposed and resisted by the Winston province's lords. In terms of strength, the nobles of the southern province who had lost their territory were helpless and could only swallow their anger. Now, both sides were about the same. Any suggestion made by the Winston province's lords would definitely be opposed by the southern province's lords. Therefore, after Grand Duke Fisabulon took over the ruling power of the Iberian Kingdom, he realized that he would achieve nothing under the wrangling between the nobles of the two sides. Government decrees were not allowed to leave the royal capital. He could be considered to have seen the opportunity early, so he simply resigned from his position as Regent and ran back to his hometown.
If Grand Duke Fisabulon was ruthless and ruthless enough to clean up a group of nobles who disagreed with him, he might be able to barely control the situation of the kingdom and push the kingdom in the direction he wanted it to develop. Unfortunately, it was unknown whether the old man did not have the courage or was too clear-headed. He knew that doing so would make the Fisabulon family the target of public criticism, so he simply gave up and retreated to his nest to live a carefree life.
Our Norton family is too far away from the Winston province. Without occupying the entire north, it is not suitable for us to extend our hands there. Therefore, I hope that the Winston province will become a chaotic battlefield. Once Grand Duke Fisabulon leaves, there will be no strong suppression from above. The conflict between the southern province and the Winston province's lords will erupt, and soon they will fight each other. At that time, we will just sit back and watch them kill each other. "
Fatty Shi's eyes widened as he listened, and he let out a long sigh. "Locke, I didn't expect you to change so quickly. After becoming a lord, your thinking is getting more and more far-fetched. You really have calculated everything …"
Laurist spread his hands. "I can't help it. After becoming a lord, I realized that the world of nobles is not about hunting, playing, holding balls and banquets all day, and seducing those beautiful ladies and ladies. Instead, I have to worry about all the affairs of the family's territory. I have to be responsible for the future of the family, the lives of the people, and the knights under me. The interactions between nobles are also full of deception and the stench of money. If I don't think things through, I will be swallowed whole.
It's all forced … "Fatty Shi drank the wine in the silver cup in one gulp, wiped his mouth, and said," Alright, stop complaining. You have already done very well. The family is now thriving. Let's get down to business. Why did you call me here in such a hurry? "
Laurist pointed to a thick stack of animal skin documents on the desk. "At the end of this month, the nearly 70,000 people we were assigned to migrate, and the 40,000 poor people we forcibly migrated from the capital, Winderbury City, will arrive at the family's territory. These 100,000 immigrants will be handed over to you. Settle them in the Xingan Plains. Aren't there still a few districts that lack manpower? With this batch of immigrants, it should be enough."
"Accompanying these immigrants are more than 15,000 prisoners of war from the border army. Grand Duke Fisabulon will not give up on these soldiers under his command. The combined population of Munohara Province and Eastern Wasteland Province is less than 500,000. If it wasn't for the fact that the southern province was in ruins, and a large number of civilians were forced to migrate to Eastern Wasteland Province, Grand Duke Fisabulon would not have maintained the full strength of the border army for the past few years. The 15,000 prisoners of war we have captured are elite soldiers, not the 30,000 eliminated soldiers he lent to the second prince back then, so he will definitely come to redeem them.
I do not intend to let these prisoners enter the family's territory, so I will leave them to you to arrange for them to build roads and transportation facilities in the Xingan Plains. It would be a pity to release these strong laborers just like this. When Grand Duke Fisabulon's envoy comes, you will be in charge of negotiating with him. You can delay for as long as you think you can give these prisoners of war their freedom. It would also be good to have them build more roads for us … "
Fatty Shi burst into laughter. "Locke, you are becoming more and more shrewd. You are even scheming like this. If Grand Duke Fisabulon were to find out, he would definitely be furious. Alright, I understand this matter. Leave it to me. I will make Grand Duke Fisabulon pay a large ransom for his 15,000 men. "
Laurist stroked his chin as he paced around the study. He pondered and said, "Archduke Fisablen might not have that much money. His adopted son and trusted aide, Viscount Christopher, is still in my hands. He also has over fifteen thousand elite soldiers. I suspect that he won't be able to afford such a huge ransom. So, I don't want money this time. I want cattle and sheep. The Eastern Wasteland Province and Muye Province are the largest pastures in the former empire. The cattle and sheep produced by them occupy more than half of the former empire's market share. This is what I saw in the business survey in Moronte City.
Last time, you swept away all the lords in the north. Isn't the western part of the north empty now? We will treat it as our Norton family's pasture. A prisoner of war in exchange for a cow would be more than 15,000. I wonder how many cows Viscount Christopher, a Great Swordsman, can exchange for? I won't do it if it is less than 10,000. Let's graze the cows in the west and turn it into a large pasture in the north. "
Fatty Shi nodded. "Currently, our family's only pasture belongs to the Maple Forest Manor. It only has about 2,000 cows and sheep. Although there are commoners grazing in the Fengle Plains, most of them are sheep. There are only a few dozen to a few hundred of them. If it wasn't for the large amount of meat we harvested during the magical beast wave, our family's territory would have long been in a meat shortage. Your idea isn't bad. Although the western part of the north is desolate, there isn't much danger. It's a good place to build a large pasture. "
"Then it's decided. By the way, the three families in the north also plundered a lot of food in Winston Province. About 60 million kilograms will be given to our family, as well as some other valuables. I plan to use the food and valuables to develop the Xingan Plains. You'll be in charge of storing them. Also, the Henned and Felim families don't lack food. They're willing to sell the looted food to us at market price. I've already agreed, so I'll let you handle it as well, "Laurist added.
"Alright, I know what to do." Fatty Shi stood up and went to the desk. He sorted out the relevant documents and held them in his hands. "Locke, how many days until Miss Trish gives birth?"
"A few more days. I think it should be around the 11th or 12th," Laurist said as he looked out the window.
"Aren't you going to give her an explanation?" Fatty Shi asked.
Laurist shrugged. "What can I do? You know I've proposed to her a few times, but she always said that she swore before the God of Wisdom, Siming Ryder, that she would never talk about marriage. I hope she'll change her mind after giving birth and agree to marry me … "
"Sigh, it's been five years since we left Moronte City for the north. You're 29 now. As a lord, it's time for you to start a family. Miss Tracy is really a good candidate to be the lord's wife. You have to persuade her, "Fatty Shi sighed.
Laurist nodded in agreement. Seeing that Fatty Shi was about to leave, he went to open the door to send him off. Then, he saw Shiward standing outside the door and chuckled. "Fatty, Baron Filim will be spending the winter here at the end of this year, and he'll be bringing his fifteen-year-old precious daughter …"
Fatty Shi was stunned. "Baron Felim? He's not even thirty-five, right? How can he have a fifteen-year-old daughter? And he doesn't have a wife, does he? "
Laurist laughed. "That's his illegitimate daughter. It's said that her mother was only sixteen when she gave birth to the child. Baron Felim himself wasn't even eighteen …"
"What a beast!" Fatty Shi cursed with deep hatred, but his tone was full of envy. "He's spending the winter here with us. Why did he bring his daughter here?"
Laurist pouted at Shiward, who was blushing. "He's taken a liking to this kid. He's going to bring his daughter here for them to meet. If he likes her, he'll discuss with Bofinger about their engagement."
Fatty Shi laughed. "That's good news, Shiward. Congratulations, you've gotten yourself a wife just by following the lord around. Looks like you'll have to go out more in the future …"
Shiward couldn't stand their teasing anymore. He turned around and ran out. Laurist and Fatty Shi laughed.
… …
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