industrial lord

Chapter 687 "My money!"

After Frederick became the full-power governor of the Ruhr Valley, his first three actions were to send a group of elite soldiers from the Wesson accounting firm to fourteen towns and cities under the protection of the Wesson Army to audit the local finances.

In late June, after one person was assassinated, four were seriously injured, and ten were slightly injured, the accounting firm Wesson sent a bloody audit report to the city of Hammer and handed it to Frederick.

On this day, a group of great nobles of the Rhine Alliance were discussing the situation on the front line, when their attendants suddenly came to report that His Majesty Rudolf was angry.

Everyone was shocked. Rudolf was here just now and Frederick asked him to leave. Why did he suddenly get angry?

On the road less than ten meters between the two rooms, the political creatures thought of all kinds of possibilities.

The tea room that was once luxuriously decorated has now become a mess. The coffee table is hanging on the windowsill and almost falls off. The golden lampstand of the Ghazi Empire, the silver teapot of the Kingdom of Gaul, and the crystal clock of the Duchy of Wessen have all turned into fragments on the street stalls of the Dashi Empire.

Frederick sat on the sofa, holding a teacup, and seemed not to see Rudolph raising a chair and about to smash a peach stone porcelain vase.

Everyone was shocked, what is going on?
Duke Heger lived up to his swordsmanship. He moved so fast that he left a trail of afterimages. He grabbed Rudolf's hand and said, "Your Majesty, this is the home of Grand Duke Wessen."

Frederick had a mansion in Hammar City, where the headquarters of the Rhine Alliance coalition was located. After Rudolf came to gain experience, Frederick generously built it into a palace for him. This time, after coming from Swan City, he lived in the guest room.

Rudolf's face turned pale and cold sweat broke out. Only then did he remember that this was not his palace and his master was standing next to him.

Frederick took a sip of tea and said calmly, "It's okay. If Your Majesty hasn't gotten enough of his anger, you can continue in another room."

Count Rank lifted up the overturned sofa, Duke Heger pulled Rudolf to sit down, and Count Shuyunstiga went over and asked, "Your Majesty, what happened?"

Frederick bent down, picked up the audit report on the ground, patted the footprints on it, and handed it to Rudolf.

After Rudolph received the audit report, he said to the people around him, "You can read it for yourselves."

Count Rank and others gathered together and flipped through the first two pages of the summary, and couldn't help but gasp.

Frederick was not speaking casually when he said that Rudolf knew his territory better than him. The Ruhr Valley was very rich, but they only needed to pay a little more money than other places to appear rich, and more money went into the pockets of local officials.

This is not something that has happened in just one or two years; it started during the reign of our late King William.

The royal family appoints administrative officials of all sizes every few years, and I don’t know how many people are there sucking the blood of the royal family.

Rudolph sat on the sofa, his eyes blank and he kept muttering: "My money, my money!"

He didn't expect that what the royal family sent was not a sheepdog, but a blood-sucking worm.

Duke Heger felt a little uneasy. He was the finance minister of the Rhine Alliance at that time, and he could not say that he had heard anything about this matter, but he was completely ignorant of it.

"Check!" Rudolph suddenly jumped up from the sofa. "Check it for me! Check it back thirty years. If you eat anything from me, you will spit it out twice as much!"

He looked like an angry lion at this moment, and those who had a guilty conscience shrank their necks.

"Duke Heger!" Rudolf called out, which startled Duke Heger. "You will be responsible for this matter."

Duke Heger breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that he could get himself out of this trouble.

However, before he could finish his breath, Rudolf said, "Grand Duke Wessen, come and help."

Duke Heger's heart suddenly rose to his throat, and he felt that he could not hide anything related to money from Frederick.

But now that things have come to this, he can only take on the job with Frederick and deal with the rest later.

Rudolph finally said, "You guys discuss it first, I'll go back and rest."

"This matter must not be disclosed. Violators will be treated as the principal offender!"

The Ruhr Valley is where the court nobles make money. The people here are basically military nobles with fiefdoms. The two sides are not in the same group. Even if there is a marriage alliance, it seems that they have to sacrifice their relatives for the sake of justice.

With Grand Duke Wei Sen involved, who could be smarter than him in making money? What we need to worry about now is whether the separation is thorough and who will jump into the trap. Keeping oneself safe is a compulsory course for noble lords.

Soon it was lunch time, and Count Shuyunsdiga invited Count Rank to have lunch together.

Count Rank, as the Minister of the Interior, has always been a loner and would not accept such an invitation, but Count Shuyunsdiga is much stronger than him. Even if his left leg is made of wood, he can easily pull him into the restaurant.

Count Shuyun Stiga cut off a piece of grilled sausage and said as he ate, "Your Majesty has changed a lot after training on the front line for a while. He is more powerful and decisive than before."

Although Frederick has risen in recent years, there are still many nobles loyal to the royal family, and Count Shuyunsdiga is one of them.

Previously, Rudolf had had many unpleasant arguments with his ministers over issues such as the construction of a new palace. At William's funeral, only Count Schünsteiger stood up to protect Rudolf, which is very telling.

Now that Rudolf has matured and Frederick seems to be humble, Count Shuyunsdiga is naturally happy, but he also wants to help the royal family win more allies.

The court nobles, led by Count Rank, were deeply hurt by Rudolf. He was the most important person to repair the relationship between the two sides.

Count Rank put a potato ball into his mouth with a fork and swallowed it before saying: "A successful emperor must walk on a road paved with corpses, the bones of external enemies and the corpses of internal enemies."

What he said made sense, but he didn't make a clear statement.

Count Shuyun Stiga added: "I have inquired in Swan City. Wesson will marry the daughter of the Eltar family next year. It is estimated that an heir will be born the year after next."

"Wesson said he wanted to give you a golden statue of an angel that day. I thought about it for a long time. I think he was hinting to Your Majesty that the Wesson family was going to marry into the royal family, so a royal heir should come out as soon as possible."

"If the God of Light favors them, it would be great if their children are a boy and a girl."

Count Rank nodded slightly.

I wonder how many people have thought that if the royal family and the Wesson family were combined into one, it would become a terrifying force.

But because of this, the strength of the royal family will inevitably weaken the power of local nobles, so some people are not happy to see this happen.

If Frederick knew that people interpreted his actions in this way just for showing off his wealth, I wonder if he would be so angry that he would vomit blood.

Over there, Count Shuyunsdiga and Count Rank were discussing having the Queen come to Hammar City so that she could get pregnant with Rudolf's child as soon as possible, instead of letting the King be with that mistress every day. Here, Frederick and Duke Heger were having lunch in silence.

Frederick asked calmly, "Duke, you also know about this, right?"

Duke Heger ate a piece of sweet and sour fried fish, feeling like he was rejecting a piece of wax, and nodded his head slightly.

It would be more accurate to say that the two men were discussing the king's mission than to say that they were secretly maneuvering on how to get one of them out of it.

Duke Heger suffered a complete defeat in politics, and then the position of Chancellor of Finance fell to Frederick. Now he seemed to be on the rise again after helping the king to gain military success, but then something happened in the Ruhr Valley, and Rudolf wanted to bring up old scores.

He is not afraid of his own great strength, but what about his descendants? Two failures will inevitably lead to marriage between other families of equal status and his own family. Marrying a minor noble will make him a laughing stock, and the decline of the family is inevitable.

Strength is built up by resources. If the family declines, children with such strength as yours will no longer appear.

So you have to pass this level well and not get stuck.

After taking a sip of beer, Frederick said, "This matter is not just about the present, but also about the long term."

"What happened in the Ruhr Valley is not an isolated case in the royal domains, and it will not stop happening. The king needs a special permanent department to deal with this matter."

"Your goal is to have the king set up this department and take control of it yourself."

Duke Heger's mind suddenly became clear, and he admired Frederick's political foresight. As long as he could get power, giving up some things would not be a problem.

In another restaurant, Rudolf was quite proud of himself. He had just acted according to Frederick's script and had indeed scared Duke Heger. The next step would be easy.

(End of this chapter)