Doctor Amnesiac, but not completely amnesiac

When Nicholas finished reading the plan, he was so angry that he was shaking all over.

The old man stood up suddenly and slapped his son hard.

Without holding back, Anatoly's cheeks immediately became red and swollen.

"You are crazy! Are you going to use millions of people as firewood and throw them into the boiler to burn it?"

"The Empire has protected them, and now it is their turn to repay the Empire - someone has to do it, otherwise Ursus will fall from grace! I would rather do it myself, at least I will take all the responsibility!"

Anatoly did not give in and refuted his father.

Before Nicholas reached out to slap the other person for the second time, it was Qiao Yelan who spoke first.

"Sir Anatoly, you mean that you are well aware that this matter is evil, but because of your misunderstanding and because you really believe that this method can help the empire overcome the current situation, you are determined to implement this plan?"

"Yes, this plan is indeed evil, but it can undoubtedly solve the current predicament of the empire. That's why I am so determined to promote this plan, even if it means tying everyone down."

Until now, Anatoly still sticks to his opinion.

"Father, Grand Duke Koschei, and this Mr. Joe, this is the way I think can save the empire. If you can come up with a better solution, then I will support it unreservedly, but if not, I will definitely continue with this plan!"

"you--"

Anatoly couldn't dodge the second slap.

But even so, the man still looked at his father with a firm gaze.

I was really fooled. I don't know why that guy named Witt is so eloquent.

"What if there really is a second plan?"

The man's slow voice attracted everyone's attention.

"As long as it is feasible, I will give up. Otherwise, even if I don't show up, as long as His Majesty doesn't stop it, then the preparations will be carried out."

Anatoly's voice remained calm.

"We can still continue to use the method that His Majesty Vladimir used - using war to plunder."

The man let out a sarcastic laugh.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Qiao Yelan. As a soldier, I have thought about this plan from the very beginning. But I regret to tell you that the treasury of Ursus can no longer support any large army to launch an expedition."

"Yes, Ursus cannot afford it now, but I did not say that I would go on an expedition. In today's empire, the general military pay and food are not in short supply, so the troop movement is still possible, right?"

Anatoly nodded. There was no problem with daily national defense spending. However, the reason was somewhat hard to accept - this was the huge casualties of the Blood Peak Battle and the legacy of the great rebellion.

Needless to say, the casualties in the Battle of Blood Peak were great. The First Army was almost wiped out, and other units also suffered losses to varying degrees. In addition, the post-war "liquidation" also disbanded many organizations.

During the Great Rebellion, although there were only six organized rebel armies, after the rebellion broke out, a large number of troops, either for the sake of speculation or for those with similar ideals, raised the banner of rebellion together, but they were not as thorough as the Sixth Army.

So even though the empire nominally only lost one army group in the rebellion, in fact, many more army groups had no choice but to downsize when they could not get reinforcements, and many of them were even no longer worthy of their name.

Qiao Yelan turned his gaze to Nicholas.

"Your Excellency, the Second and Seventh Armies under your command, as well as your private army, if you use funds from your private treasury, can you still launch a tactical offensive?"

"No problem, but these two armies have already suffered heavy losses. Although they have been recovering, it is difficult to restore them to their original strength."

"Just incorporate the lower-level soldiers of the rebellious Sixth Army. Officers can talk about ideals, but soldiers don't have the luxury of that. I know you've advertised that all the rebels are dead, but you've definitely hidden a large number of them."

Nicholas blinked awkwardly. Those people were now covered with serfs' hats and were working to reclaim wasteland in his fiefdom - this was also the reason why he came up with the plan of sending serfs and infected people to reclaim wasteland in the north.

He planned to help these people regain their status as free citizens.

He had also thought about Qiao Yelan's method. The Serf Amendment Law stipulated that serfs could choose to join the army and be promoted to free citizens through military merit. However, Ursus was now simply unable to initiate a war, so he gave up this idea.

"So who should we attack? Are there any other countries around Ursus that we can attack?"

Anatoly was surprised that his father almost obeyed Qiao Yelan's every word, but the other party still did not solve the practical problem.

"Of course there are - for example, Leitania."

【Leitania?】

The most shocked person present was not Nikolai and Anatoly, but Kosice.

"Of course it's Leitania. Since the humiliating defeat five years ago, Casimir has been working hard to build fortresses on the front line, in addition to repeatedly promoting the miraculous rescue of Silver Spear Pegasus Cyril Lingguang. Now, two armies alone cannot break through the defense line."

"And now that the East Country has become a vassal of the Great Yan, there is nothing to gain from Sami. The only thing left is Leitania, right?"

[Koletania is not...]

Koschei shut her mouth. Even with her ability to think, she knew that if she said some things, Qiao Yelan would probably remove her from the list of partners, just like Vladimir.

"It is true that the terrible emperor of Leithania has passed away, but this does not give us the right to attack. Although their weak electors will blame each other, if we launch an attack, they will surely unite and fight back."

"Yes—if they didn't have bigger problems to deal with."

Qiao Yelan lowered his eyebrows and smiled, just like a teacher explaining a game of Go to his students.

"Lethania used to have ten regions, but since Syracuse became independent, there are only nine left. Although these nine electoral regions are still united under the banner of Leithania, it is a pity that after the bizarre death of the Witch King Helhunzuron, the possibility of unification between the electoral regions has been lost."

"In the two regions bordering Victoria, the 'Iron Duke' Wellington across from them never left his territory after the signing of the Treaty of Londinium in 1073. These two regions cannot afford to let down their guard."

"The region that once bordered Gaul has now suffered heavy losses to its electoral family. There is nothing they can do now except lick their wounds."

"One of the two southernmost regions is the seat of the Witch King's family, the Utica family. Right now, the nobles of the entire region are eager to gain greater benefits. As for the other region, considering the distance between the north and the south, it is hard to believe that they can reach it within three months."

"The only thing left is the region bordering Casimir. Unfortunately, Casimir's booming business has made the Elector addicted to it. Coupled with the nearly 100 years of peace between the two countries, his army has become extremely weak."

"As for the region bordering Kazdel, I don't think they have the intention to shift their attention to places other than Sarkaz, especially when the names of Teresis and Teresia have become more and more famous in recent years."

He patiently assigned tasks to each region, and the electors of each region willingly accepted the task - because it was closely related to whether they could keep their territory.

"What's even more interesting is that in the Heidenschwill region, one of the two Electoral Regions bordering Ursus, the former Elector Archduke Leopold and his family were slaughtered by a mysterious force a month ago. Even the Heidenschwill Legion was taken over by someone else."

"Right now, the nobles of the entire Heidenschweil region are competing to divide up the former Elector's inheritance. They all want their family to become the new Elector's family, and they are fighting each other fiercely."

This beautiful scene made Nicholas and Anatoly's breathing become heavy. It meant that now there was only one Electoral Region that could really face Ursus. This was truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!

"But...even so, I'm afraid my territory is not enough to support the attack and occupation."

Nicholas was the first to react. He thought that simple looting might be feasible, but it was obviously impossible to complete the attack and occupation of Leithania with only two armies and his own private army.

"Of course, I don't really plan to start a war. I said before that I only need to prepare the combat materials for episodes 2 and 7 and fight a beautiful vanguard battle in the Heidenschwil region."

Of course, Qiao Yelan had no intention of really launching an all-out fight.

"Then mobilize the various armies to gather towards the south. Of course, they can just move slightly and treat it as a normal march. This is of course within Ursus's burden. After that, we can start extorting all the nobles in the region."

"Blackmail?"

Nicholas was stunned.

"Yes, blackmail."

The man smiled and nodded.

"So what you mean is that we conduct military blackmail to make Leitania mistakenly believe that we are going to launch a full-scale attack. However, now that each Electoral Region has its own affairs to deal with, they will definitely not be willing to accept a war with Ursus."

Instead, it was Anatoly who reacted first.

"Then let's take a step back and pretend that we didn't expect the battle to be so easy but we were not prepared. We can accept the compensation and then talk about it. Then the other regions will definitely be willing to do so. Maybe the electors will force the nobles in the Heidenschwill region to accept it!"

It seems that Anatoly is not a useless person. At least in terms of war, he has gone further than his father.

"That's it. Fight a vanguard battle, and then it's time for diplomacy. In today's Ursus, nothing is more important than winning another war."

Qiao Yelan began to brainwash the two military spokespersons.

There is nothing wrong with what he said - after all, after the financial crisis, the most important thing for the person who takes over is to restore market confidence.

Both Nicholas and Anatoly understood the importance of this matter, and they had thought about fighting another war. As Anatoly said, as soldiers, the first thing they would consider is whether the problem can be solved by fighting.

However, the imperial finances did not support doing so, and the imperial army's previous poor performance and heavy casualties in the Battle of Blood Peak also made them doubtful.

Qiao Yelan was of course aware of Ursus’ current military strength, but he had no evidence to prove to the other party.

After all, he couldn't blow himself up and say that the loss in the Blood Peak Battle was because I deliberately leaked the information so that you could succeed in beheading him. Then, when he wanted to kill everyone in one battle, I took the intelligence of all your legions to the other side, took the action myself, and used an extremely targeted layout to tear the Ursus army into pieces in no time.

As for the casualties, it was because Qiao Yelan used the most brutal way of exchanging pieces - after all, the pieces he was exchanging were not mine, so he had to exchange them! If he didn't exchange them, he would not be a human being!

You know, Qiao Yelan has exchanged the entire destiny of the East Country into it. It would be strange if Ursus was not seriously injured.

So what he has to do now is to let Ursus's own commanders regain an accurate understanding of the combat effectiveness of their own army.

Squeezing the weak ones will help the physical and mental health development of the army.

As for whether such a victory and extortion would hit the nobles in the Heidenschwil region, causing these people to lose the ability to become electors for a while, there is no way to legally question the twin queens who are now like rootless duckweed.

I can only say that this is a pleasant surprise (good reading).

You see, even God is helping Helinmat and Ivignad. It is simply destiny for them to kill the Witch King and gain the status.

After these nobles spent a large amount of money to buy the officers and legionnaires brought by Ivignad, as well as the split Leopold family, they might not have the money to pay the compensation. Qiao Yelan naturally took this into consideration for them.

The Tower of Babel will sincerely accept the various assets offered by these nobles as collateral and offer them a reasonable price to ensure that they can afford the war reparations.

In fact, this money was originally intended to be used as start-up capital for Nikola. After all, he couldn't just get something for nothing and say he would cooperate with the other party.

However, this does not prevent Qiao Yelan from selling it at a higher price.

Chapter 54: Political Game? Who doesn't know how to play it?

"If your private treasury is not enough for you to launch this first war, then I am willing to provide you with some start-up funds."

Qiao Yelan smiled and said to Nikolai the same words he had said to Vladimir that year.

"If that's the case, it couldn't be better. Please rest assured that after this operation is successfully completed, I will do my best to meet all your requirements."

"But - this is still a temporary solution, not a permanent solution."

Although Anatoly's face was the reddest among the people present, he still remained calm.

"The benefits gained from a battlefield blackmail are not enough to reverse the current crisis facing the Ursus Empire, not to mention that this is just the plunder of a large region of Leitania, which can only barely solve the problems currently faced by the military."

"No, you are wrong, Mr. Anatoly. In fact, we only need to solve the problems facing the military."

Qiao Yelan shook his head and corrected the other party's statement.

"What problems are the Ursus Empire facing now?"

"It is because of the excessive military expenditure that the treasury cannot allocate enough funds to develop people's livelihood, which has led to the empire's fiscal revenue being unable to be effectively increased. However, the imperial army, which has spent a huge amount of money, has not been able to gain enough benefits to feed back to the empire."

"Wrong. The biggest problem Ursus is facing right now is that you simply can't collect taxes."

The two men and the snake were all stunned.

"Where does the empire's financial revenue come from?"

"Taxes, foreign trade, and tributes from vassal states."

Nicholas knew this very well. As a military representative, he had participated in many financial meetings in the past few years.

"The tribute from vassal states is a relatively fixed income, while foreign trade at the national level is quite dependent on luck. Therefore, if the empire wants to truly increase its revenue, it can only work hard on taxation: agricultural tax, commercial tax, income tax, and tariffs, which are the four most important types of taxes."

"According to the Imperial Constitution, the feudal nobles have the right to control all taxes on the land they own, and the Empire has no right to collect them. Therefore, this clause alone has eliminated half of the land that can be levied agricultural taxes."

"At the same time, this law also eliminated commercial taxes. Nowadays, any larger chamber of commerce in Ursus will be affiliated with a certain feudal noble, so that they can legally avoid taxes. Although they still have to pay a political donation to the noble, they can still use the noble as a backer, right?"

Qiao Yelan looked at Grand Duke Nicholas.

"Not to mention the caravans formed by the nobles themselves - so the empire's commercial tax collection is entirely supported by confiscated property."

"As for tariffs, in fact, tariffs are used to protect domestic commerce and production. If tariffs can become the bulk of the empire's income, it means that the entire country has regressed to a complete agricultural country."

After Qiao Yelan said this, the others in the study finally understood why the late emperor was wholeheartedly working to expand the number of free people.

Because when the upper limits of the other three taxes have been stuck, only income tax has room for further increases - and to expand income tax revenue means that more people must be freed from their status as serfs and become workers, farmers, or office workers to contribute taxes to the empire.

But Anatoly's face was red with a hint of blue.

Only then did he understand what kind of murderous intentions were lurking in the hearts of those who supported his plan - most of the infected people currently in the empire were free people, and the money contributed by these people was the actual tax revenue that the empire could receive.

But he almost deprived all these people of their citizenship!

"The Imperial Army can still maintain this size and receive financial subsidies. Each of you should give Yegor Terekin a one-ton medal - this foreman you despise is the only one who knows what Vladimir has done."

Qiao Yelan sneered.

Yegor was indeed ready to die, but Qiao Yelan thought it was not yet time for him to rest in peace.

Because he's a good guy - and extremely useful.

"Egor Telekin... Minister of Labor?"