Chapter 7

The chancellor of the exchequer always remembered clearly what the king's reaction was when he read the letter from the kingdom of Blaise a month ago.

At that time, he tore the letter to pieces in front of the messenger, then smile and said, "since John swore allegiance to me, now is the time for him to die for the great empire of Legrand."

The fury and callousness of that smile made people shudder.

20000 pounds.

Even for the whole empire of Legrand, it is not easy to spend such a large sum of money. During the reign of former King William III, in order to launch a war against Blaise, he once raised 100000 marks (about 66000 pounds), which took more than seven months. [1]

normally, it takes at least two months to raise 20000 pounds.

But the kingdom of Blaise gave only one month to raise money.

They have no desire to let the prisoners be redeemed.

In addition to the widely spread opinions about General John's defection to the enemy and the suspicious attitude of the Duke of Buckingham at that time, the king gave up the redemption of General John and only set a negotiation time with the kingdom of Blaise.

The attitude of the king was there. It was useless even for Lord Grice to write a letter to persuade him. It only made the king more angry, and the other officials did not dare to offend him.

So more than a month later, let alone 20000 pounds, they didn't even raise a penny.

But who would have thought that with only a few days left to negotiate and deliver the prisoners, the king suddenly mentioned the matter. It seems that he has changed his mind to redeem General John.

The chancellor of the exchequer almost wanted to kneel down for his fickle king.

"Two months?"

The king tapped his fingers on the handrail.

"How much more is there in the Treasury?"

The chancellor of the Exchequer's forehead was covered with a cold sweat. He carefully observed the king's face and replied tactfully: "Your Majesty, in order to resist the invasion of the kingdom of Blaise, we have spent a lot of money in April, and even raised a military service tax exemption..."

"And the royal treasury?"

The chancellor of the exchequer seemed to shake at any time, and his voice was even smaller: "Your Majesty, you built two royal castles in the West and the north some time ago..."

The king remembered.

This year was a eventful year for the Legrand Empire, with riots in Newcastle in the north and nordorf in the west at the end of last year. After the suppression of the rebellion, in order to strengthen the rule of the two places, purland built a castle belonging to the royal family. In order to build the castle, even increased the supervision of the royal forest.

Great.

The king thought without expression.

Or let General John die for his country.

"What about my personal territorial income?"

This part is the king's own private income. His question clearly meant that the king was going to redeem General John out of his own pocket. The chancellor of the exchequer was a bit surprised.

He reported the income of the king's several direct territories. Although the amount was considerable, the king's daily luxury life was also very expensive. In three days, the money he could take out was only a few thousand pounds.

The king pressed his forehead.

It may be a sequela of rebirth. Now his head is beginning to ache.

"What is my uncle's income?"

He asked casually.

Of course, he didn't expect to see the wealth of the Duke of Buckingham, who was as indifferent to pleasure as a friar - he even doubted that the Duke would spend most of his income on military spending.

The answer, however, surprised the king.

The Duke simply couldn't make ends meet.

"Yes, your majesty."

The financial secretary replied.

"The Duchess is one of the biggest creditors of the royal family, in principle."

While pullland was still in his infancy, Legrand was almost in chaos. The king who was still a baby worried many nobles of the States - in this era, it would take too many risks for a baby to grow up as an adult, especially when the baby was still the Communist of the thirty-six states.

It was the Duke of Buckingham who repeatedly paid out of his own pocket to support the royal family's finance with a huge amount of loans.

Then, shortly after the king came of age, rumors rose that the Duke of Buckingham was not willing to exchange power. At this time, the Duke of Buckingham did something unexpected - he burned all the IOU.

The king pressed his hand on his forehead so hard that his joints turned white.

The chancellor of the exchequer peeked at the young king. He put his hand on his forehead and covered his eyes. The chancellor of the Exchequer had no way to judge the king's mood at the moment.

There was a long silence in the room.

"Great."

The king braced himself up.

"Prepare for negotiations and start raising money."

When he heard about raising money, the chancellor immediately had a bad feeling."I remember that I was in charge of the aristocracy."

The chancellor of the exchequer has begun to stammer: "yes It's Yes

"Then let the heirs pay taxes for their titles."

"Your Majesty..."

The cold sweat of the chancellor of the exchequer came down with a brush. There's nothing wrong with the king saying that. According to the Charter signed by the nobles who swore allegiance to the king at the time of his coronation, the king has the right to rule on Succession - but this is usually used when the conditions of succession of two successors to the title are equal.

However, listen to the king's meaning at the moment, he clearly wants all the nobles who have the right of inheritance to take out all the money in their pockets.

In this way, even the legitimate eldest son who had been a stable title would be restless.

It is obvious that their brother is willing to hand over a large sum of money to the royal court, so as to get the ruling of "business is business" - who pays the highest price will inherit it, and take the title from their elder brother.

The chancellor of the exchequer can already think of how many nobles in the country will scold the king for being insidious.

But for Zhu Chi, there is no way.

The current situation of Legrand is too bad. All kinds of complicated factors are involved. Does he have enough time to sort it out. According to the financial secretary's reply, pullland has exploited civilians at least three times in the past two years. If he directly increases the tax burden of civilians, it will not be far from the people's riots.

He would rather face the rebellion of some aristocrats than the uprising from civilians.

Of the two, the latter is the real devastating blow.

And don't forget, the Duke of Buckingham has not been executed, as long as the old prince in one day, those aristocrats want to rebel will have to weigh carefully.

"Do you really want to do that?"

Asked the chancellor with little hope.

"You tell them." The king said calmly, "either pay or go to the front line."

Well, hope is gone.

The chancellor of the exchequer thought in despair.

As the messenger of the king's will, he is afraid to bear part of the blame.

…………

Learning that the king ordered to start collecting ransom, the Duke of Buckingham also came to see the king.

"I know what you're going to say."

Before the old Duke spoke, the king stopped him.

"But John is not only your son, my brother, but also the general of the Legrand Empire, the dignity of the rose family. The most important thing is - "

the king stopped.

"I need to know the truth about the battle of Keven, who betrayed me."

Anger swept through his ice blue eyes.

The Duke of Buckingham stopped talking.

…………

At the same time, negotiations are approaching.

They began to prepare to leave for the negotiation site, close to the city of TRU on the front line.

The Duke of Buckingham originally intended to go with him, but Zhu Chi had other concerns.

He was not at ease with the status quo of the Empire of Legrand. He did not believe that the nobles would be able to live in peace when he went to the front. So he entrusted the Duke of Buckingham to return to the Royal Palace in the heart of Legrand and take charge of government affairs in his place temporarily.

Before leaving, Zhu Chi thought of one thing.

That's the Lord of merne castle, count Walter.

He didn't come to see the king.

"Why, he thinks I've given him too much time for three days?"

Zhu Chi sat in the carriage and asked softly.

The housekeeper left in a hurry to look for count Walter.

After waiting for about an hour, he came back to report with a pale face.

"Your Majesty..."

"He said

"The count committed suicide in fear of sin."

The air seems to have been frozen by the chill of winter.

"Suicide?"

In the carriage, the king gave a smile of unknown significance.

The team that was about to leave stopped.