industrial lord

Chapter 576 Solve the Problems Separately
In the process of promoting the telegraph, the Kingdom of Sardinia responded most positively.

After Frederick came here, he realized that prosperous business cannot be separated from the support of information, and a piece of news is sometimes enough to determine the life or death of a chamber of commerce.

The Dawn Chamber of Commerce, which operated a telegraph station, was able to gain a foothold in the Kingdom of Sardinia. However, as an outsider, its foundation was unstable, and in addition to the telegraph station, it only operated the "Deanly Business News".

This attitude satisfied the local tyrants and everyone lived in peace.

The telegraph station was open all night. In the early hours of the morning, when the nobles' ball was getting into full swing, an urgent telegram was sent from Milan.

At two o'clock in the morning, the ball was gradually coming to an end. The Doge of Venice, Enrique, received news from Milan that Paolo also attended the ball he had organized.

There are two most powerful people in Venice, in addition to Doge Enrique, there is also the maritime overlord Paolo.

The political territories of the two were clearly divided, with the land belonging to Enrique and the sea belonging to Paolo.

A few years ago, the Ghazi Empire's main naval force, Hedem, was defeated by Frederick's naval and air forces in the battle to recover Constantinople, and had to retreat to the coast.

Paolo took the opportunity to launch a large-scale attack, captured a large number of islands, monopolized the port operating rights, and occupied large tracts of sea area.

Henry took advantage of the opportunity when the Kingdom of Gaul was involved in the civil war of the Kingdom of Tarragona and provided it with a large loan with only symbolic interest in exchange for a license for the Venetians to do business in the southern ports of the Kingdom of Gaul.

The two men brought huge profits to the businessmen and their reputations were at their peak.

Just when the Venetians were feeling proud, they were hit twice.

At sea, Paolo was dreaming of dominating the inland sea when two other sea overlords arrived.

The Principality of Wessen and the Osmaga Empire wanted to send troops "to the south". The port of Ferdinand where they boarded the ship was not far from the city of Venice. Naturally, maritime transportation found Frederick's old friend, and this old friend found new friends.

Hayreddin, who dominated the southern coast of the inland sea, came out with his full fleet. Pietro, who monopolized the northwest of the inland sea, was unhappy that the Venetians extended their hands to the southern coast of the Kingdom of Gaul, so he accepted Hayreddin's invitation and brought his main fleet.

In addition, there is a newbie at sea. The fleet of the Principality of Wessen, led by Lulu, with the Flying Tulip as its flagship, a total of 20 steamships joined the joint fleet.

The combined fleet blocked out the sun and sky, leaving only a very narrow channel for the Venetian ships.

Paolo sent out five ships to test the waters, but a steamship from the Principality of Wessen caught up from behind and passed the fleet at a distance of more than 200 meters on the sea. The five ships sank inexplicably in full view of everyone.

The rescued crew members said that they heard a loud noise and vibration from the bottom of the boat without any warning, and then a huge hole appeared on the boat, as if it had hit a reef.

Paolo wanted to try again, but no one dared.

The sailors of Venice believed that the fleet of the Principality of Wessen brought the devils from the devil legion on board, and those devils jumped into the water and swam over in the sea without taking a breath and pierced the bottom of the ship, because some people swore that they saw black things going into the water on the ship of the Principality of Wessen before the ship accident.

The magician group in the city also refused to go out to sea. It was not a problem for one person to defeat ten on land, but fighting against those devils who could swim more than 200 meters underwater without taking a breath and then swim back at sea, wasn't that courting death?
It was no use for Paolo to say nice things, and he couldn't force them.

The wizards are the bosses. If they are forced into a corner, they might as well resign and find a job in the Principality of Wessen.

The work there is not life-threatening and the salary is not low. The employer will even help pay the highest level of pension savings. After retirement, you can receive a considerable amount of interest every month, and the principal will be returned when you die.

Paolo had no choice but to give in and let the fleet pass through the channel provided by others.

Life on land was not easy either. Enrique knew things were going to be bad when he learned that the Duchy of Bavaria’s railway plan did not include Venice.

All businessmen understand the huge market and value of the products in the North. Once the railway is completed and Venice has no place to go, the commercial center will shift and the decline of the city will be inevitable.

The "zero-dollar purchase" campaign targeting Venetian merchants that took place in various places not long ago made Enrique even more anxious.

He knew in his heart that he could not recover the losses, so he could only take a positive attitude and file a lawsuit in the local court through legal procedures.

This is just an act. Smart people have already seen through that the mastermind behind these things is the local tyrants. How can you win by suing the judge in court?

But you have to pretend to do it, otherwise you will give people the impression that you cannot protect your own people. At the very least, you will have no chance of winning the next election, and at worst, you will be impeached immediately.

The most serious thing is that according to intelligence from some channels, the royal family of the Kingdom of Sardinia is about to end.

The best chance Enrique could think of to turn things around was to build a railway to Venice. By then, this city would be the meeting point of land and sea between the northern continent and the southern inland sea, and would surely be able to develop further.

To this end, he sent secret envoys to the Duchy of Vessen to persuade Grand Duke Vessen to build a railway to the city of Venice.

In the secret room, Enrique and Paolo carefully studied the information coming from Milan.

Enrique breathed a sigh of relief and said, "It seems that the envoy and Grand Duke Wessen met halfway."

They had always believed that the plan not to connect the railway to Venice had been approved by Frederick. Now that Frederick had softened his stance, it must be that the envoy's lobbying had worked.

Paolo frowned and said, "Fila City? It's not impossible. We can just expand the port there, and it can also relieve the pressure here." "But this plan has been seen through, and they will not give up."

Enrique thought for a moment and said, "I think Grand Duke Wessen is testing us, the royal family, other principalities, and even the Osmaga Empire's reactions."

Paolo smiled bitterly and said, "We know without probing that they all want us to die so they can have a party."

Intelligence indicates that the Duchy of Milan has decided to oppose, and this reaction could represent the reactions of other duchies.

The combined fleet at sea was blocking the city of Venice and the Kingdom of Sardinia at the same time, but the royal family pretended not to see it. The reaction was self-evident.

Not to mention the Osmaga Empire, Queen Anna's sister, Protector Mary, was seriously injured in the war with Venice and was unable to have children. This was a huge grudge.

Paolo believed that if the coalition forces in Ferdinando Porto could have captured the city of Venice by land and sea a while ago, and the royal family could have taken their time organizing reinforcements and waited for the coalition forces to leave with the spoils before recovering the lost territory, both sides would have gained what they needed.

Enrique also smiled bitterly helplessly.

He had long realized that eating alone would not end well, but the governor was elected by the businessmen, and their greedy appetites had to be satisfied, which eventually led to the current situation.

"I think the bottom line is that we have a railroad going to Fira, and we have a port that has railroad access in our hands," Paolo said.

"I'm going to the Ghazi Empire to work with their new warlord, Sema."

"Hedem is on the side of the old warlord. Sema has no maritime trade. I will cooperate with her and we will both get what we need."

"Now the old warlords are losing ground, and there are rumors that Fatih will marry Sema as his queen. If you help now, you can get the trading rights of some of the ports of the Gazi Empire in the future."

"At that time, we had the market of the Ghazi Empire and the port connected to the railway network, which made us invincible."

After hearing this, Enrique thought about it and felt that it was feasible.

In the past, the Ghazi Empire's trade with the north was transported by sea via the Danube. If it could go through Fira or even Venice, the profits would be enough to cover the losses.

He made a decision: "I will raise more funds to provide war loans to Sema and try to get on this line."

"I think the royal family and other principalities will have to give up some of their profits, and the profits of the Ghazi Empire can be used to compensate them."

It is harder to get businessmen to spit out the meat in their mouths than to kill them. The only way to convince them is to exchange benefits.

Paolo said helplessly: "It seems that this is the only way."

"We are now facing threats from Hayreddin and Pietro at sea. I want to support the maritime power of the Ghazi Empire to contain Hayreddin, and I will work with the Kingdom of Gaul to deal with Pietro."

At this time, Enrique thought of something and said, "I heard that the Kingdom of Kush wants to dig a canal to connect the inland sea and the eastern sea. We will sponsor it."

"First, we can ease the relationship with Hayreddin through the royal family. Second, we will have the opportunity to go to the eastern seas, or even Tianzhu and Taohuashi."

Paolo nodded and said this plan was fine.

It is easy and convenient for them to make concessions to win over the royal family of Sardinia and other principalities.

It is not a big problem to split Hayreddin and Petros, as the two sides have never been a close alliance, and it is rumored that the young king of the Kush Kingdom is a little dissatisfied with Hayreddin. This is an opportunity.

The most troublesome thing is the Osmaga Empire. Their Ferdinand Port has been connected to the railway, and on the other side, Ferdinand City has a port leading to the Danube River, which already has the function of connecting to the northern transportation network.

Moreover, Port Ferdinand is very close to Venice and Fira. Although the Osmaga Empire does not have a naval fleet, they and Hayreddin have a common ally, Grand Duke Wessen, and Hayreddin does not mind opening a branch base in the north.

If this problem is not solved, the royal family of the Kingdom of Sardinia and other principalities will find a lot of excuses, such as security cannot be guaranteed, all the ships go to Port Ferdinand, who will go to your place, etc., to refuse to build the railway.

Not to mention that Porto Ferdinand is Marie's territory, and Marie is the lover of Archduke Wesson. They are very familiar with each other, but not with you Venetians at all.

Enrique and Paolo thought for a long time, but all the proposals they proposed were rejected.

"There's nothing we can do." Enrique shook his head and said, "We can only start with Grand Duke Wesson and have him persuade Anna and Mary."

Paolo gritted his teeth and said, "Grand Duke Weisen will not help us for no reason. He will not even meet our envoys there."

"I will spend some money to purchase a large number of steam-powered ships. I think he will meet with the envoy."

Enrique nodded. It is not uncommon to open a business with a large order.

He thought for a moment and said, "I want to use a fish from Milan. I don't need her to lobby Grand Duke Weisen. It's enough if she can get the news."

(End of this chapter)