Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 459 War Gains
Strictly speaking, Harvey is actually a native of the capital.

He was born in Jinhui City. His grandfather was an ordinary knight in the city guard. Although his father was not officially canonized, he managed to get a position in the city guard with the help of his ancestors... Unfortunately, the comfortable life for many years made him gradually neglect his skills. He became addicted to alcohol and died in an accidental fall from a horse shortly afterwards.

As the product of the fusion of the soul of the time traveler and the soul of the original body... Harvey's memories of his youth have always been a little vague, and as a result, this city where he has lived for more than ten years is more unfamiliar than familiar.

There is no doubt that before the establishment of Spark City, the capital was one of the few prosperous places in the central part of the Southern Territory... Although it is still very backward from the perspective of a time traveler, it does not prevent it from becoming the richest city among the countries in the central part of the Southern Territory.

What attracted Harvey the most was its huge population and the naturally high quality of the local people. The royal capital had always been a place for gold mining. All nobles whose families fell into poverty, lost their inheritance rights, or had barren fiefs chose to come to the royal capital to seek a chance to make a comeback. Frequent intermarriages also made the aristocratic circle more or less related.

In addition to the court nobles and knights of the royal capital who were canonized by the royal family, as well as the empty titles such as honorary knights and lords that could be purchased as long as one was willing to spend a lot of gold pounds to curry favor, the entire Jinhui City gradually gathered a huge aristocratic population.

As for these nobles, big and small, unless they have mental problems due to inbreeding, they have at least received formal family education, and literacy is the basic operation... If they are trained as heirs to families and titles, they need to learn complex affairs such as politics or business. They are simply high-quality reserve municipal officials.

After all, the land around the royal capital is precious, and most of it has been annexed by the royal family and the nobles. Most of these royal nobles do not have fiefs, so naturally they are not likely to resist Harvey's coercive policy of confiscating land. As long as their personal character and identity background are up to standard... compared to the administrative officials transferred from Spark City, they are actually more suitable to manage and operate the city for Harvey.

In addition to the labor force and management talents, the royal capital is also the most prosperous place for commercial trade in the entire central southern region. Various large and small chambers of commerce and craftsman guilds are established here. Many scarce goods in the central part of the continent are gathered here in large quantities. Just posting a recruitment notice can gather a large number of highly skilled craftsmen.

Harvey had no intention of keeping these talents in Jinhui City. Naturally, he wanted to bring as many as possible back to the North to enrich his various production and manufacturing departments that had been lacking technical workers for many years.

Finally, there is the royal treasury... and the confiscated properties of the nobles. The gold, jewelry, antique collections, magical materials, and precious potions filled several large dock warehouses specially vacated. Although the amount is still being counted, Harvey estimates that the discount can be equivalent to a profit of nearly 300,000 gold pounds.

However, Harvey did not intend to move all these treasures back to the North directly - ten ironclad ships could not transport all of them at once, and the subsequent repairs to the bombed-out inner city of the royal capital would also require a certain amount of expenses. The subsequent management and operation of the city hall and the appeasement of the people also required money everywhere. There was no point in piling up the gold in the warehouse... Harvey, based on the principle of spending money where he made it, immediately contacted several large chambers of commerce with which he had always had a pleasant cooperation, and sent out a large number of lists of supplies and goods.

Part of it was used to rebuild Jinhui City, and part of it was naturally transported to Xinghuo City as usual to support the expansion of production plans and further improve people's quality of life.

After all, no matter how advanced and prosperous Spark City is... the southern tobacco, western black tea, and eastern spices that are extremely popular among the people are all impossible to produce on their own. They still have to rely on import trade. The residents of this emerging city built on the wasteland are incredibly wealthy, which makes the major chambers of commerce in the southern region salivate... Private commodity fairs are now held in the city almost every month, led by the commercial department of the Executive Office, and all kinds of import and export orders are countless.

...After finishing the review of the confiscated spoils, Harvey set off for the royal palace again - he received news early this morning that Grand Duke Saint Valen had completely stopped breathing in a deep coma around dawn.

"Post the obituary in the afternoon. If there are nobles and people who express their condolences spontaneously... there is no need to stop them." Harvey had no interest in pursuing the guilt and mistakes of a dead man. With the confession testimony of the high-ranking priest of the church, the spellcaster's false accusation of murdering the Grand Duke had long been completely cleared. It would be better to take this opportunity to cultivate his image as a generous and benevolent ruler. It would also be of great help and benefit in recruiting talents to serve in the North.

The heavy coffin containing the Grand Duke's body was slowly carried out of the bedroom. The few remaining royal guards carried the coffin with sad faces and slowly walked towards the royal cemetery. As the defeated and surrendered party, they did not hope that the royal family, which had completely lost its real power, would have the opportunity to organize the Grand Duke's funeral. The royal cemetery was already within the royal court, so a simple burial would be enough.

For the first time, Chief Knight Dickinson took off his full knight armor and did not even carry the sword bestowed by the emperor. He only wore a simple knight training robe, a hemp rope tied around his waist, and stood like a javelin beside the door of the Grand Duke's simple tomb.

Harvey, who arrived late, raised his hand to call him over, "Mr. Chief Knight..."

Dickinson knelt on one knee and bowed his head, saying, "Your Excellency, please do not address me as Chief Knight anymore... With His Majesty's passing, his Chief Knight naturally ceased to exist."

"Oh?" Harvey asked with interest. "I thought the title of Chief Knight was an honorary title without any real power. Once conferred, it is enjoyed for life."

There wasn't much sarcasm in his words, but Dickinson still felt a slight pang in his heart. He looked up and smiled bitterly, "If His Majesty died fighting, I would naturally do my utmost to avenge him... But today's situation wasn't caused by you, Lord. Furthermore, you came here with the goal of ending the war with war, and you haven't insulted us, the surrendered people, in the slightest..."

Harvey chuckled and said, "Since you understand my purpose, would you be willing to do something for me? This matter is also to completely put an end to this unprovoked war spreading across the Central Kingdoms."

Dickinson was stunned for a moment, then said in a daze, "Me? Your Excellency, what qualifications do I have..."

Harvey waved his hand and spoke to himself, "You used to be the commander of the Royal City Knights, right? If I asked you to lead a northern army to the border battlefield of the principality to persuade the Royal City Knights and fiefdom lords who are still deadlocked in the battle with Daeus to surrender... could you do it?"

(End of this chapter)