There weren't many choices left for Ronitant, or rather, they had no choice now.
They didn't even have an ally — the Irus spanned across the continent and was connected to the Ambris Mountains.
In the south of Irus, there was only the Emerald Forest of the Elves and a few small duchies, and then there was Ronitant.
If the Irus wanted to take action, Ronitant had no room to resist at all. Even the Irus didn't need to do anything, as long as they stopped Ronitant's merchants from crossing the border, it would be enough to make Ronitant's economy collapse.
After losing the City of Silver, Solant had now returned to the Irus Empire, and their only market was the Irus Empire.
What? The Kingdom of Gris? Logically speaking, if a merchant wasn't brave enough to take risks, he wouldn't dare to do business in Gris. Although the profits were great, the risks were equally great. The people there were fierce, there were many robbers along the trade route, and the magical beasts in the wild were quite ferocious. One careless mistake could lead to bankruptcy.
If they had a choice, they would rather choose to do business with the residents of the Irus Empire.
In the end, the matter was settled. Oscar immediately began to prepare a magic letter to inform Olina, hoping that she could pass on the news to Tang En through Olina.
When Olina found Tang En and told him the news, Tang En's reaction was very subtle.
"I thought he would react faster. I didn't expect it to drag on for so long."
Olina was a little puzzled. "Why?"
"Mom! Are you stupid? "
Aurelia next to him was speechless. "Think about it, Ronitant is isolated in the south, and Irus has always been between Ronitant and the Solant Kingdom. In the past, because the City of Silver was in Ronitant, my uncle didn't have to worry that the Irus would block his trade route, and he had been making a lot of money happily."
"Now that Solant has returned and the City of Silver is gone, what's left in Ronitant? Only the Gnomes' Star Diamond Bank can do it. "
"But Irus' economy is developing rapidly under the influence of Tang En. Ellington is about to surpass Nanilla and become the new economic center of Prandal. With the greedy nature of the goblins, they will definitely consider moving their headquarters to Ellington. If things really develop in this way, it will be a disaster for Ronitant."
"But uncle is greedy for his current power and doesn't want to return to the Irus Empire. What should we do then?"
Aurelia reminded Olina, "In this case, it's impossible to be hostile. The Ronitans have no ability to resist. They want to find allies, but they can't cross the Irus. They are now isolated."
Olina asked hesitantly, "A stalling tactic?"
"No, to be exact, it's drinking poison to quench thirst."
Aurelia spread out her hands. "There's only one path in front of uncle. Ronitant will eventually return to the Irus Empire, but it's not certain whether it's sooner or later. At least for now, when he's in power, he doesn't want to return. So, the only thing he can do is to find a way to coexist."
Tang En shook his head. "The so-called coexistence is impossible. I need a unified Prandal."
"You see, this is Tang En's attitude. Uncle knows very well that since Tang En has already come this far, he will definitely not give up. So, if Ronitant doesn't find a way to express his attitude, he will be in a very dangerous situation."
Olina nodded. "So my brother wrote a letter to congratulate him …"
Aurelia smiled. "The congratulation is just a stepping stone. The real intention is to apply for the establishment of a formal trading relationship."
Tang En also smiled. "In the past, when the Irus Empire was relatively weak, the Ronitans looked down on the Irus Empire. But for the sake of stable development, your father married you to the Irus Empire to deepen the relationship between each other through marriage. It's also to seek a peaceful trade route for the merchants of the Ronitans Kingdom."
"But those are all things that have been agreed upon, and not written down in writing."
"Once a formal contract is signed, it means that the royal family of Irus officially recognizes the legal independence of the Ronitans. It will be more difficult to find an excuse to recover that territory in the future."
Tang En and Aurelia's words made Olina dizzy. She really didn't expect this simple letter to have so many tricks.
"But why?"
Olina couldn't figure it out. "The Ronitans used to be the territory of the Irus Empire, and the Ronitans used to be just a feudal lord. Even if they return now, it's just the same as before. Why is my brother unwilling?"
"That's complicated …"
Tang En twitched the corner of his mouth. "It can be explained in terms of human nature, power, wealth, and so on. I guess you don't have the patience to listen, and you won't understand even if you do. In short, it's not so easy to hand over the power that's already in your hands."
"Then what should we do?"
Olina wanted to say something but stopped. After a moment, she whispered, "How about I persuade my brother? Let the two countries reunite as peacefully as possible? "
"You're so … cute."
Tang En laughed. "Peaceful reunification is a good suggestion, but how is it going to be done peacefully? Is it going to be dominated by Irus? Or is it going to be dominated by the Ronitans? Who's going to take over the throne? Who's going to be the rightful ruler? "
"Isn't this a matter of course? It's definitely going to be Irus — "
Olina didn't finish her words. She seemed to have understood something.
"It seems that you also understand that it's not so easy to make a person who has already become a king a subject again."
Aurelia pondered for a moment and said, "Although I'm sorry, uncle, I suggest that we turn down this proposal."
Tang En smiled and said, "Why should we turn it down? Agree to it. "
Aurelia was startled. "But if we agree to it, it will make us very passive in the future. Morally, we won't be able to take the initiative to reclaim the Ronitans …"
"Don't worry, it's just a contract. It doesn't matter if it's important or not. As long as we use some skills, we don't have to worry about it. Besides, the so-called orthodoxy is, of course, based on the approval of the Radiant Church. As long as the Pope is on our side, we don't have to worry about the issue of righteousness."
Tang En tapped the table gently, his mind spinning rapidly. He said slowly, "Besides, because of the two of you, the possibility of reclaiming the Ronitans by force is not very high. I'm also embarrassed to beat up my brother-in-law. It just so happens that his proposal has given me a hint. It can let us push forward the preparations that we've made before."
Olina blushed. She did not expect that Tang En would actually consider the thoughts of the mother and daughter. His thoughtfulness warmed Olina's heart.
"You mean, the economic invasion that you mentioned before?"
Aurelia raised her eyebrows. Back then, Tang En had mentioned the idea of economic invasion of the Ronitans and Solant. But unexpectedly, before they could launch the attack, Solant collapsed directly because of the incident with Lothamar. They did not even have to resort to economic invasion. On the other hand, the Ryan Empire had accidentally become a puppet regime of the Datang Chamber of Commerce.
"Yes, for countries that like trade, an open economic environment is undoubtedly their favorite. I think my brother-in-law must be anxiously waiting for our reply now."
Tang En smiled and said, "Then let's give him a surprise gift package."
Aurelia took out the banknotes and asked, "What are you going to do?"
"First of all, we'll fully open several border and coastal cities in the south, especially several large cities such as Fehra, Preston, and Paganis, and turn them into trade ports. We'll implement ultra-low business tax policies there. If necessary, we can even consider a zero tariff policy."
"Zero, zero tariff!? Are you crazy!? "
Aurelia was dumbfounded. If the trade ports were fully opened and a zero tariff policy was implemented, one could imagine how huge a storm it would cause. Those merchants would definitely rush there like crazy. The daily turnover would be a terrifying amount. Giving up tax would mean losing a lot of wealth!
Zero tariff! It was simply heaven for merchants! It was even certain that those merchants would settle there and not leave!
Wait a minute? Zero tariff? Settle down?
Aurelia was startled. She felt that she had vaguely grasped the key factor.
"I only said to reduce tariffs. I didn't say that we won't collect anything else. Service fees, value-added tax, income tax, and so on will still be collected as usual."
Tang En smiled and continued, "And according to the principle of mutual equality, if we exempt tariffs, the Ronitans must also implement a duty-free policy for our goods …"
"Our goods are duty-free … Hiss!"
Aurelia sucked in a breath of cold air and looked at Tang En, dumbfounded. "This move of yours is too insidious!"
Why did she say that Tang En was insidious? Because the Irus Empire, or to be exact, because the Datang Chamber of Commerce's products were too competitive! If the tariff protection policy was not implemented, the Datang Chamber of Commerce's products could be dumped in every corner of the Ronitans in a crushing manner! Similar products produced in their own country would have no competitive power!
This seemed to be a very vicious move that hurt the enemy by a thousand but also hurt themselves by eight hundred. However, it only looked like it!
Aurelia was now very clear about how low the cost of the Datang Chamber of Commerce's products was, and how terrifying the profit margin was! It could be said that in the selling price of a product, the cost of materials, labor, operation, publicity, and so on added together accounted for more than one-tenth. The most important research and development cost of a product could be completely ignored!
Therefore, the profits of the Datang Chamber of Commerce's products were too high. Even if some of the profits were reduced, the profits were still considerable!
But the merchants of the Ronitans couldn't! They couldn't bear it!
If the zero tariff policy was really implemented, the relevant industries of the Ronitans would probably completely collapse! A large number of people would lose their jobs and become jobless!
When that time came …
Perhaps the Ronitans would no longer have the chance to leave the Irus Empire!
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