What's wrong with building a steel torrent in a dungeon?

"This... that..." McMahon was about to blurt out, how dare these people's dignity be compared with the Queen. But he knew that if he said this, he would probably be torn to pieces by the soldiers present.

"Lucy Antiriel, please reflect on yourself. If the elves had not brazenly invaded the Troll Empire, how could there be a Troll War! If the elves had not interfered in the Holy Roel Empire, how could we have ended up like this! If the elves had not committed atrocities in the Inya Continent, how could there be tens of thousands of warriors who would rather bring their own weapons and dry food to the Elf Continent to fight for the Trolls!"

"Mr. McMahon has been the Queen's Hand for decades! How many evil things have you done to help the Queen? Aren't you elves afraid of the revenge of the gods? But our gods in heaven are blind! They have never opened their eyes!"

"You elves call yourselves the leaders of the Northern Alliance! You impose sanctions and blockades at every turn, and you are so powerful for a while! You are so domineering! If we want revenge, we can only rely on ourselves to fight for fairness! Now, we have formed the Vienna Alliance, and we share the same hatred and enemies! And what about you in the Northern Alliance? Up to now, which country has openly supported the elves, and which country has sent troops? The so-called allies are nothing but fence-sitters who change their stance according to the wind!"

"The elves who have no one to help them and no one to care about them will only be beaten! We, the Vienna Alliance, can keep fighting you elves for one year! Two years! Five years! Ten years! As long as your queen is unwilling to give up her dignity, we can keep fighting! Even if we eventually destroy the Elf Empire and dethrone the queen, so what!"

"So you should know, Mr. McMahon! We allowed Lucy Antiriel to play the piano at the ceremony. It was not to hurt her dignity as the queen, but to enhance her dignity as the queen! Otherwise, the Elven Empire would be destroyed, but where would her dignity as the queen of a fallen country be placed!!"

McMahon sat back in his seat dejectedly, and the other elf messengers were also extremely depressed.

It was unknown how long it had been before McMahon said in a hoarse voice, "Please allow me to go back and persuade His Majesty. Let her play the harp at the ceremony."

"Thank you, Mr. McMahon. You are truly the backbone of the Elven Empire. Without you, the consequences for the Elven Empire would be disastrous!" Catalina bowed respectfully to McMahon: "I hope that Lucy Antiriel will think about the interests involved."

After the last conversation, McMahon left the meeting hall in disgrace and stayed in a luxurious hotel. This hotel was originally used to receive foreign guests, but now, they have become foreign guests. For a moment, these elf messengers have mixed feelings.

A few days later, the contents of the treaty were delivered to Lucie Antiriel.

After reading the first few messages, Lucy Antiriel nodded continuously, secretly praising McMahon for being a master of diplomacy for being able to negotiate such favorable conditions.

There is no need to cede land, and even if there is compensation, it is only a part of the tax revenue. This is simply too generous. I heard that the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Orila City is still a young girl! Such a girl must have traded her body with Fran to get such a high position!

Humph! Such a foreign minister obviously has no idea how to sign a treaty to cede territory and pay compensation. Plunder is also a science!! Don't underestimate plunder!

You have to know that the bulk of the Queen's income comes from overseas plunder and the export of various luxury goods, and tariffs are only a part of it! Not only that, Lucy Antiriel can even further reduce tariffs in the following years, which will not only give herself a good reputation, but also prevent the city of Aurora from benefiting. It is simply killing two birds with one stone.

This Aurora City is really too lame! They didn't investigate the current situation of the Elf Empire at all, and just made a treaty at random. If the Elf Empire takes action, even if the opponent doesn't die, he will have to shed a layer of skin. It is indeed a new force like a nouveau riche, without any foundation.

Moreover, McMahon even packaged the so-called compensation and cession of territory with the free trade zone! In this way, unless people look at the documents carefully, no one will know that the Elf Empire was required to cede territory and pay compensation. Public opinion can also be better constructed, and it is not impossible to even whitewash the defeat into a ceasefire between the two sides.

When they come back, we must reward McMahon well. Our Great Elf Empire is full of talents. As long as we make up for the shortcomings in the military, we will definitely return to the peak of the main plane in the future.

However, when the queen continued to look down, her confident smile disappeared in an instant.

"This! This is simply treason!!" Lucy Antiriel expressed her emotions almost with a roar! She didn't even care about her dignity as the queen.

The elf officials below looked at each other in bewilderment.

How come the queen was so satisfied one second and suddenly became furious the next? She changed her attitude faster than turning the pages of a book.

"Your Majesty, what happened?" an elf asked cautiously.

"Flan has gone too far!" Lucy Antiriel said, "Let's start a war! We must start a war! I reject this so-called peace treaty! Come and see what that bastard Fran wrote in the peace treaty!"

Having said that, Lucy Antiriel threw the letter heavily to the ground.

The elf ministers immediately picked it up and began to read.

Like Lucy Antiriel, when they saw the first clause, they all said that this condition was very conscientious. However, when they saw the last clause, all the ministers were stunned.

Let the majestic Elf Queen perform the harp in front of everyone.

This is so humiliating.

however……

Among these ministers, only a few belonged to the royalist faction, while the majority were from other parties and forces. Compared with the dignity of the queen, they were more concerned about the interests of their own forces.

If we can sacrifice a little bit of the Queen's dignity in exchange for a huge concession from the City of Orila, this is obviously a very cost-effective deal!

After all, the city of Orila now has a knife on the neck of the Elf Empire. As long as there is peace, let alone playing the piano, even if the Elf Queen dances, they will gladly accept it. After all, don’t they just want to turn the Queen into a mascot?

But they didn't dare to say this in front of Lucy Antiriel, so they could only lower their heads and remain silent.

Chapter 398: The Queen's Decision?

Lucy Antiriel thought that the ministers would be as indignant as she was, but what she saw was the elves who lowered their heads and kept silent. She was so angry that she said, "What's wrong? You are all mute! Are you just going to watch me being bullied by the Orila people? Are you still ministers of the Elf Empire?"

"Your Majesty, please forgive me!" An elf half-knelt down and said sincerely, "It is our incompetence that has prevented us from expelling these barbarians from Calradia! We deserve to die."

"What's the point of me wanting you to die! I want all the Calradians to die!!" Lucy Antiriel said, "I want to start the war again!"

If it were a few months ago, the ministers would have volunteered one by one to express their irreconcilable opposition to the city of Orila.

but now……

No one dared to speak. They lowered their heads even lower, fearing that Lucy Antiriel would appoint them as the new commander-in-chief of the army.

Lucy Antiriel yelled, "You! Are you going to keep your heads down like this? Get out of here, all of you! Get out of here!!"

"His Majesty!"

However, at this moment, a woman's voice came from the corner.

Lucy Antiriel turned her head and saw that the woman was the eldest daughter of the Garland King, one of the Twelve Elf Kings.

"Della, do you have any strategy to repel the enemy?" Lucy Antiriel looked expectantly at him as if she had grabbed a life-saving straw.

Della is the eldest daughter of the Wreath King. She is a gifted girl with beauty, talent and birth. Logically, she should be the successor of the Wreath King. Unfortunately, her rival revealed that she is a pure lesbian who doesn't like men.

Lily was not guilty, but the point was that she would not be able to give birth to an heir, so the King of the Garland deprived her of the qualification of being an heir.

After losing her inheritance rights, Della left her family and turned to Lucy Antiriel, the mortal enemy of the Elf King.

Unlike other elven nobles, Della loves business and is good at calculations. Therefore, she was entrusted with an important task by Lucy Antiriel and is actually in charge of the Queen's finances and the internal affairs of the Royalist Party.

"Forgive my stupidity... I don't have any strategy to repel the enemy." Della said bluntly.

After hearing this, Lucy Antiriel could not hide her disappointment and said unhappily: "Then what are you doing here?"

"I just want to remind your majesty," Della said, "You will meet with the dwarf envoy this afternoon. They have issued an ultimatum. If you don't pay off the debt, the firearms that will arrive tomorrow will be temporarily shelved. And the Venice Consortium, the Lombardy Chamber of Commerce, the Genoa Chamber of Commerce, and..."

"That's enough!" Lucy Antiriel interrupted Della rudely, and then said, "Don't you think I'm annoying enough?"

"Your Majesty," Della said, "I don't mean anything else. I just want to say that our treasury is out of money. If we want to continue the war, I suggest selling the collections of past queens. It should be able to raise a lot of money, so that we can gather the remaining troops and hold out for at least another month! If there is no military pay and no ammunition, I'm afraid the army... will have some bad emotions."

Della kept talking about a truce, but every word she said was about a truce.

The other ministers looked at Della with gratitude. If Lucy Antiriel really insisted on carrying out her plan, the empire would be brought to ruin. At that time, they dared not imagine what the troops who were owed wages and food would do.

In the end, Lucy Antiriel did not mention the war again! She pointed at the trembling ministers and shouted, "Get out! Get out!!"

After hearing this, the ministers before the emperor felt as if they had been pardoned and they all stood up and left the palace.

In the huge palace, Lucy, Antiriel and Della were the only ones left.

"Dela... am I really going to play the piano for Fran? If I play this piano, the prestige I have built up for so many years will be gone. I'm afraid our plan to weaken the Elf King will never be realized."

"Your Majesty, sometimes you have to retreat in order to advance." Della said, "In the current situation, it is obvious that we cannot win the war. Even if we continue to fight, it will only consume the empire's manpower and your manpower in vain."

"But... I have lost all my prestige. Where can I retreat to?"

"In this war, it's not just your prestige that's lost. It's also the Elf King's. Orila City is like a buffalo that broke into a china shop, smashing everything to pieces. This also includes the power of the Elf Kings." Della said: "Now that the general situation has been determined, it's better to continue investing in a war that is bound to fail.

Instead of thinking about power, we should think about what we should do after the war. "

Lucy Antiriel fell into thought.

"Actually, Orila City has helped us a lot." Della said, "Now is also the time when the twelve elf kings are the weakest. As long as we can recover faster than those elf kings, we can take their lives while they are sick. As for prestige, Your Majesty is still young and has a lot of time in the future, but they... even the youngest elf king is more than 20 years older than you. They don't have that much time."

After hearing this, Lucy Antiriel's originally cloudy eyes suddenly became clear.

Della said: "After this, Fran will definitely crack down on smuggling for her own benefit and cut off the Elf King's financial resources. However, due to the central government's fiscal revenue, we have become the richest among all forces! You know what I mean! There is a saying that goes, there is no construction without destruction! I believe that the Queen's bloodline, which has been passed down for thousands of years, will eventually succeed in your Nirvana!"

"Well! We will definitely be the ones who recover the fastest!" Lucy Antiriel said, "As long as we can recover our troops before these elf kings, they will be easy prey!"

"You are right!" Della said, "For this ultimate dream, you have no choice but to make sacrifices. Moreover, if public opinion is guided properly, your sacrifice can resonate with the vast majority of elves."

"I understand what you mean..." Lucy Antiriel clenched her fists, as if she was making a big decision. After a long while, she said, "I understand. I will agree to Fran's request. Play the piano for those people. For the Elf Empire, let alone love! Even if it means sacrificing my body for Fran..."

"Your Majesty!" Della immediately half-knelt beside Lucy Antiriel and said, "The Elven Empire is fortunate to have a wise queen like you. You will surely lead the Elven Empire to glory again."

Seeing this, Lucy Antiriel quickly helped Della up, then hugged her affectionately and said, "Luckily you are here. You are a hundred times better than those useless, cowardly ministers! Without you, I don't know what I would do. Della, you will always firmly support me!"

"Of course! I will always stand on your Majesty's side." Della also hugged Lucien Tiril.

However, Lucy Antiriel did not see that Della, who was hugging her, showed a playful smile, but there was no loyalty in that smile.

Chapter 399 Green Miracle Treaty

A few days later, Lucy Antiriel's reply was handed over to McMahon.

With the Queen's consent, McMahon continued to negotiate with Catalina.

At Fran's instruction, Catalina did not haggle over the details, so after a few days, the two sides reached an agreement. The specific terms are as follows:

[1. Luna Port and Kaguya City, which originally belonged to the Elf Empire, will be contributed as a free trade zone between the elves and the Vienna Alliance for a period of 999 years.]

[2. The Free Trade Zone shall establish an independent patrol team, an independent judicial department, and an independent inspection department, which shall have the power to arrest, investigate, and try criminals within the Free Trade Zone. The Vienna Alliance shall assume the obligation to maintain the Free Trade Zone for a period of 999 years.]

[3. The free trade zone shall establish a separate army and navy to deter surrounding scoundrels and ensure the security of the free trade zone. The Vienna Alliance shall assume military obligations for a period of 999 years.]

【Fourth, the Vienna Alliance and the Elf Empire jointly undertake the task of rebuilding the free trade zone. The Vienna Alliance will provide manpower and materials, and the Elf Empire will provide 99,900,000 Vienna coins. 40 million Vienna coins will be paid in one lump sum, and the remaining money will be mortgaged by the Elf Empire to the city of Aurora for a period of five years. During this period, 25% of the tariff will be used as the daily expenses of the Elf Empire, and the rest will be used as reconstruction funds.】

This was the best result McMahon had achieved. As the Queen's Hand of the Elven Empire, McMahon did have his extraordinary diplomatic talent, but it was a pity that he was backed by an empire in decline.

He tried his best, and at the same time made all the elves understand a truth.

Don't try to get back at the negotiation table what you couldn't get on the battlefield.

Finally, the envoys of both sides completed the signing ceremony at the highest point of the Green Miracle, witnessed by countless elven citizens. McMahon humiliated himself and signed his name on the surrender document.

It is known in history as the Green Miracle Treaty.

McMahon knew that with this signing, he would forever become a historical sinner of the Elves and be nailed to the pillar of shame.

Sure enough, when he left the venue, a large number of indignant people rushed over and surrounded the envoys, making it impossible for them to move. Afterwards, they desperately threw cherry tomatoes and stones at the envoys' carriage. If it weren't for the protection of the divine magician, I'm afraid McMahon and other elves would have lost their lives in the capital of the Elf Empire.

In the end, it was Catalina who helped McMahon and asked the soldiers to disperse the crowd, which allowed the envoys' carriage to successfully return to their inn.

"City Lord! I have fulfilled my mission!" Catalina presented the document to Fran.

"You've worked hard!" Fran said with a smile, "This battle has finally come to a successful conclusion. Later, have someone copy this document and then accidentally leak it to the reporters in Biesong Port and inform the entire main plane to prevent the elves from breaking their promises. This is not the first time they have done this.

"No problem!" Catalina nodded, and then said: "But City Lord, there is one thing that I don't quite understand. I would like to ask you to help me understand it."

"You tell me." Fran said

"Isn't our asking price a bit too low this time?" Catalina said, "It really doesn't fit with your previous style of maximizing profits."

"What? What do you mean it doesn't fit my style!" When Fran heard this adjective, she immediately became anxious: "Isn't this my style... compassionate! Generous, generous and willing to help others. Huang He, Gustave! Don't you agree?"

Gustave immediately turned her head away, acting as if it had nothing to do with her.

Helplessly, Fran had to look at Huang He, the former owner of the flower shop and now the financial manager of Orila City.

Unlike an honest man like Gustave, Huang He, who has been in the business world for a long time, said quickly: "City Lord Fran's style has always been like this! Smiling on the surface, stabbing in the back... I mean, he has always been very upright."

"Seriously," Christina said, "I also think that the asking price is a little low."

We have worked so hard and fought this battle across half the plane. It can't be just for this, right?" Katarina pointed to the surrender document in her hand and said, "Such terms would be considered a lot for the Feruman Empire! But the other side is the wealthy Elf Empire. We can obviously get more from them! No,

I also found that there seemed to be some contradictions in our terms. "

"Oh? Tell me about it." Fran looked at Katarina with interest.

"The purpose of the free trade zone is to allow our goods to enter the Elf Empire without any tariffs. This will inevitably lead to a sharp reduction in the Elf Empire's tariffs." Catalina said: "But at the same time, you require the Elf Empire to mortgage 75% of the tariffs to us as part of the compensation.

It’s a bit contradictory.”

Catalina paused, and then said, "What's more, the Elf Queen can take the initiative to lower tariffs, or even directly negotiate cooperation with other forces to exempt tariffs and prevent us from making profits."

"You are right... because this clause is not for making money at all, but to deeply bind the finances of the Elf Queen to us." Huang He explained: "With this agreement, how much financial income the Elf Queen wants to get must depend on our mood!"

"But..." Catalina continued, "The majority of the Elf Queen's fiscal revenue does not come from taxes. They rely on the export of luxury goods from the Royal Treasury and the plunder of overseas colonies."

"It was like this before." Fran said, "But after this war, how many overseas colonies do you think the elves can still maintain?"

Katerina fell into deep thought.

"Not only that." Fran said, "The reason why the elves' luxury goods can be sold at high prices is mainly due to the elves' strong strength. With strength, these elven cultural symbols can be popular in the Northern Alliance and in the vast colonies. But if the elves become a force that everyone fights and anyone can take a bite of, these luxury goods will instantly go from being a superior civilization to the dregs of history."

"With the elves' defeat, the dissolution of the Northern Alliance is only a matter of time." Huang He said, "In this way, the Elf Queen's fiscal revenue will soon be reduced to taxes alone! By then, how much money she can get will depend on our mood."

"That's right!" Fran showed a meaningful smile on her face. "And Lucy Antiriel should know very well that after this war, her enemy will change from us to the Elf King. We are unlikely to kill the Queen, but those Elf Kings may not. In order to protect herself and for her financial income, she has to stand with us."

"Understood……"

"However," Fran changed the subject and said, "These compensations and tariffs are actually just superficial measures. In other words, they are just a cover, so the price is not high."

"A cover?"