Rose Empire

Before others could react, screams rang out one after another.

There were two other guards who attacked at the same time as Reva. It was obvious that the skills and extraordinary strength of these three people were far superior to the other guards. After a moment, there were only three guards left out of the original ten or so in the room.

The blood of the victims flowed to Robin Mancini's feet. Robin Mancini suddenly felt a little regretful. It was not that he regretted making this trip, but that he regretted wearing his newly bought boots today.

"Now I am the only one left here. Please tell me what the Viscount needs me to do."

Giovanni's voice was a little hoarse.

Sokya Peninsula, Ambratu County.

Charlotte stood on the beach, enjoying the sea breeze, eating dried fruits, and gazing at the Pearl Sea and the sails on the sea.

"You should expand the harbor here." The dusty Lady Winona complained to Charlotte dissatisfiedly.

Charlotte smiled and said, "Once I have dug the Lanwan Canal, you can dock your merchant ships directly in Fairy Lake next year."

Lady Winona had just sent the first batch of slaves to Charlotte. The Pearl Sea is the sea area west of the Lanwan Isthmus. The Gangtu Empire and the Kingdom of Lesare are both west of the Lanwan Isthmus, but the Viscount of Lanwan has no port west of the Lanwan Isthmus, so Lady Winona's fleet can only dock at the port of Ambratu. However, by coincidence, the ship of the Ore Chamber of Commerce that Charlotte sent to the Kingdom of Lesare to purchase the summer harvest of new grain also returned today. When the two fleets met, the small port of the Ambratu city-state became a mess.

Lady Winona didn't pay much attention to the Lanwan Canal Charlotte mentioned. She was now fully focused on restoring her husband's earldom. "I brought you 3,500 slaves this time, including 200 qualified boys and girls, all under the age of twelve. However, more than 100 adult slaves died on the way, and more than 100 slaves are sick. The price of slaves in the Gangtu Empire is not cheap now. Do you think these losses can be..."

Charlotte waved her hand and said, "Please don't try to deceive me. There is no shortage of merchants from the Gangtu Empire in Elm Town. They all say that the people of the Gangtu Empire are living in misery because of your emperor, so slaves must be very cheap."

Mrs. Winona was speechless.

"But I am a kind person, so these sick and dead slaves can be counted on my account," Charlotte said again.

You can say you are a kind person! Lady Winona complained in her heart, but she still praised: "You have virtues that are enough for me to remember."

For large businesses like Charlotte's, where she would buy 10,000 slaves at a time, many slave traders would mix in a large number of old, weak, sick and disabled slaves, because such slaves were not only cheap, but also easy to buy in large quantities. However, among the adult slaves sent by Winona this time, there were very few old, weak, sick and disabled people, which made Charlotte have a good impression of her, so she was willing to take on such a small "loss".

"However, I didn't expect that you would send me more than 3,000 slaves so quickly." Charlotte said with a smile again.

"What's the big deal?" Lady Winona raised her chin slightly. "In a few days, the second batch of 3,500 slaves will arrive in Ambratu. After all, the Jolly family still had the title of Count Mihefanting a few years ago, and their wealth has not been exhausted."

Charlotte nodded, and suddenly asked with interest: "Then, Madam, are you interested in cooperating with me to do a big money business?"

"A business that makes a lot of money?" Lady Winona said, nodding at the grain ship that was unloading. "Is it just selling grain?"

It was obvious from his words that he didn't take this business very seriously.

Charlotte shook the preserved fruit in her hand and said, "Although selling food is very profitable now, this is not the business I want to talk about."

"What kind of business is that?" Mrs. Winona asked puzzledly.

"Did you know that Deere's prices have increased significantly recently?" Charlotte asked.

"Well, I heard that too. Do you want to invite me to join you in hoarding dir?" Lady Winona laughed and said, "Although you have pushed up the price of dir, aren't you still the biggest buyer after the price increase? I heard that the main way for those 'dir merchants' to make money now is to first exchange fuso for dir, and then go to your gold exchange to exchange dir for fuso after the price of dir increases. I really want to know how you make money from this?"

Charlotte raised her eyebrows: "Do you think I pushed up the price of Deere?"

"Isn't it?" asked Lady Winona.

Charlotte laughed, threw the paper bag of preserved fruits to Renee, clapped her hands, turned and walked towards the city of Ambrato, and Lady Winona hurriedly followed.

Charlotte smiled as she walked, "Do you know how much some city-states are asking for when they sell their diers?"

"How much?" asked Lady Winona.

"One fuso for three dirs." Charlotte stretched out three fingers and shook them. "The price of dir among the people of Sokya has risen much faster than that of my gold exchange. What makes you say that I have pushed up the price of dir?"

Mrs. Winona didn't know whether what Charlotte said was true or not. After all, she had only heard about the market situation in Sokya from hearsay.

"In fact," Charlotte continued, "you can find out if you ask the merchants traveling to and from the Sokya Peninsula. They should have noticed several years ago that the wool, leather, and grapes that can be bought with one dir are increasing year by year. This shows that the dir had already begun to appreciate before I set up the gold exchange. It's just that without the direct figures provided by the gold exchange, most people don't realize that the currency will also increase in value."

"So who is really driving Deere's price increase?" Charlotte asked again.

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Volume 155: Chapter 142 Chapter A War Without Gunfire (IV)

"So who do you think is pushing up the value of the dir?" Mrs. Winona asked curiously.

Charlotte paused, as if thinking about her words, and spoke again after a moment: "Do you know how the Ai Ye Alliance works internally?"

"I heard that the Ai Ye Alliance is a relatively loose city-state organization. Although the city-state of Feidi is the leader of the alliance, other city-states are all independent. Only when war breaks out will all city-states accept Feidi's call and send citizen soldiers to obey Feidi's command and participate in foreign wars." Lady Winona briefly talked about her understanding of the Ai Ye Alliance.

"Basically correct," Charlotte nodded with a smile, "but you forgot one thing. During the war, the member city-states of the Aiye Alliance not only had to accept the conscription of Feidi, but also had to pay huge war taxes to Feidi every year. This money often accounted for one-fifth or even one-third of the annual income of a medium-sized city-state. This money was nominally used by Feidi to pay war pensions, purchase war supplies, extraordinary materials, repair fortifications, and build warships..."

"In theory, the city-states that are responsible for distributing war pensions, providing war supplies, extraordinary materials, building warships, etc. are all members of the Aiye Alliance. In theory, the huge war taxes they pay should also flow back to all the residents of these city-states in this way. Then this money will return to the city-state's treasury through taxation, forming a relatively healthy wartime economic cycle."

"But what is the truth?"

Passing by a gorgeous manor, Charlotte raised her finger and pointed over there.

"That used to be the manor of the oldest and most powerful family in Ambratu, the Capino family. When I took over Ambratu, I only collected 1.2 million dir from the public treasury of the Ambratu city-state. However, when my minister, Mr. Jonathan Hackman, was the county governor of Ambratu County, he collected 400,000 dir from the basement of this manor alone when disposing of illegal property. This is because the Capino family owned the best shipyard, the largest mine, and two elder seats in the Ambratu city-state. Facts have proved that whether it is money used to pay war pensions or money used to purchase war supplies, it will eventually flow into the hands of these city-state dignitaries like the Capino family."

"The huge war taxes every year not only made the Aiye Alliance city-states more and more overwhelmed and poorer, but also created super-rich people with astonishing wealth in these city-states. If it was just one or two years, it would be fine, but the war in the Sokya region lasted for a full hundred years. During this hundred years, more and more dir flowed into the hands of these people. They were powerful in their respective city-states and hardly had to pay taxes. It was also difficult for them to consume the huge wealth that they had accumulated quickly, so they buried all the dir in their basements."

"The city-state of Feidi usually only mints diers on a large scale once every ten years, and only mints 300,000 diers per year in other years. Obviously, this minting speed may not be a big problem in normal years, but in the past hundred years, it has gradually failed to keep up with the speed at which these dignitaries have buried their wealth in the basement."

Charlotte finally spread her hands and said regretfully: "In fact, the dir in circulation on the Sokya Peninsula has long been insufficient. All I did was expose this truth."

"So that's it..."

Although what Charlotte said was just very basic macroeconomics knowledge, it still took Mrs. Winona some time to understand the meaning of Charlotte's words.

In fact, Charlotte was being lenient. As far as she knew, the leaders of the affiliated city-states of the Aiye Alliance had certainly intercepted a large amount of war taxes, but the most corrupt was actually Feidi. Feidi City-State took the war taxes of the entire Aiye Alliance and squandered them recklessly, building magnificent elders' houses, churches, statues, and buying all kinds of luxurious and expensive decorations and delicacies. It can be said that the dignitaries of Feidi were the real greedy ones. Charlotte estimated that the net worth of each elder in the Feidi Elders' House was equivalent to the public treasury of a small or medium-sized city-state.

I really don't know what they are doing with all this money? Charlotte couldn't help but want to complain when she thought about these things.

"So you think the price of Deer will continue to rise?" Mrs. Winona asked curiously.

"Of course not. The people of Fidel are not fools. When they find that there is too little currency on the market, they will naturally mint a large number of coins and put them into the market. The value of the Fidel will fall sooner or later, but the rise and fall is enough for me to buy at least three city-states." Charlotte said.

"Buy a city-state? How... is this possible?" Lady Winona found it difficult to understand.

"It may not be possible in other places, but it is entirely possible in Sokya," Charlotte said with a disapproving smile, "What do these Sokya city-states have? Mercenaries, wine, wool, minerals, pearls, corals... What do they lack? Food. Therefore, trade and commerce are the life of Sokya city-states. By grasping this point, it is entirely possible to buy the city-state. How about it? Lady Winona, are you interested in investing in my big business?"

Charlotte finally extended the invitation again.

Lady Winona did not immediately agree to Charlotte's request. She said she would think about it again, and Charlotte did not urge her. The former Count Mihefanting's family had a lot of money in their pockets, and Charlotte had some patience for the wealthy.

Next, Charlotte met with Palacio, the president of the Mineral Chamber of Commerce, who had just returned from the Kingdom of Lesare, at the Government Hall of Ambrato.

"Your Excellency, Viscount, our Mineral Chamber of Commerce has lived up to your trust. We have purchased all 150,000 petas of grain. However, we have limited ships, so we have only transported back 80,000 petas. The other 70,000 petas are still in the port of the Kingdom of Lesare." Palacio reported to Charlotte.

"Well done," Charlotte praised, and then asked, "Did your grain purchase go smoothly this time?"

"Thanks to you, everything went smoothly and the price of food is relatively cheap this year." Palacio answered truthfully.

"Have you met any grain merchants from Sokya? Are there many?" Charlotte asked again.

Palacio didn't know why Charlotte asked this, but he recalled it carefully before saying, "I met a few people, but not many. The Sokyan people don't seem to be in a hurry to buy food this year."

This answer just happened to be what Charlotte expected. In previous years, before the summer grain of the Kingdom of Lesare was harvested, the Sokya merchants began to gather in the Kingdom of Lesare. However, this year, the price increase of the dir attracted too many people's attention. Even the grain merchants wanted to wait for the value of the dir to rise a little more before purchasing grain. In this way, the dir could be exchanged for more as (the currency of the Kingdom of Lesare). Therefore, the purchase of summer grain was also delayed.

Charlotte nodded, then smiled and said, "Since summer grain is cheap this year, I will ask the Mineral Chamber of Commerce to go to the Kingdom of Lesare to buy some summer grain for me."

"More purchases?" Palacio blurted out, then immediately realized that he had said something wrong and quickly explained, "It's not that the Mineral Chamber of Commerce is unwilling to serve you, but we are just a group of small businessmen. Purchasing 150,000 barrels of grain has already emptied our family's coffers..."

Charlotte interrupted Palacio who was complaining about being poor and said, "Don't worry, I will pay for the purchase this time. Try to buy as much food as possible for me, and ask me to reimburse you when you come back."

Since Charlotte had already said so, Palacio had no choice but to agree.

In the next few days, the value of the dir continued to rise on the Sokya Peninsula. The exchange rate of the fuso to the dir in the gold exchange office had risen to 1:3.2, rapidly approaching the mark of one fuso for three dirs. However, almost no one would think that this level was a stumbling block, because the exchange rate called out by private dir merchants had already exceeded 3.0 and reached 2.9. 2.8 and even 2.7 were very common.

The increasing value of the Dir is matched by the increasingly depressed markets in many Sokya city-states. The Dir famine is spreading southward across the peninsula. Dir is almost non-existent in some rural markets, and farmers are forced to once again enter the era of barter.

The honorable elders of the Feidi city-state who were busy regrouping had to pay attention to this situation. Since the disastrous defeat at the Bronze Pass, the Feidi Elders' Council convened the elders for the first time to discuss an issue unrelated to the war.

"As you all must have known, the dier has been in short supply recently. Many city-states are running short of coins. Their Council of Elders has written to us, asking us to approve the minting of more diers as soon as possible."

The chief elder of Fide, Agostino, raised a stack of letters in his hand and briefly described the situation to the elders who came to attend the meeting.

"If they don't have enough currency, let them mint their own coins. Why are you urging us to mint dir?" said an elder named Al McCutcheon with a smile.

This question, which seemed to be asked despite knowing the answer, immediately caused a burst of laughter.

The reason why those city-states did not mint their own currencies was simply because it would be useless even if they did. The only currency with universal credit on the Sokya Peninsula was the Dir. In this regard, the Filipinos were undoubtedly the most superior.

"Elder McCutcheon," Cleon said with a frown, "We are not gathered here to listen to your jokes. Our allies need our help, and you should not laugh at our allies on such a serious issue."

McCutcheon curled his lips. He hated Cleon's serious attitude the most. He always felt that Cleon's seriousness had a false feeling.

However, just when McCutcheon was about to retort to Cleon, Agostino spoke again: "Yes, the issue we are going to discuss today is whether it is necessary to allow large-scale casting of diers. Let's come to a conclusion as soon as possible. The city-state has many affairs now. Don't waste too much time on such unimportant issues."

"I don't think it's necessary. It's been eight years since the last large-scale minting of dir. In two years, it will be the year for large-scale minting of dir again. Why do we have to do it two years in advance?" said an opposing elder.

"Yes," someone agreed, "Every time we cast Dier on a large scale, there will always be a lot of trouble in some city-state. We are already in a troubled time, why should we add another big event?"

Although the dir was issued by the Philippines, many of them were not minted by the Philippines, because most of the easily mined minerals near the Philippines had been mined out. Therefore, every ten-year large-scale dir casting day, the Philippines Elders Council would allocate the required number of dir to the four economically powerful Aiye Alliance member city-states for casting. These four city-states are Eliet, Sasini, Etto, and Badan. Among them, Etto has fallen into the hands of the Delmers, so now there are three left. The Philippines Elders Council needs to send elders to supervise, count, and accept those dir.

This is undoubtedly a hard and tiring job for the pampered elders of Feidi. They all have rich families and do not need such opportunities to embezzle the money. Therefore, when it comes to the large-scale casting of Dier, some elders are not very willing to do this extra work.

"I think it is necessary," Cleon stood up and said, "Since our allies have such a demand, we should give some response. The recent conscription has made our allies very dissatisfied with us. There is no need to make them more unhappy over some unimportant things."

This statement immediately attracted the approval of many elders. Although Feidi finally assembled more than 10,000 citizen soldiers, the whole process was dragged out, and the quality of the citizen soldiers who were finally called up was also quite poor, many of them were old, weak, sick and disabled. This shows that the other city-states of the Aiye Alliance were resistant to Feidi's conscription again.

But McCutcheon couldn't help but question: "You make it sound simple. It would take at least five or six elders a month to mint new coins on a large scale. Now, each of the elders has a lot of messes on their hands and is overwhelmed. Who has the time to be responsible for minting new coins?"

"It is not necessary to send elders," Cleon said immediately after careful consideration. "We can send several prestigious old citizens to three groups to Elyete, Badan, and Sasini to supervise the minting of new coins. One elder can be in charge of the matter. These three city-states have many experiences in minting dir, so it is not necessary for the elders to be on site to guide them."

The elders of Feidi debated for a while, and finally voted, and the result of the vote was in favor of large-scale casting of Dier. The reason for most people's approval was just as Cleon said, the allies needed to be appeased.

As for the temporary shortage of Dir in the market, these elders did not care too much about it. Firstly, they seldom went out on the streets. Secondly, the shortage of Dir was not very serious in Feidi. Thirdly, Dir had been issued for so many years, when had there ever been any major problems?

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Volume 156: Chapter 143 Chapter A War Without Gunfire (V)

The decision of the Philippine Senate to cast a large number of dices was quickly passed down to the three city-states of Elysee, Sassenia and Badane.

Along with the order, three supervision teams arrived, bringing with them the molds for supervising the production of diers and the amount of diers to be minted for each city-state. Because it was a "temporary increase", the amount of diers that the Philippine Elders Council decided to mint was not much. Eliet was allocated 14 million diers, Sasini 11 million diers, and Badan 9 million diers, a total of 34 million diers.

McKinney is a respected citizen of Fidi. He joined the army at the age of 16 and retired in his 60s. He served in the army for nearly 50 years and had made great achievements. Even the elders respected him very much. In the year he retired, McKinney was even elected as an elder, but he was not elected the next year.

Because of his high reputation, McKinney was appointed as the leader of the supervision team sent to Bataan. Now the coinage work in Bataan has started for a few days, and everything is going well. McKinney expects that the task can be completed successfully within a month.

That morning, McKinney wore a bathrobe and walked to the balcony with hot milk. The glaring sunlight made McKinney squint his eyes involuntarily.

I wake up later and later...

Looking at the high sun, McKinney couldn't help but think.

After arriving in Bataan, McKinney received the best treatment he had ever received in his life. The Bataan people not only arranged the most luxurious accommodation and the most delicious food for the distinguished guests from Philippines, but also provided each of them with two young and beautiful girls.

Although McKinney was very famous in Philadelphia, his actual identity was just an ordinary citizen. He had never experienced hunger, but he was not rich either, so he had never seen such a scene.

These days, McKinney spent every night with the girl, touching her smooth skin, and he felt several years younger.

Just as McKinney was savoring the taste of last night, the servant suddenly came to report: "There are guests visiting."

McKinney did not find it strange, as people in Bataan often came to curry favor with him, a big shot in Philippines, so he asked his servant to bring the person in.

As soon as he saw the guest coming in, McKinney laughed and said, "It turned out to be Elder Draghi."

The visitor was Giovanni Draghi. After McKinney came to Bataan, he was entertained by Giovanni Draghi many times. Every time he entertained McKinney, he not only had food and entertainment, but also could bring back generous gifts. The two quickly became very good friends.

"Good morning, Mr. McKinney." Giovanni Draghi asked his attendant to put down the box and said to McKinney with a smile, "I went to the mint to look for you, but they said you were not there, so I came here again."

"I feel relieved because Alan, that smart little guy, is watching over the workshop. So I don't plan to go there today." McKinney said with a smile.

McKinney didn't realize that if he had just arrived in Bataan, he would have been ashamed and embarrassed by Giovanni's words.

Giovanni opened the wooden box he brought with him, revealing a head-sized conch with bright red lines. He then boasted proudly, "This is the conch I mentioned when we were drinking yesterday."

"It is really rare to see such a large and complete conch," McKinney exclaimed as he took the conch from Giovanni. "My God, it is so beautiful."

The Flame Snail is a rare species in the inland sea of ​​the Kingdom of Lesare, the Pottery Sea. Its shell is as jewel-like in texture, and its red lines glow in the dark like leaping flames. Because of its beauty and rarity, the Flame Snail's shell has become a sought-after collectible by many dignitaries.

"It is more than just beautiful," Giovanni added, "this conch was captured by a friend of mine during a war to wipe out a mermaid village. The mermaids made it into a miracle."

"Miracle?" McKinney checked inside and out, but didn't find any miracle there.

"Put it next to your ear and listen." Giovanni pointed to his ear and reminded.

McKinney put the conch close to his ear, and a low singing voice came into his ears. At first, McKinney just thought it was nice, but after a while, McKinney felt his mind gradually became clear, and the tiredness left from last night was swept away.

"This is the song of the mermaid priest. This kind of song is very magical. It can not only soothe people's spirits, but also take you into a beautiful dream world." Giovanni said with a smile.

"This is such a wonderful collection." McKinney stroked the conch and couldn't let it go.

Seeing McKinney's look, Giovanni smiled and said, "Sir, if you like it, it's for you."