Don’t raise unruly people in extreme cold weather

Chapter 605: The Precarious Empire

Just like the last time, this meeting between Princess Anne and Perfect ended in a bad mood.

And just like last time, Perfecto ordered people to spread the news secretly.

This undoubtedly caused a great response in the North. Although it did not cause any disturbance among the gods or demons in the folks, it caused great turmoil in the upper social circles.

This time, the news announced by Perfectcott was that the Northern Lord invited the eldest princess to have afternoon tea together, but the two sides had a dispute over certain issues and eventually parted unhappily.

The cause of the dispute was political issues in the North.

Although Princess Anne and Perfect were both aware that she was there to persuade Perfect not to slack off, rumors spread that Princess Anne hoped Perfect would not interfere too much in the power of the empire's center.

The reason for this error is actually easy to understand. After all, Princess Anne represents the power of the foreign imperial center and symbolizes imperial power and centralization.

And Perfecto was a local lord who represented more the interests of the traditional military aristocracy.

Between the two, you said that Perfecto was lazy about government affairs, and Princess Anne went to persuade her to be diligent in her work. If you say this, someone has to believe it!

Especially after Princess Anne visited the Lord's Mansion, Perfect began to deal with government affairs seriously again, and northern officials began to suppress the power and influence of the imperial center more, which further confirmed the authenticity of the rumor.

Princess Anne was very angry about this, but she could not explain anything to the outside world.

There was no way to explain this kind of thing, and her explanation would only make things worse.

Especially now that Perfect is really working hard, if she comes out to explain that this matter is not as the outside world has rumored, it will only disappoint the royal family and the forces that support the royal family.

After this incident, Princess Anne also felt very confused about Perfectcot. She really couldn't understand why Perfectcot would deal with her in this way.

She wanted to ask her mother for advice, but the Queen had been ill recently due to drastic changes in the climate. After visiting her, Princess Anne really didn't have the heart to disturb the Queen with these things again.

So in the end, Princess Anne could only sulk by herself.

But while she was angry, she also had to find a way to deal with Perfectoct and the northern forces.

At present, the Imperial Center and the Royal Family are basically like mascots in the North and have no real power.

Although the North is nominally an imperial territory and needs to obey the royal family and the imperial center, the prerequisite is that Perfectcot, the northern lord, continues to be loyal to the royal family and the imperial center.

If the relationship between Perfectoct, the lord of the North, and the Imperial Center changes, then the attitude of the entire North towards the Imperial Center will naturally change accordingly.

Under such circumstances, the fact that the Imperial Center did not become a puppet mascot was largely due to the fact that Perfectoct still maintained respect for the Imperial Center and, most importantly, that the Imperial Center still retained control over a large number of troops.

Of course, maintaining control over the army requires a huge expenditure of financial and material resources, which has become a huge burden for the imperial center.

As a result, the imperial center now has to find ways to maintain military deterrence on the one hand, but on the other hand it has to find ways to streamline its troops and reduce spending. It can be said that it is very twisted.

Fortunately, up to now, the Empire's homeland, the New World colonies, and the North are still nominally subject to the rule of the Empire Center, and the relevant taxes are still paid on time, which can still maintain the operation of the Empire Center. However, with the arrival of the doomsday winter, the amount of tax paid has begun to decline significantly, and the most obvious change is naturally in the North.

This is, to some extent, one of the reasons why Princess Anne wanted to talk to Perfectoct.

At that time, Princess Anne thought that the reduction in taxes paid by the North to the imperial center was due to Perfect's laziness in government affairs, so she hoped that Perfect would be more diligent in managing government affairs and thus restore tax payments to the imperial center.

But Princess Anne did not understand that this was not because of Perfectoct's negligence, but because she had specifically instructed the officials in the North to reduce taxes on the imperial center.

By doing this, Perfectot was not only fulfilling his original deal with the Queen, but also putting pressure on the core of the empire.

The current external environment can be considered stable thanks to Perfectot's efforts. After all, after being beaten twice by Perfectot, the Evil God Cult has learned to restrain itself.

After all, the Old World is so big, why bother to provoke the Empire and the North, this hairy hedgehog?

Although there are relatively many problems within the empire, the overall situation is relatively stable.

Although various small problems continue to occur with the arrival of the doomsday winter, overall it is still under the control of the imperial center.

This situation of no internal or external worries obviously made it impossible to quickly train Princess Anne into a qualified monarch.

So Perfect had no choice but to create some troubles for her artificially.

At least these things are still under her control. If she really encounters internal and external troubles that even Perfectoct cannot control, then it will really require a wise ruler to step up and turn the tide.

But the current Princess Anne is not even a qualified heir to the throne, so how can she grow into a wise ruler in such a short period of time?

With no other options, Perfecto had to put pressure on her.

In terms of the current form of the empire, the authority of the imperial center is maintained in part by the armed forces that the empire still retains, and the other part comes from the recognition of the authority of the imperial center by the North.

And when the North began to challenge the authority of the Imperial Center, one can imagine the attitude of other parties towards the Imperial Center.

They certainly didn't dare to oppose openly, but they dared to follow up tentatively, and they dared very much.

It can be said that after the North openly raised the "flag of rebellion", whether it was the New World colonies, the dominions, or the Empire itself, they all more or less showed "anti-intentions" towards the Imperial Center and reduced the amount of taxes they paid to the Imperial Center.

As for other colonies that had long since cut off ties with the imperial center and were only maintaining basic communications, that goes without saying.

It can be said that just this one incident made the core of the empire feel somewhat precarious, and also caused some ambitious people to begin to have some inappropriate thoughts.

If Princess Anne is unable to calm the situation at this critical moment, the Victoria Empire will be in real "danger".

(End of this chapter)