When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

Chapter 965: The Despair of Duke Labang

While sitting in the restaurant of the Holy See Building waiting for his meal, Horn suddenly remembered something.

He opened his mouth and said to Edwin beside him, “Have all the shareholders of Black Snake Bay Spice Company arrived?”

"Here we are. We specially gave them a ticket to a separate observation deck so that they can listen to our report alone."

Horn nodded, but Edwin couldn't help laughing. He was curious: "Why are you laughing suddenly?"

Edwin smiled with two dimples on his fair face under his short gray hair. "The observation deck has five floors. The shareholders are sitting on the fifth floor, and the Duke of Fran is sitting on the fourth floor."

Horn was stunned at first, then he couldn't help laughing: "These two groups didn't run into each other, right?"

"No, we found out after we made the arrangements that we had specially sent people to guide them through different passages."

"I trust you to do the job." Horn put a piece of sweet rice pudding with the texture of cold cake into his mouth and chewed it carefully.

The sweet rice pudding made from rice crackers is actually very similar to the lianggao in his hometown.

It is made by steaming sweet rice cakes similar to glutinous rice until they are sticky and then topped with raisins, red dates, chopped walnuts and other nuts, cutting them into pieces and eating with sugar.

While it’s high in carbohydrates, it’s also a favorite snack among ordinary people.

First, it is easy to make, and second, the materials are cheap.

Rice crackers, white sugar and raisins are not expensive. The only expensive thing is red dates, which have to be imported from France.

Duke Laban did not give Horn any face and refused to eat this common snack.

But his fellow citizens upstairs were very considerate and ate the food regardless of whether they liked it or not.

Horn is their god of money, so they have to eat him even if they don't want to.

Thinking of the Duke of Laban who was kept in the dark, Horn wanted to laugh. He wondered if he had thought it through.

The clues are almost obvious.

Why are the spice and sweetbread plantations in Black Snake Bay popping up like mushrooms after rain? The growth rate is even faster than that of the sugar mills in Thousand River Valley.

Why did a large number of French refugees suddenly appear in Black Snake Bay to cut sweet branches and spices?
Why did the Black Snake Bay United Spice Company place a large order with Shenglian for hydraulic machinery for crushing sweet twigs?

Because the shareholders and ship owners of the Black Snake Bay Spice Company are all French nobles!

Not only did the reformist nobles invest money to buy stocks, but even the traditional manor nobles bought the issued bonds.

Among the great nobles and business owners of France, the Larkin family took the lead and frantically bought various bonds and stocks of Thousand Valley.

Not only did he buy various industrial bonds and stocks of new factories, he even acted as an agent, getting the middle class and the nobility to raise funds to buy them.

It has to be said that this group of Franco-French nobles are quite business-minded. They invested all the money they earned in the early stage into reproduction, and then continued to buy stocks, bonds, and open markets.

The Norns, the Franks, the Leians, and even the vampires, centaurs, and dwarves want white sugar.

As long as we can produce and ship out the products, there is no need to worry about lack of sales.

Coincidentally, Fran has the largest trading fleet in the entire empire, and Black Snake Bay is the world's largest producer of spices and sugar.

This is obviously an industry that is sure to make money, and it is definitely necessary to occupy the territory first and then make profits.

When the "South Thousand Valley Free Trade Agreement" was signed for the second time, Baron Blot, who led the team, not only held 3,000 gold pounds of Saint Union Sugar Factory industrial bonds, but also 10,000 gold pounds worth of shares of the Black Snake Bay United Spice Company.

The Prime Minister sent a very professional negotiation team, and everyone in the team had some stocks and bonds.

If you raise tariffs, our operating costs will go up, and that's their money.

This one hasn’t been replied yet!

Don’t you understand how to choose?

The tariffs belong to the King of France, but the stock dividends and bond interest are yours!
This is not to say that I am disloyal to the king, it's just that the tax card is so busy and it must be troublesome to manage so much money.

They were just sharing the pressure with the king.

Now there is a Black Snake Bay fever sweeping across France, and Horn has even given a portion of his stock issuance shares to the Larkin family.

Every time new shares are issued, there is a rush of people rushing to buy them.

The money raised was turned into new plantations and new sugar mills.

Even in France, there is a sense of a Ponzi scheme and a spice bubble.

That is to say, Duke Laban stayed in the frontier for ten years and was cut off from the news.

He had just been transferred back and hadn't even seen the king before he was sent to the Holy Alliance. Naturally, he was in a state of recklessness. Thinking of this, Horn couldn't help but sigh at the prime minister's political skills.

Why transfer the Duke of Labang?

First, he is out of touch with the news and doesn't know the twists and turns behind it. It would be easy for him to point it out, and after that he would have to take the responsibility.

After all, "We didn't know so we didn't take any action. Now that you know everything and still haven't taken any action, you are being disloyal to the king!"

Second, the prime minister no longer trusted certain people in his own country, so he specifically picked this person who had no connection with him and was unlikely to be corrupted.

Third, Duke Laban was demoted to a desolate frontier, but he managed the frontier well and never resigned from his post to return home.

This shows that although he is arrogant, he has certain abilities and is willing to return to the center of the kingdom.

But if he knew about this in advance, he would probably prefer to continue to be the governor of the frontier rather than get involved.

Now that he is in this situation, it is difficult for him to leave. There is also the hook of returning to politics in front of him, so he can only bite the bullet and investigate.

There is a knife hanging behind your butt and a carrot hanging in front of your head. You have to check it out even if you don’t want to!

This prime minister had a perfect grasp of human nature and Labang's character.

Using a knife and fork to cut the fried pork chop in front of him, Horn picked up the ceramic bowl, picked up the chopsticks, picked up a piece of pork chop, and ate while muttering: "What a sinister person."

…………

The setting sun is as red as blood, making people feel uneasy.

Duke La Ban sat on the terrace of his mansion, his posture odd, as if he had no bones embedded in the wooden chair.

The golden red sunlight shone on his face, and those who saw it didn't know how to describe this expression.

There was doubt between the brows, anger in the eyes, fear in the wrinkled nose, sadness and despair in the corners of the mouth... and even a hint of indescribable strange smile of joy.

He sat there like a sculpture, looking at the flax fields in front of him and the mountains in the distance.

The servant stood in the room with a glass of wine, his face full of worry. He walked over to Cassani and asked in a low voice, "Is the Duke okay?"

"It's okay, he just needs to be quiet." Cassani answered the servant, dipping bread into the clam soup.

"It's been quiet all afternoon. It won't eat or drink. I called it but it didn't respond. I just poked it with a branch and it didn't move."

Casani was shocked. He thought, maybe he was really scared to death. The Duke’s tolerance should not be so small.

He thought for a while, picked up the glass from the servant, and slowly walked to the Duke's soft chair.

Before he could even speak, Duke Laban spoke first: "Casani, you have caused me so much trouble."

Kasani said helplessly: "I am just fulfilling my duty. I am just a thread of the Thousand Silk Spider."

"Why has the Prime Minister done this? How have I offended him?" As Duke Laban spoke, his nose felt sore and he almost cried.

He was sent to the frontier when he was young, and when he reached the prime of his life he thought he could return to politics, but unexpectedly he encountered such a thing.

This is not just an ordinary negotiation of an agreement!

He had to satisfy both the royal family and the nobles, and also balance the interests of the traditional and reformist nobles.

Even on the Holy League side, he still has to maintain the friendship for the sake of appearance.

So much hatred.

If you are not careful, you will be involved in a big fight between several nobles and political forces.

Even the prime minister himself doesn't want to touch this mess, and I guess other nobles would also stay away from it.

As a result, I was able to get in just because I asked a question.

"Your Excellency the Prime Minister has a good plan. He has killed three birds with one stone. He has taken away his fame, power, and me."

Casani couldn't help but sympathize: "Perhaps you could resign from your position and go home?"

"The Prime Minister didn't give me this opportunity!"

If he runs away, and anything is found out later, the first thing they will do is to hold him responsible.

Then we have to investigate. We have to redefine the interests while finding the people who need to be investigated.

Duke Labang gritted his teeth and said, "First, let's rescue that damned King Gigi! At least we still have some bargaining chips in our hands!"

(End of this chapter)